Chapter 1346 The Murderous Intent of Enthusiasm Is Made Out of Bad Faith and Good Intentions Part 1

This is bad, Katsu thought to himself as beads of cold sweat dripped down his neck in the scorching heat.

「Katsu……! This is obviously…… that famed “hostility”, right!?」

「That Zippo guy has completely evaporated!?」

「And after all that boasting about that heat-resistant equipment he had, and how much time and effort it took him to gather it all……」

The feeling of pity also evaporates in this tremendous heat, as the guy did not even last two seconds when thrown face first with a heat blast. It just so happened that Katsu temporarily entered another players’ party, for they happened to share a common goal with him. But the situation where they are currently finding themselves was quite dangerous because their Tank has been evaporated like it was nobody’s business. And the sooner they recognize the deep shit that they were currently in, the better.

「Just now…… It was obviously aiming for Zippo until he died.」

And it was certainly not because the Tank managed to aggro the enemy so much that it blindly focused him in sheer rage. That butterfly-shaped flame has now made a clear “Definite Kill” move. And because the guy was their Tank, this means that they have lost the means of protecting their allies and going forward with relative safety.

「Could it be that we have triggered some sort of a strange flag or something?」

No, that’s definitely not it. If it was so, it might have been due to a certain number of laps that they were trying to make…… but at least the temporary fixed parties are excellent when it comes to doing one shot captures like that, and their efficiency is also decently reasonable. That is why so far Katsu had no complaints. Although there are changes in behavior of the monster depending on the situation, it is already their fifth attempt that could have been labeled: “different thing, same result”. But the will of this party to keep on trying was yet to be broken.

If so, is the cause perhaps the “number of attempts”……? Or it might as well be because of the World Quest being pushed forward. The transition of the World that cannot be helped by the Players in general, causing this Flame Butterfly to adapt new battle tactics and mechanics……

Does that mean that the item like the large red wings and the flames that were dripping down from them were also affected by this?

「Hey, what are we going to do about this, Leader!?」

「It’s impossible! Let’s put away the equipment you don’t want to have damaged into your inventory and collect information! Katsu-san, you’re fine with that, right!?」

「Personally, I would really like to try and “decompress” it one more time…… No can do? I don’t know why do you want to struggle in here so much if I’m being honest, but…… Alright!」

With one person dropped out, the remaining party consisted of four people. And all those four people started to frantically put all of their best items back into their inventories to prevent them from being completely burned to cinders. And then, once they have all turned back towards the big flame butterfly, the creature let out a might roar unlike of which it never previously let out.

「And completely unexpectedly, it seems that now our attacks seem to go through……」

「It’s only natural that the physics will cause all the attacks to melt before even reaching it. But what about the magic attacks?」

「I don’t really have any magical equipment that I am fine with losing just to run some test. It would be a huge problem for me if any of those items was to break apart……Aaahh!?」

At that moment when a female player (male in real life) playing as the Magic Caster took out a disposable magic scroll from her inventory, the parchment wrapped in a cylinder ignited vigorously on the spot.

「No! My two million ma ───」

In the next moment, the body of a female player (male in real life) who was distracted by the high-priced scroll that burned to cinders without playing its designated role instead, failed to see that the three other people jumped to the sides to avoid the incoming attack that was emitted by the incandescent light from the Big Red Wing monster. And as a result she (he) was burnt to cinders on the spot as well.

「B-Basco!!!」

「Does that mean that we cannot use items here that are made of easily combustible materials!? What the hell!?」

「Uwah, my HP Recovering potion is boiling!!」

「Uwah, now I can’t even drink it because it’s too hot!」

「Shin Youju…–––!!!」

A female player (female) who was caught in a flame of whip-like attack movement was slammed on the ground and disappeared, leaving only her right hand with her recovery potion still intact in it, leaving only two players on the battlefield.

The remaining ones were Katsu and the man who was serving as the provisional leader of this temporary party. They finally looked at their HP bars that had been gradually scraping off and looked at the Big Red Wing that took on the appearance unlike of which it had never donned before.

「So, not only is it flammable but also…… extremely volatile? Items can’t be used, and because of that, the heat is higher than usual, so physical attacks will melt before being able to reach it……」

「Then how about…… attacks that cause decompression?」

「I have been trying some of those for a while now, but it looks like they are no good, either…… Does that mean that we literally have nothing that can actually hurt this boss!?」

Saying that, Katsu held a huge rock mass with both of his hands. If the NPC’s appraisal is truly correct, it seems to be a weapon derived from a mercenary who had the nickname of “Hundred Views” that lived in ancient times. He had no idea if this thing would prove to be any useful in here, but at the very least he had to try it.

Certainly, before they tried to throw water magic the boss’s way, tried to bury it alive under the soil, throw unused weapons at it to see if that would do anything here. This trial and error process was going for a while now, but none of the attempts were actually getting them closer to discovering the way in which they were supposed to deal with the boss. But more than anything else, at this time they were able to expose the boss’s murderous intentions. But isn’t that too little of a reward for such a colossal task?

This rock mass may have the power necessary to be the called a trump card of an avatar called Katsu, but wouldn’t it just be destroyed to bits when he would try to throw it at the current Big Red Wing?

Such a question holds Katsu back from committing to the full frontal reckless assault. He wanted to store the rock back to the inventory…… But at the same time he really wanted to see how it would do in actual combat situation……

(I thought that defrosting was a definite action like an event scene, but the amount of heat is obviously rising with each moment……)

And then a white beam completely erased Basco. That was the only “white” attack. A particularly strong attack…… No, is it really an attack?

At that time, Katsu managed to evade it, but when he looked at the placement of the players at that time, he was right at the very front of the formation.