CH 197

We finally found a marker that’s on an edge of the lake.

No one knows who made it, but it’s an out of place statue standing proudly on a small island in the lake.

We don’t know who it’s modeled after either, but it’s said that its expression changes depending on who looks at it. The statue has a fancy looking dress, is holding a bishop’s staff in its right hand, and it’s holding it up high as if showing the way.

In actuality, that bishop’s staff really is pointing towards the staircase.

We take down some frogmen, and after checking the statue, we leave the lake.

Only a little more until we reach the staircase, but that little more is a long way.

“We should summarize what we know.”

“Yes. We probably have to consider fighting at night from this point forward.”

We probably have to assume we’ll be fighting through the night.

“First, the orcs we defeat during the day are revived at night as powered up orc zombies. And apparently they’re counted by settlement, not by the individual.”

“And each settlement is its own community, meaning orcs are territorial even towards each other. That means territorial boundaries are relatively short.”

Says Joshua, and Rurika continues.

“And I think the orc zombies take some time to appear when day is changing into night. It doesn’t look like the orcs we take down turn into orc zombies immediately.”

Yes, we’ve learned a lot through the battles we’ve had so far. We need to base our course of action on that knowledge.

In particular, at night, this part of the forest is filled with orc zombies all the way to the staircase.

We have some time to move, so we can run through while we can, but no matter how fast we go, we’re still going to have to walk through the forest at night.

“How about we rest early, and move out just before night?”

“That’s probably our best option. And it’s probably safer to avoid fighting when we can, and move as far as possible before the sun goes down.”

“…I don’t think we have much choice..”

“I hope we can find a defensible place. It might be hard with our numbers.”

It’s hard to rest in shifts when we don’t have anything behind us and have to watch over the whole area around us.

“Let’s just do what we can. Leila also didn’t stop our two parties from coming here, so she thought we’d be fine.”

“That’s true! Then let’s rest for today, and tomorrow we’ll attack a settlement and advance from there.”

By attacking a settlement, we secure a safe area until nighttime. Orcs tend to not walk into other orcs’ territory.

We’ll also use the time before the orc zombies appear, to take down the first ones to appear and move forward.

But tonight, we camp as close to the lake as we can, and move out just before dawn.

Then we move as far as we can during the day, and take over one of the orc settlements. I kind of feel like we’re a band of bandits when we do this, but this is what we have to do to beat this floor.

We need to rest well today, in anticipation of having to be on the move all night.

As soon as the sun goes down, we move straight forward. We chose to move through the shortest distance possible, rather than try to evade monsters by zigzagging, and take down the first orc zombies that appear as quickly as possible.

We’re going to be using holy water and magic without being stingy.

People are surprised to see me with a sword in hand and using magic for some reason. I guess it’s true that I haven’t been stepping up and fighting, but I’m pretty sure they’ve seen me fight a few times.

“This way. More will come if we walk a bit longer, so watch out!”

Rurika yells, because they already know where we are anyway.

We follow her voice, and there’s another group of orc zombies. We don’t even have time to rest between fights, so the sorcerers take turns firing magic.

I have a lot of mana potions, but we’ve been making adjustments gradually because drinking at short intervals lessens their effect, and we can’t drink that many anyway.

“Hikari, how are things behind us?”

“It’s still good, but they’re coming.”

I check Map, and see them coming in droves.

They’re not fast, so there’s still a good bit of distance between us, but the monsters aren’t just coming from the front and back, they’re coming from all sides.

We all know that, so we have scouts positioned to the left and right, always alert.

“I’m actually scared of what comes next.”

“What’s that?”

“I keep thinking we’re going to be billed for these expensive items…”

“Why would you? These are necessary expenses.”

We talked about this before, but I guess it’s different when they actually use the items.

“I’m going forward a little.”

Having more people means I can move a bit more freely.

It’s nice to be able to trust the back row to capable people. Then again, is it still a back row when we’re surrounded?

I fire magic and get closer as I take down orc zombies in front of us.

It’s easy to damage them thanks to the effect of the holy water. And most importantly, I’m faster than them, meaning I can take down more of them.

But of course, a prolonged battle takes a toll on my stamina, so I can’t keep this up forever.

“Sora, change.”

Joshua jumps forward and crosses swords with an orc zombie. Hikari uses that opening to slash it, and they keep going like that.

Eventually their numbers start thinning out in front of us, but there’s more and more behind us.

I try slowing them down by firing magic from a distance, but they don’t care, and keep moving forward.

They disappear when downed, so their corpses don’t even get in the way of the others.

“The sun!”

I hear someone yell.

I turn to look, and see sunlight coming through the trees.

It gradually expands and wraps around the orc zombies, and they melt one after the other.

It’s still a strange sight, no matter how many times I see it, but everyone’s relieved.

“Let’s check our surroundings.”

Says Rurika, and the five people that can scout look for enemies.

I also use Map to check for enemy reactions, but we’re pretty far deep, and I see none.

I can see the edge of the dungeon, so we’ve almost reached the staircase.

“There aren’t any monsters around us. What now?”

Joshua and I look at each other, and we decide to take a break.

There aren’t any monsters ahead of us, but walking through the forest still isn’t easy for them, considering how tired they are.

We also have breakfast, and take turns napping before continuing to move forward.