Chapter 53: 30th floor

Finally, we have reached the thirtieth floor.

“It’s the same as the 29th floor huh.”

“Yeah”

As Erna had said, the 30th floor has landscape almost similar to the 29th floor. The passageway was overgrown with grass and the walls were covered with vines. I’m still inside the Great Labyrinth but if feels like I’m outside.

“Mokyuu?”

A small creature emerges from the grassy area. It was about 30cm long, covered with brown hair, and its appearance is very similar to a koala. Its round eyes are staring at us puzzlingly.

“Oh, what a cute creature.”

When I tried to touch it, it growled and bit my hand. Contrary to its appearance, it has a large mouth and sharp teeth like those of a shark grow sharply on it. Obviously, it’s a carnivorous one.

“Shinichi!!?”

“Don’t worry, this won’t hurt me.”

The little creature bite into my hand but it can’t pierce through my skin. Then after a while, the creature finally gave up and ran away.

“What was that?”

“That is a magical beast called gremlin. It looks cute, but it is known as a ferocious carnivore. If you can train it, you can keep it, but I don’t really recommend that you do that.”

Given Freya’s explanation, I also agree to that. Well, since it’s cute, it’s not strange that some humans will want to have it. There are even some people in this world who tried to keep lions and tigers.

I stand up and we proceeded forward. We then came to the place where a group of creatures called gremlin and a group of hobgoblins were fighting. Twenty hobgoblins surround and attack ten gremlins.

The hobgoblins mercilessly raise their nails towards the gremlins, who squeals, “Mokyu! Mokyuuuu!”

Considering that this is a struggle for existence, It’s normal to think of it as the strong preys on the weak. However, I felt sad to see that such adorable creatures are crying sorrowfully.

“Skeletons, get rid of those hobgoblins.”

“Katakatakata”

Hundred skeletons moved forward. Suketarou was the one who takes command. While the three Lich served as the long-range attacker. The Hobgoblins are so engrossed with their fight that they seem to be completely unaware of the incoming skeleton unit.

Then the fight was finished in a blink of an eye. The hobgoblins were wiped out in less than five minutes. The injured gremlins on the other hand were trembling gathered together.

“Katakata”

Suketarou also tried to touch a gremlin. However the frightened gremlin bites into Suketarou’s finger. But since it’s made up of bone, it was too hard for its teeth to bite into.

“Katakatakata”

Suketarou laughs as he seemed to be tickled. Then the Gremlins stop squealing and they stared at Suketarou and the other skeletons. And shortly after, the Gremlins ran away from the area.

I helped them for my self-satisfaction. In other words, I just feel like it. The next time we meet gremlins, I might hunt them.

“Well done”

“Katakata”

The skeletons clattered their jaws and bowed to me. I then stowed the Hobgoblins’ corpses inside the bangle. According to Erna, hobgoblins are quite pricey. Of course their meat cannot be eaten, but it seems that there is demand for their bones.

We start walking again as we follow Erna’s instructions who is currently looking at the map.

“Go to the right next.”

“Right huh. By the way, how long is it before we get to the disposal site?”

“It’s near. But, can we get in smoothly?”

Erna’s question is justified. We were able to enter the disposal site on the 20th floor because I happened to found the hidden door. It seems that it is better to think that the entrance on the 30th floor’s disposal site is hidden as well.

“Katakata”

Suketarou clatters his jaw.

Looking back, ten gremlins are peeking out from the behind the grass. One of them comes out and touches the skeleton in the end of the line. The other Gremlins were just watching the situation.

“It looks like they became emotionally attached to them huh.”

“But it’s a carnivore you know?”

“Gremlins are ferocious, but they’re not foolish. Once they recognize you as their ally, they won’t attack unnecessarily. They seem to have a keen interest in the skeletons too.”

The Gremlin touches the skeleton once more and it looks up at the skeleton. On the contrary, the skeleton looking down at it seems to be troubled.

“Mokyu!”

