Saving the Rune – 5

“……What does this look like to you, Erica?”

“Well, I don’t know. A centipede-shaped rock…… is it?”

Iris and Erica approached the centipede-shaped rock step by step. The part crushed by the pillar was completely shattered, and the state of the other parts wasn’t exactly normal either.

Rije had already been examining the tip of the rock. Then, the spot she was looking at collapsed with a rumble without her even touching it, startling her and making her flinch.

“Or it’s a rock-shaped monster. Do you think a rock of such a bizarre shape could form naturally?”

“It’s impossible. Even if you were to sculpt with stone, carving the surface so intricately would be difficult. If there was a sculptor who could carve such a massive figure out of rock this perfectly, they’d be too busy being called upon by nobles to have time to come here.”

“I think the same.”

Iris took off her helmet. Her silver hair cascaded down her back.

“If so, what this rock signifies is already determined, then.”

“Surely not……”

“Yes. That ‘surely not’. The corpse of a rock-like monster. No, to be precise, it should be called a part of the corpse. There are traces of it being crushed by the pillar and then severed.”

“Even just the part remaining here is monstrously huge, so you mean it was originally even larger than this.”

“Yes. It would be at least dozens of times larger. My guess is that it might have been similar in height to the castle we reside in.”

“Could this have been the cause of the tremors?”

Her silver eyes scanned the pillar that had crushed the centipede-shaped rock.

Its base was shattered, and it had toppled forward. The cross-section was still very sharp, and given the rock fragments scattered here and there, it hadn’t been broken long ago.

It seemed as if continuous impact had been applied to one spot, causing it to shatter, but there were no traces of it being struck by a weapon.

“I can’t be certain, but it’s probably that. For some reason, this thing seems to have continuously rammed the pillar. As a result, the pillar broke, leading to this state. The tremors we felt were clearly caused by the centipede ramming the pillar.”

“That must be why there are traces left on the walls too. Now things are starting to make a little more sense.”

Erica recalled the large cavern they had passed about ten minutes ago. The bedrock on the floor was completely torn up, and the walls were cracked in places or had even completely collapsed.

At the time, she hadn’t understood why such traces of destruction remained in an underground area, but if it was a scene created by this centipede ramming the walls and pillars, everything could be explained.

“You saw it accurately. It can all be explained by this centipede being the cause of all the strange phenomena we felt.”

Iris stroked the surface of the rock. Although she couldn’t feel the texture due to the gauntlet on her hand, the sound of metal clashing and the hardness of the surface were unmistakably those of a rock fragment.

If it had been just a little less intricate, if it hadn’t looked so much like a centipede at first glance, Iris would surely have simply considered it a rock.

“Where did the rest go? Did it die?”

The centipede’s body was severed at the part crushed by the large rock pillar. Iris lightly leaped, easily clearing the pillar. Erica followed right behind her.

On the other side of the pillar was the brutally torn cross-section of the centipede. It looked as if something had been used to forcibly rip its segments apart.

“It doesn’t seem to have died. Look here. The segments are unnaturally severed. It must have broken off after being crushed by the rock pillar. Whether this thing tore off its own body to escape, or if the impact of being crushed was too great and it was severed. The front part probably escaped alive and well.”

“That’s not very good news.”

“It’s questionable whether our attacks would even work. If it were an ordinary rock, we could break it with a little more force, but if this is a monster, it will undoubtedly be several times harder than an ordinary rock.”

Erica stared blankly at the roughly torn cross-section of the centipede-shaped rock. The question of who could have done this briefly crossed her mind.

It was literally brief. It was obvious who had done this.

“Well, I can roughly guess who did this.”

“Yes, this is-“

“It’s the work of our esteemed rookie. Isn’t it obvious?”

Rije, who had leaped over the pillar from her spot, stood on top of it. Then she descended to the other side where Erica and Iris were.

“……That’s right.”

Iris lightly nodded her head in affirmation. That was what she had been about to say. Who else but that audacious rookie could have done such a thing here?

A dungeon isn’t a place you can just stroll into, after all.

“I thought they’d wait patiently below, but it seems they’ve already caused a grand commotion. Without even knowing what’s on my mind.”

