Chapter 105 - Conquering the Iron Dungeon (Part 3)
After waiting for several more hours at the entrance to the twenty-fourth floor, a group of knights finally retreated, having suffered severe injuries.
They were a veteran knight order they had known for a long time, a tough bunch who sometimes spent entire years holed up in dungeons.
Even a first-rate group like them could face annihilation on the twenty-fourth floor if they let their guard down for even a moment.
Captain Touji slapped her cheeks to steel herself, reminding herself that they couldn't afford to get carried away by their newfound strength. They had to stay focused.
"Damn it... We screwed up."
"It was definitely because of that wonderful smell..."
"Ah, damn it! Just coming to this floor, and I can already smell women..."
They had been making a point of avoiding them as they headed back, but they happened to catch their grumbling.
"Looks like our presence is a little too much for those guys to handle. Maybe we should move a bit farther in..."
Captain Touji decided to move a little deeper into the dungeon, judging that simply sitting around near the busy entrance was becoming a nuisance to the others.
Besides, if they stayed here, they might never encounter any monsters at all.
While waiting, she had studied the map of the twenty-fourth floor to pass the time and had now memorized it completely.
For the time being, they headed toward an area whose terrain would make it unlikely for monsters to attack them from both sides.
After proceeding for a while, they finally encountered a monster.
A pitch-black, gorilla-like creature hurled a massive rock at them with all its might.
The knights serving as the frontline tanks calmly blocked the rock with their large shields.
The impact was tremendous.
If this had been Captain Touji's unit before their training in the Hot Spring Dungeon, the knights who blocked the attack might have been sent flying, or the impact might have broken the bones in their arms.
But the First Unit, having undergone intensive training in the Hot Spring Dungeon, wasn't even fazed by the impact of that rock.
"Give it a taste of its own medicine."
A tall knight hurled a rainbow ore with all her might over the shoulder of her companion holding a shield.
It struck the black gorilla squarely in its right cheek.
The right side of the gorilla's face caved in with a sickening crunch, scattering shattered teeth everywhere.
"Grrr... Gohh..."
As the gorilla staggered from the devastating blow to its face, two knights immediately closed in and plunged their swords deep into its abdomen and chest.
They quickly withdrew their swords, retreated to a safe distance, and watched what happened next.
The gorilla collapsed after being stabbed deeply, and made no attempt to get back up.
"Wasn't this the one that plays dead?"
"That's what the records in the dungeon archive said."
Apparently, once you thought you'd defeated it and foolishly approached, it would launch one final, desperate attack.
"We've still got one rainbow ore left from the ones we traded for food, right?"
A knight behind them hurled the other rainbow ore straight at the top of the fallen gorilla's head with all her strength.
After taking a powerful stone to the crown of its head, the gorilla sprang to its feet with an ear-splitting scream.
It shot them a resentful glare, then collapsed again and vanished.
In its place appeared a large number of metal pieces, each unnaturally square.
"So if it hasn't vanished, that means it's still alive."
If it hadn't disappeared, it was still playing dead. Once you knew the trick, it was easy enough to figure out.
"How did it feel fighting that thing?"
"It's strong. If we'd fought it before training in the Hot Spring Dungeon, we would've been in serious trouble."
"And now, after our training?"
"We could handle several of them at once."
"Good. Let's head farther in."
Captain Touji grinned and decided they would make their way to the stairs leading to the twenty-fifth floor.
They could do it.
There was no doubt in her mind that they were now strong enough to handle the twenty-fifth floor. That was Captain Touji's assessment.
It wasn't arrogance. If they could fight the monsters on the twenty-fourth floor with this much strength to spare, then they had every reason to be confident.
They pressed onward, and by the time they reached roughly the middle of the twenty-fourth floor, monsters began appearing every few hours.
Although most of them were monsters they had never encountered firsthand, they had already studied how to defeat them and deal with their attacks in the dungeon archive.
Occasionally, a monster would perform a move that looked completely different in person from how it had sounded in the descriptions. But since none of their fights were particularly close, that wasn't much of a problem.
"Man, every time we defeat an enemy, more iron comes tumbling out... No wonder everyone sticks close to the entrance..."
More than the monsters' strength, it was the ever-growing pile of metal drops that was becoming a serious problem.
It was easy to understand why the standard strategy was to fight near the entrance to the twenty-fourth floor and periodically hand over the spoils to transport units for removal.
"Tash, how long do you think we can keep hauling everything out ourselves?"
"At this rate, won't we have to withdraw the entire unit in about two weeks?"
Much sooner than expected.
They had planned to stay in the dungeon for one or two months and haul everything out themselves without relying on a transport unit.
That was because if they relied on the Claps army's transport unit, most of their drops would be taken as a service fee.
Under normal circumstances, relying on a transport unit would still yield a better overall return.
But with their current, decidedly abnormal stamina, they would undoubtedly come out ahead by running back and carrying the spoils themselves.
"Looks like we'll have to keep making these little trips back... Maybe we shouldn't have brought so much food after all?"
"Shall we sell about half of it to the people exploring the twenty-fifth floor?"
"Most of the people exploring the twenty-fifth floor are from the Claps army, and they can bring in supplies and transport their drops whenever they want..."
Naturally, the army of the country that owns a massive dungeon is the one that explores it the most.
Such groups have their own supply units, so they obviously have no need to buy food from outsiders.
If anything, they're the ones who demand an exorbitant share of your drops in exchange for selling you food.
"There are hardly any idiots like Hitou, who go exploring the twenty-fifth floor of another country's dungeon."
"Haha, I guess we've finally joined the ranks of those idiots."
"Yep."
Standing right in front of the stairs leading to the twenty-fifth floor of the Iron Dungeon, Captain Touji and Vice-Captain Yunev laughed as they exchanged those remarks.
As they descended the stairs, they found numerous knight units from the Kingdom of Claps sitting near the entrance to the twenty-fifth floor.
They were probably transport and supply units waiting for the main forces to return with their drops.
As expected of an elite unit operating on the twenty-fifth floor. The sheer toughness radiating from their demeanor and bearing was on par with that of Captain Hitou.
They had to be a monstrous group with nerves of steel, capable of handling any situation.
The moment Captain Touji and her companions stepped into the entrance, the strongest knight order in the Kingdom of Claps all turned toward them at once, drawn by the scent of soap wafting through the air.
"Huh?! W-W-Women?!"
"Hey! Beautiful women! There are beautiful women here!"
"N-No! This is an illusion! Keep a grip on yourselves!"
"I don't care if it's an illusion! I don't care!"
The moment the Claps soldiers caught the scent of soap and laid eyes on Captain Touji and her companions, they descended into utter chaos.
One man came charging straight at them, his face devoid of reason. A man who appeared to be the unit's leader hurriedly launched a dropkick at the fool from behind, knocking some sense back into him.
Several other men had also lost their minds, while the few who were barely holding on to their sanity desperately tried to restrain their panicking comrades. It was a scene straight out of hell.
Oh, what a sight! Even the strongest knight order in the Kingdom of Claps could be driven mad and stripped of their senses in an instant.
This was the power of the Hot Spring Dungeon—the beauty and charm honed through its training. Truly, the Hot Spring Dungeon was terrifying.
Watching the pandemonium unfold, Captain Touji could only think one thing.
Well, this is hopeless...
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