Chapter 374
After our meal, it was time to challenge the cave.
Fer took the lead, taking us into the cave that was basically just a hole on the side of the cliff. [1] The further we went in, the darker it got.
“Wait a minute,”
“What is it?”
“Nothing, it’s just that this place is really dark. Dungeons somehow illuminate themselves but this place…” [3] I opened up my [Item Box] and immediately took out the high powered flashlight that I had bought from [Net Super] before and turned it on.
“Woah,”
Right in the path of the flashlight was a skeleton.
“That really gave me a shock- are these the skeletons you saw earlier, Dora-chan?”
““Yeah,””
There were three skeletons altogether, still dressed in tattered leather armour and robes. [1] They were pierced through with disintegrating wooden stakes.
“Woah, I guess they got caught in some kind of trap?” [5] I winced.
“It’s just a bunch of wooden spears, just block them with a barrier,” said Fer.
““Or avoid them, like, that’s a no brainer?”” sniffed Dora-chan.
“It’s easy for you to say, but not everyone is as strong or agile as you two…” [5] I said a little nervously. “Wait, do you think there are more traps inside?” [5]
“You have Absolute Defence, don’t you?”
“Yes, but didn’t you say that it only protects me from hostile attacks? Man-made traps are just mechanical things with no sense of hostility, so would the Absolute Defence even work?”
“Hmm, you’re right… [5]”
“You think so too? Well, I’m not going to risk my life unnecessarily. If I die from this, I’ll definitely haunt you!”
“Mu, I’ll just cast a barrier on you. Might as well cover Dora-chan and Sui too,”
““Ou! Thankies!””
““Thank you, Uncle Fer~~””
“Right, I guess that solves that…”
“Umu, my barrier won’t be taken down by mere human traps. However, you should still be more courageous,”
[4] “I’d rather be cautious than courageous,”
“Hmph, let’s keep going,”
“Fine, let’s go,”
Thus, with Fer leading, we went deeper into the cave.
Please read this at dot com ~
Plonk, plonk, plonk, plonk, conk, conk—!
Countless marble-sized stones struck Fer’s barrier. [5]
““Again? Looks like whoever it was really didn’t want us to come, hahaha!”” [5] [5]
Among the traps we’ve encountered, there were flying spears shooting out of walls, guillotine blades falling from the ceiling, pit traps, fire traps and traps of all kinds.
Any one of them would have a fatal effect on the victim.
“We would be in real trouble if we don’t have Fer’s barrier…”
While I do have the Absolute Defence, Fer’s remark on how it would ‘most likely’ protect me from everything and how it would ‘probably’ not let anything through the Defence was too uncertain for me.
Words like ‘most likely’ or ‘probably’ is NOT reassuring at all!
““I guess,”” Dora-chan shrugged. ““I mean Fer, me and Sui would be alright but you’ll probably be dead,””
“Hey…” [5]
““Hahaha! Sorry, sorry, my bad, my bad~””
“Hmph, anyway, I’m glad we have the barrier since the traps are getting rather tiresome, [5]” [3] Fer was getting annoyed by the endless traps.
“The only one having fun now is Sui…”
“Umu…”
““Slimes are really resilient, I’m kind of jealous,””
We [5] watched as Sui bounced about in front of us, setting off traps left and right. She sure looked like she was having fun…
““Everyone~ Let’s go~! Let’s see what’s the next trap is~~”” [5]
I guess, for a resilient and flexible creature like Sui, these vicious traps might as well be a grand amusement park. She was literally bouncing about, tripping off traps for fun.
Still, it was very hair raising to see Sui plunge into a trap where acid fell from the ceiling. I nearly screamed but Sui merely absorbed the acid into her body and said, ““It’s so interesting here~””
While I technically understood that Sui was a Special Slime, she was becoming really powerful.
“Well, it’s Sui after all,”
““I guess,””
“Umu,”
In the end, we could only explain this phenomenon with ‘It’s Sui after all’.
In short, it was thanks to Sui that we were making such great progress.
That said…
“… shouldn’t we be approaching the place where the Bandit King hid his treasure?”
“There’s something that feels like a room up ahead,” said Fer.
[9] ““So we can finally see this treasure thing?”” [3] said Dora-chan boredly.
C-crack–!
[8] Suddenly, the floor under my feet crumbled and-
[8] “Wa- uwaa-ack!!!!”
[8] My scream was cut short as I was jerked back by the collar of my shirt.
[8] Fer settled me down next to him and I had to cling to his furry leg, panting with fright and adrenaline.
[8] “Th-th-that was…”
[8] “Umu, it’s a pit trap. Well, there’s nothing my barrier can do against those,” he shrugged. “It’s not a direct attack after all,”
““Oi, oi, what’s up with you guys?””
[9] “That’s the problem, unlike you, the rest of us can’t fly up! Not even Sui, Sui? Where’s Sui?!!””
