N.e.x.t.i.n.?..?..?..Year 7446, Month 6, Day 30
"I guess that the Minotaur was the guard that protects the teleport crystal room for the 8th floor. It seems that normally it would have been best to charge in and defeat it with everyone but...After defeating the guard the cage disappeared and the effect of the Anti-Skill Area was released I guess?"
And Miduchi said, so I thought, I see now. Incidentally, right now we"re in the teleport crystal room and excluding the fact that there"s only one entrance it"s no different from the other floors. From a glance it"s a room of about 30 meters and in the center is the pedestal with the teleport crystal.
"But will that Minotaur? Was it? but there"s no guarantee it won"t revive and a different monster might revive as well right?"
Bel said nervously but Miduchi gently denied it.
"We were able to use magic and Special Skills after defeating the Minotaur and the places other than here are still bright. Also, no monsters will approach the area of about 100 meters around the teleport crystal right? Probably but I think that the Minotaur is a special monster and after all I think it"s natural to think it was a mid boss. There"s no basis for it but it probably won"t revive I think?"
No one Could clearly object to Miduchi"s opinion. However, in that case wouldn"t that fellow from the 14th floor not revive either? I don"t really get it. I never want to go back again to check.
"Even if it were to revive, the problem is whether or not it will enter into this teleport crystal room right."
Toris said. Certainly that"s true.
"Right. If it were to come into this room then it would be difficult to make it into a base."
Basutoral said as well. I"m of the same opinion.
In the past, I saw a {Scavenger Crawler} revive right in front of me in a room on the 1st floor. That time if I remember correctly something like a white fog appeared after about 10 hours and started whirling, then after giving off a single small flash of light it appeared. It might not be bad to spend half a day or so here keeping an eye on things to confirm whether or not it revives.
Conveniently it"s still before noon right now.
"It can"t be helped. Shall we wait on standby here for almost the whole day and confirm whether it revives..Let"s patrol around outside until lunch."
While taking a break in the teleport crystal room we decided on the plan for today.
We patrolled around this circular room together with everyone but as expected of it having a diameter of 2 km, we were only able to look around at just a bit of it until lunch. We returned to the teleport crystal room once and had lunch, then started looking around the room again in the afternoon. The time changed to evening and even by 7 pm the room was still as bright as the 7th floor. We didn"t encounter any monsters either.
"I guess we"ve seen most of it right...Gwine, how was it?"
"..I saw almost all of it. Another seven areas, there"s spots I wasn"t able to see though..from here it would take a bit of walking but what should we do?"
After spending a bit of time searching her brain Gwine replied.
"Hn~ I"ll think while eating. Shall we return?"
Just in case but before the 10 hours pa.s.sed since I defeated the Minotaur I wanted us to return to the teleport crystal room. It should have been just past 10 am when I defeated it. I want to return by 8 pm or so.
We returned to the teleport room and ate the bento that Giberuti made for us this morning as dinner. We decided to do the remaining exploration tomorrow morning before we take a look in the 9th floor. This morning, when we went to leave the teleport room on the 7th floor I told Giberuti, "I intend to clear past the 8th floor so depending on the case we might not return for 2 days or so but don"t worry too much." but the bento we received from him at that time was only enough until tomorrow morning. We intended on pulling through with preserved food after that.
I said that because it would be a pain to come here again but if that Minotaur revives again then in regards to the supplies from here on out, I"ll need to think even more seriously about them. Everyone"s worries were focused on that point. Also, if the Minotaur revives then whether or not that Anti-Skill Area revives is also a problem.
If the Anti-Skill Area doesn"t revive as well then it"s not much of a problem. Putting aside Unique Abilities, if we can use magic then as long as we don"t let our guards down considerably then it"s safe to say there"s no problem. However, it could be thought that the Minotaur might use magic as well so there"s a good and a bad to it.
Let alone, if a different type of monster were revive then letting it use some kind of Special Skill might be even more troublesome. Even when it comes to that {Gazer}, if it couldn"t use Special Skills then it wouldn"t be able to float or fire off beams as it rolls around on the ground, so all we"d have to do is surround and beat it to death that sort of of easy win.
After eating our bentos and even when the time pa.s.sed 8 pm there was no sign of a monster reviving and the outside was still bright. After all it seems it"s just as Miduchi said and that Minotaur might be the type that doesn"t revive.
.................
"I can"t either."
It seems Toris and Bel tried to use it right away. I went on guard with my bayonet as well while standing a bit away from the front pa.s.sage leading to the entrance. The pa.s.sage which has a height and width of about 2 meters and length of 10 meters to the room has already gotten quite dark. I noticed after approaching it but I could tell that whirlpool of fog that appears when monsters revive was there. The fog which appeared in an area centered about 4-5 meters from the entrance was slowly whirling.
