Maybe one more chapter in the next 5 hours. Not sure. After that next chapter in 14-20 hours.
Year 7444, Month 10, Day 5
Close to evening, the nine of us teleported into the 7th floor. The 7th floor was a complete change from the 6 floors up until now. The width of the pa.s.sage is over 30 meters and there"s evergreen trees growing all over the place. The ceiling is far above and just like the fairy village there"s light being emitted almost as if it"s sunlight. It seems the walls which form the pa.s.sage stretch up to the ceiling and you receive the impression of being at the bottom of a withering valley in the middle of the day.
Just from a glance the height of the trees and bushes are around 4-5 meters. It feels like they"re different in each place as well. The ones closer to the wall seem to be taller. It"s only obvious but the areas with no trees growing have clear visibility.
"How do I put this, that is..this is a surprising scenery."
Toris said while showing admiration. Ah, I see, if you"ve never been to the fairy village then this would be quite unexpected.
"It seems quite easy with it this bright."
Ralpha said while looking at both sides of the wide pa.s.sage. The area around the teleport crystal is open and there"s clear visibility. If you think about the fact that we"ve only had at most 30-40 meters we could see up until now then it certainly does seem easy. It gives off the impression that even if there was a trap or pitfall there"s no fools who would get caught in it.
"If all of the dungeon was like this then it would be easy I"m sure but.."
Angela said while looking at the bright surroundings. Really though.
"Shi!!"
Bel gave out a warning. It seems she"s closing her eyes and concentrating on her ears. I guess she picked up some footsteps. Her rabbit ears are standing on end and twitching, they"re changing angles and trying to catch sounds. Bel quickly opens her eyes and,
"It"s difficult to tell since they"re far away but I feel like I heard footsteps."
and she pointed ahead. I tried asking her about it previously but due to the location of her ears it seems it"s difficult for her to directly put her ears to the ground.
"Shall we go to around that tree?"
Gwine fixed her grip on the spear and pointed in a direction. I wonder if she"s saying it because it"s easier to hear footsteps by putting your ear to an adequate tree? If it"s the trunk of tree then Bel can put her ears to it.
"That sounds good."
Since Bel nodded everyone moved about 50 away towards the random tree that Gwine pointed at. The trees are thickly growing around here almost like forest.
"Al, how is it?"
Zenom called out to me while I"m using detection spells. Nothing that seems like traps are getting caught in the spells.
"I can"t find any traps."
Hearing that Bel put her right ear to the trunk of the tree. She"s bent her knees and it"s almost like she"s hugging the tree.
During that time I"m using the spell {Detect.Life} to check the surroundings.
I make an {OK} mark with my fingers and tell everyone that there"s no problem before taking my bayonet from my shoulder.
"N..I can hear a lot of footsteps mixed together. The closest one seems to be from about 500 meters ahead. One..two..Ah, it might just be one."
After saying that she took her ear from the tree trunk and looked at me.
"Well, we originally planned to wait and see, so let"s go I guess. Since it might be an ogre mage don"t pa.s.s in front of me."
I said that and started walking. I advanced while detecting traps about 100 meters ahead. Around every 100-200 meters there"s an area where there"s no forest growing something like a separate wasteland. Though it"s a bit too early to decide for sure yet.
And, before we left the forest I was able to find an ogre in a gra.s.slands like are ahead of us. It seems like it"s doing something but I wonder what in the world it"s doing? While hiding behind a tree I"ll looked out at it"s appearance and it was quick to confirm. It"s pushing around a single goblin. The goblin seems like it"s frantically trying to run away but the ogre is enjoying itself using something like a thick tree trunk as a club to block it"s path. Since it"s my first time seeing an ogre, I guess I should use 【Identify】 while I can.
【】
【Male/1/10/7414.Ogre】
【State: Good】
【Age: 30 Years Old】
【Level: 4】
【HP: 449(449) MP: 1(1)】
【Strength: 40】
【Speed: 10】
【Dexterity: 3】
【Endurance: 40】
Huh? What"s with this absurd amount of HP. After reading the sub-window for their race and it seems they grow 1 HP per month while growing..In addition to that there"s those physical abilities...If it stands up properly with it"s back straight it should be around 3 meters I guess. Since it"s hunched over it looks a bit shorter. Short and thick legs, long arms with bulging muscles that seem to be thicker than an adult males waist. It seems to have some flab but hidden below that is a body of muscle that almost looks like steel and their face is like if you were to take a Hobgoblins and make it even more fiendish.
