Chapter 28: Ashaspern’s Trap
Chapter 28: Ashaspern’s Trap
The Ashaspern Dungeon was basically a large cave with a lot of big gray rocks.
After going inside, the first monster we came across was a goblin. It was a brown-skinned monster similar to a monkey, about half the size of a person. After it noticed us, it rushed towards us, leaning forward and swinging around the club it had.
“Ha! “
The first strike was a combination of Silvia’s 【Magic Archery】, 《Soldier Archery》 and 《Fire Attribute?First Form》.
Along with a “Bugyaa” cry, the goblin fell down after receiving that blow.
“I see…”
Murmured Yukari behind me. I wonder if she was convinced that Magic Archery was a compound skill from Archery and Magic?
“This much is easy.”
Said Silvia. Well, she’s correct, this is a lower-class dungeon after all.
“Easyー! “
Repeating “Easy, easy”, Eko jumped into a group of goblins.
“Master. Is this alright? “
“That’s a fair question… well, just keep watching.”
Over ten goblins headed towards Eko. And that little demihuman girl faced them all head on. Although any person seeing this from the side might get uneasy, she’s a 『Muscle Monk』-type Tank through and through. There’s nothing to worry about it.
Eko thrusted into the goblins while activating 《Gold Shieldmanship》. Then, as if being hit by a speeding car, the goblins were all blown away.
That was the knock-back effect. Then, Silvia’s arrows flew and pierced each and every one of them.
“……This is.”
“Eko is the advanced guard, and Silvia is the rearguard. So long as Eko continues to draw the attention of the monsters, Silvia can use her bow and keep firing arrows at the unprotected monsters.”
It was one of the ways to easily clear a dungeon with two people. By simply allowing a small chance, it made it easier for the rear guard to demonstrate tremendous firepower.
While I answered her, all twenty goblins were defeated.
If I tried to butt in, I’d get in the way of their two-people cooperation training. Therefore, I just concentrated on potential surprise attacks and escorting Yukari.
“Let’s just hurry up and rush ahead since the experience here isn’t that great.”
Nodding to my instruction, Silvia and Eko went deeper inside.
Yukari just silently followed me. Seems like it’d still take some more time for her to open up to us.
———————
“Boss here.”
“Already? It hasn’t even been two hours yet.”
“This is how a lower-class type of dungeon is.”
The boss of the Ashaspern dungeon is a monster called Goblin King. It is a huge monster with a total of 4 meters in height, but although it’s a boss, its movements are slow and he has little defenses. However, it has an entourage of ten monsters who can use magic around it, Goblin Mages, that make it a bit troublesome to pay attention to both the boss and the adds.
Well, we have enough power so the mages should drop in a single hit, and the king in two hits. There should be no problems.
“What is the plan!? “
Eko came asking. I’m not sure why, but this girl loves “plans” and before we face a boss, she always comes asking me for a strategy. “But this time, there’s no strategy…”
“…………! “
……Ahh, it’s useless. She’s just there, waiting for me to say something with her eyes sparkling.
“Eh… Eko, you take the huge target in the middle, hold it using Bishop. In that time, Silvia and I will finish it.”
“Okay! Got it! “
Hearing a proper strategy, Eko opened her eyes in admiration and directed a smile towards me. I feel a bit guilty that she thinks so highly of me, but I’m happy when the person in question is happy.
“Silvia will do the same as usual. Yukari, you just don’t leave my side.”
“Alright.”
“Understood.”
After finishing speaking, Eko went straight to the opening where the boss was at.
“So bigーー!! “
Eko raised her voice in surprise.
Certainly, the goblin king is huge. And also wide. If I had to say, that is an unhealthy kind of ‘wide’. In comparison, the goblin mages are smaller and thinner than that thing. They look like twigs in comparison. Probably they’re not even a meter in height.
“Let’s go.”
Hearing my words, Eko was the first one to rush towards the goblin king.
At the same time Silvia released a shot towards a goblin mage, killing it. Silvia said “Quite dull”, at the same time as she killed another one.
“……Ehhー? “
After defending from an attack from the goblin king using 《Bishop Shieldmanship》, Eko raised such a voice. The damage suffered was only three points. Even less than that of the Limptfert Dungeon’s Armored Lizards.
“Nicely done Eko.”
After praising Eko, I released a shot filled with 《Rook Archery》, towards a goblin that had its attention focused on her. A non-critical 6680 hit. It’s passable.
“…………”
Yukari’s eyes opened wide. I wonder if she’s surprised by the amount of damage?
With a combination of 《Knight Archery》 and 《Silver Archery》I shot the second arrow that ends up killing the goblin king.
