An Old Man Restaurant Owner Is Unparalleled by Relying on His Old Tricks. It Turns Out, He’s the Legendary Dungeon Conqueror. - 34

Chapter 34: Don’t Be Too Optimistic

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I ran through the tropical rainforest and discovered another staircase. I went down through it and I found yet another vast forest spreading out before me. However, unlike the forest I had seen before, this forest was structured in a gentle sloping hill. Kicking off the ground, I leaped high enough so I could scan the surroundings. There, surrounded by the trees, I saw a beautiful cone-shaped mountain in the distance, standing tall around the trees.

“There’s no doubt about it. This must be the 30th floor.”

The DM that I had received from the Dungeon Management Office stated the details of Inokashira Dungeon’s lowest floor. It was a forest floor with a big mountain. The boss should be on the top of that mountain. Now that I had found what I was looking for, I landed back to the ground with a soft thud.

“I’ve made it to the 30th floor, so let’s head to the boss’s location right away.”

〈The 30th floor!?〉 

〈Isn’t that the lowest floor in Inokashira!〉 

〈Wait, you’re going straight to the boss?〉 

〈What’s happening? Does he need to defeat the boss of the dungeon for the exam?〉 

〈Apparently, there’s some kind of anomaly in the dungeon. Nishida is investigating the cause of it.〉

〈The anomaly you guys are talking about.. Is it a dungeon rampage?〉 

〈In that case, Nishida just need to defeat the boss. That will fix it.〉 

〈Does this mean we’ll get to see Nishida fighting the deep level boss?〉 

〈Facing a deep level boss solo is downright crazy.〉

I sped up the slope, which was covered in trees. The incline was steeper near the center, but the incline was still gentle around this area. I continued running through the forest while slashing monsters that came my way. The slope kept getting steeper and steeper the closer I was to the center. It looked like a gentle slope when I saw it from a distance, but now that I was running to climb it up, it turned out to be steeper than I thought. Some areas were almost like cliffs. With the increase of the elevation, the surrounding trees became shorter and fewer. Eventually, the forest area dissipated, replaced by rocky areas. Well, it was a bit strange to talk about elevation in a dungeon. 

〈What incredibly steep cliffs.〉 

〈I’m literally in tears right now. I’m scared of heights.〉 

〈To my eyes, it looks like Nishida is running vertically up the wall.〉 

〈This is Nishida we’re talking about. Running vertically is very doable to him.〉

Finally, I reached the top of the mountain.

“Phew… Still, those 20 years break is really taking a toll on my body. I’m already out of breath after running for a bit.”

I was breathing heavily. I decided to sit down on a nearby rock to catch my breath for a bit. 

〈Running a bit?〉 

〈A bit?〉 

〈You just literally climbed a mountain.〉 

〈To be precise, he just ran up a cliff.〉

After resting for about a minute, I stood up again. 

“Alright. Time to head to the boss.”

〈What a very short break.〉 

〈You know, no one would be angry at you if you rest for a bit more…〉 

〈Be careful. Don’t push yourself too hard.〉 

〈Somehow, watching Nishida makes me feel pathetic for only taking a bath once a week〉 

〈Same here. I feel pathetic for only doing my laundry once a week.〉 

〈To be fair, you should have felt pathetic about yourself sooner.〉 

〈The time is dawning near! It’s time for a showdown between Nishida and deep level boss!〉 

〈So exciting!!〉 

〈Be careful, Nishida~〉

According to the DM from the Dungeon Management Office, it seemed the boss of this dungeon was a Forest Dragon. To put it simply, it was a dragon whose body was composed of trees. Forest Dragon was closely related to Treant in a sense. Moreover, it was a two-headed Forest Dragon. It was bigger and stronger than the average Forest Dragon. It was a formidable foe, fitting for the deep level boss. The summit had a downward slope in the center, almost like a crater. There was a beautiful blue lake in the middle of it. This place could easily become a tourist attraction if this place were located on the surface.

〈What a beautiful scenery.〉 

〈I feel so moved by its beauty, even though I’m only looking at it through the screen.〉 

〈This is the nest of a terrifying boss though.〉

It was said there were two large trees by the lake. That was supposed to be the boss camouflaging as a pair of trees, but…

“…It’s not here?”

Although I had descended down to the lake, I didn’t see any trees around. The trees should be around the lake. 

〈Where’s the boss?〉 

〈What’s going on here?〉 

〈Maybe Nishida got the boss’ location wrong?〉 

〈That’s not possible.〉 

〈If the boss is actually not here, this would be a shitty game indeed. I mean, the design of this map practically screams the boss should be right here.〉 

〈My theory: the boss scared of Nishida, so it ran away.〉 

〈That’s possible. LOL〉

“This… The situation might be worse than I expected.”

I told my viewers the most possible explanation for this phenomenon. 

“The wandering king.”

〈Huh, what?〉 

〈The wondering king?〉 

〈The wonderful king?〉 

〈He clearly said the weathering king.〉 

〈Wandering: Walking around aimlessly. Roaming〉

“It’s basically an anomaly where the dungeon boss, which should remain within a specific spot in the lowest floor of the dungeon, somehow started wandering through the dungeon. This phenomenon is called the wandering king.”

There would be no problem if the boss only wandered around the bottom floor, but if the boss continued to wander upwards, it would be a disaster. There was no way the explorer on the upper floor could handle the boss of the lower floor that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Hence why the boss had to be defeated before it came across beginner explorers on the upper floor. 

“There was an incident of a wandering king in a dungeon in Shimonoseki in Yamaguchi Prefecture. The deep level boss suddenly appeared in the middle level. A tragic incident occurred. A whole party consisting of C-rank explorers was wiped out by the boss.”

〈So scary… ((((；ﾟДﾟ)))) 〉 

〈What about the other thing? The dungeon rampaging?〉 

〈Are both anomalies happening at the same time?〉 

〈Huh? But to stop the dungeon from rampaging, you need to defeat the boss though?〉 

〈Seriously?〉 

〈Mission impossible.〉 

〈This is it. This is the end.〉

“Yeah. I also can’t believe both the ‘dungeon rampage’ and the ‘wandering king’ are happening at the same time…”

Both anomalies happening at the same time had never happened in Japan before. Sure, I had heard this thing happening in other dungeons, but never in Japan. I also didn’t remember the details of it since I only happened to see it on the news.

〈If anyone other than Nishida were to face the deep level boss solo, it’s game over for them.〉 

〈The exam should be canceled already.〉 

〈You guys need to evacuate to the upper floors if possible~〉 

〈But you know, maybe the other examinees didn’t know what’s truly happening yet?〉 

〈I suppose so.〉 

〈We don’t know how to contact them either.〉 

〈Nah, it’s fine. They’re probably just exploring the dungeon randomly. The chances of them encountering the boss are low to nothing.〉 

〈Don’t jinx it.〉

Right. If we were to take the definition of ‘wandering’ literally, the chance of the other examinees encountering the deep level boss was very very low, but…

“There’s a certain theory that says the boss is not just wandering aimlessly. According to that theory, the boss is actually hunting to eliminate the intruders. We can’t afford to be too optimistic about this.”

With that being said, I decided to get back to the upper floors.

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T/N: Not to mention the boss has great camouflage. It looks like two big trees!