Chapter 644: Earth Labyrinth RTA (13) Shooting Game |
[61st floor, 12:41 left]
-1 Adamantite shovel
-2 Keys
-Other necessary items omitted
When they reached the 61st floor and took a turn after a T intersection, the group ran into more than 10 trap users which were manipulating the stone floor.
They put hidden trap switches inside the lumps of rock, then attached them to the balloons on their back, making them float.
(Mid-air obstacles are too awful.)
Before they got too far, their view was covered with traps.
"Everyone! Black all of them and don't leave any standing!!"
"Aye!"
"Aye!"
At Admiral Galara's order, all the dwarves from the party Stinger replied energetically.
They had been doing runs here for a while so they were used to quick orders.
"I'll help too! Don't get knocked down now!!"
Merle switched the slabs in her Magic Board, and then the guns on the wingtips fired making the entire hull shake violently.
"Hey!"
Since Allen and the rest were also on top of Tam-Tam, Cecile ended up shouting.
But since Cecile's Level was maxed out and she had plenty of stats, she was able to keep standing.
The same applied to the members of Helmios' party.
The 3 combined golems and Tam-Tam continued firing at the balloons that were floating kilometers away, which released the rocks onto the floor, where the traps activating, creating explosions or creating clouds of poison.
"Don't get them close to the party!! We could be teleported away!!"
Galara shouted more.
*VHOOOMM*
One of the fallen traps created a large magic circle, that was one of the teleporting traps.
'Mokomoko?!'
'Mokomoko?!'
'Mokomoko?!'
The trap users looked shocked as they were teleported away.
Teleportation traps could split up the team leading to a large time loss while they regrouped, or if that was impossible, they would have to stop the run there, making them dangerous traps.
(I'm glad I invited Admiral Galara to come here. It's almost like a shooting game.)
A 3rd of the 48 members of the team, including Merle, were Golem Pilots.
Golem Pilots had so much attack range that not even magicians could compare.
Magic circles formed around the golems' cannons, which then shot high power laser beams at the balloons, making the traps fall to the ground.
The combined golems of Galara's party were formed by 5 members, with 1 being the pilot and the other 4 manning the weapons. Meanwhile Tam-Tam's [Artificial Intelligence] allowed him to do that himself.
The stone slabs used by Golem Pilots also had all sorts of abilities, giving them different powers which were quite different from spirits and summons.
'Squeeeeeeee!!'
As they moved along the dungeon, a 100 meter long ghost bird shrieked.
The ghost was coming at them from the other side of the T intersection from earlier, and it was holding a trap in its beak.
"Hey! That ghost is carrying a trap! Don't let it get anywhere near us!!"
Galara's voice thundered from his golem.
"Aye! We'll take care of it!!"
The combined golem in the rear quickly put its engines in reverse, with 1 dwarf piloting while the other 4 looked at the screens to focus on the ghost bringing the trap to them.
"Shoot the wings!"
"Don't let it keep flying!!"
"Make the whole bird drop!!"
The dwarves quickly switched to stone slabs to enhance their firepower and tore through the ghost bird's wings.
(Hm? It seems to have a lot of Strength. Maybe I should tell Makris to turn around too?)
It seemed to be an Archangel Rank ghost, similar to a Demon General in power.
Using its high stats to its advantage, it kept charging forward even without its wings.
Allen was keeping Makris close to the center of the formation, so he could use his Special Skill [Freeze Cannon] if things got tricky. It could not be fired too often, but it was powerful enough to freeze the trap and deactivate it.
"Leave it to me! Eat this rock!!"
But Allen did not have to worry in the end.
One of the dwarves had just finished switching the stone slabs of his Magic Board and shot a rock a few meters in size, which hit the bird in the chest and activating the trap switch.
The trap exploded and tore a large hole into the bird's body, making it plummet to the floor.
'We're being attacked from behind! Merle and Admiral Galara can… Hm?!'
Just as Allen was about to reorganize the formation, he realized that the trap had opened a hole in the floor.
Thanks to the trap users, the likelihood of pitfalls appearing increased after the 61st floor.
'It's a pitfall! Let's keep our formation and go through it!!'
Using the Bird F summon, Allen told the group what to do.
And so, thanks to the efforts of Merle and Galara's party, they were able to go through the 61st floor.
Eventually the group reached the 70th floor.
[70th floor, 11:27 left]
-1 Adamantite shovel
-2 Keys
-Other necessary items omitted
"It's all according to plan, right Master Allen?"
"Since the 60th floor was made of adamantite, it makes sense that every 10 would be like this."
