Side Story 4: The Isolated Island 12

We continued through the dungeon with Genba.

Any golems in our path were mowed down instantly. Even the Orichalcum Golems past Floor 35 were no match for Fran and I going all out.

Not to say that they were easy opponents though. Orichalcum Golems were incredibly tough with innate regeneration to boot. They even boasted a decent amount of speed.

In order to defeat one, you’d have to land a precise strike on its weak point. Well, perhaps they were designed specifically for that kind of training.

Even Fran struggled a bit at first, though it didn’t take long for her to get the hang of striking their cores.

On the other hand, Ouri-kun would probably have trouble passing these floors on his own.

「I cannot yet say with certainty that I am capable of clearing this floor.」

While Ouri-kun possessed the power and accuracy to defeat an Orichalcum Golem, he needed to pause for a moment before attacking. If the golem took advantage of that brief opening, then he was certain to take considerable damage.

Since individual victories required no small amount of luck, clearing the entire floor was out of the question.

Ouri-kun watched Fran with admiration as she adapted to the Orichalcum Golems and began defeating them effortlessly.

He seemed eager to challenge them as well, but eventually decided that confirming the safety of the top rankers took higher priority. Ouri-kun pressed his lips together slightly, then turned away.

What a serious young man. Fran could never resist the urge to fight a worthy opponent like that. Even Genba seemed a little restless.

『Come to think of it, I don’t sense anyone nearby.』

「Hmm. Since they were running behind schedule, I would expect to meet up with them around this floor.」

「Perhaps something unexpected has happened after all?」

Apparently, the top rankers descended to the Floor 46 to obtain small amounts of adamantite dropped from the Adamantite Golems there.

Even if they encountered some difficulties, they should have accomplished their objective by now. Thus, Genba expected to bump into them around Floor 40 as they made their way back up.

「We have no choice but to head a little deeper.」

「Okay.」

『Leave the golems along the way to us.』

「I’m grateful for the assistance.」

Hihiirokane Golems started showing up on Floor 41. Genba could probably defeat them too, but Fran and I could do so faster. And right now, speed was our priority.

The worst-case scenario would be if the top rankers got wiped out and absorbed by the dungeon.

However, they were a party of five fighters ranked higher than Kokuto, including two mages with high-level healing magic. The chances of them getting wiped out were practically nonexistent.

Unexpected incidents happen all the time in ordinary dungeons, but this one was specially made for training martial artists. They even negotiated with the dungeon master to make it that way.

Unless the dungeon master suddenly betrayed their agreement, there’s no way for all of them to die at the same time. Well, I guess there were no guarantees in a dungeon.

We continued deeper into the dungeon, eliminating the Hihiirokane Golems along the way. After we passed Floor 41 and were approaching the middle of Floor 42…

「I wonder what this tastes like.」

『It says “fish jerky”, so I think you can just eat it as is.』

「Woof woof!」

『But wait until our next break!』

Apparently, the treasure chests in this dungeon dropped only food and ingots, which seemed a bit lackluster to me. It truly had nothing but golems for honing your skills, and raw metals for selling to the outside world.

That said, the food ended up being quite delicious. Fran and Urushi enjoyed the miso soup I made from the soup stock we found in one of the chests.

Perhaps the dungeon master was an expert on seafood. They seemed to have a thorough understanding of dashi.

All of the food was flavored with secret seasonings rather than just the usual salt.

Just for the record, it’s not like we went out of our way to collect those chests. All of them were placed right next to the path without any traps, so it only took a few seconds to grab the contents.

Fran and Urushi had been smiling at the delicious aroma of the fish jerky, but soon enough, their expressions turned serious.

「Something’s there.」

「Woof!」

『But what the heck is that?』

We sensed something concealing its presence in the distance, giving us a faint unnatural feeling. It couldn’t be a golem since the golems on this floor weren’t configured to hide themselves.

Genba and Ouri-kun also paused with stern expressions, trusting our detection skills.

「You sense someone hiding?」

「Nn. It’s coming from around that corner.」

『And whoever it is, they’re definitely suppressing their presence.』

I could barely sense it at all, but just as Fran said, there was definitely something there. And it was moving towards us under the cover of stealth.

The entity continued drawing closer while maintaining the same exact speed the entire time.

That’s strange. It should have noticed us and stopped by now. How could a stealth expert not have comparable detection skills? Fran and Genba aside, Ouri-kun wasn’t concealing his presence at all.

Maybe it was an enemy without the intelligence to make such a judgment? If it was a never before seen type of golem, that might explain the strange behavior.

「What do we do?」

「It may be related to the current incident. Keep your guard up.」

「Nn.」

「Arf.」

We decided to pause and wait for the mysterious entity’s approach, while pretending to take a break.

「Nn. Tasty.」

「Woof woof!」

Fran and Urushi munched happily on the fish jerky we found. T-They’re just acting, right? Please don’t tell me you’re actually enjoying yourselves!

Well, I guess Fran’s acting skills were pretty terrible, so perhaps this way worked out better.

Meanwhile, the presence drew closer and closer.

『Here it comes!』

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