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＜ 14. Foul creature (8) ＞
First, Andrea’s reward .
‘[ Unique] ??? (? Cost): ??? (This card is revealed the first time it is used in battle .)’
‘ It’s a card with a hidden identity this time around .’
A question mark card that only appears when you accept the blessing of the Shadow God. It seems that the card that was originally supposed to be obtained was a rare one because the grade was raised at the cost of hiding one’s identity .
The previously acquired card whose identity was hidden was ‘Shadow Imprint’, which became Andrea’s food line buff. It is unknown whether a card as powerful as this one would have come out this time, but anyway, since it was a card touched by Khalisis, it did not seem to be useless .
However, the next floor is now the 60th floor. It bothered me a bit that I had to meet the boss monster for the first use. Although the probability is low, it could be a troll card that is not very helpful in battle .
‘ Ah, but the time to be afraid of such things has passed .’
Andrea shoved the card into her deck, thinking that even if it was a troll card, with her current level of combat power, she would be able to somehow manage it .
Emilia is next. After staring at her with a puzzled face for a long time, Emilia took out an object from the box and hurriedly ran towards Andrea .
“ What is the effect of this artifact? Mrs. Andrea .”
A strangely shaped statue of a skinny bison eating a fat bison. Unlike other artifacts, it was an artifact with a rather metaphorical name rather than an intuitive one .
“It’s a ‘ famine that devours plenty .’”
It was one of the artifacts that increased maximum mana. Considering that artifacts that usually increase max mana can only be obtained from boss monsters, it was quite a windfall .
However, like almost all max mana boost artifacts, this artifact also had a fatal penalty .
“ Getting this… I guess I’ll have to think about it. Obtaining this artifact will increase your maximum mana by 1, but instead the treasure chest on the next boss level will be empty .”
Increasing mana was an urgent problem for Emilia, who had lowered her maximum mana to 1 by raising the level of trials. However, considering the opportunity cost to lose by acquiring this artifact, I couldn’t make a quick decision .
Emilia was at a loss, but eventually decided to completely follow Andrea’s judgment. Andrea holds her chin and ponders for not a short time. Tricia, who was about to approach Andrea with an excited expression, stopped when she saw her .
“I have decided. Let’s get it and go .”
If it was a high floor of about
80 floors, he would have made a different choice, but it was worth giving up even the compensation of the 60th floor. I gave up on this artifact, but if a mana-raising artifact comes out that gives a penalty as a reward on the 60th floor, it would be like taking a penalty that I didn’t have to shoulder .
Emilia nodded without saying a word and put the artifact in. When Andrea turned around, Trisha approached as if she had been waiting for her and held out the card she had obtained this time. A bit of an excited attitude .
“ Andrea, look at this !”
‘[ Unique] Master of Shooting + (2 cost): If you use a card with ‘Shooting’ in its name, the cost of that card will be reduced by 1 during this battle .’
Andrea doubted her eyes for a moment. I couldn’t believe it when I saw it, so I rubbed my eyes and looked at it again .
‘ Master of Shooting’ is the key card of ‘Continuous Loading’ and the Infinite Shooting Cycle Deck that forms the two major mountain ranges. It was the last piece of the puzzle Trisha needed .
In any game, not just ‘Dungeon of Infinity’, the items that players most desperately want are the ones that don’t come out the most. However, in ‘Dungeon of Infinity’, I felt that way .
When I decided to do a specific concept deck and started constructing the deck according to that deck, the most important key cards did not come out like a ghost. The last one, the one most needed, the less likely it is to come out. However, when I went to other decks, those key cards would pour out like lies .
There was a high probability that it was due to selective memory, but a small number of users half-jokingly and half-seriously argued that Arpan used mind-reading to invent reward cards. In any case, completing a concept deck is not an easy task .
Andrea thought that at least the 70th floor would be necessary to complete the deck .
‘ But this comes out so easily ?’
Tricia straightens her back triumphantly in front of Andrea, who is still bewildered .
“ This card is the infinite fire thing you talked about last time …”
“ Infinite Shooting Cycle Deck .”
“ Yeah, anyway. This is the last key card needed to complete the deck, right ?”
“ Yes .”
“ Then did I finish the deck ?”
“ Right, for now .”
“… but how should I roll this deck ?”
Trisha didn’t even know how the deck worked because she just randomly picked the cards as Andrea told her to. Andrea explained in detail .
Even after hearing all the explanations, Trisha still looks puzzled. Then he frowned slightly and nodded his head .
“ So… Anyway, you mean that you only have to use these two cards first, ‘Continuous Reload’ and ‘Shooting Master’, aside from the other cards ?”
“… yes ,”
It seemed that he only understood half of it. At first glance, you will understand faster if you use it in real life than if Andrea explains it for a hundred days .
After confirming the reward, the party came out of the jungle and sat in a circle in the aisle for a while. It was time to explain the possible boss on the next floor .
“It was the same on the 50th floor, but the boss monsters that appear later on that floor are tied to a certain theme… so, a similar concept .”
For example, the theme of the 50th floor was ‘God’s Angel’. The bosses that can appear on the 60th floor also share that theme .
“The theme of the 60th floor is ‘giant monsters’. You will probably encounter a monster of enormous size that is incomparable to the bosses you have encountered so far .”
The faces of the companions turned to berserkers. All the bosses I’ve encountered so far have boasted of enormous size, but is it even bigger than that? Can you catch something like that ?
