TL: NyX
ED: Onihikage
Enjoy the chapter~
Chapter 23 – Dungeon Capture Begins
「Welcome.」
「Hmm, I want a potion that can focus the monsters’ attention on me, do you have one?」
「Aye, sure do. Uhh… oh, here it is.」
I asked the peddler who was selling various things.
They had potions, maps, preserved food, water, cups, other dishes and pots. They didn’t sell equipment, though, mainly just the necessities that are usually needed for dungeon exploration. This is very convenient if you forgot to buy something in the city.
Personally, I wouldn’t want equipment that was being sold in front of a dungeon though.
「Do you want to buy that to keep the monsters focused on you, Hiroki-san?」
「Yeah, that’s right, Lusha-san. Even though I likely won’t need it, it’s better to have something like this to make absolutely sure the monsters won’t attack you.」
The peddler was showing us a monster potion. There’s also a similar potion to avoid monsters. Apparently, monster avoidance potions are used quite often by adventurers.
「This one will be effective for roughly 3 hours if you use it all. If you want to lower the duration, you need to adjust how much you take.」
「Three hours, huh… then, can I get three of these?」
「Yes, they’re 2,000 Lotto each, so 6,000 Lotto for three.」
「Alright…」
Because it was more expensive than I had imagined, I feel a bit reluctant. It was a bit difficult if I hadn’t had any income when partying with Freutz and the others in the past few days. However, this is a necessary expense.
When I drank the purchased monster potion, I felt an unpleasant bitterness spreading in my mouth.
「Ueeeeghh, it’s the worst…」
A nutritional drink would be 100 times better than this.
I closed my eyes, pinched my nose, and gulped it down with a cough.
「Are you all right, Hiroki-san?」
「Ughh, yeah, I’m okay… well, this is nothing as long as it does what it’s supposed to.
Actually, it’s hell to have to drink it every three hours.
◆ ◆ ◆
There were quite a few people hunting in the 【Deep Forest Dungeon】, so we passed through the first several floors without having to meet many monsters. The number we ran into could be counted on your fingers.
「It’s quite crowded.」
「E-erm… if it’s too crowded, it’s kinda scary, because I’ll likely hit other adventurers.
「Ahー…」
That’s definitely bad.
It wouldn’t be funny at all if she accidentally PKed someone. In online games, a PK, or Player Kill, means one player kills another.
Nevertheless, I wouldn’t mind if Lusha’s old party got hit with a few arrows, after how they treated her before.
Rather, I’d prefer that they did, hehehe.
「Hiroki-san, there’s the next stairway down.」
「Looks like we can reach the 5th floor without any problems, that’s good.」
In this dungeon, up to the 5th floor, the strength of the monsters is quite stable, so many parties would hunt at a particular location. From the 6th floor onwards, the strength of the monsters increases considerably, so the number of parties that proceed further drops quickly.
So far, it hasn’t even been an hour yet.
We decided to take a little break before proceeding. The 6th floor is inhabited by monsters called Killer Mole and Killer Butterfly, the latter of which was more like a moth.
To be honest, mentally, I’m not very good with butterflies or moths.
The previous floors was like a cave, but the ceiling of this one was much higher. The height was around 10 meters, and there were large trees, flowers, and rocks. Even the atmosphere was lighter, like an illusion that makes us feel like we’re in a real forest.
「This is my first time here, it looks very spacious…」
「Whoa, there are monsters flying around up there. Ugh, it looks more like a giant moth, it’s disgusting!」
「A-agreed~!」
We quickly decided to ditch this floor and get to the next one down.
However, even though those monsters didn’t really want to come after us, the monster potion I’d used lured them to us anyway.
I think even adventurers would rarely see this. Specifically, this nightmarish image in which a swarm of moth monsters flew at me.
Seriously, I really need to get an aggro-management skill for next time, instead of just using a potion like this.
*miss* *miss* *miss*
*miss* *miss* *miss* *miss*
「Uwaa, so many moths… ughh.」
「Don’t move too much Hiroki-san, I’ll defeat them quickly…」
「Oh, yeah, sorry…」
I saw Lusha pull out an arrow when she noticed that moth swarm coming at me. She hesitated before drawing it back because I was moving around too much.
She took aim with a serious look. Her accuracy is still low, but that wouldn’t be a problem because she could shoot so many arrows. Moreover, it will be an instant kill if it hits them.
The moths were all shot down, and the corpses piled up around me.
We collected claws from Killer Moles and a paralysis bag from a Killer Butterfly, which is quite rare. After that, we quickly escaped from that floor, taking a break for a while once we reached the stairs.
「I’m so tired after being surrounded by those disgusting moths…」
「Hehe, thanks for your hard work…」
I caught my breath and drank a bottle of water and drink it while in the stairs.
I dug in to the dried meat which I’d bought in the city, and thought about what we should do from then on.
Would going back to the surface now solve anything?
Honestly, I want to defeat the boss and return to the surface with the transfer device. We’ll get whatever’s in the treasure chest, plus material drops from the boss, which can be used for equipment.
The problem is I don’t know how many floors there are in this dungeon. We still have some food, so if we decide to keep going, we can stay overnight. At worst, we’ll have to sleep on the stairs.
While I was worrying about that, I realized Lusha was staring at me, head cocked.
「Uhh… Lusha-san?」
「Ah, no, I’m just wondering what you’re worried about. We’re partners now, so I want you to tell me what’s on your mind.」
「Ooh, that’s right.」
Certainly, there’s no point thinking about it on my own. When I told her I wanted to go to the bottom if we could, Lusha’s answer was simple.
「I think we should just go.」
「OK!!」
「Hahaha, because I think I can make it if it’s with Hiroki-san! It may be impossible to get to the bottom in just one day, but it should work out if we stay overnight on the stairs!」
I thought she was a cute Elf girl, but it turns out she’s pretty wild!
Normally, girls wouldn’t want to camp if there was no preparation. Did it not bother her that much because Elves used to live in nature? That’s not really the case, though, we’ll be sleeping on the stairs! In other words, Lusha is just that wild.
Ah, if she wasn’t wild, she wouldn’t have only raised her attack stats.
「Alright. Let’s aim for the bottom floor and defeat the boss.」
「Ooouu!」
Lusha’s eyes sparkled when I said that. Maybe her Elf blood is boiling at the moment.
After a short break, we continued walking down.