Sousetsuka

 4





"Oh."

"What's wrong?"

"Well. Another magic beast spawned immediately after those three beat the previous one."

"Is there anything weird about that?"

"In my former world, magic beasts inside dungeons take some time to respawn once they've been defeated. Same with Dungeon Golbul. Same with Dungeon Ninae. But this dungeon is different. Proof that dungeons in this world can have differing types and mechanisms."

"You look like you're having so much fun, Lecan-dono."

(Me, having fun?)

(Of course I am.)

Immersing himself in dungeon explorations like this is Lecan's greatest pleasure in life. And he hadn't been inside a decent dungeon for a while, which made this expedition more exciting.

Lecan grinned and laughed.

"We're entering."

"Yes. That's fine and all."

"What's up."

"Please let me fight for once."

"Haven't you been all this time."

"Not at all. I haven't swung my sword even once. Lecan-dono took care all of the magic beasts."

He's right.

"Alright. I won't lift a finger this time around. Suit yourself."

The two went in the room.

A <Black Body> White Spectre holding a halberd stood inside.

Arios didn't go straight to defeating it, he instead observed its reactions while dodging its attacks. Then, he slowly dealt damage on the enemy over time, not to defeat it but to confirm the black armored rind's traits and weaknesses.

Just when Lecan was about to call him out of irritation, Arios swiftly killed the enemy.

"Found out anything?"

"Its overall defensive power was just too weak I couldn't really grasps its weakness. I just know that it didn't slow down much even while suffering damage. That aside, I'm getting hungry."

Right, they haven't had lunch.

Each and every floors in Dungeon Tsubolt are gigantic, just moving around takes a lot of time. It's evening already.

"We'll have a meal in an empty room on the next floor."

Every floors have many people on it. Sitting down on the passageways to have meals could get in the way of other people.

Lecan and Arios went down to floor 8.

By this point, sprinting down the stairways with <Concealment> on is already a routine to them.

"Lecan-dono. Those adventurers walking on the stairs looked really confused."

"No worries. I've got us <Conceal>ed."

"It looks to me <Concealment> won't completely hide our presence if we move around too much."

"That's cause I'm not adept enough at the spell. Just right, I'll take this opportunity to hone <Concealment> in stairways."

"You're putting your effort in the wrong direction. No wait, I guess it's the right direction?"

They got in a vacant room, had meal, defeated floor 8's giant variant and went downstairs.

Both rooms on the floor were occupied once again, but it soon cleared up when they waited in front of a room.

Lecan noticed one thing as he set foot on floor 10 after defeating the giant variant on floor 9.

"Hou. This floor's got two magic beasts in each room."

"Is that so."

There's also two rooms that lead to floor 11 here.

Fortunately, one of them is close by.

The two went straight to the stairway room and defeated the magic beasts there.

"Ordinary adventurers must find it challenging going up against two of these beasts after getting used to dealing with only one."

"Yeah?"

The White Spectres around this floors can be easily beaten with swords or <Flame Spear (Bandroux)>.

Lecan doesn't see how a group of competent enough three or four adventurers can find them hard.

"And besides, they move so much faster than all the Zagg before."

"Yeah?"

"Oh just forget it."

It was late at night already, around midnight.

"Let's go back to the inn, Lecan-dono. I'm tired."

"No. We're staying in the dungeon tonight."

"We can sleep tight if we just get back to <Rafin's Rock Terrace Inn>."

"One cannot explore dungeons without mastering the ability to sleep tight inside a dungeon."

"That's not true, not for this dungeon at least."

"Besides, there's no telling when the boss rooms are vacant."
<TLN: Catch the latest updates and edits at Sousetsuka .com >
"Boss rooms?"

"Rooms with giant variants."

"Huh? You mean to say they're occupied right now?"

"One of the rooms have people inside. They're likely engaged in a fight already. The other room got eight guys idling in front of it."

"Could it be, Lecan-dono. You planned to keep going had not for the preceding visitors at those two rooms?"

"Of course."

Arios let out a long sigh.

"Let's just get to resting."

They went in a vacant room and slept.

The following morning, they took it easy waking up and having breakfast, resuming the exploration around two of Small Turtle period.

They went straight to the boss rooms on floors 11-17. The enemy gradually got even stronger, but not enough to cause trouble for Lecan and Arios yet. The two had meals in a vacant room and resumed the expedition.

They got through floor 18 and 19, then on floor 20, the enemy number turned to three per room. They beat the three giant variants no problem and reached floor 21.

"Looks like there will be one additional enemy every ten floors."

"Sounds right."

"Does that mean there will be ten of them on floor 90s?"

"We don't know yet, but that's likely."

"It's been bothering me, all the rooms from floor 1 to this floor have the same size, right?"

"Hm? I suppose."

"Ten enemies in this space would make it hard to move around, don't you think?"

"You'll be fine."

"I will. But I'm talking in general terms here."

"Can't say it's spacious, yeah."

"I'm guessing that the adventurers can only get ten people in at most as well. More than that and they won't be able to move well. No, even ten would be a struggle for those with heavy weapons and mages."

"What about it."

"Well. I just think this is one nasty dungeon."

"That's what makes it fun."

Arios turned at Lecan, looking slightly troubled.

"I suppose you just have to practice with your party members to the point you can coordinate together well in a cramped place."

"Damn right."

"Why do you sound like you're bragging."

They explored up to floor 26 that day. Four swords got dropped, one of them had <Power Increase> grace.

Other than that, there were two small red potions, one medium red potion, and one small blue potion.

They entered 15 rooms and defeated 36 magic beasts that day, with four treasure chests dropped. The drop rate isn't too bad at this point. And most were swords.

