LEGEND

Chapter 477

「Kyu!?　Kyukyukyu!」

The moment they were sent to the small room with the magic circle on the 16th floor, Yellow, who had been riding on Set’s back, let out a small cry.

The reason for that was probably due to the smell of rotting flesh that pervaded the entire floor.

Ordinary people might have only raised their eyebrows, but for those with a strong sense of smell, it was a harsh hit.

But for Yellow, who was experiencing this rotten smell for the first time, it was greatly confusing as he tried to escape the smell by burying his nose into Set’s back.

「……Yellow, I know that you don’t like this rotten smell, but it is an unavoidable part of the dungeon experience. You’re still young, but you’ll get used to it.」

As Rei heard Elena’s words to Yellow, Rei took note of his surroundings.

(Rather than getting used to it, it’s more like our sense of smell just gets numbed to the point we don’t smell it anymore.)

So he thought to himself.

Fortunately, the 16th floor where they currently were was a typical dungeon floor with familiar stone floors and faintly glowing walls.

As it wasn’t as vast and expansive as the desert floors, it was a lot easy to notice if anything was approaching them.

……Yes, like right now.

「Gururu~」

With Yellow on his back, Set gave a cry upon hearing a sound.

「Yeah, I know. Elena, looks like we have guests already. Get ready to welcome them.」

Replying to Set, Rei took out the Death Scythe from the Misty Ring as he readied himself.

Fortunately, the passage continued straight ahead from where the small room was, so Rei prompted Elena to just focus their attention ahead.

Hearing Rei’s words, Elena also unsheathed her sword whip as she readied herself as well.

Clack, clack, clack, clack.

The sound of something hitting the stone floor gradually grew closer and, eventually, the glow from the walls revealed what it was.

「I guess you could say as expected. ……Set, please.」

「Guru~!」

Three Skeletons appeared. Rusty swords and spears in hand.

As Skeletons, they immediately attempted to attack the moment they saw Rei’s group with weapons at the ready……

「GURURURURURURURU~!」

With a cry, bright red flames shot out from Set’s beak.

Fire Breath, which had reached level 3, was overwhelmingly effective against the Skeletons.

Even if the three Skeletons tried to move forward, the flames from Set’s beak blocked them. Instead, they were forced backwards, pushed back by the flames several steps at a time.

As they were forced back, they were also burned.

Eventually, the Skeletons were unable to attack in any way as their bones were burned to ashes by Set’s Fire Breath and they collapsed to the stone floor.

All this happened within a span of 30 seconds after the Skeletons approached had been sensed. It was quite literally an instant kill.

「Looking at it like this, it seems like Set’s Fire Breath has gotten a lot stronger.」

「Kyu!」

Elena nodded, quite impressed, as Yellow, who had flown over to Elena’s left shoulder to stay out of Set’s way, gave a cry in agreement.

As he heard the praise from Elena and Yellow, Rei gave a bitter smile.

「It’s certainly powerful and convenient to wipe out small fry. However, it has the disadvantage that no materials or magic stones can be collected because everything gets burned up. ……Well, for weak monsters like Skeletons or Goblins, we probably can’t learn any skills from their magic stones.」

「Speaking of which, you didn’t get any Skeleton magic stones from the dungeon where the Altar of Inheritance was?」

「Yeah. Because they were all burned up, including the magic stone, like just now.」

Rei muttered as he glanced over at the ashes of the Skeletons lying on the stone floor.

The ambient temperature had risen slightly due to Set’s fire breath, but neither Rei nor Elena seemed bothered by it.

「Guru~?」

Was it no good? Set seemed to ask with a cry. Rei shook his head and stroked Set to tell him it wasn’t a problem.

「Let’s get going. Fortunately this floor isn’t that complicated, so if we go straight to the next floor without taking any detours, we’ll get to the next set of stairs in a lot less time. ……Well, the enemies are likely to be a lot more dense because of that.」

It wasn’t that common to encounter monsters in the desert floors due to the size of the floor, not to mention the environment.

The 15th floor, which was filled with oases, was a different story of course.

However, the 16th floor was defined by its stone surroundings and, in terms of size, it was incomparable to the desert floors.

As a result, the monster density was higher.

「Well then, I’d like to clear this floor as soon as we can and head to the next floor. If I recall correctly, there aren’t as many undead floors as there are desert floors, right?」

When Rei asked, Elena nodded, frowning unpleasantly at the rotten stench around her.

「Mm. There are more undead floors further down, but at the very least, the 17th floor is a forest. It should have a fairly good environment. ……Not as harsh as the desert and no need to worry about the stench like on this floor. ……However, because it has a better environment, there is also a larger number of monsters.」

「Still, it would be better than here.」

Walking past where they had killed the Skeletons, after 10 minutes, the passage split at a fork.

There wasn’t even a shadow of other people or monsters around them. There was only the faint glow from the walls and the rotten smell of Zombies.

As expected, after staying on the floor for a while, Yellow seemed to have become accustomed to the stench and no longer gave sad cries like when he had first arrived on the floor.

「So, which way is it?」

When asked by Rei, who was looking at the left and right passageways, Elena pulled out a map and unfolded it.

The glow from the walls and ceiling fortunately meant that it wasn’t too hard to read the map and the path forward soon became clear.

「The left has several small rooms, but ultimately it’s a dead end. The right passage continues all the way to the end.」

「Then right it is……oh, wait.」

Rei suddenly felt a sense of deja vu as he remembered what they had done back on the desert floors.

