Chapter 338

Boss Battle

Eight people and five animals, including children, was indeed a large group, so I decided to ask Joule and the others to return to the shadows a little early. Joule and the others were disappointed that they couldn’t challenge the Boss room, but when I promised them that we would definitely go to an advanced dungeon in the near future, they agreed.

“I was told that the boss of this floor was a Forest Tiger.”

“Heeh~ A Forest Tiger, huh.”

Forest tigers are highly mobile big cat monsters.

“”Ohh~”

“Green.”

“Tiger~”

“”How pretty!””

The boss of the fifteenth floor was, as expected, a Forest Tiger. Allen and Elena were delighted to see a brightly colored green tiger.

“There’s three!?”

“I didn’t hear anything about that!”

While my kids were looking happy, the Dawn Star was shocked.

The type of the Boss they had expected was correct, so the number must be a problem. Was it just one according to the information?

“”Can defeat?””

“Ah~ wait a moment.——Brian-san, Brian-san.”

I stopped the children who were about to start running towards the Forest Tigers and called out to Brian-san, who was holding his weapon and was more cautious than necessary.

The Forest Tigers were also wary, but they were just wandering around and didn’t immediately come towards us.

“Y, yeah, what is it?”

“Calm down, please. Can you guys take on one of them?”

“Eh, however, that’s…”

“We will be fine.”

Forest Tigers are B-ranked monsters, but their mobility makes it difficult to inflict fatal wounds on them, so even adventurers of equal rank have a hard time defeating them. Well, even though they are hard to defeat, if you concentrate and persist, you can defeat them. If it’s just one.

However, if there are two or more of them, the story changes. With more than one moving around quickly with complex movements, it would be impossible to deal with them.

“I fight mainly with magic, so there’s no need to get too close. If you are worried about me, just kill the one you have got and come back for support.”

“I… see. Understood.”

If we use magic to control them and keep them away from us, we can buy ourselves some time…

When I said that in a way that could be misunderstood, Brian-san reluctantly agreed, so I decided to take immediate action.

“Allen, Elena. I’m going to get the attention of two and get further away.”

“”Got it.””

“Alright, let’s go.——Air Shot.”

I hit the two Forest Tigers with a light air shot and started running away from Brian-san and the others.

((Grrrrrr.))

“”Coming~””

I seemed to have lured the fish well, and the Forest Tigers I had hit with the air shots were chasing after us.

Brian-san intervened at the right moment to prevent the last one from chasing us, so our plan was a success.

“”Can play?””

“You two play with one of them. I believe your opponent should be quite fast, so be careful.”

“”Okay~””

The children headed towards a Forest Tiger with excited expressions on their faces.

… I feel that the levels I finally caught up on thanks to the Orc subjugation were lost again during our dungeon dive, so I am glad I managed to secure one of them for myself.

“”Eat this~!””

(Gau.)

Allen and Elena immediately launch a flying kick at the Forest Tiger, but the Forest Tiger easily avoided it.

“”Ohh~””

For some reason, the children were touched that their flying kick got avoided.

Was it because it could avoid it so easily? N? Was this the first time… that something was able to avoid their attack so easily?

“It has some good moves~”

The Forest Tigers are somewhat largish, but their movements are snappy.

“Bind, Wind Cutter.”

So far, the children were not at risk while fighting, but I don’t want to take my eyes off them for too long.

So, I bound the Forest Tiger I was facing with ivy and quickly defeated with Wind Cutter.

“Yaah—!”

“Haah—!”

I picked up the loot and returned my attention to the children. And then, perhaps because they expected the Forest Tiger to dodge if they attacked at the same time, they layered their attacks one after another.

“”Huh~?””

Hoever, even that attack got avoided by the Forest Tiger.

Allen and Elena looked at each other strangely, and then looked a little happy as their series of attacks were dodged.

“”Fufufu~””

They were grinning. I guess they must be having a different kind of fun from the usual~

“”Here we go~””

Allen and Elena’s next move was to kick a tree trunk to speed up, grab a low branch to change direction, and move in any direction to distract the opponent.

