[Horn Sword]
Note : Sword wielding bones.
Horn Sword
Cla.s.sification : One-handed sword
Rarity : Common
Note : Difficult to handle. Breaks easily.
Their skill levels were extremely low and the sweet feeling of obtaining skills was extremely scarce. If someone told me “so, they"re weak,” that wouldn"t be true either. Their statuses fit their levels and they held a troublesome characteristic where they got immediately revived by their skill after being killed. Destroying their magic stone was the quick and easy way to kill them. However, magic stones would be more valuable the bigger they are, and their value would be extremely reduced if we damaged it.
In addition to that, this area didn"t have any special products. It didn"t have anything I wanted to harvest like the medicinal plants in the lush area or the minerals in the volcanic area. Bones, so to speak? …We didn"t need them. I could nod to the fact that there were hardly any explorers who would want to explore the graveyard area because of the triple suffering, where enemies were strong, traps were brutal and yet there was nothing to get despite having defeated a flame dragon.
[Of course, it"s different for the people who are seriously thinking about capturing it though.]
[Well that is true. After all, they differ in their original goals. In fact, there are explorers who have reached as far as the 32nd floor…]
[When we went to take independent actions from you the other day, Jin-sama, we did some intelligence gathering, but apparently explorers who seriously think of capturing the dungeon are in the minority. To think that it would be less than one percent…]
Up until now there had been explorers on the same floor here and there (on the map), but I really haven"t caught sight of them starting with this floor.
[This gives me the impression that the areas up until the volcano area are testing areas and that from here on out they would turn down everyone except for the truly powerful people.]
Just like Sakura said, from here on it was going to be the actual dungeon. They must have taken it upon themselves to give it this kind of structure in order to select only the people who would try to go through the dungeon even when there were no visible special rewards.
This country had several legends, and the ones who arrive at the deepest floor were said to be granted vast wealth. By the way, the 50th floor being the deepest floor is one of its legends.
However, there were some questions remaining for us, who learned about dungeons through games or novels. It was about what would happen to this dungeon after we reached the deepest floor. According to games and novels, there were cases where captured dungeons collapse, or cases where it would be placed under the control of the one who captured it.
[It is better for it to be under control, a collapse would be troubling right?]
[That"s right. The balance between countries will collapse. No, since one country will collapse after all.]
If the underground dungeon collapses, then what do you think will happen to the cities above it? They will collapse (physically).
[I heard there are no restrictions in going to the deepest floor. Could they not have considered the possibility of a collapse?]
[I don"t think they would consider a collapse or something just by going to the lowest floor if they don"t have the basic knowledge on our stories and such.]
[But looking at the structure of this dungeon, it feels like neither a collapse nor being under control would be strange…]
[You have a point…]
I didn"t think it was possible that they would create a dungeon this cliche-like just to give you a treasure after you reached the deepest floor and then go “bye bye”.
[Well, as you would"ve expected, I don"t think it"s going to collapse as soon as we get there, so we can just move so that only the collapse won"t happen, right?]
[You are right. I prefer it be under control (desuwa).]
[Master will be the dungeon master~!!!]
>
Mio suddenly shouted. Though she"s wearing earplugs, she should have been able to hear us if we talked so close to her. Dora who was next to me was surprised.
[Please delete the graveyard area when you become the dungeon master. I"ll do anything.]
Hm?
After that, we continued toward the stairs to the next floor. Oh, it"s because we already took care to confirm the way to the stairs with Cynthia"s group in the beginning. They returned to the volcanic area immediately after that though…
[But still, it feels depressing doesn"t it.]
[Yes, to be honest, it"s troublesome…]
Some traces of fatigue were showing on Sera and Maria"s faces. They were still fine physically, so it should have been mental fatigue.
[There are too many enemies!]
Just as Sera said, the monster encounter rate was terrible. Monsters always came up from the ground next to us every time we pa.s.sed by. For that reason, we got stuck continuously single-mindedly casting . As might be expected of the undead, the effectiveness of against them was just like in games and all. We increased our status and there were points where no monsters appeared, but these monsters were still troublesome.
It was already close to evening, but we didn"t even cover half of the usual. Even though they were enemies we could win against, being made to spend my time was just not my hobby.
