Jujutsushi Wa Yuusha Ni Narenai

Chapter 166.1: Ruined City’s Boss 1

It had been a few days since we pushed our way through the depth of the ruined city, but we finally found the goal.

「Yeah, that one definitely looks like a boss room.」

「Yeah.」

When we arrived in the deepest part of the area, the ruined city had already turned into a jungle city. This area was filled with high-rise buildings, so this place might be the center of the city.

There might be a lot of treasure boxes in this area, but we had no time to wander around in this western RPG open world-like map. Therefore, we decided to go straight towards the boss room and search only the area around our route.

It seems the boss of this area, who had been waiting for us in the center of a jungle high-rise building, had quite a compact size. That building was around five stories which almost turned into a giant tree.

But the magic compass was pointing towards that place, most of all, it was different from the other areas, there was this bizarre presence, or should I say it felt like stagnating mana.

「Rem.」

「GUGOGO」

After replying to me, Rem ran into the high-rise building-like boss-room.

The one who entered was Rem the 1st who had already strengthened even further with the addition of three living armor that protected the treasure box containing potion.

Her base form had steel-like muscle from goliath and was clad in black steel armor resembling that of living armor. No matter how you look at it, she was such a splendid black knight.

Her inside might look empty since she used living armors as material, but she was definitely Rem. I was sure that the inside of the tinplate bucket-like full-face helmet was Rem’s black skull with her shining red eyes.

Her equipment was a set of greatsword, large spear, mace, and shield, literally all our armament we could lend her.

Unfortunately, I could only use 『Simple Alchemy Formation』, that’s why all I could do was enhance the quality of the weapon. If it was the 『Sage』; Takanashi Kotori’s alchemy might be able to create a new weapon instead of only enhancing it like my case but well, I guess this was the limit of basic skill.

Fortunately, the living armor’s weapon was already powerful enough even without my enhancement. It was a reliable weapon as long as the user was strong enough to wield it. And Rem the 1st who equipped all three living armors’ weapons was the strongest Rem.

The black knight Rem entered the building with shield and mace in her hands. It was a wise choice since the greatsword and spear with long reach had poor compatibility with narrow passage.

But those weapons of choice weren’t my instruction, it was Rem’s own judgement. As expected, she was different from those stupid summoned skeletons, she could think for herself.

「GUGO, GAGAGA.」

「No enemy or trap huh. Yup, shall we go.」

「Yeah.」

Mei-chan and I followed Rem to enter the building. There was nothing around the entrance, it was just a temple hall. Unfortunately, we didn’t find any treasure boxes.

「It’s as if the boss room was right underground.」

The compass obviously pointed downwards. Since that was the case, we should find the stairway to the basement floor first.

I mean, inside the building was the same room and passage as everywhere else. Was the entrance really in this building? It looked the same as the other ruined building from the outside after all.

As if that wasn’t enough, I didn’t even find a single high-zombie at all.

「Kotaro-kun. Maybe it’s the stairs that we’re looking for.」

「Yeah, that seems to be the case.」

Mei-chan found stairways on the first floor. The reason it was placed in a conspicuous place in the corner, surrounded by a wall might be because it was an emergency stair, or deliberately hidden as a hidden passage.

「But still, a secret basement in an inconspicuous building really gives me a bad premonition.」

Considering the fact that zombie-type monster such as high-zombie was running rampant in this area, I could say that this building must be related to the mastermind behind the zombies outbreak… was the kind of scenario that appeared in my head. In the first place, this dungeon itself felt like a giant, underground research facility. But since the high-zombie wasn’t that powerful, it had zero to no impact in this dungeon.

Thus, we went towards the boss room almost without encountering any kind of trouble.

「For some reason, this area gave the same feeling as the normal dungeon.」

I agreed with Mei-chan, I felt the same as soon as we descended.

The ruined buildings in the city did feel like they’re made of inorganic concrete, but this place gave a familiar atmosphere to us. It was as if we’re back to the starting point of this dungeon.

But the boss of this area was definitely waiting right beyond this point. After we arrived in an open, gloomy plaza, I felt a powerful presence enveloping our surroundings.

「Let’s take a brief rest in this pace.」

「Yeah.」

We decided to ignore the powerful presence of the area boss and just take a rest, even if the boss’s presence made it hard for us to rest, preparation before the battle was a must. Somehow, it felt like we’re entering a safe point in front of the boss room.

