The next morning, after evading the girls’ temptations.
“Ahh, a fresh morning.”
“I’m full of energy!”
We’re full of vitality after waking up.
We really should refrain from doing that in a dungeon. I haven’t felt so full of energy in the morning in a long time. Looks like the same goes for Ayane.
Well… The others, especially Aira, don’t look too happy.
I ignore their eyes that look like they want to say something as we have breakfast, and we leave to the forest as a lot of adventurers see us off, including Shuu.
“So this is the forest… It’s not that dense, but it’s still covered in green. There are flowers growing here and there, and it looks about as thick as the Heart Dungeon, right?”
“Shouta, we can’t see the monsters from here, but can you see them with Hawk Eye?”
“Let me try.”
It’s early in the morning, and I have Enril fly to get a look around this area, but all I see are the thickly grown leaves. I can’t see where enemies are.
I can see them on the map, but Automatic Mapping only shows them as red dots.
I check out the red dots with Hawk Eye… and find it.
“…Eh? Am I seeing that size right?”
I see a flying monster with a big frame. It’s what would commonly be known as a bee… but it’s huge. It’s about the size of a grown man’s fist.
This would be impossible outside, but it looks less like a dangerous hornet and more like the famously peaceful Japanese carpenter bee. It looks angular and doesn’t have an offensive color, and it just looks fluffy. It’s kind of cute. But it does have a small stinger.
It would make sense for them to be made into dolls and sold like they do with fluff bugs… Are they really dangerous?
“I see it, but is this peaceful looking bee a problem?”
“Yes. They’re very troublesome if disturbed.”
“Please don’t attack until we’re ready. It would get messy.”
“Okay. But is it like the hermit crabs in the Heart Dungeon that called others?”
“Yes, but the scale is a lot different. I am talking dozens, maybe a hundred of them.”
Seriously? That would be trouble.
I finally understand what Shuu said the other day. If someone completely unaware messed with them, rather than taking on one, they would suddenly be surrounded by them with nowhere to run but the entrance to the fifth floor. And going there would involve the adventurers camping there.
…I see. It makes sense to check the warning beforehand.
“So is this part of why people don’t like this floor and avoid it?”
“Yes. Going into the bee area is treated as taboo, and not much investigation has been done in it. The goblin area goes without saying, but since the monster concentration is too high, even with our fighting power, it will take us an hour to reach the end… The mountain has a different problem, but I’ll omit that for now.”
“I see. Thank you for telling me.”
“Yes.”
I learned before from my mother-in-law that in this beginner dungeon, once you can reliably hunt a certain number of monsters on the fourth floor, you’re likely to be able to graduate from here. And with her blessing, even a D rank could be seen by other associations as equivalent to a C rank.
I guess that means the association really doesn’t count the fifth floor. But right now, goblins are being debuffed by fifty percent, and skill orb drops have skyrocketed. Things should be busy here.
I think if they could analyze how bees call their friends, they could hunt in the forest too…
“We’re ready, Shouta.”
“Any time you want.”
Aki and Maki are fired up, and fully equipped. They weren’t that fired up for the goblins, so are they really that troubling? Maybe they’re needlessly on edge over rumors.
I think as I walk towards the red mark.
“…Oh, I can see it.”
“True Appraisal.”
＊＊＊＊＊
Name: Maroon bee
Level: 24
Physical Strength: 240
Dexterity: 240
Constitution: 240
Agility: 240
Magic Energy: 24
Intelligence: 24
Luck: None
Equipment: None
Skills: None
Drops: Bumblebee honey
Magic stone: Small
＊＊＊＊＊
Bzzzzzzz.
“They look cute and have a cute name, but those stats are a joke.”
They’re not strong or weak, but the fact that their stats are filled with twenty-four makes me suspect that something’s up… No, I feel like it’s nothing.
Still, it’s a new kind of monster for me. I’m excited as I cautiously approach it. But no matter how close I get, the maroon bee doesn’t attack. I keep getting closer, and even as there are three meters between us, it doesn’t attack.
“Hnn?”
Its eyes are clearly pointed this way. And yet, it seems to be leisurely taking nectar from a flower petal. A normal monster would be baring its fangs at this point, but it’s peaceful. What is the meaning of this?
The sound it makes as it hovers is annoying, but it’s become more stable, and it doesn’t seem nervous. From my experience, only fluff bugs refrained from attacking when I got this close.
Are all bugs like this?
“Are they harmless?”
Bzzzzzzz.
I turn around to ask, but only Aira responds.
“It is still a monster, so please be careful.”
“Eh? I’m sorry Shouta, I can’t really hear you!”
“It’s so loud!”
It looks like the sound it makes is too loud.
I can hear them thanks to Perception Strengthening II, but is it rough for them? Well, Aira can just read my lips.
Still, even if it doesn’t attack, I’m getting nowhere looking at it like this. Let’s see if it calls friends. I point my sword at the maroon bee, and bisect it.
‘Vv! Bzzzzzz…’
Just before it turns to smoke, a shrill sound echoes from its wings for a moment.
“Oh!?”
Was that the signal? Suddenly, red dots appear all over the place on the map, and all the red dots nearby begin to swarm in this direction. About sixty.
If red dots that weren’t there before appeared, does that mean rare monsters have special summoning conditions here too?
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