Chapter: 181
I tear my gaze away from the Shoddy God’s message and focus ahead, where a giant made of fire raises its hand.
“Alsatine!”
“Information Peddler!”
“Understood!”
As soon as I shout Alsatine’s name, he pulls back the bowstring.
The arrow he fires is tipped with the Eternal Winter Gem.
That gem only spreads the cold it harbors, but in the face of extreme flames, it demonstrates a completely different effect.
As the barrier that prevents the cold from escaping shatters, the gem explodes!
As the gem detonates, ice begins to coat the outside of the fire giant. In the game, that one explosion would have made the fire giant disappear, but I wonder how it is now.
Waiting with the divine grace on my shield, I notice the ice that had stopped the giant is beginning to melt.
So this is how it is?!
I raise my shield and take a look at the giant.
The gem definitely dealt a significant blow to the giant.
You can see that the blazing flames have clearly diminished.
With that much, I can hold my ground.
I focus the divine grace on my shield to the center.
As I do, light gathers into a sphere and then spreads out, forming a new shield in front of the existing one.
This is the reward for training tirelessly with Grandpa for a week after entering the Menestel Dungeon.
A defensive technique that didn’t even exist in the game.
KWA-AH!
The moment the giant’s fist made contact with the shield, I braced my legs.
My arms tremble uncontrollably.
Blood drips from my tightly clenched lips.
All the muscles in my body scream.
My feet slowly begin to slide back, leaving debris behind on the ground.
Tiny cracks start to form in the divine grace that blocks the shield.
However, what dissipated first was the fire giant itself.
The fiercely blazing fire giant scattered as quickly as it had formed.
I successfully blocked the giant’s attack.
As the divine grace in front of the shield dispersed, my strength gave way and I collapsed.
Haaa. This is really freaking tough. I’m glad I learned a new technique from Grandpa.
Without that, I wouldn’t have even dared to stop that.
“You really aren’t all talk, huh? Cocky little brat.”
While I was trying to calm my rough breathing, I strained to lift my head at a voice that approached from afar.
Karia, standing on the altar, was looking down at me as if judging me.
Isn’t this a bit much?
Once the fire giant’s patterns finished, it should have gone into a groggy state, right?
With the upgrades, even such weaknesses seem to have vanished?
Hah, damn it. If there’s such content, they should have given it to us back in the game. Why is there a mess now that it’s real?!
Having recovered my stamina with Armadi’s touch, I forced my body up.
If I lay around stupidly, my neck and body would say goodbye at some point.
Not long after, Karia’s new form vanished again.
We weren’t given a moment to rest.
Karia keeps trying to engage in close combat.
Thanks to her incessant provocations, at least the target was limited to me.
If it weren’t for that, I or Alsatine might never have figured out who Karia was targeting and would have crumbled under her repeated ambushes.
Listening closely to the threatening sounds of the iron wall, I try to keep up with Karia.
I do my best to catch the signs of her movements.
“Behind! Pull out the potion from your pocket…”
Hearing Grandpa’s shout, I quickly grabbed the potion I had prepared from my inventory.
Purification Holy Water. Its effect is to block the approach of negative effects.
This is effective even against the poison Karia has used.
“How interesting. How did you know this?”
Just as I let out a sigh of relief, a voice came from behind, but I didn’t turn my head.
The iron wall hadn’t threatened yet.
I heard the sound of Karl blocking Karia’s dagger behind me.
There were moments I couldn’t afford to lose focus.
From afar, dozens of daggers made of fire were launched.
Alsatine ripped open a scroll of the storm, scattering them away.
Through the storm surged Karia’s series of attacks.
As I defended with my shield, Karl and Alsatine attempted to mount a counterattack, but Karia vanished in the blink of an eye.
Attacks.
More attacks.
Another set of attacks follow.
This wasn’t a battle.
It was Karia’s hunting game.
She toyed with us as prey, slowly tightening the leash around us.
I had to be thankful for this.
If she truly intended to kill us, we would have been smashed to bits long ago.
Suddenly glancing at the time, I realized that only one minute had passed.
I couldn’t help but chuckle at the ridiculous situation.
I’m starting to hate the incompetence of the Shoddy God.
Holding on for another minute, I gradually became familiar with Karia’s movements.
Although it was still true that when she decided to sprint, I couldn’t keep up, but I could see the little warnings beforehand now.
I could perceive it with my current skills.
I gripped the dagger in my right hand and stared at the opponent.
She’s about to launch a close attack.
I wrapped myself in divine grace and awaited her.
Holding a dagger in my left hand while hiding my right behind me.
Dagger toss.
I had asked Alsatine to prepare the scroll ahead of time.
A clenched fist in my right hand, no dagger.
Patterns that burst into flames at close range.
I ordered Karl to thrust forward and prevent her from using magic.
In the end, Karia had become much stronger than I had known, but she was still just a boss of this place.
A puppet controlled by the Evil God.
A doll without mind and incapable of making decisions.
