Chapter 28 – Floor 5. But After Clear Comes Cloudy

Before descending to Floor 5, I was preparing by using the identification scroll that came from the Wanderer’s chest to identify the unknown scrolls.

That’s how I identified the Protection Scroll and the Flame Storm Scroll.

The Protection Scroll provided a shield that blocks 100 damage for 10 turns, while the Flame Storm Scroll contained the highest-tier fire magic recorded—a jackpot among jackpots.

After carefully rolling the scrolls and placing them in my holster, the corners of my mouth naturally curled up with satisfaction.

If not for Severa, I wouldn’t have been able to get these. She truly is like a dutiful daughter.

“Ahh~ Delicious~”

Out of affection, I patted her tempting buttocks.

But unlike usual, I didn’t feel the flesh enveloping with a smack. My hand sliced through the air, failing to reach its target and floundering.

She had dematerialized.

“Don’t tell me you’re still sulking because I didn’t fuck you directly?”

“Hmph.”

Severa turned her head away primly as if she didn’t even want to talk to me and moved to a place where my hand couldn’t reach.

Then she kept glancing this way, her desires obvious, but if she wouldn’t say it directly, I would just pretend not to notice.

How dare an onahole try to roast its master.

I ignored Severa, who had started huffing on her own, and took out the Wanderer.

Since her clothes had all burned away, sending her to the front lines naked would be like throwing away a newly acquired onahole, so I planned to invest the equipment that came from the chest directly.

Besides, the special abilities attached to the equipment seemed like they were meant for the Wanderer.

A black blindfold with geometric patterns not seen in D.D. engraved on it: “One Who Has Seen Blindness.”

It was a cursed equipment that applied a blindness debuff to the wearer while simultaneously making it impossible to remove, but it provided excellent defense and taught the skill 『Full Moon Slash』, which ignores the pre-delay turn when chained from 『Crescent Slash』.

It was good equipment, but I didn’t have the confidence to fight with my eyes covered.

Besides, the Wanderer wouldn’t suffer from the penalty anyway, since the Bell of Doom would scout the surroundings for her.

When I put “One Who Has Seen Blindness” on the Wanderer, her characteristically hazy, unfocused dead eyes were covered, reducing the eerie feeling somewhat.

“Oh. Just covering the eyes changes the atmosphere quite a bit.”

The deep grape-colored hair flowed refreshingly over her shoulders, and the blindfold covering both eyes made her look like a woman with a story.

She really did have a story, but at least it would be difficult to think she was a person harboring a parasitic organism.

“Ah… uhh…”

“Hey, I’ll give you clothes too, just wait a bit.”

It was hard to notice when she was in onahole form, but the Wanderer had large breasts.

And they were fucking huge.

‘Wow… it’s like she has three heads. Is she Cerberus?’

Severa wasn’t small, but these maternal fat masses, comparable enough to make the Sad Ghost, Maria, sad, were thumb-up worthy just to look at.

Even wearing a Tier 1 leather set, she couldn’t hide that massive maternal love—her top about to burst and thigh lines tightly squeezed—which was certainly different from a dirty man.

“Feels good!”

***

The wound had healed overnight enough that it wouldn’t tear when I moved, but it must have been quite deep as it left a scar.

The trace of that large laceration, three lines crossed once more, traversed from my left shoulder to my right waist.

At first, I was worried about the scars appearing one by one on my body, but now I’m used to it. It meant I had allowed an attack strong enough to leave a scar and was lucky to still be alive.

Later, if I found a healing spring, I could erase them.

“Your recovery is quite fast. Have you ever chewed a troll’s heart or something?”

“How could I eat something like a heart? That’s disgusting.”

“It’s just a figure of speech…”

How could someone have such a barbaric thought of eating a heart?

I gave Albert, who had such troll-phobic thoughts, a look of contempt.

For reference, I like blood sausage and liver.

“By the way, are the others all prepared?”

Four criminals had permanent disabilities from facing the Wanderer, and now only three people in the group, excluding Albert, had intact limbs.

More than half of the original group had died, and among the survivors, less than half were unharmed, so the atmosphere was quite gloomy.

Dave the blacksmith, one of the lucky ones, flinched and bowed his head when our eyes met.

Moreover, in such a harsh environment, having limbs severed meant disease and infection would likely follow.

They too must know that the survival probability of the injured criminals wasn’t very high.

Yet Albert nodded and affirmed.

“There’s no point in dragging this out any longer. Morale may not be high, but it’s not desperate enough to abandon hope. Especially those who lost a limb or two.”

“That’s somewhat unexpected.”

Shouldn’t it be the opposite?

“Those with intact limbs worry about losing them in future battles, while those who’ve already lost limbs hope they can survive if they escape and receive treatment.”

“Ah… like silver and bronze medals?”

Like how the 2nd place person who just missed the gold medal has a dead expression, while the 3rd place person, who almost didn’t get a medal at all, is smiling brightly.

