Legend

"This is, again..."

Ray squeaks unintentionally at the sight of it spreading on one side.

Arla, who is avant-garde next to him, as is Ray, and behind him Elaine and Custe of the Middle Guard. And in the rear guard, Ver opens his eyes to surprise and looks at the sight that is spreading in front of him.

Only Seto next to Ver sounded somewhere happy.

"Well, this is definitely the fourth basement of the dungeon, right?

"Right. You must have just come down the stairs."

And Ara, who returned to me, groans so, and Custe affirms.

"No, no. I can see Ara getting confused, too. I'm just surprised you're coming down the dungeon and spreading this sight in front of me."

I don't usually break the light tone, Ver, but I guess I'm just surprised. Now he talks in a half-hearted tone.

"Because... why... why is there a forest in the dungeon? Ooh! Besides, it's weird to think that some things look like sun!

Yes, it was nothing but the woods, no matter where I looked, that was spreading in front of the Rays. And Ara is right. We also see sunshine over the sky, which is actually illuminated by the lights.

"Easy, Ara. This is a dungeon, a place where it's not weird no matter what. If you get confused, that'll be the gap."

Pom, and put her hand on Ara's shoulder and call out so Elaine can forgive her.

I guess he returned it to me with that voice. Ara turned red and lowered her head slightly.

"Well. Not Ara, but if you come down the dungeon and the woods are spreading in front of you, it does surprise you, but for now, everybody calm down. Not until the third basement, anyway. I don't have a map from here. Unlike before, which was heading all the way to the stairs in a straight line, it would be harder to find a staircase to the fifth basement. So let's just take a deep breath and switch consciousness."

Follow Elaine's voice and everyone breathes loudly and deeply. Note that the air I inhaled at that time was certainly as fresh as it was in the deep woods rather than belonged to the dungeons.

"... well. Let's just say we move on more carefully from here. I'll tear the line up a little. Exchange positions between Ray and Ver in order to fully demonstrate their skills as bandits. Ray, watch out for monsters coming from behind or from above with Seto."

"Oh, you're finally playing my lead. I'm better at these woods and stuff than my bandit skills in the dungeons. Bye, Ray. Guard, nice to meet you."

"Leave it to me. I'm used to acting with Seto, so don't worry about being attacked from behind, please, forward."

"That's Ray. You're confident."

Take a deep breath and calm down, change your posture with Ver, who has returned to his usual light tone.

"So, Master Elaine. Which way do you want to head?

To Ara's inquiry, Elaine looked around for a few seconds, but quickly strained her shoulders.

"I don't care how it goes beyond the lack of maps. In the end, I can only count on it. Well, then, yeah. Ray, pick a direction for me as an adventurer."

"What? Me?

"Mm-hmm. Neither of us can offer a direction that will guide us. Then it would be better to rely on Ray, the adventurer."

It was Ray who was suddenly instructed to do so, but I look around to see if I'd have any trouble even if he told me to make my way with an idea.

"... right. It's going to be hard to see if we can break through this floor by the end of the day, so what do you say we move on looking for a place to base our camp when we have to?

"Grounds? When... river?

"Yes, I just don't think it's easy to combine the river... or the water field because there's a risk that the monsters will come for a drink."

"I guess. But if you're going to reveal a night in this basement on the fourth floor, it's going to be important in many ways to secure a water field."

"Right. I brought the water in a container once, but I've never been there to save money."

"Uhm, if you want to travel in search of a river and lake water field first... doesn't it change that you don't know which way to go"

It was Elaine with a bitter smile, but Ray strokes Seto's back with a grin on her face.

"Seto, can you feel the smell of water or the sound it's flowing?

"Gru."

Seto rings confidently asking me to leave it to Ray's word. Elaine and the others who saw it send a gaze impressed with Griffon's five senses.

Ray's most surprising of all would have been that even Custe had sent a gaze that impressed him.

(Well, if you have to, there's a way to get Seto to fly and look for rivers and lakes from above...)

That's how I thought it was, Ray, but fortunately Seto seems to have sensed either the smell or the sound of water. He turns his gaze toward the left and rings high.

