Chapter 397: Monster Room. [Release Version] (Patreon)

My body felt numb. Numb to Rajah’s fluffy fur rubbing against my skin, numb to Tatsuya’s sweat falling on my head, even numb to Vifi’Yok stepping on my tail. My nerves wouldn’t send the signal to my brain, even though I could see it all happening right in front of me. A lack of feeling combined with my parallel minds working on overdrive to ensure my survival meant I witnessed everything in a slight slow-mo.

Well, it wasn’t like I could do anything about it right now. This “Winter’s Gift” toxin was a real punch to my gut. Yeostar warned me about the venom, mentioning how it was one of the best tools to kill fire dragons. It felt kind of like anesthesia but with a side effect of extreme chill. I couldn’t feel anything but the cold creeping through my body; probably a realistic description of the venom coursing around my body.

Frightening, truely. Even after Tatsuya fed me the antidote, I couldn’t feel anything at all. Even my muscles were rebelling against my parallel minds’ decisions. I could, thankfully, still use my skills and release scale-dust, as evidentced by my Territory release. Aura skills were still usable. However, physically, I was a burden, right now. I could technically still move, but it felt like I was paralyzed throughout my body. Like I was a vegetable.

“[Gnomacotta Warrior]!” Tatsuya shouted, before sending the appraisal details through telepathy.

<Gnomacotta Warrior: A rock statue possessed by vivacious gnomes—small earth faefolk—who long for the embrace of the Earth Elemental Emperor. Jealous of their “siblings,” the dwarves, and how they were allowed to live and prosper under the watch of Origin Goddess Crustacia, the gnomes have created humanoid rock bodies in honor of the dead Earth Elemental Emperor. Living in symbiosis with dungeons, these gnomes possess rock to protect their temporary home. Rank C>

In other words, just like spriggans who could become treants and dryads like Rita, gnomes could possess rock to become something more. These lesser faefolk were essentially too weak to do anything in their normal bodies, so they possessed something to gain a strong body. Now that I thought about, that was a real trend for lesser faefolk. Onnikais possessed corpses, spriggans vegetation, and now these gnomes with stone.

“Hestia-san, how are you doing?” Kyouya asked me while keeping his guard up, cautious about the still rock statues. “A monster room was one of the mentioned traps. Three waves of escalating enemies. Rank C now, but a rank B might appear later.”

“You asking if I can fight? Barely,” I forced myself to say. The only parts of my body that didn’t feel completely numb were my stomach, throat, and stomach. “Fuck … I burned Yuuko. I’m sorry …”

I still felt bad for what I did. Sure, she was a stranger to me, but saving them was one of Saori’s goals. As their former teacher, she wanted to rescue her students from the clutches of the demonkins. Not to mention that Tatsuya and Kyouya were fellow students as well. I didn’t want to burn her, but that whole sequence of actions were just the worst!

“Who cares about that! It’s her fault getting in your way!” Tatsuya callously stated to sooth my worries. “That bastard Takuma isn’t any better either, even if there was a misunderstanding. Don’t worry about it; just fix that girl’s face up later with [Miraculous Grace]!”

I guess he was right … It wasn’t like it would solve anything to ask those two for forgiveness. Tatsuya wasn’t too close with his other classmates, while Kyouya was on the fence about it. In addition, those two also lectured me how I forgot about [Magic Breaker]’s effect. I mean, come on, I wasn’t planning on fighting with them!

When they gave me the briefing on the student’s unique skills, I hadn’t really paid attention ‘cause I wasn’t there to fight them! I wanted to persuade them about everything. Even if we stayed enemies, I thought I could resolve everything peacefully. These were Saori’s students; the last thing I wanted to do was give her grief. Prepare for everything, but how the hell was I supposed to guess Vifi’Yok being there with the students and some dragonslayers?! Crazy!

<Magic Breaker: The user becomes a conduit of mana, severing the mana link between the target and their spells. Nullifies all spells and magic-based skills, including buffs and debuffs caused by them, and prevents the target from using them until midnight of that day. Restores the user’s mana by the amount of nullified items while also transferring arcane corruption from target to user. Very high mana cost per usage>

How broken was that? It didn’t have to touch me and I was locked out of spells for an entire day?! Meaning, this locked up, sealed feeling I had with my mana, my inability to release it out of my body or move it around fluidly like hardened blood or something, was a result of [Magic Breaker]. Fortunately, I could still use my draconic abilities, spell songs, and also scale man—

“Arrrrrgh! Owww!” I grabbed my right arm, feeling the sensation of my fingers touching the dried, black stump. My missing arm; the feel of touch had just reappeared and I could feel the pain. “Well, adrenaline is over. The venom causes necrosis … Jeez, the phantom pain.”

