An Old Man Restaurant Owner Is Unparalleled by Relying on His Old Tricks. It Turns Out, He’s the Legendary Dungeon Conqueror. - 77

Chapter 77: Then I Just Need to Cut Them Twice as Much

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A horde of monsters was closing in on us from both sides. We were teleported in this massive crystal tunnel with no escape route in sight. 

“We will break through from the right side.”

“Huh?! Br-Break through?! Do-Do-Do-Don’t tell me… You’re planning to charge right into them?!”

“That’s the plan. It’s much better than getting surrounded on both sides. We will just need to deal with half as many monsters. Stay right behind me.”

〈Indeed. They will just need to defeat half of the total monsters.〉

〈As expected of Nishida. He’s smart.〉

〈Smart, huh..?〉

〈Still the same brainless musclehead as ever. LOL〉

Kicking the ground, I charged straight into the oncoming horde of monsters. 

“…Hmm… As expected from the monsters of the 44th floor. I can’t take most of them down with a single blow.”

I slashed through the incoming monsters with my knife. I kept cutting and slashing repeatedly, but it was hard to make any significant progress. At this rate, the monsters from behind would catch up to us. We’d be trapped in a pincer attack.

〈Damn. Even Nishida is struggling.〉

〈Even Nishida is having a tough time being forced to deal with so many high level monsters like this, huh?〉

〈Nishida?! What are you going to do now?!〉

“Then I just need to cut them twice as much.”

I pulled out another knife.

〈A dual-wielding kitchen knife style. LOL〉

〈I see. He can only slash once with one knife, but with two, he can slash the monster twice!〉

〈Really smart.〉

〈Like I said, still the same musclehead. LOLOL〉

“Ooooooohh!!!”

I swung both knives around, hacking through the oncoming wall of monsters.

“Are you doing alright back there?!”

“I’M DOING MY BEST TO KEEP UPPPPPP!!”

Unfortunately, I didn’t have the luxury of time to check on Iijima-san. I had to focus on the monsters in front of me. Finally, we managed to break through the horde of monsters and escape from the crystal tunnel.. 

“Alright. We made it out somehow.”

“I-I thought I was done for…”

However, it was highly likely that the others were in a similar situation as us. 

“We don’t have time to rest. We need to rescue the others—”

“OOOOOOOOOHHH!!”

But then, a roar echoed from somewhere. The roar itself sounded a bit faint, probably because the roar was coming from a distance away from us. But it was obvious that the roar didn’t come from an ordinary monster. 

“That roar… Don’t tell me…”

A certain past memory resurfaced in my mind. The worst possible scenario crossed my head for a moment there.

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The Arch Mage’s teleportation magic had sent all members of Mercys to another location. 

“Is everyone alright?”

“Y-Yes! Ninomiya is here! I’m fine!”

“Miyoshi is here! I’m okay too!”

“Yotsuya… I’m alive…”

“Gojou’s here! I’m fine! But wow! I was so surprised!”

Fortunately, it seemed they had all been sent to the same place.

“As for the others… It looks like they were sent to different locations.”

“…It seems so.”

“So… Are the only ones here on the 44th floor?”

“N-No… I-If a monster came attacking us now… We’re just a bunch of A-rank explorers. We won’t be able to stand a chance…”

“Don’t worry! With my detection skill, we can avoid encountering any monsters…. Ah. Right. There are some monsters that can’t be detected with detection skill…”

Although they were still young, but they were highly skilled in terms of dungeon exploration. They had cleared numerous highly difficult dungeons. However, the deepest floor they could reach was just the 35th floor. The 44th floor was a completely uncharted land for them. Of course, exploring this floor with just A-rank explorers would be extremely dangerous.

“We don’t have any other choice but to hide somewhere until we can regroup with an S-rank explorer. If it’s them, they should be able to find us…”

The leader, Shinnosuke Ichinose, was trying to come up with a plan with the best survivability chance for his team when suddenly, it happened. 

BAAAAAAAAAAM!!

With a thunderous noise, a massive crystal pillar suddenly collapsed in front of them.

“What…?”

Then, from beyond the shattered crystal pillar, that thing appeared.  A massive monster, nearly 5 meters tall. The upper half of its body resembled a muscular human while the lower half of its body resembled that of a horse. It was similar to Centaur, a half-human, half-horse monster, but this monster’s head was in the shape of a lion. Its golden mane flowing majestically. 

“Th-That thing is… Do-Don’t tell me…”

Shinnosuke Ichinose was the first to realize the identity of the vicious monster before them. His voice was trembling as he stared at the half-horse monster. 

“The dungeon boss… King Leotaurus…”

“Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-Why the dungeon boss is here?! We should still be on the 44th floor! The boss should be waiting in its spot on the 45th floor!”

The one who screamed with Shinnosuke Ichinose was Kosuke Yotsuya. Since they knew they would be exploring the Shinjuku Kabukicho Dungeon, they had gathered all the information they could get, including the information about this dungeon’s boss. 

“OOOOOOHHHH!!”

The lion-headed boss let out a deafening roar. While its size was a bit smaller than they expected, being the boss of the dungeon, this monster’s intimidating presence couldn’t be compared to a mere Cyclops. 

“Th-There’s no way we can stand a chance against a monster of that caliber…”

Shinnosuke Ichinose groaned in despair. His legs were trembling violently. He couldn’t move even if he wanted to. 

“Leader! Pull yourself together…! We’re going to die if we just stay here! If there’s no chance of winning, then we will have to run! That’s our only option!”

“…!”

Ichinose snapped back to his senses at the voice of his sub-leader, Anna Ninomiya.

“Ri-Right… The other S-rank explorer must be somewhere within this floor… If we can meet up with them, then…”

“B-B-But that thing looks incredibly fast! How are we supposed to outrun that???”

Kosuke Yotsuya exclaimed in despair. His face was filled with fear and Shinnosuke Ichinose. As the leader, it was his duty to calm his members. 

“That thing is huge! It won’t be able to fit in narrow spaces easily! We will use the crystals to our advantage and run!”

“Right! Shin-chan, you’re so smart!”

“There’s a gap over there! We should be able to fit through it! Let’s run toward it!”

And so, they started running with all their might. King Leotaurus also kicked off the ground with its powerful hind legs.

“””IT’S SO FAST?!?!?!”””

The group couldn’t help but to scream in terror as the boss monster pursued them at a terrifying speed. Death felt looming behind them, crushing them with fear. However, they forced their legs to keep moving. They barely slipped into the gap between the crystals. 

“A-Are we safe now..?”

“That thing shouldn’t be able to follow us here—”

BAAAAAMM!!!

“””-!?!?!??!”””

A deafening crash echoed from behind. Turning around, they saw King Leotaurus smashing the crystals with its club. 

“RUN DEEPER INSIDEEEEEEE!!!!”

While the members of Mercys were barely hanging on with their lives due to being attacked by the boss monster, Nana Tendou and Ryoko Hongan were teleported to another location.

“Hey… Aren’t these guys the missing explorers we’re searching for?!”

“Seems like it.”

And they had discovered the missing explorers. They were teleported to a small clearing surrounded by crystals. 

“They’re still alive, right?”

“Wait. I don’t think we should get too close to them just yet.”

“Huh? What do you—!?”

Nana Tendou quickly jumped backward instinctively. A moment later, a sword was being swung down at the spot she had been standing on. 

“What the hell is going on?! That slash just now was definitely meant to kill me! Why are they attacking us?!”

The one who had aimed that sword to her neck was one of the explorers they were supposed to rescue.

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