30 minutes passed after killing the three Skeletons at the fork in passage and taking the middle passage leading to the stairs to the 17th floor. Although, they were attacked several more times by Skeletons and Zombies, Rei’s group advanced without any particular problems before reaching another fork in the passage.

「Left.」

Elena muttered briefly as she took out a map.

Following her words, Rei and the others proceeded down the the left past without hesitation.

「If we keep going, we’ll reach some sort of a hallway.」

「Huh, it’s pretty close then. In that case, when we saved Tivia and the others, wouldn’t it have been fine to go straight to the next floor?」

Hearing Rei’s words, Elena shook her head as she showed him the map.

It was certainly a straight path, but the distance to the hallway was quite far.

「I see. It’s a straight path, but there’s a long way to walk.」

「Yeah. Besides, we had killed all the monsters along the way we came, so it wasn’t an issue. If we headed this way, we would probably have been attacked by the monsters we had yet to run into.」

Rei nodded in agreement with Elena as they continued on their way.

As depicted on the map, it was quite a fair distance, after walking for another two hours, they finally reached the hallway.

There were attacked by monsters several times, but it was mostly Skeletons and Zombies, which were all incinerated, magic stones and materials as well, with Fire Breath.

What happened next was……

「Ugh-!」

The moment they reached the hallway, Rei involuntarily groaned.

It was the same for Elena and Set, whose senses were much sharper than others. The two of them immediately rubbed their noses with tears in their eyes while Yellow pushed his nose into Set’s back.

「Guru~……」

「Kyu.」

A strong putrid smell wafted out into the air.

『……』

Rei and Elena spoke to each other with their eyes.

‘If possible, I don’t want to enter this hallway, and I don’t want to look inside.’

However, if they wanted to get to the 17th floor, they had no choice but to enter the hallway that led to the next set of stairs.

Before long, as if losing to Elena’s gaze, Rei stepped forward and quietly peered into the hallway.

What he saw was a horde of over 20 Zombies. However, although he called them a horde, they hadn’t gathered for any particular reason and were just there.

(Why are there so many Zombies?)

Rei scrunched his eyes at the strong putrid smell as he looked around the hallway. Eventually, he noticed a Zombie with a different hair colour.

Most other Zombies gave off a putrid smell, their flesh and bones rotting as their eyes and internal organs spilled out as they dragged them around or just stood there meaninglessly.

It was the same for the Zombies Rei was looking at. However, one of them was clearly different.

Of course, Rei could smell the putrid scent from its body. However, unlike the other Zombies, this one looked a little ‘fresher’. It had several green and purple patches on its skin and its movements were smoother than that of ordinary Zombies.

Such a monster could be found deep within the horde of Zombies.

(A higher ranking species of Zombie……if I remember correctly, they were called Ghouls.)

Information about Ghouls entered his mind.

Unlike normal Zombies, corpses in good condition, ones that were fresher and less damaged, could potentially become a higher ranking species of Zombie, a Ghoul, if exposed to higher concentrations of magic power for a longer duration of time.

Their abilities were similar to that of Zombies, but some wisdom from when they were alive still remained, allowing them to exploit an enemy’s weakness or command other Zombies.

(I see. Is that why the other Zombies have gathered in this hall? They’re under the command of the Ghoul. That’s a bit troublesome. No, maybe not? If you think about it, it’s not that bad right?)

Rei quickly collected the thoughts in his mind before returning to where Elena and the others were.

「How is it?」

「As expected, there’s a horde of Zombies inside. However, there is one thing that is unexpected.」

Hearing Rei’s report, Elena furrowed her eyes in disgust.

Of course, it wasn’t an enemy they couldn’t beat in a fight. However, you normally wouldn’t want to fight an enemy that gave off such a strong putrid smell, one that they could even smell from this distance.

「How about wiping them out with Set’s Fire Breath and your magic?」

「That would be the quickest way to do it, but Zombies aside, I would like the Ghoul’s magic stone.」

「Guru~!?」

Set unintentionally let out a cry.

In order for Set to absorb a magic stone, he naturally had to swallow it. However, even Set was reluctant to swallow a magic stone that had been stuck inside a rotten body and covered in a rotten stench.

Set didn’t mind eating insects, but it seemed like a different story when it came to magic stones that had been inside Zombies and Ghouls covered in rotten flesh.

Because of that, Set gave a startled cry, but Rei gently stroked his head as he spoke.

「Don’t worry, I don’t plan for you to absorb the Ghoul’s magic stone. Just like the Skeletons, I’ll absorb them with the Death Scythe.」

「Gururu~……」

Rei’s words must have been very reassuring as Set unintentionally let out a sigh of relief.

「I understand what a Ghoul is. But, is there really only one Ghoul?」

「Yeah. From what I could see in the hall.」

「Is that so. ……In that case, I think it would be better to not use Fire Breath.」

After hearing Elena’s words, Rei understood her point.

However, he shook his head the next moment.

「No, I don’t want to spend too much time here. Fortunately, the Ghoul is at the back of the hallway. If we stop Fire Breath before that point, it shouldn’t be a problem……can you do it?」

「Guru~!」

Leave it to me, Set seemed to say with a cry.

Fire Breath was a skill Set used frequently and he was quite accustomed to using it. That’s why he gave a cry indicating

「I see, in that case, I’ll support you with wind magic from the back. ……To be honest, I don’t want to attack the Zombies with my sword whip.」

Elena, who had been listening in to Rei’s words, spoke with conviction.

