Chapter 107 - More on this Floor than I Rember
Having had enough of staring at the code I was modifying, I got up and stretched.
Staying mostly still with only moving to change position every once in a while or switching between the couch and the bed for a chance of pace wasn't really doing much to keep my body from stiffening up due to the inactivity.
(I should take a break.)
No matter how much my body was capable of going on without rest, my mind wasn't capable of continuous strenuous activities for hours on end. At the very least, I needed to change things up every once in a while to keep my efficiency up.
While getting this skill to create Alicia's new body was the top priority, it wasn't the only thing I needed to do.
Gaining so levels was up there as well, but to do that efficiently, I needed to read up properly on those golems that were my current obstacle. I hadn't attempted to face them since returning, but I doubted the few levels and skill ranks I've gained since the last ti I've tried would be enough to make much of a difference without a significant change in strategy.
Since that was the case, the only other things I could do was gather so more materials for Anthousai to make the rest of my clothes and to write up a summary of the dungeon's floors for Aurae.
It wasn't like I was in a hurry for either, though making Anthousai wait too long was probably bad.
Putting aside the part about when to give Anthousai the materials I owed her, gathering them wasn't going to take very long, so I went over to the 75th floor and ran through the floor a few tis, gathering enough silk to make a small wardrobe.
It was a little sad, but after three runs, I only got a single level despite beating the boss each ti as well. Despite this being quite deep in the dungeon, as expected my level was still pretty high compared to everything here.
Either that, or maybe the fact that I avoided eating any of the spider's blue blood had sothing to do with it. The thought of drinking the blood of bugs still made a chill run up my spine.
After I was satisfied with that, I pulled out an iron ingot and reford it into a set of twenty steel sheets. Light enough that the fairies shouldn't have trouble carrying them around, but thick enough that they should resist being damaged.
I took one and the rest were put into my bag as I went over to the fountain to transferred to the first floor.
Stepping out, I etched a simple label: [Floor 01], then a short description of the type of floor.
I stretched out my wings and with a single flap, lifted off. The familiar weight of Claret's body giving a sense of security despite her silently rubbing her cheek against the side of my head on occasion.
With no need to actually take my ti, I quickly made my way through the dungeon, kicking every monster I encountered. On the steel sheet, I etched the nas of the monsters that could be as Alicia used [Scan] on them in addition to listing the drops they provided.
There wasn't that many kinds of monsters on this floor, nor did they provide that many different drops.
But we approached the two thirds mark of the dungeon, sothing unusual happened. [Detect Presence] got far too many hits all at once.
[There's usually only at most three monsters that spawn at once, yet I can detect eight hits in one spot. What do you two think?]
[Maybe several groups t up and rged?]
[It's not likely, but it is a possibility Master.]
Strangely, what surprised the most was the fact that Claret had the mind to talk to through telepathy rather than vocalize her thoughts like she usually did. Maybe I've been looking down on her a bit too much lately.
[Ah! One of the hits disappeared!]
[Huh? Is it infighting?]
[Monsters don't do that sort of thing inside the dungeon. All monsters in a dungeon are part of the sa side and they recognize that fact. It's what makes running away blindly inside of a dungeon so dangerous.]
That made sense. If you accidentally encountered a second group, there was zero chance that they would fight each other and you've just doubled your trouble all at once.
(Which ans...)
[There's got to be soone fighting monsters here then.]
[It's not like there's any other possibility.]
Alicia had the right of it so I could only agree with her conclusion. While I hadn't brought any of the fairies to the first floor, there wasn't really any reason why they couldn't co here. Maybe so of them were training their young or sothing.
As there wasn't any reason to hide, we moved to et up with the group.
The sound of battle quickly reached my ears, but it didn't sound like anything I had expected. So of the yelling was clearly from goblins, but the other yelling was deeper and more serious than what was typical for the fairies, and there weren't any sounds of magical impacts. Fairies also didn't seem like the sort to parry and block with their weapons, yet I could hear dull clacks and bangs as sothing hard hit sothing else hard.
To top it all off, there was the sound of a lot of footsteps. A lot more than I would have expected.
