I Reincarnated into a Game Filled with Mods – Chapter 44

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“…What does this look like to you, Erica?”

“Let’s see. A centipede-shaped rock… I guess?”

Iris and Erica approached the centipede-shaped rock step by step.

The part crushed by the pillar was completely shattered, and the condition of the other parts wasn’t particularly normal either.

Lizé had been examining the end of the rock for a while.

When the spot she was examining suddenly crumbled without her even touching it, she was startled and flinched.

“Or it’s a rock-shaped monster. Do you think a rock with such a bizarre shape can form naturally?”

“Impossible. Even if someone tried to carve it out of stone, it would be impossible to polish the surface this intricately. If there was a sculptor capable of carving such a huge shape out of rock this perfectly, they would be too busy being summoned by nobles to have time to come here.”

“I think the same.”

Iris took off her helmet. Her silver hair cascaded down her back.

“Then, the meaning of this rock is already determined.”

“Could it be…?”

“Yes, that’s it. A corpse of a monster that looks like a rock. No, to be precise, a part of a corpse. There are traces of it being crushed by the pillar and cut off.”

“Even the part remaining here is terrifyingly huge, so the original must have been even more gigantic.”

“Yes. It must have been at least a dozen times larger. My guess is that it was probably as tall as the castle we reside in.”

“Could this have been the cause of the tremors?”

Her silver eyes scanned the pillar that had crushed the centipede-shaped rock.

The bottom part was shattered, causing it to topple forward.

The cross-section was still very sharp, and rock fragments were embedded here and there, indicating that it had broken not long ago.

It seemed that a continuous impact had been inflicted on one specific spot, and unable to withstand it, it had shattered, but strangely, there were no traces of being hit by a weapon.

“I can’t say for certain, but it’s likely. For some reason, this creature must have been repeatedly ramming into the pillar. That’s why the pillar broke and ended up like this. The tremors we felt must have been caused by the centipede ramming into the pillar.”

“The traces on the walls were also because of that. It’s starting to make sense bit by bit.”

Erica recalled the wide cavern they had passed through about ten minutes ago.

The bedrock on the floor had been completely overturned, and the walls had cracks everywhere or had even collapsed.

At that time, she didn’t know why such traces of destruction were left in an underground place like this, but if this centipede had created that scene by ramming into the walls and pillar, everything could be explained.

“Precisely. All the abnormal phenomena we experienced can be explained by the fact that this centipede was the cause.”

Iris stroked the surface of the rock.

Due to the gauntlets she was wearing, she couldn’t feel the texture, but the sound of metal colliding and the hardness of the surface were undoubtedly that of a rock.

If only it had been a little less intricate, if only it didn’t look like a centipede at a glance, Iris would have certainly considered it merely a rock.

“Where did the rest go? Is it dead?”

The centipede’s body was severed at the part crushed by the large stone pillar.

Iris lightly leaped and easily jumped over the pillar.

Erica followed right behind her.

On the opposite side of the pillar was the tragically torn cross-section of the centipede.

It looked as if something had been used to forcibly tear off the segment.

“It doesn’t seem to be dead. Look here. The segment is unnaturally torn off. It must have been cut off after being crushed by the stone pillar. Either this creature directly severed its own body to escape, or the impact of being crushed was so great that it was cut off. The front part probably escaped alive and well.”

“That’s not very good news.”

“I wonder if our attacks will even work on it. If it were an ordinary rock, we could break it with a little more force, but if it’s a monster, it will undoubtedly be several times harder than a normal rock.”

Erica stared blankly at the roughly torn cross-section of the centipede-shaped rock.

The question of who had done this briefly crossed her mind.

It was only for a moment. It was obvious who would have done such a thing.

“Well, I can roughly guess who did this.”

“Yes, this isㅡ”

“Our great newbie’s doing. It’s obvious, isn’t it?”

Lizé, who had jumped over the pillar from where she was standing, landed on top of it.

Then she jumped down to the opposite side where Erica and Iris were.

“…That’s right.”

Iris gently nodded her head in agreement.

That’s what she was going to say.

Who else could have done such a thing here if not that brazen newcomer?

It’s not like the dungeon was a place one could come to as if going for a walk.

