Otoko Nara Ikkokuichijou no Aruji o Mezasa Nakya, ne? Chapter 312

Year 7447, Month 7, Day 15

Just now was the 40th is it...
Of course, I'm talking about the number of small storage-like rooms along the left side of the hallway.
There's a small room every 50 or 60 meters.
Just in case I had them write a large "one" in ink on the floor and wall of the entrance to the small room we came out from so we won't miss it on our way back.

As far as I can tell from looking ahead this seems to be the end of the small rooms.
We walk into that last small room.
It's still the same tasteless room with nothing but dust and dirt.
We haven't discovered anything recent enough to consider them footprints except for the ones from the first room.

"It seems there won't be anymore rooms ahead. I'd say there's about 300 meters until we reach the area where that light gets brighter. I'm thinking of heading over there. Does anyone have any opinions?"

It seems neither Basu nor Jiru have anything to add.

"It seems there's not much traffic..."

Henry whispered while looking at the footprints leading along the right hall.

"I guess so. But, there's quite a few footprints nonetheless. Just from a glance I wouldn't say every week but they're probably making a round trip at least once a month.."

Basu replied after observing the footprints in the hallway up until here.
True, it's just as he says.
There's several new footprints on top of the old footprints and even more new footprints on top of those.

Judging from the layers of dust covering them the history of these footprints should go beyond just the last 100 years or so.
It looks like this hallway might have existed for either several hundred years or maybe even several thousands of years.
In that case there must have been a number of round trips made before the birth(?) of even that vampire.
No problem.

Let's head further down the hallway.

........................................

Further down the hall it suddenly turned once to the right at a right angle and then several meters further turned again to the left at a right angle.
And then a few meters ahead of that continued into a small room.
It's a slightly twisted circular room that's about seven or eight meters in diameter.
When we noticed the room I was wondering if the ceiling would rise as well? but that wasn't the case.
The height of the ceiling is the same as the first small room we teleported into and the hallway we've walked up until now, 3.5 meters or so.
On the opposite side from where we entered there's another exit that continues into a hall and then on the right wall there's one more similar exit.

Also, there were monsters in the room.
One of the boss types from the rooms on the 4th and 5th floors, ghouls.
There were 8 of them.
All of their levels were over 10 so taking that into consideration they're way higher than just the 4th or 5th floors.
They seemed pretty strong.

After using {Identify} to check it seems that they don't have the usual goblin or ork as their base as well. Hyumu, elf, dwarf, gnome, the races of all the ghouls were pretty mixed up.
But, different from the 4th floor the humidity isn't all that high so most of them are in relatively good condition and none of their faces are collapsing.
I don't know if that's the reason why but all of them still have their unique names remaining.

But well, something like this still just takes a single spell of freezing.
Normally I freeze the entire lower bodies of ghouls so they don't tear off their own legs to start moving around but trying to form the ice so we can climb on top of it is a pain and in the first place it takes a decent amount of time for them to tear off their own legs.
If we all attack them at once then just freezing up to their knees with level 5 fire and water magic is plenty.

I had the slaves attack them and finished them off all at once.
It seems Basu and Jiru aren't very surprised by my magic anymore.

"Leave the magic stones for later. Let's hurry ahead."

After just confirming that the ghouls are completely dead and won't revive I started walking down the hallway on the right.

Judging from a quick look the hallway in front of us is the same as the hallway we've come down until now and should bend at the same times as when we first came out of the room. If I were to say both sides are mirrored with the room at the center would it make more sense? Also, we found a different set of old footprints from the ones we were following but all of them seem to continue down the hallway on the right.

The hallway on the right continues straight ahead.
However, about 100 meters ahead it splits up two directions like a T.
The footprints are still remaining so if we go that far we should be able to tell which direction to go down.

Blame yourselves for being to careless and not cleaning up the dust. Lord-san yo~

After advancing up to the T split and just as we expected the footprints all go back and forth down the left side of the hall.
There's no footprints that continue down the right side at all.