[It can"t be helped. Shall we just use tricks…?]
[Jin-sama, do you have some trick to this?]
[Yeah, there is a way to exterminate these guys easily.]
It"s not like I"m using any large-scale magic in particular. I"ll just use , that"s all.
-*Clatter* *Clatter*-
-*gusha*-
With just that, the surrounding zombies and skeletons scattered and crumbled down.
[What did you do?]
[When you think about it normally, mere bones and corpses can"t move. Well, it"s a little late to say that when it comes to fantasy though…]
[That is, well, true…]
[And what if them moving around is the effect of the skill?]
[Oh, if you take that away…]
[They will end up in the state as you see now.]
Recently I"d hardly used the tactics of weakening our enemies with my special powers. But it"s not like I decided I would absolutely not use it. To begin with, we didn"t use it because we wouldn"t get experience if we took away their ability. Also, we had created some leeway in battle power.
Not to mention this time…
[We received experience points, didn"t we? I thought we wouldn"t get anything when Jin-sama takes away statuses though…]
[I kept the status as is and only their HP went to 0.]
[I see, so the skill is treated as the only thing that"s taken away, isn"t it]
[That"s how it is. The experience points are like the usual, we can take the status after defeating them and the magic stone remains as is. Perfect, right?]
Power leveling seemed easy too if we used that.
And let me also say that when turned level 5, its increased range, speed and also the number of targets became a huge help.
[Jin-kun, you are awfully cunning…]
[I told you it was a trick in the beginning, didn"t I? Besides, this is honestly too annoying.]
[Well, it will be much easier with this.]
[Yes, let"s resume our advance.]
>
And like this, though the first part took time, we advanced in one go, so we somehow managed to clear the 31st floor within the day.
Oh that"s right. I heard it after we returned, but duke Garfield"s household was destroyed you see… I heard Cattleya herself submitted evidence of duke Garfield"s illegal actions. Kidnapping, a.s.sa.s.sin training, a.s.sa.s.sination, illegal drug dealings and all kinds of other things. Because it was an overwhelming incident, the capital seemed to be flooding with news articles on that.
Duke Garfield was arrested and detained in the castle. It seems not only the duke individually, but the duke"s household seems to have done various things, so the people concerned were questioned and it unfolded into their arrest. You could say it was natural for him to be destroyed. With clear evidence coming up, it didn"t look like he had any way to even talk his way out of this.
About the a.s.sa.s.sin unit duke Garfield raised, the a.s.sa.s.sin trainers and such were arrested, but the actual members disappeared unnoticed and they were unable to catch any of them. Right now they"re on the lookout for retaliation, so guards seems to have been prepared around princess Cattleya.
Also, about his daughter who lost her arm and lost her reasoning, it seemed they had decided to let her drop to a slave"s status. The person herself didn"t have any charges on her, but her family collapsed and there was n.o.body left to take care of her. The treatment towards people who can"t move by themselves was kind of like this I guess. She had a lost arm, but she was a beauty, so, well, I guess a buyer would show up.
Oh, this is something completely unrelated, but while I was exploring the dungeon, the slave maids with special abilities have increased by ten new slaves. Come to think of it, those who were escorting princess Cattleya seem to be maids with special abilities too. Well, it"s a coincidence, a coincidence.
Also, she had a loss of limbs and her mind was not quite right, but I also bought a nice beauty of a slave.
The maids were to go to Kastal for their training. The crippled slave came at the right time, so I intended to make her a test subject in order to show the effects of “Soma” during tomorrow"s audience.
Ah, this was the status of that crippled slave.
Name : Fiyu (フィーユ; fiiyu)
Gender : Female
Age : 17
Race : Human
Skill :
Note : Jin"s slave, former n.o.ble"s daughter.
The next day, we gathered at the audience room just like we said.
[Hum, So you say you obtained a crippled slave just at the right time, so you will use this person to show us the effects of “Soma”… Honestly, that would help us. Not only is there no need for us to pay the price, we could just have you show us the effects after all. Our side has searched for just the right subject, but we could not find any.]
When I conveyed my intention, the king quickly gave his approval.
[Then, permission to let the crippled slave to the audience room.]
[Hum. Very well.]
