WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Irevi

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 88: Grave King Necledin (4)

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Necreddin had given us ten turns.

After ten turns, Berserk would trigger.

‘A typical DPS-check boss.’

If damage numbers floated above its head, I’d probably enjoy this. A single area attack would deal five times the usual damage.

Thinking back, the enemy’s attacks hadn’t been as threatening as I’d expected.

In a way, it had practically handed us the strategy. Pour all our firepower into it and break through within ten turns.

If that was what it wanted, I’d give it exactly that.

Single-target attacks were useless.

The damage would only be split five ways.

‘Deathblow: Reversal is essential, but I’m not sure about Break.’

I’d never used Break against multiple enemies, but in the original game, Break was a single-target attack.

Maybe I could hit all five if I swung my sword hard enough. I had no idea.

“Um... Halibal. Is there a reason you need to keep covering my ears...?”

Still, stopping Mine from rushing in had bought me time to think through a plan.

Following my instructions, Mine summoned Rosia.

That solved our lack of a tank, at least.

Rosia hadn’t been able to do anything during the first attempt. She had only been summoned after Aren was poisoned and our formation collapsed.

Since Rosia wasn’t a living creature, she should be immune to Corpse Poison.

If she blocked the attacks, the outcome would be different this time.

The problem was whether there was a second phase.

Did we need to clear the second phase within ten turns to avoid the party wipe, or would getting through the first phase be enough?

I wasn’t even sure there was a second phase. If there was, we’d need to spread out our damage.

Still.

‘Sister Arisha’s personality hadn’t disappeared.’

She had clearly screamed at us to run.

The one who unleashed the party wipe had been the real Necreddin.

I’d assumed it was just one of those gimmicks where a boss had a cute-girl form.

Maybe Sister Arisha’s form and the wraiths were a shell wrapped around the real Necreddin.

Whether that was the first phase or the second, though, our biggest problem was still damage.

‘Was there anything I could change in our setup?’

I opened Renee’s socket panel.

╔═════════╗

◈Abyss Core - Renee◈

╠═════════╣

▸ Equipped Shards: 16/16

◎ ◎ ◎ ◎

◎ ◎ ◎ ◎

◎ ◎ ◎ ◆

◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

╠═════════╣

◎ = Green Shard III 11

◆ = [Dark Cloud]

◆ = [Black Cloud]

◆ = [Adamant]

◆ = [Self-Love]

◆ = [Biye]

╠═════════╣

▸ Stat Bonuses

Attack Power 1

Health 11

Defense 3

Critical Hits 41

Fluidity 11

╚═════════╝

‘It’ll be hard to raise my damage any further.’

Since the enemy moved first anyway, I could remove Black Cloud.

Self-Love’s additional attack was meaningless for Mine.

And I couldn’t remove Adamant because of Just Guard.

Even if I changed everything else to Critical Hits, I’d only reach 47.

That was the highest I could get it.

Aren was already built entirely for offense, with nothing else to adjust. The other two were the same.

Could we finish it within ten turns if I stacked weak points with Carving Sword as usual and unleashed every area attack we had?

I wasn’t certain.

During the first fight, Necreddin hadn’t even looked like it had taken damage.

‘Wait... additional attacks?’

There was a path I’d forgotten.

[Special Shard: Dark Cloud]

[Special Ability: Fruition]

[Fruition - When the user forms a party with three or more people they have bonded with and staggers an opponent, they launch a powerful joint attack.]

‘Three or more people I’ve formed Bonds with...!’

Fruition, the Special Ability I’d received after defeating Eliver.

Just how powerful was it for the description to openly call it “powerful”? I’d never tested it.

Honestly, I hadn’t even considered it. I’d never planned to fight a boss alongside Aren.

I’d thought a four-person party was something far in the future.

Maybe the fact that I’d formed a party with Aren, who wasn’t a Follower, and entered a boss battle was someone’s arrangement.

I immediately pointed Renee at Aren.

“What’s wrong?”

Along with Fruition, another possibility came to mind.

‘Dual Art.’

If my hypothesis was right, stripping away Sister Arisha’s shell was the first phase.

That meant fighting the real Necreddin afterward was likely the second phase.

Even if my hypothesis was wrong, there was nothing I could do about it. This time, our only answer was to give it a real try.

No matter what, it meant nothing if we couldn’t cause Stagger. Right now, we desperately needed area attacks.

‘We’ll have to rely on Dual Arts.’

We had been able to defeat Rose and Lilian thanks to my Dual Art with Cecilia.

Stardust had overwhelming power, enough to wipe out half the Health of a boss that had entered its second phase in one go.

If a Dual Art with any of the three of them produced an area attack with that kind of power, we had a chance.

The problem was this.

[Aren Bright]

[The target’s Affection Level cannot be measured.]

For some reason, Aren’s Affection Level couldn’t be measured.

Even level 0 showed up, so an unmeasurable level meant...

‘Is it because she’s the protagonist?’

It seemed Affection Levels only appeared for the heroine characters from the original game.

Of course, that hypothesis didn’t explain Renee either...

There were too many things I didn’t know.

Anyway, I’d thought a Dual Art with Aren would produce something incredible, but that was disappointing.

Next was Alicia.

“Hm? Is there a problem?”

[Alicia Cyrus]

[Affection Level: 0]

‘Why?’