Ah, I forgot to use trap detection spells from the last room up until here.
There weren't any traps up until here but there's no way of telling beyond this so I need to remember to use them.

..Nn, there doesn't seem to be any as far as I can see.

With Henry and Mekku at the lead we continue down the hall following the footprints again.

..................................

The hall we were proceeding down bent to the right and just as Mekku was peeking around the corner while sticking to the right side of the wall I remembered that Henry and Rubi were both about to level up.
Angela's done quite a bit of damage to a number of powerful enemies lately as well so she should have leveled up too.
I guess I'll confirm it.

I use {Identify} vision.

But, when I went to take a look at the back of Henry's head I noticed it.

Roughly 10 meters ahead of where I'm standing, there's a door-shaped board where the brightness of identify vision increases along the wall that bends to the right.
The door extends from the floor to the ceiling and is about 2 meters wide or so.

I almost spontaneously flinched.

After that I tried checking all of our surroundings and there was a similar wall on the left side with a door that I could identify.
This is bad.

I turned around to look in the direction we came from and there's several similar doors along the hallway.
Additionally there was one along the wall right beside me.

However, they don't seem to be the type of doors that open in a direction for a surprise attack.
In the first place they look like they're completely fused with the surrounding wall so it's difficult to even tell them apart, or rather more or less impossible.
Other than with {Identify} that is.

I quietly gave out a sign and ordered everyone to standby in place without advancing forward.

I pretend as if I'm thinking while carefully observing the door that was beside me.
I put the back of my arm against the wall and then put my hand against my forehead.
Then I tried groaning a bit.

Just as I thought if I don't use identify I can't tell it apart from the surrounding walls.
Furthermore, I can't even find a gap with the naked eye.

For the time being I decided to try identifying it.

Sliding Door
-
Condition: Deterioration(Aging)
Manufacture Date: -/-/-
Value: -
Durability: 854692435
Ability: -
Effect: Through the sliding of the entire body it's possible for it to arbitrarily block or release the entrance between two rooms.

Well the Condition makes sense and the Durability is abnormally high but there's nothing unusual other than the obvious under the effect. With this much durability even I would have trouble breaking through it with my attack spells.
In theory it's not as if I can't break it, but rather, it's basically the same as the dungeon walls.
Putting that aside and I guess it was a sliding door instead of a hinged door.
Incidentally if it were a hinged door it would say "revolves around a single point to" in the effect text.

However, even putting aside the fact that it's missing various information it's still unnatural.
Prior to that if it's really a sliding door then it would need some place for it to slide into. It's impossible for it to be fused together with the entire wall itself like this. It's impossible to open unless it slides further inside or to the sides. Unless it's something that comes straight from the world of 2D.

Even if I check the floor there's nothing strange in the volume of the dust in the hallway so if it were to pull back inside and then rise to one of the sides..ah, I guess it's possible for it to slide up and down?

Hmmm...

No matter how much I look at it I can't tell where the boundary between the door and the wall is.
Even when I try touching it I can't feel any difference.
It would be too unnatural to take off my glove so I didn't go that far though.

This is something necessary to investigate.
Later though.

It's a bit strange to be facing the opposite wall for too long so I decided to continue advancing.

....................................

Just like this we continued walking for a considerable amount of time.
Jiru is drawing a rough map but everyone's long since realized it.
This isn't the 4th floor.
The 4th floor doesn't have this much extra s.p.a.ce.
Everyone's remaining quiet but I(probably, Zulu and Angela as well) am sure of it.
This is either the 12th or 13th floor.

Along the way we ran into two more s.p.a.cious rooms like the one with ghouls.

One of them had three {Wights}, which were kind of like ghouls or zombies but covered in a yellowish light, though I looked at them with {Identify} from quite a bit of distance away. One of their special skills was {Energy.Drain} and they seemed pretty dangerous so I shot about 10 {Fire b.a.l.l.s} with extra mana added from the place I used identify at and wiped them out.

