The twenty-sixth floor.
I cut down the onrushing tide of monsters left and right, and pierce them with magic.
Unlike last time, I have my tyrant battleaxe, so it’s not that hard. But the very high monster encounter rate means I don’t make as much progress as I’d like.
That can’t be helped, but it makes me want to sigh.
I take the randomly flavored fruit from a downed trent, wipe the surface, and take a bite.
It’s peach this time, and it’s really good. It’s a little unnatural how I feel resistance when I bite into it, but that’s nice too.
After I’m done eating, I collect monster materials, and when I’m done with that, new monsters appear.
That’s what happens when I take my time.
I swing my tyrant battleaxe again, and run towards the monsters.
◇ ◇ ◇
I currently have four magic circles traced.
The first I traced was the fire one that’s on stoves. Then one that shoots out a small rock. I did these two on the same day.
Then I traced Blast and Break yesterday and the day before that.
I just found a nice open area, so I feel like testing them out.
I shouldn’t do this in the middle of an exploration, but if I don’t test them at least once, I won’t be able to use them when the time calls for it.
I’m using Rock Spear by activating two magic circles to create a special effect.
I’m aiming for the center of this area, picturing a bullet being fired as I shoot a Rock Spear.
I hear it cutting through the air, then it breaks off into several pieces and lands in the center.
And there’s a big explosion.
The intense blast it causes sends me flying against a tree.
I feel the damage my own magic caused as I hit the ground.
It landed about fifty meters away, but I couldn’t even brace for that intense impact.
There’s dust in the air, and I can’t even see what the ground looks like over there, but I do know something. This isn’t magic I can use several times a day. After all, my body is immobile due to running out of magic energy.
I have no complaints about the power of the magic. If anything, it’s powerful enough for me to hesitate using it, but if it leads to me being immobile, I’m afraid this magic is getting shelved.
Now I’m against a tree, focusing on Magic Energy Circulation to recover it.
The dust starts to settle, and as I get to see what’s in front of me better, I see a big hole where the Stone Spear hit. The fact that the wide area is even wider tells the whole tale.
Yep, this one’s getting shelved. I promise I’m not using this one.
I exhale, take a magic potion out of my Storage Space, and gulp it down. I wanted to recover with Magic Energy Circulation, but that loud noise attracted unwanted guests.
It’s not just a big hole I see now that the dust has settled, there are monsters on the other side of the hole.
I put away the tyrant battleaxe, and take out the greatsword of fortitude.
The option of running away crosses my mind, but I discard it when I feel the hostility closing in behind me.
I take a deep breath, and charge into the horde of monsters.
◇ ◇ ◇
Nope, couldn’t do it. I couldn’t beat that many.
Last night I kept fighting and took down a lot of monsters, but there was no end in sight, so I gave up and ran away.
I think I could still fight. My stamina was being maintained and recovering via the safeguard necklace, and I was using Magic Energy Circulation with Parallel Thinking, so I was only recovering a little, but it wasn’t nothing.
Still, I relaxed for a moment and took damage, and since there was no end in sight, that took a big toll on my spirit.
I managed to cut open a path and run, but I was still attacked from the front, sides, and above.
I shot down an imp with an earth bullet, made a silent condor swallow dust, bisected a trent, dodged a green slime’s attack with paper thin leeway, and raised the ground to jump far away. Then I just kept running while cutting a path.
I ran, ran, and ran, and thankfully, found the entrance to the twenty-seventh floor.
◇ ◇ ◇
The twenty-seventh floor.
Unlike the last one, the twenty-seventh floor is quiet. Compared to that mess of monsters on the twenty-sixth, I mean.
I didn’t sleep because I kept fighting yesterday, so I want to rest somewhere. But the tree ivy in front of me suddenly starts moving and takes the form of a large humanoid.
It’s a wood golem. The top half is bigger than the bottom half, making it look unbalanced.
It twists its unbalanced upper half into a punch with a lot of force behind it.
I dodge this punch that uses power from the hips like a human would, and get close to it to cut an arm down with my greatsword of fortitude.
I rob it of its mobility by cutting a leg, and vines stretch from both limbs to regenerate them.
It stretches its arms to get up, but I don’t let it. I keep cutting at its torso. It has a thick body, but I eventually find the red stone buried inside it.
I grab it and pull it out, and the wood golem loses its form as the vines loosen and stop.
So this is its core.
I drop it on the ground, and vines stretch towards it again. That confirms it.
I break it with my greatsword before the vines can swallow it again.
The encounter rate isn’t too high on this floor. Also, only wood golems appear, and at most two at a time.
This makes exploring it faster, but conversely, wood golems can appear where there’s nothing.
After fighting them a few times, I notice that they react to me as I pass, and the red stones emerge from the ground to turn into wood golems.
They also make practically no sound, so I’m worried about sneak attacks. But that doesn’t mean people can keep looking at the ground, so there has to be some sort of countermeasure.
I have Spatial Grasp, but do parties have to take turns watching out for them?
About half a day into my twenty-seventh floor exploration, I find a river.
It’s the first one since the twenty-third floor. The body of water on the twenty-fourth was a lake.
It’s only knee deep, but the water is nice and clear.
And I can see a lot of something with a golden sparkle at the bottom.
…Could it be!?
I jump into the river again, take a dark container out of my Storage Space, and start scooping it up.
After cleaning it, I take it into my hand and see it’s what I thought it was, gold dust.
All right!
I keep collecting it until dark.
◇ ◇ ◇
Collecting gold dust while taking out the occasional wood golem that attacks was a very fulfilling time.
I thought I was tired from being attacked by monsters last night, but once you put money in front of me, it’s like that exhaustion is blown away and I become a gold dust collecting machine.
As a result, I have about a fist-sized pile. I have no idea how much this is worth, but the price of gold is soaring nowadays, so I think I can expect a good result.
And the next morning, I meet other seekers for the first time in this exploration.
◇ ◇ ◇
As I look for the entrance to the next floor, I see a seeker party coming this way with a big cart.
They’re cautious when they see me, but I assert I’m not a threat by raising my hand, and they put their weapons away.
There’s eight of them, and judging by their weapons, three are front line fighters and five go on the back row. I don’t know if this is a good balance, but I imagine a party with an emphasis on mages is pretty strong.
They look really tired, and talk to me as I try to pass.
They tell me they’re done with their exploration, but they couldn’t get through the monster stampede on the twenty-sixth floor, and are stuck with no way to return.
They can secure food and water, so that’s fine, but they’ve run out of stuff like potions, and are asking if I can share them to heal their injured friends.
…Oh no.
I give them all the potions I have.
I tell them they don’t have to pay for them, and to instead tell me where the staircase to the twenty-eight floor is.
They give me an easy to understand map, and I go back to the twenty-sixth floor.
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Monster stampede.
It’s what happens when a lot of monsters spawn and attack. When a leader appears, it commands many monsters and they move out. This happens mostly from the thirty-first floor onward, and they have never made it to the surface.
It’s a hidden event, and monsters get pissed off when someone needlessly damages the dungeon, so caution is needed.
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Haruto Tanaka (24)
Level: 19
Skills: Earth Magic, Trace, Healing Magic, Spatial Grasp, Toughness, Magic Energy Control, Physical Strengthening, Poison Resistance, Storage Space, See Through, Parallel Thinking, Sewing, Limit Break, Dismantling, Magic Energy Circulation
Equipment: Agility bracelet, divine bird boots, greatsword of fortitude, tyrant battleaxe, safeguard necklace, magic mirror armor
Status: Fat (All abilities boosted)
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Yeah he can help them get through the floor safely!