When The Cute Godkiller Opens A Tavern [Stubbed]

Chapter 94 - No Leader

”I don’t know the first thing about it!” ~Grace Alltura

After giving their group exactly six hours of sleep, Grace went around waking people up. According to her System Console, they had around less than three hours left to finish the dungeon before the day ended. She couldn’t help but to rush the sleepy people a little bit.

Thankfully, Phyl’swen was with her. It seemed that the half-elf had a natural sway with her words, able to avoid riling up those who were freshly woken and still half-asleep.

A small meal was also prepared, courtesy of Shallies’ packed rations. It didn’t come with any Food Buffs, but they were guaranteed to last a long while thanks to her Extend Food Life Passive Skill. In fact, Ren clarified that these were the rations they were given back during their time in Rullzia Town.

One by one, the people gathered at the center of their makeshift camp. Rations were given out, and Grace noted their amazement with the food, though they were particularly lethargic still.

When everyone was filled and freshened up, they all waited for the Shalliesters Party to issue their next step.

Grace felt taken aback by the sudden silence and stares that awaited them. Earlier, they had all been coordinating as they went, issuing updates and trying not to get on anyone’s way. But now, everyone had seemingly gravitated towards the Shalliesters Party, feeling that they were supposed to lead the operation.

“Uh… We’re not exactly used to leading an entire crowd,” Ren admitted, which earned him a few giggles.

“Neither is anyone else here,” James answered, stepping beside Phyl’swen. “But we all decided that since you guys are probably the most comfortable dealing with danger than anyone else here, you might as well lead us.”

“I spent my entire leveling doing easy commissions, and just a few difficult ones,” the half-elf admitted. “No Dungeon Bosses, so I was only qualified to join a sub-raid. The most difficult mission I probably had to fulfill was locating a Boss Lair.”

“I did end up fighting one Dungeon Boss,” James said rather proudly. “But only as a backup.”

Then one by one, people from the group gave their experiences. Not everyone spoke, but the extent of what they had done to get to their current levels was nowhere near as dangerous or intense when compared to what Grace and her friends had gone through.

“That’s basically the normal progression,” Tayin said when the half-orc turned to her. “We weren’t supposed to go head-first into dangers that will potentially end our careers early.”

“Yeah, I think your mentor’s a bit loose in the head,” Phyl’swen commented. “We heard about the noldzwjak and the kraken. At first, we thought Vice Guildmaster Coraline was just trying to intimidate us. But after seeing you three fight yesterday, I think everyone here’s convinced that you three have more actual experience fighting in dangerous places than the rest of us combined.”

Grace felt warmth fill her face. She hadn’t expected such a straightforward admittance from rich folks. Her experience with such people during her time in the Academy hadn’t been as fuzzy as the one she was experiencing now.

But now that still left the question: could they actually lead the other twelve members of their raid group?

Grace didn’t think so. And Ren and Tayin seemed to agree that they had to be honest about it.

“I don’t think we should be leading, per se,” Grace started. “Aside from what we’ve seen you do during our earlier skirmishes, we have no idea how to make proper coordinated attacks and defenses with everyone. I think it would be better if we all play it by ear like we’ve done before. This is just supposed to be a test, so what we’re here to do is make mistakes and learn from them.”

“I thought we were here to beat the Dungeon Boss?” James asked. The others had the same expression.

The half-orc blinked twice. “Well, that goes without saying, doesn’t it?”

Little by little, laughter began to fill the group.

---

“It’s a noldzwjak…” Grace said, wondering if Damascus was seriously testing them with that monster, or if she was missing something.

They scouted the boss monster from the high wall of an obviously manmade arena. The entrance had a single narrow pathway without a gate, surrounded by the entire wall, but they quickly noticed that it had no roof. So it had been an easy choice to take a gander at what they would be dealing with this time.

She was observing the enemy alone, this time. Ren and Tayin suggested to share to others their experiences with Dungeon Bosses at the very least.

That left the decision solely to Grace. She was sure, that this monster would turn aggressive if she had attempted to Scan it and failed. But she also knew that there was nothing forcing her to do that now as opposed to later after she had given her scouting report to the rest of the group.

Still, she didn’t like that there was a single noldzwjak waiting for them inside that arena. It didn’t even match the six-horned version she had fought before.

“It’s obviously a trap,” she whispered to herself. And there was no way for a noldzwjak, a monster capable of disappearing, to be sitting alone in the middle of a wide area.

But with nothing else to see, she jumped down the wall, breaking her fall by using mana-control to make her glide. She couldn’t quite make it solid enough for her to stand on, or strong enough to lift herself and fly, but her current capability would do for now.

“It’s obviously a trap,” Tayin repeated after hearing the report. Everyone else agreed almost immediately.

“It might be a defective copy,” Ren said, which garnered everyone’s attention.

Grace quickly caught on. She had thought of that possibility even before coming down the wall, but she didn’t want to offend Damascus, who was presumably the one who organized the challenge.

“Noldzwjaks have the ability to be almost imperceptible,” Ren explained. “So it could be that we were supposed to see an empty arena and get ambushed by this noldzwjak. Instead, it’s stuck there in the open. It could also mean that there is more than one inside, and this one was left out by accident.”

