Chapter 126: Chapter 118 – Floor 99

The first passageway immediately opened up to a small room. There were broken benches lined across the walls and a large amount of wood fragments littered across the floor.

Standing like a guard against one wall blocking the exit was a giant figure in full plate armour. The unmoving armour was a pearl white and completely covered the body of the figure shielded within aside from a few pitch black vision slits. A black cape was draped from its shoulders and almost touched the stone floor. The head almost grazed the top of the doorway it guarded and its body width would've made it difficult to pass through without touching the sides by accident. The being held a single spear just longer than it was tall at its side as if at attention.

Despite me staring at it, the figure didn't react at all, continuing to guard the only way forward as if it wasn't even aware I was there. Strangely, it didn't even waver the slightest bit as it stood, as if it was a golem or something. But since it wouldn't react, I spent a few extra seconds examining it.

The aura surrounding this armoured figure was quite impressive, wisping around like a flame surrounding its entire body. The spear as well was magical, though exactly in what way beyond simply containing mana wasn't something I had the ability to figure out.

Now that I had time to learn why people liked to pose entire sets of plate armour in some random hallway for no obvious reason aside from taking up useless space, I glanced down at the status window Alicia had graciously opened up for me before I even registered that the thing had a spear for a weapon.

(She's getting real good at this.)

The knight like figure was called a mithril living armour, and it was level 242. When I saw that, I had another look at the monster.

Those black vision slits weren't black because even with my vampiric vision it was too dark for me to see, but they were black because there was nothing for me to see. There were no eyes, no skull, nothing but a hollow void behind those slits.

This changed things quite a bit. If the armour itself was what was driving this monster rather than something inside of it, living or dead, then what I had to attack changed. There was no weak spot hiding inside of the heavy plates of metal, but instead there was a core of some sort somewhere on the series of plates in the shape of a person.

Except I wouldn't know where it was without breaking it apart first.

(So since targeting the internal structure isn't possible, should I try taking it apart piece by piece?)

Things would change quite a lot depending on the location of the living armour's core, presuming it even had one. It wasn't like I hadn't fought living armour before. The 60th floor was populated with them after all. But that didn't mean that these guys would have the same weaknesses.

(But if it's the same...)

I condense and chill the air around me, focusing it all in a point above a raised hand. In a handful of seconds, a liquid orb with white mist falling from it was formed.

Due to its starting position, an instant kill wasn't really possible. But solving that was a different issue.

The moment I took a few steps and approached the metallic statue, the mithril living armour jerked as if it was awakened and turned its empty head towards me. Layers of dust crumbled and shook off of its surfaces.

Taking the spear in both hands, it lowered its body into an aggressive stance and took heavy steps towards me.

With a great step once it got halfway through the room to me, the armour lunged and thrust its spear at me.

(!!!)

It was faster than I thought. It should have been obvious, as this was almost forty floors deeper than the last living armour I had faced, but until this one attack it didn't really click in my mind properly.

This really wasn't like the other armour.

I forcefully twisted my body while swatting the offending blade away from me, but the spear only barely shifted enough to avoid catching on my robes. The living armour's grip was too strong to so easily have its aim broken completely.

But as much as it was a surprise, it wasn't something I couldn't take advantage of.

Taking a firm grip on the spear shaft, I pulled myself towards the living armour and forcibly fixed my balance. Despite the strength I exerted against the spear, the armour's grip on it didn't waver and instead it reversed its grip, swinging the butt towards me.

I ducked and weaved to the side before pushing a blast of wind against my back, propelling me between the monster's legs.

Just as I past by it, I bent my spine and flung the super cooled ball of liquid against the back of the mithril living armour. The liquid boiled on contact, giving off a sizzling sound along with the occasional sharp ping.

But the back of the cuirass rapidly approaching absolute zero didn't do anything to deter the nonliving armour. The nearly imperceptible reduction in size of the metal plate comprising of the rear wouldn't do anything in the first place.

At least not on its own.

As the living armour turned around to strike at me again, I kicked off the ground and followed its motion, staying in its blind spot.

