Vol. 7 - Ch. 388 - ‹Cat-Dun› Round 2! The consecutive appearance of three ‹Wooden Chest›

The following day.In our journal of ‹Cat-Dun›, as the first day had ended on a satisfactory note, we were now on our way for round 2 of ‹Cat-Dun›!

With all the 11 members brimming with motivation, we re-entered the ‹Cat-Dun›. Our today's schedule was to make it till the end.

It was early in the morning, however a lot of seniors could already be seen on the first floor. All of them were girls. Barring a little prelude where I had to put in some effort stopping certain members who looked ready to crash their time into the cat's zoo, we boarded the teleportation circle and first took a shortcut to the 10th floor.

Hmm, why the 10th floor you ask? But of course, it was to hunt down the ‹Meowrrior›.

Field bosses usually get refreshed when the date changes, so it naturally goes to say ‹Meowrrior› should be available. As one of the few bosses that drops certain weapons, the primary goal was to lookout for the ‹Gold Chest› of weapon or armor.

This time, we were having Team B taking the helm in dealing with ‹Meowrrior›, who finished it in around 10 minutes.

"Gu-meow......"

"Fuhahaha, bring it on! You're just the perfect punching bag for the morning warming up!"

Lana, taking a daunting pose with her hand resting on her waist, said like she was sort of a big shot. Well, she actually is one.

Lana's long-range once again served as the coup de grace of this fight. It's not Lana if she didn't boast at such a time, eh.

"Fu, gu-meow."

"...'Fuh, so you are here again-meow' so it says."

Karua once again acted as the interpreter for the ‹Meowrrior›.

"For the love of god, I am asking you again not to translate their words......"

Seriously, just stop it! I don't think I would be able to look at the ‹Meowrrior› with the same eyes again! My instinct was telling me it's already too late, but, right, this should be just my imagination. I am not at the point of no return for sure!

Ahem, the drop this time was...... ‹Wooden Chest›. It seemed like ‹Gold Cat Coin› wasn't activated. What a bummer.

But I guess if ‹Gold Chest› were so easy to obtain, there wouldn't be any need to struggle that much, rIght? I am hoping for the best next time.

We hurriedly collected drops and teleported to the 20th floor. This time, it was us, Team A, who took down the ‹Meowlantis›. The drop in this round, too, was ‹Wooden Chest›. Seriously!?

With the bosses now being cleared, it was now time to start the main performance from here onwards. We passed through the gate and advanced towards our destination.

The 21st floor and onwards were said to be the other half (lower floors) of the Int-mid dungeon, so it was another bumpy ride. In simpler terms, along with the monster becoming more formidable, the traps had made their appearance in abundance.

Dungeons in the ‹Dungeon Activity› tend to have more traps in the latter half. One reason was as traps were the valuable source of income for the ‹Trap Disarming Department›, they usually exhausted them in the upper floors. S~ᴇaʀᴄh the n0vᴇl(ꜰ)ire.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

Since traps were a valuable source, just like harvest points, they were more or less left untouched in the deeper floors, which contributes to why they usually appear in the lower floors.

Among ‹eden›, the six of us—Karua, Shizu, Pamela, Rika, Celestine and I—were able to sense the traps, while only Shizu, Pamela and Celestine were proficient in disarming them. Karua was more proficient in straight blowing them, so unless we were pressed for time, we prioritized solving them.

Celestine was absent, so we had Shizu and Pamela on the frontline on either side, cautiously looking for them.

Whenever we chance upon them, we either disarm them or ran away depending if either of the options were available. But in any other situation, we opted to bulldoze our way by exploding them. Though I couldn't reveal how much my heart wept when I saw the traps exploding to smithereens. This was something typical of ‹Dungeon Activity› because they fetch a high price.

That being said, we also had someone who, despite having the ‹Trap Disarming› skill, was tripping at disarming them here and now.

"Eeek—! Another failure, and it activated-desu! The failure is really electrifying-desu!"

"It's alright, Pamela. ‹Recovery›! Once ‹Paralysis› wears off, you can try again."

"S-Spare me from spartan training-desu!"

"Hn. Should I explode them, Zephyr?"

"Please, no. We are currently training Pamela."

The success rate of Pamela's ‹Trap Disarm› was 60%. Perhaps attributed to her character, she wasn't that good in handling intricate details and as a result of her clumsy handling, she ended up activating them. So whenever she failed, Lana used her recovery and had her retry until she could disarm them. Don't they say, practice makes the men perfect!

