Chapter 16: [Arc 1] Chapter 10: Is Ignorance Bliss?

I peeked out from my hiding place, a large fissure in the wall. From there, I could see the newcomers.

Humans... or humanoids at least. They are wearing armor with helmets, so I can't see any characteristic that shows that they're humans or something similar, but there are no centaurs or tentacle-aliens at least. No female knights either...

The armor had the same white-and-gold theme, but looking closely, I can see some serious differences between the six of them.

There's one guy that looks like the model of Arthurian knights, complete with a cape and sword. But he's the most normal-looking one among all those guys.

A different guy's without weapons, but his gauntlets are so stupid-big that anyone else couldn't lift their arms if they had those equipped. Except for that, and some greaves on his legs, he's only wearing leather armor. Probably some pugilist or practitioner of martial arts. That's the feeling he gives.

Two other guys look like magicians that forcefully added armor to their robes. Is calling them "magic knights" alright? One of them looks more priest-ish, with the crosses decorating his armor. So, magician knight and priest knight? They're the ones with the biggest reactions from [Magic Sight], and the priest-looking one's got a golden-and-white aura to boot.

Musn't forget about the spear-wielding fellow. His armor's thinner than the others, probably designed to move around quickly. Even an amateur like me can see he's got some smooth movements.

Last in the group is the guy walking in front of the other one. But calling him a knight may be stretching it a little. He looks more like a thief with that huge mantle covering most of his body and how he's checking the ground like that. Only his helmet hidden underneath the hood and the metal boots, reveals that he's part of the same group.

The knight group kept on moving, closing in towards the glued tortoise-duo. Not that they moved with any haste. The... thief-knight(?), kept on checking the ground for potential traps and such, but after a while, they must have decided that it was safe.

So that's how pro Dungeon divers do it. Kinda feel like what I've been doing's been blasphemy towards the real adventures... but hey, I'm a monster! Why should I move like the humanoids?

While I was thinking about the difference between monsters and non-monsters, the knight group had started to investigate the tortoise duo.

Or, I think they're investigating it? They've taken out these wacky thingamajiggies... whatever they are. Looks like video cameras, or some scanning devices. There's mana in them, so... magic machines? No, that sounds wrong.

In any case, if those guys are so busy with their science project, let them be. I'm outta here! Having three of those tortoises in my Storage would kill my appetite for reptiles.

That, and they would rot before I could eat them all. Sometimes, meaning all the time, I wish that [Spatial Storage] had some time-freezing functions.

---

Some times after I ran away from the knight brigade, I arrived at a new crossroad of dilemma. A real crossroad! Okay, I'll stop joking.

The road is splitting into four, like the Greek letter Ψ (psi). The next floor is through the left-most upper road, while the first floor is the road at the bottom. The problem, however, is the middle- and right road at the top.

Both paths lead to a machine that needs to be bugged, but the right road is the most problematic. It's guarded by a freaking two-headed snake tortoise! I know that cause I saw it while exploring the floor on the first go. Ran away the moment I laid my eyes on the behemoth.

The middle path's better. Just your everyday frog hive... frog hotel? Frog society? A big area where the frogs in the area have made their official sleeping place.

The frogs are easy to slip by, but the behemoth is different. I can't reach the machine without reaching the end of my lifespan. Or can I?

This idea better work here. Now, where's a good stone when you need it?

---

"Zzzzz, quark, quark, quark. Zzzzz, quark, quark, quark."

What snoring sounds from these guys, er, frogs. Fine with me, as long as they don't wake themselves up.

I'm at the entrance of the cave that contains the Dungeon machine... and the hordes of sleeping frogs. Even a tortoise will have trouble with this amount of frog legs. 

No problem for me though. I used a thread as a safety rope and traveled the cavern by walking on the wall. I needed to replace the thread as I walked, but in the end, I reached the machine.

*Click*

And there went the device!

"Zzzz, QUARK!"

