So tired... Once I wake up I"ll have time to do chapters consecutively again finally. So probably about 2-4 chapters between today and tomorrow. After that it"s about 1 per day.
Looking Into The 8th Floor
Year 7445, Month 8, Day 13
We arrived at the teleport room on the 7th floor(I had been calling it the "teleport crystal rod" but while late I noticed other adventurers were calling it the teleport crystal) around evening. We lowered our luggage we had been carrying and were finally able to take a breath.
This time we pa.s.sed through the desert room of the 7th floor but a group of large brown colored lizard monsters called {Kuraguzado} came out. Of course, the instant I thought it was our first time seeing them I froze and killed them without waiting to see what happens. The magic stones were about 30,000 each and while they fall quite a bit behind ogres there were 14 of them so they should be around 3,000,000 Z. They were some good earnings. When I Identified the corpses just as expected they had almost no MP and didn"t have any magic special skills so it seems the ice was the right answer.
Starting with the small tableware shelves and placing various miscellaneous goods, spare blankets, soap types, buckets for laundry in their fixed locations, while watching Giberuti start making preparations for dinner I had Angela ma.s.sage my feet while soaking them in the foot bath. Furthermore, in regards to soap there"s proper soap produced through the oils of plants and animals as well but it"s not of a very good quality. Recently we"ve putting several of these berries from something called the Soap-tree into a net and using that. I feel a bit like it"s returning to the ancient times but since this still seems to be of a better quality as soap recently we"ve completely moved over to this. Whether we"re washing our hair, faces, bodies, tableware or laundry we"re making use of these for all of it.
It seems Zenom"s finished his shower. I thank Angela and after adding more hot water to the shower bucket took one myself. It"s fine to directly use magic from my hand to take a shower as well but it"s unpleasant having to concentrate mentally while taking a shower so if we have the facilities then this is better.
Following me was Ralpha and then around the time Gwine was finished taking her shower dinner was ready. Everyone had a large serving of leafy vegetable salad along with the main dish of a pork fry and then after Basutoral the slaves started taking showers in order as well before we started discussing things for tomorrow. After confirming all of the usual attention points in the end,
"Tomorrow morning, we"ll enter the 8th floor once just to take a look. The main stream exploring is still a ways ahead. Don"t hold your hopes too high."
I particularly said it towards Ralpha. After confirming she had obediently nodded we went to bed early.
....................
Year 7445, Month 8, Day 14
Just before 5:00 in the morning I awoke to Giberuti preparing breakfast. After leaving my blanket, Basutoral and Angela had already woken up and we"re sitting on the bench..and I guess they were the final lookouts huh? One of them must have woken up Giberuti as well.
"Do you want to take a shower?"
"Ah, can I request one?"
Since they should have been keeping lookout since around 3:00 am, they probably want to take a hot shower and properly wake up pretty soon. Soon after I climbed out of my blanket and went to the shower room while scratching my a.s.s and resisting yawns, went up the stairs in the back of it and filled the bucket with slightly hot water. Basutoral entered the shower room right away and it seems he"s taking off his clothes.
I put some cold water in the washing bucket and use that to wash my face. Zenom, Ralpha, and Gwine started to wake up hearing the sounds of washing and showering. Everyone"s started to put their equipment on. After I put my combat boots on I put on the under armor of my rubber protectors which have recently started to get a bit small and fix them in place with bands. As expected it"s started to reach it"s limit~ I made them with quite a bit of room but it"s already gotten pretty tight. It"s about the time to re-make them.
Just going off of height it would be a perfect fit for Miduchi or Angela but since they"re women there"s also the problem of figure. Ah, you can"t just not use the body parts of it. Since all of the arm and leg parts are connected to the body parts in some way or form. Toris isn"t all that different from me in height but his legs are longer and Basutoral"s race is considerably slender so it doesn"t match up at all. Giberuti might be able to wear it..Though I don"t intend to let him join the combat so there"s not much meaning huh? If he wants it it"d be fine to give it to him though.
After that we ate the breakfast prepared by Giberuti and after confirming our equipment, grabbed on to the teleport crystal.
