Chapter 505: Basement Floor One (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 505: Basement Floor One (1)
Stomp, stomp, stomp.
She was running through the cave with her new teammates, staring at their backs after offering the excuse that she'd watch the rear.
"Mister, please explain. Why are we going up to the second floor?"
There was a yawning gap between them, one that prevented her from getting too close to them. Still, she could overcome it in a second if she tried. Yeah, she was sure she could.
However...
"Not just anywhere on the second floor. We're going to the Goblin Forest."
Why did she suddenly feel like she could spend the rest of her life trying and still never be able to close that gap?
I thought for sure it would happen...that over time, things would eventually return to normal...
She'd been trying not to get impatient, but her confidence was starting to fade as the days went by. The interaction she witnessed just a little while ago spoke for itself.
"I think that would be better for you."
"Yandel, don't get offended and just hear me out. You are very unstable right now."
As she watched those words get through to Bjorn, the first thought she had was, I should have been the one to say that.
She had lost.
It had never even occurred to her to say something like that. The answer she gave was the one she figured Bjorn wanted to hear. But after so many years, she wasn't even sure what "what Bjorn wanted to hear" was anymore.
"I'm not sure. I guess killing them... would be better...?"
She hadn't voiced her own opinion. No, she'd merely looked around the room and gave the answer she thought most of them would agree with. Now that she thought about it, things had always been like this. She'd never questioned Bjorn or advised him on what path he should take. She'd resolved to follow him silently, no matter what he did. That was all she had ever done.
Amelia Rainwales...
The fundamental difference between the two of them was palpable. She looked at Amelia and realized that she must be what people meant when they talked about a true companion. It wasn't that Missha's position in the group had disappeared while she was gone. She'd always felt like she could come back and reclaim her spot at any moment, but now she was realizing it hadn't been all that special a spot in the first place.
"...Are you all right?" Amelia slowed down to join her in the back, falling into step next to her. "You've looked off for a while now."
As she looked up at Amelia, she felt her teeth clench despite herself. "Don't worry about me. I'm all right."
It didn't matter whether or not she still had a place here. Nor did it matter if he looked right through her.
"If you don't, Bjorn Yandel will die."
Because she had something more important to take care of.
***
About an hour after Day Three began, the entire cave began to shake as the crystals glowed red. That meant that the Lord of Terror, Dreadfear, had been summoned somewhere, likely the result of one of the eight raid requests that had already been submitted to the Adventurers' Guild. The issue was how early they were summoning it.
It's only been an hour and it's already here. Just how many people are waiting for their turn to take it on?
Of course, none of that mattered to us since we had our sights set on something else. Still, the eight teams who had received a raid permit were likely thinking along the same lines. In fact, it was safe to say that most adventurers had considered the very same possibility.
What would happen if they defeated the Lord of Terror, Dreadfear, now?
While planning this month's quest, I also considered the possibility that the key to accessing the hidden area might be defeating him again. Unfortunately, I couldn't apply since the available slots were already all filled.
However, if the Lord of the Abyss, Berzak, was the actual key, then we would have to give up on reaching the hidden area entirely for now.
...They all have the common sense not to summon Berzak, though, right?
I wanted to believe that, but I wasn't all that reassured. At a glance, there were dozens of parties all over the Crystal Cave, not just the eight who had applied for a raid permit. If even just one of those extra teams got a little greedy, the results would be catastrophic.
That doesn't matter. We have our own mission to focus on.
It wasn't like I could personally persuade every adventurer in the cave not to get greedy and summon Berzak, so in the end, we picked up the pace and got out of there.
[You have entered the Goblin Forest on the second floor.]
We quickly made our way to the second floor and then the third. Since we were running as fast as we could, we were able to make it up there before the end of the third day.
[You have entered the Pilgrim's Path on the third floor.]
It was a massive floor with over ten different areas. After making our way through Goblin Forest, we appeared in Greentail Marsh, which was inhabited by Lizardmen. From there, we moved to one of the neighboring zones, Sculpture Temple.
This area was full of rubble from the ruins of collapsed stone buildings. It looked similar to the Panthelion Ruins on the seventh floor's Dark Continent, but there were also some differences here and there. One of which was that this place was full of sculptures, though they were all broken from the neck up.
"This place gives me the creeps every time."