Along with the <Acceleration Sword> they got yesterday, two Grace Gear got dropped in two days. Another thing to look forward to as they delve deeper below.

Arios got the potions.

While Lecan kept the magic stones.

For the time being, all the swords were left to Lecan.

Arios correctly guessed that an enemy held a <Power Increase> sword when they first encountered it. Later Lecan asked him if that was some sort of skill, but he denied it. Arios seems to possess insight that enables him to tell special swords apart.

But Lecan was clueless about that. It's just impossible for him to tell whether a weapon is a grace gear or not when it's still being wielded by a magic beast.

The two went back to <Rafin's Rock Terrace Inn>.

"Tomorrow is an off day right?"

"No. We're going in the dungeon."

"Won't you please make it an off day?"

"I won't."

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3





The stairway was once again long. Can it really be that all the stairways are this long?

They finally got to floor 2.

Lecan walked inside for a few steps before stopping.

"I've fought White Spectres outside before, they were far stronger and moved around a bit faster."

"Well now what are the odds. I was thinking exactly the same thing myself. But I also realized one thing afterward."

"Hou?"

"It's not that that Zagg wasn't strong, I believe it's because we have gotten stronger."

"Fumu."

"I believe our conquest of Dungeon Ninae played a big role here. My strength has all clearly gone up fundamentally. As do my reflex and attack speed. Dungeons are really amazing."

"They are. Dungeons are nice."

Arios looked back at Lecan with a troubled look on his face.

"I'm afraid of what comes after if I agree with that."

"Hmpfh. Let's go on ahead."

Lecan urged them to move on partly because he wanted to proceed, and partly because there were adventurers coming behind them. They got in floor 2 from the stairway one after another.

There's quite a lot of them.

They're still coming out.

Piqued by the amount of people, Lecan glanced back and found out they weren't adventurers at all.

They're knights.

There were 20 of them in the end.

"Hmm?"

He found it curious yet nothing of interest.

"Alright. We're going in."

"Yes."

They entered a stairway-less room.

They wanted to see what a non-Giant White Spectre liked.

There was one White Spectre inside.

It's small.

A size smaller than Lecan.

Slightly larger than Arios.

It's holding an iron-like sword once again.

Lecan observed it for a while before lopping its head off.

As he turned around, ready to leave the room, Arios asked him.

"Aren't you going to take the magic stone out?"

"What? Don't White Spectres not leave magic stones behind."

"Huh? Isn't it different when they're inside a dungeon?"

That sounds plausible, and sure enough <Mana Detection> nets a reaction.

Lecan slit the chest area and recited a spell.

"<Move (Torim)>."

A magic stone came out. It's quite big for a magic stone found on floor 2.

Either way, apparently White Spectres inside dungeons drop magic stones even though the ones above ground don't. Even Arios who had no prior experience going in a dungeon knew that.

(I lack this world's common sense.)

(Gotta be careful about that.)

"This one seems to have been normal sized."

"What? Was the last White Spectre bigger than average then?"

"Yes. I believe so."

Well damn. Then that means the Zagg Lecan encountered in his journey and another in Dungeon Golbul were two especially large specimens.

"Wait a minute. Lecan-dono. Nark-san mentioned something about this. White Spectres that spawn in Dungeon Tsubolt are unique types, they're far stronger than the average White Spectres."

"Oh yeah, he did."

"It seems like both of us have to reassess our ideas on a few things, Lecan-dono."

They got in a room with a stairway afterward.

The Giant Variant was indeed a size larger than average befitting of its namesake. But compared to Golbul and Nina, there doesn't seem much differences between normal and giant variants here.

They got in the room, Lecan decapitated the magic beast.

Then the two went in the stairway.

"We're climbing down."

"Yes let's."

"Run."

"Eh?"

Fortunately, these stairways aren't too winding. It's a bit dim but you can see ahead of you just fine. Lecan dashed off like he was flying.

As he arrived at the bottom, Arios followed slightly later while gasping for breath.

"You need to practice more."

"I actually have experiences running on walls or climbing down cliffs. But, can you really call leaping between walls running?"

"I'm not here to walk down stairs. I'm here to fight magic beasts."

"So am I, but I'm going to run out of stamina just from traversing at this rate."

"<Recovery>."

"Thank you. I mean, no that's not what I'm talking about."

Fortunately, one of the rooms with a stairway, a giant variant room was close by.

They got in the room and beat the floor 3's giant variant. Then they entered the stairway to floor 4.

"It's so long."

"It is really long. I can't see the end."

"We're running."

"Umm, we jumped over the heads of a few adventurers along the way. Isn't that bad?"

"Fumu. There's no rookie adventurers here, so I don't think they'd cause a ruckus just from getting jumped over, but I'd still like to avoid what happened at Dungeon Golbul."

"What trouble did you cause at Dungeon Golbul, Lecan-dono?"

"<Concealment (Nirzum)>."

"Eh?"

"<Concealment>."

Lecan cast <Concealment> on himself and Arios. Then they dashed down the long stairway.

<Concealment> effect lasts shorter if you move around. The effect was completely gone by the time they arrived at the bottom.

"Alright. Let's get to floor 4."

"This is the wrong way to use magic. No wait, I guess it's the right way? Anyway, when did you even learn it?"

"When you were away from Vouka. Ah, right, you know a skill to hide your presence."

"No way I can maintain <Secluded Step (Svada)> while noisily running around all over the place at that speed."

"We're heading for giant variant's room."

"Are we running again?"

"Of course."

"We're going to shock other adventurers."

"I'll find us a path devoid of other adventurers with <Graph Make>."

"That's the wrong way to use magic. No wait, I guess it's the right way?"

They quickly took care of floor 4's giant variant and went down.

