234-Chapter 16-12 First Night

No wonder Jin had such a hard time.

Two days after Jin had a mock battle. I tried a mock battle with a knight-type golem that had been improved by Kelly, and it was even better than I imagined.

'Oh no! It's becoming more of a monster than I expected......... I can't wait to see what's ahead!

Kelly looked at the knight-type golem I was dealing with and smiled happily. She must be really happy that the golem she was involved with was getting stronger.

''Well then, Kelly, I'm going to need the armor for two more of them. Well, I think it'll be about two to three months before the contents are ready, so take it easy and take your time.

All right!　Well then, let's get to work in the workshop as soon as possible!

Watching Kelly happily head to the workshop, I was worried that she was going to force the female dwarves to do it again.

'So, anyone want to try a mock battle?　In case you're wondering, I'm trying to get the golem to gain experience, so I'm letting him keep his powers in check.

Mmm!

I did!

When I asked for candidates to run for the mock battle, Amour and Chris raised their hands at the same time.

'Chris, I was faster than you,'

'Amour, do you think you're having trouble with your eyes and ears?'

The two of them began to compete with each other for the golem's next partner........................but as usual, no one paid attention.

''Well then, do you two want to play with each other?　The golem will get experience dealing with two people, and the two of you will get to practice working together, right?　But it's training, so you'll have to go easy on me, though.

We both felt like we wanted to fight the golem before the other, so I suggested that we fight in pairs as a compromise.

''Mmmm ... it can't be helped. Chris, don't drag your feet.

'Amour you're not usually the best at working with people, are you?　It's the natural way to fight according to my instructions.

They began to stare at each other in different directions, but...

Okay, let's begin.

Ignoring that, I gave the signal to start. Then.

"Demon of Temma!　Chris, I'll turn left!

You devil!　Amur, you should aim for your feet and roll if you can!

They immediately began to work together. It looks like the plan is for Chris-san to attract attention while keeping him in check, and for Amur to use the weight of the blow to stop the movement. It's an effective way to fight if you're referring to Jin's fighting style, but.......

Chris!　I'll get your attention properly!

'I know!　But the golem isn't coming on board!

The golem seems to have decided that Amur is more dangerous than Chris-san's attack, so he turns his back on Chris-san and gives priority to Amur.

''Then it's up to me to roll!

Chris unleashed a thrust aimed at the knightly golem's knee joint, but

Ouch!

It was too accurate and was blocked by the guard added to the back of my knees.

'Chris!'

The moment Chris-san's movement stopped, the golem turned around and swung out its weapon, a clothesline (tetsuno-bou).

''Oh, God!　That's a nasty golem!

As the golem unleashed an attack from an impossible stance, Chris avoided it with plenty of time to spare, but the distance opened up, and the golem turned to face Amur again, but

There's a gap!

I got a strong blow from Amur.

''Mmmm.......hard.....

Amur slammed his beloved Bardiche into the golem's torso, but he was frowning at how hard it was. But it put the golem on its ass.

I got it!

Chris's sword was attached to the golem's neck.

''That's it!''

Chris-san's sword was only skewed, so even if he stabbed it straight through, the golem shouldn't stop, but he decided that if it was a mock battle, he would have a chance to win and signaled the end.

'Chris got a good point!　Thief!

It's not uncommon for roles to change on the battlefield. Just think of it as bad luck and give up.

But you lost rather easily.

'Well, it was my first mock battle against more than one. Maybe, but I think they perceived the one attacking my knee joint that was hit by the djinn as a threat.

The two of them argued as usual, so I ignored them and analyzed the way Grandpa and the knight-type golem fought.

It's not a mistake in the sense that you responded to each and every threat, but when you had to respond to each and every one of them at the same time, it was the wrong choice.

He'll try to deal with it in a different way next time, since he's gained experience (and squirmed) in this mock battle, but maybe he'll make the same mistake when he's facing three people. This is something you can't experience when you're dealing with a golem that can only make simple moves.

''Grandpa I'm going to head to Seigen's dungeon tomorrow. And I'll take a golem with me to attack the dungeon. I'll be able to experience battles there that I wouldn't be able to accumulate in a normal mock battle.

I was going to attack the dungeon by myself, but I decided to take the knight-type golem there. With the defensive strength of the knight-type golem, it would be able to withstand the attacks of the demons near the lowest level, and if it became dangerous, I could return it to the magic bag. Besides, if you replenish your magic power, you can keep moving, so you should be able to keep up with my forceful march.　

I'd like to go with you, but I doubt you'll be able to keep up with Tenma's seriousness. Amur and others will want to go to the dungeon anyway, so I'll go with them.

Grandpa seems to be planning to take care of Amur in anticipation of him sulking and taking care of that side. Considering the fact that Grandpa and Amur will eventually be diving into the newly discovered dungeon below the lowest level, it would be better for him to proceed with his attack, even if it means delaying me. Besides, if I succeed in capturing the dungeon and then meet up with Grandpa and the others, I can help them.

I don't know if it's a good idea to ask Tenma to help you capture the dungeon, but if you're looking for new things to discover, the more resources the better. Let's let them.

