Tamer 21
Chapter 21: Serious Exploration
TL : Cnine
ED/PF :
Part 1
18th Day
「Good morning, Kikyo.」
「Morning, Sana.」
「You honestly had me worried sick yesterday, you know?」
「I’m truly sorry for that.」
Her concern yesterday had been overwhelming, to the point where I’d been almost forced to exchange LIME contacts with her.
If Sana were truly an agent of the Dungeon Association, then now that we’d exchanged contact and could speak so naturally, she would no doubt believe that the distance between us had closed.
Being able to chat a bit more easily or exchanging LIME contacts didn’t mean our relationship has genuinely “improved”.
It was more like a ceremony, a way for both sides to reassure themselves that things have become friendlier.
Naturally, that was only under the assumption that Sana was really the agent working for the Dungeon Association.
「You should be close to reaching the mid-rank now, Kikyo. Why not stop by the item shop as well? You’ll want a stronger weapon, won’t you?」
「True enough. I’ll have a look.」
The monster-weapon series I created were excellent, complete with EXP buffs, but revealing that fact was absolutely out of the question.
※Author Note: Monster are not weapon.
Right. From anyone else’s point of view, me stubbornly charging into dungeons with a wooden sword probably looks pretty weird.
People already think I might be some kind of overlevelled freak, so sticking with a wooden sword just makes it worse. I need a weapon for appearances’ sake.
「Sana, got sometime after work today?」
「Eh!?」
Yeah… Figured.
If all of Sana’s actions until now were merely an act, if our so-called friendlier exists only on the surface, then her reluctance would be entirely understandable.
「There’s somewhere I’d like you to come with me on the way home. Would that be all right?」
「I’m in! Totally in! I’ll quit my job if I have to!」
Please don’t quit your job.
「Then I’ll see you later.」
「Sana will follow you anywhere, including love hotel!」
That was far more than I asked for.
◇◇◇
「Alright folks, we'll keep doing this till drop.」
I raised my voice to my tamed monster, equipped myself with 20-PixWhip and Quintuple Gob Leg as always, and stepped into the dungeon. Five goblins, four slimes, and fifteen pixies fell into formation, escorting me as we advanced into the depths.
The goblin’s legs, now raised to an absurd level 151, were lightning-fast.
The scenery blurred by at train-like speed, and before ten minutes had even passed, we were already standing on the 4th floor.
Even so, I still hadn’t tripped a single trap.
According to the rumours, traps begin appearing from the 4th floor of the Aomori Dungeon. And yet, not once had I been caught.
No matter how many times I ran the dungeon. No matter how long I stayed.
Standing there, I began to piece together a theory about why traps simply refused to trigger for me.
The reason I never set off traps was simple. The goblin was carrying me. Which means that unless a human foot touches the dungeon floor, the traps probably stay dormant. That was my conclusion.
「That must be the reason.」
From what I’d seen in that forum thread, the average monster tamer was impressively unhinged.
It seemed the idea of riding their monsters never even occurred to them. Maybe there just weren’t many suitable mounts.
Either way, since no one rides their monsters, nobody ever discovers this ridiculously easy way of avoiding traps.
「Oh? New scenery.」
Wait. When did we hit the 7th floor?
At my current level, the 7th floor was well within safe limits. I would keep climbing, and the moment the monsters start feeling dangerous, I will turn back.
「Keep going.」
The 7th floor stretches out as a moonlit wasteland.
Why there is a moon inside a dungeon is anyone’s guess, but considering that the dungeon itself defies reason, pondering it feels so stupid.
With no idea where the stairs might be, I entrust everything to the Quintuple Gob Legs and race across the barren plain.
Barely a minute passes before we run into a pack of wolf-like monsters, each roughly a metre and a half in length.
「Wild Wolf eh.」
Theye were monsters usually said to appear on the 3rd or 4th floors.
On the forum, people had been saying that Wild Wolves might even appear in areas where high-rank explorers explore.
