I Reincarnated into a Game Filled with Mods – Chapter 45

Chapter 45

“…What does this look like to you, Erika?”

“Well. A centipede-shaped rock… is it?”

Iris and Erika took one step at a time toward the centipede-shaped rock. The part crushed by the pillar was completely shattered, and the condition of the other parts wasn’t exactly normal either.

Rize was already examining the end of the rock. Then, she flinched in surprise when the part she was looking at crumbled without her even touching it.

“Or it could be a rock-shaped monster. Do you think a rock with such a bizarre shape could be formed naturally?”

“Impossible. Even if you were sculpting with stone, it would be impossible to carve the surface this intricately. If there was a sculptor who could carve a rock into such a huge shape, and carve it this perfectly, they would be too busy being called by nobles to come here.”

“I agree.”

Iris took off her helmet. Silver hair cascaded down her back.

“Then, it means the meaning of this rock is set.”

“No way…”

“Yes, that ‘no way’. The corpse of a monster that looks like a rock. No, to be precise, it should be called a part of the corpse. There are traces of it being crushed and cut off by the pillar.”

“Just the part remaining here is terrifyingly large, so you’re saying it was originally even bigger than this?”

“Yes. At least a dozen times bigger. I’d guess it was about the same height as the castle we live in.”

“Could this have been the cause of the tremors?”

Silver eyes scanned the pillar that had crushed the centipede-shaped rock.

The bottom part was shattered and it had fallen forward. The cross-section was still very sharp, and judging by the stone fragments scattered around, it hadn’t been broken for long.

It seemed like it had been shattered because it couldn’t withstand the continuous impact on one spot, but there were no traces of being hit by a weapon.

“I can’t be sure, but it probably is. For some reason, it seems like this thing kept ramming into the pillar. Because of that, the pillar broke and ended up like this. The tremors we felt must have been caused by the centipede ramming into the pillar.”

“The marks on the wall must have been from that too. Now things are starting to make sense.”

Erika recalled the wide cavity they had passed about ten minutes ago. The bedrock on the floor was completely overturned, and the walls were cracked or even collapsed in places.

Back then, she didn’t know why there were such traces of destruction in this underground place, but if it was a landscape created by this centipede ramming into the walls and pillars, everything could be explained.

“You saw correctly. It’s possible to explain all the strange phenomena we felt as being caused by this centipede.”

Iris stroked the surface of the rock. She couldn’t feel the texture because of the gauntlets she was wearing, but the sound of metal hitting it and the hardness of the surface were undoubtedly that of a rock.

If it had been just a little less elaborate, if it hadn’t looked so clearly like a centipede, Iris would have definitely thought it was just a rock.

“Where did the rest of it go? Is it dead?”

The centipede’s body was cut off at the part crushed by the large stone pillar. Iris lightly jumped and leaped over the pillar. Erika followed right behind.

On the other side of the pillar was the horribly torn cross-section of the centipede. It looked as if someone had forcibly torn off the segments using something.

“It doesn’t seem to be dead. Look here. The segments are unnaturally cut off. It must have been severed after being crushed by the stone pillar. Whether this thing cut off its own body to escape, or whether it was cut off because the impact of being crushed was too great, the front part probably escaped safely.”

“That’s not very good news.”

“I wonder if our attacks will even work. If it was an ordinary rock, I could cut it off with a little more force, but if this is a monster, it will definitely be several times harder than an ordinary rock.”

Erika stared blankly at the roughly torn cross-section of the centipede-shaped rock. The question of who could have done this briefly crossed her mind.

It was literally just for a moment. It was obvious who had done this.

“Well, I have a rough idea who did this.”

“Yes, this is-”

“Our talented new recruit’s doing, right? It’s obvious.”

Rize, who had jumped over the pillar from her spot, stood on top of it. Then she came down to the other side where Erika and Iris were.

“…That’s right.”

Iris nodded her head slightly in affirmation. That was what she was about to say. Who else could have done this here if it wasn’t that audacious new recruit?

It’s not like a dungeon is a place you can just come to for a stroll.

