Chapter 55
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 55
Chapter Title: Trouble in Tranquility - 8
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The long-awaited day had arrived.
To conquer the 11th floor, it was time to go catch the demon.
"...Aren't we pretty fast anyway?"
"The line's long."
There were more people than expected.
We had arrived a step ahead of others, anticipating the queue.
While some floors had hunting ground structures like the 1st floor slimes, where multiple adventurers took down multiple individuals separately, others had wave structures like the 2nd floor goblin hordes, where a fixed number appeared at regular intervals.
The 11th floor demon was a single entity. If someone was subjugating it, other adventurers had no choice but to wait for the previous turn to end.
I glanced at the outfits of the adventurers ahead.
They weren't all novice adventurers like Fria and Rien.
About 20% were adventurers clearing the 11th floor conquest condition, while the remaining 80% were those visiting once a week for the overwhelming experience points.
'Those in matching designs are from guilds. The ones in ordinary gear are like us, first-timers. Looks like we'll have to wait at least seven turns.'
I roughly counted the number of parties ahead.
"─Total 8, confirmed."
"Moving out."
Even so, guild adventurers progressed quickly since multiple people participated in each subjugation.
"We're good with just the two of us, right?"
"Why? Scared 'cause it's a demon?"
"...It's not that. Guilds move in such big groups, so isn't it dangerous for two novices?"
"I heard even solos have no problem."
Senior hadn't warned about the 11th floor demon's danger, so it probably wasn't life-threatening.
Still, the intimidation from the word "demon" was hard to shake off.
The monster we'd fought not long ago was a golem.
Even a golem was far stronger and tougher than slimes— incomparable.
'Honestly, a demon at this stage feels off. Too big a jump from golem; skips intermediate steps.'
The terrifying image that came to mind with "demon."
It didn't fit the peaceful 11th floor scenery at all.
This floor was just as serene as the 1st and 6th.
Sealed underground, it might end up far more underwhelming than imagined.
"Ugh... Should've slept in more if I knew."
"Wait time would've been the same. Look, line's already forming behind us."
"Eek, why's everyone so diligent?"
We endured the boring wait with idle chatter.
When our turn came, two escorts appeared to guide us through the underground.
One was a knight managing the underground, the other a priest.
"Fria, Rien. Total 2, confirmed."
The Adventurer's Proof, which I'd thought was just for the 1st floor conquest condition, proved handy on village-structured floors.
Showing it skipped all the tedious identity checks.
"First time in the underground for both of you."
The knight recited a precaution.
"The demon is at the lowest level. No chatting en route, no loud noises."
"......"
"Understood? Moving out."
The knight opened the firmly shut iron door.
Stairs stretched downward.
"One more time: absolutely no sounds. It's for your safety."
The knight pressed a finger to his lips in a shushing gesture.
Fria clamped her mouth shut and nodded up and down.
Her eager expression made Rien nod as well.
"......"
Silence hung in the air.
Only the four sets of footsteps echoed off the hard stairs and walls.
'A prison?'
Countless iron bars.
Deep spaces beyond, but no light—nothing visible.
We descended for a while.
"We've arrived."
"......"
"You can talk here."
"Phew, shoulda said so sooner."
"We never said hold your breath."
Another iron door blocked the way.
- Clank!
Inside was the demon.
Ferocious wings torn to shreds, limbs gaunt to the bone—an emaciated demon.
Golden square restraints bound its neck, waist, wrists, and ankles.
The restraints connected via golden chains embedded in the wall.
The chains were critically short, leaving the demon pinned against the wall, unable to move an inch.
"This is the demon?"
"It's still alive, right?"
A motionless foe.
Just as I wondered if we could kill it easily like this—
"Priest, for two please."
"Leave it to me."
The priest crossed his fingers in an odd motion.
- Shring!
The chains linking the restraints to the wall scraped free.
The length between wall and demon extended in an instant.
Meaning the demon's range of movement had grown.
"Eh, wha—? It's coming this way—!"
No time to react before the demon lunged.
No chance to properly grip my weapon.
The demon's sharp claws targeted the knight.
As they neared his nape—
- Ting!
They never reached.
The demon's momentum sent it tumbling backward instead.
The chain's length fell just short of the knight.
Exquisitely so.
"Safe. Allowed distance ends exactly here."
"Warn us ahead. Please."
"First time for you two, but we've done this several times today already. Easier to show than explain every detail."
The priest flashed a sly smile.
The knight filled in the gaps.
"We must periodically drain the demon's power. Stabbing its head while bound does nothing to weaken it. That's not subjugation— just pointless execution."
"This is pretty far from the subjugation we imagined."
"Isn't it better for adventurers? High safety, full rewards."
The knight headed for the door.
"We'll wait outside till you're done. Call if there's trouble."
"Don't worry—the released power is just what you two can handle! Chains auto-short when it's all spent!"
The priest followed the knight out.
The iron door shut with a heavy metallic clang, leaving only Fria, Rien, and the demon in the chamber.
"This is... seriously not a tower-like monster."
"What do you mean not tower-like?"
"Artificial, I guess? Feels totally different from what we've hunted so far."
Fria's take on the tower was its natural unrealness.
A world detached from our familiar reality, full of magic and monsters.
"But it runs on these incomprehensible rules, right?"
"Like what?"
"Sustainability. Every floor's repeatable."
Slimes from who-knows-where.
Goblins from god-knows-where.
Magic stones never running out no matter how much you mine, golems respawning daily no matter how many you kill—unfathomable.
"Not that I tried hard to figure it out."
The demon was different.
"Locked in an underground prison like this. The reason we can subjugate it multiple times actually makes sense."
"Making sense is what's weird?"
"Logical explanations aren't fantasy. That's reality."
Fria gripped her longsword in her right hand and conjured a fireball in her left.
She held her left hand over the blade, letting the flames flow along its length.
"Game terms: not a respawning mob, but a living sandbag."
"Not sure I see the difference."
"Just rambling. Brush it off."
Rien assumed her stance.
The sword in her hand flickered faintly every few seconds.
Its tip aimed at the demon's head.
"Chains keep it safe as long as you stay out of attack range. Sneaky, but hit-and-retreat loops till the end."
"No such thing as sneaky in a fight. Win's a win, loss is a loss."
Better to survive dirty than die honorably.
That was Rien's thinking.
"Alright, let's start."
Her enhanced sword.
How much stronger was it?
With Fria wielding both swordsmanship and magic, the power gap between them had only widened from the start.
No hopes of catching up—just wanted to be equal, not a burden.
"Huu..."
One step forward.
Now inside the demon's claw range.
Before the sharp talons could close in—
Her sword, moving with the step, arced toward the demon's head.
Top to bottom—
- Schwick!
It sliced clean through.
No snag, a smooth line.
The demon's head split left and right, its lunging arm flopping limply to the floor.
The demon collapsed.
"Eh?"
As the cleanly severed body began knitting back together, the chains rattled, retracting into the wall.
The demon was dragged back toward it.
"It's over?"
"Seems... like it?"
"I didn't even do anything."
The demon's head had fully healed and reattached, but in the process, it had expended all the power the priest released.
"Hold on. Does this mean I didn't conquer it? I dealt zero damage."
"Oh."
Was the sword too strong, or the demon too weak?
Rien had no way to know.