Otoko Nara Ikkokuichijou no Aruji o Mezasa Nakya, ne? - Chapter 221

Chapter 156 - (Chapter 221): Footprint

Year 7445, Month 12, Day 27



The sound of slurping an insects internal organs echoes around and a bad smell covers the area.

""Return""

An order from Miduchi's {Party-ization} was sent out. I guess she's saying we should all return back to a safe place before discussing things once again. Just as you can expect from an opponent that looks stronger than ogres, it's important to confirm the sequence and things. Let alone when it's against an opponent with a skill like {Super.Regeneration Type III} that makes no sense. It's also a monster that we're seeing for the first time so there's no loss in being careful here.

"Most likely, that's a Troll."

After returning about 200 meters to a passage with good visibility, we all gathered along the wall as teacher Miduchi's lecture time started.

"Troll.."
"Somehow, I feel like I've heard the name before."
"..The Troll I know of is a lot fatter.."
"So that's a, Troll huh.."
"Troll?"

Just now Toris and Zulu said things like they know about it.

"Zulu do you know about it? Probably, I think there's no mistake that it's a Troll or a related species. Even if you injure them they recover from it right away and they're a troublesome monster where even if you cut off their limbs, the limbs move and they continue to attack."

Miduchi glanced at my face for a moment while explaining it. Yeah. That's the right answer. I told her with my eyes. Certainly it was a Troll. But she really does know anything. Incidentally Toris said something like he knew it as well but it seems it was a character that appears in a certain famous computer game. Even I've heard the name of it before.

Well, in my case if you were to say {Troll} the first image that comes to mind is a {Trawl}. Though I think the spelling is probably different. Because the body of the fish is easy to hurt, in exchange for the value of it depreciating rapidly, it catches bottom dwelling fish (it catches the type of living along the ocean bed. Obviously shrimp and crabs are included) and quite literally catches everything it can so it's huge on unloading.

"I've never seen one before. In the Southern parts of Devas of the Weshuppu region I've heard that a monster called the {Swamp.Troll} appears in the marshlands there. It seems it's extremely powerful on top of being brutal, it has enough stamina as if it doesn't ever get tired, and it moves at quick speeds which don't match up to it's large body so it's a frightening monster and just as Miduchi-sama just said even if you injure they recover right away, I've heard it has a very troublesome regeneration ability. However, that is.."

Something like that is in Devas! It's hard to tell while it's crouching down, but that, if it were stand up I feel like it'll be taller than an ogre.

"Th..That sort of enemy how are we supposed to fight it!?"

Gwine said with a slightly frightened expression. Yeah, it's not unreasonable to say something like that.

"There's several methods but the representative is to burn it's wounds with oil and fire or acid. Also, it's a method that takes force but you accumulate damage on it to where the regeneration can't keep up to defeat it and then set it on fire again to kill it."

In the end it's fire huh? It seems like acid works as well but as expected we aren't carrying it around with us and in order to kill something that large you'd probably need a bath full. Then, in that case the most realistic is using attack spells with fire magic as the base. If it was just using the fire elemental magic itself then it would be simple to bury that entire room in flames but if no continuation is added to it, it'll disappear in an instant and as expected just an instant will probably do almost no damage.

Ah, there's no need to worry about running out of oxygen when using large scale fire. If you use fire magic to set something on fire it uses oxygen to burn whatever it does but any of the flames other than that seem fine. It seems that in the effective range it's making a mix of flammable gas in the air and lighting that and it disappears in an instant before it burns up the oxygen in the air. Though if you add continuation to it that isn't always the case. I don't really get it for sure but haven't I mentioned that among the elemental magics fire and wind were slightly different?

"In that case I guess {Flame Thrower} would be best?"

Ralpha said with a belligerent expression. I think it's good.

"..Otherwise, we have Al-san freeze them in ice I guess. However, I've heard about them when I was younger as well but it seems that Trolls don't breathe...It might be impossible to suffocate them to death."

Bel said while making the thinker pose with her hand on her chin.

"Ah, that, I've heard about it as well."

Zulu agreed with what Bel said. Wha~? Really? That's really troublesome...I haven't read the species sub-window for them and I don't know if even that information is written there. It seems Miduchi's knowledge isn't complete and she made a surprised face as well.

"In order to do it safely I guess I'll have to do it with the resolve of at least freezing the entire room and make the ice go up to about their shoulders, then we can cut off their heads I guess?"

