Chapter 129 - Chapter 129: Patrolling Floor 8
We started attacking the deep dungeon again with Tetsuo, an envoy from another world, as our backup.
There was a minor trouble about saving people on Floor 7, but we quickly reached the mid-boss room near the exit.
Normally, the mid-boss here was a Lich, but this time it was a Lesser Dragon.
A huge body lay right in front of us.
If we try to store it in the Item Box, we can tell immediately if it's dead, but it seems this one sticks out a bit if we include the tail.
"Daisuke, you did it!"
"Phew... thanks for the help!"
"Wahaha, I guess you didn't think a dragon would have its virginity stolen by a human's butt hole, did you?"
"Hey, hey, sexual harassment, sexual harassment."
"Wahaha! My apologies."
Tetsuo came to me clapping his hands.
"Rather than that -- the prey is a bit too big, and it doesn't seem to fit in the Item Box."
"Shall we cut it in half?"
"It was a deal to split it, so cutting it in two is fine -- but you can take either the head or the tail."
"The tail is surprisingly popular, you know. The meat of the tail is delicious and has a good reputation."
"Is that so?"
"Here!"
He made a gesture like striking cymbals, and the Lesser Dragon's huge corpse split cleanly in two sideways.
A massive amount of bodily fluid flowed from the cut surface, and heat and a raw, fishy smell filled the air.
"Ugh! If it's this big, the smell is terrible."
"Actually, dragon blood and semen sell for a high price, but oh well."
"For now, shall I put it in my Item Box?"
"Yeah, it's fine -- Shazam."
From beneath him, a black substance extended into a giant palm, grabbed the Lesser Dragon firmly, and vanished somewhere.
"Did that go into Tetsuo's black hole?"
"That's right. Time is almost stopped inside, so there's no problem, but if you keep it in there too long, it might turn into a zombie or a Ghoul due to magic."
"That's dangerous."
"Well, it's fine. If it gets dangerous, I'll cut it up more and put it in the Magic Bag."
Iroha arrived there.
"Old man! Does the dragon scale not count either?!"
"Huh? You cut up the dragon's body?"
"Yeah."
"We cut this with a divine miracle -- well, nothing can't be cut, whether it's metal or rock."
"Is that a cheat?!"
"Wahaha, that's right, but it has a weakness, you know?"
"A weakness? What's that?"
"It means you have to get close to use it."
His black hole seems to only appear around himself, only believers can see it, and if used as an attack, it would be dangerous.
"By the way -- since Kaorulko also became an Apostle of Izal, can she see Tetsuo's black hole?"
"Yes, she can see it."
"Is that so?"
"Daisuke seems to have been favored by God too, so I think you'll receive some blessing."
"For now, I guess I have to wish for it myself, right?"
"Well, that's true, but... I think Daisuke would be okay anytime."
For now, I haven't had any trouble with the Item Box.
"Haha, just when I feel like it."
"Darling, drop items."
The Princess pointed at the items.
Approaching closer -- a full-blown fantasy armor.
It was silver, and had something like a round gemstone attached.
It was a design that appeared in old anime.
It's a bit embarrassing for an old man.
"Wahaha, wouldn't it suit Daisuke if he wore it?"
Tetsuo teased me, but please spare me this.
Besides, it looks like it would be hard to move in no matter how you look at it.
"No, this is dangerous for an old man."
"As is usual with this dungeon, strange designs are proof of high performance."
Kaorulko pointed at Iroha's equipment.
"Haha... for now, I'll put it in the Item Box, and if it gets dangerous, I'll consider wearing it -- that's the plan."
-- After defeating the Lesser Dragon, the mid-boss of Floor 7, we decided to advance to Floor 8.
"If the mid-boss was a Lich, Sana would have had her turn, but I took the experience points."
"No, I'm not confident with my magic..."
"That's not true, Sana-chan. Daisuke and I flipped the dragon over, and we just need to shoot a Light Bullet or Fireball into its butt hole."
"Disgusting..."
Iroha let out a word.
"Attacking the weak point is basic attack strategy."
As Tetsuo said.
"Th... aside from the excretory organs, the scales on the belly should be softer than the back."
The Princess blushed.
"The dragon I finished off, its belly wasn't very hard either."
"Alligators also have soft scales on their bellies."
