Reincarnated as the Final Boss of an Eroge, but I Just Want a Peaceful Life After the Game Ends - Chapter 13: Deep Layers

Act 02: The Hero’s Title

Chapter 13: Deep Layers

Spring had finally arrived in Bahamul after a long and harsh winter.

It had been four months since Ivelia came to Bahamul, and by now, she had clearly gotten used to life here.

“I never imagined I’d get to enjoy food even better than my father’s in a place this remote.”

Thinking back to the day she first arrived…

I honestly thought things were going to blow up into a full-blown mess.

But the moment Ivelia tasted Karen’s cooking, her attitude softened almost instantly.

“This is absolutely delicious. I didn’t think I’d be able to enjoy food this good so far from the capital… Karen, you’re an amazing cook.”

Good food has a way of calming the heart.

Karen smiled shyly, clearly delighted by Ivelia’s honest praise.

“To be complimented by a noble lady from the capital—especially someone from a duke’s family—it really means a lot. Thank you so much!”

The way Karen said “noble lady” could easily be taken as a mocking jab—after all, commoners often use that term sarcastically when referring to nobles.

But coming from Karen, there was no malice at all.

She had a bright, sincere smile, and I think that helped put Ivelia at ease too.

Back then, she might’ve gotten upset if someone had dared to call her that.

Actually, even I get a little annoyed when I hear it.

But for some reason, it didn’t bother me when Karen said it.

Speaking of nobles—there were only two people in Bahamul who truly held that status: Ivelia and me.

Karen may have inherited a quasi-baron title, but that was more like honorary nobility.

In reality, she wasn’t much different from a commoner.

If anything, even a knight baron would be considered more of a noble than she was.

“In the royal capital, nobles are expected to act like nobles, and commoners fulfill their duties as commoners, right? But Bahamul isn’t like the capital. You can’t bring that way of thinking or those values here, Sidol.”

That was what Ivelia told me when I asked whether she felt uncomfortable being close to commoners.

As for the development of the village… it had completely stalled ever since the snow began to fall.

During winter, heavy snow made it almost impossible to work outside, so everyone basically stayed indoors all season.

In Bahamul, people preserved harvested vegetables by storing them in the snow, then rationed them out little by little to get through winter.

At first, I thought it was paradise—what a perfect excuse to just stay inside and do nothing.

But on days when the weather cleared up and people had free time, those of us without anything urgent to do were dragged off to help the livestock farmers.

And yes, that included me.

“Lord Deputy. If you’ve got free time, let’s head outside.”

That’s how I’d get pulled away—always to some farm that raised cows or sheep.

I just wanted to laze around, but for some reason, Ivelia always got super enthusiastic about helping out in situations like this.

And with her watching, I couldn’t exactly slack off.

We helped raise the animals, and eventually, we also learned how they were slaughtered and prepared for food.

Since both Ivelia and I had never really seen that process before, it turned out to be a good learning experience.

Thanks to that, we were able to enjoy fresh meat all year round.

And on top of that, we also learned that vegetables stored in snow over the winter turned out incredibly tasty.

“If I could eat food like this every day, I wouldn’t mind living here forever.”

That was how much Ivelia praised the taste of the food here.

Of course, it was thanks to Karen’s exceptional cooking skills.

“Bahamul’s ingredients are already delicious, so it really makes cooking worthwhile.”

“My father loves to cook too. Someday, I’d like to bring him here and have him try Karen’s food.”

Karen’s cooking was even better than that of her father—Duke Virel, head of the ducal family.

If he ever did visit Bahamul, he and Karen would probably get along well chatting about recipes.

As mentioned before, Bahamul was a heavy snowfall region.

With thick layers of snow piling up in winter, there wasn’t much to do besides clearing it—so people mostly stayed indoors.

In other words, the entire village had a lot of free time.

So, while Karen, Ivelia, and I continued exploring the dungeon in Bahamul Forest, we also started recruiting volunteers—people who were either confident in their skills or simply interested.