After that gremlin squealed, the other gremlins hiding in the area, revealed themselves. Sitting under the feet of the skeletons, they licked each other’s wounds. Apparently, they thought that it was a safe to be near the skeletons.

“They’re so cute.”

Erna is fascinated seeing such gremlins. Yeah, they are cute, but we can’t move forward with them like this.

Hmm, what to do?

“They are injured, so I think they want us to protect them.”

I nod to Pero’s words.

Let’s heal their injuries then.

I took out some cure mushrooms out of the bangle and threw them at the gremlins.

“They won’t eat it huh…”

They did not even bother to look at the cure mushrooms I tossed to them. Oh well, it’s a given because they are a carnivorous creature. Thus I decided to chop the cure mushrooms into small pieces and mix it with minced meat.

When I throw the dumpling of raw meat to them, the gremlins took a bite on it this time. Then their wounds from the hobgoblin’s scratches gradually disappeared. The gremlins began to run energetically afterwards.

“Alright, we’re going now―Hn?”

The gremlins climb into the skeletons’ body as I issued the command. Then they even settled down on the skeletons’ shoulders or head.

Hmm, it seems that they intend to follow us based from their actions.

“It can’t be helped, let’s just take them with us.”

We finally start walking again.

　◇

“There should be a hidden space behind this wall, right?”

“Yes, that’s what the map says. It’s also about the size of the disposal site.”

We arrived at the destination but the question is on how we can get inside. The skeletons have already begun to look for hidden doors, but there have been no reports of discovering such thing yet.

“Should we look for the hidden door too?”

Then each one of us begins to look for it while hitting the wall. We decided to act separately. I took the ten skeletons with me, Erna and Suketarou with fifty skeletons, and Pero and Flair with forty skeletons.

It’s more efficient and this will increase the chance of it being found. I also decided to keep the gremlins in my group. They look cute, but they are a carnivore, so it’s safer if they are with me as I could handle it if I am to be bitten.

“Mokyu”

The gremlins are licking parts of the skeletons’ body. It is mutual grooming or should I say grooming. Many animals do this to get rid of parasites and keep them clean. Of course that’s not all. It also has other meanings such as having emotional connection or showing their friendship. The skeletons appear to be liked by the Gremlins.

“But―, I can’t find it at all…”

I’m looking for it while hitting the wall, but I can’t find that spot. This may take a few days.

As that thought crossed my mind, a gremlin stood in front of the wall a little bit far from the skeletons. I observe at what it was trying to do. The gremlin then begins to push the wall and a hidden door opens up. It jumped inside the opened gap without hesitation.

“Mokyu!”

Following that, another gremlin also opened the hidden door and enters inside. I was stunned while watching the situation.

“Mokyu! Mokyu!”

The gremlins seemed to say that the skeletons should follow them. I let the skeletons go ahead and I followed from behind. The floor was one step lower beyond the hidden door as expected. There is also a straight passage behind it. When I looked at the hidden door from where we came in, it was now totally closed. As expected, it seems that it is a one-way mechanism.

“Mokyu!”

The gremlins were calling out to the skeletons to follow them. The skeletons and I decided to follow the gremlins to the end of the aisle.

“This is……”

The space at the end of the aisle was as expected. It’s a square room with crystals on the walls that are shining with pale light. But what’s even more eye-catching is the group of over 100 gremlins. Carpets made of grass are their bedding, and many small babies of the Gremlins are sleeping.

“We looked for the gremlins nest huh…”

I can’t help but laughed as I thought that. I never thought there was a nest in the disposal site that should have been hidden. I’m should be thankful for the chance of meeting those gremlins.

When I pulled myself together and looked at the center of the disposal site, there was a treasure trove beyond my imagination.

There are Mithril sword and Mithril axe. Furthermore, there are Mithril shields, even bows and canes are stack in piles. Generally speaking, it’s a mountain of countless weapons. There are also a lot of armors and tools.

“This is amazing! I’m glad I came here!”

I randomly stored things in the bangle. I don’t know the mechanism of the disposal site that well, but basically, inorganic substances are accumulated as garbage. Not to mention, organic products such as leather could weather. However, some of them seem to be able to withstand weathering.

