＜ 6. Unexpected Companion (3) ＞
Before leaving the waiting room, Andrea asked Arpan about the explosive level up without much expectation. Surprisingly, Arpan answered plainly.
“You know that each challenger has a different characteristic, right? That is Andrea-sama’s unique characteristic.”
On the contrary, Andrea was surprised to receive such a clear answer.
‘I thought you’d twist something and answer like a dog this time.’
However, Arpan was still Arpan.
“Of course they won’t tell you what kind of trait it is, right?”
“I’m glad you know.”
“Are you the one who opened the portal from the 9th floor to the 19th floor?”
Arpan raised one corner of his mouth very slightly.
“You made a pretty sweet deal with ‘someone’ while I didn’t see you. You can think of it as a light punishment.”
Andrea later decided to cut off Arpan’s horn and sell it to a black dealer at a high price.
Arfan knocked on it with an iron cage, and the wall opened, creating a passageway to the 21st floor. Andrea walked toward the aisle first. Trisha was also ready and ready to enter the aisle.
However, the moment Trisha was about to pass, Arpan pushed an iron cage and blocked the way.
Trisha let out a deep sigh as the floor went off.
“What else, b*tch. really.”
“Changing the trial stage is like starting the challenge all over again. You should go with a blessing, Trisha.”
It was a good story anyway. But Trisha was right and wasn’t happy. She was acutely aware that there was always a bone in the words of this cunning goat head.
Trisha soon found out the intention behind Arpan’s words.
“Since we’re starting over from the beginning, you don’t mean to give up all your equipment, decks, and artifacts, right?”
Arpan smiled and nodded. Trisha lifted her bow and struck it straight into Arpan’s head.
Right.
The sound of skulls ringing lightly.
When Andrea saw this, her heart sank. The guide cannot harm the challenger, but it was a different story if the challenger did harm to the guide first.
As she’s already experienced, the current Trisha could never defeat Arfan.
“Is it true that you attacked me first, Trisha?”
Arpan’s eyes turned red. The air in the waiting room cooled down. An ominous energy of mana was slowly gathering towards the iron cage.
Tricia, the person who actually made her angry, shook her head from side to side calmly.
“no? I gave it to you because I had to return the equipment, but it accidentally hit me in the head. You should have been careful.”
In an instant, Arpan’s eyes emitted a more mysterious light. However, it soon returned to its usual blue color.
“I will only look at you this once. If you attack me from now on, words won’t end. Give me all your decks, gear, and artifacts.”
“Sheesh.”
Trisha had no choice but to hand it over, but looked at the deck several times to see if any lingering feelings remained.
“If I saved a little more, I could have filled 100 sheets…”
Andrea felt like she had been hit in the head with a hammer.
“Just in case, how many cards did you have in your deck?”
“At some point, the deck got so thick that I didn’t count it, but it must be close to 90 cards.”
‘The librarian made a hunter deck?’
Having a thick deck wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Even if there were quite a few curse cards mixed in, they might not be affected much, and there were also cards whose effects were stronger the more cards there were in the deck.
Even so, Chapter 90 crossed the line a bit. Besides, hunters rarely have cards whose effects become stronger the more cards they have in their deck. There is no reason to make a ‘buyer deck’ that puts all kinds of cards into the deck and gains weight.
“…Have you ever removed a card from your deck?”
“Why are you removing the card? Those are all things I bought with money.”
‘Oh My God.’
It was a common mistake beginners exploring dungeons for the first time. There are a lot of good-looking cards, so if you pick and choose, your deck will become infinitely thicker.
Later, I thought that I might need a card that seems halfway there someday, so I picked it up and ended up with a ruined deck like that.
Rather, it was a good thing. If I had taken that deck as it was, even if I got a good card, I wouldn’t be able to draw it, so I wouldn’t be able to use it. Andrea decided to help Trisha with the deck building herself.
‘First of all, I need to tell you the concept of deck compression. Also, tell me the concept of a deck that hunters can create.’
Hunters were ranged dealers and had fairly good performance. There was no doubt that Andrea would become a reliable ally if he helped.
‘It’s not that I’ve played Trisha once or twice, so it’s not difficult to build a deck. I just need to listen carefully to what I have to say.’
Tricia, who returned everything she had, had only the clothes she wore when she came in. Instead, Arpan gave the hunter class a basic bow and deck and suggested a blessing option.
“One rare card, one enhancement card, one curse card and one rare artifact. Which of the three would you choose?”
Andrea approached the troubled Trisha.
“How about getting a rare relic if you can? The village appears on the 25th floor, so you can definitely get rid of the curse card.”
“Oh, yes. Then, as a rare artifact… wait, you said you came from the 20th floor. How do you know there is a town on the 25th floor?”
‘Oops.’
It was a slip of the tongue. Andrea groaned.
“Arpan told me.”
Tricia’s gaze at Andrea grew even more suspicious. Anyway, Trisha chose to receive the curse card and receive the rare artifact.
The artifact that came out was a blue-grey model of an arrowhead. It was a piercing arrowhead, an artifact exclusive to hunters. The effect is to inflict a critical hit with an 8% chance when shooting an arrow. It wasn’t huge, but it was a relic of acceptable performance.
Tricia took an arrowhead and pulled out a status card from her deck.
“What is the level? You’re not going to reset the level for the first time, are you?”
“Please. I am not that ruthless.”
Trisha didn’t relax. I didn’t know how I was going to get hit this time either. Fortunately, the solution Arpan suggested was at least acceptable.
“Even so, sending them at their current level would be out of balance. Trisha’s level will be adjusted to the same level as Andrea’s.”
Arfan took Tricia’s status card and waved his hand in the air. Tricia felt the power drain from her body.
The level item on the status card I received again had changed to ’32’.
