(90)
＜ 15. Come on, you fresh fledgling (3) ＞ Whoo
– Whoa !
The ogre’s club drew a heavy diagonal line. Andrea responded lightly, not panicking .
Tuong !
The sound of a heavy counterattack. Andrea’s fist struck directly through the gap in the ogre’s stance .
Fur – billion !
“ Awesome !”
An ogre’s stomach that went deep. The eyeballs were dilated as if they were about to pop out, and violent vomiting of blood followed. The flow of fists extending to the jawline following the momentum .
Quick! kung- _
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Not befitting its rambunctious size, the ogre has a glass jaw. With the sound of his jawbone shattering, the ogre knelt down in front of Andrea and could not stand up again. The battle was over in vain .
“ What is this, there is no need to shoot arrows, let alone an infinite cycle .”
Trisha shook her head and said. Andrea shrugged lightly .
“ It’s not an elite monster, it’s just a normal monster, right? It goes without saying that I can handle this tidy up by myself .”
” That’s right… I thought it was an elite monster just by looking at its size .”
Andrea wanted to take the path with as many elite monsters as possible, but there were no elite monsters at all on the way to the 65th floor. So, Andrea looked at the map and chose the direction where there were events that could benefit him .
‘ If you go to the left, you can see the Forge of Destiny event on the 64th floor, so I’ll have to go this way.’
In the
‘ Forge of Destiny’ event, you can enhance one card. The difference from strengthening in the resting area is that you can reinforce the 2nd level card to the 3rd level. It was an event that should not be missed as it was one of the few opportunities to enhance a card’s level 3 .
The card that Andrea chose as her priority was, of course, ‘Summon Marco’. In that case, he would be able to see the final form of Marco while saving the brilliant enhancement rights. If it is strengthened, Marco will become even more powerful as he is now .
Of course, it would get really out of control if it fell into the ‘broad’ status ailment like last time after the final reinforcement, but that was only an extremely exceptional case. Andrea had memorized all the patterns for casting berserk on her summons, so she had to summon Marco at that time .
However, the road to reach the 64th floor was not so easy. There was a trap room on the 62nd floor, and there was an event on the 63rd floor that wasn’t very nice .
‘ To go through all of this… the risk is too great .’
Andrea was thinking of skipping one of the two floors. Just by using the ‘Elixir Tablet’. It wasn’t too bad. Wasn’t it an artifact obtained to use at a time like this anyway ?
What made him ponder was which floor to skip. In my mind, I wanted to skip both because there was no benefit and the risk was great. However, thinking about the future, I had to save the number of times I used the Elixir Stone Plate .
Andrea explained the two events to the party and asked for their opinions. Colleagues holding their chins and contemplating. Amid the deep silence of worry, Emilia cautiously brought up her opinion .
“ Oh, by the way, Miss Andrea. You can’t tell what kind of trap is in the trap room just by looking at the map, right ?”
“ Yes, it is. Priest .”
“ Then, why don’t you just go into the trap room and find out what kind of trap it is, use a stone tablet if the trap is too difficult to handle, or just break through the trap ?”
“… that’s a good idea .”
Andrea thought it would be good to do the same, but hearing Emilia’s words made me even more convinced. It’s clear what the event on the 63rd floor is about, so you should find out what traps are on the 62nd floor so you can compare them .
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Now that the decision was made, it was time to check the reward. As it was a normal monster, the reward for catching the ogre was simple. Ogre blood, and a bit less than 2,000 gold .
Andrea and Trisha made a mistake again, but at least Emilia was able to get a useful card .
‘[ Rare] Mental Purification ++ (1 cost): Heals fear, seal, berserk, confusion, famine status ailments .’
It was a card that could heal mental abnormalities. Status abnormalities that produce more fatal results than other status abnormalities if they cannot all be canceled. That’s why it’s hard to see things on the lower floors .
However, the deeper you go into the dungeon, the more frequent the status ailments. Right now, Marco almost got caught in a berserker on the previous floor, so it could be said that it was a very timely card .
‘··· Well, this can only be used if the draw is good, but .’
Still, it was better than nothing. If you find a search card, it will be more useful. Andrea made Emilia pack the cards .
After collecting all the rewards, Andrea and the others headed for the stairs. It was time to leave for the next floor. The regular sound of footsteps resounded, and the shadows of the party lined up in the dark stairs slowly melted .
*
“ Um . . .”
“ Kuhm .”
“ Hee-ik ….”
Various sounds that come out one after another. However, their facial expressions were all the same. Everyone was stunned by the unusual shape of the entrance .
In a way, it was similar to the entrance of the ‘Blood Library’. Because there was a letter written on the door while it was covered in blood. However, if the ‘Library of Blood’ had letters written in blood, this place was different in that blood was spread on the wall like paint and letters were written on it with paint .
“ Andrea… Uh… what does that mean ?”
Tricia said, pointing to the writing on the door. Andrea frowned and thought hard about something, so she couldn’t hear Tricia’s words properly .
“ Uh, huh? what ?”
“ No, um… So, do you know what traps are in this room ?”
Andrea nodded very slowly. Andrea, of course, knew what kind of trap room this room was. However, the entrance to this room was very different from what he had originally known .
‘I originally thought that the number written on the entrance was ten, but …’
[ Twenty Eight Fingers ]
The number written on the door was the first number I had ever seen in my life. And Andrea was able to realize at once what that change meant. It was clear that the maximum number of numbers also increased in proportion to the increase in the number of heads .
