Otoko Nara Ikkokuichijou no Aruji o Mezasa Nakya, ne?

Towards The 10th Floor 3
Year 7446, Month 10, Day 28

Hmm, {b.l.o.o.d.y.Hand Axe}, huh?

It"s quite the {Magical.Weapon}. It might be just right for Ralpha. For as long as the battle continues it increases in effectiveness, it"s perfect for that idiot. If it continues like this then the only one who has a chance of continuing to go to the front lines even into their 20s, 30s, and maybe even 40s is Ralpha after all.

For the time being I decided to twist and turn the hand axe while observing it and then held the handle while swinging it.

"Yeah, well I"m sure it"s fine. It seems like there"s no problem with Ralpha either, it has a violent name but I"m sure it doesn"t have anything like a curse or spell on it."

I said that before finally grabbing on to the handle letting Miduchi relax. While Miduchi was asking Ralpha, "Are you alright?", after seeing me hold the handle she didn"t question it anymore than that.

"Hmn. After all it doesn"t suit me. Hey Ralpha, I"m going to leave this in your care. It seems to have magic cast on it, and it"s a hand axe, so it should be just right."

"Eh? But, this axe.."

I thought that Ralpha would be excited but somehow that doesn"t seem to be the case.
Why? and just as I was thinking that I thought of something. The tomahawk she"s using now is one that Zenom used for many years before giving to her. It was originally of considerably good quality so it"s lasted quite a long time.

Several years back, when I turned the vampire into dust I ended up doing it along with the hand axe Ralpha was using at the time as well. That time, after she ended up losing her weapon Zenom let her use his hand axe and then switched to using a sword we picked up. After we returned I bought a pretty good axe as an apology. After that Zenom used the brand new axe and Ralpha started using the axe that Zenom had used up until then. After that, even after I handed the magic axe to Zenom, Ralpha has continued to use the old axe without changing weapons.

Come to think of it I don"t remember when it was but Ralpha mentioned it while she was drunk.

"You know, I wanted this axe. Since I was small Zenom would always protect me with this axe, it"s also because I"m familiar with it but to me it"s the most reliable thing."

It"s nothing more than simple sentimentality but if she"s fine with that then I felt it wasn"t my place to say anything more so I just let it be like that. Since she"s always seen it used from nearby over many years I thought she would have used it a number of times and because I thought it would be the easiest one for her to be comfortable using. Being used to the small differences in the balance and weight of a weapon can be a big difference in fighting power but it was also because the foundation of my thinking is that, "if it"s the same type of weapon then there"s no big difference no matter what you"re using".

Of course, I don"t think there"s all that much of difference between something that"s high-quality and a wazamono as well. If I were to use an extreme argument then I don"t think there"s much of a difference between something with magic on it as well. It"s only obvious that the higher weapon quality is better but no matter how dull of a weapon it is it"ll hurt to be hit by and if you"re stabbed through with it there"s no difference that it"ll be a fatal blow. If you were to ask me the minute differences in damage that show up using {Identify} are nothing more than a charm or consolation.

Personally the value that I find to be the most important is Durability and whether or not the shape of the weapon is just right for being used or not. Though Miduchi laughed when I said this. She may have thought I was joking or something. Though, I haven"t forgotten what she told me at that time, "there may be enemies out there that can"t be damaged unless it"s a weapon with magic cast on it". There"s a huge world out there so I"m sure there"s monsters like that as well. Like Dragons or something.

In any case, there"s not much of a difference when it comes to a weapon that can only show it"s effect on the user. It"s nothing more than a luxurious personal-use weapon that an adventurer or low-cla.s.s soldier would treasure. Of course, I won"t deny the meaning in fortifying your equipment with those sorts of high efficiency items. It"s only obvious to try and equip yourself with even just a bit better quality equipment and even I want them. It"s just that I don"t have as much concern with it as everyone else.

It"s just that I don"t want to sell them yet because of the "enemies that can"t be damaged without magic weapons" then I mentioned and other than that it"s not as if there"s no meaning to them at all for the time being, but as a matter of fact there isn"t any great significance to them.

"I see. Then I"ll loan it to someone el"I didn"t say I don"t want it right! I"ll use it!""

Ah, is that so?
Then say that from the start.

