Episode 15: The Area Boss

 

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Well, Milia's reaction is natural. When you know there's an area boss, common sense dictates you should run. However, if you know you can defeat it, that's a different story.

 

"Even though the magical wavelength is strong, there are varying degrees of strength. With both of us, we should be able to defeat it. It would be a waste to let this opportunity slip by."

 

Though monsters defeated by Milia don’t drop items like in the game, there’s a chance that rare items might not drop either.

 

However, gathering experience points to become stronger is likely a commonality. Even if the experience points aren’t what I expect, the materials from an area boss should fetch a high price.

 

If we can defeat it, we should.

 

"I see… If you say so, Rain, it should be alright! Let's go."

 

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So, we climbed further up the mountain to get closer to the area boss.

 

"What? You want to pass through here?"

 

We were confronted by a group of three adventurers who were already fighting there.

 

Their party consisted of a male swordsman, a female enchantress, and a female mage.

 

Judging by the monster corpses nearby, the way they were gathering materials was the same as the monsters defeated near the foot of the mountain. These three must have taken care of those.

 

"Yes. There’s an area boss around here. We're here to defeat it. It’s dangerous, so you should leave."

 

I informed them out of kindness—

 

"Huh? Are you kidding me? We’ve been fighting here and haven’t seen any area boss."

 

"Besides, even if there was one, there's no way you two could defeat it. Come up with a better lie."

 

For some reason, they thought we were lying.

 

"I know what you're after! You want to drive us out and steal our hunting ground."

 

"No, that's not it…"

 

"Exactly! We wouldn’t tell such a stupid lie!"

 

However, there was no way to provide proof at this moment.

 

Good grief. What should I do?

 

"Then show us your guild cards. We’re D-rank adventurers. If you really intend to defeat an area boss, even if it’s a weak one, you’d at least be B-rank or higher, right?"

 

The adventurer sneered.

 

It's pointless to show them, but we had no choice.

 

"…F-rank."

 

"I’m supposed to become F-rank after passing this test…"

 

The adventurers looked dumbfounded at our guild cards.

 

"Wow… I knew you were young, but you’re just newbies. Oh… So you came up here because we cleared out the monsters at the foot of the mountain."

 

"We've done something bad, haven't we?"

 

"What should we do…"

 

The three, who were angry thinking we had lied, suddenly toned down and looked at us with pity.

 

Then, the swordsman patted my shoulder.

 

"Well, uh, we’ve done something bad. But there are too many strong monsters here for newbies. You should go back quickly."

 

"It would be a pity to go back empty-handed after coming all this way. How about we share some materials with them?"

 

"I understand you’re in a hurry, but you shouldn't lie."

 

These people probably aren’t bad, but we really aren’t lying.

 

"Sure, our rank is low, but we're not—"

 

At that moment.

 

*Booooooom!*

 

A shadow passed over us, and we felt a powerful gust of wind as if something had crashed down from the sky.

 

"W-What the…!?"

 

"Look at the sky!"

 

"W-What is that!? A dragon!?"

 

The red dragon soaring powerfully through the sky—this was the area boss I had been looking for.

 

I sighed internally and spoke.

 

"See? I told you we weren’t lying."