Nigoru Hitomi de Nani wo Negau

The skeleton wasn’t originally crawling on the ground. It was roaming with three others of the same kind. Those four skeletons met Walm and launched an assault on him, only to meet his anger. Three were destroyed and the last one was now approaching in such a pathetic state.

The bare phalanges caught the half-boots, but at the same time, the halberd’s bottom part cracked through the skull, bringing it to a complete end.

“This floor sure takes a lot of time.”

According to the information Walm received from the female receptionist, only undead monsters appeared on the 11th floor through the 15th floor. It was a being that had been made as an opponent many times on the battlefield. After all, in battlefields where life and death coexist, there was no shortage of corpses, and if the corpses were mishandled, they would soon spring out.

The skeleton that Walm had been smashing around until just now, even if the cervical spine was cut off, could still move around as long as the skull was safe. And even if a part of the skull was damaged, there were many cases where it wasn’t enough to force their action to stop.

Walm’s solution was simple. To crush the skull with the axe blade of the halberd, or to incapacitate the limbs before delivering a finishing blow. Sure, it was a lot of work, but it didn’t take that long. Really, the problem wasn’t that.

“As expected, they all were drawn to me…”

Walm had experienced the fact that once a battle began in the labyrinth, monsters would gather around him, to the point that he was sick of them.

Up to 10th floor, the population of labyrinth challengers was large, and so, monsters scattered for them, but after the 10th floor, the ratio was reversed. It wasn’t that there was nothing sweet to bring back, but it was simply because of the increasing degree of danger, so citizens, who only wanted to get their daily meals and only had a certain amount of confidence in their fighting skills, wouldn’t risk themselves, leaving only adventurers and labyrinth explorers from other countries.

Anyway, a strong putrid smell stimulated the nostrils not long after breaking the bones, perhaps the sound of crushed bones was the reason. And one by one, ‘they’ emerged from the darkness.

“Ghouls again?”

Ghoul… were corpses with some of their skin melting and crumbling, slowly showing dark brown color under it. And the face, had rotted to the middle.

Such monsters with hollow eye holes without eyelids were facing Walm. While polluting the labyrinth with rotting juice, the three of them ran towards Walm with their swollen arms stretched out as if they were thirsting for the living. Normally, one would expect an undead to move slowly, but it was more agile than it looked.

The temporal region of the ghoul, which was literally jumping into Walm, was cut in half by a horizontal slash using a halberd. Just like that, it crashed into the wall of the labyrinth while spinning wildly.

Without hesitation, Walm thrust the halberd into the next approaching ghoul with a slight delay. A simple thrust without much power put in.

The ghoul’s throat was skewered, still, it didn’t stop moving forward. Now, Walm only needed to hold the halberd on his waist and take a stance, it would naturally and irrevocably go into the axe blade, cutting itself.

The ghoul was letting out grunts and spitting out a foul stench. But, as expected it didn’t stop. Even its misaligned teeth were still carving for Walm’s blood and tried to tear his flesh apart.

“You want me so bad huh?”

Walm twisted the hilt of the halberd, rotating the axe blade that entered the neck of the ghoul, twisting off its head.

Pulling back the outstretched halberd, he briefly repositioned it and aimed at the last ghoul.

The tip that entered from under the jaw forcibly closed the filthy mouth that had been opened, cracking its upper and lower teeth. It pierced through the hard palate and reached the brain just as Walm had intended.

Now, only an entire weight of the inactive ghoul hung on the tip of the spear. And when Walm knocked over the halberd, the ghoul slipped out of the blade that had been biting into it and quietly fell down to the ground.

Fortunately, Walm wasn’t bathed in putrid liquid, no, it didn’t even reach Walm body at all, but there was nothing he could do to stop the smell from spreading.

But, unfortunately, the halberd that used to fight had some of that filthy liquid on it, and it felt as if it had been thoroughly polluted. Every time Walm swung it around a few times, reddish brown liquid flew around.

The undead floors were unpopular, perhaps because of their danger, as well as the stench and creepiness of the monsters.

Walm was alone, and he only used the halberd to kill the ghoul. If he was in a party and some members used blunt weapons or magic to fight, he would inevitably be bathed in smelly blood, and ghouls defeated by the allies might also spread putrid fluids to him.

Whether it was good or bad, Walm’s sense of smell was dulling down. If he didn’t keep his alertness, he might get distracted by the smell. Sure it might be fine here, but when he reached the safe room on the end of 15th floor or when he was back to the surface, it would be hard for him to completely avoid the silent frustration he would receive from labyrinth challengers.

As Walm went deeper, the corpses piled up. Occasionally, traces of battle remained, and although adventurers and Walm passed each other, there was no interference. Only giving each other a glance, before they naturally drift apart. That should be the etiquette within the labyrinth after all.

Passing through the same unchanging passageway, Walm arrived at a large room, which was said to be only a few in the labyrinth. According to Walm’s rule of thumb, most of the time it was a gathering place for monsters, with coins and old weapons scattered around, but this time the situation was different.

“Are they all for today’s welcome party?”

Two ghouls and two undead wolves, even though their blood shouldn’t be circulating properly anymore, were standing by with a rotten stench and a voice leaking out.

At the center of them stood a monster that seemed to be the leader of this group.

“?? What kind of monster is that?”