“Tell me about it, dragon. Now, how about we not deal with something that minor, and instead figure a way to survive this?”

I snapped my head around, noticing Vifi’Yok speaking with me. Her snarky comment was directed at my complaints, despite the fact she was missing her left arm. She really was prickly.

How about you step off my tail? I wanted to complain, but Tatsuya took over the discussion.

“Hestia-san can’t use magic and is paralyzed until the antidote fully takes effect. Rajah has [Exhaustion (Minor)] and his armor is in shambles. And … our unexpected companion here is in danger of exploding in our face.” He sighed, before assuming a battle pose. “Hestia-san, I presume you can still support us?”

I nodded. “With song and flames, yes. Can’t use any -kinesis skills, though, so I rather not use my Territory with you guys around.”

“Neither can I, for obvious purple reasons.” The demonkin scoffed, but seemed wobbly on her feet. Her expression confirmed my worry for her health, as she looked like she could fall over at any second. “These things aren’t moving though.”

The humans-sized stone golems weren’t moving an inch as she mentioned. There were … a bit too many to count. This room—this clean, polished room made from fairnite, showing no signs of the decrepit ruins from before—looked about the size of a large cathedral. No entrances could be seen, not even a closed door. We were flanked by so many of these golems, standing there like soldiers with shields, various melee weapons, and bows.

On the other hand, we only had a small area to fight in, too tiny before this monster room swarms us. I put my party bracelet on, realizing the golems were waiting for us to make a move, a mistake they could capitalize on. However, at the same time, I understood this might be a mistake. I looked up, confused why the dragonslayers hadn’t pursued us through the hole yet. Whatever it was, lucky us.

“I’m tanking! Humanize!” I transformed back into a dragon, causing my exoarmor to transform, morphing back into its true form. Unable to cast [Panzer], Grimnir’s masterful armor gave me the protection I needed to trust in my tanking abilities.

Now back as a dragon, my large size seemed to have taken a step over the “boundary,” causing the blue eyes of the golems to light up. Their bodies creaked and cracked in a robotic manner, before everybody had assumed a battle position. Without any warning, they ran and shot arrows, almost seamlessly, resembling the fluid movements of a human.

Pavise!

I couldn’t use magic, meaning I had to fight like a dwarf right now. It didn’t matter, for I had dwarven-made armor to work with! Runes could work even with [Magic Breaker] on me.

As the barrier protected me, but also pushed the other three away, I smashed my tail onto the ground, decimating numerous golems before sweeping them away like a broom.

“Krriiiiiiiaaaaaaah!” I roared, forgoing buffing everybody to focus on combat.

“Let’s go, Kyouya!” Tatsuya called out, pumping him and his best friend up.

Rajah, too, couldn’t help but participate. [“Master, I’ll take care of your flanks!”]

Meanwhile, Vifi’Yok didn’t say anything; instead, she used my glaive with deadly precision, looking like a whirlwind of flames and metal as she cleaved through the numerous golems. Seeing her like this, I had one of my parallel minds keep an eye on her, not for surveillance, but to learn her movements. Learn from how she fought with my weapon.

Even with a single arm, she was outmaneuvering the golems as if they were untrained recruits, weaving parries, feints, and strikes with the occasional scale-dust explosion stored inside my weapon. She was even using the runes I had on it, using the fire she created to regenerate mana.

On the other hand, I had to rely on my parallel minds fine tuning my movements for my precise attacks. Even though my body felt “airless” in a bad way, my constant training with Neill through three weeks had ingrained my attacks into my muscles. Even if they were “asleep,” the motions felt natural.

With Vifi’Yok and the boys taking care of my flanks, I slashed and stomped, being agile and destructive in one. With pavise shielding me from everything, I could even stand still and breath fire down, melting the golems.

<Wave 2 incoming>

When that System message came, holes on the outer edge opened up, letting hands the size of a single gnomacotta warrior reach out. A giant menacing statue with black armor appeared from each cardinal direction, all ramming their giant axes onto the ground, creating small shockwaves of dust to blow around. More of the warriors appeared from behind these giant figures, who even rivaled me in height as I stood on four, errr, three legs.

<Fairnite Guardian Statue: An animated golem made from fairnite using mana. With the agility of a normal giant warrior, these destructive creatures can challenge even the swiftest groups. While heavily resistant against magical attacks, their defences aren’t as impenetrable through physical means. Rank B>

“Hestia-san, target focus! We’ll take care of the legs, you take care of yourself!” Tatsuya shouted out our orders, prompting me to charge towards the western statue, bulldozing my way through the horde of enemies like a ram.

“Krrrriiiiiah!” With a single swift motion, I grinded my tail along the ground, not only causing it to ignite on fire but also sending another wave of warriors flying out of the way. I jumped in the air and flapped my wings, before slamming my tail right onto the golem.

