STGB Episode 505
Basement Level 1 (1)
Tap, tap, tap—
She was running through the cave with her new companions.
Using the excuse that she’d guard the rear, she was staring at their backs.
“Mister, can you explain why we are going to the second floor?”
For companions, they were strangely far apart. Of course, she could close the distance in an instant if she wanted to. Yeah, she was sure she could… but…
“It’s not exactly the second floor. It’s the Goblin Forest.”
Why, then, does she feel like she can never bridge this gap in her entire life?
‘I thought for sure that as time passed… things would return to normal… but…’
She had resolved not to be impatient, but as the days passed, her confidence was fading.
The reason was simple.
She had just seen it.
[It would be better for you that way]
[Jandel, don’t take offense, but listen. You’re in a very unstable state right now.]
When she heard those words and saw Bjorn accepting them, her first thought was “I should’ve been the one to do that.”
She’d lost.
After all, she herself had never even considered such a possibility.
All she did was guess what Bjorn would have done in that situation, and then give him the answer she thought he wanted.
And thanks to all the time that had passed, she wasn’t even sure of that.
[“Well… I guess… maybe killing them would… be the right thing…?”]
She didn’t even think about what her own thoughts were.
She just read the room and gave an unconditional “yes”. The same went for thinking about what was best for him.
Looking back, it had always been like that.
She had never questioned Bjorn’s decisions or offered him advice.
She had resolved to silently follow him no matter what path he chose, but that was all.
‘Amelia Rainweilz.’
The fundamental difference between them was palpable.
She realized that this was what a true companion was like and simply accepted it.
She had always felt that she could come back and reclaim her spot, but once she’d returned, she’d realised that it wasn’t that special a place in the first place.
“…Are you okay? You’ve looked upset for a while.”
She grit her teeth as she answered Amelia, who had come to check on her in the rear.
“Don’t worry about me. I’m fine.”
It didn’t matter if her spot was still there or not.
It made no difference if he noticed or not.
[If you don’t, Bjorn Jandel will die.]
Because there was something she absolutely had to accomplish here.
***
About an hour into Day 3.
Rumble, rumble, rumble!
The whole cave began to shake and the crystals began to glow red.
This meant that the Lord of Fear, Dreadfear, had been summoned somewhere in the crystal cave.
Of course, it wasn’t surprising.
The Explorer’s Guild had already received eight requests for its subjugation.
The problem was the timing of the summoning.
‘A summon within an hour. Just how many are waiting for the hunt?’
Well, it doesn’t matter to us since we had set our sights on something else.
After all, most people think alike.
Defeating the Lord of Terror, Dreadfear.
Even when I was planning this expedition, I considered the possibility that the key to the hidden area might be there.
Unfortunately, by then, the subjugation requests were already full, so I couldn’t apply.
Subjugating the Lord of abyss, Belzak.
If that’s the key, then it’s completely out of reach for now.
‘…If everyone is thinking the same, they won’t summon Berzark, right?’
I assume nobody with sense would go that far, but I can’t be certain.
From the looks of it, it’s not just the eight teams that have signed up, but dozens of teams waiting all over the cave.
If even one or two of those teams get greedy, it’ll be a disaster.
‘Whatever, I’ll just focus on my own tasks.’
However, since I can’t go around persuading all the explorers in the cave, I just hurried my steps.
And soon…
「The character has entered the 2nd floor Goblin Forest.」
We quickly climbed to the 2nd floor, and, since we were running as fast as we could, reached the 3rd floor before the end of the third day.
[The character has entered the third floor, Pilgrim’s Path.]
A huge floor made up of over ten different fields.
After ascending through the Goblin Forest, we passed through the Green-Tail Swamp where Lizardmen appear, and moved on to one of the adjacent fields, the Ruined Temple.
A field filled with the rubble of collapsed stone buildings.
It looks a bit like the Pantellion Ruins on the 7th floor—except there’s one key difference:
There are a lot of sculptures here.
