Oh, that hel …Please tell me about
A: Yes, please leave it to me.
Well, yeah. It"s bothering isn"t it?
Just as usual, a drawing of the boss was drawn on the gate. It was a figure fully clad in a black robe. His face was covered in a hood and so couldn"t be seen, and he"s holding a large sickle. It is a grim reaper no matter how you look at it
[The boss here is the Grim Reaper I guess.]
[Geh! The Grim Reaper…]
[Mio-chan, is there something wrong?]
[Well, Marichan, games have this theory-like element where “grim reapers” are strong characters, you know. I think that when you talk about grim reapers, especially in dungeon-type games, they generally enter the top 3 characters you don"t want to encounter.]
[I remember something like that too. Among the games that I know of, the wandering type grim reapers were especially scary.]
There were also times in games when the dungeon wandering type of grim reapers would give you instant death just by encountering them if you"re unlucky.
[Aah, of course. They"re usually set so strong that you can"t win aren"t they.]
[Right.]
On the other hand, I know a way to enjoy hunting those kind of strong characters too though. If I had to say, then I would"ve liked that more I guess.
[If you look at it like that, then this grim reaper, who"s waiting obediently in the boss room, is quite fair isn"t he?]
[No, he"s just protecting the door to the next area after all. It"s not like he has conscience, you know?]
[Uhm, can I?]
[What is it?]
Sakura raised her hand and asked a question as Mio and I were having fun talking about the Grim Reaper.
[He"s a grim reaper and yet, is it fine for him to be staying put in the boss room? There are a great number of undead around us that ought to be sent to h.e.l.l though?]
[…Now that you mention it, it does feel out of place. A grim reaper is in the graveyard area and yet he"s not doing anything.]
Graveyards and such are something like a workplace for the Grim Reaper, isn"t it? I wonder what"s up with him, doing nothing there. Is it neglect of duty? A mistake in personnel selection?
[Or, it may mean that who the boss is sending to h.e.l.l are only the explorers" souls.]
[Even if that were the case, he wouldn"t be able to do any sort of work with us going against him]
We"re talking about how there haven"t been any explorers who have arrived at the 40th floor until now, so we should be the first to fight this boss. It must also be the first time for the grim reaper to fight explorers. That his first opponent would be us means he"s nothing but pitiable
These are the status of this pitiful grim reaper.
Grim Reaper
LV80
Note : Large scythe wielding grim reaper. Specializes in moving around freely in the air and killing others.
Level went up suddenly again. It was the same with the flame dragon who is the 30th floor boss, so it must be a setting for the bosses of the 30th floor and above. …If it"s like this, then I"ll be looking forward to how high level the 50th floor boss will be.
It"s natural, but its skills have become even more powerful than the flame dragon. As far as I can see, he would swing his scythe while floating in the air and use and too. It"s an enemy that"s likely to cause a one-sided ma.s.sive killing if you"re unlucky. That part is as expected from a Grim Reaper. (ED: Debating on whether 呪術 is actually enchantment or curse magic right now)
…I"ve considered various things, but the first problem is the skill it"s holding. Is it fine? Is it fine for me to defeat him by stealing the skill?
[What should we do? Should we fight it properly or just take its skill and instantly kill it…?]
[I prefer instant kill. Let"s go to the next area right away!]
It looks like we can"t do much about Mio wanting to finish the graveyard area quickly. The next area, which I can check with Map, is as a matter of fact that whatchamacallit though…
[The people who want to fight them, go kill him when you"re free after we place a “Portal” for me!]
[What about the everybody else?]
I asked the opinion of the rest of the members. Sera may want to fight.
[I will obey Jin-sama.]
[I think it"s fine going with instant kill…]
>
Maria is the usual. Sakura and Dora seems to be in favor of instant kill. Now then, the problem would be Sera. She"s not a battle junkie like Cynthia, but she did want to partic.i.p.ate in fights where she could play the most active role in as much as possible after all.
[If pushed I would say I would like to try fighting him, but I have no intention to persist in my opinions with Mio-san saying this much. I will challenge him another day when needed, just like Mio-san has said.]