「Yelp!?」
「Yiip!!」
「Yap Yap!!」
「Yelpyelpyelp!?」
The instant the Wild Wolves laid eyes on me, they completely lost their nerve and cried out in panic.
With the 20-PixWhip and Quintuple Gob Legs equipped, and an entire entourage of monsters at my back, they must have mistaken me for some terrifying apex pack.
All of them tucked their tails tight, ready to flee at a moment’s notice. Though, to be fair, there were only four of them to begin with.
Naturally, there was no way I was letting free EXP to escape.
Crack! My 20-pixwhip lashed out, and the Wild Wolves, tails tucked as they tried to bolt, were instantly reduced to drifting smoke.
Each one awarded 3,720 EXP.
With a thirty-one times multiplier, that puts their base value at roughly 120 EXP per wolf.
「They might have served well as mounts though…」
But come on. With the Quintuple Gob Leg on both legs that giving me 10 times EXP, who cares about wolves.
They weren’t worth the effort of capturing.
Even so, Wild Wolves continued to appear. Yet the instant they saw us, they yelped in fear, tails tucked tight, and scattered across the wasteland.
Sure, I could’ve chased them, but this run was about exploring.
Chasing them would’ve just been a massive waste of time, so I smacked down the three idiots who picked a fight and headed up to the 8th floor.
◇◇◇
The 8th floor was another wasteland, crawling with Giant Spiders.
Let me behonest, whoever picked this terrain made a serious mistake. A spider without webs can’t fight at full strength.
Oh, and for the record, each Giant Spider was worth 150 EXP.
Next up, the 9th floor. Gargoyles.
Because their bodies are made of stone, the Bargain Girl used as the tip of my 20-pixwhip seems to be in serious trouble, but I somehow managed to get through it by feeding her a few grains of rice. A Bargain Girl, indeed.
Each Gargoyle was worth 200 EXP. All one-hit kills. I still had stamina to spare.
Thus come, the 10th floor...
「Goblin king, huh.」
「Goargh!?」
The moment our eyes met, the Goblin King let out a terrified scream and fled without hesitation.
Unlike the Giant Spiders or Gargoyles, which hadn’t even flinched, the Goblin King fled on sight. Being an evolved goblin, it clearly had enough brains to know when to run, just like the wolves on the 7th floor.
「Even your evolved forms are ugly. Still, you should count yourselves lucky. Goblin Kings are massive and hideous, which is the worst combination imaginable, but you lot are merely small, so you’re slightly better off.」
「Gyan」
「I honestly have no idea what you’re saying.」
Were they pleased by that assessment?
Eh, whatever. It's just low-tier creature evolved into slightly bigger low-tier creature. Suck to be born as them.
A few experimental strikes with the 20-pixwhip proved enough. The Goblin Kings vanished into smoke instantly, without resistance.
After that, it was basically a monster parade. 11th floor: Organites. 12th: Salamanders. 13th: Ogre King. 14th: Skeleton General.
Every last one of them went down in a single blow, and there wasn’t a single moment where I found myself struggling.
Organites, Salamanders, and Ogre Kings all screamed and fled the instant they saw us, so it seemed reasonable to assume that, to monsters with even a modicum of intelligence, we must appear downright creepy.
Still, the fact that even the Skeleton General turned around and fled irritated me.
No matter how you look at it, a walking pile of bones is far creepier. Why was I the one being treated like the horror?
On a whim, I captured two Skeleton Generals without using monster taming, dismantled them completely, and then reassembled them into a single fused Skeleton General.
The result of the fusion staggered to life, moving in stiff, jerky motions, crashing into the walls again and again like a poorly assembled puppet.
It seems having two heads simply doesn’t work. When I reduced it to a single head, it moved perfectly fine, but the moment it had two, its movements became clumsy and sluggish.
A genuinely interesting discovery. Sure, it ate up half my lunch break, but…
The sight was so absurd that I spared it. Leaving both heads attached, I released the fused Skeleton General onto the staircase between the 14th and 15th floors.
From now on, every trip between those floors comes with guaranteed laughter.