Accompanied by the adventurers acting as the examiners, the group came to the third level of the dungeon. Here in the Great Dungeon of Vegaltia, powerful monsters and vicious traps appear as you dive into the lower levels. However, the difficulty level of these first three levels is very low, and it is no exaggeration to say that it is for beginners.
For the third level, it is mainly inhabited by kobolds, a bipedal monsters with the head of a dog. It is only slightly stronger than the goblin, which is known as the weakest monster. However, the people who are taking this exam are young examinees who have not even become adventurers yet, most of them are in their mid-teens. And even though they were just kobolds, they are still a monster that one should not let their guard down.
“(.…Hmm. It seems like most of the members this time are cautious enough. This is good.)”
Seeing the other examiners being very cautious of their surroundings, the main examiner, a young B-rank adventurer, was secretly impressed. Well, there are instances that among the hot-blooded examinees, there were quite a few who underestimated the kobolds and suffered the consequences.
“(By the way…… this is a type of beastman that we don’t see very often around here……)”
Among them, the one he was most interested in was a woman who seemed to be a beastman. Her appearance is like a dog beastman, but unlike them, who often have adorable faces, she has a sharp and dignified face. She is about 20 years old, a little older among the other examinees.
And then he realized something.
“(That’s strange.…… We haven’t encountered any monster for a while now.)”
It has already been about ten minutes since they came down to the third floor. With such a large number of kobolds, they should have encountered one long ago.
“Ahem. Well, it’s rare that we haven’t seen kobolds yet, but for the time being, I’d like to explain the contents of this exam in detail. On this floor, there is a monster called the Floor Boss. It’s an Elder Kobold, which is a high-ranking species of kobolds. You guys need to defeat it. We’ll decide on whether you pass or fail based on how the battle goes.”
In this Vegaltia Dungeon, each level is inhabited by a monster called a Floor Boss. Compared to the normal monsters on that level, they are more powerful, and several times a year, beginners to the dungeon would accidentally encounter them and ended up being wiped out.
Since the location of its appearance is almost fixed, such a tragedy can be easily avoided as long as there is information, and of course, the Adventurer’s Guild always explains it to the newcomers. Even so, some new recruits still end up being defeated by the floor boss, so recently, they’ve started to warn the newcomers about it along with the exams. This way, once they had actually seen a floor boss with their own eyes, they would have known how dangerous it was.
“…… It’s clearly not right.”
The examiner, who is a B-rank adventurer, mutters involuntarily. Even though they have progressed through the floor for a long time, they have not yet seen a single monster. It’s as if the monsters are afraid of them and are running away.
“……I’ve done the same exam several times already but I’ve never had anything like this, have you guys?”
“M-Me too.”
“I can’t believe we haven’t encountered any monster yet……”
The other examiners were also scratching their heads. That’s how abnormal the situation is.
At that moment, one of the examinees noticed something and pointed his finger while shouting, “Aah!”
“T-there’s a kobold over there!”
“Really?”
Everyone’s gaze turns in the direction where the finger was pointed to at the same time. Then, sure enough, there was a kobold figure there.
“Apparently, it just happened that we haven’t encountered them yet.”
“.….But, isn’t that kobold kind of weird? It looks like it’s scared of us, right?”
Immediately after the examiners had such an exchange. The kobold turned on its heel and ran to the depths of the dungeon as if to escape.
“W-what on earth is going on……?”
……They had no idea.
That among these examinees, there is a presence that kobolds instinctively fear.
This is translated by Yume Neiji. Kindly read at yumeineijiworks.wordpress.com.
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