Chapter 302
Chapter 232 - (Chapter 302): Altar 1Year 7447, Month 7, Day 2
It was evening when we returned to the surface.
It seems like we"ll somehow be able to manage the guardian of the 10th floor.
But, the 11th floor...
Completely different from up until now it"s a vast world that spans an entire floor.
It"s believed to be around 10 km in diameter so the total area should be about as wide as the Oota district and Shinagawa district in j.a.pan combined.
Though I only vaguely remember the top and bottom 5 districts in terms of area so I"m not too confident.
We met up with Cathy and the other members of the {Slaughterers} who were gathered together at the entrance plaza.
I already told them that we were going to try and break through the 10th floor of the dungeon this time so Kamu reserved Murowa for us. For the time being we returned to our inn to change and then all of the {Slaughterers} gathered together.
After confirming that everyone was gathered I gave a report on how we succeeded in breaking through the 10th floor.
Hearing my report everyone started cheering and congratulating us.
I took out the magic stones from the 2 {Great.Underground.Vodyanoy} and showed them.
Since the giant stag beetles this time weren"t close enough to being human to call them humanoid we weren"t able to obtain any weapons or equipment from them but I explained how we found magic horseshoes and the frightening abilities of they had before moving on to the sights we saw on the 11th floor.
Everyone who wasn"t able to see that sight made expressions of admiration and a bit of yearning as if they were greatly interested in it.
It seems like they don"t have much interest in the magic horseshoes.
I said I don"t have any intention of selling them so I guess it"s because there won"t be any bonuses?
Though it would be fine if they just immediately realized how useful of an item they"ll be in the future and thought they weren"t anything worth making a racket over right now.
And~ Miduchi and Toris are talking about them.
Well, I guess that"s fine.
But, putting aside those giant stag beetles, everyone might eventually be able to see the 11th floor.
After all supposedly the {Exterminators} were able to arrive at the teleport room on the 5th floor by 4:00 pm on the second day this time. Even though they lost two members and should have had a reduction in combat strength it"s quite the miraculous record. It"s not all that much different from when Ginger and Hisu were with them.
Though I"m sure one of the primary factors for it is that Rodrick and my combat slave Mekku"s magic levels increased but I"m sure it"s also because their progressive nature in combat even surpa.s.ses the {Butchers} filled with veterans. They"ve acc.u.mulated quite a bit of experience and because their levels were originally the lowest they"re the party that"s grown in levels the most over the past two years. In just a bit longer, I guess, if they can shorten their time by about 2 more hours then they should obtain the ticket to explore the 6th floor.
Of course, the {Butchers} aren"t losing to them either. Since it seems they were able to arrive at the teleport room on the 6th floor by just past 8:00 pm on the second day as well. On their end if they can arrive before 8:00 pm on a stable basis then that would be plenty as proof of their abilities. I"d even be willing to give them permission to enter the 7th floor.
After all the results this time were without a leader from the former {Saviors}. In the first place making it to the teleport room on the 6th floor in two days is a high speed that beyond the {Saviors} not even the {Verdure.Brotherhood} has managed.
Thei
r faces are colored with confidence.
"Now then, we"ll be going back into the dungeon from the 6th but next time Zenom will go to the {Butchers}. Take over command of them. And then for the {Exterminators} will be..I guess so. Basutoral, you try going."
"Eh? Me!?"
Basutoral replied with a surprised face.
"Yeah, that"s right. Isn"t it about a good time for you to gain experience with things like that?"
"..Yes. I"ll try doing it! By the way, would it be no good for me to bring along Maru and Rinbi?"
..This guy, don"t get so nervous over something stupid~
Maru and Rinbi who I let sit at the lowest seats are looking at me with sparkling expressions.
Their eyes are so radiant I can almost hear the sparkling sound effects.
Ah, Basutoral has a relationship with these two from when he taught them at the sausage factory so I guess he wasn"t just nervous but just wanted to make use of them even sooner?