“ Hmm… but you don’t have to worry too much. The condition for clearing the 60th floor is not to catch giant monsters, but to survive from giant monsters for a set number of turns .”
Companions who are finally relieved. But Andrea had other ideas .
‘ Boss monsters must be caught if possible. Because …’
If you defeat the giant boss, you will receive one of the very useful artifacts.
You get a chance to pick and choose. However, it would be a waste if someone died due to overpowering the boss, so he decided to hide that fact from the party .
‘ Still, one person has to help me. If it’s hard for me to kill the Kraken …’
A general explanation of the possible boss monsters has been completed. I drool, but everyone seemed to think that if it was only to survive, it would be possible to do something .
While the other party sighed, Andrea called Trisha aside. He handed out certain things to Trisha and asked for one thing. Tricia’s face was full of questions, but she nodded after hearing Andrea’s explanation .
The road to the 60th floor was a straight wooden staircase with no bends. Every time I stepped on it, I screamed as if a wooden plank would break. Some of the stairs were really already broken and I couldn’t even step on them. Andrea is moving ahead, taking each step carefully .
The door to the
60th floor was also completely different from the previous boss floors. It was a worn-out wooden door without even a speck of decoration, let alone a carving. Because of the messy weave, there was a lot of gaps in the middle, and the wind blew through them .
Suddenly Marco stepped forward. He peered through the crack in the door and sniffed. A very familiar scent mingled in the wind .
“ Is this… the sea breeze ?”
‘… the time spent rolling in the sea was nowhere to be found .’
It was as Marco said. The stage of this floor is the sea. If so, it was natural to know which monsters would appear. The opponent who is not touched because of the restrictions of the environment .
Andrea apologized to Marco and reverse summoned him. When I opened the door and went out, the cold blue sea spread out. The clear sky, the brilliant sunlight breaking over the swaying waves, and the faint smell of fishy and salty wind .
It was a landscape she had encountered before in the Temple of Waves, but Andrea’s impression was a little different. Because the place where I was stepping on was on the deck of a large ship .
‘ What is it? Did you carefully prepare a set of trauma stimulation? ‘
A big ship next to the jungle. The feeling of touring the stages of the bad memories I experienced after falling into this world one after another. Andrea reflexively felt a tingling in her back and a nauseous feeling in her stomach .
‘… but what’s not a slave ship ?’
A middle-aged man stood on the deck. A worn-out rough impression and a white-stained coat with salt clinging to it. Although his appearance was scruffy, judging from his attire, he didn’t look like a hard-working sailor .
The man glanced away and approached Andrea and the others .
“ You can go in and get some rest now. When the monster appears, I’ll go down to the cabin and call it .”
The man spoke without hesitation as if he knew Andrea and the others. Tricia and Emilia didn’t know what they were talking about, but Andrea answered in a roundabout way, matching the general mood .
“ If you defeat the monster, you will definitely be rewarded, right ?”
A man who laughs as if he heard something absurd .
“ All right. I swear by the name of the wave god .”
According to the setting, this person is the captain of the ship, and Andrea and his party are mercenaries hired by the captain to protect the ship from the giant monsters that appear in the sea .
The captain doesn’t help at all in battle and even gets in the way later. Because among the patterns of monsters, there are patterns that drive sailors to madness. For this reason, players aiming to survive would prioritize eliminating the captain before the start of battle .
But Andrea couldn’t. If the goal was eradication, not survival, the captain should never have been killed or allowed to die. This is because the captain plays the role of distributing artifacts when monsters are defeated .
Trisha tried to ask why the man was talking to us like he knew us, but she couldn’t help but swallow the question again. A huge, unknown shadow floated on the surface of the water not far from the ship .
Immediately after everyone found it, a narration suddenly began to be heard from the air .
‘ Kraken, an unclean creature with demonic fragments. Pietro, the great sun bishop, succeeds in killing the flame demon with the holy sword blessed by the sun god. However, at the moment of death, the devil planted a fragment of himself in the holy sword .’
‘ While contemplating what to do with the cursed holy sword, Pietro makes a decision to sink it into the deep sea so that no one can touch it. However, that decision produced completely unexpected results .’
‘ The holy sword that was sinking into the sea was stuck in the back of an octopus in the deep sea. The octopus to which the fragments of the devil were transferred grew into a terrible and gigantic monster with no creature to compete with in the sea .’
‘ No matter how strong and sturdy the ship was, it could not avoid shipwreck when faced with a monster. With fear and reverence, the sailors called the monster an unclean creature, the Kraken. Long years have passed and even its origins have faded, but the Kraken still roams the vast seas in search of new victims.”
Tricia and Emilia knew about this monster even before they heard about it from Andrea. It was because of this Kraken that the relationship between Helios and Nelas deteriorated and the Nelasians treated the octopus as the ‘devil’s fish’ .
Kwaaa – !
The kraken bared a huge, chunky head. The spray rose and the waves rose high. In the aftermath, the boat where Andrea and the others were standing was also violently rocked. The party holding on to the handle of the deck and barely holding on .
“ Hey, Kraken .”
The captain’s face turned pale. Others were not significantly different. Andrea was also prepared, but it was hard to control her trembling feeling when she actually faced a body larger than most islands .
‘ Let’s stay calm. I’m not going to attack right away .’
The Kraken starts attacking in earnest after 2 turns. Until then, you have time to prepare. Andrea took a deep breath and reached for the deck .
＜ 14. Foul creature (8) ＞ End