“It’s time to attack!”
The defeat of the Pleasure Lord was slow, but it was going smoothly.
_-Gugugugung. Gugugugung._
It looked like violet swords were torn into pieces and scattered across the ground.
The true form of the Pleasure Lord was a larva, writhing and exuding its presence from beneath the ground.
The strategies for defeating a boss and a monster are different.
A monster refers to a typical Named Monster that has mutated due to being engulfed by dark magic.
It has an insatiable craving for mana, meaning it nests in tranquil places like sanctuaries or areas with a smooth flow of mana.
Thus, the campaign follows this principle.
First, a monster cannot exist alone. Therefore, it uses the tentacles or illusions it creates to absorb life force.
Of course, if left unchecked, it will establish roots in the sanctuary, making later actions extremely difficult.
However, the tentacles or illusions before stabilization are not that strong.
In short, the current [Pleasure Lord] has widely distributed weaknesses, making it easy to weaken by targeting them.
In conclusion, while a monster takes longer to set up than a boss, it can be tackled much easier if detected early.
It seemed that Ronald, the raid leader this time, was aware of this too.
For hours now, he had been slowly gnawing at the tentacles from the outskirts to induce the Pleasure Lord’s groggy state.
“Bikets, it’s the last one in the east and west!”
“Yup!”
The top marksman, Bikets, was on the verge of passing out from being used instead of me to earn a few more coins.
But as he pulled the bowstring with all his might, the last remaining tentacle larva faced us.
“Frontline! Hold it! Buy some time! Midline! Move in when I signal!”
Magic is a product of nobles. Therefore, there are almost no mercenaries that can use magic.
In the rear, we only have marksmen, while the midline is mostly dual-wield melee jobs capable of heavy damage.
_-Bang!_
_-Kyaak!_
_-Hold on!_
But while the frontline blocked with shields, attacks from the back and midline could be successfully executed.
_-Die!!! Die!_
_-Let go!!_
_-Squish squish!_
_-Kuwawaaagh!!!_
After a long period of endurance, when all the tentacles were eliminated,
_-Ding!_
_[‘Pleasure Lord’ Groggy Success! ]_
_[Successfully resisted the ‘Pleasure’ of the ‘Pleasure Lord’! ]_
_-Whooosh!!!!_
The ominous dark magic poured out,
_-Boom!!!!!!_
The Pleasure Lord fell into a groggy state.
_-Did, did we do it?_
_-W-what’s happening?_
As everyone looked at the large, motionless larva in confusion, Ronald shouted half a beat late.
“Damn it, now’s the time! Pour everything in!”
_-Aaaaah!!!_
With his hoarse shout, everyone dove in, stabbing the creature.
_-Thud!_
Though individually weak, the attacks landed effective damage on the thing that had lost its tentacles.
_-Kuwawaaagh!_
‘So far, so good.’
I coordinated my breathing and sharpened my senses to observe the situation ahead.
*
After a long struggle…
_-Kuwwe…!_
_-Kuuuuung!!_
The [Pleasure Lord] fell, emitting a terrifying sound like other monsters.
_-Damn…_
_-Raid leader, this was really tough…_
_-Damn it, pretend to be weak!_
Everyone collapsed, exhausted from the battle.
But not Ronald.
‘Damn it~, this is just the beginning.’
The Pleasure Lord is not a trivial enemy.
How many advance parties had he sacrificed for this moment?
To gather information, he had thrown his subordinates into peril one by one.
If he were to be a grim reaper, he would have graduated with honors by now.
‘Everything is for this moment…!’
Even if other major guilds come to hunt, he would refuse them all and, through painstaking effort, monopolize the information, gaining power with Crow Pay.
“Everyone stay here! I’m going to check if he’s dead.”
_-Thud thud!_
Ronald hurried towards the Pleasure Lord, shaking his belly.
…
“Well, of course!”
Around the Pleasure Lord’s area were piles of loot.
Could it be that he stuffed himself up by munching on several parties?
An unimaginable amount of mana stones for a mid-tier monster.
On top of that, the loot belonging to countless mercenaries who died in previous expeditions was just a bonus.
‘They wouldn’t notice if I swiped a few items, right…?’
Ronald gazed with satisfaction at the treasures, licking his lips repeatedly.
…
“Please die, you pig brat…”
There was a girl about the same age as Lev who followed this raid.
Her name was Emma.
She was among those who opposed Ronald’s tyranny and greed.
But the gods are not merciful.
While Ronald rushed towards the loot, the Pleasure Lord, still breathing, transformed that imagination into reality…
“But… absolutely…!”
Today is different.
Inside Emma’s pouch, there lies a considerable amount of gold coins.
They couldn’t just let Crow Pay’s tyranny go unchallenged, so all the money was pooled together by the party, all for Emma.
A whopping 71 gold and 47 silver.
