Itai no wa Iya nanode Bōgyo-Ryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu Chapter 52

Defense Specialization and a Boss and Mid-Boss

「Well… Let’s go back, I guess…」

Sally muttered amidst the dancing red effects and the player death effects.

If there had been blood instead of effects when you attacked in this game, that beautiful blue equipment would have probably turned into beautiful red equipment.

The massacre, which caused a bit of a stir after the event over whether it was a wandering boss that had suddenly appeared, came to an end.

The reason was that she’d found two medals.

「I guess there aren’t many people who have them after all… maybe we were just lucky…」

The sun was already setting.

She had been moving and fighting for about five hours.

In the distance, she could see the mountain where Maple was, illuminated by the setting sun.

It was probably 10 kilometers away already.

She had stopped counting the players she defeated after they had passed a hundred.

Even so, she had still only obtained two medals.

Just as Sally said, the two were lucky.

Another big difference between them and the other players was that they were strong enough to clear the dungeons they had discovered.

「I have to make sure to bring them back.」

Sally started running.

A few players she met along the way turned into light, but that was unavoidable.

「Alright! I’m here!」

Sally quickly went inside.

She remembered the route, so she hurriedly made her way to Maple, but stopped on the way.

「Ugh…」

A wall of poison had been formed in the passageway that led to Maple.

Even if it were to be destroyed, the ground and walls would be covered in poison, likely making it impossible to proceed properly.

「Maple, huh… I should send her a message…」

She sent a message to Maple, and a few moments later, Maple came out through the poison wall.

「I got the medals.」

「Ohh! Awesome!」

Sally handed the medals to Maple.

Now the two had 20 medals.

The only thing left to do was to hold on to them.

「What do we do now? I think we should get into raising those two critters.」

「Ah! That’s right! I wanted to say something about that!」

「What?」

「Follow me!」

「No… I can’t, actually…」

Moving forward on the poisoned floor was not something Sally could do.

「Hmmm… then, how about getting on the great shield?」

Maple deactivated the capsule, making the poison wall disappear, and placed her great shield on the ground.

「I’ll get on it, but what will you do?」

Sally got on the great shield. It felt just like a sled.

「I’ll push as hard as I can.」

「Eh?」

「I’ll push as hard as I can.」

「Can you really do it?」

「I can!」

Maple pressed hard against it.

The great shield stopped after it had moved about 50 centimeters.

「…I can’t.」

「Yep, thought so. Well? What did you want to say? I want to hear that first.」

「Oh, um… there was a small room at a different dead end from where I was, and there were some ant monsters in there, about 20 centimeters long, and they were weak, so I thought they would be just right for Syrup and Oboro!」

The two hadn’t explored the cave that well, so they hadn’t noticed it.

Maple had been bored and, after securing her safety with poison, she took a walk to explore, so she was able to find it.

「Will they keep coming out?」

Sally asked.

She figured that if they were going to come out over time in unlimited numbers, they might as well do some raising there.

「Three come out every ten minutes!」

「Then… sorry, can Maple do it by herself? Since I don’t think I can get there…」

「Got it! I’ll do my best!」

Sally got off the great shield and Maple re-equipped it and disappeared into the depths of the cave.

「Ummm, I’m running out of things to do.」

Sally went back through the cave for the time being.

It wasn’t like the whole area was covered in poison already, but about a third of it was.

Sally sat down in a hall a short distance from the entrance.

It was a square room, about 20 meters on each side, with decorated walls.

Sally wondered if it could have originally been the room of the mid-boss.

「Maybe I can protect Maple.」

This wasn’t a dungeon where one could transfer with a magic circle.

Probably because the inside of the dungeon had already been cleared, the monsters were not spawning well.

There were only some places like Maple had mentioned left.

Although, Sally didn’t know that there were several of these places.

So what would Sally protect Maple from?

It would not be the monsters, but the players.

Now that there were only a few dungeons left, if a place looked like a dungeon, they would enter it in search of medals anyhow.

「And if they have 【Poison Immunity】, that would be the end.」

Maple at that moment would not be able to defeat a player with 【Poison Immunity】.

Sally thought that since she had nothing to do, she should protect her just in case.

「This place is… like a dungeon already…」

With Maple as the boss and Sally as the mid-boss, the reward was thirty medals.

There were almost no monsters.

It was an exceptional dungeon.

「I have to protect her until the sixth day is over…」

Once the seventh day came, the ties that were weakening Maple would be broken.

If she could hold out until that point, Maple would be revived.

「If you think of it like this… it’s kind of like Maple is some dark god, huh…」

Given the increase in the number of players around, Sally was thinking they must have finished exploring the other side of the mountainous area.

「If they can’t find a place to explore over on the other side, will they come over to this side, I wonder?」

Sally had been waiting for a while when she heard a voice talking from the front passage.

「Something’s in there!」

A group of four men entered the hall with weapons at the ready.

Sally quickly checked their weapons.

A spear, a great shield, a staff, and a great sword.

They were probably always acting as a party; it was a well-balanced formation.

「What brings you to this dungeon?」

「You… are a player… right?」

Considering there was a lone, gorgeously equipped girl standing alone in the blatantly obvious mid-boss room, it was not unreasonable to have doubts.

Her HP bar was visible, but that would be no different for a monster.

If Sally said she was a monster, Sally would be a monster.

「Fight?」

Even if she revealed herself as a player, it would still be a battle, given that they came after the medals. And if Sally said she didn’t have any, they would have no incentive to believe her.

Besides, if the four of them, who were surely planning to explore deeper, were to pass through here, they would reach the poisonous passage that Maple had created.

That would definitely appear to be a dungeon that had yet to be cleared.

It would be the end if they were able to pass through the poison passage.

Defeating them would be safest.

Sally thought that it would be interesting to try to act as a monster in that case.

Therefore, she gave a reply that sounded like a pre-baked response.

「Looks like… we’re in luck!」

The four of them were convinced that Sally was a mid-boss and considered this dungeon as yet unexplored.

「I hope this will be an enjoyable match.」

Fish enveloped in blue light appeared around Sally.

The reason Sally acted like a monster.

Was because she was a little excited after the massacre.

It made her eager to fight a little more.

If they thought she was a monster, there would definitely be a battle. The opponents would give it their all.

If she had to defeat them anyway, she wanted to have fun.

For Sally, having fun was what the game was all about.

「Ha ha ha… this is fun, indeed.」

「Be careful! Let’s go!」

「「「Yeah!」」」

Anyone who plays games is looking for a kind of pleasure not found in reality.

Sally and the four player group were no exception.

Meanwhile, Maple was lying in a small room in the depths, cheering on Syrup and Oboro.

「【Bite】! Go-o! Keep at it! 【Fox Fire】!」

Maple smiled with satisfaction as she watched the ants being defeated.

「Grea-at! Great! Do your best to level up and get stronger!」

Maple got up and petted the two critters.

If Maple wasn’t fully equipped, it would be a sight of a normal girl interacting with her pets.

It was a scene that looked very much as it often did in the real world.

Maple had absolutely no idea that Sally was fighting up there.

If anything, Maple was probably more of an exception to the rule.