Finally everything was ready and it was time to start the journey again. Arpan bowed his head and greeted Andrea and the others.
“We’ll see you again when we get past the 30th floor. May the dungeon guide you on your journey.”
*
“So you’re saying you met the woman who told you about the ordeal on the way to the 40th floor after breaking the 39th floor?”
“yes. If I could say more, that’s really all.”
Suddenly, they were having a conversation in casual language. Andrea passed through the aisle and asked Trisha what kind of journey she had been through.
Trisha went through all kinds of trial and error alone and managed to get to the 40th floor. But on the 39th floor, I heard a thunderous sound like a thunderbolt from the sky saying that if you reach the 50th floor without any trials, you will die.
‘And while arguing with Arpan in the waiting room, he encountered me…’
If it was a coincidence, it was an amazing coincidence, but no matter how much Andrea thought about it, it didn’t seem like a coincidence.
“I can see the entrance to the room over there.”
Marco, who had been listening to the story in silence, said. Andrea apologized to Marco and put it back into the card.
“He was a real summoning beast, man.”
Tricia couldn’t help but put on an absurd expression. I was dubious, but seeing it right in front of me like this, I had no choice but to believe it.
Before entering the room, Trisha asked.
“By the way, how difficult is level 25 of the ordeal?”
“…Didn’t you say that you went through hardships to the 40th floor without any trials?”
“yes.”
“It will be much spicier than that. I respect the experience of going up to the 40th floor alone, but there is a huge difference between a dungeon without trials and a dungeon with trials, so I hope you follow my instructions.”
Trisha seemed to have hurt her pride a little, but eventually nodded.
Before she is a challenger, she is a hunter. I have seen the disaster that happens when the advice of those who have experienced it before is ignored.
“Instead, if things don’t work out despite following the instructions, then I’ll act autonomously. You won’t even say anything about that, right?”
Andrea nodded her head kindly. I did what I was told to do anyway, but the odds of things going wrong weren’t high.
The 21st floor was an ordinary room. There were no other traps or terrain features to hide in, and there was only a moderately wide space. The only peculiar thing is that one wall has collapsed, and dirt and bricks are scattered around in a mess.
In the middle of the room stood the enemies who greeted Andrea and the others.
They were orcs.
Because of the tusk protruding from the lower mouth, saliva flowed from the mouth, and the pupils were glaringly open. They didn’t even wear flimsy armor, but when it came to weapons, they all carried heinous things that could easily be smashed to pieces.
Andrea had a preconceived notion of orcs when they first met in the game. I thought it must be an evil and uncivilized monster with ‘Chwiikchwiik’ at the end of words like in novels and cartoons, and all it wants to do is slaughter and plunder.
However, the Orcs were clearly capable of proper conversation.
The largest and most well-armed orc of the group came forward. With a sword the size of a door on his back. Judging by his appearance, he seemed to be the leader of the group.
Trisha glanced into Andrea’s eyes. It seems like what should I do?
Andrea whispered to Tricia in a low voice.
“Take out your bow and aim, but don’t shoot yet.”
Trisha pulled out her bow. After that, naturally, I brought my hand to my waist and drew a card from the deck. However, Trisha’s eyes widened when she drew.
“What, why are only three cards drawn?”
If there were no trials, there were 5 cards drawn, so it was not unreasonable to panic. Andrea explained that it was because of the ordeal, and urged him to aim the bow first.
“Tsk.”
Trisha clicked her tongue, struck, and loaded her arrow. It was a clean movement with no frills. The direction of the arrowhead was aimed at the orc’s head at once.
Then the orc threw down the weapon on his back and waved his hand.
“Calm down, Challenger. We never want a fight.”
“…what, the f*ck?”
Tricia was taken aback when such words came from a monster that looked ferocious and seemed ready to break through the skull any moment.
Andrea, in contrast, had a calm demeanor. He was used to having conversations like this with orcs.
“Okay, what do you want to say? Just listen.”
“Thank you very much for listening. We are Orcs who have been guarding this floor ever since. At first, we fought with all our might against the challengers who entered here. You know the result, but most of it ended in our defeat.”
In the outside world, they would have been a fighting nation that would fight a little, but in the dungeon, Orcs were not that powerful monsters. The challengers who reached the 20th floor must have already farmed cards and equipment to some extent.
“We didn’t even know what we were going through because our memories disappeared every time we died. But at some point, I became vaguely aware of it. The fact that we are repeating meaningless deaths.”
This time it was Andrea’s turn to surprise.
‘Monsters are aware of repeated deaths? It’s not even a boss, it’s just a normal monster?’
It was a conversation that I had never experienced while playing the game. Isn’t that a roguelike game where a new dungeon unfolds every time? Except for Player and Arpan, no one knew the repetition of rounds…
The more I thought about it, the more this wasn’t normal. If the guardian-like monster had realized what had happened to it, the battle on the 20th floor might have taken on a completely different aspect.
And the fact that the battle is different means that you may have to deal with it with immediate situational judgment rather than the original knowledge.
Andrea decided to listen to the story for now.
“therefore?”
“I have been thinking about how to get out of this bondage. And I finally found this answer. All the challengers want is passing the stairs and a reward, not fighting us. If so, wouldn’t it be fine if you let them pass the stairs without fighting?”
Trisha couldn’t figure out how the hell things were going. The furrow between his eyebrows deepened, and his gaze gradually changed to one looking at something bizarre.
An orc who reveals his will regardless. The orc’s finger pointed to a door in the wall opposite the entrance.
“There is an exit for this floor over there. Rewards are also available if you follow the aisle. Promise not to harm us, and we will gladly guide you to that exit.”
＜ 6. Unexpected Companion (3) ＞ End
It’s going Tutorial is Too Hard route?