"I can understand why Jin had such a hard time."
Two days after Jin's mock battle, I tried a practice fight against a knight-type golem that Kelly had improved. It performed beyond my expectations.
"Wow, this thing is starting to become a real monster... I can't wait to see where it goes from here!"
Kelly watched the knight-type golem fighting me and grinned with delight. She was probably thrilled to see a golem she'd worked on becoming so powerful.
"Alright then, Kelly, I'll need armor for two more golems. Well, I probably won't have the insides ready for another two or three months, so take your time — no rush."
"Got it! Then I'll get started on it in the workshop right away!"
She definitely doesn't understand... but at least with plenty of time, Kelly probably won't rush through the fabrication. Probably.
Watching Kelly head off to the workshop looking so happy, I couldn't help worrying that she'd end up overworking the female dwarves again.
"So, anyone want to try a mock battle? The whole point is to build up the golem's experience, so I'm holding back its power."
"Count me in!"
"I'll do it!"
When I put out the call for mock battle volunteers, Amour and Chris raised their hands at the same time.
"Chris, I was faster."
"Amour, have your eyes and ears gotten worse?"
The two of them immediately started squabbling over who would be the golem's next opponent... but since it was business as usual, nobody paid it any mind.
"How about you both take it on together? The golem can gain experience fighting two opponents, and you two can practice coordination. Just remember, this is training, so hold back."
They both seemed more interested in fighting the golem than fighting each other, so I proposed a compromise: team up and fight together.
"Hmm... Fine. Chris, don't drag me down."
"Amour... think about it logically. You're the one who's worse at coordinating with others. Obviously, the right strategy is for you to follow my orders."
Though the two had started glaring at each other over their differing approaches...
"Well then, let's begin."
Ignoring that, I gave the signal to start. And then,
"Tenma's demon! Chris, circle left!"
"You beast! Amour, aim for its feet, and if you can, knock it over!"
They immediately began coordinating. The plan seemed to be for Chris to draw the golem's attention with feints while Amour used the weight of her strikes to halt its movements. If they were taking a page from Jin's fighting style, it was an effective approach...
"Chris! Keep its attention properly!"
"I know that! But the golem isn't taking the bait!"
The golem seemed to have judged Amour to be more of a threat than Chris's attacks, because it turned its back on Chris and went after Amour instead.
"Then I'll just have to knock it over myself!"
Chris lunged, aiming for the knee joint of the knight-type golem, but—
"Ouch!"
Her strike was too precise — it was blocked by the additional guard on the back of its knee.
"Chris!"
The instant Chris's movement stopped, the golem whirled around and swung its weapon—
a clothesline pole—
in a devastating arc.
"Ugh, seriously! What a troublesome golem!"
Since the golem had attacked from such an awkward stance, Chris was able to dodge with room to spare, but it widened the distance between them. The golem then turned back to face Amour, but—
"Opening!"
The golem took a powerful hit from Amour.
"Mgh... so hard..."
Amour slammed her beloved bardiche into the golem's torso, but she grimaced at just how hard it was. Still, the impact was enough to send the golem tumbling onto its rear, and—
"Got it!"
Chris's sword was pressed against the golem's neck.
"That's enough!"
Chris's blade had only stopped just short—even if she had thrust it all the way through, the golem wouldn't have halted, but since this was a mock battle, the call was made that the fight was over.
"Chris snatched the kill! You thief!"
"Roles change on the battlefield all the time. Just chalk it up to bad luck and accept it."
"Still, we lost pretty easily, didn't we."
"Well, it was the first time we fought in a mock battle against multiple opponents. I think what happened was, the one that attacked the knee joint Jin had taken out got identified as the biggest threat."
The two of them bickered as usual, so I ignored them and analyzed how Grandpa and the knight-type golem had fought.
"I see, I see... so even though Amour was right in front of it, it turned its back on her so easily. In terms of responding to each individual threat, it wasn't wrong, but it was the wrong choice in a situation where it needed to respond to multiple threats at once."
