Dungeon Game Chapter 36

-36- Beast Cave 5

Thirteen monsters in the air.

They fly in the air using their black wings and form blades of wind using mana.

An invisible blade flies from above that is aimed at its prey. Because of sixth sense that I learned through the device, I avoid the mana that I sensed.

It is sharp and even left a cut on the hard bedrock. But the cut itself is small and shallow.

It's easy not to be injured as long as I can sense it. The number of blades that a monster can fire all at once an be counted on one hand. But beasts that swarms together rely on their numbers and avoiding the attacks they shoot requires much effort.

When Maizuru and the others encountered these bat monsters, they ran away. Having no ranged attacks because they don't have any techniques related to it, except for Maizuru, it seems to have developed one-sidedly.

They were bleeding after their skins got shallow cuts. There is no problem if there are few, but if the number cuts increases, the bleeding will do so as well. Since they are bleeding, they will end up as a fodder if they lose strength.

Maizuru, who decided to escape as soon as she judged that the situation is unfavorable, was probably right.

What is troublesome is not the invisible attacks. All members of our party can sense mana so they are easy to deal with. The troublesome matter is that monsters fly in the air and attacks from the unreachable ceiling.

Since Wazuka's group have a magic gun for ranged attacks, they can surely deal with easily.

If it's just shooting mana, I can also do it. But shooting them down is impossible because it has no power at all.

「Yeah, I can't hit them anymore.」

The stone breaks into pieces after hitting the ceiling, dust comes falling down as it drops.

Heidi repeatedly picks up the stones that dropped down and throw them, but it doesn't even graze them.

The monsters are not small as a target with their 30 cm size. But there is a distance of around 5 meters, we were played around by their three-dimensional movements and can't hit them directly as planned.

Hiiragi-san is using a weapon nearly two meters long, but even if she holds it at the end of the handle and swing, it won't reach the ceiling. She might reach it if she jumps, but it would create a big weak spot while she's in the air.

Maizuru does not seem to have any effective measure. She wouldn't have retreated in the first place if she has one, right?

Another way is to wait for it to switch to melee attacks after it runs out of mana like in the tutorial. However, It's not guaranteed that it will approach us just like that time. a.s.suming it was like that, when it becomes a drawn-out fight, our stamina will also be used up. If we run out of our ability to concentrate and fail to evade, our wounds would continue to increase. Considering the long distance of the dungeon ahead of us, it is not very preferable.

If that's the case, should we rather avoid fights and also run away? But it won't end if we run away every time we encounter this type of monster, so what should we do in case we can't run away? Just thinking about cutting our way through this place, it is useless.

The monsters fly in the air freely and evade Heidi's throws.

Maizuru shoots mana in desperation but, as if they are visible, they don't hit. Small wind blades cancel a lot of the shot mana.

I suddenly felt something wrong.

Not knowing what it is, I watch the monsters while avoiding the blades of wind approaching me.

Their appearance closely resembles the figure of a bat. Speaking of bats, they are famous for echolocation using ultrasonic waves.

In echolocation, the produced a sound hits objects, and from the differences of the sounds that bounce back, the situation of its surroundings is detected. Aside from animals, devices like fishfinder also use the same principle.

Even when nothing can be seen, it can perceive the situation just with the power of hearing instead of sight.

It's invisible to the eyes.

The stone thrown by Heidi hit the ceiling and made a smas.h.i.+ng sound. In response to that sound, the monsters made distance away from the place where it hit.

「Maizuru, try shooting out mana again.」

Following my words, Maizuru shot out her mana.

Just like before, the monsters avoided it greatly as if it was visible. Of course, since it didn't hit, the mana was cut down by the released wind magic and dispersed in the air.

I confidently thought of an idea.

For humans, 90% of the information that they rely on is from their sight. If they do a dungeon exploration without any light source, since they won't even know what's left and right, they will even trip on a small stone and won't be able to advance at all.

