Volume 1 Chapter 15-3: Hunt and Explore
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I was loathe to part from Sistina’s hug, but I pulled her off of me and turned to face the management staff of the Tower.
「Well then, we will be heading inside to search for the trapped people. We cannot promise that we are able to defeat all the strong monsters inside, so when the high level explorers arrive, please send them in as planned. In that case, please ensure that they do not kill the Level 1 monster native to the first floor.」
If we assume that the rapid depletion of the first floor monsters was the original cause of this irregularity, then if the floor is once again filled with level 1 monsters the irregularity may stop occurring.
「I understand. We will be in your care.」
It appears the staff member was grateful for our participation. Once the rumors of how dangerous the Tower was emerged, then the number of explorers would drop drastically, causing a large blow to the local economy.
The priority was to resolve the situation as fast as possible with the least victims. It might even be worth paying to work with a group with an acolyte in it like ours.
「Then let’s go.」
「Okay!」
「umu」
And so we stepped into the floor that had completely changed from the day before.
「It seems like it truly did change from yesterday. I feel a completely different aura from yesterday ja.」
After stepping through the door Hotaru-san murmured some dangerous sounding words. I didn’t really feel anything different but it seems that Hotaru-san with Presence Detection and Killing Intent Detection+ felt something off.
I was fairly certain that I would be able to feel the same thing if I wielded Hotaru-san as a katana, but in this situation it was far better to maximize our combat potential rather than experiment.
「Soujirou, I know you wish to avoid combat as much as possible, but along the route we will have to fight a certain number of monsters ja.」
I nodded. Our goal was creating a path of retreat for the trapped adventurers, so it couldn’t be helped. Depending on the situation we might even have to clear the monsters around the escape route as well.
We did have the option of bringing the explorers along with us, but since we were aiming to move as quickly as possible to save them, it was not a wise decision to bring a large amount of people around.
In fact, there may even be people who were injured to heavily to move properly. They would become a burden that would slow us down and maybe even prevent us from saving people who we might have reached in time.
「Alright, let’s go.」
Hotaru-san set off and I followed. ‘scratch scratch’
Hotaru-san bent over a bit and I carefully did so as well. ‘scratch scratch’
Hotaru-san stopped and gave a signal for me to stop as well. ‘scratch scratch scr….’
「Sistina? What have you been doing?」
I looked behind me at Sistina who had been making the scratching sound.
「I was scratching arrows so the explorers don’t get lost when escaping. Damage to the walls or floors of the Tower won’t be repaired for at least one day.」
Oh? I can also infer that if you broke down a wall to make a shortcut it would be repaired within a day? The Tower’s amazing.
「Hurry up. Just think, the slower we go, the more people die ja.」
Hotaru-san said harshly. Sistina and I tensed up. We could no longer afford to be lackadaisical.
We responded shortly and followed after Hotaru-san closely. For a while the only sound we heard was Sistina making an occaisionaly marking until finally Hotaru-san stopped.
「There’s one around the corner. There’s a monster nearby that we’ll have to take care of ja.」
「Alright, I’ll go pull the enemy.」
「Good. Soujirou you take the right side. Let’s go.」
Sistina leapt out on the signal and shortly after Hotaru-san and I followed as I utilized simple appraisal.
『Ant-Man (4th Floor) Rank: F』
As I checked its status I readied my swords and moved to the right of it.
The enemy was a human sized ant that stood on its hind legs and its shiny black body gave off a disgusting feeling. It had huge brutal looking jaws with sickle-like arms. If I had met such a creature on my first day in this world, I would have run away immediately without hesitation.
As I was moving to flank, Sistina confronted it head on with her battleaxe and swung at its body.
gigiii
It didn’t seem too fast as the ant blocked the blow with two of its arms. However, Sistina’s power enhanced by the contract was strong enough to fight it in pure strength.
However, the power of a 4th floor monster couldn’t be ignored as its compound eyes glowed red in anger and swung its other sickle arms at Sistina. Under the high number of attacking limbs Sistina would be unable to defend for too long.
But at that moment Hotaru-san appeared at its left side. It was silent and instant.
Hotaru-san slid right into it without any fear of the flailing arms and legs before striking upwards and cutting through it.
Gii–!
The ant screamed as its two left arms flew into the air. She had probably aimed for the joints and cleanly cut through them without any deviation.
The ant found itself suddenly off-balance after instantly losing two of its arms. I took advantage of the gap and swung my bastard sword into its head, but a clanging sound rang out and didn’t pierce it skull. However, this caused the ant to freeze up in shock so I instantly aimed a slash with Sakura at the joint between its head and its chest.
Gii…gii….
It might be thanks to Sakura’s great cutting edge, but it’s head went flying through the air.
In the blink of an eye, the ant’s body had been reabsorbed by the Tower.
「Let’s move on ja.」
I nodded and grabbed the magic stone before stuffing it into our pouch and moving on.
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