Certainly if it"s that physique then it"s not as if I can"t understand this absurd amount of HP, but even if I say that...It"s level is so low..If it"s level was high as well it would be a considerably good target worth a lot of experience points though. No wait, if I just have one person defeat this one then they should gain quite a bit of experience points.
and, it seems like there was some development in the situation while I was reading the identify window. The goblin that was being chased around let out a high pitched voice like "Gyoe!!" The ogre used it"s left hand which isn"t only the club to lift the goblin upside down by it"s leg. Just in case I tried using 【Identify】 on the goblin as well but this one was just a normal goblin with nothing out of the ordinary.
After grabbing it"s prey the ogre threw down it"s club almost as if saying, "no more need" but it hits own leg on the falling club. I don"t know if it hurt but it"s showing it"s back to us. It sure is stupid.
The goblin raises a scream.
"Now"s the chance."
Saying that Miduchi sent a {Flame Javelin} flying.
Certainly it"s the ideal chance.
Bel, Toris, Ralpha, and Gwine are using attack spells as well.
All of the spell spells. .h.i.t the ogre"s back. However, even then the ogre still has 200 HP remaining. It"s a monster~
The ogre turns around to here.
A shout is raised.
From the {Slaughterers}.
In front of the loincloth the ogre was wearing the small goblin with it"s legs spread out held by the ogre faced it"s head over here. I guess the ogre was raping the goblin. Come to think of it the goblin was female. The goblin seems to have died being penetrated by the ogre and it"s head is just dangling lifeless foaming at the mouth.
The ogre glared at us with an expression like "Who is interfering with my fun!" and after letting go of the goblins legs it leaned over to pick up the club it threw down.
Strangely enough the goblin was still stuck to the ogres waist just like that. I guess it didn"t come out...
I sent an {Ice Javelin Missile} flying and the ogre tried to shift it"s body to evade it but it slammed into it"s chest.
After that Toris"s {Stone Bolt} stabbed in, followed by a hit from Miduchi"s {Flame Javelin}. When it"s HP went minus the ogre made an expression of shock as it fell as if saying "unbelievable for me to die". AS expected it"s finally come off.
Everyone is making a disgusted face. It"s only obvious. I didn"t want to see it either.
"Zulu, go finish it off and take out the magic stone."
There"s no other option than pushing the disgusting things off on the loyal slaves. Or rather, in the process of taking the magic stone you can"t not see it, I don"t want to see something like a goblin that was raped to death.
"For it to take that many attack spells and still not fall.."
Toris said in admiration. It"s an obvious attempt to change the topic but it would probably be best to jump on here.
"Yeah, it was surprising. Though if you see that physique then I feel like it also makes sense.."
and said that while glancing at Zulu"s work from a distance.
"However, for it to take eight hits of an attack spell to finish it off.."
Angela whispered while counting on her fingers.
Certainly that"s true. Though the damage of them was pretty scattered, if it"s like this then I need to think about what"s ahead. Since we started from an ambush this time all f our attack spells were clean hits. If it was to block with it"s arms, legs, or club, or even further to just evade then there"s no doubt it will be more troublesome. If there"s a number of them and they charge in while taking on the attack spells and swing their clubs around the only one who can use spells at that point would be me. As expected something like chanting an incantation while evading attacks in the middle of combat is impossible. The best they could manage was chanting a short incantation while in the middle of running. Even then that"s difficult. If you think it"s a lie then try doing it.
The value of the ogre"s magic stone that Zulu brought was just over 120,000. If we sell it then it"ll be about 800,000 Z (8 silver coins). It seems like it"ll be quite the profit but...
"I checked it"s status but it didn"t seem to have any magic special skills so that doesn"t seem to be the ogre mage we had heard about."
Zulu said while handing the magic stone to me.
For the time being we"ve achieved our goal. I wonder what we should do?
"Since we just finished one off from a distance with magic after all..If possible wouldn"t it be best to directly take one on in combat?"
Zenom said. Wun, if it"s just one of them if we all surround it I think we can mange it though. If there were multiple of them or the ogre mage which uses magic was among them then it seems like it will be quite difficult though. However, Zenom boasted about being able to win one on one and Miduchi has even defeated five at once with less people than we have right now. Although, in Miduchi"s case since they were all dark elves with quite a bit of mana it"s difficult to make a decision on.
