16-a ground-bottom advance
After the stone floor and the bare rock floor, the third floor was the earth floor.
The walls and ceiling were stained brown, and the feet were covered with soft earth.
The passageway was about three meters wide and the ceiling was about the same height.
It is quite spacious.
There is no difficulty in finding a light source, as there are white illuminated stones peeking out from the walls here and there.
However, it seems that this floor is not so straightforward, and if you look closely, you can see some rather large holes in the walls and ground.
As if to say, there's something lurking in there.
Mia, who was looking around the corridor, nodded her head and spoke to me.
Hmm, I think I'm getting the idea, Sensei. I think I'm getting the hang of it, Sensei. The stairs lead to a completely different place.
Yeah, that's pretty much what I thought.
Every floor has a different environment, different demons, different vegetation, and different minerals.
It is truly a paradise for alchemists, where there is no shortage of materials.
Is that what you want, to collect such materials?
"That's important, but I have other important goals. I just don't know where to start right now.
I see. ......
That sounds like a lot of work. We'll figure it out.
You think so?
Yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure you'll be fine.
Yes, I think so too. And you have to believe that you can do anything in order to achieve it.
It was a baseless affirmation, but it made me feel a little better.
Perhaps it was an unexpected blessing that I was able to explore the dungeon with these two.
"Crash.
"Qoo.
Perhaps bored with the adults' talk, the two animals started to cheerfully run down the passage.
Then they were jumped together by a long stick that came out of a hole in the ground.
"Yoo-hoo!
"Coo.
They roll over and stop at my feet.
They seem to have no noticeable injuries, just a loss of one body strength each.
Considering the difference in defense, I should be able to keep this up for a while.
What the hell? What is that?
That doesn't look like a snake .......
It's a worm.
Out from under the ground came a huge, writhing annelid.
The huge body is as big as my thighs, and it has an eerie coloration like exposed internal organs.
There are no eyeballs on its head, only a large mouth with a ring of fangs.
To be honest, I don't really want to look at it directly.
And then I remembered its special ability.
"Mia, it's a blister!
"Huh? I get it!
With the gesture of a girl blowing into a circle made with her fingers, a large bubble appears in the air.
Then, without a moment's delay, the lump spewed out of the worm's mouth collided with it.
The splashes hit the ground and walls, sending up a thin cloud of white smoke.
In the game, it was a nasty remote attack that degraded the performance of weapons and armor.
And in reality, it would be more than that.
Realizing that it was a dud, the worm immediately shook its body and tried to escape into the hole.
But just as it was about to do so, a whip stretched out through the air and wrapped around its body to stop it.
Yoru's headbutt and Kuu's flying kick exploded in the air.
The worm fell to the ground, screaming as if it had been rubbing stones together.
The blue slime and other slime attacked him and beat him to a pulp.
In less than a few seconds, the demons that had attacked them by surprise were easily defeated.
"Yay, I won again!
"Click!
Click.
When you touch a corpse and collect it, an earthy yellow magic stone and worm meat appear in the list.
The magic stones are neatly divided into different types, which is very nice.
The worm meat seems to be edible. .......
Once you've defeated them, you'll have a winning pattern.
Use Yoru or Kuu's decoys to lure them out, avoid their specials, and attack them intensively.
Repeat the process, and you'll move through the corridors quickly.
Just as I was relaxing, a bunch of rats came flying out of the hole instead of worms.
They were called "needle-tailed rats," and their tails were as hard as wire.
They are about thirty centimeters long and have a habit of biting into ores, and the metals they ingest accumulate in their tails.
"Back off, Su-ra!
It is a slime type that is resistant to impact, but before a stabbing attack, it is just a water balloon.
Paula, who immediately realized the danger, quickly sent her two servants back.
I can only admire her keen judgment of the situation.
Incidentally, Su and Ra are the names of the blue slimes.
As if to replace them, the new servant, Me, a big worm, stood up.
