97-further trap




'It's even more crowded today, isn't it?

 I nodded in agreement with Lin, half happy, half sighing.
 We were standing in front of the gate, which was twice as crowded as usual, even though it was only past six o'clock, and we had landed in Fierce early in the morning.

 It was the eighth day of the event.
 This dungeon event has finally reached its climax, or perhaps I should say it has entered a time of loss.
 The city was more crowded than usual during the three days of the event, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

 According to Rin, the event schedule, which started on Friday and ended on Thursday, was unreasonable.
 It seemed to cut off the majority of the players, who were mostly working people and students.
 As a result, the time period was extended by three days, which was a loss of time for players like us who were trying to get ranked every day.
 On the other hand, for the players who enjoy the game, the fever time is just around the corner.

 Incidentally, the announcement came in the afternoon of the third day, not exactly before. That's the day I played with Saku.
 It may be a pity for those who had plans for the weekend, but since the announcement was made before the week started, I think the timing was just right for the management.

 Anyway, this is the peak of collecting stardust shards.
 I'll have to work hard again today.

'Is Nana okay?

'Yeah. I felt better when I logged in.'

 I can barely remember anything, but apparently I was asleep on the balcony this morning.
 I thought maybe I was sleepwalking. I thought I was sleepwalking, but I remember I went out on the balcony to get some air.
 Well, since it was me, I must have fallen asleep because the breeze felt good. I've been on a park bench before I knew it, and it's a common thing.

 But I was a little foggy in the morning, so Rin-chan seemed to be a little worried about me.

"What's wrong?
'If you're not feeling well, go to bed.

'Hmm, I fell asleep on the balcony.

"You'll catch a cold.
"I'm not feeling well.
"It's not a garden.
"The veranda at Rinne House looks huge.
"Looks like there's a pool on the veranda.

'Haha, I don't think it's as big as people imagine.

 In the beginning, it was only Rin-chan who did the distribution, but as she became more comfortable, I began to do it with her.
 It seems that my point of view is also in demand.
 Although I don't have a quarter of Rin's audience, there are still a good number of people who watch my feeds.
 Right after the event started, I was so excited that I wasn't in my right mind, and now that I've calmed down, I'm finally able to broadcast.

'It looks like the difficulty level will go up one more level around today.

'Well, yes. I still don't understand the conditions for increasing the difficulty.

 After the addition of the monster house, there has been almost no noticeable increase in difficulty since the beginning of this week.


 A few instant death traps have been added, and the traps are very easy to find, so it's just dumb to get caught.

 However, the number of monster houses has increased considerably. Specifically, there are more than two rooms per round, and they seem to be getting more frequent.
 I've been actively clearing them since I can get enough harvest for one boss fight by destroying even one small room, but no rare skills have dropped since the first big room.

 The rare skill "Diva's Embrace". It activates under very specific conditions, but its effects are as powerful as a rare skill should be.
 It's not the type that has a disadvantage like 《Starving Wolf》, but the type whose activation condition itself is special.
 I've yet to be able to activate its effect, but it's possible that some players will keep this skill completely dead.
 I have a skill that could activate this skill, but if it ever does, it will be against an Aria-class monster.

 Anyway, the Labyrinth of Stardust has remained silent until the seventh day of the original event schedule.
 It was only natural to think that something would happen from today, and both Rin and I tightened up our loose spirits a little.

'Shall we go then?

'Yes, let's. Let's do our best today.

 After making eye contact with Rin-chan, we went through the gate.

 It was only for a moment that we passed through the mysterious warp zone that stretched beyond the gate, but in that brief moment, the space itself shook greatly.

'Aha!

'Lin-chan!

 I quickly grabbed Rin's arm, which was about to be swallowed by the shaking, and hugged her.
 I'm swung around in the shimmering space. Neither Rin nor I can speak, and we are tossed about in the unstable world as if it were weightless space.
 After a moment of floating, we were thrown out of the space as if we were underneath Rin.


☆


'......What?

