Chapter 107 - More on this Floor than I Remember
Having had enough of staring at the code I was modifying, I got up and stretched.
Staying mostly still with only moving to change position every once in a while or switching between the couch and the bed for a chance of pace wasn't really doing much to keep my body from stiffening up due to the inactivity.
(I should take a break.)
No matter how much my body was capable of going on without rest, my mind wasn't capable of continuous strenuous activities for hours on end. At the very least, I needed to change things up every once in a while to keep my efficiency up.
While getting this skill to create Alicia's new body was the top priority, it wasn't the only thing I needed to do.
Gaining some levels was up there as well, but to do that efficiently, I needed to read up properly on those golems that were my current obstacle. I hadn't attempted to face them since returning, but I doubted the few levels and skill ranks I've gained since the last time I've tried would be enough to make much of a difference without a significant change in strategy.
Since that was the case, the only other things I could do was gather some more materials for Anthousai to make the rest of my clothes and to write up a summary of the dungeon's floors for Aurae.
It wasn't like I was in a hurry for either, though making Anthousai wait too long was probably bad.
Putting aside the part about when to give Anthousai the materials I owed her, gathering them wasn't going to take very long, so I went over to the 75th floor and ran through the floor a few times, gathering enough silk to make a small wardrobe.
It was a little sad, but after three runs, I only got a single level despite beating the boss each time as well. Despite this being quite deep in the dungeon, as expected my level was still pretty high compared to everything here.
Either that, or maybe the fact that I avoided eating any of the spider's blue blood had something to do with it. The thought of drinking the blood of bugs still made a chill run up my spine.
After I was satisfied with that, I pulled out an iron ingot and reformed it into a set of twenty steel sheets. Light enough that the fairies shouldn't have trouble carrying them around, but thick enough that they should resist being damaged.
I took one and the rest were put into my bag as I went over to the fountain to transferred to the first floor.
Stepping out, I etched a simple label: [Floor 01], then a short description of the type of floor.
I stretched out my wings and with a single flap, lifted off. The familiar weight of Claret's body giving me a sense of security despite her silently rubbing her cheek against the side of my head on occasion.
With no need to actually take my time, I quickly made my way through the dungeon, kicking every monster I encountered. On the steel sheet, I etched the names of the monsters that could be as Alicia used [Scan] on them in addition to listing the drops they provided.
There wasn't that many kinds of monsters on this floor, nor did they provide that many different drops.
But we approached the two thirds mark of the dungeon, something unusual happened. [Detect Presence] got far too many hits all at once.
[There's usually only at most three monsters that spawn at once, yet I can detect eight hits in one spot. What do you two think?]
[Maybe several groups met up and merged?]
[It's not likely, but it is a possibility Master.]
Strangely, what surprised me the most was the fact that Claret had the mind to talk to me through telepathy rather than vocalize her thoughts like she usually did. Maybe I've been looking down on her a bit too much lately.
[Ah! One of the hits disappeared!]
[Huh? Is it infighting?]
[Monsters don't do that sort of thing inside the dungeon. All monsters in a dungeon are part of the same side and they recognize that fact. It's what makes running away blindly inside of a dungeon so dangerous.]
That made sense. If you accidentally encountered a second group, there was zero chance that they would fight each other and you've just doubled your trouble all at once.
(Which means...)
[There's got to be someone fighting monsters here then.]
[It's not like there's any other possibility.]
Alicia had the right of it so I could only agree with her conclusion. While I hadn't brought any of the fairies to the first floor, there wasn't really any reason why they couldn't come here. Maybe some of them were training their young or something.
As there wasn't any reason to hide, we moved to meet up with the group.
The sound of battle quickly reached my ears, but it didn't sound like anything I had expected. Some of the yelling was clearly from goblins, but the other yelling was deeper and more serious than what was typical for the fairies, and there weren't any sounds of magical impacts. Fairies also didn't seem like the sort to parry and block with their weapons, yet I could hear dull clacks and bangs as something hard hit something else hard.
To top it all off, there was the sound of a lot of footsteps. A lot more than I would have expected.
It was suspicious, and the need to investigate was quite a bit greater than I had first thought.
As I approached, I landed beside a wall of tall grass and retracted my wings before walking to where the fighting was happening. As I boldly strode around the final corner, the sight that greeted me surprised me more than I could have predicted.
There were six figures before me.
One was a single goblin wildly swinging its crude sword around desperately. There were the bodies of two more covered in blood and laying still near the standing goblin. But what was surprising was the other five standing against the goblins.
Four of them looked like kids barely entering puberty along with a single adult.
