NOVEL NEXT Chapter 23: Cockroach-witch
What greeted me on the other side was the sight of cockroaches varying from the size of a fist to a raccoon swarming on Nikola. She swung her sword wildly, killing many with each swing. But more took their place. A red magic circle appeared above her, and from it came a giant cockroach arm, attacking her. She dodged it in the nick of time and threw herself onto a swarm of cockroaches. They tried to crawl into her mouth. She spit them out and continued to slice them up.
I quickly scanned the area.
We were in a giant hall with old ancient and dirty pillars stretching to the roof. This must be some hidden part of the dungeon.
I searched for the summoner of the magic circle. And found it at the end of the hall, on a pedestal, overlooking everything. It was an upright cockroach wearing a witch’s pointy hat and holding a crystal-tipped wand.
I pressed on the valve and sprayed the insecticide over everything. Nikola included. The cockroaches that felt the poison screeched before dying. They stopped swarming Nikola but circled around us both. Garth appeared, and I sprayed some in his direction and stopped the cockroaches from swarming him.
Nikola moved closer to me, panting, “Thanks.”
“Next time, don’t be an idiot,” I said.
She bit her lip and held her sword, ready to fight.
“More prey for my children.” The cockroach on the pedestal wheezed through its creepy mouth. The crystal on its wand glowed, and two magic circles appeared in the air. One released a swarm of cockroaches of varying sizes, and from the other came giant cockroach arms trying to stab us.
I used [energy manipulation, telekinesis] on the arms and sprayed more of the insecticide on the swarm. I also shot [lightning] at the cockroach-witch while I was at it. She jumped off the pedestal and avoided my attack.
“Pests!” The witch wheezed. The crystal tip glowed, more magic circles appeared around us, and more giant cockroach arms attacked us. “Devour them, my children! Devour them!” It angrily wheezed.
The swarm attacked, and I sprayed more insecticide, slowing their advance.
“We have to kill the summoner,” I told the two beside me. “Garth, I’ll provide cover. Don’t look back and charge towards the magician.”
He nodded and charged forward with his sword held high. The swarm tried to block him. I used [energy manipulation, telekinesis] to propel the insecticide and attack the cockroaches trying to block him.
“No, no, no!” The cockroach-witch panicked, summoning another magic circle to block Garth.
I amplified my [lightning] using [energy manipulation] and shot it straight into the magic circle, effectively stopping the cockroach arms from ever coming out. I continued to shoot insecticide far and wide using [telekinesis].
Garth closed in on the witch. It tried to summon more swarms to stop him, but Garth used [air slice]. His attack flew through the air and sliced the cockroach-witch in two. Though its face was impossible to read for humans, we could all understand it was shocked. It collapsed to the ground spilling its green blood. All the cockroaches attacking me and Nikola stopped and turned towards Garth. Attacking him altogether.
He was drowning in them in a matter of seconds. We ran towards him. I focused my mana on [energy manipulation, telekinesis] and shot jets of insecticide. Though it might’ve been uncomfortable for him for a few seconds, being submerged in insects, we managed to get him out before the cockroaches could do any permanent damage. I emptied out the insecticide. When the insecticide was finished, I used my sparkling balls of [lightning] to fry the rest.
Finally, after what seemed like hours, the cockroaches stopped attacking Garth. Most were dead, and the rest ran away.
I was fine, but Garth and Nikola were covered in scratches and wounds. [Shield of Andromeda] protected me more than a few times.
“Where’s the space expansion bag?” I asked Garth.
He pointed to the spot we were teleported to. “I left it there.”
He sighed, got up, and moved towards the bag. I didn’t use [give] because I felt recovering my mana was more important.
Behind the pedestal, there was a door. And beyond the door were stairs leading down, deeper into somewhere. I lit up the dark stairs with [energy manipulation, lightning]. With a sparkling ball of lightning hanging beside my shoulder, I descended down the stairs. Few cockroaches crawled past me. With their leader gone, and most of them dead, the remaining avoiding us.
Downstairs I came upon a mossy and moist room. 7 girls were lying unconscious by the corner. The smell in the room was atrocious. I ran towards them and noticed one of the girls was missing half her face. They all had signs of being feasted upon. I also found several bones beside them. “This…” When I looked closer, I found two of them were still alive. I quickly ran back upstairs.
“Garth! Bring more of those health potions!” I shouted at the top of the stairs and ran back. Garth and Nikola looked like they’d healed.
“What? What’s going on?” Garth asked, but I didn’t answer and kept descending the stairs. He followed behind me with the space expansion bag.
When he saw the girls, he grimaced. “These two are still alive.” I said, moving them away from the other 5. “Pour the health potions on their wounds.” He quickly took out more health potions and poured them on them.
“Is this fine?” Nikola asked, scratching her head. “Aren’t health potions expensive?” They weren’t so expensive that I needed to worry. But for most adventurers, it would be something to worry about.
“It’s fine,” I said. “Come on, both of you carry them upstairs.”
