Chapter 2-9 : The Girl And The Dark Elf Proceed To The Second Floor
The giant golden slime has turned into molten gold spread across the floor.
「Wow! That was more powerful than I thought.」(Ingrid)
「Gyau! (Impressive!)」(Prox)
『Hahaha! Be honored! You guys have just witnessed a part of the Crimson Hero’s power!』(Flamberge)
If Flamberge had a face, he would have shown everyone his smug face.
「But if it’s not for Elle’s pure and tremendous mana, you couldn’t produce such flame, could you?」(Yoyo)
After confirming that the fight was over, Yoyo came out from hiding and said that.
『Well, yeah. It’s all thanks to our little princess.』(Flamberge)
「I don’t feel like I did anything, though. More importantly, since this liquid is metal, Ingrid, I think we can use it to make the frame for the Motorcycle.」(Elle)
「Motorcycle…? Aahh! You’re right.」(Ingrid)
「…Ingrid, you forgot our goal, didn’t you?」(Elle)
「Ahaha… All these unexpected happenings were so mind-blowing that I forgot about it.」(Ingrid)
Their goal was to gather materials to make a magic vehicle called “Motorcycle” as a request from a newspaper company.
Ingrid never expected she would find the perfect material to make the frame on the first floor.
「Certainly, I can use it, but how do we collect it? I was expecting hard steel material, not molten metal like this.」(Ingrid)
「Can’t we wait until it cools down?」(Elle)
「The items dropped from monsters in this labyrinth will disappear if we don’t collect them immediately.」(Ingrid)
「I see. In that case, you can use my magic teapot as a container. It’s heat resistant, so I don’t think it will melt. But who will be holding it? It will be extremely hot.」(Elle)
「Do we have to worry about that? We have a reliable dragon who can hold it for us. Right, Prox?」(Ingrid)
「Gyau! (That’s right!)」(Prox)
Holding a lava-hot teapot would be nothing for a fire dragon like Prox.
「You’re right. I leave it to you then, Prox.」(Elle)
「Gyau. (Roger)」(Prox)
Elle took out her magic teapot and handed it to Prox.
「Now, Elle, let me borrow Flamberge for a minute.」(Ingrid)
「Un.」(Elle)
『Hm?』(Flamberge)
Ingrid took Flamberge from Elle and used him to scoop the molten gold from the floor and put it into the magic teapot Prox was holding.
『Oi, oi! I’m not a shovel!』(Flamberge)
「Stay still! It won’t be long!」(Ingrid)
『Geez… Can’t believe you treat a former hero like this.』(Flamberge)
The teapot was not that big, so it didn’t take long to fill it.
「Aa-ahh… If I knew we would encounter this slime, I would have brought some heat-resistant containers. This molten gold is worth a lot of money, but too bad we can’t collect all of it.」(Ingrid)
「It can’t be helped.」(Elle)
Not long after Ingrid finished collecting the molten gold, two magic circles appeared before them. One was red and the other was blue.
「Ingrid, are these teleportation magic circles?」(Elle)
「Yeah. The blue one will take us back to the entrance, and the red one will take us to the next floor.」(Ingrid)
「I see. The red one it is then.」(Elle)
「Yeah, let’s go. I wonder what kind of incidents we would encounter this time.」(Ingrid)
As soon as the group stepped onto the red magic circle, they were teleported to the second floor.
Unlike the cave-like tunnel on the first floor, the second floor had stone-brick walls typical of a labyrinth.
「Hm? Something’s coming! Two o’clock!」(Yoyo)
Before Elle could activate her light magic stone to illuminate the surroundings, Yoyo felt something was approaching.
「ー!」(Ingrid)
Ingrid quickly drew an arrow and shot it in the direction Yoyo was pointing. The sound of an arrow piercing flesh was then heard, indicating she hit the target.
After Elle activated her light magic stone, they approached the dead monster. It had a small humanoid body that was shorter than Elle. It had greasy green skin and bulging eyes. There was a wooden club next to it that seemed to be its weapon.
Although Ingrid only used a regular arrow, it hit it in the chest and killed it right away.
「Guh! It stinks!」(Yoyo)
Its body odor smelled terrible. Yoyo, who had a good sense of smell, didn’t want to get near it.
Even everyone else spontaneously covered their noses.
「This is… A goblin? I’ve read about them.」(Elle)
「Yeah. They’re smarter than other low-level monsters and sometimes use all sorts of tricks to attack their targets, just like how it tried to sneak attack us earlier. Let’s proceed. This way.」(Ingrid)
After explaining, Ingrid immediately walked away.
