Gumihou: … an investigation, a quarrel, a negotiation & a battle. Pushing the boundaries of your writing skills, Eguchi-san? Nice.
*Cracks knuckles*
After we left the safe area, Fer said, “There’s still one other place we have not explored yet.”
“Eh? Really?” I thought we had pretty much covered everywhere…
“The Boss Room.”
“Oh, right,”
“I’d checked the room from the outside. It doesn’t feel like it contained any hidden things inside, but there is no way to tell for sure unless I check from inside.”
“I see, if that’s the case, let’s go to the Boss Room now,” I said.
Unfortunately, checking out the Boss Room was easier said than done.
When we arrived at the entrance to the Boss Room, there was already a party inside and a party waiting outside.
To make things worse, the cooldown period for the Boss monster to respawn was two hours long. This means that once the current party is done fighting the Boss, the group in front of us would have to wait 2 hours before they could fight the Boss. We, on the other hand, would have to wait a minimum of 4 hours to get into the Boss Room.
Communicating this to my familiars was not fun.
““So? What should we do? Should we wait in line or go look for the hidden room somewhere else?””
““Umu, we should wait. It’s best to check this place out first.””
““Hey! Are you saying we have to wait here for 4 hours just to check something you’re not sure? I say we should check the rest of the floor and not waste time here.””
“Oi, Dora, are you doubting me?” Fer narrowed his eyes at Dora-chan.
“”Shouldn’t I? You’re the one who was so confident, but now you want us to wait 4 hours just to check that one thing?””
““Humph, I already said that I will check the place again. You talk big, so why haven’t you found anything yet?””
“”What was that?!””
““You heard me. If you have the ability, go and find it.””
““Humph, my speciality is in fighting!””
“When it comes to strength, you don’t stand a chance against me.”
“”Bastard, want to throw down? Yeah? I’ll take you on now!!””
“Hey, hey, stop it you two,” I said placatingly. “Let’s not fight.”
“”This guy just called me weak!”” snapped Dora-chan.
““That little dragon brat doubted me!”” Fer shot back. “”Also, he is weak when compared to me.””
“”Why you-“”
“Enough you two. Aren’t we all comrades? Apologise to each other.”
““No way!””
“”Why should I?””
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt“Hmm, it’s fine if you don’t want to apologise. The two of you can sit on the side when Sui and I have our dinner.”
“”Nanu?!””
“”What?! Why?!”
“Sui-tan~ when dinner time comes, let’s eat something delicious. Just you and me~” I said as I squished my cheeks against her cool, jelly body.
“”Eat delicious food~? Yay~~!””
“”Oi, no eating good stuff by yourselves!””
“”Yeah! No way!!”
“If the two of you want in on the good stuff, apologize to each other,” I said sternly.
Groans echoed in my mind, but I refused to budge until they apologised, grudgingly, to each other.
Nice, a glutton’s weakness is always obvious.
“Right, good. Be sure to keep things nice and civil, everyone.”
“”Umu…””
“”I guess…””
“”Now that that’s settled, I’m going to speak with the party in front of us.”” I said through telepathy.
“”Mu? Why?”
““Well, you said you only need to enter the Boss Room to check it, right?””
“”Umu, yes,””
““Well, if all goes well, we could cut our waiting in half.””
[9]
“Excuse me, could I have a moment of your time?” I said as I approached the party in front of us.
“Yes? As you can see, the people inside are about done with their battle, so keep it short,” said one of them. Probably the leader.
That was rude and unnecessary, I thought, especially since there would be a two-hour cooldown time anyway. However, I said, “Of course, of course, apologies for being impudent but [4] I would like to make a proposal…”
“Oh?”
“Well, you see, my familiars want to visit the Boss Room, and, well, they like to battle against stone monsters. Gargoyles in particular. If it is alright, could we come with you to the Boss Room?”
“What? No!”
“Gununu…”
“I-I mean, this is very irregular, you’re bullying our party!”
“Ahem, our motive is only to visit the Boss Room and defeat the Gargoyles, my familiars will, of course, leave the boss to you.”
“Nu?”
“Right? Fer?” I glared at Fer, who replied with a series of ‘gunununu’ but looked away.
“S-still…”
“Naturally, whatever Drop items that come from the Gargoyles rightfully go to your team. It is your turn with the Boss Room after all, and all we want is to visit the Boss Room and take a little look around…”
“Why?”
“My familiars like visiting Boss Rooms,” I said with a straight face. It was not a lie at all.
“Hm, I shall speak with my people first,” the leader turned and shuffled his team to the side to speak with them.
