73 – 3. Two Adventurers (26)
26.
Labyrinths do not occur naturally. A labyrinth is also a part of a dungeon, but considering that most dungeons are filled with monsters in places like forests, riverbanks, and caves, it can be said that quests in the form of ‘exploration’ rather than ‘strategy’ are extremely rare. Unlike other dungeons, it can be said that the labyrinth is extremely difficult to attack.
The typical form of the labyrinth is a form in which underground water gnaws away the bedrock and a cave full of moisture and moss spreads underground, and the fact that such a well-preserved and strong fortress is entirely buried underground is a mystery that is almost a miracle as far as I know. Was Have sandworms roamed around in the past? A forest was formed over it, so at least hundreds of years must have passed since then. I was sweeping the wall with the palm of my hand, but then, thinking that there might be a trap switch, I gently removed my hand.
“Wait.”
Mira, who was walking ahead, stopped going down the stairs and spoke to us. She immediately drew the dagger she was holding in her hand, slicing her vision in half, and muttered with her knees slightly bent.
“Something, wow.”
Almost at the same time as Mira, Chloe must have sensed a presence, and she immediately pulled out the rapier from her waist. The thin, well-forged blade shone brilliantly, reflecting the magic light from her ring. Alphonse tightened his big back muscles and held me back. Even in such an unknown place, that size was really reassuring.
And a muddy sound flows into the aisle that even I, who can’t feel any presence, can notice. I held my torch a little high and identified “They” As they slowly approached. Pale skin, rotten flesh, dropped hands and feet, staggering gait, turned knees, a broken body…… X feet. No way.
“Bake it!”
“Zombies! What to do!?”
“What the heck, what the heck.”
Mira furrowed her brow and pulled out what was left of her dagger. Then she muttered a small grumble.
“I’ve never played against monsters…… Chloe, is there a vital part of being a zombie?”
“Uh, if you decapitate it, it will normally stop moving.”
That was the moment. Before Chloe’s words could even run out, she instantly escaped the 10-meter range of Light [Light] Magic, and sprinted into the darkness, making metallic sounds one after another, and before counting the time with both of her hands, she climbed the wall. It sprinted back to us in an instant. What was it just
“I can’t.”
She swung her dagger at her floor, brushing the back of her hand through the hair that clung to her forehead. She frowned as the cut pieces of flesh poured out without blood.
“There are too many to handle all by myself. It seems to be coming incessantly from the corner of the alley. I think I’m coming to see the light…….”
Mira spoke calmly, but Chloe opened her mouth like a stunner, and then she raised her hand, wearing her ring, to witness the horror unfolding before her eyes. The five or six zombies that had been staggering in front were wriggling on the floor with their necks and heads separated. Thanks to that, the zombies that followed stumbled over the corpse, or didn’t even think about approaching them.
I knew it, but it really is a monstrous strength. If it’s not a typical fighter class that fights monsters, what the hell did that human master teach you? However, there was no time to admire her skills, and the zombies continued to creep over the corner, stepping on the corpses of my comrades.
Then Alphonse snorted her and passed Chloe clutching an axe.
“Get out of the way.”
“…… Oak?”
“I will clear the way. You must not fall away from me.”
He stepped forward in front of us with a tone that seemed to be nothing of the sort. Mira shrugged and came back behind him and clung to my side. Maybe this time I’ll take a look at my skills. In the guild, Mira won the decision victory, but since she was close to her surprise attack, she didn’t have an advantage. She gave up her seat for the time being, just straightening the rapier drawn by Chloe.
The aisle was narrow, but it was wide enough for two people to go through, but when he stood in front, the zombies were all covered by his back. Chloe warned in a curt voice.
“…… Be careful, zombies can get infected if bitten.”
“Hmm.”
In Mira’s case, she must have been so fast that she didn’t even have time to warn her. As she talked, Alphonse snorted at her and muttered something like this.
“Notice.”
Soon. He folded his arm and raised his ax, showing off his vicious blade, and rushed at the zombies flocking in despite seeing the gigantic body.
“Bake it!?”
“Wooooo!!”
The zombies are embarrassed by the giant that closes the distance three to four times faster than they are. However, they also have nowhere to retreat. The zombies trapped in the flesh wall they created were intertwined with each other, and soon two or three were cut in half at once with the axe.
Steel Puck!! Chloe shrank and screamed as the zombie’s rotting flesh flew towards us. Mira looked at her like that with her eyes, and then she signaled me and approached the scene of Alphonse’s massacre.
Quack!! Poop!! Thump!! Bang!! Puck!!
