Just as the boss on floor 91 had been the boss from floor 10, the boss on floor 92 was the one from floor 20, the boss on floor 93 was the one from floor 30, and so on.
And they died absurdly easily, as though they had simply been brought down unchanged from floors 20 and 30.
There was only one difference.
Just as on floor 91, they left corpses behind and dropped items.
The boss from floor 40—or rather, floor 94—had been a ghost to begin with, so there was no corpse for it to leave behind.
‘I have no idea why the bosses from the earlier floors are appearing again…….’
But I had to kill them to pass either way, so it did not particularly bother me.
If anything, fighting enemies I already knew and whose strategies I already understood made things easier.
“That makes no sense…….”
“I told you. You just have to stand still and wait.”
Why could she not believe me?
That did not mean I thought the woman was lying, though.
If she gave me the wrong strategy, she would not be able to descend either. There was no reason for her to lie about something directly related to clearing the dungeon.
“Then why did those people…….”
“How should I know?”
“They definitely, definitely…… started dying the moment the door opened.”
“Ah.”
They had probably panicked when the traps in the room attacked as the door opened, causing everyone to flee and become targets.
There was no particular need to tell her that.
The greater problem was that if things continued like this, there was a good chance neither a shop nor a campfire would appear at all.
“Surely we are not going to go all the way without seeing another shop.”
The woman flinched at the word ‘shop.’
“Would it be a problem if the shop never appeared again?”
“Do you really need to ask?”
I had closed the previous shop under the assumption that another one would appear farther down.
Even if I went back up now, I could no longer use the shop on the upper floor.
And since these bosses were so weak, the weapons they dropped were terrible as well.
The floor 91 boss, for example, dropped things that looked like they belonged on floor 10.
Fortunately, consumable items were all dropping as finished products, so it did not matter much if an [Alchemy Pot] never appeared.
“You said there was only one thing you bought from the shop anyway.”
“That is true, but……. We keep encountering nothing but bosses. We are almost at that [Final Door] or whatever it was called.”
In other words, the only thing left was the Final Boss.
Which also meant there was no longer any reason to conserve resources for later.
I could buy Healing Items and anything else I needed without worrying about saving them.
“At this point, I might as well clear all the way to floor 100 in one go.”
I had already cleared more than ten floors in a single Run before.
Surely I could kill a group of enemies I had already defeated once without dying.
……Maybe I could not.
But still.
“…….”
The woman stared at the floor with an unreadable expression.
Once I finished picking up all the items, she forced an awkward smile and quietly followed after me.
[I have been waiting for you.]
“……My eyes are not playing tricks on me, right?”
And judging by the fact that he said he had been waiting for me, he seemed to be the same one I had killed above.
Why was he alive?
Was this one of those twists where they said, ‘The one upstairs was actually a fake all along!’?
“It looks that way to me too…….”
The woman trailed off, glancing back and forth between me and the Doppelgänger boss.
“You could copy someone without killing them?”
[You ask the obvious.]
“I thought you had to swallow the corpse before you could copy someone.”
Even at my sarcasm, the creature merely gave me an unpleasant smile and spoke with smug confidence.
[There is no need for such a thing merely to deceive inferior beings.]
“A corpse-eating copycat says what?”
[Swallowing your corpses is truly repulsive, but unless your existence is completely erased from this world, the imitation cannot become wholly true. It cannot be helped.]
“…….”
He really had a talent for twisting his words.
All I could understand was that he hated eating corpses and was making excuses about why he had no choice.
[Among all those I have witnessed, you are the strongest aside from the King. That is the only reason I assumed your form.]
“Sure.”
In other words, because I had beaten him, he had copied me.
[Rejoice. This body has acknowledged your strength.]
With that, he drew the two swords strapped across his back and held one in each hand.
“What a joke.”
There was no chance he intended to let me pass peacefully anyway, so I pointed the Greatsword in my hands at him.
[Wait. What is that?]
“What do you—care!”
WHOOSH.
He had started stammering, so I thought he would fail to dodge.
[You! Did you not originally wield a sword in each hand?!]
“Ah.”
Now that I looked closely, the weapons in his hands were the ones I had used on floor 70 during this Run.
I had failed to keep his mouth shut and ended up afflicted with [Cannot Approach Boss], so I had used them to maximize the number of attacks I could make.
Even aside from that, one of the two had possessed the highest Attack among my melee weapons at the time.
“I stopped using those ages ago.”
But that had been then, and this was now.
Before he could open his mouth again, I attacked.
[Urgh! You dare bring a traitor this far into this place……!]
“I did not bring her! She just—kept—following—me!”
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
Perhaps because the distance between us was too short, he did not use the wind Magic that was his specialty.
Thanks to that, the battle turned into something resembling a simple swordsmanship duel, which made things easier.
“Why are these things so damn hard?”
He had copied the weapons I used above, but they apparently were not identical.
Something about the impact whenever our blades collided felt wrong.
[Ha! These swords were bestowed upon me directly by the King! Naturally, they are of an entirely different quality from the weapons you wield.]
“There is that damned King again.”
The King was practically an all-purpose explanation at this point.
Since this creature had done little more than wave its hands around before, I had assumed it would be poor with swords.
Unexpectedly, the fight dragged on.
Perhaps it was learning while we fought. At first, it could do little more than desperately block my attacks, but at some point, it began fighting aggressively.
WHOOSH.
“Watch out!”
“Ugh.”
[Ha.]
The moment one of its attacks became a genuine threat to me, a deeply satisfied expression appeared on its face.
Seeing such a vile expression on a face that was supposedly mine filled me with a strange revulsion.
“I really feel like throwing up.”
Was it actually all right to stab that thing?
It looked like some living Cursed Doll, and I could not shake the feeling that if I injured it, I would somehow be injured too.
