Translated by Zzonkedd
Edited by Gumihou
Our first Undead encounter on the 9th floor were three Zombies.
“Graaahhh…”
“Guwaaaa…”
“Grah, grah…”
The dead-eyed Zombies shuffled towards us from the dim depths of the stone corridor. Their rotting bodies and tattered clothing looked exactly like the Zombies from the movies.
“Ugh, this is gross!”
[6] They looked horrible, as expected. However, what hit me most was a godawful stink.
“Nuu, Zombies really stinks. After all these years I cannot get used to it,” [5]
All of us flinched back, our faces scrunched up in protest against the terrible smell.
“Try not to breathe through your nose when there are Zombies around,” [3] Elland-san said, as he raised his sword. “Now let’s get rid of the source of this stink.” [5]
Pew! Pew! Pew!
[6] However, before he could do anything, Sui already took down all three Zombies. Her Acid Bullet struck the Zombies dead centre in the chest. That single strike ate through the Zombies like, well, like super corrosive acid that spread so quickly that we could see through their chest and stomach before the Zombies fell onto their faces. Then, as per dungeon logic, the bodies disappeared.
“Oooh, the Holy Stamp really works!”
“To be honest, I had been a little sceptical, but nothing beats evidence before one’s own eyes. Hehe, there’s no need to fear the Undead now,”
“Yes, let’s forge ahead!” I cried, feeling uncharacteristically motivated.
We went forward with more confidence.
Our next Undead encounter was a Skeleton.
Yes, one of those skeletons you see in labs or science classrooms. Except this one was moving on its own without any strings or other visible mechanism.
““I shall go next,”” Fer declared with great dignity. Then, he ran forward and body-checked the Skeleton.
That’s right, Fer dashed forward and bowled over the Skeleton, sending pieces of broken bone bits into the air. [5] Bones struck the walls and ceiling with a loud clatter before falling to the floor in tiny bits.
I stared at the broken bone fragments and commented, “Are Skeletons that fragile?”
“No, I do believe we’re seeing the result of the combination of Fer’s power and the Holy Stamp,” Elland-san’s laughter sounded a little bitter.
Well, it’s not like I don’t understand the sentiment…
Our third Undead encounter was another set of Zombies. There were four rotting bodies shuffling towards us this time.
““Me next!”” Dora-chan zipped forward and paused in the air. His body shone with magic, icicles formed around him and shot forward to pierce through all four Zombies in quick succession.
Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab!
[6] All four zombies collapsed.
““Nice! That was easy! Hm? Hey look, I scored something!””
It was our first Dungeon Drop on the Undead Floor.
Dora-chan quickly flew down, picked up the small vial and dropped it into my hand.
“This is…” I silently summoned my [Appraisal] skill and studied the little glass vial filled with some kind of black liquid.
[Corrosive Liquid]
Corrodes organisms.
Corrosive Liquid?
Do people have a use for Corrosive Liquid in this world?
As I was pondering over this, Elland-san came over and said, “Ah, our first Undead Drop. These are really rare, so they fetch a good price in the market. That’s a vial of Corrosive Liquid.” [5]
“What is Corrosive Liquid used for? I mean, it’s nice to know that I can sell them, but I’d like to know what people would use them for.”
“Well, there are quite a few ways to use Corrosive Liquid. It’s often used as a backup weapon for Adventurers with limited Magic. It can be thrown at monsters, so it’s good as a long-range attack. If a mage runs out of MP, they could throw Corrosive Liquid at their enemies too. There’s quite a big demand for Corrosive Liquid.” [5]
“Really?” I eyed the little bottle interestedly.
“It’s also useful as a probing attack against high ranking monsters with unknown skills. The corrosion will start immediately upon contact and that allows Adventurers to buy time and analyse the monsters before launching a full attack.”
“I see, so we can throw this at a monster before running away,” I said, more interested in the vial now. Anything that could facilitate an emergency escape is always a good thing.
“Yes, I depended on it to escape plenty of times as a new Adventurer.”
“Hmm,” theoretically, I don’t need it since I have Fer and the rest with me all the time. However, if I am ever stuck in a situation where I had to face a monster by myself, it’s probably a good idea to keep one at hand just in case.
“Our guild would like to get our hands on some Undead Drops as well, so let’s defeat lots of them and collect more.”
“Oh, Doran too?” that’s right, I could sell Dungeon stuff at Adventurer’s Guild outside of the dungeon city too. However, priority should be given to Avering, of course. [6] I can’t imagine what the Giant Princess would do to me if I were to withhold Drops and Loots from her.