Didn’t this person like me?

It wasn’t narcissism.

Hadn’t she been talking just recently about making me her imperial consort?

‘...The mask.’

That was it. I’d briefly forgotten that Alicia was always wearing a mask.

So even the way she warmly called me junior had been part of the mask.

Would she pretend not to know me the moment every dungeon was cleared?

Even though I knew that, I couldn’t help feeling bitter and hurt.

I hid my disappointment and turned to Mine, my final hope.

[Mine Rose]

[Affection Level: 4]

Four?

It had gone up by one.

Was it because we’d constantly been running dungeons together?

If level 5 was the stage where someone openly showed romantic feelings, like Cecilia, then Mine trusted me at just below that level.

“Phew.”

An Affection Level at the maximum wasn’t necessary to use a Dual Art.

It didn’t matter if we got a healing-type Art.

The opponent was undead.

Against enemies for whom healing was damage, a healing-type Dual Art might hit even harder.

‘So Mine really is the key to this clear.’

Even this was tailored to favor Mine.

Fortunately, unlike last time, I had two more chances. Three, including the final attempt.

But.

‘We don’t need to use them all.’

I remembered the kill log piled up in Halibal Dungeon.

Even if Renee’s power made it so death had never happened, the sensation and memories of dying remained intact in my head.

The sight of the three of them being struck by the scythe and scattering into ashes during the first attempt.

That would probably remain in the dungeon as a kill log.

And as long as I remembered it, their deaths would never truly become something that hadn’t happened.

So I wouldn’t let them die this time.

With that resolve, I explained the plan I’d just formed to everyone.

Naturally, I left out the fact that the boss wearing Sister Arisha’s face would wipe us out after ten turns.

It didn’t feel like the right time to tell them that yet.

I told them I could somehow sense the aura of the dead inside.

Something like that.

Then I made absolutely certain with Mine, our biggest variable.

“Mine. What will you do if the nun you loved stands in our way as an enemy in there?”

She mulled over my words for a long time before answering.

“...I won’t hesitate anymore.”

That was enough.

⁎⁎⁎

[Why...]

Slash!

The moment we entered, I cut off its babbling with a sword aura.

[...It seems you’ve made a rather impatient friend while I was away. How rude.]

Necreddin frowned in displeasure after being struck in the chest by a sword aura out of nowhere.

The preemptive attack worked perfectly.

By attacking without warning, I’d cut off Mine’s chance to have an emotional conversation with Necreddin.

Perhaps because she had steeled herself before entering, Mine wasn’t as shaken as before either.

When it waved a hand, four wraiths appeared as expected and began their coordinated attack.

This time, Rosia took every hit.

My turn.

Without hesitation, I drew Renee.

Clusters of light flowed from Renee and Raphael at the same time.

It was the sign of a Dual Art activating.

‘Please. If possible, make it a strong area attack with a wide range!’

A message appeared before my eyes.

[Dual Art - Halibal & Mine]

[Cannot be used because the requirements are not met.]

“?”

The requirements weren’t met?

Mine’s Affection Level was 4. That shouldn’t have been too low to activate a Dual Art.

What was the problem?

[...What are you trying to do? That’s...]

At that moment, Necreddin looked at me holding Renee and spoke warily for the first time.

But there was no need to be wary. It had failed.

I couldn’t believe the trump card I’d counted on had gone wrong from the start.

‘Stay calm. Stick to the original plan.’

I hadn’t expected it to fail, but I had expected we might get a useless Dual Art. Maybe it was fortunate that I hadn’t lost the turn.

I immediately put Renee away and gripped my sword again.

I carved a weak point into one wraith and gained an additional turn, then began charging at once.

While I did that, Aren unleashed No-Self at the four wraiths gathered around Rosia.

Mine’s holy beam struck the wraiths head-on, followed by a charged Deathblow: Reversal, empowered by Flowers Fade in Ten Days.

Even so, we were nowhere near having enough damage to defeat Necreddin within ten turns.

In the end, on the seventh turn, Rosia couldn’t withstand the focused attacks and vanished.

“Rosia!”

The moment our tank disappeared, the front line collapsed.

“Kh...!”

This time, the wraiths focused their attacks on Alicia.

Poisoned, Alicia couldn’t properly use her turn.

In the end, we had no choice but to reach the tenth turn again.

[...Let’s stop here.]

My vision turned gray once more.

[Unique Ability - Rewind Action 2 / 3]

Fuck.

⁎⁎⁎

“What... did you just say?”

I couldn’t expect a Dual Art with Aren, and for some reason, the Dual Art with Mine had failed to activate.

The overall flow of the second battle had actually been decent.

Damage.

That damned damage kept holding us back.

I hadn’t intended it, but Rosia had gathered the wraiths together for us.

Thanks to that, Mine’s single-target Holy Calling struck all four wraiths directly.

Aren could also freely drive Deathblow into the clustered enemies instead of No-Self.

But even after adding Alicia’s Iron Fan Flower, we hadn’t reached Stagger.

I could feel the damage piling up more than during the first attempt, but that was all.

There was nothing else I could rely on now.

Except this.

I looked Alicia straight in the eyes and clearly repeated what I’d just said.

“I said I like you, Senior.”

Raising Alicia’s Affection Level for a Dual Art.

It started now.

Footnotes:

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