Chapter 196: Ch 196: Reaching the Boss Room

"How far away are we from the next shard? Not that I’m complaining... but my arms are beginning to get tired."

Albus complained as he asked the question.

Rin sighed and reached toward Albus’s shoulder to take Teressa.

"If you feel tired, then I can carry Teressa for a while. Since she’s my familiar, she’s my responsibility anyway."

Rin told him as he reached toward the unconscious female on Albus’s shoulder. But Albus flinched as he looked behind Rin and decided to tighten his hold on Teressa.

"On second thought, I think it would be best if I carried Teressa anyway. I don’t think I’m as tired as I thought."

Albus stepped back to stop Rin from reaching for the succubus on his shoulder.

Rin looked behind him, but all he saw was Shelly’s satisfied expression. He sighed as he realized why Albus had decided to take a step back and pretend nothing had happened.

"Alright, you can carry Teressa for now. But make sure you tell someone if you feel like you can no longer carry her."

Rin doubted there would ever come a time when Albus was too tired to carry Teressa on his shoulder. After all, his stats were boosted by the system and it was easy for him to carry someone of Teressa’s size around.

They started moving once the complaining stopped and finally reached the next shard location.

Rin immediately noticed the group of monsters, but they looked easy to handle.

"Looks like this is simple monster hunting. I can take care of them with my bombs."

The small group of monsters never saw his attack coming. One second, they were all together and the next, they had been blown to pieces.

[You are getting far too good at using these bombs, Rookie. It’s almost as if these bombs were made for you. If you keep this up, then your promotion is not far away.]

Rin knew he was not supposed to take the system’s words seriously, but he still felt a sense of pride as soon as he heard the system’s praise.

Not that he had much time to dwell on it. He needed to concentrate on the task at hand. He grabbed the shard and entered it into his system.

The map updated once more and unlocked bonus locations they could visit.

"Are those... weapons and artifacts? Should we try looking for them?"

Amelia asked in a worried voice as she tried to zoom in on the map. But that feature had not been unlocked yet, which left her frustrated.

Rin also considered going after those weapons and artifacts, but the explanation for them changed his mind.

[Task-exclusive weapons and artifacts: can provide a boost in power during the task. But they will lose all their power once the task is done. So if you want to take one, choose a pretty one that you can use as eye candy later.]

This statement eliminated those weapons and artifacts from consideration. So Rin decided not to waste his time going after such junk.

[Hey! Don’t call these things junk. Someone worked hard to make them for this task. Tsk, are you getting a big head because your crafting is getting better?]

The system looked sour as it tried to put Rin in his place. But Rin did not care which master craftsman had made these artifacts. They would become useless once this task was over, so why should he care?

[Rookie, learn to appreciate the finer things in life. These weapons are of high quality and that’s why we cannot allow them to be used outside this task. It would be too unfair for the people who were not chosen for it.]

’Well, they should have volunteered for this task then. Shouldn’t those who decided to come here get some advantage?’

Rin questioned, and the system sighed at him with a bitter look.

[ლ(ಠ益ಠლ)]

[Don’t let this senior get started. Life is bitter and not everything goes one’s way. Even this senior works hard but barely gets what it deserves. Life is just a constant series of trials and errors where only those who take advantage of others come out on top.]

[Ugh, don’t remind this senior of all the times the higher-ups took advantage of me.]

[ヽ(｀Д´#)ﾉ ﾑｷｰ!!]

The system seemed to have its own bitter story to tell. But Rin was not interested, so he pretended not to hear the system’s rant.

"Rin, what’s our next plan?"

Serena asked as soon as she noticed he was distracted, snapping Rin out of his conversation with the system. He rubbed his head.

"For now, we will continue as we have been and ignore the weapons and artifacts. If we come across one, we’ll take it. But there’s no need to go out of our way to get one either."

Everyone nodded and they started walking.

Getting the next four shards was not that difficult. All they needed to do was defeat some monsters here and there.

Their earlier experiences and the map helped a lot with navigating where they should go and what they should do.

Slowly, their map began to upgrade due to all the shards they collected, and the final area they were supposed to enter appeared on it.

"Is that..."

"That must be the boss room. Should we start heading there now? Or should we try to collect more shards?"

Amelia looked uncertain. She had seen her group fight, but she was still not familiar with the full extent of their abilities. It made her doubt whether they could win against the enemy.

But Rin trusted his companions and knew that this was as ready as they were ever going to be.

Even Teressa had woken up by now, but she still had no idea why she had been asleep for so long.

It left a sour taste in Rin’s mouth, but it was finally time to put this task behind him.

"Everyone, stay close and don’t lose sight of each other. We don’t know what’s on the other side, so make sure you’re never too far away to help if it’s needed."

Rin reminded everyone one last time before he pushed the door open.

The door made an ominous noise as it slowly swung open, and darkness was the first thing that welcomed them.

Rin was about to take the lead when Shelly walked past him confidently and entered through the doorway first.