"I, don"t want to see anymore of that~"
Gwine said her honest feelings. Certainly the happening just now was shocking. I don"t think it"s unreasonable to get afraid seeing an ogre craving a female goblin smaller than Gwine. It should be considerably terrifying thinking about it in it"s place.
"Orks do even worse things. Do..Don"t get afraid of something of that level."
Ralpha tried to cheer up Gwine with a weird way of putting it. But you know, I saw it right. You suddenly looked downwards. I can understand the feeling and I think it"s a normal reaction but the only ones clearly afraid are you and Gwine. Of course, Bel, Miduchi, and Angela the other women aren"t making very good faces but they aren"t afraid.
"Gwine, relax, it"s alright. I won"t let something like that happen. And Zenom and everyone else is here as well. In the first place, do you think I would lose to a monster at that level?"
I intentionally said it with confidence. If it comes down to it then it"s fine if I just bury it after all. Though it would be fine to freeze it the same as up until now as well.
"Now, let"s try taking on one more of them. If the next ogre is alone as well then we"ll try close combat. Let"s limit using magic to only when we"re injured. If there"s multiple opponents or one uses magic then I"ll finish it off."
I drop the magic stone into the bag on my hip and smiled at Gwine.
Even then Gwine"s frown didn"t recover but that can"t be helped. I"m sure it"s impossible right away.
................
We continued even further ahead. Another 500 meters ahead, just before we entered one of the several forests in front of us I tried using detection type spells to confirm it was safe. And then there was some living creatures that got caught in my {Detect.Life}.
"Yeah, there"s some. Two of them. I can"t tell if they"re ogres though. They"re about 200 meters ahead."
I said that and prepared my bayonet again. Hearing my words everyone took their weapons out of their scabbards. Ho~ even though I just said we"d only do close combat if the opponent was one but I guess they"re eager even if it"s two? Ah, or maybe they"re just hoping for me to finish off one of them. It"s fine though.
"Let"s go carefully."
I said that and quickly stepped foot into the forest. The sensation of stepping on fallen leaves is good but there"s quite a bit of sound. Since the last one was engrossed in tormenting the goblin it didn"t notice though.
I hide behind the trunks of trees while advancing.
After pa.s.sing through the forest, pa.s.sing through a vacant area, and soon after we entered the next forest I discovered two ogres. The ogres noticed us right away and stood up holding their clubs.
"I"ll take the one on the left."
After saying that I quickly made a telephone pole, added missile to it, and send it flying. The speed of the flying telephone pole is quite fast but since there"s still some distance if I hadn"t added missile it wouldn"t have been difficult to evade it I"m sure. Seeing that I guess the ogre thought the same thing it"s ugly face twisted sticking out it"s fangs as it changed it"s route.
However, there"s no way it could escape the guidance with just that, in no time at all the telephone pole went through the center of it"s stomach and it died. So one hit with the {heavy catapult} cla.s.s is fine huh?
Just a bit in front of Bel Gwine stood on guard with her spear, ahead of that everyone else was standing with their weapons prepared. An arrow was fired from Bel"s bow. However, the remaining ogre blocked it"s face with it"s left arm and there was no change to the speed of it"s charge. It probably doesn"t even think of the arrow sticking into it"s arm as damage.
"Gebo~!"
While letting out an unpleasant battle cry it swings it"s huge club down at Zenom the shortest one.
Zenom entered the range of the ogre while evading it and hit it in the lower leg with his {tomahawk} while running past behind the ogre.
The ogre was caught by surprise but it quickly changed it"s feelings and this time set Gwine who was further in the back as it"s target. It started charging again. Bel"s arrow stabbed into the ogre"s left shoulder.
Zulu stood front of the ogre with his shield while swinging his b.a.s.t.a.r.d sword blocking the charge of the ogre. As expected the blade that was a meter long looked like a threat in the ogres eyes. It used it"s club brush the attack away and blocked it.
Making use of that gap Toris who was next to Zulu lowered his body and while evading the club he stabbed his long sword into the right thigh of the ogre. On the opposite side Angela who was holding a shield as well was used her broad sword to keep it in check.
