Ch 142 -- Level 26 Boss Battle

Our next fight was going to be with the level's boss, it seemed so today's lunch would be...

"Fer, are we going to fight the boss now? If so l'd like to make a meal using ingredients from the Net Super so we all get a Status boost. How does that sound to you?" If we were going to fight this level's boss, a monster that Fer described as "strong" I thought it would be wise to raise everybody's levels as much as possible.

"Anyone who eats different world food can become stronger?" Dora-chan asked.

"That's right." I said. "Fer says the monster up ahead is a strong one. Eating Net Super food will make you stronger and so you're more able to defeat it without problems." I hoped.

"Umu." Fer said, his gaze never wavering from whatever was waiting up ahead for us to challenge it. "Dora and me have a blessing from the War God so there's no way we would lose but eating other world food sounds like a good idea anyway." Oh yeah, I had forgotten that the two of them had Vulcan-sama's blessing. Because Fer and Dora-chan were both strong monsters to start with I didn't really know what extra powers that blessing gave them. Of course Fer thought that eating food from the Net Super was a good idea any time...

I didn't know what sort of monster we were going to have to defeat (and I didn't want to die, obviously) so getting stronger beforehand was definitely a good idea even if it was a cheat, sort of.

"Right then, would you like the other-world steak we ate before?" I suggested.

"Oh, that sounds good." Fer agreed, licking his muzzle. Domestic wagyu Japanese beef steaks it would be, then. Eating something like steak this early in the day seemed a bit excessive to me but these guys would have no problems of course. I opened Net Super and purchased a large amount of Japanese wagyu beef. I added some other kinds of meat from the Net Super for variety, roast duck crusted with black pepper, lemon salt pork, yakitori, Vienna sausages, liver and various ready-grilled meats on skewers and so on. I sliced up the roast duck and slid the liver etc. off the skewers and piled them in bowls while I got busy with my Black Magic Cooking Stove, grilling the sausages and the pork and cooking the wagyu beef steaks in a large frying pan, adding just salt and pepper. Being the cook I got first taste of everything -- the lemon salt pork was tangy, the sausages were crisp to bite into and juicy inside. I put the bowls out and stepped back.

"It's ready." I announced as they dived in (literally, in Dora-chan's case). "Eat up, eat up. This will help you fight the boss." Watching them eat made me feel hungry too so I made a sandwich of the various meats to eat and coffee to drink while I cooked more and more meat for Fer and Sui-chan. Dora-chan was satisfied with one serving as usual which made things a little bit simpler for me. Finally they were all finished.

"Fu, all the different world meats are delicious." was Fer's verdict.

"Hmm, all this was from another world?" Dora-chan added. "Really quite delicious, wasn't it?"

"That was delicious-" Sui-chan concurred.

'Delicious' was all fine and well but my real concern was what sort of boost had the feast of other-world meats provided for the three of them? Time to use Appraisal.

[ Name ] Fer

[ Age ] 1014

[ Type ] Fenrir

[ Level ] 911

[ Stamina ] 9890 (+5002)

[ Magic Power ] 9534 (+4675)

[ Attack Power ] 9118 (+4483)

[ Defence Power ] 9814 (+4907)

[ Agility ] 9732 (+4856)

[ Skill ] Wind Magic, Fire Magic, Water Magic, Earth Magic, Ice Magic, Lightning Magic, Sacred Magic, Barrier Magic, Claw Slash, Physical Strengthening, Physical Attack Resistance, Magic Attack Resistance, Magic Power Consumption Reduction, Appraisal, Battle Enhancement

[ Protections ] Wind Goddess Ninril’s Blessings, War God Vulcan's Blessings

[ Name] Dora-chan

[ Age ] 116

[ Type ] Pixie Dragon

[ Level ] 129

[ Stamina ] 915 (+459)

[ Magic Power ] 2935 (+ 1448)

[ Attack Power ] 2703 (+1342)

[ Defence Power ] 886 (+445)

[ Agility ] 3345 (+1673)

[ Skill ] Fire Magic, Water Magic, Earth Magic, Wind Magic, Ice Magic, Lightning Magic, Recovery Magic, Bombardment, Battle Enhancement