"It"s just limited to looking at the state of the 8th floor. In the case that there"s monsters right nearby I"ll earn time so everyone return. Don"t try to fight. If you carelessly try to move you"ll get in the way of my spells after all. Then, let"s go..Mikofurie!"
......................
The room we teleported into was like a 20 meter in diameter hemisphere ellipsoid with no exit. A room like a short wine gla.s.s on it"s side. Single grain walls and up until the roof the feel is almost like being inside of a cave similar to the 1st floor. While we were still in the middle of the room holding the crystal rod after teleporting in the six of us immediately scattered while going on guard with our weapons but let alone monsters there wasn"t even a single bug crawling along the ground.
For the time being, it seems the worst case of teleporting into the middle of a group of monsters wasn"t the case, so everyone is looking around restlessly at the first glance of the 8th floor. The air is stagnant and it"s just a bit difficult to breathe. I thought about using wind magic to create some air but since it seemed like it would raise the atmospheric pressure I decided to stop.
"Somehow this is a bad omen.."
Zenom whispered. For sure.
"Shall we return huh.."
After looking around for a bit I whispered that and then confirmed the arrow on the pedestal before writing "O N E" on a rock that stands out beyond that with a brush, then we returned to the 7th floor.
The next place we teleported into was complete darkness. Instantaneously I used my Unique Ability Identify and at the same time used the spell {Light} on a rock that appeared in the sight. We"re surrounded by walls again! or at least just as I was thinking that I noticed that we were just close to the dead end of a hallway. There"s nothing that resembles a monster in the range the light reaches. I can"t see any suspicious silhouettes in the direction the hall stretches out using Identify vision either. It seems the hall stretches out far enough that even Identify vision can"t see all of it. It"s completely beyond the effective range of the spell {Detect.Life}.
The walls have the same grain and just the same as the 1st floor it"s like a cave up to the ceiling but the air is moderately dry and while there"s no wind that can be felt it isn"t unpleasant and difficult to breathe either. The width of the hall is around 20 meters and I guess the highest point of the ceiling is around that as well? Almost like a slice of high kamaboko I guess.
While we can"t see any monsters, there"s small millipedes, centipedes, and some kind of strange bugs crawling around here and there. If it"s just this many bugs then they"ve been around up until now as well but it might just be my imagination but the number seems quite high? or at least that"s what it feels like maybe.
"It"s dark."
"So we suddenly entered a darkness area huh..And, North is that way."
Ralpha points in the direction the hall stretches out.
On each of the floors from the 2nd floor up until the 6th floor there was a very small portion of each floor made up of dark areas that has walls with the same grain and the walls don"t give off any light. Though I say that the halls are usually only at most about 100 meters so they aren"t anything special. Even if we carefully proceed down them it doesn"t take more than using the spell {Light} a couple times to pa.s.s through. I wonder if this is similar to those areas. We call these sorts of areas "darkness areas".
Of course there"s close to light at all but it seems that Basutoral and Zulu can see slightly with their special skill {Night Vision}. After that it seems like the areas connected to the darkness area which give off light enters so it"s hard to call a true darkness as well. Of course, if the distance increases quite a bit then even if it"s with {Night Vision} you won"t be able to see anything.
"What should we do? I"ve been using {Mapping} since the start so it"s still effective but"
"Suddenly starting from a darkness area is just a bit. Shall we reenter one more?"
After checking the arrow on the pedestal of the crystal rod we wrote "「√4" in the direction it pointed.
We checked the surface of the teleport crystal and after confirming it"s started flickering with the incantation again we all grabbed on to it. After confirming everyone was holding it I chanted the incantation and we returned to the 7th floor again. Even though we returned after only a few minutes Giberuti didn"t stop cleaning things up. It"s not particularly an unusual occurrence after all.
For the third time and we teleported into the middle of a hall. Walls with the same grain the ceiling is properly giving off light as well. It seems we"ve entered a normal area this time for sure and I was a bit relieved. Of course, we weren"t surrounded by monsters either.
"Hmph, it"s normal..Ah, North is that way."
