Chapter 55 – Death Arena Visitors
When they stepped into the abandoned city, they saw that there were more shops and inns than houses.
“This must have been a labyrinth city once. Though, I’m sure that everything that could be useful has been taken already, so we should just go straight towards the castle.”
Sety said as she looked into one of the stores. The wooden door was dry and shriveled. And it crumbled into dust when she touched it.
And so they continued on their way. There were trees growing everywhere. In the middle of roads and houses, it did not matter. And so they stepped over roots while they walked.
Totto was looking around for anything that he could gather. But it seemed like everything had been absorbed by the trees. And he was disappointed that there were no other plants.
Once they were halfway to the castle, Sety looked up at a tree and muttered.
“The path to the top floor is blocked… On the surface, there would be things like kobold and wolves. But things are different here.”
“What do you mean?”
“Haven’t you noticed? This floor. All of them are Treants!”
Sety answered happily, and then Menew, Totto, and Ralph turned around. But the path behind them was gone.
It was blocked off. Even worse, the trees that were blocking the path were now crawling towards them.
Crumble. The walls of an abandoned building fell away.
“If-if you already knew that, you should have told us, Sety!”
Menew said with horror. Sety just cackled. She showed no signs of panic.
“Once they multiply to this degree, there will be no other monsters here. And they aren’t going to attack us. We just need to find the stairs in the castle. And if they get in our way, we can defeat them.”
Indeed, perhaps due to their great weight, the Treants moved even slower than a walking human. Also, since there were so many of them, they were constantly getting in each other’s way.
“…Treant wood is a good material.”
What a troublesome thing to say.
Ralph scowled at Totto. However, he did not try to stop it.
“But there are so many of them. We’ll wait for the right opportunity.”
“Yes.”
Totto wasn’t foolish enough to provoke a forest of Treants.
And so they continued on, with Sety in the lead, followed by Menew, Totto, and Ralph in the back.
While they were on their guard now, the Treants only blocked their retreat, and showed no other signs of attacking.
(Monsters attack humans out of instinct. But it was also a good way of getting magic energy. As the Treants move slowly…they have to be careful of who they attack.)
For instance, if they attacked Menew, he would likely not hesitate to burn them and the whole floor.
And so they stayed back. Sometimes, it even seemed like they were pushing the party towards the right path.
(…We’re Adventurers being shooed away by monsters…)
Ralph looked at the back of the black robes in front of him, and he chuckled.
For better or worse, there was a more dense kind of dog eat dog world inside of the dungeon.
And so monsters with higher strength and intelligence were born. And this environment made the dungeons harder to conquer every year.
Ralph would have his hands full if three of the Treants attacked him at once.
They may be slow, but they could use their branches to attack, and their roots to trap.
Well, Menew would still break them as if it was nothing. Ralph mused. With Menew, an advantage of numbers meant nothing. Though, he didn’t seem to realize it himself.
However, while Totto was looking somewhere else, Menew turned to Ralph and put a finger up to his mouth.
As if to say, yes, it would be easy to destroy all of them. But that is a secret.
Ralph’s eyes widened in surprise. Now that he thought of it, Menew had been doing research about dungeons. And so he probably had a lot more knowledge than Ralph realized.
Even if he did not realize that they were surrounded by Treants, he understood that a dungeon was like a death arena, where the strongest survived.
And within this dungeon, Menew was a ‘guest.’ He did not mean to disturb the residents.
(I decided to accompany a dangerous man…)
However, it was also exciting. He was able to see what Menew would do next.
He thought of such things as they followed Sety, and eventually arrived at the castle gates.
Now that they were close, they saw that it was surrounded by a high wall and a moat, and there was a drawbridge.
Towns made near dungeons were always prosperous. Perhaps it was older than this very country. But after that brief time of prosperousness, it was swallowed up by the dungeon.
If the dense mana in the air helped to preserve things, it made sense that the castle was still so white.
“There are supposed to be stairs that lead down inside of the castle.”
“I’ve been wondering this since we first entered, but, why are you so confident, Sety? It’s as if you know everything.”
“I’ve been using my Scouting skill the whole time. And so I immediately knew that they were Treants. Though, I didn’t know why they weren’t attacking.”
On the other side of the drawbridge, in the courtyard, they could see ivy that was growing, gathered together in the shape of a cocoon.