[ Protections ] War God Vulcan's Blessings

[ Name ] Sui

[ Age ] 2 months

[ Type ] Big Slime

[ Level ] 21

[ Stamina ] 1079 (+ 538)

[ Magical Power ] 1063 (+529)

[ Attack Power] 1058 (+533)

[ Defence Power ] 1061 (+525)

[ Agility ] 1080 (+540)

[ Skill ] Acid Bullet, Restorative Medicine Creation, Growth, Multiplication, Water Magic, Smithing

[ Protections ] Water Goddess Rusalka's Blessing, Blacksmith God Hephaestus' Blessing

Wow, Fer, Dora-chan and Sui-chan's base stats were all higher than before. Well, after diving in a dungeon and fighting top-ranked monsters for the past 25 levels it would be strange if they didn't go up. But the Status boosts from the Net Super food, maybe I'd gone a bit too far... but then again we were going to fight the level boss now so maybe it was for the best.

After tidying up we moved on, encountering various monsters and dealing with them in passing while I collected their drops. After a short while, Fer stopped as we came out of the forest into a large clearing.

"That's the level boss." Fer said, looking at... I gulped. An immense cobra was coiled up in front of us. It opened its mouth, its slender forked tongue waving in the air while it hissed as it caught sight of us.

"What's that..." I tried using Appraisal.

[ Vasuki ]

S-rank monster.

Oh, S rank... its gigantic body was at least thirty metres long, maybe more, a true monster. I saw it was exhaling a mist from its mouth. When I Appraised the vapour specifically I found out it was called [ Vasuki's Poison Mist ]. So it was poisonous, an immediate-death poison for sure but thankfully we all had status abnormality invalidation due to our various blessings. It still looked really bad.

"A Vasuki, is it? They're pretty rare. I've only fought them three times before." Fer said, still not taking his eyes off the monster.

"Oh, you've fought against that sort of monster before..." I said slowly. "It's huge and it's spitting out poisonous mist..."

"Huh, that poison mist is nothing." Fer explained. "Its bite is even more poisonous, it can swallow you whole and it will crush you in its coils if you're not careful."

O- oh, is that so? I really wanted to step back into the nice safe forest behind me where only Murder Grizzlies, Giant Centipedes and Killer Hornets lurked.

Fer shrugged. "Well, I could deal with this guy by myself, of course but I'll let Dora and Sui take part too if they want." He cocked his head at my other two contracted monsters.

"He's plenty big enough for everyone to get a piece." Dora-chan said pugnaciously, staring at the Vasuki. "Let me at him!"

"Sui will do her best too-" Sui-chan said, sniper tentacle at the ready. Was I the only one scared of this giant poison-spitting snake monster? Just look at it, who wouldn't be terrified? but my three contracted monsters moved resolutely forward to face the Vasuki as I cautiously stepped back behind a tree to wait out the coming battle. On you go guys, I said silently, I'll just stay here until it's over.

As Fer, Dora-chan and Sui-chan confronted the Vasuki it opened its mouth further. Shhhhh-- the Vasuki's Poison Mist flooded out almost obscuring the giant snake from view. Of course the Vasuki's poison had no effect on any of us since we all had total status change invalidation but seeing it chilled my stomach.

Crash! Crackle crackle crackle-- Fer replied with his rapid-fire lightning magic, blasting though the obscuring clouds of Poison Mist and striking the Vasuki around its head and upper body. Meanwhile Dora-chan had flown off to one side and, wreathed in fire magic, was using Bombardment to blow gaping holes in the side of the Vasuki's coiled-up body, blam blam blam!

I saw Sui-chan aim carefully as she fired off her Acid Bullets, hitting the holes Dora-chan had blown in the Vasuki's thick scaly skin and penetrating deeply into the monster's body, dissolving it from the inside. Dora-chan and Sui-chan were working really well together, I realised, using their special abilities in a way that maximised their effectiveness while Fer kept the enormous creature distracted with lightning attacks to its head. I felt oddly proud watching my kids fighting like that, and simultaneously terrified they'd get hurt-

There was a sudden loud hiss as the Vasuki reared up to an impossible height and then it limply collapsed to the ground with an earth-shaking Crash! The beat-up corpse of the S-ranked Vasuki thrashed for a few seconds more and then lay still, lying totally defeated before its conquerors. The one-sided battle had taken less than a minute from start to end. It was almost embarrassingly easy, I thought to myself as I stepped out from behind my sheltering tree. The only attack the Vasuki had been able to launch was its Poison Mist, after that it never had a chance. I bowed to the giant snake's corpse, hands together. Sorry, Vasuki-san.