Eek! What was that for!? One of the frogs made a loud noise all of a sudden. I was preparing for the worst, but it looks like it was only sneezing in its sleep. Don't scare me like that! But the stupid frog was already sleeping. Can frogs even sneeze? Weird.

I had no choice this time, as the timing of the frogs' sleeping hours matched my purpose brilliantly, but thinking about it, shouldn't I have thought of some plan B? Believing that I can hide with [Stealth] all the time will come back to bite me sooner or later.

... Let's get that class with the Skill Points from this floor's Quest. Getting the skill for increasing DEX won't cost me so much, and I can use Skill Points to force its level up. The only drawback is that I won't be getting any Skill Points when the skill reaches Lv.10 now, even if I make it reach that level naturally afterward, but with DEX being my most used stat, I'll have it reach Lv.20 when I get the Rogue class.

Since I need three more points for reaching 100 DEX, I need to spend 3 Skill Points to get [Dextrity Increase (Small)] at Lv.3. I've already completed the requirements of "Killing 10 or more beings undetected" thanks to the Shredder, or, in this case, having killed 10 or more beings before they could react.

Then there's the requirement of being in the presence of other creatures without being detected for a certain amount of time, but since I've been in stealth mode for most of my second life, I'm not that concerned about that one.

Wonder if the knight group has arrived yet. As I thought that, I reached the psi-crossroad... only to find the spoken devil... Sorry, I meant the knights.

Did they take a break before moving on? Or rather, they must have moved slowly due to seeing that there's something in this Dungeon that can create birdlime-like thread mass. That came back to bite me. Getting to check out if they're following my lead is a good thing, but damn that was close. 

The thief-knight looked at the big rock that lent to the wall that divided the right- and middle tunnels. They started to discuss it with each other, so I sneakily came closer...

"... What is this supposed to be?" - Thief-knight

"It looks like some drawing...?" - Pugilist-knight

Oi! Why do you say that as a question?

"I can see that, but what's the drawing supposed to be?" - Thief-knight

"A... mouth?" - Spear-knight

"A hole?" - Magician-knight

"A takoyaki?" - Priest-knight

It's a treasure chest! The right path leads to freakin' treasures(lie)!!

"Who made this? And for what reason?" - Knight

"Don't ask me. It could be a trap made by the Dungeon... but which path should we take then?" - Thief-knight

"Logically, the path the drawing points towards would be the same one, and the other two would be filled with traps..." - Magician-knight

They're both safe! All of them are safe! If it wasn't for the inhabitants...

"... But what if the Dungeon's ruler knows about this way of thinking?" - Pugilist-knight

"He's right. If that is the case, then they would know that people would take the right path since they expect that one to be the trap-less one. So instead, they placed all the traps that could be placed on the two other tunnels in the right one, creating one bonafide death trap." - Spear-knight

Why are you guys complicating this so much!?!?

"... But why wouldn't the ruler of the Dungeon lay traps in all three tunnels?" - Priest-knight

"Ah!" - Knights

Are you stupid or something!? If they could do that, then they would have placed them by the entrance or something! ...Speaking of the devil, I haven't seen any traps either. Is this place bad with traps?

"No matter, we need to investigate the whole Dungeon. The leads tell us that guy is also here, so we need to look for him while working on conquering, or destroying, this Dungeon. Leave no stone unturned." - Knight

"Sir!" 

With that, the knight group went to the right tunnel. Finally! I was getting impatient here. 

I left the frog tunnel and left for the next floor. Good thing I overheard the knights also wanting to beat the Dungeon. That increases the odds of them placing the last device after beating the two-headed tortoise.

I even considered a moment to join the fight between them, as both sides will lose some life if they clash, bringing a good chance for obtaining some free, high-quality EXP. Although, it would probably end with me dead from a stray shot. I hope those art-haters get what they deserve!