They dealt only with giant variants on floor 5 and 6, and quickly got to the next floor. That was also the plan for floor 7 but since both rooms with stairways were had adventurers inside, they went in a normal room on floor 7.

"Oh."

"This must be a <Black Body>."

The White Spectre inside the room was clad in a black rind on its chest, abdomen, arms and legs. It'd be bad if <Sword of Rusk> got chipped, so Lecan took a spare sword from <Storage> and slashed at it. He split the Zagg in two from left shoulder to right waist, but he could feel a slight resistance to his slash.

"A bit sturdy, but nothing really of note. Mwu."

The White Spectre's didn't sprawl out on the floor, instead it turned into a treasure chest. It's obvious at a glance that there's a sword inside.

Lecan grabbed the content, which was a sword.

(Oh.)

(a Grace Gear.)

A little bit of mana dwells in Grace Gear. That's how Lecan found out.

But this sword didn't feel like this when the magic beast was swinging it around.

It's probably due to the magic beast's mana overlapping the sword's.





"<Appraisal (Avel)>."


<TLN: Catch the latest updates and edits at Sousetsuka .com >


Name: Acceleration Sword (Mora Schiller)

Type: Sword

Grace: Increase Sword Speed (Small)





"It's a Grace Gear."

"I knew it."

"Hm? You could tell?"

"I figured the sword must have a Grace that raises its speed looking at the magic beast swinging it around."

"Good guess. It's called <Acceleration Sword>. A speed Grace."

Lecan tried to swing the <Acceleration Sword>.

His swing speed feels 20% to 30% faster than he originally intended to.

"Fumu. Interesting. Want to give a swing?"

"Sure."

Arios tried brandishing the sword.

"I get it. Here, you can have it back."

Arios probably had chances to use a Gear with a similar Grace.

No. He's probably used an even higher class of the thing.

Lecan got that feeling somehow.

Lecan decided to equip <Acceleration Sword> for a little while.

"The giant variant room is empty. Let's go."

"This <Graph Make> is really handy, isn't it. I can't imagine going in a dungeon without Lecan-dono anymore."

"You've never gone in one before running across me to begin with."

"Yes. I held a prejudice then. But now I can't help but getting excited for the prospect."

Three adventurers were sitting in front of the Giant Variant's room.

Just as Lecan and Arios were about to enter, a shield-bearing man with a black beard called out to them.

"Sorry, but we're in the middle of battling the thing. Can you go to the other room instead?"

"The other room's got people fighting."

There's no one inside the room now. Yet these men  said they're battling. Meaning they must have retreated after engaging in a fight. They plan to have another go after a break. Naturally the magic beast inside will be renewed, but nothing you can do about that.

"We've dealt a lot of damage to the thing during our previous two attempts. The next one ain't gonna take that long before we beat it for real. Feel free to wait here."

"Yea. We'll do that."

Lecan was baffled despite his reply.

(Dealt a lot of damage in two attempts?）

(The next one won't take long?)

Meaning the magic beast inside doesn't get renewed even with all of the adventurers leaving the room, it's the same individual as the last time.

At first Lecan thought this dungeon had the same familiar structure as the ones in his world, but the rules of dungeons in this world are still unlike his world it seems.

The three appear to suffer some wounds themselves.

"<Recovery>."

"<Recovery>."

"<Recovery>."

"Ah."

"Uwoo."

"W-what?"

The three sounded surprised.

"Ah, my wound's gone. My fatigue too. That was your <Recovery> huh."

"Whoa this is amazing. It's workin' real nice."

"Oh, can't believe ya just cast <Recovery> thrice. And not a wand in sight? I've been humbled. You must be an ace who has braved the depths of foreign dungeons."

"Sorry for doing that without asking first."

"Oh not at all. Must be telling us to get in quick and move the line eh. Thanks to ya, I can get to fighting right away. How about you guys."

"I'mma be fine."

"Me too."

"All right. Let us do this then. Much appreciated, ace-san."

"Good luck."

"Same to you."

The three adventurers went in the room.

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1





Lecan was excited.

He's only a few steps away from finally taking on this so-called Grand Dungeon for real.

On top of it, the dungeon is also known as <Dungeon of Swords> where you can obtain swords that have all kinds of graces.

He's got a partner in Arios too.

Exploring in a group of two will enable him to fight on deeper floors than he could by himself. Naturally he doesn't believe they could conquer the last floor with just the two of them. They're probably gonna need more people once they got to floor 100 and beyond, he's gotta look for party members.

However, they should be more than capable enough to handle shallower floors.

What kind of enemies would he meet.

What kind of fight would he relish in.

Lecan inadvertently smiled when he thought of those.

His left finger got the silver ring on. It's come to a point where he never takes it off except during bathing and sleeping times. He's got it on even in sleep when he's camping outside or inside a dungeon.

<Dagger of Harut> is on his right waist. A holder exclusively made for this dagger is tightly fastened to his belt where it stores the entire dagger, blade and grip, so it won't fall out by mistake. Taking it out requires some work, but it's not an equipment that needs instantaneous availability anyway. Fortunately, <Dagger of Harut> is an extremely small dagger, so it doesn't hinder his movement.

<Guardian Jewel of Zana> and <Necklace of Intuador> are inside his <Storage>. They'll probably get their turn sooner or later.

Hanging on his left waist is <Sword of Rusk>. This sword has got the best handling. Which keeps getting better the more he uses it. He'll probably find an even better sword in this dungeon, but he's gonna rely on this sword for the time being.

(Hold it.)

(Come to think of it, what did Shira say again about this dungeon during that tea break.)

(Felt like she said something curious then.)

Curious as it might, Lecan didn't think much of it when he heard it the first time.

But now, there's something bothering him about it. Something odd.

