episode_0132

In front were monsters.

Behind were robbers.

If, given the situation, the robbers lured the Treasure Soldiers using the horn whistle to kill the explorers.

You might think the robbers’ combat power isn’t lower.

Unfortunately, there are also many robbers.

If we use stealth now, it’s easier to evade the monsters than the robbers.

That’s why we chose a frontal breakthrough.

And if there was one more thing I trusted.

“Noah. Can you slow them down even a little?”

“…I’ll try.”

Was there a slight thought that Noah, the father of all monsters, the Apostle of the Evil God, might buy us a little time?

Because monsters, whose action patterns are visible, are at least more manageable than humans whose thoughts cannot be read.

『Until next draw 10』

The 10 seconds that usually pass quickly,

Now.

『Until next draw 9』

It feels incredibly slow.

First, I quickly set the Joker card.

The card I’ll choose is, of course, [Stealth].

Since it only activates for everyone if they’re touching my body.

Everyone started gathering around me.

Thud, thud.

The Treasure Soldiers approaching little by little.

True to their name, Treasure Soldiers.

They maintained their formation, turned their bodies into spears, and approached cautiously.

『Until next draw 7』

However, even that caution is helpful to us.

Unlike the stupid monsters of the 6th floor.

『Until next draw 6』

While the monsters couldn’t approach easily, what was the situation behind us?

Predictably, just as they used these monsters before. They’re probably thinking similarly this time.

『Until next draw 5』

They probably judged that they would ambush us if we ran away.

That’s why we have to break through head-on.

『Until next draw 4』

At that moment, the Treasure Soldiers in front raised their spears and began stabbing.

They bought us more time than I expected.

I wish they had attacked just a little more cautiously.

『Until next draw 3』

Noah raised his hand and lightly emitted dark mana.

At that convulsive action.

The monsters momentarily flinched.

『Until next draw 2』

But befitting high-floor monsters, the Treasure Soldiers ignored Noah’s command, retaining their free will, and charged.

Spears poured towards our bodies in an instant.

『Until next draw 1』

In the end, since we couldn’t evade while sticking together.

The teammates who had momentarily broken away blocked the Treasure Soldiers’ attack.

『Until next draw 0』

『It’s your turn. Draw 5 cards.』

『Joker Card – Draw 1 designated card additionally on the first turn.』

[Paralysis Poison Gas(5)] [Evasion(1)] [Swift(4)] [Escape(1)] + [Stealth(2)]

As soon as I checked my hand, I quickly grasped the current situation.

Right now, we, who were grouped together due to the Treasure Soldiers’ attack, are scattered.

The power of [Stealth] can only be applied to others who are touching me.

So, the easiest method, using [Stealth] and then running away, became difficult.

Fortunately, my hand came out quite good, giving me 2 options.

I quickly finished calculating which one was more efficient.

A card slowly slipped down from my hand.

[Escape] – Run away quickly. Enter [Stealth] state.

What exactly is the difference between [Escape] and [Stealth]?

Both involve briefly disappearing from the world, which is the same.

But Escape means you move first, then enter a stealth state.

It can be seen as an effect slower by half a beat compared to Stealth.

Because it involves running out.

It’s a bit tricky to use with allies.

So it’s hard to make 5 people enter stealth simultaneously, but.

Right now, the situation isn’t one where we can do that for everyone anyway.

“Stick close.”

Saying that, I grabbed only Grace next to me and used Escape.

Tap-tap-

Grace and I instantly moved behind the Treasure Soldiers who attacked us.

Simultaneously, our forms disappeared.

Since we had already moved behind the Treasure Soldiers and two people disappeared, the Treasure Soldiers and knights were suddenly flustered.

“…?!”

The fact that there are enemies using stealth means.

They can’t help but pay attention to their surroundings.

Even if we have no intention of attacking them.

Their attention is bound to shift elsewhere a little.

In that process, their dense formation briefly crumbled, and the archers who were about to shoot arrows from behind hid themselves.

