Chapter 29 – Clear: C-Class Dungeon (II)
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After descending another flight of stone stairs, we arrived on the third floor. The crimson sky down here looked no different from the ones on the floors above, but the instant I stepped into this place, I could palpably sense the difference.
How to describe it best…? It’s really hard to put it into words, but the air here feels dense. I could perceive this difference even through 『Visor of the Dragon』 which supposedly helps with the breathing.
“Hiro, this place is right now brimming with the mana that has been sucked out of our world. Only a limited number of occult beings can move and live in this environment. Be careful.”
“Yeah, gotcha.”
Her golden-blue mana hazed against the crimson sky. I made my black, glossy mana flicker so as to not lose to her.
“…! Incoming!”
On a path between fields that continued straight towards the horizon with nothing on it, six ogres suddenly appeared, holding dark gray swords. They all had huge, buffed bodies with heights of four meters. I bitterly smiled at how stuffy these guys were while they drew closer.
My first dungeon had an ogre as a boss, but now they’re nothing more than small fry.
“Wow, the inflation of power is totally real here. Satoha, what are we going to do?”
“…They’ll be the first and weakest line of defense. What would you do, Hiro?”
She lifted up her spear towards me. She mentioned she’d want me to definitely tell her when we’d be diving into a C-Class for the first time, but I guess this is what she meant back then. Certainly, this isn’t overly funny. Well, I’m smiling though.
“I’ll handle them. I gotta crush these guys easily if I’m going to destroy all dungeons in Sendai.”
“…I see. Okay, good luck then. I won’t move a finger.”
She cheered for me after quickly moving both arms, and then stepped back.
The group of ogres was gradually accelerating as they kept getting closer to us. I faced them, held Dragon Eater low, and started to run. And just before we’d pass each other or collide, I charged mana into Dragon Force with all my force. A deep blue gleam lit up on the silver blade.
The blade quickly started to tremble, and as if releasing accumulated pressure, I yelled, “Hit ’em, Dragon Eater!”
I brandished my katana as if to mow them down before they’d pass me. Deep blue was left behind in the crimson world.
Once more I swung Dragon Eater to devour the ogres which hadn’t been killed by the first strike.
｡ ₊°༺🫀༻°₊ ｡
In the end I vanquished the six ogres by myself in this place that was now covered by a layer of ash. Without me knowing when she’d approached me, Satoha placed a hand on my shoulder as I reveled in the aftertaste of battle so as to pull me back to reality.
“…As I thought, you will be able to easily win, if you have that magic sword.”
“Yeah, I feel the same. Then again, I don’t feel like I’d have lost against these even with a normal sword.”
“Usually this would be the time when I ought to scold you to be more modest, but…I agree. I have suspected it before, but Hiro…you’re way too suited for this. Just, please watch out so that you don’t become too full of yourself.”
“I have someone next to me who is overwhelmingly stronger than I am. So I don’t have any intentions to become careless.”
With a serious expression, Satoha responded by nodding and cast a sidelong at me, “I managed to confirm that you would be able to handle C-Class as well, so let’s fight together from here on out. I will increase the speed.”
I started to run, chasing after her who had deployed her armaments once more and run ahead.
｡ ₊°༺🫀༻°₊ ｡
As she moved ahead, her armament erased an ogre and a one-eyed monster, a cyclops, in passing. I got rid of all the enemies she failed to defeat while continuously running. Thanks to the effect of 『Galloping Rider』, I could fight efficiently.
With enough leg strength to kick up the dirt in her wake, Satoha crushed the enemies in her way, her back hair and turned-up sleeves fluttering.
Because she killed most of the enemies, things might actually be easier on me in some respects than a D-Class dungeon. I wonder, if you were to express Satoha’s strength in Dungeon Seekers levels, just how far ahead would she be…?
Moreover, she’s doing all of this without losing a single drop of sweat. I’ve been thinking that I want to know her real strength, but in the end I unfortunately have to accept that I won’t find out anytime soon. Right now, the gap between us is just too big.
If not for Dragon Eater, I would have definitely lost that battle.
Ahead of her, an orc in a gaudy robe unleashed a torrent of mana, forming a crest out of it. Mana bullets ripped through the air from the dazzlingly glowing magic circle that resulted out of the torrent.
