Yay~ more main story. Though I"m still not sure what I"m going to do about the Miduchi SS in like 5 chapters. They"re kind of hard to skip over... I could just do the last one I guess. Next chapter in 2-4 hours.
Year 7444, Month 8, Day 19
Since we managed to get our hands on a {Magic Item}, I decided to cut our plans short and return to the surface. Honestly speaking, I just want to get rid of this {Bracelet.Of.Dead.Body.To.Water} as soon as possible. Either way I already know it"s effects using Identify so it"s the point where I don"t even care to investigate the small details. I don"t want for there to be anything even small that makes me like it or think it"s useful, is my strongest feeling. I don"t want to be in possession of it.
We returned back to the teleport crystal on the 6th floor and teleported into the teleport room on the 5th floor. After telling Giberuti who was waiting for our return, about the item we found this time and he was happy and cheerfully started cleaning up the camp.
While glancing at that from the side I started discussing with Zenom and Toris. The details of the discussion are only obvious. What to do with the {Bracelet.Of.Dead.Body.To.Water}, the treasure we found on our exploration of the dungeon this time. Zenom and I had the opinion of selling it off but Toris said we should wait to sell it. I already know what Toris is trying to say. I understand but you know...
It"s certainly a bracelet that can be pretty useful but honestly speaking I don"t want to think that it will be useful at all. I already know about it"s effects thanks to Identify. It doesn"t have any ability other than to change a certain amount of corpses to water. In the past, I"ve actually used after all. Even as a final method to obtain water it"s almost completely useless because there"s my water magic. I"m sure it"s certainly useful in situations like a couple months prior when I had my mana absorbed or scattered from the trap but even if you held this bracelet and jumped into that trap I feel like it would absorb the mana from the bracelet as well and either way you"d end up having to wait a full day.
In the past I thought a variety of methods that it could come in handy. Though the most conspicuous of those wouldn"t be of much use until after my country is made. For example, cleaning up after a war. Before the dead enemy soldiers end up becoming the source for disease you can completely clean them up without a trace. Though if it"s once in 10 days then it"s not a very large number but even then it will reduce the amount of work needed to do be done burying them. It"s not something that"s very necessary to me right now but I"m sure it"s one effective method of using it.
If they were a spy or a.s.sa.s.sin then there"s also the merit of leaving almost no evidence from a corpse but I don"t think this one is very necessary to me right now as well. There is the method of handing it to Miduchi when she returns and having her a.s.sa.s.sinate someone, but it would be fine if I just conduct myself so something like that isn"t necessary. She isn"t suited to being an a.s.sa.s.sin. Probably if I were to tell her to do it, she"d give me an immediate reply. However, regardless of what her own thoughts are on it, I don"t like it.
If I have something like this on hand, then I might end up feeling like relying on Miduchi. In that case it"s best if it"s not around in the first place. I"m sure I feel like that somewhere in my heart and that"s why I want to sell it.
"In any case, we should hold on to it for a short while and properly confirm it"s abilities. Al-san you said you saw the same {Magic Item} in the past but do you already know to what degree and frequency that would could be used? Also, even if you do know that there"s no guarantee this {Magic Item} has the same level of abilities."
The things Toris said were just as I imagined, a completely reasonable opinion. Even the abilities are considerably powerful on this compared to the one that Myun had. It doesn"t restrict the user and it can be used more frequently. I think that the amount it can convert to water was the same though. It can"t be helped...
"..That"s right, it"s just as Toris says. It would probably be good to experiment with it a bit to raise the price up...And..I think it"s important to know the limits of the abilities of a {Magic Item}. For starters, I"ll talk about the similar {Magic Item} that I know about."
"Fumu, if you"re going to say that then I"m sure that"s true. Certainly there"s no need to hurry."
While I was hesitating a bit as I responded, Zenom showed admiration and changed his opinion after hearing what Toris said and found it strange how I was glaring a bit.
"..First off, the bracelet I know could only be used once in 10 days...And then..it doesn"t matter if there"s magic stones included in the corpses or not. If you don"t take the magic stone out then that gets converted as well..That"s why, it shouldn"t be useful to omit the need for disa.s.sembling them.."
The tone of my voice dropped a bit. Suddenly, I remembered Balk the adventurer who came to Bakuddo in the past to get into contact with Myun. As expected Toris noticed that my state was different from usual. He was looking strangely at me. I just continued pretending not to notice that. In addition, I though it wasn"t necessary to say that it was restricted on who could use it and didn"t require a command word to activate.