Miduchi who had gone around Toris used her magic scimitar to cut even further away at it"s right thigh. With a feeling of slicing she managed to cut deeply into it. While pulling the blade back she managed to cut it"s right arm as well. That attack cleanly entered through the forearm and of all things it cut straight through the bone in the forearm from midway through.
I guess it didn"t realize that, the ogre went to swing it"s club but after realizing it couldn"t it let out a dull yell with a mix of surprise and anger. I guess it finally started to feel the pain, it fell to it"s right knee, and tried to pick up the club with it"s left hand.
"Ya~~!!"
There Ralpha went around Angela and after jumping up at 1 meter she used both of her hands to swing her {tomahawk} down aimed at it"s head. It was the ideal attack reading the timing but the ogre who tried to defend itself with it"s club was just a bit faster it seems. However, receiving Ralpha"s attack I guess the club was cut halfway through, or it broke, it"s length had been reduced to half.
Angela stood in front of Ralpha as she landed covering her.
"Hmph!!"
Zenom cut into the ogres left leg from behind. While the ogres posture collapsed even more from there Bel aimed and crushed it"s right eye with an arrow. There"s a distance of about 15 meters between Bel and the ogre. It"s plenty of range to be called point blank. There"s no way Bel would miss her target.
"E~i!"
Gwine charges in and thrusts her spear. Taking the spear in it"s stomach the ogre glared at Gwine with a loathsome expression but Gwine pulled her spear out with all of her power without realizing that. It"s guts came out from the cut stomach. In pain it let go of it"s club and in a panic the ogre brought it"s left hand to it"s stomach, where Ralpha who had fixed her stance smashed her {tomahawk} into it"s face.
I reflexively felt a bitter smile come to my face.
"That is, a "baseball" swing~"
I guess Ralpha"s attack to it"s face was the deciding blow, after the ogre"s movements got clearly worse Toris, Zulu, and Angela all ganged up attacking it from all sides and it completely died. It"s HP went beyond the minus and it went to where identify showed it as "Corpse(Ogre)".
We collected the magic stones and returned to the 6th floor.
Certainly it was just as Zenom said, most of our members should be able to somehow fight them one on one. I"m sure even Bel as long as she crushes one eye can circle around to it"s blind spot and slowly cut it down. However, after all it"s not an opponent that can be underestimated. That first attack with the club that Zenom evaded, I doubt there"s anyone who can endure it. Even at best it"d be a bone fracture and if they took it to the head I"m sure it"d be instant death. After all if there"s a large number of them it would be bad. There"s no doubt if the ogre mage that supposedly uses spells is mixed in then it"ll be a considerably tense fight.
However, I overlooked Miduchi"s attack power in close combat. What was that, magic weapons are amazing~ I didn"t think it would go that far. If we can find one it might be effective to use it ourselves rather than selling it right away.
Toris, Zulu, and Angela still have some awkward parts remaining but it seems they"ve started to get used to the sheild and if we split them into groups of two with Zenom, Ralpha, and Miduchi as the front line, Gwine as the shortstop, and Bel backing them up with arrows then I don"t think it will be that difficult for them to win against three ogres without taking any injuries.
It"s necessary to keep an eye on things a number of times I"m sure but if it"s like this then exploring the 7th floor might be considerably fast. The paths are quite wide so I"m sure the number of teleport destinations is less as a result of that. Even if there isn"t actually less I still feel it"s the same as if in essence there"s less.
The dinner Giberuti prepared for us was delicious.
Author"s note: Occasionally including some spells.
"{Find.Trap}" Divination
(All elemental magic Lv. 4, void magic Lv. 5, consumed MP 26 void magic double)
Discover traps that have a large number of parts within range of sight. Effective duration is an instant.
"{Detect.Snare}" Divination
(All elemental magic Lv. 4, void magic Lv. 5, consumed MP 26 void magic double)
Discover traps that have a low number of parts within range of sight. Effective duration is an instant.
"{Detect.Life}" Divination
(earth magic Lv. 1, fire magic Lv. 1, void magic Lv. 4, consumed MP 10 void magic double)
Detect living creates within the valid range of effect. Basic range is a radius of 100 meters. During detection if nothing is specified it will detect all living creatures with a body weight of over 10 kg. Living creatures only includes up to birds, mammals, and reptiles. It doesn"t react to fish, insects, and amphibians. Effective duration is an instant.