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Published at 18th of May 2020 12:01:04 PM


Chapter 61

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Chapter 61 – Underground

[It’s not very bright at all inside here.]

[Good thing I have this.]

After procrastinating on our choices somewhat, we decided to enter the hole.

The walls here do not emit light like those in the Labyrinth, so I ended up using the Luxurious Lamp.

Estel, being the best among us at controlling magic power, held onto the lamp; the lamp produced so much light that you’d think you were still outside.

[Just a teensy bit worried about the cave collapsing.]

[Ditto… Makes you wonder how this place turned out the way it did.]

It appears to be an unnatural place like the Labyrinth, but the walls of rock everywhere makes you think otherwise. This wall here is tough but entirely soil though.

The passages inside are surprisingly wide with a gentle slope. There were times when the passage was wide enough for the 4 of us to walk side by side.

Digging a hole this wide must have been quite the undertaking… Really gets you wondering how these places are created, the same can be said for the Labyrinth.

[Nn? There’s something ahead…]

After we walked for a while, we heard the sound of something running towards us from further inside the passage.

We stopped, me and Noru cautiously took to the front. What appeared, were 5 bow-wielding goblins.

When the goblins properly spotted us, they immediately used their bows to launch arrows at us.

[Uoh!? Those are archers!]

[The timing for them to have appeared feels so late.]

[That was kinda disappointing, ei.]

I have only seen the club-wielding variety up til now, so I was surprised. There wasn’t anything special about the arrows they shot though, I could deflect them with Pot Lid easily.

Noru blocked the arrows with her shield as well, and said something in a bemused tone. Estel waved her staff shortly after, and the 5 goblins turned into mince meat in the blink of an eye.

The attack wasn’t something physically visible, it’s probably wind magic. She most likely judged that using fire or earth magic wasn’t a good idea inside a cave like this. The sight of monsters getting diced by wind magic isn’t a pleasant one no matter how many times I see it…

Also, those goblins moved naturally in this dark place. Do they have night vision?

[May they rest in pieces…]

[They might have been a problem before we leveled up… I can only feel sad for them now.]

As we looked at the disappearing remains of the goblins, Shisuha had a sympathetic look on her face.

Is this place a low level region? This place would have been suitable for us before we went to the capital… But now that our levels are in the 60s, these goblins practically do no damage to us.

This place might not offer enough of a challenge to the girls. I was hoping this was somewhere we could do some “adventuring”, maybe I shouldn’t get my hopes up too much.

[But this is quite the dark place, I can’t really shake off that sense of danger I’m feeling.]

[Indeed. Is the Beacon usable here? We weren’t able to use them at the Labyrinth, there’s the possibility it can’t be used here too.]

That’s right. I have yet to try using a Beacon here.

I took out my smartphone immediately after that was pointed out, and went to the Beacon selection screen… and sure enough “Nope” was displayed.

[Ah, I can’t use it.]

[See what I mean? We should hold off on going too deep down.]

[Uーmu… But what if there’s something deeper down below? And If it’s a way out you want we just so happened to get one recently. Bam.(que doraemon sfx)]

[You mean “that” which we obtained from Item Gacha.]

So this place is something similar to the Labyrinth after all, nobody knows what lies in the depths. Turning back as per Estel’s suggestion is a reasonable choice.

But chances are we’ll get something if we manage to conquer this place. I think that alone is enough incentive to advance.

Add in the fact that the first thing we encountered here were goblins, that already speaks volumes about the difficulty of this place.

This is as good an opportunity as any, to find out what we can get from conquering a Labyrinth-like place. It’ll also be a good test to see how far our current strength can carry us. Not to mention I have a trump card of an item too.

=====

●Escape Device

Press the button to evacuate the party.
This item can only be used in locations that count as indoors, all party members must be in close proximity.
This item disappears after use.

=====

I stuffed this in my pocket, before we entered this place. It’s a very typical square box with a red button on it.

I can’t help but see it as a self-destruct button for some reason…

[I was planning to use this at the Labyrinth, but I’ll certainly use it here if the situation calls for it. Though judging from the monsters that we encountered earlier, it doesn’t look like the enemies here will be very dangerous.]

[Are you absolutely certain that it’ll be okay?]

I have 2 of the red button thingies, using 1 here wouldn’t hurt. We can just escape if shit happens.

We can’t be certain of what to expect only from the goblins we ran into earlier. So the plan we settled with was “keep going but turn back if things get hairy”.

=====

We have made progress. We made our way down alternating between gentle one way slopes and wide flat areas.

We encounter various types of goblins at every flat area, ranging from bow-wielders to sword-wielding goblins and shield-wielding goblins.
(ED Note: goblin slayer would have a field day in this place)

After reaching the end of this current sloped passage, we arrive at the next flat area…

[Uoh!? Wa, woah!]

