A success like this was a good starting point . I needed some time to recover my mana now, so to best make use of this free time, I took Rem and #2 with me to go and observe the Basilisk some more .

The Basilisk was in its usual spot, lazing around as always, while I was also only casually observing the beast . I still felt like a pro cameraman just waiting for that perfect shot .

As for today’s events, no stupid Gomas had run into the Basilisk’s territory, and neither were there any stray Matangos . The zone Boss only got up to have it’s big breakfast of Mandragoras and didn’t do much else .

But one new thing did happen .

“This, it’s definitely the thing’s skin . ”

Doing a once over on the Mandragora fields, I saw a white piece of skin just lying there . It had an area of around 30 cm squared . This was by no means something I’d caused, for example, by attacking the Basilisk when it least expected it and tearing off a piece of skin .

“So this Basilisk sheds too . ”

Meaning that this was naturally shed off skin . How the Basilisk, or any monster for that matter, was born in this dungeon was still an unknown for me, but I knew that this monster in particular needed to sleep and eat . It was a living being . It shedding its skin could be a sign of growth, and if not, it could just be a way to get rid of its old skin .

Incidentally, I had #2 go to the field and collect the skin .

“Mng, using it for Rem parts kinda seems… iffy . ”

With how small it was, I didn’t think it could cover all of Rem with the skin . I’d expect that a few parts of her body would get some white skin patchwork at most, which would be less defensive and more ornamental . And frankly, we had no time to make fas.h.i.+on statements .

“Ah, wait, I’ve got just the right use for this . ”

It was as if a lightbulb flicked on on top of my head . I’d spent the day resting and watching the Basilisk, so my mana had recovered enough to shoot a few Curses before going to bed .

“――Rotten Bog . ”

I let loose a drop of blood and made a puddle sized bog . I then cut off a small piece of the Basilisk’s shed skin and laid it down on the acid puddle . Then I waited…

“d.a.m.n it, it… wait, it is, it’s melting . Yes!”

With this little experiment, I tested whether my Rotten Bog would really work on the Basilisk’s skin .

In games and fantasy, Basilisks that specialized in their acidic breath always had strong resistances for similar type attacks . It was like fighting a dragon with fire, I’d almost a.s.sumed that the Basilisk was immune to any and all poison .

But the only way I could even imagine defeating a creature so large was by using the Curse that had the most damage output: Rotten Bog . If my acidic swamp had an effect on it, I could finally start thinking up a plan of action .

“d.a.m.n, this might just actually possibly work . ”

The Basilisk skin wasn’t showing any changes for the first few seconds in the puddle bog, but soon enough, I could see small bubbles forming on it, and gradually, the piece had started melting . Roughly estimating, I could see that it took more time to dissolve than Mantis sh.e.l.l, but it definitely wasn’t immune . Which was good, since if it’d been as tough as Armorbear sh.e.l.l, I might’ve just given up on this mission altogether .

Anyway, this basically meant that I could use Rotten Bog on it effectively . It could be that its meat, that is, the muscle under the skin, is even more resistant to acids, but I really didn’t want to imagine

that possibility .

“Which leaves me with the problem of how I’m going to make a Basilisk sized Rotten Bog . ”

The biggest one I could make now was just barely 4 meters long . The Basilisk was at least 5 meters by my estimate and it had quite the girth too . I needed a way to make a Rotten Bog that could hold the ma.s.sive creature with room to spare, somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 meters squared .

On that note, I had a few problems to deal with . Namely, mana, casting speed, and whether I had enough blood to make it work .

I mean, I could probably do it if I put my all into it, but killing the Basilisk would in no way end with simply laying down a bog . I’d have to hold it in place for a pretty long time, long enough for it to die .

In other words, I’d have to employ Blackhair Bind for a while after I was done setting the bog and luring the Basilisk into it . Which meant that I’d need to use more mana .

I had to make a huge Rotten Bog and then I had to maintain long and tough ropes of Blackhair Bind to restrain the Basilisk until it died . And with my current total mana reserves, such a feat was… yeah, impossible .

“I guess I’ll need a way to increase my mana, or alternatively, find a way to use less mana for my Curses . ”

I kept mulling over what I needed to do as I slowly drifted off to sleep .

The next morning, I decided on continuing my Curse experiments .

“Alright, I’ll get myself a sacrifice!”

I call it the, ‘Please, my Lord, Ruinhilde-sama, accept this sacrificial ritual and grant me one big awesome super Curse’-plan .

I’ll be frank, I had no idea whether this whole sacrificial s.h.i.+ndig was going to do anything, but I also didn’t know if it’ll do something, so I’d just try . I’d justify my actions on the fact that the spells in this world are highly dependent on the caster’s image of it, and thus, me doing something so Shaman-like should get me results .

Since I already had to use parts and ingredients for Rem, I figured that a Shaman was the sort of Job that could make use of real world things in its other Curses too . So what I called a sacrifice would simply be another ingredient . Well, basically, it’s just some guesswork on my part .

“That’s the plan, so let’s go and get them, Rem . ”

“GAGAGA!”

