“So? You’ll talk more casually, right?” she persisted.

“Mm…Okay, yeah.”

“Then, can you call me by my name? I’m Shina, Shina Gren Ehuir.”

“Okay, Shina. I’m looking forward to working with you. I’m Kang Shin. Call me Shin instead of an embarrassing name like Crown Prince.”

“Yes, Shin-nim!”

As Shina and I were exchanging our names, the other explorers from the Luka continent looked flustered.

“Hold on…”

“You can’t…”

“Ah-Ahem.”

“… Eh? Did I do something wrong?”

When I tilted my head and asked, their mouths twitched. However, they soon quieted, and only one person out of the group replied with a strange voice.

“It…It’s nothing.”

“That’s good to hear. Shina, I didn’t do anything wrong, did I?”

“You’re fine! Tee hee, I was nervous after hearing how strong the Dark Ratman was, but with Shin-nim here, I’m not afraid of anything!”

Shina quickly retorted and changed the topic immediately. She was right. We had to focus on fighting the Dark Ratman, not continue reminiscing about the past. It also wasn’t important that Shina seemed to remind me of Palludia, or that I had completely forgotten to contact her a week ago.

…I should really start begging Palludia for forgiveness. No, that seemed absurd. The level of our friendship wasn’t that high, so there was nothing wrong with contacting each other only occasionally.  At any rate, it was better to refocus my attention to the Dark Ratman first.

Although Shina might have been a little kid two years ago, she was now a brilliant party leader. She had used all the information available about the Dark Ratman and formulated a solid battle plan. In addition, she had analyzed each party member’s abilities, and made sure everyone knew what they should do at any given moment. It wasn’t something anyone could do.

“Are we good to go? Shin-nim, everyone?” Shina asked.

“Yeah, I’m ready.”

“Yes!”

“Let’s go!”

Sorry to be a downer everyone, but I have no plans to focus on party play. Because I plan to conquer the Dark Ratman quicker than I conquered the 10th floor’s Wraith Queen.

I gave myself one month to meet this self-set goal. Of course, this excluded the time it would take me to get to the 20th floor. I knew that it was impossible to defeat the Dark Ratman alone at level 16.

Just like I always did, I planned to slowly lower the amount of people in my party. Of course, this was assuming that the Dark Ratman didn’t drop a stat increasing item like the Compressing Elixir or the Soul Tempering Elixir.

That being said, I wouldn’t do something like deliberately offending or hindering other party members. I would still follow the party leader’s plan. However…I would not take things slow like in Shina’s plan.

“Alright…let’s go!”

As soon as the door to the boss room opened, I ran in.. Although the priests were casting elementary buffs on other party members, I did not receive any. This was on purpose as I had to practice for the day I went solo against the boss. Relying on buffs was not possible.

“Squeak, Human…Gwak Gwak!”

I stabbed my glaive through the first ratman I saw. The Orc Lord’s Glaive was still effective, and I had been using it since the 6th floor. Although ratmen had high attack and maneuverability, they had low defense to compensate. Killing them in one blow was an easy task for me. I marveled at how useful mana was; a thin coat of it on my weapon elicited extremely significant effects.

“Wow, Crown Prince-nim.”

“You didn’t receive a buff…right? You killed a ratman in one blow without receiving a buff?”

“Ah, Shin-nim, so cool…!” gushed Shina. 

“L-Leader! Snap out of it!”

The party members had begun to make their moves. They were a beat slower than me, but that was enough. I had only fought the Dark Ratman once, so I still didn’t know how a usual raid would flow or how the Dark Ratman rotated his moves. Before I could completely grasp the flow of battle, I still needed their help.

My job now was simple: kill the 40 ratmen scattered through the boss room as quickly as possible.

“Everyone focus on the Dark Ratman! Don’t commit yourself to the attacking minions. Just send them flying back, I will take care of them!” I ordered.

“Crown Prince-nim’s hunting them so fast, it doesn’t look like we’ll need to.”

“Free damage dealers, stick to the Dark Ratman! I heard it uses a strong skill if it’s not engaged!”

You’ve done your research! My last party was massacred because no one knew about it. When I recalled what happened in the last disastrous raid, I vented my anger on the ratmen.

“Squeak squeak, kill that human!”

“Strong human! Too strong!”

“Steal his spear!”

Compared to the wraiths or the orcs, the ratmen were much more intelligent. They were the first monsters that tried to steal my glaive. However, I had long gotten used to this as ratmen began appearing at the 11th floor, and this was an old trick of theirs. Naturally, they had never succeeded once. In fact, I had always killed them before they could.

“Haaaap!”

I pushed mana into my weapon and thrust it forward. In an instant, the mana surged to the spear tip, formed a blade of mana, and crushed the incoming ratmen. Although I could only maintain this state for less than a second, this skill allowed me to extend my spear for an instant. I called this Extending Spear, even though I never said it out loud since it was such a nonsensical name.

“A-Aura!” One of the healers gasped.

