Otoko Nara Ikkokuichijou no Aruji o Mezasa Nakya, ne? Chapter 168

The chapter t.i.tle this time was in English.
Also, 2 hours this time... after all chapters are easier to breeze through when they're interesting as I translate them. Next chapter 4-8 hours est.
Year 7444, Month 12, Day 23
The fifth day since we arrived on the 7th floor. Exploration is proceeding smoothly. Even though I say that we still haven't arrived at the teleport room to the 8th floor yet.
Honestly speaking, including myself everyone is feeling a bit impatient about this situation. Even though we've filled in over 50% of the map of the 7th floor. Even then we still haven't found the route to the 8th floor. We've tried discussing it with everyone but other than the fact that deep in a monster room seems suspicious, we couldn't think of anything else that could connect to the 8th floor.
After we defeated that huge earthworm, I'm sure we made a mistake on the route we advanced down...Since the time was what it was, it's regretful that we couldn't explore down all of the split paths after that time. Even though the 7th floor is considerably easy to remain cautious on, even I don't want to camp out in a place other than the safe area here.
In any case, in the four days up until yesterday, we earned 10,000,000 - 15,000,000 Z (10-15 gold coins) in magic stones everyday. Basutoral is smoothly building up some experience as well. Since we're earning quite the high amount, even though we still haven't found the teleport room to the 8th floor everyone's morale is high.
Particularly Basutoral since he's getting used to the atmosphere of the combat and a sharp light has appeared in his eyes. The fact that he's progressively giving it his best is good but honestly speaking I feel like he's got some dangerous insecurity building up in there as well. After all it's certain that Basutoral isn't as strong as the other members.
Even if I say he's getting used to the atmosphere of the combat, it just means he's stopped flinching, and it's definitely not like his combat abilities have increased. Since everyone already understands that, they're souring their words while telling him "be careful" every time something happens.
Since his might gradually increased and when Basutoral started to get more progressive at first I thought it was great, with this the foundations are complete for him to become a new member and put my hand to my chest in relief but since around yesterday I've started to feel a bit uneasy about it, and I even had to give him a considerably strong order not to get full of himself and go out too far on the front line during combat.
This is just my imagination but I think that Basutoral is in ecstasy over the fact that he can really get his hands on an amount of money that could blind you. Obviously at first he was nervous, doubtful, and felt a gap in the abilities of those around him so he was shrinking back but after he realized that there's some difference in the abilities between the {Slaughterers} and the monsters, his feelings have been swelling up.
I don't particularly think that itself is anything bad. I'm sure it's necessary at first to be saved by your surroundings and gain some experience. In any case, he needs to put in effort himself and train, and then make sure he increases his skills as well otherwise sooner or later it's obvious he won't be able to keep it up, as long he's not just an idiot once we return to the surface and he has time for his head to cool down he should be able to understand.
We managed to defeat 17 ogres between the morning and afternoon of this day as well and we returned to the teleport room on the 6th floor after obtaining magic stones that exceed 14,000,000 Z . We all chatted while eating away at the pot of thinly sliced pork roast Giberuti prepared for us.
Around the time the stock disappeared from the pot we added some barley without the husks into it and waited around 15 minutes after putting the lid on. Finally we put some eggs on top and it comes out as egg gruel, we blow away at it to cool it down while eating it. Other than the fact that there's no fish stock it's a menu that j.a.panese people would generally prefer so it received praise from all of us. Even a western stable pot meal can taste pretty good.
Just like this when you're eating it, while barley is different from wheat which is difficult to eat unless you make it into a powder, its clearly different from rice but if you eat it while it's still in grain form it's quite good is what I'm always thinking. Although, on Orth since things like the water wheel and individual grinders entered households the habit of eating whole grains is rapidly going out of fas.h.i.+on, most people prefer wheat which tastes better when changed into a powder compared to barley. Like Zenom, when he first met me he made fun of barley as something only the poor and slaves eat while still in grain form. As expected he hasn't said anything like that recently though.
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Year 7444, Month 12, Day 24
Around four hours since we teleported into the 7th floor. We found several dead ends while continued to explore. And then, we finally encountered a new monster room. Unlike the previous monster room with the huge earthworm, this time there's thickly overgrown trees around the room. Consequently I don't think the boss of this room is that flashy earthworm. As expected if that huge body is in the ground of this floor it shouldn't be able to dig so easily with all the tree roots.
