CH 220

“Ah… well, no.” (Rook)

It’s not that I don’t want it, but I don’t particularly need it right now.

“If you don’t want it, can I take it?” (Kid)

“I don’t mind, but…” (Rook)

I observe the boy in front of me.

The age is a little younger than mine. He was about the age of an elementary school student. His clothes are not very pretty. A wooden plank is wrapped around his torso. There are four other children about his age, male and female, all holding wooden clubs. All of them are clutching wooden clubs.

Ah, this is…

I have a guess. I have seen children like this in large towns from time to time.

In the dungeons of Elem, entry was strictly limited and there was an entrance fee, so we never saw them in the dungeons, but here there are no restrictions and no entrance fee. I guess that’s why they are coming in.

“I don’t mind if you show me your dismantling here.” (Rook)

“Okay! Negotiation completed!” (Kid)

The children quickly split up into two groups, one for dismantling and the other for watching and quickly set to work dismantling.

First, they turned Mud Toad on its back and slit its belly lengthwise with an old knife.

“Brother, you haven’t taken the magic stone yet.” (Kid)

“Oh, that’s right.” (Rook)

“Alright!” (Kid)

The boy thrust his arm into Mud Toad’s body, moved his hand around inside, and when he pulled it out, I found a magic stone covered in blood in his hand.

He then slides the knife near the Mud Toad’s neck and hip, scraping the guts out with both hands.

An indescribable smell spreads around him.

…I’ve seen the dismantling of creatures many times, and it is not a pleasant thing. If I could, I wouldn’t want to do it. But if someone doesn’t do it, we can’t get meat. It is necessary work.

The boy checked the base of the leg of the Mud Toad by pressing it with his hand, and inserted the knife into a certain point, then passed the knife around the leg, and the leg of the Mud Toad was cut cleanly. The boy cut off the other leg in the same way and then inserted the knife into the arm of the Mud Toad.

“You’ll take that part too?” (Rook)

“There’s not much meat here, and it’s not good, so I can’t sell it, but you can eat it.” (Kid)

As they did this, I could see the Mud Toad approaching us with [Magi Location], so I quickly faced it, killed it, and dragged its body over to them.

“Brother, you are really strong!” (Kid)

“You can take this too.” (Rook)

“Really? It’s our lucky day!” (Kid)

As I watched them joyfully begin dismantling the body again, I couldn’t help but think a little.

It’s like they say, “A little bit of skin-ship is a bond for a lifetime,” but when you are involved in something like this and see it, you can’t help but think about it.

“Do you come here often?” (Rook)

“Yes, I do. Adventurers who earn money on the second and third floors gather here!” (Kid)

“Adventurers gather here?” (Rook)

“You see the stream there? They bathe there, and they give us the Mud Toads they’ve killed while bathing.” (Kid)

“Bathing? Here?” (Rook)

“Oh, yeah, and upstairs, there are zombies, you know?” (Kid)

“Yeah, that explains it…” (Rook)

If you were smashing zombies with a blunt weapon… It would be like a slimy, sloppy, chattering, zombie-smelling splattered mess. You can’t even get into the inn in that state. I guess I would have to clean up here.

For adventurers who go to the second and third floors, the Mud Toads here are a pain to hunt down and dismantle, and it’s a hassle to sell them to the stores. It’s not worth much money, so it’s probably convenient for them.

And maybe there is a symbiotic relationship.

“Then I’ll go now. Good luck dismantling.” (Rook)

“My name is Adol. I’ll see you soon.” (Kid => Adol)

“Oh, if I get the chance.” (Rook)

I waved my hand lightly and turned on my heel.

I have a lot on my mind, but I swallow it firmly and move on.

There is not much I can do right now.

After that, I jump over the stream and proceed through the grassland, entering the woods while perceiving the invisible wall at the edge of [Magi Location], and I move along the walls of the first floor.

“Oops.” (Rook)

I catch a slime that jumps at me from the front with my right hand and quickly flings it to the side.

