Dragon’s Bloodline - Chapter 21

Occupational Explorers

In the garden stained with the morning’s glow, two silhouettes faced each other.
A girl empty handed though she wore two katanas and a beastkin girl wielding a knife in each hand.
“Come at me seriously. If it has a blade like a knife, I have a Gift.”
Watching Ria calmly were her the other four comrades.
“It’s alright, Maal. Since Ojou will never miss.”
Towards Maal who was preparing to use the knife, Carlos urged.

Maal stared at Ria, saw her give a firm nod, and broke into a dash.

“Ah~~~, I can’t win.”
Defeated around ten times, Maal collapsed to the ground.
Of course, Ria wasn’t even scratched. She wasn’t even sweating.
On the contrary, Maal couldn’t cause her to sweat.
Even after diving into the labyrinth, she wasn’t able to make use of her endurance.

It was like her perfect opponent was dancing, an overwhelming sense of defeat.

“Because you relied only on your physical abilities, this is what happened. When the exploration is over, I’ll teach you various things.”
“We’re only different by one year, so why is it…”
Even though she had memories of her past life, Ria’s combat strength was definitely outside of common sense. At this age, she already exceeded her golden years from her previous life.
Since she has knowledge of original martial arts developed from her previous life, she had a large advantage over other people in one on one combat.

“Anego, me next.”
“Breakfast is soon, so wait until after we get back from the labyrinth. I’ll properly instruct you after that.”
Gig relied on his physical abilities as well. Though he also has speed to go with his strength, there was no skill.

“Today’s target is three more floors, reaching the ninth floor in one go. Withdraw when someone dies, understood?”
Everyone nodded. They looked forward to getting stronger.

When we entered the guild building, Maal felt uncomfortable.
There was less people than usual. Something about the atmosphere was different. Murderous? A different temperature?
“Ah, Maal.”
Going to the reception desk as always, I got information immediately.
“Did something happen?
“It was something you guys did.”
In other words, it was that.

When people like explorers start out, it’s more than a job, they have big goals in their hearts.
However, over the years they come to understand reality and spend their years in safety letting the years go by. More so here, at the immortal labyrinth.

Then suddenly, a party like a storm appeared.
Not even young, they were very young.
Going into the labyrinth for the first time and without losing anyone, they defeated the fifth floor’s devil and took his magic crystal.
The impact on them was huge. It ignited everyone’s smoldering fires.

“I see. So then they stormed into the labyrinth huh?”
Despite hearing that, Ria didn’t particularly feel anything about it.
“That doesn’t have anything to do with us. Then shall we go?”

None of the monsters on the first floor could be considered their enemies anymore.
They sometimes heard the sounds of combat from a distance away, it was probably other explorers. They didn’t bother to go and see it.
While destroying the labyrinth walls, they reached the head of the floor. This time, Ria forcibly cut it down with a single stroke of her blade.

On the second floor again, there were many explorers. Though they saw each other, they just passed by each other in mutual understanding.
The master of the floor was somehow or another different from the other day. Ria’s group attacked it without fear.
Carlos stopped its movement and Serge dealt the decisive blow.

The third floor’s golem was an instant kill, and they arrived on the fourth floor. They set up camp there. Despite the labyrinth being made of stone, Ria purposely destroyed the stones and built a bath. It already looked rather splendid.
Though they talked about the following day, Carlos unusually insisted on something.
“Until it becomes really dangerous, I want to have a one on one fight with the minotaur.”
I see, so this is a knight’s spirit?
Ria graciously approved it. The next day, Carlos fought with the minotaur as planned.
Level 65, an opponent who should still be a serious opponent for Carlos.
However, he utilized the power of his new shield well, parrying the battleaxe, and stabbing his sword into its body.

“Oooh,” towards the roaring man, everyone applauded, “congratulations!”

On the fifth floor, everyone advanced in single file again.
Everyone’s levels kept increasing as an outcome of fighting.
“When you get used to this area and when you leave it, it’s dangerous.”
Towards Serge’s casually muttered words, the party firmly nodded.

