LEGEND

Chapter 96

「Alright, disarming complete.」

Vel declared that about an hour after he started to disarm the trap.

The watch had already changed from Rei to Ara and from Ara to Kuust. When it was time for Elena to take the watch, Vel’s voice sounded out.

「It’s been hard on you. You took some time to disarm the trap so take a short break. If we encounter enemies if we moved forward now, it would be bad for you.」

「As expected of the princess. You understand your subordinates well.」

He had been concentrating hard on disarming the trap. As he was quite tired, he muttered quietly as he leaned against the gently glowing dungeon walls.

While smiling wryly at Vel’s appearance, Elena took over the watch from Kuust.

「It’s been hard on you.」

「Ah yeah. Well, my job is my job. However, there have been many places since we entered the dungeon that needed me to do something……I mean, I feel like it’s too much.」

With a bitter smile, Vel took out a bottle of water from his waist pouch and held it out to Kuust.

「Sorry about this.」

Kuust brought the bottle to his mouth as he gave a wry smile back.

「Indeed, both of you are lazy.」

「……You, you’re not exhausting your stamina because of the effect of that magic item.」

At Ara’s slightly teasing tone, Vel turned to glared at her. It was Ara’s payback for being teased all the time.

While watching the interaction of the three people, Rei lay down on floor and leaned against Set, who was watching the surroundings, and stroked his back.

「Well then, we should restart our search soon.」

Elena declared so after Vel had rested for about 30 minutes.

At those words, everyone nodded and stood up, readying their weapons.

「Vel, I’ll be burdening you a bit more, but please.」

「Yes, yes, leave that to me. I will do my best for the remaining floor.」

「I’ll leave it to you. There will be no change in the formation. So let’s go.」

The vanguard was Vel and Kuust. The middle guard was Rei and Elena and the rear guard was Ara and Set as they advanced through the passage where the trap had been disarmed.

「Hey, Vel. By the way, what kind of trap did you disarm in the end?」

While advancing down the passage, Ara asked Vel.

While keeping a sharp eye on the surroundings to check whether there were traps or not, Vel replied in a light tone.

「You want to know?　Well, in that case, I could teach you about it.」

「……What, that kind of feeling. Was it such a terrible trap?」

「Should I call it amazing or horrific. To be short, it was a trap that collapsed the ceiling as soon as you stepped into the passage.」

「Wait a moment, what’s with that. It shouldn’t be possible to avoid that.」

Ara walked along the passage with a stunned look, but Kuust interrupted there.

「Say, if the ceiling collapses here, won’t the floor of the fifth floor collapse as well?」

「I wonder. I don’t know the area around here but isn’t it a dungeon with forests and rivers flowing inside?　Even if the ceiling collapses here, if there was no effect on the floor above, I wouldn’t be surprised.」

「……Certainly.」

Kuust was reminded of the many unreasonable events that had occurred so far and unexpectedly agreed.

As they talked like that, 30 minutes passed as they explored the passage. Strangely, they had come this far with a sense of doubt as they hadn’t found a single trap.

「After all this……what Vel said earlier might be correct.」

Although they hadn’t found any traps, as it was unknown when monster would attack, Elena held her sword whip in her hand as she muttered.

「Is it about the possibility that the trap a while back was a trial?」

Rei answered Elena while holding the Death Scythe, ready to use it at any time.

「Ah. Thinking about the number of traps since we entered this floor, the trap before might have been like the final exam.」

「……Elena-sama, you might be right.」

Vel, who heard the conversation between Elena and Rei, unintentionally muttered as he discovered a strange object in his sight.

The thing that Vel saw at the end of his line of sight was a huge door about 5m tall. It was a double door and an intimidating Giant wielding a huge club was carved into it.

「What is this, I only have bad feelings after seeing that door.」

At Vel’s tired voice, Rei went forward with a wry smile.

「I know what you mean, but if you don’t open the door, the other option is not entering that room and going back to the crossroads before.」

「I guess. There will definitely be a door like this on the other two passages……it can’t be helped, are you ready?」

Slapping both cheeks to fire himself up, he went to check the door at once……after a few minutes, he shrugged his shoulders and declared.

「There’s no trap. In the end, it seems that the previous one was the last one.」

「Alright. Let’s go in as soon as we can. Because we don’t know what’s inside, don’t let your guard down.」

Everyone nodded at Elena’s words. Vel, as the responsibility of the thief, opened the door with the carving of the Giant.

And inside……

「A Goblin, is it?」

Rei muttered unintentionally.

Yes. The room that the door opened to could be called vast. As Rei looked around, it looked like the room was about 500 square meters.

And in that vast room, in a corner was a presence about the height of Rei’s waist with green skin and an ugly face.

Although it was a figure that could normally only be judged as a Goblin, for some reason, Rei’s chest had a sense of incongruity when he called it a Goblin.

(At the end of a door with a figure of a Giant carved into it is a Goblin?　Is that even possible?　As far as this dungeon’s benevolence is concerned, I don’t think it would prepare such a simple enemy……)

While Rei thought that in his mind, the Goblin in the room rushed towards Rei with its club.

Seeing that, they were amazed. The two vanguards, Kuust and Vel, took a step forward.

「Elena-sama, we are enough for the likes of a Goblin.」

「……I feel something strange……well, if it’s Kuust, he should be more than enough to deal with a Goblin.」

While having the same sense of incongruity as Rei, Vel pulled out his bow to support Kuust, who went forward.

(Inside the Giant’s door is a Goblin……Wait. Giant?　Goblin?　If I remember correctly from the monster encyclopedia……Spriggan!?)

