Happy New Year. I look forward to working with you again this year.
Since it’s New Year’s Day, I’ve updated at midnight!
Aria, Kitty-chan, and I are continuing our conquest of the large-scale dungeon.
The conquest itself is going smoothly… or so I’d like to say.
Large-scale dungeons become more complex the deeper you delve, and unless you know the route, your clearing speed should decrease, but conversely, our progress speed has been increasing.
The number of monsters has decreased to a noticeable extent. Perhaps, just as we predicted, the monsters from the lower floors are heading towards the lowest floor.
“Snow.”
“…There are corpses left behind, aren’t there?”
For a moment, I didn’t realize I was being called, so my reply was a bit delayed, but I understood what Aria wanted to say.
In dungeons, monster corpses don’t remain. There are stories about the dungeon absorbing them or something, but in reality, isn’t it because other monsters devour them, leaving not even bones behind?
The deeper we advanced, the fewer monsters we saw, and instead, we started seeing monster corpses.
But why are there monster corpses? Why are these monster corpses left uneaten? That is…
“As expected, the culling has begun.”
Let’s review our monster knowledge.
Monsters are the end result of animals that mutated from absorbing too much Magical Element. The reason some monsters have mutated to the point where it’s hard to believe they were once ordinary animals is said to be because they evolved by repeating generational changes while remaining in their monsterized state.
Among them, there are those mutated by ancient elven magic, or creatures from places like the fae realm where Magical Element is dense, but setting those aside, common monsters are inherently ferocious and attack and devour other living beings.
It’s said that monsters attack humans because it’s efficient to prey on humans, who are numerous and have absorbed a lot of Magical Element, but I believe it’s because humans have a higher probability of possessing “Magic Stones.”
As if to affirm this hypothesis, all the monster corpses scattered throughout the dungeon had their heart areas devoured.
Perhaps by devouring the Magic Stone in the heart, monsters are trying to self-evolve, aren’t they?
“In that case, if humans eat monster Magic Stones, will they also become stronger?”
“I think that’s impossible. Humans are animals, not monsters, and monsters don’t even glance at dead Magic Stones extracted from a heart.”
That’s just too much of a depraved appetite. I think they can’t absorb power unless they devour the Magic Stone along with the still-beating heart. But…
“…Maybe it’d work with a monster about the size of a rabbit?”
“………”
『Graar.』
–Stop–
–Foolish–
Oh dear, Kitty-chan got angry with me. I wonder if she thought we might actually do it. It seems, after all, that it’s impossible to directly absorb them unless you’re a monster.
However, I don’t think humans don’t absorb anything at all.
A Magic Stone extracted from a dead monster’s heart is already dead. I don’t know what the difference is, but it’s possible that when a monster dies, that “something” dissipates, and the one who defeated it unconsciously absorbs it.
Otherwise, there’d be no reason why a human who reached Rank 5 could fight on par with Griffons or Wyverns.
Well, this is just my speculation. I think it’s like daily meals; it’s meaningless unless you consume an appropriate amount.
If you get the appropriate amount wrong… perhaps Ogres and Orcs are mutant species that monsterized from the human race that way.
–Foolish–
That day… I tried to dissect a monster (a rabbit) we happened to encounter while it was still alive, suffered a counterattack, and got scolded by Kitty-chan again.
The next day as well, we rode Kitty-chan and raced through the dungeon.
We no longer encountered any monsters. It became troublesome with some traps and maze-like sections, but we passed through them relying solely on Kitty-chan’s physical abilities.
However, not encountering monsters also means we can’t procure food.
Aria and I still have food left in our 【Shadow Storage】, but that’s not the case for Kitty-chan. We gave all the monster meat we had hunted and saved up to Kitty-chan, and just when we were getting quite tired of simple barley porridge with only beans, dried vegetables, and a small amount of dried meat, we finally saw the end of the dungeon.
“Is this the Innermost Sanctum?”
“Probably so.”
We descended a long flight of stairs and emerged into a slightly wider space.
Beyond what seemed to be an open area just for preparation, there was a huge double door made of metal.
Both Aria and I were speaking less than necessary. Kitty-chan also just narrowed her eyes, her fur standing on end as if slightly charged with electricity.
The Intimidation we felt from beyond the door… The moment we dismounted from Kitty-chan’s back, walked closer, and wondered how to open that massive door—
DOOOON!!
With a deafening roar, something slammed into the door from the other side, causing it to buckle outwards towards us.
” “–!!” ”
Just as we jumped back, the buckled door creaked open, and a giant humanoid shadow emerged from within.
More than twice our height. Its weight, I couldn’t even guess how many tens of times ours… It was…
“A Goblin King…!”
The highest-ranking species of goblin-kin. A Rank 6, comparable to a Minotaur Murderer.
That colossal figure with a combat power exceeding 3000 glared at us with bloodshot eyes from the darkness of the doorway and took a step forward.
But…
『–GUAAAAAAAAGH!!』
The moment I realized that the black spear piercing the already blood-soaked Goblin King’s abdomen from the other side was a “snake,” something easily dragged the Goblin King’s massive body further inside, as if fishing it up, just as it reached out to us as if seeking salvation.
Like a fish caught on a line, the Goblin King was pulled into the air, drawn in, and then crushed to death by multiple enormous jaws.
“…Snow.”
It must not be in Aria’s knowledge. Called upon, I quickly gave up trying to recall it from ordinary knowledge and instead remembered the contents of the Lester Family’s forbidden books, which I had been reading since I was young.
As a result of culling among monsters, goblins that survived from the original humanoid monsters evolved into a Goblin King through cannibalism.
But at the same time, beast-type monsters were also culled, and probably due to the dungeon’s intervention, a distorted life form that shouldn’t normally exist was born.
A bear-like torso covered in scales, with six legs from various beasts.
Misshapen black wings and black horns.
A long, extended snake’s tail, and multiple heads resembling a lion, a wolf, and an ape.
A blasphemy against life that should never have been born naturally… It was…
“…A Chimera…”
[Chimera] [Race: Magical Beast] [Magical Beast Species Rank 7]
[MP: 307/350] [HP: 1034/1180]
[Total Combat Power: 7306]
『GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!』
The monster of the Innermost Sanctum is a Chimera.
Image-wise, it’s like the Chimera from Baku Yumemakura-sensei’s Chimera Kou.
Volume 5 of this book has also been successfully released. If you still see it in bookstores, please pick it up.
The second volume of the Akuma Koujo novel will be released on 2/2, and the first volume of the comic adaptation will be released on 1/6!
Please support these as well.