There were some differences, but it wasn’t hard to understand.

“Where are you looking! Where are you looking?!”

I covered my chest and kicked Albert’s shin at the joint.

“Ugh.”

If it were a pretty woman, maybe, but how dare a black old man eye my body like that—unforgivable.

***

To replace the leather top that was completely torn and unusable, a Tier 2 chain mail top extorted from a criminal.

Though he clearly didn’t want to give it up, I told him if he was unhappy, he could kill the alligator himself, so he handed it over quietly.

What a fair, gentle, and excellent negotiation. When I return, I should start a trading company.

The end of Floor 4.

I looked down at the stairs leading to Floor 5, which like all the stairs I’d seen so far, contained darkness, and became lost in thought.

‘At first, I was at a loss for how to survive.’

Countless enemies, cold temperature, hidden traps, worst environment.

To be honest, even I didn’t believe I would arrive at Floor 5 with my body intact, so I was moved by the conquest of the underground sewers just ahead.

“Do you have a plan?”

Though we only knew its approximate size, the opponent was a giant alligator several times larger than a person.

I shrugged at Albert’s eyes, which seemed to be saying he hoped we weren’t all just going to rush in and recklessly beat it with weapons.

“First, I need to make it remember.”

“Remember?”

Memories of Jeff, the owner of the alligator Besha.

I took out the alligator statue I had kept in my pocket and fiddled with it.

“Perhaps the owner of that alligator…”

“Don’t misunderstand. I’ve never kept pets. The owner is the one sleeping in a skeletal state on Floor 3.”

“Releasing such a thing and then dying as he pleased… tsk.”

I thought Jeff probably didn’t want to release it, but I didn’t add anything.

After all, it was true that the alligator he failed to properly contain had survived in the sewers, forcibly absorbed magic, and grown to such a gigantic size.

“And in that gap, we hit it with as much magic and ranged weapons as we can. With ice lances, we should be able to accumulate quite a lot of damage.”

The personnel who had lost their legs were equipped with bows or crossbows, or failing that, a bunch of stones.

According to Albert, if you don’t have arms, you can still swing a hammer at the front, but if you don’t have legs, you can’t even be a meat shield—hence the designated armament.

“The alligator hide bag that gets hit that much will go berserk with anger.”

The King of the Sewers uses Frenzy when its health drops below half, lowering its accuracy and defense while increasing its attack power.

If you endure for about 10 turns, the Frenzy ends and it falls into a dazed state, so a certain level of survivability is essential for boss strategies.

Naturally, unless I have multiple bodies, everyone must fend for themselves at that time.

When I conveyed this fact, the faces of the criminals who had to stand on the front line turned pale blue, but this was unavoidable.

It’s not like I could change the pattern.

“If we can endure once, we can definitely catch it.”

“It’s not entirely hopeless then. But wouldn’t it be easier if we released poison and inflicted toxicity?”

Albert showed me a potion bottle with transparent liquid sloshing inside.

So transparent potions are poison potions. I’ll remember that.

That aside, I shook my head at Albert. That method couldn’t be considered very good.

“This is an alligator that has survived in these sewers where filth flows for a long time. Its poison resistance is so high that even if we directly feed it all that poison, it’s questionable whether it would be poisoned.”

Not to mention its size.

“I see. Then it can’t be helped. We can’t hope for more in a place without supplies.”

“Alright. Everyone’s prepared, right?”

I didn’t wait for an answer. What would they do if they weren’t prepared?

Flicker- Flicker- Flicker-

As if waiting for whoever would arrive here, the torches hanging on the wall lit up one by one as we approached.

What kind of magical effect is this?

As we walked down the stairs, thick moss made them so slippery that one wrong step would make us fall.

A clear sign that human feet hadn’t touched this place for a long time.

A stench incomparably worse than above was welcoming us.

“Ugh… fuck… I’m going to throw up.”

“It’s better than the smell of a battlefield left for days after rain.”

“As if it’s better.”

Is it really better compared to the richly rotting corpse smell?

While worrying about Albert’s mental state, I hoped the cavern of Floor 5 would appear quickly.

As we descended the stairs amidst the retching sounds coming from everywhere, a cavern gradually appeared, with the missed light from outside seeping in.

Sunlight, beautifully diffused through the water outlet and ventilation holes, painted the dark cavern with patches of light.

And straight ahead.

Above the flowing water, a majestically floating rift of extreme colors.

The portal was there.

“It really was here. Though it’s my first time seeing it directly, this mesmerizing color and surreal floating sensation are just as described in the literature.”

“Stop saying things I didn’t ask about and look for the alligator.”

“That’s harsh… we don’t even need to look, it’s right in front of us. The master of these sewers.”

The water surface that his finger pointed at.

It was clearly there. But since it was holding its breath, we couldn’t see it.

A giant, violent, and beautiful white mass, gradually revealing itself from beneath the water’s surface, was looking at the prey that had walked in on its own.

“Wow. How many wallets and bags are there?”