My experience points increased by over 200,000 and I leveled up. I regretted it a bit if I had known they'd increase this much I would have frozen them in ice and let my combat slaves finish them off. It seems you can't injure them without using magic weapons but they're undead monsters so I think {Grave.Strike} would have taken effect.

In the other room there was a single monster called a {Specter} which had a name like some rampaging bandit from years past. But, it was half-transparent almost like a ghost so I didn't think freezing it would work and ended up just trying to kill it by rapid-firing magic again, though it was pretty fast. In a hurry I poured 500 MP into a super powered {Flame Thrower} and roasted it.

It had {Energy.Drain} as well so it's dangerous right. Unexpectedly this fellow gave 180,000 experience points for just it alone. I felt like it was saying something as well but it's voice was too quiet, it felt kind of like "who the h.e.l.l are you" so it might have been something like a gatekeeper to where that {Lord} or whatever is holed up inside.

Incidentally this ghost impertinently used magic and when I first used {Flame Thrower} it tried to block it with {Anti-Magic Field}. But, it only had about 400 MP so in the end my spell won over it and it died with a cry like "gya~~". It was pretty loud in the end.

Just this guy dropped three separate magic stones so(it didn't leave a corpse) I picked them up as some bonus income. Ah, monsters that drop multiple magic stones are already well known. Though this is might first time seeing once, dragons and other giant monster types are examples of ones that do.
I've said it before so you still remember right? The size wasn't anything great but the color was beyond white and close to perfectly transparent and beautiful. When I used {Identify} each of them had a value a bit over 1,000,000. Uhho~ just this is worth over 20,000,000.

Basu and Jiru are looking pretty jealous but I don't mind it at all.

Furthermore there was a mountain of dirty trash or dust in a corner of this room. While I was identifying the magic stones I ordered Jesu to investigate but it seems it was just a pile of some kind of small dirty board so after all it was trash.

There's no time to be digging through trash so I put off investigating things for later.

I've found doors all over the place but for the time being I've decided not to bother with them so we're hurrying ahead.
For now I still haven't found any traps.

...............................

And then I regretted hurrying ahead.
It happened after turning at a certain corner and proceeding for a short while.

"Bzzt..zaza...tsugudafu..above de.missu...mukaru.meinri..zaza...is..distance biku recognition baru to group hivu plate dess.h.i.+...sai..place..removal that's why.fiku..inside ni rogu.hi sa ne kuryugu..mai tsu mimu"

Huh?

It sounds like the ancient Ragudariosu language.
I was unnerved by the sudden broken announcement as if it was coming from a speaker on the verge of breaking and was unable to decipher the meaning of what it said.

We all stopped at once and started concentrating on our surroundings to determine where the announce just now came from but no one could find anything suspicious.
However, I was somehow able to figure out the meaning of what it said.

"Bzzt..zaza...(Warning)..(forbidden from proceeding beyond this point)..zaza..(qualification holders)..(immediately present your identification)..(otherwise you will be removed as dangerous individuals)..(please depart within 3 seconds)..3{Three}.."

It's probably like this.

"2{Two}"

"GO back!!"

I turned around to the right.

"1{One}"

Everyone obeyed my warning in a hurry.
However..!

"0{Zero}"

However, Heny who was walking at the front was. .h.i.t by an invisible attack and collapsed!
Mekku who approached to save him ended up taking damage in the same way and fell on the spot.
It must have been because they were one corner ahead of from where we were walking in the back.

Zulu and Angela dragged them along in a panic and returned back to the corner of the hall.

And then by the time we went around the corner of the hall the announcement stopped.

"Where were you hit!!?"

I asked Henry and Mekku who were being dragged by Zulu and Angela.

"Ggu. M..My leg."
"M..Me too."

