Volume 2 - CH 181

The third level was fairly full of enemies.

We were constantly attacked by a swarm of spiders, bats, and goblins, but we managed to fight them off and were finally able to move on to the fourth floor.

Alena was so enthusiastic about mapping out the area that she had already mapped out the entire third level.

I am not sure where she gets the energy to do so, but I am impressed that she continues to make maps even after being attacked so many times.

However, the most troublesome of these attacks were the bats.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had my eardrums nearly broken …….

I was beginning to think that it might be better to fight in the form of a monster, but then my role would probably change a bit, so I decided to attack the dungeon in human form.

Well, it is good that we have descended to the fourth floor, but …… we have descended without encountering anyone until now …….

Where on earth have all those adventurers gone?

I also saw the adventurers’ camps that I saw on the second floor, so I don’t think it’s possible that they haven’t come down so far,…….

Nevertheless, there are none of them down there.

It’s something I can’t help but think about, so I’m going to raise my guard even higher around the perimeter and conquer the fourth floor.

In case you are wondering, I was shown a map of the three completed floors, and although there were not many branches, there were many side holes that were connected to each other.

I thought it would take some time to fill in the map, but Alena seemed to be getting used to mapping, and the third floor was completed faster than I had expected.

Now, we are on the fourth floor. …… This time, we are not worried about being attacked on the way in, and we are able to proceed smoothly while filling the map.

The number of attacks has decreased at once, so I almost feel a little relaxed, but I still keep my haze on at all times.

If we are ambushed, there would be no way to stop it.

“Humm hum huuum ♪ Huuuum ♪”

“You’re in a very good mood. …… What’s the matter, Reiezn?”

“Aniki! Do you remember my special skills?”

“No, I don’t. ……”

Reizen was stunned for a moment by this, but then he regained his composure and explained his skills to us.

“Voilà! It’s the blessing of the earth!”

The blessing of the earth.

As I recall, this is a special skill that Reizen have, and the effect is that they can read the nature of the land they are standing on and use it as their own power.

However, why are we talking about this now? …….

“So what about it?”

“I’ve been keeping it under wraps until now, but after diving this far, I finally activated it.”

“Really?”

Up until now, he said, he had been walking on the stone, so he had read its characteristics and had been granted enhanced defenses, but that had changed when he got here.

And that is  …….

“It’s a magic enhancement!”

“……hmm? What do you mean?”

“It means – …… magic attack is strengthened! But I only have the skills to attack with magic, like Ground Echo.

“That …… is not what I mean. …… Why was the magic enhancement activated here?”

“He?”

Reizen’s special skill, the blessing of the earth, is a skill that [Can read the nature of the land and use it as his own power].

This means that this land that we are now standing on has something that can enhance trigger the special skill.

Uchikage also seemed to have noticed something about this and was thinking with his hand on his chin again.

Alena and Reizen do not seem to be thinking about this too much.

Alena was so focused on the map that she didn’t even show any signs of thinking.

……

“What do you think, Uchikage?”

“I cannot really answer that right now. ……. I’ve never heard of anything like that, and maybe that something is what’s causing those high ranking monsters to come out near the surface floor.”

“Mmmh …… it doesn’t look like we’ll find out until we progress to whatever it is. Reizen, let me know as soon as you have something else to tell me.”

“Y-yes, I understand!”

I didn’t think that Reizen’s skills could do something like this.

I was impressed by the fact that he has the voice of the earth.

At any rate, let’s proceed with caution.

◆

We were making good progress in filling in the fourth floor of the map, and when we were almost at the end, we stopped in front of a trail.

We were at a complete dead end, but we couldn’t move when we saw what was there.

“It’s a treasure chest, isn’t it?”

“It’s a treasure chest.”

“It’s a treasure chest no matter you see it.”

“……, It’s really a treasure chest………….”

What we saw in front of us was unmistakably a treasure chest.

Various monsters attacked us along the way, but there weren’t that many of them.

They were in the same place where we had been chasing them, trying not to let the remaining ones escape.

But of course, there was a reason why we weren’t able to move.

If it were real, I would have opened it immediately to see what was inside, but there was a possibility that there was a trap.

It would be dangerous to open it so carelessly.

But what kind of traps are there here at ……?

I don’t see any particular traps at a quick glance.

Even with my haze, I don’t see anything strange, and I think it’s rather safe.

“…… you want me to check……?”

“Nn-…… well, if it’s Reizen, it’ll be fine. …… Then-…”

“HUUUZAAAH!”

“The heck, dude?!”

Before I could say anything, Reizen ran in a straight line toward the treasure chest.

Indeed, such a reaction may be appropriate, but if there was a trap set there, it would be just what the enemy would want.

I mean, at least you hid the urge to rush out immedietally!

I’ll give you credit for that!

After arriving in front of the treasure chest, reizen immediately put his hand on the chest and opened the lid.

“Come on! You should check your surroundings before opening it!”

“Hahaha! No worries! I can handle anything that comes my way…”

At that moment, Reizen was blown away by a log-like object that came flying at him from right beside him.

After a moment, a tremendous thumping sound indicated the force of the log’s impact.

“”…….”” (Alena and Uchikage)

“You idiot. ……”

Uchikage seemed to be taken aback by this and put his hand on his head, just as I was.

However, the only one who’s not worried like that is me.

Normally, I would have run up to him the moment he was gone to check if he was okay, but since we knew how strong Reizen’s defense was, we could only be amazed.

And then, Reizen came back from the side where he had been blown away.

As expected, he was unscathed.

“I should be more careful…….”

He returned to us with a treasure chest in his arms.

After placing it on the ground, he checked everyone’s faces.

“You’ve seen what’s inside, haven’t you? If you had, you wouldn’t have had to bring it all the way here.”

“No, actually, I couldn’t see it because it was blown away.”

“Oh, that’s so …….”

Reizen immediately opened the treasure chest and checked its contents.

What came out of the box was a dagger with many unnecessary decorations.

The dagger is actually sharp, but the decoration makes it difficult to handle.

“I was surprised to see such a large treasure chest containing only one dagger like this.”

Well, it happens sometimes, I wonder what is this?”

“It’s pretty, but there seems to be no point in making it a sword.”

As usual, Alena doesn’t really think like a girl, does she?

“I hope it was something like jewelry.”

I take back my previous comment.

My statement was wrong.

The dagger is also decorated with some kind of glittering ornaments on the blade.

It’s a dagger that looks like something royalty would have, but I don’t think it’s in a place like this, and …… this could be …… a replica.

“Imitation?”

“It seems so.”

“Ugh! I put my effort on the line for this!?”

“That doesn’t count as hard work for you.”

“W-well, you’re right. ……”

I don’t know if I should be convinced there, but I know that we don’t need it.

We’re going to take it for now, but we won’t use it.

Even though it is a imitation, it is a reasonably good object in itself.

It would be no problem if we sold it off somewhere.

We also checked the treasure chests, so we decided to go on again, filling in the map.

It seems that that place was the last one, and the map of the fourth floor was completed.

The fourth floor is similar to the second floor.

The deeper you go down, the narrower the cave becomes, so it seems that mapping is becoming a lot easier.

Now we want to go to the fifth floor, but it seems that it is already nighttime.

Alena is looking very sleepy.

So we will take a rest here today.

The fifth floor will start tomorrow.