Chapter 83: The moment Shirou’s level went down

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I wanted to conserve my magic power as much as possible, so I did not put on the Eminence Rock yet, instead I rushed toward the entrance of the dungeon, riding Silver.

When I reached the dungeon, I saw that Master Elza was taking command of the adventurers, and they were getting in a formation to surround the entrance.

It seemed that they had decided to make their defensive stand here.

I ordered Poppo to search for Rouge from the sky, and I quickly ran up to her afterward.

“Rouge! What about Cecily? Has she gotten out of the dungeon already?”

“Shirou-san! Why haven’t you evacuated already?”

“That’s not important right now! Where’s Cecily?”

Rouge only shook her head listlessly in response.

“Is that so…”

So she hadn’t managed to get out of the dungeon. Is it… too late already?

However, I don’t believe that Cecily’s the type of person who would go down easily. As I thought, I need to go inside and help her.

“Miina, I’m going to do it. Do you still want to help me?”

“I, I will help you. A woman never goes back on her words after all. However, if we somehow ever made it out alive, I want you to help me with losing my virginity!”

I have no clue about the inner layout of the labyrinth-like dungeon, so without her it will be a completely hopeless situation. Even the current situation is quite desperate already, and yet Miina is still willing to act as a guide. By the way, I’ve told her about the Eminence Rock and have even shown it to her while equipped.

“W-what are you two talking about?”

“Rouge, we’re going to get inside to help Cecily.”

“That’s absurd!!”

I know. I feel like peeing my pants now, but it’s something I must do. I’m terrified as hell, and yet somehow, I feel like I can pull it off.

“Wonder, Harry, we’re going in!”

While the crowd of adventurers were reeling in shock, I rode Silver toward the entrance of the dungeon, and proceed to go inside.

“Okami! What do you think you’re doing?! We’re about to seal the entrance to the dungeon—”

Master Elza was shouting something from behind us, but I pushed through while acting oblivious and saying, “Sorry, I can’t hear what you’re saying.”

Most probably, she intends to destroy the entrance to the dungeon with magic. If that were to happen, even if Cecily were alive, she would not be able to escape.

Which is all the more reason for me to go inside.

ΓΦΛΔΔΛΦΓ!

As soon as I reached the point where I was certain that no one would see us, I quickly equipped the Eminence Rock armor.

“Let’s go!”

We started running through the dungeon with golems at the front and behind us.

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The converging magic beam pierced through the horde of monsters. The narrow passageway made it impossible to avoid the beam, and one by one, the monsters died.

“To the right! We’re going right at the next intersection!” Miina’s voice echoed from behind me. It was the first time I had been in a dungeon again ever since I helped Gram and the survey team, and if it weren’t for Miina helping me to navigate through the dungeon, I would have lost my way a long time ago.

I’ve been firing off converging beams every time I encounter monsters in these narrow passages, and diffused beams if we are in wide areas.

It may sound like I’m playing a super-easy mode shooting game, but the truth is, if I make even one single misstep and the monsters managed to come over the barrage of beams, then it would be an instant game over for us.

We only have one chance. No continues.

Also, no matter how powerful the Eminence Rock is, the person wearing it is a complete amateur who has no martial arts background.

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Fifteen minutes had passed since Miina and I have entered the dungeon. Perhaps it’s the effect of my adrenaline surging, but my sensation of fear has somehow become numbed. The only thing that I feel is a cold feeling of dread piercing into my heart.

With how many monsters are overflowing here, the chances are that Cecily’s already…

“Raaaarrghhh!!” I howled a meaningless scream as I fired off the beams, trying to keep myself from thinking the word ‘death’.

“We’re almost there. There will be a door toward the third floor up ahead.”

“…”

Miina was pointing toward the direction of the door, but my eyes didn’t follow; in a darker place like inside a dungeon, my eyes can see better due to the effect of the Eminence Rock armor, which made me able to see something that Miina didn’t see. Something that I’ve been dreading.

