Chapter 296: Quest Preparation
Chapter 296: Quest Preparation
Following Lutia’s lead, we advanced a short distance before four trolls, each about three meters tall, came into view.
I’d heard the monsters on the 5th Floor were big, but I never imagined that pack monsters like trolls would be this massive. Just how big were the ones that roamed alone?
To make matters worse, the hulking beasts were each carrying a club, doubling their intimidating presence.
But the battle that followed was so one-sided that my tension felt completely wasted.
To start, Miriel, Alicia, Lutia, and Jini each drew the aggro of one troll.
Alicia and Jini blocked all of their trolls’ attacks while inflicting massive wounds. Lutia, on the other hand, was effortlessly dodging every blow, toying with her opponent with the daggers she held in each hand.
True to their reputation as the poster children for rapid healing, the trolls’ wounds bubbled and began to close, but they were accumulating injuries far faster than they could regenerate.
The three of them looked incredible enough handling the giant trolls on their own, but the most impressive of all was Miriel.
Befitting her title as a Magic Swordsman, she caused crimson flames to erupt from her one-handed sword. She then ended the fight in an instant, cauterizing the troll’s wounds as she sliced through them, preventing it from healing.
With a flick of her sword, as if bored by the whole affair, Miriel sheathed her weapon and returned to the front of our group, resuming a guarded stance.
Was she planning to let the other three finish off their trolls by themselves?
Come to think of it, the members behind us were also just keeping watch on our surroundings, showing no intention of helping.
I guess they were confident that the others could handle a troll on their own.
The trust they had in each other was certainly impressive, but there wasn't much for me to learn from it.
I had expected a more efficient battle, one that utilized coordination and teamwork.
Soon after, the trolls that Alicia and Jini were fighting collapsed, leaving only the one Lutia was facing.
Was her fighting style—inflicting shallow cuts with daggers as she zipped past—a bad match-up against a fast-healing troll?
Just as I was pondering this, Miriel drew her sword again and looked back at me.
“Well then, Guwon. If you would.”
It wasn’t a bad match-up after all. It seemed they had intentionally left the male troll alive for me.
“Got it. Leave it to me. Lutia! Step away from the troll for a moment!”
I held out a hand and sent a Saint’s Wave flying toward the troll.
It wasn’t a targeted skill, after all.
It would be a pain if I accidentally hit Lutia while she was moving so quickly around the troll.
Lutia, apparently not in the mood for games during a fight, heard my voice and swiftly distanced herself from the beast.
And the wave I’d unleashed struck the troll dead-on.
“Alright! I’ll leave the cleanup to you!”
Struck by the Saint’s Wave, the troll shuddered and immediately got an erection.
Then, it whipped its head around to face us.
Seeing that, I hastily ducked behind Miriel.
“It gets hard with just a single gesture. All our efforts until now were for what…?”
Miriel muttered, sounding almost hollow, as she made flames erupt from her sword.
I’d really love for her to tell me exactly what kind of “efforts” she was talking about. Preferably by demonstrating them for me in person.
In any case, with not only Miriel but also Lutia joining in, the troll that had been charging at us with bloodshot eyes was butchered in an instant.
Phew. That was a relief.
It wasn’t that I was scared of the troll.
What I was relieved about was that my skill had actually worked.
Well, I had assumed it would, which is why I’d stepped forward so confidently.
I had my reasons. My skills worked on Silvia, after all.
Of course, the effect was much weaker on her due to our level difference, and she only reacted so sensitively because she wasn’t accustomed to pleasure, but the fact that it worked at all was what mattered.
I didn’t know if it was because of their low intelligence or some other reason, but my Saint skills tended to be exceptionally effective against monsters.
Back on the 2nd Floor, when I’d earned the disgraceful nickname of the Milk Road Maker, even Holy Ground Proclamation—a skill I had only just learned—had worked on all the orcs.
So, as long as the skill wasn’t completely nullified, I was sure it would have a proper effect.
