Level Down 7 (Patreon)

Volume 1 Chapter 7 - Demon Dungeon Exploration

RAW

As the name suggests, the Demon Dungeon is a dungeon where only horned humanoid monsters, commonly referred to as demons, such as goblins and ogres appear.

As you might have guessed from the fact that they are humanoid, demons are more intelligent monsters compared to other monsters. They’d use weapons stolen from defeated adventurers, and ambush them in groups. They’re quite troublesome monsters, and this dungeon was characterized by being inhabited by such monsters.

For that reason, it would be best to form a party with at least a few people if you were going to take on this dungeon, but there is no way that Allen, who is in the midst of hiding his true identity, can do that.

However, Allen's purpose is to ascertain his own strength, so he was actually looking forward to seeing how far his strength would go against such opponents.

On the first floor, where the cave-like bare earth passage continues, a group of goblins immediately attacked him, and Allen fired small Fireballs at the same time at them, piercing their brains and defeating them.

“I've been able to defeat the shallow floors before anyway, so I guess I’ll just go to the deeper floors.” (Allen)

While mumbling to himself, Allen headed towards the stairs heading down, relying on the map and his memory.

This is not the first time Allen himself has entered this Demon Dungeon. In fact, he often came here when he wanted to solo a dungeon.

Honestly, Allen wanted to go to the most popular dungeon in Lilac City, but he avoided it because he often got tangled up with adventurers who knew about his stats.

And so, Allen easily took the shortest route to the 10th floor.

Along the way, hobgoblins and lesser ogres appeared, but even with Fireballs and Stoneballs that Allen consciously suppressed in power, naturally, he defeated them in one blow.

It was obvious that such monsters would not even test his skill.

“Alright, should I start fighting seriously now? I want to see how strong I've become.” (Allen)

After saying that, Allen started exploring by walking carefully instead of jogging like before.

The Demon Dungeon was famous for its conquest level that changed dramatically from the 10th floor onwards.

It mercilessly beats down adventurers who got carried away up to the 9th floor. That's the 10th floor of the Demon Dungeon. That world was so different that it gained an alias called the Beginner's Graduation Examination Floor.

The reason is...

“Uggaaaa!!” (???)

“Oh, it’s here, it’s here.” (Allen)

What came from the end of the passage that Allen was walking through was a monster about two meters tall with a muscular green body, the so-called ogre.

‘That impact sure was overwhelming when I first came here,’ Allen fondly recalled as he waited for the ogre to approach.

However...

“As I thought, it was too slow. I guess an ogre is just at this level.” (Allen)

Even though he had half expected it, Allen was discouraged when the situation turned out exactly as it did.

Because while it doesn't bother him when he’s relaxed, when he’s concentrating on something like a battle, he can feel the enemy's movements several times slower than usual.

In fact, it was so slow that Allen had enough time to think about what kind of situation would make this attack hit.

He narrowly dodged the ogre's lunge, which seemed to be moving slowly on purpose, and then swung his fist down on the back of its empty head.

At that moment, the ogre's face sank into the floor as if it had been sewn into the ground, and then, it twitched and stopped moving.

“Uwah, this level in just one hit. I guess a bit weaker for ogres~. I better hold back quite a bit when I fight in front of people without a disguise. Okay, next. Next.” (Allen)

Allen stepped over the ogre he just met. Of course, the ogre has magic stones and materials that can be harvested from it, and they were worth a good price, but it was more trouble to dismantle it, so he left it as it was.

Allen himself thought that ‘if I had that kind of time, I’d rather test my power more’, and for several other reasons, he had decided a long time ago that it would be better to leave them as is.

After dealing with several more monsters, Allen realized that there was no point in staying on the 10th floor, and in search of a stronger enemy, ran towards the deeper floors in what he himself felt was a jog, but if other adventurers saw him, they’d thought that he was running as fast as he could to dive deeper.

.

.

.

The Demon Dungeon has 30 underground floors. And the floor Allen had been to was the 24th floor.

