So...Chapters up to 138 are done already. I wonder if it would be best to put them all out at once or like every 2-4 hours either way? For now I"ll do 2-4 hours as usual. Expect chapters every 2-4 hours for the next day or so.
Random note you don"t need to read:
I noticed it from a comment but I wasn"t sure how many people actually caught on to this. It"s not really spoilers since it"s only mentioned in pa.s.sing and never actually takes place. Way back when Al first Identified Faruergaz"s Unique Ability. He mentioned he was at the top of his watch list and planned to a.s.sa.s.sinate him even if he were just planning to leave where Al can watch over him. The reason for that should be pretty obvious but just think of it like this. When properly trained all it would take is him gathering samples of the bubonic plague or small pox(Variola in one of the SS) and walking into the capital of enemy kingdoms with it and he can essentially keep re-infecting until most of the population has it. Since he can keep erasing the virus from himself before it has any effect, then go back out and get re-infected by someone else and use that to infect even more people. There"s plenty of reason to see him as a potential strategic bio-weapon and fear him in the wrong hands, particularly for someone who plans to make their own country. It"s not directly related to the current arc but it is one of the reasons Al will do anything to either win over or erase Faruergaz regardless of what reputation it leaves him with.
Carnivorous Plant
Year 7445, Month 7, Day 24
So we"re carrying it out huh? I think while looking at the reddish-brown worn-out cloth that acts as a signal. I can"t really get motivated for it but it can"t be helped. I wonder who to chose..One or two people, depending on the case three people is fine as well. Since Misu can use magic as well, she"s a definite choice. After that I guess someone as young as possible would be best.
"Shall we camp out in this corner over here?"
Koritto said to everyone. Hearing that, we all quickly started preparations to camp. We lower the blankets we were carrying and take the food out of our bags gathering it in the center. One of the members took out a simple miniature stove that makes use of magic stones, and after placing a small pot on top, Koritto created some water as they started making soup.
I guess everyone is tired sitting in a deformed circle, they"re just quiet with their attention on the flame and the pot.
Since the pot and stove are small it"s certain that it"s somewhat difficult to sit around it but Kevin, Jeru, and I were sitting outside of the circle.
Kimu is skillfully cutting up bacon and cabbage on top of a small cutting board before putting it into the pot with some salt and seasonings. If it"s the size of that pot then each one of us will only get about a tea cup amount of it. During that time Misu was cutting off slices of ham from a smoked block of meat. Well, it"s raw ham. You put this together with Rikke leaves a type of mustard, and put it between galette bread together with mayonnaise before eating it. Incidentally the leaves of Rikke can last for 10 days without withering if you dig them up along with the roots so they"re a leafed vegetable that is familiar between adventurers. They"re a bit bitter and not very good but since they have a good texture they"re preferred. My biggest complaint is I wish they would wash the leaves before preparing them to be eaten.
Jeru takes the pre baked galette from the mountain of food (they"ve completely gotten hard) and hands out one to each person. My role is to hand out one cuc.u.mber to each person. That"s right, I was designated for cuc.u.mber duty of {Sun.Ray} along with Kevin. Since they"re always eating just cuc.u.mber in my impression I thought it was an honorable role but that wasn"t the case. Even then since it"s being left to take care of the important food so I thought that to comfort myself.
Since they"re reasonable heavy and quite bulky it seems everyone hates the duty. One per person, per meal. Since there"s 10 of us we consume 30 per day. Since we usually bring an extra amount just in case it totals up to over 300 of them. Though they get lighter everyday, they"re not the wilted ones handed out during training but the large and splendid kind. Ah, for a period of time Bel and Gwine were saying they were zucchinis but I think they"re cuc.u.mbers. If you try eating them you"ll understand.
The soup is finished.
Kimu goes around pouring soup into everyone"s cups and the preparations to eat were completed. We pray as usual and then it"s time for the enjoyable meal time. While we"re still exhausted it"s the same for every party that everyone starts smiling during meals.
"Now then, everyone is about finished eating right..Then, Greed-kun, could you please tell us about the 7th floor once more?"
Meiria instructed me to talk about the 7th floor which I"ve talked about a lot up until now. I guess it"s like a final review or something.