His party consisted of a male and female beastmen, a male and female human as well as a male elf.
I strained my enhanced hearing to catch their conversation.
“They want to fight the Gargoyles with us?”
“And don’t want a share of the loot?”
“Isn’t that good for us?”
“No way, there must be a catch. Surely we can’t trust such a good thing.”
“No, no, I mean, I heard of this guy. He’s that S Rank Tamer, isn’t he? He’s already cleared two dungeons before this, maybe it’s true that his familiars like fighting in Boss Rooms.”
“I mean, if he’s that powerful, he could have just kicked us aside and go in first.”
“Humph, I’d like to see him try…”
“So, you want to battle against a Fenrir?”
“…no.”
“Anyway, there’s no downside for us. We can fight the Boss, get all the loot and save on stamina. If he’s the rumoured Fenrir Tamer, it’s not like he needs to be polite with us. So we should just take it as our good luck.”
“… …” looks like they won’t decline my offer.
The party’s whispered discussion continued a little longer, but in the end, the leader returned to say, “Alright, we get the Drop Items and you get to come with us.”
“Thank you very much!”
By then, the first party’s battle was done and we were in the middle of the two-hour cooldown period.
It was very boring.
My familiars went to sleep. I contemplated speaking with the other party, but they don’t look very friendly, so I lie down against Fer’s back to rest for a bit…
“Oi, the Gargoyles have respawned, are you coming or not?”
“Hm? Ah! Fer, Sui, Dora-chan! Let’s go. Make sure to only target the Gargoyles and leave the Boss alone, okay?”
““Boo…””
“Sui, have you forgotten our discussion? No stealing prey!”
“”Mu… Yes, Aruji…””
“Ahem, we’ll take the lead and attack the boss monster. You take down the Gargoyles,” said the leader sternly.
“Right ho!”
“”Umu, I shall assess the room. Sui, Dora-chan, you two take care of the Gargoyles.””
“”Eh, I’ll sit this one out,”” said Dora-chan with a yawn.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm“Dora-chan…”
“”Does this means Sui gets to pew pew all the stone monsters~?””
““I… supposed? Don’t hit any of the Adventurers!”” I reminded her.
“”Okay~!””
“Let’s go!” yelled the leader.
The party of beastmen, humans and one elf rushed forward. My team went in after them, Sui bouncing forward towards the 30 or so Gargoyles. To be honest, seeing a long line of straight, powerful monsters stomping soldier-like towards me was quite frightening.
Two tentacles extended from Sui and Acid Bullets shot out.
Pew! Pew! Pew!
A hole appeared on the Gargoyles’ faces. For a moment, the Gargoyles paused in place, as though wondering what had just happened. Then, one tottered and fell sideways, taking his companion down. Which then took the third monster down…
The huge, stone monsters fell and toppled over like a bunch of dominoes. The sound of crashing and thundering of stones was incredible.
I really don’t blame the Adventurers for their stunned reaction.
“S-sui, that was… that was…”
“”Hehe, Sui is really amazing, right~~?””
Just then, Fer’s voice came over through telepathy, “”Oi, I’m done. There’s nothing hidden here.”
“Oh, uh, okay,” I had almost forgotten why we came here. “”Uh, so we should investigate the rest of the floor again?””
“”Umu, looks like it.””
I was about to leave with my familiars when I saw that the Adventurers were standing stock still in place. Which was not good since the Boss Monster looked like it was gearing up for a fight.
“Uh, so, my familiars’ are done here.”
“Eh? Ah, oh?”
“You might want to, you know, get yourself ready to fight the Boss monster,” I hinted kindly.
“Oh, right, right,”
They still looked a little daze, but we had already taken out all the Gargoyles for them, so it’s up to them to defeat the Boss.
After a final wave, I left the Boss Room with my familiars.
[Gumihou: Pretty much changed the ‘negotiation scene’ and ‘battle scene’ to something less mundane]
[1] Structural Change: Combine 2 paragraphs
[2] Structural Change: Combine 3 paragraphs
[3] Structural Change: Combine paragraph & dialogue
[4] Structural Change: Change passive sentence to dialogue
[5] Delete Repetitive or Pointless Information… starting to delete pointless scenes now
[6] Additional Information for Aesthetic Purpose
[7] Add Dialogue Tag
[8] Creative Licence Taken – Adjust the text to reflect a more ‘natural sounding’ dialogue
[9] Adjusted the rather robotic and awkward exchange between Mukouda and the ‘other party’ into something more natural under the circumstances