Though all of them have broken necks.
“This place is always creepy.”
“But at least it’s never crowded.”
The Ruined Temple is by far the least popular area on the 3rd floor.
For one, there’s only one type of monster that appears here.
「The character has defeated a Nameless Sculpture.」
Nameless Sculptures.
Level 7 monsters that look similar to Stone Golems, but much smaller, about the size of a person, and quite agile.
And…
「The Nameless Sculpture has cast [Unanswered Prayer].」
The skill they use is notoriously useless.
This skill is notoriously useless when used by players, as it always consumes a lot of MP and usually fails.
Well, they seem to have a much higher success rate.
「A great power has been bestowed upon the Nameless Sculpture.」
When the prayer succeeds, a random Level 5 or lower buff is temporarily granted.
So, for a level 7 monster, it becomes fairly tough to hunt.
More than tough, it’s unpredictable.
Each battle involves an unexpected skill, making it both exhausting and prone to plenty of surprises.
All in all, there’s virtually no reason for an explorer to grind in this place.
Which makes sense, because the essences are useless.
If you’re only after experience, hunting a couple of them while passing through is enough.
‘And its location isn’t great, either.’
If you’re heading to the fourth floor, it’s far easier to go around to an adjacent field instead, which is why almost no one bothers with the Ruined Temple.
‘Well, at least the material drops aren’t too bad.’
One saving grace of this field is its occasional “material” drops.
If you cast distortion magic and hunt here, you occasionally get ‘Mana Crystals,’ which sell for a decent price.
Of course, it’s much more efficient to mine them on the 5th floor, so people rarely come here.
Anyway, we came here for the ‘materials.’
Actually, there’s something else that drops besides ‘Mana Crystals.’
“Alright, everyone, move!”
The time was running short, so we quickly started the hunt.
「Versil Gowland has cast the Level 6 spacetime magic [Superior Distortion].」
「Versil Gowland has cast the Level 6 spacetime magic [Superior Distortion].」
「Versil Gowland has cast the Level 6 spacetime magic [Superior Distortion].」
Our combat power was sufficient, so the mage just kept casting distortion magic to see what would drop…
「The character has defeated a Nameless Sculpture.」
「The character has defeated a Nameless Sculpture.」
「The character has defeated a Nameless Sculpture…」
「…」
We smashed every sculpture that appeared.
However, since there was still downtime, we started splitting up to herd the mobs.
“Bethel——raaaaaaaaaaaa!!”
If you raise your threat level here, the monsters will go berserk and charge.
We used this strategy to sweep the area and gather the sculptures in the centre, where Versil continued to cast her distortion magic.
And during the respawn period, we moved far away to gather another mob.
We split into three groups at 12 o’clock, 4 o’clock, and 8 o’clock relative to the center and rotated, so there was no downtime as everything fell into place perfectly.
「The character has defeated a Nameless Sculpture.」
「The character has defeated a Nameless Sculpture.」
「The character has defeated a Nameless Sculpture…」
「…」
How long did we hunt with single-minded focus?
By the time we had collected 6 ‘Mana Crystals,’ the first item we wanted dropped.
“Bjooorrrn! Hey, isn’t this the thing you were looking for?”
A small fragment of stone engraved with a deliberate design.
「The character has obtained ‘Nameless Fragment.」
It has a sun emblem.
***
The Nameless Fragment.
An item that can be obtained by a certain probability when a Nameless Sculpture is killed with distortion magic applied.
An item that can be obtained with certain probability when a Nameless Sculpture is killed with distortion magic applied.
Its characteristics are that it doesn’t stack in the inventory, drops with one of three random patterns, and cannot be taken back to the city.
‘We got the sun, so the remaining ones are the moon and the star.’
I had been doing all sorts of things with these fragments, thinking there must be some secret to them.
Finally, it seems there’s a use for them.
“So this fragment is what you were after, Mr. Jandel…?”
