CH 229

Day 60 – Morning, Dungeon, 45F

As I thought, when I try to take complete control with『Magic Wrap』being active, my body suddenly stops moving, something is probably rejecting my orders, canceling them. Such an utterly annoying skill! I mean, I’m being rejected, okay? By my own skill! Well, it might be stopping me because it’s too dangerous, but what about completely stopping me from moving?

Well, merging together all sorts of magic, martial arts, skills, Unknown and whatnot, plus even titles, then adding the skills of outrageous equipment, mixing it all up, and then trying to activate it all at the same time, might have some issue like bad synergy, compatibility problems, poor interpersonal relationship, but skills are not people, they don’t get interpersonal! And even if you get interskill relationship issues, I can’t moderate for that! Also, even if you are on bad terms, don’t fight. It would be a problem if you start getting all lovey-dovey, but can you at least get along? You are skills after all…

And while I was immobilized,『Carnivorous Moles Lv 45』that hid in the hole riddled floor of the 45th layer were devoured while still in their tunnels. I mean, trying to hide while they were already invaded by Slime-san, bon appetit is all they could expect, you know? Those seemed to be moles on a meat diet, but they all got eaten while they were making their way underground.

I couldn’t even Appraise them properly, but Slime-san should’ve feasted on some earth-type skills. The earth skills deficiency must be the reason why it went so aggressively after them! Slime-san turned out to be more carnivorous than Carnivorous Moles.

(Jiggle Jiggle)

Let’s quickly go down, I wonder if we can make it before lunch? With things looking this shabby it’s either 50 floors or slightly over that. The monsters are nothing impressive too, so we can’t expect good loot as well. Well, I came for practice, so this might just be perfect.

And the 49th floor’s『Lightning Wraiths Lv 49』, basically ghosts with lightning attribute, but despite appearing with such a cool sounding name they got instantly obliterated. Spraying with water seems to have short circuited them? They are helplessly dropping to the ground where they are devoured one after another. Slime-san turned yellow, looking delighted, but what do we do if it starts saying 『Pika-Pika』?

The hidden room on the floor above had 『Champion’s Scale Armor – ViT PoW SpE 30% Up, Physical Abilities Increase (Greater), Fortify』, a not-so-bad meathead item, but I want ViT and Physical Abilities Increase (Greater) from it, so I’ll slot it into the clothes.

Maybe with this my body will be able to bear more? Even if the boost is minimal, it seems that I’m in dire need of urgently strengthening my physical capabilities, so at the moment, I should just use items for that, after all, becoming unable to fight properly would be a huge issue. Especially at times when newly promoted to the Shield Pres Shield Girl is around, she might end up continuously sticking to me, trying to cover for my faults, so I can’t afford to make an awkward sight, even if it’s only a pretense, I still need strength.

「Below this is the last floor? It’s pretty spacious, is it perhaps because the dungeon master is large? Well, I do have a hunch that it’s nothing special, but let’s go with safety first anyway?」

(Nod-Nod) (Jiggle-Jiggle)

They agree, it seems. Usually, dungeon masters on 50th floors aren’t a big deal, but there is no guarantee that we won’t stumble upon another unique specimen like Slime-san.

It’s huge, but specializes in magic? 『Nightmare Goat Lv 100』, but with level 100 it’s stats are high. It has a huge load of various debuff skills, but 『Nightmare』seems to be its original skill. Failing to resist will probably lead to problems, and the effects don’t look great either.

It looks like a very evil and demon-like giant bipedal black mountain goat with twisted horns, which puts it at risk of being instantly eaten!

「Slime-san. You are free to eat spells, but avoid debuffs! That one looks a bit dangerous, okay?」

Is that Nightmare Goat’s Dark Magic? A black fog is gathering in the air, gradually solidifying into swords, which then hail upon the ground. Swords of darkness? They seem to apply debuffs.

Looks like Slime-san is going to take it head-on, so I move to the right, while Armored Pres-san took left. Let’s take it down.

Simply assuming the future I cut off Nightmare Goat’s left leg, I then switch to action, immediately, each body part performed an instantaneous movement through repeated『Teleportation』, which was further accelerated by『Extreme Velocity』and『Rush』. There is no way it can see through this strange, bizarre, irregular, and wild attack! Well, I can’t as well!

Sweeping sideways I cut through the ankle of Nightmare Goat’s giant left leg, then, slashing upwards in a reverse diagonal swing I severed its leg…… No idea what is going on, but I got one of his legs.