He may not look like much, but he seems to be useful in many ways, so I asked Paula to subordinate one of them to me.
The worm's digestive juice landed in the middle of the hardened needle-tailed rat, causing it to let out a high-pitched scream.
Mia's fireball also seemed to have increased in power, and the rats turned into a rolling ball of fire.
It was a victory of a well-directed ranged attack.
A red magic stone with fire properties and a wire tail were recovered from the rats.
The strength of the wire is the same as regular wire, so it will be useful in many ways.
It took us almost an hour to reach the stairwell, as it was a rather large room.
There were no demons in the large room in front of the stairs, only about ten holes in the ground.
Definitely there.
"Yeah, this is too suspicious. It's definitely a trap.
It's definitely a trap, but we can't do anything about it. ......
Yol, Kuu, and the other demons you have as servants will be able to get into the hole, but it is also the territory of the boss class demons.
The only thing that comes to mind is the possibility of being chewed to death or impaled.
"Then, how about using decoys to lure them out?
Oh, my God, that's dangerous!
Don't worry, Mia. You're not going to get hurt.
"Yeah, me?
Paula's ingenious idea was the same strategy she had used to attack the boss bat on the second floor.
All you have to do is put Kuu in the bubbles and send him out.
When the bubbles containing the birds reached the center of the large room, a long black shadow extended from one of the holes.
Then the bubble popped, and Kuu, who had avoided the initial blow, quickly left.
The monster guarding the stairwell was a worm that had grown even larger.
Its girth is about the same as mine.
Its body is almost two meters long just from the part that sticks out of the hole.
This time, however, there was no sign of its henchman, and it seemed to be a single monster.
Okay, now that we know who it is, we just have to defeat it.
No matter how big it is, I'm already familiar with it.
A fireball and digestive liquid hit the boss worm, which had jumped out of the foam, one after another.
It is said that the target is large and easy to hit.
After repeating this process about ten times, the monster ran out of energy and fell over.
As for the result of
As a result of testing, it seems to be able to send out a small amount of digestive juice.
Finally, Yoru has the flying tool he's always wanted!
Or maybe he wasn't wishing for it at all.
And the results of the boss worm collection were a small lump of yellow magic stone and the meat of a large worm.
At this point, I started to get hungry, so I had some black bread and wine for lunch.
I gave bat meat to Yoru, Kuu, and Mee the worm, and worm meat to Su and Ra the blue slime.
After taking another round of reinforcements, we continued downstairs.
The fourth floor was a different story, a dense forest with ivy and roots crawling everywhere.
What greeted us on this floor was a demon that looked exactly like a human.
However, it was only as big as the palm of my hand.
Its appearance is as young as a girl's, and it has butterfly-like wings on its back that allow it to fly around freely.
Its body was glowing, and it also served as a light source for this floor.
"Oh my God, it's so pretty! What is this?
Don't let your guard down. Fairies can be pretty tough, despite their appearance.
It is true that they are as cute as dolls, but what they have inside (specifications) is quite evil.
Because of their small size, they have almost no physical offensive or defensive power, but in exchange, they are strong in magic.
Furthermore, its speed is high and its size makes it difficult to catch it.
And if you get pricked by the spear of thorns in your hand, you will be attacked by a fierce itch.
In addition, its special ability,
But in fact, there is one major characteristic of these girls that makes all of this a non-issue.
Look at Yoru's head! Oh, Kuu is great too!
This is something I'd like to keep forever: ......
"Hmm, it's very adorable.
That's the thing about fairies, they are very friendly as long as you don't harm them.
One of them flew up and sat down in between Yol's triangular ears, as if it liked them.
Then he leaned on the ears and started laughing happily.
The same thing happened to Kuu, with the two fairies snuggled in the fluffy feathers at the base of his neck, laughing.
Those collar feathers are the best feeling ever.
After enjoying the troubled faces of Yoru and Kuu, we walked deeper into the room.
