Live Dungeon!

"This layer’s Boss is pretty twisted, huh?" one noblewoman murmured.

"I still think the Corrupted Shell was more disturbing," another replied, cradling her child. "Maybe because it looked human."

Several mothers sat together before Monitor #1, soothing their frightened children as the monstrous image on the screen continued its grotesque transformation. The Corroded Elder Dragon, initially not much more than a heap of bones, was now morphing into something more sinister and alive. Their light chatter reached Tsutomu’s ears, but he paid them no mind. He was too busy suppressing the overwhelming urge to scream.

[There’s no way that’s the Corroded Elder Dragon! That thing is something else entirely!]

The Corroded Elder Dragon that Tsutomu knew did regenerate, but never like this. In Live Dungeon, it remained true to its name, which was a creature of rot and ruin, unable to truly heal its decaying body no matter how many times it rose again. It would claw its way toward Explorers in a desperate bid for life, its corrupted essence reducing weapons and armor to scrap, spreading lethal poison as it went. An undead-type layer Boss, it could be manipulated through healing and resurrection-type skills, making support-based Jobs particularly effective against it.

But the version now playing out on the monitor had taken a different turn. Its behavior had matched Tsutomu’s expectations at first… until its heart regenerated. Then, it began manipulating blood. Its once-hollow chest now bore an exposed, pulsating organ, and other viscera showed signs of returning as well.

Tsutomu could not help but think of a Raid Boss from Live Dungeon, a golem-type monster known as the BFG, created by the devs with one simple goal: make it freaking big. It began as a shell and gradually formed organs, all constructed of magical machinery. Its blood was not blood, per se, but magical fluids; its organs were not flesh, but mechanical components. These were measures taken in accordance with CERO’s age rating guidelines. As the organs regenerated, the Boss gained new abilities, and players had to adapt strategies on the fly, prioritizing organ destruction depending on their party’s strengths.

The BFG was introduced some time after the opening of the Secret Dungeon, and it became a popular event for mid-tier players. Tsutomu himself had tackled it with friends more than once. He knew its patterns and tells, knew how to prioritize organ destruction, and adapt to the shifting mechanics.

But never, not even in his wildest dreams, did he imagine that knowledge would become useful here, in the hundredth layer of a fantasy world’s Dungeon.