What? Dissatisfied? Then blame your inability to get out of the boss room. Seeing that you couldn’t get out of your room, we had no choice but to take our time to get enough rest and preparation. Moreover, they’re going to be on alert until we enter the boss room, right? Since that was the case, let them wait for a bit longer, it wasn’t as if we caused inconvenience for them.

「Kotarou-kun, I brewed tea for you.」

「Thanks.」

I drank pseudo-tea made from a mysterious herb while enjoying the honey-dango. Yup, it’s delicious. It felt like my brain was invigorated by the supply of sugar. Moreover, thanks to this sweet, the herbal tea with questionable flavor tasted quite delicious too.

Fuu, as I enjoyed the combination of sweets and tea, I confirmed our war potential before we entered the boss battle.

First, we got the main attacker, our strongest ace, Mei-chan the 『Berserker』.

There was no special upgrade in her armaments. Her main weapon was still the same 『Black Iron’s Knight Halberd』and 『Dark Tower Shield』. Since it was originally an item that was enhanced by Takanashi Kotori’s alchemy from the armament they took from the living armour, it was literally impossible to gain even more powerful equipment than this unless it came from the living armor-type boss.

It’s just that the shield ended up riddled with holes after the battle against crazed Sakurai-kun. Yeah, his strength was no joke since his arrow could pierce such a thick and massive shield. Anyhow, since leaving those holes alone might pose an unseen danger in the future, I tried to give it an emergency repair with 『Simple Alchemy Formation』.

It might have magic properties since it was an extremely tough material, thus 『Simple Alchemy Formation』 might be able to do something about it. Alas, the 『Dark Tower Shield』 didn’t give any reaction at all. In the end, the best thing I could handle was iron. Since that was the case, I decided to plug the holes on the shield using melted iron from the govu’s knife.

Better than nothing.

In addition, Mei-chan had 『Dismemberment Demonic Butcher’s Knife』which gave the air similar to that of cursed weapon as her sub-weapon. It seems that she used this knife to kill Sakurai-kun. It was Mei-chan’s favourite due to its excellent sharpness. Well, that was natural, it was originally her kitchen knife after all.

Thus, I think we should be fine even without upgrading our current equipment. I mean, we literally insta-killed the boss of the previous area, Goliath with these armaments.

Next was Rem. Rem the 1st could be upgraded to her Living Armor style-Dark Knight, Rem the 3rd was also received a little upgrade. We took the remaining parts of Living Armor’s armour to patch her up.

Rem the 3rd equipment was a hand-me-down from Rem the 1st armaments. But since her speck was far lower than Rem the 1st-Dark Knight, I thought that it would be much better to equip her with a bow as our ranged attacker. Well, she was more like our all-around player.

Rem the 2nd was Arachne, otherwise known as Arachne Rem, she was responsible for our supply line since she carried the treasure box on her back.

After that, I would summon a skeleton army with 『Fool’s Cane』 before challenging the boss and have Arachne Rem arm them with weapons. But then, since Arachne Rem had a limit in how many armaments she could carry with her, she mainly carried a few swords with her. Nevertheless, being armed was better than not.

Well then, the last one was me, the thing I could use as a weapon was the 『Red Knife』, and then 『Higuchi’s Butterfly Knife』, my strongest weapon.

But well, my current main weapon was the 『Fool’s Cane』 though. I guess I should use the best skull amongst my collection for this fight.

「And yeah, 『Shaman’s Skull』 is definitely the best for a serious battle.」

The main reason for that was its extremely powerful offensive skill, 『Poison』. And the ability that allows me to buff my allies weapon with 『Enchant』 was a huge deciding factor in choosing 『Shaman’s Skull』.

Rather, I might’ve to use 『Summoner’s Skull』 first to summon skeleton and change the skull later since I could command the skeletons even without the cane.

Nevertheless, we got really buffed up, huh. Mei-chan, Rem the 3rd, thirteen skeletons, if it went by number alone, we’d overwhelm the other party. And speaking of the boss room, we really rushed into the boss room only with this number of people.

Well, whatever, these numbers were our clear advantage for now.

「Shall we go now?」

「Yeah.」

Mei-chan stood up leisurely as if she was only dropping by the coffee shop before a date. I walked behind her, following the reliable back which didn’t give the feeling of excitement at all entering the boss room.

「Another hall of the boss with few screw loose in their head, huh.」

And as I expected, the boss room was a hall but… there was a twisted column around it. On the wall was an ominous relief of ivy or snake jam-packed together, just staring a few seconds at it was enough to make me sick.