episode_0073

Bang!!! Bang!!!!

Five uselessly strong warriors unleash kicks towards the castle gate.

But there’s no sign whatsoever that the gate will open from such things.

“Hmm. What’s the problem.”

Kairok, the barbarian with the highest intelligence in Kairok’s party, rests his chin on his hand and stares at the gate’s keyhole.

Surely the wizard and the thieving cat had earnestly instructed something. The memory is faint.

It’s natural. For a barbarian, practice and real combat experience are more important than such knowledge.

It was one of the barbarian’s shortcomings.

“Fox. The door won’t open!”

“…Snore.”

Since Luka unleashed his wildness. He became very sleepy. His on/off switch seems clear; when he enters combat, he tears enemies apart like mad, but normally he’s in this state.

One shouldn’t have expected much intelligence from a beastman anyway, but it’s especially worse lately.

Kairok holds his throbbing head and surveys his surroundings.

“Oh, isn’t this delicious?”

Dayback, gnawing on bread he skewered on his sword and roasted over the campfire.

When he joined briefly last time, I thought he was a normal person. He was someone with a few screws loose.

Kairok immediately gives up and looks at the other two sitting around the campfire.

The other two are newcomers.

One is Bruno. A typical vanguard.

A plain warrior with nothing special. At most, he’s a bit tough. He’s also a little older.

Next is Adel.

A female warrior who filled Hans’s spot this time.

However, unlike the steady and obedient Hans, she’s a tomboyish girl type.

So Kairok wasn’t particularly fond of her.

But adventurers don’t usually show such things.

“Can you think of a way to get through this?”

“I don’t know.”

“Don’t know!”

“…Snore.”

“Didn’t you, Kairok, hear about it before?”

No one knows.

As luck would have it, only muscle-heads gathered.

In the end, Kairok struggles alone to recall the memory, but it’s not likely to come back.

Among them, he is merely the one with some intelligence; ultimately, he is still just a barbarian.

“Let’s just break it!!”

The conclusion was simple.

They immediately unleash attacks towards the gate.

But no one knows the fact that the gate is protected by a strange power.

Just mindless charging.

Thus another day passes.

They are foolish but not stupid.

Judging that there must be a key to open the gate, they began searching the surroundings thoroughly.

Meanwhile, Luka, with surprising memory.

“…said that a key comes out if you catch the monster.”

Having said that, they hunted monsters wherever they saw them.

But the Grim Reaper is a monster that only appears when you snap the neck of a specific small doll in the banquet hall.

It was unlikely they would know such a thing.

They just dealt with whatever they saw.

All four except Kairok were vanguards.

Still, there was nothing that particularly became a problem.

Mostly rotten soldiers appeared, and occasionally rotten golems,

Because none of them could withstand their attacks.

“Nothing’s coming out?”

“Still, the magic stones are better than the 3rd floor!”

As expected for a difficulty level of around the 4th floor, the rewards weren’t bad. Roughly rewards between the 3rd and 4th floors.

Most of the clan members, being 3rd-floor adventurers, quickly realized that.

And they also understood why 4th-floor adventurers were ambiguous.

Originally, the 4th floor also had a set number of floors where farming was possible,

Because this hidden dungeon also had a limited number of monsters appearing.

It was the conclusion they reached after clearing out all the monsters that appeared in a part of the inner castle where they were.

“In the end, there’s no place like the Orc holy land!”

They say adventurers who hunt for a long time sometimes stay in one place for months.

A hunting ground that is cleared out in just 3 days is bound to be unpopular.

Especially since it also carries some level of danger.

Reaching a meaningful conclusion, they boast about their heroic tales in front of the campfire today as well, sharing the warm friendship of warriors.

They seemed to have forgotten something, but they didn’t mind.

Still, thankfully, when they woke up the next day, Kairok realized and headed towards the gate, so it was a relief.

And after returning to the gate and unleashing attacks towards it for a long time, they could finally hear a voice.

“Can you hear me?!!!”

“What on earth have you been doing!!!”

Grace’s voice was heard.

He immediately approaches the gate and listens to what she is saying.

“We’ve been knocking and breaking the door all day yesterday, couldn’t you hear that sound?”

“That’s because we were walking around inside for the past few days!”

“Then did you find the key?”

“…No.”