"..Obviously that"s no good. I"m afraid to even let these two fight against goblins yet."
After I said that Maru and Rinbi both lowered their heads. Of course~ if it"s one-on-one then let alone goblins they might even be able to manage against a gnoll. If they"re prepared to suffer injuries then while they might not be able to win they may even be able to hold their own against an ork or hobgoblin. But something like that, if any random adult gets desperate enough they could probably manage it. In the first place, there"s aren"t over in the dungeon after a single battle.
"Hey, Maru, Rinbi. It"s still too soon for you two. Putting aside your skills you need to grow a bit taller."
Ruttsu said that to try and cheer them up.
"Yeah, in the first place you"ve still got a ways to go with your spear thrusts. Saying to master that things will be fine for you at that level~ Ha~ there"s no way I could say it."
Even Jesu my combat slave who"s teaching them rejected it.
"Maru, Rinbi."
Since I started to feel a bit bad I called out to the two of them.
""Yes, master""
"Are you eating properly?"
""Of course!""
I obligated them to eat at least one baldoggie, several vegetable side dishes, and six slices of something like plain bread from our past life of a decent amount for every meal. It"s still only been about two months so it hasn"t shown much of an effect yet. However, if they make sure to properly run and swing the sword 500 times everyday in addition to the diet muscle training menu Miduchi taught them that focuses on squats every two days then they should reach the stamina of a beginner adventurer within a year. Putting aside their technique.
"It"s still the period for you two to build up your body. You shouldn"t bother worrying about something like the dungeon yet. After a short while longer I"ll check on your progress alright? Make sure you do it properly."
""Yes.""
Umu. That"s a good answer. Stuff like this sure feels good.
The next day, we found a gap when the stable brat of Boil Manor wasn"t looking and tried attaching the {Breeze.Horseshoes} to my Ura.n.u.s and Miduchi"s Ball-Dragon.
Hmm.
Just as expected they"re easy to equip and remove.
It felt like it would be unnatural to tell the brat not to touch their horseshoes and if he finds it strange that he can"t get them off he might check the status so we removed them right away and threw the lot of them into my locker at the shrine.
............................
Year 7447, Month 7, Day 10
We"ve taken a step onto the 11th floor.
"I can"t see the ceiling..."
Kimu said while looking at the sky.
"There"s really no hallways..Also, this light.."
Kamu is trying to stand as tall as she can with her short height as she restless looks around the surroundings but the 5 meter semi-circle radius we just teleported into is completely blocked out by the dense trees so you can"t see at all beyond into the sky.
After all, if we hadn"t made Gwine climb a tree last time we weren"t even able to see the gra.s.slands that are supposedly 200 meters ahead. Trees with a thickness of 50~60 cms are s.p.a.ced out with intervals of only about 2~5 meters between. There"s undergrowth with large leaves growing all over the place as well and even branches are growing from considerably low heights.
Do they know the definition of photosynthesis?
Isn"t it supposed to be no good if the light can"t reach them?
..Though it"s a bit late to be saying something like that.
Furthermore, the light from the ceiling was still the same madder red color as if it"s twilight.
"What should we do? Advance just like this?"
Miduchi asked me.
All of the teleport locations seem to be along the outer wall so there"s no choice other than that.
"First let"s try clearing through this forest. We"ll go with {Wedge.One} using 5 meter intervals."
I said that before standing at the lead.
Just in case I tried using the spell {Detect.Life} but I couldn"t detect anything other than us within the 200 meter range.
I also tried using the spells {Find.Trap}, {Detect.Snare}, and {Detect.Pitfall} but as expected there was no reaction.
Well, it was the same last time so I had already predicted it.
After putting in a decent amount of effort to pa.s.s through the forest and things suddenly opened up before our eyes.
Even though there was that many trees up until now, they all suddenly disappeared with not a single one remaining.
We all gathered once again just before the gra.s.sland that Gwine saw last time.
"Did you see any monsters?"
Just in case I tried asking everyone but obviously the answer was no.
