Volume 3 - CH 5

“Lucee! Gooo! Runnnn!”

Luce ran on the wall, chasing after the fat looking gold colored rana.

Although both its face and stomach were bulging out, it was still terrifyingly fast.

“GEGOH, GEGOH”

The sound of heavy feet could be heard.

Why is it even that fast, running like that?

“[Dice Thrust]!”

Luce kicked off from the wall, extended her arms to its maximum and thrust towards the rare monster in front of her.

However, the rana managed to easily dodge the attack.

“Uuuh….!”

Luce scowled.

Since she launched that attack from a suboptimal position, she ended up diving into the floor instead.

――――――――――――――――――――

Monster: Grand Merchant Rana

Level: 90

HP: 22/22

MP: 135/135

――――――――――――――――――――

….in the end, she didn’t manage to inflict any damage on it.

“GEGEGEGEH”

Croaking with a obnoxiously triumphant tone, the fat gold-colored rana disappeared to the end of the corridor.

Great Merchant Rana…..one of the money toad series of monsters.

It’s the upgraded version of the Golden Rana we have prior history with.

It has stupid high stats as expected, with an 【Agility: 244】, and quite a bit of level difference between us, making its speed more than double even Luce’s, who’s a speed type fighter as well.

We chased after it, hoping to take it down somehow, but before we managed to pincer it, it noticed us and switched to escape mode.

I had Luce charge at it as a last gamble, but this was the result of that.

“Luce, are you alright?”

“I’m sorry…..I wasn’t able to take it down….. Even though I thought it was finally my time to be useful….”

Luce murmured with a disappointed tone.

“Getting that close to it is a praiseworthy achievement by itself. It was simply too fast for us….”

The corridors in this Phantasmal Beast Tower are wider than they were in the Angel’s Toybox, where we fought the Golden Ranas.

Trying to get around it and use [Shadow Stomp] like before is close to impossible.

That being said, even I didn’t think that we would run into a Grand Merchant Rana like this.

“Uugh….but my blade almost reached it….”

“Well, even if you did, with that guy’s high endurance, you would need three consecutive six rolls with [Dice Thrust] to finish it off.”

From that point of view, it wasn’t even really that close in the end.

“Huh!? Doesn’t that make the whole thing fairly reckless to begin with!? Even if I managed to catch up to it, I would need to roll three sixes in a row to take it down, right!?”

“W-well, I thought it might not be entirely impossible for someone like you, Luce…..”

There was not much of a chance of us succeeding from the get go.

However, what we could’ve gained from it was just that big.

If we managed to hunt down the Grand Merchant Rana, then our levels would’ve gone up by a lot as well.

“…..even so, we were aiming for only Grim Reapers and this made me use up quite a bit of MP too…. We ended up quite deep inside the Phantasmal Beast Tower too from chasing the Grand Merchant Rana…..”

Luce looked around anxiously.

“We should head back nearer to the entrance. This Dungeon has quite a high Recommended Level too, so we should watch out for the worst case scenarios.”

“Well well….I told the Guild to keep quiet, but it seems some mice managed to get in anyway….”

Hearing a woman’s voice, Luce and I turned around to check who it belonged to.

It was a tall, blond woman.

She was clad in armor.

It seems she was a Knight Class.

Next to her stood a young girl with indigo blue hair cut in a short bob style.

Her eyes were cold and emotionless.

I turned my gaze at the sword she wore on her waist.

A Rune was embedded within its blue grip.

An aqua colored Rune…..most likely a magic power boosting type.

Being in possession of a Rune like that most likely means that she’s quite well off.

I also remember seeing her indigo blue hair before.

Guildmaster Hallein had basically the same hair color.

And Hallein is a branch member of the Howlod Family.

“Snow Howlod…..”

I whispered the name I heard from Celt without thinking.

The first child of the current Lord…..and a coldhearted and ruthless woman, according to rumors.

I had a feeling that the Howlod Family might be behind the information suppression on the Phantasmal Beast Tower.

However, I didn’t think that Snow herself would appear here.

“You have some nerve, calling the young mistress informally like that. This place is not for the likes of worthless adventurers like you. I would ask you two to leave now.”

The blond woman stepped forward.

…..Snow Howlod is the one I pegged as maybe having something to do with the Mourning Trapezohedron incident.

I didn’t think that we would come into contact like this.

Although, this is perhaps a good chance to find out more about her character.

“We would like to continue our hunt, but is that an order from behalf of the Howlod Family? If so, then maybe you should’ve sent out a public proclamation to that effect and put a guard at the entrance, instead of trying to conceal information?”

They most likely couldn’t do that much.

It was not a decision made by the current Lord, but simply a young lady acting out.

They could only apply pressure on the Guild to suppress the information at best, since they don’t actually have the authority to restrict entry in order to monopolize the Dungeon.

“What a thoroughly impudent man.”

The blond woman narrowed her eyes.

“Izabella.”

Snow called out to the blond woman.

It seems the female knight’s name was Izabella.

“What do you need, Snow-ojousama?”

Izabella returned back to Snow’s side.

After a quick glance at us, Snow apparently whispered something to Izabella.

“Yes. Yes….. I see. I understand.”

Izabella changed her expression to a harsh one once again and glared at us.

“Greedy bastards like you, who don’t know their place, would obviously jump into a Phantasmal Dungeon as soon as you caught wind of it. Even if we told you to stay away, you monkeys wouldn’t listen. You would whine about misuse of authority this, unfair that, and go in without permission anyway…..causing you to meaninglessly lose your lives. We are giving you a warning in hopes that you will avoid such a fate. You should be grateful instead of speaking like that.”

Izabella said that like she was putting on a performance, complete with exaggerated movements, speaking like she was wholly appalled.

According to rumor, Snow was currently making the rounds in various Dungeons to try to improve her prestige with both the general population and the current Lord, by any means necessary.

In other words, they are saying that we are in the way, so get out.

“Izabella.”

Snow called Izabella’s name once again.

Izabella quickly lent her ear to Snow.

“Hm, hm….yes, I’m sorry, that was indeed lacking a bit in dignity. A bit more roundabout way….hm.”

After reacting to what Snow said, Izabella turned to us again.

“Think of both the information suppression and this warning as a sign of kindness from Snow-ojousama. If you dare to claim that as interference, then….you must have some considerable ability to back up that claim, right? In that case, I would like to see that skill of yours.”

Izabella stepped forward and put a hand on her sword.

This was starting to look dangerous.

Snow did not receive the permission from the Lord to monopolize a Phantasmal Dungeon, that’s for sure.

And because they don’t have any sufficient reason to chase us out, they moved on to try and intimidate us with force.

However….

“….why doesn’t she speak to us directly?”

After glancing at Snow, Luce asked me in a whisper.

It seems she was wondering about that too.

Snow was only speaking through her subordinate, Izabella.