Logically, I knew it was someone else.
I knew perfectly well that stabbing it would not cause a wound to appear in the same place on my body.
“……You!”
WHOOSH.
“Ah.”
I had zoned out until his sword was almost directly in front of my face.
Fortunately, I snapped back to my senses at the last moment and avoided being injured.
[Tsk.]
Dragging this out any longer would be dangerous.
But I could not think of a way to end it instantly.
No.
The truth was that I did not want to think of one.
‘If I cut off his head…….’
The image of my neck—of the neck belonging to a boss wearing my appearance—being severed flashed through my mind, and my stomach turned.
I did not want to watch myself stab him through the heart either.
Nor did I want to split him in half at the waist the way I had when I killed him the first time.
But no matter how I did it, I had to kill him to move on……
‘Would it be better if I attacked him from behind?’
His clothes also seemed to be copied exactly from what I had worn on floor 70, but since they were clothes from this world, they did not feel like my clothes.
And from behind, his hair looked ordinary enough that it would be difficult to identify whose head it was.
From the back, he might look like a completely different person.
‘It is not as though he will willingly show me his back…….’
Still, it was better than continuing to hesitate.
[Ha. As expected, you cannot easily strike down this body.]
Without responding, I rapidly closed the distance.
He reflexively stepped backward.
But he had let his guard down and reacted too late.
The Greatsword I brought down was already close enough to nearly touch his forehead.
[Ugh.]
My sword was extremely heavy compared to the two slender blades he wielded, which were thin enough that I privately thought of them as samurai swords.
If this became a pure contest of strength, his swords would obviously break.
The natural response would have been to deflect my blade to the side and retreat……
[Grrrrgh……!]
Was he an idiot?
We were close enough that I could clearly see cracks forming in his swords.
Their condition was obviously poor, yet he stubbornly remained where he was and continued trying to block my Greatsword.
‘Does he have some hidden trump card?’
Maybe the cracks were merely decorative.
Or perhaps the blades could crack without ever actually breaking.
“Please……!”
CRACK.
But contrary to my suspicions, his sword snapped.
And before I could stop myself in surprise, the unbroken Greatsword continued downward and split his head in half.
CRUNCH.
BOOM.
I had split him completely down the middle.
I had not looked, but I could tell from the sensation of the cut and the feeling of my sword slamming into the floor.
“H-Haah…….”
Maybe I had been straining too hard for too long.
I was out of breath, and my arms trembled violently.
“Whew…….”
Blood ran into the edge of my vision.
If I raised my eyes only slightly, his corpse would probably still be there, just as the corpses had remained on the previous floors.
And items would be lying around it.
“…….”
I closed my eyes.
Even if I knew it was not actually me, I could not bring myself to look at the sight of my own body split in half.
I had died countless times, but I had never once seen my own corpse.
“Whew.”
I lifted my head and deliberately turned toward the sound of the door opening instead.
“Inventory.”
Even without looking at an item or knowing exactly what it was, as long as I recognized that an item existed and intended to place it in my Inventory, it would enter the Inventory.
Since I put everything away without looking, I could not be certain I had collected every item.
But nothing valuable enough to justify checking was likely to drop here anyway.
There was something more important.
[We meet again.]
“Did you not already know?”
You looked like you were waiting for me to come down even on floor 97.
At my words, the creature gave a faint laugh and nodded.
[Indeed. I expected you to reach this place, provided you did not lower your guard.]
The moment I assumed an attacking stance, he immediately waved a hand.
[Wait.]
Wait for what?
There was no reason to graciously let him attack first, so I ignored him and charged.
Yet even when I did, the boss remained calmly where he stood.
[I do not wish to fight you. Nor is there any need for us to fight.]
“What?”
“Do not believe him!”
BOOM!
The creature had not moved from the spot where it had been standing since I entered, yet my Greatsword barely missed him and struck the floor.
I had made a mistake.
Perhaps his words had caught me off guard.
Or perhaps the woman's sudden interruption had thrown me off.
“We do not have to fight?”
Was he genuinely unwilling to fight?
Or was he trying to make me lower my guard?
[It is true. The ‘King’ said, ‘Offer praise to the one who has descended this far, and grant him the “mercy” of sufficient rest before he meets me.’]
“Mercy, my ass.”
The words slipped out because they immediately irritated me.
I expected him to become furious and accuse me of insulting the ‘King.’
Instead, he let out a dry laugh and nodded as though he genuinely agreed.
[You are correct.]
“…….”
“…….”
Both the woman and I were so stunned that we could only stare blankly at him.
“……Has that thing lost its mind?”
This time, he reacted exactly as expected.
[That is rather insulting.]
He raised a hand.
Thinking he was about to attack, I flinched, but he merely used it to rub his own face.
By then, the woman had recovered and hurried to my side to whisper in my ear.
“He has always been insane, so do not even talk to him.”
A woman who prided herself on being a noble and had never once used profanity was calling someone ‘insane.’
[To think I would be called insane by someone who is truly mad.]
“Ha. If someone who dared disrupt the order of the Empire is not mad, then what is?”
She had just told me not to talk to him, yet she was having no difficulty arguing with him herself.
[Are those who refuse to improve themselves and instead covet and steal what belongs to others not the ones who are truly insane?]
Did they know each other?
Come to think of it, even on floor 90, the woman had been the first to tell me not to listen to what the boss said.
As though something about his words bothered her.
“What do you mean by ‘disrupt the order’?”
“That man was exiled because he dared create and spread something forbidden by the Empire.”
“And what exactly was that?”
The moment the woman opened her mouth, the boss interrupted her.
[A machine capable of moving without using even a trace of Magic. Like the body I possess now.]
I remembered the many battles I had fought on floor 90 and looked at him again.
“……That was it?”