After Gwine confirmed the direction Ralpha pointed she just focused on looking down the directions the hall stretches out. It seems she"s memorizing the slight rocks protruding out. I confirm the pedestal again and then write the next "three" ahead of it before checking the ends of the hall.
Mu, it"s only slight but it seems there"s some air flow. Judging from this state the hall probably continues down for quite a distance. Since the darkness area from just now was a dead end we couldn"t feel the flow of air but the hall this time has a capacity that feels like it might be connected to a monster room somewhere.
"It seems like there"s a slight air flow as well. It"s proof monsters are wandering around. Maruso, do you smell anything?"
Zenom asked Angela but Angela had her eyes clothes and was trying to pick up scents before that.
"I can smell an unfamiliar scent from that direction. I think it"s probably monster s.h.i.t or something though."
Angela pointed down one of the directions of the hall the air is coming from while replying. Of course~ if she can tell some kind of odor then that direction is the only obvious one.
I guess because he"s tense from entering a new floor Basutorall swallowing sounded awfully loud.
"Since it"s the long-awaited chance let"s at least see what kind of monsters there are. Then, shall we try going in that direction? Carefully now. Since we don"t know what kind of traps there might be proceed cautiously. We"ll advance with the {Double Trail}, Angela and Ralpha will take the lead..ah, No, after all let"s just confirm if there"s any traps around here. After confirming there"s no traps we"ll lure monsters to us."
Since it can"t be helped rushing I didn"t use {Find.Trap}, {Detect.Snare}, or {Perceive.Pitfall}. Ralpha and Angela are hitting the floor with the pole we prepared before hand. Gwine and Basutoral are walking around poking places with their spears as well. If I don"t have them do this occasionally their skills might dull after all.
"Try prodding the walls up to around our height as well. It would be unpleasant if there was another strange trap after all."
Before long we had completely investigated up until around 50 meters ahead from the teleport crystal and confirmed there were no traps.
"Alright, up until around 10 meters in front of us and around 40 meters behind past the teleport crystal is safe regardless of if we jump or roll. We"ll take on the enemy with the {Reverse Triangle} centering around Zenom with me at the summit. Let"s go."
Ralphai s on the left side of the front row, Zenom is in the center, Angela on the right side, and everyone is lined up with around 5 meters between. The second row has a distance similar to the first made up of Gwine and Basutoral. Then the third row takes formation around me while I slowly use the spell {Audible.Clamor} about 50 meters ahead on a random rock I could see with Identify vision.
A loud noise almost like a tire rupturing echoes through the 8th floor.
When I was looking further down the hall with Identify vision and I could see several specks with wings coming approaching in the distance.
【】
【Male/1/12/7444.Giant Cave Cricket】
【State: Good】
【Age: 0 Years Old】
【Level: 6】
【HP: 65 MP: 1(1)】
【Strength: 10】
【Speed: 35】
【Dexterity: 5】
【Endurance: 5】
There"s several dozen of those and they"re springing through the center of the hall heading over here.
It doesn"t seem like they have any sort of special skill and while it says giant in the end they"re just crickets. They aren"t much of an opponent. If she does it calmly then even Gwien in the middle row can use magic so it should be possible for the five of them to deal with it.
Well, if I just send one shot of {Fire Ball} in that will probably wipe out a few of them a.s.suming it doesn"t take out half or so and that should increase the light as well...
"Something is approaching.."
"Yeah, rabbits? It feels like they"re leaping along the ground."
"They seem like gra.s.shoppers."
It seems Basutoral can see them.
When they approached to around 200 meters ahead I sent five shots of {Fire Ball} with missile added flying towards them. It seems the ones that took direct hits and were in the immediate vicinity of that died instantly.
Remaining is..eight more huh?
"I"ll provide backup as suitable. Kill them!"
..................
The giant crickets had a height of close to 80 cm. However, their HP wasn"t anything special so almost all of the individuals died from just a single good hit from the tomahawk, broad sword, and spear.
The magic stones had a value of around 10,000 each so they"re pretty good earnings, even the experience points was close to 400. Since it was a waste of skipping over the magic stones of the ones I finished with {Fire Ball} we waited for around 20 minutes to see if anymore monsters would approach and then after confirming if there were any traps along the way with spells we gathered them all.