"As you can see, apparently there's a waterfront on the left. Does that mean we're going that way?

"Oh. As far as I'm concerned, no problem. Custe, Ver, Ara. We're going left."

Nodding at that instruction of Elaine, the line begins to move towards the left.

Fortunately, there are hardly any trees in the way of walking, even when it comes to forests, and it would have been fortunate for the line to proceed without doing anything, especially paving the way.

"Grrrrrrrrrr"

It was about an hour after Seto started going through the woods that he raised his alarm roar.

You must have been surprised that Seto roared behind his back all of a sudden. Earla and Ver turned their backs reflexively as they were walking in the lead.

"... what's up?

This one asks how calm she is. Ray answers when he notices that Seto is definitely concerned about what's going on around her.

"You seem to care about what's going on around you. Probably a monster."

"Get around? You're not in one direction, are you?

"Well, it doesn't seem to be in one direction"

"Then should we see some kind of monster acting in a herd besieging us?"

Everyone on the spot in Elaine's words frowns unexpectedly.

Even the siege is against us, but it's in the woods where the battlefield needs to be hidden. It was clear that we were at a disadvantage to be raided no matter what we thought.

"Master Elaine, would you like to set me up from this side?

"I'd love to, but I can't seem to see the enemy, can I?

It was Arla who was instantly dismissed of the proposal, but I look at Ray more like he thought it over and came up with something.

"What about burning down every forest with the magic of Lord Ray's flames?

Rejected.

"... why?

Now Ara is rejected by Ray, who expects the magic of the flames.

Ver opens his mouth to the look of it.

"It would be nice to burn the woods, and then it would be black to us, right? No, before that, you get caught in smoke."

"Ugh."

"Um, come on. Let's think about it for a little while before we speak."

"May flies are nice. You can't help but make a few mistakes."

"That's what I'm saying, but I'm saying too many of those little mistakes are in Ara's case."

"Hey, you're not nervous enough to say you're surrounded by enemies."

Custe cautions as he sets up his demon spear and is able to respond to the raid at any time.

But it should be said whether it be Ara or Ver, Ara had a sword on her as she continued to twist with each other, and Ver likewise kept the arrows on her bow so that she could release them at any time.

Elaine also has a connecting sword as well, and Ray has a death size. Seto is sinking and asking around so that he can react instantly no matter where he is attacked from.

And...

"Grrrrrrrrrr!"

At that moment when Seto roared, its enemies literally emerge from all directions.

It will look close to a monkey. But a sharp fang is stretched out of his mouth, and his skin is covered in running water. It's a small size, 60 cm, and a large size, 1 m or not. However, there were 20 of them who appeared to besiege the Rays.

"A monkey covered in water!? It's a monkey version of Waterbear, and it was definitely in the Monster Dictionary called WaterMonkey... is that it?

It was Elaine who responded to Ray's whining words.

"Ray, give me some info on this monster!

He swings the death size to intimidate the water monkey and opens his mouth recalling what was written in the book where he was distanced to be vigilant.

"It's a monster that uses the magic of the water system, and it's a Rank D monster. However, if you think of it as an individual. Its fur, which is covered in water as a capability, mainly sheds the shock of magical and physical attacks on the fire system. It seems that wind or ground systems are effective for that reason. If you're going to make a physical attack, I wonder if weapons like shock-prone sticks, hammers, axes, or sharp attacks and pokes like ripping off the water that's covering your fur are also effective."

"It hurts that Ray's most powerful magic can't be used.... Then only my windy magic will be magically effective? After that, you said you could handle each weapon. No, say that, Ray. You had some wind magic, too, but you could have used it, right?

"Yes. That said, the only wind magic I can use is the wind blade that I showed you when I was in Kamakiri"

"No, it's better than still not. Focus on that...... they're coming!

Those were the water monkeys watching Elaine and Ray talk, but I guess they couldn't contain the excitement before the prey. I peel those fangs out of the tree branches and jump on them. And you're a backup actor, and behind that, some individuals shoot out water polo, although it's considerably smaller than what Waterbear was using.

Flying slaughter!

