A roiling mass of silver vines rushed towards me, all laced with crimson flames.

Dangerous. Something that I couldn't face head on, especially by myself.

But I wasn't alone, and I didn't have to face it either.

Ottar appeared before me again and then swung his sword, cleaving the vines and flames apart with a giant shockwave. When he did, he frowned and glanced back at me. "...Have you done something to earn the ire of the dungeon?"

I opened my teleport menu to try and make a quick escape. "I... may have destroyed a good portion of the third floor a few days ago before leaving."

And dammit. Of course teleporting would be jammed. Just like how you couldn't run away from a boss battle, my powers weren't letting me fast travel away.

Was it because Dungeon-chan caught on the last time I managed to escape?

...Well, in either case, I had prepared for this scenario.

Ottar stood in front of me and raised his sword, calmly analyzing the Alraune. "I see. That would explain why a Juggernaut emerged."

The Alraune growled and drew back its vines, shifting its... hers? Hers.

The Alraune shifted her glare onto Ottar for the moment and raised her hand. As she did, crimson scales started to appear on her skin, along with a red haze around her body.

I opened up my inventory, ignored the fact that Bunny-kun was munching on the magic stones I had picked up speedrunning the place with Ottar, and then tapped on a stack of glimmering swords that looked like they were carved from blue glass.

"You keep mentioning that." I kept a cautious eye on the Alraune and surveyed our surroundings. "What exactly is a Juggernaut anyway? An unstoppable weapon of mass destruction?"

"According to Lady Freya, it is the Dungeon's defense mechanism. Something created to handle threats capable of causing extensive damage to the dungeon itself."

"I see."

Note to self. Don't try to speedrun by punching through the floors. Dungeon-chan doesn't like being penetrated... apparently.

*BURN TO A CRISP!*

That harsh and grating voice echoed again. The moment it did, the Alraune clenched her fist, sending out a surge of blistering flames.

Ottar frowned and started to swing his sword again. But before he could, I threw out my swords.

The sound of shattering glass. The Alraune instantly reacted to my actions and swung her vines even through the blistering flames.

But I was expecting that.

You see, after the disaster at the temple with Artemis, I started to expand my thinking.

Since I was the MC... and since I was a Gary Stu, the world was being an asshole. Maybe due to power scaling, it was going out of its way to cause trouble for me at every turn.

After all, what should have been a casual trip with Ryuu to do some investigation turned into a freaking <Great Quest>.

So I decided.

If the world was going to be BS, I was going to be BS right back at it.

And so...

*WHAT!?*

"Reality is whatever I want it to be, Dungeon-chan!"

An explosion of blue water smothered the crimson flames.

The moment that happened, a faint smile crossed Ottar's face. "How resourceful."

I quickly crafted a boat from my inventory and jumped in. "Compliment me later! We gotta get out of here first!"

I had aimed the water towards the Alraune to try and push her back down that passageway. But it seemed like it wasn't as deep as I thought since a wave of water was crashing right back towards us.

'Kyukyu!'

Bunny-kun sounded excited.

Glad one of us was enjoying this at least... Not. Learn to read the room, kid!

Ottar glanced at the Alraune for a moment, a thoughtful expression on his face. But then he hopped in the boat with me.

Not a moment too soon.

With a thunderous roar, the surge of water reached us, sweeping up the boat and sending us down the dungeon again.

If it was any other person, it would have been a ridiculously uncontrollable trip right to Davey Jone's locker.

But I was the MC, so that didn't happen.

Using <Energy Manipulation>, I controlled the currents and guided us through the floor towards the stairs leading up. At the same time, I spread my awareness and did my best to avoid running into any other adventurers.

At least, I tried to. But with how much water was here, the number of monsters still trying to attack us along the way, and a screaming Dungeon-chan possessing an Alraune rushing through the waves with us like a bloodthirsty shark...

Yeah. Let's hope that other people were luckier than I was when it came to the dungeon. Otherwise... RIP.

xxx

Surging tides. Monsters swept up by the water and then killed as they smashed against the walls.

Thankfully, there weren't any adventurers along the way. Though, that might have been because Dungeon-chan was screaming bloody murder and making it blatantly obvious something was going on.

*I WILL HAVE YOUR HEAD, ANOMALY!*

See?

But anyway, the surge of water eventually died down as we reached the stairs.

At the same time, my boat shattered into gray dust, mixing with the water and turning it into gray slush.

Unfortunately, fast-travel was still locked since I was in a story cutscene/boss battle.

"It seems that escape is futile, Bell." Ottar brushed himself off and raised his sword again. Glancing at me, he said, "Do you have any other plans?"

I brushed myself off and stared down the dark corridors.

Since the water had thinned out, the Alraune couldn't move as fast as before. Because of that, it was still a fair distance away. Enough to where Ottar and I could make a break for it.

Considering how pissed off Dungeon-chan seemed to be though... and since she was definitely possessing that monster with the malicious black mana rolling off that thing, I had a feeling that a lot of people would die in the process. Also that I'd somehow get pinned for it and have the Freya familia dragged in as a result.

Since that was the case...

"Yeah." I opened my inventory and said, "Kill the thing."

Ottar smiled. "Yes. That is the bravery that Lady Freya's husband should possess."

I swept my hand through the air and summoned more throwaway magic swords along with my giant stone shields. "I'm not her husband, but otherwise, I agree. Gotta be at least that ballsy considering a whole slew of Level 5 and up yandere adventurers from your Familia are gonna try and off me in the near future."

Ottar nodded. "Indeed. To survive, you will need to undergo many more trials in the future and gain the strength necessary to be Lady Freya's hero."

