Chapter 118 – Floor 99 (1/2)

The first passageway immediately opened up to a small room. There were broken benches lined across the walls and a large amount of wood fragments littered across the floor.

Standing like a guard against one wall blocking the exit was a giant figure in full plate armour. The unmoving armour was a pearl white and completely covered the body of the figure shielded within aside from a few pitch black vision slits. A black cape was draped from its shoulders and almost touched the stone floor. The head almost grazed the top of the doorway it guarded and its body width would've made it difficult to pass through without touching the sides by accident. The being held a single spear just longer than it was tall at its side as if at attention.

Despite me staring at it, the figure didn't react at all, continuing to guard the only way forward as if it wasn't even aware I was there. Strangely, it didn't even waver the slightest bit as it stood, as if it was a golem or something. But since it wouldn't react, I spent a few extra seconds examining it.

The aura surrounding this armoured figure was quite impressive, wisping around like a flame surrounding its entire body. The spear as well was magical, though exactly in what way beyond simply containing mana wasn't something I had the ability to figure out.

Now that I had time to learn why people liked to pose entire sets of plate armour in some random hallway for no obvious reason aside from taking up useless space, I glanced down at the status window Alicia had graciously opened up for me before I even registered that the thing had a spear for a weapon.

(She's getting real good at this.)

The knight like figure was called a mithril living armour, and it was level 242. When I saw that, I had another look at the monster.

Those black vision slits weren't black because even with my vampiric vision it was too dark for me to see, but they were black because there was nothing for me to see. There were no eyes, no skull, nothing but a hollow void behind those slits.

This changed things quite a bit. If the armour itself was what was driving this monster rather than something inside of it, living or dead, then what I had to attack changed. There was no weak spot hiding inside of the heavy plates of metal, but instead there was a core of some sort somewhere on the series of plates in the shape of a person.

Except I wouldn't know where it was without breaking it apart first.

(So since targeting the internal structure isn't possible, should I try taking it apart piece by piece?)

Things would change quite a lot depending on the location of the living armour's core, presuming it even had one. It wasn't like I hadn't fought living armour before. The 60th floor was populated with them after all. But that didn't mean that these guys would have the same weaknesses.

(But if it's the same...)

I condense and chill the air around me, focusing it all in a point above a raised hand. In a handful of seconds, a liquid orb with white mist falling from it was formed.

Due to its starting position, an instant kill wasn't really possible. But solving that was a different issue.

The moment I took a few steps and approached the metallic statue, the mithril living armour jerked as if it was awakened and turned its empty head towards me. Layers of dust crumbled and shook off of its surfaces.

Taking the spear in both hands, it lowered its body into an aggressive stance and took heavy steps towards me.

With a great step once it got halfway through the room to me, the armour lunged and thrust its spear at me.

(!!!)

It was faster than I thought. It should have been obvious, as this was almost forty floors deeper than the last living armour I had faced, but until this one attack it didn't really click in my mind properly.

This really wasn't like the other armour.

I forcefully twisted my body while swatting the offending blade away from me, but the spear only barely shifted enough to avoid catching on my robes. The living armour's grip was too strong to so easily have its aim broken completely.

But as much as it was a surprise, it wasn't something I couldn't take advantage of.

Taking a firm grip on the spear shaft, I pulled myself towards the living armour and forcibly fixed my balance. Despite the strength I exerted against the spear, the armour's grip on it didn't waver and instead it reversed its grip, swinging the butt towards me.

I ducked and weaved to the side before pushing a blast of wind against my back, propelling me between the monster's legs.

Just as I past by it, I bent my spine and flung the super cooled ball of liquid against the back of the mithril living armour. The liquid boiled on contact, giving off a sizzling sound along with the occasional sharp ping.

But the back of the cuirass rapidly approaching absolute zero didn't do anything to deter the nonliving armour. The nearly imperceptible reduction in size of the metal plate comprising of the rear wouldn't do anything in the first place.

At least not on its own.

As the living armour turned around to strike at me again, I kicked off the ground and followed its motion, staying in its blind spot.

While living armour didn't have eyes to sense their surroundings, thus could see things all around them, unlike a golem, their limbs were restricted to movements close to that of a living person similar to most undead. The simple fact that the armour they were comprised of weren't designed to move in ways which a person couldn't meant that they too couldn't move in such inhuman ways.