Even in the off chance it really is the huge earthworm then it's lucky for us. We can just fire attack spells at him from a distance while he can't move properly and safely finish it off.
Around 100 meters in distance from the monster room we had a simple strategy meeting. Even though I say that since we don't know the opponent, including the number. There's no way of making a plan.
"Bastuoral, you remain here..I guess so, remain hidden in the thicket behind that rock. No matter what happens don't move from there."
"Wa, yes! I understand."
When I ordered him to remain on standby Basutoral was a bit disappointed but he obediently obeyed. Everyone not just me has told him that the bosses of monster rooms are completely different from others. Adding to that, while we freeze the monsters in the boss rooms on the 6th floor and easily kill them to get through pretty often, when it comes to freezing the ogres on the 7th floor he knew they could easily break through it.
Excluding ogres which have already been injured and weakened somewhat, in order to freeze an energetic ogre you have to cover them in a huge amount of ice that they can't break through. A bare minimum of level 6 water and fire magic is necessary. Even then it requires several times more MP consumption as well. Without pouring in an excessive amount of MP in order to be able to solidify them in one hit it's pretty much impossible without at least level 7 water magic.
Rather than something like the powerful opponent that is an ogre, there's an even more powerful monster ruling over the monster room we're about to charge into on the 7th floor is what we're saying. If we have someone slowing us down it's possible the combat could develop into something harsh. Since everyone's lives are depending on it no matter how discontent Basutoral might feel I can't permit him to partic.i.p.ate in the combat.
After taking the bags everyone's lunch is packed into Basutoral hid behind the rock I told him to. Each persons bento is about 500 grams, even if you include the rubber cloth it's in I doubt it's over 3 Kg, but I want to make sure we're as light as possible. Well, reflecting on previous times everyone still has one days worth of preserved food and a flask in their bags as well so we aren't completely light.
"Since we don't know what will be there. We're going with {Arrowhead One}. However since the 7th floor is wide. Everyone open up around 7-8 meters in distance."
{Arrow Head One} is a formation where I'm at the front, on the right behind me is Zenom, behind him on the right is Angela, on the left behind me is Ralpha, behind her on the left is Zulu. Toris is situated in the middle behind Zenom and Ralpha as shortstop, behind him is Gwine to follow the whole of us. Then even further behind that is Bel and finally Miduchi to support us and remain cautious of anything from behind. Also, when it comes to combat the picture of an arrowhead changes a bit to more like a zigzag while moving. When it comes to charging into a monster room, since I'm standing at the front rather than attack power it's a formation that's focused more on defensive power. The number decides who stands in the front.
Incidentally Miduchi wanted to name a cross shaped formation the {Imperial Cross} but since no one other than the person herself could understand the meaning in that strange formation we rejected it. Since the rear of a cross shape is the safest so she tried to say that we could rest easy and fight but since the front ends up being in the most danger it takes even more resolve to fight. It's so obvious I thought it was idiotic.
We have plenty of formations with the {Arrow}, {Wedge}, {Wing}, {Trail}, {Line}, and {Circle}. Since it's not like were leading an army into war. Incidentally, in the case of combat in the dungeon, in most cases the formation this time isn't very useful.
When it comes to beating a few number of opponents from every side then {Wing} or if it comes to goblins and gnolls a number of opponents in the pa.s.sages then taking into consideration s.h.i.+fts between the front line and rear the {Line}, if we're surrounded by an army of {Giant Spiders} in a room then we use {Circle} as well. When scouting things out while moving through the vast pa.s.sages of the 7th floor we use {Wedge} and the person at the front uses the spell {Detect.Life} though.
In any case, we went into the formation {Arrowhead One} and I used the spell {Detect.Life}. And then we advanced forward 100 meters towards the room once we arrived at the entrance of the room which has a diameter of about 500 meters I used it again. There's no detection of life within the effective range of the spell. It was when we made use of hiding behind the tree trunks as we continued ahead another 50 meters or so. I detected something with the {Detect.Life} spell I used again.