As Kaorulko said, if the dragon is a type of reptile, the structure might be similar.
As we talked, the moment we stepped into the 8th floor of the dungeon, what overwhelmed us first was the height of the ceiling.
Even looking up, the outline of the ceiling melted into the darkness, and it wasn't clear how far it continued.
It felt like an illusion of standing in a huge hollow space.
There were no pillars or beams in that vast space, but how was this space supported?
"Light! 《Light》"
Kaorulko's magic illuminated the darkness.
The floor was also smooth and flat, with endless gray stone spreading out without any decoration or unevenness.
There were no obstacles, no rocks, no hiding places, nothing to block the view, and a silence so deep it seemed to swallow even sound.
Our footsteps didn't echo back.
There wasn't a single landmark, north and south were indistinguishable, a uniform space where you were about to lose your sense of direction.
Where we came from and where we were going became vague.
It was as if this floor itself existed to confuse and bewilder, raising the difficulty of this layer.
Even I, who was sent to the deep layers and returned with a reverse attack, must not have been able to return without the Harpies' guidance.
"Ha~ I saw it before, but there's really nothing here."
Iroha stared into the darkness.
Only a very narrow range was illuminated by the magic light.
Even if you have night vision, if there's nothing, it just looks pitch black.
"That's right. We can't draw a map like this, so we can't share it with other adventurers."
"This is going to be super tough to clear..."
"That's where they come in -- Hey there!"
I called out to the ceiling.
"Gyasuke!" "Daisuke!"
There was an immediate response.
Since we were in a wide place, I called out to the Harpies flying around.
I gave food to the Harpies that came down.
"Guide us to Floor 9."
"Hug Hug! Gya!" "Daisuke!"
"Darling, do you think it's safe?"
Iroha looked worried.
"It's fine, probably."
"Probably?!"
"If they can guide us on the way back, they can guide us on the way there, right?"
"Isn't the way back like a homing instinct...?"
Kaorulko's words had some merit.
"We found the hole where Iroha's younger sister dived, so it's fine."
"Hmm, that's true... that did happen."
"Besides, the border between Floor 8 and Floor 9 was a cliff, so if we know that direction..."
"Darling is right, but there's the problem of whether we can make it there."
"I understand Cherry Princess's worry, but Darling is here, and the God's Old Man is here too."
Iroha smiled casually.
"Does Oga have no pride as an adventurer?!"
"Kyoji?"
It seemed Iroha didn't know that word.
"It's like pride regarding one's own abilities."
"Then of course they have it! -- But if Darling is here, we can fight with peace of mind, right?"
"As Iroha-san says."
Sana seemed to side with Iroha.
"Gnnn... t, that's true, but..."
We started moving through the dark and simply wide Floor 8.
"Gyasuke!" "Daisuke!"
The Harpies reacted -- an encounter with monsters.
"Enemy! Coming!" "Yeah!"
Even the Princess trusted the Harpy sensor now.
"I'm hungry!" "Gyaaa"
The darkness shook with eerie voices.
As a heavy, low growl echoed from the depths of the darkness, shadows appeared.
Its body was covered in thick golden fur, and every time it moved, its muscles rippled like waves.
The body was like a lion, but the face was human.
"Gehahaha!"
With a deep-chiseled man's face, it sent a gaze looking down on us along with its laugh.
The tail extending from its back was like a scorpion, and at the knobby tip of the tail, a sharp, curved poison needle shone black.
The moment the monster roared, a scream that seemed to tear the sky overlapped.
Looking up, another monster descended.
It was a giant bird that seemed to reach over ten meters when spreading its wings, covered in white glowing feathers.
A sharp beak and golden eyes, extending from the position of the bird's tail feathers was a single living snake.
As if a snake had grown instead of a tail, it raised its head and opened its mouth to emit a threatening sound.
A red forked tongue licked the air, and a fierce light resided in its eyes.
"I saw this in Darling's video! This is a Manticore and a Cockatrice, right?!"
Iroha shouted -- a simultaneous attack by strong enemies.
The man-faced lion kicked the ground with its huge limbs along with a roar, approaching us -- and the Empress's eyes narrowed sharply.
"Penetrate the enemy! 《Gamma Ray》"
Blue light gathered, and the darkness split.
A bundle of glowing light spears pierced the beast's body.