"Here, take good care of it."
"Yeah!"

Ralpha immediately started swinging it around as she checked the balance of the axe.

"Are there any other magic items?"

Thinking that all 9 of them might have been holding on to {Magic.Items}, I wonder if it"s possible?
There"s no way right.
After all.
Things aren"t that convenient.

{Bloodpoint Halberd}
{Double-edge Battleaxe}
{Single-edge Baridche}
{Reverse-Thorn Trident}
{Cross Spear}
{Pole Voulge}
{Black Glaive}
{Ribbon Partizan}

All of the wazamono that we obtained this time. Every single one of them has an extremely high value. If we sell all of them I"m sure it would be over 40,000,000 Z. Furthermore, just from what I can tell the {Double-edge Battleaxe} has a feel similar to the one we obtained from the Minotaur guardian on the 8th floor(after we brought it back and confirmed it, other than the chips made during combat and manufacture date it was exactly the same).

Furthermore, the largest one that was using the halberd was called a {Minotaur.Guard Leader}, and then the others were all {Minor Minotaur.Sentinel} or {Lesser Minotaur.Sentinel}. Incidentally the levels of almost all of them were single-digits but just the {Lesser Minotaur.Sentinel} that I was having trouble with was over level 30. That makes sense..screw you, s.h.i.t. Well at least the experience points I gained were that much higher thanks to that.

After seeing the status Miduchi was muttering things like, "I wonder if this large one is the usual guardian of the 9th floor? But, the one that was holding the magic weapon was different.." but that sort of stuff doesn"t matter at all. The problem is that there"s a high chance all of these things will eventually resp.a.w.n. Next time I"m sure we can definitely take the first move from behind them but 9 of them is still difficult. Ah, no, I guess that isn"t the case? I don"t really know but we need to try it here a number of times.

"Miduchi, save your thinking for later. There"s no guarantee there aren"t anymore enemies..though the lightning bolt cage has disappeared, so I guess there aren"t any?"

I returned to around where we were noticed by the Minotaur and placed several rocks as a rough marking.
I guess it was around 50 meters or so from the pillar?
Just the same as the 8th floor it"s around where the rocky area stops huh?
During the time it"s dark the visibility is at best around 50 meters.
Even that"s only when you"re looking carefully.
Normally you can only see about 40 meters or so.

...........................

Just the same as the 8th floor the teleport crystal of the 9th floor was in the center of the pillar in the middle of the floor.

After carrying all of the items in we"re taking a break. During that time Ralpha is helping Zulu and Angela carry the corpses of all the mino into one spot before using the magic bracelet to change them to water all at once. Ah, it would have been best if we just used it to change the corpses of the mino on the 8th floor into water as well right. But, I didn"t want to use it then.

"Al, it"s troublesome that 9 Minotaur will resp.a.w.n."
"Al-san, what should we do?"
"Judging from the width of this hall, even if we all line up to the limit at best wouldn"t it be 4-5 people right?"

Zenom, Toris, and Bel said. Yeah, I know. We still don"t know in what way the mino will appear either. I"m sure the way they appear will be the same as the 8th floor but whether they appear all in one line, appear cramped together in a group, or already in formation is completely unknown.

"Wait just a minute."

I raise my hand interrupting them and sort out my thoughts a bit.

Once the minos resp.a.w.n we can"t use magic or Unique Abilities anymore so it"s difficult to choose the strongest looking one and defeat it with a sneak attack. Leaving luck to the heavens and taking down 4-5 of them is probably the limit. It will mean our only advantage is that we can definitely sneak attack them from behind. Though even that is an insane advantage.

Probably, if we attack them from inside of this teleport crystal room then even if we end up missing the high level ones I don"t think we will struggle as much as before. However, it"s different if we try to come back here from the outside again. There"s a high probability that it will end up being a dangerous fight again like just now. The salvation is that the weapons the mino are holding will probably drop in quality, though just that much, just as mentioned before if you ask me that isn"t much of a consolation at all. In the first place, we only have 20 {Arrows.Of.Blindness} remaining.

What should we do?
I"m sure we have some leeway until the mino resp.a.w.n.
Should we just take a look into the 10th floor for a bit and then stop exploring the dungeon here?
Even the treasure that appears up until the 9th floor is considerably good.
If we just keep exploring the dungeon just like we have until now countless times I"m sure there"s a high chance we"ll find plenty more.

