The Saintess Gets Serious (3)

"That gave me a bit of a scare."

"I thought you were done for too!"

Rin was safe.

When I saw that huge hole get blasted through its body, I wondered what would happen, but apparently Rin had "opened the hole itself." As expected of a slime—it can pull off emergency evasive maneuvers like that.

Thanks to that, there's a huge hole in the room's ceiling now though.

"When she, thrust out her hand, I had a bad feeling."

"As expected of Rin. You've got my respect, boss."

"Kukuku. I am, strong, after all."

You said it. Still, the Saintess is impressive in her own way. To think she could dodge Rin's attacks while chanting and then fire off that huge magic at point-blank range. I don't think I could do that even knowing I'd be fine if I died.

"I'm a bit, hungry. Kehma, is it okay, to eat?"

"Hm? Sure, go ahead."

"Chomp. Nom nom nom…"

The messenger golem was casually devoured by Rin. Feels like it's been a while since that happened. Also, it wasn't "is it okay to eat" but "is it okay, to eat"—meaning eating was already a foregone conclusion, huh… Well, whatever. Yeah.

In the end, it looks like the Saintess can't beat Rin. Our dungeon's defense is rock solid!

… If I keep saying that, I might raise a flag, so I'll stop there.

For now, it doesn't look like the Saintess will be back today, so I'll get back to gargoyle mass-production. The main thing I'm making now is the Fire Arm Gargoyle, which has thirty fire magic formations engraved on its arms. I've made ten so far.

It's a hybrid type using an Iron Golem as the base, with just the shoulders swapped out for clay so it doesn't take heat damage to itself… The arms get super hot from the fire, so you'll get a massive burn if you touch them. Hehehe. I might as well make them glow too. It'd be even better if they roared while glowing red-hot.

Of course, they burn through magic stones like crazy. Just keeping the arms ablaze for an hour uses up 10 DP worth of magic stones. Since making each magic formation also uses about the same amount of magic stone, each unit costs around 300 DP.

There are all sorts of other possibilities too. Gargoyles are expanding my dreams…

… Huh, wait. Doesn't this end up being a physical attack rather than a magical attack?

Hmm, I could test it if I summoned a ghost-type monster. I'll try it once the Saintess's seal wears off.

 

＊ ＊ ＊

 

Day two of getting serious. To confirm the black wolf's death, the Saintess carefully peered into the room—and met eyes with the black wolf.

The Saintess ran to put distance between herself and the room. To put it plainly, she fled.

There was no hesitation. She knew firsthand that a moment's delay in judgment meant death.

"Hah, hah, hah…"

After gaining enough distance, the Saintess suppressed her ragged breathing.

… Impossible. Was this wolf immortal? The gaping hole from yesterday had completely closed up. She thought about what this meant.

She had no choice but to kill it instantly. Maybe destroying its head would kill it.

An immortal beast? But if it were a monster belonging to the dungeon, [Treaty]'s effect should have slowed its healing.

If it was a dungeon boss, that should be especially true—

… That's when the Saintess noticed something felt off.

There was nothing in common between the monsters appearing in this dungeon and the black wolf.

Dungeons typically had tendencies.

For example, fire-attribute, or demi-human types, or beast types.

Yes, normally the monsters inhabiting a dungeon could be called subordinates of the dungeon boss.

The monsters appearing in this dungeon—setting aside jellies, which could spawn in any dungeon—were broadly two types: goblins and golems.

Both were earth-aligned monsters.

Demi-human goblins and magical creature golems. The connection between them was weak, but—

—and then suddenly, a dark-attribute beast-type black wolf appears among them.

Following the normal pattern, the boss monster should be something related to goblins or golems. Something humanoid, for instance. It wasn't like all monsters needed to share characteristics with the boss monster, but… at the very least, she'd never heard of a boss monster having nothing in common with the other monsters.

Dark-attribute. Beast-type. Overwhelming physical ability. Immortal regeneration. She couldn't find any common ground. This was clearly unnatural.

"… Perhaps… no, that… it's not unprecedented. It's possible."

The Saintess thought.

Could it be that the black wolf is a wild monster unrelated to the dungeon?

And she felt that was the correct answer.

According to preliminary research, this dungeon called [Ordinary Cave] originally had only goblins. It went through a transition phase and came to have traps and golems as well.

And magic swords too.

Considering that progression, it seemed quite plausible that a ferocious wild monster unrelated to the dungeon had moved in and made this room its den.

… Originally, encounters had occurred near the second floor, which led to the Saintess being called in. She'd also heard from the guild's report that the [Gate of Wisdom] had been destroyed.

In other words, wasn't that proof that it came from outside the dungeon?

To conclude… that black wolf most likely had nothing to do with the dungeon.

If so, [Treaty]'s effects wouldn't apply to that black wolf.

That was a very troublesome fact, but at the same time, if it wasn't connected to the dungeon, then once she completely killed it, it wouldn't resurrect.

Then she just had to finish it off for good this time.

The Saintess steeled herself.

She began chanting [Judgment Ray]. —This magic was extremely powerful against evil beings, but had an incredibly long incantation as a tradeoff. Being above Advanced-tier, at Ruler-tier, such length was natural, but because of this long incantation, it wasn't suited for combat. Instead, it was often used as an "example" of divine light punishing sins.

But she had no doubt this magic would be effective against that black wolf.

This time, she would blast its head.

She peered into the room with the black wolf before completing the incantation.

The black wolf was—not there.

… Huh? Not there? she wondered. But once started, she couldn't stop the incantation on her own.

Timidly, she took one step into the room. She thought it might be hiding in a blind spot from the entrance, but that wasn't it either… Had it left the room?

If it were a monster unrelated to the dungeon, that was entirely possible. It would be strange to stay put in a room where you knew your life was being targeted. You'd only do that if circumstances prevented you from moving, you were confident you could counterattack, or you were just an idiot.

But what should she do? The incantation was about to complete. Firing it uselessly would just make her collapse from magical exhaustion. She had no more time to stay here.

"Grrrr…"

She heard the wolf's growl. From directly behind her.

"—[Judgment Ray]!!"

The timing couldn't have been better—as perfect as it could possibly get. The beam of light released as she spun around struck the black wolf's head dead-on.

"I did it—?!"

The wolf's head exploded. But the Saintess felt a prickling killing intent.

She let her body go limp and dropped to the floor with gravity.

… The headless wolf's foreleg whooshed through where the Saintess's upper body had been.

Impossible—how is it moving without a head?!

Through her fading consciousness, the Saintess saw something unbelievable. A bubbling black mass overflowed from where the head should have been, and then a new head regenerated.

"Ha, haha… what… what on earth are you…?!"

"Garrrr…!"

Chomp. The Saintess was bitten by the freshly regenerated head.

One day remaining. —How could she possibly defeat this black wolf? The Saintess had no idea.