Level Eater-Chapter 131: Desert Dungeon
Tatsuro and Ai were sweating as they walked through the desert, making sure to stay hydrated.
It was worth it, and the two of them finally found a glowing pool that looked like an oasis leading to the lower floor, and the two of them jumped in immediately.
""Chilly""
Then, the next place they came out was in a desert in the middle of the night, illuminated by moonlight.
The temperature difference is completely different from before, and the sweat is cooled and takes away the body heat.
Tatsuro hurriedly uses fire magic to start a fire to keep Ai and himself warm.
By the way, Cardina and the others don't seem to be feeling the cold at all, as they are operating normally without being exposed to the fire.
While looking at them with envy, the two of them made sure that their sweat had dried before walking off in search of the next floor.
"I have fire magic, so cold is still better than hot." (Tatsuro)
"Um, but it's too much." (Ai)
"Then, I'll increase the firepower a little more." (Tatsuro)
"It's not easy to have a normal body." (Ai)
"Pewee" (Cardina)
"Neigh" (Jeanne)
Nana and the others, who did not understand the sensation, looked on in wonder as Tatsuro and Ai worked hard to keep themselves warm.
Perhaps because Tatsuro and his team were walking around with fire floating around them, or maybe because they were afraid of the giant Jeanne, the monsters reacted a little more than usual, but they ran away before they could get close, and there was no battle.
While spending such a lukewarm time in everything but the environment, they finally found the entrance to the next floor.
Ai pulled Tatsuro along to get him there, and Cardina and the others jumped in there a little later.
And next came a maze of flowing sand.
The sand on the walls and the ground were constantly flowing, and if they stood still, they would be pushed back little by little, creating a structured field that would eventually be buried in the ground.
"We can't stand still for long at this one. However, given the atmosphere, we might have been able to pull a hit on the third floor." (Tatsuro)
"So, does this mean this is the floor where the door to the boss room is?" (Ai)
"Ah. Last time, when the door to the boss room was in the room, it suddenly turned into a maze, right?" (Tatsuro)
"If you ask me, it certainly was." (Ai)
"That means if we can get through this point, we're done. Let's go for it!" (Tatsuro)
Ai stroked the tip of Jeanne's nose and started walking next to Jeanne as if to spare her both the hot and cold feelings.
Tatsuro and Nana followed suit and started walking, while Cardina flew through the air to keep them alert.
They then walked along the right side of the maze, and when they came to the fourth bend/turn, the monster was caught in Cardina's security net.
"...This thing is in the sand. It looks like a humanoid, but is it a Togenchu? Or should I assume it's something similar?" (Tatsuro)
"It's Ibaranchu, Oto-sama. However, I'm a little concerned that there's only one." (Nana)
"I see. During the encounter with Ibaranchu, they formed a gang and attacked, so dungeons of the same level aren't that different in difficulty, right?" (Ai)
"Ah, it won't change. If that's the case, you should think that one and several Ibaranchu are about the same strength. Everyone should be careful, so that whatever happens, Please make sure you don't pull out too much." (Tatsuro)
After making sure that everyone nodded in response to his words, Tatsuro proceeded along the path with everyone.
Then Tatsuro felt the magic of a third party other than Cardina and him being transmitted to the sand on the ground.
While Tatsuro was alerted that something was going to happen, he began preparing his magic.
While doing so, the other party's magic was completed.
It was a sand doll, about a meter in size. Ten such objects came sliding towards them using the force of the flow of sand.
Jeanne destroys the approaching sand doll with wind magic, but the materials for the doll are overflowing everywhere in this dungeon, so much so that it can be said to be inexhaustible, and it quickly revives.
So, they have no choice but to either defeat the main body that uses this magic, which is several tens of meters away from them or wait for it to run out of magic/mana.
However, the latter is not what the Tatsuro camp wants, so they will just have to go through with it.
First of all, the sand doll itself isn't that much of a threat, so Jeanne, with Nana on her back, charges at it and knocks it away, creating a path.
