NOVEL NEXT Chapter 50
With a horrific roar, the leading merman lunged at me.
“Kreeeek!!”
Its eyes gleamed with malice and its throat scraped with a metallic sound.
But undeterred, I swung my great sword and slashed its body diagonally.
Whooosh.
Shwaaaaaak!
“Krrek.”
The merman let out a dying gasp, blood spraying from its chest as it fell backward.
“Kyaaaah!”
As if the death of their kin was nothing to worry about, the mermen behind charged at me without a care.
They leaped from the ground, baring their teeth, but I wouldn’t fall for their straightforward attacks.
‘Looks like you’re ugly enough to make even a goblin blush. I can accept that. You’re worse than goblins.’
Among all the monsters I’ve seen so far in the labyrinth, it definitely had the ugliest face.
Thud!
I accurately positioned the blade against that revolting face and blocked, then swung the great sword like a windmill.
Flesh tore apart, causing its body to split in two.
I stepped strongly past the gushing corpse.
Ka-boom!
Another merman fell from my ruthless sword blow accompanied by a loud sound.
“Kreeee!?”
One clever merman climbed the wall and slashed at me with its venomous claws.
Of course, I could see where its slow attack was coming from and could have dodged by twisting my body or stepping back.
But having reflected on my fight with Kariks, I gathered my thoughts.
I wasn’t that foolish person anymore who tried to handle everything alone without thinking of my teammates.
What I needed to do now was not to react to each attack and slow down the pace, but to eliminate the monsters that threatened my party.
“Holy light’s protection!”
[Divine Shield]
Ting!
The merman was flung away by the backlash of the shield, unable to break through it.
I swung my sword in a full swing like hitting a home run.
“Kree!”
With a sound of a burst, it flew backward like a bowling ball made of flesh.
It collided with the three that came rushing in late.
‘Strike, you little bastards.’
I infused my feet with magical energy and charged forward, switching to a one-handed sword.
Hoo!
Swish! Swish! Swish!
I swung my sword at the approaching monsters.
Once for each, three quick slashes flowed like water.
In an instant, I slashed their vital points and passed through them.
“Kreek…”
I looked at the last remaining merman amid the splattering blood.
In a moment, all had died, leaving just the lone merman staggering.
It turned its back and began to leap away.
‘So, monsters aren’t just mindlessly charging at adventurers. Each has its own nature, but especially humanoid monsters like this feel a bit more intelligent.’
“The black hand that grips the night.”
[Rugen’s Grasp]
Crack!
“Kii, Kreeek!”
Lumia cleverly cast a spell that captured it.
With my agility, I could chase it down and strangle it before it summoned its kin. But… I definitely preferred this way.
The merman squirmed desperately as it saw the black hands of magic appear in the air.
“Where do you think you’re running, you little rascal? You failed as a monster.”
I promptly cut off the last merman’s head.
Thud.
I took a breath while looking at the body that had fallen to the ground.
“Hoo.”
[Chaos praises your skilled combat.]
Our first battle on the 2nd floor was very successful.
Compared to the monsters on the 1st floor, their speed was certainly faster here.
But that was about it.
Unlike the goblins on the 3rd floor, who come at you with roles and formations, these were just basic low-grade monsters relying solely on physical stats.
Unless they had some special gimmick, we weren’t weak enough to fall for monsters that merely displayed their malice like this.
‘Recalling the attack on the goblin village, we might be a bit short on numbers, but at least it shouldn’t be too hard up to the 3rd floor.’
Of course, it was more important to escape the 2nd floor quickly.
Once the battle wrapped up, Yeriell and Lumia approached, passing by the corpses scattered on the ground.
“Ugh! I knew mermen existed, but that’s my first time seeing one. They’re truly this ugly!”
Yeriell frowned at the severed head of the merman.
