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Chapter 72

Shinjuku Tower, floor twenty-three.

There is one special room here.

A room for a powerful enemy.

In Shinjuku Tower, there is one powerful enemy on each floor.

On floor three, the Raging Bull. On floor fourteen, the Demon Specter.

All of them are existences that transcend the difficulty of their respective floors. Commonly known as 'Powerful Enemies.'

Most powerful enemies roam the floor, but the one on floor twenty-three sits in its room.

A powerful enemy that has never been defeated since Shinjuku Tower first appeared.

The labyrinth changes its layout every few days, but Sai's Mana Perception tells him that beyond this door lies that 'Powerful Enemy.'

"Now then. Every adventurer who's made it past floor twenty-one gives this room a wide berth... but this time, we've got plans for this room."

Sai and Hexaria were now standing in front of that room.

"I plan to explain the fighting method to some extent too, but since this is an opponent you need to focus on for real, I'll explain how to defeat them in detail another day."

The two of them were about to take on a major enemy, just the two of them.

With the other world's sage Hexaria's firepower, they might be able to handle it any number of ways, but for Sai, who's just an upper-rank adventurer, this was an opponent he had to face seriously — the same as when he fought the Shadow-Eater.

That's how strong this enemy was. And yet, they had a reason they had to enter this room.

"You. It's time."

"Yeah. And... there's a chance viewers might see something rough, so I'll warn you just in case."

Sai issued a warning to the general viewers watching the stream.

There would probably be things shown that wouldn't be mosaicked, but would be mentally tough to see.

Waiting for Sai's explanation to finish, Hexaria opened the door.

The room was spacious, with a high ceiling. By Sai's estimate, the ceiling was about ten meters high.

Seated in that bizarre space was a massive body with five heads and four legs.

Its scales were a shining, deep blue-green.

A monster called the 'Belgihydra' in the other world.

A dragon-type.

"......"

The five-headed dragon, which had been asleep, noticed them and opened its eyes.

"You're really sure about not using the Aurora?"

"Of course. I want to show that even humans can beat it. I'll handle the offense. You handle the spatial defense enchantments and covering fire as I direct. Oh, and first, do that thing."

With that, Sai received something from Hexaria.

"This should suffice. I'll leave the control to you."

"Yeah, leave it to me."

"Hmph. Then... go!"

"Roger!"

At Hexaria's signal, Sai charged.

"GAAAAAAA!!"

In response to the charge, the Belgihydra roared and immediately spat out a poisonous flame breath.

"Against breath attacks, deploy Hexa Shields from multiple directions! And don't forget purification magic!"

Even a universal shield is weak against intense heat and poison like breath attacks.

Not because the shield itself can't handle it — but even if you block one direction, the heat and poison come from the other directions. In times like that, you deploy shields from multiple directions in a sphere-like formation to protect against direct attacks.

"And if possible, mages, use ice magic to lower the room's temperature! I've got Hexaria-san doing that right now!"

"You fool! That's not all I'm doing! I'm also handling the purification magic!"

"Thanks! Appreciate it!"

When facing a dragon-type in an enclosed space, what you need to pay attention to is the temperature and air of the space — in other words, how to control the environment.

You need to constantly regulate the room temperature so the front line can move at full capacity, and continuously convert toxic air into non-toxic air.

What Hexaria was doing in the rear was exactly this kind of environmental control.

And then, the Belgihydra's long breath ended.

Once again, Sai started running toward the hydra.

"This thing has regeneration, so chipping away at its eyeballs or weak points one by one is a mistake!"

He stuck close to the hydra's feet.

The sluggish hydra didn't move its four legs, training three of its five heads on Sai and two on Hexaria.

It fired breath at Hexaria, but she either dodged or blocked.

It tried to bite at Sai, but couldn't keep up with his movements.

"The hydra's heads need to be destroyed simultaneously. That's correct. The idea of stopping regeneration by freezing or burning the necks isn't bad either. But whether it's ice or fire, if the neck is cut off again, the regeneration starts anyway. There's that one. Heracles' story is famous, I guess, but it's been a while since then too. Let me show you a different approach while paying homage!"

As he said this, Sai placed one of those 'things' he received from Hexaria — no, a floating board, a 'Floating Board' — at the Belgihydra's feet.

It was a Floating Board from Hexaria's prepared daily magic.

With Sai scurrying around its feet, the Belgihydra tried to bite him.

But Sai, with his scout-like agility, dodged every bite.

Plus, by sticking close to its body, it couldn't fire its aggressive breath.

But the opponent was a floor twenty-three powerful enemy.

Irritated by the enemy scurrying around its feet, all five heads finally turned toward Sai at once.

Just as they were about to bite Sai, a BANG! sounded from the opposite side of Sai. Startled by the sudden explosion, three of the hydra's heads turned that way.

"When you're clever enough to be distracted, you fall for it!"

As a result, he dodged the biting attack.

The sound was just a magic sound bomb.

Because it had multiple heads, its thinking naturally scattered.

In that gap, as the heads' watchful eyes decreased, Sai quietly moved and placed several more Floating Boards at its feet.

After finishing his preparations, Sai taunted the hydra in a loud voice.