“No, rather than aura, it’s…pure mana?”

“Healers, don’t just watch. Use your heals! The boss is incredibly strong!”

The tank cried out as he endlessly cycled between being attacked by the Dark Ratman and kiting it. The healers apologized profusely and began to pour their healing magic on him.

Suddenly, the Dark Ratman let out a strange cry.

“Gwak gwak gwak! I’ll burn you all up!”

“Someone stop him!”

“He’s trying to use Dark Thunder Explosion!”

The tank understood my urgent warning, so he quickly raised his shield and bashed the Dark Ratman’s head with it.

“Gwak gwak! Don’t disturb me!”

“Die!”

The Dark Ratman continued to try to use Dark Thunder Explosion. In response, the tank, Shina, and the other damage dealers all bombarded the Dark Ratman whenever they saw a chance. However, it was only enough to slow down the skill activation, not stop it. How absurd!

Time was running out for us, so I took care of the rest of the ratmen with Tempest. A maelstrom of mana rose up, creating countless cuts on the ratmen and sending them flying to a single space. Tempest alone was not strong enough to kill them, so I clad my spear with mana and attacked the ratmen who were gathered together.

“DIE!”

I thrust out my weapon with a spirited cry and several ratmens’ heads went flying. Following that, I cut down the remaining ratmen one by one. Suddenly, notification windows popped up in front of me.

[Dark Ratmen has used Dark Thunder Explosion!]

[Party member Kart Von Jinas-nim has died.]

[Party member Dezihard-nim has died.]

[Party member Jieria-nim has died.]

B-B-BOOM!

A small explosion followed by a large explosion instantly took out three party members. I immediately pivoted to the Dark Ratman. Its fur was standing on end with sparks of black lightning flaring. However, that was not a skill, and was just the aftermath of one. Dark Thunder Explosion had already ended, taking out all the damage dealers. As for the tank, he was alive due his impeccable timing in using a life-saving skill in the last moment.

“Heal! Heal!”

“Don’t die!”

The tank was trembling in place. Was it a reaction from enduring such a powerful skill? Or did the skill inflict some status effect on him? Then, I noticed that Shina, who was a damage dealer, was still alive.

“I ran back when I got a strange feeling. Before it activated Dark Thunder Explosion, it used another skill that froze all nearby people. The other damage dealers who were hit by it couldn’t dodge in time.”

“As I thought…” I murmured.

Apparently, Shina had survived as she had been outside of Dark Thunder Explosion’s area of effect when it activated. In order to escape in time, explorers needed to dodge the paralysis skill that came before the explosion. I made sure to record that down into my memory; it was important to know that Dark Thunder Explosion was a skill that could not be blocked.

There was only one way to survive it: not get hit, like Shina.

That said, it wasn’t the right time to leisurely think about the skill’s area of effect.  The tank was unable to protect himself as he was hit by the Dark Ratman, and the heals couldn’t keep up with the damage being taken.

As if we had planned it out before, Shina and I ran toward the Dark Ratman with our weapons in hand.

“Hornet Pierce!”

Shina’s attack was the first to hit the Dark Ratman. Her sword was dyed purple, and when it penetrated the Dark Ratman’s abdomen, the Dark Ratman’s face also became the same purple color. It had been attacking the tank with its claws but they abruptly stopped moving in midair. Then, as if it was drunk, the boss began to spin in place. Could that be?

“It’s poison! It will stay like that for a moment!”

I didn’t know how long ‘a moment’ was, but I deactivated Tempest and stood up tall. Then, I held my glaive up high and began to focus my energy on it.

“Whoa, such a huge mana pool…is he really only at level 15!?”

Well, the Soul Tempering Elixir and Peruta Circuit helped a lot. As I answered the question in my mind, I poured all the mana I had into the weapon in my hand. I wasn’t planning on using only mana for this. In fact, in order to burst out with as much strength as possible, I concentrated my entire power into the tip of the blade.

My father always told me to thrust out with the resolve to collapse the world. My ancestors called it the Heaven Collapsing Strike. I called it the Heroic Strike.

From the spear tip, white light exploded out, dyeing the entire boss room.

“Ahhh!”

“So the rumors are true. He really is a Hero.”

I would eventually come to learn what this white light signified. For now, I was focused solely on concentrating my energy in one place.

“Prepare to die!”

“Gwak gwak!”

The Dark Ratman had recovered a bit from Shina’s poison, so it tried to distance itself away from me after it sensed imminent danger. Unfortunately for the boss, it was too late.

I smirked and launched my spear forward. That is, I threw it. A spear imbued with my energy did not lose that energy just because it was separated from my body. If anything, the forward momentum from my throw made it even stronger.

“Gwak gwak, grwarrrr grwarrr!”

The spear pierced easily into the Dark Ratman’s chest. The Dark Ratman let out a final laugh as if it had sensed its own death. Inwardly I grumbled that the boss had to be annoying even at the end as I raised my body from the throwing position. A few seconds after, the light on the spear tip exploded.

BOOM!