"I understand. The appearance of the dungeon completely changes from up until now on the 7th floor. Here, on the 6th floor the ceiling is extremely high but since there"s plenty of light it"s almost like the middle of the day. That"s why different from the 6th floor you can see up to the ceiling. As far as I know there"s no place like on the 4th or 5th floors where a portion is pitch dark so it"s probably not necessary to bring along light."
I sip a mouthful of the soup from the cup in my hand.
"Since that"s the case the field of vision is good but just as I previously talked about the pa.s.sages of the dungeons are several times wider than up until now. In those pa.s.sages there"s trees growing every several hundred meters or so apart so while the field of vision is good, it"s not like you can see far into the distance. The places with no trees growing are like plains or wastelands, or full of sand, there"s various types. Also, we were never able to find any type of trap."
"Are the only monsters that come out really just Goblins and Ogres?"
Kimu said. She has her long tiger striped tail coiled around her sides and stomach.
"That"s right for what appears in the pa.s.sages. Though just the same as the floors up until now when it comes too boss rooms different monsters appear but I only know of the place that is full of sand and something like a fish lurks inside of that sand. Since it seems that move through the sand if we want to avoid going to that room then we"ll need to teleport a number of times."
"Yeah, I remember that. We"re depending on you to be careful that we don"t end up teleporting into a place that leads to there."
Rokko"s pointed ears are twitching restlessly as he said that.
"Of course. After that, in regards to the ogres weaknesses but they fundamentally aren"t any different from humans. You could call their eyes, noses, the head from the neck above, or their chest where their heart is a weakness. If they bleed out a lot then they quickly get weaker and die. If you just think about it as taking on a slightly large person then there"s not a big problem with that. Since the target is big I think it should be easy to hit with the bow but hits to the legs or arms won"t do much damage at all. Please try to aim for the vitals like their face. If there"s someone fighting in front of you then approaching plenty close so you don"t miss the vitals is one option. If the first one we encounter tomorrow is alone or..up to just two of them then I"ll take them on alone. Please use that as a reference."
"Yeah, tomorrow it"s our first time going to the floor. Let"s rest already for today. Relax and get some good rest."
With Koritto concluding things my discussion ended. It"s the details that I"ve talked about countless times these past few days.
Though this time it was a summary.
"Ah, that"s right, there"s a shower here as well but is it fine if we use it?"
Why are you asking me? I"m a member of {Sun.Ray} right now but. Ah, I guess we never talked about cooperating to manage the shower on the 6th floor.
"..I think it"s fine since there"s only benefits that come from sharing it on the 5th floor as well."
"Hn, after all that was the case. Well, just in case."
If the {Slaughterers} complain you intend to make it my fault? But, even if I was still in the {Slaughterers} it"s not something that will run out, I wouldn"t complain over something like using the shower...In the first place I intended to take a shower myself.
Koritto and I created some hot water and we all took showers in order and after feel refreshed we did maintenance on our weapons and leaving the lookouts all rolled up in our blankets.
..................
Year 7445, Month 7, Day 25
Everyone checks their own equipment and then we teleported into the 7th floor. It"s only obvious but the surroundings are the usual 7th floor and there"s nothing particularly different. There was nothing like Goblins or Ogres nearby that noticed us or we noticed them first either. It"s a bit nostalgic, I can feel the sensation of {Party-ization} as well. Everyone is raising their voices in surprise over the s.p.a.ciousness and brightness. It was such a time when the order "Jump" came up in my head. Hmn, I guess that means preparations are complete. I quickly checked the pedestal of the crystal rod and look at the rock which the arrow points towards. There"s no sign. Let"s return.
"This isn"t a good location. Let"s return."
We return to the 6th floor and teleported to the 7th floor again. This time was no good as well huh?
We repeated teleporting a number of times. Just once along the way there was five Goblins about 10 meters away but when Haruku swings his weapon menacing them and they noticed or numbers they ran off somewhere.
And it was the 13th time we teleported. We teleported into a forest. When I checked the trunk of the tree the pedestal pointed to "four100II7" was carved into it. And then, right beside that a red string was tied to a branch. This is the right place. I look around the surroundings and there"s a knot in the bushes on that side as a sign. So that"s the direction huh?