"At least no one else ever comes here."
Sculpture Temple was the most unpopular area on the third floor by an overwhelming margin. First off, there was only one type of monster that spawned here.
[You have killed an Unnamed Sculpture.]
Unnamed Sculptures were rank-seven monsters that looked similar to Stone Golems. The main difference was that they were much smaller in size, more humanoid, and rather agile.
[The Unnamed Sculpture has cast Unanswered Prayer.]
The skill that came with their essence was also famous for being absolute trash. When a player used it, it consumed an insane amount of MP and failed pretty much every single time, not doing a thing. That said, when these things used it, they had a much higher chance of success.
[The Unnamed Sculpture has been imbued with great power.]
If the prayer succeeded, the user temporarily gained a random essence of rank-five or lower. Because of that, they were abnormally difficult to fight for rank-seven monsters. Well, actually, they were more tricky than they were difficult. There were numerous variables to take into account since predicting what type of skills they would get was impossible. Because of that, no adventurer ever chose to hunt or even pass by here. Why would they when even the essence drop was trash? If your goal was to get EXP, you could just kill one that was roaming the outskirts and then skip this area entirely.
What's more, it's totally out of the way.
If you wanted to go to the fourth floor, it was much easier to go down another route. As a result, no one ever took this path, to the point that most adventurers had never even laid eyes on this place.
What would happen if they defeated the Lord of Terror, Dreadfear, now?
While planning this month's quest, I also considered the possibility that the key to accessing the hidden area might be defeating him again. Unfortunately, I couldn't apply since the available slots were already all filled.
However, if the Lord of the Abyss, Berzak, was the actual key, then we would have to give up on reaching the hidden area entirely for now.
...They all have the common sense not to summon Berzak, though, right?
I wanted to believe that, but I wasn't all that reassured. At a glance, there were dozens of parties all over the Crystal Cave, not just the eight who had applied for a raid permit. If even just one of those extra teams got a little greedy, the results would be catastrophic.
That doesn't matter. We have our own mission to focus on.
It wasn't like I could personally persuade every adventurer in the cave not to get greedy and summon Berzak, so in the end, we picked up the pace and got out of there.
[You have entered the Goblin Forest on the second floor.]
We quickly made our way to the second floor and then the third. Since we were running as fast as we could, we were able to make it up there before the end of the third day.
[You have entered the Pilgrim's Path on the third floor.]
It was a massive floor with over ten different areas. After making our way through Goblin Forest, we appeared in Greentail Marsh, which was inhabited by Lizardmen. From there, we moved to one of the neighboring zones, Sculpture Temple.
This area was full of rubble from the ruins of collapsed stone buildings. It looked similar to the Panthelion Ruins on the seventh floor's Dark Continent, but there were also some differences here and there. One of which was that this place was full of sculptures, though they were all broken from the neck up.
"This place gives me the creeps every time."
"At least no one else ever comes here."
Sculpture Temple was the most unpopular area on the third floor by an overwhelming margin. First off, there was only one type of monster that spawned here.
[You have killed an Unnamed Sculpture.]
Unnamed Sculptures were rank-seven monsters that looked similar to Stone Golems. The main difference was that they were much smaller in size, more humanoid, and rather agile.
[The Unnamed Sculpture has cast Unanswered Prayer.]
The skill that came with their essence was also famous for being absolute trash. When a player used it, it consumed an insane amount of MP and failed pretty much every single time, not doing a thing. That said, when these things used it, they had a much higher chance of success.
[The Unnamed Sculpture has been imbued with great power.]
If the prayer succeeded, the user temporarily gained a random essence of rank-five or lower. Because of that, they were abnormally difficult to fight for rank-seven monsters. Well, actually, they were more tricky than they were difficult. There were numerous variables to take into account since predicting what type of skills they would get was impossible. Because of that, no adventurer ever chose to hunt or even pass by here. Why would they when even the essence drop was trash? If your goal was to get EXP, you could just kill one that was roaming the outskirts and then skip this area entirely.
What's more, it's totally out of the way.
If you wanted to go to the fourth floor, it was much easier to go down another route. As a result, no one ever took this path, to the point that most adventurers had never even laid eyes on this place.
The item drops aren't that bad, though...
