CH 97

TL:   Yuki

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「……Nn～～～～………Ahー, did it get cancelled」

As soon as I got up, I immediately created a Water Cooling Barrier. It’s still only around 5 in the morning, but the sharp sunlight on the open skies is already starting to heat up the surroundings. When I looked at everyone, it seems like they were troubled sleeping, but shows a gentle sigh of relief after it was deployed. Oops, that was a little bit dangerous……

I also immediately blanketed everyone with processed wolf fur so that they wouldn’t catch a cold if it was a little too cool, while the other early risers came to greet me.

「Ah～♪」

「Oh, good morning……」

The young babies that the children were carrying that woke up reached out to me smiling. Sorry, I don’t milk to offer to you little ones.

When I brought my fingers close to one of them, the baby grabbed my hand and started suckling. Oh, I could make some pacifiers for them along with proper baby food.

After watching the first one to grab my hand, the other two babies also reached out to me. Sorry, I only have too hands to ……and I’m sure if I grow extra hands using fairy magic, I’d end up frightening them.

「……Sigh, it can’t be helped」

「So, what exactly are you doing so early in the morning」

「G, Good morning La Veil. If it’s alright with you, could you lend me a hand for a bit? 」

「Ahー……fine, do as you please」

The early awakened La Veil squints as she stares at me. Right now my hands are occupied by two babies as I continued humming on the third one. Hey, don’t do that……don’t start moving around……I wonder if I could get someone else to hold them down……

「Master, how about making Arena hold them down when I’m sleeping?」

「You just want someone to replace so you can sleep some more right? This dragon」

Soon enough we have reached the 51st Floor, and as we entered, the atmosphere changed.

「……It’s indoors this time」

「……It kind of resembles a mansion, right? 」

「Dun……geon? 」

「It sure is a gorgeous hallway though」

「Sand Overー♪」

「「「Overー」」」

The place we entered looks like the hallway of a mansion. There are chandeliers hanging from a high position far ahead of the aisle, and the ground is comfortable to touch with a red carpet. There is no dust at all as if it was just recently built. There are also some finely crafted furniture stuck on the walls.

And as we were observing, Arena along with the children takes off their boots and shook off the accumulated sand from inside. Please do something like that outside, not inside a place like a mansion or castle……

「So, are we still in a dungeon floor, or are we inside a mansion? 」

「I wonder what kind of monsters would be in a place like this? 」

「……Well, that’s some we have to find out soon」

There is no other choice but to continue. For the time being, we started walking cautiously while keeping everyone as close as possible.

However, after several hours of walking, the scenery didn’t change at all and some children felt uncomfortable with the endless looping corridor, so we stopped for a bit and held an emergency meeting.

「Is this corridor just too long? Though it doesn’t feel like were progressing at all, right? 」

「Maybe there’s some kind of gimmick involved? We haven’t encountered any monsters along the way too」

「Is it some kind of trick that is not a proper trap? 」

「Probably. But……because things continued to not change at all, it kind of creates a really creepy atmosphere」

「Ah, I understand that feeling. It kind of resembles something that happens in a horror movie」

Is this really something like that? Let’s see, what’s something common on such western mansions……I see, then the monsters would also be……if that’s the case,

「Cielo, there was an old grandfather’s clock along the way while we continued walking, right? 」

「Eh, umm, yes there was indeed one」

「Do you remember the time it was set on? 」

「……No, I don’t rem「It was at 12 o’clock? 」Arena? 」

Arena confidently supplemented my question to Cielo. Yoshi, as expected of my best friend.

「Did you notice the needle moving? 」

「NnーNn」

「I see. Mika, I adopted one of your ideas from earlier. Alright, 1 point」

「Why did I get points? What are the points for? 」

「Do you want to know? 」

「……I don’t want to know it」

——————————————————————

After resting for a while, we continued moving again until we find the clock. This time, we walked slowly so the children wouldn’t feel sick from the repeating visuals. And finally, we found what we were aiming for.

「Ah, there it is. Well, the time is……as expected, it’s not moving at all」

The pendulum is moving, but the hands did not move even the one for seconds, and all the needles points at 12 just like before.

「What does this mean? 」

「Probably, this floor or rather this mansion was time stopped at 12 o’clock, the same goes with all progress in this floor. In other words, 『The Story of the Mansion』 still haven’t started. And if we want to continue, we need to start something to be able to proceed」

「「……? 」」

Cielo and La Veil tilts their head in confusion not understanding the meaning, but Mika on the other hand had her face turned blue. While Arena is,

「Hau~nted~House♪ Hau~nted~House♪」

She put her hand on my shoulders and started bouncing with excitement. I she thinking about this as some kind of attraction, well Arena isn’t really the type that would be scared of something like this. Now then, time to ring the bell that would start this with everyone.

「Alright, Arena. Rotate that hand once」

「Okay!!」

Arena opened the glass doo on the clock and spun the seconds hand with her index finger.

Click* Wooooosh*

「「「Hiiiii!? 」」」

「Ooooh～♪」

The lights from the chandeliers went out first. The hallways was blanketed with darkness to the point that even each other’s faces could not be seen. Cielo an Mika screamed from the surprise. I was a bit worried because there was no screams from the children.

