Chapter 162: Celibate Monk!
"This is definitely not another normal room..." Hina whispered nervously.
Leo swallowed a lump of dry spit.
"Is it... the boss chamber?"
Kaito nodded his head very slowly.
"Most likely."
Leo’s hands tightened around his weapon hilt as a massive, wild grin broke out across his excited face.
"Finally!"
Hina looked at him like he had grown a second head.
"Why on earth do you look so happy?!"
Leo’s eyes burned with reckless excitement.
"We’ve been running around like headless chickens in this creepy place for hours! We finally found the main event worth fighting!"
He took two eager steps toward the massive door, but then suddenly paused and turned back to look at Kaito and Hina, his expression shifting into a serious, dependable leader’s glare.
"Listen up! If that thing beyond the door is really the main dungeon boss...:
"We must stick together no matter what! No one runs ahead recklessly, and nobody takes any unnecessary risks! Got it?"
Kaito nodded firmly.
"Understood."
Hina gave a slight nod.
"Agreed."
Leo took a deep, dramatic breath, striking a cool pose.
"Alright then! Let’s do this!"
For the very first time since entering the dungeon... he actually looked like a cool, genuinely dependable high-tier hunter.
Kaito raised his enchanted sword, causing hot, blinding orange flames to burst along the edge of the blade.
Hina’s sharp wind mana began swirling violently around her body, fluttering her clothes.
The three fully prepared themselves for an epic, life-or-death confrontation.
Leo stepped forward and reached out his hand toward the giant stone door, pressing his palm flat against the icy, ancient surface.
Nothing happened.
He grunted and pushed with his shoulders. The stone door didn’t budge even a single millimeter.
He leaned his entire body weight forward, veins bulging on his forehead as he pushed with all his physical strength!
Still, absolutely nothing happened.
The giant door remained completely stationary.
Leo’s face slowly turned beet red from sheer exertion and deep embarrassment.
"..."
Kaito stared at him silently.
"...Do you need my physical assistance?"
"No!"
Leo gritted his teeth furiously, his arms trembling from the strain.
"I’m just... warming up my upper body muscles first!"
Hina quietly covered her face with her hand, suppressing a massive groan.
Kaito awkwardly looked away toward the wall.
"Of course you are."
"RRAAAAGH!"
Leo roared with everything he had, his legs digging into the ground as he shoved against the heavy stone.
BOOOOOOM—!
With a deafening, earth-shaking rumble, the ancient stone doors finally broke their seals and slowly creaked open!
A wave of literal freezing, black air violently blasted out from the opening, sweeping through the hallway like a arctic hurricane!
The bright flames surrounding Kaito’s sword flickered violently and almost went out, while Hina’s hair flew wildly in the wind.
Leo’s face instantly hardened as he stared into the dark abyss beyond.
Beyond the grand doorway was an enormous, cathedral-like chamber of terrifying scale.
Hundreds of broken, headless stone statues lined the dark walls, and thousands of eerie red candles burned silently along the perimeter without anyone tending to them.
At the absolute center of the grand chamber, a massive stone platform sat directly beneath an enormous, terrifying statue of a dark deity.
And sitting motionlessly upon that central platform... was a single humanoid figure.
It sat completely still in a traditional cross-legged meditation pose, its head lowered toward the floor and its dark, bony hands tightly clasped together in prayer.
Leo squinted his eyes, whispering softly under his breath.
"...Is that a monk?"
Hina’s glowing Ghost Eyes widened in absolute horror as she analyzed the seated figure’s true nature.
"Yes... but something is terribly, horribly wrong with its mana flow!"
Kaito immediately raised his flaming sword into a battle stance, his aura flaring wildly.
"Everyone! Prepare for combat!"
At that exact moment, the motionless humanoid figure slowly lifted its head.
FLICKER!
Two blinding, crimson-red eyes snapped open in the pitch-black darkness!
A deep, ancient, terrifying voice echoed violently through every single corner of the gigantic stone chamber, vibrating straight into their bones!
"Another group of foolish mortals... has come to seek enlightenment..."
THWIP! THWIP! THWIP!
As if responding to the entity’s words, every single candle burning in the massive room suddenly extinguished all at once!
Pure, terrifying darkness swallowed the entire chamber apart from Kaito’s flame on his sword!
"...Then allow me to grant you eternal peace!"
Leo’s face visibly stiffened from the sheer pressure, but he stubbornly gritted his teeth and slowly raised his glowing fist into the air.
"Yeah! We’re definitely here for enlightenment!"
He paused for a second, then added with a wide grin.
"...And also to claim all the boss treasure!"