Lecan kept thinking just what it about for a while, but he couldn't recall.

"Lecan-dono. What's the matter?"

"Hm? Nah, it's nothing. Over here."

Lecan started walking in strides while referencing the information he got from <Graph Make (Coznitt)>.

This <Coznitt> magic is pretty much tailor-made for dungeon explorations. It makes the outline of a floor get projected in your head, and even displays magic beasts' locations.

<Life Detection> which Lecan mastered in his former world can tell him magic beasts' locations as well, but it has a range limit, and due to its inherent trait of showing how large or small a presence is depending on its mana pool, <Coznitt> is overwhelmingly handier if your goal is to find where and how many magic beasts are there.

"Alright, here it is. We're going in."

"Just to be sure, there's no adventurers fighting inside, is there?"

"Only a magic beast and nothing else."

<Life Detection> tells him there's one magic beast inside the room. No human.

So many things irritated him on the way to this point.

It's been that way since they departed Vouka. Lecan wanted to run at maximum speed, but Arios wouldn't even make the effort running above a certain speed. And he even went and demanded to stay in inns instead of camping out. Lecan had no choice but to match Arios's pace.

They asked the guard where the dungeon was when they arrived at this town.

The guard gave them a map. Lecan and Arios got in through the north gate, but as there were entry-restricted areas along the way to the dungeon, they had to take a little detour.

The guard told them that they needed a permit to enter the dungeon. Which you can purchase at the information desk, a stone building situated right in front of the dungeon.

So off they went to the row of buildings where they could buy it. It took them a really long time. And then he was at a loss for words as he stood before the majesty of Dungeon Tsubolt.

Lecan has seen dungeons with big structures.

He's seen dungeons with big entrances.

But he's never seen a dungeon entrance with so many people stuffing it up like this.

A great number of people are going out too.

A row of stone buildings have been built around the dungeon to form a circle, one will naturally reach the dungeon's entrance by tracing the pauses between those buildings.

But there's three lines of people going toward that entrance. With guards checking the permit things stationed in three spots. Those who cannot show their permit gets immediately expelled out of the lines.

They bought two permits at the information desk. There were one day permits and permanent permits available for purchase, naturally they bought the permanent ones. Each costs five big silver coins, crazily enough. Lecan got laughed off when he asked if this was a special day seeing there were so many adventurers going in the dungeon. It's late in the afternoon so there's actually fewer entrants than usual, they said. It's hard to believe that this crowd will be multiple times larger in the morning.

Lecan and Arios went to a referred inn in a corner of the row of buildings, but since it wasn't to their liking, they looked for one themselves.

They stayed there overnight, and then they could finally enter the dungeon the morning after.

As they were told yesterday, they had to stand in a line of unbelievable amount of people, but the flow wasn't too bad cause they just had to show the permit.

Once they were inside the dungeon, many adventurers recited a spell that warped them to the floors below.

"<Graph Make (Coznitt)."

Lecan checked the stairway's location with <Coznitt> and walked on ahead toward it. Arios followed after him.

The stairway was surprisingly long.

There was no stairway in between dungeon floors in his former world.

Dungeon Golbul's stairways were only as long as a three-story building.

Dungeon Ninae's stairways have differing lengths depending on the floors, but on average, they shouldn't be even twice as long as Golbul's.

But the stairway they're walking on right now is several times longer than Dungeon Golbul's. It can't be that all the stairways are this long, can it.

They finally got to floor 1.

Coming into the passage from the stairway was another surprise to Lecan.

Blips of people and magic beasts shown by <Life Detection> are spread apart far and away, even his ability is unable to completely map everything in the floor.

"<Coznitt>."

The rough sketch of floor 1 shown by <Coznitt> is just vast.

Exceedingly vast.

A rough estimate pegs the number of rooms to around 200.

About 2/3 of those have magic beasts inside.

There's a lot of adventurers too. There must be hundreds of them, Lecan won't even bother counting.

Luckily, a room with a stairway is relatively close by. And no one inside right now.

Lecan ran off toward that room.

"Why are we running?"

Lecan ignored Arios's inquiry as they arrived at the room.

The entrance to the room is covered in a thin hazy grey fog, you can't see the inside.

Lecan stepped into the room.


<TLN: Catch the latest updates and edits at Sousetsuka .com >


2





A lone magic beast stood there.

White Spectre (Zagg).

Lecan has had experiences fighting Zagg twice.

The first time was at Gasko village, when he was on his way to Vouka.

Some people asked him to defeat a White Spectre that spawned near that village.

The Zagg that time was about as tall as Lecan, but wider.

The second one was on a relatively shallow floor in Dungeon Golbul. That Zagg was about as tall as Lecan too.

The Zagg in front of him right now is also about as tall as him, but only slightly wider.

Yet this is supposedly a Giant Variant. How come? Because this room has a stairway that leads below. The entrance to that stairway is covered in a grey fog as well, but this is one of the two rooms with stairways that Lecan's <Coznitt> showed. Whence a stairway is inside a room, a Giant Variant should be in there as well.

Furthermore, the blue dot of the magic beast in this room shone the brightest in his <Life Detection>. As <Life Detection> dots' brightness correlates to the amount of mana an individual has, it doesn't always indicate their fighting prowess, but most of the stronger magic beasts do have lots of mana. In magic beasts' case, life force and mana pool are probably closely linked. Dungeon Golbul's boss couldn't use magic yet its blue dot shone bright.

Meaning, the magic beasts in other rooms would be smaller than this.

How its whole body is covered in a worn out rag-like cloth including its face and fingertips, hollow holes where its eyes should be as well as its fake nose and mouth are exactly like the Zagg he saw before.

The only difference is a short sword seemingly made of iron it's holding in its right hand.