“I thought he would stay put when he said he would wait below, but it seems he has already made a grand mess. I didn’t know what he was really thinking.”

“If you want to nag him, do it to your heart’s content after we meet up with the newbie, Sister. I won’t stop you. Iris, we should hurry too.”

“Understood. Let’s move as quickly as possible.”

The helmet was placed over her head, covering her silver eyes and silver hair.

Lizé was already walking ahead.

Iris and Erica followed behind her.

The thumping sound began to echo again from far away.

ㅡSplat!

A stalactite fell on top of the head of the Rock Centipede, which was ramming its head into the wall and rampaging.

The stalactite that directly hit the Rock Centipede’s head shattered into pieces, and the culprit who had smashed the rock with its head also expressed pain with its entire body, twisting the joints of its exoskeleton with all its might.

That was the gimmick of the 3rd phase.

It was the same as the 1st phase up to the part where it had to ram its head into the wall, but instead of ramming anywhere, it had to be positioned where there was a stalactite on the ceiling.

That way, it would fall on top of the Rock Centipede’s head, just like now.

Doing that 20 times would clear it.

By the way, that was the 19th time.

Just one more repetition and the 3rd phase would be over, and it would move on to the 4th phase, which could be called a real boss battle.

The Rock Centipede, which had been rampaging on its own for a while, got up with a huff.

Then it gnawed at the ground with its lower jaw and burrowed into the rock, disappearing.

Since it had gnawed off the end of its body that had been crushed by the pillar, it disappeared faster than in the 2nd phase.

A few legs that had been precariously clinging to its body fell off with a thud, unable to withstand the impact.

Even after falling off it’s body, they wriggled on their own for a long time.

‘The knight commanders should be arriving soon too.’

I briefly thought about where the three I had left above might be by now.

Although I couldn’t be certain since this didn’t happen in the game, I guessed they had probably reached somewhere underground.

Of course, it was just a rough estimate.

I wasn’t a computer, and since this dungeon itself had become much larger than in the game, it was impossible to calculate precisely.

About a minute after I sat down and waited, the Rock Centipede burst out.

There was a visibly large crack on its face.

After ramming into the wall 20 times, ramming into the pillar 20 times, ramming into the wall 19 more times, and getting hit by stalactites 19 times, it was only natural for its head to be shattered.

I calmly waited without any particular action.

I dodged the thrown rocks by rolling and avoided the attack of it rubbing its body haphazardly in all directions by simply running far away.

The creature seemed to be furious, clacking its lower jaw as it prepared for a charge pattern.

As soon as I saw that, a feeling of “finally” welled up inside me.

I was finally bidding farewell to this foul creature.

I wouldn’t bother defeating the 4th phase anyway.

If I left it to the three knight commanders, they would take care of it, so why would I move?

‘The clear experience is a bit of a waste though.’

Experience can be earned anyway.

The experience gained from defeating an early-game gimmick boss like this could be easily compensated by spending a few days roaming around.

Moreover, the knight commanders were definitely not unskilled enough to die to something like the Rock Centipede.

I took a position in front of the wall where the last stalactite was protruding.

The Rock Centipede gradually increased its speed and approached.

I stood still in front of the wall and did the same thing I had been doing all along.

ㅡBoom!

And the same thing I had seen so far happened again.

The Rock Centipede rammed its head into the wall and rampaged on its own, and a stalactite fell on top of it.

The stalactite that pierced the Rock Centipede’s head with a splat sound nearly split its head in half this time.

Shattered head fragments scattered in all directions.

The Rock Centipede, with half of its head blown off, thrashed about incomparably more violently than before.

I had already retreated behind the wall. I couldn’t risk getting hit by a fragment.

‘It’s finally over.’

In that state, I stretched my body.

It was a boss battle that was tiring in many ways.

I really didn’t want to do it ever again.

Unable to even think about burrowing into the rock, the creature disappeared, wriggling through the nearest crack.

The gap that seemed barely wide enough for my body to pass through had widened to at least three times its size.

Following it would lead to the place where the rune was located and the 4th phase would begin, but there was no need to follow it right now.

I could wait here for Iris, Lizé, and Erica and go together.

I sat in the most visible spot and began to wait for the three of them.

‘What would be the best thing to say?’

I thought in my mind about how to make them understand the actions I had taken.

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