“You could have just waited here in front!!!”

Grace gets annoyed.

It happens often. Grace is a gentle lamb to Ivan, but she’s nothing short of a devil to others. It’s fitting for a discipline leader who keeps most of the clan members in line.

“Haa……, listen closely!”

Grace finished explaining again.

If you snap the neck of a doll with black eyes in the banquet hall, the Grim Reaper appears, and defeating it yields a key.

He immediately finished memorizing and even double-checked just in case before leaving the gate.

“But where is the banquet hall?”

“Ah, it might be over there?”

Following Dayback, they found no banquet hall where he led.

Trusting him was indeed a mistake.

“…I think I know.”

Trusting Luka’s beastly senses, they set out, but couldn’t even find a trace of the banquet hall.

“What on earth are you doing?”

Adel stepped forward, getting increasingly annoyed, saying she would guide the way. But it was impossible for her to figure it out either.

In the end, after everyone failed, they found the banquet hall on their way back.

“The five of us shouldn’t travel together.”

It was Adel’s thought.

It was a moment they learned again why guides and smart wizards are important.

Thankfully, there were no problems in combat.

Of course, there is no strategy.

“Is this the one to snap?”

As soon as Bruno found the doll with black eyes, he snapped its neck.

If Ivan or Grace had seen that, it would have been a situation for extreme rage. But here, no one cared.

KABOOM!!! With a massive sound, the Grim Reaper’s sharp scythe pierces the floor and attacks Kairok.

“What?”

It must have been aimed at the archer. This man’s body was incredibly sturdy.

Kairok, who finished an attack that would have split a normal archer’s body in half with just a small wound.

Moreover, not ending there, he immediately strings an arrow with instinctive movement and shoots.

Whoosh!!

The harpoon arrow barely passes by the Grim Reaper’s side.

They thought they had a moment to breathe. But already, four warriors were watching in this area.

The first to move is Luka.

Luka the berserker, who now wields two pairs of one-handed axes instead of one massive axe, plunges his axes into the Grim Reaper’s body.

It hurriedly unleashes rotten mana to try and push Luka away, but he doesn’t budge at all.

Like a tenacious wolf chasing its prey, he sticks close and brings down his axes.

To avoid that, it uses etherealization to escape.

Just in time, Bruno’s mace also luckily overlapped and was avoided.

Next to the Grim Reaper, which barely escaped by blending into the world, Dayback was already there.

Countless intersecting sword trajectories. The attacks of his quick sword, too fast for its already rotten eyes to react, tear its body to shreds.

However, each individual attack was heavy enough not to be ignored just because the sword was fast. Most of the Grim Reaper’s body was torn apart.

Nevertheless, it somehow escapes backward.

“Where are you going?”

Unfortunately, Adel was there.

A swordswoman wielding a greatsword larger than her small body.

That greatsword, charged with the strength of her entire body, accurately splits the Grim Reaper’s head in half.

Slice!!!

That was the end.

The Grim Reaper vanished into a handful of ash, leaving only a magic stone and a key in its place.

“It was nothing?”

*

Grace shouts towards beyond the gate.

It was natural.

Surely this was the gate for Kairok’s party to come out, but there was no news despite knocking and asking all day yesterday.

I was sitting there, quietly enjoying my thoughts.

Of course, this was all the price for suffering all day yesterday.

I tried to cross the gate with terrain manipulation, and even tried dropping a meteor.

But it seemed something inexplicable was protecting it, as a barrier surrounded it making it impossible to cross the walls. And the gate was solid against any attack.

Although they spent the day so loudly, there was no reaction from the other side, so I truly thought they had died.

Fortunately, it didn’t seem to be that serious.

It didn’t take long after Grace told them the strategy before Kairok’s party, who had hunted the Grim Reaper, returned. The reason it took longer than expected was that it took a long time to find the banquet hall, wasn’t it?

‘No, they said they searched the inner castle thoroughly, so why couldn’t they remember the location of the banquet hall?’

I couldn’t understand, but

Seeing Luka dozing off while staring blankly at me, I decided to just accept it.

Anyway, 15 people gathered in one place.

Seeing this, there are really a lot of people now.

In a noisy atmosphere, they spend the night with a few campfires burning.

Ah, this is what a clan is.