The first thing that I saw after getting off the slope, was a ball of fire flying towards me. I pull up Pot Lid to protect myself from the sudden attack, but the fireball explodes right before making contact with Pot Lid.

Despite the suddenness, the heat from the attack didn’t feel much different than to what you’d feel from a hair dryer.

A gander at the direction where the attack came from, stood 6 staff-wielding goblins. Was that a magic attack? I wasn’t expecting any goblins that could use magic…

Magic circles appeared at the tips of their staves indicating their intentions to fire additional spells, but Noru had already sprinted up to them and diced them all up before anything could happen.

[Fuu, magic-using monsters. They are dangerous.]

[They may be goblins, but them being able to use magic makes them slightly dangerous.]

Noru returned moments after dispatching the goblins. Mayhaps being the spellcasters they were, the goblins didn’t react in time much less attempt to escape, and became target practice for her.

Uーmu, magic-using monsters have finally appeared. I currently have 60% magic resist, 50% from my Sacred Fabric and 10% from Estel’s passive. I wouldn’t take much damage from simple goblins even if they ignored my defense.

[I wasn’t expecting to encounter magic-using monsters in here…]

[We’ll need to stay vigilant as we proceed deeper down.]

[Fighters, archers, and now mages too… There’s really all sorts of goblins huh.]

[You can say that they have a “full party” now.]

Now that monsters capable of using magic have made their appearance, we need to be prepared to deal with them when they do appear.

There really are many kinds of goblins living in this hole of a cave…

[There’s also this kindー]

[What type is that one?]

Shisuha showed me the thing she was holding onto. It was a goblin that wore a black full body garb, its face was hidden under a black hood.

She was grabbing it from behind its neck, it was struggling in vain.

Is this… An assassin? They really are popping out of the woodwork.

[This one has been sneaking around close to us for a while now so I went and caught it. This is one of those assassin types yes? I’ll get rid of it now in any case.]

Right after saying so, you could hear the sounds of her grasp tightening which ended with a dull crushing sound and the goblin twitching one last time. Its limbs dangled down from its lifeless body, dispersing into light particles shortly after.

Holy shit!? Shisuha!? I may be used to seeing monsters getting smacked to the afterlife with weapons, but breaking necks with your bare hands is just… Being able to do such things without batting an eyelid unlike normal people like me, she really has balls of steel.

[Nn? Some black ones popped out.]

[Those are Black Goblins.]

[So that’s the Rare variant!]

[Probably, yes.]

We continued downwards, this time about 10-ish club wielding, totally black in color goblins appeared. These are Black Goblins according to Noru.

Remembering the Black Orc being a Rare variant, these ones might be rare as well.

Gotta kill em all! This is basically manastones running at us!

[Uhoho, this is amazing. Are Rare monsters going to start coming out from this point on?]

[Perhaps. It might be efficient for us to hunt here.]

They may be Rare variants but they are still Goblins after all. A single strike from my ultra awesome Excali-bar is enough to send them flying away in two pieces.

They didn’t even last 10 seconds from our all out attack.

Checking on my smartphone, I saw the manastone counter go up by more than 10 in this short of a timespan.

This is madness. This efficiency is too delicious. I already feel like I want to live in this cave.

Once we conquer this location, I’d want to farm for manastones here… Gotta figure out the monster respawn times here though.

[Hmm? We seem to have reached somewhere spacious. And that’s…]

[It’s the same kind of walls as those in the Labyrinth.]

[Ditto. So the real deal starts from here on?]

Progressing beyond the rare mob spawn point, we have now reached a big spacious zone. Along the way down we encountered more rare mobs, I have gotten more than 50 manastones from that one trek down. Places like this Dungeon are fantastic.

As I gleefully arrived in this new zone, I notice the earthen walls have been replaced by the familiar glowing walls and ceilings of the Labyrinth. It almost feels like we are in that same Labyrinth.

[I have yet to set foot in the actual Labyrinth, so this is what it looks like.]

[That’s ‘cause we went to the Labyrinth before Shisuha was summoned. That aside, how are we supposed to proceed from here on?]

The change in scenery is an indication of our progression methinks, but I don’t see anywhere to proceed beyond this point, it’s a dead end.

Might this be a boss room? But I don’t see any boss monster. What are we supposed to do in this zone?

Tilting our heads in confusion, we moved to the center of the zone.

[Wha, what!?]

[Thi, this is… a Magic Formation!?]

The moment we walked beyond a certain point in the room, the light of the glowing walls began to glow brighter. Following that a Magic Formation made its appearance on the floor.

[O, Okura-san! U, use the escape item!]

[Ah, right, hold on a sec—–]

My head had yet to wrap around the sudden turn of events, but Shisuha’s words quickly reminded me of the Escape Device.

But, before I could shove my hand into my pocket to press the button, The green light of the Magic Formation peaked out and all I could see was that same green light.





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