... Wasn't this too easy? Getting to know the knights' plans and all that? Must be overthinking this. I mean, after all my worries, why shouldn't I have a stroke of luck sometimes?

---

- The knights' PoV -

"Was that good enough?" - Priest-knight

"I think so, but one can never know for sure." - Knight

The knight group, an adventurer party that called themselves "The Grail Knights", walked through the Dungeon tunnel while discussing the monster that had tried to keep itself hidden from them.

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"This better work. I hate acting." - Pugilist-knight

"No worries. The spider in question was skillful and intelligent enough to take care of two, maybe more, rank E monsters on its own. And from the information we got from the party before, this creature must have the same thoughts about this place as we do." - Magician-knight

The knights had already discovered the existence of the spider monster of the Reha Zera race the moment the battle between it and the tortoises started. Who wouldn't notice a bunch of monsters making hell? Even if it was only the thief-knight that noticed them at first.

"It's better to have a local work with the sabotage of this monstrosity. Even with temperature regulating armors, we will not be able to explore much of this place without proper logistic channels." - Knight

The knights had met up with the Cheerful Hunters party on their retreat from the Dungeon. When these two parties met up, the Hunters told the Grail Knights the way to enter the Dungeon, saving them some time and resources.

Due to that, the knights have quite the fair share of goods left in their Item Bags and Storage skills, but not enough to explore a Dungeon of unknown size. Some of the more famous Dungeons could have 50, if not 100 floors and areas.

Due to that, adventurers that go Dungeon diving anticipate having to stay in the Dungeon for weeks, if not months. The number of materials needed for that is way more than a search for some mystery item that produces the drought.

"Just hope that the little bugger stays clear of that guy." - Spear-knight

"True. That guy is known to hate Darkness attribute creatures." - Magician-knight

"We got to meet up with the Cheerful Hunters by following his tracks, but seriously, I wanna throw him in the slammer more than anything." - Pugilist-knight

"Ssh. Something's up there." - Thief-knight

The thief-knight hushed his colleagues and pointed forward, to the exit of the tunnel. As silent as their noise-reducing armors allowed them, the Grail Knights walked towards the exit of the tunnel.

What they found was a massive cave that contained not only a device bigger than the ones they had seen on their way through the second floor but also a massive tortoise, possibly three times as big as the other specimens that they discovered. The biggest difference between it and them was that the larger tortoise had two snakeheads.

"It's sleeping... right?" - Spear-knight

"... Dan, get a sleep spell ready. Cent, you place a soundproof barrier." - Knight

"The same procedure as the last time?" - Dan (Priest-knight)

"The same procedure as every time." - Cent (Magician-knight)

"Herman, Wulf, you're taking care of the left one. I will take the right." - Knight

"Got it." - Herman (Spear-knight)

"Oki-doki." - Wulf (Pugilist-knight)

"Emel, you-" - Knight

"'Look out for any reinforcements', I get it." - Emel (Thief-knight)

With all their roles decided, the knights moved out. In order not to create any disturbances, Dan and Cent matched their timing and released their magic spells. Soon after, the cave of the two-headed tortoise was covered in a pale green barrier, while the tortoise itself was covered in white sparkles that made it fall deeper into sleep.

Herman struck the sleeping left head with his spear and Wulf used the force of his massive gauntlets to smash the spear further into the tortoise's head. They had gotten the idea of this "combination move" from watching people building wooden buildings with nails and hammers.

In the meanwhile, the leader knight had effortlessly decapitated the remaining head, showing off the difference in skill between him and the other two. Not that they cared about it. It was a clear fact that their leader was heads and shoulders above them in combat power. The leader knight made a gesture to Cent and the silence-inducing barrier was turned off.

"Alright Emel, we'll take over for you." - Knight

"The luggage is my responsibility after all." - Emel

Emel the thief-knight switched guard duty with the three physical knights and started to store the corpse of the two-headed tortoise in his Storage skill. Meanwhile, Cent and Dan went to the big machine in the back to place the last device needed to complete the Quest.

