Episode 148 The 23rd floor of the Suigetsu Dungeon
When camping in the Mid-boss room, I didn't set up a tent. All I had to do was bring out the outdoor folding bed and blanket, boil water, and I was ready to go. The heat source was an outdoor cassette stove.
I poured boiling water into a cup. Freeze-dried soup with plenty of vegetables was inside. Dinner was soup and chirashizushi bento.
The Tsukika-dan Team, who were camping together, were making sukiyaki. As veterans, they must be tired of bentos. After finishing the meal, Shirai, the leader of the Tsukika-dan Team, spoke to me.(TN:Feels awkward considering dan = party/group so it's Moonflower party team? Seriously? So redundant. Team is katakana/engrish btw.)
"It's a big deal to come this far solo. What floor are you heading for?"
"It's the grasslands area on the 23rd floor."
"Hmm, that's where the PunishRhinos are. You should watch out for those rhinos."
It didn't seem like he was a bad-tempered adventurer. According to Shirai's information, the threat of the PunishRhino's attack seemed to be the horn on its nose. It was said to be so powerful that even if you were equipped with strong armor, it would open a hole in it.
I thanked Shirai for the information and went to bed that day. However, I turned the Sorcery Eye of the hairband to point at the Tsukika-dan Team, and slept with the drawstring bag and Magic Pouch containing the Magical Intelligence Metis on my body.
What I added to my expedition equipment this time was this hairband and a drawstring bag with the Magic Intelligence Metis hanging on my belt. Metis said that she had the ability to create maps, so I tried it.
The function was real. Metis created a map of the places I passed through and was able to display them on the Appraisal Monocle. And Metis, who didn't need to sleep, could also be used as a lookout.
However, the next day, without incident, the Tsukika-dan Team went to mine the 19th layer of the blue silver deposit. As I was left alone, I talked to Metis while eating the sweet bread I bought at a bakery.
"Metis, what do you think of the Tsukika-dan Team?"
[ Is it because the team has been mining only blue silver for a long time? I felt like they had no ambition. ]
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Metis seemed to have a keen eye for observation. The leader, Shirai, also seemed to have a family, so he couldn't push himself too hard. That was one way of life as an adventurer, so I didn't pay mind to it.
[ How deep of a floor are you going to this time? ]
"The 24th floor. I'm thinking of having a dogfight with the RipperBird over there."
I was thinking of doing an air battle with the RipperBird as a rehearsal before doing an air battle with the FireDrake.
The magic 'Wing' was not created with aerial combat in mind. I wanted to experience an aerial battle with a monster once. As a result, if it turned out that 'Wing' could not be used for aerial combat, then I would have to think about remodeling 'Wing'.
After getting ready and leaving the Mid-boss room, I headed for the stairs leading down to the 21st floor. I took the shortest route through the mountain area on the 21st floor and descended to the 22nd floor.
In the swamp area, I avoided the RoughTurtles and headed for the stairs. I searched for about an hour and went down the stairs. The 23rd floor was a grassland area.
Staring at the grasslands spreading before me, I felt that the area was getting wider as I went down.
[ Are there PunishRhinos here? ]
"That's right. It seems to be a monster with a fairly high defensive power, but do you know them?"
[ Searching. ... It seems that PunishRhino has an attack method called lightning attack. ]
Metis gave me new information. She said searching, so I asked her what she was searching and she said it was a dungeon archive.
Is that true? This information was not found in the Adventurer's Guild materials or in Shirai's story.
[ With my authority, I can only search for monsters that live in intermediate dungeons, but the information is certain. ]
Dungeon Archive? Even when I asked what it was, Metis didn't know. Was it something like shared knowledge that dungeons had? There were so many things I didn't understand.
Leaving aside the source of information, a light attack seemed to be something where the PunishRhino rammed into you while it was clad in electricity. It was said that if you were hit, you would be paralyzed and die.
"Scaryy!"
I proceeded with caution. About five minutes later, I ran into an ArmorBear rather than a PunishRhino.
The ArmorBear seemed to have noticed me as well, and started running towards me with a menacing roar. I held up my Black Staff and swung it down from directly above, at the same time I fired a SeventhHighBlade.
A D-Particle Blade slammed into the ArmorBear's head, exceeding the speed of sound. With that blow, the monster's head was cut open, and its large body fell.
I picked up the magic stone and moved forwards. I felt that magic like 'High Blade' was easy to use. The feeling of activating in conjunction with the action and being activated according to the image was perfect.
If it had a characteristic like 'Slashing', I would have made something like a stronger version of 'High Blade'. However, a trait like 'Slashing' seemed to belong to the D-Particle secondary mutation, and it seemed impossible to create it. The Sage System that I had could only create the characteristics of D-Particle primary mutation.
While thinking about such things, I encountered a PunishRhino. The PunishRhino was a rhino about the size of an elephant. The ground shook as the giant ran.
Even so, I didn't think it was scary. That's what I thought when I was far away from the PunishRhino. However, I started to think that it might be a little scary as I watched the giant monster gradually approaching. When I got close to it, I could feel its presence strongly and it was powerful.
I activated QuintPileShot. The D-Particle Pile hit the PunishRhino on its shoulder and penetrated as it was. The impact caused the PunishRhino to fall and slide while thrashing around.
Kuh, did I miss the vital point.
The PunishRhino was trying to stand up without dying. I got a little closer and fired a QuadPileShot to the head. It ended up disappearing.
The magic stone left behind by the PunishRhino was a blue magic stone
The lightning attack information that I received from Metis wasn't very useful. It didn't matter because I would defeat it before it even got close.
After defeating the third PunishRhino, I found the stairs leading down to the 24th floor. I descended the stairs, thinking that the real thing was coming.
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