Chapter 414: Discovery of Meat!
When our group descended to the 36th Floor, we heard a cry from the distance.
“Woof, woof, woof!”
It was getting closer.
“Woof, woof, WOOF!”
A pack of dogs appeared. They looked like giant Doberman dogs about the size of Fer.
“Aren’t those Black Dogs?”
[8]
Black Dogs. I heard about them from [Pentagram]. According to the party members, these Black Dogs are a pain to deal with.
Fatima said, “The most annoying thing about the 36th Floor had to be the Black Dogs.”
“Golems might be stronger,” begin Alek.
“But they’re slow enough so we can escape if it looks like we can’t deal with them,” continued Axel.
“Ogres are a bit faster and we do get overwhelmed by numbers if we’re not careful.”
“So long as we pay attention, we can still escape with our lives.”
“However,” all of them agreed, “it’s impossible to run away from Black Dogs.”
Then, Aldemira-san added darkly, “Black Dogs can use magic, you know? They can increase their agility with Wind Magic.”
“The higher ranking ones could even inflict Panic through their howls,” muttered Fatima-san.
“After expanding a lot of energy fighting Golems and Ogres, no one has the stamina left to deal with agile and persistent Black Dogs. You either kill them or you die.”
Samuel the Dwarf sounded especially bitter. It sounded like he had a grudge against these Black Dogs.
[8]
“Hey, are you fine against Black Dogs?” I asked, a little spooked from remembering all the information from [Pentagram].
“Humph, do you think we’d fall to those stupid dogs?”
Then, Fer breathed in deeply and… roared at the group of growling Black Dogs.
“W-wannn—nn…”
The large group of Black Dogs whimpered and flinched.
A short while later…
“Woof! Woof! Wooof!!”
The Black Dogs were roaring and barking at us again.
“Humph, looks like these idiots don’t realise the difference in our strength, typical dogs.”
Fer snorted dismissively as he lifted a forepaw.
Slash–!
Black Dogs fell apart and died in an instant. When their bodies disappeared, small magic stones were left behind.
“Looks like the information we got from [Pentagram] is good,” [9] I said as we collected the stones. We also picked up a piece of skin.
[6] Skin drops from Black Dogs were pretty rare, but they were favoured as armour. Adventurers hated fighting Black Dogs due to their tough skins, but love using their tough skins for armour.
Just as we were almost done picking up the Drops, another howl reverberated through the dungeon.
[5a] “”I swear, they are as persistent as those annoying monkeys,”” muttered Dora-chan as he flexed his wings, clearly ready to rumble.
By ‘annoying monkeys’, I expect he meant the Black Baboons? Aaarghh, that just brought back memories of a red tornado…
[6] I’m glad that bodies in a dungeon just disappear.
“Whatever, they’re boring. Just take them out quickly and leave,” ordered Fer.
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““Arrgh, just die! Just die!””
Stab! Stab! Stab!
Dora-chan’s Ice Spears stabbed relentlessly into wave after wave of dogs.
“”Sui will defeat you!!””
Pew! Pew! Pew!
Black Dogs taken down by Acid Bullets flopped to the floor in gruesome puddles, but thankfully disappeared soon after.
The fight was mostly done by Sui and Dora-chan with the occasional Claw Slash from a clearly bored Fer.
“Woah, even skipping the rooms did nothing to increase our pace,” I said, hoping to distract myself from the endless slaughter.
“”Annoying! Annoying!””
“Muuu…”
“”Yay! Pew! Pew! Pew~!””
[9]
“Hey, um, Fer?” I said, making conversation with Fer should be more acceptable than looking at all the b.l.o.o.d.y slaughter. “I heard that high-ranking Black Dogs could cast magic?”
“Umu, so what? Didn’t I tell you that it won’t work on us due to the Blessings?”
“Y-yeah, I know that. I’m just asking.”
“Mu, fine, Black Dogs could cast Panic and Blindness spells…”
“Wait, what? Blindness spells?!”
