Chapter 27
Finally arriving at my destination
It seems these lizardmen came from the swamp that had a fairly weaker poison on it .
That seems so based of the fluids that were sticking in their body .
It’s like I thought, I wouldn’t be able to pass through that swamp .
That’s why I think it’s quite difficult to hunt for more of them in their own habitat .
It seems the holes where those two stinking dragons came out from previously, were also connected to that same swamp .
I threw away the bones of the disposed people that those monsters were playing with .
I threw it into that hollow where all those bones were crammed together .
The ground is too hard, so there’s no way I could give them a proper burial .
This is all I can do for them .
The clothes that the skeletons used to wear which had been slightly melted by acid, were wrapped around a weight and is now submerged in the acidic swamp .
This way, those clothes won’t be a plaything by monsters .
After I finished cleaning up the slaughter I’ve committed, I decided to keep going in my journey to the upper grounds .
I am now walking upwards along the gentle spiral slope while still maintaining alertness towards my surroundings .
I can already feel fatigue accumulating in my legs .
However, isn’t there some increase in my correction values?
I feel that my stamina and leg strength are better than before we were summoned .
In the meantime, I continued on earnestly climbing the slope .
And after some time, I’ve finally been able to reach the upper floor .
And there I came across a monster .
It’s a two-headed humanoid panther .
I’m reminded of the monster “war tiger” when I look at it .
There are two of them .
Its physique easily exceeded over two meters .
It’s base features like its skin color seems to be the same as panthers in my world .
It also have that acid that is spouting from its body .
It really looks like the panther when I compared it to the panthers I know of .
Both of the two-headed panthers looked at my direction with a familiar atmosphere around them .
“Finally, the next prey has appeared . ”
Did it descend from the upper floors after sensing my presence?
I can feel its killing intent .
It’s the same killing intent that those lizards were releasing, a playful type of killing intent that treats their prey as a game .
I raise my arms .
The pair of eyes of the panthers narrowed as they looked at me .
It’s an expression that tells me that they clearly didn’t know what the heck I’m about to do .
“What are you trying to do? You do know that no matter what you do is useless, human?”
It’s like I could hear a voice that says as such .
The two-headed panther on my right side treads the ground .
He’s going to move— though before he even gets to move…
There’s a time there where there is a momentary gap in movement .
I learned it by my experience in this ruins .
[]
[Ggoo, gggooaahhh—]
The two-headed panther on my right side stopped in the middle of its posture where its about to pounce on me .
The other panther looks like it’s mouth is stuck on a face that looks like its jaws may fall off .
It’s an expression that shows it doesn’t understand what had just happened .
“That meager human… did it do something?”
A reaction to something when they saw an unexpected phenomenon .
And at that time, the other two-headed panther noticed .
That its body can’t move .
The next thing that the two-headed panther notices is its body’s change in color .
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And then, anomalies also started to appear in its body .
It’s natural, since and can now multi-target .
At this moment though, a thought I haven’t settled yet began to surface again in my mind .
I wanted to verify if what I think is viable or not .
Would I still acquire the EXP even if a monster dies from a distance?
Should I try it right now…?
No— I shouldn’t do that since this is the first monster I’ve encountered in this floor .
This monster may be a rare monster which gives a lot of experience .
[Gguu, ggoo, gggoooaaahhh…]
After waiting for a while, both the two-headed panthers died almost at the same time .
It’s quite a good amount of experience .
But it’s not like they give that much experience compared to the others, right?
I pass through the two of the two-headed panthers and proceeded further .
I should just proceed like this, and I’d be able to reach the top-most area soon .
After a while, I arrived again in a cave-like area .
I walked for a while,
[Ah . ]
-and came across the same monsters I just saw before .
Six two-headed humanoid panthers .
They are sitting down and formed a circle .
All of these monsters saw me at the same time .
“Ah? Didn’t this guy meet the guys we’ve sent below?”
Or so their expressions say .
However, the monster became excited immediately .
“The next plaything for us have come . ”
Or something like that .
Meanwhile, one of them went to aside and retrieved something .
Its something looks like a cord that have human skulls attached on it on both sides .
It somehow reminds me of a nunchucks .
That panther held it its hands and began to wield it .