The direction is the center of the room. Since the trees are in the way I can't gain enough sight to use identify. In any case I need to communicate it. I raised my left hand in the air and gave the sign "discovered something". Several seconds later I pointed my finger in the direction ahead where I discovered them. Most likely everyone tensed up in preparations seeing that. I hold my bayonet in my right hand and hang my left hand down at the ready to use attack spells whenever needed as we slowly moved closer to the objective.

I've already confirmed the number of the targets. There's 12 of them. Even if they're just ogres it's an absurd number of them. Internally, I'm thinking, maybe I should just freeze everything all at once and suffocate them? with how many of them there are. However, it's not decided the opponents are ogres yet. Just like that we remained vigilant and approached to within 100 meters away. We were finally able to recognize the appearance of the opponents. After all it's ogres. Though I still can only see five of them I'm sure those are ogres. I tried using identify on the ones I could see and they're definitely ogres.
If I know they're ogres then there's no problem. Then, taking into consideration the distance they can move before they freeze, I'll freeze them in ice that's over 200 meters in every direction and 25 meters high. If I use level 8 fire and water magic 8 times then it should be plenty. Thinking that, it was just when I gave out the sign warning that I was going to use an attack spell to ambush them. The ogres who were quiet up until then suddenly started to get noisy and move into combat formation. There's already no more time to spare! Simultaneously as I gave out the sign I started to concentrate in order to use level 8 water and fire magic which this is only my second time using myself.
Ah, by the way the first time I used it was in the past on our way to Baldukk, I just tried making a bunch of dirt towards the ocean with earth magic. After that is when I'm practicing using the attack spells of the {Trebuchet} or {Cannon} levels. In terms of the pure amount of the element that I'm making with elemental magic of this high of a level this is only the second time. I can't even guess how much of the element I could create if I were to use the highest level 9 of elemental magic so I still haven't tried using it even once.
A moment after I started concentrating, water suddenly started to burst forth from the ground of the effective range I had established it and then in no time at all it froze over. Just as I originally planned in front of me there's a block of ice that covers an area of 200 meters and is 25 meters high.
"What..is this..."
"Al-san.."
"This is..really amazing.."
"Ma..Master.."
"Ue~ and you still have plenty of mana after this..If you were to just flood Erurehei everything would be over."
Everyone mad expressions of surprise and admiration at the tremendous amount of ice that suddenly appeared in front of their eyes..and also let out voices of fear. Yeah, in terms of volume it's roughly 1,000,000 m^3. It's a bit smaller than the Tokyo Dome. I'm sure there's no one that wouldn't be surprised suddenly seeing this much ice appear in a few seconds.
"Since there was 12 of them..I decided to take things safely."
Though the ice I created with magic has a high level of transparency, I can't see far into the ice is where the ogres were so I can't Identify them. Since it can't be helped I'll have to use the spell {Detect.Life} a number of times before I can rest easy that they die..Ah, if I just identify myself and check the experience points then I guess that's fine.
Since it seemed like it would start to get cold near the side of the ice right away we all returned back down to the road and grouped up with Basutoral. Obviously Basutoral went speechless seeing the mountain of ice as well.
"Let's take a short break. How about we drink some tea?"
As expected it's a bit too soon for lunch. If we rest for about 15 minutes then after I confirm they've suffocated we can slowly erase the ice and gather the magic stones. Hn? One of them died. My experience increased by around 5,000. I saw the instant the experience points increased while identifying myself through the identify-use hole I have opened in my glove on my left hand. I gained a couple hundred experience points towards fire magic as well. It might be possible with this my fire magic level will reach MAX as well. I put some boiling water into everyone's flask and make some tea as we all sit in a circle.
"However, Al-san. I'm always being surprised but is your mana really fine creating that much ice?"
"What are you saying Toris, if it's Al then it's only obvious he's fine."
"Eeh..Ral you've seen this much made with elemental magic before?"
"Hn? In the past on our way to Baldukk I saw him create dirt towards the ocean but I don't think it was much as this time? Or was it?"
"Yeah, I was pretty astonished that time as well but I don't feel like it was as much as this time..However, it's quite amazing."
Zenom and Ralpha, and the annoy-ouple are talking while looking up at the ice.
"I don't like this, it might be a bit cold.."
"It's because Gwine doesn't eat enough and doesn't have any meat on her bones. Though it seems that your physique has gotten a bit better recently, it would be best if you eat even more."