““Guess she must have fallen down,”” said Dora-chan, still in that bored voice. [5]
“What the? That deep hole? Suuiii!!!” [5]
“Hmm, I can still sense her strong vitality,” said Fer as he too peered into the hole.
“Suiii!!! Are you alright?!”
“Hey, didn’t I just said-”
““Aruji~!”” [5] [6] There was a sudden pyon, pyon, pyon, which turned out to be Sui bouncing up the pit by throwing herself up from side to side before finally landing in front of me like a relentless rubber ball.
“Sui? You’re alright?” [5] [9] ““It was so fun~~!””
…right, what was I thinking?
“This is boring, let’s just skip the rest,” [6] Fer suddenly threw me onto his back and bounded forward. The sound of traps slashing, clanging and rumbling happened behind us as we rushed forward.
Finally, Fer stopped before a wall.
“There’s a large space behind this. Whatever treasure there is must be there,” [5] [10] “The treasure’s behind this? Should I try using Earth Magic?”
[10] “Let’s just break it,” I could hear Fer’s pent up frustration as he stepped forward, Wind Magic already gathering at the end of his claw when a rumbling sound alerted us and we saw a huge stone ball rolling towards us.
[10] “What is this cliche!!?”
[10] “Hump, insolent,” the Claw Slash attack left Fer’s paw and turned the rolling ball of stone into pieces, breaking up the wall behind it too. [5]
““Woah, hey, check this out~~!!”” Dora-chan immediately zipped over to investigate.
[10] My flashlight shone onto something that reflected back in glittering lights.
“Wait, are those-”
““Shiny! It’s all shiny in here!”” [10] there was a sound of fire wooshing and in a panic, I rushed over, only to see that Dora-chan had lit up the torches in this room.
Firelight shone down on necklaces, crowns, tiaras and other assorted jewellery that looked unnecessarily fancy and studded with colourful jewels.
It was clearly a huge pile of valuables, but it was hard to properly appreciate it because it was piled up like a mountain. In the middle of this mountain was a large chair and on the chair was a skeleton.
“I guess that must be the Bandit King… He can’t take the treasures with him to wherever he went, it’s a little sad to think that he’s practically alone surrounded by such treasure,”
“Umu, you’re right. [11] It’s better to be surrounded by meat,”
[11] “……”
[11] “In fact, it’s better for it to be dragon meat. Piles and piles of dragon meat from different dragons…”
[11] I turned away to watch Dora-chan dive into a pile of gold coins. ““Woohoo!!””
Sui also bounced into a pile of jewels, ““Yaayy~!!””
“Alright, let’s collect all of these. There’s no point letting them sit around here. You can play with the coins later,”
““Heheh, I don’t have a habit of hoarding stuff like one of those big dragons, but I like shiny things like these~””
“Well, if you like them, why don’t you choose one of the smaller items for yourself? This necklace for example,”
I took out a Mithril necklace with a large diamond on it. [5]
““Hmm, I like it, but I don’t like having something around my neck when I’m moving around, so it’s fine.””
“Is that so, well, let’s collect all of these first. Let me know when you change your mind. Fer?”
“Mu?”
“Please fill this magic bag with treasures from that side, I’ll collect the ones from here,”
[6] “Umu, fine.” [5]
Aside from treasures of gold, silver and precious stones, there were boards with magic circles drawn on them, curious boxes and magic bags of all kinds. Since it was too troublesome to check everything one by one, I’ll just stuff everything into my [Item Box] first.
“Hm? What’s this writing doing here?”
On a stone slab, were written words that should not be found in this world.
[Gumihou: I felt almost guilty with the deletes, but these words cannot remain.]
[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 – Floor breaking scene is… well, hmm. Anyway, it’s fixed.
C-crack–!
After the sound of stepping on something, the floor collapsed and I was about to fall down.
“Eh? Waaaaa!”
The floor under my feet broke with a crumbling noise.
Gumihou: …you don’t say?
Fer: He’s that kind of boring person.
[9] Adjusted a rather pointless dialogue to something more interesting and resemble actual conversation normal people might have. Otherwise, it’s just a long dialogue of:
Mukouda: Ahhh!! Sui has fallen!! I am panicking as though I hadn’t seen her happily set off traps just moments earlier!!! Ahhh, Sui!! AhhhHHHaahHh!!
Dora-chan & Fer: =_=;;
Gumihou: =_=xx
[10] Author somehow forgot he gave Mukouda Earth Magic power and the guy who could raise walls with a simple wave of his hand suddenly went ‘wHAt sHoulD we dO?’ when they encountered a wall.
Like dude, that’s like Naruto forgetting he usually throws Kagebunshin at problems. Which actually happened in Naturo The Movie: Bonds. I was so pissed off by this movie that I broke the DVD in half and threw it in the bin afterwards. It was so shit.
It had been over 10 years but… IT WAS STILL SHIT!!!