Ugh.. I wanted to have a bit more ready this morning, both 175/176 are like 25% done, but a bit of an emergency came up wiping out my time last night. It"s also going to eat some my time Monday, so I can"t do anything more than what I had already planned to do ahead of time either way. 8 chapters including this one over today and tomorrow. Next chapter in 3-5 hours. Around the end of these 8 is when the bulky chapters start again so next weekend will likely really end up being 2-4 chapters.
Year 7445, Month 1, Day 19
When we put some fighting spirit into it and teleport into the 7th floor, we teleported into the same place we previously killed the {Larva Purple Worm}. If we were to ignore the paths along the way from here and walk for several hours then I"m sure we"d arrive at that desert-like area.
"What should we do? This place, seems to be where the earthworm was."
Gwine said while seeming to daze into mid-air. She"s probably looking at the map.
"There were several paths beyond that right.."
Toris put his hand to his chin as he said. Seeing that Zenom opened his mouth.
"Shall we go? Since it seemed like the teleport room to the 8th floor had four entrances, we still only know one of those."
"Hn~ I think we should go as well. If the earthworm comes out again then this time for sure.."
This time for sure what? Why are you looking at me there? Hmn, though it"s only along the way it seems like it was the correct choice to split up our party. Recently I feel like Ralpha is underestimating the dungeon. According to what I"ve heard from Bel and Miduchi she"s considerably cautious when I"m not around but once I group up with them again it seems she"s letting her guard down. I need her to remain the same regardless of whether I"m around or not from here on out.
"..Can you hold it down from the front without running? Well I guess it"s fine. While you"re getting eaten I"ll definitely finish it off. Relax and "rest in peace". If there"s no other opinions then I agree with going as well. I don"t want to see the earthworm but I"m sure everyone hasn"t forgotten that magic stone right?"
"But, there"s no guarantee it will be that earthworm again right...I think it"s hasty to a.s.sume ahead of time."
Oh~ Bel, good retort. That"s exactly true.
"Hn, certainly that"s true. We shouldn"t a.s.sume what it will be. However, I"ve already decided to proceed like this. Let"s go."
I said that and started walking.
"Al-san. That"s not the right way. It"s this way."
Gwine pointed to the opposite direction I started walking.
I"m so uncool.
..............
We arrived at the desert. Just in case, I think it"ll be pointless but I tried using {Detect.Life} and after all I couldn"t feel anything other than ourselves.
"It"s just probably but if it was the earthworm then it should be underground in the center of the room waiting to attack. Let"s go with {Trail One} here and walk along the wall."
With me at the front, surrounding Bel and Miduchi who are good with magic in the middle, at the very end Zenom is glaring around, we line up in a single file and stepped foot along the wall of the desert going counter clockwise. Everyone, I"m sure last time still remains in their memory. They"re all keeping up with me while carefully trying not to make any sounds with their footsteps. And then, I think it was when we moved around 70-80 meters ahead, I felt something was off and stopped my feet. I had been looking in the center of the room but there"s nothing that"s particularly off.
Hmm. I"m certain there"s something here. I guess I feel uneasy because I don"t know what that is. But, isn"t that the same as the usual monster rooms..I guess not. It"s only been twice up until now where the ident.i.ty of the room boss was unknown even after we entered the room. In the past, only the times I disintegrated the Vampire an instant and when we were attacked by the {Larva Purple Worm} here. Just because the opponent can"t be seen I feel this uneasy.
Thinking that, is when we proceeded another 20 meters or so ahead.
""It"s here!""
There were several warnings that called out at the same time.
Several small sails from the direction of the center of the room..They"re fins!
【】
【Female/1/12/7444.Sand Shark】
【State: Good】
【Age: 0 Years Old】
【Level: 6】
【HP: 90 MP: 1(1)】
【Strength: 10】
【Speed: 50】
【Dexterity: 5】
【Endurance: 10】
【Special Skill: Vibration.Sensing】
【Special Skill: Super Sense of Smell】
"{Wedge One}!"
I reflexively shouted while running off towards the fins. I"m sure that everyone is moving around behind me changing the formation to spread out like an umbrella.
