Seeker 214

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Chapter 214. Crawling Gold Coins

Countless small spider-like creatures carrying gold coins crawled out from the treasure chest. 

A little late after Kazane-san's warning, Yuzuki and I hurriedly jumped away from the spot. 

However, the gold coin spiders moved quickly and soon caught up with us, swarming around us.

"Creeping Coins, or something like that, right? They only have 1 HP, so we can defeat them by stomping on them—Gyaaa! Where are they coming from? Stop it! It hurts, it hurts, it hurts!"

"Kuu... They're getting inside my clothes... S-stop it!"

"These are troublesome, aren't they? More trouble than your average big monster. Come on, they're climbing up!"

Yuzuki, Kazane-san, Yusefia-san, Griffon, and I were all swarmed by countless gold coin spiders, sticking to various parts of our bodies. 

Each spider was no more than about five centimeters wide with their legs outstretched. 

While crushing them would easily turn them into magic stones, their sheer numbers made it impossible to keep up. 

The spiders bit us all over, but the damage from each bite was minimal. 

It felt like being nibbled by a mouse, probably dealing only 1 point of damage to our HP. 

They didn't seem to be venomous, but if we continued to be bitten by dozens of spiders, we would eventually run out of stamina.

Trying to peel them off one by one and stomp them was clearly not going to be fast enough.

"Kazane-san! Cast [Wind Storm]!"

"But... but... Alright, I'll give it a try!"

Following my command, Kazane-san enveloped herself in a green shine. 

At the same time, I prepared to cast a backup spell and asked an important question to Yumizuki.

"Yuzuki, what's their magic defense like?"

"Their magic resistance is 1! This plan should work!"

"Good!"

A monsters' magic defense is usually equal to their magic power, so this plan should work. 

A few seconds later, Kazane-san's spell activated.

"Sorry, everyone, just endure one hit! [Wind Storm]!"

Understanding my intention, Kazane-san cast ranged attack magic that engulfed the entire small chamber. 

A storm filled with countless wind blades swept through us all. 

Yuzuki, Yusefia-san, Griffon, Kazane-san, and I were all superficially sliced by the wind blades. 

But with Kazane-san's [Wind Storm], even if we got hit, it should only deal around 20 points of damage at most. 

It was damage that, in a good way, was relatively small and not life-threatening.

On the other hand, the small monsters clinging to us weren't as lucky. 

The gold coin spiders, sliced by the wind blades, turned into black mist one by one. 

Eventually, when the storm subsided, I saw small magic stones scattered all over the room. 

All the gold coin spiders had disappeared.

Relieved, we heaved sighs of relief.

"That was close..."

"We made it... but it pains my heart to attack allies."

"I'm sorry, Kazane-san. I could've used my [Stone Shower], but I thought it would be better to conserve my MP as a support player."

By the way, there wasn't an option to choose Yuzuki or Yusefia-san. 

Their magic power was too great, and the collateral damage to us would have been severe.

"Senpai, you're just thrifty and good at managing things, that's all."

"Hey, kohai. Are you calling me thrifty?"

"What are you talking about?"

Yuzuki tried to play it off with a lousy whistle. 

The spirit of mocking me had deeply ingrained itself into his heart.

By the way, everything that appeared to be gold coins also disappeared with the monsters' elimination.

If all of that had been pure gold, it would have been worth tens of millions in yen, so it's a mix of disappointment and relief. 

In return, there were a large number of small magic stones scattered around, which I collected and stored in a small pouch. 

Even just this amount seemed to add up to a decent sum.

Not only in this room but in the battles within the dungeon so far, defeating a group of monsters would yield dozens of gold coins.

Those gold coins amounted to several hundred thousand yen in magic stone income. 

My sense of money is getting a bit warped.

It seems like there's nothing else in this room. 

After we finished our recovery, we decided to move further ahead.

By the way, recovery took a bit of MP. 

Casting [Earth Heal] or [Ground Heal] on four people was casually heavy. Those gold coin spiders, known as Creeping Coins, had an attack power of only 1, but they seemed to have an ability that bypassed defense. Thanks to this, even those of us equipped with Gaia Armor like me, Kazane-san in her Black Clothes, and high-level Yusefia-san took normal damage.

It's a little disappointing that Gaia Armor and Gaia Helm I bought with such high defense haven't had many opportunities to shine. 

However, it's counterproductive to expect armor to shine in a situation like this. 

So I won't dwell on it too much. 

These things have a way of becoming useful over time.

We continued through the hot and humid cave, sweating along the way.

Eventually, we stumbled upon a scene that looked familiar yet entirely new, something we had never seen before.

We saw an impressive large door with eerie decorations carved into it before us. 

There was no other way forward, the passage led to a dead-end here.

Next to the large door was a pedestal with a blue orb placed on it.

"It seems like this is the end, the boss room, doesn't it?" 

Yusefia-san said, looking up at the door.

We had finally reached the end of this dungeon, provisionally named the Fire and Ice Dungeon. 

I wondered if Bargamundo-san and the others were making good progress. In terms of strength, they shouldn't be too different from us, so if the content of the dungeon was similar, they should be doing okay. 

But now isn't the time to worry about others. 

Ahead of us, without a doubt, the boss of this dungeon awaited us—the 100,000-point special mission boss. 

We don't know what'll appear, but it definitely won't be an easy opponent.

First, I checked everyone's condition and confirmed we were in a state to challenge the boss. 

Then, on behalf of everyone, I placed my hand on the orb. 

The orb glowed, and the large door emitted a shine light. 

With a majestic sound like "gogogogo," the large door slowly opened.