 What we saw was the ceiling of the dungeon.
 The ceiling of the dungeon, the countless monsters, and the sheer size of the room.
 Almost unconsciously, he pulled out his shadow stitch and scrutinized the monster's movements as if he was protecting Rin.
 Normally, we would have entered the dungeon through the safe room, but we were dropped into the dungeon.
 Surrounding the dungeon are more than a hundred monsters, so many that it's ridiculous to count them.
 In other words, we were dropped into the worst trap floor in roguelike games.

 In other words, the entire floor is a monster house panic floor.

'《Elekibarrier》!

 Lin understood the situation in an instant, and the first spell she cast was an advanced lightning-attribute defense spell called 《Elekibarrier》.
 There was no need to even make eye contact. Even without eye contact, Rin and I know exactly what we want to do.

'Starve, Wolf King's Fangs!

 I need maximum firepower on my first move.
 As soon as I activate the "Hungry Wolf", I throw the Shadow Stitch as hard as I can at the Metal Bear in front of me.
 After confirming that it had pierced the metal bear's brain with a crunching sound, I jumped up, using the corpse as a springboard.
 Instant refit in midair. Four throwing knives in each hand. He fires them at the monsters that seemed to be the most troublesome in his view.


 You're right. Since I know that, I don't have time to look at the results.
 He stomps down on Kirabit, who was on the landing site, and catches Kagewith, who is about to fall to the ground because the corpse has disappeared.

'Ouch!

 He swung up to scoop up Kagewumi and blow the petite golem away. The goal is not to kill it, but to blow it up.
 This is a petite golem gun. The target is the monster hiding in the back of the monster pack.

 At first glance, I saw eight hobgoblin high archers.
 They're the nastiest monsters in the monster house by far. Unless you blind it or lose a finger, you'll always have to fight the fear of sniping.
 I destroyed four of its eyes by throwing a projectile, and two of them have a line of sight to Rin. One of them should have been destroyed by the petit golem gun.
 The other one was the closest one to you, so you could just punch it to death. The other one is the one closest to you, so you can kill it with a normal shot. The other one knows that, so it's probably running for its life right now.
 The other two were visible at the far end, so they would not be a problem for a while.
 He analyzed the situation calmly, but did not stop moving. As if to rid himself of Rin, he wielded his Kagewari and dispelled the three monsters.

'Ha-ha-ha-ha!

 Wield the shadow stitch. Shake it. Shake and shake and shake.
 One by one, I carefully crushed their skulls, and they turned into polygons in an instant.
 It was so much fun that I couldn't help but laugh.

 From the Monster House on the second day onward, I poured all of my increased level bonuses into my muscle strength, and my muscle strength is nowhere near what it was back then.
 I fought bosses and went through monster houses in succession. I'm now well over 70 levels, and my strength has finally reached the 300 mark.
 Combined with the increase in the weapon attack power multiplier due to the fact that my proficiency in striking weapon skills has surpassed 300, I now have a firepower that is distinctly different from the one I had back then.
 On top of that, I've activated my bratwurst. I hadn't activated it last time, so my firepower was 1.5 times greater than before. If you add the various increases on top of that, it's more than double what it was at the time.

 Even so, most of the monsters were in the Pheasants' area, where the appropriate level was less than 50.
 There is no need to destroy any more.
 My firepower at this level had begun to skyrocket, to the point where a single critical hit would wipe out an enemy.

 However, a monster house is not limited to hobgoblins and high archers, but also includes powerful monsters.
 As the scale of the monster house grows, the strength of the monsters becomes more and more mixed.
 First of all, you need to reduce the total number of monsters while killing the nasty jumpers.
 To do this, we'll need Rin's magic more than mine.

 Although Rin has the wisdom, knowledge, and ability to use many different kinds of magic, her true status is that of a dedicated magician.
 In other words, Rin is a wizard who can annihilate large areas.

 The moment I slaughter a dozen or so monsters, Rin's singing voice echoes through the air.


 The elektrobarrier protection is strong, but it won't last long.
 When she saw that I had gained a certain amount of hate, she began to chant.

 The auxiliary spell, wielded with both arms as if conducting, and the advanced lightning spell, played in a song of 20 verses.
 It's a problem child of lightning magic, different from the user-friendly Lightning Ballista, so to speak, which is the most useless.

''Lightning Vortex!

