Chapter 20
“The scouting party was wiped out—!?”
We were greeted with this shocking news when we returned to the KoB headquarters in Grandum for the first time in two weeks.
We were currently on one of the higher floors of the iron tower which served as the headquarters and inside the conference room with the huge window where we had talked with Heathcliff last time. Heathcliff sat at the center of the huge semi-circular table, dressed in his usual long robes. The other leaders of the guild sat on either side of him, except this time Godfree wasn't present.
Heathcliff clasped the bony fingers of his hands together in front of his face and nodded slowly with a deep frown.
“It happened yesterday. Mapping the 75th floor labyrinth took quite a long time, but we were able to finish it without any casualties. Although I had expected that we would have a hard time defeating the boss...”
I did have a feeling that something like this might happen. The reason was that, of all the labyrinth bosses, only the ones from the 25th and 50th floors were extraordinarily large and powerful, which resulted in heavy losses from both of those fights.
The fight against the two-headed giant on the 25th floor virtually annihilated the elite troops of «The Army», which was the main cause of their decline as an organization. When the six-armed monster, which looked like a metallic statue of Buddha, launched a fierce assault during the 50th floor battle, numerous players had been frightened into teleporting away without permission and nearly caused the front-line to collapse. If the reinforcements had been even a little late, we would have faced another total wipeout. As a matter of fact, the person who had held the line by himself during that battle until support arrived was right in front of me.
If an exceptionally strong boss awaited at every twentyfifth level, then it was very likely that this boss would be the same.
“...So, I sent a scouting party of twenty men consisting of members from five different guilds.”
Heathcliff continued in a monotone. Since his eyes were currently half-open, it was impossible to discern his emotions behind those copper-colored eyes.
“They had scouted with utmost care. Ten of them had stayed outside the boss room as reserves... but when the first ten entered and reached the center of the room, the gates closed just as the boss appeared. According to the reports of the ten who waited outside, the doors stayed closed for over five minutes, and nothing they did, including lockpicking or bashing the door, had any effect. By the time the door had finally opened—”
The edge of Heathcliff's mouth became tense. He closed his eyes for a moment and then continued.
“There was nobody in the room. The boss and the ten men had all disappeared. There was no sign of teleportation. They didn't return... and I sent somebody to check the death list on the metallic monument inside Black Iron Castle for confirmation...”
He didn't say the next part aloud and simply shook his head. Next to me, Asuna held her breath and then managed to force out in a small voice:
“Ten... people... How did this happen...?”
“An anti-crystal field...?”
Heathcliff nodded briefly to my question.
“That's the only explanation. According to Asuna-kun's report, the 74th floor was the same, so it's highly probable that every boss room from now on would all have anti-crystal fields.”
“Damn it...”
I cursed. If emergency escape was impossible, the chances of people dying due to unexpected circumstances were drastically increased. We won't produce any casualties— that was the most important guideline to follow while clearing the game. But it was impossible to clear it unless we defeated the bosses...