The unidentified monster was also an undead, and there was no doubt that it was of a Skeleton species, but its shape was alien to Walm’s eyes. It had horns wrapped around its human head. And its left arm, was a rib-like shield with a wolf’s skull at the tip. Its right hand was shaped like a lance made by three intertwined spines. The lower half of its body was also unfathomably thick for a skeleton that couldn’t be said a weak point anymore. Above all, the color of the bones closely resembled the bone weapons that he saw in an equipment shop and also the weapon of the greenhorn adventurer.

While observing it, Walm searched his memory, and the explanation of the undead floors he received from the female receptionist came to his mind.

He remembered she said that sometimes, a rare species might appear with a low appearance rate. Strong enough to make a party that should have no problem reaching the 15th floor, rather choose to escape than fight it.

” ‘Bone Collector’ huh?”

Walm, who mentioned the name of a rare species that was a mixture of multiple skeletons and dark slimes, tried to turn back the way he came, but he was too late. Without any warning, the five rushed at the same time to Walm as if they had made a prior agreement. Even the four who were supposed to be normal species were remarkably faster than usual.

Abandoning the option of routing, the gears of his brain switched to fight. Walm didn’t have the guts to save his cards against an unknown opponent. In order to overturn the numerical disadvantage, the first move was more important than anything else, and more firepower than just a normal attack would be a better move. So he shot the mana that he kneaded in an instant, sending the manifested fireball toward the undead.

The flame, which fully demonstrated its effectiveness, shook the air and scorched the surroundings.

Not only that, the two ghouls that failed to dodge, scattered their entire bodies in explosive flames, turning them into torches that lit up the room. Still, it wasn’t what Walm wanted.

The two undead wolves and the Bone Collector managed to slip through the explosive flames with their leg strength.

“They’re fast”

In contrast to the Bone Collector, which was positioned in front, the two undead wolves changed their position from the side to the back. As if they were aiming to check the blind spot and disperse concentration. It was surprising to see so much intelligence exerted from a head that had been reduced to bones and hollowed out. Really, how could they have thought of such movements?

In any case, Walm wasn’t so stupid as to just sit and wait in front of the approaching crisis.

Showing the development to the left and right increased the risk of defeating each one. It would be the Bone Collector’s job to prevent it, but Walm possessed the ability to shake it off. The speed of the undead wolf on one side, whose hind legs should have been scorched as it passed through the explosive flames, was slowing down.

Kicking the ground sideways and gaining acceleration from wind attribute magic, Walm closed the gap in one fell swoop. The undead wolf seemed to have sensed that it might be the end and quickly turned around on the spot, but the axe blade of the halberd crushed the skull faster before it could dodge.

Without even having time to get drunk with a sense of accomplishment, Walm drew a half-turn with his body using his left foot as the pivoting.

At the same time, the Bone Collector had already thrust the black lance.

Reading the trajectory approaching his chest, Walm pushed the handle of the halberd up and deflected the trajectory upward.

Just like that, the bone lance passed through the side of his head.

Quickly Walm bent down and tried to get past the Bone Collector left flank. But, its shield-like left arm was thrust out trying to block. Even so, it wasn’t fast enough to catch him. It should be the case.

“Ugrrrh――!?”

However, the skull of a wolf, which Walm thought to be nothing than just a bad shield ornament, opened its jaws and tried to bite off his shoulder.

Walm jumped backward, but was pursued by a lance. Quickly thrusting back the halberd as if to oppose it, the hardened bone spear and the halberd continued to clash and repel each other.

But it didn’t last long.

While continuing the exchange of offense and defense, the undead wolf aimed at Walm’s ankle.

“You’re in the way.”

Walm pushed back the Bone Collector along with the lance, and immediately pulled his halberd back, prepared the halberd around his torso, pouring mana and swinging it up. The undead wolf that was scooped up by his 《Strike》 was cut from the tip of the nose, and the corpse slid vigorously on the floor. The unstoppable 《Strike》 also cut the lance that Bone Collector slammed overhead.

Quickly, Walm flipped his wrists back and slammed his halberd as if chopping wood.

“Humph!!”

The Bone Collector tried to defend with the rib-like shield, but the shield was cut through. The axe blade of the halberd bit into the right shoulder and came out from the left hip. The upper body slid down, and the lower body fell after a short delay.

Walm checked the body of the Bone Collector with his numb fingers. What he felt wasn’t that of bone, but something as hard as iron armor. If it wasn’t for 《Strike》, he wouldn’t have been able to cut it so cleanly.

In fact, the Bone Collector attempted a final resistance with the rib-like shield, but Walm knocked down his halberd with a skill. That was why he won the match. Otherwise, a different ending might have happened there.

“I was forced to use magic, and even skills…”

Although the Bone Collector was clearly a monster on a different level compared to the rest of those on this floor, the consumption of mana on the 13th floor was a miscalculation even for Walm. Truly, a painful reality that he must accept.

Walm, who shifted from unnecessary thought, crouched down to rummage around and found a faint glow reflecting the light of the luminous moss in the soot-black bone fragments. He then moved the fragments away with a dagger.

“A large gold coin? At the very least, I’m able to avoid a complete loss.”

Sure, Walm had enough gold coins to feed a few people for a year, still, he couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief for getting something out of killing a troublesome Bone Collector.