“If you want to nag, do it to the rookie to your heart’s content after we meet up, sister. I won’t stop you. Iris, we should hurry too.”

“Understood. We’ll move as quickly as possible.”

The helmet was placed on her head, covering her silver eyes and silver hair. Rije was already walking ahead. Iris and Erica followed behind her.

From far away, thumping sounds began to be heard once more.

ㅡCRUNCH!

A sharp stalactite fell onto the head of the Rock Centipede, which was thrashing wildly, ramming its head into the wall.

The stalactite, which directly hit the Rock Centipede’s head, shattered into pieces, and the very culprit who had broken the rock with its head also expressed its pain throughout its entire body, twisting the segments of its exoskeleton with all its might.

That was the gimmick of Phase 3. Making it ram its head into the wall was the same as Phase 1, but instead of ramming it anywhere, it had to be positioned under a stalactite on the ceiling.

That way, it would fall onto the Rock Centipede’s head just like before. If you did that 20 times, it was a clear.

For reference, that was the 19th time. Just one more time and Phase 3 would end, moving on to Phase 4, which could truly be called a boss battle.

The Rock Centipede, which had been thrashing wildly on its own for a long time, hissed and got back up. Then, it gnawed at the ground with its lower jaw, burrowing into the rock and disappearing.

Because it had gnawed off the tip of its body that had been crushed by the pillar, its disappearing speed was faster than in Phase 2. A few legs, precariously clinging to its body, couldn’t withstand the impact and fell off with a clatter.

Even after detaching from its body, they continued to twitch on their own for a long time.

‘The Knight Commanders should be arriving soon.’

I briefly wondered where the three I had left above might be by now. I couldn’t be sure since this didn’t happen in the game, but I figured they must have roughly reached somewhere underground.

Of course, that was just a rough estimate. I wasn’t a computer, and this dungeon itself was much larger than in the game, so it was impossible to calculate precisely.

About a minute after I sat down and waited, the Rock Centipede burst out. Its face had a large crack that was visible at a glance.

It had rammed its head into the wall 20 times, into the pillar 20 times, and into the wall again 19 times, plus it had been hit by stalactites 19 times, so of course its head would shatter.

I simply waited calmly without doing anything special. I dodged the thrown rocks by rolling, and avoided its attacks where it rubbed its body wildly everywhere by running far away.

The damn thing seemed to be thoroughly enraged, clacking its lower jaw and preparing for a charge pattern. As soon as I saw that, a feeling of “finally” surged within me. Finally, it was time to say goodbye to this filthy thing.

Anyway, I wasn’t going to clear Phase 4. If I left it to the three Knight Commanders, they would take care of it, so why should I move?

‘Though the clear experience points are a bit of a waste.’

Experience points can be earned anyway. The experience points gained from defeating an early-game gimmick boss can be fully compensated by spending a few days wandering around.

Besides, the Knight Commanders’ skill was definitely not so low that they would die to a Rock Centipede.

I had already taken up position in front of the wall where the last stalactite was. The Rock Centipede slowly increased its speed and approached. I stood still in front of the wall, and did the exact same thing I had been doing until now.

ㅡKUUWOOONG!

And the same thing I had seen until now happened again. The Rock Centipede rammed its head into the wall, thrashed wildly on its own, and then a stalactite fell on it.

The stalactite, which plunged into the Rock Centipede’s head with a CRUNCH! sound, this time practically split its head in half. Shattered head fragments flew everywhere.

The Rock Centipede, with half its head gone, struggled far more violently than ever before. I had already retreated behind the wall. Because I didn’t want to get unlucky and get hit by fragments.

‘It’s finally over.’

In that state, I stretched out long. It was a tiring boss battle in many ways. I really didn’t want to do it again.

The damn thing didn’t even think of burrowing into the rock and struggled to disappear into the nearest crack. The gap, which had looked barely big enough for my body, widened to at least three times its size.

Following that would start Phase 4 where the rune was, but there was no need to follow it right now. I could just wait here for Iris, Rije, and Erica and go together.

I sat down in the spot with the best view of the path and began waiting for the three of them.

‘What should I say?’

Thinking in my head about how to explain my actions to make them understand.