We began letting them train and level up in the lower floors of the dungeon as part of a strength-building initiative.

After a few weeks, some of the villagers had reached fairly high levels.

They no longer needed our help and began tackling dungeon runs on their own—voluntarily repeating the first five floors.

And just like that, we finally began tackling the deeper layers of the dungeon.

With high-level Ivelia now part of the team, we could carry more food, which allowed us to break through the fiftieth floor.

Even better, as we ventured deeper, we started encountering monsters that were actually edible—so our progress sped up dramatically.

At the moment, we had cleared past the seventieth floor, and were mainly rotating between floors up to seventy-five for leveling.

The monsters down there were generally level seventy or higher.

The strengthening of Bahamul Territory was coming along nicely, and we were steadily growing stronger too.

Now, all three of us had surpassed level seventy, and our skill proficiencies had gone up significantly.

Curious about how much stronger we’d become, I checked our status.

But when I use [Appraisal★] to look at someone else’s stats—especially girls—it also shows things like kinks and sensitive areas.

Out of respect for their privacy, I’ll keep that information to myself.

───

Name: Sidol Meltrix

Gender: Male Age: 13

Class: None Level: 78

HP: 3,180 MP: 14,060

VIT: 159 STR: 236

DEX: 236 AGI: 313

INT: 703 MND: 703

Skills: Magic (Fire: 8, Earth: 8, Wind: 8, Water: 8, Light: 8, Dark: 8)

Mana Perception: 8, Chant Omission★, Non-Elemental Magic: 8

MP Regeneration★, Lockpicking: 8, Appraisal★

Presence Detection★, Perception Disruption★, Art of Intimacy★

Swordsmanship: 8, Shield Technique: 8, Spear Technique: 8

Axe Technique: 8, Archery: 8, Staff Technique: 8, Polearms: 8

Martial Arts: 8

───

Name: Ivelia Milenitrum

Gender: Female Age: 13

Height: 163 cm Weight: 44 kg B/W/H: 75 / 54 / 72

Class: Grand Witch★ Level: 91

HP: 3,700 MP: 21,800

VIT: 185 STR: 91

DEX: 91 AGI: 363

INT: 1,090 MND: 910

Skills: Magic (Fire★, Earth★, Wind★, Water★, Light: 2, Dark★)

Appraisal: 8, Non-Elemental Magic: 4, Chant Omission: 8

Swordsmanship: 4, Archery: 8, Staff Technique: 8

Martial Arts: 6

Affection: 100★

︙

───

Name: Karen Dyle

Gender: Female Age: 15

Height: 165 cm Weight: 47 kg B/W/H: 83 / 57 / 86

Class: Sword Saint★ Level: 75

HP: 14,900 MP: 7,500

VIT: 745 STR: 745

DEX: 76 AGI: 301

INT: 375 MND: 748

Skills: Magic (Fire: 7, Earth: 7, Wind: 7, Water: 7, Light: 1)

Non-Elemental Magic: 3, Chant Omission: 4, Swordsmanship★

Shield Technique: 8, Axe Technique★, Spear Technique: 6,

Archery: 2, Martial Arts★

Affection: 100

︙

───

We spent most of our free time exploring the dungeon.

The dungeon in Bahamul Forest had a ton of high-level monsters, so with our current levels, the more monsters we defeated, the faster we leveled up.

Starting from the 60th floor, every time we beat a floor boss—one that appears every ten levels—a treasure chest would drop.

Inside, we could find rare items or skill crystals.

For example, when we beat the boss on the 60th floor, we received a [Skill Crystal: Elemental Magic],

But since all three of us already had elemental magic, we just stored it away for now.

On the 70th floor, we got three [Skill Crystals: Light Magic],

So I had both Ivelia and Karen learn light-element spells with them.

That made Ivelia the second person—after me—to gain access to every element.

Thanks to her class, [Grand Witch★], I was pretty sure her Light Magic skill would level up in no time.

At this rate, she might even surpass me before I know it.