Come to think of it, they don’t attack in a way that obstructs their opponent~ Well, I guess they have no way to attack in a way that restricts or stalls their opponent’s movement…?

But even if there was a way, I don’t think my kids would use it. They seem to have a penchant for head-on attacks.

“”Yaa—!””

Allen and Elena moved around Forest Tiger and simultaneously kicked it from separate directions.

The Forest Tiger was indeed unable to keep up with their movements, and stumbled back after being kicked by the two.

“”Torya—!””

(Gyuan.)

In the end, their signature move, the ax kick, was successful and the Forest Tiger collapsed powerlessly.

“”Defeated~””

“Good job. You looked like you were having fun.”

“”Yeah, had fun!””

The children were in a good mood after picking up the loot and coming back to me.

“Here is green fur~”

“And here is fangs~”

The Forest Tiger loot they brought was a beautiful green fur with black stripes and fangs, same as the loot I got.

“Well, let’s go back to Brian-san’s group. They might still be fighting over there, so keep your eyes open.”

“”Yes!””

When we returned to Brian-san and his team, they had just defeated the Forest Tiger and were rushing to support us.

“Eh? Ehh? Did you kill both of them already?”

“”Defeated~””

However, they were a little stunned to see us come back nonchalantly.

It was because we finished the battle with two tigers before Brian-san’s team could defeat one. Well, that’s the thing, isn’t it? Let’s just say that Brian-san and the others did not have as good compatibility with the opponent as us.

“Let’s move to the back, shall we?”

After calming down Brian-san and the others, we moved to the teleport device room at the back of the room.

“”Ah! Found a treasure chest!””

The children, who were the first to discover the treasure chest, ran to it.

“”Can open~?””

“Wait a moment……… yeah, looks fine. I don’t detect trap of any kind.——Brian-san, can I let the kids open it?”

“Of course.”

After confirming the presence or absence of traps with Appraisal and getting Brian-san’s approval, the children opened the treasure chest.

“What’s inside?”

“”Erm, you see… a blue bird~””

“… Bird? Eh? Bird!? A living being!?”

“”Not that~ Uh, you see, gla.s.s bird~ three~”

“Ah, gla.s.s. Some kind of ornament in the shape of a bird?”

I peeked inside the treasure chest from above, where Allen and Elena were peeking.

And just like the kids said, there were three translucent blue birds inside.

“Oh, they really are birds. Doves? But it doesn’t seem to be gla.s.s.——It’s crystal.”

It was not an ornament from gla.s.s, but crystal.

“Hand two of them to Brian-san.”

“”Okay~””

When Allen and Elena took two of the figurines and presented it to Brian-san, he shook his head.

“It doesn’t make sense for us to take two.”

“Is that so?”

“That is so!”

Since we were fighting together on a temporary basis, we hadn’t decided on the distribution of the items beforehand, but it should basically be divided equally between our two parties. However, we received all loot from both of the Forest Tigers we defeated. So I thought I’d give more to the Dawn Star here~ But I got refused.

“You don’t have to be so restrained~”

“Nono, it’s not restraint, we will take only one. Have the rest, Tak.u.mi-san.”

“No, you should take two here!”

“No, we can’t!”

Brian-san and the others stubbornly refused to accept two.

People I know are always so reserved, aren’t they?

“We will go back first then.”

Brian-san and the others were going to return to the town after checking the sixteenth floor, so I gave them a set of leftover onigiri and instant soup from the Infinite Storage instead of the bird figurine.

He was very impressed when I showed him how to make the instant soup, but I wasn’t sure if he could buy more over here, so I told him to check with the Guild, and we parted ways.

“”Was so much fun~””

“That so? Let’s come back when we have a chance then.”

“”Yeah!””

This spelled the end of our dungeon capture for now.

Dungeon Record

The 4th dungeon “Earth” 15/15 floors

The 53rd dungeon “Ripples” 30/30 floors

The 55th dungeon “Minerals” 30/30 floors

The 65th dungeon “Large Animals” 30/30 floors

The 89th dungeon “Entwined” 7/50 floors

The 94th dungeon “Colors” 15/50 floors

The descriptions on our Guild cards have become quite impressive, but I’m sure there will be more in the future~