Chapter 39 (1/2)
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TL: MbypobjzfSisjnq
ED: Emifttbo
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「Kuaaaaaaaaaaa!!」
「Nuuuu!!」
「G!?」
A wolf-shaped thorn monster roared as it stroke Nemea with its sharp claws.
But Nemea, instead of avoiding it, he blocked it, grabbed its attacking paw, and stopped the monster's movement completely.
「UOOOOOO!!!」
「GiYAaAA!!?」
He swung the monster against the wall vigorously. The sound of the monster's bone cracking resonated all the way across the hallway.
After that, he threw it towards the monsters at the end of the pa.s.sageway. It rolled like some sort of a makes.h.i.+ft bowling ball.
「Gaaaaa!?」
「GiYaaaaAAu!!」
The humanoid plant monsters were crushed by the wolf monster and couldn't move. Then, they were simply wiped by a single blast from Akiha's RPG (Rocket-propelled Grenade). Smoke rises as the wall around the stuck monsters crumbled from the loud explosion. Behind the smoke, Nemea stood majestically and protected Akiha from any potential debris.
「Akiha, reporting in.
All Clear.
Hayato-san, Adelle-san,
how's it going on your side?」
「Yeah, we're just finis.h.i.+ng things up」
「Fuu… It's really easy to wipe them if they came out like that. No matter how many of them, they can't all fit into this pa.s.sageway」
Hayato and Adelle appeared from the Akiha and Nemea's opposite direction. Both of them suffered minor injuries. Coincidentally, the sun had already set, so Adelle's self-recovery ability was already kicked in. Meanwhile, Hayato's 『Fresh Blood Tokkouf.u.ku』 provided him with self-recovery which recovers his wounds.
「The next stairs leads to the lowest floor. Akihkun, I shall rely on you to contact Masaki-kun」
「Yes. I'll do it right away」
Akiha nodded even though she was in the middle of resting her eyes with a wet towel. Her eyes felt considerably heavier than ever before. Even a short moment of relief like this was enough for her to feel grateful for the chance to rest her eyes. Also, she could still do that while sending a whisper message to Masaki at the same time.
《Masaki-san, this is Akiha, reporting in. We have cleared the enemies. We're currently right in front of the stairs to lowest floor》
《Loud and clear. We're also right in front of the pa.s.sage to the royal residence. According to my 『Map』, your path will be blocked by some sort of a wall. I'm sorry I can't help you deal with this wall, you have to deal with that wall yourself》
《I understand. Thank you very much. Please be careful, Masaki-san》
She finished the whisper before grabbing the water canteen on her waist to quench her throat. Haruka provided each and everyone of them with these water canteen before they split up. The contents were just a simple honey+lemon water, but it was really useful to replenish strength in the battle. Nemea loved it so much that he asked a large bottle for himself.
Akiha led the others to where the spiral staircase supposed to be and they were greeted with a dead end.
「Muu, did we take the wrong turn……?」
「No, we're in the right place. According to Masaki's map, the spiral staircase should be around here」
Hayato spread the map so everyone could see, and there was certainly a picture of a spiral staircase right in front of their location.
However, there was a plain undecorated wall instead.
「So that means… it must be hidden here somewhere…… fumuu………」
Nemea tapped his huge hands against the wall and sure enough, only one part of the wall had a different sound when being tapped.
After finding the correct place, Nemea simply hit that part of the wall with his fist, revealing a fist-sized hole in the wall.
「There was some sort of a device, but I think I broke it. Akihkun, is it possible to use that exploding thingy that you used before?」
「Okay. Everyone, please stand back a bit」
Akiha loaded the RPG with another rocket and lobbed it right around the hole the Nemea previously made before. The wall exploded, revealing enough gap to fit an adult human.
「It sure nice to have firearms. It's correct decision to have Akiha here with us」
「Nー P-please don't mess with my hairー Gah! at least don't pat my head that hard……! Geez……」
Hayato smiled and disheveled Akiha's hair. Akiha finally looked and acted her age when she desperately combed her hair with her fingers.
Behind the cloud of dusts, behind the dark opening, there was a spiral staircase.
「It's quite dark, so I will be going in first. Everyone please follow me」
Adelle took out a lantern and lead the way into the spiral staircase. Vampires were actually darkness dwellers in the first place. Even though the human blood ran in her vein through her father, the darkness didn't mean much to her as it didn't differ much from seeing in the daylight.
And so, Hayato, Akiha, and lastly Nemea, followed suit from her back.
Since the entrance was blocked by a wall, the 4 of them didn't encounter any monsters and reached the lowest floor without any difficulty. Of course, the erosion from the thorns reached this place as well, as proved by the amount of roots covering the wall. There was only one gigantic iron door in this place. The door lacked any decorations whatsoever, but a heavy presence could be felt from the door gaps.
Nemea's nose was twitching as he sniffed the air, which made him frown. The scent of death was strong, enough for humans to notice it, so it must be worse for Nemea who had more sensitive nose.
「I smell death…… Everyone, brace yourself. This isn't like the monsters that we fought outside」
Nemea said while grabbing a string of white cloth on his waist and wrapped it around his fists. The fabric was covered in a complex pattern and emitted a faint orange glow in the darkness. He hadn't felt the need to use it before now, but right now, he probably needed every resource he could gather.
While Nemea prepared his weapon, Adelle prepared her mana spear and Akiha reloaded her magnum. Hayato had nothing to prepare besides trusty bokutou and waited the others in silence.
Adelle twisted the doork.n.o.b.
The door opened and filled the surrounding with a heavy creak.
The room was strangely bright despite being underground. The brightness came from the light was coming from 4 directions, instead of just 1 light source. Furthermore, the stench was even stronger after entering the room.
There was only one single thing behind the door, a Mud Golem.
It was a variation of golem with a mud body that greatly reduce physical attacks. It also utilized its herculean strength to defeat big monsters easily. It's usually only found deep inside a dungeon.
The empire might have looked at its strength and spent ridiculous amount of resources and sacrifices to capture one of them. They arranged it to be strengthened even further using various magic and tasked to protect this place.
However, regular mud golem shouldn't spread this much stench, but everyone present could guess the main reason behind the smell of death in this room.
Numerous human body part were jutting out from the golem's flesh, all of them were corpses of the soldiers and servants who worked in this castle. They must be the survivors who were trying to escape from the thorns and monsters by hiding here. They probably were top-ranking n.o.bles and their servants as normal people wouldn't be able to access this place in the first place.