Attacking someone hiding in their rear was slow and awkward. It was much faster and more effective to just turn around.

At least normally.

But using magic to help my movements stay sharp and stick close while I let the liquefied air do its work, the living armour was unable to position itself to land an effective blow no matter which way it tried to turn.

And after a few more seconds, the mithril plate I was aiming for built up a dull layer of frost.

As it looked like it was time, I stamped a foot hard against the ground and thrust out a fist.

With a sharp crack and a sound similar to a thick sheet of plastic being snapped in two, the back plate of the mithril armour's cuirass shattered into tiny fragments. And along with that, the rest of the armour shuddered before collapsing in a heap.

My eyes though, was attracted by one thing. With a significant portion of the armour broken, the aura that surrounded it previously had receded, no longer covering the armoured plates which comprised this construct's body. Instead, the aura had dwindled and concentrated to a small flame, flickering within the pile of metallic shards that was once the armour's back.

Picking through the pile of mithril fragments, one piece, larger than most, made itself known. The back was no different from the rest, but the front had a black gem that glowed brightly to my [Mana Perception].

The gem was as big as both of my thumbnails put together.

Raising the encrusted gem to my mouth, I placed a single fang to it and sucked out the cool mana from it, draining the armour of what little motive power it had left.

I enjoyed the cool sweetness of the living armour's mana. Like cookies and cream ice cream. Maybe with richer than normal chocolate cookies at that.

Soon after I tossed the dulled and empty gem to the ground, the remains of the monster transformed into particles of light, leaving nothing but its drops.

A mana crystal and a diamond.

”Looks like a bust.”

[It's pretty, but what are those diamonds used for?]

”Mostly just decorations. There's a few practical uses, but developing the tools needed to take advantage of them will take a while, and I'm not sure the benefits are really worth it.”

[Then maybe you can use it to decorate something?]

”Maybe.”

Frankly, it didn't really appeal to me much. It was nicely cut and everything, and quite large too. An entire centimetre across its longest axis. But on its own it was a bit much. The pins Elli had gotten made for me were much nicer, and they didn't have any sort of gems encrusted in them at all.

But it was a waste to just leave it, so I just tossed the thing into my bag along with the mana crystal.

Someday I might find a use for it.

At the very least, I hadn't hit the capacity limit of my bag yet.

Moving on, I made my way through the claustrophobic hallways and rooms, taking on more living armours. Some had swords and shields, some war hammers, and others spears like the first.

After six such encounters, I arrived in a larger room than before. It appeared to be some sort of cafeteria, though pretty small for a fortress. Perhaps it was just one of many.

There were a pair of long tables lined with chairs, most of which were broken.

On the far wall there were a pair of maids, standing as still as statues. They wore black and white uniforms reminiscent of French maids, the modern interpretation, not the classic type. Personally, I preferred Victorian maids though. Their skin was like porcelain, and their eyes like coloured glass.

(Orichalcum automatas huh?)

According to Alicia's scan that was their names. Unlike the living armour I had faced so far, they were magical types. The armours were filled with physical oriented skills, but these had all the magical skills, and they were even at a decent level.

”Oh, they even have [Dimensional Magic]!”

That was particularly nice. I've been trying to learn that, but had only barely managed to get rank one [Dimensional Magic] with Claret's help. Rank one was barely of any use at all, and from a practical standpoint, it was the same as not even having the skill.

But if there was a monster which I could absorb the skill from, that changed things drastically.

[Dimensional Magic] was extremely helpful when it came to fighting that bastard all those months ago, and even outside of combat it was quite helpful. I couldn't wait to get my hands on the higher ranks of it.

I wondered what it would be like. What I could do with such a skill. What the mana of these automata would taste like.

(Ah, I'm drooling.)

I cleaned myself up quickly before turning back towards the two artificial maids.

It was a bit annoying to deal with two of them at once for my first encounter. Normally the first time a new monster would appear, there would only be one of them. It was as if the dungeon was giving me a chance to get used to them before throwing more difficult challenges at me.

At the very least, that was how it was like up until then, both here as well as at Knossos's dungeon as well.

But beggars couldn't be choosers. My opinion on the matter didn't change the fact that I would have to face two of them at once for the first time.