This place's main selling point lay in the items the monsters dropped. If you used Distortion, you were sometimes able to get your hands on a Magic Power Crystal, which could be sold for a hefty price. Even then, though, it was more efficient to mine them on the fifth floor. As such, no one ever came here for those.
But we were here for another item that had a chance of dropping.
"Everyone, let's get moving."
Feeling short on time, I ordered everyone to go hunting.
[Versyl Gowland has cast the rank-six space-time spell High-Level Distortion.]
[Versyl Gowland has cast the rank-six space-time spell High-Level Distortion.]
[Versyl Gowland has cast the rank-six space-time spell High-Level Distortion.]
Since we had more than enough combat power right now, I had our wizard focus on using distortion magic on the monsters' remains to see what items dropped.
[You have killed an Unnamed Sculpture.]
[You have killed an Unnamed Sculpture.]
[You have killed an Unnamed Sculpture.]
[You have killed an...]
I smashed every sculpture I saw to pieces. Then, since that was still taking too long, I ordered the team to fan out and attract the attention of the monsters so we could lure them all together.
"Behel—aaaaaah!"
Monsters, unlike humans, went into a frenzy and immediately charged when they saw someone with a high Threat Level. Using that to our advantage, we were able to gather them in one area and defeat a bunch in one fell swoop. Then we had Versyl cast distortion magic to grab the items. Once more started spawning, we ran around to attract their aggro and corralled them back to a specific spot again. Divvying our team up that way allowed us to swiftly take down countless monsters.
[You have killed an Unnamed Sculpture.]
[You have killed an Unnamed Sculpture.]
[You have killed an Unnamed Sculpture.]
[You have killed an...]
We continued to hunt with single-minded focus for a while, not taking any breaks. Only after we had collected six Magic Power Crystals were we able to finally find what we came here for.
"Bjooorn! Is this what you're looking for?"
Ainar held up a small piece of rubble with a unique pattern on it.
[You have acquired an Unnamed Fragment.]
It was a drawing of the sun.
Unnamed Fragment was an item that had a certain probability of dropping when you cast Distortion on Unnamed Sculptures. It was unique in that you couldn't have more than one in your inventory, and they randomly dropped with one of three patterns carved into their surface. It was also impossible to take one back to the city.
Since we found the sun, all that's left is the moon and star.
I always had a feeling there was some secret behind these things, and I'd tried everything I could think of in the game to figure out what it was. To think that I'd finally found what they were for...
"Is this what you were looking for, Mr. Yandel?"
"That makes sense. From what I've heard, these appear in a sun, star, and moon pattern."
The item drops aren't that bad, though...
This place's main selling point lay in the items the monsters dropped. If you used Distortion, you were sometimes able to get your hands on a Magic Power Crystal, which could be sold for a hefty price. Even then, though, it was more efficient to mine them on the fifth floor. As such, no one ever came here for those.
But we were here for another item that had a chance of dropping.
"Everyone, let's get moving."
Feeling short on time, I ordered everyone to go hunting.
[Versyl Gowland has cast the rank-six space-time spell High-Level Distortion.]
[Versyl Gowland has cast the rank-six space-time spell High-Level Distortion.]
[Versyl Gowland has cast the rank-six space-time spell High-Level Distortion.]
Since we had more than enough combat power right now, I had our wizard focus on using distortion magic on the monsters' remains to see what items dropped.
[You have killed an Unnamed Sculpture.]
[You have killed an Unnamed Sculpture.]
[You have killed an Unnamed Sculpture.]
[You have killed an...]
I smashed every sculpture I saw to pieces. Then, since that was still taking too long, I ordered the team to fan out and attract the attention of the monsters so we could lure them all together.
"Behel—aaaaaah!"
Monsters, unlike humans, went into a frenzy and immediately charged when they saw someone with a high Threat Level. Using that to our advantage, we were able to gather them in one area and defeat a bunch in one fell swoop. Then we had Versyl cast distortion magic to grab the items. Once more started spawning, we ran around to attract their aggro and corralled them back to a specific spot again. Divvying our team up that way allowed us to swiftly take down countless monsters.
[You have killed an Unnamed Sculpture.]
[You have killed an Unnamed Sculpture.]
[You have killed an Unnamed Sculpture.]
[You have killed an...]
