The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter - Chapter 51

Chapter 51

Translator: “Kell” Editor: ”Weasalopes”

There were a number of rooms along the corridor, and among them there was one just partly open . All the merrymaking seemed to be happening beyond that door . Emma and I peeked through the opening and saw the bandits with faces beet reed, chatting with each other while enjoying their drinks . There were five of them, with fairly low levels . Seeing as they were drunk anyway, we decided to just force our way through .

We pushed the door wide open . The moment the men turned their heads towards us, I blasted them with【Purple Lightning】 .

「Gyaaa?!」

「Who the hell are you?!」

「Who, you ask? My name is Emma!」

Emma rushed ahead and landed a barrage of punches on their stomachs one by one, with me providing magic support . Soon enough they were all electrocuted and out cold . It wasn’t exactly a quiet, sneak attack . I was worried the others would hear the sounds of bodies dropping and come to check what was going on . Fortunately enough, no one came .

We tied them up quickly and woke one up, slapping him on the face, threatening him to not make a sound .

「Where are the hostages?」

「I-I don’t know . 」

「Would you like to be electrocuted again?」

「No, please! Mommy! I’ll tell you! Just don’t hurt me!」

A bandit calling for his mommy… Eyeing him closely, I could see he looked too young to be a bandit . He blurted out everything we needed to know . According to him, the hostages were on the first floor which Luna-san should be searching at the moment . The other bandits were on the second floor, sleeping, and their boss was on this floor, in a room all the way back .

「I think we should take them all out and let Luna-san deal with the hostages . 」

「I agree . It should be easier to attack them while they’re asleep . 」

「All right . Let’s proceed with caution . 」

We checked the rooms on the second floor one by one . Four bandits were sleeping in each room . It was surprisingly easy to take them all out while they were deep in their slumber, snoring away . Them not being able to see in the dark certainly helped .

We gradually managed to neutralize them all until there was only the boss left .

「Heads up, Emma . The strongest enemy is just beyond this door . 」

「I’m getting kinda nervous . 」

「We have pretty good synergy . I’m sure we can beat him if we just work together . 」

「Let’s do our best, Noir . 」

We prepared ourselves and opened the door . It’s pitch black . Is he asleep?

Brandishing our weapons, we moved closer to the bed only to find it empty .

「He’s not here . 」

「Wh-Where’d he go?」

While pondering his whereabouts, I was struck with an ominous sensation . I quickly looked up and spotted a man stuck at the ceiling like a spider .

「Emma, look out!」

「Hyaa?!」

I barely managed to save Emma from the man’s attack as he jumped down . That was close .

「I was wondering what the ruckus was all about . Turns out we have intruders .

A man, tall and lean, with Sanpaku eyes was glaring at us in the dark . I could feel myself suffocating from the overwhelming aura that he emitted — an aura that could only come from a powerful man . He was lightly dressed with no armor, his weapon a lone knife . Yet, that was enough to freeze me in place .

I quickly activated my Appraisal skill . His name was Agalga Broun, thirty-two years old, level 118 .

As I feared, this man was on a whole different league than the other bandits . He had plenty of good skills as well . 【Night Eyes】, 【Level Break C】, 【Dagger B】, 【Fire Pillar】, 【Dagger Control】, and 【Subdimensional Storage】 .

I was curious about the Level Break skill but I had no time to check its details . Agalga crouched down low and lunged forward towards us swinging a knife . He wasn’t swinging at random either . Each slash was precise, aimed at our vitals .

「What the hell do you guys want?」

「What do we want? Why don’t you ask yourself? You’re the ones going around in barbaric savagery and oppressing people . 」

「Well aren’t you the smart-ass? Goddamn brat!」

Agalga continued his assault, each swing sharp, and managed to cut my forelocks . With Emma’s two-handed dagger and my own blade, we tried to fight him back, but we were still losing ground . I put some distance between us to cast magic but he closed in quickly before I could, attempting to trip me off my feet . This guy’s hella pesky .

We kept our eyes on him, desperately trying to come up with a plan on how to deal with him . But all of a sudden, he turned his back on us and dashed out of the room .

「Why’d he run away?」Emma asked .

「Good question . No, wait . He’s going for the hostages!」

「Let’s hurry!」

We quickly headed for the first floor, cautiously moving through the corridor, in case of an ambush . When we got to down the stairs, we could hear the sound of gunshots .

Luna-san must be fighting him . Sure enough, as soon as we opened the door where the gunshots were coming from, we saw her engaged in a battle with the man . Behind her were about ten women .

「Tsk . Pesky brats!」

Realizing his unfavourable situation, the man took off through the window .

「Are those the people they took?」

「So it seems . Thankfully they don’t have any serious injuries . 」

「Is one of them the chief’s granddaughter?」

「Yes, I’m here . So my grandfather hired adventurers . 」

She was quite the beauty . She didn’t even look anything like the village chief to be quite honest .