"The amount that could be converted at once was limited. Just going off my intuition and it was an amount equal to about 10 times the amount you can make with level 4 elemental magic..about 1/3 of the amount of level 5..and, I guess that"s difficult to understand. An amount equal to the normal size of..I guess so, it can change about 100 people the same size as me into water. If all of the corpses are in contact it should regard them as one large corpse...I said it just now but the only thing that is converted to water is just the corpses. The clothes and armor that the corpses are wearing remain just like that..the definition for a corpse is whether it"s listed as a corpse on {Status Open}..that"s why, it probably can"t be used to kill undead. It has no relation to the degree of damage to the corpse...it can be used while the individual"s name is still appearing or even after it changes to just their race it still has effect."
Well, there"s no way I"d feel guilty over Balk at this point but he was still the opponent of my first time. I probably won"t forget him for the rest of my life.
".."
Zenom and Toris exchanged glances while listening to my dry speech. They"re reaching to the part about the individual name. It seems I caused a bit of a misunderstanding. Though that"s fine as well.
"The items that we can to confirm are, I guess, the frequency of use and the amount it can convert. It"s fine to test if it can be used against undead as well but since I don"t want to touch ones still moving, you do it since your the one who suggested it Toris."
I laughed while saying.
After cleaning up the camp and returning to the surface it was past 4 and getting close to 5 in the afternoon.
...............
Year 7444, Month 8, Day 20
Just in case, we went to the 1st floor and tested the bracelet out. The bracelet of Myun I mentioned could be used with a frequency of once in every 10 days but since it was worth trying we tried waiting one day and entered the dungeon soon after eating. Since I just want to finish this and sell it off right away, and I already know it will be possible to use it again by this evening, I said we should confirm it"s abilities right away. Since there"s no real enemy for us on the 1st floor the members were me, Zenom, Toris, and Zulu, just the four of us.
I gave the women the day off today. Use times like this to conveniently all have your periods. Since we didn"t have the special skill Super Sense of Smell we couldn"t find monsters at all.
I used the spell {Audible Clamor} and lured over monsters. After repeating that 10 times, we had monsters gathered up like a small hill. If we"re going to do it, it"s more efficient to investigate the limits on how much can be converted as well.
Goblins, Gnolls, Orks, Hobgoblins we piled up over 100 of these stinky corpses, and managed to gather an amount that I think probably won"t completely be converted and have some left over. I can handed Zulu the bracelet and had him use the magic infused in it. Obviously, since we don"t want to become like wet rats, we"re watching over from quite a distance away. Zulu came along knowing he"d get wet so he isn"t wearing his armor from the start. Zulu looks considerably foolish with only the lower party of his body in under armor.
Of course, since we had the time we made sure to take the magic stones from all the corpses we placed together other than the goblins. Well, there were Orks as well, so we needed to at least gather enough money to pay for the entry tax for today.
Zulu raised his hand and gave the sign.
Nothing is happening.
I pulled out my clock magic tool and the time was just before 3 pm in the afternoon. We"re going to test it every 30 minutes after this. Yesterday, I think it was around 3 pm in the afternoon when we changed the Roper to water. We should probably be able to use it again pretty soon. I almost want to put it inside of a lamp or something that tells if it"s finish charging.
30 minutes, just as I had identified we were able to confirm that the majority of the corpses were converted to water. Even the ones we didn"t take the magic stones from had properly become water as well.
Just in case, after Zulu tried touching the remaining corpses that didn"t change to water and said "nuhireki" once again I collected the bracelet and that was the end of today"s experiment. When I was collecting it and saw the soaking wet Zulu I thought.
(He..He"s huge...)
Since it somehow p.i.s.sed me off I immediately used the spell drying to dried him off. It"s a good thing we didn"t bring along the women. Somehow I don"t want to show it to them. It"s bad for their education..or I guess it"s fine. They"re already adults. But, it would have been the best to let Bel do something like this. It"s extremely unfortunate there"s no artificial fibers or cottons that are soft, durable, and thin like a T-shirt.
..............
Year 7444, Month 8, Day 21
In order to test it against undead we had to descend to the 3rd floor. It"s annoying but it can"t be helped. We started towards the 3rd floor with just us men again. Around the time we pa.s.sed through the 1st floor,
(Huh? Wouldn"t it have been fine if we had all entered the dungeon together? Since it would have been fine to test as a side while exploring)
and I noticed that. Since it"s just a matter of changing one zombie to water there"s no getting wet either.
Well, it"s too troublesome at this point so I guess it"s fine.