Quite some time elapsed since Lecan and Arios went in the room before the magic beast turned toward them. Despite its lack of eyeballs, you could tell it has just now noticed the two. Then it started ploddingly inching toward them.

(It's slow as heck.)

(Full of openings too.)

As the magic beast finally arrived before Lecan, it slowly raised its sword overhead before swinging it down.

Lecan leaped backward dodging the attack.

The magic beast very slowly turned toward where Lecan went and did the same routine with its sword.

Lecan beheaded the magic beast.

"Ah."

Arios yelped lightly.

Although it's not like they made an arrangement beforehand, it was their first fight in this dungeon and all, so Arios thought of taking their time observing its attacks, but then Lecan just went and decapitated it, prompting Arios's involuntary yelp.

As a matter of fact, Lecan actually thought of the same thing as well, but he just couldn't put up with how slow it was.

"Hm? The fog's still there."

He looked at the stairway's entrance to brush it off.

The entrance to the stairway leading below is still covered in a grey fog like before.

They went inside and got greeted by a stairway.

Oh right, supposedly you can get in these stairways without defeating the magic beast.

The two climbed down the stairs.

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15





That day, the five spent their time mostly sleeping. Besides Arios who went out to town in the afternoon.

The day after, <Grindam> were taking it easy mostly inside the inn.

Lecan and Arios went out early. Unbelievably enough, they went to the dungeon.

Same thing the following day, <Grindam> was relaxing around, <Willard> went to the dungeon.

When they were asked which floor they were exploring, they answered floor 90.

Then, on the 40th of month 1, <Willard> and <Grindam> went up against the Giant Variant on Floor 99.


<TLN: Catch the latest updates and edits at Sousetsuka .com >


16





"Welcome back. What's wrong? Why'd y'all back so soon."

"We did it, Nark-san. We did it."

"Did what?"

"We beat the giant variant on floor 99. We've made our first step on floor 100."

"Oooh! Congrats, Bruska! Tsuinga! Yoana! Huh? Where's Lecan? And Arios?"

"Thank you. Those two are still inside the dungeon."

"What?"

"They said they wanted to earn some change."

"Kakaka. Can you believe those guys?"

"They're something else fer' sure."

The three got in the bath and had some light meals before going up to their rooms.

Arios and Lecan returned then they had dinner together. They had a toast but the atmosphere wasn't too lively.

The five got up early the day after. Lecan and Arios went in the dungeon that day. No one commented on that anymore.

<Grindam> spent their day doing maintenance to their weapons.

It's month two now.

The five will finally challenge floor 100 and beyond.

Nark did not actually hear things regarding floor 100s from someone who had first-hand experience in the <The Other Side>.

But anyone who's lived in this town long enough will know about floor 100 down.

From floor 1 to 99, the numbers of magic beasts increase by one every ten floors. Floor 90s have ten magic beasts. Hence adventurers tend to form a party of ten people. More than that and they will take turn fighting.

But from floor 100 onward, there are only five magic beasts per room. And this persists until the last floor, 120.

You'd think it's less dangerous with less magic beasts, but that's not true in the least. It's the opposite. And there are three reasons for that.

First of all, the magic beasts will coordinate with each other in the fight. Magic beasts do work together in groups even before this point. But it was a result of those magic beasts possessing traits that work well with each other, it's not exactly a result of them coordinating their moves. But from floor 100 down, the magic beasts clearly fight together as a group which is nothing short of terrifying.

The second one, each rooms gets way more spacious now. From floor 1 to 99, magic beast's rooms always have the exact same size. You form a habit as you continuously fight in those rooms.

But from floor 100 on, the rooms are large, and the magic beasts move fast, so you have to change how you fight. Yet fighting style is not something you can just switch around at the drop of a hat.

Normally you'd think you want more people in your party to deal with this. But <Skeleton Ogre Zoltan> claimed that a five-person party is optimal for floor 100 down, and the guy did reach the last floor with a five-person party. The reason for that is unclear, but apparently just randomly adding more people is not a good thing. At any rate, floor 100 and beyond are like a whole different dungeon altogether.

Grace Gear also becomes a huge problem here. Any room in floors 100 down will have at least one magic beast guaranteed to bear Grace Gear. Powerful Grace. And there can be more than one Grace Gear bearer among those beasts. Sometimes there's two, sometimes three. There are even known cases where all five magic beasts bear Grace Gear. You can forget about fighting when that happens.

All of that is nothing more than hearsays however, it's not like Nark knows inside out about the terror on floors 100 down.

But what's clear to anyone is the high mortality rate of floors 100 down.

(I don't care if ya guys can't break through.)

(Just come back here safe.)

After the couple had meals together, Nell went out for shopping.

"Tonight we might be celebrating. I'm going to splurge out a bit."

"...Yea."

"What's with that half-hearted response. What's good in you freaking out like that."

"Drop it."

Nell really did splurge and bought a lot of ingredients.

Swept in by her, Nark ended up harvesting lots of vegetable.

And the couple cooked together in silence.

(Is it Water Buffalo period now?)

('Course it's gotta be a drawn out fight.)

(They'd be coming back late.)

The door opened.

"We're back!"

"Eh?"

"We have returned."

"It's heroes' homecoming."

Those were Bruska's, Tsuinga's, and Yoana's voices.

"Hey, those voices?!"

"Y-yeah!"

The two stopped cooking and ran from kitchen to the dining room.

There were five of them. All five are there. No one is missing.

"Ooh! Ooh!"

"Hehe. We've gone and done it, Nark-san, Nell-san."

"Didja break through it? Ya broke through floor 100?"

"Yea, we did."

Of course they did.

It's clear seeing their expressions.

An accomplished look.