[I will go with you when that time comes.]
[I look forward to working with you then, Marisan.]
Looks like Sera is also being considerate for Mio. Since it looks like we"re settled with instant killing him, with 4 votes for instant kill and 1 for Maria, Mio showed a face of relief. By the way, I hold 6 votes, so I have the final right to decide. What in the world is even majority rule or democracy I wonder…
Never mind that, the grim reaper is pitiful for having to go against Sera and Maria later.
It seems that the Grim Reaper is weak against , not betraying his appearance . Maria"s is level 6. Perhaps the (previously stolen) Unique skill should be effective too. Furthermore, magic won"t go through Sera. and will be blocked, and I can"t say that will have any effect either against Sera who boasts high defense.
…Wait, doesn"t this mean instant kill even if I don"t take the skill?
Let"s go back to topic.
[Then, it"ll be the instant kill course just like Mio wished for.]
[Alright~!]
The instant we decided on instant kill in accordance to majority rule (kind of), Mio a.s.sumed a triumphant pose. Would she be that glad about it?
Even I won"t do something like raising her spirits only to drop her down . …I do want to do it a little bit though.
[Then, I"ll defeat it as soon as we open the door.]
[Leave it to ye.]
Sera and Maria opened the door. The boss room is around 100m on each sides and around 20m in height, smaller than the flame dragon"s room, but bigger than the Minotaur and Elder Treant"s room. This guy flies in the air too, so it seems to be a high ceiling settings.
The door closes immediately after everyone entered.
[Okay, done.]
-*heavy drop sound*-
It sounded like something dropped on the floor. It likely must be an item drop.
When I thought so, Maria went to pick up the item drop. She is a hard worker isn"t she.
[It really is instant kill.]
[It is, isn"t it]
Mio and Sera spoke like they were amazed. Well, I did tell you instant kill didn"t I?
[Well, that"s because I made him eat the once-day-strengthened .]
[Oh, the ability you rarely use.]
[Jin-kun used that ability before, it was against the Eludia guard if I recall?] (TL note: the one who fell down and died in chapter 17)
[I haven"t joined as a member yet then have I? This is the first time I have seen this, but it is powerful isn"t it.]
I bought Sera at Eludia and Kastal"s national border after all. It is natural that she has never seen it. I see, so the last time I used it was that long ago. And this would be the second time I"ve used this.
[I probably won"t use it unless we have an opportunity like this…]
[Turning them into combat experience rather than instantly killing them seems to be Master"s plan. Meaning that it"s better not to use powers that are too strong, right?]
[Pretty much yeah.]
Basically, I won"t do something wasteful as instantly killing our antic.i.p.ated enemies without fighting them. This time is a special case since Mio hates the graveyard area.
[Jin-sama, here is the item drop.]
What Maria handed to me after picking up the item drop was a pitch black robe.
Nosferatu (不死者の翼: Wings of the immortal, read Nosferatu)
Type : Robe
Rarity : Legendary
Note : Auto-Repair, Shape Manipulation, Skill Bestowal
[Oh, a legendary cloak. Something interesting has come out again.]
A: This item is not one in the common drop table, but an item obtainable by the first to subjugate it. It seems master is the first to have come to this floor.
So I guess it means it"s a service to the one who accomplished the brilliant achievement called first subjugation.
As expected, this service doesn"t appear to be a grim reaper-only thing, so I guess people who were the first in subjugating other bosses have obtained bonus drops too.
[I see, it means that it had nothing to do with the power Master"s influence isn"t it. The first subjugation drop should be the same whoever defeated it…]
Alta must"ve explained the same details to everyone, Sera nodded in agreement.
[No, that doesn"t seem to be the case.]
However, Maria denied what she said and handed me another item.
[This is?]
[It was dropped near the robe. It seems that we obtained 2 item drops.]
[Is it possible for it to drop two items?]
A: It is possible to have two item drops if one drops during the first subjugation. However, in exchange for the limited drop to set for the first subjugation, common drop types are lowered, so it becomes extremely rare.
