Chapter 210
"As Nell said, I believe Libertà can learn from this experience and use it as nourishment for the future, so I'll just add one thing."
Following Nell's words, Lady Esmeralda tosses her hair behind her shoulder with a gesture, telling us not to worry.
"You should rely on us more. You always try to do everything alone. I'll help with everything I can." "Me too, me too!"
"Don't do everything alone," huh? That stings to hear.
"Yeah, next time I’ll make sure to consult with everyone." "Then, as our first discussion, shall we decide what to do next? Should we wait here for the storm to pass, or abandon the carriage and retreat?" "Eh? We’re leaving the horses behind?"
But it’s definitely something I should be more careful about from now on. Ingrid’s suggestion is a good opportunity to do just that.
"If we retreat, we’ll have to use the transfer pendulum. Even if we withdraw to the royal capital and then come back, it’ll take at least an hour to return, plus another hour to get back here. Considering that, before I give my opinion, I’ll share all the information I have. The Rainy Devil will leave once it’s had its fill. The only reason it comes close to the surface is to feed. If we don’t provoke it, it’ll leave on its own after some time."
In that case, it’s better to share all the relevant information while I can.
"But while it’s here, it’ll devour any living thing it sees—it’s indiscriminate. Until it’s full, it won’t stop eating. If we stay inside the dungeon, we shouldn’t have to worry about it coming in, but other monsters might flee inside, and there’s no guarantee its tentacles won’t follow."
The Rainy Devil’s tentacles have some way of sensing life. Because of that, even monsters hiding in small crevices or burrowing underground like Spot Tunnelers are found.
"Going back to the earlier discussion about fighting it—the tentacles inflict paralysis, so ideally, we’d need at least one tank and one attacker per party, with healers supporting them. If we think about it that way, we could theoretically hold out by deploying golems as frontliners (since they’re immune to status effects) and whittling down the tentacles from the rear until the Devil is full."
The Rainy Devil’s enmity doesn’t build up easily from attacking its tentacles. It’s not zero, but unless we use wide-area attacks to destroy multiple tentacles at once, it shouldn’t focus on us—even if we’re tempting prey—as long as there are easier targets nearby.
"But I don’t see any merit in staying." "Given that we can’t defeat it, the only possible advantage is maybe catching a Rainbow Mimic Armor after the rain clears. At this point, I think retreat is our only option."
There’s risk in staying, but it’s possible. However, the only benefit is the slim chance of finding a Rainbow Mimic Armor.
We can always come back later under safer conditions, so that "advantage" isn’t compelling.
"I also think staying here is a bad idea."
Nell was the first to agree. Her intuition might be part of it, but she understands the danger after hearing the explanation.
"Carelessly provoking it and drawing aggro would be disastrous. I also vote for retreat. Libertà, you’re absolutely sure we can’t win?"
Lady Esmeralda followed suit, supporting the retreat.
"Without the key role for a Rainy Devil fight—a unit capable of aerial takedowns—it’s impossible." "Takedown unit? Archers or mages?" "Those classes can’t bring it down. What we’d need is heavily armored troops with heavy weaponry. But that’s just an ideal—we don’t have that right now."
A drawn-out battle offers almost no advantages, only downsides.
"In a Rainy Devil fight, takedown units are more essential than attackers. They use weight-amplifying skills to increase falling damage, then slam it into the ground with sheer mass."
The lack of a viable strategy is the biggest reason to retreat. If we *could* win, the Rainy Devil’s materials would be incredibly valuable—its resistances make for endgame-tier cloaks with exceptional status and elemental defenses.
But to get those, we’d need someone to slam it to the ground.
What’s needed isn’t attack power, but defense and weight-amplifying skills, paired with flight-enabled accessories. A tank-build character with that setup would work perfectly.