..However, according to Miduchi"s theory I can"t deny the possibility that there"s even more amazing treasure deeper inside of the dungeon.
Or rather, including myself everyone else is starting to believe Miduchi"s theory.
Honestly speaking, I can"t ignore the possibility that we"ll be able to obtain things like mithril or adamant.i.te or other precious metals that we haven"t seen.
I"m sure they exist, for sure...
There"s also the powerful equipment like the {Elvin.Chainmail}.
There might even be things that can turn the tides of a war like the representative wand which let"s anyone use {Fireball}...

Hm~mm...
Well, there"s no help in worrying about it myself.
In the first place it"s fine as long as we can do something about the minos.

"There shouldn"t be much of a problem as long as the Minotaur outside resp.a.w.n while we"re in here. I"m sure we can take out half of them with a sneak attack and if it comes to that then even if we can"t use magic I don"t think we"ll struggle as much as this time."

"I guess so.."

Miduchi said in response with a worried expression. Her face seems to be worrying about when we come back here from outside of the 9th floor again.

"However, the problem isn"t there. It"s the next time we come here. We won"t be able to catch them off guard."

"Certainly..The Minotaur that Al-san and Maruso and the others were fighting against were extremely strong right. Even from what I could tell it was obvious."

It seems Bel was able to understand what I wanted to say.

"Yeah, that"s right. That was dangerous. It"s different if we could clearly tell from it"s appearance but just from a glance it looked the same as all of the other Minotaur. This time, it was a miracle that Angela managed to get away with just some light injuries. Putting it frankly it wouldn"t have been strange even if I had died."

""..""

Zenom and Toris were speechless. I"m sure they can"t tell because they didn"t directly fight against them.

"There"s only two methods we can use to safely and definitely clear things."

After I said that I noticed that not just Zenom, Miduchi, Toris, and Bel but the remaining five people had all approached us and were carefully listening to my words.

"The first one doesn"t even need to be said, it"s to become much stronger to the point where we can easily deal with things like those Minotaur. I"ve said it a number of times but we just have to ma.s.sacre monsters right and left far beyond what we have until now to raise our body levels."

It"s only obvious right.
And then, I change my expression and look around at everyone.
I looked at the faces of Zenom, Ralpha, Toris, Bel, Gwine, and Basutoral in order. I have no doubts towards Miduchi and the two combat slaves at all. Probably but it should fine to trust Toris, Bel, and maybe Basutoral as well. Also, depending on how I think about it Zenom as well I guess. Hn~ Gwine might be fine. Ralpha..as expected I"m sure she should be able to differentiate between things which she can say and are no good.

What the, so I guess it"s fine?

I continue talking.

"There"s technically one more method but..this one isn"t so easy. No, it"s simple if you want to call it that but it requires some preparation and I need to gather some amount of materials as well. Also..training..No, I need you to absolutely keep things in regards to the method a secret. It"s necessary for you to swear that."

I said that once again but everyone was making expressions like, what are you saying at this point?

"Umm you know, sometimes I think it but, Al you, wouldn"t it be fine for you to have a bit more faith in us? There"s no way we would betray you at this point."

Ralpha said while looking a bit displeased. I can understand the meaning of what you want to say. Under the meaning that is but things aren"t that simple in regards to this. Additionally saying it but I"m not worried about you all going anywhere at this point either. It would just be troublesome if you talk about it when you"re excited.

"Is it using "guns"?"

Toris said while making a face as if he understands. It seems that Toris had talked about it with Bel. Bel is nodding as well. But, they"ve reached a good conclusion, but they just missed it. Hearing the words gun, Ralpha, Gwine, and Basutoral were making surprised expressions as they start talking.

""Eeh!? You can make them!?""

I can"t make them, yet. If it"s just at the level of a matchlock then it"s fine at anytime though. But, when it comes to the matchlock other than carrying around the spark, there"s the gunpowder, and preparations to make sure the bullet fires in a straight line, it"s difficult to manage. It"s even necessary to learn the amount of gunpowder it needs. Also, when it"s being fired the gunpowder that gets lit can fly out from the pan. If every time she fires it she has to use healing magic to fix the small burns Bel"s beautiful face then her mana won"t last right. Just watch if she ends up suffering burns in 10 places after just firing it once. Bel"s mana would end up being halved with just that.

