「Did we escape from that s.p.a.ce?」
Elena muttered as she looked at the small room in front of them.
As Rei nodded at Elena’s words, he turned to look at the door as well.
「I think that this room is probably the trigger to trap adventurers in the s.p.a.ce loop.」
「Then, that means that the Skeleton Hound lurking in the treasure chest was a fake」
Elena frowned bitterly at the door before letting out a sigh and turning her eyes towards the end of the pa.s.sage.
「It can’t be helped that we were caught in the trap once. Anyhow, we will keep advancing down the pa.s.sage. Vel, because there are traps like that, stay very alert.」
「Roger that, roger that. As expected, it would affect my pride if we were to be caught in a similar trap multiple times.」
Vel replied to Elena in a light tone, but his eyes showed that he felt humiliation at being so easily caught in a trap.
A bit further away, Kuust bit his lips as he watched, also feeling humiliated at being caught in the trap.
「Hey, Vel aside, Kuust hasn’t had the training so you don’t need to feel so bad. The two of them are going to go ahead so we can leave it to them.」
Ara patted Kuust, who held his magic spear ready, lightly on the shoulder before following Elena and Rei, who had gone ahead first.
Realising the situation, Vel and Kuust also hurried after them.
「……Honestly, it hurts my pride to fall into a trap so easily.」
「Hmph, you barely have any pride left.」
「Hey Kuust, isn’t that a bit nasty? That aside, I’m more wondering why you are mortified at.」
「Because I, who am a n.o.ble, fell into the trap of a monster, it is natural that I would feel humiliated.」
Listening to Kuust’s words, which were bitterly spat out, Vel gave a wry smile as he took the water bottle from his waist and moistened his throat.
「Hey, you can take a drink as well. There’s no use being angry at such a place. Both of us will take more care next time.」
「……Hmph.」
While giving a snort, he received the water bottle and drank a mouthful to moisten his mouth and throat before pa.s.sing it back to Vel.
While talking like that, they caught up with Elena and rebuilt the formation of vanguard, middle guard and rearguard before advancing cautiously.
「Given the previous trap, we should think that there are still other traps. Everyone take care. Vel, concentrate on looking for traps instead of watching the surroundings please. As long as nothing big comes out, with Set here, we will be on guard against the surroundings.」
「Guru~!」
Set gave a cry saying leave it to me and went forward with Rei.
They advanced like this for about 10 minutes……
「Gururu~」
Set gave a deep cry as he looked down he pa.s.sage.
「An immediate enemy. Because they didn’t think we could break through the s.p.a.ce loop so fast, they rushed to intercept us……is that it?」
「Well then, that possibility is high but we can’t be careless.」
Elena held her sword whip as she replied to Vel. The others also all readied their weapons, ready to enter combat at any time.
「Ara, Kuust. Both of you carefully watch the back. If the undeads on this floor are being moved by someone’s instructions, there’s a possibility of aiming for a pincer from the front and back.」
「I understand. Please leave the back to us!」
「We will not show mistakes like before.」
After Rei heard those voices from behind, he then heard footsteps coming from the end of the pa.s.sage.
Becha~, Becha~, Becha~, Becha~, Becha~.
There was a sound of something wet hitting the ground. There were quite a few.
And at the same time……
「Guru~」
Set raised an unhappy cry. At the same time, an intense smell of rotten flesh drifted to Rei’s nose, whose five senses were much sharper than the ordinary person.
「Ugh!」
Elena and Vel looked at Rei strangely, who unconsciously held his nose with his left hand. After a few more seconds, Vel, whose senses were also sharper than the average human, held his nose while groaning. Then Elena frowned silently and held her nose.
Before long, the damp footsteps approached. The ident.i.ty of the damp footsteps and the putrid smell became apparent.
Some had half rotted bodies with their rib bones exposed, others had gooey liquid coming out of their eye sockets.
Every time they took a step, an odour would drift out and flesh and liquid would fall on the ground, making sounds as a countless shadows went towards Rei.
「Zombies, is it.」
Rei muttered bitterly. With his sharp senses, the direct hit from the putrid smell had already left him half paralyzed. It was the same for Set, whose sense were even sharper than Rei’s. Set turned his eyes to the nearly 20 Zombies and gave a groaning cry in a bad mood.
Meanwhile, noticing the Zombies, Vel spoke up unpleasantly.
「Wait a minute, there are some Zombies with armour equipped……could that mean that.」
「……I wonder. Perhaps this is the fate of adventurers who lose their lives on this floor.」
「Ugh, as I thought. ……I would hate it if I ended up like that.」
Elena confirmed Vel’s thoughts and turned to look unpleasantly at the Zombies who were gradually approaching.
Adventurers who challenged the dungeon naturally wanted to avoid dying here. The danger of death always accompanied diving into the dungeon. However, even if you died here, your corpse would be turned into a toy by a Lich, which Vel absolutely wanted to avoid. ……No, not just Vel, it was the opinion of everyone here.
Effective attacks against ordinary undead, such as holy magic and fire magic were also effective against Zombies. Or, if you didn’t mind coming in contact with rotten corpses, you could also target the magic stone buried inside their flesh.
Fortunately for Elena and the others, there was a mage and monster that could use fire magic in the party.