There was a flash of light, and the cocoon opened up. And from within, appeared a woman who was half plant and half human. Her skin was a light green color, and she had hair that stretched down and connected to the ground.
“A floor boss, eh? …A dryad. Be prepared. You cannot pass without a fight.”
Sety said as she pulled out her short sword.
There was something insect-like and difficult to read about the dryad’s face. It looked like a fairy from Menew’s imagination. However, it took one look at Menew’s staff, and her eyes narrowed. And then, she moved out of the way.
To be precise, she cut herself from her roots, stepped on the ground with her feet, and turned her back to them while walking into the castle.
But before disappearing, she turned back at them.
“…Impossible! I’ve been in dungeons many times, but I never met a boss that you didn’t have to fight!?”
Sety said in confusion.
“Is this…Mr. Menew’s fault?”
“It usually is.”
Ralph answered Totto.
Menew lowered his staff and stepped forward towards the dryad, who looked like she wanted them to follow her.
“I don’t mind anything as long as we can reach the lowest floor… Ah, you wanted a Treant branch, right?”
He recalled as he looked at Totto. Menew then called for the dryad to stop, and he seemed to be negotiating with it.
As Sety stood on the bridge, frozen, Ralph patted her on the shoulder apologetically.
“Sorry about this. While you won’t get any experience, the journey will probably be easy.”
“If your party worked as dungeon escorts for one year, you would make enough money to live in luxury for the rest of your lives.”
They could write volumes of reports for investigating this city alone.
Not only did monsters not attack, but they even stepped out of the way and guided you ahead. They would be famous in no time, and the dungeon would be filled with researchers.
When Totto went over to Menew, the dryad was sharing some flowers and branches.
Sety and Ralph were watching from behind. But Ralph was looking at Sety uncertainly.
“…You know we have no intention of doing that.”
“I suppose. I shall be silent about this then. For my own safety.”
Sety replied mischievously. And Ralph sighed with a ‘I am grateful.’
“Still, you have it quite hard then. It must be nerve-wracking, looking after someone like that.”
Sety said while folding her arms. Ralph shrugged.
“Well, it’s quite fun as well.”
“You have a strange idea of fun.”
“You’ll get used to it.”
They joked, and then followed the others into the castle. There was no ceiling over the entrance hall, and they saw that it had been picked clean. Clearly, there would be little point in exploring the castle.
As for Totto, he had been buried in the mountain of materials that the dryad had offered, and Menew was frantically digging him out.
“Are you alright, Totto?”
“Y-yes… Is-is she really giving me all of this?”
“The dryad said that she uses dead Treants as nourishment. But these are not too old. Do you use the flowers for medicine?”
So now he can talk with monsters. Ralph thought. Sety whistled at the thought of money.
“Yes! Dryad flowers are very rare materials. You can sometimes find dried ones in the market. But with fresh flowers like these, I can make a lot of medicine!”
“What kind?”
“Most of them are for healing status effects. Some call it an all-purpose potion, but there is no point in using it on someone who is dying. Also, it doesn’t heal serious illnesses or petrification. Still, it is very useful.”
It could heal paralysis, poison, burns, frostbite, and small wounds.
While petrification changed the structure of your body into stone, other status effects were a reaction to something on the outside. So if it could heal them, then it made sense that it was considered to be an all-purpose potion.
Menew stored all of it in his pouch.
“We’ll share some with you when we get back, Sety.”
“Really?”
“If I have time, I can give it to you after it’s been processed.”
“Oh, I couldn’t ask you to do that. The materials alone will fetch a high price. I already feel more enthusiastic about this!”
Sety said, and she wanted to hurry on.
And so they continued to follow the dryad until they entered a great audience chamber.
But instead of a throne at the end, there was an opening and a staircase that led down.
“Is this the right place?”
Menew asked, and the dryad nodded.
“Thank you for everything. We’ll see you again.”
Menew said with a smile. And then he held a lantern up as he began to descend the steps.
Totto and Sety followed him, while Ralph took the rear.
“…While we intend to return as peacefully as possible…we would appreciate your help on the way back.”
Ralph said. And then he realized it was his first time speaking to a monster as well.
The dryad seemed to understand, as she laughed like some girl from a town.
‘Please come back safely.’
Ralph thought he heard her say. But when he turned around, there was no one there.
And so he continued to walk while following the three lanterns, which were now quite far ahead.