Chapter 92: Annihilation
Translator: ShiroiKaze/Soyokaze Translations
Author’s Note: Things will now take a slightly heavier turn. Any readers bad with gore and depressing things, please proceed with caution.
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The next day, we headed into the labyrinth to take down the 50th floor guardian.
Like before, we won’t be able to fight him with Miss Levy here, so she’s standing by outside the room.
“So what are we taking on for the 50th floor?”
“Think it were… Some kinda spider monster. Was called a Bomb Spider.”
“Really, a bug…?”
I’m not so good with bug type enemies. It was the same with the giant roaches on the 1st floor. I have no resistance to them, due to some of my disposition as a modern Japanese person remaining.
In my life in Japan, I had never even seen a spider the size of my palm; would I really be able to stay calm when seeing a spider more than two meters large?
The answer is no. Even when I was faced with the huge spider, which is simply large, my body froze up, and I couldn’t fight properly.
“Bomb spiders ain’t the type to build spider webs. Instead they spit out a sticky liquid to capture their prey. It’s a type a long-range attack.”
“I’m not good with spiders; they just keep moving no matter how much you break them apart.”
“Just so as we’re clear, gettin’ hit by that liquid mean ya’ll won’t be able to move, aright? Won’t be able to move again unless it gets washed off with alcohol. Ya’ll would basically be out of the fight.”
“Battle over in just one hit, huh…”
“Could still shoot magic though. So I’d heard tell of people who still barely managed to survive that way. Plus it ain’t able to shoot it rapidly.”
Probably because it’s basically saliva I guess? I’m sure it takes some time to build it up.
Which means a short and decisive battle would be best.
“Sure would. It should have some huge spiders with it too. Need plenty a destructive power and fightin’ ability to get past this here floor.”
“Well we shouldn’t have any trouble on that point at least.”
“Huge spiders are poisonous. How’s our stock of antidotes?”
“All set, we still have 12 kefa fruits.”
I dug through our item bag and confirmed what we had.
Monster poisons are split into immediate effect and delayed effect types.
Huge spider poison is the delayed type, so about when the combat ends is when some shakes and chills set in.
Kefa fruits have a detoxifying effect, and should be more than effective enough.
“Great, then all we need is alcohol to wash the liquid off… Would alcohol used for treatment work?”
“Sure would.”
“Then we have enough for one person.”
When someone faints or gets put to sleep as an abnormal status condition, a strong alcoholic beverage is an effective way to treat it.
That being the case, he always carries around a distilled liquor.
… And then he immediately gulps it down once we get back.
“Well then, we’re off.”
“Ya’ll be careful~”
“You too.”
This high up, there are enemies who can ignore her “Recognition Blocking” and find her by smell alone.
There are insect type monsters with weak vision here too, so “Recognition Blocking” doesn’t work very well against them either.
Even so, with her abilities she can still easily handle the enemies around here, so I’m not particularly worried.
~*~
Beyond the door was, as usual, a wide space around 20 meters.
Being a spider’s room, there was a massive spider web stretched across the ceiling area.
On that huge spider web were the two meters large huge spiders… At a glance there were 5 or 6 of them…
From the back of the room came a grating sound of insect footsteps, as a spider which was kind of small compared to the huge spiders came crawling out.
That must be the bomb spider.
“Wh-what’s with that…? Its carapace looks kind of metallic.”
Maybe the solidness of its shell evolved in some way? It almost seems like a spider wearing armor. It looks hard.
I suddenly felt something rustle on the back of my neck as something creepily moved across it.
“—Pii?!”
After letting out a weird shriek, I brought my hand to my neck and found a baby spider stuck to it.
In a panic, I knocked it onto the ground and smashed it.
Gashashasha…!
Was the the sound they make when they’re angry? Or maybe it’s just an ordinary threatening noise. I’m not really sure which, but either way the bomb spider reacted to my actions by rushing towards us.
Let the battle for floor 50 begin.
~*~
And then it was evening.
After defeating the bomb spider we headed up another floor, then caught the limited express golem to head back down.
The transport golems currently had stations every 10 floors, so the 51st floor is a floor where you can get whichever type you need.
We collected the bomb spider’s carapace to present to the guild as proof of our accomplishment. Once we turn this in, we will publicly join the ranks of the mid-floor dungeon-goers.
Getting to the middle floors in 2 months is pretty much the fastest it’s been done apparently. Well, the transport golems played a part in that though.
“But you know sis, that scream of yours…”
“You be quiet, Alec. I was just surprised.”
“Couldn’t you have made it, you know, just a little more of a womanly scream?”
“My little ol’ preference would be anyYuuri-ish scream, ya know?”
“I really want to hear what you think that would sound like, Miss Levy.”
We emphasized quick extermination.
Once it came to it, our quickness in crushing them was unmatched against any other type of foe.
When the bomb spider came to attack, it fired off its liquid at us once it was in range, but Alec blocked that with the broad side of Sentinel.
Following through, Haster let out a battle cry, let off an attack with Cleaver, and demolished its upper half.
The huge spiders that came dropping down from the ceiling were smashed to pieces from a side swing of Sentinel.
The ones remaining on the web were fried by my magic, and it was over.
Battle time was roughly 20 seconds. It was a complete victory.
“If you thought that was funny, I’d say your face when the door opened was the real riot, Miss Levy.”