While living armour didn't have eyes to sense their surroundings, thus could see things all around them, unlike a golem, their limbs were restricted to movements close to that of a living person similar to most undead. The simple fact that the armour they were comprised of weren't designed to move in ways which a person couldn't meant that they too couldn't move in such inhuman ways.

Attacking someone hiding in their rear was slow and awkward. It was much faster and more effective to just turn around.

At least normally.

But using magic to help my movements stay sharp and stick close while I let the liquefied air do its work, the living armour was unable to position itself to land an effective blow no matter which way it tried to turn.

And after a few more seconds, the mithril plate I was aiming for built up a dull layer of frost.

As it looked like it was time, I stamped a foot hard against the ground and thrust out a fist.

With a sharp crack and a sound similar to a thick sheet of plastic being snapped in two, the back plate of the mithril armour's cuirass shattered into tiny fragments. And along with that, the rest of the armour shuddered before collapsing in a heap.

My eyes though, was attracted by one thing. With a significant portion of the armour broken, the aura that surrounded it previously had receded, no longer covering the armoured plates which comprised this construct's body. Instead, the aura had dwindled and concentrated to a small flame, flickering within the pile of metallic shards that was once the armour's back.

Picking through the pile of mithril fragments, one piece, larger than most, made itself known. The back was no different from the rest, but the front had a black gem that glowed brightly to my [Mana Perception].

The gem was as big as both of my thumbnails put together.

Raising the encrusted gem to my mouth, I placed a single fang to it and sucked out the cool mana from it, draining the armour of what little motive power it had left.

I enjoyed the cool sweetness of the living armour's mana. Like cookies and cream ice cream. Maybe with richer than normal chocolate cookies at that.

Soon after I tossed the dulled and empty gem to the ground, the remains of the monster transformed into particles of light, leaving nothing but its drops.

A mana crystal and a diamond.

"Looks like a bust."

[It's pretty, but what are those diamonds used for?]

"Mostly just decorations. There's a few practical uses, but developing the tools needed to take advantage of them will take a while, and I'm not sure the benefits are really worth it."

[Then maybe you can use it to decorate something?]

"Maybe."

Frankly, it didn't really appeal to me much. It was nicely cut and everything, and quite large too. An entire centimetre across its longest axis. But on its own it was a bit much. The pins Elli had gotten made for me were much nicer, and they didn't have any sort of gems encrusted in them at all.

But it was a waste to just leave it, so I just tossed the thing into my bag along with the mana crystal.

Someday I might find a use for it.

At the very least, I hadn't hit the capacity limit of my bag yet.

Moving on, I made my way through the claustrophobic hallways and rooms, taking on more living armours. Some had swords and shields, some war hammers, and others spears like the first.

After six such encounters, I arrived in a larger room than before. It appeared to be some sort of cafeteria, though pretty small for a fortress. Perhaps it was just one of many.

There were a pair of long tables lined with chairs, most of which were broken.

On the far wall there were a pair of maids, standing as still as statues. They wore black and white uniforms reminiscent of French maids, the modern interpretation, not the classic type. Personally, I preferred Victorian maids though. Their skin was like porcelain, and their eyes like coloured glass.

(Orichalcum automatas huh?)

According to Alicia's scan that was their names. Unlike the living armour I had faced so far, they were magical types. The armours were filled with physical oriented skills, but these had all the magical skills, and they were even at a decent level.

"Oh, they even have [Dimensional Magic]!"

That was particularly nice. I've been trying to learn that, but had only barely managed to get rank one [Dimensional Magic] with Claret's help. Rank one was barely of any use at all, and from a practical standpoint, it was the same as not even having the skill.

But if there was a monster which I could absorb the skill from, that changed things drastically.

[Dimensional Magic] was extremely helpful when it came to fighting that bastard all those months ago, and even outside of combat it was quite helpful. I couldn't wait to get my hands on the higher ranks of it.

I wondered what it would be like. What I could do with such a skill. What the mana of these automata would taste like.

(Ah, I'm drooling.)

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I cleaned myself up quickly before turning back towards the two artificial maids.

It was a bit annoying to deal with two of them at once for my first encounter. Normally the first time a new monster would appear, there would only be one of them. It was as if the dungeon was giving me a chance to get used to them before throwing more difficult challenges at me.