[In the end, it turned into something amazing compare to the rare drops that usually appear…]
[Well, this is Master we"re talking about, so even if something does happen, it"s not something to be surprised about.]
Sera and Mio made a forced smile, and Dora praised me. It seems like I appear as an “anything goes” person. …That I can"t deny it at all is the painful part.
So, this is the item drop, but what is this?
Soul Crystal
Note : Crystal of a pseudo soul .
A : It is a pseudo soul. Main usage is to install and move inorganic substances. It becomes absolutely obedient to the instructions of the installer. Its role is similar as magic stones.
The item kind of sounds amazing somehow. …By the way, what happens when you put it on human beings?
A: Nothing happens for living human beings. If they are corpses, then it will become possible to move them.
In other words, it won"t move things that have souls. And it can move things that have lost or do not have a soul, is what you mean right?
A: There are no problems in that perception. Incidentally, this is one of the items recited in legends.
It"s in the same frame as "Soma" and "Scarlet.i.te" no matter how I think about it, isn"t it? It looks like bosses dropping items that are told in legends in quite low chance is a specification.
When I think about it, I"m more bothered about the minotaur dropping only an axe though.
A: Minotaurs don"t have any unique drops.
Oh, really…
[For the time being, let"s leave the item inspection for later and move on to the next area.]
[Okay~! Fi~nally we"re escaping the graveyard area…]
Mio is looking relieved. But you know~, the next area you know~
[What the h.e.l.l is this~!?]
The instant we descended the stairs and arrived at the next area, Mio shouted.
[You cannot call this a bright atmosphere no matter how you look at it, can you.]
[Considering the monsters appearing in Map, should we call this the "h.e.l.l area"?]
The 41st floor and on could be appropriately called a h.e.l.l area, just like Maria said. The walls and pa.s.sage are basically made of stone similar to the 1st-10th floors, but it"s completely dark and blood-like marks are stuck on the walls and floors. There are a lot of ornaments along the pa.s.sage, but only skulls and things of poor taste that imitate daemons.
If it"s just that then you could probably even call it a demon king castle area, but all monsters reflected on Map has “Daemon” attached to them, so calling it h.e.l.l, or underworld area would be appropriate.
[So two areas that"s difficult for Mio-chan have come in a row … Jin-kun, shouldn"t we stop bringing Mio-chan along after all? It"s pitiful for her you know…]
[Sakursama~!]
Mio hugged Sakura. Sakura seems totally fine with this too. To Sakura, the other world looks like the very h.e.l.l itself…
[I guess so. The graveyard area was just 10 floors so I had her endure it, but 10 more floors would be too pitiful for her.]
[Besides, this time it shouldn"t be simple to instantly kill them either. We were able to clear the previous graveyard area quickly because Jin-sama has been robbing all the skills, so…]
[That is right. It does not appear like the monsters on this floor would go that easily.]
Maria and Sera battle power combi seems to think that it would be impossible to defeat the monsters on this floor at the graveyard area"s pace. It sure looks more intense than the graveyard area.
By the way, this is one example of the monsters that is projected in Map.
Daemon swordsman
LV103
Note : A daemon swordsman.
Honestly speaking, it seems like the creator of this dungeon isn"t interested in letting anyone clear the dungeon. This is not the boss. This is what is in the position of what we would call small fry monsters until now.
Their levels are suddenly over 100 and all of their skill levels are over 5 too. Of course, their status are also high like it"s natural. The monster distribution itself is not as packed as the graveyard area, but I can"t think of this area and monster as something where you can work it out with regular explorers.
Of course, if it"s us then there are opponents we can go against. Even so, I don"t think we"ll be able to avoid a close fight if we don"t free up a part of our status.
By the way, what is the level 10 skill ?
A: You will understand when you come again tomorrow.
Alta saying something like that means it won"t be a harm to us. Perhaps it"s bordering on “something interesting” I guess.
A: … (You found out).
[Let"s leave it at this for today.]
[Okay, then I will set "Portal".]
