“Now Sora, it’s time to fulfill my promise.”
Leila is extra energetic today.
“I get that, but don’t you think you should at least introduce them?”
Today we’re going to be exploring the dungeon with Leila and the others, with our goal being to reach the twenty fourth floor.
She says other people from the academy will be joining us too. There are actually close to ten more people that look like students waiting behind her.
“You’re right. Hum, these are the parties Thousand Gold Coins, and Light of Hope.”
That’s an incredible party name. What do I even say to that?
“Apparently Thousand Gold Coins just named themselves after their goal. They’ve reached the twenty sixth floor, and today they’re kind of like attendants of Light of Hope.”
I guess Leila is reading my mind, because she responds to what I was thinking.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Totto, the leader of Thousand Gold Coins. I can’t wait to go with the party I’ve been hearing about. Good luck out there.”
Heard about? I can think of plenty of bad rumors, but… That wouldn’t explain the looking forward to being with us part.
“People have been talking about how you defeated the boss on the twentieth floor with a small and elite party. Ah, and I’ve heard about your cooking too.”
Then Light of Hope introduce themselves, and we’re off.
From this floor forward, undead monsters start appearing.
The twenty-first floor has skeletons, and they use different weapons.
Sometimes a superior species called skeleton knight pops up. They wear flashier armor, and are easy to spot, but being a superior species means they’re more agile.
Skeletons feel like they would be slow, but… Yes, they’re actually slow enough that we can distance ourselves from them by just walking. But for some reason, their arms move pretty fast. They’re not consistent.
There’s only one way to beat them, and that is to destroy their core, the magic stone.
Scattering their bones won’t make them disappear, and they’ll eventually rearrange themselves. I kind of want to see that, but now’s not the time.
That said, apparently hitting them with weapons imbued with the holy attribute purifies the bones, making it possible to retrieve the magic stone. Holy magic works too, so that gives us a chance to get their magic stones.
The real issue is that they come in droves. So many come out that it feels like they’ll start to fill up passages if we don’t defeat them quickly enough.
This does happen if no one comes here to hunt for a while, or if people don’t finish them off, so sometimes the guild puts out quests to come exterminate them if there are too many of them.
Of course, it’s hard to prove that the quest was completed, so former adventurers that work in the guild have to come check.
“So you guys accepted that quest, Leila?”
“I figured we might as well, since we planned to come here anyway. And it would be harder if it was just Thousand Gold Coins and Light of Hope.”
“Then is it a good idea to have them go in front?”
Thousand Gold Coins and Light of Hope are taking the lead.
“It’s all about experience. It’s dark, and there might be hard to spot traps too. Also, it’s easier to understand if you use holy water in an actual battle.”
So it’s mainly for the sake of Light of Hope?
First they hit them without holy water, and defeat them by breaking the magic stones.
Then they sprinkle holy water on their weapons and slash at the skeletons.
When a sword touches a bone, it vanishes. And once the head is gone, everything else goes and leaves the magic stone to fall to the ground.
“So you should go for the head if you’re using a holy attack?”
“That’s the simplest way. You have to destroy multiple other parts otherwise. Don’t ask me why. Ah, it looks like they are about to use magic.”
As Leila says that, a member of Thousand Gold Coins casts Holy Arrow.
The undead monster it hits is shrouded in light for a moment, and then it vanishes, leaving another magic stone to echo as it falls.
The actual power of the spell doesn’t matter, skeletons disappear as soon as it touches them.
“There’s no money in it, so they are not popular despite being easy to take down. The effect of the holy water doesn’t last long either, and you have to use more once it stops working.”
And if you use too much, you’ll end up losing money.
Still, I hear their magic stones are actually good quality despite how weak the monsters are, so they’d probably be profitable if we hunted a lot of them. Then again, it’s inconsistent because it depends on the monster encounter rate.
Those times when the place is filled with them are a good opportunity to make money if you can take them down.
It feels like that wouldn’t be a problem for parties with members that can use holy magic, but if they can’t use their spells a lot of times, their profits are all going to go to mana potions.
“That’s why a lot of people let them gather, trap them, and then finish them all at once. Every monster on the path of a single holy arrow is purified.”
Normally a spell hits its target, performs its effect, and then vanishes, but when a spell hits an undead monster, it keeps going. They just keep on going until the effect runs out.
Of course, that doesn’t mean it will sweep a fifty meter passage. It all depends on the range.
There are three people in front with shields baiting skeletons, and once a few are gathered, a Holy Arrow is fired.
“I think it’s time to switch. I feel like I’m running out of magic energy.”
Says a priest girl who’s breathing heavily. I see sweat on her forehead too.
“How is your party going to fight, Sora?”
“I want to check the effect of the holy water. Just watching isn’t enough.”
First I just hit it normally. I don’t put too much strength into it, but bones go flying.
Then there’s an even bigger noise, and when I turn to look, I see Sera pulverized bones with one hit. Of course, that includes the skull.
And yet, the rest is still there.
I try destroying the magic stone covered by the bones, and they disappear without a trace. It’s actually strange how Sera destroyed those bones so thoroughly and didn’t smash the magic stone too.
I ask her about it, and she casually says she avoided it, and then destroyed it.
After that, we take down skeletons with holy water, and when it runs out, Mia and Trisha use holy magic.
Maybe it’s because we’ve just been fighting skeletons, but we’re not particularly tired when we find the staircase to the next floor.
We camp near it, before we take on the next floor the next day.