Even now, her Intelligence (INT), which affects magic power, and her Mind (MND), which affects magic defense and status effects, were already way higher than mine.

 Karen is already a monster in terms of status.

 If I were to challenge Karen with my martial arts, I would probably be lightly beaten.

 Seeing these two up close, I was beginning to realize that I was not mistaken in saying that they were the weakest rusbos in the Violation of Eternia series.

And Karen? Her stats were just insane.

If I challenged her in a physical fight, I’d probably be brushed aside without even getting close.

Watching the two of them up close like this made me realize something…

Being called the weakest final boss in the Violation of Eternia series… might not be entirely wrong.

In any case, it was really great that both Ivelia and Karen learned Light Magic.

Now that they had it, they could start raising their skill level in Light Magic, which meant they’d eventually be able to heal themselves in battle—making fights a lot easier.

And if they kept leveling up their other elemental spells too, they’d gain access to higher-tier healing magic.

On top of that, improving their Non-Elemental Magic would make their body enhancement and defensive spells much stronger.

At this point, I was sure they were already stronger than their original versions from the game.

As we kept diving into the dungeon again and again, the seasons changed.

The snow melted, and spring arrived in Bahamul.

With that, the villagers started getting busy again.

Maybe it was thanks to their increased levels, but from what I heard, their boosted stats made farmwork go a lot smoother.

Time passed even further—and now it was early summer.

It was finally the season to harvest wheat and barley.

Right now, I was exploring the dungeon together with Ivelia and Karen.

We had just reached the room of the floor boss on the 80th level.

“I can feel a powerful surge of magic.”

Ivelia had placed her hand on the door, trying to sense what was inside.

I could also feel the presence of a large, dangerous monster waiting beyond it.

“Well, we should be fine. We’ve had plenty of rest and good meals.”

Thanks to Karen’s cooking skills, we could prepare monster meat in ways that actually tasted good—so we never had to worry about being too hungry or low on stamina.

Our levels were more than high enough, and we were both physically and mentally ready.

A crushing pressure radiated from beyond the door—so intense it felt like it might squash us flat.

My heart pounded faster and faster with tension.

Still, I told myself it would be fine.

With how far we’d come, we could do this.

With that resolve, we stepped forward—ready to face the floor boss waiting on the other side of the door.

“Alright. Let’s do this.”

I placed my hand on the door.

“Yes. Let’s go.”

Ivelia placed her hand gently over mine.

“Let’s do this!”

Karen touched the door as well, and the three of us pushed it open together.

The first thing we saw was a massive silver dragon.

The moment our eyes met, a powerful shockwave slammed into us.

—Watch out!

I immediately stepped forward and created a wall of compressed air in front of us.

For wind-element spells like vacuum waves or shock blasts, forming a barrier of dense air like this could completely block the impact.

Still… the magical pressure it released was intense.

And that was just its opening move.

I used [Appraisal★]—and what came up was a Level 85 Silver Dragon.

Its specialty? [Wind Magic: 8].

“So this is a dragon, right? I wonder if it’s edible.”

Karen raised both swords in her hands and lowered her stance, ready to charge in.

“Those lizard-like monsters were pretty tasty. But to eat this one, we’ll have to beat it first, won’t we?”

Wait, Ivelia has eaten monsters before…?

And lizard ones, at that…

Both Ivelia and Karen were staring at the dragon with the same gleam in their eyes.

Even a majestic silver dragon like that—so strong and intimidating—was nothing more than a meal to them, apparently.

Still, that dragon was huge.

Its silver body shimmered beautifully, almost mesmerizing to look at.

I got lost staring at it—and that’s when the dragon suddenly swung its claw at us.

It was faster than I expected, but the swing was wide and heavy, so dodging wasn’t too hard.

At this speed, even Ivelia should be able to avoid it just fine.

Then came the dragon’s next move.

Another wave-type attack, probably a shockwave.

I quickly formed a dense layer of air again and used it as a shield to block the impact.

Now it was our turn.

Karen charged in, swinging her greatsword.

The dragon guarded its head and eyes, using its claws and tail to try and fend her off.

