Someday Will I Be The Greatest Alchemist?

Chapter 222:  Cathedral Labyrinth 1

When I activated the magic device, it created an Inhibit Perception field around us and had the effect of optic camouflage magic.

Asking Heath-san and the others to walk quietly and erase their presence as much as possible, we passed the surrounding soldiers and headed for the dungeon.

「We made it somehow.」

「Yeah, still……… it really did become a dungeon. The corridors and rooms of the church don’t seem like they usually are……?」

Passing through the entrance, Lyle-san led the way while being careful to not encounter Sydnia’s soldiers.

「Looks like there aren’t that many traps on the first floor.」

「It seems to have a lot of floors for a newborn dungeon though.」

「…………」

According to the members of 『Lion’s Fang』, a newborn dungeon having numerous floors was unprecedented. The reason for this was that the mana concentration in the dungeon was high. Dungeons that grew old and large were dense with mana, and because of that, the monsters that appear were also strong. This dungeon which has dense mana in the first floor will get even denser the higher the floor, so it’s very likely that strong monsters would appear.

As we walked down the wide corridor, monsters were caught in my Presence Detection.

「Incoming!」

Lagging slightly, Lyle-san urged everyone to be vigilant. Bogah-san came to the front with his large shield.

Clattering as they approached were four Skeletons.

「Undead even though it’s a church?」

Lyle-san spat bitterly.

Skeletons were ranked the lowest among the Undead monsters. Their slow movements posed no threat to us. However, they were monsters that had no good materials and the only thing that could be taken were their cores which were small scrap magic stone.

「Leave these guys to us!」

Heath-san said so and Bogah-san pushed his shield forward.

Clang!

The Shield Bash from an adamantite alloy large shield hit a Skeleton and it crumbled to pieces from just the force.

「Fuuh!」「Ha!」

Heath-san’s battle axe smashed the Skeleton’s skull, Lyle-san stabbed the core of another with his mithril alloy dagger. The last one was pulverized by Bogah-san’s mace.

「As expected, I can’t tell if it’s my level or the weapon that is good with this enemy.」

「Yeah, it’s good we got used to it a bit in the Forest of Death.」

Heath-san’s battle axe comically crushed the Skeleton, but Lyle-san’s dagger wasn’t originally a weapon that was used against a Skeleton. Nevertheless, a monster of this level is one hit.

We ignored the Skeletons’ scrap magic stones and hurried on our way.

◇

The result was that the first floor was unimaginably large for the lot size of the cathedral. According to Heath-san, the succeeding floors could become larger or smaller the farther we go, and we won’t know until we get there.

As for the monsters that showed up, we encountered Zombies and Zombie Dogs in addition to the Skeletons.

They stank. And they were gross.

The Undead fought during the war of the savage lands, but with the purification used by the six forts, the majority of the undead were decimated so it’s our first time fighting in close combat with them in a while.

Perhaps because the girls found being near the Undead detestable, they defeated all of them with magic. Meanwhile, I’ve finally been able to use the Light magic 『Purification』 in its original intended use again. The purifying light fascinatingly annihilated the undead.

「Finally, the stairs.」

It took a whole day to map out and search the first floor. We managed to find the stairway going up. Since we were looking for the stairs to the next floor while searching in the direction of densening mana, we walked quite a distance even though we didn’t comb through the entire first floor.

It would also seem that this dungeon is the ascending type.

Today, we will camp in a small room in front of the stairs, and explore the second floor early morning tomorrow.

◇

「Wohoah, there’s a trap here.」

Lyle-san nimbly disarmed a trap.

Going up to the second floor in the morning, our search for the next flight of stairs was going well.

The monsters that appear on the second floor are the Skeletons and Zombies not much different from those on the first floor, but some slightly stronger monsters like Skeleton Soldiers, Skeleton Archers, and Ghouls join them. But that’s the extent of it. We wouldn’t make a mistake against them.

「……what a pickle.」

「What’s wrong?」

While we were mapping out the second floor, Lyle-san grumbled.

「Looks like this might be the type of dungeon that gets bigger the higher the floor. Well, we’re still on the second floor so I ain’t too sure yet.」

I don’t know how many floors this dungeon consists of, but I’d like for the capture to not take us months.

We continued to explore, with our highest priority being to find the stairs that lead to the upper floors.

***