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High School Hack and Slash Chapter 60 Part 1

Nature Field Zone

――『Yomotsu Hirasaka』, a branch realm attached to the labyrinth of Perforation Realm, 『YGGDRASILL』――

――The『tenth』 stratum, 『uncharted』 domain――

*Gyo, gyo* A strange bird’s voice echoes from beyond the sky.

The one emerging from the gigantic fernery plant is a Null MOB, which looks like a hybrid of a bird and a lizard.

Incidentally, when grilled, it tastes like light chicken tenderloin meat.

In exchange for not turning into crystal, it can be used as food since it does not get reduced to the miasma even when it is brought down.

I still don’t know what the difference is between a monster and a null mob, but it seems to refer to those that don’t show any aggressive reactions and don’t give you any EXP.

In my case, it’s easy to distinguish between the two because if I take a look at it with Interface, its name is not displayed.

A turtle bigger than your run-of-the-mill monster is heavily passing by, but this one is also a null mob.

It swallows monsters whole and preys on them, so null mobs are not necessarily small fry.

Also, even if they don’t show any aggressive reaction, they will fight back if you hit them, and they will normally come after you if they recognize you as prey.

「Hmm, it feels like the place is overflowing with negative ions.」

Mai stretches out her arms, but to begin with, the areas around the academy are surrounded by mountains, so I don’t think there’s much difference.

Well, this virgin forest of giant trees does seem to emit strange ions, though.

Unlike the underground labyrinths up until now, the tenth stratum of the dungeon is that of an open field with ground and sky, and no separation in the form of chambers and corridors.

When we first reached the stratum, we wound up getting surprised by the scenery that looked like the outside world.

Rather than an underground labyrinth, it’s more like a perfect different world.

It seems that from here to the 20th stratum, such a nature field will continue on.

Nonetheless, the basic dungeon rules remain the same.

You can move between stratums by passing through one realm gate to another, and if you defeat the monsters, they will turn into crystals.

However, for such an extensive open field, I don’t think we can explore it without Natsumi and Miharu’s navigation.

I can see why it’s said that from this stratum on, it is recommended to conquer the dungeon in a joint military warfare (raid) party.

「Awright, looks like Mikan-chan senpai and the others are arriving too.」

The black spot of spatial junction distorts the space and expands.

The ones logging in, drawing a trail of misty smoke, are the Senpai sirs of Craftsman group.

Of the twelve of them, about half of them will be taking turns joining us in the dungeon conquest.

「We’ve kept you waiting~.」

「Hmm. As expected, from the 10th stratum onward, it’s a different world, huh.」

Mikan-senpai, Rinko-senpai, Chieri-senpai, Kakine-senpai, Hoodzuki-senpai, plus Otoha-senpai, the login leader, are the members today.

The one acting as the login leader for the Senpai sirs is Otoha-senpai, who has participated in every occasion.

It’d be terrible if they end up getting lost in the crowded Rashomon, so I’d like to act as a group as much as possible.

The bottleneck is the maximum number of simultaneous transfers, which is only six people.

Our party members are also seven in number, so we used to log in in different parties, but recently we’ve been leaping all together at once by having Miharu and Natsumi get into the Item Box.

It seems that sometimes they get served some tea by Yuki-chan.

They bring back news that I don’t quite understand, such as that an amazing mountain has been built or that a new ocean has opened up.

「Alright! I guess it’s finally time to unveil the power of a『Dragoon』, huh.」

Otoha-senpai, with a harpoon in hand, is getting elated.

It totally looks like she’s going to get herself into trouble.

When I look back at Shizuka, she shakes her head apologetically, as if saying that she’s beyond help.

The way she ends up forgetting various things in three steps is quite similar to Saki.

Saki, the person in question, is restlessly seeking after an enemy, while Miharu and Natsumi are keeping an eye on her.

「We’ve just had a class change, so our SP has also decreased, after all. Let’s go at it carefully with warming up in mind…. Hey, you are listening, right?」

Give it up.

◇ ◇ ◇

　Originally, the concept of food chain was nonexistent amongst the monsters of the dungeon.

The basis of existences known as monsters was that of an obstacle in which pseudo-life forms generated by the concentration of miasma were granted the directive of hostility toward the challengers of the dungeon.

However, they were granted enough reality for life activities to be established, and although imperfect, an ecosystem had also been established.

