Question: Is it even possible to beat the Warden of the Underground Prison?
This wolf cub-looking thing is disgustingly ugly, man;
The moment you hit it, it spams AoE attacks. Is this for real?
Comments
Here we go, the newbie thresher.
Yep, it's unkillable. That's just the kind of Outer God it is.
I keep dying, what do I do?
Just feed it the thief to fill its belly, then turn around and escape.
(A meme roughly meaning "He was a good pickpocket")
If you level up and come back, you can beat it.
Ahh, you mean 'that thing'.
If you have 'that', you can solve it.
What's 'that'?
(A meme roughly saying "It's not the time for that yet")
What, huh.
**
I suddenly remembered a post I had made on the community forum.
I distinctly remember the entity before my eyes being so disgustingly ugly it was hard to even look at, but maybe because of the Super Coward Mode, it just looked like a cute girl taking a nap.
Of course, it seemed it was an Outer God, as I could see things like deformed pupils within its hair.
No.
An Outer God looking like a girl? Could there be a more terribly twisted fetish?
Maybe the 'mental patient' written on the paper was also due to this cognitive filter distorting my vision.
You damn modder, you crazy bastard.
Stop trying to create pointless plausibility in places like this!!!
...I wanted to say that, but I had long since become a person from a different world than his.
This isn't the time.
I need to focus on dealing with what's in front of me first.
Even though the Warden itself looks like that, this is still the newbie slaughter zone where charging in recklessly lets you enjoy infinite death.
As a pure newbie, not some veteran, I needed to move more cautiously than anything else.
To survive in this dark fantasy world, being strong alone isn't enough.
Because no matter how strong an individual is, there are Outer Gods everywhere that will just go 'Yeah, whatever' and chew you up.
The most important thing is running away well, recognizing patterns, and countering them.
It's a truth you realize after playing just a bit of Snow Castle.
So, I looked around first.
I needed to see how the Hunter and the Thief were reacting.
The Hunter was glaring at the Warden, his eyes bloodshot.
After Outer Gods wiped out the Hunter's family, they were the very embodiment of evil that must be slain.
I understood the feeling, but if left like that, something bad was bound to happen.
This isn't a game where you respawn after dying, and we don't even have weapons to face the Warden yet.
Even if the Hunter beat on the Warden one-sidedly for 24 hours without getting hit once, it would probably still be impossible to kill.
...Of course, some ultra-veterans really did beat it with a Hunter wearing just a cloak and rags, but this is reality.
"Hunter?"
Perhaps he heard the worry in my voice.
The Hunter, who had jolted and come to his senses, looked at me, seemed to roughly read my expression, let out a sigh, and toned down his fierce aura.
"I'm fine. I'm not enough of a fool to charge in without knowing the difference in power."
"That's a lie. You looked like you wanted to rush in any second."
"If I fought every battle I wanted to, I wouldn't be in one piece right now."
Well, that's true.
The so-called 'Outer God Slayer' never throws himself into a fight he can't win, only hunting when he finds a surefire method.
Even if a fight started unfavorably, he was the kind of man who survived to the end, honed the blade to kill the Outer God, and stabbed it in the weak point.
The Hunter, who hid his hatred and turned away, posed a question to me.
"Speaking of which, you saw that thing and you're still fine."
Was I acting too normal?
It seemed too late to start being scared now, so I decided to be bold.
"Uh... because I'm a mental patient?"
I couldn't very well say, 'Because the Outer God looks like a wolf-eared girl, so I'm not scared at all~'.
I had no desire to openly become a person with strange fetishes.
"A conveniently handy excuse."
At least the Hunter seemed to no longer think of me as a mental patient, making a dismissive expression.
He seemed lost in thought for a moment, then shook his head and said.
"Then again, anyone who can see that and remain sane can't be in their right mind, so I guess I have to believe it."
The Hunter acknowledged me!
Hah! The mentally ill person acknowledged by the protagonist, Raydan Tanton!
...That is a compliment, right?
By the way, it was the first time I'd seen the Hunter say he believed someone.
The Hunter was the type who couldn't trust others and preferred to work alone.
...But thinking that, it also seemed like he was just joking from his perspective.
"Anyway, you talk to the thief next to you. She'll understand you better than me."
Wondering what he meant, I turned my gaze to Argarta.
"Huuuh...?"
Meanwhile, Argarta's usually composed face had a bluish tint, clearly looking terrified.
She was hugging herself, holding her arms as if ice had been placed on her back, shivering.
Recalling my meager game knowledge, these were the classic symptoms of being under the 'Fear' status ailment.
"Are you okay?"
To check her condition, I tapped Argarta on the shoulder.
Then, with a flustered expression, she thrust her arm toward me.
You crazy...!
Before I could even react, something was already coming at my stomach.
I closed my eyes tightly, prepared to accept my fate humbly, but for some reason, I felt no pain.