“Ain’t no helpin’ that. Hadn’t even been a minute since the door closed, and suddenly it opened again, yeah? That there’s jaw-droppin’.”
While lingering on our victory, and making my panic the butt of a joke, we arrived at the door of the guild.
“Hm? Is the guild noisier than usual today?”
The first thing we noticed was the mood in the room.
A number of staff members were going this way and that, while hurried people in unfamiliar uniforms… Are those academy faculty members?
“Academy teachers? Why are they…”
“Yeah, the atmosphere here is strange.”
Well we have a report to make anyway, so first we need to find Miss Remy… Ah, there she is.
“Miss Remy, what’s got everyone in such a rush?”
“Ah, Yuuri, this is terrible!”
“Calm down, what happened?”
She took a breath… But with her serious expression still remaining, she informed us.
“We’ve been told that Marle’s party… Was annihilated…”
“—Wha?!”
That’s a lie, right?!
Academy students are only allowed to explore the 5th floor and lower. They’ve even got guards posted at the entrance to the 6th floor to enforce that.
Her party is powerful enough that any enemies that low shouldn’t pose any problems for them.
And that’s not just Marle. That goes for Marielle too, and that swordsman named Alma was pretty strong too.
On top of that, she has the [Enchanted] equipment I gave her. An enemy at a kobold’s level shouldn’t even be able to get their blades past that…
“Why?! That party may not have been middle rank, but they’re strong enough they should have been able to easily explore the lowest floors!”
“Yes, I thought the same when I saw the report. But it would seem they fought… Another adventurer.”
“But that’s… Why…”
Marle has a gentle personality, and the party has a strong trust with her.
The leader on the surface was a noble named Hans, who is commanding, but the others trusted him enough that they wouldn’t ignore what he said.
Marielle has a high-handed tone too, which is easy to misunderstand, but she’s not the type to invite resentment.
Miss Alma and their supervisor Mister Tony also aren’t very warlike, and actually have very calm natures.
“Shit! Who was it?!”
“A new group who just registered recently. The leader’s name is… Masayoshi Kaneda? What a strange name.”
“—Kh?!”
I don’t have any recollection of the name.
But that name… Its pronunciation clearly doesn’t come from this world…
“A reincarnator…?”
Which means it wouldn’t be strange for him to have powerful gifts like me.
—The kind of magic that I was throwing around just a little while ago. That kind of power was directed at her…?
I imagined what that would look like, and started trembling.
“What about… Her… Marle…?”
“I don’t know. We got the report from adventurers who found them deep in the labyrinth, half-destroyed. The information we received only says there are two survivors. Three died in battle.”
Three of them… 60 percent of them died… Was Marle among them?
I felt my vision getting dark.
“Shit!”
“Alec?!”
He must not have been able to stand around and do nothing. Just as Alec was about to run off towards the labyrinth…
“Move! It’s an emergency! Clear a path!”
Five people were being carried in on stretchers by the guild staff.
Three among them were in body bags.
Marle… Was…
“Two more coming through! One heavily injured, one with magic exhaustion.”
Two more people were carried in. On the stretchers were Marle and Marielle.
They were limp, and didn’t appear conscious, but… I could see traces of blood at the corners of Marle’s mouth.
However, her chest was moving… She was alive.
“Marle!”
“A-aah…”
Alec shouted and followed after her, while I felt weak from relief and dropped to my knees on the spot.
By the looks of it, she managed to stay alive.
~*~
Marle took heavy damage to her lungs.
Marielle must have desperately healed it. As a result, she fainted from depletion of her magic power.
They had the catastrophe of everyone losing consciousness inside the labyrinth.
The girls haven’t woken up yet.
I wanted to see Miss Alma’s corpse, but they said, “It’s not something a child should see,” and refused to let me.
At the very least I asked them to tell me what state they were in, and…
Miss Alma’s head was pulverized, suffering an instant death.
Hans’ body was torn in three parts.
Mister Tony’s body had the blood sucked from it, and he was mummified.
They were all in the most appalling conditions.
Just what kind of people, and how, “could they kill them that way,” the staff were all saying.
Next I inspected the equipment of Marle and the rest.
Miss Alma’s long sword was in pieces.
It wasn’t enchanted like our stuff, but I could tell it was still a really high-class product.
And it was crushed. Not just broken or bent, but even the pieces were in pieces.
She was probably using it to protect her head. Even then it wasn’t enough…
Next was Marle’s water vine mantle.
Yesterday I [Enchanted] it and gave it to her.
It must have taken a tremendous beating too. It was twisted, cut all over, and looked like a completely worn-out cloth.
Her body wasn’t crushed like with Miss Alma. Perhaps it’s thanks to this thing giving all it had?
However, this mantle, enchanted with [Strength] and [Flame Resistance]…
Hans’ leather armor was of fine quality, but it was a normal item.
Though I say normal, tearing it and his body into pieces is unbelievable.
The tanned, reinforced leather was torn like paper.
And that goes for his staff too.
His staff for powering up his magic was made of iron.
Mister Tony’s equipment… It was probably the stuff in the best condition.
Though his corpse was in the most sad state.
His equipment didn’t have a single scratch on it.
Apparently the only injury was two holes opened on his neck.
Like what a vampire would make.
As I was trying to glean information about the enemy from the state of the bodies and the condition of the equipment… Before I knew it, the night was over.
And then I got word that Marle had woken up.