Chapter 327: Dogs Being Four-Legged Makes Them Dogs
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The floors beyond the tenth up to the twentieth were dog zones. I mean, I do like dogs. But, as might be expected, you’d want to discipline dogs, who bark at you, with some tough love, right?
Dogs similar to Dobermans appeared on the early floors, exchanged by wolfish dogs in the mid-floors. Also, the dogs appeared alone, but the wolves attacked in packs, making the encounters a bit more of a challenge.
＊
While physically training the dogs who came pouncing while barking, two-headed dogs started to appear once we went up even higher in the floors.
Even if you were to block the fangs of one head, the other head would still be free to bite away. Yep, makes sense! They’ve put quite a bit of thought into this!
However, it served no meaning since Sword and I cut the heads off at the base anyway.
“Sword, are you slicing the heads off at the base as a countermeasure against their two-way biting attack?”
My question caused Sword to become slightly dumbstruck.
“No, that’s not really the reason. It’s just that it’s the easiest way to kill ’em, right?”
Well, he’s not wrong about that.
“Uh huh. Nothing less of someone who’s got a lot of experience in combat. I’ve been cutting them at the base since this will happen if I block one biting attack.”
As a test, I blocked the fangs of a two-headed dog with my wooden sword. At once, the other head snapped at me. …Or at least that was its plan, but after its fangs broke apart, it merely whimpered cutely.
“…… That’s pitiful to watch, so don’t do that again,” Sword scolded me while cutting the heads off the monster.
Sorry.
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As we climbed even further in the floors, an enemy, which startled us to no end, appeared on the floor right before the boss floor.
But that’s only natural. After all, it was a dog walking on two legs, okay? Those mobs were called kobolds, weren’t they?
It skillfully held a weapon in its forefeet which looked close to human hands. Using that weapon, it attacked us. But, I instantly pulverized it with a frown.
“I won’t allow any bipedal dogs to exist,” I growled.
Sword looked at me in astonishment and inquired, “Why is that?”
I turned around and thrust a finger at him.
“It does away with the speed and power it gains from being four-legged, a dog’s biggest advantage! What’s the idea in having dogs carry weapons anyway!? There’s no way their weapon mastery would measure up to humans, right!? Rather, why would they abandon their advantage of having offensive abilities far exceeding bipedal life-forms thanks to their fangs and four legs for the sake of imitating humans!?”
“Ah, your makin’ the arguments from the monster’s side,” Sword agreed. “But yeah, I feel like kobolds aren’t stronger than dogs either. They got somethin’ eerie to ’em, though.”
Yep, that’s for sure. They’re eerie. That distortion, which made it look as if their normal ecology had been forcibly turned over, is very uncanny. Their clumsy way of attacking and their otherwise impossible unnatural existence are gross!
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I glared at the approaching kobolds.
“I won’t permit this sort of evolution. It has an absurdity as if humans had been forced into dogs. I’d understand it if they were chimeras, but I hate either anyway.”
Sword brooded while looking at the growling kobolds.
“…Are the kobolds maybe an ordeal for the sake of trainin’ the demonkin braves? Or……maybe we are the ordeal?”
He muttered, just to kill an attacking kobold with a single stroke.
“Hmm?” I replied to Sword while cocking my head in confusion.
“Your opinion looks at matters from the monster’s point of view, so it won’t be much of a reference. But, even then you consider kobolds to be 『unnatural』. I think of ’em as 『eerie』. Both views share the part about us thinkin’ like that 『because they’re bipedal life-forms』. Deliberately makin’ dogs walk on two feet and making them appear like humans is based on the belief that 『ordinary humans have problems killin’ bipedal life-forms』.”
…apparently were Sword’s thoughts on this matter.
“Hmm… In other words, it’s a sort of mental attack to make us and other humans hesitate to attack them? What a cunning scheme!”
Though I didn’t hesitate for a second here. Well, then again it’s hard to describe Sword and me as ordinary humans. I’d like to hear the opinion of a common adventurer on this.
Alright, I’ll ask 【Pale Moon of Dawn】 next time.
＊
Finishing off the kobolds at a quick pace, we soon left that floor and eventually arrived at the boss room. We flung open the door to the boss room.
Now then, what could be a fitting boss for dog floors? ――The answer is obviously Cerberos, the Watchdog of Hell!
How cooooool!
“Seeing how he got three heads, he does well to not get confused on how to move. Even if he got parallel thinking, how does he control them?”
Sword tilted his head at my sudden question.
“…You got a point. I feel like he’s gonna mess up his movements, if he were to attempt to attack you, the Ryokus and me with each head separately in response to us assaultin’ him from different direction with different timings.”
“I guess we just need to try it out to see.”
Sword, I, and the Ryokus swiftly divided the roles. Each of us took one head, and one Ryoku circles around to attack from behind.
As a result, we found out that its body moves reflexively while each of its heads can only move within a certain scope. Basically, it attacks in sequence, starting with the closest enemy, or in an order where it goes for the most annoying opponent first. The heads move separately, but it’s just the movements as the thinking seems to be the same for all three heads.
It’s moving like an ordinary dog without any hesitation.
“Hmm, I see. It’s nothing special then. Basically, it’s a 『big dog』. It doesn’t look like it’s using parallel thinking either. It’s a movement suggesting that all three heads think the same.”
So what’s the point of it having three heads anyway? Not like I mind, though.
＊
Each of us attacked its heads and torso at almost the same time, finishing it off.
While looking at the treasure chest that had spawned, I muttered, “Well, it was reasonably interesting, but the lower floors were wrapped in more mystery.”
The puppet soldiers weren’t formidable as opponents, but I feel like they had various gimmicks to them. We skipped most of it, however!
The demonkin are probably using the early floors to play in a game environment. The floors further up are like the real dungeon.
“The early floors are likely trainin’ grounds for the demonkin,” Sword also said.
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