Episode 29.3

The stairway was once again long. Can it really be that all the stairways are this long?

They finally got to floor 2.

Lecan walked inside for a few steps before stopping.

"I've fought White Spectres outside before, they were far stronger and moved around a bit faster."

"Well now what are the odds. I was thinking exactly the same thing myself. But I also realized one thing afterward."

"Hou?"

"It's not that that Zagg wasn't strong, I believe it's because we have gotten stronger."

"Fumu."

"I believe our conquest of Dungeon Ninae played a big role here. My strength has all clearly gone up fundamentally. As do my reflex and attack speed. Dungeons are really amazing."

"They are. Dungeons are nice."

Arios looked back at Lecan with a troubled look on his face.

"I'm afraid of what comes after if I agree with that."

"Hmpfh. Let's go on ahead."

Lecan urged them to move on partly because he wanted to proceed, and partly because there were adventurers coming behind them. They got in floor 2 from the stairway one after another.

There's quite a lot of them.

They're still coming out.

Piqued by the amount of people, Lecan glanced back and found out they weren't adventurers at all.

They're knights.

There were 20 of them in the end.

"Hmm?"

He found it curious yet nothing of interest.

"Alright. We're going in."

"Yes."

They entered a stairway-less room.

They wanted to see what a non-Giant White Spectre liked.

There was one White Spectre inside.

It's small.

A size smaller than Lecan.

Slightly larger than Arios.

It's holding an iron-like sword once again.

Lecan observed it for a while before lopping its head off.

As he turned around, ready to leave the room, Arios asked him.

"Aren't you going to take the magic stone out?"

"What? Don't White Spectres not leave magic stones behind."

"Huh? Isn't it different when they're inside a dungeon?"

That sounds plausible, and sure enough <Mana Detection> nets a reaction.

Lecan slit the chest area and recited a spell.

"<Move (Torim)>."

A magic stone came out. It's quite big for a magic stone found on floor 2.

Either way, apparently White Spectres inside dungeons drop magic stones even though the ones above ground don't. Even Arios who had no prior experience going in a dungeon knew that.

(I lack this world's common sense.)

(Gotta be careful about that.)

"This one seems to have been normal sized."

"What? Was the last White Spectre bigger than average then?"

"Yes. I believe so."

Well damn. Then that means the Zagg Lecan encountered in his journey and another in Dungeon Golbul were two especially large specimens.

"Wait a minute. Lecan-dono. Nark-san mentioned something about this. White Spectres that spawn in Dungeon Tsubolt are unique types, they're far stronger than the average White Spectres."

"Oh yeah, he did."

"It seems like both of us have to reassess our ideas on a few things, Lecan-dono."

They got in a room with a stairway afterward.

The Giant Variant was indeed a size larger than average befitting of its namesake. But compared to Golbul and Nina, there doesn't seem much differences between normal and giant variants here.

They got in the room, Lecan decapitated the magic beast.

Then the two went in the stairway.

"We're climbing down."

"Yes let's."

"Run."

"Eh?"

Fortunately, these stairways aren't too winding. It's a bit dim but you can see ahead of you just fine. Lecan dashed off like he was flying.

As he arrived at the bottom, Arios followed slightly later while gasping for breath.

"You need to practice more."

"I actually have experiences running on walls or climbing down cliffs. But, can you really call leaping between walls running?"

"I'm not here to walk down stairs. I'm here to fight magic beasts."

"So am I, but I'm going to run out of stamina just from traversing at this rate."

"<Recovery>."

"Thank you. I mean, no that's not what I'm talking about."

Fortunately, one of the rooms with a stairway, a giant variant room was close by.

They got in the room and beat the floor 3's giant variant. Then they entered the stairway to floor 4.

"It's so long."

"It is really long. I can't see the end."

"We're running."

"Umm, we jumped over the heads of a few adventurers along the way. Isn't that bad?"

"Fumu. There's no rookie adventurers here, so I don't think they'd cause a ruckus just from getting jumped over, but I'd still like to avoid what happened at Dungeon Golbul."

"What trouble did you cause at Dungeon Golbul, Lecan-dono?"

"<Concealment (Nirzum)>."

"Eh?"

"<Concealment>."

Lecan cast <Concealment> on himself and Arios. Then they dashed down the long stairway.

<Concealment> effect lasts shorter if you move around. The effect was completely gone by the time they arrived at the bottom.

"Alright. Let's get to floor 4."

"This is the wrong way to use magic. No wait, I guess it's the right way? Anyway, when did you even learn it?"

