Starting today, I’m going to be staying in the dungeon again.
The last exploration took longer than I expected, and I was running out of food.
I try to set up a schedule, but it’s easy to encounter trouble and ruin it.
Maybe it was because I was chased by a lot of monsters, but the last exploration was extended by two days. And I also feel like my calculations were too naive.
I should assume coming and going will take the same amount of days.
When I go, I’m on the lookout for treasure chests, so I walk a bit slowly, but on the way back, I only watch out for monsters.
It would be different if I took different routes, but there’s no reason to do that.
Today I’m preparing ten days worth of food. I bought potions and mana potions yesterday, so I’m spending the morning cooking and going to the dungeon in the afternoon.
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The twenty-third floor.
Once I get close to the dungeon, I take portacool out of the Storage Space, and walk through the portal.
I have a tent, blankets, clothes, camping equipment, among other things inside the portacool, but nothing too important. Food, water, and medicine are all inside my Storage Space, to make sure they don’t break.
Walking around with portacool once again puts smartphones in people’s hands, but does it bother them that much? I’m walking through a wide passage, but am I still not being considerate enough?
Once I’m done here, I’ll contact Ai and tell her they should probably make portacool smaller.
Although if they do that, it might be unable to carry stuff and lose its entire reason for being.
When I get to the spot where I camped last time, I tell portacool to stop.
It enters stand-by mode, and I take the tent to set it up quickly.
I just took care of it, so it doesn’t smell of mold or anything.
Once I’m done, I jump into the river in my birthday suit as always.
This time I don’t land on any green slimes, so there’s nothing to worry about. But as I try to get rid of the sweat and dust in the river, I see a whole lot of them wriggling at the bottom.
A chill runs down my spine, so I quickly swim up and get away from the river.
Looking at it from above, the bottom of the river is all green.
There’s no sign that they will attack. I don’t feel any hostility either.
I had a bad feeling and fear because there were so many, but that was all.
◇ ◇ ◇
The twenty-fifth floor.
The green slimes didn’t attack me, but when I woke up in the morning, they weren’t there. There are only a few basking in the sunlight as always.
What was that about, yesterday?
Then again, considering I was made aware of the mystery of life that is an orc child being born, green slimes gathering can’t be that strange. I force myself into that conclusion and stop thinking about it.
◇ ◇ ◇
A trent and an imp appear.
These two often appear together, a trent fighting up close and an imp using magic from a distance. Both are annoying.
I cut down a trent branch, and the imp shoots a stone arrow.
I duck to evade it, and focus magic energy into a magic circle.
This has the effect to create fire, and its power depends on the amount of magic energy used.
I create a fire ball the size of a basketball, and shoot it towards the trent.
If this hits, it should set it on fire.
But the imp puts it out with water magic before it can hit. I wanted to see what would happen if it burned, but let’s do it some other time.
I rev up the greatsword of fortitude and boost my movements with Physical Strengthening to end the trent in one hit and cut the imp’s head as it runs away.
If possible, I wanted to use magic circles of different elements to see what happens, but they use too much magic energy to use one after the other.
Also, their power is low enough for an imp to easily cancel them. There’s a big difference between having and not having a skill.
I should probably choose magic circles that match my skills.
I focus on Magic Energy Circulation to recover it, despite it not being that effective when I walk. But the monster encounter rate on the twenty-fifth floor means I should probably be done recovering by the time I have to fight again.
I think just before a green slime jumps at me from the side.
◇ ◇ ◇
I’m heading towards a cave to sleep in it again, but I can’t find it.
The cave is gone from where it was, and in its place is a wide empty area.
My first thought is that I took a wrong turn, but my gut tells me it’s here. Everything I feel through Spatial Grasp is here, except for the cave.
This is the place.
This is the dungeon, so can you not just change its geography? I think as I heat up my dinner.
I take the tent out of the portacool, and I’m done setting up.
