Someday Will I Be The Greatest Alchemist?

Chapter 226: Cathedral Labyrinth 5

From the 11th floor, the scenery once again changed to a combination of wide corridors and rooms like the interior of a church.

Plenty of the monsters that appear were all sorts of Undead, like higher ranking Skeleton-types, Wraiths, and Living Armor. It’s a cathedralesque dungeon and yet it has a lot of Undead, just what is up with that?ー Am I the only one that thought this?

Compared to the forest and grassland areas, it felt like the floor size was smaller. This place has no law-like nature, so Heath-san said that there’s no point in thinking about it.

Bakya!

Dogya!

Coming here, Heath-san’s group had flourished at the forefront. Power leveling at the Forest of Death and a series of battles in the dungeon. Moreover, having gone through the fight with the Orc King and leveling up, they’re able to trample down on the monsters as we enter the upper floors of the dungeon. Heath-san’s battle axe and Bogah-san’s mace really thrived, particularly against the Skeleton-type and Living Armor-type among the Undead.

「Ha!」

「Einya!」

Our member Lulu-chan, who learned the Bludgeon Technique from Laeva, smashed a Skeleton Knight to bits.

「……I thought we got a lot stronger too, but I’m losing confidence watching little kitty-chan.」

「Stop thinking about it, Heath. Takumi’s bunch are all absurd.」

Lyle-san was saying something terrible, but I think it’s a good thing that everyone was getting stronger. It’s a world where danger is always near, after all.

We were able to go through the 11th floor to the 15th floor at a pace of one floor per day.

The monsters spawning were gradually getting stronger, and it’s come to the point that Kaede and Titan also participate in the fights. Fortunately, there is enough space for the largely built Titan to move with ease.

If Titan and Kaede are here, there’s no need to worry about monsters aside from entities that possess no physical bodies.

「Oh! Wait up! There’s a trap there.」

Lyle-san decided to concentrate on sensing for traps. Kaede and Sophia searched for the enemies.

「Tch, even the traps are getting more brutal.」

「Brutal traps?」

「Yeah, every one of ’em is lethal.」

Lyle-san grumbled as he disarmed the trap.

If it’s a poison trap, it could be detoxified with 『Decomposition』 if I knew what type of toxin it was, but as one might expect, even I wouldn’t know exactly what type of poison is concealed within the traps.

In this dungeon, the kinds of traps that Lyle-san had disarmed were mostly poison traps, after that were pitfalls (the kind that skewers those that fall), arrow trigger traps, falling rocks and more similar things, but there were also traps that were unavoidable.

「Tsk! It’s a monster house!」

The moment our entire party entered a room as large as a gymnasium, the door we came through slammed shut and then a magic circle appeared at the center of the room.

「Vanguards to the front! Rear guard ready your spells!」

I held my sword in preparation for a melee.

All sorts of monsters like Undead-types, Insect-types, Goblin-types were summoned from the magic circle.

Dogoo!

Titan’s fist flew out as a Rocket Punch and smashed into the monsters.

Kaede entwined the monsters in her threads and cut them into shreds.

Akane and Laeva fired spells rapidly.

Bogah-san came up to the front with his large shield. Lyle-san was waiting for his turn behind him, while Heath-san dashed forward, brandishing his battle axe.

With Sophia and Maria to my left and right, I led the way and we forced our way into the middle of the squirming monsters.

「Sophia! Maria! Give me just a minute!」

「「Yes!」」

I placed my hand on the magic circle that continued to spew out monsters and tried to use 『Decomposition』 directly on it.

Bakyan!

Sounding like smashing glass, the magic circle that still birthed monsters started to dim like it was breaking.

「Gotta try it at least once, right?」

It meant that the magic circle did not break down with alchemy. But that was when I had a bright idea.

I tried to destroy the magic circle by forcing magic power into the formation to interfere with it.

ＧＵＯＯＯＯ！！

An Ogre over 3m tall roared. With two long horns growing from its forehead, muscles covered in red skin, long canines and sharp claws, it held a club made of iron.

It looks like summoning the boss-like ogre couldn’t be stopped.

The three of us were at the center of a mass of monsters. Sophia and I moved towards Maria while exterminating monsters.

I slayed monsters that caught my eye with the sword in my right hand. My left hand destroyed the hearts and brains of monsters by using 『Decomposition』.

The magic power I spent forcing out 『Decomposition』 was replenished by the ability that my Absolute Sword (Zekken) got from its former form as the Sword of the Absorber[1]. As it was not necessary to consider about my magic power consumption, I activated 『Decomposition』 with my left hand and the soles of my feet, simply rampaging my way through.

Gan!

「…………」

The club that the Ogre swung around was warded off by Bogah-san’s large shield.

「Oraaa!」

Heath-san swung his battle axe towards the Ogre’s knee, like a lumberjack chopping down a tree.

ＧＵＡＡＡ！！

The Ogre screamed in pain.

Gan!

It was then that Titan’s fist sank into the Ogre’s face.

「Finish him!!」

Kaede tied up the Ogre with her threads, and her claw weapons stabbed into the Ogre’s throat.

「Master! I killed the biggie!」

「Kaede! You’re amazing!」

When Kaede defeated the boss class Ogre, the speed we annihilated the remaining monsters shot up.

With the magic circle broken and the Ogre boss defeated, the enemies within the monster house were defeated shortly after.

We swiftly stripped them of their magic stones and materials of value. It already exceeded 100 from the magic stones alone. Even then, this monster house was considered to be a small one.

A door appeared on the opposite side of where we came from. After a short break, we passed through it and the door to the next floor was there.

***

Footnotes:

1. Raws say Sword of the Absorber’s ability, but those swords were already upgraded to Takumi’s Zekken and Sophia’s Seiken so I’m just making it work.