Miduchi, Zenom, Ralpha, Basutoral, and Angela all ran over in full equipment after being woken up by Gwine.
"Miduchi. Unfortunately it seems your prediction was off. That fog is the sign of a monster reviving...And also we can"t use skills or magic again."
I explained to Miduchi while also explaining to everyone else on guard and raised the level of caution.
"What should we do? Should we all charge at it the moment it revives? In that case while we still can now we should all go outside.."
Ralpha commented.
"Nn..That might not be bad either but I want to check the state of things. Until either it makes a move towards us or I say something no one move. Also Angela you keep an eye on things in the room. I can"t imagine a monster appearing in this room but being careful just in case."
Previously, when we fell down to the 14th floor, it"s regrettable that we returned right away. It would have been good if I paid a little bit more attention to what was outside of the rooms..and regretting it now is too late. That time, we had just escaped a huge crisis, riding on the momentum I made Miduchi my own, and we even talked to Lilus, so by the way I split ways with Miduchi and returned to being alone I didn"t have enough leeway to think about things like that. That was just two years and a bit ago huh...
I lick my lips and try to relieve even just a bit of the tension. Toris was licking his lips with his longer forked tongue as well.
It seems the whirl of fog is gradually increasing in force but it"s still not very big. However, I feel like the time with the {Scavenger Crawler} it increased in force in a slightly shorter amount of time. That time if I remember correctly, after I defeated a different monster what revive was the {Scavenger Crawler}. I wonder what will happen this time?
Just like Miduchi said it"s not like I don"t feel like the room outside of here is different from a normal monster room.
Ah, come to think of it there"s no sign of the {Lightning Bolt} cage appearing either.
Following that I moved my left hand around to the front pointing to my right shoulder.
The fired arrow splendidly stabbed into the collar bone of the Minotaur"s right shoulder a bit closer to the spine.
"Gwidye!!"
The Minotaur let out a dull scream as it jumped in surprise and turned around here.
It still has it"s posture lowered and axe at the ready.
There was a strange light in it"s eyes as it slowly took it"s left hand from it"s axe and stretched it out towards the entrance.
"Hick! Ah.."
It seems Gwine hiccuped from the tension but the only ones who reacted to that was just us.
I guess it can"t see over here from there?
"Everyone, don"t move..WA!!"
I shouted in a slightly loud voice to check but it didn"t react at all.
"..It seems like it can"t hear us."
Toris turned around towards me and said.
"Also, it seems like it can"t tell the entrance right."
Miduchi narrowed her eyes and observed the Minotaur while saying.
"That thing, is it an idiot?"
You are too. Though I say that, it"s certainly true that the Minotaur that looks like it"s just touching an invisible wall investigating doesn"t look like anything but an idiot.
"What should we do? Shall we all charge in at once?"
Basutoral said in a tense voice.
"Somehow, I feel like I could just shoot it to death like this. Should I crush it"s eyes?"
It"s eyes aren"t as huge as the {Ice Monster}? Can you do it? Bel.
"Wait just a moment. Let"s test things out a bit more. Zulu, stick your leg just one step out from the pa.s.sage."
Miduchi said that to Zulu and he took one step out from the pa.s.sage.
It should be fine already.
"Return."
I called Zulu back in.
"Somehow it seems it can"t come inside. Also, it seems it"s fine even taking one step or so out from the pa.s.sage. It seems like our voices aren"t reaching it either.."
Toris said after keeping an eye on things.
"Then, it seems there"s merit in making this place into a base."
"That"s true.."
I replied to Gwine while thinking for a bit. Most likely it"s probably not all that difficult to defeat that Minotaur. If Bel just keeps shooting it with arrows I"m sure it"ll die eventually and if that"s a waste of arrows then we could just have her crush it"s eyes then after standing Zulu and Toris at the front have Gwine and Basutoral stab it with their spears all at once just that would probably put it on the verge of death.
"Bel, crush it"s eyes. After that Zulu and Toris make a wall with your shields while charging it. Gwine and Basutoral use your spears to stab it to death. However don"t go too far. I want to see it"s status after all."
"I"ll start from it"s right eye."
The moment I finished saying it Bel immediately fired off an arrow.
And just as I thought that the two of them went on guard with their shields as they put distance between it.
And then, I heard the loud sound of the air being torn in the distance again.
【】
【Calf-Person Race】
【Special Skill: Greater Strength】
Hmph.
Die.
【Male/1/7/7446.Minor Minotaur.Sentinel】
【Age: 0 Years Old】
【HP: -60(200) MP: 10(10)】
【Speed: 20】
【Endurance: 60】
【Special Skill: Greater Strength】
I see now.
Now then...
Both the loincloth and the {bardiche} it was holding it from the start were completely normal items...I guess that means things won"t go that easily?