"Flight skills + gravity acceleration = human projectile takedown. That’s the win condition." "Wait, hold on. You’re saying a monster the size of a rain cloud would *fall*?" "Claudia, don’t underestimate tank builds. Their average gear weight is at least 30 kg. With tower shields and full metal armor, some breach 100 kg. Add skills like Heavy Stance to amplify weight, and you know what happens?"
Claudia, a speed-focused hit-and-run fighter, might not grasp it, but tanks are meant to absorb attacks and hold aggro.
"Enduring hits isn’t just about strength. Even the mightiest warrior can’t stand firm against blows that send them flying—unless they weigh enough. Against larger monsters, brute force isn’t enough without the mass to anchor them. That’s why weight-amplifying skills exist."
"I know they get heavier, but how much?" "At minimum, 10x. With the right setup, up to 2,000x." "Two thousand times?"
And that’s not counting gear, which can be enchanted for adjustable weight.
100 kg × 2,000 = 200,000 kg. 200 metric tons.
"With a full party doing this, six people = 1,200 tons. From sufficient height, a free-falling strike would ground even a massive Rainy Devil."
There’s an FBO saying—more of a meme, really: "A tank’s highest DPS is Meteor Attack: free-falling as a human projectile."
And it’s not wrong. Ignoring accuracy and efficiency, pure damage-wise, it’s their strongest move.
Plus, hardened tanks take zero fall damage, no matter the height. They’ve endured worse, so a little plummeting? Nothing.
"Luckily, the Devil’s huge, slow, and soft—hard to miss. Once grounded, its tentacle attacks are mostly neutralized, since they rely on the ‘umbrella’ staying aloft."
This strategy *works*.
"Then it’s just a matter of keeping it pinned for a full beatdown." "That sounds simple in theory, but the more I hear, the more it feels like counting unhatched chickens." "Wishing for what we don’t have won’t change things. We lack tanks who can survive the fall, accessories for cloud-height flight, and armor for the impact."
The requirements are steep. I said Class 7 earlier, but surviving free-fall requires late-Class 8. At Class 7, a bad landing means serious injury.
"So it’s not an easy foe." "We don’t have anyone with weight-manipulation skills." "What about gravity magic? It alters the target’s weight." "The Devil’s magic resistance and levitation would counter it. We *could* drop golems from above, but procuring high-durability golems, gravity-capable spirits, *and* a summoner to coordinate? Unrealistic."
Outside the dungeon, the "Devil" lives up to its name. Monsters’ death cries echo as tentacles sweep the area, hauling prey skyward. Some fight back, but it’s hopeless—they’re snatched mid-strike.
This isn’t a battle. It’d be the same for us, just drawn out.
"...I see. Then I, too, support Libertà’s retreat."
Claudia, watching the carnage, finally agrees. Understanding there’s no path to victory.
"But what about the horses? If we leave them, monsters might get them!"
With the party unanimous, retreat is decided. For us, leaving is easy—but the horses complicate things.
"We could shelter them in the boss room, but... dungeon spatial coordinates are unstable. We can’t set a transfer point inside. Exiting is fine near the entrance, but returning would take us to Madalda. With monsters swarming, we’d have to wait days to come back." "Is that safe?"
It might sound cruel, but it’s our only option. Hiding deep in the dungeon would cut us off from outside intel—not ideal when we don’t know how long the Devil will stay.
"With enough food and water left, they’ll be fine."
(That’s just empty reassurance. The Devil might linger far longer than in-game.)
Worse, once the boss room is sealed, only transfer magic can exit it. If the horses left on their own, we’d have no way to retrieve them.
'The horses will be okay!!''We’ll take them!''Amina, don’t worry. We can’t go far, but we can hide them where the scary thing won’t find them.'
The solution comes from Amina’s spirits.
"Right—the Spirit Corridor!"
I’d only considered the transfer pendulum, but spirits can guide beings through their corridors safely. Humans can’t choose their exit point without a spirit’s guidance, but for the horses? Perfect.
"Please! Take us outside!"
Even minor spirits can evacuate the carriage.