"This is a good place. It"s one of the areas where the monster room will have trees growing and be a forest. Shall we go?"
Most likely there"s only four monster rooms on the 7th floor. In the center is the teleport room and around 1 km to the North, South, East, and West of that there"s large 500 meter or so rooms, the East and West are desert and the North and South are forests or thickets. Up until the end of last month what we had investigated by the point I left the {Slaughterers} was just over 80%. There was just over 150 teleport destinations. Of those around 100 of them end up as dead ends and you can"t make it to the 8th floor. In other words, you can"t get to the monster rooms either. The remaining 50 locations are connected to the monster rooms at some point. I think there"s probably around 200 teleport destinations in all. It"s only my intuition but it"s believed that eventually around 80 locations will connect to the monster rooms. And, even further around half of those are connected to one of the East or West monster rooms.
Since there"s also preparation and confirmation as well we"ve only completely identified around 10 places at the correct answer. In other words, if you teleport around 20 times then you should get to the right place at least once. It was good luck that we were able to arrive at the correct place in half of that this time.
"Well then, please follow after me about 50 meters behind so you don"t lose sight of me. If I raise my right hand then that means there"s an enemy that I can handle myself ahead. When that time comes please watch how I fight. If I raise my left hand then it"s an enemy that I can"t deal with alone so I"ll retreat."
After everyone nodded I started advancing at the front.
Since there"s no traps we can proceed forward quickly. Though I say that we can"t be negligent in our caution towards monsters so our speed still falls a bit but it"s still an incomparable speed to the other floors. Occasionally I use the spell {Detect.Life} to check ahead of me.
And around 15 minutes after we started moving. When we had advanced around 500 meters. I was able to detect life roughly 200 meters ahead. The number is two. Since they"re low in numbers it"s not goblins. Judging from the distance they"re probably in the forest a bit ahead of the brush in front of me. Making it even better that forest has some pretty thick vegetation growing close to it.
I raise my right hand and waved it ahead. I can see everyone keeping up about 50 meters behind me. After seeing me raise my right hand they stopped in place it seems. I quickly returned to everyone and whispered.
"It seems there"s some in the forest beyond this brush. I got a glimpse of their backs as they entered the forest. I"m going to ambush them after this, when I finish off one of them I"ll retreat to the plains and fight the remaining one there. Please remain in this forest while watching what it"s like."
When I said that there was a reply of "Got it." as I turned around and started forward again.
I crouch down as I pa.s.s through the brush and carefully stepped foot into the forest. There"s still close to 100 meters in distance from the ogres. In our activities on the 7th floor up until now we"ve confirmed that ogres don"t recognize us until they either catch sight of us or we approach within 30 meters or so. Even when it"s ogre mages if we don"t approach closer than 100 meters then they don"t notice us.
Around 50 meters ahead where the forest opens up there"s two ogres leaning on the trunk of a tree as they doze off. I take the glove off my left hand and cut it lightly with my sword to draw some blood. After smearing my blood on the blade of my sword I quickly healed the cut and put my glove back on. I take some throwing needles out of both of my gauntlets and put some paralysis poison on the ends of them before finishing preparations. I continued to hold on to one of them just like that. Then I started slowly using a spell. The type is {Ice Javelin Missile}. However, I"m pouring some mana into the warhead and changing the shape.
Like a long, thin, razor blade.
After deciding my aim I send the razor blade flying.
I may not have needed the {Missile}.
The razor blade that immediately reached it"s target sliced through Ogre A"s neck as it was dozing off from the right side to the left sending a shower of blood scattering around.
It wasn"t instant death but it probably won"t even last another 10 seconds. And then, I quickly threw a rock at Ogre B. Ogre B opened it"s eyes with that and after seeing me it grabbed it"s club that was rolling around by it"s side and fiercely charged at me. After all ogres are idiots. When Ogre B approached to an appropriate distance I threw the throwing needle with paralysis poison on it and after confirming it hit I turned around and ran at full speed back to the North.
