Chapter 214
Gimmick
Translator : PolterGlast
I searched the distant areas, but couldn’t find any
suspicious presences. I thought the main body was somewhere not too far away,
but it doesn't seem to be on this floor.
When it comes to that, there are only two possibilities to
consider. One is that the main body controlling it is so weak that its presence
cannot be felt. And the other possibility is that this entity, whose form and
presence cannot be felt, is the main body itself.
If it were the latter, subjugation itself would be
impossible, so I’m hoping it’s the former... but given that the exploration of
this floor has already been completed, the possibility of the former is low.
I'm certain there’s some kind of gimmick, but I just don't know what it is.
「Graham! Magic is flying in from above!」
While I was desperately wracking my brain, Aoi's
voice flew over from a distance away. Looking at the flow of magic power, it’s
obvious that the magic visible above is a fake, and the real threat is the
Earth Magic coming from below. Just as I was about to casually brush off Aoi's
warning—suddenly, a thought crossed my mind.
「Aoi, nice! Thanks for letting me know!」
「I can see clearly from here, after
all! —Wait, why aren't you dodging!?」
Aoi raised a
voice of surprise as I took the fireball that appeared to be flying from above
head-on, but as I explained earlier, the damage was zero. While properly
dodging the earth-attribute magic attack that flew in from below, I decided to
attempt an immediate escape.
Obscuring its vision with ice-attribute magic, I instantly
opened up distance with Gravity Magic. Then, I scooped up Ginia and Aoi,
who had fled far away, and escaped from the Kaonashi with all my might.
「Phew. We should be fine if we've
made it this far.」
「This is no time for a 'Phew'! I've
told you over and over, you're way too fast!」
「Right after I thought I was suddenly
being carried, we moved at super high speed, so I thought my heart was going to
stop...!」
Ginia and Aoi
had their eyes wide open, hands pressed against their chests. I feel bad for
suddenly fleeing, but if I hadn't done that, I didn't know if we could reliably
get away.
「Sorry for running away so suddenly.
Fleeing halfway only to get caught is what I hated the most.」
「If that's the reason, I suppose it
can't be helped... However, does the fact that we fled mean you judged it
impossible to subjugate?」
「Right! I didn't think you would ever
judge something unbeatable, Graham!」
「We exchanged a few blows, and I realized
it had no physical body. I figured that continuing to fight like that would
only needlessly exhaust my stamina to no avail, so I fled. However, I do have a
lead on where the main body is.」
That's right, thanks to Aoi's words, I realized
something. If this hypothesis is correct, I should be able to find the main
body.
「What lead is that? Does it mean the
main body is hiding somewhere on this floor?」
「No, I probed for its presence, but
it wasn't on this floor. ...But, just because it isn't on this floor doesn't
mean it isn't nearby.」
「Is this a riddle? I don't understand
at all, though...」
To the two tilting their heads in confusion, I pointed my
finger to indicate where the main body was located.
「I see! It wasn't on the same floor;
it was controlling it from the floor below! If it's directly below us, it is
close!」
「Exactly. It's just a hypothesis, so
I won't know if I'm right until I look, but for now, I want to go down to the
next floor immediately.」
「So you fled with that intention. In
that case, let's head to the floor below right away.」
After giving Ginia and Aoi a brief
explanation, we immediately headed to the thirty-sixth floor. Thanks to
immediately searching for enemies upon descending, I detected a bizarre
presence trying to descend to the floor below this one.
It was proof that my hypothesis was correct; it seems the
main body controlling the Kaonashi was on the floor below. Because I
sensed intelligence in its actions, I thought there was a possibility it was
human, but I feel something different from a human from its presence.
However, judging from the fact that it was controlling that
extremely troublesome clone, its presence is stronger than the Demon that was
controlling Guanza in the Royal Capital. The strength of its presence is
also proof of the main body's strength, and I can tell it's quite formidable
even before laying eyes on it.
The fact that it was using a clone to attack despite having
this much strength is nothing but abhorrent. Fighting highly intelligent
monsters is exhausting, after all.
Given that it's trying to escape, there's no doubt it
consumed a considerable amount of magic power in our earlier exchange, so I'll
just brute-force it with sheer power and subjugate it. Formulating a battle
plan while heading towards the Kaonashi's place,
I instantly disposed of the monsters along the way and pushed forward.
It managed to escape to a further lower floor before we
could reach it, but because we chased it with all our might, we were able to
catch up to the Kaonashi on the thirty-seventh floor. I wondered what
kind of atrocious monster it would be, but its fleeing back looked like that of
a human.
However, it was large, measuring nearly three meters tall,
and resembled Bane before he evolved. Its equipment consisted of a black
robe and an ostentatious wand.
Most likely, that equipment was stripped from the adventurers it had attacked thus far. Ginia and Aoi have a bad affinity against magic types, but since this is a dungeon where things will work out even if you die, it might be fine to let them fight the Kaonashi's main body.
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