Ch.28Fortress Conquest (2)

“GUOOOOOOOT!!!”

The monster narrowed the distance straight toward me.

Whoooosh-!!

First, a physical attack.

“UOOOOOOOT!!”

However, I wasn’t a one-trick swordsman. Now I had a good weapon called a shield.

Thump-!!

I blocked the creature’s attack while holding Pinocchio.

KWAAAANG-!!!

The monster’s fist struck Pinocchio directly.

“Master!! It hurts!!! Damn iiiit!!!”

Pinocchio’s sorrowful cry reached my ears, but I ignored it.

“Tighten your stomach and endure it.”

I held Pinocchio up as a shield. This guy has no skills or anything anyway. He can only be used as a shield substitute.

“……..”

The monster stared at me as if it couldn’t understand. It never expected me to use a Psychorobo so disposably.

“Come at me!!!!”

I shouted loudly. Anyway, Pinocchio’s “Overwhelming Presence” doesn’t activate against bosses. To play the tank role, I had to deliberately draw aggro like this.

“GUOOOOOT!!!”

The enraged monster rushed toward me and unleashed a flurry of attacks.

CHAAAAANG-! CHAENG-!! CHAAAANG-!

I blocked most attacks with my sword, and for those impossible to block, I threw Pinocchio to intercept them.

After all, my dynamic vision was honed through sword training. It was an invisible stat that couldn’t be expressed in the status window—dynamic vision. I could block most attacks without closing my eyes.

“Now!! Pour on the attacks!!”

I shouted to my party members.

Actually, this first dungeon was significant from a player’s perspective. For an early dungeon, it had many mobs and was quite long. It was structured to create a dilemma where if you used magic recklessly, your firepower would drop during the boss fight. This was especially noticeable since there was no recovery room before the boss.

Players accustomed to modern convenient RPGs got a taste of the classic JRPG spiciness.

However, that problem didn’t exist now.

Thanks to my and Pinocchio’s tanking, everyone had made it here with almost no losses. Their mana pools should be full.

“Okay!! Here I go!!”

Taiga immediately drew out Fenrir.

“FIREEEE!!!”

FWOOOOOSH-!! BOOOOOOM-!!

A large fireball flew and set the monster’s body ablaze.

“Fire.”

Sasits, cool as ever, spoke in a quiet tone as he drew Gladiator and shot a fireball.

FWOOOOOSH-!!

As the flames hit directly, Sasits immediately waved his hand.

“Tinkerbell!!!”

Tinkerbell appeared, switching places with Gladiator.

“WIND!!!”

Immediately, Tinkerbell unleashed razor-sharp winds. The boss had no weaknesses anyway. Any elemental magic would do for DPS.

FWAAAASH-!!!

The monster’s posture crumbled from the wind strike.

“That guy… controlling two Psychorobos…”

Taiga wore a surprised expression.

Yes. That was the protagonist’s privilege. Not only could he handle multiple Psychorobos when most people could only control one, but he could also switch between them freely.

“Damn…..”

Anyway, I was incredibly jealous. I could barely handle one crappy wooden puppet, while this guy was controlling multiple good Psychorobos. Is this what they call social inequality?

“Alright!! Then I’ll also!!!”

Umi, caught up in the momentum, was about to cast an electric spell.

“Hey!! Stop!! Umi!! Focus on healing!! This guy will use an AOE attack soon!! Prepare for that!!”

I immediately gave advice as a veteran player.

In this game, mana is scarce. It’s better for healers to minimize spell usage and focus on recovery.

“Oh, okay….”

Umi seemed a bit dejected. Well… I’ll have to comfort her later.

KWAAANG-! FWOOOOSH-! FAAAANG-!!

Anyway, attacks hit directly like a fireworks display.

“GUOOOOOT!!!”

The monster seemed disoriented. Feeling dizzy, aren’t you?

I couldn’t just stand still either.

FWAAAASH-!!

I immediately closed the distance toward the monster.

Since I couldn’t finish it in one strike, I decided to drastically reduce its combat ability first.

Whoooosh-!!

After closing the distance, I raised my sword high.

“KIEEEEEEEEEK!!!!”

Shouting to boost my fighting spirit was a bonus. This is surprisingly important.

My target was one thing: its limbs.

FWOOOOSH-!!

The sword I swung lodged into the creature’s arm.

Crack-!!

The impact sensation transmitted to my hand immediately gave me certainty. This attack… definitely connected. That’s the confidence I felt.

FWOOOOOSH-!!!

As the monster’s arm was severed helplessly, black fluid spurted from the cross-section of its limb.

“KUUUGH…!”

Taking advantage of the monster’s staggering, I swung my sword once more.

FWOOOOSH-!!

First the left arm.

FWOOOOOK-!!

Then I severed the right leg.

A limb-severing technique that would make even a galactic knight who becomes strongest against his disciples weep.

THUD-!!

The monster collapsed forward.

“Now!! Everyone concentrate fire!”

Before Sasits could shout, I immediately stopped him.

“AOE attack coming!! Everyone dodge!! To the corner!!!”

I shouted desperately. We had to avoid AOE attacks and ground effects. The original was a turn-based game so it wasn’t noticeable, but this was reality. Techniques that could be avoided should be avoided or minimized.

