Death March — Fixed

“Tek here, in World of Warcraft, there are enough quests and guides that you don’t have to constantly look for Monsters--and then grind. However, in a fantasy world, we don’t have the benefit of something like Zygor.”

 

When everyone was sleeping the Villa, the one in the Labyrinth, I went back to the mansion to check on the situation--there wasn’t really anything of note in particular.

 

The children are healing nicely, I give some extra nutrient solution to Miteruna, before telling her that I am going again until tomorrow morning.

 

All she did was nod politely and wish me a good night--she didn’t ask me about my destination.

 

***

“New hunting ground?” Arisa is the first to respond to my suggestion.

 

“Yeah, if we keep this speed up, the enemies in this area will likely die out by tomorrow. Judging by the map, Area -74 or Area -109 look good. Area -74 is filled with Frog and Reptile Monsters, while Area -109 has Insects.”

 

There are Cockatrices in Area -69 that adjoins Area -109. These Monsters are fairly high level, there’s even one at level 80. There are high level Basilisks in Area -77 which neighbours Area -74, it seems.

 

“There are many Insect Monsters which have very solid shells, so defeating them will take some time. I think Area -74 with the Frogs and Reptiles is better.” Liza suggests with her normal expression, but I didn’t miss the glint in her eye and swaying of the tip of her tail when she heard about the frogs.

 

Pochi and Tama looked happy about it, and none of the other members objected. If I’m not mistaken, a party called the Fang of Conflagration was going to subjugate the Cockatrices, so we can avoid them if we go to Area -74.

 

Let’s pick a course where we won’t encounter the Adventurers along the way. If we’re about to bump into anyone, I can just carry Nana and fly to the ceiling with Sky Drive, so they won’t notice us.

 

***

“The corner over there!”

“Monsters are hiding.”

 

Tama and Pochi excitedly point at one of the corners.

 

“Wait a minute, I’ll check the surroundings with Space Grasp Magic--there are three Maze Centipedes. One of them is on the ceiling, so be careful.” Arisa quickly cast a Spell that allowed her to detect the entirety of Space around her.

 

“I’ll illuminate the ceiling with my Light Drop, so Mia, fell it with your bow, okay.” Lulu suggested, pulling a Light Drop from a pouch on her waist.

 

“Nn.”

 

“Nana, Provoke it.”

 

“You Centipedes! Don’t think that you’re so great just because you have a lot of legs, so I declare!”

 

I don’t really think that Centipedes think that.

 

One of the two Centipedes that were hiding in the shadows near the corner appeared due to Nana’s provocation--and quickly dropped to the ground because of Liza’s powerful spear attack. Right afterwards, Pochi chopped it’s head off with her Magic Shortsword.

 

Lulu illuminates the Centipede that’s hanging upside-down on the ceiling, throwing the Light Drop into the air, where it began to hover. Mia quickly shot an arrow, piercing through a gap between the plates of the Centipede’s carapace.

 

Lulu is holding a Magic Rifle against her shoulder, her eye to the scope, pausing for only a second before skillfully shooting the Monster’s legs.

 

Her marksmanship has become incredibly good.

 

Nana braces herself, blocking the charging Centipede with her Great-Shield. When the Centipede began to climb the shield that it rammed into, trying to attack Nana, she stabs straight through its head with her sword. Furthermore, she recites the Command Word ‘Tear’, activating the special function of her Magic Sword, rupturing the Monster’s head.

 

This new feature, Tear, is one I have just experimented on. I’ve put a thin membrane of Force on the surface of the sword, which will snap outwards at the recitation of the Command Word. Since the eruption itself doesn’t contain much power, I created the membrane to be shaped into fine threads, increasing its killing power--useful for tearing an enemy apart from the inside.

 

The only one who didn’t fight the Centipedes, Tama, was dealing with the Goblin Assassin that was sneaking up behind us. This Monster is an Assassin-Type Goblinkin that uses shadows and narrow passages to launch surprise attacks from behind--even though their levels are only around level 10 - 12, it seems that almost 30% of the annual deaths of Adventurers.

 

“I guess that it’s around White 7? There’s rarely any Red-Grade Magic Cores like in Area -17, huh.” Arisa is complaining while looking closely as the Core with the Light Drop.

 

From our experience so far, it seems that both the level and age of the Monster, the more red-leaning the colour is. The higher the level, the larger the core.

 

***

Along the way, in a certain hall of Area-1-2-21, we happened to pass by Gina and Heliona’s party--who were fighting a Soldier Mantis. Soldier Mantises are rather weak Monsters, around level 25.

