Chapter 9
Chapter 9
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 9
Chapter Title: 2nd Floor. Traps Are Too Strong
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Even though the quality of my equipped gear had improved, I couldn't afford to let my guard down.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [Thorn Trap Activated!] [You took 11 damage.] [Blood begins to flow from your wound.] Chalang! Clang—
"Fuck!"
Puke—the sensation of thick iron spikes plunging deep into my calf and thigh, coupled with the searing pain of the wounds, sent me crashing straight to the floor.
Dirty sewer water flooded into my nose and mouth, but the scorching agony from my wounds left me with no spare mental bandwidth to care about that.
"Gurgle—Puha. Kugh—Kuaaaah!!!"
The mossy, greenish water began turning red as blood poured from my wound.
A dizzying wave of pain.
In this dungeon brimming with death, the threats to my life weren't just the endless waves of enemies.
Traps lurking in the most unexpected places.
⚔ STATUS ⚔ Health: 46/60 ■■■■■■■■□□ Magic: 11/34 ■■■■□□□□□□ Hunger: 87/100 ■■■■■■■■■□ Thirst: 90/100 ■■■■■■■■■□ Temperature: ◀■■■■■■□□□□▷ Status: Weak Bleeding (29T) "Fuck... Fucking hell... It hurts like a bitch..!"
What lets you kill enemies is good gear and efficient movement, but what handles traps like this is potions and herbs.
Unfortunately, the herbs and potions I'd found on the way here could be counted on one hand.
I had no items suitable for this situation.
So the solutions were to somehow endure the 29 turns of ongoing bleeding or find a hemostatic herb or potion within those 29 turns and use it.
'At least it's weak bleeding. If it had been regular bleeding, I'd be dead.'
Weak bleeding is a status effect that deals 2 bleed damage per turn for the duration.
That adds up to 58 bleed damage total, but with hunger and thirst above 70, there's a 50% chance per turn of natural healing that restores 1 Health. If I rely on that, I can barely scrape by.
'It's a shame, but I do have a Healing Potion... but...'
The 1st floor was basically a tutorial level. The real dangers kicked in starting from the 2nd floor.
What worried me wasn't the bleeding itself, but the wound gushing blood.
Every movement sent agony ripping through me like the iron spikes were shredding my muscles at random, hindering my mobility. And in this environment, I had to worry about infection status effects above all else.
Since I'd rolled on the ground when the trap hit and the wound had already been exposed to the filthy sewer water, that was a real concern.
"If it just shows up as a status effect, great. But since the bleeding is actual blood pouring out, I can't hope for that..."
For now, even though it pained me to waste it, I washed the wound with water from my canteen, then tore cloth from the clothes I'd taken off a dead Criminal's corpse earlier, fashioning a bandage. I tied it tightly over the wound for pressure.
It was makeshift at best, but better than nothing.
"Ah... A healing spring would be nice right about now."
I needed to get used to the resource drain from these sudden trap activations.
Having that insane magic for jerking off with an Onahole had made me a bit complacent.
D.D.'s first iron rule: Never drop your guard.
You are never safe.
The price for forgetting that lesson was a wound that hurt way too much, but I couldn't whine to anyone, so I bit my lip hard and forced myself to keep walking.
That was the fate of a player trapped in this mad dungeon.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ "Mom—."
Even if I'd breezed through the Past Specter event before, the 2nd floor was on a whole different level from the 1st—brutally tough.
The 29 turns of weak bleeding from the thorn trap had been endured through natural healing by the skin of my teeth, but the swarms of Giant Rats and Plague Rats charging wildly were no joke in number.
If this were a game, I'd lure them into a narrow path and pick them off, but the lingering pain from my wound prevented quick movement, making that impossible.
'Still, the bleeding got covered by natural healing... This doesn't feel like my original body.'
Squeak—Squeak! Squeak—Squeak!
"Want me to introduce you to a friend? He provides the dark, damp, warm one-room you guys love, and his pet has a real long body."
Hiss—hiss—I mimicked the tongue flick of a pet silk snake his friend raises, and the lead Plague Rat, figuring I was mocking them, charged right at me.
Slash—
My Silver Longsword swung with full force traced a gleaming silver arc, cleaving the charging Plague Rat's head in two and scattering its brains and skull fragments into the air.
A gruesome sight that couldn't be more horrific, but I'd grown so accustomed to it that it barely registered anymore.