Of course, Allen didn't come alone then; he was in a party, what’s more, when he came to the 24th floor, which was the deepest he'd ever come, it was not as a combatant, but as a carrier.

The 25th floor and beyond were dangerous places even for a first-class adventurer, and it wasn't a half-baked place that the old Allen would be able to go to.

“Hmm, what do I do now? As expected, going there all of a sudden feels like it’d be bad. But from what it feels until now, it shouldn’t be a problem.” (Allen)

Sitting staring at the stairs leading to the 25th floor, Allen grimaced as he ate a stick-shaped portable food, which tasted bad but was nutritious and easy to carry.

Allen’s original plan was to spend about two days exploring around the 20th floor of the Demon Dungeon by himself, but the enemies were surprisingly weaker than he expected, so he ended up getting this far in about half a day.

Even though Allen had been fighting monsters and moving around in a jog, he didn't feel tired at all.

Of course, Allen himself knows from experience that when he gets excited during a battle, he feels less tired. However, on the floors until now, to put it bluntly, he didn’t feel excited at all, so Allen judged that he probably really wasn't tired.

Standing up and then hitting his hand to remove bits of food, Allen did a small nod.

“Alright, I'm neither tired nor sleepy. I'll just go in for a bit and if it seems dangerous, I'll think about a lot of things then.” (Allen)

Muttering that as if to persuade himself, Allen washed away the remains of the portable food in his mouth with water and descended the stairs leading to the 25th floor.

.

.

.

The size aspect of the Demon Dungeon changed dramatically from the 25th floor onwards. The previous cave-like appearance changed to a passageway made of bricks, and the height of the passageway was over ten meters.

Allen was overwhelmed by the sight he was seeing for the first time, feeling discomfort at the huge difference compared to before, it was as if he was the one who turned smaller.

“It's really as the Guild's data says. That means the monsters that appear are also...” (Allen)

Allen was about to continue speaking when ‘thump, thump’ he stopped because of a tremor that shook the floor.

As the tremor approached, he also heard the sound of something being dragged along. While feeling a little nervous, Allen waited for the owner of the footsteps to approach.

What appeared from around a corner about 30 meters in front of Allen after a while was a giant over four meters tall with one eye, a cyclops

“Haha, it’s seriously huge.” (Allen)

Allen muttered as he looked up at the gigantic body that was inconceivable to humans. It was unknown whether the cyclops heard that whisper, but it turned its one eye towards Allen, and glared.

Then, the cyclops opens its mouth wide enough to swallow Allen whole, showing off its sharp fangs.

Its big eyes were filled with joy at finding prey.

With a bang, the Cyclops approached Allen while swinging its club that was three meters long and as thick as a tree trunk it was dragging.

Its intensity exceeded any monster Allen had ever seen.

“Uooh, Fireball!” (Allen)

Inadvertently, Allen casted a Fireball with all his might. And a ball of fire about a meter in diameter appeared in front of Allen, flew toward the cyclops while leaving a whooshing and roaring sound behind, and then, leaving half of its body charred, crashed into the wall behind it.

Unable to comprehend what had happened to it, the cyclops looked at its halved torso, and just like that, its eye rolled back, and it collapsed.

The huge club it was holding bounced on the floor, making a clanking sound similar to that of metal as it rolled around.

“Ha?” (Allen)

Allen doubted his own eyes at the too short of the ending. However, the scene unfolding in front of his eyes would never change.

Just to be on guard, Allen tried kicking the cyclops lightly with his foot, but there was no sign of it moving at all.

“Seriously?” (Allen)

According to Allen's knowledge as an adventurer, even a single cyclops was a formidable enemy that required first-class adventurers over level 200 to fight together. However, when he looked at the result, it was no more than an enemy that could be defeated with a single Fireball.

Allen felt his common sense crumbling away.

“No, it's because I reflexively fired with all my might. There's no way it's that weak.” (Allen)

After making excuses to himself for some reason, Allen went to take on the cyclopes that frequent this floor, but in the end, it only proved that his own common sense had changed.

────

Previous | Next