Chapter Nine #3
He wasn’t pledging his loyalty to me or anything like that as someone might expect from a knight. He was eternally pledged to his princess, even now.
But as a show of thanks, he surrendered.
I put Rusty away and brought my sickle out.
“I’m honored to have gotten to duel you, Sir Oakson,” I said.
One last time, Otto nodded.
I activated Strong Slash and brought my sickle down against his neck.
That was enough to finish him off. His head fell from his body and rolled across the ground before coming to a stop.
[Dungeon Cleared]
“I’m looking forward to showing you just how strong I grow in the future,” I said. “So, don’t go forgetting about me when you respawn.”
Rosie walked up to me now that the fight was over. “That was… I—I never thought I would see something like that in a dungeon. Do you really think he’s happy to be stuck as a boss here?”
I looked toward the entrance of the mausoleum his princess waited in. “He is. I’m sure he’s not the only one happy to be here, either.”
“Still… I never thought I’d see someone communicating with a boss. And not only that, but… actually get one to surrender.”
“He just wanted to give me his thanks. I doubt he’ll ever do that again.”
“I wonder how people would react if they saw that. I don’t even know how to react myself.”
“The right reaction is obvious.” I held my hand out toward Otto’s corpse. “You’ve gotta loot the boss once you kill it.”
I opened up the loot screen to check on what dropped. The guaranteed drop for first-time completion was there alongside the guaranteed material drop, but so was an extra equipment drop alongside some money and potions I’d split with Rosie.
//Knight’s Promise
//Type: Accessory [Necklace] (Uncommon)
//Requirements: Level 7
//21 Vitality
//A promise made, a promise fulfilled.
//Grave Knight’s Punishment
//Type: Weapon [1-Handed Mace] (Rare)
//Requirements: Level 7
//35 – 41 Damage (Blunt) | Deals 25% more Damage after receiving Damage.
//Those who betrayed him wore armor, so blunt force was necessary to deliver punishment.
//Fragment of the Grave Knight’s Armor
//Type: Material (Rare)
//You can still feel the knight’s devotion even in this fragment of his armor.
“The mace is yours, Rosie,” I said. “I’ll take the necklace and material.”
“Are—are you sure I should get the weapon drop?” Rosie asked. “You’re the one who did all the work.”
“I’m not worried about that. Besides, we’d both be dead if it wasn’t for you helping with the hyena.”
“If you say so…”
While I moved the necklace and material to my inventory, Rosie took the mace and swapped it with her current one. It was a flanged mace as black as Otto’s armor.
“This is cool,” Rosie said. “Plus that bonus effect should be useful as a tank…”
“It definitely will be,” I said.
“What are you going to use that material for? You never used the one from the other boss either, right?”
“I’m saving up the materials for an armor set.”
“Ooh! The umm… Adventurer’s Set?”
“Yeah.” It had a pretty generic name, but that was because it was armor made from multiple low-level dungeons.
Each dungeon actually had its own armor set that could be crafted which was themed around the dungeon the materials came from, but I liked the Adventurer’s Set since I was going to do all the dungeons anyways plus it gave nice stats all around rather than anything more focused like the dungeon-specific armor sets.
As for the necklace, that was what I needed to become a Reaper. The first prerequisite was acquired. For now, though I went ahead and equipped it.
I really needed to get some that armor set finished. But first, I wanted us to grow our party a little and to get better geared in case we came across another invader. We almost died because of a monster I never knew would be in the dungeon. I wanted us to be prepared so that wouldn’t happen again.
“Ready to head back?” I asked Rosie.
“Yep!” Rosie answered. “I can’t wait to take a bath after—”
“After we run a couple more dungeons?”
“Wai-wait. A couple more dungeons? In one day?”
“We’re going to get some help first, but yeah.”
“Sev… are you—”
“Hyped up and ready to go? You know it.”
“Sev…”
“Rosie…”
“… fine. But can we please go home and bathe first so we don’t walk around smelling like rotting corpses all day?”
“I guess we can do that.”
“You know, normally, it’s the guys who care about their looks and how they smell. You’re such a tomgirl.”
“… wait. By this world’s standards… I am a tomgirl, aren’t I?”
“Yeah?”
“You know, by my world’s standards, you’d be a tomboy.” I looked Rosie over. “By personality, at least.”
“What was with that look just now?”
“You’re too cute and dress too girly to look like a tomboy. Wait, by this world’s standards, does that mean—”
“I know what you’re about to ask, and no. I don’t know how it was over there, but only personality really makes someone a tomboy or tomgirl here.”
“Huh. Got it. In other words, Seth wanted girls with the personality of boys but who still looked like cute girls. Can’t say I’m opposed to that. Even then… I’d say it’s more like, the girls here have the best of both worlds when it comes to personality rather than being totally swapped.”
Rosie shrugged and nodded toward the portal that opened up. “Can we go get cleaned up now?”
“Alright, I won’t make you wait any longer. Let’s go.”
“Thank you. The last thing I need is to get conditioned by you getting me worked up while we smell like death.”
“Heh. So, you’re saying that even when I smell like a rotting corpse, I can still get you going.”
“You know, mentioning a rotting corpse when trying to tease me really has the opposite effect of what you’re going for.”
“Was worth a try.”