Meanwhile, I somehow held Karua from performing her ‹Trap Explosion› skill to blow them away. She really wasn't a patient person huh,

Moreover, the damaged traps, even if we carried them, would either be negotiated down in price or simply discarded. Hence, I intend to secure them as safely as possible.

On the flip side, Shizu was an expert in handling them. Maybe it was attributed to her being a maid, she could tackle detailed and tricky maneuvers easily and release the traps in seconds. Perhaps, it's because of the difference in the DEX? Since their skill level was the same. While Pamela didn't have high DEX, Shizu's DEX value has already crossed 400. I guess that's to be natural in that case, huh?

Moving onward, aside from the traps, there were also hidden doors in the lower floors. The hidden doors that could be unlocked by ‹Universal Hidden Door Key (Iron)› were usually crowded between these floors.

We checked everywhere we could within the time limit. I also wanted Hannah to open some treasure chests. For the other places......we could only give up due to urgency. I decided to come back another day.

Well, we had at least managed to check out 3 hidden floors till the 30th floor, resulting in three ‹Silver Chest›. The drops were—

—Disposable Item ‹Fortune Cat Charmx10›, which grants the skill ›Luck› until the end of battle.

—Accessory ‹Moon Cat Ring› which added ‹HP+50› and ‹MP+50›.

—A recipe for a powerful consumable item ‹Purification Dust› which can cleanse the ‹Interior Abnormal Status›.

‹Fortune Cat Charm› in particular didn't have much use. It would disappear once we used it with a whoosh. We already have the blessing of ‹Sachineko-sama›, so the skill ‹Skill› unfortunately, very much unfortunately, couldn;t be stacked. It was really a pity. It ended up tossed into the bag. I will give it to the sub-guild when it's established.

However, the other two drops were quite useful. Sierra ended up quipping ‹Cat Moon RIng›. It would be scary if the tank ended up running out of MP during the battle. I was planning to loan samurai equipment to tank Rika later, so the accessory thus found its way to Sierra. (More precisely, I have plan to hunt Meowrrior for extended duration)

Though, for some reason, some girls gathered around her when I handed her the ring. I wonder what was going on, and I think I heard her saying something like "I-It's Zephyr we're talking about. There's no deep meaning behind it, probably" or so but her words were drowned by the voices of other girls so I couldn't hear clearly.

I tried to join in their conversation, but they chased me away. Oh well.

The third and final item, ‹Purifying Dust›, was a powerful item that has the potential to become a trump card. I definitely wanted to get it. I'll have Hannah make it later; there are plenty of materials in the ‹Cat-Dun›. And so it ended up moving in Hannah's hands. Now I just have to wait till we are done here and then I would quickly take it to Marie-senpai for ‹Decode Recipe›.

Rest of the exploration went on smoothly as we reached the 30th floor. There, the guardian field boss, ‹Meowtherhood of the Parent Cat›, was waiting for us.

It was a fearsome boss who could call forth three of its household: In other words, it was a boss with subordinates. As if Cat monsters weren't already a formidable force, now we even had a boss with three subordinates slapped together, making it even more challenging.

I fear we might come across some risk in dealing with it with the regular 5 member party so I decided to proceed with a 10 member raid. One would deal with the subordinates, while the other team focused on defeating the boss.

There was slight mishap in the beginning with the aggro mis-management, resulting in both boss and its subordinates swooping all together at once, but somehow managed to wrench boss away. In the meantime Team B was holding down subordinates, Team A moved in to take down the boss.

The treasure chest this round, too, was ‹Wooden Chest›. Somehow, it was ‹Wooden Chest› all over again......

Right, it's not that something was wrong with our luck, it was a common occurrence. Kuh! O' Great ‹Gold Cat Coin›, please bless us next time!

Fwoosh Just as I was praying to the ‹Coin› in my hand, I noticed the sudden gust of cold wind blowing in.

Wha-!? T-This is ‹Sachineko-sama› presence!? N-No, it's not like that, ‹Sachineko-sama›. With all my due respect, I was planning to pray to you, too, of course! ‹Sachineko-sama›! Please, bless us with the nice drop next!

Nod I felt as if ‹Sachineko-sama› just nodded magnanimously with a smile. (Probably just my imagination)

Leaving aside the strange prelude, we safely registered ourselves on the 30th floor's teleportation circle and from there, reached the 40th floor, avoiding the wandering boss on the war.