Chapter 27 - Finally arriving at my destination (1/2)

Finally arriving at my destination

It seems these lizardmen came from the swamp that had a fairly weaker poison on it.

That seems so based of the fluids that were sticking in their body.

It’s like I thought, I wouldn’t be able to pass through that swamp.

That’s why I think it’s quite difficult to hunt for more of them in their own habitat.

It seems the holes where those two stinking dragons came out from previously, were also connected to that same swamp.

I threw away the bones of the disposed people that those monsters were playing with.

I threw it into that hollow where all those bones were crammed together.

The ground is too hard, so there’s no way I could give them a proper burial.

This is all I can do for them.

The clothes that the skeletons used to wear which had been slightly melted by acid, were wrapped around a weight and is now submerged in the acidic swamp.

This way, those clothes won’t be a plaything by monsters.

After I finished cleaning up the slaughter I’ve committed, I decided to keep going in my journey to the upper grounds.

I am now walking upwards along the gentle spiral slope while still maintaining alertness towards my surroundings.

I can already feel fatigue accumulating in my legs.

However, isn’t there some increase in my correction values?

I feel that my stamina and leg strength are better than before we were summoned.

In the meantime, I continued on earnestly climbing the slope.

And after some time, I’ve finally been able to reach the upper floor.

And there I came across a monster.

It’s a two-headed humanoid panther.

I’m reminded of the monster “war tiger” when I look at it.

There are two of them.

Its physique easily exceeded over two meters.

It’s base features like its skin color seems to be the same as panthers in my world.

It also have that acid that is spouting from its body.

It really looks like the panther when I compared it to the panthers I know of.

Both of the two-headed panthers looked at my direction with a familiar atmosphere around them.

“Finally, the next prey has appeared.”

Did it descend from the upper floors after sensing my presence?

I can feel its killing intent.

It’s the same killing intent that those lizards were releasing, a playful type of killing intent that treats their prey as a game.

I raise my arms.

The pair of eyes of the panthers narrowed as they looked at me.

It’s an expression that tells me that they clearly didn’t know what the heck I’m about to do.

“What are you trying to do? You do know that no matter what you do is useless, human?”

It’s like I could hear a voice that says as such.

The two-headed panther on my right side treads the ground.

He’s going to move— though before he even gets to move…

There’s a time there where there is a momentary gap in movement.

I learned it by my experience in this ruins.

[

]

[Ggoo, gggooaahhh—]

The two-headed panther on my right side stopped in the middle of its posture where its about to pounce on me.

The other panther looks like it’s mouth is stuck on a face that looks like its jaws may fall off.

It’s an expression that shows it doesn’t understand what had just happened.

“That meager human… did it do something?”

A reaction to something when they saw an unexpected phenomenon.

And at that time, the other two-headed panther noticed.

That its body can’t move.

[

]

The next thing that the two-headed panther notices is its body’s change in color.

And then, anomalies also started to appear in its body.

It’s natural, since

and

can now multi-target.

At this moment though, a thought I haven’t settled yet began to surface again in my mind.

I wanted to verify if what I think is viable or not.

Would I still acquire the EXP even if a monster dies from a distance?

Should I try it right now…?

No— I shouldn’t do that since this is the first monster I’ve encountered in this floor.

This monster may be a rare monster which gives a lot of experience.

[Gguu, ggoo, gggoooaaahhh…]

After waiting for a while, both the two-headed panthers died almost at the same time.

<Your level has increased.>

<Lv 665 → Lv 692>

It’s quite a good amount of experience.

But it’s not like they give that much experience compared to the others, right?

I pass through the two of the two-headed panthers and proceeded further.

I should just proceed like this, and I’d be able to reach the top-most area soon.

After a while, I arrived again in a cave-like area.

I walked for a while,

[Ah.]

-and came across the same monsters I just saw before.

Six two-headed humanoid panthers.

They are sitting down and formed a circle.

All of these monsters saw me at the same time.

“Ah? Didn’t this guy meet the guys we’ve sent below?”

Or so their expressions say.

However, the monster became excited immediately.

“The next plaything for us have come.”

Or something like that.

Meanwhile, one of them went to aside and retrieved something.

Its something looks like a cord that have human skulls attached on it on both sides.

It somehow reminds me of a nunchucks.

That panther held it its hands and began to wield it.

Bunbunbunbun! (T/N: sfx of buzzing)

[Ggooggaaaahh♪ ggaa, ggaaa♪ gggaaaahhhh♪]

The two-headed panther next to the one wielding the nunchucks pointed its finger at me.

[Ggooaaaahhh!? Ggaa, ggaaahhh!?]

That’s quite a sadistic expression you have there.

I somehow understand what it was trying to say.

“See that? Did you see that? They’re your friends, right? Are you scared now, human?”

I stick out my arms.

[

]

[—uwoo…? Gguuggooohh!?]

[

]

v

There are now 6 corpses of the two-headed panthers lying right before my eyes.

After applying

on them earlier, I went back to the place where I had killed the two-headed panthers that I had first encountered.

I think the distance between them is about 500 meters.

My level did not increase.

It seems that if I were 500 meter away, I will not be able to get EXP.

Killing two of them made my level go up from Lv 665 to Lv 692.

After that, I had defeated 6 of the same monsters.

If it were just because my level has been high, an increase would have happened even if its just 1 level.

[I don’t know the exact numbers, but at least I understood something. If I’m too far away, I wouldn’t be able to get the experience.]

It’s a shame that I didn’t get the experience after killing them.

However, I’m happy that I have verified what had been bugging my mind earlier rather than putting it for later.

[……….]

I picked up the nunchucks made of human skulls.

I disassemble it and removed the skulls.

I held the skulls under my arms and went back to where I came from.

My goal is to find the place that I had found earlier where a dent on the wall can be seen.

I place the two skulls side by side in the recess at the wall.

I put my hands together and offered a silent prayer.

I’ve never thought the skulls I’ve just touched were disgusting.

Rather, I can feel some kind of familiarity with them.

They’re the same disposed people like me.

Now that I arrived here, I believe in the idea of ascending out of this place more and more.

[…………]

I continued on moving forward.

v

The cave filled with nothing but bare rocks is all I see for a long time.

A winding, rugged path.

It’s a similar scene that continued endlessly.

However, the path was definitely heading up.

I can see that I’m steadily approaching the place above ground.

The feeling that what I had been doing is nothing but fruitless effort has been considerably alleviated.