Okami Wa Nemuranai

When Lecan came out the stairway onto floor 19, he saw two adventurers on standby outside.

They're staring intensely at floor 19's stairway. One is drawing a bow while the other is holding a cane.

The mage is chanting a spell.

"...Gods we revere. Grant unto me the power to eradicate evils. We beseech you. Come forth..."

The archer noticed Lecan approaching and stole a quick glance before immediately returning his focus.

Eventually, a man appeared from behind a twisted pillar and ran into the stairway.

A huge boar was chasing after him, and right as it was about to rush into the stairway, it got blown back as if it hit a transparent wall.

Immediately after, the archer let loose of his arrow, while the mage unleashed his mana.

"<Flame Spear (Bandroux)〉!"

The cast Flame Spear was not big, but it had a good control and accurately hit the magic beast's head. An explosive sound that echoed along with a blazing flame quickly went away, but the magic beast was already staggering by this point.

This magic beast is a medium variant of third rank Boar Demon magic beast, Bent Nose (Bamboo).

The archer shot out another two arrows, and the man who lured the magic beast there charged at it with his sword.

After watching the fight to the end, Lecan went down the stairs, setting foot on floor 19. He could feel gazes from the three adventurers', but none called out to him. Neither did Lecan as he passed by them.

He planned to go straight to the stairway down, but suddenly a blue dot in a slightly remote spot began to move toward Lecan.

It must be one of giant variants that appear on every floor. Come to think it, this should be good time as any to create a <Mark>.

As he walked briskly, Lecan carefully kneaded the mana inside his body, then he raised his right arm and held it forward toward nothing but a pillar.

The magic beast was terrifyingly fast. It's arriving at that spot soon.

It comes into view. It's bigger than he imagined.

"<Flame Spear (Bandroux)>!"

<TLN: If you're reading this novel at any other site than Sousetsuka.com you might be reading an unedited, uncorrected version of the novel.>

A huge flaming spear with a firm contour was manifested, then it bolted straight at the magic beast, piercing it.

The magic beast that was charging toward him at a tremendous speed suddenly halted. It stood still for a while as if its time had stopped before falling down on the ground just like that.

Lecan took its magic gem and waited there for a while.

The magic beast isn't respawning.

Right as he was suspecting that he got a wrong info, a wriggling black mist suddenly welled up like it was boiling, and eventually formed a giant Bent Nose like earlier. Lecan beat it with a Flame Spear.

"<Stratum (Siijmel)>!"

Drawing of the dungeon's floors showed up in Lecan's mind. Only the ground floor was lit up among those.

Floor 20 magic beasts are fourth rank of Wolf Demon magic beasts, Wood wolves. These beasts also spawn on floor 2, but the only things they share are form and color; while size, attack power and speed of the wolves found here are on a whole different dimension.

And just like Red Apes, these Wood Wolves will also call for other individuals when they're cornered. These packs of Wood Wolves would rush toward their prey by jumping all over the places, dealing against this in places with many twisted pillars like here is quite a challenge.

That said, their maneuvers are plain as nose to Lecan who possesses <3D Perception>, and a skirmish never lasts long enough for them to call other wolves.

He fought four enemies on this floor. All of them were defeated by <Flame Spears>.

Lecan would prepare his magic when he detected an enemy as he walked on, then cast it right as the beast came into view.

However, the fourth individual managed to dodge his spell, thus he missed the spot he targeted.

The slight time lag that exists between chants and casts is problematic after all. He's got to cast his magic more promptly.

Also, he won't be able to cast magic at a moment's notice if he doesn't make an attempt to shorten the time needed to prepare one

But, just think of swords.

Just how long did it take for him until a sword was practical enough for battle. Considering that, it's going to take quite a while before <Flame Spear> become a truly practical skill.

He had a meal in the stairway leading to floor 21 and took a short nap. It has only been a day at most since he went in the dungeon, but he needs to prepare himself a bit from here on.

The dungeon's design changed by floor 21. It's structured like a mesh of cubic stone rooms. The four walls of these cubic rooms may or may not have holes on them. In other words, some rooms have only one doorway, some have two, some have three, and some even four.

The doorways are too big for humans. Even someone as tall as Lecan could easily pass through them.

However, magic beasts can't get past them. The reason for that is because every magic beast that spawns in the lower stratum are all gigantic.

Since these holes are located at random on the walls, you can rarely see the adjoining rooms.

These rooms are littered with magic beasts all over. It's difficult for a large number of people to go into a room all at once, yet the instant one person entered a room, it would result in a battle, hence it's impossible to really prepare yourselves before a battle begin.

Then just attack those magic beasts from outside the hole right, naturally anyone would come up with that, but magic beasts found in lower stratum all posses the means to attack rooms adjoining theirs.

Floor 21 magic beasts are third rank of Rock Mass magic beasts, Wrinkle Man (Zeovan).

They're giants made of rocks, and the cracks on the rocks look like wrinkles. They're four times as tall as Lecan, slashing weapons and magic are ineffective against them.

Apparently, they attack adjoining rooms by plucking off a part of their body and hurling it. That's what written on the handbook.

Lecan fought with a battle hammer the last time he was here, but he didn't engage in a lot of battle and rushed to the floor below back then.

Lecan was a bit perplexed when he set foot on floor 21 while planning to test out his magic.

There's a giant variant in one of the rooms beyond the one in front of him.

He thought about taking a detour, but if he ran from an opponent of this level here, he wouldn't have a chance getting to the last floor.

He slowly breathed in and kneaded his mana in front of the room where the enemy was.

And then he went in the hole.