Bunbunbunbun! (T/N: sfx of buzzing)
[Ggooggaaaahh♪ ggaa, ggaaa♪ gggaaaahhhh♪]
The two-headed panther next to the one wielding the nunchucks pointed its finger at me .
[Ggooaaaahhh!? Ggaa, ggaaahhh!?]
That’s quite a sadistic expression you have there .
I somehow understand what it was trying to say .
“See that? Did you see that? They’re your friends, right? Are you scared now, human?”
I stick out my arms .
[]
[—uwoo…? Gguuggooohh!?]
[]
v
There are now 6 corpses of the two-headed panthers lying right before my eyes .
After applying on them earlier, I went back to the place where I had killed the two-headed panthers that I had first encountered .
I think the distance between them is about 500 meters .
My level did not increase .
It seems that if I were 500 meter away, I will not be able to get EXP .
Killing two of them made my level go up from Lv 665 to Lv 692 .
After that, I had defeated 6 of the same monsters .
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If it were just because my level has been high, an increase would have happened even if its just 1 level .
[I don’t know the exact numbers, but at least I understood something . If I’m too far away, I wouldn’t be able to get the experience . ]
It’s a shame that I didn’t get the experience after killing them .
However, I’m happy that I have verified what had been bugging my mind earlier rather than putting it for later .
I picked up the nunchucks made of human skulls .
I disassemble it and removed the skulls .
I held the skulls under my arms and went back to where I came from .
My goal is to find the place that I had found earlier where a dent on the wall can be seen .
I place the two skulls side by side in the recess at the wall .
I put my hands together and offered a silent prayer .
I’ve never thought the skulls I’ve just touched were disgusting .
Rather, I can feel some kind of familiarity with them .
They’re the same disposed people like me .
Now that I arrived here, I believe in the idea of ascending out of this place more and more .
I continued on moving forward .
v
The cave filled with nothing but bare rocks is all I see for a long time .
A winding, rugged path .
It’s a similar scene that continued endlessly .
However, the path was definitely heading up .
I can see that I’m steadily approaching the place above ground .
The feeling that what I had been doing is nothing but fruitless effort has been considerably alleviated .
[—oh . ]
The light that the leather bag has been emitting disappeared .
I thought I had injected it with as much magic energy as possible .
It seems that the amount I had injected before killing the lizardmen had already run out .
[Hmm?]
This is?
[Eh? The jewel’s color… have reset to its original color?]
The gem that had turned gray had now returned to its yellowish green color .
Another kind of nervousness runs through my chest aside from monster encounters .
I ate one of the jerky I have on the way here .
I only have one bag of it left .
There is only about one mouthful of cola I have left .
A feeling like I’m wishing for something came into me as I infused magic power into the jewel .
A violet hue slowly colored the originally yellowish green color of the jewel from the bottom .
H- how’s that…?
Does this leather bag transfer food and water for me from somewhere every time I inject it with enough magic power?
It would be useless if something like nails shows up…
I’m relying on you…
The result is—
[Seriously?]
One egg onigiri and green tea in a 500mL PET bottle .
[It really came…]
Food and drinks .
I want suddenly want to scream .
But, I can’t still perfectly decide whether my leather bag could really transfer foods and drinks .
However, the possibility that it might be so has greatly increased .
My leather bag may really be a unique item that transfers food and drinks .
Most of all, what made me happy was—
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[—That the transfer function will be restored over time . ]
I have seen egg onigiris before at convenience stores .
However, I’ve never eaten this before .
Prriii…
I remove the wrapping around the onigiri .
[Ahm… chomp, chomp… uwo!?]
D- Delicious…
Is the seasoning inside based deeply on soy sauce?
The most delicious part, the egg yolk rolls over my tongue .
The feeling when the soy sauce and mayonnaise melts together is also the best .
The taste of nori further increased the flavor of the onigiri .
Furthermore, this rice that I haven’t eaten for quite a while .
Is this rice boiled with the dashi or something?
The rice grains were coated by something that is slightly brown colored .
A surge of deep flavors commenced on attacking my tongue with its wavelike attacks .
The richness of this onigiri had successfully conquered my palate .
I open the cap of the green tea .
I pour the green tea into my mouth that is completely filled with the aftertaste of the onigiri’s deep flavors .