A thunderous sound -- a light explosion.
A torrent of magic power swallowed the surroundings, and the ground trembled like waves.
In the smoke, the Manticore stood, but could no longer move.
Holes were torn in its huge body, blackened and scorched red.
The scorpion tail was severed and lay on the ground.
It was still alive, but its body was being worn away by the aftereffects of the magic power.
A baptism of light similar to divine punishment, as if even the soul was being scraped away.
Previously, such a great magic could only be used once, but now we can use the magic power stored in the Magic Stones.
The abundant magic power of me and Tetsuo can be used directly, allowing us to spam great magic.
Of course, there is also the side effect of magic sickness, like when the Empress was knocked out before.
"Here I go!"
While Kaorulko's magic blew a hole in the Manticore, Iroha and the Princess attacked the Cockatrice.
Like incarnations of a storm tearing the earth, their swords danced while making the air groan.
The trajectory drawn by the steel blades was the wind itself, and slashing attacks unleashed at speeds too fast to follow easily tore through the Cockatrice's hard feathers one after another.
With the power of high-level adventurers, their bodies danced lightly in the air as if ignoring gravity, and the blades resonated with the wind, creating whirlwinds.
Before the Cockatrice could roar, its legs, wings, and neck were successively severed by sharp, accurate slashes, and in an instant, its huge body scattered into a storm of blood spray and feathers.
The battle ended -- immediately after, their level-ups began.
They had been stuck at the same level for a while, but they should gradually rise and approach me.
To level up further, the monsters of Floor 8 are not enough.
It seems necessary to defeat many dragons on Floor 9.
I don't know how many floors lie beyond that.
When we were sent to Floor 9, the huge hostility we felt from the crack in the ground, could that be the final boss of this dungeon?
Arriving at the huge cliff that seemed to be the border between Floor 8 and Floor 9, we decided to camp for a while.
While eating, we tried talking to Tetsuo about the final boss.
"There are dragons and such on Floor 9 -- but I felt a huge hostility from the crack in the ground."
"I see -- that one seems to be on Floor 10 below, and that must be my target."
"So that's it..."
I understood that, but even with a buff from a mysterious power, could we face something like a lump of such hostility?
"What I felt wasn't just malice..."
"Well, that's just how it is."
Tetsuo seemed to have noticed the true nature of the enemy.
Far beyond human imagination, rooted in the abyss of the world, the primordial darkness.
The eternal, unchanging evil will that continues to squirm at the bottom of the void where even light cannot reach -- it is not bound by the flow of time or the boundaries of space, leading the harmony of all things to collapse, chaos itself.
A discomfort and shudder that words could never express crawled up from the depths of the soul.
Something that should not be seen, should not be touched, whose very existence was a taboo -- exactly like the "root of evil" nesting in the great universe.
"Facing that one is like my mission, so you don't have to force yourself to come along."
"That won't work, God's Old Man! You can't just take the delicious parts."
It seemed Iroha had been eavesdropping on the old men's conversation.
"That's right. If we go to Floor 9 like this and our levels max out, I think a good opportunity will come for us too."
The Princess also seemed unwilling to back down.
As an old man, I wanted to stop them at a moderate point.
We've earned enough money anyway.
I want to stop them, but I can't let only the energetic young girls go.
That's the pride of an old man.
"Wahaha, if it's too much, running away is an option too? If you fail when you're young, you can start over."
"Yeah, I hate old men who start lecturing so quickly."
Iroha made a face at Tetsuo's words.
"Well, old men are creatures that lecture young people, so it can't be helped."
Well, Tetsuo is right.
"Daisuke-san isn't like that, is he...?"
It was Sana's words, but that's not the case.
"I want to say it, but... thinking about my youth -- they don't listen even if you lecture, and they'll just push through anyway..."
It's some kind of thing due to youth.
Still, a stumble is just one page of youth.
But I will stop them from doing something truly dangerous.
"I get it, I get it..."
Tetsuo nodded.
You understand when you become an old man.
-- That said, the younger generation who experienced the world standing still is struggling quite a bit.
Perhaps because of that, there aren't many scenes of old men lecturing, and the young ones are sometimes more reliable.
I hope the magic culture brought by Tetsuo via another world blooms and makes the world a little better.