They're going to call it an advance on their achievements, and they're going to make Amur and the others conquer the dungeon at least once more, preferably twice or three times.

''I'm taking Raiden with me, but how are the grandfathers going to come?''

"We have a lot of people here, so I'd like to use Raiden, but what should we do?　After all, wouldn't it be a good idea to go with Temma?

Even though we're going to be separate in the dungeon, I can see why you'd want to go with me to Seigen...

'Me and Grandpa may be good, but Jeanne, Amour and the others have preparations to make, and there's also the matter of managing the mansion. We can ask Aina, Uncle Mark and the others as usual, but I'm sure they have plans over there too...

If I can get in touch with both of them now and finish the meeting and preparations today, there's no reason I can't go with you...

As I recall, Leni is due to return to the South soon, and Jeanne and Aura have plans to teach Aina, right?

Leni-san would want to stock up on souvenirs and information before leaving the royal capital, and since Aina is planning to include Jeanne and Aura's instruction until Aina cuts down on her own vacation, I'm sorry to cancel it now. Amour isn't scheduled, but he can't take Leni-san with him as long as she stays, and it wouldn't be a good idea to be alone with a man and a woman in a place like a dungeon with an engaged and unmarried woman in the first place. Even if they were members of the same party.

I'm sure you can't change your plans all of a sudden.......then how about me and Tenma go to Seigen and leave Tenma alone on our way back?　Then I suppose we can use Raiden's chariot, and we'll be ready to go when we return to King's Landing.

It is true that Grandpa is right, Leiden will have no use for you once you get to Seigen, so there is no problem if you are brought back with you. Besides, it would take three to four days for Leiden to reach Seigen (but not considering the burden on you), and about a week for a round trip. If we had that much time, we would have finished preparing the house and Jeanne and the others.

Then let's go with Grandpa's plan. Grandpa won't have to make most of the preparations either, right?

Well, you can dive into a dungeon right now if you want to.

Me and my grandpa usually have a magic bag full of things we need, so we're ready to leave at any time.

''Well then, let's get back to the mansion and just prepare a meal, shall we?

So, the only thing you have to do before traveling and attacking a dungeon is to prepare snacks and meals to eat while traveling and resting. Well, since we already have snacks ready, and we can buy all the meals from food stalls, it won't take too long.

Shall I prepare a beef bowl or something this time?

Since my recent boom (the Ootori family's boom) is gyudon (beef bowl), we should prepare more than one bowl of gyudon, one filled with ingredients and the other filled with rice, as I gave them to Jin and the others.

If you're going to prepare gyudon, I'd like you to prepare one for us, too.

Maybe we won't be able to leave tomorrow because of the mass production of beef bowls....

Anyway, I've got to get back to cooking as soon as possible.

After retrieving the golem and explaining it to Jeanne, Aura and Leni, he immediately began to prepare to leave.

'Well then, let's go home. We'll be stopping at stalls and shops along the way, so don't leave me alone on the way down. Go back first and get the food ready.　

We told them that we were going to split up on the way home and we got into the carriage.

All right, let's go.

'Yes!　I'm going!

I made sure that everyone was on board........I had Gosha's Aura send out a signal to Raiden.

''Ah~!　Wait, Temma~!

Hey, hey, hey, f*ck you!

As soon as I started running, I heard Amur's voice, so I went up to the roof to see what was going on, and just as I was about to do so, Amur came running towards me with his hands pulled out on both sides of Chris' body.

'Amur!　I'll wait for you, and I'll collect Mr. Chris!

Chris was lying on the ground, probably because he had received a good blow, and was cowering. Amur was looking at him like that.

Mm ... it's too much trouble. Hmmm, it's heavy...

I grabbed the belt, lifted it up, and held it halfway up.

Ouch!　Ta-da!　Jeez, I can move myself!

Well, on the way, Chris-san got up on his own and came towards us... although he was taking his time with his steps due to the damage to his side and the damage to both of his newly damaged legs.

'Well then, I'm going home.'

I made sure Chris got in and let Aura advance Raiden again. However.

Mr. Temma!　Slow down, please!

I had to stop the carriage once and use my recovery magic to see if the vibrations of the carriage echoed aside.

Five days after the mock battle of the improved golem, I arrived in Seigen. After leaving my grandfather before Seigen, I headed straight for the dungeon and used the warp zone to dive to the 60th level, which was a good place to start.

''Well then, let's start around here.

I looked at the map Garratt gave me and pounded the path down a few levels into my head and activated the knight-type golem.

''Alright, let's run and proceed with the attack. Eliminate any enemies that come close.

Instead of a stick like the one he had the knight-type golem use in the mock battle, he had a two-handed sword with a thick blade. It is a sword with a weight that would normally be used with both hands, but the knight type golem wielded it with one hand with ease.

''That's a good way to get demons to come to you. It's good for golem training.''

As we were running, the knight-type golem's armor made a grand noise, so many demons noticed us and attacked us. I can run away if I'm alone, but I'm slowing down so as not to leave the knightly golem behind, so the fast-footed demons caught up with me and engaged me, while the slow-footed demons also caught up with me. There are other things that appear from the front to block the path, so we were naturally forced to fight in a state of enclosure, but.......this is the situation I was seeking for the knight-type golem, so I didn't actively defeat the demons and let the knight-type golem deal with them.