As it occurred in the uncharted domain where monsters were not subjugated, the effects were reflected strikingly.

It had turned into an environment dotted with transcendent individuals (over-border), where as a result of monsters that occurred from miasma continuing to maintain their live activities and continuously living in the distorted ecosystem, they reached the upper limit of the stratum control value.

「Rather than a monster, it’s totally more of a kaiju, isn’t it?!」

Seiichi, who had jumped out of a thicket of ferneries, looked back while spitting out cursing words.

What showed up while trampling down the ferneries and breaking the trees was a rock dinosaur of the size where its head alone exceeded the height of a man.

「Baaaaa!」

Drool spattered from its jaws as it let out a crackling, air-shaking roar.

From the hammer-like head to the tip of the spiked tail, the huge body, which inched toward the rocky area while dragging its belly, was that of an extra-large monster of over 20 meters in length.

「Vuoruru… Baaaaaaa!」

「Oou!」

Without hesitation, it lunged at its prey, which it had cornered against the rock wall, with its hammer-shaped head.

The underfoot of Seiichi, who was running up the wall as he fled away, was easily shattered and rained down on the rock dinosaur.

Even this buckshot-like rain of debris didn’t inflict much damage on the rock dinosaur.

「Target point reached. All hands set, shoot!」

Four giants that had been concealing themselves on the rocky area shot out white captive threads from their arms aimed at the rock dinosaur.

The spider webs, which were shot out from both sides in the shape of an X, landed on the skin of the rock dinosaur and stuck to it.

The power of the rock dinosaur, a transcendent individual, could not be suppressed even by four Armed Golems, but the threads, which boasted outstanding elasticity, did not snap.

「Pile anchor, fire!」

At Rinko’s signal, stake-like spikes dug into the ground from beneath the feet of each of the Armed Golems.

The golem troops, which lacked in speed but overflowed with power, were pinning down the rock dinosaurs to the ground.

「I’m going to subjugate it!」

Jumping out of the shade of a rock as if she was already at the limit of her patience, Saki cut off the tip of the swinging around tail with a single flash.

Saki, her mouth twisted in amusement at the resistance and the stiff echo that was akin to having her blade clash against a lump of metal, swung her katana around.

「Himecchi, who jumps into that thing, sure has guts, doesn’t she?」

Mai, astride a broom, shot a guillotine-shaped blade of magical energy into the rock dinosaur from above.

She had already experienced that things like half-baked magic balls were ineffective against the toughness and armoring strength of the transcendental individual monsters that nestled in this stratum.

「Here I come! Goliath-kun Attack!」

Brandishing the Hammer of Vibration (Impact Meizer) as if carrying it on the shoulder, Mikan’s Armed Golem struck the back of the rampaging rock dinosaur hard.

With a bang, the rock dinosaur’s body arched back under the blow, which caused its scales to crack.

It was a magic item that was exceptionally effective against physical-type monsters, and a hammer, an easy to use weapon, was perfect for Mikan and the others.

However, even though it was a strike that would have crushed an ordinary monster in a single blow, it was insufficient to bring down the huge body weighing over 100 tons.

「Baaaaaaaa! Baaaaaaa!」

「Kuh… We can’t pin it down, I suppose.」

The golems positioned on all four sides were about to crumble under the rampaging rock dinosaur, which was swinging about its head and tail.

A super-heavy matter that had turned into a lump of iron crashed down on its hammer-like head from above.

On top of the head that had crashed to the ground with a boom, Touma, clad in armor, was placing his knee on it.

「You can’t crush it with this style, huh.」

With his raised fist, he slowly dragged the six-foot club out of the air.

「Gaaaah!」

*Bam, bam, bam* While raising a monkey cry that could not be described as a martial art, he smashed up the head with a shower of blows.

「This… Looks like rear guard class mustn’t get close to it, right?」

「Yes.」

「Yes.」

At the feet of Shizuka and the others, who supported them with auxiliary magic and summoned monsters, lay Otoha, who had fainted from a direct hit from a stray bullet of rock crushed by the rock dinosaur.

It was one splendid critical hit to the vital point, the head.

◇ ◇ ◇

　I don’t quite get it, but it appears that at present Seiichi can set up a『Domain』 within a 10 meter radius around him.

In other words, we can’t see it, but there is a monster within a distance of 10 meters, there should be.