351 Part 2

The four Sallys steadily cut down the swarm of undead. As long as they could attack, these undead were nothing to be afraid of.

“They should be able to defeat them all if there is an actual limit…but is there?”

Maple decided to save her ammunition for now and let Sally’s clones do the fighting. As for the real Sally, she would use ‘Ice Pillar,’ ‘Iron Water Cannon,’ and ‘Rapid Current’ whenever she could, and slow down the undead.

In fact, ‘Water Manipulation’ was also a big help here. If used right, the skill was able to help her accelerate, and it had a wide enough range to be effective even though she unleashed it with her eyes still closed.

“Ho-how are things going, Maple?”

“Pretty good! Let’s keep going!”

As Maple cheered them on, the clones took their time and obliterated the undead who greatly outnumbered them. And then finally, Maple had a clear view of what lay ahead.

The clones ran straight towards the boss, leaving the range of ‘Dedicated Affection.’ And right as they were in front of the boss, a black flame was unleashed, killing them instantly.

“Ah! I could have protected them if they stayed close by… But, thank you! Sally, they did so well!”

“I have mixed feelings about that… So, it’s just the boss now?”

“Yes! So far, it doesn’t seem like there will be any additional monsters.”

As for the boss, since ‘Throne of the Heavenly King’ covered the entire room, it would not be able to use any significant special attacks. And so it was slowly moving towards them so that they would be in range of its fire.

“The boss is coming towards us now. I’ll be able to fight it if it gets close enough…”

Maple could not easily get up from the throne. It would all be for nothing if the boss used a skill to summon more undead as soon as she got up.

And so the smartest thing to do was to stop firing and wait for the boss to come to them.

As it had already been quite close when it attacked the clones, she was hopeful that it would at least come into the passage.

Maple’s guess turned out to be correct, and they could hear the bones rattling as the boss moved. It was just a few steps away from her reach now. She would be able to use ‘Sinking Earth’ in order to obstruct its movement.

“Is it here? Is it?”

“Yes. It’s very close now.”

“Le-let’s hurry up and kill it! ‘Ice Pillar’!”

Sally created ice pillars behind the boss’s back, closing off its escape route. It was here that Maple finally brought out her weapons.

“Now I’ll be able to hit it without anything getting in the way!”

“Get it before it reaches us…”

“Of course! ‘Commence Attack’!”

Maple’s bullets shot into the boss’s body, and Sally’s magic, which was now useless, went flying off somewhere. And like that, the boss’s HP slowly dropped until its body disappeared into light.

“You have acquired the skill, ‘Monster Peak.’”

Came the announcement as soon as the boss was defeated. They waited for a while, but no other monsters came out.

“It seems to be over?”

“O-over!? But my chance to redeem myself…”

Sally had been the one to invite Maple with talk about cooperation. This was not the ending she had envisioned for them.

She took off the scarf she had wrapped around her face and then looked back and forth between the spot that the boss had been and Maple’s face. It was as if she couldn’t find the right words to say.

“But you did really well too, Sally! Even in the end you were a help.”

“I wanted to end it with a little more impact…”

“Still, it felt like we were helping each other!”

They had come here to test their cooperative power. Thinking about it like that, you could say that Sally had covered all of Maple’s weaknesses, and that Maple had covered all of Sally’s in this fight.

“Well, I guess that’s true… Uh, so what do you think? Am I good enough to be your partner?”

Sally asked. And so Maple smiled broadly and gave her a thumbs up.

“Of course! You were so amazing against the ogre, that I wasn’t sure if I was good enough for you!”

“Hehe. If you weren’t good enough, Maple, then no one would be.”

“Huh? I don’t know about that.”

“Yes. …You know, that’s just how strong you are!”

“Ehehe, ah! Now that I think about it, we received a skill.”

“This time, we both got it. Uhh…”

[Monster Peak]

1.5x boost to the status of summoned monsters.

The short description was both simple and powerful.

“That’s the 7th layer for you…and it’s a passive skill, which is even better.”

“Yes! So Syrup will become even stronger!”

“Judging by the description, it doesn’t only apply to tamed monsters. Maybe that means it includes ‘Savagery’ as well? That has attack ability too.”

“I see! So everyone gets stronger!”

“While I have a few uses for it, I don’t think it will work with Oboro’s ‘Shadow Clone.’”

“Because it’s not you who are making them.”

“Exactly. Oh, well. I’ll have to think about it. Anyway, let’s go back now.”

“Yes!”

And like that, the two left the dungeon behind them.