"Maruso, if you say it that doesn't sound like a joke. However, it is certainly true that Gwine should eat more and properly build up her body. She's still too thin for a Dwarf."
"Please stop with that, Zulu. Even though I already feel like I'm building up too much muscle recently..my abs have started to get ripped..even though I'm a girl.."
"Oh? I have a {six pack} as well. But in my case it's difficult to build up muscle and on top of that the the fat builds up quickly, so I'm jealous of Gwine who doesn't need to diet.."
"I'm jealous of Miduchi-san..Rather are you picking a fight? Even though those sort of ideal proportions are absolutely impossible for me..abominable elves..abominable bunnies.."
"But can't you dress yourself up with your beard Gwine. Since I have so many b.r.e.a.s.t.s my shoulders get stiff.."
"Maruso..that's not something to be jealous of. Also I'm just becoming defiant with the beard.."
You all..Stop saying such pointless things and show more admiration for my ice..Look, open your eyes even wider in surprise and look at it. Even though such great results are right in front of you..Well whatever.
"Umm..Al-san, is it fine if I ask something?"
"Hn? What is it?"
"After all that ice is magic.. right?"
"Yeah."
"If I can learn magic as well will I be able to do that much?"
"I wonder? I think it depends on your effort but it also depends on how much mana you have.."
"I said it previously but when I tried magic training in the village it was no good.."
"Since it seems that it's 1 in 10 after all..But, I think if you properly train with magic you'll be able to use it."
"Rea...Really?"
"If that wasn't the case I wouldn't have included you on the contract. I think that all of us reincarnated people should be able to use magic. After all everyone I've met other than you were all able to learn magic."
According to brother it seems that Mary was able to use magic as well. I don't think it's mistaken to think that all of us reincarnated people have the elements to use magic. Most likely this is also one of the advantages of reincarnated people as well.
"Alri~ght, I'll give it my best!"
"Yeah, keep with it."
I glanced at myself and used identify again and my experience points have increased quite a bit. My maximum MP increased by 1 as well. Just in case I tried opening the sub-window for fire magic and just as I expected the level increased and it changed to MAX. Since it was 12 ogres, a total of over 5,000 HP so I think that's only obvious though.
After that I used the spell {Anti-Magic Field} to erase through the ice like a tunnel up to where the ogres are frozen and we gathered the magic stones. And then while I got it was just 12 ogres but that seems to have been a mistake. It seems that while they're the same ogres there were two of them mixed in that had magic special skills. The levels of their skills were 3-4 so they were about the same as a normal magician but if we had tried properly taking them on the front things could have gotten difficult. If we were to be ambushed then heavy injuries, or depending on how things go we might have even had to prepare ourselves for casualties...
Including the one we entered from there was five paths stretching out from the monster room. I wonder if one of the remaining four paths is the right answer for being connected to the 8th floor? No, if that's not the case then we'll be troubled. We tried picking the direction that seemed like it leads towards the center while advancing and we managed to arrive at the teleport room to the 8th floor.
Just this place has a ceiling that's a bit over 10 meters and the interior isn't all that different from the usual dungeon. Strangely enough the tunnel leading into the teleport room only had a width and height of about 2 meters and were far too narrow. In the first place monsters shouldn't be able to approach from within 100 meters of the surroundings so I think there's probably no meaning to it but since there's zigzags five times leading to it none of the light from outside reaches into it.
It's still around 4 pm. The time is a bit early but since it's a good cut off point I guess we should finish things up early for today. In the first place today this time, no, this is the final exploration day in the dungeon for this year, in other words the day we finish things up. Tomorrow afternoon we have some training but starting the day after tomorrow until January 5th of next year we have 10 consecutive days off. Since we made quite a bit of profit and we were finally able to discover the teleport crystal for the 8th floor our morale went up quite a bit. That's why, since it's also Christmas, around tomorrow night we should feign it's the last meeting and doing some merrymaking might not be bad as well. Since today is Christmas Eve I'm sure Ralpha and Gwine will drink either way.
When we returned to the surface a cold rain was falling and even though we were feeling pretty good it made things feel kind of bad. The entrance plaza was considerably quiet as well and had a slightly lonesome atmosphere. Since we had been exploring the dungeon for 9 days already we just kept stretching ourselves out in the rain.