“Equipment Set D!”
The “D” stands for Death Chariot! Not that I planned that, or anything. Heheheh. Time to show them what the Death Chariot is made of!
“Elemental Circle!”
With the Death Chariot gear’s hidden effect, I was guaranteed a dark circle. It looked as though a black light had filled the path. Now that I had the perfect camouflage, I was ready for the hunt! I quickly began to craft, putting together a damascus sword and damascus cane to make a Canesword.
This time, I didn’t use the Peregrine Damascus Sword. Not yet. I never knew which I might need for what was to come, so I had gone through the dungeon without a Canesword. This one would be the prelude for what was to come!
“Equipment Set A!”
I returned to my normal gear.
“Final Strike! Now, have a taste of my ult! Vermilion Wiiing!”
Fwoooooom!
I charged with my sword at the ready, covered in billowing flames. One special characteristic of the attack was that it would hurt every enemy in its path, as it had a straight-line area of effect. I caught almost every enemy in the blast, blowing them all away.
“Woo! Big gains over here!”
“Ren, are you sure you should waste that on these little guys?! We really don’t have time!”
“It’s cool—that was necessary! Check my HP!”
“Oh, wow! It doubled!”
That was thanks to my dark circle. If you had full HP and absorbed more, it increased your maximum HP temporarily. Very useful! My ultimates became stronger when there was a large difference between my current HP and my max. Since my HP doubled, so did my might!
This boost would only last for three minutes, though, so I had to do it right before we went to the Hadean Rose. The timing had been pretty much perfect. This prep was absolutely necessary, so I had originally planned to use it on the Black Roses spawned by the Hadean Rose. This was much safer, though.
“Yep! With greater max HP comes greater power!”
“Cool! Okay, off to the next floor! We gotta hurry!”
Ping!
It has been 58 minutes since you entered. In 120 seconds, you will be booted from the dungeon.
“Two minutes, Ren!”
“Wait, hold up! Haah!”
I bopped one of the survivors near me with a normal attack. It dealt about 90% of the monster’s health, leaving it just barely alive.
“Huh?! What are you doing?! We! Have! No! Time!”
“I don’t have enough AP after all that! Don’t touch, Akira; I’ve gotta gather AP right now!”
“Argh, so annoying. Just hurry! If you had dual-wielding, you could just slap ’em a bunch and get AP twice as fast!”
“NO dual-wielding!”
Popular skills were the enemy. My definition of fun involved overcoming those with my meta-redefining abilities! I had neither the desire nor the ability to dual-wield, but after rushing as much as I could, I got my AP. I had 300 AP now, so I was at full power!
“Okay, sorry for the wait!”
“Good, now let’s hurry. We’re gonna get kicked out!”
“Sorry to have you do this now, but can I get a Sword Samba?”
I had just used Final Strike, which would normally require me to wait for a cooldown. If Akira didn’t use Sword Samba to refresh it, we would run out of time without being able to deal the final blow.
“Aw, jeez, you’re right. Sword Samba!”
“Thanks! As usual, I couldn’t do it without you, Akira.”
“You’ve got that right. But that’s okay with me! Let’s go.”
“Yeeeah!”
Ping!
It has been 59 minutes since you entered. In 60 seconds, you will be booted from the dungeon.
Having come out the victors, we launched ourselves into the warp gate with just a minute to spare. Finally, we’d made it to B80F! Like before, we were in a rectangular room with tons of plants growing all over the place.
Ping!
Gate Condition: Defeat the boss monster!
“We’re back, boys! It was a long, hard road, but we made it.”
The ground beneath our feet trembled as a gargantuan rose sprang up from the center of the room. Its blooms bore giant black petals. Our nemesis looked just as energetic as ever.
Level 120 Hadean Rose
Crown Icon (rare monster)
We were in a worse situation than last time. The worst possible, you could say. There was only one minute left, and four members of our six-person party had fallen. When Akira and I went through the gate, it must have brought our fallen friends with us. They were lying on the ground not far away.
“We’ve got this, everyone! I’m about to make up for all the times I was totally useless!”
It had taken me a great deal of blood, sweat, and tears, but all that was in the past now. Looking back, it had been an interesting game of trial and error.
“You only have a minute! Can you make it?!” Maeda cried.
“Hurry, dude!” Yano shouted. “Show us it was worth carrying your sorry butt!”
“We trust you,” said Akabane. “If you’re so confident, I can only imagine that you have quite an impressive scheme.”