Meanwhile, the knight in silver armor seems to be in the process of slicing both its right leg and arm into round cuts, and the debuff inflicting swords are destroyed by Slime-san’s Wire Cutter. As the goat keeps creating countless debuff inducing swords I『Erase』them, passing through the rain of swords and take Nightmare Goat’s head. Yeah, a poke from the staff blew it off. I don’t understand what’s up with those attacks anymore. And I probably overdid it a bit, Mistilteinn seems to have activated a little? I lost about a third of my MP, thank goodness it didn’t go out of control, seriously.

「Goood job, no one got any abnormal status effects, right? Well, I don’t have to worry about that, doing so well that others are even praising me as『Abnormal Condition』, but are you alright? Wait, now that I think of it, that wasn’t a praise at all! 」

(Nod-Nod) (Jiggle-Jiggle)

Looks like even level a 100 dungeon master is unable to get through debuff resistances, would it mean that the protective equipment is up to the task? To begin with, there is a high possibility that Armored Pres wouldn’t take any attack at all, let alone those that come with abnormal status effects attached, and given Slime-san’s evasion, it’s highly likely that it didn’t take any attacks, and the probability that it secretly devoured them can’t be denied as well. Well, forget debuffing attacks, even Nightmare Goat-san itself is being devoured at the moment, so it’s too busy to reply.

Hmm, finding a dungeon master specializing in such unique abnormal status attacks on the 50th floor makes me worried about the debuff resistance equipment of the classmates, the most terrifying thing is Nightmare Goat’s unique debuff 『Nightmare』! Running away from the inn to escape a lecture of nightmares to get shown a nightmare of a lecture in a dungeon, only to get a real lecture when I return to the inn, isn’t it just way too scary? Eh? The real way is way scarier though?

Now, the question is do we eat outside after we get out of the dungeon or do we eat in the town, but we can think about it after we get back to the surface, anyhow, for now let’s get out.

「Hmmm? Judging by the position of the Sun, it’s a bit before noon? Well, I’m a bit hungry after losing so much MP in the last attack, so let’s eat something in the town? There are lots of new stalls?」

(Nod-Nod) (Jiggle-Jiggle)

But it’s amazing how everyone is able to tell the current time? I’m still unable to grasp it even approximately? Do they have 『Biological Clock』skill or something of that sort? And as I’m thinking that, we are swiftly moving across the plains. As a highschool boy, I’d like to make something like a motorcycle running on magic power, but there seems to be no need for that, and what is more important, the girl that’s going to ride behind me is wearing armor, so there is not much fun to it? In terms of chest plating.

Returning to the town and going to the main street, we found it bustling with people checking out numerous stalls and stores. When we first came here, everyone did their best to smile as they clenched their teeth to get through the everyday hardships, but now the place was filled with genuine smiles. Well, considering how hard they were working, smiling regardless of how miserable or hard things would get, it would’ve been way weirder if it didn’t become like this? Numerous shops, countless wares and constant flow of smiling people, that’s how a town is supposed to be.

「Any shop that caught your eye? Today I’m a rich man, so feel free to indulge your Avarice and Gluttony? Sort of?」

There are quite a few visiting merchants too. Stalker Girl’s clan is handling that, carefully screening real merchants, allowing only them to come and go, so there is no need to worry about that, but information is going to leak.

Even so, circulation of money and goods is necessary, even now, the negative influence of isolation is slowly creeping in. Currently, smuggling is compensating for that. Should I perhaps set up a market in the Fake Dungeon? That sounds profitable.

Armored Pres-san is peeking here and there, checking clothes, then going to some other store and checking out accessories, sinking into thoughts for a bit and then running to another store to compare it with what they have. Seems like she is having fun. The general store is still far ahead both in terms of assortment and quality, even so, she is enjoying going around in search of something nice, comparing different items and anguishing over the choice. She had no chance to do any of this for such a long time, so a bit of greediness is a cute thing.

Slime-san is also buying up food all over the place. It’s paying money in exchange for goods. A slime engaging in monetary transactions is amazing, but the people that are trading with a slime like it’s the most ordinary thing in the world are amazing too! As I thought, this Whatever Town IS popular with monsters.

The people having fun buying stuff, the merchants doing their best to sell their goods, children running around making a ruckus and elderly quietly observing the town with smiles. This is how a town is supposed to be, you know?

Okay, I should eat something too! I have to buy something before all of my money is spent, or I’ll end up being the only one who will have to eat his own homemade food. Armored Pres-san already activated her Avarice Mode, while Slime-san unleashed his Gluttonius Devourer form! I must make haste or the money will run out! Let’s eat, after all, this is what we came to town for.