“But what does the beast king want? I understand calling you, but why me?”
“I assume he wants you to have a look at them, because he saw how strong you are.”
Nene is talking about the people from their party that died in the dungeon.
And sure enough, when we get to the castle, the beast king leads us to where they are sleeping.
“We tried all sorts of things, to no avail. Then a priest suggested that this might be some kind of curse. Seeing you today made me remember that, so I was thinking those incredible abilities of yours might cure them.”
The beast king explains why we’re here, and Mia looks at the people lying down, with a perplexed expression on her face.
I also look, and all I see is people sleeping. But then I realize they don’t appear to be breathing.
They remind me of Mia when I used the god killing dagger.
I cast Appraisal on them, and the word Protection appears. Then I try to look into it further with Analysis, but nothing else appears.
“I don’t think I can do anything. No, I could lift this, but that would be bad for them. At least that is what I feel. It’s not really a curse, I think they were put in this condition to protect them.”
Mia doesn’t know it exactly, but she’s talking about the Protection status.
“Then I guess we have to beat that dungeon.”
Says the beast king while looking at Nene, and she silently nods.
◇ ◇ ◇
“Ah, welcome back. So what did the beast king want?”
I’m asked, so I explain to everyone what I saw.
“So even Mia couldn’t do it?”
“Yes, it was too much for me. I think Miss Eliana might learn something if she examines them directly.”
That would be tricky.
Eliana can’t move from the tenth floor of the Altair dungeon, but to get there, we have to get through it up to the tenth floor.
There’s not really much problem until the seventh floor, but it gets harsher after that.
In particular, I don’t want to pass by that place that sucks magic energy, especially since there’s a higher than zero chance that it might undo the Protection status.
Actually, Mia said she was capable of doing it too.
“So we decided to head to the ninety-first floor tomorrow. Are you okay with that?”
“It’s fine by me. I didn’t really get the written materials.”
“Yes, let’s fight and be careful.”
Hikari says, agreeing with Rurika.
It’s true that the manticores don’t really have any specific traits, so we won’t know what they’re like until we fight them.
It might be dangerous, but when we don’t have a lot of information, all we can do is be careful as we go.
As for the equipment, I think we have the best we can get, so no complaints there.
I think this composition is a little skewed towards offense, but as they say, a good offense is the best defense.
“Ah, but he said he wants to see us fight, so I think we’ll fight on our own first.”
The beast king said he wants to see us fighting monsters.
Of course, if the summoned monsters give us trouble, they’ll jump right in.
We could go to a lower floor if they just want to see us fight, but the beast king said that wouldn’t give them an accurate reading of our power. But I also think it has to do with him wanting to finish the dungeon quickly to save his friends.
He also said that there are a lot more people in that condition.
Some woke up in the revival room and were never in that condition, but some of those are still suffering from after-effects.
Those after-effects vary from person to person, but some have nightmares, some suddenly feel pain sometimes, among others whose lives are being affected.
Then, we start preparing for tomorrow and talk about fighting manticores.
As before, Kaina and I will block attacks, and the attackers will look for openings to strike. I’m curious to see how good the manticores’ defense is.
That’s how little information we have about them.
There was a lot of information about people going at them with raw power, but that was it.
According to Nene, when the beast king saw that in the reference room, his eyes were shining.
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Thanks for the treat.