Chapter 21 – The Hero terrorizes 1
Several kilometers northeast of the hunter’s cabin that we were in, was a camp that we made into our base.
The dungeon that had its entrance shut by a collapsing rock as soon as it came into existence was a cave-type dungeon that remained undiscovered.
Originally, an earthquake about a month from now would open up the shut entrance, and a veteran adventurer who was leading an adventurer’s promotion exam would discover it. From that point on, the dungeon’s exploring would proceed henceforth.
The dungeons are formed from metallic spheres called “Dungeon Cores”. These cores have a similar nature to golems and are formed through natural occurrences. These objects work by sculpting labyrinths in the surrounding environment.
Additionally, the size of the labyrinth expands as time progress, and so do the monsters in both strength and numbers.
The Dungeon Cores are located in the deepest room, and as if to protect them, the 『Guardian』, an apparition wearing magical equipment that became powerful from being imbued with the mana of the Dungeon Core, stands guard, awaiting for trespassers.
And so, if the Dungeon Core at the end was destroyed, the operation of the dungeon would halt, after which it would leave behind what was simply a huge empty labyrinth.
Compared to the numerous dungeons scattered around the world, this dungeon would be fairly young. In human years, it would be fine to call it an infant.
In every cave-type dungeon, the light from the outside doesn’t penetrate the insides. But in place of that, thanks to the 『Luminous Moss』 that grows on the walls, vision wasn’t impaired in the least. Perhaps there were air vents around, but within the dungeon there also won’t be any case where there was a lack of oxygen.
If I must mention a problem then it’s only so much so as the characteristic humid and clammy air inside of a cave. And in here, today was about the eighth day we dived into this dungeon.
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「KuH, HAAAAAAAAH!!」
「GYAEEEEEEEH!!」
After metal collided against metal for a number of times, the wrist of the 『Sword Goblin』 swinging around a rusty sword was cut off and with that, it had finally come to an end.
Accomplishing that was Minnalis who cut down with her 7th sword, which it too had started to become awfully chipped like the previous six. Then, without thought a flying kick was sent onto the chest of the retreating goblin.
「Gulh, GYAAAAUUUUUuh!!」
「With this, it’s the end!!」
Losing both sword and hand at the same time, the newfound pain further warped the expression on its face that was already ugly at the best of times. Not long after, the goblin had its head separated from its body in one single cut.
Without raising a death throe, the defeated goblin gushed out its green blood and fell.
「Fuu…,?!!」
Along with the slight sound of air being pierced was an arrow flying towards Minnalis. As if to weave into this instant of an opening without caring for the atmosphere drew near this one strike. It was already too late to evade, and the most she could do was to twist her body and hope for it to miss her vitals.
「See, didn’t I tell you not to be negligent?」
Using 『Haste』 from a position a little away, I sliced the arrow from below without slowing down. In the shadow of a rocky area a little farther away, the goblin archer could be seen readying its second arrow.
「Those wolves over there, I’ll leave them to you for a while.」
「Y-yes!」
The 5, 6 『Grey Garms』 that I was fighting were in a state of confusion from not being about to catch up to the speed of 『Haste』. However, within the wolves that had grey fur, was an individual with black fur leading the pack. The 『Black Garm』 raised a single howl and took control of the confusion.
Seeing the pack that was hurriedly heading over from the corner of my eye, I left the Garms to Minnalis and kicked off from the ground towards a different direction.
「As if I’d let you.」
Faster than the Archer Goblin could release the arrow, I used 『Haste』 to shorten the distance and split it in 2 halves with a single vertical slash.
「GyauAAH!!」
「Shut it.」
And from there, bringing the sword back I swung the Soul Sword up, and collided it against a greatsword coming from the front, with thickness that could already be called a lump of steel, sending sparks flying. What stood there, completely hidden under the shadow of a large rock was a 『High Sword Goblin』, it was the individual that was uniting the nearby group of goblins that originally numbered close to ten.