Seeing the image of adventurers from all sorts of games and anime I watched before coming to this world unfolding before my eyes, and thinking that I too belonged there, I felt a renewed sense of emotion.

How long has it been since I was stranded alone? It feels like well over half a year. And I’ve already accomplished this much.

“Hey, Wizard!”

Someone calling me in a different way. Turning my head, I saw Adel had come to get me.

A girl carrying a greatsword so large that it was more noticeable than she was. She had black hair, which is uncommon in this world, so I felt a little bit of familiarity.

“Come quickly for a meal!!”

Trip-trap. I followed her as she walked away.

The meal was the best special treat one could have in the labyrinth.

Soup and bread.

But it wasn’t a watery soup, it was a soup with lots of meat in it.

Moreover, it was heavily seasoned with pepper, just to my taste as the clan leader.

We sat in a circle, ate, and rested.

Today, another day passes.

*

After 15 people gathered, progress became fast.

Three guides led the way, the vanguards held the line, and the rear guard supplemented the firepower.

Rotten soldiers sometimes appearing in groups.

Grim Reapers now appearing three at a time.

Even the mid-boss monster, the Death Knight, was easily defeated.

Such peaceful progress.

I wondered if it was really okay for things to proceed without any problems like this.

But that was only until now.

Now, we opened the outer castle gate with the key obtained from defeating the Death Knight and went outside.

Right in front of the ruined city.

Walking and walking along a path covered with ruins, countless corpses, and debris, we move forward.

A giant cave awaits us.

And only 5 people can enter inside.

“You roughly have the strategy in mind, right?”

Grace earnestly instructs the two guides.

Because their role, who must operate outside, is as crucial as the 5-person internal team entering the inside.

After completing all preparations, the Blue Sun Clan’s 1st team party walks into the cave.

Luka and Kairok enter first, followed by me and Grace.

Lastly, the newcomer Adel, holding her heavy greatsword, enters the interior.

As soon as Adel enters, the cave entrance closes on its own.

As you walk through the long cave, you come to a giant pupil.

And in its center, a sealed monster stands guard.

“It said it wouldn’t start immediately, right?”

“It will take about 30 minutes.”

There isn’t much time, but that much is sufficient.

There are things you can prepare even when it’s not a combat situation.

First, 3 magic circles.

Next, you can gain an advantage by raising the terrain using [Terrain Manipulation].

And before entering the combat situation, it’s also possible to land one big hit.

Turning the deck, I slowly finished preparations.

Time flowed, and a single blue light appeared inside the dark cave.

“It seems it’s about time, doesn’t it?”

Blue light gradually began to appear in the eyes of the statues on either side of the sealed monster, and they started to illuminate the inside of the cave.

This means one thing.

That the conditions to break the seal from the outside have been met.

“Are you ready?”

Grace stands in front of the sealed monster, holding a torch.

The monster is bound by countless chains, and a single dagger was stuck in the center of those chains.

If you pull that out, the seal is broken, and the boss monster awakens.

Kairok had finished preparing to shoot his bow at any time from the high ground I created.

Luka and Adel had finished preparing to fight at any time from behind the sealed Grace.

“I’ll pull it out!!!”

Grace pulled out the dagger.

Simultaneously, the bound chains unraveled, and the boss monster, whose eyes were tightly shut, opened its eyes.

Right now, as soon as I thought the combat situation was about to begin, I threw a card.

[Meteor]

A sub-space opened from the cave ceiling, and a small star fell.

At the same time, Kairok’s giant-slaying arrow was shot.

A massive explosion echoed, loud enough to cause ringing in the ears, and tremendous shockwaves and dust spread out centered on the monster. But I didn’t think it would end with just this.

Clink!!!

『The Death Knight, Gallius, has awakened.』

『Combat begins. Draw 3 cards.』

『Energy 4/4』

[Terrain Manipulation(3) – Power] [Earthquake(4)] [Force Field(2)]

Because the status window didn’t indicate victory yet.

Sure enough, the giant knight emerged, shaking off the dust.

A melted face, chains wrapped tightly all over its body. Even its massive greatsword was wrapped in chains, and countless rotten hands clung to its body. The knight, cloaked in rotten and musty mana like an aura, dragged its heavy body and ran quickly.

Watching Luka and Adel charging out to stop the knight, I also threw a card.