Chapter 27: [Arc 1] Chapter 21: The Skeleton in the Dungeon

I'm making progress in the upper-layer tunnels of the dungeon.

I've named the three sets of tunnels as the upper-layer (the tunnels between the river area and the possible dungeon entrance), the middle-layer (the tunnels between the river area and the pillar area) and the under-layer (the tunnels between the pillar area and the underground lake) tunnels.

After the surprising success with the crossbow, I made a tactical escape so that the turtle snake couldn't come after me. I repeat, it was a tactical escape. Not because I was scared of the turtle snake, you got it? Maybe I managed to hit that frog because snipers can be seen as a type of assassin? Could be.

The side trip to the river area was more helpful than I would have thought. Now I can take the paths leading away from the area so that I won't end up in the same place again. [Auto-Mapping] leveled up as well, and now it shows me where paths that lead to lower and upper levels are located. Before there were just passages on the map without dividing it into several maps for each level.

I've only traveled in the upper-layer tunnels for now, but if I added the other floors to the map without dividing it into sub-maps for each floor, the whole thing would be too messy to be readable. The entrances that lead to a new level is marked by a staircase symbol, currently only on the entrance where I was sniping from before.

The upper-layer is divided into two types of tunnels, the small ones that are tangled up into several intersections, and the large tunnels that go in straight lines. I chose the smaller types since there's a higher probability that the bandits chose to go through them instead of the large tunnels. Larger tunnels mean larger monsters can appear, right?

Thinking back on it, wasn't most of the bandits equipped with large weapons? How did they plan to fight something in the narrow tunnels? Maybe they used the large tunnels instead. They looked pretty hardheaded, so there is a high chance for that.

... guess I'll check out the big tunnels tomorrow. Yup, tomorrow. Thanks to becoming a Reha Zera, I'm finally able to sleep! I've even made a deluxe futon for that back in my home. First thing first, there is this guy that blocks the way back home.

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Race: [Lesser Sahuagin]   | Level: 4

Skills: 5

HP: 30/30   | MP: 5/5   | SP: 28/28

STR: 24   | VIT: 20   | MAG: 5

RES: 13   | SPD: 12   | DEX: 9

INT: 32   | LUC: 74

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It has the body of a human, and the head, scales, smarts, and smell, of your everyday fish. It's a Lesser Sahuagin! 

I've seen some before, not just in these tunnels, but also in the pillar area. Those guys looked smarter and used primitive weapons made of rock and bones, probably handmade. They must be regular Sahuagin. The lesser variant lives in the upper layers, and if it can evolve, it will join the sahuagin society in the pillar area.

I know this since I saw an LV1 sahuagin making a weapon here in this layer before it started to walk towards the river area. I think it must have evolved recently and made its preparations for joining the rest of their society. I let that guy go, since I sympathized with it, as fellow intelligent monsters in this dungeon.

That didn't stop me from hunting the lesser ones. That was a bad idea. They taste like a nightmare! I'm not kidding! The taste was like having a fish rot over a month, then marinate it in a sauce made of seawater mixed with trash. Blargh. Even the EXP is horrible since these guys aren't Glavras monsters.

After tasting 'that', I started to ignore the sahuagins, but to no luck. These guys are so stupid that [Stealth] doesn't work on them. I'm not kidding here. They start to attack whatever comes in their line of sight, even if it's just a pebble rolling on the floor. Since they go crazy at even the smallest rock I kick, they will start attacking that rock, getting me caught in the range of fire.

Due to that, the lesser sahuagins are the monsters I hate the most in this whole dungeon! I've made it my policy to kill them on the spot if I find them, for the safety of our monsters with some brains. Okay, it's just for my sake. 

Back to the current sahuagin, it shows its back to me, so I've got the perfect move to kill it. I don't even need my web or poison for this guy. 

Just sneak a little closer to it, have my dagger ready, and, Accel Leap!

*zoom* *slash!*

"Gwehh..." - Lesser Sahuagin

And that's case closed. Accel Leap is a new art I obtained from [Assassination Arts] when it reached LV5. It grants me a sudden increase in speed, letting me attack quickly enough to end it without giving it a chance to counterattack.

The bad part about this art is that it needs at least 50 MP to use it, so rapid-fire Leaps are impossible. Like the name suggest, it's also only good for a single leap, so it can't be used as a getaway art.

I like this Art anyway, since I can insta-kill weaker monsters with my dagger before they can notice me, and I'm saving on my webs. Not poisoning them will also improve the taste, but that's not important this time since the taste is deadly enough on its own.

I'm also hoping that the art gets better if I use it many times. There were such games back at Earth, where your special attacks get upgraded if you use them enough.

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While leaving the sahuagin corpse, I started to go through the tunnel it was blocking. Taking it with me? No way, didn't you hear me about how bad it tasted?

I should still collect as much food as possible in case of an emergency? Hah! I've got tons of monster corpses in my storage at the moment and even more stored back at my home. I wrapped the corpses in my web like a spider does it to preserve them better as well.