In front of me, she saw through all the projectiles and evaded them by just moving her head.
The third floor didn’t only have enemies who were trying to get into melee range either. Some enemies deployed magic circles and fired light balls like soldiers would use rifles while using obstacles to take cover. Taking down all those casters who used covers or lied down on the ground was a crazy task.
The hail of magic projectiles shot by them was blocked by her spears, which spun so fast that they left afterimages, as soon as they got close to us. The golden, double-edged sword, on the other hand, raced through the sky and hacked apart all the stone towers that rained down on us from above.
…The same flying stone towers as we encountered on the first floor were deployed down here as well. Going by the way the enemy was fighting, it seemed as if they even came up with the concept of defense lines. In reality, I think many humans would be unable to move ahead when faced with a barrage like this.
However, the enemy’s tactic was marvelously pulverized by Satoha. The orc, who was trying to stop Satoha, frowned hard while releasing its mana. Magic projectiles were shot at her from a conspicuously big magic circle, which the orc had created, after setting the aim. Her spears were busy with other attacks and right now she had no sword around to protect herself.
However, for some reason all the projectiles burst in front of her without a single one being able to put a scratch on her.
As if answering to her who had thrust out her right arm straight ahead, a huge, golden shuriken plunged forward while rotating. The robed orc was blown away alongside the obstacle it was using.
A gleam could be seen remaining in her azurite eyes. She saw a way to get through this defense line after having created an instantaneous opening.
Her golden-blue dignity was unleashed. She jumped, now flying in the sky.
After soaring through the air by flying, she dove in the center of an enemy group as if an angel of vengeance had alighted on them. The instant I thought I had seen a golden afterimage, splashes of monster blood gushed into the air and the sky was filled with embers.
I didn’t have an opportunity to make a move myself. Her battle took place in a totally different dimension.
Having overrun and trampled the enemies to the ground, she looked my way. I was involuntarily fascinated by her resolute attitude on the battlefield.
How beautiful.
Without realizing my current mental state, she called out to me, “Hiro.”
“…That was truly devastating. Satoha, wouldn’t you alone be more than enough?”
“I can overrun everything up to C-Class by myself. But, when it comes to A-Class or B-Class, it’s impossible for me to handle them myself. Huh? Are you sulking?” Satoha giggled.
I remembered the call yesterday.
Please give it a rest. Unexpectedly, she might be the pushy type of person.
“Besides, I think you will be able to pull this off as well, although it might take you some time to reach this level.”
“Well…I have been thinking that it does look manageable in a way, but…”
…I got a magic sword after all. I could deal with all the ranged enemies by simply releasing my unavoidable slash waves at them. The enemy’s attacks, on the other hand, I could feed to Dragon Eater. With Dragon Eater alone, the openings in my offense and defense are actually very few.
Dragon Eater, you’re just gonna eat most of it anyway, right?
The only thing he couldn’t eat were Satoha’s armaments.
“I’ve been fighting like this this time to give you a chance to calmly observe a C-Class dungeon. This dungeon is the type where you only encounter a selected few, strong mobs, so you won’t find any C-Class dungeons with stronger mobs than this.” She took a step towards me while talking. “But…you can see that place over there, right? It’s the stairway continuing to the next floor. There’s a fairly powerful occult being beyond that.”
She was pointing at a flight of stone steps. She made the floating armaments come back closer to us and reduced them into octahedrons, before storing them away in her hem.
“Hiro, I will get involved if I think it’s dangerous, but please give the boss battle a try by yourself. Being able to defeat the boss here will be equal to you being able to clear C-Class dungeons.”
“…Gotcha. Let’s go, Satoha.”
I poured strength into my hand, which was holding Dragon Eater. Somehow I feel like this guy has been pouting since he wasn’t able to eat overly many enemies for a while now.
I’m gonna feed you something delicious soon. Okay?
Watching me act like I’m talking with my katana, Satoha kept her eyes fixed on me. Usually, you’d draw back from someone like that, wouldn’t you? Her gaze didn’t seem to carry that sort of meaning though…
The boss of a C-Class dungeon; I went down the stairs, every step as if I was making sure of the next.
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