(T/N: Hazure Waku isn’t a cooking novel . )
[Gokun… gokyun…pffuaah!]
The refreshing green tea washes off the flavors in my mouth .
It has a refreshing taste different when I’m drinking cola…
There’s a different kind of satisfaction after eating the combination of jerky and cola .
[……fuuu~]
To put it in a few words… It’s the best .
I stopped drinking the green tea after I’ve drunk about half of the bottle .
I’ve already eaten the egg onigiri, but I will leave some of the green tea .
I stash away the PET bottle into the leather bag .
For the time being, I’ll put all my trash on the leather bag .
The leather bag was surprisingly elastic, and it seems that I can still store more things in here .
Is it because this is a magic tool?
The fabric in this leather bag seems to be surprisingly tough…
Now that my stomach is full and my throat is parched, I think I should move on .
v
I continued climbing all the way up .
Ascend, ascend, ascend .
I encountered monsters several times along the way .
This is how the standard “dungeons” I know function .
Usually, there is that standard where the lower you go, the stronger the monsters you encounter .
However, it looks like that it’s different in this ruins . Even if I go to the upper layer, the monsters doesn’t show any hint of them being weaker .
Rather, it seems that the monsters I’ve encountered lately is stronger than the minotaurs and birdheads .
Why do you think I said that?
Because my level still continues to rise .
As expected, the increase in level has been slowing down as of late .
This is probably because the necessary EXP I need to level up has increased .
However, my level still continues to rise little by little .
Perhaps even if I continued to kill the same number of minotaurs and birdheads, it would not continue to rise like this…
[Ehheheh~ Hhiiyyoo ggoooeeehh!]
A monster that have the lower body of a horse and the upper body of something that looks like some carnivorous plant, appeared in the darkness .
It’s running towards me while screaming with its strange voice .
At first glance, I thought that it kinda look stupid .
That’s why, on the contrary, it looks creepier and creepier .
[Oggoguueehh! Gguueeehhh! Goggeehhiiiiii!!! Oh—guueeehhhh!!!]
The creepy monster suddenly discharged acid from its mouth .
Firmly— I clad myself with killing intent .
I won’t be fooled by its eccentric appearance .
I will still punctually kill you .
You’ll just be joining the pile of monsters that I will be making from the monsters that will cross my path .
To kill, killing someone, to be killed .
I never neglected to regularly check the color of the jewel attached in the leather bag .
When I saw that the jewel had returned to its original yellowish-green color, I immediately injected it with magic power .
The third gift I received is yakisoba bread and a pack of vegetable juice .
I could finally get some vitamin supplemented on my body .
Who ever should I be thankful for these blessing?
I gratefully accept it .
After I’ve finished my meal, I continued moving forward again .
To walk, walking here, I walked for a while .
I just noticed that my thoughts have been slowing down for quite a while now .
The soliloquy that I had been doing has become fewer and fewer .
I’m starting to feel some itch on my head and body .
…can I take a bath using the green tea?
However, I can’t use something like my precious green tea for something like washing my hair or body .
I often take some time for me to sleep when I find some hole on the way .
I would take out some of the bone fragments I have from my leather bag .
It’s that rotting dragon’s bone .
I place these bones around the hole I’d be sleeping in .
Its in order for me to respond immediately .
However, I think it’s only useful for one surprise attack .
At that time though, this bone alarm I’ve installed would play its role .
After killing the monster that triggers it, I would level up .
I aimed to proceed even further .
For the topmost floor I’m aiming for, I continue moving my feet .
If I find a monster that releases its killing intent, I would immediately kill it .
I also regularly check the condition of the leather bag .
I’m just repeating this same routine for some time .
My thoughts have also been steadily becoming simpler .
I’m not thinking of anything .
I have no thoughts on anything .
It’s like I’ve become numb .
No thoughts, nor emotions at all…
How long have I been walking?
I raise my face .
I had finally reached this place .
[This is—]
Obviously a different scenery from what I’ve always seen .
Disposal ruins .
I’ve thought there must have been a reason why this place is called ruins .
I could see ocher-colored buildings that were entwined with ivy .
It’s like there used to be a civilization that had lived here in the past .
[The ruins area, huh…]