[Uugh~, let"s go home quick~]
We returned to the mansion with “Portal”. First of all, a meeting after washing away our sweat in the bath.
[So, this"ll be about the item drops and Mio from now on.]
[Please let me watch the house.]
Mio groveled for the umpteenth time.
A: There are no problems. Let"s bring her along tomorrow.
[No way!?]
Maybe she heard Alta"s voice, Mio raised a voice of shock.
[Err, it"s no problem in the meaning that Mio won"t be afraid, right?]
A: It is fine. At the very least, we will have no problems if we head there in the morning.
[How about it? Mio, Alta is saying it like this, but will you come along with us?]
[Ugh~, Alta, I believe in you, okay! I will seriously cry if I get afraid okay! Also, I will leak normally okay!]
[Don"t say that so boldly…]
Even while Mio was saying that, she will be coming along with us it seems. Alta did not make any strange lies and there"s nothing to be worried about, but why in the world would it be "fine" I wonder. Considering the fact she didn"t explain in full details, I wonder if it has anything to do with the skill where she also didn"t explain in full details…
A: …(I have been found out again.)
[Then, next would be the item drop inspection, or should I say confirmation.]
[One of them is a unique equipment for the first to subjugate it, isn"t it?]
[Yeah, it"s the Nosferatu cloak.]
The 3 described effects are: Self-repair, Shape Manipulation, and Skill Bestowal . I"ll try equipping Nosferatu first.
[Let"s a.s.sume the self-repair is, well, fine. And the shape manipulation is… oh, I can really make it move.]
I was able to move the edges of the cloak when I pointed my consciousness towards it.
[It"s a strange feeling, but it feels like you"ve gotten more movable body parts.]
[Are you able to hold things with it?]
[I"ll try it.]
Let"s try lifting up the nearby chair.
The cloak coiled around the legs of the chair and lifted it up as is. It looks like I don"t feel the weight. Or maybe I should say it"s like nearly telekinesis.
Oh, my MP is decreasing a little. I see, the equipped person"s MP is necessary to manipulate it I guess.
[If I have this, I will be able to peel off oranges while still inside the kotatsu you know.]
[Even if you don"t use that kind of thing, I will peel them off if you ask me.]
[Well, Marichan would"ve done so I guess…]
…It doesn"t seem necessary to go out of our way to use this cloak. I"m doubting the wisdom in putting on a cloak despite entering a kotatsu.
A: It can even take shape other than a cloak, like a coat, m.u.f.fler or misanga. ()
Oh, is that true? Let"s try it for a bit.
I tried to think become a coat inside my head. The worn robe changed its form and became like a coat.
[Oh, it really changed.]
[It transformed its shape into a coat didn"t it. This one suits Master more.]
[Then, let"s leave it as a coat for now. This seems handy so can I take it?]
[Jin-kun, who among us do you think would say you can"t?]
[Of course you can take it.]
[Of course you can. Besides, the one who defeated the grim reaper was Master, so…]
Said everybody while making a wry smile. This coat has become mine for now. Of course, lending is okay though.
[And the last function. Skill Bestowal , huh. If it"s as the name says, the one equipping it will become able to fly in the sky I think]
A: That"s correct.
[Looks like it. is added to my status.]
[So the Coat itself doesn"t have skill, but the skill will be on the person who wore the coat?]
Sakura raised a voice of doubt.
[Yeah, the skill isn"t put on the object after all. The only one who will use the skill are people from the looks of it.]
[Oh~ Hm? Then could it be that you can increase the skill level?]
[Probably I guess. Let"s try it.]
I raised the skill level to 10 as I was told by Mio. I was able to increase it without problems. By the way, only one point of was given upon equipping it. How stingy.
[Looks like I can. I"ll try flying for a bit for test.]
[Lend it to me next, okay~]
In outline, you are able to at least float in the air if you use . However, it"s not like you can move freely, and I can"t simply say it"s convenient to use with it using MP like like an idiot.
Also, I"m curious how much the skill benefits me.
And so, we moved to a deserted place by “Portal” and tested out the skill right away.
[Oh~, this feels nice.]