After that, Tatsuro uses Nana's curse magic to increase his speed and manages to pass through the sand doll before it can repair itself, while the others use their own physical abilities to get ahead of him.
Tatsuro used mental image transmission to give Ai detailed instructions about the location of the monster in question, and Ai received the instructions accurately and swung her fist toward a place slightly off the ground where it was hiding and lurking.
Then, sand rose up, creating a crater all over the area, and the monster finally appeared.
If you look at it from behind, it looks like a human about 120 centimeters tall wearing a tattered robe, but if you look at it from the front, you'll see huge round eyes with hair sprouting from its face. And no matter how they looked at it, it wasn't a person.
If this One-Eyed monster was left alone like this, it would likely hide in the sand again, so Ai quickly took out her whip, caught the monster, and tossed it upwards.
Cardina, who was waiting for it in the sky, caught it and swooped down with it to the front of Tatsuro.
Then Tatsuro blew the black ball already in his mouth at that monster.
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Level: 6
Skill: [Sand doll making Lv.3]
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(It's a monster worth SP (6), so it is better than the previous dungeon.)
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Level: 6
Skill: [Sand doll making Lv.0]
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Finally, Nana, a user of curse magic whose level is difficult to raise, put an end to it with [Dragon Drain], and silence returned to the place.
Tatsuro burned the monster and took out a three-centimeter magic stone, put it in his [item box], and started walking together with everyone again.
"I guess. After all, this isn't a place to get used to our new equipment." (Ai)
"Ah. There's no use for this coat at the moment." (Tatsuro)
With that said, Tatsuro flapped the hem of the new coat he was currently wearing, causing Cardina and the others to snort heavily.
"No matter where you go, we will not let any attack reach you!" (Nana)
"Pewee!" (Cardina)
"Neigh!" (Jeanne)
"I'm not going to let it reach you either." (Ai)
"That's true. I'm also careful not to let any attacks fall on Ai and you guys." (Tatsuro)
Even as they talked about things like that, they kept moving forward, fighting the One-Eyed monster several times along the way, and even though they only earned a small amount of SP, they were able to earn more than before.
After passing through several turns, they finally found the door to the boss room they were looking for.
As usual, only the huge door sat in the middle of the wide, round passageway, without touching anything, and not being swept away by the flowing sand.
Jeanne took the lead and walked through the door, feeling a little overwhelmed by such a sight.
There, they found a large room with sand flowing in a circle, and a strange interior where half of the room was daytime and the other half was night.
The sky pattern of the sun and moon was painted on the ceiling, and the only thing that looked like the real thing was the light that radiated from it.
Because of the interior design, the temperature is clearly divided depending on where you are, and Tatsuro and Ai decided to settle on the night side, which is illuminated by the moonlight, as it is better than under the sunlight.
And so, as they endured the cold with fire magic, a large black vortex appeared in the center of the room, gradually changing its shape.
As everyone watched to see what kind of boss demon would appear this time, a Haniwa (clay figurine) about 50 centimeters long appeared.
"Is that the boss this time?" (Tatsuro)
"I think so...but it seems kind of weak." (Ai)
"I agree with you, Mother." (Nana)
"......"
Although they said it looks weak, it doesn't move in the slightest, with its mouth hanging open like a Haniwa. Tatsuro wondered if it's okay for Ai to just bash it open like that. It wasn't until he started thinking about this that it turned its entire body around on the spot and turned to face them.
As they watched to see what it would do, it suddenly started spinning like a drill and charged at them like a rocket.
The movement was so unexpected that Ai stepped forward half-reflexively, rotated her body, and tried to hit back with a back fist with the back of her armor.