「The boss is gone . What do we do now, Noir-dono?」

「Let’s go after him . 」

We can’t let him get away . Since we already neutralized the rest of the bandits, we left the women in the mansion and went after Agalga . To our surprise, he was waiting for us .

As usual he was glaring at us with intimidating eyes .

「I thought about making a run for it, but losing to snotty brats like you would soil my reputation .

He’s an obstinate one . I suppose you need to have this kind of attitude to lead a group of bandits .

Him not taking off was just I wanted so I happily obliged . This guy’s fearless . Even up against three, he thinks he can win . There must be a reason he’s so confident . Aha! I knew it . Upon checking his skill, I found something alarming .

【Level Break C】

It downgrades the level of living creatures within a fifty-meter radius from the caster . Rank C reduces 20 levels .

With my Appraisal skill, I could see that our levels have dropped drastically .

He could use it anytime and it was currently active . I could in fact feel something off with my body . It would be safer to assume that my strength, agility, magic and other stats have gone down . I told the girls about it .

「What’s up with that skill? That’s so not fair!」

「We really got our hands full with this one . 」

「Tsk . So the kid had Appraisal . That explains why you were able to march in here with only the three of you . You’re no ordinary brats . 」

「Noir-dono, I’ll position myself from a distance . 」

「Please do . 」

Luna-san bolted out to get out of the skill’s area of effect . Our spells might not do much but her long-ranged magic gun should provide quite a punch .

Whether he knew that or not, it didn’t matter . Agalga quickly reacted .

「Oh no, you—」

「Oh no, you don’t!」

We stopped him with our magic .

「God, you guys are fuckin’ annoying!」

With a snap of his wrist, he threw his dagger, but it missed both of us . He tried to get between us, but stopped on his tracks, clicking his tongue .

「I see you’re worthy opponents . Take a look at the moon — how it’s quietly watching over our battle . There’s only two possible futures . One where I die . The other where you guys die . Doesn’t that sound exciting?」

This guy’s off his rockers . A chill went down my spine .

「Noir!」

Emma pushed me .

「What was that for?」

Then something zipped past my face . As soon as I noticed the cut, pain followed .

「His dagger came back?」

「Hahaha!」

Agalga grabbed the knife’s handle, enjoying the turn of events .

Must be that 【Dagger Control】 skill . It would’ve gone straight through my head if Emma didn’t push me . My senses seem duller than usual . It must be an effect of my level going down . What a troublesome skill .

「Thanks . I owe you one . 」

「You saved me a while ago so now we’re even . 」

Emma said, with a gentle expression on her face .

Luna-san had her gun ready behind us and shot .

「Heal Shot!」

A white, bright ball of energy seeped inside my wound and healed it in no time . She flashed a cool smile and I gave her a thumbs up .

「Wow . That half-elf ain’t so bad . 」

「Her name’s Luna Healer and today you will learn that name . 」

「If she manages to threaten my life even for a bit, I’m sure I’ll never forget her . He’ll I still remember all the strong people that I’ve killed so far . 」

He was neither too eager nor panicked . But instead he was completely relaxed . I was struck with a feeling of dread . It was hard to believe he was human . His brain must function differently .

His crew was down and he was up three against one . While he did have some reliable skills, he was still too calm . I wondered how many scenes of carnage one had to go through to be this bold and fearless . It was something a coward like me could never hope to comprehend .

「With your abilities and mental toughness, you could’ve walked a normal path, couldn’t you? I’m sure you could’ve chosen to be something else, and not be a bandit . 」

「I always wonder about this, kid . How can someone say something like ‘you could’ve chosen a different path’ so easily when they know next to nothing about the person?」

「I think it’s precisely because they know nothing about them . 」

「You’re just splitting hairs . Well, whatever . If you really want to know, I’ll tell you . I’m originally from a different country . I lived in the dump site in the slums when I was young . I didn’t even know what my parents looked like . How about that?」

I just stared at him and didn’t answer . I quietly began to check on something .

「In the slums, even kids get killed like it was nothing and no one would bat an eye . When I was seven, I made up my mind . I’ll be on the ‘taking’ side . 」

Sorry pal, but I’m not actually paying attention to a word you’re saying . There was only one reason I made him want to talk about himself . That was to buy time — time needed to carefully 【Edit】 his skill .

「Hey, brat! Are you even listening?!」

「Yes, of course . I’m just surprised to hear about your story, how different our circumstances were . I was raised with love by my own parents . 」

「Ah, yes . Well I don’t really give a rat’s ass about my parents anymore . Let me tell you the story of how I beat the slum’s boss . 」

Thankfully, he was still going to keep talking .

And so I checked to see if I could render his most troublesome skill 【Level Break】ineffective .