Episode 31.23

"What I just showed you is physical <Barrier>. If you can see mana, it looks like a translucent bluish membrane, otherwise it's transparent."

"I could not see anything. Only sensed a faint presence of it."

"I'm going to put up one around that size, take care you don't bump into the thing."

"I understand."

"Okay then, we're entering once we're done preparing."

"Yes."

Lecan focuses his mind, put his mana in order, and once he's done, he quietly takes a step in the room where the <Guardians> are waiting.

"<Barrier>."

He recited the activation spell as he was in, deploying anti-physical <Barrier>.

The enemy hasn't attacked yet.

Lecan slowly, slowly walked forward.

His foes are just standing around.

Lecan stopped moving after five steps.

Then after a slight delay, the two magic beasts charged out.

One of them held its left hand up.

A huge explosion occurred.

But Lecan is unharmed of course.

Another beast wielding a zweihander swung it with all its might.

The <Barrier> didn't even budge.

The <Armored> who shot magic earlier also rushed in slashing at Lecan with a short sword, but <Barrier> also blocked it.

Then the two attacked together in harmony. Lecan is not budging.

Then just as he saw Arios made his move, the next moment Arios was already next to the short sword beast, reaping its head.

Lecan slashed at the other magic beast's neck.

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

"<Barrier>!"

The zweihander the beast swung got stopped by <Barrier>.

Lecan was going to swing his sword again, but Arios had already lopped the beast's head off before he could.

Two treasure chests popped up. Naturally, one got a zweihander, the other was a short sword.

"What was that technique earlier."

"It's called Tumbling Step."

"Tumbling?"

"In falling down kind of sense."

"Did you learn that in the last 40 days?"

"No. I already knew how to execute the technique even before that. However, I did not have the confidence to pull it off against enemies found this deep in this dungeon."

Then he must have gone off on a training to take hold of that confidence during the past 40 days.

"Oh yeah, does that sword drawing technique got a name."

"We call it <Glint Fang>."

"I see."

The strategy brought out tremendous effects.

Magic beasts don't easily change target once they have set their eyes upon one even if another intruder joins in midway. If it's humans, a 2-on-1 fight will turn into a double 1-on-1 if the smaller party gets a reinforcement, but that train of thought is not guaranteed in magic beasts' case.

Hence, Lecan thought up this method of drawing their attention with the powerful defensive <Barrier> and letting Arios work his magic on the outset. And it went down just as he expected.

This strategy was extremely effective.

The following day they beat floor 118's <Guardians> and then floor 119 <Guardian> the day after that, Lecan and Arios finally took their first step on floor 120, the last floor.

Nothing was reflected on <Life Detection>.

There's only Lecan and Arios here.

"<Graph Make>!"

Lecan cast <Graph Make> magic to investigate the supposedly last floor.

There's only a few rooms.

From floor 100 to 119, each floor has nine rooms with the room in the furthest back containing the stairway down.

Yet there's only five rooms on floor 120.

The structure is similar to other floor 100s, one central passage with two rooms on each sides and a lone room furthest back in the center. With a corridor circling around those rooms.

Naturally, Lecan is concentrating on the room in the furthest back.

"There it is!"

"Eh?"

"Ah. Right, haven't told you about that. This dungeon is said to have 120 floors."

"Yes."

"But back when I had a talk with Shira about Dungeon Tsubolt, the way she worded it sounded implicative, she told me to check it out on my own."

"Hee?"

"Also, from what we gathered at <Rafin's Rock Terrace Inn>, this dungeon has no boss that turns it dormant once defeated."

"Yes. Hence it became known as the <Sleepless Dungeon>."

"But, in all the numerous dungeons I have explored, not a single one lacks a boss. My conviction tells me there exists no dungeon without a boss."

"Oh I see. Then Lecan-dono, you must be referring to the stairway when you shouted earlier."

"I was."

<Graph Make> clearly showed two stairways.

One is the stairway from floor 119 to floor 120, the one Lecan and Arios took to get here.

And another stairway.

Even though <Graph Make> makes its existence clear, it doesn't show the location where it's at. However, this stairway undoubtedly connects to a floor further down.

"But floor 120 <Guardians> have been defeated many times over by many people, haven't they?"

"I think so. The dungeon won't go dormant despite <Guardians> of what people regard as last floor keep getting defeated, thus it gets to be called the <Sleepless Dungeon>. But now we know there is a stairway down, this is nothing more than an unconquered dungeon."

"I guess that means the stairway won't show itself up even if we defeat those <Guardians> the ordinary way. Oh right, I suppose the fact that there's actually a stairway isn't even known."

"<Graph Make> shows this stairway's existence, but it's likely invisible to naked eyes. The entrance to it will only show itself once the conditions have been met. I know a few dungeons with similar mechanics."

"And what are these conditions?"

"That's what we're about to find out. Lend me a hand."

"Understood."

They'll get to explore a domain untrodden by anyone else, deeper than Dungeon Tsubolt's depths. A strong light of anticipation and rapture shined out of Lecan's eye.

[Episode 31 The Secret of Dungeon Tsubolt] End/Next [Episode 32 A Request from Kogurus Townlord]