An orb floated in the place where the boss used to be. It did not look like a data crystal, nor did it resemble an artifact. They had to take it and get the group to the 6th floor. Momonga wanted to grab it, but was it really all right for him to do so, given that he had not contributed that much?
“Momonga-san, the boss dropped an item.”
“In that case, the two attackers should—”
“Momonga-san, it’s not like that,” Bukubukuchagama said.
“Things ended up like this because everyone did what they had to do. The attackers are supposed to damage the boss. The tank should control hate and bears the boss’ attacks. The healer has to heal the group’s wounds. And of course, the wildcard uses buffs and debuffs, guiding the flow of the battle.”
She panted, and took a breath.
“Therefore, everyone played their part!”
Something along the lines of “What she said” came from Yamaiko’s direction.
“Momonga-san, you protected us in many ways, didn’t you? It’s not just the front liners who shone in this fight, don’t you two agree?”
“You’re right, Yamaiko-san. However, I feel a little embarrassed to have someone say I was shining. We’re just the ones who entrust our backs to the rear guard and focus on attacking.”
“Yup, yup. Come on, go take it, Momonga-san. Didn’t you say we had to hurry?”
Nishiki Enrai urged Momonga on after Warrior Takemikazuchi spoke.
There were no facial expressions in Yggdrasil. However, Suzuki Satoru knew that his friends were smiling happily.
“—Thank you, everyone! Then, don’t mind if I do!”
With that, Momonga reached out for the floating sphere — and touched it.
In that instant, the world blacked out.
By the time he could see again, he was in a wide-open space, completely different from before. These were ruins, perhaps. They seemed to be in a slightly-elevated place, at the top of a flight of stone steps. The ruins were located within a sprawling expanse of wilderness, but there seemed to be something glowing in the sky which cast enough light that they could not see beyond 200 to 300 meters away.
The sound of cheering came from below them.
Looking down, he saw his guildmates. They were holding weapons, and it would seem they had been fighting until just now.
“The auto-spawning enemies vanished, so I was pretty sure that you and the others defeated your boss, Momonga-san.”
“Yoshaaaa! Damn we’re good, beating an unknown dungeon in one try! How about that, you shitty developers?!”
“Oi oi oi, if you want to take a toilet break, you’d better go now! Don’t miss out on what happens next!”
When he heard their shouts, Momonga suddenly understood what they had done, and he laughed. In truth, he had been laughing since just now, but he could not help himself now.
Momonga and the others descended the stairs, bathed in everyone’s praise. These were their accolades for beating the strongest boss.
“Then, Momonga-san. Put that in there.”
Momonga looked in the direction Touch Me was pointing, and saw a stone plaque. There were four orbs like the one Momonga was holding, and one empty slot. There were no clear directions, but he knew exactly what he had to do.
He headed straight for the plaque, and slotted his orb into the final depression. The orb fit into the indentation as though it had been sucked in, and then all the orbs glowed gently.
Momonga gulped.
A scroll descended from the sky, landing beside Momonga. In its place, the plaque vanished, replaced by a throne made from a single gigantic crystal.
There was no doubt that the scroll was the ownership deed, which meant that the throne was some sort of artifact. Usually, the dungeon reward was one or the other, but this seemed like an exceptional case. An artifact of this class ought to be pretty useful. If not, they could probably still sell it for a pretty penny.
However, certain artifacts were weird, and he prayed that this was not the case.
“Huh.”
Momonga, who was very worried about the throne, looked up to the sky. The glowing scroll was falling at an almost insufferably slow speed.
Although this sort of forced dramatics usually annoyed him, he had to be grateful for them this time.
Momonga extended his hand, and grasped the scroll from mid-air.
He had been thinking that he would look terribly lame if he fumbled it at a moment like this, so he had to keep the relief he felt when he took it into his hand a secret from everyone.
“Congratulations! For conquering the Great Tomb of Nazarick, you have earned the ownership rights to the Guild Homebase: Great Tomb of Nazarick.”
As though urged on by that calm male voice, Momonga opened the scroll, allowing everyone to see the contents of the title deed.
There was a cry of surprise as they looked through the data on the guild territories and income.
“This…! We can make up to 2750 levels of NPCs!”
“Ehhhhh? Really? It’s true!”
“Why is it so high?”
Everyone anxiously went over the contents again, Momonga included. He accessed his console and went over the number of NPC levels. When he realised what was going on, his eyes went wide.
There were only nine places in the game which offered more NPC levels, at 3000. Was this homebase location a place on par with those? It had not been discovered until now, so was this the result of something like points accumulating?
Was there any reason for this? If so, it would be very helpful. They read through the guild homebase details again, and the person who had first discovered it exclaimed again.
“The base amount is 2250, with a bonus of 500… has anyone heard of anything like this before?”
Everyone shook their heads. Then, someone had an idea.
“Could it be that if you successfully beat a guild homebase location in one shot, your maximum NPC levels increase?”
Silence fell across the group in an instant, and then someone shouted angrily:
“Uooooohhh! You shitty developers! As though anyone could do that!”
“Damn shitty developers!”
“Is that what you mean by seeking knowledge with no fear of death, you bastards?!”
Momonga joined in as well. This was to cover up the joy overflowing in his heart. The truth was, the people who had vented their emotions were now laughing.
In fact, everyone was laughing.
They slapped each other on the back, patted their shoulders and their heads, all to celebrate the achievement which they and their friends had won. From the corner of his eye, Momonga even noticed Ulbert and Touch Me patting each other on the back as well.
“—Then, is this an artifact?”
Punitto Moe stared at the throne.
“How nice of them to provide a throne for us. Then, please take your rightful place, Guildmaster Momonga-sama. After that, let’s take a commemorative picture with him in the middle!”
“Sounds good! Sounds great! Come, come! Guildmaster, come have a seat!”
Nishiki Enrai and Warrior Takemikazuchi’s words were met with general approval.
He could no longer put this off. Momonga did as he was told and sat on the throne. In that moment, a voice which only Momonga could hear spoke to him:
“Congratulations! For completing a dungeon of recommended level 80+ in one attempt, you have received the World-Class Item, The Throne of Kings!”
As the notification slowly sank into his mind, Momonga felt his heart clench tightly and shrink.
It was a shock that took his breath away.
One of the greatest treasures in Yggdrasil now rested beneath him.
Suspecting that he might have misheard things, he touched his console with trembling hands. As he looked at his status display, Momonga realized that the voice he heard was not some blissful hallucination that was the product of his own mind.