"Hah! Over here, big guy!"

"GAAA!"

The provoked Belgihydra spat out its deadly poison breath.

Sai once again deployed multiple Hexa Shields to prepare for a direct hit from the poison breath.

"This is the poison breath that's killed so many adventurers! It contains a huge amount of magical essence, and it chaotically breaks down and recombines the connections of the target's internal magical power! But if you've mastered magical control training, it actually doesn't work that well! And if you have dungeon-produced poison resistance equipment, there's no need to fear it!"

As its deadly poison failed to work, just as the Belgihydra tried to turn toward Sai by moving its four legs and rotating its entire body —

"Now!"

"Yeah!"

Responding to Sai's words, Hexaria acted.

What had been placed at the Belgihydra's feet were 'Floating Boards.'

This magic creates a board of magical power in the air, allowing you to carry loads.

It's a spell used conveniently in daily life, but don't underestimate it just because it's so-called daily magic.

Precisely because it's used in everyday life, it could also be called a greatly evolved spell.

Depending on magical power, you can change the total weight it can carry, and it even has a function to 'stick the board and load together' to prevent the load from collapsing due to tilting.

For adventurers in the other world in particular, this is a must-learn spell for transporting defeated monsters.

If you're a magic user with a certain level of skill, you can do quite a bit more with it.

An ordinary person might only be able to move light loads.

But what about a magic user of Hexaria's caliber?

It can float even tens of tons of weight, and it won't break.

That's the kind of spell it becomes.

Those Floating Boards are now under the Belgihydra's feet.

Its feet are on top of the Floating Boards.

So what happens when you move those boards...!

The Floating Boards rise, and the massive body is, literally, flipped over.

The Belgihydra thrashes about in panic.

Given a little time, it could probably stand back up.

But Sai and Hexaria aren't soft enough to give it that luxury.

"Its attention is on the five heads, but its body is one! Ice spears, now!"

"Absolute Icicle Lance!"

Following Sai's directions, Hexaria unleashed multiple enormous icicles from above, driving them straight into the Belgihydra's body.

"While we're at it!"

"Create Stone!"

Sai and Hexaria simultaneously used the low-level spell, 'Create Stone.'

It's just a spell that makes rocks appear, but since Sai and Hexaria are the ones casting it, they can freely produce large stones.

Multiple boulders large enough to cover the flipped Belgihydra rained down on it.

With its body pierced by Icicle Lances, they stopped its movement with a mass of rock.

"GYAAAAAAA!?!"

"Alright, its heart is crushed! Now we go for the necks!"

But even so, the Belgihydra didn't die. No, it couldn't die.

Hydra-type dragons possess vicious regenerative abilities.

Right now, the Belgihydra was first diverting its magical power to regenerating its crushed heart. In other words, if the timing was right when the heart was crushed, even cutting off its necks would delay regeneration.

Sai used his blade to rapidly cut through each neck, one by one.

Whether the Belgihydra's regeneration would be faster, or Sai's neck-cutting would be faster...

The result was that Sai was faster, cutting through all of the Belgihydra's necks.

The Belgihydra disappeared, dropping a magic stone, hydra fangs, and hide.

"Phew. That concludes the Belgihydra subjugation... but actually, the real task starts now."

The room where the Belgihydra was kept was large and spacious to match its massive body. Sai and Hexaria scanned every corner of the large room with their streaming cameras.

"...No bodies to be found..."

But upon close inspection, they found tattered armor and clothing. And weapons like swords lying around.

After pressing their hands together in prayer, Sai and Hexaria carefully recovered each belonging, one by one.

"...Actually, this time around, we had a bit of a consultation about something. The remains were... as you can see, nonexistent. There were personal effects, so we'll take those back with us."

Yes.

Sai and Hexaria's plan this time was to recover the remains and belongings of the adventurers who came before.

The adventurers who once made it to floor twenty-three fell prey to this Belgihydra.

On Shinjuku Tower, once you're past floor sixteen, the map changes every few days, so people sometimes wander into the Belgihydra's lair without realizing it.

If it was asleep, you could escape, but there were many cases where it was awake and breathed fire the moment you entered.

In the past, tragedies like that had happened many times.

And every adventurer who fights in Shinjuku Tower is streamed.

What must the families have felt seeing that final moment?

The sight of adventurers scattering while screaming in despair.

Just imagining it made Sai's heart ache.

At first, he'd been consulted at the Adventurer's Guild.

The guild staff member who broached the subject looked like it was very difficult to bring up.

It wasn't even a request.

No one could bring themselves to say they should face a vicious dragon-type enemy.

But after hearing the story, Sai decided to take it on.

What supports adventurers are always their families and ordinary citizens.

Adventurers have families too, and it's ordinary citizens who support them.

Because of them, adventurers can fight the threat of monsters and protect the towns, the places they belong.

Shinjuku Tower.

A dungeon where monsters disappear when defeated and drop materials.

A situation that feels almost like a game, granting wealth and honor to those who fight.

But if you die, that's where it ends.

In modern Japan, it's the place where life is the lightest.

That was the same in both the other world and Japan.

After Sai and Hexaria recovered the belongings, they left floor twenty-three behind.

================ Thank you very much for reading.