Chapter 10
「As expected from one of the Seven Great Dungeons. I was surprised that the boss of the first dungeon I conquered, that giant poisonous snake, was just wandering around. I guess that prince didn't go through with it.」
「That is a monster called a basilisk. I have heard that it has a petrifying gaze, but apparently, that was a lie. However, it was such a scary monster that if it actually appeared in front of you, you wouldn't be able to move. ...... Maybe that is what is being conveyed exaggeratedly 」
They happened to counter basilisk wandering around by accident, but Nemu defeated it and run away before it could resurrect as an undead.
Nemu's magical claws were very strong, and her physical strength was greater than Mars' if he was not using Body Strengthening.
As long as you could purify the poison it was spreading, the basilisk was not a very difficult opponent.
It was a monster that had been defeated by Mars alone.
The undead, which was thought to be Kruse's group, was more mentally demanding than the monsters.
「It was easy-nya! Nemu is strong-nya!?」
「That was amazing! ――By the way, I was wondering if Nemu-chan is getting a little plump?」
「That was my thought too when we were bathing. Well, considering her original, I can say that she is now healthy. I can't say she's fat. She's just finally getting to the point where the floating ribs are starting to fade.」
It has been almost a month since they entered the dungeon.
Unlike before, Nemu has been enjoying a rich diet and proper sleep ― albeit a bit long ― and is completely healthy.
「By the way, Hazuki, you've gotten a little fatter than normal.」
「Th-That's not true, is it? I just eat a lot of food because it tastes delicious after using a lot of magic!」
「Hazuki-nyan is plump-nya. When she walks, her buttocks are more squishy than before-nya」
「Yup ...... I thought so too. It has a little more presence. I like it because it's erotic」
「I don't know why I get meat on my lower body. ......」
Hazuki had grown more sensational in the flesh of her lower body.
She is starting to get plump rather than fat.
Walking long distances every day also had an effect.
「But still, aren't the monsters arranged too appropriately? There are too many different kinds.」
「In the previous dungeon, 『Sekhmet』 this dungeon had one or two types per layer. Isn't that the order of the food chain? I can't believe there were basilisks and even pet demons in the same layer.」
「It's strange. ...... There are only two cases, but the dungeon we went to had exactly different types in the layer, even though we only encountered them occasionally.」
Monsters move between layers, unlike in a game dungeon.
However, since it is the instinct of living creatures not to go where there are enemies who prey on them, communities of their kind are created within a certain layer.
A naturally occurring caste exists between those who eat and those who are eaten.
In this 『Great Norn Tomb』, it is very ambiguous, and both exist together.
It seems to be related to the existence of the undead, a common enemy of both humans and monsters.
「Oh, the stair to the lower layer. As expected, it's easier to find those who have gone before us.」
「Though it is a little irritating that there is so much garbage scattered around. Besides, I hope the corpses will be disposed of properly.」
Kruse and others were going on, leaving all the garbage they came across.
So when Mars passed by, the stench was terrible.
The undead was burned away by Hazuki, releasing their souls from their bodies.
「What's that burning smell?」
「Is something burning ......?」
「It stinks-nya! It smells so bad down here-nya! Smells like burning and zuruzuru-nyaa!」
Pointing to the stairs, Nemu pinches her nose.
A stench was wafting from the lower layers that even Nemu could smell.
The smell of smoke did not seem to be an ongoing fire, as black smoke did not continue to rise.
「This is ...... something happened to that prince」
「Yeah ...... something terrible happened」
「Nemu can hear the sound, and there are a lot of them -nya. She doesn't know how many there are, because there are more than the number of fingers on Nemu's hand-nya.」
He is not an expert, but he has seen zombie movies in his previous life, and Mars has seen zombie movies.
In such movies, fire is essential.
There are many possible causes, for example, torches falling over in a panic.
Perhaps such trouble occurred in the lower layer.
Besides, something is burning without resolution.....I'm not keen on it, but we have no choice but to proceed.
「Hazuki-chan, be ready to use magic at any time. ――I'll take the lead.」
「A-All right ......! I've already used the magic of magic amplification. For everyone!」
Mars, who drew his sword beforehand, sticks only his hand into the Treasure House of Dream room and takes out another spare sword.
Then, he repeatedly uses 『Body Strengthening』 on him.