The king gave me permission, so I invited Fiyu in the audience room. Although I say that, it is just Sera pushing Fiyu who was in a wheelchair.
[Huh, that girl is…]
[*groan*!]
The king"s face warped as if he ate something bitter. I heard the groans of a criminal from a somewhat separate place.
[It"s my new slave. I"m thinking about curing her lost limb with "Soma".]
[…I see, so inviting the former duke Garfield to this place was for this reason.]
[*angry groan*!]
Right now, the restrained former duke Garfield was brought along to this place. It seems the king didn"t know the reason why Cattleya demanded it, but now he seems to understand her.
[Don"t do anything of poor taste.]
[It is my principle to return the favor.]
[Hmm. …Oh, I see. The part where the former duke Garfield make a move on you previously? Well, the evidence was not falsified, meaning the result will be natural.]
[*angry groan*!]
It seems he also roughly understood what happened in the background. As I thought, he looks capable if he"s in his normal state. Of course I didn"t bring Mio with me.
[Then, I"ll use "Soma" immediately.]
[I entrust it to you.]
I said so, opened the bottle of "Soma" and made Fiyu drink it. Her body began to shine immediately. I guess at this point it"s similar to "Revival". Well, you would have ended up seeing the grotesque image of flesh regenerating if it hadn"t been shining after all.
After a while the light settled down, Fiyu remained in that place with her arms restored.
[*groan*!!!]
When the criminal groaned noticeably loudly, the surrounding people also became noisy and loud. Well to tell the truth, they did witness a legend with their eyes so it was natural I guess.
Although Fiyu"s arms were restored, she didn"t escape her nervous breakdown. Her eyes are open, but nothing"s reflecting there. She must have not thought that she would be cured, so she might be shutting out any stimulation from the outside. There"s nothing we can do towards that other than returning her to normal by time. Else a force reboot with Alta.
[This is…, I did not intend to doubt you, but this is beyond my expectations…]
The king couldn"t hide his surprise either.
[I was in a similar state as well. With this we verified the existence of "Soma". Are there any complains?]
[No we couldn"t possibly have any.]
The king responded to Cattleya.
The former duke Garfield was crouching before I noticed. Had he accepted the opportunity in the beginning, he would have had the right to hug Fiyu in this place though. The one who ignored that was he himself. Above all, he tried to use a.s.sa.s.sins to kill me and steal "Soma". Naturally I didn"t intend to let him off.
Showing him the happiness he could have had from the outside, after losing everything and dropping into an unrelated position was the retaliation I thought of. Yup, it"s in poor taste.
[Well then, father, how about a reward to Jin-sama?]
[What are you talking about? You are speaking of handing over a reward if a Soma drops from the Elder Treant are you not? He did say payment for the “soma” was unnecessary, so…]
[Yes he did, but you have never spoken about the proof of Soma"s existence have you? That alone should be a sufficient achievement.]
[Mh, in that case that certainly is an achievement for which we have to grant a reward.]
The king nods.
My report this time included the information that the Elder Treant drops Soma in addition to the information that Soma exists. The proof of the former would be postponed, but I had proven the latter, so it wouldn"t be strange if I got a reward for this. That time with Cattleya was an after-report, so it didn"t become proof.
Nevertheless, aren"t I getting too many rewards from this country?
A : I think you have given them much reason to do so.
The discovery of the underground dungeon, the rescue of Cattleya, the healing of the king, subjugation of the Hero and the proof of existence of "Soma". Yeah, I"ve done pretty well there.
[So, Jin-dono. Are there any rewards you desire? …It feels that recently we have been talking about nothing but your rewards though]
Like I thought the king seems to be feeling something similar. A lot isn"t it? Counting the number of times I entered the audience room.
[Well, it means that Jin-sama"s activities are that remarkable, father.]
[Of course, I did not mean it badly. All the more would it be more easier with handling internal sensitive talks if I had him become a n.o.ble, however… His achievements could be done in my name as well…]
[I decline.]
I answered without any delay. I don"t like n.o.bles.
[Well, I predicted that from your response when I previously talked about n.o.bility. Not even a hint of consideration I see… And I even have exactly one peerage left…]
[*groan*…]
The king made a forced smile and the criminal groaned.