“I thought he’d stay put since he said he’d wait down there, but it looks like he’s already made a grand mess. He doesn’t even know what’s on my mind.”

“If you want to nag, do it to your heart’s content after we join up with the new recruit, Unni. I won’t stop you. Iris, we should hurry too.”

“Okay. Let’s move as fast as possible.”

The helmet covered her head, hiding her silver eyes and silver hair. Rize was already walking forward. Iris and Erika followed behind her.

The thumping sound started to be heard again from afar.

ㅡCrack!

A sharp stalactite fell on top of the Rock Centipede’s head as it rammed its head against the wall and went berserk.

The stalactite that directly hit the Rock Centipede’s head shattered into pieces, and the culprit who broke the rock with its head also twisted the segments of its exoskeleton with all its might, expressing its pain with its whole body.

That was the gimmick of Phase 3. Getting it to ram its head against the wall was the same as Phase 1, but instead of ramming it anywhere, you had to make it go to the location where the stalactite on the ceiling was.

That way, it would fall on the Rock Centipede’s head like just now. Do that 20 times and it’s cleared.

For reference, that was the 19th time. Just one more time and Phase 3 would be over, and it would move on to Phase 4, which could be called a real boss fight.

The Rock Centipede, which had been going berserk on its own for a while, got up with a huff. Then, it gnawed at the ground with its lower jaw and burrowed into the rock, disappearing.

Since it had gnawed off and cut off the end of its body that had been crushed by the pillar, it disappeared faster than in Phase 2. A few legs that had been barely hanging onto its body fell off, unable to withstand the impact.

Even after they fell off the body, they continued to wriggle on their own for a while.

‘The Knight Commanders should be arriving soon.’

I thought for a moment about where the three I had left up there would be by now. I couldn’t be sure since this didn’t happen in the game, but I thought they would have reached somewhere underground.

Of course, it was just a guess. I’m not a computer, and this dungeon itself was much bigger than in the game, so it was impossible to calculate accurately.

About a minute after I sat down and waited, the Rock Centipede burst out. There was a large crack on its face that was visible at a glance.

It had rammed its head against the wall 20 times, against the pillar 20 times, against the wall again 19 times, and had been hit by the stalactite 19 times, so it was only natural that its head would be shattered.

I just waited calmly without doing anything special. I dodged the thrown rocks by rolling, and dodged the attack where it rubbed its body all over the place by running away.

As if it was really pissed off, it chattered its lower jaw and prepared its charge pattern. As soon as I saw that, a feeling of finally washed over me. Finally, it was time to part ways with this filthy thing.

I wasn’t going to clear Phase 4 anyway. If I leave it to the three Knight Commanders, they’ll take care of it, so why would I bother moving?

‘It’s a bit of a shame to miss out on the clear experience points.’

I can earn experience points anyway. The experience points earned from catching a gimmick boss in the early stages can be easily made up for by spending a few days running around.

Besides, the Knight Commanders are definitely not skilled enough to die to something like the Rock Centipede.

I took my position in front of the wall where the last stalactite was솟아있던. The Rock Centipede gradually increased its speed and approached. I stood still in front of the wall, and did the same thing I had been doing.

ㅡKooooong!

And the same thing I had seen so far happened. The Rock Centipede rammed its head against the wall and went berserk on its own, and the stalactite fell on top of it.

The stalactite that crashed into the Rock Centipede’s head with a cracking sound split its head in half this time. Shattered head fragments flew everywhere.

The Rock Centipede, with half of its head blown off, struggled more violently than ever before. I had retreated beyond the wall in advance. I didn’t want to get hit by the fragments by any chance.

‘It’s finally over.’

I stretched out in that state. It was a tiring boss fight in many ways. I really didn’t want to do it again.

It didn’t even think about burrowing into the rock and disappeared, struggling through the nearest crack. The gap, which seemed barely big enough for my body to fit through, had widened by at least three times.

If I followed it, Phase 4 would start at the place where the rune was, but there was no need to follow it now. I could just wait for Iris, Rize, and Erika here and go with them.

I sat down in the spot where the path was most visible and started waiting for the three of them.

‘What should I say?’

Thinking about what to say to make them understand what I had done.