"What makes sense about that?"
While Sophie looked impressed, Cecile was not very convinced.
"Still, we've broken far past our previous thanks to Allen."
'Hm? Ah, right.'
Eventually they also spoke to Shea, but she did not look at them, her eyes focused in the dark adamantite corridor in front of them.
"Well, go ahead Sophie."
"Yes, Cecile. And…go!"
(Yes, that's a really good angle. You've gotten so much better, Sophie. Wait, hm?)
Sophie nodded and struck the ground of the 70th floor with the adamantite shovel, under the watch of Allen, who acted all proud of having taught her how to do it.
But then the shovel began to glow and then vanished with a pop.
"Huh…huhhh?!! I'm so sorry."
"Hey, seriously?! This is all because of the stupid stuff you taught her, Allen!"
"Wait, why is it my fault now?"
"I'm…I'm so sorry…"
As Allen spoke Sophie's eyes filled with tears, and then everyone from Helmios' party began to gather around her in support.
(Why is everyone so insistent that it's my fault?)
Allen began to feel like it was time to show his worth as the party leader.
So after a deep breath, he shouted loudly.
'Everyone! We're still not done!! We can't get caught up in what happens, and we should just focus on getting a new best! That's the nature of being an RTA runner!"
"Yessir!"
Merle inside Tam-Tam was the first one to reply.
'We need to get the reward from the 80th floor anyway. Then we'll just go through the 90th one without a shovel!! Let's go everyone!!'
'Gyau!!'
This time it was Haku replying to Allen.
Then everyone jumped into the hole Sophie had opened up.
The 71st floor was also filled with trap users.
They were mostly still the same clay puppets hanging from balloons from earlier, but there were some that looked different too, and the ghosts became stronger.
But everyone kept working diligently, and they were able to reach the 80th floor without stepping into any teleporting traps.
[80th floor, 7:53 left]
-2 Keys
-Other necessary items omitted
They moved through the 80th floor's adamantite maze following Temi's directions, and reached a large door.
(Almost 8 hours left at the 80th floor, huh. I guess skipping 4 out of 5 did give us a lot of time, though now we don't have more shovels.)
They had skipped all shops and chests since the 71st floor to get to the 80th floor too.
They also lacked the items to make a new shovel or pickaxe too, as they had prioritized time.
Allen believed that the results of time attack runs always changed depending on what they got.
They had to defeat the boss of the 80th floor to earn their reward.
And there was a chance that the boss of the 80th floor was the Dragon God Magra.
"Is all of this orichalcum?"
"It looks like it. Though it only gives me a really bad feeling."
There was a metal with a yellow shine there, which was not gold.
That was a sign of orichalcum.
The walls of the 80th floor of the Earth Labyrinth were covered with orichalcum.
Orichalcum was said to have been created by the God of Earth, and it was used generously there.
"Well, here goes nothing."
(The key didn't break, huh. So we need a key for the 80th floor too though. I guess we'll need 2 keys for our next runs too.)
A magic circle appeared on the door as something activated, while Allen was thinking about the things he would need in the future.
After Sophie put the key into the keyhole, the large doors began to rumble as they slowly opened.
'...'
An enormous room around ten meters long and wide awaited them on the other side.
That was the boss arena of the 80th floor of the Earth Labyrinth.
Unlike the adamantite walls and floor outside, everything shone with orichalcum here.
Around 5 kilometers away from Allen's group, something looked at them silently, likely the boss.
As they approached, Allen sent a Bird F summon ahead, so that he could use the Awakened Skill [Messenger] to relay to everyone what he could see there.
"So that's the boss. And what's up with all this orichalcum anyway?"
Only Cecile's voice could be heard.
It was a bigger enemy than any they had faced before, probably around 300 meters long.
At first it looked like a small hill.
There were countless crystals of orichalcum shining everywhere, like a pile of treasure.
The enemy seemed to notice Allen's group, and its head slowly came out from the shell and its legs began to move.
It looked like an enormous tortoise, with its shell covered in enormous icicles.
Four large scaly legs supported its body, and its head was covered in countless horns.
On the opposite side of its head was a tail, which was considerably longer than expected for a tortoise, as it extended over 100 meters.
The tip of that tail was a rotund mass, covered in sharp spikes.
(A body of orichalcum.)
'To think someone would actually reach the 80th floor. I'm the Earth Incarnation Andre, Servant of the God of Earth Gaia.'
Andre, the boss of the 80th floor, spoke.
Their fight against the boss of the 80th floor of the Earth Labyrinth was about to begin.
"