Episode 29.4

Name:Okami Wa Nemuranai Author:ShienBIS
"Oh."

"What's wrong?"

"Well. Another magic beast spawned immediately after those three beat the previous one."

"Is there anything weird about that?"

"In my former world, magic beasts inside dungeons take some time to respawn once they've been defeated. Same with Dungeon Golbul. Same with Dungeon Ninae. But this dungeon is different. Proof that dungeons in this world can have differing types and mechanisms."

"You look like you're having so much fun, Lecan-dono."

(Me, having fun?)

(Of course I am.)

Immersing himself in dungeon explorations like this is Lecan's greatest pleasure in life. And he hadn't been inside a decent dungeon for a while, which made this expedition more exciting.

Lecan grinned and laughed.

"We're entering."

"Yes. That's fine and all."

"What's up."

"Please let me fight for once."

"Haven't you been all this time."

"Not at all. I haven't swung my sword even once. Lecan-dono took care all of the magic beasts."

He's right.

"Alright. I won't lift a finger this time around. Suit yourself."

The two went in the room.

A <Black Body> White Spectre holding a halberd stood inside.

Arios didn't go straight to defeating it, he instead observed its reactions while dodging its attacks. Then, he slowly dealt damage on the enemy over time, not to defeat it but to confirm the black armored rind's traits and weaknesses.

Just when Lecan was about to call him out of irritation, Arios swiftly killed the enemy.

"Found out anything?"

"Its overall defensive power was just too weak I couldn't really grasps its weakness. I just know that it didn't slow down much even while suffering damage. That aside, I'm getting hungry."

Right, they haven't had lunch.

Each and every floors in Dungeon Tsubolt are gigantic, just moving around takes a lot of time. It's evening already.

"We'll have a meal in an empty room on the next floor."

Every floors have many people on it. Sitting down on the passageways to have meals could get in the way of other people.

Lecan and Arios went down to floor 8.

By this point, sprinting down the stairways with <Concealment> on is already a routine to them.

"Lecan-dono. Those adventurers walking on the stairs looked really confused."

"No worries. I've got us <Conceal>ed."

"It looks to me <Concealment> won't completely hide our presence if we move around too much."

"That's cause I'm not adept enough at the spell. Just right, I'll take this opportunity to hone <Concealment> in stairways."

"You're putting your effort in the wrong direction. No wait, I guess it's the right direction?"

They got in a vacant room, had meal, defeated floor 8's giant variant and went downstairs.

Both rooms on the floor were occupied once again, but it soon cleared up when they waited in front of a room.

Lecan noticed one thing as he set foot on floor 10 after defeating the giant variant on floor 9.

"Hou. This floor's got two magic beasts in each room."

"Is that so."

There's also two rooms that lead to floor 11 here.

Fortunately, one of them is close by.

The two went straight to the stairway room and defeated the magic beasts there.

"Ordinary adventurers must find it challenging going up against two of these beasts after getting used to dealing with only one."

"Yeah?"

The White Spectres around this floors can be easily beaten with swords or <Flame Spear (Bandroux)>.

Lecan doesn't see how a group of competent enough three or four adventurers can find them hard.

"And besides, they move so much faster than all the Zagg before."

"Yeah?"

"Oh just forget it."

It was late at night already, around midnight.

"Let's go back to the inn, Lecan-dono. I'm tired."

"No. We're staying in the dungeon tonight."

"We can sleep tight if we just get back to <Rafin's Rock Terrace Inn>."

"One cannot explore dungeons without mastering the ability to sleep tight inside a dungeon."

"That's not true, not for this dungeon at least."

"Besides, there's no telling when the boss rooms are vacant."

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

"Boss rooms?"

"Rooms with giant variants."

"Huh? You mean to say they're occupied right now?"

"One of the rooms have people inside. They're likely engaged in a fight already. The other room got eight guys idling in front of it."

"Could it be, Lecan-dono. You planned to keep going had not for the preceding visitors at those two rooms?"

"Of course."

Arios let out a long sigh.

"Let's just get to resting."

They went in a vacant room and slept.

The following morning, they took it easy waking up and having breakfast, resuming the exploration around two of Small Turtle period.

They went straight to the boss rooms on floors 11-17. The enemy gradually got even stronger, but not enough to cause trouble for Lecan and Arios yet. The two had meals in a vacant room and resumed the expedition.

They got through floor 18 and 19, then on floor 20, the enemy number turned to three per room. They beat the three giant variants no problem and reached floor 21.

"Looks like there will be one additional enemy every ten floors."

"Sounds right."

"Does that mean there will be ten of them on floor 90s?"

"We don't know yet, but that's likely."

"It's been bothering me, all the rooms from floor 1 to this floor have the same size, right?"

"Hm? I suppose."

"Ten enemies in this space would make it hard to move around, don't you think?"

"You'll be fine."

"I will. But I'm talking in general terms here."

"Can't say it's spacious, yeah."

"I'm guessing that the adventurers can only get ten people in at most as well. More than that and they won't be able to move well. No, even ten would be a struggle for those with heavy weapons and mages."

"What about it."

"Well. I just think this is one nasty dungeon."

"That's what makes it fun."

Arios turned at Lecan, looking slightly troubled.

"I suppose you just have to practice with your party members to the point you can coordinate together well in a cramped place."

"Damn right."

"Why do you sound like you're bragging."

They explored up to floor 26 that day. Four swords got dropped, one of them had <Power Increase> grace.

Other than that, there were two small red potions, one medium red potion, and one small blue potion.

They entered 15 rooms and defeated 36 magic beasts that day, with four treasure chests dropped. The drop rate isn't too bad at this point. And most were swords.

Along with the <Acceleration Sword> they got yesterday, two Grace Gear got dropped in two days. Another thing to look forward to as they delve deeper below.

Arios got the potions.

While Lecan kept the magic stones.

For the time being, all the swords were left to Lecan.

Arios correctly guessed that an enemy held a <Power Increase> sword when they first encountered it. Later Lecan asked him if that was some sort of skill, but he denied it. Arios seems to possess insight that enables him to tell special swords apart.

But Lecan was clueless about that. It's just impossible for him to tell whether a weapon is a grace gear or not when it's still being wielded by a magic beast.

The two went back to <Rafin's Rock Terrace Inn>.

"Tomorrow is an off day right?"

"No. We're going in the dungeon."

"Won't you please make it an off day?"

"I won't."