I quickly jumped out of the forest and when I returned to the plains I had my beloved long sword in my hand with blood on the blade. It seems the poison still hasn"t taken effect as I can hear the energetic footsteps of Ogre B about 10 meters behind me. It"s probably impossible for a normal person but even if it"s an ogre it should be at it"s limit just trying to keep up with my full speed dash.
By the time I had moved to about midway through the plains I noticed a change in the footsteps of Ogre B.
Now then, I"ll slowly take my time cutting you down.
When I turned around, it must have thought I was tired from running and stopped, I pa.s.sed through the side of Ogre B as it swung it"s club and cut the side of it with my sword while quickly moving around behind it and cutting the back of it"s knee. Ogre B"s scream rings out. I quickly cut the arm on the reverse side and after wounding I put a bit of distance between us. An ogre that can"t use one arm and one leg isn"t anything more than a target. Even more so since the paralysis poison should have started to circulate.
Without letting my guard down I just keep cutting it when I see fit and the movements of the ogre gradually get worse.
Is it about a good time?
I run past Ogre B"s side and after turning around behind it I thrust into it"s chest around where it"s heart is with all my strength. I can feel the ogre start to convulse as I kicked off it"s back to pull my sword out.
After wiping the blood off my sword I put it back in it"s scabbard. Without pulling out the throwing needle, I pretended to be wiping the blood off as I placed the weight on one foot and embedded it deep into the arm muscle of the ogre. And then, with a smile I looked in the direction everyone should have been watching from.
Soon after everyone approached and started to take the magic stone out of the ogre"s chest.
After they wiped the blood off of the magic stone from Ogre B they got excited seeing the color of it.
"There"s one more rolling around in the forest over there that I ambushed."
And when I said that they were greatly pleased.
Just like this when there was only a few ogres we all attacked and when there was a lot I would ambush them and reduce their numbers as we continued to advance forward. Of course, I"m using throwing needles so they don"t notice the important points. Just as would be expected of one corner of the top teams, if all of {Sun.Ray} takes them on then they"re able to defeat a few ogres without problem. Twice, there was someone who was unable to evade and ended up being grazed but since they weren"t seriously injured, I quickly healed them with {Cure Critical}.
Since there was a sign placed at the split paths which we had decided on before-hand without getting lost we were able to arrive at the monster room just past noon. According to {Party-ization} the {Slaughterers} should be on standby around 150 degrees on the opposite side from the entrance of that room.
"Now then, I"ll go scout things out first. Once I know the numbers of the opponent I"ll return once to report. After that, I"ll circle around along the wall of the room. Let"s discuss the timing of the ambush once I return to report."
While we were having lunch and recovering our mana I proposed it. We"ve defeated 10 ogres up until here. It seems like the members of {Sun.Ray} are completely blinded by the money.
I went to scout and used the spell {Detect.Life}. There"s 11 reactions in the center of the room. This is good.
After killing time for a bit I slowly returned and gave my report.
"I said it before as well but the room is circular and has a diameter of about 500 meters. In the center there"s 11 ogres. It seems they aren"t moving so they"re either sleeping, resting, or dazing out. If we"re going to do this then I have an effective strategy though"
When I reported like that to Koritto everyone made delighted expressions hearing it. Right. If you can take out a total of over 20 ogres in less than half a day then it"s a large profit after all.
"Fumu, what kind of strategy is it?"
I crouch down and draw out an ill.u.s.tration while explaining. I draw a large 1 meter or so circle and put 11 stones in the center of it.
"First, I"ll carefully move along the way to the opposite side of the monsters. Everyone will enter the room and then please advance around 100 meters. If you carefully move while crouched down and not making a sound from one tree trunk to the next then you should be able to approach within 100 meters of the ogres without them noticing."
I place nine pebbles around 20 cm from the circ.u.mference. At the same time I put one pebble on the opposite side of the 11 in the center at about 20 cm from the circ.u.mference.
"This is me. Just like this I"ll circle around the opposite side and slowly approach within range of using magic. Since I"ll be moving a bit carefully it might take some time. However, once I enter the valid range to use magic I"ll use my most powerful spell the level 4 fire magic {Flame Arbalest} to finish off one in a single hit. Well~ if I hit one that"s showing it"s back to me in the back of it"s head then I can kill it."