"Now then, Al. What are we going to do? Shall we try proceeding a bit?"
Zenom asks me but I had no intention of proceeding from the start. Today wasn"t for exploring but just checking the state of things on the 8th floor. There"s no guarantee that crickets are the only monsters either.
"No, we won"t proceed today. It"s plenty if we can confirm the state of the 8th floor after all."
I crack my neck to the sides while replying.
"Are we going to lure more monsters again?"
"We aren"t doing that either. Even after waiting this long nothing came along. Either there"s nothing near here or if there is it"s insanely slow like slimes. We should return once and try going to a different area."
I said that urging everyone along and we returned to the 7th floor.
.....................
We spent the entire morning teleporting into a total of seven locations and entered combat ten times. Among those five times was with the crickets, three times was with {Giant Mantis}, which were once again basically just huge praying mantis. Twice was against {Giant Millipedes} which were huge millipedes that reached a size of around 3 meters in all. It"s all just bugs. The values of the magic stones were all pretty similar as well.
Honestly speaking, I thought Ralpha, Gwine, Angela or the women would at least raise a scream from all of the insects but there"s no one with that sort of cute side among us. Only really Basutoral who made a pretty unpleasant face when disa.s.sembling them to gather the magic stones.
I only thought they were pretty disgusting when I saw the huge crickets as well but I guess because they"re too big they don"t really seem disgusting as bugs. The scythes of the praying mantis and the poison from the millipedes require plenty of caution but since we were able to confirm they aren"t very powerful enemies at all you could say we"ve achieved our objective for this time. Starting from the afternoon we went back to fighting ogres on the 7th floor again.
After thinking about it once again taking on ogres is a lot more tense. They"re a lot more dangerous as well, since trying to lure them over is as expected scary they have the flaw of having to explore the halls to search for them but the value of their magic stones is completely different and the amount of experience points for each individual ogre is higher as well.
After all I guess we should spend until the end of this year gaining experience on the 7th floor and leveling up?
If we do it until the end of this year then putting aside {Sooner}, if the {Butchers} buy some combat slaves and we have Ginger or Hisu switch parties then Kamu might be able to act as leader after all...No, that is...
It was when I was eating dinner together with everyone that night while thinking about those sorts of things.
"If it"s like that then wouldn"t the boss of the rooms on the 8th floor be easy? Since they say that the first King of Rombert founded the country on treasure from the 8th floor, tomorrow, how about we try going to a room?"
The thoughtless one dyed blonde suggested. I thought you would say that for sure.
"It might not be a bad idea to take a look at the state of things. I want the mapping information for the 8th floor as well."
The woman with a small build who"s recently gotten into the hobby of playing with her beard agrees. Certainly the mapping information we gained for the 8th floor today is close to nothing after all. I thought you would say that as well.
"Even if you say that but..as expected wouldn"t the strength of the room boss be on a completely different level? Even today we fought against three types of bugs but there might still be even more. Wouldn"t it be best to go to the rooms when we have even more people?"
As expected of Angela, she"s a good slave who"s properly undergone my training. Not to mention since it seems that starting from the 8th floor only the first King and his allies had stepped foot there. Since it seems that the first knight group"s investigation party had made it to the 7th floor before. I doubt we can be too careful no matter how cautiously we proceed on the 8th floor.
"It"s just as Angela said. In the first place, look at Zenom and Basutoral. They properly understand the objective this time. As proof of that they aren"t saying to do unreasonable things like you all right? We"re not doing it. This time it"s just for investigating. Tomorrow we"ll just spend the morning luring monsters over and fighting again."
In the first place, up until the 7th floor while it was fragmented we at least had the information on the primary monsters that appear on each floor. Think carefully about that.
Even though we"ve only seen a few different types of monsters I"m amazed they could say we could manage the 8th floor. Even though we still don"t know much at all but if at least it"s not a time when Miduchi is around it"s too frightening to go even further inside.
Also, the problems with the 8th floor isn"t just monsters right?