After returning to the base, our first priority was to rest. That said, we were hungry, so Maki and Aira had to work a bit more.
We’re taking it easy until dinner, and we finally have time to reflect on the battles.
“First, the mechanism to call friends. I noticed while rewatching the videos that like Shouta said, the first scouting group made high pitched noises with their wings. It was too minute for regular ears to catch it, but by using special audio equipment, I could tell they were emitting special sound waves.”
“And this sound was present three times in the videos. They are only used by the scouting groups to tell the others about enemies.”
“Then if we can seal the noise, we can get through without the enemy noticing?”
…Oh? But was it the same sound in all three places? We don’t know how far it reaches, but if it’s the whole forest, it’s weird that only scouting groups from the same hive were drawn there. There might be some way they tell which belongs to which hive.
Also, if this special wing sound spreads over a wide area and they can pick up on minute sounds, they should be able to pick it up through something like a sound proof wall.
“I did some testing while you rested.”
“Eh?”
“I was wondering what would happen if I played a recording of the wing sounds near the outer circumference of the forest.”
“Hnah!?”
Why did Aki do something so dangerous!?
Then again, the first scouting party would have a Killer Bee and a group of maroon bees, and I guess Aki could deal with them alone…
I guess some of them did disappear after we had lunch.
“Did you take Enki and the others?”
“Yes. And Kasumi because she looked bored.”
I thought they were around here, but I turned off the detection skills, including the map. I had no idea they were doing that.
“It’s not that I was bored, I was trying to balance myself because of my sudden level up…”
“Actual combat is the best for that!”
“…She said, and so I went. Sorry, big brother.”
“I see.”
Well, I can’t use my full power yet either, so I understand how she feels. But you wouldn’t think someone would use bees to train.
“So how did the experiment go?”
“I learned that they aren’t drawn by a recording. Not when I was at the end of a scouting group, between two of them, or in front of a hive.”
“In front of a hive… That’s dangerous. There really was nothing, right?”
“Yes.”
Then they pick up on something other than the sound, like a wavelength. We still don’t know from how far they can pick it up, but one thing has been cleared up thanks to Aki.
“Was that all?”
“No, we didn’t get to fight, so then I used a sound proof barrier to test what would happen if I attacked a scouting group.”
“Is that… what you used on the fourth floor?”
“Yeah.”
That was a device used to prevent our nighttime activities from being heard. I saw Aira use it and looked it up when we left the dungeon, and it uses both dungeon technology and magic stones. It’s what you’d call a future invention. There are two types, cheap and disposable, and expensive ones that have a rechargeable magic stone.
“I tried both a rechargeable and a disposable one. It was a big success. Even when I took down maroon bees locked inside the barrier while being right outside, no reinforcements came.”
“Like you big brother, monsters always drop small magic stones when my sisters-in-law or the others defeat them, so we didn’t have to worry about the barrier’s energy. It’s incredible. We didn’t attack hives, but we defeated all the bees around one without reinforcements coming.”
“Ooh. So you cleaned up the area without spawning Killer Bees.”
“Yes, that’s right!”
By the way, when several of them were inside the barrier, only the ones in the barrier were active. When they cleaned up the area around the hive, they always made sure the hive was outside the barrier. Fun experiment, right?
“Lastly, the conditions for them to respawn. You weren’t there, so we couldn’t tell where they were or where they spawned, but it looks like they really do respawn when no one’s in the forest. When we went back, there were a lot of maroon bees around the hive again.”
“I see, good job… But tell me when you do something like this. You’re strong, but I worry anyway.”
“Sorry. You and Aira burned out in that fight, but I felt like I didn’t give it my all. I didn’t let loose… Maybe I had too much energy because I skipped the nighttime event.”
Aki mumbles at the end, and everyone hears it. Well, that’s on me. Ah, see, Kasumi looks like she’d rather be anywhere else right now.
“Ahem, good job. You and Aira used it during lunch and in drinks, but we learned that their honey is a tasty delicacy. If it reaches the market, maybe more people will come here after it. So finding a way to safely defeat them is big.”
“Hehehe.”
“The last question is, if you use the same method to strike a hive, will it stop the others from spawning? Let’s test that tomorrow. Today, we should think about ways to more effectively destroy hives.”
Something with those absurd stats must have a weakness, or its presence on the fifth floor is unbalanced. We must have overlooked a secret, or this is just something with a stat that easily surpasses dungeon bosses.
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