 

The person who appears to be the leader of the party seems to notice us as well, but they don’t seem to intend to have contact with us, unless we get closer.

 

Mina and Heliona are in a party of 10 people, four of which are in full-body Metallic armour, two in partial metal armour, and the other four are in leather armour.

 

Gina is using a long spear, unlike the flail that she was using before. She’s behind Heliona, who’s dressed as a heavy soldier, but she has been injured and has a bandage wrapped around one of her arms.

 

There’s a single Mage who sometimes shoots out Fireballs from far behind the rest of the party. I feel that the Fireballs often hit the Mage’s party-mates more than the Monsters, I hope it is my imagination…

 

“Ugh, that Fire Mage is terrible. The Fireball was aimed at the back of the vanguard shield-user.”

“Affirmative. That Mage is a dangerous pyromaniac, so I assert.”

 

They should be able to win since there’s only one opponent, but it’ll be dangerous if there were a group.

 

We continue without calling out to them, and join the Beastkin girls, who have gone ahead to the exit.

 

“Easy victory?”, “Easy!”

“Master, we’ve collected the Magic Cores.”

 

“Thank you. Then, let’s go.”

 

I receive the three Soldier Mantises’ Magic Cores from Liza. I had asked the three to go ahead and exterminate a small group of Soldier Mantises that were on their way down the passage.

 

Since Pochi has a shallow cut on her cheek, I heal her with Aqua Heal.

 

I put the Soldier Mantis remains into my storage, since either Mara or I could use it for amour, or trinkets.

 

There are a lot of Mantis and Grasshopper-type Monsters in this place, Area -21. It seems that they can be sold for a lot of money to the largish parties that are camping in certain halls in this area.

 

***

We discovered a body that’s getting eaten by Monsters, in the main corridor that connects to where Gina and the others are fighting just now.

 

I rapidly fire Remote Stuns to knock the Monsters off the body, and Arisa’s Fireballs burn the remains of the Labyrinth Cockroaches. Apparently, it’s quite a flammable Monster.

 

The person who was being eaten is one of the people who picked a fight with us in the West Guild, one of Besso’s friends. I put his Bronze Plates into my Storage.

 

“Ugh, maybe he got attack from behind while he was running from something.”

“Affirmative.”

 

Both Arisa and Nana are inspecting the corpse.

 

There’s a crossroads ahead, to the left is Besso and one of his friends, to the right is a hall with a large-scale party composed of 20 people. The party are fight Monsters twice their number. Among them are the the two women of Beautiful Wings, and the party of three Beastkins from the Ant-train incident.

 

Besso and his friend seem to be escaping without any Monsters pursuing them. Those two only have around 20% of their health left, but they seem durable, so they will probably survive.

 

Rather than that, I’m more interested with the composition of the 20-person party. The five core members are between level 25 - 28, but the other 15 are between levels 10 - 15, their somewhat too low-leveled to fight Monsters in this Area.

 

Bluntly speaking, it’s absurd.

 

Even the Cockroach that Arisa and the others defeated effortlessly just now, was level 22.

 

Well, I don’t want to leave acquaintances to die, and all of the girls will be able to win without any problems, so it’s time to help. If they refuse us for any reason, I will just work from the shadows and keep the girls from Beautiful Wings alive.

 

I had considered helping from the shadows, but I decided to let the girls fight. They are high enough level to be able to be able to stand out a little, and they got Red Iron rank, so people will be paying attention to them anyway.

 

Showing off some of their abilities in front of other Adventurers in a situation that seems dangerous, saving the Adventurers lives, it should help decrease trouble.

 

***

“Tek, a fork.” Mia reports, pointing ahead.

 

“Yeah, there are also 20 Adventurers who are fighting Cockroach Monster to the right.”

 

“Then, should we go straight?”

 

I usually let Liza or Arisa make a judgement call from reports like Mia’s, but I decide to interject this time, “No, we have some acquaintances there, and they will be annihilated if they’re left alone, so let’s save them.”

 

“Is it alright?” Arisa asked, since it wasn’t usual for me to decide like that. So I told everyone my thoughts. Everyone agree with my thinking, so we proceed to the right.

 

“So, who are the acquaintances?” Arisa asks suddenly.

 

“The girls of Beautiful Wings.”

 

“Ahh, I thought so. You always end up saving girls.” Arisa rolled her eyes, while the others nodded.

 

***

The leader seemed quite competent, as there were no casualties by the time we arrived at the hall, though they were clearly at a disadvantage.

 

They had been backed into a corner, but they were keeping an equilibrium--and we arrived just in time to break it…in their favour.