“Guooot….”

A tempest began to brew from the monster’s body.

FWAAAAAAASH-!!

Then, a tremendous storm raged around the monster’s body.

“Kuuugh…!”

“This bastard… is stroooong…!”

Sasits and Taiga took some damage.

WHOOOOSH-!!

And I immediately ran toward Umi. She was in danger.

Umi’s Psychorobo had electric attributes with a wind weakness. Wind attacks would be critical hits.

“Kyaa!!”

Just before Umi was hit by the cutting wind, I blocked her front.

KWAAAAAAANG-!!

And I immediately used Pinocchio to block the cutting wind.

“Damn iiiit!! It hurts so much!!! Master!!”

Pinocchio’s mouth was getting increasingly foul in real-time. This guy… his job must be really tough.

“But endure it…. this is Geppetto’s pain!!!!”

“Why is grandpa’s name coming up here??!”

“Just~~~~stay at home and he’ll send you to college!!! Huh? He’ll buy you a car as a graduation gift!! Huh? But you go outside doing weird things!!! Doing drugs!! Geppetto’s heart hurt more than this!!”

“I didn’t do drugs!!!”

Pinocchio was defending himself while still blocking the attack. Don’t lie!! I know you took strange drugs and turned into a donkey!!! I watched that impressively as a child and got beaten by my father for imitating a donkey!!!!

“Father!!!!!!!!!”

Sending me out naked in midsummer was too much!!! The mosquitoes had a feast on me!!!

“Father!!! I miss you!!!!!! I’ll do better!!!!!”

My emotions intensified to the point of tears.

“Why is your father suddenly being mentioned?!!!”

Pinocchio seemed unable to follow the flow of conversation.

FWAAAANG-!!

The friend shield was quite effective. I took some damage, but Umi behind me was fine.

Whoooosh-!

Eventually, the AOE attack subsided.

“Umi. Are you okay?”

I asked Umi.

“Uh… yeah.”

Umi stared at me endlessly with a flushed face.

“Umi?”

“Ah, yes. Yeah.”

Umi seemed to come to her senses then.

“Everyone’s taken damage. Heal us.”

I said, helping Umi stand up.

“Heal!”

Umi immediately healed our entire party. She must have learned an AOE heal skill, but she meticulously healed us one by one with single-target heals.

I was the first to receive healing.

Taking advantage of the healing moment, Umi brought her mouth to my ear.

“I… wanted to give my first heal to you.”

At Umi’s words, my face turned bright red. First Eri, now her… they sometimes come on so strong. It was hard to control my embarrassment in many ways.

Anyway, thanks to Umi’s healing, we could face the monster with almost no losses.

“Grrrr….!”

The monster somehow managed to stand up.

“This bastard… is tough. Still alive.”

Taiga held a baseball bat. Just looking at this scene, it seemed like someone was going to beat someone up. Scary. Really.

Swish-!!

Suddenly, the color of the monster’s clothes changed. It turned blue.

“It changed to ice attribute!!! Taiga!! It’s your weakness! Be careful!!”

I immediately gave appropriate orders as a veteran player. This boss had a pattern of changing attributes as its HP decreased.

However, we couldn’t expect much attack power from a creature with severed limbs. It was just a one-trick AOE attacker. The strategy was repeated: avoid the body as much as possible before the AOE attack came, and continue to accumulate damage.

After several exchanges…

“HYAAAH!!!”

THWACK-!!

Taiga cleanly struck the monster’s head.

Taking advantage of the monster’s staggering, Sasits closed the distance.

FWOOOK-!!

Sasits immediately thrust his sword into the monster’s stomach.

“Shota!! Finish it!!!”

Sasits shouted.

“Alright!!! Here I go!!!!”

I immediately jumped high.

“Geppetto!!!!!!”

Shouting whatever came to mind without filtering, I swung my sword widely.

My target was just one: the creature’s neck.

FWOOOOOOSH-!!!

The sword cleanly cut through the monster’s neck.

With that, the monster’s body began to dissolve and disappear.

It was definitely defeated.

FWAAAASH-!

The proof of defeating the boss appeared immediately.

FWABABABABAT-!!

The souls of people trapped in the fortress were all liberated at once.

One job done. I felt a sense of accomplishment. Although I had experienced this countless times in the game, experiencing this moment directly made my heart swell. It swelled as much as Umi’s chest.

Ding-!

There was a definite reward for defeating the boss. Experience points shot up.

Level 7, no less.

“Ah… I’ve gotten stronger again.”

I muttered.

“Wow!!! Level 9!! Up by 2 whole levels!!”

Umi’s excited shout.

“Hehehe. I’m at 10 now. Double digits.”

Taiga checked his level with a chuckle.

“Hmm….. 13, huh. This pace isn’t bad.”

Sasits spoke while glancing at the party members around him, wanting to brag. He probably wanted to emphasize that he alone had gained 3 levels.

Ah….. the pathetic Level 7 me wanted to die. I immediately became dejected and headed for the corner.

Afterward, Taiga and Umi tried hard to comfort me. Only then did I emerge from my temporary aphasia.