It is a trap room that is truly friendly and intuitive. It was written right from the entrance what to offer to escape the trap room. Kindness, of course, did not lessen the horror of this room .
“ It’s a trap room where you can only escape by cutting off your fingers as much as the number written in front of you. So… in this room, you will have to cut off twenty-eight fingers and offer them up .”
“…”
“…”
“ Heeep !”
While everyone’s faces turned white, the sound of Emilia’s hiccups echoed softly. If they hadn’t been together for a while, they’d have told her not to joke, but Tricia knew full well that Andrea couldn’t joke about something like this .
“… Is it okay if I cut seven pieces per person ?”
“ You are good at counting. But I don’t know if I’ll even hit Marco’s finger. If only the challenger’s fingers were accepted, one out of three would have no fingers at all .”
Watching Andrea speak calmly, Trisha noticed something. In the first place, Andrea had no intention of entering this trap room .
“ Then, let’s decide who will leave the finger with a rock-paper-scissors game. You can’t play rock-paper-scissors after cutting off your fingers, can you ?”
“ I thought you were only good at calculations, so you’re very logical, Tricia ?”
“ I’m kind of like that .”
It wasn’t prepared in advance, but it fit perfectly. Hearing the bloody conversation between Andrea and Trisha, Emilia was moved to tears .
Since Emilia was ready to run away if she really asked to play rock-paper-scissors here, Andrea hurriedly took out the stone tablet of the leap .
“I ’m kidding, priest. I’m going to write this here. Don’t worry, I won’t cut my finger for real .”
“ I-really ?”
“ Yes. If you’re not crazy, how do you really cut your finger ?”
“ Whew… I really… thought you two were going to step in here …”
In fact, for a moment, Andrea even contemplated whether to really cut off her finger and go through the trap room .
Cutting a finger is a serious injury only in the outside world, but it wasn’t like that in the dungeon. A severed limb can also be healed. It’s like a severed finger. It’s an injury that will heal quickly if Emilia continues to use healing magic .
But the human spirit is weak. Isn’t Marco forcibly enduring that his mind is being shaved by repeating life and death? It was clear that the experience of voluntarily cutting off a finger would have a terrible negative effect on the group’s morale .
‘ I can’t help it. The next floor is also dangerous, but at least it’s not an event where you just get helplessly like this. Even if I get a bigger injury, that would be better .’
It was better to be able to fight back even with a few more hits than to get hit one by one without doing anything. I needed that kind of spirit to advance through the dungeon .
What scares me more than pain in this dungeon is the feeling of helplessness, no matter how much I struggle .
Andrea called the party together in a circle. I didn’t know how to use the ‘Elixir Tablet’, so I was lost for a while, but I quickly figured out how to use it when I handed it to Marco .
“ Um…wouldn’t it be okay to turn the border like this ?”
click .
Then, from the place where Andrea and the others were, a new landscape spread out as if painting was overlaid. The aisle, which had been a gloomy brick, gradually brightened, and the cramped ceiling disappeared, revealing an open sky .
And the scenery on the 63rd floor overwhelmed the party .
I’ve seen various places in and out of dungeons, but there was no place as unfamiliar as this time. The floor covered in dust, the bubbling heat all around, the grand arena .
But most of all, it was the deafening cheers that made Andrea’s party sick .
“■■ ■■■ ■■!!!”
“■■■!! ■■■■!!”
Shouts mingled, creating an incomprehensible noise. The horribly crowded crowds of spectators circled around. Trisha and Emilia had never seen so many people gathered in one place .
The atmosphere like a seething furnace showed no sign of waning. On the contrary, it only grew more and more as time went on. Tricia, who was looking around in a daze, came to her senses belatedly and asked Andrea .
“ Andrea, what the hell is this… what’s the situation ?”
“ What? I can’t hear you !”
“ What kind of situation is this !”
“… Those guys are all spectators! Opponents will appear soon, and we must fight them !”
Tricia was about to ask why, but swallowed the question back. In fact, wasn’t it because I had a grudge that I had been fighting against monsters so far? This, too, must be a necessary process in order to pass this floor .
Tricia scanned the wide dirt floor and asked with a slight tilt of her head .
“ Then… who are the opponents ?”
Andrea didn’t even have to answer. The iron bars at the entrance on the other side opened, and the opponents showed up in person. As they entered, the cheers that could not have been louder rose even higher .
A man wearing an old conical hat, a female warrior holding a spiked tower shield and a mace in both hands, and a topless fighter revealing vicious muscles .
I couldn’t tell who two of them were, but I definitely knew who one was. And the author was also the reason Andrea wanted to avoid this event .
It wasn’t the trivial challengers or unknown wanderers that were scattered throughout the dungeon. He is also a playable character in ‘Dungeon of Infinity’. Although it would be different depending on how much he climbed the dungeon, he was a challenger who might have had power similar to or even greater than that of Andrea .
‘ In an arena event, you encounter at least one other playable character as an enemy. ···After getting out of the lower floor, it feels like running into playable characters one after another .’
It was too far to be conscious of each other. But Andrea knew. Being conscious of the gaze looking at him, he was also staring at Andrea from the other side. Again, it was an unusual sensation .
Andrea sighed and released her fists. My body stiffened with tension, and the back of my neck felt unusually stiff. The gaze of the enemy looking at Andrea, like that of a beast, gradually took on a ferocious and sharp force .
From now on, only one of the two would die or surrender to escape from this floor .
＜ 15. Come on, you fresh youngster (3) ＞ End