Who Needs Magic in a Fantasy World Anyway?

Chapter 113: Pick Me

"We're approaching the throne room, so everyone keep your eyes open!" Dedrick warned everyone needlessly seeing as it was fairly obvious where they were going. And as the large group of adventurers proceeded down the enormous hallway that they found themselves in, they passed between rows of giant knight statues that had been built into the castle walls which almost looked like golems that could attack them once they proceeded far enough. However, Koko decided to keep that particular thought to herself seeing as she didn't want to jinx anything.

"Hey Koko, do you think that these status will turn into g- Ugh!" Koko suddenly elbowed Richard in the stomach before he could finish his sentence.

"Haven't you learned anything by now?! I'm keeping quiet about it to avoid a flag!" Koko scolded him in a loud whisper.

"It might happen whether we say it or not!" Richard replied begrudgingly while rubbing his stomach where she'd hit him.

"This is a bug dungeon, so there won't be any." Koko assured him. "Probably..."

"That's what everyone says... Right before they get squished!" He raised his arms and spoke as if he was climaxing a ghost story.

"Are you two talking about golems?" Christina asked cluelessly.

"Ah! She said it!" Koko shouted before turning and standing in a ridiculous pose as if prepared to face danger from that side with Richard copying her while facing the other wall.

"Would you two shut up and be serious about this?" Austin asked as he lightly hit the tops of both of their heads. "We're about to face a room full of boss monsters, if you've forgotten."

"Hit us a little harder next time and we won't even have to worry about reaching them." Richard complained. And seeing as Koko had much more HP than he did, she guessed that he most likely felt the hit more, but that didn't concern her at the moment as their group finally reached the end of the hallway and were greeted by another pair of metal doors which appeared to have been designed to let giants through them.

"Alright everyone, listen up." Dedrick walked in front of everyone to address them. "There are multiple boss monsters ahead, so we're splitting forces to counter them. And since there's at least three, we're going to form six separate groups so that we can have some people fighting them with the others on standby ready to reinforce the front lines if need-be. Group leaders will be myself, Conner, Neren, Velicia, Austin and Yuli, so those mentioned pick your members quickly so that we can continue."

With all of the group leaders walking up until they were even with Dedrick, Koko felt like she was back in her high school gym class and that everyone was getting ready to play dodgeball seeing as the leaders were picking people one at a time. However, unlike in her previous life, Koko thought that she would be amazing at the sport now as she impatiently waited to get chosen by Austin. However, after both Christina and Richard had been immediately chosen by the man, their instructor started calling out other names instead, making Koko glare at him as she knew that he was leaving her out of his group on purpose.

"Blue hair. You're over here." Someone called out, and it took Koko a few moments to realize that they were talking about her. But while she already wanted to protest seeing as she wasn't put in the same group as her friends, the feeling only doubled when she realized that it was the same jerk who had accused her of stealing earlier who had called out.

"Seriously?" Koko asked.

"Hurry up and go to your group. We don't have all day." Dedrick snapped at her, and albeit reluctantly, Koko slowly made her way to her new group.

"I don't know why you chose me, but I'm telling you now that your end is going to be painful if you try anything funny." Koko threatened the knight.

"Like it or not, we're all adventurers here and we're going to need everyone to face the unknown odds that we're up against." Neren stated evenly towards her as she passed him. "Even rotten apples like you."

"Why you-" Koko seethed before sending a small amount of focus to her eyes and glaring at him.

"What are you doing?" A woman in Koko's new group asked her.

"Trying to develop a new skill where I can shoot lasers out of my eyes." Koko replied in a strained tone. However, with the prospect of a fight ahead of her, she soon stopped as she wanted to save her energy so that she could use her skills when she needed to.

"Alright. Now that we have our groups settled, Neren, Velicia and Yuli's groups will lead the way and engage the bosses when they first appear. Everyone else, hang back and move in if the front lines need support. Otherwise, stay back and conserve your energy because you'll be swapping roles with them once they grow tired. Does everyone understand? Good! Then let's move out, squash these bugs once and for all and be home in time for dinner!"

Despite her disagreement with which group she'd been placed in, Koko couldn't help but to let out a small cheer along with everyone else seeing as she was definitely ready to get out of the dungeon. And after just thinking about taking a bath, being able to relax and perhaps eating something edible for once other than Christina's horrid travel rations, she couldn't help but to want to defeat the queens quickly seeing as she'd had enough of this particular adventure.

"Listen, Koko." Neren started as he began to lead the way for their group. "No matter how you did things with Austin, I expect you to follow orders here. If you don't, then it's likely that we'll all die with you included."

"Yeah yeah. I'll follow your lead for now... Even if I don't like it." Koko replied. "But after we finish and you see that my friends and I are innocent of your baseless accusation from before, then I expect a full apology. Especially to Christina."

"If you really are innocent, then I'll give it." Neren replied. "But for now, let's just focus on the fight ahead of us."

"Agreed." Koko nodded as she spoke before she and a large knight from another group each took one of the door handles before straining as they opened them. And once the next room was revealed, the entire thing appeared dark before two braziers holding blue fire flared to life inside. However, this triggered a domino effect as more braziers and torches lining the walls all sprang to life with the same blue flames as the first two sources of light. But when the light reached the other side of the massive stone chamber, it revealed that it was both tall and deep seeing as there was only a bridge in the room that led outwards to about halfway into the space with a drop beneath it and the ceiling not being visible from Koko's angle. And while this was definitely the throne room seeing as there was a large golden throne sitting on the top of a small series of steps in front of them, what really drew everyone's attentions was the fact that the enter chamber was completely covered in equally massive cobwebs which made something like a net beneath the bridge which would most likely catch anyone if they fell. Though it wasn't only the web beneath the bridge, but the walls and nearly everything else as well that was covered in the substance, including the hundreds or perhaps thousands of eggs behind them.

"So there's definitely a spider queen." Richard stated needlessly from behind them before the woman in Koko's group who had spoken to her before pointed forward.

"And an ant queen as well." She stated before Koko followed her gaze until she looked behind the throne to see that a massive red ant was currently in the process of laying as many eggs as she could with the giant egg sack attached to her rear.

"Beetle queen." Neren stated while looking upwards. However, what Koko saw when she followed his example was certainly no beetle as it might have had the front half of a nightmare beetle as its head, but the bottom half was something of a mixture between a centipede and a moth seeing as it was covered in what looked like fur while having at least thirty legs that all swayed in the air as the queen flew in the air above them.

"We've found our targets, so let's get this over with already!" Dedrick shouted from behind them before Koko's group led the charge forward.