Read Adventurer Tale of Pouring 25 Years of Life into a Useless Skill, and Now After All That Time is the Strongest

261 - - gateway to the decaying dragon

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"Nothing or ......"

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　The entrance was deliberately concealed, and there was even a trap to attract a swarm of troublesome watchmen.

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　Moreover, inside, a formidable monster with strange skills was waiting for them.

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　No wonder Thor had high expectations.

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　However, after a careful search of the room, all that was left were red patterns on the floor and walls.

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　When I rubbed my hand over the reddish areas, I felt a rough texture, and when I licked my fingertips, I could faintly taste the taste of iron.

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　It was like dried blood or iron sand.

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"Thor, are you ready?

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"Tor, are you ready yet?"

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　Only their faces peeked out from the entrance, and they called out to us, Sora and Moo.

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　The hidden room was indeed too suspicious, so I asked the three of them to wait outside.

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　Since there were no new traps and no physical or mental effects, Thor turned around and called out to them, judging that it was safe to do so.

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"Yeah, you can come in now."

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　The moment Thor replied, the girl and the child pulled their faces back as if in unison.

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　Then, as if in sync, they let out a giggle.

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　Thor exhaled lightly and turned to face the wall, and again they both turned their heads and called out to each other.

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"Thor, can we go now?"

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"To-chan, are you done yet?"

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"So, that's enough."

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　Turning around quickly, the two men hastily hide behind the wall with panicked looks on their faces.

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　Then they let out another joyful little laugh.

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"Tor-chan, you're so black and white!

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"Kuhuhu, it's red!"

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　Apparently, it is amusing that even Thor's body looks reddish against the red walls.

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　Even such an eerie room seems like a fun playground to Sora and Mu.

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"Hey, you two, don't disturb Mr. Thor.

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"Yes. You caught me, Moo-chan.

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"Hide and seek, I'm so excited!"

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　After leaving the empty hidden room, Thor and his friends checked the room to the southeast, but found nothing new there either.

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　Now that the map of the thirteenth floor was completed, the group proceeded to the lower levels.

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　The 14th floor was even colder.

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　There was an invisible heaviness in the air, and the sharpness of the body was somewhat sluggish.

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　The cheerful Moo and Sora, however, seemed to be unaffected by the cold.

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"Okay, let's take a quick turn on this floor, too!

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"Oh!"

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　We started our search from the north side, which was completed in no time.

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"Oh, another big room."

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"Wow, there are a lot of people here!"

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　As Thor and his team headed north along the passageway, their steps were blocked by the now-familiar iron bars.

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　Behind the bars was the scene we had seen so many times before, a large number of monsters roaming around in a large prison.

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"It looks exactly the same as the one on the upper floor. I thought the prison ended at the thirteenth floor."

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　The contents of the prison have changed, however, and the prisoners on this floor are now gray-robed, evil spirits.

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　Many of them were bent over, which might mean that they were all old men.

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"I don't see any mechanism that would allow us to open the bars from here."

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"Then the only way to get in here is to fall down from the upper floors."

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　The thirteenth-floor dungeon was so crowded that there was not enough room to go all the way around the room.

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　Even if there was a pit, there was a great possibility that we had missed it.

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　Thor and Yuri looked at each other silently as they realized the reason why they had no choice but to enter the prison again.

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　A stairway to the fifteenth floor might exist in this nasty prison.

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　But Thor and his friends' fears were soon unfounded.

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　In one of the innermost rooms on the south side, which they reached after reaping the steel dolls, they easily found a staircase leading down.

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　This one, however, was also barricaded.

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"We are saved, but we are not so naive after all.

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"Is this the end of the second level?　Now we just have to defeat the dragons on the fifteenth floor somehow, right?"

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Zoldamarg, the dragon of the rotting corpse.

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That's it. It's a long name.

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It is a famous dragon mentioned in the medieval history of Japan. There is an anecdote that it was captured and imprisoned in this dungeon because it was harmful to people.

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"Heh!　You didn't kill him?"

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Yes, because they can be collected for a long time when they are alive.

