That made sense. For those of us in this world, there were a lot of perks to having battle skills from one’s time in Japan. Ms. Kaori, for example, was an expert at kendo, and was currently the leader of the Crimson Moon Brigade. That meant bad news at the moment, though. No one would listen to a brat like me no matter what I said. Maybe I should have Ms. Kaori say something? Then again, he probably wouldn’t listen to a woman.
Mr. Murashima suddenly stopped. A dry sound crinkled throughout the passage. I got a very bad feeling.
As did everyone else. We all looked at Mr. Murashima’s feet at once. The stones around him were enveloped in a dim light, then transforming into what looked like a metallic earthquake.
“An invisible trap!” The ranger woman shouted our collective thoughts out loud with a pale complexion.
Cracks ran through the ground. The trap had activated, and the passage crumbled around us. As more and more of it fell, the calamity was then upon us.
“Aaaaaagh!”
“Uuuuuugh!”
The ones at the very front, the ranger woman and Mr. Murashima, were swallowed up by a crack first. A pure hole trap. All of the floor we could see was caving in, and we went with it.
I’d say we fell about three floors down, height-wise. At this speed, none of us would take damage, so we all made clean landings, the gross dirt flying up around us.
“Ha, ha, ha ha! Ha ha ha! There’s no point in using such a stupid hole trap on us!” I could hear Mr. Murashima laughing through the dust. His voice was a bit higher, so he was probably trying to compensate for messing up in the first place.
Things were still looking bad, however. I hurried to prepare my Summoning Magic to calm the situation down. The truth was, that wasn’t just any hole trap. There wouldn’t be a point to trying to cause fall damage to people over level 50. If someone had intentionally built this dungeon, then they’d have a good idea of who’d be challenging it. This trap was—
“A Monster House...?” Mr. Murashima cut his own laugh off with a strained expression.
As the dust cleared, the smiles of evil goblins became apparent. About twenty of them surrounded us, as if they’d been waiting the whole time. The space we were in looked just like the one we’d been at previously, so it wouldn’t be easy defending ourselves here.
Most of the enemies were Legendary Goblins, with thankfully no leaders in sight. I had to click my tongue upon finding something even worse, though.
All the blood drained from Mr. Murashima’s face when he spotted it too. “Oh no. We’re...done for.”
At the end of his line of sight was a red-nosed goblin dressed in extravagant armor, wielding a huge, decorated shield.
This was its description:
Name: Legendary Goblin Royal Guard (Sword)
Race: Demon
Class: Fighter
Recommended Level: 125
I couldn’t believe it, but bad feelings never lied. After having seen a Goblin Leader and a Goblin Royal Guard, there was no denying it anymore.
A Goblin King was somewhere in this nest.
The Royal Guard alone had a Recommended Level of 125, with twenty Legendaries with Recommended Levels of 105 around it. If they were solo, they’d all be pretty minor to me, but strength in numbers wasn’t anything to scoff at.
I hadn’t felt this nervous since facing off with Mikagami. I clenched my fist.
“Ah... Ah...”
“125...?”
“Why...is this happening...? Oh God...!”
The Goblin Royal Guard’s club moved, heading straight for the emotionally vacated Mr. Murashima, who’d been drenched in fear by that point. It shot out at a speed unseen to the human eye toward his chest.
“Agh!”
He hadn’t been able to keep up with the speed and couldn’t see the attack, taking it head-on without any recovery or defensive movements. Flying backward at his own incredible speed, he was caught by Ms. Kaori.
“Guh!”
She put as much power into her feet as she could, skidding back, managing to stop herself after leaving a line a few meters long in the ground.
What happened to Mr. Murashima?! When I checked, his eyes had rolled back into his head and he was gurgling. He wasn’t dead, but was definitely down for the count.
With just one hit...
Even among the level 99 players, Mr. Murashima had his martial arts experience and was classified as one of the strongest humans out there. Someone like him being rendered unable to fight in just one hit made the rest of our party shiver uncontrollably.
But...it’s not like this was anything out of the ordinary. He was 25 levels under that enemy. Covering that difference in stats wasn’t an easy task. That was how this world worked—the absolute principle set by God.
“It’s over...” somebody whispered.
After that followed a long silence. Not a single person let their voice out. If they did, they’d be the first target. Understanding that, all they did was clutch their weapons or shake in their boots with pale faces.
“Ki ki ki!” The hunters and the hunted. The Goblin Royal Guard laughed evilly at this situation in which the law of the jungle had been firmly established.
It slowly raised its right hand. Another goblin followed its order and leaped toward Ms. Kaori.
“Grr! I’m not going down without a fight!” As expected of Ms. Kaori. None of the other shivering members could’ve reacted like that.
She readied herself to retaliate, appearing to be waiting for the right timing to pull out her katana.
She wouldn’t end up using it, though, because I moved first.
“Not a censured human, but a censured god. Slaughter such a god and manifest the crimson lotus to this land.”
Magic flowed through my blood, from my heart to the staff in my hand, gradually growing hotter, to the point where it was burning when it reached my palm.
“Grade 5: Kagutsuchi of Fire!”
A searing beam of fire shot out from the staff. The top half of the goblin blew off with a crunch. Three goblins behind it were thrown into the mix, and the flames hit the wall behind them. I’d predicted that a big explosion would occur, but there was definitely something special about this dungeon. My magic was absorbed into the wall... Or rather, it was erased without a trace.
Four goblin corpses lined the floor. The Goblin Royal Guard, seeing that, made a confused noise in their direction. “...Ki?”
To me, it was perfectly obvious what had happened. I’d just done exactly what the Royal Guard had done moments before. When you’re twenty levels above the enemy, that’s what would happen.
“All right then, why don’t we treat ourselves to a good ol’ one-on-one?”
As I aimed my staff, it finally dawned on the Royal Guard what was going on. Its eyes filled with caution and anger as it positioned its shield in front of itself.
“Not a censured human, but a censured god. Slaughter such a god and manifest the crimson lotus to this land. Grade 5: Kagutsuchi of Fire!”