The area around my home has many weaklings roaming around. All the big guys have tried to make the rat-area their territory, only to be swarmed to death by the rats, and their paralyze abilities.

Speaking of paralyzing, I'm now able to make Weak Paralyze Poison. I can even add the paralyze attribute to my other poisons, like the Demonic Poison and the Vengeful Poison. I can also make the toxicity of the poisons close to zero, in times I only need to paralyze something. The Vengeful Poison needs ten potion bottles worth of Demonic Poison at max toxicity to be synthesized by the way.

The [Medicine Synthesis] skill is also going great. I don't have any strong medicine like some 'Demonic Medicine', but I can make Weak Medicine, Antidote, and Paralyze Antidote. I guess the latter two comes from me knowing how to make poisons that can paralyze. I've tried to mix up a stronger medicine as I did with the Vengeful Poison, but no luck there yet.

I've even made progress with my magic training! Now I can keep an eye on my surroundings while casting a spell, but I can't move a finger without the magic failing. The casting time is slow as heck, not even close to the magician's fireballs. 

Since monsters would just be attracted to the light from [Light Magic], I've been using my [Shadow Magic] instead. The first spell I got was Deep Shadow. This just makes shadows darker, but that won't change anything in a pitch dark dungeon. Therefore, I can use the spell as much as I want in my home without worrying about attracting monsters. 

I've used that magic so long that my [Shadow Element] and [Shadow Magic] have reached LV5. This granted me another spell, Shadow Meld. This is essentially a type of camouflage magic, that makes my body the same color as the shadows I'm in when using the spell. Not that much, but it works for grinding.

Guess that's enough babbling about my skills for now. I'll just check out this tunnel here before going back to dinner. 

...Why didn't I just go back at once? What I found in the tunnel was the skeleton of a human.

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I didn't expect this. Well, I get that humans get killed in dungeons, even I have done that. But not to find a corpse in this godforsaken tunnel. It isn't the Treasure Hunter, he is too small to be this guy. And no matter how lost my sense of time is, it can't have long enough time for him to become a skeleton.

I tried to appraise the skeleton, half because I didn't want to be attacked by an undead, half in hope of getting some information about this guy's identity. [Appraisal] just told me it was a 'Human skeleton'. 

At least I'm certain that this guy isn't the Treasure Hunter. The race is different after all. The skeleton was wearing a magician-like hat on him, some trousers, and an undershirt, but nothing else. Maybe someone came and stole his robe and boots? There's no staff here either, or wand or grimoire or whatever this guy used. 

After looking around for some clue for what happened here, I found some inscriptions on the dungeon wall. The writing was made by stabbing the wall with a blade of some sort, but the letters are still readable. Must be this guy's work. Good thing I practiced my reading with the newspaper I took from the bandits. If I'm not wrong, the inscriptions say:

Whoever that reads this must have found my corpse. Please, I beg you, do not take this as a joke. All that is written here is only the truth. You who are reading this are the world's only chance of survival.

... Okaaaayyy, that's disturbing. But Skelly, isn't saying that 'this is the truth' makes people think it's a lie? Oh well, don't have anything else to do than to eat dinner, so I'll humor you.

I am, was a B-rank Adventure, sent out to look after the disturbance that has happened in the Velantas forest. After looking after the cause of the disturbances, we found a lake that had dried up, and the entrance to a Dungeon had appeared where the lake once had been.

Is he talking about the Water-Knot? What's next?

When we entered the dungeon, we quickly understood the strangeness of this Dungeon. Dungeons are challenges that the Ultimate God of Chaos has released to our world so that humanity can strengthen themselves for the battle against the monsters that wander our world.

Strong monsters, unique items, grand prizes, the Dungeons beckons intruders into itself with these rewards for those who can overcome it. The ones who fail the challenge would become the Dungeons nutrients for making itself or the monsters it birthed, stronger.

Alas, this Dungeon did not do so. It was hiding from any intruders, masking itself with a veil of forgetfulness. Any information about the Dungeon would disappear after leaving it. It is impossible to find the Dungeon again after you leave it unless there is someone in the Dungeon who can guide you back.

Does this place have a gimmick like that? That's news for me. The terrain appraisal didn't say anything about that. Or is it a function of the Forgetfulness effect?

Holding pride in our abilities as Adventurers, we were not scared by this irregularity and challenged the Dungeon. When we reached the area just below where you are now, we were attacked by a huge dinosaur monster, unique for this Dungeon.

AAHH! The T-Rex! Did they fight that thing?

With some luck, we managed to kill the beast without any casualties. Wondering if the beast was guarding some treasure, we started looking after its lair.

THEY KILLED THE T-REX?!?! How strong were these guys? Then the current T-Rex is a decedent of the first guy that Skelly and his friends killed? Some raptors must have evolved into a new T-Rex and became the next sub-boss.

We managed to locate the monster's lair, but no treasure awaited us. Instead, a horrifying truth was waiting for us.

The reason for the disturbance of the forest, the lake that had dried up, all the answers lies within this Dungeon. No, this is not a Dungeon. This is simply a tool for stealing all of this world's water.

...huh?

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