138 - - Two, three.

After about two hours of walking while clearing away the ants, Thor and his companions arrived at a passage with a moderately steep slope.

Apparently, they were to descend to the second level from here.

"You walk a lot more than I thought you would.

"There's not much room for a proper descent. It's not like we have a choice."

This dungeon is only surrounded by an outer wall at the ground level, but the underground area, like an inverted mortar, grows in size as it gets deeper.

To conquer the dungeon, one has to go down and down, but as Rummella said, there are no convenient stairs in this ant's nest, the home of insects.

Along the way, we saw some vertical holes, but we could not use them because we did not know where they would lead.

In the end, we had to take a long detour to reach a passage that would allow us to descend safely.

As soon as we went down the diagonal passage, we heard bubbles popping again.

It was a sign that we had reached the second level.

At the same time, Thor felt a kind of numbness in his body.

"O Lord of the Tree of Life! Cleanse the afflicted children from their sins.

With the chanting of Ram Merulla, the paralysis disappeared easily.

The girl, however, is whispering something with an unhappy face.

"...... there is no delay in activating it, and it doesn't seem to be magic-related either. The number of times ...... it can be used is also unchanged.

"Oh, you don't know the effect of the root curse. The one on the second layer is ."

"Oh my gosh,...... eh,............ eh!"

"Pops, can you see me?

Anyone can see his own skill tree if he is aware of it.

However, we can only barely know the names of the branches and fruits, and cannot clearly see the trunk or the parts close to the base of the tree.

Especially, the root characteristics are difficult to be detected even by a soul-meter, and even the person himself may not be aware of them.

That is why Thor's effective "time line perception" is a little out of the ordinary.

"......I see, that's why I'm paralyzed too. Yeah, I guess he's not lying."

The blue scaled skin of the Blue Scale Tribe is highly resistant to changes in their condition.

However, they seem to have been convinced that Thor's words were right when their protection was easily broken through by that lowers their body's resistance.

"Oh, that's amazing!"

Kugase's sparkling eyes and bouncy voice reminded Thor of a child of the purple-eyed tribe who might be spoiled by now.

However, his next words made a decisive difference, and he couldn't help but laugh.

"If I could even see other people's pictures with this, I could make a fortune, but it's a shame at all, isn't it?

"Well, that's a shame."

"I guess I haven't aged that well. Yes, I've been thinking about you a lot, old man.

The brown-horned girl seemed to have a tendency to say quite a few unnecessary things, but she was as skilled as her big mouth.

She stopped suddenly and casually called out to Straccia, who was leading the group.

"Ah, captain. He's hiding over there on the side.

The red-haired swordsman nods and slows his pace a little.

As soon as Stratchia passed by the pointed out spot, the wall of the passageway collapsed and he stepped forward without a sound.

What appeared behind the swordsman was a huge ant, just like a wall.

It was about twice the size of an amber ant, but what stood out in particular was its head.

It is rounded and flattened, almost as if it had a shield attached to it.

This head seems to have blocked the entrance to the pit and disguised it as a wall.

When the soil covering the head falls away, its beautiful greenish body is revealed.

The monster is called a jade ant.

Its shield-like head is exceptionally hard and is responsible for protecting the other ants.

Even now, there must be a group of amber ants waiting in the cave behind the jade ant.

The surprise attack is to first get past the vanguard and then exit the hole to split the party.

Then the jade ants, acting as shields, would hold off the vanguard in their haste to return, while the amber ants would attack the rear guard.

But if you know what to do, you can respond quickly.

"Long roots of the great tree of the earth, stretch out and entangle yourselves--"　

The target monster's weight-increasing magic stopped the movement of the big ants halfway out of the hole.

The jade ants, due to their sturdy bodies, are much heavier than they used to be.

The ants in the rear of the group are now stuck behind their allies, who have turned into an obstacle that will not budge.

Then a red-hot fireball is hurled at them.

The intense heat causes a blast that creates a raging storm, and all the amber ants lurking in the side holes are smeared against the wall.

And to the jade ants, who instantly lost their allies, Stratchia turned to the side and mercilessly drove black blades into their joints.

The shield is quickly disintegrated and falls to the ground in a heap.

"The jade ant's jewel is behind this flat part.

"Well, I'm surprised you found it hidden."

"They're not even hidden because they're so different in hardness. What?

The girl, her face again smiling, lightly flicked the corner of her forehead with her fingertips.

The fact is that the horns have the ability to measure the hardness of a substance.

Most of the Chakaku are not as accurate as Kugase.

This is probably the reason why they are selected as rank A.

"Oh.... I told you not to get along with them!　Idiot."

"Oh, I was careless. That old man talks too much.

"You two are playing alone again. Come on, let me in, sister."

"Hey, please don't do that!"

"Oh, no, no, no!"

"Coo-chan's tight ass is hard to get rid of, but Ram-chan's soft ass is exceptional.

"This is not enough to satisfy my thirst. ....... More ...... more!"

Thor scratched the bottom of his chin, unable to say anything at all, as if the brilliant coordination that had just taken place just a few minutes earlier was a lie.

The third layer of curses was a that reduced the number of times a magic technique could be used.

It seems to be a ratio of the number of times to the original number of times, so it seems to be OK if the number of times is only once from the original.

In the case of Thor, the limit of was reduced to eight times.　

The reason why Ninessa and others were using only the lower branch skills seems to be because they were wary of this.

From the third layer, it was necessary to go through large rooms at some places.

Naturally, ants were waiting for us inside.

Here, we have another kind of monster to worry about.

These are quartz ants with transparent crystal spines on their thoracic segments.

They are about the same size as jade ants and have a habit of vibrating their crystal spines and disturbing one's concentration with unpleasant noises.

In addition, they are said to be capable of interfering with lightning-based magic techniques.

In addition, it is hard, making it quite sturdy in spite of its appearance. In addition, they are resistant to heat.

However, like jade ants, they are slow-moving.

They are not so difficult to deal with, as they are easy prey for the .

Stratchia, who had been leading the pack at a brisk pace, suddenly stops and peers down the passageway.

Thor and the others, who had caught up with him, peeked in quietly.

What they found was a huge space, crowded with ants.