「I know right. I don’t want to have to attack the Zombies with the Death Scythe either ……Well, it can’t be helped if I want to absorb the Ghoul’s magic stone.」

Giving a small sigh, Rei’s became focused as he turned to Set.

「Set, please.」

「GURURURURURURU~!」

At Rei’s words, Set gave a loud cry before heading straight for the hallway entrance, opening his beak, and using Fire Breath.

「Uohh……」

「Ahh……uhh……」

A Zombies approached Set while making such noises.

Each time they took a step, the sound of rotting flesh hitting the stone floor and internal organs being dragged across the ground could be heard.

However, Set’s Fire Breath prioritised those that were approaching first, burning their rotten flesh.

A few minutes after Set started to use Fire Breath, the surroundings cleared up……as the flames from Fire Breath were extinguished.

Most of the Zombies in the hallway had been quite literally burned to the ground.

All that was left were a few Zombies and the Ghoul Rei was targeting.

「Guru~?」

Is this enough? Set seemed to ask as Rei stroked his tilted head.

「Yeah, this is the best result. Thanks to that, the number of enemies is a lot less.」

「Gurururu~!」

With Set’s cry behind him, telling him to ‘do his best’, Rei took a step towards the Ghoul which had been watching the situation from the back, probably because it had some intelligence compared to the other Zombies.

Elena stepped up beside him.

「Leave the surrounding Zombies to me. I was going to support Set, but there didn’t end up being a need for that.」

「Okay, I’ll leave it to you.」

Because they trusted in each others ability, they didn’t have to discuss the details.

Realising that was how Rei thought of her, Elena gave a small smile as she held out her right hand towards the Zombies approaching Rei.

There was nothing in her hand. Instead, magic power started to gather there.

「Come on, I’m your opponent! Don’t think you can get close to Rei that easily!」

As her dignified shout rang out, maybe their rotting brains felt something as the Zombies turned from Rei to Elena.

「Ahh……uhh……」

While glancing at the Zombies that had been approaching him, Rei continued to make his way down the hallway.

His target, the Ghoul, stood at the far back, staring at Rei.

Its eyes didn’t seem to show any particular intent, but it still looked at Rei eerily.

Green and purple patches aside, compared to other Zombies, its skin was a step fresher. That said, it was still a corpse as its right rib cage was exposed.

Rei looked over its body as he got closer, looking for weak points.

And, when he got within 5m meters of it.

「AHHH, AHHHHHH……AHHHHHHHHHHH-!」

With a loud scream, the Ghoul dashed forward as it ran towards Rei.

It was overwhelmingly faster than other Zombies. It was comparatively so much faster that Rei wondered why it had just been wandering around like the other Zombies when he had looked into the hallway.

However, in the end, it was still only fast compared to a Zombie, it could even be considered slow compared to the other monsters Rei had fought so many times before.

「AHHHHH-!」

The Ghoul raised its arm while letting out a roar.

Compared to other Zombies, its skin was much more taut, but there were still several places where the skin was torn and flesh was visible, there were even spots where the bone was exposed.

Judging that pieces of rotten flesh would splatter around if he blocked the attack with the Death Scythe, Rei took a step back to avoid the Ghoul’s attack.

The Ghoul’s arm cut through the air……but, the next moment, the Ghoul’s arm approached Rei’s face, who should have avoided it with plenty of time to spare.

「What-?」

Surprised by the unexpected development, Rei twisted the shaft of the Death Scythe around his wrist, hitting the Ghoul’s wrist and making him frown at the feeling of hitting rotten flesh.

Taking some distance from the Ghoul, he finally understood what had happened.

The Ghoul’s arm had stretched out.

No, to be precise, the Ghoul’s shoulder, elbow, and wrist joints had all dislocated themselves……resulting in an increase in the Ghoul’s attack range.

It was a method of attack unique to undead, which did not feel a sense of pain.

「Well, that’s a nasty method of attack.」

Rei frowned slightly and pretended to take a step forward as if to do something. When the Ghoul raised its arm to intercept Rei, he swung the Death Scythe down.

「Flying Slash!」

The Flying Slash that was released at close range to intercept the Ghoul’s attack just as planned.

The next moment, the slash cut off the Ghoul’s right arm as it tried to swing it down.

「AHHH, AHHHHHHH!」

It probably didn’t even notice its own arm was gone. The Ghoul tried to swing its arm down, but it was no longer there and it lost its balance, falling to the stone floor.

Slash-!

There was no way Rei would miss such a huge opportunity and the Death Scythe swept up from below, cutting both its legs off at the knees and slicing its remaining left hand from the shoulder before the blade flipped around.

「Rest in peace.」

He gave a final blow to the Ghoul, which had lost all its limbs and could only flail about on the ground.

The blow sliced the Ghoul’s chest in half and also cut through the magic stone in the left side of its chest at the same time……

「Even higher ranking Zombies can’t give skills, huh?」

Rei, who was unable to acquire a new skill, clicked his tongue as he said that.

Looking around, Elena had already cleaned up the remaining Zombies and there was nothing else for them to do, mainly because they didn’t want to dismantle the Zombies. Rei’s group just went through the hallway and continued on……eventually finding the stairs to the 17th floor after passing through several more forks in the passage.

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