-Kuung!
The rock civet, who had banged his head against the wall, began to scream again. He flailed his hundreds of legs and twisted his joints, expressing his pain with his entire body.
'at las.'
I applauded my own patience in performing this dirty and petty gimmick 20 times. That was exactly the 20th time, so only 40 more to go until Phase 4.
The surrounding terrain had long since been practically scorched earth. The entire floor had been turned upside down by the thing slamming itself into the wall and going crazy, and there were cracks all over the walls and even some parts had collapsed.
The creature struggled for a while, then forcibly opened a crevice in the rock with its large body, broke it, and escaped. It was so large that it took a long time just to disappear.
The vibrations that went "ddddddd" gradually faded away. With this, we can consider phase 1 to have been cleared.
I got up, dusted myself off, and moved to the path revealed between the collapsed walls. Having finished one phase, it was time to go and perform the gimmick of phase two by slicing up the trash mobs.
The gimmicks for the upcoming 2nd and 3rd phases were not much different. Lure the rock raccoon that runs so slowly that it makes you yawn, and make it bury its head somewhere alone.
It's just that somewhere, it changes from wall to pillar, and pillar to wall. It's not fun, it takes a long time, and the risk of getting hit by blinding debris and dying is really high.
So, how can you like this?
'There are no mid-save options in the game, so if you die you have to start over from the beginning.'
What's even more terrifying is that the entire eternity from Phase 1 to Phase 4 is treated as one boss fight, so there are no mid-saves.
This means that if you perform the gimmick 59 times and die due to a control error on the 60th time, you have to go back to phase 1. I've seen quite a few people get pissed off after doing that.
I've experienced it once, and I just couldn't turn off the game.
'Ah, I guess it's time to start pounceing.'
Before I had even gone that far, a group of raccoons of similar size to me began crawling out from between the cracks in the rocks. They were the ones who had been crushed by the rocks as they descended underground.
Since they were just trash mobs that could dodge attacks by rolling and doing nothing, I just bounced off the first hit and immediately cut off their heads. The foxes were cut into chunks as soon as the bloody sword dug in.
It clearly looked like an attack by a fox trying to bite with its lower jaw, so it seemed impossible to deflect it, but strangely, whenever I swung my weapon, it would bounce off me and I would become paralyzed.
After cutting down about ten raccoons, I heard the ground shaking from afar. It meant that the start of Phase 2 was near. I quickened my pace.
As I exited the narrow alley, a similarly sized cavity appeared as the one I had just stayed in. The difference was that in the center, there was a huge pillar that reached up to the ceiling.
That pillar was the key element of the 2-phase gimmick. Everything else is the same, but you have to make the rock snake hit that pillar 20 times instead of the wall.
'Either way, it's just boring.'
If it had only been 5 times, I would have been able to understand it.
With a loud explosion, the rock raccoon leapt out, smashing through the rock on the other side. I dodged the flying rock fragments. Compared to the first phase, the creature looked quite a mess.
There were small cracks on the upper part of its head where it had been slammed into the wall twenty times, and it seemed even angrier than before and clicked its lower jaw nervously as soon as it saw me.
My upper body was immediately hit. It seemed as if it was going to crush me. I rolled to the side to dodge it, and a shockwave struck my back. Debris flew everywhere.
'This time, the bounce is a seal.'
It was a similar case to a specific pattern of headless cavalry.
If you bounce off the pattern of running at full speed, jumping, and slamming the spear down, a grab attack will come in while your body is pushed back. Because of that, you will definitely get hit with a follow-up attack, and the rock civet was the same.
All attacks have a huge bounce delay, making it impossible to dodge the next attack. Because of this, you have to roll unconditionally, which has the negative effect of making the already boring boss fight even more boring.
The rock civet grabbed a nearby rock with its mandibles and raised its head high. No, it didn't just raise it, it bent its entire upper body backwards.
'The first thing I do is get dirty.'
The rock came flying at me almost five seconds after I had hidden behind the wall. There was a crashing sound on the other side, and pieces of rock were scattered everywhere.
The rock civet twisted its body and threw a tantrum when it realized that the human who had been teasing it was still alive. Its body sank to the ground once again. It was a signal to prepare a charging pattern.
The rock raccoon began to move slowly. I watched it quietly and then started walking little by little to keep up with its pace. There was almost no need to even run.
This time it was more annoying than Phase 1. You have to lure it to a pillar while maintaining a certain distance from it. If you open the distance too much, it will cancel its charge pattern.
Then, of course, we had to start over from the beginning with the charge induction.
'This is crazy, really.'
If it had been faster than the player character's running speed, it would have been difficult and people would have complained, but it wouldn't have been to the point where everyone would be cursing at it like it is now.
I circled the pupil to lure it and stood in front of the pillar. The rock weasel was running at full speed towards me. Even so, it was slow enough to make me yawn.
I watched it quietly, and when the distance had narrowed, I rolled to the side and escaped. Right next to me, I heard a "Kooooong!"
-Kuuung!
"Again?"
Lize frowned as an unidentifiable sound was heard and the entire cave began to shake.
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I don't know how many times this has happened. It was quiet for a while so I thought it was over, but it started again.
"Surely this place isn't going to collapse as a whole?"
"I don't know either. It's too intermittent to be a sign of a ground collapse, and the magnitude of the vibrations is too great to be anything else. It's ambiguous."
"Is there any chance it's a monster?"
"A monster… is it?"
Erica was momentarily speechless at Iris' question. If it was a monster so huge that it could shake the entire ground, then that was a problem in its own right.
"I'd rather it be a monster. At the very least, I could try to kill it. A monster capable of causing tremors of this scale would have to be ridiculously large, but fighting one would be a lot more worthwhile than being buried alive in a collapsing cave."
"That's certainly true. It's much better to die fighting a monster than to be buried alive here."
"Hey, why is death a prerequisite? Do you keep saying ominous things?"
Lize, who was walking ahead, turned her head and grumbled. There was a slight barb in her words. She had been like that ever since the newbie suddenly started acting on her own.
"I'm talking about what ifs, Sister. And, I don't think we're going to die here. Didn't you hear what Mr. Shin said?"
As he said, none of the three people here showed any sign of anxiety. Even though there was a chance that they would be trapped in the collapsed cave and starve to death or even die of dehydration.
"I know. I told you I'd be waiting downstairs."
It was because of the words that the rookie knight, who was now far below, said as he fell. He shouted that he would wait at the bottom so that he could just come down.
It contained the confidence that nothing the Knight Commanders were worried about would happen.
"Yes. Since Mr. Shin-i said so, all we have to do is hurry down here. We can't have you waiting down there alone. I also have something to say to Mr. Shin-i."
"Okay. This time, I definitely have to say something."
It was the same with Lize, Erika, and Iris. This time, I was going to nag them a lot, telling them to tell me in advance if they knew anything.
No one thought the newbie would die. He seemed to know something, and he always surprised them when he did.
It will most likely be the same this time.
-Kuuuung!
"Oh, really! What the heck has been going on since just now?"
"… … Hurry up a little more. We need to join as soon as possible."
"That's right. Whatever it is, there's no good in dawdling around here."
The three of them ran down without even looking around. They had been told that there was nothing there and that they could just go.
It was as he said. The three of them didn't encounter anything. They didn't even encounter the source of the ground shaking from earlier, let alone an ordinary monster.
The path continued downwards very flatly, and the three went deeper into the underground.
"What the heck is this… … ?"
And deep underground, they discovered part of a giant, raccoon-shaped rock.
It looked completely crushed, lying on a thick pillar.