Ch.1717. Defeating the Gimmick Boss And Becoming a Suspicious Person

After sending Alkine ahead, I continued running behind her.

The distance to the Rift wasn’t very far.

It made sense, considering they had built the Student Council Hall near the Rift in the first place.

The problem came after entering the Rift.

Thanks to the distorted space, the path was narrowed so there was no worry about getting lost, but I couldn’t even gauge how much further I needed to go.

I felt like I’d been running for quite a while, but there was no sign of Alkine who had gone ahead.

‘Just how fast is she… Good thing I have infinite stamina or I’d be in serious trouble.’

Even though Alkine went ahead, I couldn’t feel at ease.

As the characters’ growth had accelerated, the enemies must have gotten stronger too.

Isn’t that how difficulty scaling works?

In this situation, it was truly fortunate that I didn’t have to waste time resting.

After running for who knows how long, I finally began to see Alkine fighting in the distance.

Now that I could see her, she was using her greatsword like a bat to knock enemies away, and I immediately understood the situation.

‘She’s giving it her all, but that seems to be her limit.’

The demon Krumple. True to being a gimmick boss, this nasty creature was designed to be impervious to normal attacks.

And the gimmick is parrying.

I don’t know how it works, but simply parrying causes Krumple to take damage.

And that means… in this reality where parrying doesn’t exist, Krumple is simply an insanely powerful monster with no way to defeat it.

It’s not impossible to just beat it down, but it was beyond what Alkine could handle before breaking through her wall.

Look at her. She’s hitting it with everything she has, but Krumple remains unharmed.

Her stats seem higher than Alkine’s in the original story at this point… but it seems she still hasn’t broken through her wall.

Are stat growth and awakening events calculated separately?

Various hypotheses came to mind, but this wasn’t the time to ponder them.

I kept running closer without stopping.

As I got closer, her terrible condition became clearly visible.

Seeing no one else around, it seemed she had somehow managed to evacuate everyone, but after fighting alone for so long, she appeared to have reached her physical limit.

There was no time to hesitate worrying about stronger enemies. I needed to help her immediately.

As that thought crossed my mind, my body moved first, and before I knew it, I was standing in front of Krumple.

…Now I could see that Alkine was completely drained and couldn’t move a finger.

If I had been just a little later, this would have been a disaster.

If I didn’t have infinite stamina… The thought sent chills down my spine.

When Alkine realized it was me who had jumped in front of her, she shouted with a panicked voice.

“Ludion! That thing is dangerous! Get away now!”

Wow, even in that condition, her first thought is to worry about others.

I feel terribly guilty for putting someone like her in danger.

Of course, she would have encountered this creature even without me… but since I’m involved now, I bear some responsibility.

At the very least, she wouldn’t have been pushed this far…

‘I’m sorry, so I’ll take care of this cleanly for you.’

I drew the short sword from my waist and pointed it at the demon before me.

In that moment, six pupils turned toward me, and it was truly disgustingly creepy.

“Ludion!”

Alkine called my name. Simultaneously, an invisible wave rippled near my left arm.

Knowing exactly what it was, I could respond naturally without panicking.

Clang!

As I swung the handle of my short sword toward the center of the wave, the invisible force scattered with a crisp sound.

At the same time, Krumple began to scream.

“Keegeegeegeegeegeek-!!!”

Short sword parrying. A technique popular for its incredibly cool motion of deflecting attacks with the handle.

Of course, the effect is just deflection like shield parrying…

And it has even stricter timing than shield parrying, making it difficult to use…

But any gamer would naturally be obsessed with the heart-stirring short sword parry, right?

“You… what did you just…?”

At that moment, Alkine’s bewildered voice came from behind me.

Well, that makes sense. Anyone would question how a mere freshman could subdue an enemy that remained unharmed no matter how much it was beaten.

As I was wondering how to explain this…

“I’ll explain later after I take care of this first. Please rest.”

I decided to leave it to my future self.

By then, wouldn’t I have come up with a good excuse?

So for now, I focused on the creature again.

I took in Krumple’s appearance once more.

“Keegeegeek- Keegeek-“

Even its appearance of suffering was creepy.

Not just the six eyes, but that uncanny almost-human-but-not-quite feeling was disturbing.

Now that I think about it, it was quite strange.

All the demons in this world had this kind of appearance, but why would monsters take on human forms?

Whatever the case, I just needed to eliminate it.

I had no hesitation about killing Krumple now since it wouldn’t affect the future flow of events.

Even if it did, I would have accepted it at this point.

Moreover, since this was just a random variable that appeared from the Rift, it would be better to eliminate it now.

“You’re done for.”

