Chapter 39:　Appeared

A monster core the size of a person’s head came out from the Queen Ant’s body. Shining in white, I understood that it’s of a considerably high quality. It seems that it would fetch a high price. Although we dismantled all the other Soldier Ants, what comes out was just a plain black stone. Since this cannot be sold, let’s give up on collecting them.

We discussed about what to do with the eggs stuck on the wall, and thus decided to destroy all of them since it’s going to be troublesome when they hatch. I burned them one after another with my recovered magic power. Since its going to be bad if even one of them are left, I destroyed them carefully.

We returned towards the entrance without meeting any Soldier Ants that survived and removed the clay wall, and since we met a few Soldier Ants scattering about since they can’t enter, we quickly cleaned up the place.

We finally returned back to the meadow. I stretch myself while filling my lung with the fresh air. Although the sky is not blue, there’s still this wonderful sense of relief. At that time, I heard a great rumbling sound, as it seems to came from Shallie’s stomach. I guess she’s hungry, as Shallie was rubbing her stomach with downed ear. Well, she’s in her growth period. I need to feed her a lot.

“Alright, shall we have a meal?” (Est)

Shallie is not the only one pleased to hear that. Everyone sits on their favorite spot. Now then, what should i make today?

I take out the beef and pork that had been preserved in the tool bag. While I cut them finely into minced meat, I fry the onion that Claire had cut nicely and then cool it. I soaked the bread crumbs that Lelena had prepared in milk. I throw all the ingredients into the pan along with salt and pepper as seasonings. I mixed them together until the stickiness appears. I keep on mixing them earnestly.

Once I take it out, I put some oil in the pan and heat it up on low heat, divide the minced meat and grilled them until it got burnt in the center on both sides. It finally completes once both sides got burnt. The simple hamburger steak is ready. But this is not the end. I sprinkle some sauce that I brought from the town, and then place the hamburger between the bread that I had cut, thus completing the hamburger.

“Yummy~!” (Shallie)

“It really is delicious, Master!” (Claire)

“My lord even knows how to cook..?” (Diabell)

It seems that everyone likes it. The combination of placing meat in between the bread is mysteriously delicious huh. Although the amount is not much, I managed to cover it with taste. Now that we’ve filled our bellies, it’s time to decide our next move. Since there’s still no information of a Floor Master appearing, I guess it’s okay to make our temporary aim to go to the lower floor?

“Although I’m not sure if this is helpful or not, according to the information that I heard before, it seems to appear between 10th floor to 13th floor on average. No countermeasures can be set up as the monster that appeared is different every single time.” (Diabell)

Diabell offered the information that she had during the time she was used as a shield. Or rather, how would you know even if it do appear? It would be nice if it got something that would reveal it as a Floor Master though.

“If it’s that, then it’s easy. Title as a Floor Master should appear in its status. You should be able to understand if you see it.” (Diabell)

Title? First time I heard about that. Will anything be different if they have it?

“I also knew about that. Although it depends on the title, I heard that most title seems to greatly improves the status. Many famous adventurers hold some titles. Although there are various kind of conditions to obtain a title,  it seems that it’s possible to get a title when you defeat the Floor Master, however only the one who deals the finishing blow will be able to obtain the title.” (Diabell)

Only limited to the one who deals the finishing blow huh…it would have been good if all of us managed to get it. Anyway, it’s good that we’re able to obtain some informations even if its just a little. It will likely appear if we advanced as it is. According to the map, the stairs to the 12th floor seems to be not that far.

Without encountering any enemy’s attacks since the Soldier Ants, we’re able to arrive at the stairs immediately. However the situation around the stair is a bit weird. There are several parties of adventurers who suffered injuries appeared from the lower floor. Did something abnormal happened?

“…A Floor Master appeared. Although there are several other parties other than us, we’re the only one that managed to escape.”

He told me that while borrowing my shoulder and dragging his foot. Their weapons are broken, and all of the members are tattered. I used healing magic as I still have a lot of MP. Thanks to the level up, it seems that the recovery speed becomes faster. The adventurers who recovered from the injury give us the information about the Floor Master as thanks.

“It’s a person leading a huge crowd of undeads. It looks like a specter of a knight without a head. It’s really strong, so be careful if you want to fight it.”

I advised them to return to the simple village. Fortunately, as there’s no more Soldier Ants, they would likely be able to safely return. Still, a headless knight…is it a Dullahan? Some said that it is a strong undead said to reap a person’s life. However with our current power, it would be beneficial for us to fight against undead. I have my Flame and Healing Magic, also Lelena’s Healing Magic and Diabell’s Spirit Magic.

“Everyone ready?” (Est)

Everyone nodded with a serious face. We’ve finally come this far, we can’t lose here. We head down the stairs with me in the lead. Garbage like smell becomes stronger with every step we descend. Since they said there’s a large hordes of undeads, this should be the smell of rotten corpses.

Although we could still handle it somehow, its a severe environment for Claire and Shallie who are a beastman. Claire had a displeased look while Shallie was holding her nose with teary eyes. I make a simple mask using damp towel. They should feel slightly better with this. Amyl is breathing using his mouth. You’re really stupid aren’t you?

Once we finished going down the stairs, there’s already many corpses scattered here and there, from new ones to the old ones. The new one should be from the adventurers that got attacked previously. I really don’t want to end up like them.

The space on this floor is pretty wide. Although not as wide as the 11th floor, the height should be around 10 meters or more. We should be able to fight properly here.

And then, once the hordes of undeads noticed us, they start heading toward us at a slow pace. There’s around 200 to 300 of them, or more. It totally looks like the old-school zombie movie. Although their movements are slow, some of them are big while some of them have a small body. With this speed we should be able to deal with them easily.

There’s no need to hold back. Allow me to use without reserve the explosion magic that I can’t find any opportunity to use before. I build a clay wall surrounding everyone. I work an image of explosion occurring in the middle of the enemy groups. And then, I aimed the magic towards the enemies once I fill it with enough magic power.

With an earsplitting explosion sound, we lay down as the shock wave from the blast came above our head. After a bit of delay, some of the soil and the undead’s body parts dropped in front of us.

“KYAAAA! NOOO!” (Diabell)

A rotten human head suddenly fell in front of us. Diabell who got out of character is pretty cute. She starts kicking the head outside in a panic.

When I lean forward to see the situation outside, most of the enemy groups had scattered. There’s only around 100 left. And , although I didn’t see it before, riding a headless horse in the interior of the group, a headless knight appeared. So that is a Floor Master huh? We finally found it. Let’s show it our strength.