While they carried them upstairs, I scanned over everything with [look-a-look]. I found one of the bricks on the wall was sticking out a little too much. I pulled on it, and a few bricks fell out along with the one I pulled out. Behind it was all manner of gems and crystals. “These are…” I looked through them one after another with [look-a-look]. “These must be from other adventurers.” I took as many as I could carry in my hands and went upstairs.
While Garth tended to the wounded girls, I got Nikola to carry up the rest of the treasures. I also got the witch’s wand and examined it. “A Gold item in an F-rank dungeon.” It was a good thing the monster itself was only F-rank and couldn’t use its full potential.
While I was examining the wand, Garth said, “An intelligent monster. Do you think it’s the dungeon boss?” I shook my head. How can it be the dungeon boss when it showed up in a trap from the 8th floor.
“No, it must’ve lived for a long time.” Some monsters are born intelligent, and then there are ones that gain intelligence. It’s debatable which one’s more dangerous. “What’s amazing is it can speak the human tongue.” It must’ve lived a long time and heard many humans speak. Most of these cockroaches’ mutterings would translate to some nonsensical one-syllable word if I used [translator] on them. So the witch was certainly unique. As a monster grows, it’ll feel the need to learn a language to express its more complex thoughts. If it lived near fairies, it would’ve learned the fairy language. If they live among less intelligent monsters, some make up their own language. Usually, it’s a mixture of animal sounds and the like.
“Lived for a long time…” Nikola looked at its corpse intently. An F-rank monster living for a long time was unheard of.
“In undiscovered dungeons, it’s very common,” I told her. Though they wouldn’t speak the human tongue. They’d still be intelligent and be able to speak some language.
The dungeon boss is also F-rank and intelligent, but its intelligence is due to magic. It’s born able to speak the language of the land.
“Ah, where?” One of the girls woke up.
“Oh, you’re up,” I said.
“Relax. Don’t get up.” Garth said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “You can take your time.”
“No, she can’t,” I said. “We need to get back on the path and continue down the dungeon.”
The woman looked at the witch’s corpse and screamed, “Eeeeah!” She was visibly frightened, grabbing onto Garth. “That! That!”
“It’s fine. It’s fine. We’re here now.” He soothed her. Then he turned to me and said, “Master, she’s traumatized.”
“That can’t be helped.” I shook my head. “Let’s go back up.” Then I turned to Nikola and asked. “Did you get everything?”
“Yeah, I think so.” She said, patting the space expansion bag.
“Yeah, yeah, I got everything.” She said, annoyed with me.
The other girl started to wake up.
“Aase!” The girl let go of Garth and hugged her friend.
“Inga? Where? These people…” She looked around at us.
I stuffed the empty tank and magic hose back in the expansion back.
“Where’s everyone…” Aase was about to finish her question, but then she remembered everything that’d happened.
“I’m sorry to tell you,” I said. “But your friends are already dead.” There was nothing we could do. “Their corpses are downstairs,” I pointed at the dark doorway. “I’m sorry, but we won’t be able to take them back. And there’s nothing to be done.” What funeral could we give in this old cockroach-infested hell hole? I shook my head. “You can go take a look if you want. And say a prayer or something.” I was never good in these situations in my past life or this one.
They looked at the dark doorway and hugged each other tighter. They seemed to want to go and see their friends one last time but were too frightened. “I’ll take them down, master.” Garth volunteered, helping the two up onto their feet.
I nodded.
Garth led them down the stairs.
Left alone with Nikola, I said, “And you, cut out any cores you can.”
“Fine. Fine.” She said.
And I did the same. While waiting for them to return, we cut out more cores to add to our stock.
Some minutes later, the two girls came back crying in each other’s arms.
I looked around to make sure we got everything…
The tank was in the expansion bag… the treasures, the wand… I think that’s everything.
“Okay, let’s go back,” I ordered.
“Shouldn’t we get more of their cores?” Garth asked.
“We already have plenty, and if this is the best they have,” I held up the cockroach witch’s core. “It’ll be better for us to not waste time here.” I cared more about finishing the dungeon and getting to E-rank. The dungeon boss’s core will be enough proof for promotion.
“Hmm… Okay.” Garth nodded and followed me into the teleportation circle.
Making sure everyone was in the magic circle, I activated [energy manipulation] and poured mana into the magic circle. The witch had placed a simple lock on the return magic, but that was easy for me to break through.
In the blink of an eye, we were back on the 8th floor.
“We should rest, master,” Garth suggested. “They’re not looking well. I think we should cook them a meal and give them new clothes.”
“The clothes are fine.” I scanned them. “But do we need to take a break? They can eat the sandwiches you made. We’d be able to reach the end of the 9th floor in a few hours if we rush, and they can be on their way.” As long as we get them back to the entrance, the guards will take care of the rest.
“No, no. They won’t be able to keep up. There’s no way they’d be able to keep up.” He said.
“Fine. let’s take a break.”
“Just like I thought! There’s no danger sign here!” Nikola complained, looking all around the teleportation trap.
I shook my head. “The witch probably moves the teleportation circle around to catch idiots like you. The guild won’t be able to warn you about everything in a dungeon.”