CH 154

Data.145 – Old Bowman, Weapon Residence

The next day, I recommenced my adventure in the underground machine city of Machinestatt. And I started by using 50 NSO medals to acquire a certain skill.

It was called Thunder Arrow!

Simply put, it was a skill that unleashed an electric arrow.

The Machine God Windhole dungeon that I was about to take on would have machine-type monsters inside.

Having a skill that would take advantage of their weaknesses would help me survive.

Besides, I was sure that the skill would help me on future adventures and PvP.

Electricity was both useful and dangerous.

“Gate Open!”

And so the gate to the Machine God Windhole opened, and I stepped foot inside.

The gate was immediately closed behind me, and I was surrounded in darkness.

“I’ll need a torch for this…”

Relying on the pale light of the torch, I started to walk forward.

As for the monsters…nothing came out.

And in spite of the dungeon’s name, the place just seems like an ordinary cave.

Was it really just a simple dungeon without any branching paths…?

Just as I thought this, I saw another gate in front of me.

I see. As there were dangerous weapons sealed in here, they had to have multiple gates.

“Gate Open!”

What was on the other side of the gate…was a mostly white, modern-looking facility.

“It’s eerily quiet…”

The only thing I could hear were the occasional whirring of fans…but there were no enemies.

However, this was a dungeon. So they were definitely here.

I felt…like I was being monitored.

Probably because there were cameras on the ceiling.

“Another gate, huh…”

This one wasn’t large like the others. It was a small gate that blocked the path ahead.

And there was a lock that required a keycard in order to open it.

So I would have to search for that if I wanted to continue…

But there were so many rooms here, and searching through them all would be backbreaking work.

Every room had the same desk and computers.

But the screens were black, and tapping the keyboards didn’t do anything.

So there were no gimmicks there…

“…Ah, here it is! Of course, the key would be in a drawer…”

They always were, in exploration games.

Unless they were realistically hung on the wall, they were usually in some drawer.

Now I could use it to go on ahead.

Biiiiiiiiiiiiii!!

“Whoa!? What’s that!?”

Alarms were going off everywhere!

Why do the enemies always come out just as you find an important item!

With a loud whirring sound, the door of the room opened automatically and then a four-legged mecha with a gatling gun on its back jumped inside!

“Gatling Thunder Arrow!”

I shot at it before it could shoot at me.

The electric arrows had the desired effect against the machine.

And the mecha was destroyed after one hit.

However, the alarms did not stop.

“I guess we will have to continue to fight from here on out…!”

However, I was more used to fighting loud enemies, rather than exploring a quiet underground facility, and so it was better this way.

Though, it makes me sound like some kind of maniac…

◆　◆　◆

“Ah, I’m so glad that I got Thunder Arrow…!”

The mecha enemies had come out like zombies.

I had to find a keycard for every floor, go through the opened gate and go down an elevator to the next floor. And every time we descended, the waves of enemies grew stronger.

And yet, Thunder Arrow took those waves of enemies down in a flash!

Furthermore, the mechas were moving through narrow hallways, and so the electricity easily traveled from one enemy to the next.

Thanks to this, we were able to take them down over a large area.

And I was also able to collect a lot of drop items from them.

The power of electricity really was amazing…it was mankind’s treasure.

“At this rate, we’ll reach the bottom floor in no time.”

While the puzzle elements, like searching for keys, sometimes slowed us down, we continued to make our way down through the ancient facility.

Enemies did not attack us while we were in the elevator, so they were moments of respite.

And then as soon as the doors opened, the mechas would come out as if they had been waiting for us.

I was now used to this, and so cleaned out the floor and searched for the next floor.

After repeating this many times, and I started to attack reflexively as soon as the doors opened, we reached a floor where we weren’t greeted to a warm welcome by the mechas.

And the elevator did not let us go any lower.

So this was the bottom floor.

“It’s another dark cave…”

I took out the torch and walked forward cautiously.

If we were ambushed, I would throw the torch at the enemy and then shoot them.

Now that I had the high speed shooting skill, Quickdraw, I could pull off such moves.

However, no wild and aggressive mechas appeared in front of me.

“Is this a dumping ground for them…?”

There was something beautiful about broken mecha.

They had fought until they fell apart.

And now they were discarded like this, with no reward…it was rather sad.

Not just mecha, but any place that was filled with things that were thrown away made my chest tighten…

However, these mountains of discarded mecha were likely not put here to make me feel sad.

This was…the boss.

Gacha…

Gacha-gacha-gacha…

Gacha-gacha-gacha-gacha!!

The entire floor was filled by a blinding light.

Then the mountain of mecha began to move and then it transformed into a monster.

It was a great eight-headed snake from Japanese folklore…the Yamata No Orochi!

Gagyaaaaaa!!

First, an ancient alligator, and now a mythical snake.

And one that was made from the remains and hatred of discarded machines.

Was it science or supernatural… I didn’t even know what I was saying now.

It was made up of so many different parts that I was sure that this time, electricity would not take it down easily. But strangely, I wasn’t worried.

After all, I had a reliable mecha animal with me…!