Another week has passed since I consulted Grandpa about magic.
I’m on my way to the blacksmith at the Weapons Development Workshop.
Apparently my sword is finally finished.
“Good morning, Alan.”
“Yo, Orn. Morning. I’ve got it done at last. Your sword!”
While saying that, he hands me a sword wrapped in a cloth.
After receiving it, I unroll cloth to reveal a sword whose handle and blade are all black.
As requested, it’s made of black dragon scales, but it’s not lustrous; on the contrary, it’s a black that seems to swallow light.
It’s in the form of a long sword that matches my height.
Without excessive ornaments, it has a simple appearance, but I feel that it’s got enough presence to be easily recognized as an exemplary sword.
“Thank you, Alan. Can I try a light swing?”
“Ah, ‘course.”
After moving to an open space, I swing the black sword.
While swinging the sword, I don’t feel anything out of place and it’s familiar in my hand.
The centre of gravity is also perfect.
（This is perfectly suited just for me. Incredible……)
“How’s it feel?”
“No problems. As expected of the number one blacksmith of ‘Night Sky’s SIlver Rabbit’. Flawless.”
“That’s good. Per your wishes, the scales and crystals of the Black Dragon have been infused with Hyde Turtle blood. For that reason, don’t know why, but the durability’s fallen a tad bit. Well, that’s still tougher than most swords out there, so it should be fine.”
“I can cover that with my support magic, so it’s no problem.”
“I see. And then? You’ve decided on what you going to be naming that sword?”
“Yeah. I’ll engrave it as ‘Schwarzhase’”
“Schwarzhase? That ain’t a word I’ve heard of.”
“Yeah. It’s a regional dialect.”
“Hoh. There’s such a thing huh? What’s it mean?”
“It means ‘Black Rabbit’. A black sword born in ‘Night Sky’s Silver Rabbit’.”
“I see. Ain’t that nice.”
◇
After receiving the sword, I proceed to the operations room, where everyone had already gathered.
“Mornin’, Orn! Hey hey! Show me the finished sword!”
As soon as I enter the room, Lucre’s in high spirits and asking to see my sword.
“Good morning, Lucre. Sure.”
I pull out Schwarzhase from my storage magic tool.
Not just Lucre, the others also glance at Schwarzhase with curiosity.
“Oh! Black! Cool!”
“For something made from black dragon scales, it ain’t very shiny.”
Will casts his suspicion.
“I asked to remove the sheen, If it reflects light, it’ll stand out.”
“With this, we’re finally ready to go to the deep layers.”
Selma mutters with a wry smile.
“Apologies for keeping you waiting.”
“What, we’ve been waiting a year already. Something like this is within the margin of error.”
“That’s right. Finally, deep layers — the time for our revenge has come!”
The words that Lain declares sounds flooded with all her emotions.
“Then, as per what we discussed previously, we will be proceeding to the long awaited deep layers! Today, we will explore the 91st floor. If there are no problems, we will embark again towards the 92nd floor! Is everyone ready!”
We all nod in response to Selma’s question.
“……Then let’s go!”
“”””Oh!”””””
◇
We arrive at 91st floor of the Great Labyrinth.
Finally, with these members, the first time in the deep layers.
The 91st floor is a swamp area.
Under your feet it’s muddy and it’s not easy to get firm footing.
The trees growing here and there have no leaves and are decomposing.
Most of the demonic beasts that appear here are either rotting into mush or reduced to bones, or what you might call undead type demonic beasts.
Their behaviour is simple and their fighting power is low.
But their number is extraordinary.
They spring up one after another, and we have to deal with them.
Furthermore, if you don’t collect the magic stones in due time. the demonic beasts that take them in them will become stronger.
A few magic stones absorbed won’t make a noticeable difference, but even sand can pile up.
It’s safest to prevent magic stones from being absorbed.
The demonic beasts alone are already troublesome, but the smell is also terrible here.
With stagnant air as well, it’s a poor place where the longer you stay the worse you feel.
Demonic beasts appear immediately.
Ape-like, bipedal, rotting monsters.
There are roughly more than fifty of them.
Even with this much, it can be said to be a small group for this floor, so you can understand how many there’s usually supposed to be.
On this floor, the theory is to fight in a close group.
With this large number of demonic beasts, it’s difficult to manage the aggro of each individual one.
The Rearguard can’t display their true strength in close quarters, so here, the Vanguard fights while defending the Rearguard behind their backs.
The three Rearguard members group up and put up a magical barrier around them.
Will and I stand diagonally in front of the perimeter of the barrier to deal with the approaching monsters.
Lain and Lucre are attacking the monsters coming from afar with magic.
Selma is giving instructions and managing buffs as usual.
Here, you need to be able to attack multiple demonic beasts at once.
<We’re ready! Both of you, get inside the magic barrier!>
Lain’s voice echoes in my head, and I follow her instructions to enter.
After confirming that, Lain activates the magic that she had carefully constructed over a long time.
A tidal wave is generated in a 360 degree area around us, engulfing a large number of demonic beasts.
Other than Lain, the four of us, scatter thunder type magic into the water, causing an electric shock and defeating the demonic beasts in one fell swoop.
“So many demonic beasts, and it stinks so much, I hate this place after all!”
Lucre whines after we finish subjugating all the demonic beasts.
Well, it’s not like I don’t get how she feels.
The beasts are also grotesque, rotten and disgusting, and it’s a filthy environment…….
“This is as close to the worst kind of place it gets, but if you can fight here for a long period of time, in the future, if there are any other similar floors, you’ll be able to withstand it, right? Fortunately, the demonic beasts here are only plenty and not strong. We just need to work a bit more.”
It is true that if we can fight in this kind of environment without any problems, the areas in the 92nd and 93rd floor will be more tolerable, I can see Selma’s point.
The 94th floor is difficult in a different way from this floor, and anything lower than the 95th floor, which I’ve never been to, could be worse than here.
After that, we repeated many battles.
Each battle here inevitably takes longer than ones on other floors.
There’s also not much time to take breaks, after all, the deep layers are much more difficult than the lower layers.
And the amount of magic stones we obtained had increased considerably, so we decided to return.
The 91st and 92nd floors can be said to be the exact opposite, but at least for now, we know that with these current members, we can make it through the deep layers without serious injury.
–