Just as I had guessed, moving zombies couldn"t be changed to water. It was necessary to definitely stop their movement and have it showing {Corpse of} and {Corpse of Goblin Zombie} on it, that sort of bizarre expression displayed before we confirmed that it could be changed to water. Incidentally, when I Identify them at first their condition is Death (while they"re active as undead monsters, their condition is Good when HP isn"t being reduced) and other than that the contents of the Identify are normal, afterwards, when I identify them as an object and they become {Corpse(Goblin)} as the name, the condition changes to damage(since they"re zombies it"s not good condition like a normal goblin corpse), and the creation date(probably the date they turned into a zombie), and value is also displayed.
It should already be fine.
We"re returning to the surface right away but Zenom and Toris are whispering about something with a difficult face.
.................
That night after everyone finished eating dinner opened his mouth.
"Al-san. After we try using that bracelet another couple of times do you intend to sell it after really confirming if the frequency of use is once per day?"
"Hn? Yeah, I was thinking of that though.."
"Isn"t it fine not to hurry and get rid of it right now? I think it"s considerably useful. Certainly it"s limited in use in the dungeon but I think it will definitely come in handy in the future. Isn"t it best to hang on to it?"
Yeah. I already know that. But you know...
"I think so as well. Al, is there some kind of reason why you don"t like that bracelet?"
Zenom partic.i.p.ated in the conversation.
"No, not particularly.."
"Then there"s no need to hurry and sell it. Isn"t it fine to only sell it if we really need money or we can find something better? We"re really not troubled in regards to money so there"s no need to hurry on the bonuses."
Zenom said it kindly. It"s not that sort of problem though..I guess it"s fine.
"N..I see, got it. Then we"ll hold on to that bracelet without selling it."
"Yeah, that"s good."
"That"s right."
Zenom and Toris said at the same time. Certainly, there"s no need to force myself to sell it right now.
Though I already knew that.
....................
Year 7444, Month 8, Day 24
Starting yesterday we entered the dungeon again and are just about to break into what"s probably the last room on the 5th floor. It"s that one room with an altar. I went and took a look at the room before returning, and I started giving out orders for the usual formation of Zulu and Angela taking care of the gargoyles while the rest of the members attack the altar. Bel and I are support.
Since it"s already something we"re used to, I thought of starting off with just the gargoyles heads outside of the dirt and told them that. And, I also instructed the altar team to take their time a bit on charging in. I was thinking of sealing it in ice at the same time as it"s summoned. That"s why, this time I"ll have Bel start on helping with the gargoyles and once a monster is summoned by the altar I"ll freeze it.
After confirming things once again and just as we were about to slowly turn around to head towards the room.
We could heart the sounds of shouts and combat from the room.
Including me, everyone was surprised and exchanged glances but immediately realized.
Another party of adventurers charged in first.
"A~~a, we were beaten to it."
Ralpha said disappointed. Certainly that"s true.
"How unfortunate.."
Toris whispered regretfully while putting his long sword back into it"s scabbard. I am too.
"Wun, even though I thought about buying some clothes if we found something good..."
Gwine sharpened her lips. Even with her beard growing it"s somehow a charming gesture with that small body.
"It can"t be helped.."
Bel said while returning the arrow to her quiver. It can"t be helped indeed.
"Hmph, it"s unfortunate but the first one to it is the winner so it can"t be helped. Since we have the chance how about we frankly just go and watch the battle?"
Zenom said carrying his axe on his shoulder while rubbing his pink jaw beard.
"Yeah, I agree. If it seems like it"ll draw out then we could eat something like as well. Hey, Giberuti, is there something simple we can eat?"
"If you"re fine with some simple sandwiches then I can prepare them right away in 5 minutes."
It"s quite strange to start eating while watching the desperate struggles of a different party from a safe place. It was often done to us on the 2nd and 3rd floors when we charged into rooms first after all. Or rather, unless they request for a.s.sistance, it could cause misunderstandings so it"s basically an unwritten rule of Baldukk not to do anything until then.
Particularly, this is the 5th floor. Even if we mention other parties there should only be the top teams here. Since there"s no way they could be slacking off against a room boss on the 5th floor we should be able to see them fighting at full. It"s a good chance to find out their skill.
We all started chatting while looking in at things from the entrance. As expected we won"t go to the point of sitting down. We"re remaining standing. Since the width of the pa.s.sage is about 8m there"s still room even if all 9 of us line up side by side.
Now then, I wonder who stole our prey that was dangling right before our noses?
Oh?
Oh?
If it isn"t sis Anderson.
"Huh, Black Topaz?"
"That seems to be the case."
"Oh~ That"s the {Frost Lizard}. I wonder what they"ll do? Are they going to run?"