Squeak—squeak squeak—squeak. Squeak squeak!
Chattering noisily like they were plotting something, the rat pups made me start feeling uneasy.
'HP left at 20. Four Giant Rats remaining, one Plague Rat. Slime and Lace out of Fuel... Can I cover it with a Healing Potion?'
If I had a Chain Lightning scroll right now, I could've wiped them out in one go—but I shook off the fleeting wishful thinking.
There was nothing more pointless than pining for items you didn't have.
'No helping it. Too many rat pups. Time to use that.'
I pulled a piece of Tasty Meat from my bag and hurled it far away.
The four-legged hunk of meat spun like a boomerang through the air, passing over the rats' heads, and their attention snapped to the flying food.
Low-intelligence beast-type or insect-type enemies often prioritized specific items over the player.
Players had burned through countless runs compiling each enemy's preferred items to craft efficient strategies—that was bait.
And for Giant Rats and Plague Rats, any food-tagged item worked as bait.
"Hup..!"
The muscles in my thigh, bound tight with cloth, tensed up under the intense pressure, but if not now, it might be my neck getting chomped instead.
With sheer will to survive, my sword flew toward the distracted Plague Rat.
Crunch—
💥 CRITICAL HIT! 💥 [Plague Rat Defeated]
Its upper and lower body separated by the impact, the Plague Rat's revolting entrails burst out and flew everywhere.
Without hesitation, I rotated the sword like an oar and unleashed an upward slash straight ahead.
Forcing the blade's path with raw power strained my arm, but reducing the enemy count was what mattered most right now.
Time seemed to stretch as I felt the satisfying sensation of leather parting at the sword's tip.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [Dealt 18 damage to Giant Rat.] [You defeated the Giant Rat.] The Giant Rat spilled its guts as it collapsed into the sewer, never to rise again.
"Ha—fuck... You mad? What can you even do to me? Come at me and trade one for one—that's all you've got, right?"
One bait took down the strongest Plague Rat and one Giant Rat.
A fantastic trade, even if I had no idea how I pulled it off while standing there.
Three Giant Rats left.
"Ah—gonna die~ Ah—sex~"
The pile of rat corpses strewn around reeked so badly it could clog your nose, but I didn't even have the strength to twitch a finger.
I was on the verge of collapsing face-first, but I used my sword like a cane to barely stay upright.
I didn't want to lie down in a place like this.
"These things don't even drop good items, and I fought them for nothing..."
Rat drops were Tasty Meat, and occasionally unknown herbs or seeds.
The Tasty Meat from Plague Rats was even poisoned, so inedible.
I mustered the energy to search them anyway, but the only worthwhile haul was a few unknown herbs.
I already had enough Tasty Meat for today and three pieces of emergency rations stockpiled, so I skipped the rest.
"No helping it..."
Wasting time regretting what wouldn't change was pure loss.
In my position, needing to clear to the bottom floor fast and get out, lingering around feeling sorry for myself was just damaging.
I turned my eyes from the rat corpse pile and stepped into the passage not yet marked on my map.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [You learned the structure of the current floor.] [You have grown.] This room guarded by the rat pack must have been the last room on the 2nd floor.
A weathered wooden chest sat in the center of the room.
Plus, filling out the map had given enough exp for a level up, so it wasn't a total wash.
⚔ STATUS ⚔ Name: aaaa Level: 05 Health: 64/64 ■■■■■■■■■■ Magic: 36/36 ■■■■■■■■■■ Hunger: 66/100 ■■■■■■■□□□ Thirst: 61/100 ■■■■■■□□□□ Temperature: ◀■■■■■□□□□□▷ Strength 10(0) | Agility 13(0) | Constitution 08(0) Mind 08(0) | Sense 09(0) | Charm 12(0) Distributable Points: 2 GOLD: 758 I dumped all my gathered points into Agility.
Reaching Agility 15 unlocked a skill that was a huge boon for survival.
Thief's Luck.
A simple passive that boosted evasion rates tied to the Agility stat and provided bonuses when ambushed.
It wouldn't bring revolutionary change on its own, but it was efficient enough that even melee warriors building a fighter concept would hit Agility 15 if their base was high enough.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [You have learned a new skill.] The chest... probably not a Mimic, right?
I picked up a nearby stone and chucked it at the chest.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [The chest took 7 damage.] Nope.