The head of the floor was different than the devil from before.
A huge crow, with a horn growing from its head.
While flying in the air, its feathers became like blades.
Sometimes it made a piercing cry, tormenting our ears.
It also moved fast, magic couldn’t hit it.

“I thought that something like this would happen.”
Serge fired off a bolt of lightning, the devil was hit without a chance to dodge.
Though it wasn’t a death blow, its movement dulled and lowered its altitude.
They wouldn’t be able to reach if it was the standard person, but Ria was the exception.
Adjusting the grip on her spear, she stabbed its vitals. Leaving its magic crystal behind, the devil vanished.

Then they arrived in the unknown sixth floor.
The passageways were made of metal. It had a faint luminescence, the same as the other floors.
As for the enemies, they were golems. The golems’ bodies were made of wood, stone, and some even made of rubber.
Though Carlos’ sword couldn’t cut into the rubber golems, Ria’s katana cut it up wonderfully.

Since, as expected, it was hard to destroy the metal passages, the party finally had to explore the dungeon like normal.
Treasure chests were placed in hollows in the wall and on passageway altars. Maal’s hands moved skillfully.
When she confirmed the type of trap, Ria did the manual labor to open it and Maal demonstrated her lock picking skills.

And now they faced the guardian.

It was a gigantic mass of iron.
With a bigger body than the minotaur, it was clad in armor.
The floor guardian of the sixth floor, the iron golem. It wielded a huge maul.

“Lulu, reinforce Carlos with magic! Carlos, team up with Gig and concentrate on defense! Gig attack from the left! Serge, aim your space-time magic at its legs!”
Then after Ria issued instructions, she assaulted the golem from the right.

Can I cut an iron golem with iron?
I can. I can do it.

At least, I can tear its armor up like paper if its iron.
“Oooooooh!”
Ria shouted, releasing a slashing attack from her stance prepared in advance.

The golem’s left wrist split in two at the joint.

“Alright, we can do this!”

Though it was the same iron, the hardness of tempered steel was entirely different.
Whenever Ria swung her katana, the large build was damaged. But since it wasn’t a living thing, it wasn’t directly damaged.
It was hard for a katana to deal damage to it with a strike.
Ria returned the katana to her waist, taking out a spare weapon from her bag.
“Tararara~n, the minotaur’s axe~”
With the tone of a young cat, she shifted her grip on the looted battleaxe. To say the least, the mass was different.

Though it was difficult for her to balance it with her light body weight, she could still brandish it while rotating, striking the golem’s leg.
On the other side, Gig and Carlos dodged the golem’s weapon.

“LO-N-GI-NUS!”
Piercing through space, Serge’s magic directly hit the golem’s leg.
Though it didn’t completely destroy its armor, it did a lot of damage to an indirect part, arriving at the golem’s knee.
Ria jumped at that moment, swinging the axe downward with all her strength. The huge axe stabbed into its neck, breaking from pressure.
But because of that, the golem stopped moving.

“Phew~, that was tiring.”
Concentrating on defending, Carlos was the most mentally exhausted.
“Good work.”
Receiving fatigue recovery magic from Lulu, they saw the large figure collapse.
“But how do we get the magic stone and core out?”
“Hmm? It won’t be difficult.”
Taking out her katana again, Ria cut the golem’s chest.
Using the golem’s own maul to hit it, the armor cracked, exposing its internals.
Inside was a magic crystal and a huge golem core.
“This also isn’t a magic stone, it’s a magic crystal. So to some extent, strong demons have magic crystals?”
Though Ria asked, the presence of magic stones was different between nature and the labyrinth, and wasn’t able to figure it out immediately.
“Nee-chan, let’s collect the golem for now. Since it’s a lump of iron, there might be some use for it.”
Serge could even store that large size.

At the end of the day, they camped in the floor head’s room.
The next floor would be different from the ones until now, so the Ogre King said to not be careless in this hell.

Though the floor was metal, Ria made us of Serge’s magic to drive the enormous hammer into the floor, hollowing out the floor into a bathtub.
“Baths refresh the spirit.”
That night, the floor guardian did not revive.