An ax in one hand, punching and kicking with the other hand and foot. When his centrifugal swing of the ax knocked them out of position, he did not immediately draw the axe, but with his free hand and foot he rammed them into the wall or trampled them. Just with that alone, the zombie’s weak body exploded as soon as it touched it. After earning distance like that, he would raise his ax again and slaughter them.
What is this, his head explodes before teeth or saliva can reach it. I even felt a little sympathy for them who were entangled with each other and unable to escape and screamed. I thought about throwing the torch I was holding forward all the way, but I don’t think it’s necessary. The fire will have another use later.
“There are no monsters.”
As I muttered, Chloe didn’t agree, but she shook her head and moved on, probably thinking the same thing as me. It wasn’t just because of her appearance and ethnicity that she picked green, so I expected this level of activity in the first place. Suddenly, I remember the nasty face of Gerald, who I liked wearing blue. When I saw that, I was curious to see how he would react. We stepped on the corpses of the zombies he had slaughtered and turned the corner…… Thump
“Huh?”
I inadvertently looked down at the feeling that my ankle was being squeezed. There, the corpse of Alphonse must have been slaughtered, headless, holding me with one arm left! Oops, X…….
“Jin?”
Seeing me stop walking, Mira approached me wondering. But before she could even notice her anomaly, the zombie slowly loosened her grip on me and then lay down on her forearm with a helpless flop. …… What was it
“Why? What’s going on?”
“No…… Can you see if this guy down here is still alive?”
Mira tilted her head and nodded in agreement. I can’t because i’m scared Do it. She touched the tuk-tuk zombie’s corpse with her foot a few times, then shook her head from side to side. Was it just like rigor after death, like a last-ditch effort? Everything surprises people. I let out a sigh of relief and followed Chloe with Mira.
※
After passing through the passageway that was vibrating with the smell of zombie corpses, a slightly wider space came out. Considering that we’ve been going round and round all the way down the stairs, this is probably the main castle under the spire of the citadel, but since the zombies are no longer attacking, this is probably the space that corresponds to the second basement floor that the knights said. .
There must be a reason the squire boy hated it so much. There will be no adventurers except for the adventurers who enter with their own feet in a place teeming with things like that. But, after all, I’m here to practice spells, and I have no interest in treasure. I sighed and followed the members from the back and looked around.
“This is…… ?”
“I said it was a fortress, so this is probably the main castle.”
“It seems like they said there were a lot of traps from here, but they also said that monsters weren’t the problem… ….”
Chloe, do you have a good memory? I nodded her head in admiration, but she only tightened her beautiful forehead, as if she was reluctant to Chloe. Anyway, there are a lot of doors. Most of them are rotten or broken and do not function as doors, but anyway, beyond the doors are dark rooms.
“Anyway, I have no choice but to go in one by one… ….”
“I agree.”
As soon as Alphonse answered, he tried to stride away, but Mira stopped him. Well, there’s no reason to enter an unknown space first when a rogue is in a party. No…… Seeing him wink slightly at me as he was the first to come forward, it might just be that he just wanted to appeal to himself. Then she completely killed her presence and looked through the crack in the slightly open door, away from us.
“Just a vacancy…… ? I don’t think there are any monsters nearby. Open it.”
Kikkik! Several thoughts came to mind in that the door of the fortress, which was hundreds of years old, would open if you pushed it first. It doesn’t look too different from the rusty door in my room. With that thought in mind, I chased after the other two and went inside, and a wider ceiling greeted us.
Common sense wouldn’t leave the top floor of a castle empty, so this place must have a purpose. As I looked around at the floor strewn with broken wooden planks and uprooted bricks, and then looked straight ahead, there was a structure that caught my eye. A box in the shape of a long rectangular parallelepiped lying in the middle. It was a coffin
“…… Jin.”
“Yes.”
After answering Mira’s call to find me, she asked me with a trembling voice.
“You said you could feel an ominous energy in the forest. Maybe that’s…….”
Her words were not finished. For as we slowly approached the coffin, there suddenly started a rattling noise. And a long, slender figure slowly raised itself within the range of the ring.
Chloe put strength into the hand holding the knife and said.
“Zombie…… ? No, that’s…….”
I was able to understand it even as an outsider. A monster that is completely different from the zombies that Mira or Alphonse sliced up. Her tongue glistened, an intact corpse with no rotting or missing parts, every muscle in her body slightly twisted.
Why are you taking a nap in a place like that? I plugged my nose at the stench and even more fraud and trembled the hand holding the torch.
It’s a ghoul.
