“Right.”
“—[Ice Whip]—”
At Aria’s voice, I sweep the area with an Ice Whip without confirming.
I hear the screams of beasts. Without turning my face, I scatter [Ice Lances] around where the screams came from to finish them off.
…It’s annoying that I can’t burn them. Because unless I destroy the corpses, I won’t know if they’re dead right away, and the feeling of having killed them is weak.
We had advanced to around the sixtieth floor of the dungeon.
I wonder how many days it’s been? Aria is meticulous, so I think she remembers, but I wasn’t counting because I wasn’t interested. If I had been diving alone like before, would I have counted properly…?
But there’s no point in such a hypothetical. Because there’s someone nearby who will remember, so there’s no need for me to remember, right? I won’t be adventuring with anyone other than Aria anyway. I’m just going to kill Aria’s enemies.
But, I’m getting used to fighting without fire now. If I don’t know how much power to release against which enemy to kill them in one shot, I’ll just waste mana.
I could probably put out a little more power. I want at least Ice and Lightning to be more powerful than before.
When I had All-Attribute, my strength was being able to fight flexibly using all kinds of magic, but now that I’m thinking of reducing one attribute, I have to fundamentally change my fighting style.
What can I do? What can I do?
What can I do for Aria?
Well, for now…
“—[Lightning Strike (Digvolt)]—”
The Digvolt I released traveled through the frozen stone floor, wiping out the surrounding enemies.
“It’s all Beast-type, huh?”
“It is.”
The battle ends, and we have a trivial conversation while watching Aria take the meat and Magic Stones only from the big ones.
I can also butcher them, but Aria is better at it, so I’m just watching. Kitty (he) doesn’t do the act of butchering in the first place, so he’s eating the meat of a random prey.
“Let’s have a meal too. Then we’ll take a short nap.”
“Yes, yes.”
This is the good thing about a small party. If there’s a good place, we can rest whenever we want and eat whenever we want. Since we can’t even see the sun, there’s no need to sleep all at once at night.
“What’s for dinner today♪”
“You don’t feel like helping?”
“Aria, you’re a challenger.”
“Today we’re using offal.”
Aria easily gave up on making me help and started preparing for cooking.
It’s been quite a while since we dived into the dungeon, but we still have plenty of mental and physical余裕.
We have [Shadow Storage], so we don’t need to carry a lot of luggage or food, we can do anything about water with Utility Magic, we can cure injuries and illnesses with Light Magic, and we can clean our bodies with [Purify (Clean)], so we don’t mind the splattered blood.
But after all, what’s mentally big is that we don’t have trouble with ingredients.
This time, it was fresh, freshly hunted liver boiled in water, with dried vegetables and beans added, seasoned with salt and a small amount of spices.
“It’s nutritious.”
“Well, I guess so.”
The taste… isn’t bad. It can be classified as human food. If Aria were to really focus only on nutritional value, I’d be forced to drink some kind of unidentified, gooey thing. But…
“Why is it sour?”
“I’m putting in sour fruits as a measure against scurvy.”
To my question, Aria showed me an unseen fruit that she took out of her [Shadow Storage], saying that it lasts a long time.
Aria said that if I put it in [Shadow Storage] for a few hours, the parasites would die and I could eat the liver raw, but I can’t do that.
Basically, Aria isn’t bad at cooking, so why does she want to use strange ingredients?
Aria is making offal dishes not only because she’s particular about nutritional value, but also because she gets too much meat.
This is supposed to be a Beastkin-type dungeon with humanoids, but as we go deeper, the number of humanoids decreases, and only Beast-type Monsters become more noticeable.
In other words, we can eat as much offal as we want, which normally doesn’t last long. However, ordinary people don’t eat Monster meat because the Mana Particles are too strong.
“…After all, there’s a change in the ecology inside the dungeon.”
Aria muttered as if she had read my thoughts.
“You said that before, too.”
“Yeah. I thought that the humanoid Monsters had temporarily decreased and the Beasts that had been their Bait had turned into Monsters, but the number of Beast-type Monsters is increasing more than I thought.”
Beasts that the dungeon prepared for the Beastkin.
I think the dungeon is capturing them by extending a part of it like a root, but since they were originally for Bait, the Beast-type Monsters we encountered were mostly deer and boars, and even the ferocious ones were only Dire Wolves at most.
But, can Orcs and Ogres, who have decreased in number, defeat deer and boars, let alone wolf-types?
In reality, they are defeating them, so I think they can defeat them. Since there are Mana Particles filling the dungeon, Monsterization should be relatively easy…
“Perhaps, a powerful Monster is growing.”
Aria leaks out quietly.
“That’s what defeated the remaining strong Beastkin.”
Answering that, I begin my consideration.
The Monsters in the dungeon began to eliminate each other, and an existence that stood out from the rest was born. But, it wasn’t a Beastkin that was originally in this dungeon, but a Beast-type Monster.
That Monster advanced deeper in search of stronger prey and Mana Particles, and grew stronger by eating the Beastkin.
“I feel something intentional.”
“…Is the dungeon’s will doing that?”
This time, Aria answers my mutter.
“A new boss is necessary, right? I don’t know if it’s the dungeon’s will or the Spirit’s will, but if that’s the case… a considerably powerful Monster is being born.”
When I talk about heavy topics in a light tone, Kitty (he), who had been closing his eyes, twitched his whiskers, and Aria slowly let out a sigh.
The dungeon is probably giving up on the Beastkin and trying to change into a Beast-type dungeon.
How troublesome…. There might be Monsters that we’ve never seen before.
While I was thinking about that, Aria finished cleaning up after the meal and lay down as if wrapping herself in a cloak, while calling out to me.
Like a cat….
“Let’s go to sleep soon. We’ll move as soon as we wake up. If that worst-case scenario is correct, the lower levels should have even fewer Monsters, so let’s advance as much as we can while we can.”
“…I understand.”
Well, it’s a good thing that she can immediately find advantages even from the worst predictions.
There’s an unknown enemy. I think we can win against most enemies, but the opponent might not be a proper enemy.
My power, which is no longer All-Attribute, has decreased.
I have to find my own way of fighting before I reach the lowest level.
Aria uses [Light] and [Dark] Magic, and has acquired the powerful force called [Real Breaker].
Then, what do I have?
“…………”
I also use the spare cloak I took out of [Shadow Storage] as a pillow and fall asleep.
…It looks like I’ll be tired from tomorrow.
Normally, if you’ve been in a dungeon for weeks, you wouldn’t be so relaxed.
Assassin (Rank 5) Magician (Rank 5) Mystic Beast (Rank 6)
After all, Utility Magic and Storage Magic are essential for survival.