CH 129.1

Chapter 129.1: Jungle’s Historic Ruins

Palace area’s boss, it was a three metres tall living armor with tough defense and top notch skill but… it was tragically defeated facing us who were fully prepared.

「How should I say, number is power huh.」

「Yeah, to be honest, the trio that we encountered before feels stronger than this.」

I couldn’t help but agree with Class Rep’s disappointed remark.

Even though it had a bigger physique, the boss fought by itself. On the contrary, all of us were focusing our attack on the boss. Though the boss was the strongest one we had encountered thus far, its offensive ability was completely sealed off by the barrage of our attack.

「Sorry for putting such heavy burden on you, Futaba-san.」

「No problem, I’m the only one with a shield after all. Rather, I think it’s easier to take it down thanks to your light’s sword, Souma-kun.」

Futaba-san replied with a smile on her face.

True enough, the one who finished off the boss was my 『Cross Calibur(Light’s Holy Sword)』 and 『Nero Lightning(Instant Slash)』. But it was only because the boss was being held back by Futaba-san that I could land a critical hit.

I was more or less starting to master it but still, my mana still gushed out like a raging stream whenever I unleashed 『Cross Calibur』. I also felt that my strength was slowly getting stronger the deeper we dove into the dungeon and yet, it felt like 『Cross Caliber』’s power was also growing along with me.

Yes, it was only getting stronger, I has yet to perfectly master this skill. Maybe I need more training like swordsmanship… or something else, something that was completely unrelated with effort.

For that reason, I needed the assistance of my comrades to attack with the maximum power of that skill. And Futaba-san was the only one suited for this role.

This wasn’t the time to bask in the glory of this victory. There were so many points of reflection.

「Guys, let’s postpone our review meeting and use the transfer magic circle first.」

Class rep could still keep her cool like usual, she clapped her hands few times to break the festive air around us. Thus, we left the palace area as soon as we collected the magic core from the boss.

「――Jungle area, huh.」

The next area we were teleported to couldn’t be described as anything but jungle.

「It’s good that we’re teleported to outdoor but… it’s a little bit warmer in this area huh.」

「Hey, since we’re teleported outside, doesn’t that mean we’re already leaving the dungeon?」

「I’m not sure about that. Even though this area is seemingly completely different from all the areas we came to so far, we can only know the answer after we reach the end of this area.」

「But of course, we still have to follow this magic compass.」

「Yeah, I think Kotori is right about this compass. The same goes for Class Rep!」

I mean, this was the first time we saw the blue sky and the sun after we came to this world, it was only natural for us to have various speculations in mind. Natsukawa-san’s doubt was right too but… For me, the fact that I could see the green jungle and blue sky was enough to calm my heart.

「Anyway, even though the 『Heavenly Escape Gate』 is failing, I think we can escape by foot from this jungle.」

「Yeah. I mean an even crueler environment such as scorching hot dessert, or intensely cold snowy mountain might be waiting for us right after this jungle.」

Class Rep was also agreeing with me, we could traverse this jungle as if we did survival training.

Though I heard that there was a human country called Astria in this world, I literally had no idea where that kingdom was located. In fact, there was a possibility that we could only enjoy the clean air, water, and comfortable atmosphere in this very dungeon, the outside of this dungeon might be as well a ruined alien world with monsters running rampant on its surface… Just kidding, it seems I read too much SF story to the point that it was starting to affect my train of thought.

「Yeah, at least we can hope that we’re already outsi――」

At that moment, piercing cries resounded around us. Those cries carried along an overwhelming presence, to the point that it struck deep into my heart.

And when I was wondering what in the world were those cries, we saw a huge figure flying right above us.

「Is that… a dragon?」

I saw it, it was only for a moment but, I couldn’t see that figure as anything but a dragon. It had a long and slim neck, streamlined lizard-like head with pair of horns growing from both sides of its head. And then, its pair of giant wings were spread out on both sides of its body.

Its vivid red scales glittered as it bathed under the sunlight. Though its name might be something along the lines of a red dragon or fire drake, it was definitely the embodiment of a fantasy creature dubbed as a dragon.

「If so many of those guys are flying all over the skies, then I guess the outside of the dungeon really is a dangerous place.」

「Yeah, let’s assume that we’re still inside the dungeon.」

I spoke that seemingly cowardly conclusion with the Class Rep.

「Dragon meat… I want to try it.」

Somehow, amongst all of us, Futaba-san was the only one who considered that dragon as nothing more than a food ingredient.

===

Since the giant dragon was flying in the air, we decided to explore the jungle which seemed to be the safest choice.

「KIKIIIIII!」

The monsters rushing at us while raising such a loud shriek were the monkey-like monster with sharp claws. Their number was superior, and as they hopped from one top of the tree to another, they came at us all at once… but we’re already familiar with this kind of tactic.

Asuna, Natsukawa-san, and I cut down all the monkeys that dared to come to us. Futaba-san easily sent them flying with her shield. The poor monkey who received her shield bash ended up in an even more tragic state, it was as if they were overrun by a dump truck.

As for the ones that chose to stay on top of the tree watching the situation, became the victims of Sakura’s light arrow, and fell as their eyes were dazzled by the blinding light.

Maybe because they finally realized that they were no match for us after we annihilated half of their comrades in the blink of an eye, the monkeys finally retreated.