As the Rei’s chain of thoughts lead him to the answer, he quickly cried out.

「The enemy isn’t a Goblin, it’s a Spriggan!」

Elena, who was next to Rei, was the first to react to his voice. She went forward with her sword whip.

At the same time, even though she didn’t understand why, seeing Elena head to the front line was enough for Ara to follow.

And when Elena and the rest entered inside, the huge door automatically closed as if someone was watching. But Elena and the rest of the party, who were focusing on the Spriggan, didn’t notice it at all.

「Kuust, fall back!」

Elena shouted at Kuust, who was holding his spear towards the approaching enemy. However, her words were a few seconds too late.

Originally, the Goblin was supposed to be only up to Rei’s waist in height. A green wall suddenly spread in front of Kuust, who had tried to stab out with his magic spear.

No, it wasn’t a wall. It was a gigantic figure 6m tall.

Spriggan. In its normal form, it was easy to mistake it for a Goblin. But when it fought, it would reveal its true nature as a Giant. It was a monster with two figures, a giant and an ugly midget. It was a kind of Giant, but it was an extremely heinous and ferocious monster that like to eat the flesh of humans or creatures with low intelligence. It was a B rank monster. It was a monster at the same level as the Orc King that Rei had defeated in the Orc settlement.

In terms of liking human flesh and its ferocity, it was similar to the Ogre that Rei and Set had fought on the fourth floor. But unlike Ogres, it had a certain degree of cunning, which was worrying. Still, it was a relief for Elena that it couldn’t use magic like the high ranking Giants.

「GAAaaaA~!」

Due to influence from the Spriggan itself becoming huge, the club in it’s hand also became huge. Unlike the tree that the Ogre had directly pulled out from the ground, the tip had been worked on heavily to cause great damage on hitting the enemy. The club swung down towards Kuust……

Gakin~!

Elena swung her sword whip and it stretched out like a whip, striking the tip of the club, forcibly changing its trajectory before it had swung down.

「Tch!」

Kuust instantly recovered his senses and jumped back and Vel shot arrows at the Spriggan to support Kuust at the same time. But……

「You’re kidding!?　What kind of skin does it have that arrows can’t penetrate!」

Because his mark was big, Vel shot 5 arrows at once. All of them hit the body of the Spriggan but they all fell to the floor without even injuring it’s skin.

「Don’t aim for it’s body, aim for it’s face! If you hit its eyes or mouth, you should be able to hurt it!」

While holding the Death Scythe, Rei shouted as he ran past Vel. Naturally, Set followed beside him.

「GAAaaa~!」

Contrary to Kuust, who fell back, Rei and Set thrust themselves forward. And a short distance away from Rei, the Spriggan noticed Ara moving towards it and gave a frustrated roar as it raised its large club.

「Ara, I will attract its attention so aim for its feet!　With your strength and the Power Axe, you should be able to hurt the Spriggan!」

「I understand!」

Shouting to Ara, Rei swung his large Death Scythe at the Spriggan.

「Flying Slash!」

With that word, a flying slash was released, putting a big scar on the chest of the Spriggan, who was swinging down its club at that moment.

But……

「Tch, it’s shallow!」

Unlike the arrows that Vel shot, the flying slash from the Death Scythe certainly scratched the Spriggan. There was a big scratch where the slash had hit. However, although the wound was large, in the end, it was an attack that didn’t reach the bone, only cutting the skin and some flesh.

The Spriggan also didn’t care about such degree of injuries……but, it still swung down the huge club it raised at Rei, who had injured it.

「GURURURURURU~!」

Set activated King’s Awe against the Spriggan. Rei avoided the slowed attack by jumping to the side before jumping onto the upper part of the club that had been swung down. He then ran up its arm, swinging the Death Scythe at the neck of the Spriggan. But……

「GAAAaaa~!」

The Spriggan instinctively guessed how much power Rei’s attack with the Death Scythe had and use its left arm, the one without the club, to shield its neck. Its left hand was cut off from the wrist and it raised a roar of pain.

「Tch, if you were an Ogre, you would have died from this attack!」

Recalling the figure of the Ogre which he had fought on the fourth floor for a moment. He kicked the shoulder of the Spriggan to get away from it’s range of attack.

Losing its wrist, the Spriggan tired to hit Rei by swinging its left arm, which was spewing blood. However, Elena’s sword whip quickly extended out. It drew a complex trajectory, like a snake dancing through the air, as its tip stabbed into the check of the Spriggan, which Vel’s arrows couldn’t even pierce.

That moment. The moment it stopped unexpectedly due to that blow, Elena’s voice echoed out.

「Ara!」

Following that voice, Ara, who had moved unnoticed to the Spriggan’s feet, raised the Power Axe in her hands……and swung it down at the left foot of the Spriggan!

Ara’s great strength and the Power Axe, which was a magic item. The attack with both effects shown was swung down on the Spriggan’s left foot, exactly at the ankle, successfully cleaving through it.

「GAAAAaaa~!」

While screaming, the Spriggan fell to its knees without being able to stand up after losing a foot.

「Alright!　Now’s the time, follow up!」

Following Elena’s order, everyone attacked the Spriggan at the same time.

Rei swung the Death Scyth, Elena used her sword whip, Ara swung the Power Axe, Kuust thrust his magic spear with a water spell causing damage to accumulate on the body of the Spriggan and Vel shot several arrows at the head of the Spriggan.

「GURURURURURU~!」

And with a strike from the sky from Set, the Spriggan’s life was ended and the Giant fell to the ground.