"We did it around daytime, but things turned into a commotion at the trading facility."

"Hm? Did you get a weapon with good graces?"

"A scimitar with <Damage Restoration>, <Stamina Drain>, and <Sword Speed Increase> graces got dropped."

"What"

Those are some tremendous graces. Depending on the degree of <Sword Speed Increase> effect, it can go for several platinum coins.

"<Damage Restoration> only gets dropped below floor  100 after all. They found out we crossed over floor 100. We got called to the back room and asked many things by a Mr. knight there, so we got back late."

"Ah, yeah, I figured."

Adventurers who explore floors below 100 get special treatments.

They can stay at the highest class inn under the town lord's management, their meals are covered too.

"I see. So ya guys' gonna stay there."

"No, Nark-san. <Grindam> can't stay at a town lord-run inn."

"Eh? Why?"

"Because we have no plan to explore the floors below 100."

Nark was relieved when he heard that, and he understood why. They must have gotten stronger after breaking through floor 100. Making use of that power to beat foes on the later part of floor 90s would be quite profitable. And safe. Fighting below floor 100 is way too intense.

Arios spoke next.

"Nark-san. We will be moving to an inn under the town lord's management. We told them we wanted to keep our lodging at <Rafin Rock Terrace Inn>, but since it's a rule, we have to move there once."

"Got it."

"But we plan to go back here if we're not comfortable there, so please keep our booking intact."

Lodging of adventurers who explore floors 100 and beyond are paid by the town lord.

At the most luxurious among all other inns located in the furthest back.

The guests there receive the best possible and preferential treatment.

Lecan and Arios probably won't come back.

Meaning the dinner today will act a celebration as well as a farewell.

"Alright. I'm gonna heat up the bath right away. Wash away yer' fatigue there. Look forward to the feast tonight."

They all cheered.

From that night forth, <Rafin's Rock Terrace Inn> would always be lively at night.








[Episode 28 Rafin's Rock Terrace Inn] End/Next [Episode 29 Challenging Dungeon Tsubolt]

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 14





Bruska came down as Nark had breakfast.

"Good morning, Nark-san."

"Mornin' schloning this late. Ya eatin'?"

"Please."

Bruska looked happy when his meal was brought to him, but he stopped his spoon after three scoops.

"Ya sure look tired."

"Yup."

"Things not goin' well with <Willard>?"

"Eh? No, not at all. They're the easiest party we've ever worked together with."

"Hou?"

Bruska scooped vegetable with his spoon into his mouth, before poking vegetable in the soup with it.

"Besides, how we managed to conquer floor 90s with just five people took me by surprise."

"Ya guys didn't drop by mediation office to look for more members?"

Solo adventurers are the easiest to invite along.

Asking for five solo adventurers at the mediation office will get you a party of five in no time.

"That was the plan at first. But Lecan said that the more people there are the more difficult to coordinate, so he proposed we have a go on floor 79 with just us five first."

Floor 79 would have eight enemies.

Adventurers who have reached floor 90s can easily handle floor 79's enemies even if there's eight of them. Though it would be a different story if they're up against foes with special kind of Grace Gear.

"We then proceeded to floor 89 since it was an easy victory. Us <Grindam> held the command up until this point."

Meaning Bruska was leading them.

"But Lecan and Arios moved too fast I couldn't give the right instructions well enough. In my panic, our formation broke down and Yoana almost got attacked."

Yoana attacks from the back with her magic. Protecting her is Bruska's role.

"That was when Lecan took command, getting us out of the pinch. After that point on, Lecan naturally held the commands."

Nark wasn't surprised by this since he could tell that was the case from their conversations in <Rafin's Rock Terrace Inn>, but he still wonders how such a curt man like Lecan even does all the commanding.

"Lecan swapped our formation around. Arios was to breach deep into enemy's line to disturb them. Me and Tsuinga were to support him on the front line. Lecan was in the back, protecting Yoana. He told us that we could let up to three hostiles get past us."

Since Yoana probably would kill off one enemy the instance they got in a room, Lecan dealing with three means the other three would deal with five.

"Yoana was a bit nervous at first, but Lecan's protection turned out really reassuring. Arios and Lecan also got some real amazing offensive powers. Tsuinga and I could take on our opponents handily thanks to them. No really, it was super easy."

Bruska scoop in a big lump of vegetable into his mouth and chewed it. Then he drank water to quench his throat before continuing his talk.

"And even when Tsuinga or I got hurt, Lecan would cast <Recovery> on us after battle. What's surprising is how Lecan don't use a wand. Without Preliminary Casting too."

"Hou."

Adventurers who use magic without preliminary casting are not that unusual in the depths. However, Nark has never heard of anyone using <Recovery> without one. It's one thing if the <Recovery> is intended to heal scratches, but adventurers who walk in the depths normally employ a wand to raise <Recovery>'s efficacy.

"Our coordination got better after few more fights, and I and Tsuinga finally got to fight without getting ourselves worked up. Honestly, I can't even remember the last time we fought that leisurely."

It seems <Willard> and <Grindam> have good compatibilities. Nark was relieved as he listened to Bruska.
<TLN: Catch the latest updates and edits at Sousetsuka .com >
"And Arios has got a really good intuition, he's always the first to notice if there's a magic beast bearing Grace Gear. This was really helpful too."

Foes bearing Grace Gear possess speed and destructive force unthinkable for the floor they're on, they can also cause abnormal status. Most adventurers who died or sustained severe injuries are due to Grace Gear. Having ways to perceive if a magic beast bear Grace Gear or not is a huge advantage. And you can get good money beating those magic beasts. Motivating you even further.

"Hmmph. Guess gotta count yerselves lucky ya got to work with <Willard>."