At the very least, that was how it was like up until then, both here as well as at Knossos's dungeon as well.

But beggars couldn't be choosers. My opinion on the matter didn't change the fact that I would have to face two of them at once for the first time.

But fortunately they looked fragile. Being made from orichalcum as a base meant that while their magic resistance was quite high, they were quite vulnerable to physical attacks. Well, as vulnerable as you'd expect from something on the level of titanium or tungsten. To a normal person that might be quite a problem, but before my physical prowess, it wasn't much of a problem.

Rather than receive the opening attack and react to them like with the first living armour on this floor, I circled around the large tables and rushed the pair with the intent of striking down one of them before they could do anything.

But as expected of constructs, their reaction speed and accuracy was incomparable to living creatures of a similar level.

They both turned their heads towards me as one before lining up in a row in front of me and curtsying.

Before their first attack could start, I reached out a hand to grab the arm of the one on the left. But moments before I could reach it, the automata disappeared from in front of me despite not having moved beyond the first curtsy.

Its presence from in front had gone, but I could feel a new presence directly behind me.

Without even looking, I spun and threw out a kick at the presence which suddenly appeared. With a heavy ring like a gong and a dull pain in my heel, I finally saw what was standing there.

It was the automata which I had just tried to attack.

At least I was forced to presume so, since if it wasn't the same one, then that meant that there were three of them in this room and I hadn't detected one of them somehow.

It wasn't a possibility which I could entirely discount, but the likelihood of it was quite low. [Scan] had shown the monsters' skills, and while they both had [Sneaking] and [Suppress Presence], they were at rank two. Not nearly high enough to prevent me from noticing them. At the very least they had no way to hide their auras which overflowed from their bodies as if they were perpetually on fire.

Most likely those skills were part of the an elite maid package so they could do their work without being noticed or something. Not something which could be used effectively in combat except against the most unwary of opponents.

On the other hand, their other skills were quite impressive, many of which were close to being maxed out.

And perhaps it was through one or more of those skills that my kick was stopped.

The maid behind me held a black serving tray in her hands and used it to block my attack. The polished sheen of the black metal suggested it was made from adamantium. Where she had pulled it out of I wasn't sure, but it was probably connected to [Dimension Magic] in some way.

While all this was going on, the other maid wasn't simply standing by. As I was distracted with the maid behind me, she quickly did some motion, and with an outflow of mana, I was forced to defend my self by throwing out an instinctive backhand to intercept the construct's attack.

My fist came in contact with a porcelain tea pot the automata was thrusting towards me. But rather than simply it ending with that, the back of my fist felt hot, like it was being scalded.

Now that my surprise attack was completely foiled, I hopped away from the two of them so I could gather myself.

A glance at my hand told me that the wound wasn't bad at all. It looked like the pot was filled with boiling water, something which wasn't really a threat to me. It was more an annoyance than anything at best.

The two maids turned to me as one. The one with the adamantium serving tray passed it through a slit hidden between two folds of her skirt, somehow without leaving a single trace of such a large object. The other simply dropped the handle of the broken pot before the two stood in a neutral posture before me.

The thought of them curtsying and dropping hand grenades from their skirts flashed through my mind. In the end the only reason why I wiped such a thought from my head was because hand grenades didn't seem to exist in this world in the first place.

But the creative use of their skills still stuck in my mind. My own use of my skills weren't very creative beyond simply emulating various physical phenomena using magic and physical ability. I've always prioritized the final effect over anything else, but intermediary effects were things which had always slipped my mind. If the act didn't result in defeating the enemy, I often didn't bother even thinking about it, but such thinking worked against me against that needle dick. In fact, using that wand of displacement to survive and connect that to exposing him to sunlight instead lead to my victory.

(Maybe I could test such a tactic here too?)

Before they could move, I hooked a foot around the leg of one of the heavy tables and flung it at the two automata maids. Before the table impacted, both of their presences disappeared from in front of me and reappeared behind me.

Kicking off the ground, I rushed the closer one.

