"The first one."
"SHUNK~"
The sharp blade plunged in, and sulfur-yellow fungal slurry composed of countless sulfur-yellow particles flowed from the Rampart-Creeping Fungus's main body.
Part of the fungal wall also temporarily lost control. Before another fungal brain took over this section of the "fortifications," the fungal stalks and mat here would remain "inactive," similar to being stunned.
They wouldn't move, only squirm instinctively and absorb nutrients to survive. No longer dangerous to living creatures, they instead preyed upon bacteria invisible to the naked eye.
The number of fungal brains determined a Rampart-Creeping Fungus's strength. They were also the source of its independent thought, the command rooms controlling its enormous main body.
Once they fell, the living fungal wall would pose no threat whatsoever. It would be nothing more than a patch of ordinary, inedible fungus.
Behind them, Andu saw the party's rogue stab a fungal brain to death and immediately issued an order.
"Warriors, cut through the wall!"
"Yes!"
Upon receiving the order, the two warriors raised their one-handed swords and began cutting into the Rampart-Creeping Fungus's fungal wall.
Fungal brains controlled the wall by invading it with mycelia, and several mycelial strands ran between a fungal wall and its brain to probe the other's thoughts.
If they didn't seize the delay after the brain's death to sever an entire section of fungal wall, another brain would soon take control of it and resume fighting its prey!
"SCRAPE~"
Firelight burst forth as the two warriors' blades plowed showers of sparks from the dungeon wall. They forced their way through the fungal wall without concern for the damage to their sword tips, all to make defeating the boss easier.
Skinflints didn't survive long in a Darkest Dungeon! Every act of stinginess was an irresponsible gamble with one's life.
One warrior leaped after they cut through the fungal mat on the lower section of the wall, stepping directly onto the other's shoulder and vaulting high enough to reach the dungeon ceiling in a single bound.
"CLANG~"
His head struck the ceiling with a resounding clang, and his vision blurred from the shock to his brain. Yet he overcame it through sheer tenacity and drove his blade deep into one end of the fungal mat.
"SCRAPE~"
Cutting from top to bottom, he completely separated the fungal mat from the main body at the cost of thoroughly ruining a sharp blade.
【Amazing! So decisive! Such perfect teamwork!】
His body didn't need his conscious control. Loulan killed monsters while watching the nearby battle. Less than five meters separated the two groups!
Even so, after the horde facing him weakened somewhat, its pressure stopped decreasing. It seemed the threat he posed was still greater and more dangerous in the Rampart-Creeping Fungus's judgment than their entire six-person party combined!
The tide of fungus-corpses continued surging without pause. Loulan swung his blade as quickly as the enemy revived its fungus-corpses, leaving both sides locked in a stalemate. Whether the battle ended now depended entirely on Andu's party attacking the Rampart-Creeping Fungus's main body.
【Maybe I should put together a party too? Unless one person's strength reaches a certain point, it will always have limitations.】
Loulan understood that perfectly well. The six members of Andu's group worked exceptionally well together.
If his current self fought them...
His body's instincts told him he would win, but the victory definitely wouldn't come any easier than killing this Rampart-Creeping Fungus alone!
Andu alone was an extremely formidable opponent. The dwarf's defense and strength were no worse than Loulan's current abilities, so his nodachi couldn't cut through Andu as easily as slicing tofu.
Add two interceptors, two killers, and a healer, all with formidable combat awareness, discipline, and mental resilience, and such a party was incredibly troublesome!
But if he had a party like this too... His teammates wouldn't need to be particularly powerful. They would only have to fight with him at the center, and defeating Andu's party would go from troublesome to effortless!
His body fought while his brain thought.
【An ordinary party definitely won't work. With my cheat, I'm destined to grow rapidly, far beyond anything methodical training can match. That means I'll have to change parties constantly unless I'm lucky enough to find several genius teammates who might as well have cheats of their own.
But that would cause other problems. They might not let me take the central role, and they might not accept my fondness for nonhuman girls.】
【Wait, nonhuman girls! That's it. Since I can use items sold by my cheat to turn monsters into girls and tame them, why don't I just turn some powerful monsters into girls and make them my teammates?
They can do secretarial work on the clock, and off the clock I can, ahem... Plus, I can equip them with relics sold by my cheat without worrying about betrayal or being sold out!】
Loulan had finally spotted the obvious answer staring him in the face.
That was right. Why didn't he form a party of beautiful monster girls? His original plan of merely discussing the finer points of life with them was way too low-class!
Not strong enough? Relics could make up the difference!
Besides, monster girls were simply monsters transformed into girls, so there was no need to worry about their abilities. He only had to swap them out according to the situation and build his party with whichever ones worked best.
Oh, this was fantastic. How had he come up with such a brilliant idea?
Loulan immersed himself in his wonderful fantasy. Even his gaze grew unfocused as his mind wandered elsewhere.
To Lilia, who had been watching Loulan at every moment, however, the sight was utterly incredible!
"Is this... one of the powerhouses who have reached Transcendence that Father told me about? Even while his expression shows he's deep in thought, his body can still deal effortlessly with a tide of monsters. This is truly..."
Lilia was profoundly shaken. It was her first time witnessing a transcendent fight in person, and it completely overturned everything she understood about "warriors."
There was no need for battle aura, concentration, or combat techniques. With nothing but unadorned skill and his body's instincts, he could handle anything.
"Transcendence is not strength, but a realm."
Her father often repeated those words. As an instructor at the Whiterun Empire's Arcane School, he was strong enough to kill certain weaker giants, trolls, and even young dragons by himself.
Yet he was only an ordinary mage and hadn't reached Transcendence.
Lilia had once found it difficult to imagine just how powerful a transcendent might be. Now she had seen it with her own eyes and was witnessing how one fought!
Armed with nothing but a nodachi, Loulan needed only his body's instincts to handle a battle that ordinarily required a fully staffed, eight-person Gold-rank adventuring party.
"Vina, how much do you think I'd have to offer to learn the secrets of Transcendence from a transcendent?"
"Cough, cough... What, what?"
Weakened after a bout of violent vomiting, Vina looked at her companion in confusion.
Transcendence? Was that something they could even come into contact with at their current level? Lilia was daydreaming again.
"I'm serious, Vina! Mr. Loulan is a transcendent. I think this may be one of the precious few opportunities I'll ever have in my entire life!"