They descended the stairs that the Lich Lord Grimm had made for about 10 minutes. The stairs were connected to the real stairs to the 6th floor by spatial magic, so the 6th floor was spread before them as natual.
「Uwa~, what the owner of the voice said was true. Twisting s.p.a.ce to connect to this location……hey, Kuust. I’m really glad we didn’t fight the owner of the voice. What would have happened if you had lost your temper and destroyed that laboratory……」
「……」
Indeed, the sight before them was unreal, it caused Kuust to realise what a crazy monster the owner of the voice on the fifth floor had been. It was a Lich that had lived thousands of years……no, they were lucky that they didn’t know it was a Lich Lord, or maybe they were unlucky. Either way, Kuust was relieved at his good luck that he hadn’t angered the owner of the voice.
「So, this is the sixth floor……」
Elena’s voice echoed into the surroundings.
The scene before them was an ordinary dungeon, similar to the first, second and fifth floor, which they had just come down from.
The walls s.h.i.+ned lightly and the pa.s.sages were wide enough for Set to fight freely. It wasn’t a place filled with mushrooms or a forest but a place you would normally imagine a dungeon to be.
「That said, considering what has been inside this horrible dungeon, I don’t think this is an ordinary place.」
At Vel’s low murmur, everyone around him unconsciously nodded.
「Still, it’s better than the putrid smell of Zombies on the floor above. My sense of smell will return to normal shortly.」
「……I see, then Rei, Set, we will take a break here until Vel’s nose can smell properly. Especially because Vel couldn’t take a break after releasing the trap on door to the laboratory belonging to the owner of the voice. However, take care to watch for any enemies that may come.」
「Eh? ……Really? Lucky.」
Vel let out a joyful voice at Elena’s instructions. Rei and Set, who had come in direct contact with Grimm, didn’t put on any expression in particular but sat down on the spot in relief.
Fortunately, the stairs were behind them and they judged that it wasn’t likely for an ambush to occur compared to if they had taken a break in a pa.s.sage.
「Finally, the sixth floor. If we clear this floor safely and go down to the seventh floor, the Altar of Inheritance will be there……」
「Elena-sama?」
At Elena’s mutterings to herself, Ara turned to look at her with a worried face.
But Elena shook her head, saying that it was nothing, before closing her eyes to recover her stamina.
「Alright, is everyone okay? We will start searching.」
Elena called out to everyone after taking a break for about an hour.
Everyone followed her voice and stood up from the stone pavement they were sitting on.
「Because there are no undead here, we will change the formation slightly. Vanguard is Ara and Kuust, Middle guard is me and Rei. Set and Vel will take the rearguard.」
「Alright, the vanguard. I will try hard for Elena-sama and crush the enemies with this Power Axe!」
「Is that so, I’m counting on you Ara.」
Replying to Ara with a smile, the others got into formation without saying anything in particular.
「Vel, I will ask you to check for traps. Honestly speaking, you can be excused from the mix up that led us into the back s.p.a.ce.」
「Ah, oh well. Well, I didn’t expect a monster like that to appear.」
「Nevertheless, you shouldn’t be careless. Everyone should be more careful. If we break through this floor, it will be the lowest level. Our destination, the Altar of Inheritance, is there.」
Everyone nodded at Elena’s voice and earnestly began searching with a serious look, completely different from when they were taking a break a few minutes ago.
In that state, the moved forward from the stairs to the sixth floor and stepped into the dungeon of the sixth floor.
But……
「Isn’t this anticlimactic?」
Ara complained unhappily to Kuust beside her.
「Ara, I understand your feelings but don’t be discouraged. You don’t know when monsters will attack.」
Kuust reproved Ara as he watched the surroundings carefully, but Ara just shrugged her shoulders as she looked around.
「Even though it’s been an hour since we first entered the sixth floor, why hasn’t a single monster come out? There are no traps and only a few branching pa.s.sages. What is there to watch for.」
Yes. Despite enthusiastically entering the sixth floor, as Ara had said, there had been no monster and no traps. There were only a few branching pa.s.sages.