While running I aimed towards the fin with the spell {Stone Light Catapult Missile} firing off 5 warheads. It"s because I sensed that if they"re in sand the damage won"t pa.s.s through if I don"t add enough power into it, but it seems this was correct.
When the five telephone poles stabbed into the ground near the fins running at the front sending sand flying all over, I saw the upper body of a shark.
"Sharks!"
Toris"s warrning rings out.
There"s still plenty of fins remaining.
"Bel-San!??"
Miduchi is saying something to Bel in a fast pace. Save the talking for later and spread out in an umbrella formation already!
I make one after another small telephone poles and sent them flying from above aimed at the fins I can see, finishing them off. However, we"re clearly outnumbered. Since they"re moving through the sand I thought they would move at about the speed of an adult running like the {Larva Purple Worm} but it seems the {Sand Sharks} are a bit faster and even if we run they might overtake us at this speed.
You could say they"re moving extremely fast. I managed to finish off four of them but there still seems to be over 10 of them remaining. They"ve already cut a distance of 30 meters from us. Around the size of a 25 meter pool I guess? If you take into consideration their speed they"re right in front of us.
"I"ll shoot the ground!"
Bel said that and an arrow stabbed into the sand about 20 meters ahead. The fin that was nearby changed directions towards that arrow. Another one jumped out of the sand and sent it"s 3 meter body flying into the air. I shot it to death with {Stone Javelin} not missing that chance. It was quickly shot from an arrow in a different direction as well. I was thinking it was Bel"s excellent consecutive shot skill but it seems Miduchi is using the bow as well.
It seems that the Sand Sharks are gathering in that direction towards the arrow as well. I see now, that"s good!
I finish off two in that direction using stone spears a swell.
"Everyone, don"t move!"
Bel shouts while firing off another arrow.
After that it"s just a matter of shooting seven more. Being shot by my stone spears the sharks are close to instantly dead but in the case they were living they started rampaging on the sand. A different shark jumps out of the sand attacking them. I calmly finished off the ones that occasionally came over here with a small telephone pole.
Shortly after we were able to finish off all of the Sand Sharks. While frowning after noticing there"s somewhat the scent of ammonia floating around I ordered the slaves and Basutoral to gather the magic stones. During that time, the rest of the members are remaining cautious of every direction. The value of the magic stones was roughly 18,000 each. I guess it"s around 120,000 - 130,000 (12-13 silver coins) if we sell them. There"s a total of 21 of these. While the individual values don"t reach those of ores it comes out reaching over 2 gold coins in no time at all. Amazing~
However, I thought it once again after noticing the three rows of teeth lined up in the sharks mouths but things were dangerous this time. If we weren"t able to pull them away from our location with the bow, then it"s definite that our party would have been attacked by over 10 sharks judging from their speed. It was most likely Miduchi"s instruction but if it wasn"t thanks to that then it wouldn"t have been strange for there to have been a victim. Even if it doesn"t go as far as death there might have been at least one person who had an arm or leg torn off.
Zenom said while frowning about as much as I was,
"So that"s the so-called shark? But, I could have sworn sharks were something in the ocean..."
"..{Status Open}..It says they"re Sand Sharks. Father, these seem to be sharks that live in sand."
"Monsters huh? However, these teeth are quite amazing.."
"They"re like a saw right..Ah, after all they"re lined up rows of two and three..It"s the same as the "Discovery Channel". Zenom-san, these teeth break and chip pretty easily so the ones in back come out soon after to replace them it seems."
"Ho~ Gwine sure knows quite a bit...Here like me look..This is amazing, if you were to get bitten from the head I"m sure there"s no being saved.."
"Ah, the tooth came out. What"s this, if you just tap it a bit with the axe and they break. I"ll take some in commemoration~"
That doesn"t really matter but everyone should be cautious of all directions you know...
After that, the pa.s.sage we entered hit a dead end before going another 1 Km, and then when we returned and went down a different pa.s.sage we arrived at the teleport room to the 8th floor.
................
