Someday Will I Be The Greatest Alchemist?

Chapter 272: Labyrinth of Heresy 2

When we explored the first level with Kaede and I at the lead, I felt a sense of malaise from the ground. I think it was because of my experience with the last dungeon and my Insight skill.

「Hold on!」

When I cautiously examined the floor, there was a pitfall trap set in place.

「Traps in the first floor, huh…… what a nasty dungeon.」

I took out the stones and soil we prepared from the Item Box and used 『Alchemy』 to create a bridge, then crossed over to the other side.

「I wonder if the other teams are alright.」

「Each team has at least one scout, so I believe they would be fine.」

When we crossed the impromptu stone bridge, the dungeon swallowed the stone bridge. The dungeon swallows foreign matters. This meant that the intruders’ corpses and equipment, and defeated monster corpses are absorbed after some time had passed. Since we were in a hurry this time, aside from the especially important parts, we just stripped off the magic stones.

「Still, they’re all man-like monsters huh.」

「Indeed. The first floor is all goblins though.」

「But Sophia-san, don’t you think that the goblins of this dungeon seem like they’re controlled even though there’s no ruling species?」

「……right, that’s unpleasant.」

Just as Maria had said, it wasn’t strange for goblins to appear on the first floor, but it was strange that they were unusually under control. Though it wouldn’t have been strange if there were superior classes mixed in with them.

We got our bearings straight and returned to exploring the first floor.

Our time with Heath-san’s party in the Divine Empire Sydnia’s last dungeon had become a great learning experience for me. Even I had become able to vaguely know the location and type of traps. Perhaps because of her monster instincts, Kaede was remarkably more keen to the presences of monsters and traps compared to all of us.

Now we weren’t having much trouble with the traps on the first floor. Moreover, what showed up were goblins. It wouldn’t have mattered even if superior classes appeared too.

We didn’t explore the entirety of the first floor and were lucky enough to find the floor to go down within half a day.

「……it goes down? This is the type of dungeon that spreads downwards?」

「It’s the opposite of what was in Sydnia.」

「Let’s take a break in the small room in front of the stairs before going down.」

The first thing I sensed when we descended to the 2nd floor was that the ceiling was higher. Even more so, it was different from the first floor.

「It looks like a cavern.」

「Yes. Though it is still dim, it’s faintly bright.」

Sophia surveyed the surroundings, examining this strange space.

There are dungeons that have no source of light where one must absolutely bring lamps to, but there are also dungeon that are dimly lit by the walls and ceilings shining by themselves like this floor.

And the fact that the path widened and the ceiling rose tells another fact.

「It looks like superior goblin species, or perhaps orcs would appear, wouldn’t they?」

「Yes, superior goblin types mixed with orcs would appear frequently.」

「Orcs? Master, orc meat feast?」

「Sure. I suppose we could dismantle the orcs for their materials.」

When Kaede heard the word “orc”, she looked happy and excited. To Kaede, orcs were meat on legs.

It was then that we heard the familiar snorting of a monster.

Fugo fugo

「Oh, they showed up immediately.」

「I’m go~ing!」

「Ah, Kaede!」

We discovered three orcs at the turn ahead. Then, Kaede merrily rushed out.

The first orc was decapitated without knowing what had happened to it.

「Ei!」

Using the wall and jumping, she then swung her claw weapon at the second orc, and at that moment, the third orc was entangled in Kaede’s threads.

「Yah!」

Kaede dismembered the third orc to pieces in an instant.

「Master! Meat, meat~!」

「I get it, I get it. I’ll dismantle it right now.」

Kaede, who killed the three orcs in an instant, waved her hand, asking me to come dismantle them. Reluctantly, the girls and I nimbly dismantled it, then stored the choice cuts and magic stones.

「Okay, let’s hurry up.」

「Ka~y! Master!」

We resumed our exploration of the 2nd level with the lively Kaede at the lead.

The monsters in the 2nd floor were the higher ranking Goblin Mages, Archers, General, and Orcs in addition to the Goblins that appeared in the 1st floor had begun appearing.

As always, we only took the magic stones from the goblins, and the orcs became food for Sophia’s Thunder Eagle Gloam, Akane’s Luna Wolf Ferryl, and Laeva’s wildcat Serval Seru who were on standby in Kaede’s and my subspace.

The subjugation itself went smoothly, partly because of the levels of the monsters that appeared on the 2nd floor, and it didn’t take much time to find the stairs to the 3rd floor.

***