The Barbarian Enters the Dungeon (2)
The dungeon was familiar. It had been nearly four years of playing the game. When I started, I had gone through the lower floors countless times. But...
"Wow... This feels different."
The pungent smell of moss tickling my nose. The rustle of wind brushing past my ears. The vast forest etched into my retinas. All my senses were telling me these were real, not fake.
"Hey, I shouldn't just stand around like an idiot. It was early, so no danger, but I couldn't afford to be careless. I firmly gripped my shield. The secondhand leather shield I bought from Second Chance was a great offensive tool. The shield wasn't meant to just block, right? Originally, you'd block once and then hammer it or something. Plus, a shield with a pointy bottom could turn into a spear if you pierced it."
Whoosh━.
And what was a barbarian? 'Obviously an axe.'
While swinging the axe and leather shield to check my body, I recalled the monsters on the 1st floor. The monsters on the 1st floor were Horned Rabbits and Goblins, who ate each other. The weakest monsters, but they were the top cause of adventurer deaths. In fact, when I played the game, my party had disbanded and wiped out because of those bastards several times.
So.
"Haaah..."
I entered the forest with full tension. For now, let's start with the Horned Rabbit today...!
Puk━!
***
Here, there was a party. Two warriors, one archer, one rogue. The extremely common party composition with Warriors Kral and Matt at the front, Archer Aisha in the middle, Warrior Bart at the rear, was advancing through the forest.
"Nothing's coming out."
"Be careful. Here, Horned Rabbits and Goblins come out."
"Hah! Those horned rabbits and goblins are nothing big."
"You bastards..."
Horned Rabbits and Goblins existed outside the dungeon too. And catching them wasn't particularly difficult. As long as you had a bow and arrows, Horned Rabbits were fine, and even untrained men could easily catch Goblins. That was the general perception of Horned Rabbits and Goblins in this world.
But...
Would the dungeon take in such stupid guys? Ordinary guys? The answer was no.
Tadadadak...!!
"They're coming! It's a Horned Rabbit!"
Matt and Kral at the front, who reacted to the running sound, prepared to counterattack.
Seeing that, Matt shouted in shock.
"You idiots! What are you doing! Stick your bodies to the trees!"
"Huh? Uh, uh uh..."
Puuuk━━!!
"Aaah!"
The Horned Rabbit, which charged in aggressively after Bart's roar, tackled the warrior Kral who was preparing to counter. “Ahh! Aaaaaah━━!!!” Kyuaaaah!!! The horn that pierced Kral's flank made him scream. And every time he screamed, the Horned Rabbit went wild, tearing at the wound more.
“Kill it! Die!”
"Uh...! Uh!!"
In response to Bart's urgent shout from the rear, the rogue Matt quickly swung his dagger. With a slicing sound, the neck of the half-cut Horned Rabbit fell off. Kyuaah!!!! The Horned Rabbit, facing death, let out a cry and made its last struggle, and when Kral's scream reached its peak.
"Damn it! Matt, you bastard! What are you doing!"
Slash━!!
Leaving the rear to Aisha, Bart rushed over desperately and cut off the neck of the raging Horned Rabbit. "Kuuugh...! Kugh..." "Get the bandages! Hurry!" "...Yes!" "Damn it! You said you could raise it to the 4th floor, Exploration Office...! Hey, Aisha! If you hear footsteps, tell me!" "I know~."
Aisha nonchalantly replied, and Bart frowned. But since Aisha wasn't a rookie, he trusted her to handle it well, and Bart pulled out the Horned Rabbit's horn stuck in Kral's flank.
Pshut...!
The blood spurting like a fountain. The blood coming from the flank splattered Bart and Matt's faces. "Ah, aaah..." "What the hell are you staring at!? Bandages!" "Yes, yes!"
Matt, who came to his senses from Bart's roar, wrapped the bandages with trembling hands. Once, twice, three times. After wrapping several large bandages, he barely finished the emergency treatment.
"Haa... For now, this should be okay. It's just emergency treatment, so don't move too vigorously."
"Ugh... Uuuuh..."
"Shit. Now even these idiots are entering the dungeon? The world's ending... Now you get it, you little brats. The dungeon is different from our world."
This was the reason the dungeon took in Horned Rabbits. Insane acceleration, horns powerful enough to pierce trees, and strong directional ability through hearing. Kral, who was just crying at the power of the Horned Rabbit, one of the monsters called rookie slayer, couldn't say anything.
Bart clicked his tongue at that sight, and Matt protested.