Rem and #2 were raring to go, and the three of us then temporarily left the poison marsh zone and headed back into the ruins that led here .

“―― Wow, with the second Rem, I actually feel a lot more at ease . Thanks you two, you’re the best . ”

“GAGAA!”

And after some time, we’d done what we set out to do . Here are the day’s pickings:

Goma Corpse: A freshly killed Goma corpse that I killed by wringing its neck, so there was no blood or other wounds . I have two of these and Rem and #2 carried them back to base, one each .

Matango Corpse: Found this one waddling around the Fairy Square so I grabbed it . I used my ranged knife tentacle attack and sent in Rem and #2 up close and personal as they were immune to whatever poison the Matango released . This walking mushroom was one of the easiest things for me to hunt .

Monster Blood: Blood I collected from Gomas and Red Dogs and the like while they were still alive . I’ve stored them inside the leather sacks the Gomas carried their water or booze in . I have around 2 liters .

Core Fragment: Really small shards of monster core that the small mobs sometimes had . Rem went and collected them for me .

I guess it wasn’t a proper sacrifice since I was using corpses, but all these gory

gory ingredients gave off a good shaman-y feel .

“Let’s try with just the blood first . ”

I started off the experiments with the ‘cheapest’ ingredients . The cores, no matter how small, were still raw crystallized mana . I was pretty sure they’d give me some boosts, so I was saving those for the actual fight .

I poured a cup’s worth of Goma blood on the ground, added a drop of my own blood, and invoked Rotten Bog .

“It’s bigger… but not by a large margin . ”

From yesterday’s skin experiment, I remembered how big the bog was with 1 drop, so I could clearly tell that adding Goma blood slightly extended its breadth .

“But that’s alright . Now I know that it does something . ”

If push comes to shove, I could very well collect a tub load of blood . Between Rem, #2, and I, we should be able to carry it all relatively fast .

“Time’s a wastin’ . ”

I redid the experiment with all sorts of combinations, and jotted down the results .

It felt strange to use my notebook as a notebook, and not as a magic compa.s.s . It also felt odd holding a pen after so long . I made a table with my gathered ingredients and noted down the effects gained with a mix of 2 ingredients . Once that was done, I increased the number of ingredients to 3, then 4, and repeated the combination experiments .

That said, my resources were limited and I couldn’t do anything ma.s.sive . I carefully measured out the more potent ingredients to be as efficient as possible .

This work kept me busy for another 3 days . The time wasn’t only used on the doing of the experiments but also time for going out hunting for ingredients and time required to replenish my blood and mana .

“Kind of went overboard there… I need to start organizing . ”

After a few days of hunting monsters, which were mostly Gomas by the way, the Fairy Square I was occupying had become littered with all manner of loot . Of course, I’d left the bodies and other raw stuff outside, but killing all those Gomas basically meant I ended up collecting a whole bunch of their equipment and items . At some point, I’d started thinking that I could find some use for literally everything they had, and now there were a bunch of dead, naked Gomas right outside my base .

But the experiments were going quite well . I’d gotten lots of little tools to use, and eventually, I’d made a new discovery .

“This, I can use… this, magic circle . ”

Magic circle . It’s something that’s appeared a lot, be it for granting us our Jobs, the all-important compa.s.s, and even the somewhat useless texted updates .

What I had discovered was that I could use them in my Curses too .

“The effects change slightly depending on how I arrange the ingredients . ”

That’s right, by just changing how I placed the sacrifice items on the circle, I could manipulate the Rotten Bog’s size and depth .

“Circular ones are best . ”

The first magic circle we all had to draw in our notebooks was circular . I was sure that this shape would wield the best effect, even for my Curses . Just to be sure, I made sure to test with triangles and squares, but those didn’t have as much effect as the circles .

I drew out these circles as precisely as possible, with blood, of course .

And drawing a perfect circle was easy . All I had to do was stick a spear at the center and tie another spear to it with a blackhair rope . Then I just circled around the first spear with the rope in a slight tension and carved the circle into the ground with the second spear .

Pouring blood along this guideline gave me a perfect circle, completing the first step .

“And I place the ingredients in a hexagram . ”

I then drew a hexagram

a hexagram within the circle and arranged the ingredients on the 6 points where the shape touched the circle . For a while, I was at a loss as to how to draw a perfect hexagram, but let’s not talk about that .

First, I speared a point anywhere on the perimeter of the circle . Point A . The center point I already made when drawing the circle is point O . The line going from A to O and then straight until it reaches the other side of the circle is point B . Thus the line AB is the circle’s diameter .

After points A and B are in place, I then drew an arc of the same radius centering on A . This should be obvious, but what I did was stab the spear on A, lifted the spear at the center O, and arced on the blackhair rope until I reached the circle on both sides . The intersections of the arc with the circle are points C and D . In other words, if A is the top, C and D are to its left and right . I then repeated the process with point B now as the center and got points E and F .

Now I just had to draw the triangles AEF and BCD and voila, a perfect six-sided star, AKA, a hexagram .