Yeah, we won’t target you guys.

Immediately, I pointed with my finger, indicating to take me to my teammates, and lightly held onto Grace.

Grace immediately started moving her feet quickly.

My teammates enduring against the Treasure Soldiers.

Perhaps because of what I said before using stealth, they were fighting the enemies with their backs pressed together as much as possible.

I immediately entered their center and touched Kailac and Luca’s bodies.

After bumping my head against Noah, I immediately let go of a card from my hand.

[Stealth] – Become stealthed. The first attack delivered after stealth becomes a guaranteed critical hit.

Swoosh.

We began to blend into the world.

However, they seemed to know that our positions weren’t changing just because we disappeared from sight.

The Treasure Soldiers quickly began shooting arrows, but.

The Incarnation summoned by Noah blocked all the attacks.

“Run!!”

We, in stealth, began to break through the center of the monsters.

I even imagined the worst-case scenario where they might move first and we accidentally bump into them, but.

The Treasure Soldiers just stood still, looking around.

Sometimes high intelligence can be a poison.

If they were like the wolves on the 6th floor, they would have just fought by wildly swinging their hands around.

Thanks to the Treasure Soldiers prioritizing efficiency.

We were able to escape to the other side.

*

We kept running until the duration of stealth ended.

As far away from those robbers as possible.

Fortunately, the 7th floor seemed quite large this time; no matter how much we ran, the end was not in sight.

Before we knew it, we found a suitable place.

“…Let’s rest for a bit.”

“Okay.”

Since I got down and ran myself from the middle, I was quite exhausted.

I went into a suitable cave crevice, but unlike last time, I couldn’t hide with dirt and was thinking, when.

“I knew this would happen, so I brought something good.”

Grace took something out of her Subspace Bag.

“…A small scroll?”

It was a scroll sold at the Magic Tower.

“It’s Yellow Faction magic.”

Scrolls or inventions from the Magic Tower usually have the faction’s emblem, and this was the emblem of the Yellow Faction, which mainly researches earth or rock magic types.

“They said this is essential on the 7th floor. It’s information I got expensively.”

“But why didn’t I know?”

“It’s the difference in information-gathering ability.”

Grace, who knew information I, living in the Magic Tower, didn’t.

Even though she sometimes finds useless information. Seeing things like this makes me think she works really hard.

As soon as she unfurled the scroll, a wall the same color as the cave appeared and filled the crevice.

‘Does this mean we can still breathe?’

At that moment, Grace looked up at me.

“I heard there’s a small gap so there won’t be a problem with breathing. Would you like to take a look?”

“Okay.”

I immediately approached the wall and examined the magic.

It wasn’t long before I realized it was definitely Yellow Faction magic.

And I also realized that a small gap for air to pass through existed.

“You bought well.”

“Heh, this makes up for that 5th floor Yeti land incident last time, right?”

“No, were you holding onto that?”

“Because I’m capable.”

“…Yeah.”

Well, I’m always grateful if she works hard.

At that moment, fatigue washed over me.

It was probably because I had been so tense and running for a long time.

Everyone settled down, ate snacks, and rested.

I joined them in resting.

Moreover, since it seemed like it would be a while this time, I even lightly lit a campfire.

In the quiet.

Luca suddenly spoke.

“…By the way, I found a Diamond Treasure Knight.”

“Right?”

“How do we catch that?”

“There must be other Diamond Treasure Knights too. The 7th floor is wide. I think finding others first should be the priority.”

Grace, who was crunching on fresh celery, chimed in.

“Plus, to avoid those robbers who used the horn whistle earlier. It might be better to move our location a bit.”

“I agree. Just by looking, they seemed skilled at that kind of operation.”

“But I felt this while passing through the Treasure Soldiers earlier. There were a lot of corpses in the middle.”

“I saw them too.”

“Maybe they’re targeting an entire large clan or something?”

“If it’s a clan like that, couldn’t they win even if they fought the Treasure Soldiers?”