As we made our way down the corridor, we came to a crack in the walls. [6] The crack was fairly large, big enough for a person or two to enter easily.
It was also filled with Zombies.
“Shall I try attacking them with magic?” said Elland-san.
“Ah, sure, if you like…” [6] though I understand that we have the upper hand with the Holy Stamp, it was still rather nerve-wracking to see over a dozen Zombies shuffling about together.
Elland-san entered the room.
We watched as the Zombies shuffled their way towards Elland-san, moaning and groaning all the way.
“Let’s see… Wind Cutter,”
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Wind power slashed through the air, causing the bunch of Zombies to fall apart like broken dolls. Dirty, rotted broken dolls that stank.
“Bravo!”
“I want to show off some of my skills too, hahaha!”
“That’s a type of Wind Magic, right? Since you’re an Elf, I’d thought you might use some kind of Plant Magic,”
“Well, we do have an affinity for them, but dungeons aren’t a good place for Plant Magic. So I tend to use Wind Magic exclusively in confined spaces like this.”
“That makes sense, Plants should be more effective outside after all.”
“It’s still better than Earth Magic. Which can’t be used at all.”
“I see, so in other words, I’m a useless Earth Magic-user…” Gununu, how unfair. Even though Earth Magic is useful for everyday lives like making walls for shelter et cetera…
“Oh look, there’s another vial of Corrosive Liquid,” Elland-san picked up the item and placed it in his [Item Box].
[6] “Oh, you have an [Item Box] too?”
[6] Elland-san waved his hand modestly, “It’s a fairly average size [Item Box], certainly nothing like yours, but it’s useful. By the way, since we both have an [Item Box], how about we store what we collected and decide how to divide it later once we’re out of the dungeon?”
“Sounds good,” [6] division of Loots and Drops was not something I’d ever have to worry about before. However, since it’s Elland-san, surely it would be alright?
“Shall we keep going?”
We left the room and continued down the passageway. Four Skeletons jumped in to block our way.
““Sui will take them down!”” Sui declared as she bounced in front of us.
“Aah, Sui, make sure to leave one for me,” [7] I called.
““Yes~””
Pew! Pew! Pew!
Three Skeletons went down, melting into a puddle of grey goo on the floor. The remaining one ran towards us and I brandished my spear. Once it was within range, I slashed the spear from the top of the Skeleton’s head to its middle.
“Hya!”
The Mithril Spear cut through the bones as though it was made of paper and the Skeleton collapsed into pieces. When the bones disappeared, it left something behind. It looked like… a piece of bone?
“Oh, that’s a Skeleton Bone Fragment. One of the materials used to make powerful monster repelling elixir.”
“Nice!” It should be worth quite a bit right? It’s really small and almost blended into the grey flagstone under the dim light. I should keep my eyes out for them.
We continued down the corridor, taking turns to defeat Zombies and Skeletons along the way. In the fourth monster room, we found our first treasure chest.
“Yes! A treasure chest!” [7] I couldn’t help getting excited since treasure chests are one of the only things I look forward to when dungeon diving.
“Careful,” said Elland-san. “It could be a Mimic or at least a trap.”
“Yes, yes,” for this let’s use my secret weapon, [Appraisal]! Secret being the keyword here, of course.
[Mimic]
A dungeon-produced monster that mimics a treasure chest. When defeated, it drops a rare decorative chest.
“Alright, it’s a mimic”
“What? How do you know?”
[8] I was prepared, for this. “Oh, ah, Fer has [Appraisal] skills,” I beamed at him. Come on, believe in the legendary greatness of the Great Fenrir.
“I see, to think that the Legendary Beast also has [Appraisal],”
Anyway, to distract him from the [Appraisal] thing, I stabbed the Mimic with my Spear.
“Ugh, ugh, ughh…” the Mimic made some gurgling sounds before disappearing. Unfortunately, it left nothing behind.
“Well,” said Elland-san, “can’t expect a Drop from every Mimic. Let’s check out the next rooms.”
There were three more rooms along the corridor filled with Zombies and Skeletons, no more Mimics and no treasure chest.
The room at the end of the corridor was the Final Boss Room.
[Gumihou: Sounds like a nice and fun-filled adventure, lol]
[1] Structural Change: Combine 2 paragraphs
[2] Structural Change: Combine 3 paragraphs
[3] Structural Change: Combine paragraph & dialogue
[4] Structural Change: Change passive sentence to dialogue
[5] Delete Repetitive or Pointless Information
[6] Additional Information for Aesthetic Purpose
[7] Add Dialogue Tag
[8] Changed a Detail: From an unprepared Mukouda to a Mukouda with a convenient answer re [Appraisal]