Chapter 41.1

Let’s Show Our Presence!

How much longer would the monsters continue to appear?

He had been fighting for an hour already.

“Haa…Ha…”

No, it might have felt like an hour to Haruki, but it was really closer to 10 minutes.

Thanks to the points he had put into strength and dexterity, Haruki was just barely able to avoid being crushed to death by the monsters.

By raising detection, he was able to perceive attacks that were coming from blind spots.

Furthermore, raising growth acceleration meant that his level was slowly going up as well.

Even the aspects that had been difficult when dealing with the monsters as first, were starting to become easier.

And behind him, Rhea continued to annihilate the Silver Wolves with her rapid-fire.

Sometimes she would stop moving after feeling sick from leveling up, but she was still doing a great job.

“Hahh…hah…”

But it still wasn’t enough.

No matter how much they killed, more would continue to appear.

They had killed so many already, and yet the overall number of enemies hadn’t gone down at all.

Perhaps it was despair that would crush them first.

He could see the signs already.

His throat hurt.

It was getting harder to breathe.

His body felt hot.

He couldn’t stop sweating.

He was handling them.

But things were slowly getting worse.

(Is this not a normal monster parade?)

There were clearly more monsters than the previous monster parade Haruki had encountered.

They had defeated over 300 monsters already. And yet the end was nowhere in sight.

If the corpses acted as a barricade to stop the monsters from advancing, it would make things a little easier while they fought.

However, whenever Haruki would defeat a monster, the dungeon would quickly retrieve the body.

It was just like a zombie attack.

He thought that the dungeon was retrieving the dead monsters and sending them out again after reviving them.

“…What should I do…”

What could he do?

Haruki’s head was hot as it operated at full speed.

At the same time, he increased his detection range so that he wouldn’t be attacked.

Haruki’s awareness covered all of the passages and targeted every single monster.

It was all clearer than when he had 1 point in detection. And he was also able to tell their size without seeing them directly.

With every last monster in his mind…

“…Huh?”

In spite of the situation being so dangerous, Haruki was stunned.

“…!?”

“Kyaaan!!”

A Silver Wolf nearly bit him, but he was saved in the nick of time by Rhea’s throw.

What are you doing? Being lazy?

Rhea seemed to say as she poked her leaves into his neck.

“Sorry. And thank you.”

Letting his guard down like that during battle was a mistake.

Haruki apologized sincerely.

However, it really wasn’t his fault that he was so surprised.

After all…

“How come I can sense a monster inside of the passage?”

Among the monsters he could sense with detection 2, there was one that was inside of the wall.

He had thought it must be some kind of mistake at first.

But it wasn’t.

It was inside of the wall without a doubt.

It seemed that there was a slight bump in the area where it would have been.

As if a monster was going to be born from there soon.

However, even after some time had passed, no monster came out of it.

“…Maybe…”

Haruki muttered as he moved towards it.

However, before he could reach the wall, ten Owners moved to block his path.

“Tsk!”

If they were Silver Wolves, he could have gotten through them by brute force.

But Owners were different.

Their combat ability was much higher.

And they were also smart enough to be able to read your movement.

Haruki’s abilities would not allow him to get past ten of them.

As for Rhea’s support…it was not promising.

It was all that she could do to protect his back.

“I’m so close!”

Haruki ground his teeth as he just barely blocked the attacks of the Owners.

One step. Two steps. They pushed him back.

Don’t back up anymore! It’s dangerous!

Rhea seemed to shout as she slapped his shoulder.

“Damn it! What can I…”

Just then, an idea suddenly formed in the back of Haruki’s mind.

But that…

“…This is no time for hesitation!”

Haruki brushed away the feeling of disgust and quickly took off the mask.

At the same time, he activated Conceal.

The Silver Wolves continued to target him, just as before.

As he was covered in sweat, he was not able to fool their detection abilities.

However, it was different with the Owners.

They squinted their eyes and glared at the spot that he had been a moment ago.

However, they were not able to see him.

So, it was true.

Previously, when he had used the fixed artillery during a stampede.

The Silver Wolves had been the only monsters who were able to notice Haruki while he was concealed.

And so he wondered if the Owners would lose him if he used it.

And he had been right.

“I can do this!”

And so Haruki ran at full speed, but still kept his guard up, as he approached the wall.

Then he took out his two daggers.

And stabbed it into the spot that he detected something.

“…… ….. …..!!”

Just then, a low, heavy sound echoed throughout the dungeon.

At the same time, Haruki suddenly felt tremendous pain pounding in the center of his head.

“…Ggg!!”

Was it from leveling up!?

It was more painful than anything he had experienced before.