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　Yuril casually tells her the cruel truth, and Sola rolls her eyes.

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　Now, the only remaining obstacle to meeting the famous dragon is the iron bars in front of us.

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　Thor and the others split up to investigate the not so large room.

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"I don't see anything that looks like a cavity behind the wall.

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"The floor is also clear!"

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"Then, I guess the suspicious part is this corner."

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　In one corner of the room, a black pillar stands embedded and very prominent.

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　In the other three corners, there were indentations as if the pillars had been removed.

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"It doesn't seem to be moving at all."

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"There's just a little gap, isn't there?"

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"Well, I'm stumped. Hmmm,...... what is that?"

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"What's wrong, Sora?"

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"Moo-chan?　Where's Moo-chan?

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　Sola's eyes changed color and she looked around to see the child who had disappeared before she knew it.

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　Behind her, she hears a small giggle.

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　The girl turned around in a hurry and let out a huge breath of relief.

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　Then she bursts out laughing just as happily.

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"Oh my God, you hid in there!　You scared me!"

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"You found me!"

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　Moo was hiding in a hollow in the corner across from a black pillar.

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　His small body was completely contained, and he fit in as if he had been arranged.

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"I feel at home in such a small place, don't you?

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"Hey, Sola-chan, it's all black here, too!"

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"Heh?"

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　The child pointed to a spot directly above himself.

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　Sola tilted her head and approached the child, who stuck his face in the hollow and looked up at the ceiling.

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"Oh, it's red, Thor!

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"Which one?"

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　Thor peeks in to check as well.

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　The red pattern on the ceiling was a perfect square.

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"Could this be the butt of the pillar?"

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"Yeah, it looks like it."

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"This one is blue."

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　Ulil, who had already guessed something and was moving, peeked into the hollow of a different corner and reported back to us.

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　Another corner was white.

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"Hmmm...this means that a pillar has been pushed up to the ceiling..."

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"Then does that mean the black columns will lift as well?"

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"But I don't think I can move it by pulling on it."

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　In the first place, it is impossible for a person to lift a vertical stone pillar, which has no part to put a finger on, by human power alone.

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"Perhaps, but something must have triggered it. It is still a theory, but I think the color may have something to do with it."

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"Red ......, like that red hidden room?"

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"Yes, do you think there were other colored objects?"

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　Time was pressing on, so Thor and his friends decided to retire to the tenth floor stairwell.

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　The next day, they went straight to the stairwell on the fourteenth floor and found that the number of corner pillars had increased to three.

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"Only the white pillar is still lifted up."

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"Let's go back to that red hidden room for now."

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　After dealing with the steel doll guards that are rushing toward us in the same process as the day before, we peek inside the red room.

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　On the far wall of the room, a red ghost stands alone.

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"It's reoccurring, isn't it?"

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"Well, let's go back and check it out."

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　The red pillar remained intact.

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　I quickly disposed of the scythe-using monster by going back and forth, and returned to the front of the staircase again.

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"Oh, it's gone."

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"Then, I guess it's a definite condition to defeat them."

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"Hmm, blue, blue, blue, I've seen that somewhere..."

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"I remember Moe. There was a blue one in the hall!

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"Oh, that's it!"

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　The blue columns were shared by the steel dolls on the twelfth floor.

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　There were too many of them to be confused, but Sora and the others had seen that only one of the warning type stuck to the ceiling had a strange bluish tint.

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"Could the white pillar be the escaping warden?"

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"Maybe that's it."

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　The monster that opens through the stone coffin was wearing a white military uniform.

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　The white pillar has remained up from the time we first came to this staircase room until now, so it fits the condition.

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"So that leaves the black pillar."

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"If it's not moving, that means it's a monster we haven't killed yet, right?

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　At these words, Thor and Yuril looked at each other silently again.

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　Leaving the room, the group headed north at a brisk pace.

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　When Thor found the person he wanted, he exhaled deeply and scratched the bottom of his chin.

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"So this is how it's going to be. I'm really not that naive."

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　Inside the great prison on the fourteenth floor.

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　In the crowd of gray robes, a shadowy black one was quietly mixed in.

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