It had been a few days since our run-in with the black-haired duo in the dungeon. Now, we were facing a powerful magical beast in the deep layer. It had strong mana and was clearly on a higher tier than anything we’d fought before.
“What the hell is this thing?!” I said.
“It’s huge!”
“It shtinks.”
The massive four-legged creature before us howled.
At first, the clearing we were in had looked empty except for a large tree... But then the ground at the tree’s roots split open, and out from underneath it crawled a gigantic monster that resembled a tortoise, except its skin and shell looked like they were made of wood.
No—its shell really was timber, something like oak with branches jutting out here and there, leaves sprouting thickly. Its limbs looked like whole trees grafted onto its body. A tortoise whose shell sprouted a giant sawtooth oak, its entire body woven together from wood—that was the monster that had appeared before us.
At the same time, it released such a stench that Kuro had pinched her nose shut, her eyes watering. It was a sickly sweet fragrance, like the smell of fruit just before it rots. One could say it was a pleasant smell, but at this intensity, it was nauseating—especially for Kuro’s sharp nose.
“That’s a tortoise treant!” I said. “It’s an even higher-tier monster than a killer treant!”
Older tortoise treants bore fruit at the tips of their branches. Those fruits were rare ingredients used in sacred potions, and they were supposedly so delicious that a single bite could leave you addicted.
This one’s still young, so no fruit yet. Maybe that’s for the best—something so dangerously tasty’s better left out of reach. Otherwise, I’d be tempted to try it.
A tortoise treant lured prey with its sweet scent, then ensnared them with vines hidden inside its shell and devoured them. Because of that, its main body moved slowly, and it rarely attacked on its own.
Despite clearly being aware of us, the tortoise treant before us made no move to approach.
“Shiro,” I said, “don’t get too close!”
“Myah!”
“Kuro, use your fire!”
“Okieee.”
Its weakness was fire, though it burned less easily than ordinary treants and didn’t thrash about. Another weak point was the root tuber hidden inside its shell. With normal treants, their weakness was exposed behind the face on their trunk, but this kind kept it well protected.
The monster, towering over five meters tall, let out a rumbling growl that seemed to shake the earth itself.
Being a treant, its eye sockets were empty—nothing but deep cavities. Yet they weren’t lifeless voids. From within the tortoise treant radiated an overwhelming presence. It reminded me of the time we’d faced the hell chimera. Its power level was probably about the same.
It wasn’t edible, and we could try to avoid it. But there was a problem: This tortoise treant wasn’t just any monster. From what I could see, embedded at the base of the sawtooth oak growing from its shell was a treasure chest.
That’s clearly a special treasure chest. It’s gotta be a key to conquering the dungeon. Ignoring it’s not an option.
“Shiro, Kuro, that thing regenerates fast. If we just chip away at it, it’ll heal right back up. So we go in aiming to finish it from the start. You can use dragon power too.”
“Got it!” said Shiro.
“Really?”
“Yeah. I’ll give you all the snacks you want. Use about half your mana if you need to.”
“Okay,” said Kuro.
If it’s not gonna move, then we’ll hit it with everything we’ve got. Using dragon power will leave us drained and hungry, and it’ll slow us down too, but we can’t beat that thing without taking risks.
It was dangerous to burn ourselves out completely here, but the best outcome would be to kill it before suffering a counterattack.
“Haaaah!”
“M-Myah!”
“Wuffu.”
We concentrated our mana, chanted, and prepared the strongest spells we could muster. Then, once we reached a position where its flank was exposed, we struck all at once.
“Wind!” said Shiro. “Spear of wind that pierces all! Roar and gouge the enemy! Wind Spear!”
“Burn and destroy!” said Kuro. “Flame Shock!”
Shiro’s Wind Spear struck the tortoise treant first, hitting it square in its side—Kuro cast her spell at the same time, but wind spells are the fastest. The spear spun like a drill, exploding into a blast of wind with a thunderous crack. Even though it was packed with mana and pierced and exploded, the attack had been far from fatal. The wooden shell was gouged open, leaving behind a crater, but that was all. The spear hadn’t reached inside.
Then, just a moment later, Kuro’s Flame Shock slammed in. Her spell focused on impact rather than penetration. The result: A mass of fire was driven into the hole Shiro had carved, then exploded.
The booming blast rattled our stomachs. Flames burst outward, the tortoise treant screaming alongside the dull explosion.
Their combined attack had shattered the treant’s shell, opening a hole large enough for a person to pass through.
“Pierce and freeze!” I chanted. “Ice Spear!”
