Chapter 43
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 43
Chapter Title: Ruins (2)
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Suddenly, a staircase appeared, and while the party members were thrown into confusion, Lena alone calmly took stock of the situation.
"No way... Ruins appearing on the 9th floor..."
Ruins? Come to think of it, didn't they say the skill stone I ate last time was found in some ruins? Labyrinths sometimes spawn these ruins right after a mutation, and discovering untouched ones is a huge score. If you're really lucky, you might snag a skill stone—or at the very least, some high-value artifacts.
"Should we go in?"
Hiro asked, his voice tinged with excitement. Our commission was to explore the 9th floor, but any items we found during the expedition were ours to keep. Hiss looked pretty shocked too, and even the calmest of us, Lena, had her tail swishing faintly.
"Let's do it."
With even Lena—who could be called our leader as an intermediate adventurer—giving the okay, we descended the stairs in proper formation, unlike before. Hiss and I took point under [Stealth], scouting for traps, while Hiro stuck close to Lena the mage as her guard.
Down the stairs, we spotted a simple arrow trap in the first hallway we encountered. We couldn't hide our growing expectations. Traps still intact meant it was highly likely no one else had found this place yet.
I watched Hiss methodically disarm it out of the corner of my eye, then mimicked her clumsy movements as best I could with my own unskilled hands. It looked a bit tricky, but my [Heavenly Touch]-boosted dexterity didn't let me down—it kept up with her motions surprisingly well.
-Click.
"Got it!"
Successfully disarmed the ruin's trap.
Acquired skills [Trap Disarm Lv.1] and [Trap Detection Lv.1].
With the trap disarmed, I even picked up two new skills. Traps were rare on the entry levels anyway, and the ones there were just goblin pits or noise-makers, so I hadn't gotten any skills yet. But now I had [Trap Disarm] and [Trap Detection], must-haves for any rogue. Their effects? Just straight-up bonuses to the actions. Pretty standard stuff.
We pressed on. Hiss's ears perked up as she went on high alert. A beat later, I picked up enemies beyond the hallway with [Detection].
-Clack. Clack.
The familiar rattle of shaking bones echoed, and soon a skeleton emerged from the darkness. The standout difference from the ones outside? This one was properly armed.
The moment she spotted it, Lena raised her staff to fire off a spell, but I stopped her. We needed that skeleton gone and the hallway clear—if we weren't careful, we could collapse the passage. The ruins looked unstable; one strong hit might bring it down.
Instead, I drew my bow, dipped a spare arrow in holy water, nocked it, held my breath, and took aim. Then... fire!
-Twang!
"Uuuuugh..."
Holy water did the trick—the arrow punched straight through its skull, severing whatever passed for its lifeline. It let out a eerie death rattle and crumpled. I approached to inspect its armor. Ancient and weathered, frayed and rusted, but it still looked valuable.
For now, though, we needed to push deeper, so we left the skeleton and moved on. A few more popped up behind it, but I sniped them from afar with arrows, and Hiro handled any that got close with his sword.
"Lots of doors here."
Several doors lined the walls. Hiss and I checked them for traps, then decided to search the rooms.
Inside the first one, we found a lived-in space. Tables, dishes, even a bed...
Nothing valuable jumped out, but while poking around, I spotted something odd.
"Why's this here...?"
A cross, straight out of Earth. I thought this world's religions used different symbols. Why a cross like back home? Or maybe just a decorative cross? Could mean something else I didn't know.
The room had a faintly religious vibe with what looked like an Earth-style cross decoration, but figuring it might just be that, I moved on.
I checked what the others had found...
"...What are you doing?"
"You always find something smashing pots."
Hiro was smashing old jars that looked valuable enough to appraise later. I panicked and stopped him, but he gave me a blank look like he didn't get it, then wandered off.
What if those were super expensive? Instead of checking insides first, he's just wrecking them all.
The broken jars were empty inside. There were traces of something once, but it had all rotted away or dried up beyond recognition.
Shrugging it off, I opened another door.
"Whoa..."
A sword-wielding skeleton stared me down the second the door swung open. No eyes, technically, but still...
-Whoosh!
"Gah!"
Caught off-guard by the sudden face-to-face, it swung without hesitation. I barely backpedaled in time to dodge, but it kept slashing emotionlessly.
'[Sensory Block]'
Habit kicked in—like solo hunting monsters. I activated [Sensory Block] and drew the dagger from my belt, swinging it.
-Clang!
