Chapter 101.2

101 Part 2

— You may have tormented me a lot yesterday, but it’ll be a different story today!

Without delay, Haruki ignited the torch.

As soon as he did that, the tree roots began to stir slightly.

“Ohh!”

The torch was more than 10 meters away from the tree roots.

Despite that, the tree roots squirmed, and those close to the torch had already begun to withdraw.

It had been more of a nervous reaction than Haruki had imagined.

“This should make defeating this dungeon much easier.”

“Yeah. I can’t wait!”

“Ah, Karaboshi… Try not to be too enthusiastic about this, okay?”

Karen smiled bitterly.

Her reaction reminded Haruki that he couldn’t fight using his full strength until recently.

Those tree roots had been so frustrating that Haruki had completely forgotten about the pain he used to feel.

If his sharp pain returned, he could be rendered completely defenseless by it.

Did his fear of being in pain get alleviated a bit because of the frustration he felt with those tree roots?

— I don’t think I should feel grateful to those roots for it, though…

Haruki checked his physical condition by closing and opening his hands.

However, he didn’t feel any anxiety or fear of pain.

— I think I can fight with all my strength without any problems.

“Yeah. Got it.”

However, he couldn’t allow himself to make Karen worry too much.

For the time being, Haruki etched the word “prudence” in his mind.

The monsters that appeared on the 5th floor were Killer Rabbits.

While Karen and Rhea dealt with the Killer Rabbits, Haruki worked hard to keep the roots at bay with his torch while gently petting Esta’s head, who was sad about not being able to participate in the attack.

From the 6th floor onwards, the monsters that appeared were Silver Wolves.

They were just as strong as the ones in the garage dungeon and on the 6th floor of Chikaho.

They wouldn’t pose too much of a threat if Haruki and the others stayed on their toes.

Haruki and the others were able to pass through this floor without any issues, now that being blocked by tree roots or monsters wasn’t a problem anymore.

“Hmm…”

“What’s wrong?”

Haruki tilted his head to the side as he went down the stairs.

Curious about what was going through Haruki’s head, Karen squinted.

“I don’t think we’ve seen a boss in this dungeon yet.”

“Right… We haven’t come across any bosses yet. Is this a dungeon that has no bosses?”

“No, there must be a boss somewhere…”

If they don’t find any bosses in the dungeon, there could only be one explanation.

Another adventurer who was exploring the dungeon had already defeated them.

It was said that it could take hours and even days for a boss to respawn after being defeated.

So, the fact that there were no bosses around meant that they had already been defeated before Haruki arrived at the dungeon.

“Aw… And we’ve come all this way here, I thought we might as well fight the boss…”

“That’s right… At least I’d like to see if there’s a boss on the 10th floor.”

The bosses that appeared in the deepest part of a dungeon, commonly known as Dungeon Lords, were different from regular section bosses.

The difference depends on each dungeon, but it was said that the one that appeared in Kamuikotan was the kind of boss who would reward adventurers for their hard work after having reached the 10th floor.

Information about Kamuikotan’s Dungeon Lord was posted on WIKI, but it was tagged as a spoiler.

The real thrill of an adventurer is to meet the unknown.

There are only a few adventurers who would willingly throw that thrill away.

Besides, the opponent would be the Dungeon Lord. Even though all he knew about it was its name, it was out of the question for Haruki to check it out by himself.

Surely, he would like to meet the Dungeon Lord himself if possible.

“I hope the Dungeon Lord is still there…”

“Same here.”

“If the respawn time is always the same, whoever defeats a boss first could potentially come back to defeat it again as soon as it respawns. They would monopolize the boss.”

“That would be the worst…”

Hopefully, the Dungeon Lord of Kamuikotan was a type of monster that couldn’t be monopolized.

Haruki couldn’t do much more than hope that was the case.

After arriving at the 7th floor, Haruki and others activated the gate and proceeded.

Haruki’s Detection picked up the presence of something fluffy up ahead.

It was the shape of a monster Haruki had never felt before.

“What’s this?”

Haruki raised his face and closed his eyes.

A white thing appeared from the other side of the road where a large number of tree roots were entwined with the wall.

“A sh–”

Haruki trembled.

The torch fell from his hand.

White fluffy hair and a black face.

The monster he had felt was…

“A sheep!!”

Haruki became fiercely excited about the sheep monster he had found.

— Wait up, raw lamb!

Lamb chops, lamb tongue, mutton and veggies!!

“Huh!?”

As his butt became numb, Haruki regained consciousness.

The sheep was naked bare, and there was a lot of wool around.

The sheep monster that he had found looked pitiful as it lay dead in front of Haruki.

“What… What just happened!?”

He couldn’t remember a thing.

Haruki tilted his head to the side, utterly puzzled.

However, the monster’s corpse was still hot.

It was the heat of having fought with all its strength.

“Oh well…”

— Let’s break it apart for the time being!

Haruki cheerfully began to chop the sheep up.

“You seem to be having a lot of fun, Karaboshi.”

“–!”

Haruki heard a chilling voice from behind, cold enough to quickly freeze a burning body.

The frightened Haruki’s body started to shake as he looked back, like a machine running out of oil.

“Ka… Karen!?”

“You haven’t been very prudent now, have you?”

“What do you mean? I have, haven’t I?”

As Haruki awkwardly forced a polite smile on his face, Karen’s own smile became even fiercer.

“Do you call this ‘prudence’?”

Karen pointed to her side.

There was a lot of sheep –all stripped bare– lying around the field.

There seemed to be about 40 sheep in total.

“… How did this happen!?”

“You did this, Karaboshi!”

— Sorry, I can’t remember a thing.

Trembling, Haruki kept on shaking his head in denial.

Karen exhaled a deep sigh, wondering what was going through Haruki’s head.