Henry.Okonnel/23/9/7445 Henry.Okonnel/27/8/7445
Male/19/4/7422.Human.Greed Viscount Family Owned Slave
Age: 25 Years Old
Condition: Burn
Level: 16
HP: 89(119) MP: 5(5)
Strength: 19
Speed: 20
Dexterity: 19
Endurance: 18
Special Skill: Small Magic
Experience: 562269(680000)

Meisun.Garuhashu/23/9/7445 Meisun.Garuhashu/27/8/7445
Male/14/3/7424.Human.Greed Viscount Family Owned Slave
Age: 23 Years Old
Condition: Burn
Level: 15
HP: 90(120) MP: 15(15)
Strength: 20
Speed: 20
Dexterity: 13
Endurance: 18
Special Skill: Instantaneous
Special Skill: Night Vision
Special Skill: Earth Magic Lv. 3
Special Skill: Water Magic Lv. 3
Special Skill: Void Magic Lv. 3
Experience: 524256(560000)

It seems there's no danger to their lives. I was a bit relieved.

"I'll heal you now! Do you know what you were hit by!!?"

There was a wound almost like they were hit by a gun on both of their thighs.
A hole that's several mm in diameter and has burn marks went through their tough leather pants and a bit of blood is coming out.
The wound goes through from the back to the front and there's only a small hole where it seems to have entered.
The starting point of the wound almost looks like it was burnt and that also acted to stop the bleeding.

This..isn't a gun.

Is it a spell?

But, I don't know of any spell like this.

In any case, right now I need to heal them up.
I used {Cure All} on them consecutively.

Both of them had a single wound on their right legs.

"I..I don't know. Just as I turned around in order to retreat it suddenly.."
"I don't know either. I'm very sorry, master."

After I finished healing them and was looking around everyone was standing on edge while scanning the surroundings.
Other than that there wasn't anything particularly unusual.

There's no more attacks.

"Mekku, lend me your sword. No, just the scabbard is fine."

Makku took the scabbard off his sword band and handed it to me.
After receiving it I returned to the edge of the hall and slowly stuck just the scabbard out beyond the corner.

Nothing happened.

I stuck it out even further and waved it around.

Still nothing happened.
Hm~mm...

Spontaneously with my left hand..scary~

Should I use my combat slaves here..No, I should do it myself.
Even if my fingers are blown off I can heal it.
Ah, it would be unpleasant if my gauntlet is broken.
Thinking that I took the gauntlet off my left hand and it was just as I was about to take off my glove.

"Master, that's dangerous! Please stop!"

Zulu stopped me.

"If you need a decoy leave it to me!"

Angela started advancing.
..I guess leaving it to these two is fine as well?
No, that's no good.
If it's me I can use {Anti-Magic Field} in an instant.
In the first place I was just planning to stick my left hand out while using {Anti-Magic Field}.
Or at least that was what I was thinking but I also thought it wouldn't attack right away even if I showed my hands, legs, or entire body.

When it attacked just now it was after something like a warning announcement happened and that was after advancing about 10 meters past that corner.
The details of the announcement was that if you approach within a fixed distance it'll drive you away.
Adding to that the attack seemed to be aimed at the legs and there's no major bleeding from the injuries so even if you were to leave it alone you wouldn't die right away.

In other words, if you just approach that close it won't try to kill you.

"No. I'll go. Give me the rope"

I tie the rope around my waist and if anything happens I'll have them pull it to bring me back right away.
If it aims for and shoots the rope that's the end but it still better than nothing.

First I covered my left hand in an {Anti-Magic Field} and stuck it out just a bit.
Several tens of seconds pa.s.sed as I waved my hand up and down but nothing happened.

I tried stretching my hand out a bit further and did the same thing again.
Even then nothing happened.

I go all out and expose my entire body.
Nothing happened.

Just as expected.

I returned once and put my glove and gauntlet back on.
I went back out from the corner to the right and showed myself again. This time without an {Anti-Magic Field}.

And then I used the spells {Find.Trap}, {Detect.Snare}, and {Detect.Pitfall}.

Found it!

Roughly 150 meters ahead I can feel traps set on both sides around the floor where the hallway bends to the left!
It's too far so I can't really tell but..that shape is..!
Cannon!?
No, a gun!?