「Ugh ...... this is terrible. Not so much wiped out, but more than a hundred dead are dying.」
「The smell is so painful-nya ......!」
It was such a tragic sight that the words "City of the Dead" came to mind for Mars.
As soon as he got off the train, he saw the undead lined up in a row.
Noticing the presence of the living, the undead all turned their heads in the direction of Mars and the others.
「How about this!?」
Using the 『Body Strengthening』 with the magical power enhanced by Hazuki, Mars swings his sword to the side and throws it.
With a rumbling sound, the sword spins around and plunges into the crowd of undead.
He cuts off the undead's upper bodies as he goes, and when he has cut about ten of them in half, he stabs one of the undead and stops.
This is a battle method devised by Mars, which has no long-range means of attack.
The problem was that when the hilt hit the target, the momentum would dissipate.
――It's subtle. Should I throw it in a straight line like a throwing spear?
I had a feeling that an individual weak enough to crumble when thrown by the wrist would be useful enough. ......
「Granted archery 『Meteor』 12 strokes! I'll hold them back as they approach, so burn them all together! No. 2! No. 3!」
「Okay! Red Lotus Formation 『Arcane Invitation』!」
Lilia strikes twelve undead at the same time in the knee joints with her bow and arrow and repeats it several times to stall them as she says.
Hazuki immediately releases magic on a large scale and burns the whole place down.
The same magic, but on an overwhelmingly large scale, is now manifested in the form of enhanced magical power.
All that remained were countless ashes.
「I see that they all came to the entrance area. ...... Even though it's like that, do they still want to go outside?」
「I think they just sensed the presence of the living ― or us. I have heard that the undead are extremely sensitive to the living. But yes, the desire to be liberated may exist. It must be hard to be bound to someone even after death.」
「I will do my best to free them as best I can!」
The undead, magically burned to ashes, are easily buried, and Mars and the others move on.
A little further on, they found signs of human presence ― the remains of the camp of Kruse and his group.
The place was in a bad state of disrepair, and furniture and clothing that was probably intended to be used in the future had been left behind.
Only the people who had been here seemed to have disappeared.
Not even a single undead.
The solid aftermath indicates that the prince's group was not wiped out.
「It looks like they fled in a hurry. Maybe the undead increased while they were sleeping or in an unprotected state. The sheer number of people completely took its toll on them.」
「It's charred black over there. ...... I wonder if there was a fire. ......」
「I think they burned it intentionally. It is the most efficient way to deal with the undead. That prince would burn it all up without a care in the world.」
Unbeknownst to Mars and the others, the area around the food tent, the source of the undead, was thoroughly burned to the ground. This was done by Julis, who had fully seized control of the command.
She was following Kruse with as many usable supplies as she could carry after collecting and burning those who had turned into the undead in small pieces.
「Let's check for survivors and see what supplies they have left. We want to take what we can use as much as possible. Leave the food behind」
「What about survivors?」
「Of course we'll take them with us. We can't just leave them there, can we?」
「.......you're right」
She doesn't want to have humans, and those of unknown humanity for that matter, in their ranks.
Lilia did not react well.
「The treasury is going to be a bit of a mess, but I'd like to take the sword as much as possible. The one I threw earlier is pretty useful.」
「Wouldn't I be lost of face if Master attacked them from a distance? Even if it's just for the sake of it, I feel like my presence has been decreasing a bit lately!?」
「No, I'm just throwing them with random force, so I'm not much help. ――And I think Lilia's presence is great!」
Lilia's cheeks puffed out as she realized that he didn't mean it that way.
Lilia's skill with the bow is so accurate that she can hit an ant right between the eyes(?).
Mars' sword throwing is only good enough to disturb, but in terms of accuracy, you cannot expect much from the irregular movement of a sword that has left his hand. Long-range attacks are the sole domain of Lilia and Hazuki.
Magic weapons obtained in the dungeon would be more effective, but there are not many left because they were given to Kruse when he bought Nemu.
「There are lots of weapons over here!」
「There's food, too-nya!」
Hazuki and Nemu led the way to a pile of preserved food and a large number of weapons left behind, which they must not have been able to carry.
All of them were placed messily as if they had been abandoned in a hurry.
The weapons, in particular, were probably not meant to be taken with them. There were almost no users.