So her movements must be limited too.
Just like it was in the game.
I never expected that my research on taking her down barehanded would come in handy now.
I chuckled at the realization that my ten thousand hours of effort had paid off as I readied my shield.
I began to match Karia’s movements at an increasingly faster pace.
The speed at which I issued commands increased too.
So did the speed at which Karl and Alsatine responded.
Thus, in a standoff that felt like walking on thin ice, a little confidence and trust took root.
Yet the fact remained that a single mistake could bring a huge crisis.
We were still at a disadvantage.
We still couldn’t inflict a single wound on Karia.
But that didn’t matter.
Our goal was not victory but delay.
[Preparation time has ended.]
[Dungeon Escape Ticket will be used.]
As messages popped up before my eyes, a magic circle was drawn around us.
The Shoddy God’s divine grace engraved in this wasn’t your average magic circle, and I couldn’t help but smirk.
Do you want to stick out like this as your way of helping?!
“Armadi?”
Look! Teabagging like this makes them mad!
It doesn’t even matter since we’re about to escape, but if that person genuinely glares at me, my skin prickles!
Hey! Don’t hesitate, hurry and get me out of here!
I really don’t want to stay with her any longer!
[Escaping the dungeon…#%#%#%#@@!!@#]
…Huh? What’s this?
Are you kidding me?
Why does the string seem to break, giving the impression of a sudden error?
Shoddy God?
This isn’t the time to mess around just because you’re sulking! The Apostle’s life is on the line here!!
Hurry!…
[Agra is watching you.]
Ah.
So it was you?
Hah. No wonder you were quiet during the dungeon raid.
You were waiting for a critical moment, huh?
You little pest. Of all timings to show yourself as the Evil God, you choose the most infuriating one.
…Is it all over?
If we can’t escape the dungeon, we have to face Karia.
However, right now we can’t take her down.
We can barely hold on now, but crumbling down is only a matter of time.
Am I going to die like this?
So meaningless?
As I blankly stared at the message window, the string of messages began to twist again.
[Agra is #%#%#%#]
[Reusing Dungeon Escape Ticket#@#!#%#)#@]
[Agra#@#$$!]
[Reusing Dungeon Escape Ticket#!#!#@#]
I could tell the messages appeared and vanished repeatedly.
The Shoddy God and the petty Evil God were squabbling over dominance.
Honestly, between the Shoddy God and the petty Evil God, there’s only perverted creeps and sadists.
I guess this is why pretty people get into troublesome situations?
Everyone else obsessively clings on without a single thought.
Gripping my shield with a giggle, hope hadn’t vanished.
That alone was enough.
That was sufficient.
Although I didn’t like the thought that our Shoddy God was our last hope, what can I do?
I have to believe.
Gripping my shield.
Summoning the divine grace within me.
Taking a deep breath.
I raised my voice.
“Shoddies♡ Hold on♡”
As soon as I spoke, Karl burst into loud laughter.
“Understood. Let’s do our best.”
Alsatine sighed.
“If that’s the way to survive, we have to do it.”
While we all prepared ourselves, Karia was simply staring blankly at the ceiling.
What is she doing?
That isn’t any pattern I know; it’s something new.
I hope it’s broken due to the power struggle between the God and Evil God.
Then I could take it as a freebie.
Of course, that hope was just a foolish wish.
Karia looked down and glared at us.
Her eyes, which had held emotions until just a moment ago, were now void of expression.
The moment I met those mechanical eyes, a chill of fear ran down my spine.
Emotions flickered in and out.
The fear remained etched into my mind, leaving traces no matter how much I tried to erase them.
Goosebumps rise.
My teeth chatter.
My muscles stiffen.
As I forced my stiffened head to move, Karia’s new form vanished.
Jing!
Just then, I heard something crash like glass, and only then did I see Karia’s dagger approaching me.
The Guardian’s Brooch.
That item I received as a reward from the last field trip saved my life.
What the hell?
The iron wall didn’t react.
No, it didn’t even have a chance to move the shield.
If it weren’t for the Guardian’s Brooch, I would have been left to watch my head roll.
Just as I grasped that fact, a wave of terror tried to engulf me like a bursting dam…
“Protect!”
Jiaaang!
A woman’s voice rang in my ears, followed by another thunderous sound that felt like smashing glass.
As I tore my gaze away from Karia’s face, which stuck out her tongue, I caught a glimpse of the Sloppy Fox, taking the form of a human.
“You really lack aesthetic sense, don’t you, you fool? How dare you leave a scar on this beautiful face!”
“Shut up.”
While I spoke, Karia swung her dagger at a speed to the point of invisibility, while the Sloppy Fox kept moving fingers non-stop, performing some sort of counter.
I too, Alsatine as well as Karl, were in awe, merely watching without being able to move an inch as a new message window appeared before me.
An untainted message window, one I frequently saw.
[Using Dungeon Escape Ticket.]
Armadi’s divine grace envelops us.
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