It was suspicious, and the need to investigate was quite a bit greater than I had first thought.
As I approached, I landed beside a wall of tall grass and retracted my wings before walking to where the fighting was happening. As I boldly strode around the final corner, the sight that greeted surprised more than I could have predicted.
There were six figures before .
One was a single goblin wildly swinging its crude sword around desperately. There were the bodies of two more covered in blood and laying still near the standing goblin. But what was surprising was the other five standing against the goblins.
Four of them looked like kids barely entering puberty along with a single adult.
But they weren't fairies. For that matter, I couldn't even identify their species, though the fact that they were wearing leather outfits and were each carrying weapons suggested that they were at least intelligent and ca from so sort of civilization.
All five of them were humanoid as well, but not a single one of them had skin of a human tone. Three of them, including the adult, had skin that was almost as dark as ebony, and the other two had red skin, almost as if they were covered in a fresh layer of blood.
As I stepped out of cover, a few of them turned to almost instantly.
It wasn't like I was trying to conceal my presence, so it wasn't a surprise that they detected imdiately, especially when they were wary due to being in combat.
"Oh, it's not a monster."
But the mont they saw , most of them turned back to finish their fight once they determined that I wasn't an imdiate threat. That was, aside from the tallest amongst them.
Now that I was able to see her face head on, I couldn't help but be surprised even further.
If it wasn't for her skin colour, I'd have thought that she was just a normal person. No, a normal elf. She had a well featured face with golden eyes, long pointed ears, and white hair that cascaded halfway down her back. She was wearing an outfit that looked more like a giant sheet of cloth that was loosely wrapped around her shoulders and hips and left hanging loosely, exposing her middle and left leg quite a bit. Sothing that looked like a hard sheet of leather peeked out from the base of her chest as well, and she wore light looking leather boots. There was a large bag looped over one shoulder in such a way that it was easy to drop if needed.
In her hands were a pair of daggers she held at her sides, but not quite loosely. Rather, it looked more like she was ready to strike at any mont despite hanging her arms down.
(Is this a dark elf then?)
If that was the case, then the two black skinned kids were probably the sa. And from that extrapolation, it would suggest that the two red skinned ones would be demons, though they were facing away from so I couldn't confirm if they had horns or not.
It didn't take long before the red skinned one wielding a spear finished off the last goblin and the whole group turned their attention to .
"Hi. Fancy eting soone here so early in the morning!"
"Did you co to train too miss?"
Two of the kids called out to , surprising further.
If they really were dark elves and demons, then they were acting quite cordial for races Orphne emphasized to be evil. I couldn't discount that they were hiding their true nature, or simply that they were exceptions though.
But before I could answer, the adult of the groups stepped in between us.
"What does a vampire want here?"
I blinked for a mont, before rembering that I hadn't been bothering with my usual disguise ever since eting the fairies. It was just too much of a hassle to bother, especially when I had to disengage it every ti I wanted to start flying around with my own wings.
"Ah, well, I live here after all."
"Don't lie! I hadn't heard of a vampire here!"
The oldest of the group took a few steps forward, covering the others even more as they nervously held their weapons in their hands.
"It's not like I co to the first floor very often. Lately I've been spending my ti around floor 35."
The ten floors around the 35th had all of the ingredients we've been using lately so they were especially convenient. There just wasn't much point in spending ti elsewhere unless if I wanted to level up, in which case I'd be using the floors above 75.
"Anyways, I don't an any harm."
"And what? You want us to serve you instead?"
"Wha? No, why would I want that?"
Or rather, that sounds like such a hassle. I already had Claret serving every beck and call, which I didn't need in the first place, and the fairies were already a handful on top of that. Frankly speaking, I wasn't getting anywhere near enough '' ti. Taking in more subordinates would likely make it even harder to get ti for myself.
"Don't lie. All you vampires are power hungry beasts. Either you want us to serve you, or you want to drink our blood!"
At the woman's words, she raised her weapons to ready position in front of her. The ones behind her raised their weapons as well.
"Not all vampires are like that. Just like not all dark elves are..."
"Don't call us dark elves!!!"