What"s spreading out before our eyes is a thick gra.s.sland of about several tens of centimeters and then beyond that is dotted with forests and bushes of a decent density just as Gwine reported.
They appear to be just a bit less dense than the forest on the outer circ.u.mference but probably aren"t all that different.
Even though there"s no halls or walls I can"t help but sigh over how bad the visibility is.
For a short while everyone strained their eyes looking but after all we weren"t able to find anything moving like monsters.
Though it might also be because the light of twilight is quite a bit weaker than the 7th floor.
"Things seem to be pretty open here so isn"t a good place now that we"ve confirmed it"s safe?"
Miduchi is talking about using earth magic to create a high platform so Gwine can see a wider range.
Ever since I heard there was a gra.s.sland I thought it would be necessary.
Last time there were too many trees so it was difficult to make a stairway.
I won"t say it was completely impossible but in order to make twisting stairs that avoid the branches up to the top would have required quite a bit of mental concentration.
If we"re going to do something that stands out like this then I want to finish it off in one go.
Including Gwine"s height she was only able to see from a height of 6~7 meters.
There"s not even 10 km to the horizon(as far as can be seen).
Not to mention taking into consideration the height of the dense forest and she was at best able to see about 5 km.
Seeing up to the teleport crystal pillar was the limit.
That"s why I felt it was necessary to make a hill that"s at least 12~13 meters this time excluding Gwine"s height.
Though if I can be greedy I think a height of over 20 meters is necessary.
When it comes to a height of 20 meters then taking into consideration the angle and the ease of climbing the stairs and it would need a base with a diameter of 50~60 meters or so.
A wide area with no trees in the way was necessary.
Additionally it would be best if the summit is like a submarine where it has a wall you can just stick out your head from as well.
If we take into consideration attacks from monsters that we don"t know where they might be lurking.
"Just as expected the outer circ.u.mference is a forest with a width of 200~300 meters. The interior appears to be a gra.s.sland similar to that but it"s most likely the same for the opposite side as well. Because I couldn"t see all the way to the outside of the gra.s.slands.
It seems like the interior has quite a bit of dense forest and thickets. In terms of percentage I"d say it"s about 20% gra.s.sland or wasteland, 50% forest, and around 30% thickets I guess."
After descending from the hill Gwine"s report itself was mostly just what we had predicted.
"Would it be best to try teleporting to the opposite side of the room as well?"
"Nn~ I"m sure that would raise the reliability of it but isn"t it fine to do that later on?"
If Gwine"s saying that then it"s probably the case.
"And, did the ground seem level everywhere?"
Miduchi asked. This is something important as well.
"Yeah, even if there"s some hills inside of the forest they shouldn"t be all that high. If I had to say which it"s unfortunate that it was difficult to tell whether the ground is even lower than here or not. I couldn"t tell what was going on with the ground below the forests and thickets without getting closer.."
"It"s big just that we know there doesn"t seem to be anything like mountains."
Bel joined the conversation. Certainly that"s true.
"Yeah. However, there"s not very much of a height difference in the terrain of each floor in this dungeon."
Everyone seemed to agree with what I said but no one was able to explain the reason.
Of course, it"s not like there"s no highs or lows in this dungeon of Baldukk at all.
Miduchi and Kamu who have the special skill {Inclination.Sensing} can both tell the slight inclinations of the ground and even Ralpha notices it using {Spatial Comprehension}.
However, there hasn"t really been any way for us to clearly determine that up until now.
Though I found it strange.
"In any case, nothing will start unless we go and take a look."
After ending our conversation here and I hesitated for a moment on whether or not to erase the platform.
Well, I guess I"ll erase it.
While I was erasing the platform everyone was discussing things about this floor.
They must be worried.
"{Wedge.One} with 20 meter intervals. The goal is that tree."
I conveyed that we"d aim for a slightly tall tree ahead of the gra.s.slands with considerable intervals between us.
It"s questionable whether or not there"s even 200 meters to that tree.
There shouldn"t be any traps up to there.