The time is just about noon. We were all eating our bento while talking in the safe area.
"I want to try looking at the 8th floor. After we rest how about taking a peek at it?"
Ralpha eats a sandwiches she"s holding in one hand while circling around the teleport crystal rod.
"Really, that"s bad manners."
Gwine warns Ralpha while holding her sandwich in both hands and biting at it.
"The 8th floor huh..And, obviously, the monsters will get even stronger right?"
Basutoral joins the conversation while making some slightly withdrawn statements.
"N~ If we were to go off of all of the cases up until now that"s true..It would probably be best to think that way."
Bel replied while drinking some tea.
And then, Miduchi start talking while drinking some tea as well.
"..Can I have your attention for a bit? I tried putting together the things I heard from everyone and thought about it for a bit but..this is just my consideration regarding the dungeon but in the rooms of the dungeon aren"t there monsters that are slightly more powerful than the ones you encounter in the halls? But, what I think is that, they only require being just a bit more careful than the monsters in the halls. However, it"s the same as with the earthworm from before but occasionally there"s clearly monsters with strength that far exceeds the rest of the monsters on that floor that appears."
What about that~ We already know, something like that. We"ve explored the dungeon for several times longer than you after all.
"On the 1st floor there"s the huge leeches, Scavenger Crawler, spiders, and slimes right? On the 2nd floor including those the varieties increase by a bit more. Well putting aside the 1st and 2nd floors it"s said that the {Flesh Golem} appears on the 3rd floor, and on the 4th floor there"s some kind of unknown undead..since it had fangs growing then I think it"s a Vampire but...while I don"t know the 5th floor yet on the 6th floor there was the Roper...
Just from what I"ve heard the {Flesh Golem} clearly has abilities that exceed those of the other room bosses on the 3rd floor and the vampire on the 4th floor is clearly an opponent that it wouldn"t be strange to be wiped out by. The Roper was a considerably power enemy as well. Furthermore, the {Larva Purple Worm} from the 7th floor the other day has {Larva} in it"s name so it should still be something like a child larva. Normally {Purple Worms} are absurdly strong monsters. Quite literally a special, monster on the level that can wipe out towns."
Everyone is taken back as we listen to Miduchi"s words.
"We can guess from this that very rarely there"s a frighteningly strong monster that appears as a boss in the rooms of this Baldukk. I think it would be fine to take a look at the 8th floor but I think it would be safer after we can easily defeat the room bosses on the 7th floor first."
Hearing that, I thought, I see, certainly that"s true.
"..Certainly, it might be just as Miduchi says. Other parties don"t have Al. Putting aside the {Golem}, if the other guys didn"t have a decisive hand like Al"s magic then just as Miduchi said it wouldn"t be strange for them to have been wiped out."
Zenom said while crossing his legs and arms on the ground.
"Just think back to it. If Al wasn"t around then we would have been wiped out countless times."
"..Certainly, that"s true..And if we weren"t taught magic and trained, putting aside Miduchi-san, none of us would be able to use magic still.. I guess it"s worth thinking about before was rush ahead.."
It"s just as Toris said just now, the members of the {Slaughterers} have a reasonable amount of individual skill built up but that"s because they were able to survive various experiences. Even though they"ve leveled up and their ability values have gone up reasonably along with that, the ability values I can see with Identify can"t completely be depended on. They"re decent as a method to measure ability but I don"t think it applies to reincarnated people.
It"s just as I realized the other day, it seems like most people aren"t making full use of their ability values. Like when a weak old woman carries out paulowania wood chest of drawers that was her wedding gift during a fire it"s something like the upper limit for the super strength you can display during a fire. It should be just as I"ve somewhat predicted since I was a child. The reason why my Endurance value has only increased by 2 points up until now is probably because the value I can see with Identify was too high compared to the amount of stamina and endurance I"ve actually built up from training so it wasn"t that easy to increase.
I thought back for a bit here. In the past, when I was still in Bakuddo. When I first started running my Endurance just didn"t seem like it would increase. Obviously, I didn"t start running back then because I was hoping my Endurance would increase. I just started it simply to train my body. Using spells while running as well was just a side benefit as well and wasn"t the original objective either. It was then, Mill who started running a while after me had an increase in her Endurance before me.