"When you were away from Vouka. Ah, right, you know a skill to hide your presence."

"No way I can maintain <Secluded Step (Svada)> while noisily running around all over the place at that speed."

"We're heading for giant variant's room."

"Are we running again?"

"Of course."

"We're going to shock other adventurers."

"I'll find us a path devoid of other adventurers with <Graph Make>."

"That's the wrong way to use magic. No wait, I guess it's the right way?"

They quickly took care of floor 4's giant variant and went down.

They dealt only with giant variants on floor 5 and 6, and quickly got to the next floor. That was also the plan for floor 7 but since both rooms with stairways were had adventurers inside, they went in a normal room on floor 7.

"Oh."

"This must be a <Black Body>."

The White Spectre inside the room was clad in a black rind on its chest, abdomen, arms and legs. It'd be bad if <Sword of Rusk> got chipped, so Lecan took a spare sword from <Storage> and slashed at it. He split the Zagg in two from left shoulder to right waist, but he could feel a slight resistance to his slash.

"A bit sturdy, but nothing really of note. Mwu."

The White Spectre's didn't sprawl out on the floor, instead it turned into a treasure chest. It's obvious at a glance that there's a sword inside.

Lecan grabbed the content, which was a sword.

(Oh.)

(a Grace Gear.)

A little bit of mana dwells in Grace Gear. That's how Lecan found out.

But this sword didn't feel like this when the magic beast was swinging it around.

It's probably due to the magic beast's mana overlapping the sword's.

"<Appraisal (Avel)>."

<TLN: Catch the latest updates and edits at Sousetsuka.com >

Name: Acceleration Sword (Mora Schiller)

Type: Sword

Grace: Increase Sword Speed (Small)

"It's a Grace Gear."

"I knew it."

"Hm? You could tell?"

"I figured the sword must have a Grace that raises its speed looking at the magic beast swinging it around."

"Good guess. It's called <Acceleration Sword>. A speed Grace."

Lecan tried to swing the <Acceleration Sword>.

His swing speed feels 20% to 30% faster than he originally intended to.

"Fumu. Interesting. Want to give a swing?"

"Sure."

Arios tried brandishing the sword.

"I get it. Here, you can have it back."

Arios probably had chances to use a Gear with a similar Grace.

No. He's probably used an even higher class of the thing.

Lecan got that feeling somehow.

Lecan decided to equip <Acceleration Sword> for a little while.

"The giant variant room is empty. Let's go."

"This <Graph Make> is really handy, isn't it. I can't imagine going in a dungeon without Lecan-dono anymore."

"You've never gone in one before running across me to begin with."

"Yes. I held a prejudice then. But now I can't help but getting excited for the prospect."

Three adventurers were sitting in front of the Giant Variant's room.

Just as Lecan and Arios were about to enter, a shield-bearing man with a black beard called out to them.

"Sorry, but we're in the middle of battling the thing. Can you go to the other room instead?"

"The other room's got people fighting."

There's no one inside the room now. Yet these men said they're battling. Meaning they must have retreated after engaging in a fight. They plan to have another go after a break. Naturally the magic beast inside will be renewed, but nothing you can do about that.

"We've dealt a lot of damage to the thing during our previous two attempts. The next one ain't gonna take that long before we beat it for real. Feel free to wait here."

"Yea. We'll do that."

Lecan was baffled despite his reply.

(Dealt a lot of damage in two attempts?）

(The next one won't take long?)

Meaning the magic beast inside doesn't get renewed even with all of the adventurers leaving the room, it's the same individual as the last time.

At first Lecan thought this dungeon had the same familiar structure as the ones in his world, but the rules of dungeons in this world are still unlike his world it seems.

The three appear to suffer some wounds themselves.

"<Recovery>."

"<Recovery>."

"<Recovery>."

"Ah."

"Uwoo."

"W-what?"

The three sounded surprised.

"Ah, my wound's gone. My fatigue too. That was your <Recovery> huh."

"Whoa this is amazing. It's workin' real nice."

"Oh, can't believe ya just cast <Recovery> thrice. And not a wand in sight? I've been humbled. You must be an ace who has braved the depths of foreign dungeons."

"Sorry for doing that without asking first."

"Oh not at all. Must be telling us to get in quick and move the line eh. Thanks to ya, I can get to fighting right away. How about you guys."

"I'mma be fine."

"Me too."

"All right. Let us do this then. Much appreciated, ace-san."

"Good luck."

"Same to you."

The three adventurers went in the room.