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.
[<Paralyze>]
[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.
[<Poison>]
The next thing that the two-headed panther notices is its body’s change in color.
And then, anomalies also started to appear in its body.
It’s natural, since <Paralyze> and <Poison> 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.
<Your level has increased.>
<Lv 665 → Lv 692>
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.
[<Paralyze>]
[—uwoo…? Gguuggooohh!?]
[<Poison>]
v
There are now 6 corpses of the two-headed panthers lying right before my eyes.
After applying <Poison> 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.
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—
[—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.
[<Paralyze>]
I will still punctually kill you.
[<Poison>]
You’ll just be joining the pile of monsters that I will be making from the monsters that will cross my path.
[<Sleep>]
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…]
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