"Yup. We're truly fortunate. We broke through so many floors in the blink of an eye."

"I see. But ain't ya pushin' yer luck breaking through two floors in one day?"

"Haha. I was like, 'What the hell is this guy saying', when he told us we'd press on ahead just after we broke floor 92. But then we really went and did it. And even broke through the floor for real. Nark-san."

"Hn?"

"Those two belong to <The Other Side>."

"Hou."

<The Other Side> here refers to what lies beyond Floor 100. Adventurers who step inside those places are special beings. There's something about them that's unlike ordinary humans. In powers and thought process.

One thing nagged on Nark when he was told that. Those who belong to <The Other Side> tend to have a paralyzed sense of moral, some won't even hesitate to use ordinary adventurers as sacrificial pawns to get ahead.

"Ya guys ain't' gonna get cast aside like trash, ain'tcha?"

"Eh? Aah, no, I don't think we need to worry about that. They don't feel like that."

"I see. That's good. But don't ya push yerselves too hard now."

"Yup. We personally like to take it easy the day after an entire day of hard fight. But that doesn't seem to be the case with those two. Or rather, the whole thing probably doesn't feel hard at all to them."

"Just five of ya managed to get to floor 99. They ain't no human if they don't struggle."

Hearing Nark, Bruska watched him back with an indescribable look on his face.

"Nark-san. Those two might just be"

"Might be what."

"No, nevermind. Anyway, this is our once in a lifetime chance. We can't afford to split up with those two now of all time."

Doesn't matter how you get through a fight, you gain more strength regardless so long as you defeat magic beasts in deeper floors. <Grindam> who were on a standstill against giant variants on floor 92 a few days ago could likely defeat those same giant variants easily now.

"Breaking floor 100 huh. I thought it was completely impossible..."

"Oy."

"What is it, Nark-san."

"I won't tell ya don't go. But if ya think ya can't do it when it comes to it, then don't go in the room. Ask 'em if they're fine with that first."

"Yup, I got it. Thank you."

Those who defeat floor 100's giant variants and get their hands on the pass onto floor 101 are heroes. There is no adventurer in this town who doesn't long for that.

Lecan and Arios must be really good then. Perhaps they have conquered other dungeons already.

But five can't beat floor 100's giant variants.

Nark could only see them as being reckless.

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 13





The morning after.

Nark overslept from drinking too much.

As he walked to the kitchen while dealing with his hangover headache, Nell was doing a clean up.

"Hm? Someone had breakfast?"

"It's Lecan and Arios. They went out already."

"Went out?"

"They couldn't wake up <Grindam> folk, so just two of them headed off to the dungeon."

"To... dungeon? That's insane."

"You're insane."

"Stop shouting ya."

"Sluggish ain'tcha? I'll brew you tea. Now go take a seat."

As Nark sat in a dining room's chair absentmindedly, Nell brought him a nice smelling tea.

He felt better after a while, he could finally think things calmly.

Some things are bothering him.

<Willard> has got two people. But two can't explore the depths.

The numbers of spawned magic beasts per room in <Dungeon of Swords> are dependent on the floors. Floor 1 to 9 are one, 10 to 19 are two, 90 to 99 are ten. Overcoming the last one requires five to ten people. Outsiders like knights would even dispatch a thirty man unit and go in the room in turn. Even <Grindam> usually paired up with a five person party, fighting in a group of eight.

What about <Willard> then.

Frighteningly enough, he's never heard of the two ever mentioning doing cooperative diving with another party.

To begin with, unless you're like <Grindam> who's native to his town with many acquaintances here, or a large party that has ten or more members, you have to go through mediation office run by the town lord if you want to find other party for cooperative diving. You normally stay in an inn under the same management until they find a party that meets your conditions.

And yet <Willard> settled down in <Rafin Rock Terrace Inn> right after arriving at this town, and they never seemed troubled by that.

Considering all that, the two must have been exploring on their own all this time. However, two can't explore the depths.

Nark could feel his head aching as he pondered, so he stopped thinking.

The following day, <Grindam> and <Willard> went in the dungeon together. They returned late again that day. They broke through two more floors in one day, and got five Grace Gear that were sold for five big gold coins. They had a toast but everyone were going to retire early to their rooms.

"We're diving in again tomorrow. Departing at Small Turtle period."
<TLN: Catch the latest updates and edits at Sousetsuka .com >
Thus Lecan proclaimed.

Arios nodded with a look of resignation on his face, but the three <Grindam> members objected.

"Oy oy. We have broken through more floors today as well. It is now time to take it easy and celebrate."

"Yup. Earned a lotsa too. What's there to do but partying it up."

"It's important to take a break. Let's have a day off tomorrow."

"They're right, Lecan-dono. Let's not get hasty now, okay."

But Lecan wouldn't budge even under the four's protests.

"Fumu. Resting is indeed important."

"For sure."

"So you do get it."

"However, taking a half-baked break will get you in a slump. Now that we've got our coordination right, we should push ahead till a good point to pause."

"Lecan-dono. Where is this good point at?"

"Floor 100."

The dining room fell dead silent.

"Floor, 100?"

"Yeah. Heard the really good Grace Gear are dropped from floor 100 onward."

"It's impossible. Do you have any idea what kind of place is floor 100?"

"No, no clue. What kind?"

"Us local adventurers call floors 100 down <The Other Side>."

"Hou."

"Floors 100 down are like a wholly different plane than floor 1-99."

"That it is."

"Fumu. Then we'll get to floor 99 first. We'll think about our future plan then. How's that sound."

"I am fine with that. But, can we please rest tomorrow?"

"Yesterday was a rest day. Resting after every single day is too much. Tomorrow we dive in. But if you guys don't want to, that's alright."

"That's..."

The three <Grindam> members fell silent.