>
I enjoyed a skill based stroll? with Dora (with her own ). My coat spread like wings and flapped together with flapping sounds. Of course, you originally wouldn"t be able to fly in the sky with wings of these size, so it must be the blessings of the skill.
[So, the next one is this pseudo soul.]
[Hearing Alta"s explanation, it looks like we can create things like golems.]
We are inspecting the pseudo soul, which is the other item drop. It is under the same frame as "Soma" and "Scarlet.i.te", but the way to use it isn"t as clear as those 2.
[That"s right. this is an inspection, so we can use it on something appropriate, but…]
[Eh, that"s a waste. Oh, it"ll be a different story if we can insert and remove.]
A: You cannot. Once you remove it after inserting it once, it will become unusable from then on.
[Looks like it"s a consumable. Too bad.]
[Then, shall we save it until we discover something necessary, I mean, a little more interesting?]
[I guess.]
Since it"ll be wasteful as expected to use it randomly, we decided to use it at another time.
[We can"t make this public either can we? We can"t make it public that we broke through the 40th floor in the first place either, for that matter.]
[Well, of course you can"t]
Needless for Maria to say, nothing about floor 30 and above is allowed to be revealed.
In any case, this dungeon really has various things. I wonder what in the world could be in the deepest floor…
After we finished our late dinner and the children group went to sleep, Mira arrived at the mansion .
What Mira said was they completely finished the takeover by the new village head and they took Mio"s domestic affairs cheat advice from the high priority. Well, if they were going to try doing everything, it will take years of time from the looks of it, so that can"t be helped I guess.
By the way, she returned at night because there was a farewell party at village. In order to see off Mira alone, humans in the village (research team and knight"s order included) held a large scale buffet party. Meaning that time pa.s.sed without her being able to slip out.
[So Mira, what are you going to do from now on?]
Being a vampire and difficult to age, Mira is somewhat limited in what she could do. It is also the big reason she isn"t able to continue being the village"s representative.
[Let"s see~… I"m thinking about becoming a maid in this mansion~~…]
[That"s true, being a vampire won"t be a problem if you"re in this mansion.]
Everyone in this mansion is my subordinate after all. I"m having all of them adhere to secrecy, so increasing them with one vampire isn"t going to be much problem.
[In that case Lusia, I leave the training to you like always.]
[Yes, please leave it to me. It"s just the right time since we have new maids who have joined since today, so you will do the training together with them in Kastal.]
[I will be in your care~ Lusisan~]
I pa.s.sed on the usual task to the general head maid Lusia. Currently, the mansion in Kastal and Estia each has a maid head and the one supervising them is Lusia, the general head maid. She is going back and forth between Kastal and Estia… or so it seems. By the way, the two head maids are naturally believers too.
[Oh, that"s right Mira, do you want to turn back into human again if you can turn back safely? If you want to turn back, then we will search for a way on our side, you know?]
[…Can I ask you to do so~]
In our present state, her mind will break if we try to turn her back from vampire to human. So, Mira gave up on becoming human again. But her true feelings seems to be that she"s still thinking about turning back to human. …Well, it is natural, isn"t it?
[Understood. But I can"t make a definite promise on that, okay?]
[I am fine with that, so~ I leave it to you~]
When I asked Alta about this subject before, she returned with the following answer.
A: Currently it appears impossible with the existing methods in this world. If there is a likelihood, then it would either be
So it seems that if there is a possibility, it"ll only be with special powers. If I have to say it, then
A: I believe that if master wishes for it, it will come true someday.
It would be nice if that really happens.
The following day, once again the h.e.l.l area. It"s a new floor so we brought Cynthia, the twins and Kate and let them confirm the location of the stairs to the next floor.
[I never thought it would change this much.]
[It"s no doubt a reversal alright.]
Last night it was an ominous h.e.l.l area, but the 41st floor right now is transformed to an atmosphere that can"t be called anything but a heaven area.
All walls and floors shone white with not a single bit of dirt. The decorations like skulls have turned into ornaments of gold imitating angels.