“That’s also true.”

It’s something that kind of makes sense but also doesn’t.

Is this all because we don’t know the 7th floor well yet?

Or is something really happening?

“Ultimately, we still don’t know the 7th floor well. We have no choice but to proceed as cautiously as possible.”

That was actually very obvious.

It was something I had prepared for to some extent.

Even though we got a bit stronger thanks to Cain’s help, the 7th floor is an unknown space to us, and a dangerous place.

But is it okay to keep running away like this without achieving anything?

Just as doubts were starting to arise.

Noah opened his mouth.

“How long are you going to keep running? I actually thought I could fight enough earlier.”

“Well. We had to run because the robbers were behind us.”

“No, even if they were there. Looking at them, they just seemed like guys who are good at ambushes.”

“…You can’t know that for sure.”

“Are you just going to keep running because of that? We came to the 7th floor and haven’t done anything except catch one Treasure Soldier.”

“……”

Noah’s words had some truth to them.

If we get swayed by something, we’ll end up achieving nothing.

Unless we can proactively break through.

I ran a simulation in my head.

And immediately came to a conclusion.

“Let’s go catch them. And while we’re at it, figure out exactly what happened.”

“Right now?”

“…No, we need preparation.”

Since preparation was needed anyway.

We decided to rest for now.

While everyone took their places and rested.

I just quietly looked at my status window.

『Current Deck: Thief’s Deck』

『Until next swap possible time 0:21:52』

*

“It was good to use the horn whistle to gather the Treasure Soldiers and crush a suitable clan, but more came than expected.”

“What should we do about this? They’re setting up something there too?”

A novice 7th floor clan they stumbled upon.

An expensive artifact they found while scouting using stealth.

It immediately became the robbers’ target.

They swept them away using the horn whistle, but the Treasure Soldiers who gathered at that time completely massed together, and now they were setting up a formation in that location.

It wasn’t a frequent occurrence, but.

When Treasure Soldiers gather in large numbers at a suitable location like this, they transform into something feeling like a small instance dungeon, and the fact that it happened there flustered the robbers a bit.

“Originally, that’s a habit of Treasure Soldiers. Couldn’t someone just sweep them clean?”

“Well, if we wait a little, won’t a 10th-floor explorer just pass by and sweep them as usual?”

“Shh! Then those guys will take the loot. We can’t even ambush.”

The two immediately ran again and passed through the passage.

Back at that place, 17 teammates were waiting.

Again, with the situation unchanged, everyone was getting annoyed.

“How about just subtly taking that artifact?”

“The monsters are piling up bodies in one place and guarding them. Anyone want to do it?”

No one raised a hand.

That was natural.

Among the robbers who liked to get things easily, there was no one who wanted to do something risky enough to bet their life on.

They thought that if they just waited here for a few days, everything would work out.

They were people who spoke as if the persimmon would fall if they just looked at the persimmon tree.

And a man who had decided to move on his own was slowly walking towards that place.

“…Who?!”

One of the robbers suddenly turned his head.

He was the guide leading this group.

As he turned his head, he saw someone wearing a robe walking from afar.

A purple robe.

Someone alone, not even carrying a bag.

Their face was not visible under the deeply pulled-down hood.

And above all.

“…Didn’t notice at all. While they were approaching this far.”

A 7th-floor guide could hear even footsteps from quite a distance.

He hadn’t detected anything at all.

That meant there was a high possibility that this person was more skilled than expected.

The robbers immediately prepared for battle.

At that moment, the person who stopped far away glanced over the robbers.

Soon, something began to shimmer around his body.

“…It’s a wizard!!”

As soon as someone shouted.

The robbers quickly ran forward.

Narrowing the distance is common sense in combat against a wizard.

However, that choice was wrong.

The wizard, who had vanished, was behind the guide who was behind the rushing robbers.

“…What.”

Slash-

Simultaneously with the guide’s neck being cleanly severed.

Darkness spread around the wizard.