Since it had gained experience
in this mock battle,
it would probably try a different approach next time. But it might make the same mistake again when facing three opponents. This is something you can only experience when fighting a golem that can only perform simple movements.
"Grandpa... I've decided to head to Seigen's dungeon tomorrow. And I'm bringing the golem along for the dungeon raid. That way, I can experience battles I'd never get from a regular mock battle."
I had originally planned to raid the dungeon alone, but I decided to bring the knight-type golem along. With the golem's defensive power, it should be able to withstand attacks from the monsters near the lowest levels, and if things get dangerous, I can just put it back in the Magic Bag. Besides, as long as I replenish its Magic Power, it can keep moving, so it should be able to keep up with my forced marches.
"I'd like to go with you, but... keeping up with Tenma when he's serious would be tough, wouldn't it? Besides, I'm sure Amour and the others will want to go to the dungeon too, so I think I'll go along with them instead."
Grandpa was planning to look after Amour and the rest, anticipating that she'd complain. That was a relief for me—besides, since Grandpa and the others would eventually need to explore the newly discovered dungeon below the lowest level, it was better for them to push ahead even if they started after me. And if I successfully cleared the dungeon before meeting up with them, I could shift into a support role for their party.
"I don't know whether having Tenma help clear the dungeon is the right call or not, but when you think about exploring the newly discovered dungeon, the more combat power the better, I suppose... Well, I'll have them dive in again eventually and build up enough capability to handle it."
It seemed they intended to frame it as an advance on achievements—at minimum once more, and if possible two or three times, they planned to have Amour and the others clear the dungeon.
"I'm bringing Raiden along, but how are you guys getting there?"
"There are quite a few of us on this end, so I'd really like to use Raiden, but... what to do? Maybe it'd be best to go together with Tenma after all?"
I understood the argument that they should travel together at least as far as Seigen, even if they split up inside the dungeon...
"It'd be fine for me and Grandpa, but Jeanne and Amour still need to prepare, plus there's the mansion to manage. We could ask Aina and Uncle Mark like always, but they probably have their own plans..."
If we could contact both sides right now and wrap up the planning and preparation by today, it wasn't impossible to go together...
"Come to think of it, Lady Reni is supposed to head back to the south before long, and Jeanne and Aura have lessons scheduled with Aina, right?"
Lady Reni would want to stock up on souvenirs and information before leaving the Royal Capital, and the lessons for Jeanne and Aura were something Aina had squeezed into her schedule by cutting into her own rest, so canceling now wouldn't be fair. Amour didn't have anything scheduled, but as long as Lady Reni was staying behind, he couldn't be taken along—besides, for an engaged man to bring an unmarried woman alone to a place like a dungeon and end up alone together wouldn't be appropriate. Not even if they happened to be in the same party.
"Indeed, we can't just change plans at the drop of a hat... Then how about this—Tenma and I go as far as Seigen, then I drop Tenma off and return alone? That way, we can use Raiden's carriage, and the preparations should be all wrapped up by the time we get back to the Royal Capital."
Grandpa was right—once Raiden reached Seigen, there'd be no further use for it, so taking it back wouldn't be a problem. Besides, with Raiden it would take three to four days to reach Seigen (ignoring the burden on the driver), and about a week for a round trip. That should be plenty of time for the mansion and Jeanne and the others to finish their preparations.
"Then let's go with your plan, Grandpa. You don't really need much time to prepare either, right?"
"Hm, if I wanted to dive into a dungeon right this moment, I could."
Grandpa and I always kept our essentials stuffed in our Magic Bags, so we were ready to depart at any time.
"Then let's hurry back to the mansion and just get the food prep done?"
So when it came to what needed to be done before a trip or dungeon dive, it was just preparing snacks and meals to eat during travel or breaks. The snacks were already taken care of, and meals could be bought up from stalls and such, so it wouldn't take much time.
"Should we also prepare things like beef bowls this time?"
Beef bowls were the latest craze in the Ootori household, so the best approach would be to prepare several stockpots—one with toppings and one with rice—just like what had been given to Jin and the others.
"If you're making beef bowls, put us down for some too."