「……Hey, could we possibly have entered an infinite loop again?」
At Ara’s muttered remark, Vel shook his head at the rearguard.
「I’m not worried about that. For now, we have provisions for that. What do you think Rei?」
Maybe he understood from the floor above that Rei’s senses were as good as his, Vel asked him for confirmation.
Rei was of a similar opinion to Vel and gave a small nod.
「That’s right. It looks like a similar pa.s.sage but it’s subtlety different.At the very least it’s not like an infinite loop from the floor above.」
「Gurururu~」
Set gave a cry as to agree with Rei.
It seemed that though he had been frightened when they encountered Grimm about an hour ago, he had already recovered.
(……This kind of resilience, or is it his curiosity……hm?)
While thinking about Set’s situation in his mind, he noticed that he had been staring at the person beside him. Next to Rei was Elena, and naturally, he had been staring at Elena.
「What’s wrong?」
「……No, nothing at all. I was just thinking about something.」
Those words were clearly brus.h.i.+ng the question away, but he thought that Elena would be unlikely to pursue an answer as it would be strange.
They conversed as they advanced for another 20 minutes. Suddenly Set reacted with a twitch behind Rei.
Rei noticed about 10 seconds later, followed by Vel a few seconds after that.
「Thank to Ara wanting some to to come, it seems we have company.」
「……Eh?」
「Monsters. About 4 from the front……no, 5?」
「Everyone, prepare for battle. Vel, any from the rear?」
「There’s no problems there for now.」
「Alright, then we will eliminate them at once. ……Ara, stop them!」
Elena immediately gave instructions to Ara in the vanguard. Ara, who admired Elena, moved forward with the Power Axe in hand to s.h.i.+eld Elena without any hesitation.
That moment, a metallic kin~ sound echoed into the surroundings. Kuust thrust out his magic spear on reflex.
However, the magic spear that was thrust out in the short moment that the enemy attacked pierced the air instead of the enemy.
「Be careful, it’s fast!」
As Kuust’s voice echoed into the surroundings, everyone held their own weapon as they watched the enemy.
As the faint light from the dungeon walls illuminated the area, a huge wolf appeared. Its height from feet to head was up to Rei’s chest. From it’s upper jaw, deep green fangs stretched out like the extinct Sabertooth Tigers from Earth. And from its back, something like a tentacle grew on the left and right, making sharp sounds as they moved through the air. It was probably a blow from the tentacle that had attacked Ara.
As Vel said, 5 of such huge wolfs appeared, looking for openings as they observed Rei with their dark green eyes, a similar colour to their fangs.
Rei knew the monsters in front of them. As usual, they were in the monster encyclopedia.
「Emerald Wolf……」
「Rei, do you know what they are? Please tell us.」
Elena asked while read to use her sword whip at any time. To that question, Rei answered so that everyone could hear as he held the Death Scythe.
「Emerald Wolf. It’s a C rank monster but it usually lives in packs. In packs, they are B rank monsters. As for its strongest weapon……rather than its fangs, watch out for the tentacles that extend from its back. You can treat them as something like a whip. It can manipulate its tentacles at will to attack the enemy and uses its fangs to finish off its target. In addition, their physical ability is high and they can use primitive wind magic.」
「……I see, it’s a rather annoying enemy.」
Listening to Rei’s explanation, Ara held the Power Axe. The others also held their weapons, ready to attack at any time.
「Gaaaaaah~!」
The Emerald Wolves made the first strike. At the same time as that bark, a gust of wind blew, blinding Rei’s eyes. He felt two killing intents.
「Haah!」
Responding quickly to the killing intent, Rei poured magic power into the Death Scythe as he swung it, making sure not to hit his surrounding party members.