After I said that, Miduchi said, "That's right. Or else use a high level attack spell with fire magic..though I think just freezing them would probably use up less mana." while nodding. I felt a bit like, "Hmn, I wonder about that~"

Their HP is over 700. Putting aside the fact that they're weak to fire and regenerate, in order to blow them away with a single hit an attack spell beyond the {Heavy Catapult} class would be necessary. Even if I don't add missile to it the MP consumed is 10. It's nothing significant to me. In the case of freezing things it takes either level 7 double or shaving a bit off level 8. Even if we think in terms of using level 8 that's 16 for the fire and water magic, then things like transformation and control take another 10 or more MP. After that if you're thinking about cutting off it's head and burning the wound then wouldn't using attack spells consume less MP..I guess?

If missile is added to it then there's almost no chance of missing but it seems it's an opponent who blowing off their limbs doesn't have much meaning. Even missile since the user still has to actively guide it can't be called perfect, if you aim for the head and they use their arms to block it trying to slip through that block is nearly impossible. Furthermore when it comes to the high level huge missiles in the case that you need to make sudden or sharp movements, there's no choice but to lower the speed quite a bit and the force behind it drops.

Certainly if you abandon guiding it and shoot it a number of times it's inefficient. If you want to make it guided and guarantee hitting it in the body or head then while it depends on it's Speed at best it's {Arbalest} class. If you want more reliability then it's necessary to drop it down to the {Javelin} class. In the end that would still mean hitting it with countless shots.

In that case then freezing it which seals the opponents movements..there's no other choice than that. Umu, from here on out freezing is appropriate to be named an all-purpose weapon.

"Then, let's go. First off I'll freeze them. I'll make a portion of it easy to climb on top of so we'll quickly cut off their heads and use {Flame Thrower} to burn the cut. After erasing the ice we'll thoroughly burn the corpses as well."

After confirming everyone nodded, we started towards the troll room once again.




................




It seems there was no problem at all.
I guess that means, even if it's got a special skill like 【Super.Regeneration Type III】, there's no living creature that can survive having it's head cut off.

The moment the flames from the {Flame Thrower} hit the wound where we cut off their heads, an ear piercing scream was let out as they died, and we were able to finish off the Trolls.


【Troll Race's Head】
【Troll Race】
【Condition: Damaged】
【Manufacture Date: 27/12/7445】
【Value: 22】
【Durability: 72】
【The decapitated head of the Troll Race.】
【The wound was burnt after being detached so the tissue has died.】

Since the huge head was rolling around on top of the ice with an unpleasant~ look after Identifying for some reason it pissed me off so I was going to kick it away from the ice..but it looked heavy and I didn't want to hurt my ankle. While ignoring the head I got ready to use {Anti-Magic Field} to erase the ice and told everyone to get off the ice.

By the time we returned to the troll room, the stomach of the Giant Mantis was already eaten and the upper body of it was still dragging itself along as it tried to leave the room. I don't know why but for some reason it didn't show any interest in us so we we moved to the edge of the passage and a short while after seeing it pass by us, Bel shot it with {Flame Javelin} and completely killed it.

During that the Trolls were, I don't know if it's after meal exercise, but they were wandering around the room.
Before they noticed us I froze them and we quickly cut off their heads.

I used 18 MP(enough to erase 15 MP worth of spell) to make an {Anti-Magic Field} and then shaped it to cover the entire surface of the ice below my right foot. Then I pushed that towards the ice. When it comes erasing it all at once this method is the easiest. Though it takes the shape of just I the caster jumping down from a height of over 2 meters but if it's me then that level of height is no problem if I prepare myself before hand.

After the ice had disappeared Zulu and Angela took out some large knives and approached to start gathering the magic stones from the troll's corpses.

""Watch out!!""

I don't know if it's because they were packed in ice they had numbed with the cold but while their movements were extremely dull, the Troll's corpses without heads started moving! At the same time as several shouts were let out Miduchi, Bel, Ralpha, and Gwine all used flame type spells to hit the corpses of the trolls.
I hit it with {Flame Arbalest Missile} as well. Ah, I guess it didn't need the missile like this.

But what in the world..when I used Identify on it just now it clearly had the details of a non-living creature! Putting aside the giant crickets which originally had low HP, it's not as if some of the large insect monsters like the mantis or centipedes don't continue moving for a short while after losing their heads but that's all limited to just the bugs. The first time we saw it since it just wasn't seeming to die I think Ralpha tried confirming it with {Detect.Life} was it. She said, "There's no reaction so it should be dead!" and things almost went into a panic. I was surprised as well. It was a strange situation where even though Identify said 【Condition: Death】, it still had MP remaining.

Zenom calmly said, "It's probably something like an undead right" and cut it into pieces down to the body killing it. A short while after that we found out that they were against fire so we started setting them on fire and excluding a few had Basutoral, Zulu, and Angela take them on. In exchange for not being able to aim for their vitals and finish them off in one hit, they don't stop moving until you completely drive their HP into the minus so I thought they would be a good training opponent.