'If this was a higher level, it would have been a problem, but here, only djinn or grandpa and the rest of the djinn can dive in except for me, so I can fight without worry.

When I glanced sideways at the knight-type golem, it was about to cut off several goblins that had jumped on me collectively.

''However, this isn't much different than when I was dealing with normal golems all together. After this place settles down, shall we run away until a somewhat stronger enemy appears?

If all you have to do is cut them off collectively or punch them away, you can just let them deal with the golems I have, so next time I'll only let them fight knight-type golems when a somewhat strong and swarming enemy appears.

''And it's going to take a lot of time to waste.

Luring and defeating a demon means that only the amount of corpses that are defeated will be created, and it's not good for hygiene to leave it alone. In a limited space, if a plague spreads, it's not good for the eyes, and it becomes a problem of responsibility.

So we'll have to collect or incinerate them, but considering the amount of time and effort we'll have to put into the dungeon, it would be faster to collect them. But I don't want to think about how much I'll have to collect if I keep up this pace. If that's the case, it would be easier to deal with them later on if I had them active when they were demons that could be utilized later on.

After modifying the strategy I had envisioned, I collected the corpse when the surrounding demons were gone, and when I was almost done collecting them, I put the knight-type golem back in the magic bag and started running.

'If we combine the map Garratt gave me with the 'search', we can proceed without encountering any demons.

Sometimes we had to take the long way around, but when it looked like we could break through, we walked past the demons even if they were there and tried to get to the lower levels by shaking off the chase or taking them down in a surprise attack.

''We've made it to the sixty-fifth level on the first day. If we can continue at this rate, we can get to the bottom level in a week or so.......I heard that the difficulty level increases all at once after the 70th level, so I should consider it good if we can break through one level a day?

I was able to break through the five levels before the date changed and find a good place to take a break, thanks to some forced progress.

I'm doing pretty well so far, but I don't think it's going to work out that way after this. The area I'm in now seems to be an easy one in the lower levels, and the djinn said they could proceed with no problem if they had a map, but after passing the 70th level, the terrain becomes more and more undulating, and the demons are stronger and more quirky.

I'm sure you'll be able to find a way to make it through in less than a day, but I'm sure you'll be able to find both the top and bottom passages from around the 90th level relatively close to each other. However, the djinn who gave me this information didn't think that there was a passage that led downward right next to the one they had descended from, and they had wasted their time in doing so.

'I'll have to thank the djinn again when we've safely reached the lowest level.

Thanks to the information the djinn and others have gleaned over the years, I may be able to reach the bottom in a few months (at this rate, a little over a month). I have no idea how much I should be grateful for, but I'll figure it out as I go along.

At any rate, we have to reach the lowest level first. For that, I'd like to get to the seventy levels tomorrow.

Having set a goal, I made a quick beef bowl, ate it, and put the finished bowl in the Magic Bag without washing it. If I put it in the Magic Bag, the dregs on the bowl won't spoil, so it won't be dirty the next time I use it (no germs will grow), and it will save water and time. I don't usually do this, but it's a rather well known adventurer's wisdom. Well, sometimes it's a pain in the ass to wash them... but this time I'm using this method for a little reason. And that reason is...

I don't know if I've ever been to an encampment without a Slarin in it.

This time, I didn't bring Slarin, Shiroumaru, and Solomon with me for the sake of my grandfathers who came later (but the other two (Gol and Jill) stayed in the house and did what they wanted (mass-producing yarn). This means that it would be difficult for Grandpa to follow Jeanne and the others, so he decided to ask Slarin, who in a way is the most reliable person in the house, to help him.

As for the encampment, I've been with Slarin ever since I was a little girl, and he was with me when my dad took me on my first night hunting trip in the 'Grand Old Man's Forest', and he's been a part of many of my adventuring experiences.

'That makes me feel a little sad when I think about it... well, it's the best way to keep Jeanne and the others safe, so I can't blame you.

That's how my first night went by.

By the way, I used a candle to know the time this time. I measured how much wax was lost in no wind, and marked hourly on the same kind of candle that I used for the experiment.

By using several of these candles continuously, he can get a rough idea of the time and date, although there is some error.

Basically, I leave them in my dimension bag and never take them out except for when I need to change them, but if I don't have any major problems with this method, I plan to use them in the future, and I'm willing to commercialize them using the Duke of Sangha's handiwork. Well, as a prerequisite for using it, you need a dimension bag, or at least something like a lantern to block the wind, and you need to be careful not to go into an anoxic state, but as long as you can clear those, I think it's a pretty interesting and useful product.

'I'll have to change the candles before I go to bed. After that, I'll have to send out some golems to escort us.

As usual, we tried to prevent demons and insects from coming in, just like when we rested in the dungeon, but in case something unforeseen happened, we sent out a golem for stalling and a knight-type golem to stand by in place of an escort, and spent the quietest and loneliest night since we were born in this world.