Even if Elena was famous as the General Princess, while she wouldn’t shudder at the sight of Zombies, she was still grateful from the bottom of her heart that Rei and Set were in the party.
Even if Kuust’s relations.h.i.+p with Rei had rapidly deteriorated, it was the same for him. If he the event occurred that he had to fight Zombies himself, it would be a very unpleasant battle.
「……Hey, Kuust.」
Ara, who was next to Kuust, tapped his armour as he was imagine the worst outcome.
Pulling himself together at the kon~, kon~ sound, Kuust looked at Ara.
「What’s wrong?」
「How to say it, this deployment is as expected of Elena-sama but……what do you think?」
「……What?」
「Here, listen carefully.」
Following Ara’s words, he focused his concentration on listening. Then, becha~, the sound of Zombies walking was heard. But, listening to the sounds……
「Tch!」
Kuust turned around while holding his magic spear and clicking his tongue.
Yes. They could here the footsteps of Zombies approaching. There were also the footsteps of another existence coming closer to them with a different timing in step. However, it was not from in front, but from behind.
「Elena-sama, the enemy is attack from behind as expected. I think from the footsteps, it’s probably also Zombies.」
「Someone we don’t know seems to be giving us a grand welcome. Ara, Kuust, keep yourselves to defense until Rei and Set have their hands free!」
Listening to Elena’s instructions, the two of them readied their weapons as the approaching Zombies came into view, walking with a becha~, becha~ sound.
「Using an axe to attack a Zombie seems miserable in a variety of ways……」
「That’s the same for me.」
「But, Kuust’s weapon is a spear. If you think in terms of distance, it’s absolutely more advantageous for you.」
「Still, this magic spear was handed down my family, I’m very unwilling to have to defile it on the rotten flesh and blood of undeads like Zombies.」
「Then we can only buy time until Rei or Set does something.」
「……Hmph.」
He didn’t want to rely on Rei so much. Answering with a snort, he looked at the approaching Zombies without arguing if it was better to leave it to Rei or to fight directly. He started chanting an incantation while touching the ear ring that was pierced in his right ear.
『Great spirit of water, reveal five fierce fangs.』
The world was changed through the ear ring, which was a magic casting tool, and 5 conical spikes made of water were formed. They were about 10cm in diameter, and actually, was the strongest magical attack available to Kuust. Either way, though he was good at water magic, he basically focused on healing magic and wasn’t so good at offensive magic.
『Water Fang!』
The water spikes were released with the activation of the magic, piercing the face, body and limbs of the silent, walking Zombies.
However, because Zombies didn’t have a sense of pain in the first place, after stopping for a few seconds at the impact of the water spikes, it started moving again.
「It’s useless!」
Although he had expectations, Ara unintentionally crushed any hope that he had.
Meanwhile, something suddenly pa.s.sed above Kuust and Ara and landed in front of them.
「Guru~!」
Needless to say, it was Set the Griffon.
For an instant, Ara turned to look at the vanguard. There were Zombies that had already been charred black and had fallen to the ground. The Zombies that were still moving had their false lives taken by fireb.a.l.l.s Rei shot out.
「Ara, Kuust. The vanguard has managed somehow with Set. Leave the attack on the Zombies at the back to Set, focus on defense!」
「Yes!」
Ara replied to Elena and was wary of the remaining approaching Zombies as she held the Power Axe.
To attack, Set took a deep breath as a Zombie approached him with its arms raised in silence.
「Gururururururu~!」
Fire Breath was released from his beak, wrapping the approaching Zombie in flames.
「Uwa~,wai-!」
Although Fire Breath was used, it couldn’t char a Zombie in an instant as it was only level 2. The Zombies neared Set. And as the distance between Set and where Ara and Kuust were standing became zero……
「Gurururururu~!」
Set unleashed Fire Breath while raising a roar that echoed through the dungeon.
Although it was truly only level 2, the putrid flesh of the Zombie was carbonized without any resistance after being wrapped in flames twice. It wasn’t able to swing its hands that it had thrown up and fell down on the spot.
After seeing such a sight two times, then three times in a row, Ara noticed that all the Zombies that had been attacking them from behind had all burned up and fallen to the ground.
「Gururururu~!」
In front of the Zombies, that had been burned and carbonized, Set raised a cry of victory and approached Rei, who had cleaned up the remaining Zombies in the vanguard, who patted his head.
「Well then, you did your best. We were able to overwhelm the Zombies thanks to Set.」
「Gururu~」
While complimenting Set and taking out some dried meat from the Misty Ring to give to him, Rei turned to look at Elena.
「Elena-sama, let’s get away from here for now. We don’t know who the enemy is and there is a possibility of reinforcements being sent if we stay here.」
「……That’s right. We should certainly avoid a battle here as Rei and Set are our only effective means of attack against the undead. Let’s go, I want to find a way to the 6th floor by today if possible.」
Everyone nodded at Elena’s words and formed into a row before advancing through the dungeon.
By the way, the Zombies that were burnt up also had their magic stones destroyed as a matter of course. They were unable to obtain any sort of material.
Actually Rei had expectations over whether any skills could be learned from the magic stones of Skeletons and Zombies. However, he felt that it would be too awkward right now if he tried to see if Set or the Death Scythe could acquire new skills.