CH 102

“They say that one difficulty goes away and another comes back, but please keep that kind of thing only in the story…”

Three days had passed since the attack on Count Greedy……or Old man troll, and the Greg Trading Company was doing well and sales steadily increased.

“But with every sale we made, the number of Golems I produced went up, too.”

When a lot of things were sold, the reputation of the product spread, and people who heard about the product would buy it……It was a natural thing for anyone to want a product if they hear that it was good, and it was also gratifying for the store that handled the product.

However, there was always a limit to how much a product could be sold. Who would have thought that people would stand in line day after day, no matter how popular the product was? Especially on the day after the attack by the old man troll, the line of customers who couldn’t visit on that day was so long that it became a terrible thing.

Impatient, I responded by increasing the production line of each artisan golem by one line, but even that was only just barely enough, and I had to spend the past few days in the mines mining for more magic ore in order to increase the line by one more line.

“Come to think of it, today is the day those guys leave.”

They were, of course, Gyrmzak and the others. They were supposed to be sent as escorts to deliver a ring made of gemstones to a commercial guild to be sold at an auction in the royal capital. Today was the day the merchants were to leave for the royal capital.

Even though I could do away with the trouble, it was like I had indirectly requested them to do so, so I couldn’t afford to not see them off. It was a hassle, but I had to be there to witness their departure.

“Well, I’m just going to see them off, so there won’t be any problems. Besides, I have something to give them.”

With that said, I shut the door to the house and headed for the gate. As a matter of fact, I was developing another new product and completed the prototype around yesterday.

When I arrived at the gate, I found that even though it was early in the morning, many people had come to see them off. Among them was Kascher, the guildmaster of a commercial guild.

“Take care of yourselves, everyone.”

Kascher’s words were met with a loud “yeahhh” echoed through the crowd. I looked for Gyrmzak and the others, and when I spotted them, I approached them.

“Yo, looks like you guys are ready to go.”

“Master, you’re here—bafu.”

“Well, I’m sure you guys will be fine, but just be careful. And here’s a parting gift.”

As usual, I avoided Maylene’s surprise attack and gave them a parting gift. It was a newly made accessory. This time, silver ore was refined into silver ingots, which were then processed into accessories, the so-called silver accessory.

Gyrmzak received a necklace in the shape of a dog tag, Akini received earrings in the shape of a sword, Azul received a ring with a relief of a key, and Maylene received a choker in the shape of a walking stick on a leather cord.

“This is……good stuff.”

“It’s so cool!”

“Azul, would you like to trade that ring for my choker?”

“I don’t want to.”

Gyrmzak, Akini, Maylene, and Azul, in that order, each give their thoughts on the accessories. After all, it would seem that even in this world, rings were something special. I guess I’d better be careful about giving rings to women the next time…

The other two pairs that I called out to, one of whom was a young man, were a little more aggressive than the other. After exchanging greetings with Olberto and the other adventurer party I had called on, my mission to see off the merchant guild’s caravan was complete. By the way, I gave Olberto and the other adventurer some hairpins and a scrunchie as parting gifts…….

“I’d rather have food than this.”

“Then, can I take yours?”

“Ah, that’s not fair. Share it with me.”

“…I also prefer the food the boy made.”

This was it. The reactions of the men and the women were very different, which was perhaps good because it was easy to understand, but as they say, “dumplings are better than flowers. Moreover, the men’s group said they didn’t need the accessories I gave them, so the women kept the accessories for themselves. Is that okay with you, men……?

Anyway, I let out a sigh of relief that I was able to get rid of all this trouble, and turned my attention to the Greg Trading Company. There was a long line of people waiting in front of the trading company before it opened, eagerly waiting for the store to open. That’s a lot of people…….There are over fifty of them.

I went around to the back door, delivered today’s goods, and went out to the dungeon as usual. It had been a long time since I had attacked a dungeon.

Since then, I had temporarily stopped the dungeon to keep the store stocked, and I had been working on collecting materials from the tenth level of the dungeon.

“I’ve already automated some of the material collection, so let’s start on the 18th level today!”

Yes, from the 18th level. Hm? Isn’t it from the last time was the 16th level? …Tehe.

That was a joke, and it was true that the main purpose of today’s campaign was to capture the dungeon, but did I mention that? But it was substantial. In other words, the dungeon attack itself had been proceeding little by little, and as a result of the accumulation of such efforts, we were now at the 18th level.

As for how the 16th and 17th levels, they were quite ordinary dungeons, and I was able to conquer them without any particular difficulties, so they did not leave much of an impression on me. If I had to say, I would describe the 16th as a swamp level and the 17th as a sea of trees level.

The upcoming 18th level, however, was apparently not very distinctive here either, and the field itself was an empty wilderness. I quickly pushed forward and ignored all the monsters except the first one I saw, and as a result, I soon reached the boss room.

If so, the important thing was the boss, a bull-shaped monster called a Bighorn Buffalo, which, like the Wild Boar, was an inquisitive type of monster, so I used magic to attack it from a distance to keep it away from me, and it was completely defeated. ……Heck, where was this guy’s subspecies?