「This monkey-san is a monster on the same level as Goma, they have no demon core at all.」

「Then let’s forget about dismantling their corpse and continue our journey.」

Currently, Kotori-san’s 『Magical Power Analysis』 had already advanced enough to the point that she could see through the magic or monster itself, she could even see the existence of a demon core in the monster body. While it’s true that the reason behind the monster’s strength was their powerful body, magical power has also played a huge part in it. That’s why the monster with magical power was more powerful.

Even we knew by instinct that a certain monster brimming with magical power was too dangerous for us to fight by instinct.

「Hey, that tree over there should be a banana tree, right?」

「Maybe but, I think it’s better if we aren’t eating that, Futaba-san. It might be poisonous after all.」

「Even though we’ll know whether we can eat that or not if Kotaro-kun is with us…」

Futaba-san, whose focus had already completely stolen by the banana-like fruit on top of the tree, didn’t even take a glance at the mountain of monkey corpses. The banana was really big, a mega-size banana, and though I think it was fine to eat that, I guess it was better to follow Class Rep’s advice of not eating that.

「We cannot take the risk of eating something strange since we have no idea whether healing magic would work if we get a stomach ache from eating it…」

「Uh~n, banana…」

I felt bad for Futaba-san who was looking at the banana-like fruit with an extremely regretful look on her face but, we really shouldn’t risk our lives over unfamiliar food in this place.

After that, we encountered almost nothing but monsters of the same level as the monkeys from before, maybe even stronger. Green dog-like monsters that were obviously the variant of red dog. Dinosaur-type monsters such as raptors or gores. We also encountered insect type, ashidaka-like monster every once in a while. Basically, we always turned the tables against them since there was almost no special individual who could use magic amongst the crowd. We kept advancing into the forest, only dismantled the monster who according to Kotori-san’s『Magical Power Analysis』 had demon core in their body and then, the scenery that was filled with greenery―― had started to change.

「I see now, it seems this jungle is also part of the ruin in this dungeon.」

The place we arrived was filled with many ruins. One could see the passage of time upon seeing how much the plantations had encroached the crumbled stone building.

「Somehow, it looks like the ruins in Cambodia.」

「Eh, you mean that Ankor Wat?」

「Cambodia has so many historic ruins, Ankor Wat is just one of them. This scenery of the historic ruin in the middle of the jungle is just like the scenery around that place.」

「He~」

I harked back to our school life upon seeing Natsukawa-san give a half-hearted reply to Class Rep’s explanation. It seems that our heart was slowly getting used to this situation as we became stronger.

「It seems we’re entering ruin area beyond this point. Is something the matter, kotori?」

「Uhm, I can feel the faint amount of mana flow from the activation of the magic tool, in addition, it seems we’re still inside the dungeon.」

Upon hearing Asuna’s question, Kotori-san replied while closing her eyes as if she was sending a telepathic message.

All we could see in this place was ruin and then ruin, we’re literally surrounded by ruins. The three-story building was especially conspicuous, but nothing special aside from that one. The non-existence of trap and treasures aside, we also didn’t find a trace of another human visiting this place before. Maybe Momokawa or the other classmates never passed this part of the jungle either.

「I found a place that looks like a fairy plaza.」

「The ruin in this area might be simply just abandoned ruin.」

「Uuhm, there’s no way that’s true, Ryoko-chan! My thief instinct is ringing, there must be something around this area!」

The place that Natsukawa-san’s finger pointed at was a box-shaped building, surely, it was different from the other building since it had a cylindrical tower built on top of it.

And then, a giant monster appeared right from behind that tower.

「… Sure enough, there’s something in it.」

「Awawa, that monster looks so strong.」

It was a huge, hairy rhinoceros-like monster with a single horn growing out from its head. Naturally, furry rhinoceros should’ve been extinct animals back in our world. They were the representative of the ice age along with mammoth but… No matter how you looked at this guy, it was definitely a violent monster who was ready to rampage anytime soon.

「BRRRRRRRRR!」

From the rough breathing of that rhino-like monster, I guess it was ready to rush towards us anytime soon. I guess it might be a violent monster by nature, or else, it was only protecting its nest during the breeding season but whichever was the truth amongst those two possibilities, we had no way to settle this peacefully.

「Asuna, dodge to the side in case that guy is rushing toward us and cut its leg.」

「Understood, leave it to me. Kotori and Co. should retreat further.」

「Let me stop its rush then.」

「Eh?」

When both Asuna and I stepped forward, Futaba-san stepped forward in front of us along with her mega shield.

「Futaba-san, trying to stop that monster charging attack from the front is way too re――」

「BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!」

The rhino-like monster had already rushed towards us before I managed to finish my sentence. Upon a closer look, it was even bigger than my original estimation, and yet, it was quite fast too. Now it really looked like a dump truck rushing at us at full throttle.

No matter how powerful Futaba-san’s 『Berserker』 power, the difference between their mass was too overwhelming.

「HUMPH!」

And yet, she stopped it.

The loud crashing sound resounded along with the impact between two parties. Her 『Dark Tower Shield』 was standing tall as it stopped the rushing giant monster.

「Fuu, Haaa…」

===

TN : Will Futaba become the MC which made the hero’s heart goes “Kyun”? find out next week!