「I wonder if the Seven Great Dungeons are dungeons with different rules. In the previous dungeons, not a single weapon had fallen along the way. Not even a corpse. Even the arrows from the traps would disappear if you took the same path again. And yet here it remains.」
「Now that you mention it...There is a possibility that Norn's presence is affecting the dungeon. I don't think the dungeon has a thought, but it would be a nice nuisance if there are corpses moving around that would normally be collected」
Mars believed that the previous dungeons had been absorbed by the dungeon because no bodies or remains could be found, but that rule does not apply to the Great Norn Tomb.
He wonders if this is because all the corpses that would normally be recovered have been turned into undead, but weapons and other items were left unattended, which is a little unconvincing.
「Mmmm! Now we're talking about something difficult, aren't we?」
「It's more of a dungeon biology theory. ...... well, it's delusional. Just that I think it is.」
Mars tells his thoughts to Lilia and Hazuki.
Mars's idea is that this is the belly of a giant demon called a dungeon.
Although it is an imaginary place, Mars personally thinks and acts on the premise of this theory.
No one has a problem with it, but every dungeon has the same traps, monsters roaming about, and strangely ordered rules, with only one staircase connecting the layers.
This was Mars' question in the first place.
「It's a little scary to think that this is someone's stomach. ......」
「There's also a sense of fitting in.」
People in this world do not have the knowledge of immunity or the structure of the body that Mars takes for granted. So they don't even associate with it.
It is only because Mars is a reincarnated person that he is able to see and consider this.
Living organisms have a regulating function, homeostasis, to maintain optimal conditions.
He thinks dungeons have a similar function.
Instead of immunity in the body ― white blood cells, so to speak ― monsters are born to counter invaders, and when they die, they return to the dungeon and continue to produce the same number.
Since monsters are living creatures, there may be more of them than originally expected. In such cases, the number is adjusted by means of traps.
And adventurers who enter dungeons are germs and viruses.
Therefore, as an immune function, monsters become the adventurer's enemies.
Such a metabolic system exists, digesting living and inanimate objects that enter the dungeon without distinction and producing treasure in the innermost part of the dungeon as a kind of excrement.
It is believed that the more difficult a dungeon is to conquer, the greater the number of treasures because of the nutrients absorbed, i.e., the greater the number of adventurers and their equipment.
One of these Seven Great Dungeons, the 『Great Norn Tomb』, seems to be diseased in that sense.
The number of intruders is not decreasing, so the immune system is overloaded.
As a result, several powerful boss-class monsters were created to deal with the undead, and the monsters that originally inhabited the area were driven away to various places, resulting in the current diverse distribution, Mars thought.
「Everyone is so smart-nyaa? Nemu doesn't care about dungeons as long as there's delicious food-nyaa」
The thought of dungeons is boring and not very useful.
Even if you understood it, it would not make much difference to what you do, and in the first place, it would be at the level of fantasy.
「I think about it a lot. You don't have to worry about it.」
「More importantly, it's time for meal-nya!」
Upon seeing the abandoned food, Nemu opens the box and begins to eat the dried meat inside.
「Yummy-nyaa!」
「I said don't eat it! Throw it up right now! What if it's poisoned!?」
Thinking about the followers, the monsters, there is a possibility that they would at least put poison in the food they leave behind.
It didn't seem like a wasteful choice to just throw it away.
Mars thinks that if he were Kruse, he would make it a trap.
There must have been a real war to crush wells and fields in enemy territory in a war.
Nemu swallows with a gokun sound, perhaps in a hurry at being told to throw it up.
Mars was impatient, thinking that since it was a poison to be prepared, curing it would be ineffective.
「Nemu can tell by the smell of food that you shouldn't eat it, so don't worry-nya! Besides, this box smells like Julis-nya. She's a good human, so don't worry-nyaa. Once a year, on a cold day, she gives me a fish-nya」
「Still, it's dangerous,......so don't eat too much because it might be damaged 」
Picking up food is the worst thing you can do.
Current food storage is more than adequate. They have brought enough to last them even if they are stuck in the dungeon for another half year, and it won't spoil in the Treasure House of Dreams.
「As long as Nemu's sense of smell doesn't have a problem with the smell, I think we'll be fine. Worst case scenario, there's also the magic of decomposing poison. I think it can decompose anything if we raise the magic power with Hazuki's 【Forbidden Magic Book】 magic.」
「Mars-san is a little bit fastidious, isn't he?」
「Huh, am I in the minority!?」
If you think about it, Lilia and Nemu are both former slaves, and Hazuki is a glutton for food, so maybe she doesn't care.