Well, I reached the 19th level without worrying about such things. I had not conquered dungeons recently, so I was a bit nervous, and the pace of conquering each level seemed to be increasing.

The area of the 19th level was a standard dungeon with a cave-type area from the beginning. The monsters that appeared in the dungeon were grouped together in groups of three to five. For example, there was a group of three goblins, and a mixed group of wolves, dash boar, slimes, goblins, and orcs.

The trouble with cave-type dungeons would be that the path itself was a straight path, making it impossible to avoid battles with monsters. And because the dungeon only covered a certain area, it was easy to get caught in traps.

As I proceeded, being careful of the swarming monsters and traps, before I knew it, I had reached the boss’s room. Even though it was on the 19th level, the monsters that appeared were not different from the ones I had encountered before, so I was able to proceed without much difficulty. In fact, the traps were a bit more troublesome.

“Now, who’s the boss on the nineteenth floor?”

Upon entering the boss room, what awaited me was a monster house. The room was much larger than the previous boss rooms, and it was crowded with a wide variety of monsters. Some of the monsters were C-rank monsters, such as orcs, and an ordinary adventurer would have found themself in a situation where they could not carelessly attack them. Yes, if they are an ordinary adventurer…….

“Let’s start with this one. [Lost Oxygen]”

I then activated the magic [Lost Oxygen], which caused all the boss’s rooms to lose oxygen except for the space around me. Then, the beast and humanoid monsters, whose main function was pulmonary respiration, instantly fall down. The remaining ones were insect- and slime-type monsters that didn’t require pulmonary respiration.

“This is the next one. [Multiple Wind Cutter]”

A number of wind blades were generated and attacked the surviving monsters. The blades of wind that cut through the vital points with precision could be described as a barrage of bullets. However, there were still some survivors. Those monsters seem to be C-rank rock turtles and other monsters with hard bodies of the same rank.

“How are the turtles still alive? I thought they breathed through their lungs.”

I thought so, but I surmise that perhaps when it became unable to breathe, it retracted its head into its shell and survived on the remaining oxygen in the shell.

“Oh well, let’s put an end to this one anyway. [Life ejection]”

Finally, using magic that ejected the life of the creature itself out of its body, the life force itself was lost, and at last, there were no monsters left standing properly.

“Yeah, it was a very roundabout way of doing it. But it was a good enough result for me to check the effects of magic I had never used before.”

Yes, if it were just a simple matter of defeating them, the [Ice Mist] magic that I often use would suffice. However, there were still many magic spells that I had never used before, so I wanted to take this opportunity to see how effective they were.

As it turns out, all of them produced powerful effects, but among them, Life Ejection seemed to be easy to use since it can inflict damage regardless of the solidity of the opponent’s body.

“Well, I guess that completes the 19th level.”

As I stared at the scene of corpses, I muttered to myself as if nothing had happened, but I no longer had the fragile spirit to be dismayed by the sight of monster corpses.

After storing the monster carcass in Storage and unlocking the transfer portal as proof of the 19th level, I finally entered the 20th level, the milestone of my campaign.

As soon as I entered the 20th level, I noticed something unusual. It was because there was a large response to my search. I confirmed it with my naked eye, and immediately investigated its ability by analyzing it.

[Name]: Galvatos

[Age]: 180 years old

[Gender]: Male

[Race]: Demon

[Occupation]: Familiar (Master: Mammon)

Physical strength: 8900

Magic power: 11000

Strength: A+

Endurance: A

Agility: A-

Dexterity: A

Mental Strength: A+

Resistance: A-

Luck: A-

[Skills]: Physical Enhancement Lv8, Enemy Search Lv1, Presence Blocking Lv9, Magical Control Lv7, Magic Manipulation Lv6, Fire Magic Lv7, Water Magic Lv6, Wind Magic Lv7, Soil Magic Lv6, Fire Magic Lv4, Ice Magic Lv5, Lightning Magic Lv5, Earth Magic Lv4, Dark Magic Lv9, Swordsmanship Lv7, Hand-to-hand combat Lv8, Focus Lv4, Flight Lv5, Intimidation Lv4, Magic Magic Resistance Lv3, Poison Resistance Lv4, Illusion Resistance Lv3

[Condition]: None

Wh…what!? Suddenly, it’s a formidable opponent! What’s going on!?

“Guhahahahaha, another stupid person has arrived.”

“Who are you?”

“Can’t you tell by looking at me? I knew it. Humans are stupid.”

“…..”

Apparently, he could interact with me to some extent, but not in a friendly manner. Well, it seemed that humans were the object of scorn for the demon tribe, so it was rare for the demon tribe to take me seriously…….

What should I do now? This guy was really strong. He was one of the strongest I’d ever met. By the way, the best one was that female demon.

If I were to say that it would be difficult to defeat him without getting hurt in a proper fight, I would have to be honest. If it were possible, I wouldn’t want to fight, but his atmosphere told me that a fight was inevitable.

“What are you after?”

“You don’t need to know that. Because you will die here!!”

Damn, I guess a fight is inevitable……. It’s a line often said at times like this, but he dares to say that. ……is there no choice but to kill him?