323 The Rat's Nest



Good news, we didn't meet any more anomalies like those Rat Shadow Stalkers after that.

Another piece of good news, we reached the final floor of the Dungeon.

More good news, it seems like we were the first ones to reach here. Either the other parties slowed down or they also died somewhere.

…

Yeah that's it, there's no bad news. Not every piece of good news has to be accompanied with bad news.

I guess the only thing that could be considered 'bad' was because of how easily this was going, I don't know what to expect for the final boss of the Dungeon on floor one hundred.

We even managed to get here a day earlier than expected so we decided to just take one day to rest and prepare ourselves for the final battle for this Dungeon.

Well… Odeta and Katsuki did since I was preoccupied with Edir using her mouth to please me for the entire day.

Surprisingly, we never advanced further than oral, but her mouth and hands were just so good that it didn't really matter anyway.

Sometimes I wonder if she even needed to breathe since she would just dive in between my legs and not even stop once she starts. Then I would be too preoccupied with how good she was making me feel and forget all about it.

I almost regret that we would be going our own separate ways after we complete this Dungeon.

Almost.

I looked at the final doorway that separates us from the final boss room.

Since we were the first ones here, the door was wide open and we could see what lay behind the door the moment we got there. The problem was that the chamber was not just a simple open chamber with the boss standing in the centre like the others.

This one in particular looked like some kind of tunnel that led deeper inside so we had no clear sight of the boss.

I turned to my companions, "Alright… Since we don't know the strength of the boss, I propose letting my summon lead the way for us."

Unexpectedly, Odeta sulked upon hearing my suggestion, "Sister Aster… Am I not good enough?"

"E… Eh? It's not that, I just felt that it would be safer to use the summon in this case since we were facing something unknown?"

"Kuuhhh… If only I was stronger… Then Sister Aster would not worry about me leading the way… I knew it! I'm going to have to get even stronger! So strong that Sister Aster would not worry about me walking at the front anymore!!"

Umm… I'd think that my worry doesn't stem from how strong you are but more because of the unknown ahead of us… Even a strong Dungeoneer can fall prey to a trap if they weren't careful after all…

But it's not like I don't understand Odeta's thinking… Plus it's easy to forget that she's actually still a child…

Oh wait.

I reached up and started patting her head, "There, there~ It's not that I don't trust your strength Odeta, but I'm just thinking that this would allow us more time to react should anything unexpected happens, ok?"

"Ehe… Ehehe~ Ok! Then leave the second in line to me, Sister Aster!!"

Ha! Head pats always works~ I should do this more often!

I called up a Shadow Summon and moved her to the front of the formation. Just in case, I even gave her a tower shield using [Shadow Forge] to increase her defensive capabilities.

I was just about to let it lead the way into the boss room when Edir spoke up from behind, "Umm… Mistress? Is this alright?"

I turned to her, "E… Eh? Is what alright?"

She gestured to the summon, "I'm not that knowledgeable about summons but… If I'm not wrong, doesn't that use up half your mana? Shouldn't Mistress replenish your mana before we go in?"

"Ah… Umm… I do have mana potions on hand but umm… I'll use them later if I need to, don't worry!"

Whoops… I forgot that under normal circumstances, you can't store your Shadow Summons and would have to cast the spell every time you need one.

Edir frowned, "That's not good, Mistress. To enter a boss room while you are not at your full potential is also dangerous! You should at least top up your mana before heading in!"

Ugh… I don't really want to waste a mana potion but I suppose it'll be more suspicious if I insist that I'm fine here…

Oh whatever, I can always just go and brew more in Lisa's Alchemy class anyway so I can spare wasting a few.

And if I need to, I still have some Toras herbs that I can chew on if I need mana urgently.

I rummaged through my pockets to pull out a bottle of Lesser grade Mana potion to drink it in a single gulp. Obviously it didn't really have much effect since I was pretty much at full capacity anyway.

Since the Pack of Folding isn't really the best at organising stuff, I keep potions on myself and a normal satchel for easier access in case of emergencies.

Would be terribly stupid if I had to dig through several things I'm hoarding at the top of the bag just to get to the potions.

With my mana 'replenished', we finally stepped into the final room of this Dungeon.

I instructed my Summon to keep her shield up as we advanced into the tunnel. The rest of us followed behind her while keeping a lookout for any signs of the boss.

Thankfully, the tunnel did not have any branching paths and eventually led us straight into a cavern of sorts with multiple other tunnel entrances along the walls.

I belatedly realised this was basically a rat's nest and standing in the centre of the nest was the boss itself, which actually just looked like a really fat rat.

Like really, fat. I don't even think it's able to move from its current spot with how I'm not even able to see its legs under all that fat…

[Name: Dungeon Rat Broodmother

Stats:

350 Strength

10 Dexterity

350 Endurance

250 Magic

Skills:

Leadership (Tier 2)

Magic Skills:

Geomancy (Tier 2), Kalomancy (Tier 2)

Unique Skill:

Brood Control]

Not gonna lie, I was fully expecting the boss to be a Dungeon Rat King or something but I guess this one is sort of a queen or something so close enough.

Also, I never expected to see a unique skill on a monster, especially not here.

Though I could already guess what the skill does, I went ahead to try and see if my [Screened] could give me more information about it.

[Brood Control - Ability to direct and control birthed children and speeds up rate of birth and growth.]

Yep, that's what I thought… This thing was basically a birthing factory… Most likely this monster also relies on others to fight for it, as evident from its lack of skills.

While its stats weren't really that high, it would be troublesome if it tried to overwhelm us with numbers to make up for the difference in strength.

I pointed my palm at it and casted [Static Bolt] while ordering my summon to engage it as well.

The others also needed no prompting from me as they also started attacking the boss, Odeta charging at it alongside my summon while the other two either threw daggers at it or fired arrows.

But before any of our attacks could hit it, the monster let out a screech before the earth rose up around it and encased it in an earthen ball of some sort, protecting it against external threats.

All of our attacks ended up bouncing off the surface of the rock, scratching its surface but doing not much else.

Even Odeta and my summon ended up bouncing off the ball of rock without achieving much.

The rock was being held by the Rat's magic so it's not only harder than normal rocks but it also seemed to regenerate as the scratches soon smoothed over like they were never there to begin with.

Ok… Seems like it decided to just hide itself in a rock cocoon as a way to defend itself… But all we need to do is just keep pummeling the rock until it runs out of mana to maintain the rock so this shouldn't be a big deal…

My only concern was the fact that it might be summoning more Rats soon and I don't know what type of Rats it could summon.

It would be pretty bad if it could also summon Rats stronger than itself and I really wouldn't want to face those Rat Shadow Stalkers again.

Just as I thought of that, there were a series of loud screeches coming out from the various tunnels all around the cavern.

Great, it already summoned a few I see… Otherwise the screech from earlier was a call for help that would prompt the other Rats in those tunnels to come running.

"Odeta! Focus on breaking the rock! We'll hold the other Rats off!"

She grinned, "Leave it to me, Sister Aster!!"

While the Amrap started punching at the rock to break through its defence, the rest of us moved towards her to form a small semicircle to protect her, all of us watching the tunnels as the sounds of Rat squeaking got closer and closer.

Pretty soon, the Rats that the Rat Broodmother called appeared in the cavern.

It did not summon any Rat Knights nor did it summon any Rat Shadow Stalkers. What it called for was just normal Rats.

Like… Just normal rat sized Dungeon Rats.

Except… there were so many of them it practically filled up the whole cavern…

I think there's at least a good few thousand of them in front of us right now…

… With even more pouring out from the tunnels…

… Damn…