Magic Warrior Chapter 17 (Patreon)

Labyrinth

Going down the stairs, we found a large space that may have also served as a warehouse.

There seemed to be a series of spaces separated by large shelves. Various types of shelves, including cupboards, bookshelves, chests of drawers, and sideboards, were randomly placed in a row.

All the shelves are quite large, more than three meters in length, but many of them have gaps between them and the ceiling. The shelves here, too, have kept their beautiful shape, perhaps due to the magic of the light. My neck tingles.

The height of the staircase and the ceiling don't seem to match.

"It's turning into a dungeon."

"The magic above was strong. It's not surprising if a dungeon was created here."

"Dungeon?"

There are three kinds of dungeons in this world.

One is the caves and ruins that people don't go near, like the ones we have explored so far. After exploring them, you never see them again.

The second type is a place that has been mutated by some kind of magical influence. A dungeon can be larger than the original terrain because of the distortion of space. Traps and monsters are placed in the dungeon, and even if they are destroyed or defeated, they are said to resurrect unnoticed after a certain amount of time. Of course, treasures and other items are also resurrected spontaneously.

When the magic power that constructs the dungeon runs out, it is said that the dungeon cannot be maintained and returns to its original state.

Dungeons created by the influence of magic power are less dangerous if you have a certain level of fighting ability that matches the dungeon. In most cases, the further you advance, the easier it is to obtain rewards, so some people call it a test given to people by Gods. Although extremely rare, dungeons are sometimes created by magical tools that store magical power.

The third type of dungeon is a place that has been mutated by a miasma.

It is said that miasma is a type of magical power that exists in a world called the "Abyss," which is out of the same dimension as the Virtuari, and is used by demon gods and demons who have come from outside Virtuari. These dungeons are created when a pool of miasma is formed and is connected to the Abyss.

It is almost the same as a dungeon created under the influence of magic, but it is considered more dangerous because of the lethal traps inside. Some adventurers call it the devil's whisper, compared to a test from Gods.

When adventurers speak of dungeons, they often refer to the latter two. The details of the Abyss were not released in the game, and it was only said that it would be implemented in an update at some point.

The tingling sensation in the neck is also said to be caused when entering the dungeon, and although each person feels it differently, it is said to cause some kind of discomfort. In the game world, it would be like entering a dungeon and having the screen switch to another screen.

"I can't seem to climb the ledge. It must be part of the dungeon wall."

"How's visibility?"

"I can see. It's not wide. I know it's a maze, but the passage is too narrow to see what's down there."

Mirell-san climbed up the ledge, but when she tried to climb over it, she seemed to be repelled as if there was an invisible wall. When she poked at the part of the wall that served as a barrier, something like a ripple would appear.

After poking for a while, she gave up and took out a pen and paper from her pouch and started taking notes. She was drawing a map.

We followed the map drawn by Mirell-san as she made her way through the aisles separated by shelves. I heard that sometimes the sight seen through the gaps on the shelves was a hallucination, but this dungeon was not that devious.

"For an abandoned dungeon, there aren't many monsters here."

"It's a dungeon of light. Shouldn't it be like this?"

"I don't like the idea that there are no monsters at all..."

Dad answered Gina-san's ramblings.

Each dungeon developed its own tendencies depending on the magical power that built it. A notable example would be the bias in the attributes of the monsters that appear, but there also seems to be a trend in the number of monsters and traps that are generated.

Light dungeons have few traps, and although the number of monsters inhabiting the dungeon seemed small, many of them tend to be strong. Also, the fewer the number of monsters inhabiting the dungeon, the stronger the boss tend to be.

Sometimes Mirell-san would climb a ledge to check the direction and draw a map as we proceeded.

We came to a slightly wider area. At the end of the clearing, a passageway continued.

In front of it, a large shiny dog growled menacingly. Despite its ferocious appearance, it was a monster with an almost godly presence. I felt as if it was telling me that it would kill us if I approached it any closer."

"A Barghest!"

Mirell-san dexterously stepped back while picking up the bow on her back, while Gina-san stepped forward and readied her two-handed sword. My father and Alphos-San also readied their weapons. I followed suit and picked up my wooden sword.

I've never heard of such a monster!

I know of a dog-shaped monster called a barghest, but it was a blackish dog, not that color, and I think it was much smaller.

While Mirell-san restricted the barghest's actions with her bow, Gina-san charged in with her two-handed sword at the ready.

The barghest, kept in check by arrows and unable to dodge to the left or right, lunged straight at her. Gina-san dodges the barghest, aiming for Gina-san's neck, and then swats it away. The barghest was slashed from his open mouth to his back.

After splitting up into two, the barghest came flying toward us, splashing with blood. Then my father struck him down with his sword, causing him to fall exactly in front of me.

I thought I was used to this kind of thing since I had helped with the slaughter of animals and killed forest monsters while living in the village, but it was a different feeling when it was the corpse of a pure monster.

Perhaps reacting to the sound, I saw three more barghests running from the back aisle.

"Three more!"

"This much should be more than enough."

Gina-san, who normally had a quiet, smiling expression on her face, was laughing with a ferocious look on her face.

...Was Gina-san a battle maniac?

Mirell-san shoots arrows at the three barghest running side by side, forcing them to dodge so that a small gap can be made between them. Gina-san intercepted them, and the scene was the same as before, except that the three barghest jumped at her in turn.

After three consecutive attacks, the barghest was rolling around silently. I was wary for a while that more barghest might approach, but it seemed that no more additional monsters were coming.

"Barghest have valuable fangs, Alphos, help me out."

"Oh!"

"You guys haven't really changed, you know."

"Adventurers are like that."

Mirell-san and Alphos-san began to dismantle it with a familiar hand, and my father sighed, while Gina-san kept her sword in her hand and seemed to be on guard.

Alphos-san and my father were chatting as they dismantled the barghest, and it seems that monsters that emerge in dungeons biased in terms of their attributes, but also those that enter it.

Still, normally, barghest were with fire and dark attributes, but in this place, they seemed to have been tainted with light attribute. This was not the case in the game.

...I guess there was a possibility that my half-baked knowledge of the game could be a hindrance when I encountered irregularities due to the many differences.

"I'm done dismantling."

"Don't you need anything but fangs?"

"It's not worth much money."

"I'm sure some things have changed. In the old days, we would have tried to take it all home."

"That was a long time ago. Nowadays, we don't have to worry about money so much."

"How much do A-rank adventurers make?"

"...If you get a regular commission, you can live on it for a month if you do one job."

It seems that A-level adventurers earn a great deal of money.

Even if they have money, they can't afford to spend much time playing around, because they are often assigned to jobs that B-level adventurers and below could not handle.

In fact, Alphos-san and the others have had very little time off since moving up to A rank. They said they can't even come to see Father these days.

Mirell-san, who had finished dismantling earlier than Alphos-san, was also picking up arrows scattered on the floor after shooting into the barghest.

From there, there was sometimes a square-like area where light barghest appeared, but they were easily slaughtered by Mirell-san and Gina-san.

Mirell-san went on and on, saying that they would stop appearing along the way.

"Treasure chest. I saw it from above."

--there was a decorated box placed in a dead end that could only be described as a treasure chest.