"Huh?"
Normally, I blocked sight and sound—they were most effective. But the skeleton ignored it completely, parrying my dagger and slashing right at me.
"No eyes... but it doesn't rely on sight at all?"
I'd assumed it had some vision-like sense since it spotted me. But it tracked me perfectly, so blocking sight did nothing.
All my foes so far had human-like senses, easy pickings for [Sensory Block]. This was a first—I was a bit rattled.
'It senses me somehow, so it must have senses of its own...'
I kicked it back for distance, coated my dagger in holy water from my pouch, and struck. Just rattled, not enough to lose to this thing.
After a few parries, my dagger sank into its skull, silencing it. The commotion drew the party.
"Skeletons in the rooms too. Gotta be careful."
Come to think of it, Lena recognized them right away? As she resumed investigating, I approached. She eyed me warily.
"Lena, you know a lot about skeletons?"
"...I've run into them a few times."
"How do they detect us without eyes?"
"...Sigh... Common knowledge. Undead sense the life force of the living. Higher undead might be different, but basic skeletons just blindly aggress toward it."
Grumpy tone, but detailed explanation. Life force detection... fits the undead trope from fiction.
Curious now, I cracked open an unchecked door. Jackpot—one skeleton inside.
I didn't want to reveal my skills, so I slipped in quietly. It immediately locked on and swung.
Let's see... The skill seemed to work somewhat before... [Sensory Block]. Block its... life force sense?
Familiar mana drain as I eyed it. What if I blocked its life force perception?
"................"
Mid-swing, it froze solid. Keeping alert, I approached—no reaction even up close. Tapped its skull with my dagger—nothing.
"Hmm..."
Stepped back, released [Sensory Block]—it snapped to me and swung again. Reactivated—froze like a dummy.
Neat. Probably won't work on intelligent higher undead, but skeletons? Total idiots under [Sensory Block].
Sensing the party approaching, I smashed its skull with my dagger. They filed in as I finished.
"Find anything?"
"A big room!"
"Big room?"
Following Hiss, past a few doors, we found a massive one—boss room vibes. The whole party readied for combat.
"Boss room, huh..."
Ignoring Hiro's weird mutterings, I picked the [Unlock]-locked door. Rusty hinges screeched as it slowly opened.
In the vast chamber—like a chapel—a stronger-looking skeleton, differently equipped from the others, locked eyes with us.
"Fire Spear!"
Lena seized first strike on the ominous foe. Pent-up from narrow halls, her spell rocketed toward it.
"....!....!"
Its jaw clattered, and another skeleton leaped out, blocking the path and exploding in its place.
"Tch! Skeleton Mage?"
Lena clicked her tongue, spotting the enemy. Probably a skeleton mage commanding minions—a mid-tier one. Half-baked, not a lich, but...
".....!"
As it mimed chanting, chapel skeletons charged us en masse.
"Boss fight!"
Ignoring Hiro's off-kilter shout, I smashed the nearest skull and blocked the skeletons from reaching Lena. Hiro babbled nonsense but moved like a pro warrior, efficiently cutting them down.
Hiss flowed around attacks gracefully, steadily dropping them one by one.
"Fireball! Flame Shot!"
Lena chanted nonstop, aiming past frontline skeletons for the mage. But suddenly, its necklace glowed ominously, summoning a green barrier that blocked her strikes.
"No way... An artifact?"
Half-shocked, half-greedy, Lena guessed its nature. I didn't know details, but that shield screamed necklace power-up.
Seeing the barrier, Lena switched to blasting clustered skeletons. Unlike our melee one-by-ones, her spells shattered two or three at a time.
Not many to begin with, so soon only the mage remained. Lena went for a long chant to break the shield...
".......!"
Safe behind the barrier, it finished first—a green-tinged fireball hurtled faster than Lena's flames.
"Ngh!"
We scattered instantly, but Lena—mid-chant in place—couldn't. Closest to her, I scooped her waist and bolted.
Her chant completed—a spell on another level entirely.
"Explosion!"
".....!"
Dodging as it erupted, the blast engulfed the skeleton mage. The necklace flared again, shielding it, but the barrier cracked and shattered, igniting the foe.
"Ha! As if a mere skeleton mage could take me do—"
-Crack.
"Huh?"
A sinister crackle from the direct-hit mage. The necklace's glow intensified, ominous sounds building.
"...This feels really bad right now."
"Phase 2?"
The necklace exploded violently, engulfing us.