But they weren't fairies. For that matter, I couldn't even identify their species, though the fact that they were wearing leather outfits and were each carrying weapons suggested that they were at least intelligent and came from some sort of civilization.
All five of them were humanoid as well, but not a single one of them had skin of a human tone. Three of them, including the adult, had skin that was almost as dark as ebony, and the other two had red skin, almost as if they were covered in a fresh layer of blood.
As I stepped out of cover, a few of them turned to me almost instantly.
It wasn't like I was trying to conceal my presence, so it wasn't a surprise that they detected me immediately, especially when they were wary due to being in combat.
"Oh, it's not a monster."
But the moment they saw me, most of them turned back to finish their fight once they determined that I wasn't an immediate threat. That was, aside from the tallest amongst them.
Now that I was able to see her face head on, I couldn't help but be surprised even further.
If it wasn't for her skin colour, I'd have thought that she was just a normal person. No, a normal elf. She had a well featured face with golden eyes, long pointed ears, and white hair that cascaded halfway down her back. She was wearing an outfit that looked more like a giant sheet of cloth that was loosely wrapped around her shoulders and hips and left hanging loosely, exposing her middle and left leg quite a bit. Something that looked like a hard sheet of leather peeked out from the base of her chest as well, and she wore light looking leather boots. There was a large bag looped over one shoulder in such a way that it was easy to drop if needed.
In her hands were a pair of daggers she held at her sides, but not quite loosely. Rather, it looked more like she was ready to strike at any moment despite hanging her arms down.
(Is this a dark elf then?)
If that was the case, then the two black skinned kids were probably the same. And from that extrapolation, it would suggest that the two red skinned ones would be demons, though they were facing away from me so I couldn't confirm if they had horns or not.
It didn't take long before the red skinned one wielding a spear finished off the last goblin and the whole group turned their attention to me.
"Hi. Fancy meeting someone here so early in the morning!"
"Did you come to train too miss?"
Two of the kids called out to me, surprising me further.
If they really were dark elves and demons, then they were acting quite cordial for races Orphne emphasized to be evil. I couldn't discount that they were hiding their true nature, or simply that they were exceptions though.
But before I could answer, the adult of the groups stepped in between us.
"What does a vampire want here?"
I blinked for a moment, before remembering that I hadn't been bothering with my usual disguise ever since meeting the fairies. It was just too much of a hassle to bother, especially when I had to disengage it every time I wanted to start flying around with my own wings.
"Ah, well, I live here after all."
"Don't lie! I hadn't heard of a vampire here!"
The oldest of the group took a few steps forward, covering the others even more as they nervously held their weapons in their hands.
"It's not like I come to the first floor very often. Lately I've been spending my time around floor 35."
The ten floors around the 35th had all of the ingredients we've been using lately so they were especially convenient. There just wasn't much point in spending time elsewhere unless if I wanted to level up, in which case I'd be using the floors above 75.
"Anyways, I don't mean any harm."
"And what? You want us to serve you instead?"
"Wha? No, why would I want that?"
Or rather, that sounds like such a hassle. I already had Claret serving every beck and call, which I didn't need in the first place, and the fairies were already a handful on top of that. Frankly speaking, I wasn't getting anywhere near enough 'me' time. Taking in more subordinates would likely make it even harder to get time for myself.
"Don't lie. All you vampires are power hungry beasts. Either you want us to serve you, or you want to drink our blood!"
At the woman's words, she raised her weapons to ready position in front of her. The ones behind her raised their weapons as well.
"Not all vampires are like that. Just like not all dark elves are..."
"Don't call us dark elves!!!"
The adult bared her teeth as her chest heaved, a tinge of blood lust emerging from her eyes. The two other dark elves looked quite incensed as well, while the two demons grew even more nervous.
"We are proud dokkalfar! Not some cheap imitation elves!"
"Ah, sorry. I didn't know that was what you were called."
(Was I wrong? But I hadn't heard of a race called dokkalfar before. Even still...)
I looked to the ones behind the woman. The two red skinned boys did have horns protruding from their foreheads sweeping up and back a bit. They fit the description of demons I've heard.
"Umm...then am I wrong to think that those two are demons?"
"They are demons."
(So I wasn't wrong there. Then what are dokkalfar?)
"Ummm..."
"If you have no business here, then leave. We have claimed this dungeon for ourselves."
"Wha?!"
No I was the one who was angry. Suddenly claiming that my home was now theirs and kicking me out?! In the first place, there was no traces of them in the area! The entrance was within sight of the fairy settlement so there was no way for someone to think that the dungeon didn't already belong to someone.
(Sneaking in and trying to claim ownership!)
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