"...I'm starting to hate how many flags keep being raised around me."

Did I get a weird skill? Definitely needed to get a status update from Tia ASAP so that I can recalibrate my plans.

But right now-

Glittering crystal leaves cutting through the hall towards me.

They were fast. Too fast for me to dodge.

But-

*YOU DARE STEAL FROM ME AGAIN!?*

-They were inanimate objects, which meant I could grab them.

"Thanks for the gift, Dungeon-chan! Let me pay you back!"

The leaves seemingly pierced into me, but instead flew into my inventory. And in response, I sent a barrage of glittering white swords.

An explosion of chilly wind swept through the area, along with a wave of icy blue light.

With it, the Alraune was trapped inside a wall of ice that spread from the floor to the ceiling.

But barely a second after it appeared, the wall of ice started cracking.

Of course. A monster being directly inhabited by Dungeon-chan wouldn't be stopped by the cheap and mass-produced magic swords I made from low-ranked magic stones.

But it bought time. Enough for Ottar to act.

A crimson blur streaked across the floor. Shortly after, the sound of shattering glass echoed as Ottar's sword cleaved through the ice wall and towards the Alraune.

A clean slash. Something that would easily split apart the monster.

Or so it would appear.

But instead of easily bisecting the Alraune, Ottar's sword bounced off and he was forced back a few steps. And the reason...

*BOAZ WARRIOR. YOU BELIEVE THAT PIDDLING STRENGTH IS ENOUGH?*

The Alraune crossed her arms across her chest, leaning back and looking down on Ottar like a typical villainess. Black and red scales covered her body while the silver petals around her had turned into crystal, shimmering with iridescent light.

Ottar stabilized his stance and then narrowed his eyes. "The Infant Dragon's flames, a combination of the Hard Armored, Wyvern, and Crystal Mantis's defenses working in perfect harmony to be able to resist my attacks..." He glanced back at me and said, "With that information, do you have any countermeasures, Bell?"

Was he testing me?

From the speed and strength that I had seen Ottar use, he could easily beat the Alraune. Not only that, but he hadn't even tapped into any of his skills or magic.

If he did, Dungeon-chan would be blown away and probably throw a temper tantrum. Still, other than pouting, that'd be it.

I couldn't accurately gauge Ottar's power because of how much he dwarfed me in terms of mana, but I *could* tell that the Alraune was weaker than him by a few magnitudes.

And stronger than me by the same measure.

Even so, Ottar was leaving it to me. Almost like this was a game and he was acting as a hard carry to feed me the kill.

In that case...

'Kyu?'

A curious sound from Bunny-kun.

I carefully stared at the Alraune who was starting to emit a toxic looking purple mist.

'A Juggernaut carries the traits of the monsters on the floor it emerges. However, as the self-defense mechanism of the dungeon, it vastly exceeds any ordinary monster where it emerges. Still, it is designed to disintegrate after a certain time period.'

Information filling my mind. A phenomenon that hadn't occurred for a while now.

Was it from fast deductions? My subconscious processing loads of information through <Compilation>?

I didn't know, but I wasn't about to question it. Instead...

'Even so, surviving until it disappears is unrealistic. Juggernauts do not possess magic stones. As executors of the Dungeon's will, they are instead infused with magic and persist until that magic is exhausted.'

Right. That made sense. A monster meant to act as a Reaper wouldn't have such an obvious weakness. Just like those FOEs in Etrian Odyssey, it wasn't meant to be something you beat at the level you find it.

So this should be a dead end. As a level 1, I couldn't even think of beating it with my stats.

Yet.

I grinned and said, "Not right now. But this is the perfect opportunity to test things out for the future, isn't it?"

As expected of being an MC, I was being handed a tutorial on how to beat such enemies on a silver platter.

*PERISH!*

The Alraune swept its arms out, sending the toxic mist towards us.

Unfortunately-

"Sorry, Dungeon-chan! But things like that don't work on me! And now... my turn!"

I held my hand out to the side and opened up my crafting menu.

A simple sword wouldn't work. Magic didn't either considering that chucking those exploding magic swords earlier didn't phase the Alraune. And since Ottar's attacks were deflected, I definitely wouldn't be able to do any damage with my attacks since I was magnitudes weaker than the Boaz warrior.

So...

Something that ignored physical attacks. Something that wasn't magical in nature and could strike directly at the root with true damage.

My cute daughter's ring fit the bill with her half-divine flames, but I didn't want to use that trump card more than I had to.

Fortunately, I had recently picked up something else that might.

'The Juggernaut takes some time to shift between different monster move sets. In that gap, you have an opportunity.'

Thanks for the confirmation mysterious voice in my head! But I'm going to grill you later, so prepare yourself!

Anyway...

"Prepare yourself, Dungeon-chan!"

Crimson light flickered around me as I drew out the killing intent from the Freya familia members that I stored earlier.

I stomped the ground and raised my fists. "Die one thousand deaths!"

*WHAT?!*

"Metsu!"

An explosion.

Parts of my clothes and armor shredding apart as their durability failed. Other parts reinforced as the murderous aura laced through my body.

And then-

"Not enough, huh?"

I clicked my tongue and stared at the damaged Alraune in front of me. Blood stained her cheek and her lower body was enveloped in violet petals as she tried to reform it from my strike.

I did damage, but it wasn't enough to finish her off.

Still...

*I WILL REMEMBER YOU, ANOMALOUS BASTARD. YOU WILL DIE A PAINFUL DEATH.*

Leaving that cliched line, she vanished, dissolving in a flurry of violet petals.

...Not how I expected the battle to go, but we take those.