“Somehow, this is easy, huh?” Tsukasa murmured nonchalantly.
Currently, Keiichiro and the others were inside a Dungeon.
It was a Cave-type Dungeon covered in brown rock surfaces.
For an Adventurer, it was likely the most familiar scenery.
A Dungeon where you never knew when a Monster might appear.
Despite that, Tsukasa showed a surprising lack of tension.
Although, perhaps that couldn’t be helped.
“Well, Dungeon clearing is basically left to the Mob Cleaners,” Keiichiro said.
Mob Cleaner.
That was the role responsible for eliminating the Monsters along the way so that the Raid team’s main force could challenge the Boss without being worn down.
Mainly, members of relatively lower ranks were assigned to be Mob Cleaners.
This time too, C-Rank Adventurers were handling the Monsters to conserve the strength of the B-Rank Adventurers, but—
“…By the way, why am I part of the subjugation team?” Keiichiro asked the man next to him.
The man’s name was Hyodo.
He was a B-Rank Adventurer and the person commanding this Raid.
“Huh? You’re strong, aren’t ya? I can tell just by looking,” Hyodo said as if it were obvious.
Hearing this, another B-Rank Adventurer approached.
“Leave the Mob Cleaning to the other C-Ranks. You’re with us.”
“Haa…” Keiichiro nodded vaguely.
It seemed his performance during the selection test had earned him quite high praise.
“It means those who can see, can see, right? ♪”
“Wasn’t I the one who first discovered him?”
“Akino-chan, you’re amazing too~”
Watching Keiichiro like this, Tsukasa and Akino were laughing.
It was a peaceful exchange, hard to believe they were inside a Dungeon.
However—
“I have a bad feeling about this…”
“? About what?” Hyodo asked, apparently having overheard Keiichiro’s muttering.
Since he was asked, Keiichiro couldn’t just ignore him.
He slowly put his vague unease into words.
“Ah… well. It’s just that the Dungeon Monsters lack uniformity… I’m bothered that I can’t see a theme.”
“A theme?” Hyodo raised an eyebrow. He didn’t seem to quite get it.
The theme of a Dungeon.
Come to think of it, Keiichiro had only started thinking about such things after venturing into the Demon Capital.
Perhaps it wasn’t strange for someone who had only adventured in normal lands not to be conscious of it.
“Dungeons more or less have themes. Like ‘Wolf-type Monsters’ or ‘Fire-attribute Monsters’. But I can’t see the theme for the enemies this time.”
Their appearances weren’t similar.
Their attack methods weren’t similar.
The common factor among the appearing Monsters was unclear.
“I see.” Hyodo crossed his arms and started thinking.
Meanwhile, Tsukasa tilted his head.
“Isn’t it just that you haven’t noticed it yet?”
“That is precisely the problem,” Akino pointed out.
“?” Tsukasa looked even more puzzled by Akino’s comment.
—What Keiichiro feared was exactly what Akino was saying.
“…We can’t see the theme. Therefore, we can’t predict what kind of Boss will appear. That leads to a delay in our initial response.”
Fundamentally, a Boss fight is always unpredictable.
There’s no guarantee the expected Monster will appear.
However, being mentally prepared can make all the difference.
“…Hey.”
“Huh?”
“This Boss. Could you put the B-Rank tank out front from the start?” Keiichiro proposed to Hyodo.
The initial plan was to use a C-Rank tank first to gauge the situation.
Then, depending on how the battle unfolded, deploy the B-Rank.
Precisely because the enemy type was unknown, the main force wouldn’t be committed immediately.
That was the plan, but—
“However…” Hyodo looked reluctant.
“Why deploy the B-Rank from the start?”
“This clear… I have a bad feeling. The C-Rank might not be able to handle it.”
For just a few seconds, Hyodo pondered.
But it wasn’t enough to change his expression.
“…If you say you have a bad feeling, then I especially can’t put them out front.”
“That’s—”
“The client’s safety comes first. I’ll have the B-Rank tank protect the client.”
That was Hyodo’s decision.
“…That makes sense too.”
(As an Adventurer, protecting the client is natural.)
Feeling uneasy, Keiichiro fell silent.