Instead of hitting back, it turned into rubble with a crashing sound, and from within it, a magic stone about eight centimeters in size hit the tip of Ai's armored foot.
|||||Skill point (1) has been granted.|||||
"…Eh, is this the end?" (Ai)
"I guess that's what it means to have SP..." (Tatsuro)
"It came all of a sudden, so I hit it with a fair amount of force. I'm sorry, Tatsuro. You couldn't use Level Eater." (Ai)
"Okay, don't worry about it. I made a lot of money from the monsters along the way, and this one didn't make much either. Let's switch gears and move on to the real thing." (Tatsuro) (T/N: YEAH, it money written in the raws. But I know it should be (SP))
"That's right, mother!" (Nana)
"Yeah...that's right. Let's go next." (Ai)
Ai regained her composure with everyone's encouragement, picked up the magic stone that was lying at her feet, and handed it to Tatsuro.
Around that time, a glowing reservoir leading to the exit room had also appeared, and they all jumped into it without feeling any sentimentality.
After that, they came into the same plain white room as before and walked up the staircase extending upward.
This time, they were lucky enough to take the shortest possible route, which was three levels plus a boss, so they did not exit at night, and it was still early evening.
"Okay, there's only one thing left. Let's get some dinner somewhere and leave right away." (Tatsuro)
"Don't we have to exchange the magic stones for cash?" (Ai)
"I think it would be easier if we conquered the next one and then put it all together." (Tatsuro)
"I see. Well, yesterday was a miss, so let's try something tastier today." (Ai)
"Yeah, I don't want to eat that anymore..." (Tatsuro)
They casually bought something similar to yesterday's yakisoba noodles as recommended by the staff, but they were disappointed as it didn't suit their tastes at all.
So today, they made up their minds to choose delicious food of their own volition and walked toward the line of stalls.
So, this time, they bought a few strange foods that looked like large-sized grills and contained something that could be used as a sandwich ingredient instead of bean paste.
When they ate it, it was so delicious that they left the dungeon feeling satisfied.
Two days after defeating the Haniwa boss, Tatsuro and his team were now near the level 3 dungeon, as they had returned to Lyadas once to resupply and to see Ennio.
As Cardina was in the form of a baby bird on top of Ai's head, and Jeanne was in the form of a small rhinoceros as they walked next to Nana, they soon saw a wall that had not been seen in the level 1 dungeon.
With curious looks on their faces, the group headed toward what looked like a gate where people entered and exited, and it seemed like only those entering were being checked individually.
To be honest, they didn't understand what the check meant, since they didn't show their ID and the person sitting in front of the gate just glanced at them.
So when Tatsuro and his team tried to pass through without paying attention, they were approached by an old man who appeared to be the gatekeeper, sitting comfortably in a wooden chair and checking on the passersby.
"Could you please stop for a moment?"
"? Is it us?" (Tatsuro)
"That's right. I'd like to ask you something, is that young child a member of your party?"
The white-haired old man said this in a relaxed tone while looking at Nana. In response, Tatsuro pulled Nana closer to him and put his hand on her head.
"If you're talking about this kid, then yes. She's an official member of our team." (Tatsuro)
"Oh, well, then it's all right. I'm sorry for holding you back. For this level of dungeon, half-breeds will die, so we have a rule to tell them to turn back."
"Ah, that's right. Then, can we go now?" (Tatsuro)
"Oh, oh. That's right. Be careful."
"Yes. Thank you. See you then." (Tatsuro)
With a slight nod, Tatsuro said goodbye to the old man and went inside the wall.
Some stores were opening there: as there were several well-established stores, and there were many stores selling equipment and doing maintenance.
The atmosphere of the people passing by had changed, and although there were no children, they seemed to be the children of the shopkeepers, none of them wanted to challenge the dungeon, while the faces of the adults looked much more stern than before.
Although they were a bit bemused by the sight of what looked like an even smaller version of a small town, they continued walking in the direction of where the dungeon was supposed to be.
Then they discovered a glowing reservoir that was the entrance to a dungeon surrounded by a fence.
The entrance to the dungeon this time was different from the previous ones, as the entry point seemed to be roughly determined, and those who were about to take on the challenge jumped in along the path separated by a fence.
Tatsuro and his team followed suit, walking along the fence from the least populated area, and finally stepped into the level 3 dungeon.