With all the beef bowl mass production, they might not be able to depart tomorrow after all...
"Anyway, we need to get back quickly and start cooking."
After retrieving the golem and explaining the situation to Jeanne, Aura, and Renny, they immediately began preparing to head home.
"Well then, let's head back. We'll stop by stalls and shops along the way, so don't any of you get off in the middle. Go on ahead and take care of the cooking prep."
After letting everyone know we'd be splitting up on the way back, we climbed into the carriage.
"Alright, let's go!"
"Yes! Let's go!"
After confirming everyone had boarded… or at least I thought they had, I had Aura, the driver, signal to Raijin.
"Waaait! Wait, Tenma!"
"Wha— w-wait, ow—!"
We had barely started moving when I heard Amour's voice, so I climbed up to the roof to check. Sure enough, Amour was running toward us, having struck Chris in both sides with a double blow to the ribs.
"Amour! I'll wait for you — go get Chris!"
The hit must have been a solid one, because Chris was lying on the ground squirming in agony.
As for that Chris, Amour…
"Ugh… what a hassle. Nngh, heavy…"
Grabbed him by the belt, lifted him up, and half-dragged him along
Car
-ried
him
here
.
"Ouch! Owe owe owe ow ow ow! I-I can walk on my own, you know!"
Well, halfway through Chris had managed to get up on her own and started heading this way...but between the damage to her side and the new injuries to both legs, her steps were slow and halting.
"All right, let's head back."
Once I confirmed Chris had climbed in, I urged Raiden forward again with Aura. However,
"T-Tenma! Please slow down a bit!"
The vibrations from the carriage were clearly jarring her injured side, so I ended up having to stop the carriage and use recovery magic.
Five days after the mock battle with the improved Golem, I arrived in Seigen. After parting ways with Grandpa just before the city, I headed straight for the Dungeon and used a warp zone to dive straight down to a clean sixty floors.
"All right, let's start from around here, shall we?"
I studied the map Garat had given me, burned the route down several floors into my head, then activated the Knight-type Golem.
"Good. We'll clear floors as we run. Take out any enemies that approach."
For the Knight-type Golem, I'd given it a two-handed sword with a thick blade rather than the kind of staff it had used during the mock battle. It was a sword heavy enough that a normal person would need both hands to wield, yet the Knight-type Golem swung it around casually with one hand.
"Monsters are closing in nicely. This is perfect for training the Golem."
As we ran, the Knight-type Golem's armor clanked loudly, so plenty of Monsters noticed us and charged in. If it were just me, I could have outrun them, but since I was slowing down so the Knight-type Golem wouldn't get left behind, the faster Monsters caught up and forced us into combat. In the meantime, the slower ones caught up too. Others appeared ahead, blocking our path, so we naturally ended up fighting while surrounded...but this was exactly the situation I'd been hoping for with the Knight-type Golem, so I deliberately held back from defeating the Monsters myself and let the Knight-type Golem handle them.
"If we were on higher floors, this would be a problem, but down here nobody besides me, Jin and the others, or Grandpa's group can even enter the Dungeon, so I can fight without worrying."
I glanced sideways at the Knight-type Golem just in time to see it cutting down a cluster of Goblins that had lunged at it all at once.
"That said, this isn't much different from when I had the regular Golems take on groups all at once. Once things settle down here, I think I'll just run from anything until enemies strong enough start showing up."
Since all it was doing was cutting down or knocking away clusters, I could just as easily use the Golems I already had. So from now on, I decided I'd only bring out the Knight-type Golem when a group of reasonably strong enemies appeared.
"Besides, luring and killing Monsters this way is going to take up a lot of pointless time."
Luring Monsters and killing them meant creating a body for each one killed, and just leaving them scattered around was unhygienic. In a confined space, if some kind of plague broke out, it would be catastrophic — not to mention a liability issue.
So I'd need to collect the bodies or burn them, but considering the hassle inside the Dungeon, collecting them would actually be faster. At this pace, though, I didn't want to think about how many bodies that would amount to. In that case, it was better to have the Knight-type Golem prove its worth against Monsters whose materials I could actually make use of later — that would make the cleanup far easier down the road.