There are no lights in this dungeon. Despite that, the monsters are moving without any problems. We were thoughtlessly moving while using a lamp so I hadn't realized it.

Perhaps the monsters here didn't develop their sense of sight that much. I think that their other senses are more developed to subst.i.tute it. Their sense of hearing, smell, and mana detection are excellent. Otherwise, there's no other explanation for how they avoid the stone coming to them and their big reaction to the sound. It's because they are sensitive and alert even against mana that is supposed to be invisible.

「Hiiragi-san, after I herd them together, finish them off. Heidi, as much as possible, cover me using stones to break the wind blades that are coming from unexpected directions. Maizuru, please be my guard.」

After I finish giving out the designations, I concentrate on my senses.

I release all the mana dwelling inside my body outside. I don't care feeling the sensation of losing strength from my body.

Maizuru, who was standing beside me, parried the approaching wind blade using her tantou.

Image. Until now, I was imagining condensing the mana that is about to diffuse and shooting it like a bullet. However, I'm trying the opposite this time.

I control the diluted, scattered, and diffused mana and stretch it out to enclose the monsters. The monsters with sharp senses fly to avoid the mana. Heidi throws stones to the guy trying to cancel it using wind blade and to the one trying to leave, obstructing their movements.

To enclose them in a certain range, I prepared an exit while lowering its ceiling. The monsters move towards the hole that I made, but Hiiragi-san is lying in wait on the other side of that.

She mows down the monsters by making good use of her physical ability that was enhanced by mana and cut them cleanly.

She damaged their wings, torsos, and bodies, and they fell down on the ground one by one.

While feeling the aftertaste of being useful after a long time, I reflect on the fight moments ago. This time, since monsters moved to avoid mana, we continued according to the plan, but we're not always restricted to that.

I felt that we should acquire a ranged attack that can inflict damage by all means.

◆

I noticed something new as we continued exploring deep in the dungeon.

The monsters in this area use magic unlike those in the upper levels. The magic they can use seems to be decided by their species.

Bat-type monsters manipulate the wind. Sharp blades of air that cut skin. They only have one set of moves, but it is troublesome since they attack in a swarm. If we are overwhelmed by numbers and make a mistake dealing with them, we can't avoid being injured. They also have the ability to fly, making them even harder to knock down.

Dog-type monsters manipulate fire. They only shoot fireb.a.l.l.s and do not emit flames to burn down things. They move in packs that do not exceed ten. They are not difficult opponents for Hiiragi-san and others who are enhanced their physical abilities using mana.

Rat-type monsters don't use magic in visible form. There are times when it enhances its physical ability, but there is no impression to call it outstanding. I understood, with the use of detection, that the points where they are good at are on different areas.

The monsters that make up the ecosystem of this area are the dogs and bats that are standing on the top, and the rats that ended up at the bottom.

In terms of population, there are a lot of bats, but their bodies are not big. If I consider the volume, the rats might be the largest. Although the rats are hunted and preyed on, their reproductive ability is very high. I'm sure that their numbers are increasing little by little if I count them with detection.

I don't know when will the population of rats overwhelm and expel the other monsters, there might come a time where they will appear on the upper hierarchy. Well, at that time, I think that there will be an outbreak of cannibalism though.

Compared to those at the entrance, their body is larger and their aggressiveness is getting higher. Because it seems like their population is large, the frequency of fights will certainly rise.

When Heidi went together with Wazuka's group and reached this depth, it seems that they still didn't have enough points so they were not able to operate mana. They also stuck to a strict schedule to make a roundtrip in the dungeon in three days.

We might be slower than that time, but I think that the advantage of mana is really big when I look at our not so tired conditions. Actually, I am also less tired compared to the first day. With the increase in travel companions, even the luggage should also increase.

Raising the HP value might also have an effect.

We finished eating our lunch and, without even stopping to chat, resumed the exploration.