Awakening to a Special-Grade Explorer
Vol. 4 - Ch. 150 - Xenold, The three-headed Turtle Boss

------74th Floor.

71st floor, just a bit short of what was the highest floor reached, Tenji joined Fuyuki on his exploration and had taken the step to fight side-by-side.

While it wasn't possible to explore alone, the two, who hold the same goal, possessed the possibility to make it reality by working together. After all, Tenji had managed to reach the 67th floor by himself. However, realizing that he wouldn't be able to progress anymore alone, he allocated his time to actively level up.

It turned out to be quite a fruitful action, since he managed to raise his level to 7. As of the current him, he could now fight the monsters there toe-to-toe.

Now that they were together, the joint attack of Tenji and Fuyuki didn’t even take one week of time to reach the 74th floor from 71st. Chisato, on the other hand, was keeping her bystander attitude while only giving them guidance, as she has been doing until now. Despite that, the two disciples of her continued to fight monsters with their life on line, further improving their already-superior teamwork and reached floor 74.

Just when they had traversed half of the area---Tenji and Fuyuki discovered the boss of the 74th floor. Tenji immediately hid himself in the shade of a tree and waited for a perfect chance to make a surprise attack.

In contrast to him, Tenji transformed himself into the phantasmal beast fond of bind and attack---Jin Sky Dragon and prepared to subjugate the boss.

He started to grow beautiful, semi-transparent scales resembling the space between emerald and sapphire all over his body, along with a thick, long dragon tail emerging around the coccyx. The eyes, now closer to feline-like, transform into blue dragon eyes.

Tenji had heard about the phantasmal beast 'Jin Sky Dragon' from him. The dragon's true form is a beautiful female dragon, an existence impossible to encounter in reality. Though, Fuyuki alone has been given the chance to meet her in dream. In the unconscious realm of dreams, Fuyuki was capable of entering without permission---accessible only to those acknowledged by her.

Fuyuki's dream realm seemed to be connected with a fantastical reality where the phantasmal beast resides.

Fuyuki's calling---Phantasmal Beast King---ability was to forge the bond and grow along with these phantasmal beasts through the medium of dreams. In fact, Fuyuki often shared amusing incidents or stories about them with Tenji.

Fuyuki gently grasped his fist and brought it in front of his chest.

"Jin, lend me your strength."

(Alright, Fuyuki.)

Jin Sky Dragon replied in Fuyuki's mind space following his gentle murmuring. Though, the answer went unnoticed to Fuyuki.

The conversation between Fuyuki and Phantasmal beasts are limited to dreams. In reality, it's just a one-way communication link from Fuyuki to Phantasmal Beast, though he occasionally put some monologue like this.

Representing the phantasmal beast with his body, the extreme energy of the MP atom was rapidly gathering and revolving around the azure ring in Fuyuki's mouth. It was obvious he was preparing for a formidable move.

And the target of two---a monster with three elegant heads on a turtle-like body, stretching as tall as a ten-story building, was leisurely walking. Its colossal size hindered its movement to sluggishness and made it oblivious to the thing or people on the ground. Perhaps, dull was an apt description.

Well, its weakness just gave the duo the chance to lend a perfect opening move. Its colossal body and the depth it resides made it very clear that it wasn't a monster against whom ordinary attack wouldn't work.

According to the experience they had gained from fighting the boss monster in the Mallorca so far, along with the prior intel they had from President Limey's exploration map---one could forget about carving their path ahead unless they had an attack capable of destroying the boss's tough carcass. In fact, there was only this monster in this entire 74th floor---as if to be the dead end for the weak.

Based on the experience gained from battling boss monsters in Mallorca and the strategic map provided by Headmistress Leime, it was declared that conquering this boss would be impossible without the attack power to break through its tough armor.

Its imposing presence conveyed that teams with lower-level attacks wouldn't even be allowed to advance beyond this floor.

Soon, Fuyuki completed the preparation of the rapidly rotating blue ring around his mouth. He stretched his full hand towards Tenji, who was hidden just a bit away from there . Tenji also quickly waved back, and exchanged good marks, praying for their fortune.

Immediately after, and all ready to strike down, both gaze reflexively drawn to the boss.

'Inhale......alright,' Fuyuki took a sigh to pep himself up, and.

"――Azure Roar."

He activated Jin Sky Dragon's ace move.

The azure energy ring accumulated around his mouth opened up, transforming into a long whip-like structure. The whip began to bend like a real whip, rampaging in all directions through space.

With great force, the blue whip entwined itself around the three heads of the boss, successfully hindering its movement.

A dull 'Grrooooooo' roar escaped out of the boss facing the brunt of surprise attack.

"One, two, and---!|

Fuyuki immediately grasped the azure whip in his hand as soon as he confirmed that, focused all his strength on his arms and pulled it down in one swift motion.

All the turtle-like monster was capable of doing was keep roaring as Fuyuki's display of inhuman strength broke its posture and one of its legs lifted up from the ground.

Fuyuki didn't let the opportunity go to waste and sprinted at full speed in the opposite direction of the lifted leg. Just like that, he continued to pull on that azure whip with his monstrous strength until he completely disrupted the boss's posture.

And in a heartbeat, that huge body toppled over. A huge volume of water splashed all over this swampy area with lotus's flower floating around. Birds and small animals in the victini scurried away hurriedly while chirping or squealing, along with the water in the air formed rainbows everywhere.

The turtle-type boss monster, known as 'Xenold,' is classified as a first-class monster. It boasts the third-largest body among monsters observed worldwide, with an abnormally tough shell on its back and skin of similar strength. Despite its relatively docile personality, due to its enormous size, it unintentionally flattens many creatures in its path.

And another fact was—only the few chosen ones, even among the first grade explorers, were capable of dealing with it. It doesn't matter how awesome of an explorer they were, it was all lukewarm against such an entity without sufficient firepower.

Fuyuki's move left Xenold's belly in a vulnerable position. There was a slightly darkened patch of skin in the central area of its belly. A weak point—and not just superficially weak, it was enough to critically damage it.

A grin crept on Tenji's face as he confirmed that from the shadow of the tree and turned his gaze to the two Flame Demon present there in the sideline. Both of them were leaning toward each other, with their fingers interlocked.

Tengi placed his foot on the palms of the two Flame Demons and ordered in a whispering voice.

"Alright, throw me up."

" "......Understood." "