Now then, I ought to take something as a reward, huh? There was nothing I particularly wanted. Or rather, I received what I wanted already, so…
[Then, the reward will be a magic item.]
[Hum, alright. Then let us arrange for a catalogue. We can negotiate about the number of items.]
There was a “Magic Item please” for when I was troubled. The opportunity to obtain it was also rare.
And like that, the audience was dissolved. I had Alta check the magic items inside the castle and select several important ones. I would give priority in choosing those in the catalogue I would get.
We intended to enter the dungeon in the afternoon like usual. But before that, I gathered everyone to give them a report.
[Since Mio is really hopeless-ish, I"m thinking about going with our full strength from here on.]
[Thank you very much.]
Mio was prostrating beside me.
Last night, Mio prostrated and begged me. Even I felt a little sorry and promised her to finish this in the shortest amount of time (not taking her along was not an option).
[I"m thinking about going forward and stealing the skill just like yesterday. This time we will ignore training and such and put importance on speed either way. For that sake, I asked Sakura to create new spells.]
[Vacuum] (Spec: Why do I feel it came from Warframe?)
Collects the corpses of subjugated monsters. Will stay active for a fixed time when invoked. Able to collect only the magic stone or only objects with value through settings.
[I"m going to gather only the things of value or magic stones with this “Vacuum”. Ah, and I"ve decided to collect up to two monster corpses for Tamo-san (including reserve).]
[A convenient magic isn"t it. But it feels like we will not really have the opportunity to use it except here in the dungeon.]
Well, it"s a spell made for the dungeon so that"s natural.
[Honestly, I think creating lowly versatile but useful spells as it suits the occasion is the right way to use Sakura"s .]
Sakura could create spells and yet there were no main demerits. In that case, it would have been a waste not to use it when we were troubled.
[Up until now there has been many spells you asked me to create which were highly all-purpose.]
[That"s right. It"s our first limited use spell up until now. There"s another spell that"s quite limited…]
[Anti-trap]
Destroys all surrounding traps.
[It is simple isn"t it.]
[It is simple (desuwa)]
>
[Simple ones consume less MP you know.]
The effect was simple. Up until then, we stopped our feet each time there was a trap to disable it, but it took time to do that, so it was a spell I had her make in order to cancel the traps while we moved. To be honest, it"s foul play.
[We"re going to capture using these two coming days for the time being. I"m sorry Mio, please endure this for 2 more days.]
[K", I will do my best.]
Since our preparation was done, we resumed our 32nd floor capture. Though she said she would do her best, Mio was still clinging to my back.
[This is this, that is that.]
Is what she said.
The 32nd floor was currently the lowest floor that had been reached. I think the ordinary explorers did well breaking through the 31st floor. And what"s even more surprising was that there were even three parties who had reached the 32nd floor or something.
With , [Vacuum] and [Anti-trap], we advanced through the 32nd floor at the fastest capturing pace ever. Thanks to that, we reached the area with the stairs to the next floor in less than a hour.
At that moment, I ended up seeing something I didn"t want to see in the area next to it.
[Ugeh…]
[Jin-sama, what"s the matter?]
[Oh, there is a demon in the adjacent area.]
[So a demon is in a place like this. …Eh? What is this?]
Sakura seems to have noticed it too. That there was something that was an explorer party beside the demon on this floor.
Originally, people"s position are shown on the map with a color marker. Because the marker"s heights are taken into account, the markers would acc.u.mulate if people acc.u.mulate. And yet, the markers of the explorers are lumped together with "x8" currently.
[There are 8 people in the same place? What does that mean?]
Maria asked.
[Doesn"t it feel like perhaps that they"re mixed together while they"re alive?]
[Uegh, I accidentally imagined it somehow though…]
Sakura"s face turns pale. Even I"m not feeling well about this.
[Sakura, I think the actual thing is probably beyond your imagination.]
[I-I don"t want to see that…]
[Me neither. But I can"t possibly ignore this as you could expect. Honestly the demons are really harmful. I have to crush them if I notice them.]
[You completely treat them like c.o.c.kroaches don"t you.]
[They clearly leave behind more harm than c.o.c.kroaches.]