The adult bared her teeth as her chest heaved, a tinge of blood lust erging from her eyes. The two other dark elves looked quite incensed as well, while the two demons grew even more nervous.
"We are proud dokkalfar! Not so cheap imitation elves!"
"Ah, sorry. I didn't know that was what you were called."
(Was I wrong? But I hadn't heard of a race called dokkalfar before. Even still...)
I looked to the ones behind the woman. The two red skinned boys did have horns protruding from their foreheads sweeping up and back a bit. They fit the description of demons I've heard.
"Umm...then am I wrong to think that those two are demons?"
"They are demons."
(So I wasn't wrong there. Then what are dokkalfar?)
"Ummm..."
"If you have no business here, then leave. We have claid this dungeon for ourselves."
"Wha?!"
No I was the one who was angry. Suddenly claiming that my ho was now theirs and kicking out?! In the first place, there was no traces of them in the area! The entrance was within sight of the fairy settlent so there was no way for soone to think that the dungeon didn't already belong to soone.
(Sneaking in and trying to claim ownership!)
"What are you talking about? This is my dungeon! I don't rember letting your kind in and hunt my prey!"
If they were going to take such a stance, then I had to put my foot down as well. There was no way I could budge on that point. This was my ho, and the key to my long term survival. Yielding was impossible.
"Pah! Typical vampire. Selfish as always!"
"You're the selfish ones for trying to take away my ho! I've claid this place almost five years ago!"
"Your ho of five years? This is our ancestral ho of over three hundred years!"
"Three hundred...?!"
If their claim was true, then I was the one at a serious disadvantage. But it wasn't like my position was entirely void.
"You say that, but a claim has no worth if you can't prove it!"
"You ask for proof? The ruins of the settlent from our original claim is proof enough!"
(So it's not a continuous claim then. As expected, their position isn't rock steady.)
That said, I hadn't seen any traces of any ruins anywhere. Past the small clearing in front of the dungeon entrance was all just trees. Nothing that could be considered ruins, or even traces of civilization outside of what the fairies had made.
"What a pathetic lie. There's no traces of such things outside or inside this dungeon."
"Wha?! Are you blind, or just plain stupid?! It's impossible not to see the ruins surrounding the dungeon!"
I opened my hands and mana from my fingers wisped out, solidifying into extended claws.
"You're being delusional to think that grass and trees could be considered ruins!"
Not only did she insult my intelligence and called a liar, but she openly insulted my being as well. In the corner of my vision, five windows opened up. A quick glance told everything I needed to know. The woman was only level 125, and the ones behind her were all under level 15.
If this ca to a physical confrontation, they didn't stand a chance, which ant that I had more then enough leeway to finish this off without killing them.
No matter how terrible or evil or whatever they were, killing them outright wasn't ideal. Not unless if they took things too far.
(Though this is getting close.)
"Trees and grass?! Who'd believe such obvious lies! Even before we returned, the entrance was covered in stone monunts and the walls of crumbled buildings! If you're going to make sothing up, then make it at least remotely believable!"
"Stone?!"
There were certainly so rocks here and there, but nothing that could resemble a monunt or walls, crumbled or not.
Even ancient stone walls could survive three hundred years quite easily. It would take a natural disaster or deliberate actions to erase all traces of such things.
"Those things. You excavated those monunts and walls?"
"You...you dare continue to make fun of us, or are you just delusional?! They may have crumbled a bit, but the monunts and walls still stand proud despite the centuries! Especially the statues of our settlent's founder stand as they did for all to see!"
"..."
This didn't make any sense at all. What she was describing was completely different from what I've seen.
There was no way I would have missed a bunch of statues in front of the dungeon entrance.
Sothing was clearly wrong.
My claws retracted as I went into deep thought.
"If you refuse to listen to reason, then I'll simply show you the proof myself!"
The woman approached and grabbed my wrist, pulling along with her.
[How disrespectful!]
[Wait! Stop!]
Claret raised an arm in response, but I cut her off.
[I want to see what it is that she's going to show .]
[...Yes Master...]
