Year 7445, Month 7, Day 24
So we're carrying it out huh? I think while looking at the reddish-brown worn-out cloth that acts as a signal. I can't really get motivated for it but it can't be helped. I wonder who to chose..One or two people, depending on the case three people is fine as well. Since Misu can use magic as well, she's a definite choice. After that I guess someone as young as possible would be best.
"Shall we camp out in this corner over here?"
Koritto said to everyone. Hearing that, we all quickly started preparations to camp. We lower the blankets we were carrying and take the food out of our bags gathering it in the center. One of the members took out a simple miniature stove that makes use of magic stones, and after placing a small pot on top, Koritto created some water as they started making soup.
I guess everyone is tired sitting in a deformed circle, they're just quiet with their attention on the flame and the pot.
Since the pot and stove are small it's certain that it's somewhat difficult to sit around it but Kevin, Jeru, and I were sitting outside of the circle.
Kimu is skillfully cutting up bacon and cabbage on top of a small cutting board before putting it into the pot with some salt and seasonings. If it's the size of that pot then each one of us will only get about a tea cup amount of it. During that time Misu was cutting off slices of ham from a smoked block of meat. Well, it's raw ham. You put this together with Rikke leaves a type of mustard, and put it between galette bread together with mayonnaise before eating it. Incidentally the leaves of Rikke can last for 10 days without withering if you dig them up along with the roots so they're a leafed vegetable that is familiar between adventurers. They're a bit bitter and not very good but since they have a good texture they're preferred. My biggest complaint is I wish they would wash the leaves before preparing them to be eaten.
Jeru takes the pre baked galette from the mountain of food (they've completely gotten hard) and hands out one to each person. My role is to hand out one cucumber to each person. That's right, I was designated for cucumber duty of {Sun.Ray} along with Kevin. Since they're always eating just cucumber in my impression I thought it was an honorable role but that wasn't the case. Even then since it's being left to take care of the important food so I thought that to comfort myself.
Since they're reasonable heavy and quite bulky it seems everyone hates the duty. One per person, per meal. Since there's 10 of us we consume 30 per day. Since we usually bring an extra amount just in case it totals up to over 300 of them. Though they get lighter everyday, they're not the wilted ones handed out during training but the large and splendid kind. Ah, for a period of time Bel and Gwine were saying they were zucchinis but I think they're cucumbers. If you try eating them you'll understand.
The soup is finished.
Kimu goes around pouring soup into everyone's cups and the preparations to eat were completed. We pray as usual and then it's time for the enjoyable meal time. While we're still exhausted it's the same for every party that everyone starts smiling during meals.
"Now then, everyone is about finished eating right..Then, Greed-kun, could you please tell us about the 7th floor once more?"
Meiria instructed me to talk about the 7th floor which I've talked about a lot up until now. I guess it's like a final review or something.
"I understand. The appearance of the dungeon completely changes from up until now on the 7th floor. Here, on the 6th floor the ceiling is extremely high but since there's plenty of light it's almost like the middle of the day. That's why different from the 6th floor you can see up to the ceiling. As far as I know there's no place like on the 4th or 5th floors where a portion is pitch dark so it's probably not necessary to bring along light."
I sip a mouthful of the soup from the cup in my hand.
"Since that's the case the field of vision is good but just as I previously talked about the passages of the dungeons are several times wider than up until now. In those passages there's trees growing every several hundred meters or so apart so while the field of vision is good, it's not like you can see far into the distance. The places with no trees growing are like plains or wastelands, or full of sand, there's various types. Also, we were never able to find any type of trap."
"Are the only monsters that come out really just Goblins and Ogres?"
Kimu said. She has her long tiger striped tail coiled around her sides and stomach.
"That's right for what appears in the passages. Though just the same as the floors up until now when it comes too boss rooms different monsters appear but I only know of the place that is full of sand and something like a fish lurks inside of that sand. Since it seems that move through the sand if we want to avoid going to that room then we'll need to teleport a number of times."
"Yeah, I remember that. We're depending on you to be careful that we don't end up teleporting into a place that leads to there."
Rokko's pointed ears are twitching restlessly as he said that.
"Of course. After that, in regards to the ogres weaknesses but they fundamentally aren't any different from humans. You could call their eyes, noses, the head from the neck above, or their chest where their heart is a weakness. If they bleed out a lot then they quickly get weaker and die. If you just think about it as taking on a slightly large person then there's not a big problem with that. Since the target is big I think it should be easy to hit with the bow but hits to the legs or arms won't do much damage at all. Please try to aim for the vitals like their face. If there's someone fighting in front of you then approaching plenty close so you don't miss the vitals is one option. If the first one we encounter tomorrow is alone or..up to just two of them then I'll take them on alone. Please use that as a reference."
"Yeah, tomorrow it's our first time going to the floor. Let's rest already for today. Relax and get some good rest."
With Koritto concluding things my discussion ended. It's the details that I've talked about countless times these past few days.
Though this time it was a summary.
"Ah, that's right, there's a shower here as well but is it fine if we use it?"