It unleashes a death-size skill, Flying Slash, on the water monkey that has been attacked directly by this one. The flying slash draws the trajectory where Ray waved the blade, first cutting off the two torso intact that were about to strike Ray first, while the slash disappears leaving a great scratch on the tree that was in the rear.

"Kick-ass!"

I guess we noticed our people suddenly cut their torso in two in the air and fell to the ground with their guts scattered. Watermonkey raising a scream of vigilance. But it was already too late. The blade of wind emitted from Elaine is rather small because of its power compared to Ray's flying slaughter, but instead more than 10 are emitted at a time. The water monkey slashed and torn by this wind blade was probably less fortunate than the individual killed by Ray. Because compared to the first two who died without pain or feeling anything, Elaine's attacked Water Monkey was slashed and torn with a blade of wind through her body, severing areas such as her hands, toes, or ears, and her arms and feet were slashed and torn to half of what she had not been amputated for lack of power.

"Kick-ass! Kick-ass!

Ara waves her sword down to several water monkeys rolling around the ground bleeding from all over her body, and Custe pierces her with that demonic spear.

Even with regard to the water covering the fur, the blow unleashed by Ara's rigidity could not have been prevented. The neck and torso were cut off, or the water covering the skin was bounced off the moment the tip touched by Custe's demon spear, which manipulates the water, and the tip of the demon spear pierces the torso. And the jointed sword wielded by Elaine was pierced to the torso as if there was no water or something.

"Grrrrrrrrrr!"

Or the blow of an eagle claw wielded by Seto just because it had nothing to do with such water or anything like that, rips its torso off every piece of water that is covering the skin of the water monkey. And Seto's blow, equipped with a rigid bracelet, hit the torso, crushing the torso on the spot rather than blowing the enemy, causing the watermonkey's guts to snap into the surrounding trees.

I guess instantly a few of my buddies were sunk into a sea of blood and had a sense of crisis. The water monkeys who were flying earlier grab onto the nearby tree branches and distance themselves from the Rays.

"Have you given up?

"No, I guess not"

It was Ver who denied Custe's words. That gaze surrounds us as if we were going to surround ourselves from the top of a tree, and we have a bow so that we can release arrows at any time looking at the water monkeys who are watching us.

"But didn't they realize that they couldn't do this to us?

"I guess I wish I was such a smart monster.... behold, their eyes. Does that look like it gave up?

Ver tells me, Custe observes how the water monkey is doing. Sure, there was an appetite-filled color in those eyes, like the hostility that killed our people and seeing ourselves as prey, but we didn't see any emotions like fear or fear.

"It's monster style. I don't know if we can even spot the power between ourselves and the other person."

It was the moment when Custe muttered so much as he despised him.

"Gaaaaaaaaaa!"

A fierce roar echoed around the area.

And when they heard the roar, the Watermonkeys turned their backs without hesitation and disappeared into the woods without even looking at the Rays they had just fought.

It was a retreat landscape as if it were a commanding soldier.

"I see. That's just how many herds led some monsters."

Ray was vigilant around her as she listened to Elaine whining like she was impressed, but suddenly Seto, who was next door, looked up at the giant tree behind the forest and roared.

What Ray saw, reflectively death-sized in that roar, was a water monkey of considerable size over what he had attacked earlier. Is its length exactly 2m? That unusual size would be obvious considering the size of the water monkey that attacked me earlier was at most about 1m.

(And he's probably the one who raised the roar earlier, too, right?)

Did that giant water monkey notice that his gaze had gathered on him, or after glancing at Giroli and Ray and Elaine and the others, he disappears into the back of the woods as he was lost in the trees.

"Water monkey with that? Wouldn't that size make you a water gorilla or something, not a water monkey? Ray, what size water monkey do you know?

"Basically, it was small, and even the bigger ones were about 1m long."

"If that's the case, he was the one who attacked me in the herd first."

"Oh. Then I think it's probably a rare species or a superior species... unfortunately the book I saw didn't say anything about it."

"Right.... This is a monster with a high level of combat and enough intelligence to give a signal of refusal or withdrawal. I don't really feel comfortable fighting him."

Pottori and Elaine's murmuring voice echoed around them, each nodding in his heart.