 Lin-chan shouted the name of the spell loudly.
 A vortex of lightning bolts literally spread out around Rin-chan, who released the spell.
 Rather than raining down, the storm of thunderbolts spread around the magician.
 The magic, which even a wizard of Rin's caliber can only unleash after consuming more than 30% of his MP, unleashed a storm of destruction not only around Rin, but in all directions.

 None of the monsters around her had the magic protection to withstand it, and she wiped out all the monsters in a 20 meter radius.
 The monsters' gazes were drawn to Rin, who had gained far more hate in an instant than I had gained.
 In that small window of time, I used the monsters as a springboard to leap over this swarm.


 Not all monsters in a floor-wide monster house actually hate the player.
 In particular, some monsters here are unaware of the player's presence due to the unusual density of the monsters themselves.

 Among them, we have found a very dangerous monster whose presence or absence can change the difficulty of the monster house.
 In order to hunt it, which fortunately hadn't noticed us yet, I left Rin's side and went over the monster.

'Oraa!

 In the air, I switched to the opposite hand and threw Kagewumi like a meteor.
 With a roar, Kagewith cut through the wind and pierced the robed human moth.
 He was able to defeat it without any damage, fortunately, because he blew its head clean off.

'Yes!

 The monster's name now was "Role Player Type Buffer". It was a monster that appeared in the dungeons beyond the Sixth Town (Zeronor), and as the name implied, it used a nasty buffing skill.
 Role Players are party monsters that normally appear in groups of four.
 A Type Warrior is a warrior, a Type Magician is a wizard, and so on, each having a different role.
 To put it bluntly, if you look at the performance of a single monster, it is like a top-compatible goblin.

 They differ from goblins in that their bodies are puppets, and their thinking is mechanical, for better or worse.
 When it comes to fighting, they are neither merciful nor merciless, nor do they do the shaking that goblins tend to do.
 It is a Killing Doll that always wants to kill you.
 When it becomes a buffer, it becomes a monster that will constantly cast support spells until it runs out of MP.
 Even so, if you're in a party, it's not that much of a threat because there are only a limited number of targets to cast support spells on, but in this monster house environment, this trait creates hell.
 The fear of being buffed endlessly by a huge number of monsters was much scarier than I had imagined.


 Recalling this frightening experience, I went to retrieve my weapon, using the monster distracted by Kagewumi as a foothold.
 Because Kagewith, who suddenly flew and slaughtered several monsters in addition to the role players, had distracted the monsters for better or worse.
 When he landed, he took out his Meteor Impact Zero, stunned the monster at his feet, and put it back.
 He then picked up Kagewi, weaving between the monsters that were looking at her from afar, and blew away the monsters in front of him with his momentum.

'Next!

 I shuddered at the power of my muscles and the Kagesue, which could wipe out several monsters if I threw it with all my might, but I thought better of it.
 You'll be able to use it as a shield to protect yourself from the magic that was flying at you from behind, and then launch the petit golem cannon again to crush the hobgoblin mage that was probably using the magic.
 It's a light mass weapon, the petite golem gun. It's fun to play baseball with monsters, but it's a problem that only petit golems can withstand Kagewo's swing.



'...... 《Bolt Arrow Death Rain》!

 While I'm dealing with the troublesome monsters, Rin is activating another spell for widespread annihilation.
 As the name suggests, Bolt Arrow Death Rain is a simple spell that rains down Bolt Arrows like rain.
 Don't underestimate Bolt-Arrow as an elementary spell.
 The more intelligent you are, the more powerful the spell will be.
 Even if it is a beginner-level spell, if you cast it with Rin's status, it will literally rain death.

'Wow, that's nasty.

 The Bolt Arrow Death Rain's bolt arrows can be manipulated if you want to.
 There are roughly 50 to 100 of them. I imagine the difficulty to be like trying to control that many hands at the same time.
 Normally, this is not possible. Because humans are a creature with only two hands.
 But unfortunately.
 That's Lin's specialty.

 Every arrow precisely pierces the monster's vitals and stops it in its tracks.
 If the enemy can't be killed with one shot, take a second. If not, the third shot will do the trick. With a mere bolt-arrow, she doesn't even allow the monsters around her to move.
 The dozens of meters around Rin are like an impenetrable zone.
 The sound of thunder echoed through the dungeon.