“Phew. That was some good testing!”
After I finished experimenting with the skill that Kokoru’s mom, Mommaru—or should I say, Master Mommaru—had given me, I returned to the cottage in Summertide feeling fully satisfied. I had forgotten all of the melancholy that was in me when I first left, and now I was in a wonderful mood. I was coming back stronger than ever!
The testing didn’t take very long. Actually, I didn’t have room to do it for long. If I used Tie Shan Kao (temp) too much, I could lose out on its HP-reduction effect. That would make me weaker overall. Normally, I would’ve wanted to experiment with it in every which way, but I had to keep the number of times I used it to a minimum.
Now, were Akira and the others back yet?
“I’m home!”
When I entered the living room, everyone was already there. They looked tired and sluggish.
“Oh, hi Ren.”
“Hey! Good work out there, everyone! How’d it go? Did you take down the Hadean Rose?”
That was the wall that stopped not only us, but every single party that wanted to make it to the end of Aswarth’s Undersea Ruins. Regardless of whether it was attacked or left alone, it would summon additional monsters. If any of its adds damaged players, it recovered HP to match. What a diabolical boss.
In a time-limited dungeon like Aswarth’s, these traits made it much harder to defeat. Overall, I would say that it was the strongest of all the bosses we had encountered in this game so far.
The gang had used the Super Special Warp Stone that Shizuku gave them, allowing them to enter the dungeon with a two-hour time limit. The plan, then, had been to try to kill off the little flowers until the Hadean Rose ran out of seeds to spray. This strategy was based on the idea that since it shot so many of them out so fast, it ought to have a limited number of seeds.
Akira hunched over, dejected. “Sorry... We couldn’t do it.”
“Gah! Really?!”
“Yeah, really! We tried so hard to kill off every single Black Rose, but it just never ended.”
“The run was just fine until that point,” Akabane chimed in with a sigh. “We arrived at the Hadean Rose’s doorstep with an hour and forty-five minutes remaining, yet its summoning showed no sign of stopping.”
“We’re sorry, Takashiro. We believe that there may be no limit to the number of Black Roses it can create.”
“Yeah, it totally had unlimited seeds in it!”
Maeda and Yano might be right. Hmm... Maybe there’s some condition that’ll stop it from spawning extras?
“Perhaps defeating even more of them would have put an end to their spawning, but let me assure you that we went as fast as we could. Everyone here did their best,” Shizuku told me.
“Yeah, bro. We went hard for two hours straight! That’s the most exercise I’ve done in months.”
Shizuku didn’t let her fatigue show, but Kataoka was dead. She’s a tough one for sure. Whereas everyone else was clearly exhausted, she alone looked composed.
At the very least, we’d gained one useful piece of information: just killing the flowers alone wouldn’t make them stop appearing. With more experience like this, we could develop a concrete battle plan.
Would I put everyone’s efforts to waste? Well, yes! I had a completely different plan in mind now.
“I see, I see. Hah! What a thorn in our side, huh?”
Akira gave me a suspicious look. “Uh, why are you so happy about it?”
“Well, I figured something like this might happen, so I’ve devised a new method! I’m getting excited just knowing that it’ll see the light of day!”
“Huh?! You still have tricks up your sleeve?! I thought the Super Special Warp Stone was our big trump card.”
“I thought so too,” added Akabane. “Did you not send us off with that forlorn look on your face, believing us to be your last hope?”
“That was the me of a few hours ago! As a gamer, I can progress with leaps and bounds in a mere few hours!”
Especially when limited quests give out juicy arts as rewards! That really was the perfect quest for today.
“Did something happen while we were gone?” Akira asked.
“Yep. A little quest came up, I went to Kokoru’s house, and I powered up like never before!”
“Chirp! I got big and strong! Biiig!”
Gah, you little...! I shut Kokoru up, but I didn’t think Draco would say it himself.
“Huh?! Draco, can you get bigger? Ooh, I know! You must’ve learned that Grow Up skill from before. Hey, what’s it like? I wanna see!”
Ugh, I knew it would turn out like this! No way am I gonna show them. It’s time for a cover-up!
It was my decision to keep the girls from seeing it, and I was gonna see it through.
“No, no, no! He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He just got bigger for a sec as part of a special event. See, he doesn’t even remember it!”
“Hmm. You sure?”
“Yeah, I’m sure!”
“Okay then. Does that mean you got some other power-up?”
“Absolutely! Thanks to Master Mommaru, my ultimates are about to be reborn.”
“Who’s Master Mommaru?”
“She’s Kokoru’s mom. You should’ve seen her! She taught me this crazy strong skill, and now I can fight the Hadean Rose. So let’s go off to Aswarth’s again! Heheheh... This time, we’re out for blood! Witness the power of my true awakening!”
“Huh?! We’re going again?!”
“I am rather tired, so...” Akabane trailed off.
Maeda nodded. “Likewise. I could use a little break...”
“Unlike you, Takashiro, we worked our butts off!” Yano yelled.
“Yeah, I know. I still need time to prepare too. I gotta go look around, so you all can rest here. See you soon!”
As I tried to leave, Akira stopped me.
“Wait up, Ren. I’m gonna come with you!”
“Don’t you wanna take a break?”
“Nope. I know how hyper you can get. Who knows what you’ll get up to if I don’t watch you?”
“I think I’ll be fine, but sure. Let’s ride!”
With that, Akira and I left the floating cottage. At the exit, Akira smiled sweetly in my direction.
“I’m glad you’re back to normal. I was worried about you, y’know.”
For some reason, she looked positively delighted.