If only they could buy a few items, it would be nice, but,
“Alright, this time let’s combine all that loot! We’ll hold an auction right here! Since the higher-ups said to do so, no one has a problem with that, right?”
“!!”
Ronald, that pig, announced that he’d merge all the items for auction.
_-What…? He’s doing it here?_
_-What does that mean?_
He revealed his greed.
Disgusting, but still… it’s fine.
If the price goes up to 71 gold, Ronald and his crew will have to raise the bid too, so the distribution will be slightly more.
Unlike before, I could possibly take a bit more.
With her fists clenched, Emma was feeling determined when the one she was cursing approached her, smiling.
“I know exactly what you’re thinking, girl~.”
“Really? I’m not thinking of anything at all.”
“Acting cute while being just a girl.”
Ronald spoke quietly so only Emma could hear.
“You’ve gathered around 70 gold… soul and all, right? Someone unnamed was kind enough to report that.”
_-Kuhaha!_
_-Betrayal upon betrayal!_
“I’ll buy you a cute set of underwear, so wear it and come up to my room. How about I let this slide just this once?”
The men behind him burst into loud laughter.
“…”
Emma’s body began to shake with humiliation.
“But what do I do now? Before that, you’ll need to give me that money you’ve been hoarding, right?”
“…?!”
Ronald cut off his words sharply,
“Now, everyone listen!”
He declared to the 13 raid members involved in support.
“Sorry, but you guys have about 5 minutes to live.”
_-?_
At that one word, everyone buzzed in confusion.
No matter how much of a raid leader he was, he couldn’t be the one to decide life and death.
Whether this situation was amusing or not, Ronald’s group started laughing even louder.
_-Kuhahaha! Look at their faces?_
_-You idiots… you’re mercenaries who’ve prepared for death. Aren’t you scared of dying? Huh?!_
Then Ronald continued his friendly explanation.
“Ahahaha!! You’ve all been cursed! The curse of pleasure! What I gave you earlier was just water. If you’re lucky, it might’ve even contained someone’s bodily fluid, but who knows.”
_-Ugh!_
In that moment, there were sounds of retching, and chaos ensued.
_-The curse of pleasure?_
_-I, I don’t know!_
_-Are you insane? Just report this to the guild and it would be over!_
_-Raid leader, what the hell are you doing…!_
“Shut up. SHUT UP! You only have about 5 minutes left! If you value your lives, strip naked and line up on your knees; then, I might just give you the true cure.”
_-Splash._
Ronald waved a small triangular potion bottle.
The antidote to the curse.
A minor type sold for about 20 silver in towns, or 15 silver in Evenbaugh.
“By the way, there aren’t enough, so it’s first come, first served…”
Then it happened.
“1000 gold, bid.”
A mysterious man’s voice with a juvenile tone made an unexpected statement.
*
“Who are you?”
Ronald looked around, then approached me.
The young man’s voice was undoubtedly mine.
“What? You don’t know the situation? You’re gonna die, you know?”
He poked my chest repeatedly.
Someone not even a Crow Pay guild member, but just a bribed underling speaks like this.
I couldn’t even imagine how many villains were beneath Rezilus.
“Ah, so you’re talking about that antidote? You wanna buy it for a thousand gold and be the only survivor? Wow, must be rich… just kidding. If you don’t want to die, spill whatever you have, you bastard…”
_-Smack!_
“Front.”
I smacked him clear as day, and his head snapped sideways.
Then I returned to my position.
“I-I’m… I’m insane!!”
Ronald prepared to punch.
But my hand was already ready.
_-Smack!!!_
I hit him even harder than before.
“Look ahead, you fool.”
He staggered, but did not heed my words.
_-Raid…lead…er…?_
His minions cried out in fear.
Of course, it wasn’t me they feared.
“Damn it, what are you…?”
Then Ronald finally turned to his crew.
_-Thud!_
It was already too late.
The [Pleasure Lord]’s tentacle pierced through his head.
‘I was trying to save you…’
It was quite a gruesome sight, and I didn’t want to describe it, so I looked away.
And I probably wouldn’t want to remember it later on either.
_-Ding._
_[‘Pleasure Lord’ goes berserk!]_
The creator had designed it to be a hell of a challenge.
There was no way it would end easily.
_-Flap, flap._
_-Sssssttttttttt!!!_
It was a butterfly.
A giant moth with an incredibly disgusting round pattern covering its body was unfurling its second tentacle, flapping its wings towards us.
“W-what the hell is that!”
“It wasn’t dead, was it!”
Indeed.
The hellish [Pleasure Lord] reveals its true form only after dying.
_-Ding._
—————————————————
▶[Pleasure Lord]
[B+ Rank Demon Creature]
[Insect-type, Boss]
[Risk Level: Very High]
[Feature: Uses Tentacles]
[Encounter with Boss! : You can review the patterns in advance!]
[Detailed view available]
—————————————————
“Making it damn near impossible to get legendary items.”
And for demon creatures,
It’s my specialty.