Kaito slowly turned his head to glare at him in total disbelief.
"Leo."
"What?"
"We are supposed to sound terrifying and intimidating right now, not like greedy tomb robbers."
"Oh! Right, my bad!"
Leo coughed awkwardly into his fist, then raised his hands high once again, putting on his absolute best anime protagonist shout.
"We are here... to totally kick your ancient ass!"
...Silence.
Dead, suffocating silence fell over the dark chamber.
The terrifying, corrupted monk stared at him in complete, unmoving silence with its glowing crimson eyes.
Leo proudly stared right back with an energetic grin.
Hina slowly covered her entire face with both hands, letting out a soul-crushing sigh.
Kaito closed his eyes, his shoulders slumping in absolute defeat.
"...We are definitely going to die in this room," Kaito muttered under his breath.
"Let’s go!"
Without waiting a single microsecond for the boss to finish its dramatic, dark-monk monologue or get into a proper battle stance, Leo dashed forward like a man possessed!
In true amateur webnovel protagonist fashion, he completely ignored basic raid etiquette and blitzed straight toward the altar.
He pulled his right fist back, his core roaring to life as mana swirled furiously around his knuckles into a crackling sphere of energy.
At first, the dense mana glowed a vivid, bright yellow—then, under the sheer weight of his desperate desperation, it violently condensed into an electric, sparkling blue!
It was his absolute full power!
His brain was actually working logically for once: this boss was clearly a terrifying, nightmare-fuel monster, so wasting time on low-tier probing attacks was for chumps.
Better to throw an ultimate move right off the bat!
And to his absolute, sheer delight, the monk didn’t even attempt to dodge!
It just sat there on its stone platform, motionless, taking the full-power mana strike directly to its ancient, withered forehead!
BOOOOOOM—!
A massive explosion of blue magic and pulverized stone dust erupted through the dark chamber, blowing back the dark mist!
"YES! Amazing work, Leo-kun!"
Hina jumped up and down, clapping her hands with genuine, cheerful happiness.
She knew deep down how ridiculously hard this fight was going to be, so seeing a direct, unblocked headshot hit the target felt like a massive win!
Leo landed back on his feet, flashing a proud, heroic, shiny-teeth smile over his shoulder.
"Piece of cake!"
...But Kaito was not happy at all.
Standing in the back with his flaming sword, Kaito’s face was dark, his eyes narrowed into slits as he stared through the clearing smoke.
He knew dungeon mechanics better than anyone!
There was no way an A-Rank zone boss went down to a single opening burst.
"Not enough..."
"Huh? What’s that, Kaito-kun?" Hina turned, blinking in confusion.
"That wasn’t nearly enough!"
"There is no way a simple charge attack did anything real to that creature!"
"Leo just broke through to Rank C, but this boss is easily Rank A!"
"The stat gap is too massive! That punch probably didn’t even register as damage!"
Hearing those terrifying words, Hina’s cheerful smile instantly vanished!
She rapidly activated her Ghost Eyes to their absolute limit, zooming her visual perception straight into the swirling heart of the dust cloud.
The second her golden pupils focused, her eyes widened into massive, terrified saucers!
"LEO-KUN! GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE RIGHT NOW!"
Leo, still maintaining his cool protagonist pose, blinked and turned his head back toward her.
"Huh? Why? I just hit him with my entire mana pool—"
...But it was already too late!
As the heavy grey dust and smoke settled down, the horrific reality revealed itself.
Standing right in front of Leo, completely unbothered, was the monk.
The exact spot where Leo’s full-power blue mana punch had detonated hadn’t even lost a single hair.
The monk’s ancient, wrinkled face didn’t have a single scratch, smudge, or dent on it!
In fact, its deep, eerie, disturbing smile hadn’t changed by a single millimeter!
It was staring down at Leo like a human staring at a particularly persistent mosquito!
And then, as if the dungeon system itself was mocking their very existence, a floating, blood-red interface bar slowly materialized right above the monster’s head, glowing with terrifying, absolute authority:
[ Celibate Monk ]
[ Rank: A+ ]
"C... Celibate... Monk?!"
Leo choked out, his knees instantly turning to absolute jelly as he read the name tag.
"A-RANK PLUS?!"
Kaito shouted, his sword almost slipping out of his sweaty hands.
"IT’S NOT EVEN A NORMAL A-RANK! IT’S AN A-PLUS?!"
The Celibate Monk slowly lowered its glowing red eyes to look directly at the trembling, Rank-C Leo standing right in front of its knees.
"Your fist... lacks the purity of absolute restraint, young one..."