Chapter 45 (1/2)

This cathedral looked like the biggest cathedral yet. It had a more ominous feel than the previous ones. However, the most notable feature was there was a stairway heading down right there. I already didn’t know how many floors down we were, and this lead down even more. I decided to ignore that for a moment.

“Let’s close the doors,” I said, “We don’t know how strong these mobs are. They could kill us in an instant.”

Lydia nodded, and the pair of us worked to shut and lock the stone doors. Only the ominous steps down were still open. As soon as we closed the door, I heard a gong sound.

Doooooong…

It filled the air was a warning noise. The blood drained in my face. I turned and grabbed the door, trying to open it again. The door did not open. Lydia and I used all our force, but neither of us could get the door open at all.

“What’s going on, Master?”

“Ah… I have a guess… but I hope I’m wrong.”

“Master?” Lydia was looking at me as if I held all the answers.

I could only sigh. “If I’m not mistaken, we’re on a boss level now. This cathedral is the entrance to the boss room, and by closing the door, we’ve initiated the boss fight. Even if we wanted to wait to be saved… it won’t happen.

“What do you mean?”

“These doors are shut. Even if someone fights their way down here to our level, they will be blocked. Those doors will only open one of two ways. We defeat the boss… or… it defeats us!”

Lydia didn’t cry or look scared. Rather, her hand tightened and a look of determination appeared on her face.

“This is… the last boss before we can leave, right?”

“This dungeon is young. I suspect so given the impressive cathedral size, but there is no guarantee this is the final fight.”

“Should we go?” Lydia asked nervously.

“No, we have time. Let’s start a fire, eat, and rest. We want to be 100% in this fight. With luck, it’s something undead and we can make short work of it.”

Thus, we sat down and started a fire. There wasn’t really any cooking when it came to the turkey legs, so I just cast Purify Food and then we ate right away. I was still feeling a bit restless though. We usually fought monsters until we grew tired enough we could barely move, and then set up camp. It had been a while that I didn’t need to worry about monsters around every corner. A good night’s rest would do well for both of us.

“This one has a new mural! Can you read it?”