CH 170

Before we tackle the seventeenth floor, I explain the weapons I gave Hikari to everyone else too.

I don’t want them to be scared when they suddenly see knives exploding.

I also ask her to infuse a knife with magic energy and throw it at a wall to test it out.

The knife hits the wall and explodes, creating a loud reverberating sound, but the explosion itself isn’t very big. About one meter in diameter.

It’s a good thing there aren’t any monsters nearby, or the noise would’ve brought them here. Then again, did it make all that noise because it hit a wall? We need to test this further.

Part of it is because we didn’t know how strong these would be, but the girls get mad and call me careless.

And by the way, there isn’t a scratch on the wall.

We move on to the seventeenth floor, which is populated by hobgoblins. I’ve read that on this floor they tend to form groups of five.

As we go down the stairs, it suddenly gets quiet. The parties from yesterday are nowhere to be seen either.

Map updated when we got down to this floor, and there are fifteen reactions on the edge of what I can see. They’re pretty far.

The other party is probably out of my range, meaning both parties probably kept on going without resting. Or maybe they’re just that good. There’s really no way to know, because we haven’t seen them fighting.

“Do you think hobgoblins in this place do coordinated attacks?”

“I’m sure they do. Even goblins did.”

“Then should the back row focus on slowing them down?”

“If there aren’t any traps around, we should be fine fighting five of them. But if there are traps, we should step back. Or if we have time to disarm traps, we can do that and then engage them.”

I think about how to fight them, as Rurika and Sera talk.

We need to be careful not to be caught in a pincer attack if we back down, but it’s still safer than fighting where there are traps.

It’s dangerous to be focused on fighting where there are traps. Depending on the kinds of traps, it can be much more dangerous than the monsters.

We walk with three people in front, and I’m positioned in the back.

It’s normally better to have two people in the front, middle, and back row, but we end up in this formation because of the traps.

I activate Presence Detection and Magic Energy Detection from time to time, but don’t usually say anything.

Hikari and Rurika are great at this anyway, so I’d just be getting in the way.

We haven’t missed any traps so far. It wasn’t a long time, but staying in the reference room was worth it.

I don’t know if I would’ve remembered everything if it was just me, but I’m sure Talia being a good teacher played a part.

Maybe it’s because two other parties passed through here recently, but we haven’t fought anything so far.

No one knows how long it takes for monsters to respawn. It’s nice that we don’t have to spend the effort, but not fighting monsters also means not going up in level and not making any money. I wish all my problems were this simple.

Actually, I get experience by walking, so that part doesn’t even concern me.

We keep walking while disarming traps, and everything goes smoothly. And after half a day of moving forward, the gap between us and the nearest party has shrunk a lot.

“I can hear fighting in the distance. That other party is probably near.”

Says Sera after stopping.

I can see them on Map, but they’re still pretty far away. It’s incredible how she can hear them.

“Should we take a break? Or maybe go in a different direction?”

We discuss that, and decide to pick the second option.

We’re not tired, and there’s no guarantee that the staircase is in the direction of those adventurers. Actually, I think that leads to a dead end.

“Wait, there are traps.”

We keep walking until Rurika spots traps.

She starts looking at the ground to disarm a trap, and suddenly looks up.

“Something’s coming… Monsters!”

“Master, behind us?”

“All clear Sera.”

“Rurika, get back. We can’t fight there.”

We quickly retreat, and hobgoblins show their faces on the other side of the passage at the same time.

They start moving this way while making happy sounds over having found prey.

“Chris, use magic once they enter the area with traps. I’ll give you a signal, so be ready.”

We’re going to hold them back with magic.

Chris starts chanting, and then waits.

“Now!”

I yell, and Chris chants the name of the spell.

Sharp wind blades are fired from her staff.

They cut through skin and send blood flying. The pain makes a hobgoblin lose balance, which makes it step on a trap and disappear into a pitfall.

I figured this would shake the others, but they don’t care and charge forward.

“They’re coming. Be careful not to go too far forward.”

Sera holds an axe in each hand, and takes a step forward.

As we advance deeper into the dungeon, its passages have been wide enough for three people to walk side by side, but we still need enough room to swing our weapons.

But the same goes for the monsters, so two stay in the middle, while the other two move back and to the left and right.

It’s hard to fire magic when the fight gets messier, so Chris is on stand-by, ready to fire magic at any time. Mia casts support magic, and I watch our surroundings.

Hobgoblins are all about power, but only compared to goblins. One tries to swing its tree trunk of an arm to crush Sera with its weapon, but it’s no match for her.

They push each other with their weapons, and when the hobgoblin loses and stumbles, Sera strikes it down in one hit.

There’s one left in the middle, and after seeing what happened to the other one, it doesn’t jump to attack. Instead, it tries to be cautious, but that leads Sera to take the initiative and cut it down very quickly.

Hikari uses her speed to get close very quickly, and takes another down cleanly with two slashes.

Rurika is used to her opponent’s moves by now, but I think she’s trying to infuse her weapon with magic energy and attack that way, and it takes her longer than the others to take down a hobgoblin.

“Hikari, it’s hard…”

“It’s all about practice.”

It’s like Rurika is begging her to tell her how to do it.

Sera looks exasperated, but I think it’s better this way than if she tried this on dangerous opponents, so I don’t say anything.

We can’t do it during mock battles either, because mithril infused with magic energy is too sharp and dangerous.

“Yes yes, I’ll take the parts to prove we took them down and the magic stones, so please take care of the traps.”

After a few more fights where Sera and I take turns swapping positions, we find the staircase.

There are already people near the staircase, and it looks like they’re preparing to camp, no doubt getting some rest before the next floor.

Of course, we’re resting too. But camping near them is just going to lead to trouble, so we do it somewhere else.

It’s generally recommended to not mess with other adventurers in the dungeon, unless you know each other. It can very easily be the source of trouble.

I’ve been told specifically to watch myself, and I can’t think of any reason not to heed that warning.

“The other party might get here too, so whoever is keeping watch, be careful about that just in case.”

We have a simpler meal than usual, decide the order in which we’ll be keeping watch, and rest.