Even if the Dungeon clear was successful, if the client died, the ‘Raid Battle’ itself would be a failure.
If he had a bad feeling—no, precisely because of that, moving to ensure the client’s safety could be called inevitable.
There was some logic to Hyodo’s reasoning.
Persuading Hyodo from this point would be difficult.
“—It’s the Boss Room!”
A voice came from ahead.
It seemed the Adventurers acting as Mob Cleaners had found the door leading to the Boss Room.
“Alright then, let the Raid begin.”
Hyodo and the other B-Rank Adventurers started walking.
—From here, the real Raid battle would start.
☆
“…There’s nothing here?” someone said.
Keiichiro and the others were already inside the Boss Room.
But it was surprisingly quiet all around.
A dome-shaped space formed by rock.
The diameter of this hall was about 300 meters.
Conversely, the Boss should boast a corresponding size, but—
“Oi, vanguard! Stop wandering around! Maintain formation and advance slowly towards the center of the room!” Hyodo admonished the members who were getting restless due to the Boss’s absence.
Following his instructions, the Raid members scanned their surroundings cautiously.
And slowly, they aimed for the center of the room.
Would the Boss appear with the next step?
That kind of tension dominated the atmosphere.
“?”
But—nothing happened.
Even when Keiichiro and the others finally reached the center of the room, there was no change.
Could it be a Boss with a [Stealth]-type ability?
Just as Keiichiro was thinking that—
“! Below us!”
The ground beneath their feet shook.
Immediately after, the ground exploded.
A high-pitched shriek that seemed to tear the air echoed.
Spewing earth and rocks, a Monster finally revealed itself.
“It’s appeared! Hold it down tight!”
The C-Rank tank advanced while the other members retreated slightly.
There was only one enemy.
No surrounding Monsters.
In that case, there was no fear of being encircled.
If they just solidified their defense in the enemy’s direction, all they had to do was steadily chip away at its health—
(That Monster… could it be…!)
But Keiichiro realized.
It was like a Grim Reaper.
Its upper body was covered in tattered cloth, its face hidden from view.
Extending from there, its hands ended in enormous scythes, like a mantis’s.
Its lower body, extending from beneath the cloth, was long like a centipede’s, with numerous legs.
Since the lower body wasn’t straight, it was hard to tell exactly, but its total length was close to 200 meters.
Keiichiro knew a Monster with these characteristics.
“Wait! Run!”
Keiichiro shouted a warning.
But it was too late.
The Monster swung its scythe in a wide arc.
The Adventurer acting as the shield guarded against it—
“Eh… no way…”
—and was sliced in half.
His upper body flew through the air.
Faced with such a sudden tragedy, Tsukasa stood frozen, eyes wide open.
“It killed… the tank… through their guard?”
Tsukasa wasn’t the only one shaken.
Akino also took a step back at the sight before her.
Akino’s position was tank.
The anticlimactic death of an Adventurer with the same role.
What if that had been me?
That fear, precisely because she shared the same role, was—heavy.
“So that’s… what it was,” Keiichiro muttered.
“Finally… I understand this Dungeon’s theme.”
The Monsters had seemed to lack uniformity.
But thinking back, those Monsters shared the same characteristic.
“This Dungeon… was filled with nothing but Monsters with high attack power.”
A single hit could cause a deep wound.
Only Monsters like that had appeared.
Not species. Not attribute.
—Stats.
Their common factor was attack power.
Not even five seconds had passed since the battle began, and someone was already dead.
Keiichiro felt a sense of unreality.
It felt like watching a bad joke unfold.
Even for him, who had spent time on the front lines, it felt that way.
There was no need to even consider the mental state of the others.
(A Dungeon inhabited only by Monsters with high attack power. That’s why the Boss here is that thing.)
“That thing… is a Death Mantis.”
Keiichiro forced out the Monster’s name.
(The highest attack power among A-Rank Monsters. A Monster whose killing power alone rivals S-Rank.)
The Death Mantis’s great scythes could reap the life of even a high-rank Adventurer in a single blow.
Due to that threat, it was a monstrosity also known among Adventurers as the [Executioner].
The Raid had begun in the worst possible way—