In my field of vision, right now, I can see the broken form of Cecily, slumped in the middle of a crater on the rock floor.

“Cecily…”

Cecily was lying on her stomach and didn’t move at all. Meanwhile, monsters were still pouring out from the deeper part of the dungeon.

“Get out of my way!!!”

I wiped out the enemies in the passageway with a barrage of convergent magic beams and ran up to her.

“Cecily-san……”

Miina had opened her bag and took out some potions to heal her, but suddenly stopped. Probably because Cecily’s left hand was missing, and her whole right leg was gone too.

“Cecily-san… is already…”

“Not yet!”

＃＃＃＃

Repair target: Human (Cecily Nonbart, age 26, Status: Critical)

MP consumption: 3234

Repair time: 216 hours and 38 minutes

＃＃＃＃

It seems like Cecily was still alive, albeit barely, thanks to the physical reinforcement magic that she’s been training and polishing.

“Wonder, Harry, defend me at all costs!”

I first unequipped the Eminence Rock and then start gulping down the MP Recovery potions. It only recovers 1 MP per millilitres, so I need to drink at least 3 liters to have enough MP to heal her. I drank so much that some of the potions started to overflow through my nose, but I forcefully drank it all down before finally casting [Repair] on Cecily.

Only after I saw Cecily disappear in motes of light, that I finally felt relieved and sat down.

“Cecily-san has… disappeared?”

“It’s fine now. Cecily is save now.” [1]

“Don’t tell me… Okami-san, you can actually use magic?”

“It’s a trump card that I save for emergencies. I’ve never used it on a living creature before, though, since it lowers my level by five.”

“Eh? Level? What do you mean?”

 It’s not just the level of [Repair] that went down by five. But also the level of Creation Magic and all categories in it. Using it on a living being has so much disadvantage; I didn’t like it so I never experimented with it before, but it’s the only option that I have at the moment.

“Alright, now that we’ve accomplished what we’ve come here for…”

My stomach was bloating, and I feel like I want to throw up, but I forcefully stuffed myself with more MP potions.

My total MP is now 1982 because my level dropped by 5. I only have enough MP to equip Eminence Rock for 33 minutes now.

“What should we do now, Okami-san? I think I just heard an explosion. The entrance has probably been sealed off now.”

Master Elza must’ve been forced to choose a ruthless decision to collapse the entrance, since monsters could easily overflow outside if it’s still open during a stampede.

“Anyway, we need to do something about our current situation first.”

There aren’t any new monsters arrived yet, but judging from the tremor that keeps getting closer and louder, it seems a new wave of monsters will be coming from the lower floor soon.

“Okami-san, we need to somehow slay the main body of the Thousand Ogres! Unless we do so, their number will keep increasing endlessly.”

“Even so, how are we going to find out which one is the main body…?”

“It is said that the Thousand Ogre’s main body have a reddish bronze skin, and it has a third eye on its forehead, between the eyebrows!” [2]

I see, so as long as we defeat a red ogre with a third eye, it should be fine. With that much information it should be fairly easy to find it.

“The problem is, how are we going to find the door leading toward the Sixth Floor.”

Even Miina didn’t know where it was, since she hasn’t found it yet. As a matter of fact, I don’t think anyone has ever found it yet, except for the person or the group who has set the floor boss on the loose. The person responsible might have tried to subjugate it and failed, which means that there’s no one who really knows where it is now.

“That’s alright. I can guide you up to the entrance of the Fifth Floor, and after that we can just follow the direction from where the Ogres are coming from! They should originate from where the main body is.”

“Sounds like a plan! ΔΛΦΓΓΦΛΔ!!”

I equipped the [Eminence Rock] armor again and then we started running through the dark corridors of the dungeon.

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1 Errr… not yet though. Unless they somehow find a way to escape.

2 Probably Miina knows this because the Thousand Ogres is a known floor boss in another dungeon.