「In other words, when walking through the desert, if you walk near the peaks where the sand is somewhat firmer, it will be easier to walk and less exhausting. If you’re an adventurer who has just arrived on this floor, you’ll need to get used to the desert environment first. ……No, I don’t need to tell you two that. You can already walk through the desert like ordinary ground.」

As they made their way through the desert, Pleiades mentioned the necessary precautions required for adventuring on the 11th floor.

「It’s not so important for Rei-san, since he has an item box, but if you run out of water of this floor, it’s deadly. However, there are cacti that grow in this desert that can act as a replacement. Ordinary deserts have poisonous cacti, but fortunately, the cacti that grow on this floor are all types that you can drink from.」

Otis, the archer, followed up Pleiades’ words while lowering her voice down a notch.

「However, you need to be careful with cacti on the 13th floor. There are some monsters that can mimic cacti, so if you approach them carelessly, they will attack you when your guard is down.」

「Cactus mimics? ……Well, in my case, I have magic items and an item box, so I don’t need to worry about water……but, I wouldn’t want to run into one with my guard down.」

Rei frowned unhappily at the wind that blew some of the desert sand around and pulled his hood tighter to block the sunlight that shone down obnoxiously.

Yellow was still in Rei’s chest pocket, but it seemed that the cool environment and Rei’s constant walking rhythm were too comfortable. He had curled up and fallen asleep without raising a fuss.

「An actual item box. I couldn’t help but believe after seeing the three Sandworms disappearing in an instant.」

At Rei’s words, the mage, Sharl, couldn’t help but speak up.

Sharl had been surprised in sequence by Rei, Set, and Elena before becoming motionless in shock after seeing the Sandworms be stored away into Rei’s item box. However, she had recovered now.

「That’s right, Rei’s item box has helped me out a lot.」

「Well, in the first place, ordinary parties would only strip off the materials from monsters they kill. It’s a big deal to bring back three Sandworms over 5m long……impossible without a group of several dozen people working together. Especially on this dungeon floor, where how fast you can move is directly linked to life and death.」

「We usually have a porter with us, but they aren’t a professional porter, it feels more like they’re a warrior.」

Pleiades grumbled as he carried his spear on his right shoulder.

Even they must have thought that it was such a waste, not being able to bring back all the materials they could.

「No, but we’re glad we met Rei-san and Elena-san. We had been worried about our fighting capacity, so we hadn’t been able to strip the materials from the other Sandworms we killed and would have had to leave them behind.」

Yes, as Otis said, Rei and Elena were currently working together with Pleiades’ party.

The main reason, as Otis said, was that Pleiades couldn’t stand to leave behind the Sandworms they had previously killed. As for Rei and Elena, the direction they were heading in wasn’t too different from the stairs heading to the 12th floor. In the end they decided to help Pleiades with the Sandworms he couldn’t bring back and, more importantly, find out more information they needed to make their way through the desert floors.

「Anyway, the desert floors are basically free of traps, so you can rest easy with regards to that. That’s why we didn’t bring a thief with us today either.」

「Hmm, that’s good to know. Rei and I are confident in our skills as a warrior and mage, but we’re not as good when it comes to dealing with traps.」

「Eh? But then, how did you get down here? There are still some dangerous traps on the cave floors.」

Otis’ eyes widened when she heard what Elena said.

However, she quickly came to her own conclusion.

「Oh, I see. Did you hire a thief from the Church of Holy Light? They’re expensive, but good at their job.」

「No. Rei doesn’t like to deal with the Church, so we didn’t have anything to do with them.」

「……Then, how?」

「I’ve got some contacts. We were able to work with a thief we knew for a few floors. They taught us how to recognise most of the traps, so we mostly just avoided traps without disarming them when we found one.」

The reason Elena didn’t give away Byune’s name was because she was keeping the Fraut family in mind.

Next to Elena and Otis, Sharl was barraging Rei with questions in a noisy conversation.

「Hey, how do you build an image of the magic you want to cast? And, regarding the operation of magic power……」

「How do I build it in my mind? Basically all I can tell you is that I just imagine it.」

「Eh? That’s a bit impossible. Normally, even if you can create 50 or more fire arrows……you wouldn’t be able to control them as you wished, right? In my case, no matter how hard I try, I can only form 10 arrows at most. Moreover, the more arrows I make, the more magic power it consumes. In that case, I might as well use a magic with greater firepower.」

Perhaps Rei’s answer hadn’t been the one she had been expecting. Even under her cloak, Sharl seemed quite sullen.

「Even if you say that, I can I only say there’s a difference in imagination. The use of magic is almost completely dependant on that.」

Most of the various fire magics that Rei had used had been inspired by manga, novels, anime, and games that he had read, watched, and played on Earth. It wasn’t that difficult for him to cast similar magic as he had read the words and seen the images and pictures in person.

Of course, not everything was the same, some changes had been made.

And, when it came to his magic power, even Zepairu in his soul state had lost control of his emotions at Rei’s surprising magic power. With Rei’s magic power and imagination, it would be quite difficult for an ordinary mage to replicate the magic that Rei could use.

