Dungeon Menagerie 29

Commissioned by InfiniteChaosRei

Dungeon Menagerie

Chapter 29

-VB-

The deeper they dove into the Dungeon, the slower their progress became. 

It wasn’t just because it was becoming harder to kill monsters. The difference between half a second to a second and a half per monster was still only a second. However, what really slowed them down was the Dungeon’s layout itself. 

Since none of them had any sensory abilities, they had to manually find the stairs down in the changing maze.

If it was just the changing maze, then it might not have been too bad.

But the thick fog in the lower Upper Floors on top of the changing maze meant that even at their fastest, they were half-blind as they explored and slaughtered. 

However, it was a slaughter that was quickly proving to be too tedious. 

Vanessa knew instinctively that most of the magic stones she saw would not be enough to save Chrysalismon. He needed a lot more and of higher quality. Shoving a bunch of low quality magic stones might hurt him, even if it might fix the Void infection. 

She came to a skidding stop, transferred all of her weight up as she twisted her hips, and slung her spear. 

It shrieked as it tore through the mist and - thunk - landed on the faint outline of a monster she spotted only a second ago. 

She used the whole body throw to transition into a forward roll, got back up, and pulled her sword out. 

There was a thump behind her as she noticed Mori using his “special,” and many of the monsters swarming in front of her died as ropes came down from above their heads, hooked their necks, and swung them up.

And as they came back down after being sent flying, the rope tightened and snapped all of their necks in a chilling cacophony of death. 

As they killed the last of the monsters… something happened.

Something so horrible to her that she didn’t have a word for it.

---

Too fast! 

Vanessa and Mori were strong! And fast! 

As the monsters started getting stronger the deeper they went, they didn’t slow down at all. In fact, he couldn’t keep up with them at times because of how fast they were. Because he and Lili were too weak. Because of them, Mori and Vanessa had to slow down. 

It might have been better if … if he hadn’t shown up to help.

He shook his head, making Lili look at him funny. ‘No, I can’t think like that. I have to think about how I can do better,’ he thought as he ran after Vanessa. He noticed an orc trying to flank her, and he immediately jumped in after dropping his backpack. 

The orc saw him come, and tried to smash him out of the air. 

Instead, Bell grabbed the giant club as it came down, spun around it to boost himself higher, and smashed his feet into the orc’s head horizontally. 

The orc roared but he was still attacking. With his shortsword, he stabbed into the orc’s throat with the same momentum of the kick and then kicked off of the orc’s face. 

He fumbled in the air for a bit before landing on both of his feet safely. He let out a sigh of relief, not having been sure beforehand that his attack would have worked, but as he saw the orc falling backward, he knew he’d done it. 

Bell saw Vanessa glancing at him, and she gave him a thumbs-up.

He grinned. 

He was helping! 

---

Lili sighed as she stared at Mister Bell running off.

“Squawk.”

She flinched and looked up at the … “monster.” Having seen how the ugly piglet was “summoned’ to this world, she knew that “Mori” wasn’t a normal monster anymore. 

But that didn’t make her feel better; it made her feel even less secure. 

Adventurers knew what monsters were like. They wanted to kill humans and gods alike. 

Mori was not a monster.

Mori was not a tamed monster.

Mori, a “beast” that can stomp his foot and kill dozens of monsters that Bell would need a lot of time and effort to kill, was not something she could predict. 

… Chauky was the weirdo. It (she?) was even more predictable than the monsters. She did what Vanessa asked her to, ate any kind of food, and rolled around when not carrying luggage or fighting monsters. 

So Vanessa scared her a little, because for her to dive so recklessly into the Dungeon for the sake of “tamed” “friends” who she couldn’t have been with for more than half a year? Whatever was allowing her to summon them was messing with her mind like Soma did. 

And the thought that she would inevitably meet them more often because Mister Bell wanted to didn’t make her happy at all. 

But she would go along with it. For now. 

However, if it ever looked like Vanessa was going off the deep end like everyone had in Soma Familia…

Then … she would need to do something. Anything.

Hestia Familia could not be allowed to be poisoned. 

… Where did that green pig go?

-VB-

“Jesus,” someone muttered as they followed the trail of bodies.

And it was a trail of bodies because not all monsters their targets killed were harvest of their magic stone and other loot.

A few of their number already got their hands on goblin claws, not a particularly common loot but still valuable for being worth the same as Middle Floor magic stones. 

“Focus on the mission,” Deften snapped at another adventurer who had tried to sneak over to harvest an orc’s magic stone. “We’re here to kill the tamed monsters, the girls, and bring that fuckboy back up.”

Renges grunted from behind him. “We know. Just … when are they going to run out of stamina, damn it?” he hissed. 

Deften looked ahead. Far ahead of them, too far for most to even see especially through the fog of the lower Upper Floors, were their targets. Those three had rampaged across the Upper Floors in a near suicidal dive towards the Middle Floors. He couldn’t believe that they were a bunch of Level 1’s!

Well, he wouldn’t have believed it if he didn’t see that black feathered tamed monster bird. It was the reason why they were so good at killing.

It needed to be the first thing they killed, because if they didn’t, then there was a good chance they might get killed in return.

If the reward for this job was a bottle of Soma, then he wouldn’t have done this at all.

Too dangerous.

But for a bottle of Soma?

He’d so much more.

Prrrttt…

All of them froze and looked towards the center of their group.

One of them had just stepped on something round and green that had been stuck in a crevice.

“What the fuck-?” Renges muttered.

And then the thing screamed.

“SQUEAAAAALLLLLLLLL~!!!!!”

“Kill it!” Deften hissed. 

The same woman who stepped on it drew her dagger out and stabbed. 

It didn’t die.

It struggled and squealed even though it was stuck!

And it just got louder.

So loud, in fact, that he was starting to get pissed. It was going to blow their cover! 

Renges growled as he stalked over, pushed the woman away, drew his pickaxe, and struck down.

The pickaxe pierced through its skin, muscle, and bone, splattering dark green blood everywhere. 

Finally, it stopped squealing. 

“Fucking hell,” Renges grunted before glaring at the rest of the group. “Watch where you’re stepping, idiots!” 

Deften was about to say something … when the sound of combat ahead stopped. 

Hair across his body rose up in alarm.

He whirled around and realized they had been too slow.

They got spotted.