As for the goblin mages’ mopping up, Silvia had already wiped them all out.
“It is over? “
Eko approached me while looking around. There are no monsters’ figures left.
…………
“………………Oh? “
Weird.
The team formation quest isn’t completed yet.
If memory serves me right, the team will be formed the moment you defeat a lower-class dungeon boss and all its adds――
“――――Oh!! “
This is bad!
I noticed it when it was already too late.
The 4-meter-high body of the goblin king takes some time to disappear. And one goblin mage was hiding behind it.
That goblin mage is on the verge of death. And with a desperate look on its face, it cast some magic.
And the timing of the activation coincided with the ‘disappearance of the corpse of the goblin king’.
That’s the worst-case scenario!!
“Fuck! “
The target of the goblin mage was Yukari.
I grabbed Yukari’s hand, pulling her towards me, while at the same time shooting a 《Fire Attribute?First Form》 at the goblin mage.
The next moment.
The goblin mage died――……
——————
……――But the place where we stood was a “sandy beach next to the ocean”.
『Blown Away Dungeon』
Why did Ashaspern get such a nickname?
That is because of a 【Magic】used by the goblin mages in a dying state during the last boss’ fight called 《Random Teleport》.
《Random Teleport》 is a magic that’s effect is ‘Teleports the target object to a random location 4 km away from the origin’.
In other words, you are forced out of the dungeon.
Therefore, 『Blown away dungeon』…… But that’s not it. The reason why it started to be called as such was a certain discovery.
On a certain day a report came up in Mobius wiki.
The title was “I was blown away to the day after tomorrow”.
The contents were shocking. 《Random Teleport》 should move you only 4 km away, but the person reported that he was blown away a whopping 255 km.
Many volunteers began to verify that report immediately.
And the results were astonishing.
It was a very strange phenomenon. 「If a goblin mage activates 《Random Teleport》 while touching the corpse of the goblin king when it’s disappearing, the movement distance will go from 4 to 255 km」. Since it was a one-in-a-million condition, it was a new fact that had not been known until then.
The players made a fuss, calling it a bug.
……But the truth was, this was not a bug, but a special trait.
In the transfer magic system, the travel distance is determined by the amount of MP lost in the process. Therefore, it is a system where the more distant the place you go, the more MP it consumes.
In that case, it is determined that the moment the goblin king’s corpse disappears, the entirety of the goblin king’s MP is lost in that moment. That is, all of the goblin king’s MP is added to the goblin mage’s 《Random Teleport》, resulting in a teleporting distance of 255 km.
Therefore, that shitty blown away incident led to the Ashaspern Dungeon earning the nickname 『Blown Away Dungeon』.
———————-
I had completely forgotten this incident.
That was because top players had little to do with lower class dungeons.
“….Haa.”
It was already too late when I remembered it.
In front of me there is a large ocean, blue sky and white clouds. There’s sand at my feet and right next to me.
“Wha…!? “
Yukari was wearing an expression of astonishment.
Well, it would be strange not to be surprised by suddenly appearing at the beach. On second thought, seeing Yukari surprised makes her feel less doll-like.
“Don’t worry. We were simply teleported by that goblin.”
“……Teleported? “ fre𝙚𝓌𝒆𝚋noѵel.c𝚘m
Amazing. She already calmed down.
“Yeah. Probably about 255 km away from Ashaspern.”
“…………”
Yukari looked at me with suspicious eyes.
I can’t help but to say it. It’s the truth after all…
“Huh? Oh! The team was formed.”
Suddenly I noticed that fact. It seems like that mage was the only one left after all.
“Hmmm.”
I used the team-specific communication from the bottom right of the status window to contact Silvia, a little scared I must admit.
“Testing, testing… hey, can you hear me? “ 𝘧𝗿ee𝚠𝙚𝙗𝑛o𝚟𝐞l.𝐜૦𝗺
“I-idiot!! Where did you go!? Are you okay!?? “
Whoa!? My ears are ringing!
“I-I’m fine. Just blown away by teleport magic. Silvia, you and Eko just wait at the town of Pae Ho while I return.”
“Is-is that so! I’m relieved. How long will it take? Hurry up and come back.”
“Hmm… maybe six or seven days. You can take a vacation in the meantime. Just relax.”
“………………HAA? “
“See youー“
“Hey! Wait a mo――”
I cut off the communication and looked at Yukari.
“……Is this really that far away? “
“Of course. There’s no point in me telling a lie, right? “
“…Well, yeah.”
Seemingly unwillingly, Yukari nodded.
Now that I think about it, there will only be us two for a week.
I would like to somehow deal with this trust issue―― while thinking such things, we proceeded to the north along the coast.