There"s no way I can remember all the details of Mill"s level and individual abilities back then but I know my level was higher. Adding to that since I"m a reincarnated person my ability values should have increased three times more than Mill.
If we think of the ability values I can see with Identify as X. And then, we use Y as the value that can actually be used. Putting aside the actual amount of X - Y for now, for the time being let"s think of that as Z. In the case of Mill and I, my Z value should have been higher than Mills. Through running Y increases a bit at a time but only when Y finally exceeds X, I wonder if that"s when the value of X finally increases? Through training the value of my X has increased by 2 points in the past. When was it that the 2nd point was increased? I feel like it was last year though. By that point my level was already considerably high and along with that my X value should have been high as well. I"m sure this value can"t be increased with just an ordinary amount of training.
I don"t think it would take very much time for a person that requires 8 hours to run a full marathon to shorten that to 5 hours. Even when it comes to reducing that to 3 hours if they can get their stamina, or rather Endurance value to that of a track and field runner at the high school level. I can understand things get difficult from there. Most adult males can lift around 60kg when bench pressing. It shouldn"t take all that much time to get that to 90kg as well. If they just do an appropriate amount of training anyone should be able to do it. It"s 1.5 times the previous. However, when it comes to double that 120kg, and then going even further to 150kg or so then I"m sure it would be considerably difficult without training your muscles in a special way.
It seems that the world record exceeded 400kg but putting aside those absurd levels there were countless people who could do over 150kg in the JSDF. Even I was able to do about that much. If we were to try taking the example of the old woman from just now then it"s possible that the JSDF"s Y is higher than an old woman"s X. I don"t think there"s even any comparison to the X of members of the JSDF. Since it seems that muscle gets stronger in proportion to the product of the cross-section, I"m sure that"s the case. And, in that case the increases to X that come from leveling up should eventually reach a limit I guess.
Just, in the case of Orth, there shouldn"t be any {humans} at all. Since humans aren"t {humans} so I can"t deny the possibility that my way of thinking is incorrect as well. I can"t even imagine what kind of values Miki would have if I Identified a {Demi-G.o.d} like her. They might be unexpectedly normal.
While I was thinking with my arms crossed, I noticed that everyone was paying attention to me all of a sudden so I scratched my head. Sorry about that, I was thinking about something completely different.
"I"ll say it honestly. I don"t want to let even a single person die. That"s why I have no intention of overdoing things. I think it would be good to take Miduchi"s opinion into consideration. Until we can determine that our abilities have gotten to a reasonable level, we shouldn"t go to the the next floor. Alright?"
I looked at Ralpha while saying since she"s the most likely to act on it. Ralpha had come over to where we were before I realized, was sitting cross legged with her arms behind her head while swaying back and forth balancing on her a.s.s. She"s quite skillful.
"N..Yeah. If Al is going to say that, then I got it."
"Oh? Ral. Did you eat something strange? Isn"t that obedient of you."
No, Ralpha is considerably obedient. Don"t tease her too much. Rather than that, when you"re fixing your chest protector for the bow could you please pay a bit more attention to your surroundings? It"s difficult to force my eyes from going in that direction.
It would be too late for regrets if we push ourselves and someone gets seriously injured or dies. Of course I want to look at the 8th floor as well. In the past it should be scenery that, Minamoyo no Yos.h.i.tsune, otherwise known as George Rombert the First and his allies had only seen. Since it seems that in the past the first knight group managed to investigate up to the 7th floor. I think we need to at least be able to exceed the 8th floor and make it to the 9th floor.
Eh? I mean, if that isn"t the case then there"s no way I can exceed George Rombert the First right? Things like proof don"t matter at all. It"s fine as long as it remains in the hearts of me and everyone else. If we can just manage that, then no matter what kind of harsh situations we experience in the future we can deal with them with confidence right?
In the afternoon let"s try exploring beyond the other entrances from this teleport room. We might be able to get to a different monster room.