"This went smooth. So now what?" - Wulf

"We're going to the next floor after those three are finished. There's something I want to confirm." - Knight

"As expected of our great leader. And, the reason is...?" - Herman

"Checking out why the Black Baron is in this Dungeon." - Knight

"Oh, good idea. I knew he had a base out here, but still..." - Herman

"Then there's the question of why he had the base here at all." - Knight

"Wasn't he searching for the source of the drought? Just like us?" - Wulf

"And how did he know where the potential source was?" - Knight

"Fair point." - Herman

"Not that many people wouldn't notice the connection of a 'dried-out region' and a 'Dungeon that's got more moisture than anything else we've ever seen." - Knight

"As expected of Percel! You notice stuff like that fast!" - Wulf

"Well, you have to either be some idiot or having lived in this place for all of your life for not noticing that." - Herman

"Or maybe both." - Wulf

"Like that spider-thingy from before? It looked like it didn't notice we had noticed it." - Herman

"A local idiot could be just what we need to close down this place. I just hope that it steers clear of the Black Baron. He's a complete Darkness-attribute monster hater..." - Percel (Leader knight)

---

- Back to Garami -

Hmm, that's not too bad of a skill those dinos have... even if it hurts me to admit it... who would have thought that getting [Discern] to a high enough level to see rank E creature's skills would backfire like thi-hi-hi-haaAA-CHOOO!

*Sniff*. Is someone talking behind my back? Impossible. My reputation as a phantom demon would be worth nothing if that was true.

Finally! I was afraid that I had to go back and finish the job myself. A scroll-like thing appeared in front of me, probably the reward, so I stuffed it into my Storage to use at a later date.

After seeing off the knights towards the floor boss, I went straight to Floor 3 to make a base, but I got sidetracked when [Discern] reached Lv.15 all of a sudden. Looking at those dinos that populate the floor used so much time that I forgot about buying the skills I wanted. Now I can... wait a sec. I level-upped again, didn't I? Then...

I knew it! 101! One more than I needed! And without buying the enhancement skill!

And why's my Karma Value fallen again? I could swear it was a negative 94 the last time I checked. Is it because I tricked those knights? Don't come and tell me that my drawings are so bad that I got a decrease in my Karma Value because of that!?

*Sulk*. I'm gonna make myself a nest and cry a little in my bed before picking the class. That, and for some reason, I've got the feeling that someone's staring at me. It gives me the shivers, so I wanna stay somewhere safe when focusing on the Skill Shop. So, what type of home does the miss want? Just kidding~.

---

......

"TARGET HAS INITIATED STEALTH-ABILITY. TARGET LOST. RETURNING TO BLACK BARON FOR FURTHER ORDERS. PROMISE SAVED IN DATABANK. WILL KILL SPIDER-BASED DEMONIC BEING." - ???

Description:

The Glavras Duortoise is an evolution of the Glavras Bunkurtle. It's twice as big, twice as smart, twice as nasty, and more than twice as dangerous. Just 'caution' won't help against this walking fortress.

Appearance:

Like its previous evolution, the Glavras Duortoise is a massive tortoise monster with a body of varying marine colors. They have two serpentine heads and necks, giving them an appearance similar to a lesser-ranked Hydra monster.

Abilities:

The Glavras Duortoise has everything that makes the Glavras Bunkurtle a pain in the ass. High defense, powerful jaws, pursuit-type skills to catch up with prey, you name it.

Including the mentioned abilities, the Duortoise's self-recovery abilities are in a league of their own. It can grow a new limb in less than an hour even without the help of any skills it may have.

They also have access to Counter skills that enhances the power and speed of their attacks after being dealt damage, so the Duortoise only needs to tank hits after hits until it is 'charged up' enough to take out the enemy in one swipe. 

Garami's comment: That two-headed thing was that dangerous!? Talk about a close call!

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