"Let"s run it all at once."
I lowered my posture a bit while taking a step into the gra.s.sland.
Though I don"t think there"s much meaning to it, it"s a matter of feeling.
..................................
After pa.s.sing through the gra.s.sland and moving through the forest and thickets for a bit we entered a plaza in an opening between.
Everywhere we just pa.s.sed by is covered in trees other than behind us and with this even if there"s some kind of monster it should be blocked from seeing us.
As expected everyone let out a sigh of relief after the tension of pa.s.sing through a gra.s.sland with nothing to hide us.
However, it"s eerie that Gwine wasn"t able to see any monsters at all even from such a high place.
It was at that moment.
"That, what is it?"
Ralpha asked while looking further into the forest.
The direction Ralpha was pointing into the forest was towards the center where the teleport crystal is believed to be.
"Hn~? What?"
"Where?"
Kamu and Toris are looking in the direction she"s pointing but can"t seem to find anything strange.
"It"s probably hidden behind trees from there and hard to see. From this angle.."
Ralpha let them take over the position she was standing in until now.
"Nn..That is!"
"Eh...Ah.."
Toris stood behind the short Kamu and both of them looked in the same direction.
After a short while they seemed to realize something.
"What could you see?"
"What is it?"
Starting with Angela and Bel, everyone gathered to look in that direction.
I want to look as well but it seems the position I"m standing is bad and there"s so many leaves, branches, and trees that I can"t even see more than 20 meters.
"Al-san! That, it"s an altar! I can see an altar!"
Wh~at!?
In a hurry I switched places with Toris and there certainly was a portion of an altar that could be seen around 200 meters ahead.
It"s the perfect angle where you can"t see it anymore if you even shift your head just a bit.
If there"s an altar then that means...
In other words monsters will be summoned.
And then, if it"s the same as up until now there should be 4 gargoyle statues nearby.
However, there"s also the possibility of obtaining treasure.
There"s no reason to let this chance go.
"What should we do? Should we try going over to there?"
Ralpha said with a defiant expression as if she might lick her lips at any moment.
"But, it"s in the forest. If it"s not a plaza then.."
"The trees might be in the way quite a bit."
Bel and Toris both warned at the same time.
That"s right.
Especially Kimu and Gwine"s weapons are spears. It would be fine if they just thrust it but it would be quite difficult to swing it or rather impossible.
Not just the spear but even using the sword would be pretty difficult.
Wouldn"t it only be Ralpha"s {b.l.o.o.d.y.Handaxe} that can be used without much different from normally?
It"s the same for missile type attack spells when the visibility is this bad and even my certain kill technique of freezing them would only work if they"re right in front of us...
If there"s an enemy that"s swinging a weapon or using a portion of it"s body as a weapon in front of me then there"s no way I could manage something like freezing it.
It takes less than a split second to swing a weapon down so it"s considerably faster than something like freezing.
What should we do?
Up until just now if the density of the forest increased anymore than it was I was about ready to use fire magic to burn everything to the ground before retreating to the 10th floor.
Even if I can"t burn the trees I thought it would at least burn the leaves and small branches.
Also, I thought if there were any monsters nesting in it I might be able to finish them off with the heat from the mountain fire and the lack of oxygen.
Although, that"s only if my previous hypothesis about the composition of the air on Orth being the same as Earth was correct and monsters require the oxygen in the air to breath.
Even if that is the case I didn"t have much more than a weak basis for it in the first place.
However, if there"s an altar then it"s a different matter..I"m sure~
It would be bad if it even burns the altar right.
Since a lot of it is made of stone it might not burn but there"s no guarantee it wouldn"t cause some kind of damage to it.
In terms of treasure.
If there"s just this many trees then it should be possible to cut them all down with the wind magic level 7 attack spell {Vacuum Blade}.
But, what would cutting them down help?
If they fall down in place it would just make them even more of an obstruction.
Hey, what should I do?
After all I guess there"s no way to obtain the treasure other than fighting normally?