It defended itself against my attack with its weapon, causing its solid shaft to crack, before I grabbed the golem’s head with my left claw, smashing it onto the ground. Despite the description, it was sturdy. Still, initiating my [Spark Crescent], I somersaulted, slashing the golem and destroying its weapon.

As it tumbled back, crashing against the wall, Vifi’Yok and Tatsuya pierced the golem’s legs with their Grimnir-made weapons and pulled it back for me to grab with my jaw. Using my tail as an anchor, I swung my neck around, throwing the golem at the three approaching ones with all my strength, only for me to miscalculate my trajectory and smash my head right into the wall.

“Hestia-san?!” Kyouya called out.

Shit!

My horns were stuck! I couldn’t pull them out!

Knowing it would take too long for me to pull myself out without my dominant right arm, I gestured for the others to run ahead. Once they saw sparks forming around me, they understood what I was trying to do and ran ahead, slicing through all the fodder. Gnashing my fangs together, I unleashed the surrounding scale-dust, blowing up the entire area and the monsters around.

I thought blasting apart the wall would reveal some kind of way to escape, but there was just more thick rock behind it. There really was no way to exit outside of defeating these things.

Once I flapped my wings to blow the dust away, I saw Rajah keeping the heavily injured giant golem down with his [Dark Tendrils]. Sadly, since these golems couldn’t experience fear, all my “rawr, I’m a dragon” moves weren’t scaring them. This monster room was just an endless wave of these creeps!

“Dammit!” Tatsuya shouted as he was pushed back by a shieldwall of warriors, causing him to finally realize he was at his limit.

Kyouya, too, was having trouble. His unique skill allowed him to continuously conjure black armor to shield himself from damage, but they cost his health to create. Sadly, while I could continue healing him with my normal white flames, his skill reduced healing from all outside sources by 50%. Meaning, his only reliable healing method was to leech off the damage he did. While good in shorter battles, this was an endurance challenge.

This wasn’t even mentioning Vifi’Yok. The girl was fighting like a berserker despite her physical limitations, prompting me to remember her scorched, almost zombie-like figure at the end of our fight in Elyona. She still kept fighting, even when death was near. She wasn’t even taking damage from anything, but the strain of all the fighting was clearly catching up to her.

The boys had to not only fight a bunch of black mercs before we seperated, but they also held off the dragonslayers for a bit to protect me. They weren’t even fully rank Bs yet, and they had to take on all this crazy? Dammit, we all needed a bloody level up!

Boys, how—Ahhh, I can’t use [Telepathy]! Yuuuuuuukooooooo!

“These damn things aren’t dying fast enough!” Kyouya noted as he realized some of the broken golems still had blue glowing eyes. “That’s why we haven’t level up yet, Tatsuya! Crush those heads! Those damn gnomes!”

Understanding I had to support them with this, I charged towards them, but instead of attacking, I circled around them and pushed the remaining golems away. I was acting as the meat shield, giving them some moment of rest.

“Krriiiiuu!” I growled softly, causing the boys to catch on after Rajah appeared.

[“Master, wants us to rest!”]

I knew I could rely on you, Rajah!

Tatsuya nodded. “Got it! Vifi’Yok, get on Hestia-san and rest. You can’t level from these things, right?”

Huffing like crazy, she stomp on a broken warrior head, “killing” it before nodding. With the boys covering her, Vifi’Yok rushed over to my body, only to snap her head up. The three still unharmed rank B golems had reached us and were swinging their axes down.

“Kra!” I shouted at her, before sending my scales out, relying on them with [Draconic Barrier] and [Defense Rune: Pavise] to protect us.

As the stone crashed against my defenses, I could feel the loud sound rupturing through this room. Thankfully, no damage. Seeing me smirk, Vifi’Yok nodded and jumped onto my leg and then on my back, allowing me to standing up and dodge out of the way just as the golems tried to grab my wings.

Hellflame Breath!

“Kraaaaaaaaaaaaaa!” Flames burst from my mouth, swallowing the golems and the warriors, pushing them away from us.

“Idiot! Mana attacks won’t harm them, that includes your breath!” Vifi’Yok, the armchair expert, commented.

I know that, but I had to push them away somehow.

“Got a level!” Tatsuya and Kyouya both shouted, before they rushed over to me. The former had a wide smile on his face as he opened his [Storage Magic], retrieving two [Room] runes from it.

Genius!

That was our way out! This was far too taxing on us, and the boys figured this was the timing to get out.

“Things were too hectic, I kinda forgot about them!” Tatsuya admitted, to which I couldn’t fault him considering the shit situation we were in. Even then, it wasn’t like I could blame him, considering opening a portal here could risk them being destroyed. “Alright, I—”

<Wave 3 incoming>

What?!