“I think the second one’s more plausible,” the half-orc interjected. “Normally, we could spot some minor hints from a hiding noldzwjak. Like some indents or slight refractions of light due to their breathing, but I didn’t notice any of those after observing the area for a while. I’m willing to bet that whoever made those copies made it so that their invisibility was perfect.”

“Regardless, we’re here, and we should still try to defeat whatever’s in there, right?” James asked.

“There might be more than one monster,” Tayin reminded him. “The problem is, we don’t know how many. If we outnumber them five-to-one, then we can fall into groups and fight each one.”

“But if there’s more than three of them, then we probably won’t have the odds in our favor,” Ren concluded.

“If there’s four, I’ll handle one on my own,” Grace said right away. She immediately turned to her friends, and she knew they would understand. “I need this.”

“If it’s five or more, then we bail,” Ren said. “No excuses.”

“Fine.”

“What if the ambushers aren’t noldzwjaks?” Phyl’swen asked.

The half-elf made a good question, but Grace thought the answer was already obvious. Just to make sure, she turned back to Ren and Tayin, who were also confirming the same thought.

“We bail,” they said together.

---

After making sure there were no other entrances to the arena, the majority of the group decided to enter from the open pathway. Grace led Phyl’swen and three more members above the wall. Aside from Ren and Tayin, they were the only ones who could jump down such a height without any issues.

The ones below were led by the Shield Knight, rushing in to engage the noldzwjak as fast as possible.

Grace engaged her Focus, ready to switch into her Agility the moment she saw another movement not coming from the main target.

“When I move, that’s your signal to engage,” she told Phyl’swen and the others. “I’ll most likely push back anything that comes out of there, so you’ll have to check for something else to move and engage. Just like we agreed, we’ll assume that the main enemy is that noldzwjak out in the open. Ren’s group will deal with that.”

“Roger that,” said everyone in her group.

And just as they expected, the moment Ren went into melee range with the lone noldzwjak, he was ambushed by two more that came out of nowhere.

Grace burst from the top of the wall, tackling one of the lunging noldzwjaks in a fraction of a second. At the same time, she unleashed her Thunderclap, pushing back the other two, and giving Ren space to properly engage what they assumed to be the Raid Boss. Tayin was also quick in sending Shooting Stars at the other ambushing monster.

The half-orc’s momentum carried her target to the opposite side of the arena, slamming it into the wall. She jumped back and sent an assault of Mana-Edge Waves at it.

The monster had no chance.

Only then, did Grace realize what was going on.

As she turned, she found a swarm of noldzwjaks surrounding the group. The main one had leapt towards the entrance and grown tenfold, becoming even more monstrous than the six-horned noldzwjak.

They were trapped.

Grace didn’t even hesitate. She used Haste, and dashed into the fray, hacking and slashing noldzwjaks left and right. Compared to the Raid Boss, they were easy pickings. There were just so many of them.

She noticed Ren shouting orders around the group. Phyl’swen and the other people on the wall had joined them. He ordered them to make a circle, letting the melee combatants enclose their ranged attackers within. He stood on the side, facing the Boss noldzwjak, and taunted it.

Grace defeated another dozen fodders in seconds. She deliberately chose the ones closer to the main raid group, letting them know that she would be there to protect them while they handle the main monster.

The swarm made it difficult for her to observe what was happening to the others, so she focused on her impromptu task. She already knew that Ren had left that to her, and she also knew they had no way out.

She trusted them. She might not trust the other twelve as much, but the ones she had placed on Ren and Tayin were complete and true.

Grace went like a blur into the battlefield. Spells clashed, forces collided, and roars from both monster and man echoed throughout the arena. She went on, ensuring that the swarm wouldn’t hurt her comrades, trusting that they would stand tall against the enemy.

The half-orc could feel her mana reserves dwindling down. She was almost halfway empty. The amount of exertion she had done in just a few minutes was more extensive than any sort of rigorous training she had ever done before.

And yet, she felt alive. She felt strong.

Never before had she been able to let loose on enemies that couldn’t fight back, that couldn’t survive her first blow. There was an undeniable thirst being quenched with every fake monster she slew. And she couldn’t get enough of that feeling.

An all too familiar feeling.

Grace snapped out of her stupor as a claw barely slashed her face. She retaliated by quickly disposing of that noldzwjak. Quickly checking herself as she went, she couldn’t deny the fact that she had been unconsciously meditating using The Perpetual Method.

Somehow, constantly acting and letting herself fall into a certain flow even within the chaos, she had instinctively acted out the meditation without thought.

She couldn’t stop to think about it. Concentrating now, the half-orc continued her one-woman slaughter, until she was able to defeat enough noldzwjaks so that she could spare a moment to look at the Raid Boss.

And at that exact moment, she saw an opening.

With her Agility still engaged, Grace closed the distance between her and the Boss noldzwjak’s neck, still reeling from the combined efforts of the raid group. And with both Mana-Edges wound up over her shoulder, she switched to engaging her Mana-Focus and brought down the strongest Crescent Slash she could muster.

When she landed on the arena floor, it was just her, Ren, Tayin, and the twelve other members of the raid group.

They had won.