“Speaking of which, Yeriell, which area did you drop into when you passed the 2nd floor with Derik’s party? Since you mentioned it was disgusting earlier, it must have been the Bug Zone?”
“That’s right. It was crawling with insect-type monsters, like giant grubs or centipede monsters.”
Yeriell pretended to gag.
“If mermen are just ugly and disgusting, that place was outright revolting… it was a biological violation. I’m glad to have fallen here instead.”
Eww. I hate bugs too.
Back on Earth, I had an extreme aversion to insects. Especially cockroaches, mosquitoes, and houseflies—those were horrendous.
When I was busy collecting information in the library, I clearly remember reading that there were giant mosquito monsters called Mosquito Something-or-others in the swamp.
‘…Just thinking about it makes me feel nauseous.’
I shook off those horrific thoughts and dismissed them from my mind.
“What we need to collect are the large fin parts, right? Let’s hurry up and get moving.”
I cut a pronounced section from the corpse’s dorsal fin and, after stowing it in my pocket, placed it in my backpack.
“Lumia, do you sense anything nearby?”
Lumia closed her eyes and focused.
After a moment of watching her ears perk up as she listened.
“…No. I don’t sense any monsters or adventurers.”
Good. The merman swarm had rushed out so suddenly that we didn’t confirm where we had landed.
“Let’s see, it’s the Swamp Zone.”
I took out a map and compass and began to examine them slowly.
‘Oh no. We ended up in an awkward spot.’
The wall’s traces extended in a straight line along a wide passage.
From what I could see, there didn’t seem to be any resting points nearby.
Considering that it was still quite dark, I could roughly deduce that.
We must have fallen just past the central area connecting the boundaries of each zone on the 2nd floor, just beyond the entrance to the Swamp Zone.
It’s said that the darkness gradually lightens the closer one gets to the portals leading to the next floor, but it’s still dark enough to need torches…
“We need to move quickly. Let’s at least reach an area where we can spot some resting places.”
With that said, I began walking again.
This route is half-avoided, meaning very few adventurers would choose to pass through here.
As I cautiously kept my guard up and moved carefully.
“If we keep going like this, soon we’ll find a—”
[Chaos warns you to be cautious.]
It slowed down!
‘Where is it?’
Just like when someone attacks or danger approaches, the world started to show itself in slow motion.
I slowly turned my head, letting my eyes dart around without being affected by the slow pace.
Front, right, left. There was no sign of trajectories or even the start of an attack.
Considering that we had just passed through without encountering anything, it wouldn’t be behind us.
So that leaves… above!
My judgment was quick, and I immediately summoned my great sword, raising it to shield my head.
Thud.
“Urgh.”
“Huh, Aren?!”
From above fell a blue gelatinous creature that looked larger than an average adult male’s torso.
From its appearance, it was likely a monster called a slime, crashing down onto me from the ceiling.
Chiiiii—
Luckily, I managed to block it in time, but it stuck stubbornly to my blade, trying to corrode my weapon.
“Get off me!”
With a hiss, smoke began to rise, and without hesitation, I swung the great sword vigorously.
It could no longer withstand my strength and separated from me. No, I should say it splattered onto the ground.
Thud! The slime spread across the ground, wriggling as it reformed itself.
“I’m fine, so both of you keep your heads up and back off! Yeriell, cast a shield overhead!”
“Be careful!”
“Okay, Holy light’s protection!”
[Divine Shield]
As I confirmed the shield forming above their heads, I glared upwards.
One, two, three.
I could see the shapes of monsters wriggling on the ceiling.
To move forward, I had to grab one of them. But how do I get them down before they drop?
‘The only method that comes to mind is to pass beneath them and bait them down. There’s no archer, and it’s too far to tell Yeriell to shoot a Holy Arrow. I can’t guarantee that it’ll reach.’
Keeping my head cool and my judgment swift.
Just like how I blocked the first falling slime, I raised my great sword to shield my head and dove forward.
Thud. Thud.