Putting that aside and if it"s a bolt action that makes use of metal cartridges or a semi-auto rifle then I can make the parts using metal and spells. The only full-auto rifle I"ve touched before was the Type-64 but there"s a large number of parts and the structure is too complex. In that regard, even at Self-Defense College I used the semi-auto M1 Garand but the mechanism is considerably simple compared to the Type-64, and even in the guard unit I did far more dismantling and maintenance for it than the Type-64 so I can remember it well. There"s no problem. I"m sure I have several times more experience in practice shooting it than the Type-64 as well. Though it was blanks.

It"s also fine in regards to the firing agent Nitrocellulose. I"m sure I can make the combustion agent DDNP(Diazodinitrophenol) as well. In the worst case silver fulminate is fine too. Both of them are things that I made some amount of from natural materials in training after all. Though it was using proper tools in a lab. Different from the firing agent Nitrocellulose, I haven"t done any tests on this one yet so it would time a decent amount of time making adjustments. I"m sure I wouldn"t suddenly be able to make something usable in regards to the body of the gun itself as well.

Also, there"s an even bigger problem. If I let them hold on to an personal firearm, I won"t say who but I"m sure there"s someone who will get full of themselves. I"m sure there will come a time when we eventually do proper training in the dungeon so guns are put off until then.

"Unfortunately it"s different from the "gun" that fires bullets in order to kill. Keep it a secret from the other members of the {Slaughterers}. For the time being."

Even if you manage to hit that large and durable physique(even the smallest one was close to 2m and there were some that didn"t flinch no matter how many times you hit them) that"s got even more Endurance than an ogre with something like small bullets unless you can hit their vital points I"m sure there isn"t much meaning. In the first place the only one who has done any kind of training on hitting moving targets is Bel.

"If it"s not a "gun" then what?"

Toris said a bit unexpectedly.

"It uses "gunpowder". But it"s not a gun and not only have I not done any tests on gunpowder for explosive use yet but I"ve never even made it before. However, there"s no problem in regards to gunpowder that can fire a bullet. Ah, if you want to call it a "gun" then I guess it could be called a "gun"..But, I think it"s a bit different from what"s normally called a "gun". Putting it in easy terms for you all to understand then it"s something like a "bazooka with a fuse". Ah, no, a "grenade launcher" I guess? though it"s similar it"s kind of different."

While I was saying it I lost track of what I was talking about. Well, it"s nothing all that amazing.

It"s just a fuse-type net gun.

Using some durable(if I make metal wire then it"s the fastest) rope that"s 1 meter high and 40-50 meters wide to make a net with rough gaps(about 25 cm or so I guess), then make small hook-like things in various places. The size of the hooks should be fine at 25, no around 35 should be good. Then fold that up in waves at an appropriate width. Both ends are then attached on to the gun, or rather, cannon-like warhead or arrow.

It"s something similar to a high caliber gun that uses a slightly high amount of firing agent and the barrel slightly spread out horizontally like a double-barrel rifle, inside of there it would like from the front of the barrel like a cannon using the arrow-like warhead before being fired. If things go well then the net would spread out and it should be possible to tangle up the Minotaurs. After that it"s fine if we just stab them with spear while their movements are slow.

I"m sure it won"t suddenly work out well but after 1~2 months of production and adjustments, then if we just practice we should be fine. After all it"s fine even if the aim with it is random. It"s even fine if it doesn"t manage to tangle up all 9 of the minos at once. Though if I was to mention it then I"m sure adjusting the amount of gunpowder to be used for the firing mechanism and the angle of the muzzle are going to be far more difficult.

The problems are the firing mechanism and the form of the net. I"m sure it will end up a decent weight as well. But, supposedly after you defeat the guardians a number of times they eventually stop resp.a.w.ning so if we seriously try to hole up in here and continue to defeat them that"s a possibility as well.

Thinking like that and it might be good to start seriously making a couple of guns. If it"s just aiming for the vitals of an opponent that"s several meters away from the entrance then I"m sure anyone can manage it. They can calmly and slowly aim since they"re outside and they won"t come over.

I wonder what I should do?