Besides, this was Saint’s Wave, a skill far more potent than Holy Ground Proclamation.
Anyway, I was truly relieved.
I had been thinking that if the wave didn’t work, I might have to get close and use Saint’s Touch.
Breathing an inward sigh of relief, I put on a nonchalant smile and approached Miriel, who was collecting the magic stone from the corpse.
“So? Did the penis come out properly?”
“Yes. It did.”
Miriel held up a massive, pillar-like object and extended it toward me.
“Agh! Get that away from me!”
My eyes! I’ll pay to unsee that!
As befitted a three-meter-tall creature, it was quite an incredible size.
“Hahaha. Anyway, something this size is useless as a dildo. I guess it’s only good for being a key, or maybe a staff for a cleric.”
“Ah, Miriel! Then if you get another one later, could you give one to me—!”
“No. The plan is to get as many as possible and distribute them to all the parties on the 5th Floor. Using them as keys is the top priority.”
Miriel flatly rejected Lily’s request.
What? So it’s not just priests, but holy knights make weapons out of penises too?
Does that mean the mace Lily is holding is made from a penis?!
I’ve learned another fact I didn’t want to know.
Even now, I still flinch whenever I see our angel holding a staff made from a monster’s penis.
“Still, that’s quite an amazing ability. I’m almost envious.”
“Hmph. What do you think? I’m a pretty useful guy, aren’t I?”
“Indeed. So useful I’d like to have you in our clan. If only Alicia had done a proper job back then…” “I told you, he didn’t bite even after I showed him our quarters! How long are you going to nag me about that?!”
Alicia exclaimed, sounding utterly fed up.
“What do you say? Have you changed your mind?”
“Nope.”
“That’s a shame.”
Judging by her exchange with Alicia, she seemed to have been quite persistent about it, but surprisingly, Miriel just let it go with a cool “That’s a shame” and didn’t press the issue further.
“Let’s keep moving.”
We reformed our ranks and continued on our way.
The members of Arachne were as strong as their confidence had suggested, and the hunt went smoothly.
To be honest, I was starting to think that bringing Matilda and Silvia along had been a mistake.
Silvia, at least, would properly place her hand on her sword hilt and survey her surroundings during combat. But while we were moving, she had to stick right next to me, which caused her to go limp and occasionally let out a soft moan, looking genuinely precarious.
“Hey. No matter how good last night was, don’t start getting off just by reliving it.”
“I-I-I haven’t gotten off yet!”
So it’s ‘not yet,’ huh.
She was truly a handful.
It felt like the more we did our “special training,” the more memories we created, which was actually having the opposite effect.
As for Matilda, she was acting like a young lady on a dungeon tour.
She was observing the surrounding landscape, marveling at the beauty of nature, and at some point, she got swept up in the mood, linked her arm with mine, and her cheeks even turned a shade of pink.
“Agh! Get off me!”
“W-Would you please stop treating me like an insect?! It was just an accident, we only touched for a moment!”
“If it was an accident, why are you blushing?!”
“Th-This is… because my blood circulation improved from walking a bit!”
Don’t give me such a weirdly realistic excuse!
Honestly, how did I end up with two pieces of baggage?
Not that I didn’t understand Diana’s concerns.
One thing I’d realized since coming to the 5th Floor was that it could be dangerous even when you didn’t draw a monster’s aggro.
For one, the monsters were just too big.
Can you believe that the trolls we first met were apparently the smallest monsters on the 5th Floor?
There were creatures five or six meters tall, and though I hadn’t seen one yet, I heard there were even monsters that easily surpassed ten meters.
Just getting swept up in an attack from a monster like that would be the end.
When I thought about it that way, it was probably a good thing they were sticking close, but still…
“Watch out! Above you!”
As I was looking at the two of them with a dubious gaze, a shout suddenly came from behind me.
“Huh? Above?”
The moment I turned my gaze upward, my vision suddenly went dark.
