kscans

Chapter 9 - 9

"Before the boss room, it’s time for an equipment check."

Since I wasn’t streaming, this was completely a monologue to myself.

If I was going to come this far, I should have brought my streaming setup...

My video streaming booth, the Hayate-Style Four-Sword Style Promotion Office, didn’t just feature FWO gameplay, but also showed the real-life special training I was doing to master the four-sword style.

So I have a full set of equipment like an action cam and a gimbal.

Well, unlike in the game, I can’t fly a streaming drone, so I guess it can’t be helped.

I can’t fight while holding an action cam.

Streaming a real-life dungeon. I bet this would go viral if I could broadcast it.

I was overjoyed that I could continue to use the four-sword style. In addition to that, I had hope that if I could take the items I got in this dungeon outside, I might be able to make a living from them.

Video streams of real dungeon clearing should also get a lot of views.

So maybe I’ll try again tomorrow.

I checked my equipment while thinking about such things.

"My initial equipment has changed quite a bit on the way here. As usual, to be able to defend against both physical and magical attacks, my right manipulator has a magic-type light sword, and my left has a physical-type one."

In a beginner dungeon, you can’t exchange the manipulators themselves. To get more advanced ones, you need to progress and collect ore from the third dungeon that gets unlocked.

A feature of FWO is that you can enhance weapons and job-specific equipment like manipulators inside the dungeon. There are no weapon shops. It seems that system has been applied in the real world as well.

"The wooden sword from my Kyoto trip that served me well until the 3rd floor... unfortunately broke. So I’ve been collecting weapons dropped by monsters and changing to stronger ones as I came here. And the guardian golem just now had a rare drop, so I’ve equipped its Stone Sword Kai. In my left hand is an Iron Sword I got on the 7th floor."

The four-sword style is a combat style where weapons wear out quickly.

It’s common to be forced to change weapons during combat because their durability reaches its limit. If you continue to use it without changing, the weapon will break, and in the worst-case scenario, it might not even be repairable.

When you change weapons, the weight and attack range naturally change. For people who are used to their favorite weapons, this would likely hinder their combat performance. That’s why I’ve trained to be able to perform just as well as before, even if I change weapons in the middle of a fight.

I desperately mastered the sense of equipping weapons of different weights in my left and right hands and being able to produce the maximum power with them. That effect is being put to use right here, right now.

I think the real thrill of FWO is equipping newly obtained weapons and challenging the next tough enemy.

"I really love this feeling of pushing forward while getting stronger little by little. ...Well, not that anyone is listening."

I felt a little empty.

I’ll erase this emptiness with the exhilaration of defeating the last boss and conquering the dungeon.

I entered the boss room.

The first boss is a rock dragon. A Stone Dragon.

It’s huge, so it’s a big target, and its movements are slow. It has wings but doesn’t fly.

Its attack power isn’t that high either, and the only big move you have to watch out for is a single shot it unleashes when its health drops to 10 percent.

It’s a monster that any player who has completed the tutorial and climbed this far can defeat without any problems. That was how the FWO setting was.

The mid-boss golem’s specifications were slightly changed, so I’ll go into battle considering the possibility that the boss is as well.

Gururururu.

The Stone Dragon roared and charged at me.

In FWO, there are bosses that can talk to the player, but this first one is pretty much just a monster, so conversation is impossible. And the fact that it charges on its first move was also the same as in the game.

I’ve only managed to get one short magic sword for defense, so to be honest, this Stone Dragon fight is going to be tough.

Originally, this is a boss monster that players who have finished the tutorial are supposed to challenge in a party of multiple people, with roles like vanguard and rearguard.

But that doesn’t mean I can give up.

I absolutely want to be the first one to clear it.

Many other FWO players are probably participating as well. The Self-Defense Forces might be starting their own attempts. If the world has synchronized with FWO, then dungeons should have appeared in America and other places too. It wouldn’t be strange if special forces were clearing them at super speed while annihilating monsters with firearms.

I probably can’t win against that, but I want to at least be the first to clear this dungeon in Japan. That’s why—

"This might be a bit forceful, but let me take you down in one blow!"

Using the power of my manipulators, I leaped high up to near the ceiling of the boss room.