"Hiyah! I did it! !" Dora-chan was zooming around madly, looping the loop and spinning so fast I felt dizzy trying to follow him.

"Yatta! I defeated the big snake-san!-" came Sui-chan's proud thought as she pyon-pyoned in front of the dead Vasuki.

"Huhhun, of course we won." Fer added with a triumphant grin on his doggy features.

The Vasuki's enormous corpse had gaping holes in its side oozing liquified entrails while its head and upper parts were scorched and burnt from Fer's lightning magic. I felt oddly sorry, almost tearful looking at it and thinking how it had died so easily despite it being a ferocious and dangerous monster. I'm really sorry, Vasuki-san. I really didn't need to stuff my contracted monsters with Net Super food to defeat you after all, did I? Namu amida butsu namu amida butsu, go to Buddha Vasuki-san. As I finished my silent prayer the dead Vasuki grew transparent and then disappeared. Yosh! Now where are the drops? An S-ranked monster and boss, there's got to be... Ah, there they are! I collected an enormous bluish-green snake skin, a huge magic stone and giant fangs and tucked them away in my Item Box. Once that was done I looked around for the stairs down to the next level but there was nothing in sight, just the clearing we were standing in.

"Hey, we've beaten the boss." I asked, puzzled. "How do we get to the 27th level now? I can't see any stairs."

"In a level like this..." Fer said thoughtfully, pacing over the rock-strewn ground where the Vasuki had been coiled waiting for us. "Ah, here it is." He stopped at one particular location. I followed him and looked down at a large flat rock in front of him. There was some sort of inscription carved in the top surface.

"The round pattern drawn on this rock is a magic circle of Teleportation." Fer explained. "We will be transported down to the next level when we put some magic energy into the pattern." Oh, so that's how it works... "There's no other connection to the next level, this is the only way we can get there." Fer added when he saw I was a bit reluctant to use this magic Teleportation circle.

Ah well. Fer didn't seem to be worried so it was probably safe. Safe-ish. "Dora-chan, Sui-chan, we're going to go down to the next level using this magic circle." I explained. Would we have to go one at a time though? I asked Fer about this and he shook his head, explaining there was a recharge time for the circle after it was used and we didn't know what was waiting for us on the next level so we should all go together. As long as we were all touching each other it would work in one shot, he said.

Thump! Dora-chan hugged me from behind. "Are you ready?" I asked him over my shoulder and Dora-chan agreed. Okay, let's go. I picked up Sui-chan and held her firmly in both arms before I climbed up on Fer's back.

"Right Fer, please do it." Fer put his right forefoot on the stone circle and cast magic into the pattern. For a moment I felt a floating sensation like being in a fast elevator going down and then suddenly...

I blinked. "This is the 27th level, right? It's a forest, just like the 26th level." Had we gone round in a circle?

"Umu." Fer swung his muzzle left and right. "It looks to be the 27th level, sure enough. More small fry though." I wished Fer would stop saying that... "We may as well head straight for the level boss again, heh?" Fer was obviously spoiling for another boss fight. Dora-chan and Sui-chan agreed, excited by their battle with the Vasuki a few minutes before. I couldn't say anything against that sort of united opposition so 27th level boss, here we come.

Fer set off through the woods at a dead run, Dora-chan flying alongside and keeping up with no problem. I'm sorry, I apologised in advance to the monsters we encountered in our mad dash. It didn't stop me collecting their drop items though.

Fer was running faster than ever due to the effects of his feast of Net Super food and he told me at this pace that we'd be facing this level's boss before tomorrow evening. So soon? Right, I decided, we won't eat any more Net Super food this time around. It was too dangerous.

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