He recalled a similar exchange on the rocky desert floor where Vihera had fought a Cyclops.

He also recalled heading over to a dead end and absorbing magic stones to acquire new skills.

Rei had no plans to go to the dead end here. The only magic stones he had that could be absorbed was the one he had taken from the Desert Lizardman that had been eaten by the Sandworm.

He could wait until tomorrow, after the material stripping request was completed, but Rei decided that since they were already in the dungeon, might as well do what they could.

(It’s a good thing the space before the fork is quite wide. There’s light from the walls and ceiling, but we shouldn’t need to worry about being seen from further away.)

「Set, Elena, Yellow. Move a bit closer to the wall. We’re going to absorb the one magic stone I have.」

「……Here?」

Elena instinctively asked, but Rei nodded in response.

「Fortunately, there’s only the Desert Lizardman magic stone. It should only take a few seconds, and since we’re at the end of the passageway, we should be able to sense anyone approaching first.」

「That’s true but……no, if you say so, then let’s do that.」

Understanding that it would only take a few seconds to absorb a magic stone, Elena gave a brief nod.

In fact, to absorb a magic stone, all that was needed was for either Set to swallow it or to cut it with the Death Scythe.

The most time consuming part was actually testing out the performance of any acquired skills.

Rei shrugged his shoulders and spoke up, perhaps understanding Elena’s concerns.

「Even if we have to test out a skill, it will only be a single one. This is also not a very popular floor for various reasons.」

For a moment, Rei thought of the party that had been looking for a mage who could use fire or purification magic in the dungeon plaza, but that thought quickly faded away.

It would be troublesome if that party came by, but mages were hard to come by to begin with, so it was unlikely they would end up finding one just as they started looking.

(Well, since they were looking for a mage with those skills, maybe their party had entered an undead floor before and found that it would be better with a mage. In that case, the might come to this floor anyway? But, as Elena said, there are other floors with undead.)

Rei collected his thoughts as they moved closer to the wall.

「Kyu?」

Yellow and Elena followed after Rei and Set.

「Well then, who will absorb it……well, we’ll definitely have another Desert Lizardman magic stone after tomorrow, so I don’t have to think too hard about it. Set.」

「Guru~?」

Is that okay? Set seemed to ask as he tilted his head. Rei nodded in response.

Set was confused for a moment but then probably remembered that Rei’s Misty Ring still had Desert Lizardmen that they had previously killed. Picking up the magic stone from Rei’s hand with his beak, Set swallowed it.

【Set has acquired the skill 『Wind Arrow Lv.2』】

An announcement echoed in his mind.

「Wind Arrow level 2, huh? Well, considering that skills aren’t guaranteed, I should consider it a blessing that an existing skill was upgraded.」

「Guru~……Guru~?　Gururururu~!」

Set nodded as if agreeing with Rei’s words and looked around before giving an alert cry.

The moment Set gave that cry, Rei and Elena immediately took their weapons out while Yellow flapped his wings and flew away from Elena’s shoulder to not disturb them.

Soon, they heard a metallic clattering sound from the right passageway.

Rei frowned slightly at the sound.

It wasn’t the clacking of a Skeleton, nor was it the damp, repulsive squishing of a Zombie walking.

「That means……it’s a new monster.」

The undead that Rei had fought so far were mainly Skeletons and Zombies, not the type of monsters that would have a metallic clattering sound that they could hear.

「With a metallic sound, could it not be an undead?」

At Elena’s words, Rei turned to her in surprise.

Rei had assumed that only undead would show up on this floor.

In fact, from all the information that Rei had collected in advance, no one had heard of any monsters on the 16th floor that weren’t undead.

However, they did know of the existence of abnormal species that could change that.

With those thoughts in mind, they stared intently down the right passageway as they waited, and soon……the glow from the walls and ceiling revealed the figure.

The figure was 2m tall, wearing full plate mail, and carrying a pole axe in its hands. That was Rei’s first impression of it.

「Is that an adventurer?」

At first glance it looked like an adventurer. However, Rei immediately noticed something strange about it.

There was no sense that it was alive.

Realising that, a chain of thoughts immediately led him to the identity of the figure in full plate in front of them.

「A Living Armour!?」

Living Armour. They were a monster that can to be when a dead spirit took up residence in a suit of armour. The rank of a Living Armour depended on the dead spirit that inhabited the armour, but most of the time Living Armours were D rank monsters.

The proof of subjugation was a magic stone inside the armour. Unlike ordinary monsters, it wasn’t embedded in a heart, but rather inside the armour like skeleton.

At the same time, it was the Living Armour’s weak point.

Although the only real material that could be collected was the magic stone, which doubled as proof of subjugation, the armour it was made from and the weapon it wielded were also quite valuable due to the magic power they contained.

That said, depending on the Living Armour, they could also be cursed, so it was generally recommended that a knowledgeable blacksmith or alchemist examine the item before using it.

Even if it was cursed, the curse could be lifted, diluted, or the armour used as material for creating other magic items.

One such Living Armour had showed up in front of Rei’s group.

************************************************

【Set】

『Water Ball Lv.3』 『Fire Breath Lv.3』 『Wind Arrow Lv.2』 new 『King’s Awe Lv.1』 『Poison Claw Lv.4』 『Size Transformation Lv.1』 『Tornado Lv.1』 『Ice Arrow Lv.1』 『Optical Camouflage Lv.2』 『Evil Eye Impact Lv.1』

Wind Arrow: Shoots 5~7 wind arrows. Though its power isn’t high, they are hard to see and fly fast.