We continued to hunt with single-minded focus for a while, not taking any breaks. Only after we had collected six Magic Power Crystals were we able to finally find what we came here for.
"Bjooorn! Is this what you're looking for?"
Ainar held up a small piece of rubble with a unique pattern on it.
[You have acquired an Unnamed Fragment.]
It was a drawing of the sun.
Unnamed Fragment was an item that had a certain probability of dropping when you cast Distortion on Unnamed Sculptures. It was unique in that you couldn't have more than one in your inventory, and they randomly dropped with one of three patterns carved into their surface. It was also impossible to take one back to the city.
Since we found the sun, all that's left is the moon and star.
I always had a feeling there was some secret behind these things, and I'd tried everything I could think of in the game to figure out what it was. To think that I'd finally found what they were for...
"Is this what you were looking for, Mr. Yandel?"
"That makes sense. From what I've heard, these appear in a sun, star, and moon pattern."
"...I can't say for sure, but it seems likely. Time is tight, but we might just make it."
Getting to the third floor, defeating enough monsters to acquire these three specific items, and then making your way down to the first floor before it closed—this was a pretty difficult feat to achieve, but not impossible. In our case, however, we were cutting it close since we'd wasted more than two days on the first floor. We would have had a better chance of pulling it off if we had run straight to the third floor from the start.
"I think we'll be able to do it next time," Versyl offered in consolation.
I had to concede that it seemed very unlikely that we'd make it to the hidden area this time around. It took eight hours alone for just one of these Unnamed Fragments to drop.
This means if we want to find the other two, it's going to take sixteen hours.
Simple math suggested that we would run out of time, and that was also under the assumption that none of the others that dropped were duplicates of ones we already had. Still, how were we supposed to go any faster? Even while going all out and running around the entire area aggroing every monster we saw, getting even one took us eight hours.
But more than that, at this rate, Versyl will run out of MP and won't be able to use Distortion anymore.
Damn, was this too much to try to pull off this month? I thought it might be possible if we went as fast as we could, but maybe that was optimistic of—
"Oh! Bjorn! Another one!"
Huh?
I blinked down at the stone Ainar placed in my hand, completely dumbfounded.
[You have acquired an Unnamed Fragment.]
It had a star pattern on it. In other words, we now had an extra eight hours to find the last moon pattern piece.
What? How did Ainar randomly find this thing?
Ainar had Beginner's Luck, yes, but that shouldn't affect the drop rate of items—only essences. Whatever the case, it was best to take advantage of her inexplicable fortune while we could.
"Change of plans," I called out. "From now on, Ainar will be in charge of defeating the monsters. Everyone else's job is to run around and aggro them for her."
Even if it wasn't as efficient as before, I decided to leave Ainar in charge of defeating all the monsters. And lo and behold, about five hours later...
[You have acquired an Unnamed Fragment.]
"A moon pattern..."
It was time to admit it. "Ainar."
"You can compliment me as much as you want!" she preened.
"You're right! Barbarians are the superior race!"
"Woooooo!"
Instead of shutting down Ainar's antics, I cast Giantization and threw her high in the air.
"Ahahaha!" As expected, Ainar was happier than ever.
Thud!
All right, that was enough playing around. With the Unnamed Fragments in hand, I quickly led the team back the way we came.
Day Five, Day Six, Day Seven...
Going back down the floors was even harder than climbing up in the first place. However, thanks to Ainar, we had extra time to camp, rest, and recover our stamina. As a result, we were able to reach the middle of the Goblin Forest by the afternoon of the seventh day. There, we stepped into the field housing the portal that led back down to the first floor's Crystal Cave. This was the very same field we once fought a fierce battle against three of Noark's top warriors, who had been guarding the entrance.
"...What is this?"
However, now, the place was packed with adventurers I didn't recognize at all. There looked to be well over a hundred of them, and going by appearances alone, they didn't seem like adventurers who had given up for the month and were heading back to the first floor to catch the labyrinth closure back home. If that were the case, they'd be going through the portal instead of just standing in front of it. They also didn't look like adventurers who had only just managed to find their way out of the Crystal Cave.
"Priest! Is there a priest?! Please help!"
"Drink this!"
What the hell was going on? As I approached the portal, countless adventurers recognized me and began to whisper to each other.
"Bjorn Yandel...?"
"Wasn't he on the first floor too?"