Let me show you what happens when a gimmick boss messes with a veteran player.

“Keegeegeegeee-!!!”

Let’s see how long that unpleasant scream lasts.

I swung the short sword again.

Clang!

The invisible wave that instantly formed scattered again, and Krumple’s scream echoed once more.

One more time. And again.

Without allowing a single attack, I parried everything and returned it as damage.

When its black body began to tear apart, it suddenly tried to engage in close combat, but I dodged everything with amazing evasive movements.

“Keegeegeegeek! Keegeegeegeek!”

As its attacks kept cutting through empty air, Krumple had no choice but to use its ability again…

Clang!

“Keegeek… Keegeegeegeek….”

That became its final struggle.

Krumple’s completely tattered body collapsed to the ground, then disappeared into black smoke.

No items left behind, just evaporation. Knowing that all demons in this game die like that, I wasn’t disappointed about not getting anything.

It was enough that I saved Alkine from certain death.

I quickly turned toward where Alkine was, and found her sitting on the ground, staring at me with a blank expression.

Since she didn’t seem to have the composure to speak first, I decided to approach her.

“Can you stand up?”

“…”

“If you’re wondering how to address me, just continue as you were.”

“…How did you know that?”

“I can just tell.”

She had a habit of being respectful to those stronger than her.

In reality, my stats were quite low. But to Alkine, who couldn’t know that, I must have appeared as the very embodiment of strength.

But at this point, it would feel strange to have Alkine speak formally to me.

Since I was her senior at the Academy… I wanted to maintain our relationship with the proper hierarchy if possible.

So I preemptively stopped her before she could switch to formal speech…

“That’s a strange thing to say when we’ve only known each other for a day.”

Come to think of it, that’s true. I suddenly became an extremely suspicious person.

But that’s just for the president and such. I know everything from your food preferences to the dark history you keep secret from others.

…Saying it like that makes me sound really suspicious.

It’s not like that, I just read the setting book enough to memorize it. Please don’t misunderstand.

“Sigh… That’s not important right now. I have many questions, but I’ll hold them for now.”

Fortunately, given the situation, she didn’t dig deeper.

After briefly checking her physical condition, she asked:

“Ludion. Are you alright?”

“I don’t think you’re in any position to worry about my condition.”

“Yes. You’re right.”

As if I had prompted her to say this, she continued with “So about that…”

“It’s shameless of me as the one who was saved… but may I ask for one favor?”

“President? You’re the Student Council President and I’m just a member. Do you need to be so humble?”

“…Hehe. I see. So that’s how you want to play it. Very well, I’ll go along with it.”

I have no idea what she means by “going along with it.”

“Then I’ll get straight to the point. I’m planning to clear the Rift… and I need your help.”

“…You’re going to clear the Rift?”

“Everyone is still inside the Rift. The only way to get them out now is to do that.”

I was confused at first, but the president has a plan?

When a Rift is cleared, it disappears.

At the same time, everyone inside the Rift gets ejected outside, and it seemed Alkine was planning to use this to safely evacuate the Student Council members hiding inside the Rift.

But I’m not sure if I can help. Just now I was lucky that Krumple was a gimmick boss so I could handle it somehow, but otherwise I can’t do anything.

“Understood.”

But I couldn’t say that.

If her plan fails now, everyone else would be in danger.

I can’t just ignore this when they’re in this situation because of me.

“Then let’s depart immediately. Time is of the essence.”

I said that, but for some reason, she was hesitating and didn’t seem ready to leave.

Wondering why, I stared at her, and Alkine lowered her head.

“May I ask for one more favor?”

“What is it?”

“My body is completely drained and I can’t stand up. I’d appreciate it if you could take me with you…”

Ah, she’s in a state of physical exhaustion.

Considering she nearly died, this was only natural.

Can’t be helped. Without a moment’s hesitation, I lifted her up.

You’re lighter than I expected, President.

“W-wait a minute. Why are you carrying me like this… if you do this, you won’t be able to use your arms…”

Surprised by the sudden princess carry, Alkine’s composure slipped a bit and her words trailed off.

Honestly, I could have given her a piggyback ride, but I remembered a scene in her story where she happily rides on her father’s back, and I just couldn’t do it.

“Put me down this instant! That’s an order!”

“Oh, that just now sounded very much like a noble lady.”

“Stop talking nonsense and put me down! Ludion!!”

Alkine’s face began to turn bright red, but no matter how angry she got, I had no intention of putting her down.

If you’re in a position to receive help, just stay still. I’ll do as I please.

Though the start was a bit rocky, my goal was serious, so I had no intention of taking this lightly.

Don’t worry, President. I’ll make sure to escort you safely until we clear the Rift.