It must be the questions and concerns that Mars feels because he has the hygiene sense of a modern Japanese.
Personally, I don't want to eat food from a place where there have been human deaths, but .......
「Well, I guess I care too much. ...... Let's take a break then. I'm sure everyone is tired from using magic.」
「It would be a waste to have it thrown away to rot, so let's all eat it!」
「That's no good. It might be a waste, but let's just eat what we bring in.」
「And if the perverted woman and Nemu don't overeat, there is still plenty of room for more. Don't bother choosing the risky way」
Taking fresh ingredients from the Treasure House of Dreams where time does not move, the four of them decide to eat as if they were having a picnic.
To say that there is no tension would be an understatement, but there is no use in thinking about all the anxieties.
They eat outside because the treasury does not allow them to see what is outside when they come out.
「What would you all like to eat? I'll make it quick. I don't want to give off too much of a smell, so I'll just combine levels.」
「Meat!」
「Fish-nya!」
「I want to eat vegetables. And I'm in a situation where my appetite is not so good.」
「Surprisingly divergent opinions. ......?」
He had no choice but to prepare something to suit everyone's tastes.
Apparently, being in the desert and a slave, Nemu has rarely eaten fresh fish until now.
The few opportunities she had, Nemu says, were given to her by Julis.
――She seemed feisty, but I wondered if she was nicer than I thought that red-haired beauty.
Mars reflected a little, saying that he would apologize firmly if he ever saw her again.
「I think the dungeon is still going on, but I think we're past the halfway point. I'm assuming Norn is at the bottom layer, so it's not a strong enough factor to be grounded, but I think the undead are getting a lot more powerful. Sometimes some of them even use magic.」
「There are certainly some individuals who seem to be as close to live as possible. ――What is the state of Norn herself? I hate to say it, but I have a bad feeling about this.」
「It seems to work normally. ...... I wonder if necromancy is something you can use on yourself.」
It is hard to believe that a genius who is a natural disaster who can cast a spell over an entire dungeon cannot target only herself.
There is no doubt that Norn is the most powerful magician that Mars knows.
「Hm-hmmm...I wonder? The current Tomb Guard Clan doesn't know how to use necromancy ...... Besides, Norn seems to have been so great that she became the head of the Tomb Guard Clan at the age of ten, so I don't really know what the criteria are for being so great. I feel like anything is possible!」
「Ten years old!? I was imagining a much more frail old man, you know!?」
「Ah! Norn is a woman! She was executed when she was about 20 years old and sealed up here!」
The image of a bad necromancer had preceded him, so what he imagined was a pure white old man with a long beard.
Since only women were born in Hazuki's clan because of Norn's curse, naturally there must have been men before that. So he had somehow assumed that Norn was a man.
「She was that young. But she was decent enough to be elected as head of the clan, wasn't he? Why betrayal again(?)?」
「I don't know......Because the story of Norn is a fairy tale, even for those of us who are Tomb Guard,...... but I think there was someone who wanted to bring someone back to life, even if it meant betraying the clan. I want to conquer the world with necromancy! I've never heard of such a story」
「Family members or lovers, I guess. If so, I understand how they feel. Because I'm sure I would do the same if Master - Mars - were to die.」
――maybe I would do the same. Or maybe it's fundamentally the same thing I'm after now.
Live with the people I care about.
If that's the reason, it was not hard to understand it emotionally.
And in Norn's case, she had the power to realize it from the beginning, so she probably couldn't resist the temptation.
He can only speculate, but he feels that the simple answer is the truth.
No matter how great their abilities are, they are the same people, and there should be no great difference in what they are at the root of the matter.
「I hope to live a peaceful life. Let's be more careful. Everything is a cause of death here. So don't pick up anything and eat it!」
「Okay. If we can get the magic of life span manipulation here, then we can relax and enjoy the rest of the day.」
「Nyaa? Staring at Nemu and she won't give you her food-nya!」
Seeing Nemu and Hazuki silently chewing their food with their eyes and cheeks rounded, Mars and Lilia looked at each other.
It is a calm, peaceful, irreversible, and irreplaceable time.
He knows better than anyone that it is irreversible.
He also knows that he cannot get it back.
What he seeks is always the future. What he needs to see is also in the future.
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