“Blindness could only be cast by the really high-ranking ones,” said Fer boredly. “However, since it’s also an abnormal condition, it doesn’t work on us.”
[5b]
“I see,”
“”Here I go!!””
Ah, Sui had just charged into the Boss Room… [5b]
Multiple pew pew pews!!! was followed by Sui’s cheers.
“… …”
[5b]
“”You’re the last one~! Sui will destroy you~!””
I peeked inside to see the largest Black Dog thus far rus.h.i.+ng at Sui. It received a large Acid Bullet to the face and… the head of the huge dog just… disappeared. [5]
“”Yay~! Sui defeated you~!””
Sui was bouncing around happily in the corpse-filled room that quickly (and thankfully) became a Drop filled room.
[5b]
My cute Sui…
Why do you have to be so violent…?
Still, when Sui brought the magic stones and skins over, I patted her and said, “Good job, Sui.”
Ah, the way she trembled with happiness is so cute…
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The next floor is, of course, the 37th Floor.
The other party with the S and A Rankers were presumably on the same floor too. According to [Pentagram] those guys were pretty prideful. [10] The guy who lost his arm to the Ogre had been a bit vague on the details on the 37th floor. I get the impression that the elite party was a bit snooty, but, well, the dungeon floor was pretty wide, so hopefully we won’t meet them.
When I say wide, I mean…
“This is really, really s.p.a.cious…”
[11] It was one thing to hear from [Pentagram] that the corridors alone were four or five times wider than the already wide Brixt dungeon corridors. The ceiling was so high it felt almost like being in a cathedral with all these stone walls than a mere featureless pa.s.sageway.
As for monsters…
Well, the [Pentagram] people said they tried to get some information on monsters from the 37th Floor, but there was nothing in the older records. Also, the party leader from the elite team just snootily said, “Who would share important like that?” at them when asked.
In short, “We have no idea what’s coming, so please be careful…”
“I know what’s coming,” said Fer.
“Eh? You do?”
“Umu, I can recognise their smell. It’s–”
Gumooooooo!!!
An echoing roar.
Followed by…
“Minotaurs? Wait, aren’t these Minotaurs a bit too big?!”
Indeed, a Minotaur-like creature with a gigantic axe as befitting their huge body was stomping toward us.
When I used [Appraise] on it…
[Gigantic Minotaur]
Larger species of Minotaur, S Rank monster. Meat has a good amount of marbling, very delicious.
“Fuhahahaha! Looks like meat has finally appeared! Dora, Sui, that thing is delicious!”
“”What seriously? Awesome!!””
“”Meat~ meat~ Sui likes meat~♪””
Sui was… bouncing around and singing…
“Fufufu, you know what to do, yes?”
“”Of course!””
“”Yes~♪””
“Wait, you guys, don’t tell me–”
“Let’s hunt them all!!”
“”Hyaaahahahah!!””
“”Meat~~♪””
[5]
[Gumihou: Deleted Mukouda’s surprised-pikachu-face reaction at Sui’s activities. Like, come on…]
[1] Structural Change: Combine 2 paragraphs
[2] Structural Change: Combine 3 paragraphs
[3] Structural Change: Combine paragraph & dialogue
[4] Structural Change: Change pa.s.sive sentence to dialogue
[5] Delete Repet.i.tive or Pointless Information… starting to delete pointless scenes now
[a] Deleted more, they are persistent etc to Dora-chan’s they are as annoying as Black Baboons
[b] Deleted OMG–!! Sooo much worryy for Sui!! Chase after Sui into the Boss Room!!
[6] Additional Information for Aesthetic Purpose
[7] Add Dialogue Tag
[8] Creative Licence Taken – Give out the information in a more natural way.
[9] Adjust so exposition, dialogue and action happened simultaneously and naturally.
[10] Adjusted text so that it’s more than just ‘we dun have info, they too proud’ and give a reasonable reason why [Pentagram] have limited information on the 37th floor.
[11] More detail beyond, ‘like it’s wide, really wide!!’