Best evidence is that there are bows and canes that were made of trees and plants.

【Analysis Result: Large tree Bow: A bow carved from a branch of a large tree that is said to have lived for 2,000 years. Its arrow have the attributes of the wind that can penetrate even an iron wall: Rarity A】

【Analysis Result: Bird of Paradise Cane: A cane made of the bones of a bird that lives in Hades Island. It has a very good magical conductivity, is light in weight and is harder than steel. It has a high affinity with the wind attribute and has the effect of boosting one’s power: Rarity A】

【Analysis Result: Magic Steel Spear: A spear made from magic steel. It has excellent sharpness and strength, and its magical conductivity exceeds Mithril: Rarity A】

【Analysis Result: Flame Back Hand Guard: Guard for the back of the hand made by synthesizing Freinium and Mithril. The momentum of the flame also increases depending on the amount of magical power applied: Rarity A】(TLYN: You can search this[手甲] to properly visualize it)

As expected, something with rarity of S cannot be found here. Rarity A is the highest and B is more than a dozen. Most of them are with rarity of C.

Well, come to think about it carefully, will a human with a weapon of rarity S die in the 30th floor?

Of course, the answer is NO. Thus, so far, things are going well. So I could say that weapons of rarity A and above are lying around in the floors further below. I do want to go search for those with Rarity S, but currently, there is no reason to do so. I’m just collecting weapons for my living, not as a collector’s item anyway.

When almost the entire mountain of items is stored in the bangle, I surveyed the disposal site as I looked for the exit. Then incidentally, I saw several gremlins pushing the wall for going out. Apparently, I can get out of from there.

“Gremlins, sorry for disturbing you. This is my thank you gift.”

I gave a lump of meat to the gremlins. There is a lot of hobgoblin meat in the bangle anyway so it’s a good place to sort them out. Besides it doesn’t make much sense to keep such inedible meat.

The carnivorous gremlins swarm on the meat. It’s not a very pleasant sight to watch, so I decided to go out from the exit quickly. When I went outside, Erna and the others were sitting down and chatting. Apparently, they couldn’t find the hidden door so they stopped the search from some time ago. When they saw me, they immediately run to me.

“Shinichi! Did you get inside!?”

“Well, the disposal site appeared to be the gremlins’ nest and I was able to get in as I go after them. I already collected the weapons so the dungeon exploration is over.”

“Yey! We can finally go home! I’m dead tired!”

The three of them happily frolic around. When we get home, I’ll feed them with some delicious food.

“Ah right, I’ve collected some weapons that looked good, I’ll give them to you guys.”

I handed the Large Tree Bow and Bird of Paradise Cane to Erna. I give the Flame Hand Guard to Pero. And Freya received the Magic Steel Spear.

When each of them received it, they quickly checked its usability.

“This bow is good. Especially the cane, it’s the best. It looks like its performance is much better than my previous canes.”

“My fingers are coming out in this Back Hand Guard. It also appears that it will generate flame when magical power is applied to it.”

“This is of high-quality. This spear is considerably heavier than Mithril, but it’s just right for me. I’ll use the Mithril Spear as a sub-weapon and use this as my main one.”

The three of them seemed to be satisfied. It seems that it’s good to think that we had a huge harvest this time after all.

“Alright, shall we head back?”

We then head to the Temple of Teleportation here in the 30^th floor. We arrived at the temple in about two hours.

“I’m going to transfer―”

I halted my movement when I tried to touch the lithograph inside the temple. That’s because when I looked closely, there are gremlins hugging some skeleton. If we transfer like this, they will be taken with the skeletons.

“Skeletons heed my command. Stay on this floor and protect the entrance and exit of the disposal site.”

“Katakata”

The ten skeletons clattered their jaws and accepted my order. It would be enough to have ten skeletons in this floor, so other than the ones I nominated, I decided to return with the rest via transfer.

This is translated by Yume Neiji. Kindly read at yumeineijiworks.wordpress.com.

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