And after I painted the hexagram in blood, I now had a basic magic circle .

Finally, at the center I copied the Bloodseal mark on my palm that had an eye-like shape, and drew that freehand on the center of the circle .

Now I just had to place the 6 ingredients on the 6 points of the hexagram .

Which went clockwise from the top as follows: A Skeleton’s Skull, a Mandragora, some Red Dog Blood, a Zombie’s Head, some Goma Booze, and a Plumshroom . I piled a Goma and a Matango corpse at the center, and skewered them in place with a spear .

“And, done . ”

This right here was the ritual circle I created after countless trial and error . This would get me the maximum effect out of my Rotten Bog . Looking it over, I took in how similar it turned out to the occult fiction back on Earth . Maybe the fanatics back there were on to something . Though, I guess this might just be due to my own mental image of this kind of ritual . Anyway, all this work had led me to a process where I could gain a much more ma.s.sive bog without expending any extra blood or magic .

I named this circle the Hexagram Eye .

Just hexagram wouldn’t do at all since I didn’t come up with the shape, but I figured I should give it a similar name . Gotta give my props to the math G.o.ds .

After all, the only part that could be called a personal touch would be the central eye symbol I got from Ruinhilde-sama .

“I can win… I can beat the Basilisk, with this . ”

This can give me the edge I need .

I can do it . I can kill the Basilisk . I was ready to solo challenge a dungeon Boss .

For the next 2 days, I focused on preparing for the confrontation . Well, it wasn’t that different from what I was doing before, just more hunting mobs, mainly Gomas, and collecting items and ingredients .

There was a quiet agitation in my heart . This wasn’t something like a surprise encounter with an Armorbear, and I didn’t have Mei-chan with me anymore . I had the weakest Job, Shaman, and I was trying to fight a ma.s.sive foe, a Boss, all on my own . This would be the first time I was risking my life on my own volition . I was nervous as could be .

“Listen up, Rem, I’m gonna explain the plan . ”

“GAGA . ”

Rem nodded seriously . We’d gotten all our preparatory materials and I spoke out the plan, mostlythe plan, mostly in order to make sure I myself knew it .

“First, we’ll have #2 carry a Goma as bait and lure away the Basilisk . ”

I’ve confirmed that the Basilisk moves to hunt down any monster, Goma or otherwise, that gets too close to its Mandragora field . It did this every time during the time I was observing it .

But to make sure this works, I’d need live Gomas, not corpses . I already had 2 of those . I’d captured and tied them up outside the Square, and had Rem #2 on watch . With all my experience hunting them, I could now capture one alive without issue .

“We lure it to the Hexagram Eye I’ve already set up . If #2 gets eaten along the way, the plan fails and we fall back . ”

Every step needed to happen as planned, or else we’re bound to mess up if we improvise . We could retreat if the live bait part doesn’t work out and think up a new plan . We were facing a monster so we could get away with doing similar plans a couple times without it realizing what we were up to . Or at least, I hoped .

“And once the Basilisk is on the ritual circle, I’ll cast Rotten Bog right under it . ”

The real fight begins here .

“I’ll instantly follow up with Blackhair Bind, and hold it down . But only the head . ”

If it gets a chance to use its breath, I’m done for . My first priority will be to hold its mouth closed tight .

“I won’t be able to do anything with its body . That’s where Rem and #2 comes in . You guys need to attack it as much as you can . ”

The more we can make it bleed, the better . Worst case, if it gets out of my bog, it’ll still be injured enough that we can chase it down and kill it .

“With its ma.s.sive frame, it’s sure to thrash around a lot . We’ll be using ranged tactics . ”

For that too, I’ve prepared a few things:

Red Knife Spear: I attached the Red Knife to a Goma spear . Great for stabbing the Basilisk from a safe distance .

Torch Oil: The oil that Gomas use in their torches . I stocked up every pouch I could find and have a total of 2 liters .

“#2, you’re on oiling duty . And Rem, you’ll go stabby with the Red Knife and light it up . We’ll turn it into BBQ lizard . ”

Just stabbing won’t do any decisive damage to a monster that big . We’d use the oil to compensate for that lack of muscle .

“You need to make sure to only set fire to its hind area . If the flames reach its head, it could burn off my Blackhair and I’ll be decayed toast . ”

“GAGA . ”

I didn’t know how this whole struggle with time will play out, and won’t know until we actually went out and did it . But I wanted to keep an optimistic att.i.tude .

“After you’ve used up all the oil and set fire to it, don’t stop attacking . All those spears, axes and knives we gathered up, give it all to the Basilisk, and give it good . ”

“GAGAA!!”

The Rems nodded with spirit . We’re gonna stab the thing with every edged Goma weapon we got our hands on in the past week .

“The rest just depends on how long I can manage to bind it down . ”

This was the most important job . Everything would go to s.h.i.+t if I can’t restrain the Basilisk with my tentacles . A big responsibility was on my head . Well, mostly because I was the only one here .

It was nerve-wracking . It was extremely scary . But I had to try . If I didn’t, I could never move forward .

“Let’s do this――”