"Aren"t they going to run? In that case, we might still have a chance at it."
"It seems they"ve noticed us."
"For the time being it might be good to prepare for combat. Giberuti, after all never mind on the food."
"Yes, I understand."
"They aren"t running.."
"How unexpected, so they"re going to fight.."
Since we thought Black Topaz might run we remained ready for combat just in case. However, please stop with running away before doing anything at all. It"s dangerous for even us to fight without taking the initiative. And just as I was thinking that, unexpectedly it seems that Black Topaz chose to fight.
Anderson glanced over here for a moment but immediately went back to concentrating on the combat and her allies while using magic.
It"s {Flame Javelin}.
Without missing it"s mark it hit the ice monster, AKA, {Frost Lizard} in the flank. Her subordinates are boldly fighting against the gargoyles one on one and the remaining three are charging at the {Frost Lizard}.
Ah.
One was sent flying by the tail. However, of the remaining two one has a kite shield and long sword on the front and the other is in the back with a spear facing off against the {Frost Lizard}.
The one who was blown away somehow managed to stand up.
Oh? That is...
Anderson lifted a crossbow from her feet. She went into a stance on one knee and immediately fired it. The bolt once again hit it"s target without missing and didn"t just stab into the flank of the {Frost Lizard} but embedded in close to the base of it. After all projectile weapons are strong.
"He~ A crossbow huh.."
Bel whispered in admiration. What? After all are you interested?
She threw down the crossbow after firing a bolt and lifted up one more crossbow she had sitting at her feet, and once again entered the posture to shoot. Once again, the bolt was embedded close to base in the flank of the {Frost Lizard}.
"It"s no good just ending it at once shot. And, they need to start from crushing the eyes."
Zenom said while forsaking her. Isn"t that a bit harsh? Since they"re still doing some proper damage to the enemy from the start, that should be plenty. Don"t use Bel as the standard. In the first place are you the one saying that? Toris and I were exchanging glances and bitter smile from above Zenom"s head.
However, as expected it has quite the amazing power to pierce in close to the base. But, even with that the {Frost Lizards} HP is still only at half. Since there"s no more crossbows, I wonder what sis Anderson will do? Does she still have MP remaining? Thinking that I took my eyes off the {Frost Lizard} and went to Identify Anderson.
Oh? That guy sure is amazing~ He was a Laios the same as Zulu and wearing splint-mail, a bro just before his 30s wit ha huge battle-axe was taking on the gargoyles and managed to sink his axe midway into the head of one of them, he took out a gargoyle in just one hit.
""Ah!""
""Oh!""
A voice was raised from my party the {Slaughterers}. It wasn"t in regards to the guy who splendid took out a gargoyle. It was because the {Frost Lizard} used it"s ice breath. The human with the kite shield in a defensive role in front of the {Frost Lizard} gradually started to freeze as I returned my sights to him and was rendered unable to fight.
"Oh my~"
I couldn"t help but let my voice out as well.
"Guoo~!!!!"
The Laios who was swinging his battle axe to finish a gargoyle just now turned around and let out a battle cry while going to help the Wolf-people sister using a spear and they finished off another gargoyle in no time at all. After that they quickly turned around and went running to help out the human who was rendered unable to fight with the {Frost Lizard}. It seems he used his special skill Instant Speed. But, it"s already about to end. I think it would be smarter to finish off one more gargoyle before it ends.
Sis Anderson seems like she"s going to use magic against the {Frost Lizard} once more as she faces her hand towards it and is concentrating. A blue light overflows from her right hand and a {Flame Javelin} is sent flying towards the {Frost Lizard}.
It was fired with nice timing but the {Frost Lizard} managed to evade it taking nothing more than a scratch. Sister is still planning to use magic without learning.
The elf man who was blown away by the tail at the start has gone on guard with his long sword and kite shield again and rejoined the battle.
"Hmm"
I can hear Zenom"s composed voice. If Zenom is composed then it should be fine.
"Hpmh..they aren"t all that much."
Ralpha crossed her arms and commented on them conceitedly. I couldn"t help but make a bitter smile. Well, I thought so as well so it"s fine.
"But, Bal-san, he"s so cool!"
Gwine said. You, just because he"s big and strong you think they"re all cool. Ah, Bal is the Laios using the battle axe.
Once again I returned my gaze to the combat. Just now, the three Wolf-people woman, Elf woman, and Dog-people man fighting the remaining two gargoyles gained the advantage in their fight. It seems like one of the remaining gargoyles is considerably weakened so they should be able to finish it off soon.