I didn"t think the demon and the cl.u.s.ter of explorers beside him weren"t related to each other. 9 out of 10 this should be the work of this demon. There was a chance that only Romarie who was in Kastal had a cruel personality, but then I wondered if I should"ve already thought of demons themselves as having cruel personalities. I still had only seen two, but those two were too cruel.
It would be good for us to at least defeat them once we notice them in our range of activity. It"s not something I can leave alone after all.
[And so, I"ll go and kill the demon once we put a Portal next to the stairs. You wouldn"t like it, so Sakura, please go back with Mio.]
[I"m sorry. I might throw up if I see that…]
[Mio. I"m sorry, but capturing the graveyard area in 2 days may be impossible now.]
[I will be fine if I can wait in the mansion.]
I reached the stairs to the next floor, so I returned the two to the mansion. As far as I could see on the map, it didn"t seem like the demon was planning on doing anything about the lump of explorers. Aside from whether leaving them alone was a relief or not…
[Are the rest of you fine?]
[If Jin-sama goes, then I will come along anywhere.]
>
[I do not feel well, but since the food inside my stomach would be wasteful, I will absolutely not throw up.]
Sera is operating normally even here.
It was in the adjacent area, so we reached where the demon was in around 20 minutes of full powered movement. The demon seemed to be in a safe zone, so no monsters seemed to be sp.a.w.ning inside. Oh, monsters only didn"t sp.a.w.n there, it didn"t mean the monsters couldn"t enter. It didn"t mean you were safe just by taking refuge there.
Zelvain
LV65
Gender : Male
Age : 43
Race : Demon
Skill :
Curse Mark :
Greatly strengthens attribute values of oneself or follower monsters for a fixed duration. Greatly reduces the target"s lifespan in compensation.
[*sigh*, it doesn"t seem like I can calmly do research today.]
As we entered the safe area, the demon, no, Zelvain muttered so. His skin was purple like Romarie, with long silver hair. He was wearing a white coat and monocle, giving us the impression of a researcher.
I bore in mind not to look too much at the bundle of explorers which was near my field of vision. When I checked the map, the explorers in that lump were all women. According to Alta, only one group out of three was said to be a woman only party, so it should probably that group.
[Welcome, uninvited guests. Regretfully, but I cannot let you return alive, now that you have seen my figure.]
As Zelvain said that, a horde of undead-type monsters approached us from behind Zelvain. I think there"s around 50 of them. As expected from level 8.
[You can"t escape with a transfer stone with this, right?]
Transfer stone couldn"t be used when monsters were nearby. So it means he just have to summon monsters if he doesn"t want the other party to escape. I want to see what kind of face he will make when we escape with "Portal". No, I won"t do it though…
[Well, if I"m asked if I need to run away, then I would only answer not at all though…]
[Oh, you say something interesting in front of a demon. Will you be able to say the same thing even when you know that I am one of the four heavenly kings of the demon lord army "Zelvain of the ma.s.sive army"?]
Oh what, so he"s Romarie"s colleague. Then I can understand his bad taste.
[The four heavenly kings of the demon army, huh? Recently I heard one is defeated in Kastal recently, but you"re at that level?]
Let"s fan a fire for now. It was me who defeated her in the first place though…
[The likes of Romarie is the weakest among the four heavenly kings in terms of battle strength. It is natural for her to die when her plan was exposed. It bothers me that I am lumped together with her.]
Ah, so Romarie wasn"t oriented for direct combat. Well, I can"t say her Curse she possessed was oriented in battle either.
[More importantly, human. If you know about Kastal"s matter, then there is something I want to ask.]
[Nope, why do I have to go out my way to answer a question of a demon?]
[It"s because it takes time to expose your memories after killing you. If you answer me while you"re alive, then I will kill you peacefully unlike that lump of meat, you know?]
Exposing my memories after killing me he said, he"s saying quite the dangerous stuff. Ah, yes. I can do that too, what about it?
[I don"t want something like that. In exchange answer our question.]
There was something he wanted to ask, something he was curious about before he would kill me. It"s a good chance, so let"s ask something at this timing.
[Go ahead and say it…]
Zelvain nodded after thinking for a while and then urged me ahead.
[You didn"t instruct these dungeon monsters to go to the upper floor, did you?]