Aa.De.Ra~.Ku-Type 3
-
Condition: Deterioration(Aging)
Manufacture Date: -/-/-
Value: -
Durability: 1269
Ability: Mode I/30: Mode II/90
Effect: Anti-intruder automatic defense system {sentry.gun}. Heat ray gun {blaster} made by Hauza and Rekon Company. K.L.Ru 43 with connected sensors to make it automatic.

"Wha!!?"

I reflexively let out my voice.
Ah the "Aa.De.Ra~.Ku" is lined up with the {Common.Letter} characters of the Ragudariosu language so it's probably some kind of model number.
I froze for a moment with my eyes opened wide but immediately remembered to slam some attack spells into it.

{Fire Cannon}!

One more!

{Ice Cannon}!

I focused solely on rapid-fire without adding the missile effect to them.
Also, in reaction to the dangerous sounding explanation about it being a heat ray gun {blaster} I used two different types of attacks just in case.

The {Sentry.Gun} was effortlessly destroyed by my spells without a chance to intercept them.
It seems that sensor or whatever doesn't react to spells.

"Bzzt..who is it, out there? Is it you again Wazumun? I always say not to forget your identification card when you're carrying prey in..Even though you had it just before..This is why barbarians are..I'll be there in a moment so wait there..Bzzt"

There was announcement.

But, it wasn't a recording or synthesized voice but a natural voice.
However, what in the world was with the content just now!?

On my right, everyone is dumbfounded in the shadow of the hall.
Basu and Jiru seem to be speechless for a variety of reasons.
It must be the first time they've seen attack spells that flashy.

"I've removed the trap. Let's go! Hurry!"

After saying that I took my bayonet from Zulu who recovered first and then ran off.
I run while calling out to my slaves and cast the spell {Grave.Strike} on their weapons.
I cast it on Basu and Jiru's swords as well.
I don't know if the owner of that voice is that {Lord} or whatever but it should be moving to somewhere from where it just was.

We pa.s.s by the remains of the {Sentry.Gun} I destroyed.
Up until here just in case I confirmed if there was anything like a sensor but unfortunately I wasn't able to find anything at all.
It must be either very well hidden or inside of the walls of the hallway.
Right after the remains the hallway turned to the left again with a 90 degree angle.
Several meters beyond that is..a dead end!

However, my {Identify} vision shows that the wall of that dead end is a door.

There should be a switch for opening and closing it somewhere. No, it would be strange if there wasn't one.
It was when I approached to investigate it, the door gave off sounds like, "Psshhh..ga~ ga~" as it slowly started to sink into the floor.

An automatic door?

And then further inside of the automatic door is probably the owner of the voice from the announcement just now.
The moment I saw what seemed to be the top of someone's head I used {Identify}.

Masetto.Deioku/13/3/5912
Male/1/1/5911.Hyumu(Immortal).Deioku Family Second Son
Condition: Vampire(True Ancestor Lord)
Age: 268 Years Old(1536 Years Old)
Level: 28
HP: 498+1269(498) MP: 508+50(558)
Strength: 90(30)
Speed: 90(30)
Dexterity: 90(30)
Endurance: 90(30)
Unique Skill: Resistance(Abnormal Status)(MAX)
Special Skill: Bloodsucking{Drain}
Special Skill: {Paralyze}
Special Skill: {Venom}
Special Skill: {Petrification}
Special Skill: {Energy.Drain}
Special Skill: {Mist.Form}
Special Skill: {Bat.Form}
Special Skill: {Create.Familiar}
Special Skill: {Immortal}
Special Skill: {Growth.Fix}
Special Skill: Earth Magic (MAX)
Special Skill: Water Magic (MAX)
Special Skill: Fire Magic (MAX)
Special Skill: Wind Magic (MAX)
Special Skill: Void Magic (MAX)

On the other side of the automatic door that's descending at an almost irritating speed what appeared before my eyes after using {Identify} on just the top of his head was a shocking status window.

Rather than that what caught my attention were the words {True Ancestor Lord}.

As well as {Immortal}.

And the characters mixed in there that were red like blood.

Above all else his experience point field had disappeared just like Kaku and Sara as well.

I won't let him make a single move! First move wins!