「GYARURUuh!!」
The Goblin raised a growl in irritation as things didn’t go as it wanted. Although it had the same appearance as Goblins, its muscular body was nearly two meters tall, almost twice as tall as a normal goblin.
「It seems your thirst for blood has finally come out, hasn’t it? Then let me tell you this, if you had the brains to do a surprise attack then don’t go shouting on purpose!」
「GuUUH!! GUGaAH!!」
If the characteristic of the skill 『Language Comprehension』 was to convey the words to others, then my words should properly be conveyed. However, it was a function that didn’t work on anything other than humanoids, so to speak.
It does work on beastmen, elves and the demonkin. However, though there are techniques to form a mutual understanding with monsters, beasts, and insectoids, the words of the so called “nonhuman” could not be understood.
The same applied for the Goblin in front, the Goblin probably couldn’t understand the words I said.
Even then, perhaps it was able to tell from feel that it was being made fun of, from barely being able to continue locking swords, it raised its voice and swung the greatsword as if to forcefully blow everything away.
「Tch, this ridiculous amount of power…!!」
Surprised that the strength was greater than I had assumed, I cursed.
Whilst I was blown away, I quickly used 『Sky Walk』 and adjusted my stance in the air.
When I stole a fleeting glance at Minnalis, she was fighting reliably, moving constantly so as to not be surrounded by the Grey Garms and steadily injured her targets; it was perfectly fine to be faithful to the basics.
If Minnalis was fighting well then I couldn’t be showing such a disgraceful display. Using the distance that had opened, I took a peek at its Status to find the source for that strength.
ハイソードゴブリン Lv77
High Sword Goblin Monster, Male
HP 1121/1212 MP 256/256(511)
Strength 1321(521) Stamina 524
Endurance 347(695) Agility 527
Magic Power 0(531) Magic Resist 248(497)
Inherent Skills: 『Fencing Lv4』 『Greatsword Technique Lv3 (bestowed)』
State: Good, Cursed
「Its state is good with a curse applied, so that means it’s a cursed weapon, huh.」
It’s hard to imagine that the rag around the Goblin’s hips could be anything impressive so I appraised the greatsword instead.
【Greatsword of Fervent Grudge】
A greatsword filled with the grudges and curses of many heavy swordsmen.
The holder will become an existence specialized towards swinging a sword with great force.
《Passive Effect》 Strength +800, MP -50%, Magic -100%, Endurance -50%
Magic Resist -50%, Skill 『Greatsword Technique Lv3』 bestowed
Just as I thought, the greatsword that was in the Goblin’s hands was a cursed weapon. It was a weapon perfect for muscleheads, and generally, Goblins do not use magic in battle so it was good combination between weapon and user. Most likely, this Goblin evolved from Sword Goblin to High Sword Goblin thanks to it getting its hands on this weapon.
「So that was the reason it has such strength while not being a Dungeon Boss. How troublesome.」
With cursed equipment being rare as they should be, in the almost 4 years I was travelling around in this world in my first run, even I hadn’t seen any more than I could count. The equipment grants great power in return for a lot of demerits, even so they choose their users. More importantly, cursed weapons were filled with powerful thoughts, and users without the aptitude will have their consciousness eaten away.
Losing itself, just to become a monster that could only rampage about.
Since it’s like that, this Goblin probably has the aptitude for it. The fact that its state came out as ‘Good’ meant that it hadn’t been consumed by the sword. Though I knew it was making rational movements, it seemed it was properly controlling the cursed weapon.
「GuGAAAAH!!」
「Shit, it’s somewhat of a pain.」
It’s not like I haven’t fought with opponents that had their real strength raised with hex magic and cursed equipment. But, in the first run I had a Saintess amongst my companions, and I had also unlocked powerful Soul Swords with good compatibility.