"Calm down, thief."
Fortunately, the Hunter had caught it.
What Argarta had thrust at me was the needle she used to pick the lock earlier.
...Did I almost die just now?
They say hitting the wrong blood vessel can kill you.
The thief was still pale and trembling, but after a little time passed, she returned to her usual smiling face, though sweating a cold sweat.
"Calm down... Yes, I'm calm now."
"Are you physically alright?"
At the Hunter's words, Argarta shook her head.
"No, I still feel like sharp thorns are stinging my entire body."
As if to prove it, goosebumps rose on her arms, making her fine hairs stand on end.
"Sorry, Mr. Tanton. I was so startled I had an overreaction."
"Ah, it's fine. It's okay."
I thought it was a bit much to just brush it off with an apology after almost killing someone, but what could I say?
As I was calming Argarta down with words, the Hunter was looking at me with an analytical gaze.
I gave him a questioning look.
"...You have better eyes than I thought."
"Huh?"
"Your eyes tracked it."
Was he talking about how my eyes followed it when Argarta lunged at me?
Isn't that just a reflex when you're in a hurry?
"If you were properly trained, you might have even parried it."
...Hmm, is that so?
Perhaps the Hunter was just musing, as after saying that, he just turned his gaze back toward the Outer God.
Seeing Argarta and the Hunter so wary, it seemed the creature was quite threatening.
If you ask why I'm pretending not to know despite having played the game...
Fear, grotesqueness, danger—I'd long ago thrown them all into the trash bin in my head, meticulously sorted them for recycling, and incinerated them.
Why?
Because they're scary.
Forgetting this stuff quickly is good for your mental health, right?
For my current self, it's enough to know that its form was supposedly so terrifying it could make one wet themselves on the spot.
"Shall we go back down for now?"
The opinion was unanimous, and we retreated back the way we came, careful not to alert the Warden, to hold a strategy meeting.
"Ah, now that I think about it, if all the guards disappeared because of the Outer God, how did I get here?"
I voiced the question I'd been holding.
"Seems you didn't notice. It makes sense, since we escaped as soon as we woke up. There's a hole in the prison ceiling. You were lowered down on a rope."
"Don't ask who, I don't know either."
"Hmm... Then, can't we go up through that hole?"
At that question, Argarta grinned and pointed at herself.
"Then I would have escaped alone, wouldn't I?"
Pickpocketing, lockpicking, wall-climbing. You've got the trifecta down.
Just go on without us.
Lost in thought, the Hunter raised two fingers and spoke.
"That leaves only two options, then. Either move so quietly and swiftly that we get past that thing and out the main gate without it noticing."
A strange light swirled in the Hunter's eyes.
"Or, we just fight and kill that thing."
The Hunter folded one finger, presenting a shocking alternative.
He probably folded the latter option because he thought it was impossible even for himself.
But that didn't mean the former was possible either.
Because that Outer God would definitely wake up from the sound of us passing by.
"The weapons the guards confiscated are beyond the Outer God."
"But if not that way, is there any other way to escape? There's no food here either."
"If we get hungry, the chance of escape will hit rock bottom."
Argarta objected with an absurd expression, but hearing the Hunter's words, she fell silent.
Everything he said was right.
I could roughly infer the intention behind his statement.
He was a thorough security-first advocate who never committed to a fight unless he was sure.
If he couldn't hunt the Outer God, he would run.
Meaning, whichever option we chose, his plan was ultimately to use us as bait and escape himself.
One might think he's a dirty egoist, but that was the Hunter's way of survival.
Besides, he had no reason to be accommodating toward criminals locked in a prison.
Even while talking with Argarta, the Hunter's gaze was on me.
"..."
"..."
It was a look that seemed to say, 'Didn't you say I couldn't defeat the Outer God alone?'
He probably wanted me to prove that statement.
Honestly, it was something I said without thinking, just to survive.
It was an action closer to a blind, reckless remark, made without any plan.
But wasn't that quirk, that reflex, the very secret that had kept me alive until now?
Even if 'staying alive' meant something as trivial as a game.
Suddenly, the writing on the wall came to mind.
The strategy for defeating the Outer God, which originally required a Mystic Scholar build to even see.
The comment on my old question post saying you could come back to this place.
The constantly mentioned 'that thing'.
My experience from playing countless games converged into a single possibility.
Is this a gimmick boss, by any chance?
Anyway, this is a world based on a game, right?
As soon as I finished assessing the situation, I grabbed the Hunter's hand with both of mine.
The Hunter's eyes seemed to shake greatly, but it didn't seem to matter.
More importantly, it was crucial to unfold the one finger he had folded.
As if understanding what that symbolized, Argarta and the Hunter looked at me, their pupils constricted.
I spoke to them nonchalantly.
"What if I told you there might be a way to defeat the Outer God inside here? Would you believe me?"