Chapter 48 Break the Wall in Your Way
I noticed something a bit odd when I woke up. There's some kind of presences outside the wall.
I silently get close to the wall and put my ear on it.
"Weird. It's been three days since the target entered the dungeon. If everything went well, we should have bumped into him by now."
"Fumu. He was acting alone after all, maybe he got done in along the way?"
"Nah, the guy's said to have a tamed monster with him. I don't think he'd go down that easily. Maybe he's already ahead of us even."
"So, what are we gonna do. The target is only a 15 year old kid, we can't exactly go back empty handed now, can we?"
Looks like there's four of them. Three men, one woman. From the tamed monster part, they're most likely coming for me. They're probably planning a stakeout before the boss room here. Never in their wildest dream that their target was already hiding himself here. Now then, what I'd do depend on what they'd do.
"Jamito-sama said it's ok to give the boy a good shaking. Naina, how 'bout we keep a lookout on him here?"
"Let's see, we were rushing here without resting, so that might be a good idea."
"Then we should get ready, Waina. Well, it's just the same as always though. Gramp Kakkuriko, are your waist all right?"
"Sigh, getting old sure is tough. Been awhile since I last stayed inside a dungeon."
OK, got their confession. That Jamito guy sure acts fast, I expect nothing less from a big merchant. I'd love to strike first and end it quick, but they're humans and of the same trade as me. If I don't do this right, I'll be the one at a disadvantage instead.
I should look over again what hands and magic I can play here.
……
<TLN: If you're reading this novel at any other site than Sousetsuka .com you might be reading an unedited, uncorrected version of the novel.>
…………
"Phew, I'm stuffed. Now time to decide on the shift and get some rest... Wha, oy. The hell yer' sleepin' before me."
"Sorry Waina, looks like the fatigue caught up to me. I'll change with you later, Jelind, you go firss~"
""Zzzzzzzz""
"Dammit, I'm getting real sleepy too. Weird, why am I so drows... Gusupii."
Behind the four adventurers who're sleeping like a log, a wall disappeared.
Alright, it went well.
For this, I used fine powder from the first of poisonous mushroom series, 『Sleepshroom』. I opened a vent and scattered the fine powder outside using wind magic. The result is just as you can see.
Now then, gotta get these guys...
I put magic on each of them. It's a modified version of dark magic's Curse. Curse, just like the name suggest, is a curse magic, I've weakened its binding force to turn into into a a kind of pledge magic. It's a one-sided pledge though! Truly barbaric indeed. Well, I'm not capable of giving extreme orders though.
By this magic, if any of them attempts to cause harm to us, they would feel like they're trying to harm each of their most important person or thing. With this, they would falter even for an instant when it came down to it. Looking at their Status, their States are shown as Healthy. Aw yeah, just as I guessed, Curses don't get displayed on it.
You've got to go the extra mile it can't be traced back, this is important.
By the way, I asked Master to be a guinea pig of this magic, it made him to be reminded of his late wife when he saw me, prompting him to hug me with all his strength. With Master's crazy strength! I thought my spine was breaking that time.
I can't bring myself to kill these four, so I'm leaving them inside a stone wall-made room that'd disappear in six hours. They'll sleep for two hours, so please enjoy getting locked in for the remaining four hours. I ain't gonna take responsibility if you contracted claustrophobia 'k.
I should beat the boss in the meantime.
Apparently, Floor Boos exists on every five floor of a dungeon. However, what will spawn out is randomized, those with bad luck sometimes encounter monsters that normally don't appear on shallow floor. Alas, with what I said just now, felt like I just set myself a flag.
I buff myself with magic and step inside the boss room. I've confirmed by sight that the entrance is now covered in red haze, I can no longer escape. Now then, wonder what's gonna show up.
Orc Shielder Lv22
HP:180/180 MP:48/48
A big pig faced monster. Even though it can't move quickly, its strength is enormous, each of its hit is dangerous.
Like Goblins, Orcs breed by impregnating female of other races, so they are extremely shunned. Shielder is a class that only special orcs can become, they host relatively upper class ability.
Knew it---. Its infamy is authentic, mom. Outwardly it looks exactly like Ha*-sama though... Bet it's gonna swing around some lethal blunt instrument anytime now.
I won't get anywhere complaining, so I unsheathe Lunar Cat and observe the orc's movements. Tama-chan is on the lookout slightly away from me. I instructed Tama-chan to move on her own judgment while I looked at the orc.
On the opposite side, the Orc Shielder is observing us after taking some kind of martial-art stance.
We're squaring off for a while but it doesn't seem like the orc is gonna make a move. To begin with, it's called Shielder yet doesn't even carry a shield. Creepy.
Nothing will come out of this stand-off, I'll take the first move.
"<<Icicle Bullet>>!"
The instant I cast the magic, a huge ice bullet appeared at the tip of my finger and shot out toward the Orc Shielder at high speed.
CLAAAANK
However, it was erased midair before it could even reach the Orc Shielder.
What!?
"<<Icicle Magnum>>"
A sharper spinning bullet bigger than the one before shot out toward the Orc Shielder, but it too disappeared midair.
I saw that they both disappeared at exactly the same place. Shielder... You mean it's more like a barrier!?
Then how about physical attacks. I take out an iron spear and throw it with all my might.
FWOSH
Since my Throwing skill has leveled up, its force has also increased by one rank.
Something like barrier should be broken if it's hit by a force stronger than it! I mean even that certain lab gets constantly cracked. Break like a cracking rice cracker would!
CLAAAANK
With a high-pitched noise, the spear was repelled and fell down slightly away. Looking closer, the spear's tip is chipped. Is the barrier itself has a repelling force on it or something?
It might be bad for me if I carelessly shot out a big move and it got reflected back on me. Ok, what to do now.
How about Lunar Cat, it will restore itself immediately even if it's chipped, wonder if the barrier will hit its limit if I keep slashing at it?
I immediately act on it after thinking so. From Attack Form, I run toward the location where the spear was repelled earlier.
I swung down Lunar Cat with all my might, the blade felt like it hit something really hard and got repelled back with a high pitched noise. What I learned from hitting it myself was that there were some kind of vibrations transmitted to me, my hand that was holding Lunar Cat felt numb.
I kept at it and tried to slash upward, but that was when the Orc Shielder made its move. It thrust up its palm from below, something invisible shot out of it, and turned into a shockwave that blew my abdomen.
"Gaha"
What!? I took some distance away while enduring a pain that felt like it was from a body blow. Apparently, its invisible attack can't reach that far. But, that hit just passed through my Stone Skin.
Analyzing while healing myself, perhaps it made use barrier-like force as a mean to attack? My inside felt like it was getting rocked. I figure that Orc Shielder most likely cannot unleash that attack without taking that stance. I should be able to resume my attack as long as I watch out for it.
Very well, let's resume then!
My side slash was blocked by something invisible too. However, I put more strength into both my arms to push through it this time.
CLIIIIINK
It sounded like something got scraped off. Looking closely, Lunar Cat's blade has many chips that are gradually getting restored on it.
Orc Shielder whose face was looking composed up until just now is glaring at me loathfully. And then it tried to thrust out its palm to redo the attack earlier.
I match its movements and dodge the attack. Per my calculation, I got away from that palm-attack trajectory as it missed me. It seems to be a technique to shoot out its barrier upward from its palm.
I continue to slash at the barrier while watching out for the palm attacks.
After many slashes, the resistance feels weaker than before. Would it get completely shaved down if I kept this up?
Previous Chapter