This seems to be considered good manners, if not the rule, of the Rift Dungeon.

The weakest slimes live by melting and absorbing corpses. In other words, they are the cleaners of the forest, cleaning up the monsters we have killed. So, as much as possible, adventurers do not kill them and leave them alone. This is a very important thing in the dungeon of this small box garden.

They saw what happens when they hunt all the slimes.

Then, as I went further into the forest, I began to perceive more adventurers and goblins in my surroundings, and I often saw fights between goblins and adventurers. I walked through the forest, avoiding them as I slipped past them, and eventually arrived at the rift that led to the second floor.

It was similar in shape to the rift connecting the first floor to the outside world but slightly different. Just like how the rips formed when a paper is torn do not have the same shape, I wondered if the rips that form in space are also slightly different in shape. It’s a bit of trivia. I would like to make a contribution somehow.

Passing by adventurers entering and exiting the rift, I headed along the perimeter toward the entrance.

It feels like I’ve walked through this dungeon so far, and this is really just a normal forest and meadow. There are no strange reactions in the magi locations. Without the transparent wall outside, it would be completely different from the outside world.

After a while, the ground becomes more ups and downs, and the terrain becomes rocky.

As I passed between large rocks and climbed a small hill, there was a goblin-like reaction in my [Magi location].

When I lowered my body and approached there while suppressing the sound of my footsteps, there was a group of goblins under the cliff. It’s not at the level of a settlement yet, but a colony is probably being built. Looking closely, among them was a goblin that was one size larger than the other goblins.

“Is that a Goblin Soldier?” (Rook)

The goblin soldier was wearing a helmet and a magnificent club, perhaps taken from an adventurer.

“I see…” (Rook)

I knew that the monsters in this dungeon were the same as the ones outside.

Compared to the monsters here, the monsters in the labyrinthine dungeon are too uniform.

“I’ve found them and I’m going to weed them out, huh?” (Rook)

I didn’t plan on doing much fighting here today because it’s a low-ranked zone, but if the higher goblin species are out there and trying to mass, I’m going to have to take them down.

“Sacred light, unleash a white blade [Holy Ray].” (Rook)

In an instant, I completed the magic, unleashed it on the Goblin Soldier, and jumped off the cliff.

“Gii!” (Goblin)

“Gugiya! Gugiya!” (Goblin)

The goblins noticed me and panicked, but the Goblin Soldier was already dead.

Landing on the ground, I ran immediately to the goblins and forcefully swung my mithril alloy cudgel down, precisely crushing the goblins’ heads.

It may be interesting to note that, unlike a spear, a rod’s both ends can be used as weapons in the same way. It can be held in the middle and used like a sword, or near the end and used like a spear. It can be used in a variety of ways.

“Gugff…” (Goblin)

I cracked the head of the last one and sighed heavily.

I think I’m getting pretty good at using the Mithril alloy cudgel without any discomfort.  After all, it was good that I learned Spear Arts.

While thinking so, I took out a knife and cut out the magic stone from the goblin’s chest. When I finished collecting all the magic stones, I used [Purification] on the magic stones and myself.

I put all of them in the palm of my hand and checked them.

There was one large goblin soldier’s magic stone and the rest were small magic stones.

“I guess they are not the same.” (Rook)

It is natural that the Goblin Soldier’s magic stone is one size larger than the others, but the magic stones of ordinary goblins are also slightly uneven and of different sizes.

All the monsters’ magic stones that appear in the labyrinth-type dungeons are uniform in size according to their ranks. However, the monsters that inhabit the world outside the dungeon have different sizes, even if they are of the same rank and of the same race. And the monsters in the rift dungeon also have different sizes of magic stones.

“Hmmm…” (Rook)

After all, everything is too different between a rift dungeon and a labyrinth-type dungeon.

I thought so as I looked at the sun in the dungeon, which was turning dimmer and dimmer.