Angel Swordsman
LV103
Note: An angel swordsman
The monsters I confirmed on Map have no doubt made a from yesterday. Considering most of the common points on their statuses, it must mean that yesterday"s demons have transformed into angels. So this is the effect of the skill…
[The condition is the time like I thought?]
A: Yes, that is correct. They seem to reverse at 7 o"clock in the morning and night.
[Alright~, then from today on our dungeon exploration time will be until 7PM, okay!]
Mio has 0 motivation to explore the h.e.l.l area it seems.
[It was late when we entered this area yesterday. If we go by our movement patterns, then we will basically end up exploring the heaven area.]
[Right right! There"s no reason for us to over do it and enter so late, right!?]
Perhaps there will be some differences in things you can obtain in the dungeon, but that isn"t something we care about right now.
I"m digressing, or perhaps I should say it"s a parable, but if Rouge"s team were to go to this floor, then they are likely to get annihilated when they take angel countermeasures and they transform into daemons while they are moving forward. Their weak points are like the opposite after all.
[That way -nanodesu!]
[[This way.]]
>
Cynthia and her team grasped the location of the stairs and pointed at one point.
After adjusting their positions and making sure to grasp the general distance, it seems to be in a place around 30 km away from here. When I let them search for the locations of the other stairs, it appears that from this floor on, the distance between stairs would be around 50km. I guess I can say as expected from the final area…
I send Cynthia and her team back to the volcano area and then we start capturing this heaven area too.
[Rather than calling it heaven area or h.e.l.l area, I think a reversal area would fit best…] (ED: Inversion would fit too as translation for 反転エリア)
That may be better than changing the way to call it by time frame.
[We"ll use Sakura"s idea. Let"s call this the Reversal area from now on.]
[Meaning this is Reversal area – Heaven mode, isn"t it?]
[I"m not going to go into the h.e.l.l mode though…]
There is not even a single type of trap in this area as far as I can see. This concept is one where there are quite a lot of super powerful enemies, a complete change from the many traps and many enemies up until the 40th floor. It makes me feel we"re being told to demonstrate our true strength without petty tricks once we"ve come this far. In the first place, each and every single enemy that are here are stronger than the S rank adventurers including Saladin after all.
That said, the us right now have become far stronger than the S rank adventurers, so I doubt we will be defeated if we"re not very unprepared though…
Angel Archer
LV104
Note: An angel archer
Angel Wizard
LV102
Note : An angel magician
Angel Gardner
LV105
Note : An angel tank
—??? Perspective—
[I really want to stop them, but…]
I muttered in my room with n.o.body around.
I have just gone out of my way to create the four heavenly kings with Romarie"s replacement, and then this time Zelvain is killed…
This is troubling. if the four heavenly kings are crushed at this pace, it will negatively affect our fight with the Heroes though…
[Romarie was defeated at Kastal, Zelvain was defeated by the neighboring Estia… If, by any chance, they have been defeated by the same person, the next he would go to would be…]
I spread open the map and confirm the countries neighboring Estia. ‘Kay, the four heavenly kings aren"t in the Estia"s neighboring countries. It will be tough as one would expect, if the three were to be killed in a short time. Let"s urge the nearby demons to watch out too.
I wonder if I should"ve identified the one who killed Romarie at the time in Kastal, even by overdoing it. Zelvain was in the dungeon, so it is difficult to identify who killed him too…
[A Hero, no the probability of that should be low. There are lot of them too… It should take a while before they become a threat after all…]
It is dangerous to get involved with the Heroes directly, so I would like to do it after I prepare as much as I could. But 2 of those preparations have been crushed already. That and the plan to directly appoint the four heavenly kings with sufficient influence is…
Even if we try to identify the offender, I"d like to avoid approaching the one, who holds the ability to kill the four heavenly kings, unprepared. Let sleeping dog lie as they say. It is natural for me, the demon lord to fear G.o.d.
[This is really difficult you know. Don"t we have a little too many restrictions on our side?]
I muttered to someone who isn"t here.
Now then, what kind of person should I make into the next four heavenly kings? I"m going to be busy again.