「Children, Roll call」

After listening to everyone, I counted, resulting in everyone being present. When I asked them why they were silent, it seems like everyone was holding their breaths. No, you shouldn’t have done that, it’s if you’re scared you know?

For the time being, in order for us to move in this darkness, I asked La Veil to float a small fireball for lights,

Only after that we concluded, we’re not in the same mansion anymore.

「Isn’t this like really scary!? 」

Just as Mika said, even though we were in the same corridor, the red carpet became rugged and dark with rips and damages all over the place, the windowpanes and boards became tattered, and the view outside was in total darkness almost like a void. There are also broken pieces of chandeliers on the floor as if they have decayed after a very long time.

Adding to that are the traces of blood splatters all over the place. It completely turned into a typical horror house no matter where you look at. If it’s like this, I won’t even be surprised if something actually appears.

*Gushu……Gushu……

And then, from depths of darkness beyond the hallways,

footsteps 1……2…

With hollowed eyes that does not reflect anything, popped out of the boards, then the eyes shine an eerie light as they focused upon the children

Broken furniture also started rattling and floating all on their own.

And then, from the corridor behind us, slowly moving, a group of undead who barely kept the shape of a human, started flooding in.

It was a terrifying sight. The children who witnessed this horrifying madness couldn’t hell but fall down on their feet and tremble in fear. That is fine though. It was definitely better than having them panicking and running away.

Nameless Lv.126

Race: Insanity Ghoul

HP　5333/5333

MP　0/0

ATK　　 3591

DEF　　 4735

MATK　　0

MDEF　　―

INT　　0

SPD 　3800

【Inherent Skill】Corrosion, Undead Body（Curse）

Skills: Madness（B）

Nameless Lv.102

Race: Evil Geist

HP　10/10

MP　10/10

ATK　　 4500

DEF　　 10

MATK　　0

MDEF　　―

INT　　0

SPD 　4000

Skills: Floating（A）

There’s nothing like this that I have encountered before. Not to mention they are inflicted by an abnormal skill, even though they should be in the undead system already. La Veil and Mika prepared themselves and even Arena is in『S．A．T』 mode now and was ready to give instruction even is she won’t be able to fight properly. Mika’s 『Holy Sword』Skills should be able to easily deal with them. The children, even if they couldn’t move will be alright as long as they are within my barrier.

However……this was different from what we expected.

「Mika, are you sure that the confirmed level of this place is only 50, right? 」

「Y, yes…」

「I think I understand the reason why」

And them at the end of the passage, there was a certain『Armor』appeared from a magic circle.

Nameless　Lv.500

Race: Ancient Armor（Awakened+）

HP　60,000,000/60,000,000

MP　0/0

AK　　 50,800,000

DF　　 60,000,000

MAK　　0

MDF　　89,000,000

INT　　7000

SPD 　 100,000,000

【Unique Skills】Insanity（Curse）, Grant Undead,　True Holy Armor（Curse）

Skills: Madness （S）Sword Arts（SS+）Shield Arts（SS+）

・Insanity（Curse）

『Makes the affected target lose their will or reason』

・Grant Undead

『Turns a person you kill into a ghoul』

・True Holy Armor（Curse）

『Increase the status to 10x and disable all state anomalies. If you acquire these unique Skills, it will give correction medium for the Holy Sword characteristics.』

・Madness

『The higher the rank, the more effective the status will be. Current correction: 100x』

If it was a little while ago, I was at a level that I would probably be annihilated instantly if I were to engage on that enemy without even being able to do anything……

The one who made this dungeon must be kidding me. No matter what they think about this, even a normal hero would not be able to win against something like that. It’s like one of those super bugged characters that are just basically there to prevent you from completing a dungeon quest.

Cielo who saw it began to tremble and Mika who felt it’s killing intent was also frightened.

「Why, why is there a Hero’s armor……in a place like this」

「It’s so strong, I have never seen anything like that……」

I quietly gave instructions to La Veil and Arena. Arena who was already in 『S．A．T』 mode also made her moves.

「……La Veil」

「I understand. “That” is really dangerous indeed. I will also use 『Synchronization』」

「Un, if anyone else face that, they will certainly die. Arena too」

「It’s okay, I won’t be in your way」

「Well then, can I’ll leave the rest to you? 」

「……Can you really do it on your own, Master? 」

What is it now La Veil. Are you worried that I won’t be that on my own? It’s fine, though I would be happy if it could become useful for the children later.

「Well, it’s because that seemingly wants to challenge me. Also, it’s been a while since I’ve found something to challenge. For now, La Veil, please block the path the same way as you did on floor 20」

I could feel it, even within its helmet its line of sight was definitely directed at me. Perhaps it sees me as a challenger. There is probably no other reason why something with ridiculous status like that would come out.

「……Alright. Don’t die Master」

「Also one more thing. Arena」

「What is it? 」

「Will you hug me in my sleep after everything is done? 」

「I always do it. Do your best」

I don’t need to worry about anything anymore. I don’t know or what their intension is, but I’m going to challenge it even if I end up dead. Because that is the true nature of a fairy and fairy magic, to enjoy everything to your heart’s content.

This time, I could feel as if I was getting suck in an abyss while being stared at by those two eyes. That’s right, only look at me. And I will be only looking at you.

「Let’s dance, Phantom」