Shizuku, too, watched on. “Let’s see it, young man. I can’t wait.”
I crafted a Canesword using a Peregrine Damascus Sword and a damascus cane. My lethal weapon was ready! It didn’t even know that it had been born only to be destroyed right away. At the same time, the Hadean Rose noticed us and began to fight.
Hadean Rose sent seeds flying!
A Black Rose sprouted!
A Black Rose sprouted!
A Black Rose sprouted!
A Black Rose sprouted!
A Black Rose sprouted!
A Black Rose sprouted!
If left alone, it would continue to spew mini versions of himself. If damaged, it would do the exact same thing. When its Black Roses dealt damage, it healed for just as much.
“I’ll take aggro from the little ones!” Akira offered.
“Nah, don’t worry. This’ll be over in seconds,” I told her. “Final Strike!”
“Are you sure?!”
“Yep! Watch me one-shot it!”
I mean, if I didn’t one-shot it, we would run out of time. Fortunately, my ingenious plan was designed to completely skip all of the most annoying parts of the fight and finish it before it truly began. That was how the drama cannon would shine its brightest!
My enemy’s HP was about 30,000. Typically, my ultimates dealt about 5,000 damage, but with the HP boost from my dark circle, that became 10,000. With the Peregrine Damascus Sword inside my Canesword, it doubled again—a grand total of 20,000 damage!
Up until this point, I hadn’t found a way to pile on more damage. That was why I had sent Akira and the others with the Super Special Warp Stone to try a battle of endurance. But then, at Kokoru’s house, I was able to secure even more strength, thanks to the Tie Shan Kao (temp) that Master Mommaru had bestowed upon me. On top of its already-high damage, when it was (temp), it came with a penalty that reduced the user’s HP to 1. But for a drama cannon that required bringing my HP down on purpose, that wasn’t a penalty at all—it was the biggest bonus I could ever want!
Since this could reduce my HP, I no longer needed to include Turnover in my ultimate. This fit nicely in its place. As a result, my ultimate was now made up of three skills that all dealt damage. I really did hate that this would only last until I lost the (temp), but this new ultimate was going to be the latest and greatest yet! It was a combination of Explosive Tackle, Tie Shan Kao (temp), and Swallow’s Blade! From my testing, I already knew that it would go beyond 30,000 damage.
I squatted down, put my hand on the grip of the Canesword, and readied myself to unleash my ultimate!
“Here goes! After this, we dive into the gate and find that save point!”
“Yeah!”
“Aww, yeah. Ultimate move!”
Flames billowed from me as I charged at the Hadean Rose! Instead of the usual tackling charge, this one used the Tie Shan Kao pose that would have me strike the enemy with my back. The fire enveloping me wasn’t in the shape of a phoenix, but a humongous dragon’s face.
Whump! Whump! Whump! Whump!
As I charged through the Black Roses, they were launched away and slammed into the walls. It came with a pretty hefty knockback. That wasn’t a surprise after seeing how Master Mommaru had launched Draco away. Then, inside the dragon’s head, I shot forth like a bullet and pierced the Hadean Rose!
Babooom!
There was a loud noise, followed by the Hadean Rose’s stem bending. It couldn’t knock something that big around, of course—but that was only the first half of my ultimate! After that, I unsheathed my Canesword!
“Dragon Lord’s Twin Tuuusks!”
A crimson V-shape tore through the Hadean Rose.
Psheeeeeew!
Ren activated Dragon Lord’s Twin Tusks!
Dealt 33,457 damage to Black Rose!
Ren activated Dragon Lord’s Twin Tusks!
Dealt 33,457 damage to Black Rose!
Ren activated Dragon Lord’s Twin Tusks!
Dealt 33,457 damage to Black Rose!
Ren activated Dragon Lord’s Twin Tusks!
Dealt 33,457 damage to Black Rose!
Ren activated Dragon Lord’s Twin Tusks!
Dealt 33,457 damage to Black Rose!
Ren activated Dragon Lord’s Twin Tusks!
Dealt 33,457 damage to Black Rose!
Ren activated Dragon Lord’s Twin Tusks!
Dealt 33,457 damage to Hadean Rose!
Ren has defeated Black Rose.
Ren has defeated Black Rose.
Ren has defeated Black Rose.
Ren has defeated Black Rose.
Ren has defeated Black Rose.
Ren has defeated Black Rose.
Ren has defeated Hadean Rose.
YES, YES, YES! YEEEES!!!
Everything had gone according to plan!