There's actually another kind of demon on this floor, but it's also just crawling around the walls and ceiling without a care in the world.
Like the fairy, it would not attack if you did not do anything, but its appearance was different and unpopular.
After all, it is a ridiculously large caterpillar, about 50 centimeters long.
Moreover, the pattern of the caterpillar was black spots on a green background.
They were treated as vehicles by the fairies, and there were many occasions when they rode them to somewhere.
It was good that we didn't have to fight, but on the other hand, Yoru and Kuu were tangled up with fairies many times, and we found a beautiful spring on the way, but we arrived at the stairwell in about forty minutes.
And then we came face to face with a cruel reality.
It seems that there is no peaceful resolution in this dungeon.
What was waiting for them in the not-so-wide room covered with roots and ivy was an army of fairies astride caterpillars.
There were five caterpillars and five fairies each.
In addition, in front of the iron grate, I can see an especially large caterpillar and fairy.
They are about three times the size of ordinary ones.
The skin of the caterpillar is also reddish and poisonous.
It looks like it's impossible to get through without a fight.
"Ugh, fairy .......
It can't be helped. If you're going to get in the way, you have to get rid of them.
Fortunately for the evasive fairy, she seems to be holding her ground until someone enters the room.
Then there's no way to miss it.
She flapped her wings just before the entrance, and unleashed a technique that boasted the largest range and strongest power of any of us.
--
A floor covered with tree roots without any gaps is definitely difficult to walk on.
However, a caterpillar with a large number of legs would be a different story.
The narrow space would restrict movement if too many people were crowded in.
However, this is not a problem for small fairies who can fly around freely.
I think the small room was designed to take advantage of this, but in this case it seems to have become a liability.
The wings, which are pointed like darts, rage through the room in a gust of wind.
With no place to escape, the fairies and caterpillars were mercilessly attacked by the wings.
After the storm subsided, only the large caterpillar could barely move.
The rest of the monsters were all exhausted and lying on the floor.
The boss caterpillar, which was about to spit out its last sticky thread, was hit by a flying fireball.
The fire-sensitive worm demon quickly rolled over and expired.
"Ugh, that's depressing.
"I don't think you should be so depressed. Tomorrow you'll see ....... No, I can't say for sure yet.
From the fairies, I was able to collect white magic stones and fairy scales with light properties, and from the caterpillars, yellow magic stones and thread bags with earth properties.
From the bosses, we got the usual magic stones.
I believe I could make silk thread from the thread bag. It's not a silkworm, but an ordinary caterpillar.
According to Yoru and Kuu, fairies don't eat them.
As a result of eating the boss caterpillar, Koo's weapon was equipped with
In the game, it's a weak move that reduces the opponent's speed.
After quickly collecting it, we rushed down the stairs out of guilt.
What awaited us on the fifth floor was a completely different scene from the previous ones.
The white light pouring down was dazzling and no different from the ground.
I looked up at the ceiling, which was incredibly far away.
And to my surprise, I couldn't see any walls where I should have.
No, if you look hard enough, you can see that it's still there, just faintly rising up out of the distance.
Instead of a wall, what lay before me was a vast plain.
The black masses in some places were probably bushes.
If I had been brought here blindfolded, I would never have thought I was in a dungeon.
I exhaled deeply from the bottom of my lungs in front of the open space.
This was the level I had been looking for.
The palace of the Dragon Ball in the game had a few floors that were just too wide and difficult to navigate without any steps.
Well, when I actually saw it, it was much deeper than I expected.
I turned back to the stunned Paula and Mia and spoke in a bouncy voice as I stretched out my arms to take in the liberating view.
Look! You can grow all the crops you want here.
...... Did you mean this large plot of land you want?
"Huh! Why another field?
I promise you, you'll be safe here.
To their surprise and confusion, I finally revealed my hidden purpose.
So I'm thinking of building a new village here, a place where people can live.