“That makes sense. Star, Sun, Moon… that’s kind of a giveaway.”
“I’m not sure, but it does seem like a valid attempt. Time is tight, but we might actually make it.”
Getting to the third floor, defeating enough Nameless Sculptures to gather these three items and back down to the first before it closed…
That alone is challenging, but it’s not impossible.
Right now, we’ve wasted over two days on the 1st floor, so it’s tight, but if we had rushed to the 3rd floor from the start, things would have been much better.
“Next time, I think we can pull it off.”
Unfortunately, as Versil said, it seems difficult to get into the hidden area this time.
She’s right, it took 8 hours of hunting with constant distortion magic to get a single Nameless Fragment.
‘If we want to collect two more, it’ll take another 16 hours.’
Doing the simple math, even if we assume the remaining symbols all drop without duplicates, we’d still be short on time.
Besides, it’s not easy to increase our hunting speed any further.
The only reason we were able to get a fragment in eight hours was because we could roam the entire field and gather mobs for a mass hunt.
Besides, if Versil’s MP runs dry, we won’t be able to cast Distortion anymore.
Tsk, I was being overly optimistic—
“Hey! Bjorn!! It dropped again!!”
Huh?
I blankly accepted the stone Aynar handed to me.
[The character has obtained ‘Nameless Fragment.]
It was engraved with a star symbol.
A star symbol.
In other words, if we can get just one more Moon fragment in the next eight hours, we’re good to go.
Wait, Aynar was the one who found the text last time too…
Aynar has beginner’s luck, but it should work on essences, not items.
Anyway, it’s best to take advantage of her inexplicable luck while I can.
“Change of plans.”
“…What?”
“From now on, Aynar will handle the monster kills. The rest of you, roam around and lure the monsters here.”
Even if it meant we’d waste a bit of time here and there, we switched to letting Aynar handle all the fighting and continued our mass-hunting strategy.
Then, about five hours later—
[The character has obtained a ‘Nameless Fragment.”
We got another fragment drop.
“A Moon symbol, huh…?”
It was time for me to acknowledge it.
“Aynar.”
“Go on! Praise me all you like!”
“Barbarians truly are a superior race.”
“Uooooohhhhh!!”
I didn’t stop Aynar from shouting loudly. Instead, I even used [Gigantification] and repeatedly tossed her high into the air and caught her.
“Wahahahaha! Hahaha!”
As expected, Aynar was happier than ever, fully enjoying the moment.
Crash-!
Okay, that’s enough rewards for now.
I quickly led the team back the way we came.
Day 5, Day 6, Day 7…
Getting to the lower floors was more difficult then climbing up.
Thanks to Aynar, we were able to afford to camp and rest adequately during the sparetime, and by the afternoon of Day 7, we had arrived.
The center of the Goblin Forest on the second floor.
The clearing near the portal that led to the crystal cave on the first floor.
The very place where we once fought fiercely against the trio of Noark who were blocking the entrance.
“…What’s going on here?”
By rough estimate, there seemed to be well over a hundred.
The place was unexpectedly filled with explorers.
They certainly didn’t look like explorers who had given up searching the first floor before it closed.
If that were the case, there would be no reason for them to gather in front of the portal…
Flash-!
The condition of the adventurers coming out of the portal was horrendous.
“Priest! Is there a priest here? Help us!”
“Have this first!”
What on earth is going on?
As I approached the portal, the explorers noticed me and began whispering.
“The giant…?”
“Wasn’t he supposed to be on the 1st floor?”
They seemed puzzled that I came from the opposite side of the portal rather than through it.
Sigh, I wanted to sneak down to the 1st floor without drawing attention, but it seems that’s not happening.
Since stealthy movement was out of the question, I picked the most talkative-looking explorer and asked.
“Hey, what’s going on?”
The answer came quickly.
“…Berzark has appeared!”
Sigh, I had a feeling it might be something like that.
“….”
No wonder we got so lucky earlier.
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