There was already a mop with an adamantium handle in its hands. As I reached out a hand to grab its arm, the automata swung the handle to parry my attack. An influx of mana to my side made me hop back just as ripples of compressed air shot past.

The air blades impacted against the wall beyond, leaving light gashes in the stone works and raising a thin cloud of dust.

Looking back at the source, the other maid held a duster in her hand that shimmered with rainbow sheen.

It was precisely because of this sort of thing that I hated facing off against something new for the first time in a group. Being surprised, especially by an attack from your blind spot, was a quick way to get killed.

But then again, it was overcoming this sort of thing which was what made it so fun.

I pushed up a mound of stone from the ground and made it explode into a thick smoke filled with my mana before rushing the closer automata again.

She swung her mop and thrust it towards my face.

Ducking my head while I leaned my body to the side, I was silently thankful that the damp head seemed to be clean before I closed in under her attack and grabbed the maid's extended arm.

Without killing my momentum, I pulled her towards me to break her balance, then swung my body behind the automata's without letting go of her wrist, forcing it to follow my movements. Placing my other hand on the maid's shoulder, I pulled on the arm, quickly snapping the limb right off. The moment I landed behind her, I did a low leg sweep to finally crush the automata's balance before it could be restored.

As I rose up on my feet and pushed out my aura further past the wall of smoke that stood between the two orichalcum automata, I ducked my head again as a trio of water balls flew past at extraordinary speed. They splashed against the nearest wall, instantly turning grey with the dust they absorbed.

Just behind where I stood before attacking the mop maid was the duster maid.

Once again I kicked off the stone tiles to leap over the fallen maid to rush the standing one.

But against my expectation, there was a sudden pain in my legs.

Looking down, the fallen maid's mop was tangled between my legs and spun across my axis, forcing me from my feet and into the air.

Clearly in a vulnerable state, the other maid didn't let go of this opportunity. A large ball of flames appeared in front of her and quickly flew in my direction.

In a panic, I channelled my mana and thrust up my shadow from below, shielding myself from the intense heat before spearing the maid across from me with a paper thin film of my shadow.

But as expected, the shadow only pierced her black and white uniform, leaving only a slight scratch on the porcelain skin of her chest.

The shadow itself disintegrated and returned to its two dimensional form on the ground as the mana in it was absorbed.

I clicked my tongue, but as it was the obvious outcome when it came to something that had orichalcum in its name, I didn't bother to dwell on it.

Grabbing the mop handle that was still thrust in between my legs, I pulled the maid below towards me and shot out a foot, shattering the automata's neck and causing her head to roll away like a bowling ball.

As I couldn't fully untangle my legs from the mop, I instead rolled on the ground as I extracted the pole before getting back on my feet. Another spell was shot past me, but after the stone spikes harmlessly shattered on the ground beside me, I clawed at the ground and thrust myself towards the offending maid.

I grabbed the automata's arm and pushed its duster away from me as I put my other hand on its shoulder.

This was something I had never tried before, but considering the situation, it felt like it might work.

Despite my target not being something alive, I bit down on its neck and sucked with all my worth.

Fortunately, perhaps because the construct's body was mostly made of orichalcum, the taste of mint and chocolate chip ice cream flowed into my mouth. There was a bit of resistance of its aura trying to stay within its body, but it was quite feeble compared to the automata's body trying to separate from me.

Not like I allowed either form of defiance from even slowing me down.

Soon, all resistance disappeared as I finished my snack.

As I licked my lips, a sudden pain appeared on my back, causing me to bend over the limp maid slightly.

The pain wasn't significant, but quite annoying.

Turning around, the sight of the headless one armed maid, now armed with a duster, filled my sight.

The orichalcum automata maid pulled back its duster and swung it forward, aiming straight at me despite lacking any eyes to see me. A spear of ice appeared in the air and flew towards me.

I simply swatted the projectile from mid air and closed the short distance between us. Forcing the broken maid's arm away from me, I bit into its collar bone and enjoyed the chocolatey mintness once more.

After a few more moments, I got up and patted down my robes of dust.

A quick check confirmed that there wasn't any damage to the back of my robes, and I gave my thanks to Anathousai for the quality of this outfit she had made for me before I turned towards the room's exit.

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