“Gnuuuuuuuuuuu!” A reverbing groan echoed throughout this monster room, only for our footing to suddenly shake as the ground lit up blue. The numerous warriors and even the giant golems saluted, staying in place even as this entire room was moving!

What is with this dungeon?!

The crazy finally appeared, with the arrival of the final wave breaking the room—ceiling, floor, and walls—into pieces. The numerous gaps were so dark, I couldn’t even properly see into the depths of them, making me almost want to jump down to avoid whatever this next surprise was.

Sadly, the gaps were instantly closed up with mana. The wall I destroyed separated itself, revealing a new room, before the room we stood on, literally, tossed us into the new one with no fanfare.

As we recovered, the warriors and golems dropped down, forming a statue wall in front of the morphing monster room. Like smashing solid rocks against each other, that grating crunch of fairnite tiles being pulled into each with mana, combining into one being like a bunch of lego. The monster room was a literal monster.

I snapped my eyes around this new room, noticing how it wasn’t as white and pristine as the room we were just in. That actually bamboozled us. This “normal room” looked identical to the nature-overtaken ruins from the previous floors, making it more likely to be an authentic room. This was … a killing trap.

The bomb before floor 15 was there to kill us, but if we weren’t, we would fall into this place. The monster room would send waves at us, trying to kill us like suckers. The Ankoran King sent us in here for training, not wanting to endanger my life by letting me join the expedition force for the Event Quest. However, what the hell was happening here?! I probably would have been safer in the Event Quest just ‘cause I had people like Yorshka, Neill, and Master around!

Who did I have here? Two exhausted upper Rank Cs, an injured rank C virigress, and a demonkin who looked like she could die at any second now.

We needed to escape, and as if everybody understood this, we all stared at Tatsuya. However, my heart skipped a beat as I saw his deadpan face, pointing at the wall of golems. Looking over, I saw the crumbled remains of the [Room] runes, crushed underneath the sole of one of the golems. Tatsuya must have dropped them when we were tossed into this place.

… Why? Why is my encounter luck so bad?

We all stared at Kyouya, who nodded and opened his [Storage—

<Wave 3 will now commence. Survive and defeat this rank B floor guardian-level enemy, and you will earn a grander reward. Survive for 10 minutes and the monster room will stop, earning you the normal rewards. During this battle, an anti-mana field will be deployed, nullifying any mana usage completely outside of runes and enchantments. Spells, skills, and abilities relying on mana cannot be used. Good luck!>

—Magic] …

…

“… Ahem.” Kyouya gulped as we all saw his storage close up on us. His head slowly turned to everybody else, and his mouth began to twitch. “We have a problem.”

I lost my [Room] runes when the dragonslayer cut my arm, Tatsuya just lost his, and Kyouya lost access to his. We were trapped.

‘Master … Rajah doesn’t feel so good.’

Neither do I, buddy.

Or, at least that was what I imagined our dialogue would be when I looked at Rajah’s crestfallen face. After all, no mana usage also meant no [Telepathy]. While that wasn’t too bad, the real problem was how he couldn’t even use his spells any longer. He needed them to fight properly.

Similarly, I couldn’t use [Humanize]. I tried it, but I couldn’t transform back into a dragonewt. Meaning, I couldn’t sing, but even then, spell songs probably wouldn’t work. Not to mention, this also meant I couldn’t use my Territory nor manipulate my scales and use [Draconic Barrier], since they all relied on mana.

Ankoran King, do you want to kill me? I’m a FUCKING MAGE!

No way, no way would the Ankoran King send me into this just after everything, right? No way, there had to be an explanation for this. There had to be!

I snapped my eyes back to the giant room golem, noticing how the pristines walls from before had changed, giving more chiseled edges and wedges around its body as details. The mana seams flowing through it made it look like some kind of mantech, but the stony surface of its body was clear to see. Its face looked a bit cartoonish with its cube teeth, giving it a less intimidating force compared to the statue faced warriors and the helmeted soldiers.

On the other hand, as the room golem latched its hands onto the edges of the hole where the monster room was. Pushing itself through, it revealed its full appearance. Mostly top-heavy, its arms were as thick as a small family house, probably enough to quash me as it was larger than me in size. Its lower body, though, looked far frailer as it was weirdly thin and only had two tree trunk-sized legs to support it.

“So … how are we supposed to kill that thing?” Tatsuya said with dazzling eyes, probably captivated by the “grander reward” part of the System message.

With my tail, of course.

I raised my tail, fully accepting Tatsuya’s optimism. After all, there really wasn’t any other way to survive, so why not be a bit competitive about it? A star like me couldn’t just die in this forgotten place, and definitely not a dragon who had family and friends to lose.

No risks, no rewards, right?