Episode 28.15-16 (1/2)

15

That day, the five spent their time mostly sleeping. Besides Arios who went out to town in the afternoon.

The day after, <Grindam> were taking it easy mostly inside the inn.

Lecan and Arios went out early. Unbelievably enough, they went to the dungeon.

Same thing the following day, <Grindam> was relaxing around, <Willard> went to the dungeon.

When they were asked which floor they were exploring, they answered floor 90.

Then, on the 40th of month 1, <Willard> and <Grindam> went up against the Giant Variant on Floor 99.

<TLN: Catch the latest updates and edits at Sousetsuka.com >

”Welcome back. What's wrong? Why'd y'all back so soon.”

”We did it, Nark-san. We did it.”

”Did what?”

”We beat the giant variant on floor 99. We've made our first step on floor 100.”

”Oooh! Congrats, Bruska! Tsuinga! Yoana! Huh? Where's Lecan? And Arios?”

”Thank you. Those two are still inside the dungeon.”

”What?”

”They said they wanted to earn some change.”

”Kakaka. Can you believe those guys?”

”They're something else fer' sure.”

The three got in the bath and had some light meals before going up to their rooms.

Arios and Lecan returned then they had dinner together. They had a toast but the atmosphere wasn't too lively.

The five got up early the day after. Lecan and Arios went in the dungeon that day. No one commented on that anymore.

<Grindam> spent their day doing maintenance to their weapons.

It's month two now.

The five will finally challenge floor 100 and beyond.

Nark did not actually hear things regarding floor 100s from someone who had first-hand experience in the <The Other Side>.

But anyone who's lived in this town long enough will know about floor 100 down.

From floor 1 to 99, the numbers of magic beasts increase by one every ten floors. Floor 90s have ten magic beasts. Hence adventurers tend to form a party of ten people. More than that and they will take turn fighting.

But from floor 100 onward, there are only five magic beasts per room. And this persists until the last floor, 120.

You'd think it's less dangerous with less magic beasts, but that's not true in the least. It's the opposite. And there are three reasons for that.

First of all, the magic beasts will coordinate with each other in the fight. Magic beasts do work together in groups even before this point. But it was a result of those magic beasts possessing traits that work well with each other, it's not exactly a result of them coordinating their moves. But from floor 100 down, the magic beasts clearly fight together as a group which is nothing short of terrifying.

The second one, each rooms gets way more spacious now. From floor 1 to 99, magic beast's rooms always have the exact same size. You form a habit as you continuously fight in those rooms.

But from floor 100 on, the rooms are large, and the magic beasts move fast, so you have to change how you fight. Yet fighting style is not something you can just switch around at the drop of a hat.

Normally you'd think you want more people in your party to deal with this. But <Skeleton Ogre Zoltan> claimed that a five-person party is optimal for floor 100 down, and the guy did reach the last floor with a five-person party. The reason for that is unclear, but apparently just randomly adding more people is not a good thing. At any rate, floor 100 and beyond are like a whole different dungeon altogether.

Grace Gear also becomes a huge problem here. Any room in floors 100 down will have at least one magic beast guaranteed to bear Grace Gear. Powerful Grace. And there can be more than one Grace Gear bearer among those beasts. Sometimes there's two, sometimes three. There are even known cases where all five magic beasts bear Grace Gear. You can forget about fighting when that happens.

All of that is nothing more than hearsays however, it's not like Nark knows inside out about the terror on floors 100 down.

But what's clear to anyone is the high mortality rate of floors 100 down.

(I don't care if ya guys can't break through.)

(Just come back here safe.)

After the couple had meals together, Nell went out for shopping.

”Tonight we might be celebrating. I'm going to splurge out a bit.”

”...Yea.”

”What's with that half-hearted response. What's good in you freaking out like that.”

”Drop it.”

Nell really did splurge and bought a lot of ingredients.

Swept in by her, Nark ended up harvesting lots of vegetable.

And the couple cooked together in silence.

(Is it Water Buffalo period now?)