“Ugh.”
As stated in the book I read in the library, these amorphous monsters that emerge from the lower layers generally lack intelligence or have very low intelligence.
Every time I tried to run under them, more slimes fell to cover me, just as I expected.
The default setting for these creatures stuck to the ceiling was to drop onto the heads of passing adventurers, corrode them with their unique acids, and absorb them!
“Damn, get off me!”
Once again, I swung my great sword down with force, shaking them off, and they began to spill onto the ground, all attempting to reform.
Looking at the wriggling slimes, I recalled the knowledge I had about them.
‘There are two types of slimes appearing in the Swamp Zone, right?’
The bouncy cave slime and the acid slime that moves along the gaps in walls or ceilings.
I knew there were these two kinds of slimes.
The former generally relied on body bumps as their attacks and were known to be easy to catch because they had larger cores.
The latter, the acid slime, though, appeared less often, and with much smaller cores that shift positions, which meant unless you could use magic or have powerful wide-area attacks… the best you could do was weaken them to escape.
Due to the acidic properties they possess, corroding both equipment and body was just a bonus.
But to get ambushed by an acid slime right on the first day?
‘Right, what was my luck stat again? I guess my luck just isn’t that great! Gotta do whatever it takes to survive!’
I switched back to my sword and approached the almost fully reformed slimes.
“I need to destroy their cores in one go, but where are they?”
They were so small, they genuinely were hard to find.
An average adventurer would have already neutralized these by now and given up trying to find a way forward.
But I was different.
‘…I see it! The size is small, but the color of the core blends with the body, making it hard to distinguish.’
With my eyes wide open, I blinked not once but focused intently, soon spotting the three cores moving within them.
Smash! Smash! Smash!
Without delay, I struck the blue cores with the tip of my sword.
The slimes trembled softly, dissolving into the ground, and disappeared, leaving only kernel-sized remnants behind.
“Since they’re rare monsters, the byproducts will surely fetch a high price.”
I collected them and headed back to Yeriell and Lumia.
“Aren, you got them all, right? It seems like Luna was keeping that last one in check here.”
“It kept trying to escape, and keeping it subdued was all I could manage. No area attacks sorely hurts here.”
Hearing this, I looked at the first slime we encountered, still wriggling and turbulent within the black hand.
Could I just crush it, rendering it truly dead?
When I asked, Lumia shook her head.
“You can’t. It’s an amorphous monster, and it struggles too much.”
“I guess it can’t be helped. Anyway, thanks for your hard work. Shall I let it go? I can see where the core is.”
Nodding, the black hand released it.
As the acid slime, which had been crushed by the magic, returned to its original state, it quickly began to flee, pouring its goo all over the ground.
Bam!
Not a chance. I lunged out to split the core in one strike.
After placing the final fragment into my pouch, I opened my mouth.
“Looks like the 2nd floor isn’t so easy after all. We have plenty of strength, but the unexpected circumstances or unique elements make decision-making a challenge.”
“Yeah. I thought a slime would be a weak monster…”
“The sound it made when it corroded my weapon was pretty serious. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I can recover it with magic.”
I dismissed Lumia’s worries.
‘Indeed, self-repairing weapon, hurrah!’
Having a great sword received from the guild leader made a big difference.
If I hadn’t had that sword, I would have had to rely solely on the kettle hat on my head to withstand the attack.
“Now, everyone’s not hurt, right? We’ve collected the byproducts, and it doesn’t seem like there’s anything left on the ceiling or walls, so shall we move on?”
Everyone agreed, and after checking our gear, we advanced towards the end of the zone.
*
A treasure chest.
From a glance, it looked securely locked.
“Woooah! This is the first treasure chest I’ve seen in the labyrinth!”
“I wonder what’s inside?”
[Chaos is curious about the contents.]
Right. I’m excited too, and I’m wondering what’s in the box, but…
Can we even open this?