「We don’t have to collect its materials?」(Elle)
「There’s almost nothing you can collect from goblins. You can take their weapons, but you don’t need that lame club, do you?」(Ingrid)
「Right.」(Elle)
They left the dead goblin and proceeded.
Not long after, Yoyo felt another threat.
「There’s something on the ground. A trap, I think.」(Yoyo)
Elle held the light magic stone forward and illuminated a barely visible string on the ground.
「What is this?」(Elle)
「It’s a trap set by goblins. When you touch the string, a poisonous arrow will be shot from an unexpected direction.」(Ingrid)
「What a deadly trap.」(Elle)
「Yeah. When I explored alone, I had to be really careful every time I took a step, and it was really tiring. I’m glad that your cat is useful.」(Ingrid)
「Hey, you can thank me anytime, you know? Be more grateful.」(Yoyo)
「Fufu. Thank you very much, Yoyo-sama~」(Ingrid)
Flamberge and Prox were fighting the slimes on the first floor, but on the second floor, it was Ingrid’s and Yoyo’s turn.
Yoyo would detect the traps and tell Ingrid when the goblins tried to sneak attack; Ingrid then would kill them in an instant.
Thanks to them both, the group was able to proceed without problem.
「Phew… I feel like the goblins here have gotten tougher. Their numbers seemed to have increased as well.」(Ingrid)
「Do you think the master of this dungeon has increased the difficulty?」(Elle)
「It has never happened, but… Who knows? If it gets too dangerous, Elleー」(Ingrid)
「Use the escape card. Right?」(Elle)
Ingrid replied to Elle with a nod and patted her head. Perhaps she noticed that Elle felt uneasy from her expression.
Not just Elle, Ingrid herself also felt a bit uneasy. It was only the second floor, but she never expected she would fight this many enemies. There was clearly something odd happening.
Suddenly, Yoyo felt a chill run down his spine. His tail stiffened and his fur stood upright. He felt great malice coming from both the front and behind.
「Shit! Guys, hordes of goblins are coming from both sides!」(Yoyo)
「What!?」(Ingrid)
Defeating a horde of monsters would be easy with Flamberge’s flame, but the passageway was narrower than the first floor, so they might run out of oxygen if he used it.
Ingrid thought for a split second and gave orders.
「Prox and Elle will take care of the ones coming from behind! Flamberge and I will deal with the ones from the front! Yoyo, let us know if you notice anything!」(Ingrid)
「「Roger that!」」(Everyone)
Ingrid drew multiple arrows at once and aimed forward; Elle held her slingshot and put her other hand in her bag, ready to grab a magic stone anytime; Flamberge was floating with the tip of his blade in front, ready to stab the enemies; and Prox transformed to her medium-sized form, about the size of an adult human. Meanwhile, Yoyo was standing in the middle, trying to feel the enemies’ positions.
They were ready, but the goblins were yet to be seen. They were hiding in the darkness. However, Yoyo managed to grasp their numbers.
「Five from the front and five from behind! Stay alert!」(Yoyo)
Just right after Yoyo told their numbers, he felt something coming at Elle.
「Elle, something’s coming!」(Yoyo)
Before it reached Elle, Prox quickly unleashed a fiery breath and turned it into charcoal. The only remaining thing on the floor was the arrowhead.
「It’s… An arrow? Ingrid, there are archers among them!」(Elle)
「Ugh, I’m an archer, but I hate goblin archers!」(Ingrid)
As she complained, another arrow flew, but toward Ingrid this time.
『Leave it to me!』(Flamberge)
ーCLANK!
Flamberge quickly deflected it.
Realizing arrows didn’t work, the goblins started approaching. Some of them finally came into view.
Two goblins were running toward Elle, but she quickly shot a lightning magic stone and hit one of them. The electrocuted goblin lost its balance and collided with the other goblin running alongside it. As a result, two of them were electrocuted.
Elle managed to eliminate both of them in one go.
The remaining three were still out of sight. Elle had no idea whether all of them were archers or only two or one of them was, but she noticed another arrow was shot toward her.
「Prox!」(Elle)
「Grau!」(Prox)
Just like before, Prox incinerated the arrow with her breath.
Howeverー
「It’s not over! Prox, watch out!」(Yoyo)
Yoyo felt another attack.
The arrow unleashed toward Elle seemed to be a bait to create an opening. The real target was Prox.
A glowing magic circle appeared before Prox and unleashed a wind spell, Wind Cutter.
Prox tried her best to dodge it, but her medium form was slower than her small form. As a result, the Wind Cutter hit one of her wings.
「Grau! (It hurts!)」(Prox)
「Prox!」(Elle)
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