「Hey, Sharl. Don’t overdo it. We’re in a position where we owe favours to Rei-san and Elena-san.」

「……I understand. But, you know what? You’ll have to teach me how exactly you visualise magic. Is that okay?」

「When I have the opportunity.」

Otis prompted Sharl that she was being overbearing, but it just seemed to go in one ear and straight out the other as Sharl asked Rei to teach her in future.

However, Rei’s response was casual.

As they proceeded through the desert with lively conversation, they eventually found the corpses of Sandworms lying in the sand.

「Oh, looks like they’re safe. That’s good.」

「Over time, they can end up as food for other monsters, or adventurers might find the corpses and strip the materials themselves. However, since we left them here and ran away, we can’t really complain.」

Pleiades gave a sigh of relief when he saw the five dead Sandworms lying on the sand. Otis also nodded in agreement, thanking their luck.

Sharl seemed to still be looking at Rei with some regrets, but Pleiades immediately prompted her to take out her dismantling knife.

「Hey, Sharl. Let’s quickly strip off the materials. There are five Sandworms, so we have to work together.」

「……I understand.」

「Then we’ll keep watch. Set will help.」

Set had been keeping an eye on the surroundings from the skies, but he probably realised that Rei and the others had stopped walking. He descended to the ground while flapping his wings.

The wind pressure from Set’s wings caused fine sand particles to scatter. Fortunately, thanks to Set’s consideration to the direction he flapped his wings, the sand didn’t fall on them.

「Gururu~?」

What’s wrong? Set seemed to ask as he tilted his head. Otis couldn’t help but notice how adorable Set was.

That said, there were many others who would act the same way after seeing Set, so Rei didn’t show too much concern for Otis as he whispered into Set’s ear while stroking his head.

「We’re staying on guard while Pleiades strips the Sandworm materials.」

「……Speaking of that, don’t you want to watch how they strip the materials?」

「Well, I won’t deny that.」

Hearing Elena’s words, Rei responded plainly.

Pleiades smiled unintentionally when he heard their discussion. That said, it was true that when he was focusing on stripping materials, he would be less alert of the surroundings. Considering that, he couldn’t complain if their safety was accounted for while they stripped materials off the Sandworms. No, rather, it could even be said it was a very good deal.

(After all, with Crimson guarding us, our safety is all but guaranteed.

Pleiades wouldn’t have trusted Rei’s combat strength purely based on rumours and his title. However, he couldn’t deny Rei’s strength after seeing him instantly kill two of the three Sandworms they had struggled with.

Not only that, there was also Elena, who could freely control her sword whip, a rare weapon, and Set, a Griffon.

「Then, watch closely. That said, please continue to keep an eye on your surroundings.」

Pleiades deliberately said that in a casual tone while urging Otis and Sharl to start work immediately.

The Sandworms were all 5m or longer and it would take some time to strip the materials from them. Therefore, the first thing to do was to cut off the tips of their tongues, the proof of subjugation. The next thing to do was to strip materials from them. First was the fangs that grew from their mouth. Pleiades only cut the fangs that were over a given length, using his spear instead of his knife.

Since these fangs could pierce through even armour, ordinary dismantling knives wouldn’t be able to cut through them. Of course, the fangs were also hard enough that it would be impossible for a warrior without decent strength to cut them.

A short distance away from where Pleiades was striping the fangs, Otis and Sharl were working together to cut open the Sandworms’ bellies to remove the magic stones from their heart.

After that, the next step was to remove the legs growing out from the Sandworms’ bellies. These could be removed with a certain amount of strength and the three of them quickly cut them off. Then, they removed the single eye on the Sandworms’ head before storing the crystalline lenses inside a beaker that Sharl brought out.

The taste of Sandworm flesh wasn’t that bad as they were D rank monstesr. However, it seemed that no one in Pleiades’ party wanted to eat it and even if they wanted to sell it, it could only be sold at some special shops. Pleiades’ party unanimously decided to give it all over to Rei.

Rei aside, Set was fine with eating other insects, so it wasn’t bad for Rei.

Finally, they secured several internal organs that could be used in alchemy, completing the stripping of materials from the first Sandworm.

It took them less than 10 minutes from when they first started stripping materials. As expected of a veteran adventurer party, each of them did what they needed to do and their speed was very fast.

Even Sharl, who had been reluctant, knew what to do. That said, her skills was slightly worse than Pleiades and she needed to check with him while stripping some materials. It was a lot smoother than Rei’s experiences with stripping materials.

That said, it still took 10 minutes to strip the materials from each Sandworm for a total of 50 minutes. 10 minutes per Sandworm was just an approximation, so it ended up taking them about an hour.

Still, no other monsters showed up, either because they were currently on the territory of the Sandworms they had killed or because they were wary of Rei and the others, who had killed the Sandworms. And, most of all, the other monsters were threatened by the presence of Set in the skies.

(It feels like they’re quite used to working with other parties in the dungeon……)

After stripping all the materials, as promised, the bodies were given to Rei, who stored them inside the Misty Ring. Rei asked Pleiades whether or not working with other parties was common, but the response was that it depended on the dungeon and dungeon floor.

For example, in Exil’s dungeon, other parties rarely worked together on the desert floors. However, there were other floors where they would commonly work with each other.

[Previous Chapter] [Table of Contents] [Next Chapter]