「Gyan~!」
With a single strike, the Emerald Wolf that had jumped off a wall to attack Rei in a triangle jump was splendidly cut in two. However, only one was taken down, just one……as he looked around, there used to be 5 at the front, but there were now only two. One was attracted by Rei’s magic power and attacked him before being slashed back. The remaining two were behind Elena. They had probably jumped off the wall and past them when the Emerald Wolf that Rei slashed had blinded him. They faced Set and Vel.
「Vel can’t fight a C rank monster in melee! Rei, swap with Vel and deal with the two at the back with Set. Vel, take the middle guard and support Rei with your bow. Ara, Kuust. We will clean up the two in the front.」
Following Elena’s instructions, Rei and Vel swiftly changed their positions. Using the momentum from when they switched positions, he slashed an Emerald Wolf with the Death Scythe……
「Gururu~!」
「Tch!」
Set gave a cry as he saw the tentacle attacking from Rei’s blind spot. Rei immediately jumped next to Set to avoid the attack.
The two Emerald Wolves attacked Rei at the same time with their quick movements. But……
「Gururururururu~!」
Their agility dropped by about 10% as Set used King’s Awe.
「Elena-sama, Set used his cry. Because the speed of the Emerald Wolves has dropped, please take them out now!」
Using the Death Scythe to slash the tentacles, fending them off, Rei called out to Elena, who was using her sword whip to support Ara and Kuust.
「I see, his cry. Thanks. Vel, arrows should be hard for them to dodge now. Shoot!」
「OK!」
As soon as he replied to Elena, Vel took out several arrows from his quiver and continuously shot the Emerald Wolves.
At their original speed, they would have been able to avoid the arrows by moving away or by intercepting them with their tentacles. But with the drop in movement speed due to Set’s King’s Awe, it became difficult. They avoided the Power Axe, as Ara swung it down, and Kuust’s magic spear as they leaped back to take some distance and focused on dodging the arrows. Perhaps the speed at which they made their judgement was what made them C rank monsters.
The Emerald Wolves facing Rei and Set also understood that their movements had been slowed and observed Rei as they took some distance.
(However, their hesitation is an opportunity we can use!)
Muttering in his mind, he kicked against the ground and closed the distance to the Emerald Wolf to the right.
「Set, you take the other one!」
「Gururu~!」
Set caught Rei’s intention and gave a short cry before jumping towards the Emerald Wolf to the left.
「Ga……Gaaaaaaa~!」
Although their movements were dulled, the Emerald Wolf was confused when Rei closed the distance without any hesitation but still tried to intercept him with its tentacle. But Rei’s weapons was one huge scythe and it had two tentacles. In addition, they had a similar hardness to ordinary swords. The Emerald Wolf’s judgement wasn’t wrong. ……If the opponent was an ordinary adventurer, or if Rei wasn’t wielding the Death Scythe. Any how, it weighed over 100kg and was swung with Rei’s inhuman strength. Adding onto that, magic power was being poured into the Death Scythe making the blade sharp enough to easily cut through metal. Not knowing the existence that was Rei was the Emerald Wolf’s greatest misfortune.
「Gyan~!」
One strike. With a single swing of the Death Scythe, the two tentacles, the Emerald Wolf’s biggest weapons, were cut off.
It screamed from the pain that it usually wouldn’t expect……when it finally noticed, the blade of the Death Scythe was already right before its eyes. That was the last thing the Emerald Wolf facing Rei saw in its life.
「Gaaaah~!！」
「Gururururu~!」
Rei cut off the head of the Emerald Wolf and took some distance to avoid the blood that spurted out from its neck. Looking at Set’s direction, the fire breath from Set’s mouth collided with the wind blades that the Emerald Wolf had shot out……the wind blades were burned away by the raw power of the fire breath as as the flames wrapped around the Emerald Wolf.
Set’s Fire Breath wasn’t at a very high level, only level 2. But it seemed that it’s power was still much stronger compared to the simple wind magic that the Emerald Wolf used.
And behind Rei, the tip of the sword whip pierced through the head of one of the Emerald Wolves, killing it. The last one was split in half, top and bottom, as Ara swung the Power Axe from the side in a cooperative attack with Kuust and Vel.