In regards to the {Frost Lizard}, the Elf man, Laios man, and Human man are taking it on. It feels like the leader Anderson is backing them up with magic. If you can only use fire and water magic then it limits the magic you can use for support so it seems quite difficult.
It doesn"t seem like the guy who was frozen in frost has died yet. If it"s about 20 minutes then while he might get frostbite it"s still possible to take care of it with healing magic.
"Oh!!?"
And just as I was thinking that while watching the battle the {Frost Lizard} used ice breath again. Aa~, it"s no good if you don"t defeat him before you let him use his ice breath..Look, this time the human using the spear behind the Laios in front was frozen.
"Gioooo~!!!"
However, as expected Anderson is still the leader of one of the top teams. She managed fire a {Flame Javelin} into it"s mouth. With this it shouldn"t be able to use it"s ice breath anymore. If they slowly damage it without letting their guards down they should be able to win.
"Just a bit more! Everyone, give it your best!"
After Anderson used a spell she called out like that to her party and pulled out her short sword before charging at the {Frost Lizard}. She only has 13 MP remaining. Since her maximum MP is 31, it totals up to just the {Flame Javelins} portion that she used.
"Hn"
Zulu and Angela let their voices out for the first time. It seems that Dog-people man and Elf woman were properly taking on one of the gargoyles while the Wolf-people woman used her spear to finish one off. It"s already three versus one. It"s defense is already to s.h.i.t. If it starts getting hit from all sides by the three of them then it"s just a matter of time. It seems that the gargoyle is the one struggling.
After Anderson charged up to the {Frost Lizard} she,
"Ya~!!"
put in a yell like that as she cut at one of it"s front legs. The elf man on the other side from her didn"t miss the chance it was focused on her attack and attacked with his long sword as well.
"It seems they decided it."
Toris said. Yeah, certainly that attack just now was the deciding hit I"m sure.
A few minutes after that, when they finished off both the {Frost Lizard} and remaining gargoyle the members of Black Topaz were breathing with their shoulders. The only ones unharmed were the leader Anderson and the Wolf-people sis, everyone else has minor and major wounds.
I had everyone wait there and I slowly approached Anderson.
While the members of Black Topaz including Anderson remained cautious of me they didn"t take any hostile actions. Well, if it"s this person"s party then it"s only obvious.
"I took a look at your fight. Congratulations. If you"d like we can use the healing spell {Cure} on you?"
Anderson opened her eyes in surprise hearing my words and,
"Eeh..that would help. But, is it fine?"
"Of course it is."
After I said that I called over Bel, Toris, Ralpha, and Gwine and had Ralpha and Gwine use {Cure} and {Cure Light} once each, and Toris use {Cure Light} four times. I had Bel use {Cure Serious} twice. Me? I used {Cure Serious} the same as Bel, twice. A total of four uses of {Cure Serious}, six uses of {Cure Light}, and two uses of {Cure}. I"m sure we were able to reasonably heal all of their wounds.
It seems that the guys who were frozen that we used {Cure Serious} on were able to recover without any frostbite. Though the pain will remain for a while so that can"t be helped. The other people seemed to have their wounds sealed quite a bit thanks to using healing spells over 10 times as well. It seems like all of the members of the {Slaughterers} figured out my intention and they used magic while pretending to take over 10 seconds to activate it. Alright, that"s good.
It seems that the members of Black Topaz lost their nerve seeing all 5 young members of the {Slaughterers} using healing spells and including sis Anderson they were all surprised. Particularly the fact that Bel and I used {Cure Serious} so casually, their eyes went wide. At the very least I exposed the fact that the two of us can use at least three types of elemental magic with that after all. As a matter of fact Toris can use three types as well though. Though since his levels aren"t high enough he just can"t use {Cure Serious} yet.
Well, I doubt there"s any loss any selling a favor to the softhearted top team Black Topaz. I"m sure if it"s these guys then they"ll advertise us all on their like, "The {Slaughterers} are crazy. All five of them can use magic." And then no more idiots like {Bright Blade} will try to put their hands on us again.
"Well then, we"ll take our leave here...I"m praying for the good luck of Black Topaz."
"Umm, let us thank you.."
Sis Anderson called out to me saying that but,
"No, this much doesn"t require any thanks. If it"s this much mana then we should be able to recover it in about 1-2 hours after all. And you showed us a valuable fight against the ice monster.."
And I said that leaving the spot while declining the thanks. Honestly, I wanted to know the contents of the shrine they were going to obtain but as expected going that far.
Now then, if we walk for another hour or so we should be able to arrive at the teleport room on the 5th floor.