(Tch.)

(Yer' pretty much telling 'em ya can go on without 'em.)

(Go join other party if ya don't wanna.)

(But to <Grindam>, this is their chance to break more floors.)

(Prolly don't wanna to split up with <Willard> still.)

Nark was going to cover <Grindam> but stopped short. This is not something an outsider should butt in. The decision should be made by the parties concerned.

"Lecan-dono. Now that we finally work nicely together, we'll go in with you tomorrow. But can you let us take a break the day after tomorrow, you two can go around floor 90s on your own then."

(Go around?!)

(Going around on floor 90s?!)

(And did he say the two of 'em?)

This was when Nark was truly convinced these two are well beyond his common sense to comprehend.

At any rate, the five of them dived in the following day and got down to floor 97.

The day after that was an off day, then they got to floor 98 the next day after and floor 99 the day after that one, after which they took a three day break.

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12





The two members of <Willard> went straight in the bath after returning.

And just as the they started having dinner, <Grindam> came back.

"Oh, you two got here before us."

"Welcome back, Yoana-san. And Tsuinga-san, Bruska-san too."

"We're back."

"Yo."

"Yoana-san, we have gotten to floor 92 as well."

"Eh, already?"

"Now that is a surprise all right."

"Hold on a minute. Are you saying you have conquered both floor 90 and 91?"

"Yes."

"That is most impressive. Which party were you exploring together with?"

"Oh it's just the two of us."

"Kakaka. That is doubtful. Well, it is all right if you do not wish to divulge."

"It works out great then. The party we went with is completely worn out, you see. They're planning to take a break from exploring for a while."

"Then how about you take a day off tomorrow and go diving together with us the day after? Let's find some rooms and see how well we work together, if it looks like it's going well, we can then go find some giant variants to beat up."

"Sounds good. How about it, you two?"

"Is that all right with you, Lecan-dono?"

"Yea."

"Then let's go with that plan."

Nark's heart was pounding as he listened to them.

They're finally going through with the cooperative diving.

The day after tomorrow will make it clear whether <Willard> has truly reached floor 92 or not. If they really did, they must be lying about not having dived in this dungeon before. On the other hand, if they lied about reaching floor 92, the reason for making up such a lie would be laid bare.

On the rest day the following day, the three <Grindam> members spent their time mostly sleeping.

Lecan and Arios went to town. They didn't come back in the noon.

Nark imagined all kinds of scenarios playing out with the cooperative diving all day long.

And then the 30th of month 1 came.

The day of cooperative diving.

The five all went out together.

Nark spent the entire day worrying how it would end.

"Ah hey. Just what are you fidgeting around for?"

"Zip it. Leave me alone."

(Come back intact now, Bruska, Tsuinga, Yoana.)

(Lecan, and Arios too.)

(All of you, just come back in one piece.)

They didn't return on the fourth of Water Buffalo period.

The five hadn't returned even when it was at Yellow Frog period either.

All dine-in customers had gone home, the dining room fell silent.

Nark's irritation and anxiety reached climax at two of Yellow Frog period.

That was when he heard a noisy group coming closer, the voices sounded familiar.

(Is that <Grindam>?)
<TLN: Catch the latest updates and edits at Sousetsuka .com >
The door was opened with a bang.

"We're back, Nark-san!"

"We have returned."

"We're back."

All five came inside one after another. The three <Grindam> members looked awfully cheery. Arios is all smiles. Lecan has his trademark sour-look as usual, but he doesn't look to be in a bad mood.

"Nark-san. We finally did it."

"Did what."

"We broke through floor 94!"

"What."

"I sure am hungry. Do you have got food left?"

"Y-yea. Oy! Nell! It's mealtime! For five!"

"I hear you."

The five toasted with white wine.

One bottle of white wine was just enough for five cups.

One toast was not enough, they did another two after.

Three cups of wine disappeared into their bellies each in no time at all.

"Nark-san. Breaking our floor record is nice and all, but we've got something even better."

"Hou?"

"We got five drops of Grace Gear."

"Oh! Congrats."

"How much do you think they fetched?"

Which means they've gone to the trading corner.

"Beats me."

"It's one platinum coin and two big gold coins."

"Heeeeh?"

"Awesome, right? Every one of us got two big gold coins and five gold coins. Three toasts are nowhere near enough."

<Dungeon of Swords> is ill-suited for beginner adventurers.

Partly because of the tough upper floors, but the biggest reason is its income sources.

White Spectres don't have any part that can be sold. So your main source of money is magic stones, and the content of treasure chests. Since potions are often kept for personal use, your earning ultimately depends on the quality of weapons that get dropped.

But treasure chests don't drop often on upper floors. The drop rate gets better the deeper you go down. And those treasure chests contain better weapons the deeper you go down. By the later ends of floor 90s, you can sometimes find weapons that fetch one platinum coin or more in chests.

But getting your hands on Grace Gear means you have to beat magic beasts holding those gear. Naturally, the beasts bearing strong Grace Gear are tough customers.

As such, it's customary to retreat whenever you first reach a new deeper floor and find the enemy tough, then you have another go at it after some time.

When you're looking to earn income, you climb up a few floors above your deepest one and go around rooms there defeating magic beasts until you get weapons with good graces.

Yet these five managed to obtain Grace Gear worth more than one platinum coin on top of breaking their deepest floor by two levels. That is truly a shocking wonder.

Joy and relief swelled up as Nark came to himself from the shock.

<Willard> wasn't a liar. They're a genuinely competent party.

He's still unconvinced about them having been to this dungeon before. But that doesn't matter anymore.

Nark and Nell got roped in as things got more lively.

Several bottles of liquor got emptied.

Nark's worries have been completely blown away.

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