Before the beast could even think about fleeing, the third strike flew in: an Ice Spear. Even I had to admit that the timing was perfect.
Normally, water and ice attacks don’t work well against treant-type monsters, but the tortoise treant was different. The plants that made up its body must have been weak to cold; ice-type magic was a secondary weakness right after fire.
The Ice Spear, packed with dragon power, had struck true. From within the hole, shards of ice scattered outward. The wound froze over, halting its regeneration, and the gap showed no sign of closing.
The beast let out a guttural roar.
“Fall back!” I said.
“Myah!”
“Arf.”
As the tortoise treant let out its death cry, countless vines burst from its shell, thrashing wildly. Is this its final struggle? Well then, let me finish you off!
“Gaaahhhhhh!”
The flame I spit out flew into the hole in its shell. Red light leaked from the gaps between the plants making up its body as it was roasted alive from the inside, black smoke billowing upward.
The monster’s roar began to die down, and after about ten seconds or so, it eventually stopped moving. What remained was a strange sight, like a giant, deformed tree that resembled a tortoise.
At the same time, its shell shattered, and the treasure chest embedded within fell free. With no chance for us to catch it, the chest hit the ground, the impact forcing it open.
I jerked, the nightmare of white mist flashing through my mind. But this chest seemed to hold no trap—nothing happened.
“Let’s check inside. Be careful.”
“A-okay.”
“Okie.”
The three of us approached cautiously to find a green crystal had rolled out. It resembled the red crystal we had taken from the named skeleton, the one we had used to obtain the compass.
I’d figured it wasn’t just an ordinary chest. I picked up the crystal, examining its shape.
“Could this be a new key item?”
“Thor, we did it!” said Shiro.
“We can move forward again?”
“Yeah, I’m su—”
“Uuuooooohhh!”
Huh? What was that? A magical beast?
What’s this black shado—?
“Ooooohhh!”
What stood before us was an eerie humanoid magical beast, its entire body shrouded in darkness. It wasn’t a perfect human shape—there was a tail, and something like horns. No—ears, maybe? Is it imitating a beastfolk?
The hostility it radiated stirred within me memories of a past foe, and it seemed the same went for Shiro and Kuro.
“Myah! I remember...!”
“Arf. The black one...!”
Shiro pressed lightly against the leather eye patch covering her left eye, while Kuro gripped her bandaged right arm. I found myself unconsciously rubbing my throat.
Beyond that, none of us could move. The fear from that time had taken over, but even knowing that, we stayed frozen in place. A painful memory welled up from within us: the black nemesis that had taken our bodies and carved its curse upon us—dungeon malice.
The monster before us looked almost identical. The darkness cloaking it, the repulsiveness, the crushing pressure—it was all the same.
There were differences, though. The dungeon malice that had nearly killed us had a female form. Of course, I couldn’t really say whether such a being truly had gender. This one, however, appeared male. And its behavior was different too.
“Oooohhh... Oooohhh!”
For some reason, it was clutching its head in both hands, unmoving, like it was in pain.
Its mana also felt different. Dungeon malice had radiated a dark, dreadful power that instilled despair at a glance. It was so full of malice there couldn’t have been another name for it besides dungeon malice.
But this monster radiated a stronger emotion. It was clearly angry—deeply enraged—but it didn’t instill the same despair. Instead, it was the fear and intimidation of being struck by raw fury.
“Oooohhhh! Give it back!”
Give it back? Does it want something? What could it want?
But with that, I was certain. This was not dungeon malice. Similar, yes, but not the same foe. And once I realized that, my body began to move again, and I managed to dodge its first strike.
“Oooohhhh!”
“Gah!” No, I couldn’t dodge it completely!
The long-range attack it had hurled resembled Darkness Blade and had been far faster than I could have imagined. I did manage to avoid a direct hit, though. It got my left shoulder pretty good, but that’s it!
I healed the wound with magic while preparing to strike back. Even if this were a different individual, it seemed to be of the same kind as dungeon malice. Victory against it at full strength would have been uncertain, and now, I was already worn down from the previous fight.
Then I’ll draw its attention to myself and give Kuro and Shiro a chance to get away. I’ll find a way to escape after that! That was the only way I could see us surviving.
“Here’s a little something for ya!”
I unleashed black flames—making sure to infuse it with the dragon power I didn’t have back then.
“Oooohhh.”
It doesn’t have time to react. This will hit!
I was certain, but my bullet of black flame was blown away the instant it touched the darkness surrounding the beast, bursting apart into nothing. So it wasn’t that it couldn’t react—it didn’t need to! At the same moment, I was struck by its counterattack.