Why are you asking me? I'm a member of {Sun.Ray} right now but. Ah, I guess we never talked about cooperating to manage the shower on the 6th floor.
"..I think it's fine since there's only benefits that come from sharing it on the 5th floor as well."
"Hn, after all that was the case. Well, just in case."
If the {Slaughterers} complain you intend to make it my fault? But, even if I was still in the {Slaughterers} it's not something that will run out, I wouldn't complain over something like using the shower...In the first place I intended to take a shower myself.
Koritto and I created some hot water and we all took showers in order and after feel refreshed we did maintenance on our weapons and leaving the lookouts all rolled up in our blankets.
..................
Year 7445, Month 7, Day 25
Everyone checks their own equipment and then we teleported into the 7th floor. It's only obvious but the surroundings are the usual 7th floor and there's nothing particularly different. There was nothing like Goblins or Ogres nearby that noticed us or we noticed them first either. It's a bit nostalgic, I can feel the sensation of {Party-ization} as well. Everyone is raising their voices in surprise over the spaciousness and brightness. It was such a time when the order "Jump" came up in my head. Hmn, I guess that means preparations are complete. I quickly checked the pedestal of the crystal rod and look at the rock which the arrow points towards. There's no sign. Let's return.
"This isn't a good location. Let's return."
We return to the 6th floor and teleported to the 7th floor again. This time was no good as well huh?
We repeated teleporting a number of times. Just once along the way there was five Goblins about 10 meters away but when Haruku swings his weapon menacing them and they noticed or numbers they ran off somewhere.
And it was the 13th time we teleported. We teleported into a forest. When I checked the trunk of the tree the pedestal pointed to "four100II7" was carved into it. And then, right beside that a red string was tied to a branch. This is the right place. I look around the surroundings and there's a knot in the bushes on that side as a sign. So that's the direction huh?
"This is a good place. It's one of the areas where the monster room will have trees growing and be a forest. Shall we go?"
Most likely there's only four monster rooms on the 7th floor. In the center is the teleport room and around 1 km to the North, South, East, and West of that there's large 500 meter or so rooms, the East and West are desert and the North and South are forests or thickets. Up until the end of last month what we had investigated by the point I left the {Slaughterers} was just over 80%. There was just over 150 teleport destinations. Of those around 100 of them end up as dead ends and you can't make it to the 8th floor. In other words, you can't get to the monster rooms either. The remaining 50 locations are connected to the monster rooms at some point. I think there's probably around 200 teleport destinations in all. It's only my intuition but it's believed that eventually around 80 locations will connect to the monster rooms. And, even further around half of those are connected to one of the East or West monster rooms.
Since there's also preparation and confirmation as well we've only completely identified around 10 places at the correct answer. In other words, if you teleport around 20 times then you should get to the right place at least once. It was good luck that we were able to arrive at the correct place in half of that this time.
"Well then, please follow after me about 50 meters behind so you don't lose sight of me. If I raise my right hand then that means there's an enemy that I can handle myself ahead. When that time comes please watch how I fight. If I raise my left hand then it's an enemy that I can't deal with alone so I'll retreat."
After everyone nodded I started advancing at the front.
Since there's no traps we can proceed forward quickly. Though I say that we can't be negligent in our caution towards monsters so our speed still falls a bit but it's still an incomparable speed to the other floors. Occasionally I use the spell {Detect.Life} to check ahead of me.
And around 15 minutes after we started moving. When we had advanced around 500 meters. I was able to detect life roughly 200 meters ahead. The number is two. Since they're low in numbers it's not goblins. Judging from the distance they're probably in the forest a bit ahead of the brush in front of me. Making it even better that forest has some pretty thick vegetation growing close to it.
I raise my right hand and waved it ahead. I can see everyone keeping up about 50 meters behind me. After seeing me raise my right hand they stopped in place it seems. I quickly returned to everyone and whispered.
"It seems there's some in the forest beyond this brush. I got a glimpse of their backs as they entered the forest. I'm going to ambush them after this, when I finish off one of them I'll retreat to the plains and fight the remaining one there. Please remain in this forest while watching what it's like."
When I said that there was a reply of "Got it." as I turned around and started forward again.
I crouch down as I pass through the brush and carefully stepped foot into the forest. There's still close to 100 meters in distance from the ogres. In our activities on the 7th floor up until now we've confirmed that ogres don't recognize us until they either catch sight of us or we approach within 30 meters or so. Even when it's ogre mages if we don't approach closer than 100 meters then they don't notice us.
Around 50 meters ahead where the forest opens up there's two ogres leaning on the trunk of a tree as they doze off. I take the glove off my left hand and cut it lightly with my sword to draw some blood. After smearing my blood on the blade of my sword I quickly healed the cut and put my glove back on. I take some throwing needles out of both of my gauntlets and put some paralysis poison on the ends of them before finishing preparations. I continued to hold on to one of them just like that. Then I started slowly using a spell. The type is {Ice Javelin Missile}. However, I'm pouring some mana into the warhead and changing the shape.
Like a long, thin, razor blade.
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