Translated by Zzonkedd
Edited by Gumihou and Onionpi
On the 12th floor, a Giant Killer Mantis, as well as some smaller Killer Mantis, blocked our way into the main passage. [1] The Killer Mantises raised their sickle-like arms threateningly at us. Their arms looked razor-sharp and sturdy enough to lop off the top of a man’s head…
Unfortunately for them, Dora-chan and Sui were still hyped up on battle adrenaline and these giant, scary insects were soon stabbed or shot to death by my two familiars. I do believe they were competing to see who could kill the most monsters…
In fact, I had to ask them to hold back a little and let me kill one or two monsters to level up. It would be quite problematic if I ended up not levelling up after receiving all the help from the gods. [6] They’d nag me non-stop if nothing else.
[8] Sui obligingly allowed one Killer Mantis through and I slashed the arms off with my Mithril Spear first before stabbing it in the chest. I settled on this strategy after [6] deciding that I really do not want those sickle-like arms near my face. The Mithril Spear crafted by Sui was excellent. However, like the myth of an SS Class Sashimi Master who could slice a fish and serve it up with a knife so sharp that the fish did not even know it had died, victims of the Mithril Spear sometimes did not know they had died and still came after me.
[6] To prevent a half corpse from attacking me, I pre-empted this problem by chopping off the dangerous sickle-like arms first.
Aside from picking off Sui’s leftover monsters, Elland-san and I ended up being gophers who picked up Drops after my Sui and Dora-chan. We didn’t even have to be alert about what’s ahead since Fer would occasionally throw the casual ‘Turn right in the next corner’ or ‘There’s an xxx trap just ahead’. Not only did he guide us around traps, but he also steered us away from other Adventurer parties so our journey went smoothly without conflict.
When we arrived at the Boss Room, we found it crowded with Killer Mantis and Giant Killer Mantis. They were very intimidating and scary looking. However, Sui and Dora-chan made short work of them. By the way, the Drops we get from these Mantis creatures are Sickle from the standard Killer Mantis and the large Giant Killer Mantis Sickle from, well, Giant Killer Mantis. We also collected some magic stones and the occasional Compound Eyes.
[4] “It’s used to make a certain type of medicine,” said Elland-san when he noticed me studying the Compound Eyes.
We smoothly made it to the 12th floor’s Boss Room. [6] Speaking of which, we did not encounter a real boss there this time, only loads of Killer Mantis and Giant Killer Mantis, but we did get lots of Drops from them.
Once we made a clean sweep of the 12th floor’s Boss Room, our party descended to the 13th floor.
The creature we encounter here were hornets.
To be more specific, they were Killer Hornets. We have encountered Killer Hornets back at Doran’s dungeons so I wasn’t too worried about them. Dora-chan seemed to hate them though.
“”Yergh! Killer Hornets,”” muttered the little dragon.
[4] “Mmm, these are particularly troublesome,” Elland-san muttered. At my worried look, he continued. “Killer Hornets are not as strong as Killer Ants, but they’re more troublesome due to their mobility. They could fly and tended to attack in swarms. The ones here are even more troublesome since they like to attack from unexpected angles. It’s a behaviour we don’t see in the Killer Hornets back at Doran.”
“Oh, how so?” this was interesting news to me since I thought that monsters were just monsters. I didn’t expect them to have special characteristics.
[6] “Some people speculated that this specialised behaviour is due to the dungeon formation. Regardless of the reason, Avering’s insect dungeons have many kinds of specialised species,” Elland-san flexed his hands and said seriously. “Take care not to get stung. Killer Hornet’s stings generally contain weak poison. One or two stings won’t do much to you, but the higher the species, the more devastating the poison. Also, if a whole bunch of Killer Hornets sting you, well.”
“I- I see,” yes, I really do see. “In short, don’t get stung, don’t get surrounded.”
“Yes, especially since most Detoxifying Potions don’t work against Killer Hornet’s poison,” he looked around the room seriously. “We could probably move more freely from here on. Most Adventurers don’t tend to go beyond the 12th floor.”
““Oi! What’s with all that fuss? All we have to do is defeat these flying bugs, yeah?”” Dora-chan zipped above our heads in circles.
“Umu, exactly, just get rid of these nuisances,” Fer rumbled.
““Defeat the monsters~””
““Anyway, here I goooowaaaarrgggghhhhh!!!!”” Dora-chan zipped forward and spewed fire from his mouth.
I was shocked.
“D-Dora-chan?”
“D-Dragon Breath?!”
I was shocked by Dora-chan’s unexpected attack. The fire that spewed from his mouth was several times bigger than his little body. However, where I was merely shocked, Elland-san was gobsmacked, devastated, astonished and overwhelmed.
“A Pixie Dragon could use Dragon Breath!! H-how, this was nowhere in any of the literature. It’s a new discovery!!”
Dora-chan was spewing fire from his mouth like a flamethrower, burning up the Killer Hornets in an instant.
“Uh, so, Dora-chan could use Dragon Breath…”
““Nah, only larger dragon species could use that move. Mine’s just a Fire Magic. Still, it looks pretty cool, right?”” then, he killed off another Killer Hornet with his flamethrower magic.
Meanwhile, Elland-san was staring at Dora-chan as he continued to spew fire. The Elf’s eyes were glittering. It was kind of disgusting.
[6] On the other hand, I was occupied by a different worry, “Is it really alright to keep using fire like that in such a confined place…” [5]
“Master, are you worried about fire suffocation?”
“Oh, well, yes actually.”
[6] How surprising, Fer is surprisingly sensitive to my worries.
“Umu, how typical of you to worry about such trivial things,”
[6] “Geh!”
[8] “Anyway, I’ve challenged a few dungeons and have used Fire Magic in them extensively. There’s no need to worry about suffocation. Furthermore,” he jerked his muzzle at the enthusiastic Dora-chan who was still spewing fire while Elland-san clapped on the side. “That one has been spitting fire for a while now, do you have any difficulty breathing?”
“Um, no, not at all,” it was only then that I realised that I was breathing normally.
“That’s just how it is,” after that enigmatic remark, Fer abandoned the discussion.
I guess, we have no problem with air due to magic? Whatever, there’s no need to apply earth’s common sense in this fantasy world.
Yes, let’s ignore it.
While I was preoccupied with this little crisis, Dora-chan had already cleared the passageway with his Fire Magic. Killer Hornets that managed to escape his Faux Dragon Breath were picked off by Sui’s Acid Bullets.
Soon, we’re right in front of the 13th floor’s Boss Room.
[Gumihou: I really like Fer, he knows his master is a coward, but he still tries to reassure him in his own way.]
[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] Creative Licence Taken