I said that and moved my pebble to about 15 cm from the 11 pebbles in the center and then after moving to within 10 cm I took one pebble from an ogre outside of the circle. Yeah, if I hit them from directly behind in the head with a javelin then I"m sure that should kill it.
"In that case, once the ogres realize they"ve been ambushed they"ll come towards me or should try to come towards me. Depending on the case they might get confused and start just wandering around though. If it comes to that then I"ll hit them with one more shot of {Flame Arbalest}. As expected if it comes to that then they"ll realize which direction I am. And then they"ll come towards my direction to kill me."
After seeing everyone understands from their faces I continue.
"If it comes to that then the ogres will have their backs to everyone else. There I would like for Koritto-san to please hit them from behind with {Flame Arbalest} as well. If things go well then with that we would have taken down three of them, even if that"s not the case we should definitely be able to finish off two."
I said that while taking another of the 10 remaining ogre pebbles out of the circle.
"Together with Koritto-san, Misu-san please hit a different ogre in the back of the head with {Flame Javelin} as well. If Kamu-san and Misu-san shoot arrows at the ogres in the same way even if that doesn"t defeat them we should be able to injure them."
I take one more ogre pebble out of the circle.
"The essential point is that after I hit them with {Flame Arbalest} we need to get them to this point as fast as possible. Well, since ogres are as stupid as goblins it shouldn"t be a problem even if we end up a bit behind though. There"s 8 ogres remaining at this point. If we attack the ogres from two directions then they should split into two groups."
I split up the ogre pebbles into two groups of four and one group is in my direction the other group in the direction of everyone else.
"Until the four ogres approach everyone should please do as much damage as possible with magic and arrows. There might not even be a single one that falls over but it"s important to weaken them. If it comes to this then everyone can take on four ogres with over double the numbers of nine people. If they"re weakened then you should be able to win even easier."
I throw out the four ogre pebbles that went in the direction of everyone else.
"And, I will be focusing on running around. I think you already understand but I"m faster than ogres. They won"t be able to catch up to me so easily but I"ll still be running around in the area everyone isn"t at in order to keep form losing sight of everyone one. Once everyone finishes defeating the ogres please finish off the ones chasing me. There"s no problem~ I"m used to it after all. I"ll show you can I definitely run around for 20 minutes or so."
I move my pebble around randomly and move the four ogre pebbles with that following me.
"But, Greed-kun, isn"t that placing just you into the dangerous role..Ah, but certainly you were fast at running. I"m sure you"re used to it as well so I guess it"s alright..Also, it"s certainly true that ogres weren"t at strong as I had heard."
Haruku looks at the stones while saying.
"Yeah, and if I"m the only decoy then it"s easier for me as well."
I pat my legs.
"Greed-kun, I really think it was great that you entered {Sun.Ray}."
Koritto made a pleased smile as he said it to me.
..Probably several of them are ogre mages. And also, if ogre mages are included at best only about 1/3rd of them or three will chase after me I"m sure. After all not just magic but arrows will come flying from the direction everyone else is in. Even if it"s impossible for the ogres to notice there"s more people there the ogre mages will quickly make such a decision. Additionally, the ogre mages fire off spells with level 4 void magic.
"Then, after resting for a bit longer I"ll depart. I think I"ll probably have circled around in 20-30 minutes or so. My {Flame Arbalest} is the sign. Please don"t overlook it."
I said that while drinking some tea.
"Hey~ Kimu, isn"t Greed-kun amaz~ing.."
"Yeah, he"s taking on the dangerous role of decoy all on hos own and it"s quite wonderful how even though he"s still young he"s able to think up such simple methods to defeat the ogres making use of how stupid they are. I think it would be best for Jeru to learn something as well."
"Gu..But I guess that"s true.."
Now then, it depends on the flow of events but I need to pick the person who"s going to become a sacrifice for Toris and Bel. I erase my expression while thinking. If I think about anything unnecessary I feel like I might show a strange expression. This is a place where I"m being tested as well, not just for the sake of Toris and Bel but for the sake of my objective, whether or not I can leave someone innocent or an ally that I"m acquainted with to die. If we can"t learn anything from here then almost all of these guys will die pointlessly.