The crowd seemed confused to see me coming from behind them and not from the portal. I sighed. I'd wanted to sneak back to the first floor unnoticed instead of attracting attention like this, but since that was no longer an option, I called on someone who looked rather talkative to explain things.
"Hey! What's going on?"
His response was immediate. "Berzak! That demon has appeared!"
Hah, yeah, I figured something like this might happen.
No wonder we'd gotten so strangely lucky earlier.
"...I can't say for sure, but it seems likely. Time is tight, but we might just make it."
Getting to the third floor, defeating enough monsters to acquire these three specific items, and then making your way down to the first floor before it closed—this was a pretty difficult feat to achieve, but not impossible. In our case, however, we were cutting it close since we'd wasted more than two days on the first floor. We would have had a better chance of pulling it off if we had run straight to the third floor from the start.
"I think we'll be able to do it next time," Versyl offered in consolation.
I had to concede that it seemed very unlikely that we'd make it to the hidden area this time around. It took eight hours alone for just one of these Unnamed Fragments to drop.
This means if we want to find the other two, it's going to take sixteen hours.
Simple math suggested that we would run out of time, and that was also under the assumption that none of the others that dropped were duplicates of ones we already had. Still, how were we supposed to go any faster? Even while going all out and running around the entire area aggroing every monster we saw, getting even one took us eight hours.
But more than that, at this rate, Versyl will run out of MP and won't be able to use Distortion anymore.
Damn, was this too much to try to pull off this month? I thought it might be possible if we went as fast as we could, but maybe that was optimistic of—
"Oh! Bjorn! Another one!"
Huh?
I blinked down at the stone Ainar placed in my hand, completely dumbfounded.
[You have acquired an Unnamed Fragment.]
It had a star pattern on it. In other words, we now had an extra eight hours to find the last moon pattern piece.
What? How did Ainar randomly find this thing?
Ainar had Beginner's Luck, yes, but that shouldn't affect the drop rate of items—only essences. Whatever the case, it was best to take advantage of her inexplicable fortune while we could.
"Change of plans," I called out. "From now on, Ainar will be in charge of defeating the monsters. Everyone else's job is to run around and aggro them for her."
Even if it wasn't as efficient as before, I decided to leave Ainar in charge of defeating all the monsters. And lo and behold, about five hours later...
[You have acquired an Unnamed Fragment.]
"A moon pattern..."
It was time to admit it. "Ainar."
"You can compliment me as much as you want!" she preened.
"You're right! Barbarians are the superior race!"
"Woooooo!"
Instead of shutting down Ainar's antics, I cast Giantization and threw her high in the air.
"Ahahaha!" As expected, Ainar was happier than ever.
Thud!
All right, that was enough playing around. With the Unnamed Fragments in hand, I quickly led the team back the way we came.
Day Five, Day Six, Day Seven...
Going back down the floors was even harder than climbing up in the first place. However, thanks to Ainar, we had extra time to camp, rest, and recover our stamina. As a result, we were able to reach the middle of the Goblin Forest by the afternoon of the seventh day. There, we stepped into the field housing the portal that led back down to the first floor's Crystal Cave. This was the very same field we once fought a fierce battle against three of Noark's top warriors, who had been guarding the entrance.
"...What is this?"
However, now, the place was packed with adventurers I didn't recognize at all. There looked to be well over a hundred of them, and going by appearances alone, they didn't seem like adventurers who had given up for the month and were heading back to the first floor to catch the labyrinth closure back home. If that were the case, they'd be going through the portal instead of just standing in front of it. They also didn't look like adventurers who had only just managed to find their way out of the Crystal Cave.
"Priest! Is there a priest?! Please help!"
"Drink this!"
What the hell was going on? As I approached the portal, countless adventurers recognized me and began to whisper to each other.
"Bjorn Yandel...?"
"Wasn't he on the first floor too?"
The crowd seemed confused to see me coming from behind them and not from the portal. I sighed. I'd wanted to sneak back to the first floor unnoticed instead of attracting attention like this, but since that was no longer an option, I called on someone who looked rather talkative to explain things.
"Hey! What's going on?"
His response was immediate. "Berzak! That demon has appeared!"
Hah, yeah, I figured something like this might happen.
No wonder we'd gotten so strangely lucky earlier.