Having revised my planned approach, I collected the corpses once the surrounding Monsters were gone, and when I'd more or less finished gathering them, I stored the Knight-type Golem back in my Magic Bag and set off running.
"Combine the map Garat gave me with 'Exploration,' and I should be able to advance without running into any Monsters."
There were occasional detours, but whenever it looked like I could push through, I'd slip past even when Monsters were nearby, shake off any pursuers or take them down with surprise attacks, and head for the lower floors.
"So on day one, I made it to floor sixty-five. If I keep this up, I should reach the bottom floor in about a week... but they said the difficulty spikes hard once you pass seventy, so maybe I should count it a win if I can break through one floor per day from there?"
Thanks in part to my somewhat aggressive push, I managed to break through five floors before the date changed and even found a nice spot to rest.
Things had gone well up to this point, but I doubted it would stay that way. The area I was currently in was apparently on the easier side among the lower floors, and Jin and the others had said the map would let you progress without issue, but past floor seventy the terrain started to get noticeably more rugged, and the Monsters grew stronger with all sorts of nasty tricks.
On the other hand, they'd also told me that around floor ninety, the passages leading up and the passages leading down were relatively close together, so you could break through in under a day. That said, Jin and the others hadn't expected there to be a downward passage right near the one they'd descended from, and had apparently wasted time because of it.
"Once I make it safely to the bottom floor, I'll have to properly thank Jin and the others."
Thanks to the information Jin and the others had gathered over several years, I might be able to reach the bottom floor in just a few months — at this rate, maybe a little over a month. I had no idea how big a thank-you would be appropriate, but I figured I'd think it over gradually.
"Either way, first I need to actually reach the bottom floor. To do that, I'd like to push all the way to floor seventy tomorrow."
Having set my goal, I quickly made a beef bowl and stuffed my face, then tucked the unwashed bowl straight into my Magic Bag.
If you put it in a Magic Bag, food residue and such on the bowl wouldn't rot, so it wouldn't get gross next time you used it — no bacteria would multiply — and it saved both water and time.
Not something I usually did, but it was a fairly well-known adventurer trick.
Of course, the fact that washing it was a hassle played a role too... but this time I had a particular reason for using this method.
And that reason was —
"Camping without Slarin really is a first for me, come to think of it."
This time, I'd left Slarin, Shiromaru, and Solomon behind for the sake of the old-timers who would be joining later (as for the other two, they were back at the mansion, doing as they pleased).
The reasoning was that the old-timers alone would have a hard time looking after Jeanne and the others, so I'd asked Slarin — in a sense the most reliable of them all — to help out instead.
When it came to camping, Slarin had been with me since I was little. He'd been there the first time Dad took me night hunting in the Great Old Forest, and Slarin appeared in a great many of my experiences as an adventurer.
"When I think about it like that, it does feel a little lonely... Well, when it comes to Jeanne's safety, this is the best arrangement, so I guess there's no helping it." And just like that, my first night quietly drew to a close.
Incidentally, the way I'd been keeping track of time was with candles. I'd measured how much wax burned in a completely still air environment, then marked the candles in one-hour intervals so I could use ones identical to those in the experiment.
By preparing several of these candles and burning them in succession, I could get a rough sense of time and date—though there was some margin of error, of course.
The candles would basically stay inside the Dimension Bag and never come out except for swaps. If this method proved reliable, I intended to keep using it—and I'd even thought about commercializing it through Duke Sanga's connections. You'd need a Dimension Bag as a prerequisite, or at minimum something like a wind-blocking lantern, plus you'd have to be careful about oxygen depletion. But clear those hurdles, and you'd have a surprisingly useful and interesting product on your hands.
"Before I turn in, I'd better swap out the candles. As for the rest… I'll have the Golems posted as guards."
Just like when we rested in a dungeon, I'd taken the usual precautions against Monsters and insects slipping inside. But in case something unexpected happened, I stationed a time-stalling Golem and a knight-type Golem as guards, then spent the quietest, loneliest night I'd had since being born into this world.