Chapter 18: The Thunder Javelin Carriage, Blazing Toward the Lowest Floor
"Oh! So that means everyone on your side hit Job Level 30, huh? Ah, take a right here."
"Yes. The experience points from that rare boss we stumbled across—<Battle Wolf (Second Form)>—were huge. Even Shizu and Pamela, who were the lowest level, managed to reach it comfortably."
"You even took down a rare boss, huh. Then I guess they’ve officially graduated from Beginner Mid-tier dungeons. Oh, there it is. That’s the gate to the fifth layer."
"Yes."
Right now, the <Thunder Javelin>—formerly the <Karakuri Carriage>—was tearing down the fastest route toward the lowest floor of the <Poison Mushroom Cavern Dungeon>.
Every mushroom monster that popped up along the way got plowed under and vanished into special effects.
Ester and I were sitting up front in the driver’s and passenger’s seats, chatting and exchanging info as we watched.
Lana, Sierra, and Kalua were inside the carriage.
It was their first time riding the <Thunder Javelin>, so they wandered around the <Thunder Javelin>, checking it out with fascination.
Kalua especially was busy—darting her eyes here, darting them there, clearly excited.
Since her 【Starcat】 build emphasizes speed, maybe she felt a certain kinship with the carriage. From the looks of it, the velocity itself had her thrilled.
"This is amazing—so spacious, and fast. Fast and spacious!"
"Kalua, calm down a little. If you keep swishing your tail and twitching your cat ears like that, I won’t be able to take my eyes off you."
Ah, so that’s why Lana’s gaze had been glued to her this whole time.
Peeking inside, I caught sight of Lana looking at Kalua with the same eyes she usually reserved for doting on <Lucky Cat-sama>. That was not the way one normally looked at a teammate.
She clearly wanted to pet her so badly.
I wished she’d spare at least a glance for the interior of the carriage itself…
Wanting their impressions too, I called inside:
"So, how’s the carriage? Comfy? As I mentioned before, it’s top-of-the-line, built with a heap of rare boss materials."
Sierra, who was nearby, answered:
"That much is obvious. First of all, I’ve never even heard of <Mount> equipment before, so that surprised me. Sure, item carriages are known, but one of this grade? I’ve hardly seen anything like it. Normally, they’re made with gathered resources like wood or metal. To build one entirely out of monster materials—especially boss monster materials—well, no one would ever bother. The cost is ridiculous."
Yeah, she wasn’t wrong.
The cost of this carriage was outrageous. It used rare boss materials lavishly, and every other part was made entirely from boss monster loot. Not a scrap of ordinary wood or metal was involved.
Almost nobody would sink this much into a single piece of equipment.
Same goes for items—there’s no real need to go to this grade.
And gathering the materials is absurdly difficult. Without knowing the <Official Cheat Tactic: Boss Farming>, you’d either have to collect them yourself or commission someone to do it, both options costing a fortune in time and mirus. All that, just to make a single item or piece of equipment?
Flat out, it’s not worth it. Even if I published the <Karakuri Carriage Recipe> we pulled from a <Gold Chest>, no one would try making it. Too wasteful.
Sierra, being well-connected and a noble princess, said she’d seen carriages of this grade a few times before. But for ordinary folk, they were basically unobtainable. Her verdict: this was truly exceptional.
Which meant the ride was excellent. (Probably. I’ll take it that way.)
Fufufu, but I went and built it anyway.
Because the "normal-grade" carriages in the <Great Library> were total junk.
Anything made with ordinary wood and metal had terrible performance.
They were slow, hard to handle, and too weak to even mow down monsters—often leading to "monster train" accidents.
On top of that, they weren’t durable, so they came with negative skills like 『Take 50% More Damage』.
Which meant just moving around would shred your HP. Easily the worst drawback.
Still, it was better than nothing, so I had planned to use a normal-grade carriage at first—counting on Ester’s high stats to brute-force our way through. Sure, it would’ve cost us more in healing, but I considered that just an unavoidable expense. Thankfully, a <Gold Chest> dropped the recipe, and here we are.
Later, Lana and Kalua also praised it with shining eyes, and my satisfaction peaked.
Man, it feels good to have your hard work recognized. (Even if it was Gant-senpai who did the actual crafting.)
Before I knew it, we’d already entered the 17th layer. Just two or three minutes until the bottom floor. Ester’s driving skills had improved a lot.
Along the way, she also reported about that rare boss—<Battle Wolf (Second Form)>—which had appeared after I left.
A rare boss appearing at an unexpected timing can be both incredibly lucky and, at the same time, potentially disastrous.
This time it turned out to be on the lucky side—but still, I was curious how they managed to take down a boss ranked a full tier above the dungeon itself.
Maybe it had been a fierce, hard-fought battle.
I waited eagerly for the report.
But Ester’s answer was far simpler than I expected.
"If it’s just one, then it wasn’t even a match for Lulu."
"…I see."
At that, I couldn’t help but picture the scene in my head, and it all made sense.
The boss must’ve been smothered in Lulu’s endless debuffs, weakened into uselessness, and then crushed without ever landing a real blow.
"That Unique Skill—『Battle Wolf Style: Blazing Tail Slash』, I believe?—Lulu and Pamela did take a direct hit since they couldn’t dodge in time. But both of them were perfectly fine afterward."
During the stiff downtime that followed its Unique Skill, Celestan pulled something off that forced a critical-down state. Then, with a full-on assault, <Battle Wolf (Second Form)> sank beneath a sea of effects.
Just as you'd expect from a 【Lolita Hero】. Lulu and the others were really getting the hang of combat now.
"Oh, and as for the drops—we got two <Gold Chests>. You can check them later."
"Wait, even the rare boss dropped <Gold Chests>?!"
Oh man, that’s huge—something else to look forward to after we return.
Now I was pumped both for fighting rare bosses and for going home afterward.
My excitement just wouldn’t stop.
"We’ve arrived."
And with that, we finally reached the lowest floor.
Alright then—time for the rare boss battle to begin.
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