Once I’m done with dinner, I take out portacool’s cable and supply it with magic energy. If I’m sitting down and taking it easy, I can even supply it while using Magic Energy Circulation. But being in a dungeon means I’m too worried about monsters attacking, so it doesn’t go that well.
There’s only so much I can do, even with Parallel Thinking. I still can’t use it to its fullest, so I should probably set aside some time to practice.
Well, let’s think about that later and just get inside the tent.
I’m attacked twice at night, but there’s no problem.
◇ ◇ ◇
The twenty-seventh floor.
I ran through the twenty-sixth floor to avoid encountering monsters.
Portacool almost got left behind, so I put it in the Storage Space.
Still, I couldn’t avoid being attacked, but I took the random fruit from a trent and ignored the others.
Now I’m on the twenty-seventh floor, and thanks to the last exploration, I know the location of the staircase, so I’m running there as fast as I can.
I follow the map I got from the seekers towards the mark, while taking down wood golems.
And I reach a dead end.
I’m… Lost.
◇ ◇ ◇
After wandering around for two days, I finally reach the staircase.
The problem was very simple. The map was pointed in the opposite direction.
What a failure!
…Ahh.
◇ ◇ ◇
The twenty-eighth floor.
I was supposed to start going back today, but after being lost all that time, I don’t feel like it. I want to at least find the staircase to the twenty-ninth floor.
I avoid the poison stinger of a killer bee, a bee about the size of a dog, and use the bigger reach of the tyrant battleaxe to cut it down.
I take down the second and third, but they keep coming.
Killer bees aren’t that strong. They only attack with the lethal poison in their stingers, tackling, and biting, so if you watch out for the poison, the rest won’t do much damage.
I also have Poison Resistance, so their poison shouldn’t work. Probably. I’m not gonna test it.
If it turns out I’m wrong, death would soon follow.
The real danger of killer bees is their numbers. They appear in abnormally large numbers, at least ten, but they can go over a hundred.
They use their numbers in troublesome attacks, and when you add their coordination, they’re really annoying.
I can take them down in one hit, but if there are a hundred of them, that’s a hundred hits. Using a weapon alone won’t do, so I use magic, but if I keep using it, it does a number on my magic energy. Even though I’m not using magic circles.
And when a tough wood golem joins the fun, it really makes me want to run away.
I need to think of something.
◇ ◇ ◇
I have the greatsword of fortitude in my right hand and the tyrant battleaxe in my left.
Both are two-handed weapons, and I really feel the weight in my hands. But I can easily raise them with Physical Strengthening.
I do a test swing, and it doesn’t feel bad. I’m used to them and have a good grasp on their reach.
This could work.
◇ ◇ ◇
Over twenty killer bees fly at me.
They clearly see me as prey. This self-indulgent body must be very charming.
I swing the tyrant battle axe sideways, and use the momentum to take down more killer bees with the greatsword of fortitude in an underhand position.
I spin again like a spinning top to evade killer bees, aim at one, cut, thrust, and sweep, attacking with a raging fury.
When I’m done, I see I didn’t get a single killer bee.
Yep, this improvised dual-wielding isn’t going to work.
The swarm of over twenty killer bees starts stabbing me.
Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!
That hurts dammit!!
I let go of the greatsword of fortitude and start swinging the tyrant battleaxe to clear them away.
I feel my movements are duller than usual, probably because of the poison coursing in me. If that’s the case, I’m only alive thanks to Poison Resistance.
I use Healing Magic while also using Earth Magic to raise dust. I use it to catch killer bees and take them to the ground and finish them off with earth stakes.
A good plan isn’t something I can come up with on the spot.
They’re battles to the death. I should do my best every time.
Much like I did against the flood on the twenty-sixth floor, I should use magic energy without conserving it.
If I get too cocky, I die. I would be dead without Poison Resistance.
Monsters are out to kill me, so I have to match that resolve.
With that deadly resolve in mind again, I get up and continue exploring.
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