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Chapter 97: Ruins of Silence

～Aun’s point of view～

We were ready to depart as the sun started to rise.

Once outside the Alraine Dungeon, the cool, clear air and the scent of fresh grass tickled my nostrils. It seemed almost like a lie that there was a war just a few days ago, but once you enter the Alraine, the devastation of the war will come into sight.

Looking to my side, Kinu, who was still sleepy, was prompted by Shinku to get on Drake’s dragonback. Nelfie had already climbed onto Drake’s back and was cleaning her bow.

For the time being, Ruzark has given his approval, saying, “The residents of Alraine recognize that the Black Dragon is Drake, so feel free to approach the city in his dragon form,’” but we still decided to leave early in the morning so we wouldn’t stand out too much.

I was the last to climb onto Drake. As I did, we soared gently into the sky, then flew to the top of the clouds and proceeded towards the location of the “Ruins of Silence” that I received from Zen.

After flying over Alraine and to the west for about half a day, an open spot within a forest came into sight.

「Drake, land at that clearing. I’ve also heard that there are multiple A-rank golems wandering around, so we would probably get into battle as soon as we land.」

「Before we land, I’ll distract them with an arrow.」

As Nelfie said so, she accurately shot an arrow at a golem. But the enemy’s physical defense seemed to be quite high, as no decisive damage was dealt.

As soon as we landed, Shinku pulled the enmity of 6 golem to concentrate the attacks on herself. Drake returned to his human form and attacked the golems focusing on Shinku with the Red Ogre’s Iron Rod.

Kinu and I used magic to defeat the golems that were not pulled by Shinku’s enmity. My lightning magic seemed to be effective against the golems.

After defeating 15 golems in about 20 minutes of battle, their metal fragments were absorbed into the ground.

「Considering this function, it seems that this place is a dungeon exposed to the outside world just like the Plainevelt dungeon.」

「Nn. We’re already inside the dungeon.」

「It looks like it. Then the boss should be in the deepest part.」Drake.

「Yeah. There should also be a teleportation magic circle inside that ruin. Beyond that point should be a full-fledged dungeon. There’s a high possibility that enemies other than golems will appear. Brace yourselves.」

The ruins in the center of the open land were constructed like a temple with cylindrical stone pillars that have been quarried out and arranged in rows.

I don’t know how long the ruins have been here, but the ceiling and some of the pillars have collapsed, and there were stones scattered here and there that are probably fragments of the structure. The period of construction could be observed from those fragments.

As we climbed the stairs and reached the temple, there was a bluish-white gleaming magic circle in the center, making its presence apparent.

When we touched the teleportation magic circle, the sight before us changed. This was probably the 2nd floor.

The place we transferred to was a forest. It was quite dense and the grass was up to our knees. Enemies would be able to hide in the grass and trees. In addition, we do not know in which direction to proceed to reach the next level.

As a dark elf, these kinds of forest environments are Nelfie’s specialty, but it would be difficult for the rest of us to fight in here.

「It’s a rather troublesome area. Our goal is to level up, but it seems like combat will be a little difficult.」

For the time being, let’s keep the [Detection] skill to always be active to avoid surprise attacks.

After a few minutes of searching, a group of monsters appeared. Those are……

「Man Eater and Trent huh… they’re D rank monsters.」

Treants are tree monsters, and they can move using their roots as their legs. However, most of them are camouflaged and always ambush their targets. It’s hard to spot them with the naked eye when they’re camouflaged, but the detection skill is able to catch their presence.

Maneaters are plant-based monsters, so we need to be careful with acid and poison, but they also move slowly.

But D-rank monsters were not our opponents as we are now, and Nelfie and Shinku’s attacks easily took them down.

After that, the only enemies that appeared on this floor were D-C rank monsters. As we got used to it, Nelfie would move through the trees before the enemy noticed and took them down.

Honestly, enemies of this rank won’t help us level up at all. Therefore, we decided to hurry up and after about 2 hours of searching, we found the stairs leading down to the lower floor.

However, next to the stairs, there was a single monster staring at us with a dignified appearance.

「W-Wait! Don’t attack him!」

「「「「……Huh?」」」」

「Observe him properly!」

「Aun-sama, it’s just a zombie…」

I know everyone is letting their guard down…

After all, the monster over there is a representative of the lowest F rank – a zombie.

But I feel like this zombie-senpai is also trying to tell me something.

I must observe every single action!

I don’t even know if it’s moving anymore. But I felt something sophisticated and skilled in its slow movement.

In the flow of that movement, senpai opened his mouth wide towards a nearby tree… and bit into it.

「I understand it now…」

Until now, I had only focused on “how to move faster” and “how to land an attack faster than the enemy”.

Agility is certainly important. However, in order to make the most of those stats, what we should consider is the “tempo of movement”.

When a slow movement suddenly explodes to the highest speed, the opponent will be caught by surprise. Besides, it is also possible to apply this technique to feints by adjusting the speed of attacks.

Senpai is trying to convey that to me…

「Senpai… Thank you very much!」

「Bro, what’s going on!?」

「Zombie-senpai taught us the importance of speed and tempo. Just moving fast doesn’t work against strong enemies. In battle, by interweaving slow movements and attacks, you will be able to catch your opponent by surprise. In addition to that, it is an advanced technique which does not let the enemy get used to your speed of attacks… It was a coaching to “incorporate such technical movements” in our future battles.」

「Seriously?… Zombie-senpai, you’re amazing!」Drake.

「Okay, let’s move on to the next floor. Don’t forget to bow when you pass by senpai.」

The girls gave a dubious look, but everyone bowed to zombie senpai who was clinging to the tree and we went down the stairs leading to the 3rd floor.