But wherever Karen struck, its scales peeled away and its skin got torn—blood started to seep out.

So her attacks were definitely working.

As soon as Karen pulled back, Ivelia’s magic kicked in.

~Stone~

She launched sharp, spear-like stones at the dragon.

~Ice~

Next came ice spears.

Both spells broke through the dragon’s scales, piercing into its skin before fading away.

The hits made the dragon stagger.

Then it was my turn.

I fired off a spray of sharp stones to knock off more of its scales and lunged in with my sword.

I managed to slip into its guard and slash at its belly.

The blade dug deep, and I dragged it across to tear the skin wide open.

Blood sprayed out violently, showering over me.

Even after that, the dragon was still alive.

As soon as my attack ended, it backed away while blood poured from its stomach—and began casting a spell.

“GUAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!”

As the dragon let out a deafening roar, the dust at its feet swirled into a tight spiral.

“Dodge—now!”

I shouted, and Ivelia reacted immediately.

But Karen couldn’t move in time.

A whirlwind exploded from beneath her feet, blasting her straight into the air.

“Ahhh—gahhh!!”

She slammed into the ground on her back, her arms and legs twisted in unnatural directions.

Her whole body was covered in blood, and a growing pool formed where she landed.

“Karen!”

Ivelia quickly fired a spell to keep the dragon at bay while I rushed over to Karen’s side.

“I’m sorry, Lord Sidol… I got hit.”

“It’s okay. You’ll be fine.”

I used an advanced healing spell on her.

Her wounds closed up, and her broken bones were set back into place.

But my healing magic couldn’t restore the blood she had already lost.

“I fixed the fractures and stopped the bleeding, but you need to rest now.”

“I’m sorry. I let my guard down.”

“You’re not dead, so that’s what matters.”

I gently patted Karen’s head, then turned to face the dragon.

“Sidol! Its wounds are starting to close!”

“Got it. Ivelia, just keep attacking as much as you can.”

“Understood. I’m counting on you, Sidol!”

Thanks to her class—[Grand Witch★]—Ivelia already had five out of the six elemental magic types at a unique-level proficiency.

When I use [Appraisal★], the little ‘★’ mark that shows up means something is unique.

If that mark appears next to someone’s class, it means they have a Unique Class.

The same applies to magic and skills too.

If there’s a ★ next to them, it either means it’s a Unique Skill or that the user has reached a level of proficiency that’s equivalent to one.

Ivelia’s magic proficiency was high enough that she could cast large-scale spells—

But using those in here could easily collapse the dungeon.

She understood that risk, which is why she kept casting smaller spells one after another.

If her [Chant Omission] skill ever reached the unique level too, things would probably be very different…

~Stone~

~Ice~

Ivelia didn’t let up on her attacks.

Meanwhile, the Silver Dragon kept swinging its claws, firing off wind-element attacks like shockwaves and vacuum blades.

Since I was back on the front line now, none of the attacks were getting near Ivelia anymore.

But just a moment ago, she had been dodging them by the skin of her teeth—and her robe was torn in several places as a result.

Then, right in the middle of the back-and-forth exchange, I noticed it again:

Dust around the dragon’s feet began to swirl rapidly.

The same tornado move—it was coming again!

“Dodge!!”

At my shout, both Ivelia and Karen quickly moved out of the way, just barely escaping the swirling wind.

The wind picked up even more force, growing into a full-blown tornado and sending the air violently upward.

A loud, howling whooosh filled the space.

But it looked like using that move left the dragon frozen for a bit longer than usual.

I summoned sharp stone shards one after another and launched them straight at the Silver Dragon.

With each loud snap, its scales burst off, exposing bare skin underneath.

I dashed in close and drove my sword into one of the exposed spots.

…Wait, if I burn it, the meat might taste terrible, right?

That thought flashed through my mind for a second.

In that case—this!

I poured supercooled water—created through magic—into the wound I had just carved.

Then I strengthened the magic and rapidly dropped the temperature inside its body.