"But why did you tell me to stick my body to the tree? Because of that, my reaction was late..."
"What? You idiot...! Hearing the sound of the Horned Rabbit coming meant it was already close! Unless it's an iron shield, you can't block their charge! So the basic is to pin them to the tree and hunt them, but you didn't know that?"
"Ah..."
"Shit. You got it, you got it. I'm leaving. Aisha, what about you?"
"Don't ask if it's obvious. Why are you with these idiots?"
"Hmph. Then let's go. Hey, you idiots. Can you walk? We'll go back to the exit following the outer path. Follow naturally."
With that, Bart didn't look back and moved, and Aisha immediately followed behind him. And following those two, Matt left the 1st floor forest with Kral supported.
Puuuk━!
Here, the man who met the same fate as Kral, Barca.
"What?"
I tilted my head at the horn sticking out of my palm. A hole appeared in my palm. Thinking something was coming, I unconsciously grabbed it, and the cute little head welcomed my hand. The horn on the head was a bonus, piercing my palm.
"Hah, so this is a Horned Rabbit?"
Kyua! Kyuaaaah!
I examined the Horned Rabbit with the palm pierced. It looked no different from Earth rabbits. The only difference was horns on the head and red eyes? Earth rabbits sometimes had red eyes too.
Kyua! Kyuaaaaaah!
Ah, this guy is noisy.
Grabbing the head with the horn stuck in my hand and applying force, the Horned Rabbit's scream got even noisier. Kyua! Kyuaaaah...!! With a sound that shouldn't be heard from the head, the Horned Rabbit's body soon drooped.
"Indeed, crazy body. Grabbing the head kills the monster too."
This was enough to be at least below Orc level. I had seen in game descriptions scenes where Orcs burst heads by grabbing them. But doing something similar myself was interesting.
While I was admiring my own creation, the Horned Rabbit's corpse soon disappeared without a trace, and in my hand were only a rabbit skin, a horn, and a pebble with a nail.
"Is this a magic stone."
A purple pebble. It looked like a pebble rolling on the roadside, but this was the energy source of this world.
I roughly shoved it into my pocket and checked my hand again.
"Wow, gross."
My last trait, Regeneration, was working hard. The hole was gaping, blood flowing, but with this momentum, it would heal soon.
I wrapped it with some bandages and advanced again. My palm hurt. But since it hurt too much when I had cancer, this was tolerable.
"Haa... This is like the old days."
Yeah, there should be this much pain.
Advancing with the palm pierced for a long time.
Tadadadak━!
I heard it. The sound of the Horned Rabbit that pierced my palm earlier running. By the time I looked, it was already too late. Since the palm was pierced, I couldn't block with the shield.
Whoosh━!
So I immediately swung my axe in the direction the sound was coming from! A simple attack swinging down from above like chopping wood.
Chwaaak━!
It cut the Horned Rabbit's eye, of course, and half its head.
"Hmm, I could catch it like this."
I could pin it to a tree, but since I had Regeneration, I didn't need to spend time, so I swung, and it turned out okay.
"Good, then let's go like this."
***
"..."
Mary, the receptionist at the Exploration Office, was staring fixedly at the door of the Exploration Office with a furrowed brow. As if waiting for someone.
At that sight, the colleague receptionist Anes asked.
"Mary, is there something worrying you?"
"Yes... There was a person who entered the dungeon alone right after making an explorer certificate."
"Eek━!?"
"That's dangerous!"
"Yes... I tried to stop him too, but since no party was formed, he went out alone..."
"No party? Maybe he was a barbarian?"
"Yes."
"Uek... Barbarians are a bit tough... Bad reputation."
A race that enjoys fighting. Unlike beastfolk like Mary who have some animal form, despite looking human, their behavior is more barbaric than beastfolk. They fight, eat, sleep, have sex. A race faithful to instincts, the barbarian who is discriminated against even in Aurelia, was someone the Exploration Office, which doesn't discriminate by race, found difficult to deal with.
So, Anes looking at Mary worrying about barbarians with an odd expression.
Creak━.
The sound of the door opening.
Mary and Anes turned their heads to the door.
"...Hik."
Anes screamed.
Where she turned her eyes, there stood a man. Bleeding from one arm. Despite having holes in his arm from the Horned Rabbit, the man paid no mind and slowly approached.
Kuuung━!
He placed the leather pile covered in blood on his arm with holes.
Anes screamed and backed away, and some people left in the Exploration Office looked at it as if it was interesting.
The barbarian, Barca, said.
"Reimbursement, please."