My familiar spirit was clearly dissatisfied, but as usual she took my wishes above everything else.
With the older dokkalfar pulling my wrist, we made our way back through the first floor.
The four younger ones followed behind, but every ti monsters showed up, they moved ahead to deal with them and gathered the drops.
What surprised , though, was that they not only took the drops, but they also hurriedly disassembled the monsters themselves.
For the goblins, they simply cut open its belly and pulled out a bloody crystal from under its ribs, but the wolves and rabbits, they took their hides as well, stuffing it all into the bags they were carrying.
(To think that you could gather even more materials this way.)
When I thought about it, the fact that this was possible was quite obvious. Or rather, I was doing just that all these years without realizing it. The blood I drank was the sa as any other part of a monster's body, and the fact that it didn't suddenly disappear from my belly when the corpse vanished was quite telling. It was a failure on my part for not noticing that.
(I wonder if the fairies knew about this?)
It also made wonder just how far you could go when it ca to this sort of thing. How much could one take from the corpse? Could everything be taken if one wanted? Did it need to be disassembled, or was it possible to just take the whole corpse as is outside of the dungeon to prevent it from being absorbed again by the walls?
The number of questions rose quite a bit, and I was itching to experint, but this wasn't exactly the ti to do such things.
It didn't take long before we reached the fountain room, though that didn't stop the woman from continuing to pull on my arm.
This fact made sothing else a little troubling for .
(Footprints?!)
All over the place in the fountain room was footprints. Dozens, or probably hundreds of them.
But that shouldn't have been possible.
I had cleaned this very fountain room back before I had left the dungeon for my trip.
But here, there was a thick layer of dust with countless footprints reinforcing that fact.
(Where are we?)
Despite it supposedly being obvious, I couldn't help but wonder that.
(Even in the worst case scenario, there should have only been a little bit of dust here. I ca to the first floor once in a while to gather things for Alicia and made sure to keep the fountain room clean to minimize any trace of my being here.)
The only answer I could co up with was that this wasn't the first floor fountain room which I had used since the beginning. But there was no indication that we had gone anywhere but the first floor fountain room.
Unless...
(Space is warped weirdly inside of the dungeon. If the passage to the first floor is connected to more than one fountain room, and you automatically go to the one you ca from when returning...)
But whether that was the truth, or even possible I didn't know. There was just so many things about this world which broke all common sense.
The dokkalfar woman continued to pull on my arm as we went through the cave tunnel on the other side, and after a short walk I was forced to blink away tears at the suddenly painfully bright outdoors.
As my eyes adjusted, I was forced to stand there in shock.
"See? Who's the liar now?"
There was smugness combined with pride from the woman's voice, but I could hardly care less. What I saw in front of took far more precedence.
Rather than the usual clearing and small houses built into and around the trees along with the sky being filled with fluffballs, what I saw was a bustling town filled with all sorts of people working.
Calling it a bustling town might have been a bit generous, as the area was littered with fragnted buildings and a lot of the people were simply resting or waiting for sothing. Most of the people working were either cooking or helping with construction.
There were hardly any completed buildings and most of those looked more like temporary housing than actual hos. Simple mud walls and grass roofs. A few looked much more sturdy with clean, packed earth walls and clay roofs. Most likely they were made using magic.
But even then, the lack of decorations, or even proper doors, suggested that even those were only ant to be temporary. In place of doors or window shutters, they all had either leather curtains or piles of bundled grass laying to the side to block the wind at night.
Aside from those buildings, there were plenty of crumbled stone walls all around. They were clearly part of various buildings, but now only parts of them still remained while covered in vines and moss.
So of these broken walls had been cleaned up and new buildings were in the middle of being constructed using the old ones as a base, but it looked like they were still pretty early in the process.
But what shocked the most was the statues that were scattered all around.
Many of them were broken, but there were plenty that had only suffered minor weathering. And the figure that the statues were all modelled after made choke out a singe na.
"Claret?"
But the familiar on my shoulders shook her head.
[That's not . Those statues are all of you, Master.]
Every single one, of the dozen or so of statues visible from the dungeon entrance, were of my predecessor.
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