In an instant, the Silver Dragon’s blood froze solid—and its heart stopped.

I pulled out my sword and quickly retreated.

The brilliant silver dragon quietly closed its eyes… and collapsed with a heavy thud.

“We did it…”

“Yeah, we brought it down.”

“Lord Sidol, Lady Ivelia… I’m truly sorry. If I had just dodged that first attack…”

Still… a Silver Dragon, huh?

In Violation of Eternia II, this thing shows up as a mid-boss in one of the dungeons the protagonist explores, but it was only level 40 there.

The one we just fought was on a whole different level—it healed way too fast, and it cast magic almost instantly. It was kind of terrifying.

Honestly, if I didn’t already have knowledge from the game, I would’ve been in serious trouble.

If I hadn’t known its tells or pre-attack movements, I definitely would’ve gotten hit.

Ivelia could probably sense its magic power to some extent, and since she trusts my words without question, she reacted quickly.

Karen, on the other hand, had to listen, think, and then dodge—so it wasn’t her fault she got caught.

That tiny delay in judgment was all it took for her to get hit.

After defeating the 80th-floor boss, the Silver Dragon, we opened the treasure room behind it.

Inside were:

[Skill Crystal: Magic★]

[Skill Crystal: Chant Omission★]
[Last Leaf]

Three treasure chests—each with one of these items inside.

Even though there were stairs leading further down, the loot made it feel like we had already cleared the whole dungeon.

“The Last Leaf…”

Ivelia murmured softly.

She looked like she really wanted it—but since there were three items, we’d split them evenly as our reward.

Personally, I wanted Ivelia to take the [Skill Crystal: Chant Omission★], and I wanted Karen to keep the [Last Leaf].

Because Karen… still had a fate that led to death.

As for me, I wanted the [Skill Crystal: Magic★].

That way, I could bring all of my elemental magic up to unique-tier, and it might even help push my non-elemental magic to that level too.

Apparently, if you already have proficiency in a skill, using a [Skill Crystal] doesn’t instantly give it a ★.

You have to keep using the skill for a while before it naturally reaches unique-tier.

Ivelia was the one who confirmed that for me.

“One per person, right…?”

Ivelia looked down at the [Last Leaf] with a thoughtful, emotional expression.

“I really want the [Skill Crystal: Chant Omission★], but… I also have strong feelings about the [Last Leaf].”

“Then shall I give mine to you, Lady Ivelia?”

“No, that won’t do. Rewards should be accepted properly—and more than anything, it only has meaning to me if it comes from Sidol. So I don’t need the [Last Leaf] right now. Besides, you need the [Skill Crystal: Magic★], don’t you, Sidol?”

Ivelia and I were completely on the same page.

But for Karen, the [Last Leaf] probably didn’t seem valuable at all.

She might even think she got the short end of the deal.

“Karen, you might not find the [Last Leaf] all that special, but you’re on the front lines. And more importantly, like earlier—if there’s ever a moment you can’t dodge in time and would normally die instantly, this will save your life. I’m alive right now thanks to the [Last Leaf] that Sidol gave me. So I can confidently say—it’s something you need right now.”

“Hearing you say that, Lady Ivelia… makes me feel like I really should be the one to carry it. I did get hit by the boss’s attack earlier and ended up causing trouble for Lord Sidol…”

“Then it’s decided. [Last Leaf] goes to Karen, [Skill Crystal: Chant Omission★] to Ivelia, and [Skill Crystal: Magic★] to me.”

“Yes, that sounds perfect.”

“Understood.”

“The [Last Leaf] Karen gets is a brooch-type, but I’ll turn it into a necklace so you can wear it around your neck.”

“That would be a huge help. Otherwise, I feel like I’d probably lose it.”

And so, with the drop items distributed, we descended the stairs to check out the 81st floor.

Level 90 monsters were wandering around in groups.

It was great that they looked like they could be eaten once defeated—but in our current state, even fighting one of them would be a challenge.

So, we decided to end today’s exploration at the 81st floor.