CH 193

This day comes without us reaching any conclusions.

We’ve talked a few more times, but the conversation always seems stuck on the idea of checking the Dragon Kingdom of Ruflet.

The information we received is unconfirmed, but more importantly, they already went to Elesya and came out empty-handed.

I think the capital and the castle are all suspicious, but even if we assume Eris is there, the reality is that the castle is out of our reach.

“It’s nice to have you with us.”

We’re going to explore the twenty-fifth floor with Light of Hope.

I get the feeling that they’re nervous. Am I just imagining that?

“Same here. We typically move during the day and rest at night. Is that a problem?”

“No, let’s go with that. And I think we should decide if we should change that depending on how they are at night.”

I do the final checks with Joshua, their leader, we register as a party, and get going.

The first thing that catches my eye when we enter the twenty-fifth floor is the dense forest spreading out in front of us. Apparently we will eventually reach a lake if we move straight ahead.

This field is a forest with a lake in the middle. There are orc settlements in the forest, and the superior species orc general too.

As for the lake itself, it gets deeper the closer you get to the middle, and there are monsters called frogmen there.

At night the orcs turn into orc zombies, and the frogmen sleep in the lake. Of course, they’ll wake up if there’s noise around them.

Generally speaking, it’s best to get through this floor by walking near the lake, but there are orc settlements near the water too, so if we’re not careful, we might end up fighting them and frogmen at the same time.

Yes, orcs feel territorial about their settlements, but they make an exception for frogmen, and they can fight together.

Another problem is that if we take down orcs during the day, the orc zombies that appear at night get stronger, and the orcs respawn the next morning. I guess we can’t whittle the enemies down on this floor.

“Should we head for the lake first?”

The staircase to the next floor is on a diagonal line from where we entered, and its position doesn’t change on this floor.

This means that a straight line is the shortest route to the next floor.

There was a time when people chopped down trees to make a raft, and tried to cross the lake at night, but according to the records, it ended in failure.

“Yes, we don’t want to enter the forest and get lost. Let’s head for the lake first.”

Says Joshua, and everyone agrees. The members of Light of Hope in particular don’t have a lot of experience in forests, so it’s easier for them to move around in a place with good visibility, like near the lake.

Rurika, Sera, and one of the scouts from Light of Hope take the lead as we go forward.

Joshua, me, and the mages are in the center, with Hikari and the other members of Light of Hope in the back.

And apparently I’m in charge of cooking again.

“Stop. There’s a trap.”

Says Rurika, and one of the scouts checks the trap too.

This isn’t a trap created by the dungeon, it was laid out by orcs.

“This is to detect intruders. There might be a lot of these around, so watch out.”

They make noise when we touch them.

Are these traps just to find us, or were they made to let the orcs know when other orcs entered their territory? Not that it matters, the result is the same.

“This isn’t going to be as simple as the upper floors.”

“Yes. And we can’t burn the forest either.”

Apparently there were adventurers that tried that. They burned the forest and tried to move forward like that, but records show that in the end, they couldn’t use this to their advantage before the floor reset and changed.

The adventurers involved with that didn’t say much about it, so we’re not sure what happened. The records pretty much just say many of them lost their lives, with only a few surviving.

“I found one keeping watch, and I sense more in the back. I think it’s a settlement, but what should we do?”

Sera asks to confirm if we should destroy it.

We could go around and avoid it, but Map shows me we would just bump into another one, so we can’t avoid fighting. If we’re lucky, we could pass through a neutral area close to both settlements.

“Joshua, you and your party don’t have a lot of experience fighting in forests, right?”

“Yes. We’ve fought orcs on other floors, but…”

“Then maybe we should fight here. Or do you want us to fight alone first so you can watch?”

“…Does the forest change how we should fight?”

“It makes it hard to use large weapons, depending on the place. And we need to watch out for places where the trees are densely packed, especially places where orcs can hide. But we can also use the trees as cover for sneak attacks.”

Rurika explains how to fight orcs, and more importantly, how to fight in the forest.

“And our sorcerers should probably stay on stand-by until we reach an open area, like the settlements.”

“Understood. Can we watch you fight first…?”

Asks Joshua, and Rurika and Sera both advance while erasing their presences and silencing their footsteps.

We also spread out a little, and use the trees to create blind spots, mostly following the path the other two have taken.

If we all stay together, we stand out more, and it makes it harder to hide behind trees.

Sera stops, and signals to us that it’s aware of us.

I stifle my breath and wait, and Joshua and the others regroup too.

Eventually I hear something passing by leaves and branches, as Rurika takes off running this way.

She passes by the tree where Sera is hiding, and not long after an orc reveals itself.

Joshua and his party all grab their weapons, but the next moment Sera ends the orc that was coming at us from behind in one hit.

“In a forest, the safest way to take them down is by using the trees. If you can fight alongside someone else, it’s relatively easy, like you just saw.”

“So one lures, and the other strikes. And we need to use the geography to our advantage.”

They’re good enough to have reached this floor in the first place, so they are quick to understand and learn too.

“There are still a few more moving around alone and keeping watch, so do you want to give it a shot? We’ll back you up if anything happens.”

“Yes. We’ll do that to really get a feel for it.”

Says Joshua, and the members of Light of Hope take turns moving out with Rurika to bait orcs.

The trick is to grab their attention with sound and lead them in a way that doesn’t seem unnatural.

I’m honestly not sure I could do it well. Light of Hope might actually be better than I thought, if they’re able to do this after a simple explanation.

No, of course they’re good, if they’re on this floor. And they’ve been building on their experience too, so this shouldn’t be surprising.