Opponents with curses had poor affinity with the non-affinity magic, holy magic, that the Saintess specialized in, and I was also strong so there weren’t any memories of hardships against them. However, that Saintess was currently a target for revenge, and I’ve yet to earn the amount of experience points to unlock any powerful Soul Swords making it difficult to defeat it with brute force alone.
「GyaUUUuGAa!!」
「-!! Fuh, -!!」
I slid together the incoming blade with the Soul Sword, dodged with footwork, and used the beginning of a sway to slash superficially and dull the sword brandish.
Fortunately, since my 『Technique』 and 『Thought Processing Speed』 were carried over from the time of the first run, I could cover for the hopeless difference of the Level 1 stats.
Nonetheless, I couldn’t find a large opening, little by little small wounds were inflicted and bit by bit its HP was whittled down.
However, HP was, for all intents and purposes, the remaining life force displayed and if it drops to 0 then it would be dead. For example if the HP was high, but its head falls then the number would immediately become 0.
Conversely, no matter how many small wounds were piled up, to end an opponent with only that would make it a terribly harsh fight.
And, having thought up to that point, suddenly I remembered something.
「…Let’s give it a go.」
I then skillfully parried every strike and directly met every sword from the front, and when I saw the Goblin warp its face from almost being crushed by force, I then matched the timing of the Goblin’s swing of its greatsword and personally jumped back.
In the opening from the created distance, whilst being economical I recovered the mana I had steadily used up by drinking a potion.
I recalled the 【Soul Sword of Beginning】 and in its place, brought out the 【Fire Spider’s Leg Sword】.
In spite of being properly blown away after our swords met, that I had not been given any serious wounds again caused the Goblin to warp its face in irritation.
However, seeing that the weapon I held changed from what appeared to be a normal sized 【Soul Sword of Beginning】 to the size of what could be called a short sword of the 【Fire Spider’s Leg Sword】, the Goblin thought that it had become advantageous and once again immersed itself in a sense of superiority and showed an ugly smile.
「GuGyaAAAAUuAAAuh!!」
Closing the distance again, the Goblin cut up from below with the greatsword.
Dodging that strike with a half-turn stance, came the roar of the cut wind and the wind shook my bangs. The greatsword that was swung up continued from there to a second strike in an upper stance and came swinging down, to which I was expecting it with the 【Fire Spider’s Leg Sword】in a reverse grip.
「Guh……!!」
「Guh, GYAAAH!!」
A high pitched shriek resounded, the Goblin’s greatsword and my Soul Sword sounded at the last moment.
That was without a doubt a reproduction of the first run, however, this time it didn’t become a display of me being blown away.
「GUGYAUH?!」
「So it turned out well. As I thought this, it’s pretty good isn’t it?」
I hadn’t thought of this way of fighting during my first run, but cursed weapons were just like any other, made of metal.
The part of the greatsword that had met blade to blade was little by little being melted. It was when about half the greatsword had melted did the Goblin notice the predicament and hurried to pull back the greatsword. However, it was already too late.
I released the Soul Sword from my hand and at the same time created footholds in the air with 『Sky Walk』.
As I twisted my body in the middle of the 3rd jump, precisely on the deep ditch created on the back of the greatsword, I strengthened my leg through magic manipulation and riding the force of gravity, I swung my heel straight down.
「GYGYAAAH?!」
The sound of something hard smashing accompanied the greatsword splitting from the centre.
The Goblin that seemed to have placed absolute trust in its own weapon was dumbfounded and was looking at the broken sword in its own hands.
「Right there!!」
「GUH, Gaa……」
Without any intention of letting that opening slip by, I quickly brought out the 【Soul Sword of Beginning】 and imbuing it with a fairly large amount of mana and the intent to kill in one hit, I swung the Soul Sword.
The Goblin that had its windpipe slit lost strength in its body and fell face up.
On the ground, tumbled the remains of the broken cursed greatsword that should have been gripped tightly by the Goblin as if it wouldn’t part even in death.