------◇◇◇------
From that day on, our deep dungeon conquest began.
Going back and forth between the surface, we circled Floor 8 -- hunting monsters endlessly to raise our levels sufficiently.
Once we returned, we had to fight the mid-boss of Floor 7 again -- due to this troublesome specification, we kept circling Floor 8.
My Item Box was packed with as much supplies as possible, and there was hot water from the dungeon hot spring for water.
Unlike before, now the Princess also has the cleaning magic, and we can wash our bodies with the hot spring water.
While patrolling hell, everyone's levels gradually approached mine.
I think I can level up further if I enter Floor 10.
What kind of enemies are on Floor 10, after all?
Is it just that unknown hostility?
Or are there more monsters?
I have no idea.
I recorded the battle scenes on video and uploaded them one after another to the video site.
With a continuous series of incredibly powerful battle scenes against monsters no one had ever seen, the number of views skyrocketed.
Since we have money, there's no need to do such things anymore, but it's a record of our dungeon conquest, and there are viewers all over the world waiting for it.
Other adventurers seem to be struggling with clearing Floor 7.
"Princess, there are still supplies, but shouldn't we take a break for now?"
"Y-yes..."
Since they are high-level adventurers, there probably isn't physical fatigue, but there is mental fatigue.
Everyone's faces seemed to lack spirit.
Well, if you keep doing game level grinding in such a space with nothing, your mind will wear down.
This isn't a game, it's the first block of hell where you can lose your life if you let your guard down.
Since everyone agreed, we returned from Floor 8 for now and decided to camp at the dungeon hot spring, returning to Floor 7.
On the way, we met familiar faces.
"Oh! Isn't this Darling-san?"
The mage Yuuki called me that.
Besides him, there were four other mages, a party of five with no other combat classes.
One man and three women -- the thighs peeking out from the hems of the women's dresses shone white in the faint light of the moss.
Sweat was seeping from their smooth skin.
Their expressions and movements showed the shadow of the forced march they had endured so far.
The fabric of their equipment was rough, some stopped their feet panting, and some walked while shielding their injured legs.
Even those who would have stood straight on the surface had fatigue carved mercilessly into their bodies.
Coming this far meant these four were at a certain level, but having only mages seemed like a significant handicap.
"Yuuki, you made it this far."
"Yes, it was hard work -- wait, what is that?!"
We were moving on Tetsuo's Shazam, and he seemed surprised by it.
Listening to the story -- it seems all the mages here have become believers of Izal.
I heard Yuuki became a believer -- but still, when conquering this dungeon, the technology of using Magic Stones as batteries for magic power becomes absolutely necessary -- is that what it means?
"Gyasuke!" "Daisuke!"
On top of Shazam, the Harpies were fluttering.
"Are the Harpies safe too? Wait a moment... they are speaking human language?"
"For now, it seems I can say my name."
"Hmm, interesting..."
He peered at the Harpies.
"Oh~ believers have increased. Welcome as an Apostle of God."
Tetsuo was happy that believers had increased.
"He is the Apostle of Izal in this world -- that is, the representative of God."
"Eh, really?"
The girls seemed suspicious of my words.
"It's true."
Kaorulko came to their rescue there.
"If you are believers, ride along. The destination is the hot spring, right?"
"Y-yes" "Is this, is this okay?" "Won't it bite?"
The mage girls were scared of the unknown black thing.
Responding to those words, part of Shazam's body deformed and opened a large mouth.
"Kyaaa!" "Gya!"
The startled girls stepped back and fell on their butts.
Colorful things were visible between their legs.
"Wahaha, it's Shazam's mischief. It's fine, it's fine."
"R-really?"
"Come on, get on, get on."
"Y-yes."
Shazam deformed into stairs to make it easy to ride.
"Waa" "Thank you."
"..."
The girls got on, but Yuuki and another male mage remained frozen.
"Yuuki, it's fine."
Impatient, the Princess spoke to them.
"O-okay."
Perhaps thinking they could trust the Princess's words, they also boarded Shazam.
"Alright! High Yose Silver!"
With Tetsuo's shout, Shazam started moving.
"Is that a magic chant?"
It seemed Yuuki didn't know this joke either.
"No, no, hahaha."
Everyone rode Shazam and headed for the hot spring.
This is the last update of the year.
Thank you for reading this year.