“Guwon-nim!”
At the same time, a fierce wind pressed down on my entire body, followed by the sharp CLANG of metal striking metal.
“Are you alright?!”
Only after my vision cleared could I grasp the situation.
A monstrous bird of incredible size had swooped down on me, and Silvia had apparently blocked its talons with her sword.
Just when I thought I could see the sky, birds start showing up. This place really has it all, doesn't it?
“Jini!”
“Hnngh!”
Miriel called out Jini’s name and stepped onto her greatsword. Jini then swung the massive blade with all her might, launching Miriel into the air.
What the hell was that? A game skill? Well, I guess I’m not one to talk, with my game-like system.
Soaring through the air, Miriel immediately attacked the monstrous bird’s wing with her sword.
But even for a master magic swordsman, hitting a bird in mid-air wasn’t easy. She only managed to graze its wing.
It seemed the wing was injured, but the monstrous bird didn’t fall from the sky.
But just then, the twin mages’ spells shot into the air.
The bird, still trying to right itself after dodging Miriel’s attack, was struck squarely on the wing by the twins’ magic.
“Kieeeeeeek!”
The monstrous bird let out a piercing shriek and plummeted to the ground.
I see. So that game-like combo move just now was simply a diversion.
What a flashy bunch.
“This one’s a male too! Guwon!”
She even managed to observe that while flying through the air?
At Miriel’s signal, I immediately fired a Saint’s Wave.
“Kieeeek!”
“What?!”
But the creature, despite being hit by the Saint’s Wave, paid it no mind and began to thrash about wildly.
“Tch! Guwon! Are you done yet?!”
Killing it would be one thing, but just suppressing the thrashing beast to keep it from harming me seemed to be a struggle even for the executives of the Arachne Clan. Miriel’s voice was sharp with urgency.
I frantically fired another Saint’s Wave, but again, it had no effect.
Dammit. Was the thing I was worried about happening?
“It’s no use! Miriel! I don’t think this will work unless I get closer! Weaken it some more!”
“Tch! Understood!”
At my command, the four melee fighters—Miriel, Alicia, Jini, and Lutia—rushed the monstrous bird simultaneously.
Seeing all four of them charge at once, I wondered if this bird was something different from a normal monster.
The bird, now unable to fly with its injured wing, thrashed about and raised a ruckus, but the four of them methodically wore it down.
After they tussled with it for a good while, the bird finally seemed to run out of steam, its struggles weakening as it panted heavily.
“That Saint skill of yours… as long as it’s applied before it dies, there’s no problem, right?”
“Yeah. That’s right.”
“Good.”
After getting my confirmation, Miriel immediately sliced off both of the bird’s wings.
“Kieeeeeeek!”
The bird writhed in agony, but with its wings completely severed from its body, it was no longer a major threat.
“This is a rare one, so I definitely want to get its penis. Do it before it dies.”
“Got it.”
I nodded and approached the monstrous bird.
Even with its wings cut off, the thing was massive. If it just rolled over, my body would be turned into minced meat.
I cautiously took one step after another toward the creature.
But the bird, on top of losing its wings, had lost too much blood and no longer had the strength to struggle. It simply stared at me with lifeless eyes.
Using Saint’s Touch, the most powerful of my skills, I placed my hand on the bird’s head.
Please, let this one work.
If this didn’t work, I was running out of cards to play.
But my worries were needless.
As befitting my ultimate skill, the Saint’s Touch worked perfectly on the monstrous bird.
In fact, it worked a little too well.
The moment my hand, wreathed in the aura of Saint’s Touch, rested on the bird’s head, its eyes turned bloodshot as if in a final burst of life, and it powerfully thrust its head forward.
I should have been on full alert, but I couldn’t dodge the beak as it came toward my stomach.
Dammit. Fucking level difference. I can see it so clearly, but I can’t dodge it.
I felt the disgusting sensation of the bird’s beak piercing my stomach, and then I lost consciousness.