A short while after that I don't really know why but it was identified that the spell {Detect.Life} doesn't work at all against insect type monsters. Since the 8th floor(9th floor?) is mostly made up of insects before we noticed we had stopped using it. Regardless in my case I can see further with Identify.

Just in case I tried using {Detect.Life} again now but obviously neither the head nor the body of the trolls were detected by it.

After it finally stopped moving, I used Identify to check that the details had become that of an object then checked it's status in a way while showing it off to everyone else who was on guard to calm them down, then once again ordered Zulu and Angela to gather the magic stones.

The Identify value on the magic stones from them was roughly 150,000. I guess that means if we sell them they'll be around 1,000,000. When it comes to the counter sale price I guess that's over 1,300,000 huh...I wonder about that? If it's just this level of difference then I think the purchase will be fine though.

In any case, let's proceed ahead. There's another cave further into the room.




..............




Since then we cleared through seven rooms with trolls including the first room. It was a single route forward. The rooms slowly increased in size and as we advanced forward the number of trolls increased by one each. We were also able to confirm that after freezing them and cutting the head off if we burn both of the cuts with fire magic we can weaken them quite a bit. Around the fifth room I intentionally left just one troll alive so we could try fighting it head on.

Since it had been frozen, it's movements were considerably dull and we were able to defeat it by just cutting it normally with swords. If you burn the wounds before it regenerates then it dies just like that.

When we went to enter the eighth room and the route from the teleport crystal stretching up from the seventh room was the same cave-like passages up until now but just the room ahead of that was different. The width of it was around 80 meters and inside of that room with a depth probably double that there was the same kind of altar you can see on the 5th and 6th floors.

The difference was that there were no gargoyle statues and the construction of the altar was considerably extravagant.
And then, no matter how long we waited the boss of the room that should have been summoned wouldn't appear, not just that but when we tried approaching the altar it's something we noticed but the door of the shrine on top of the altar was a bit open from the start.

Additionally this room seemed to be a dead end.

"Even though it's been a while and since it's an extravagant version I had my hopes up.."

Ralpha whispered while keeping her guard up.

Really though. I had my hopes super high for it as well.

"..Nothing is coming out.."

Zenom said while on guard with his tomahawk.

"..Could it be..No.."

Toris was about to say something.

"What is it? Is there something you noticed?"

When I tried asking Toris and he covered it up with the words, "Hmn, it might just me overthinking it."

""Ah!""

Miduchi, Bel, and Gwine all raised their voices at once. Everyone jumped a bit startled and checked the surroundings but there was nothing different.

"I'm sorry. But, isn't this, one where what was inside of it has already been taken out?"

Miduchi acted as the representative of the three apologizing for startling everyone as she said.

"..I see now..And, what's your basis? I think in all of the altars we've seen up until now there weren't any with the door open from the start. After several days or so the door would shut again and then the boss is summoned, then if you defeat that the door opens wasn't that how it works? Though they're empty pretty often."

Though I say that, I think Miduchi's theory is correct as well. I mean, the only one's who have to the 8th floor is just us after all. If it was after another party had come and taken it then it's not as if it wouldn't make sense within a few days of that but right now that's unlikely.

Then, in that case, wouldn't it mean that whatever was here was carried out around 500 years ago? and it's only obvious to think that. I think it's possible this is where the treasure that George Rombert the First is said to have obtained in the dungeon was enshrined. Not something like a magic tool or gold ore but maybe something with far more value? Though since whatever that may have been was never conveyed, we have no way of knowing.

A magic sword with something, or other name or an enormous raw gem with an earth-shattering value that when split was capable of producing over 1,000 gem, or a powerful magic item and it's still used by the King deep in the castle now, there's a lot of different things said but no one knows for sure. If you were to ask me I have some ideas on what it may or may not be but it's not particularly like I have any foundation for it nor do I have any confidence in it. It's limited to just what I can imagine and even in the off chance that my prediction is correct, after all I'm sure it would still be surprising.

In any case, it's been over 30 minutes since we arrived in this room but not a single thing different has happened.

What we obtained from the dungeon this time was some considerably valuable magic stones and other than that we established the fact that there were altars beyond the 8th floor as well. Additionally there's the fact that the 8th floor was a gathering of smaller areas and in order to make it into a map, there will be a lot of areas overlapping, so it's very possible we're going back and forth between the 9th floor as well.

In regards to that there's probably no other method than exploring the 8th floor a bit more and then after properly confirming it's safe, trying to check using Miduchi's {Party-ization}.

I guess we'll return with this much for this time.




..................




After returning to the surface and entering Boil Manor there was a message waiting. The details were that the first knight group was going to be performing a parade for the New Year in the capital, so it was an invitation(order) from sister for Miduchi and I to come and watch.

It looks like we won't be bale to go to teacher Mila's place this time...
I wonder if it would be best to bring along extra dried fish next time as an apology?