As they laughed and agreed, the group followed their magically-created guides once more.
After several easy battles, as they moved through the tomb—
“Oops, hang on!”
— The group ground to a halt from Nishiki Enrai’s sudden warning.
“It’s a teleport trap. Disarm difficulty looks to be… red.”
A red disarm rating meant that the chances of successfully disarming the trap were very low. The most common methods of disarming traps were through the use of a skill to temporarily raise one’s success rate, using a magic item, or by casting a trap-disarming spell.
“Then, I guess it’s my turn.”
However, this team had a method apart from those. It was a brute-force method that was also known as the warrior’s disarm, or a summon disarm.
Momonga created a low-tier undead being — a skeleton.
“「Undeath Slave Sight」.”
He cast his spell on the skeleton. A small window appeared in the corner of Momonga’s field of vision, allowing him to see through the skeleton’s eye sockets. Momonga then ordered it in the direction Nishiki Enrai was pointing at. They advanced, and then the skeleton suddenly vanished.
He enlarged the small window.
They had been teleported to a large burial chamber, and he could see the imposing figure of a huge monster. The monster’s name and level did not appear because he was looking through the eyes of the skeleton, but Momonga was already familiar with the stats of that big monster.
“…Well, that skeleton travelled quite a distance. That’s a level 95 undead creature, a Greater Graveyard, I think. Ah, it died.”
With a swipe of a massive arm, the window turned black and the spell terminated.
“…20 seconds have passed. The teleport trap’s stopped operating… which means it’s inactive for now. Wait a little longer.”
A minute later, Nishiki Enrai received a notification of the trap reactivating.
“Then, let’s try it again.”
Momonga created another skeleton, and sent it into the trap with the same spell as before.
The teleport destination was the same burial chamber from earlier, guarded by the same monster.
“Same place. Can we conclude that the trap only goes to one location?” Momonga asked Bukubukuchagama as the screen blacked out again.
“Of course~” she replied.
Momonga and the others, who strongly doubted that there was a proper route through the teleport trap, hurriedly ran through the trap while it was inactive.
“If we get a new member in the guild, I hope they’re good at trap-disarming. After all, our rogue-type members are more focused on combat.”
“That’s true. However, I don’t think we should be too picky. I think it’ll be fine as long as they’re heteromorphs. I don’t want us to be like other guilds with trial periods that are several weeks long, all sorts of entry requirements and so on. After all, Punitto-san said so himself, games are meant to be enjoyed.”
“You’ve got a point, Momonga-san, and I agree with it. I guess it’s just us being selfish in wanting a proper thief.”
“No, no, Yamaiko-san. I was just thinking that it would be good if we had someone like that. It’s not like we won’t let someone in who isn’t a thief.”
“Ah, is that so? My apologies, Takemikazuchi-san.”
“It’s fine, it’s fine, don’t worry about it. I said something weird myself. Well, we beat the trap, though we had to spend some resources on it. If anything happens, we can hire NPC mercenaries.”
“Enough chitchat, the enemy’s coming. Stay alert until we make contact.”
In accordance with Bukubukuchagama’s directions, Momonga steeled himself for combat. Carelessness was dangerous as long as one did not know about the enemy.
Just as a murky, monstrous silhouette appeared in the corner of their eyes, Momonga and Ulbert simultaneously cast area-of-effect attack spells from their wands.
Part 6
There was a statue in what seemed like the heart of the dungeon. There were glowing magic circles before the statue, and it seemed likely that stepping into them would transport one to the boss.
Since they had made it all the way here, even those shitty developers would not have put in endlessly-respawning monsters, so they had the luxury of changing out their gear for an anti-boss loadout. That said, nobody in this group trusted the developers. Nishiki Enrai carefully surveyed their surroundings while the magic casters used spells to check for secret doors nearby.
Momonga did not have much gear to switch out, so he was the first to finish. Then, he contacted the other parties with a 「Message」.
Since 「Message」 was a spell that created a one-to-one conversation, it was difficult to share information with the rest of the group. While there were certain commander-type classes who had skills that allowed for simultaneous communication with many people, Ainz Ooal Gown did not possess individuals with such skills.
After speaking to everyone and discussing what he had learned with Punitto Moe, Momonga returned to his companions, who were almost done with their preparations. He also carried the sense of guilt which came with knowing something troublesome and knowing that he would have to rope others into helping him.
“How goes it, Momonga-san? Did the other teams all make it?”
Momonga answered Bukubukuchagama, the party leader:
“Yes, the other four teams have reached the dungeon’s heart. They’ve all expended some resources, but they’re all in tip-top condition and ready to fight.”
A small cheer came from the group. However, beating trash mobs and the environment made up 40 % of the difficulty of raiding a dungeon, while beating its boss was the other 60 %. In a way, they were not even halfway through.
Still, one could turn it around and say that that they had completed almost half of the raid perfectly.
“Still, there’s two… three problems. Two teams have already started fighting their respective bosses. Judging by shared information, the bosses they’ve encountered have different abilities, appearances, and boss rooms. The volcanic region’s boss seems to be some sort of dragon with lightning breath, while the party in the underwater lake seems to have encountered some kind of pure white bat.”
“I see… so we can’t use information gained from people who went in first. What’s the second problem?”
“There were announcements once they entered the boss rooms, and judging by the content of those announcements, the bosses get stronger in order of encounter. Which means, the team that fights their boss last…”
The veteran players instantly knew what Momonga was trying to say.
“I see… it would be simple enough if the bosses were even in power, but after several encounters, a strong boss might get even stronger. Is that it?”
“Well, if it’s the shitty developers, they’d probably level up the boss until it’s unbeatable. ‘How many times should we make them fight before letting them win,’ they’d ask with smug grins on their faces.”
“…And without any concrete information, we can’t formulate a battle plan. Hm, I think I know what you’re trying to say, Momonga-san. Come, speak your mind.”
Pushed forward by everyone else, Momonga decided to come clean:
“My apologies. I want to have our team pick the short straw. Can I trouble everyone to bear this hardship?”
There was no hesitation in their answers.
The others agreed unanimously. There was no reluctance or a sense that it could not be helped — only excitement.
“Momonga-san, don’t be mistaken. This isn’t taking on a hardship, but rather, it’s because we’re like this that we can take it on at all. Look, in terms of physical damage dealing, defense, magical damage dealing, healing and support, we’re probably the most specialized members of Nine’s — no, of Ainz Ooal Gown. If I could put a team together to fight that boss, I’d probably pick all of us again.”