I heard from Mei-chan that when she was in Souma Party, Takanashi gained the map of the area by using the altar's function.
Apparently, the altar we discovered this time was exactly the same kind.
「Amazing, both inside and outside areas of the dungeon is equally vast…」
The altar emitted a pale, magical glow and displayed 3D geographical map right before my eyes, reminiscent of a sci-fi hologram.
This phenomenon was obviously different from what happened with Takanashi back then, but it was likely because she intentionally disabled the holographic map display, making the map information visible only to herself. At that point, sharing the information with her companion would have put her at a disadvantage.
「Damn, with this much information at my disposal, I could easily sit back and act like a spectator.」
I looked at the map for a while, and after confirming the function of the altar, I called Kyouko and Hayama-kun.
「Well, this is the map of this area.」
「Wo~w, this really gives the vibe of ancient ruin's magic!」
Hayama-kun was visibly excited seeing the large 3D map projected from the altar before him, while Kyouko, though not as much, joined him in waving their hands through the holographic projection.
It seemed to be projecting the hologram using some kind of light magic, so it was only natural that she couldn't touch it..
「Do you see that flickering red dot? That's our current location.」
There were several other red glowing dots as well, which likely indicated the locations of other altars.
「So this blue square is the entrance of the dungeon.」
「I don't understand something like that, Momokawa.」
「Is there some sort of explanation to that altar?」
「There’s no explanation or anything, but if you compare it to the places we’ve been through so far, you can pretty much figure it out.」
「Do you remember the path we passed until now, Hayama?」
「I'm a man who never looks back. What about you, Randou?」
「I'm the type who can't read ma~ps.」
Kyouko was grinning without a hint of guilt as she said that. Well, it didn't really matter as long as Kotaro was in charge of these things.
I didn't really mind being relied upon by them, but I think both of them could pay a bit more attention to this kind of thing. Watching those two carefree souls, I couldn't help but worry about them. s
「Anyway, that's how it is, so the map for the area ahead has been mostly revealed. By the way, this purple square here is the boss room.」
「Oh, ain't that mean the boss area is right next to us?」
Hayama-kun might be better at reading maps than Kyouko, as Hayama-kun pointed to the boss room mark that's closest to our current location.
Indeed, if we passed through this forest dome and continued a bit further, we would inevitably reach the route leading to the boss room.
The monsters that appeared around here were mainly skeletons, so it was safe to assume that the boss would be a large skeleton. I heard that Tendou-kun and Nakajima-kun each defeated a Large Skeleton as their first boss.
「What about the area after this?」
「Properly speaking, not even I can predict where we're going to be sent to after using the teleportation function in the boss room, but I'm still trying to see if we can do something about that.」
I pointed at the area in the map that stretched far from the boss room.
「Isn't that outside of the dungeon?」
「Probably, if we go around the outside ————Going through this entrance here might be a shortcut.」
「Eh, seriously? How did you know about that?」
Before answering Kyouko's simple question, I touched the altar and fiddled with it a bit.
The key is to have a clear focus on the point you want to highlight. The operation of this altar seemed to rely on magical power and automatically read the user's intent.
Whether it was reading brainwaves or something along those lines through advanced techniques or some form of telepathy, either way, once you got the hang of it, it’s an extremely convenient method of operation.
「You saw something written on this blue entrance mark, right?」
「Yeah, it kinda looked like garbled text.」
「This is an ancient language, right? I can't read it since I've never participated in study groups.」
That’s right. When I consulted about ancient language with Class Rep, Shimokawa-kun, Himeno-san, and even Sakura-chan as an extra. Randou-san blatantly avoided it. She must have sensed the hint of studying and ran off.
Well, everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. I wouldn't force it.
「The ones over there read as 『Magical Power』『Density』『Environment』『４』.」
Thanks to Yamajun's note, I could read some parts of the words or letters that could be read with 『Ancient Language Decoding・Beginner』, and from guessing by observing Takanashi.
That’s why, even though I could understand the meaning of individual words, I couldn’t read it as a coherent sentence.
However, I could guess the complete sentence with those words.
「The "magical power density environment" can essentially be thought of as equivalent to the dungeon's difficulty level.」
Once again, when I returned to the nearest boss room marker and zoomed in on it, the same sequence of words appeared, with only the final number written in ancient script representing the number 『１』.
「Starting from 1, the difficulty increases as the numbers go up. Therefore, the number 4 means that the area is at least three areas ahead in terms of difficulty..」
The impressed Hayama-kun seemed to have given up on understanding it. Try a little harder, young man.
「This is just a guess, but I think the wasteland where Yamata-no-Orochi is located is around density level 4 or 5. And the deepest area, where our destination, the Heavenly Gate, is located, is obviously the area with the highest magical power density.」
In other words, if we enter from a high-difficulty area like density level 4 or 5, it would put us closer to the deepest part… Or at least, that was my assumption.
「To be honest, I don't think we can catch up with everyone if we go by the proper route.」
「Well, that's true. So long as Souma is still over there, we shouldn't have trouble moving forward.」
「If we go by the normal route, it might be too late, and Takanashi would have achieved her goal by the time we arrive at the Heavenly Gate.」
In her plan, by the final escape stage, she and Souma-kun would be the only ones remaining. By then, she would pull out all stops to eliminate all classmates, including Sakura-chan.
She might prepare another powerful boss or try to kill them with poison again.
「Up until now, I thought I had no other choice but to keep going as is, but if there's a chance to take a shortcut, I want to bet on it.」
「Then do as you wish, Kotaro. I'm with you.」
「Yeah, Momokawa, all their lives are a priority, right? No need to hesitate.」 Follow current novels on Nove1Fire.net
「Thank you for your support, guys.」
「It's not a big deal… More like the fact that you're deliberately asking us shows that you're being sincere with us, right?」
「Well, something along that way.」
Pulling me close like that, Kyoko really did understand my personality, after all.
After all, the two of them couldn’t read the map or the ancient language. Even if I silently went ahead with the shortcut plan, they had no choice but to follow along without knowing anything.
Taking that into account, I properly explained everything before holding a poll as a reflection of my desire not to deceive my two comrades.
「Since it has been decided, let's start the preparation.」
「Do we still need to prepare something?」
「Take a look at this place.」
And so, I pointed to the route that went around the outside of the dungeon, which we would be taking from now on.
Beyond that lay a vast expanse of the forested area, just as always, and…
「This area has quite a high-altitude mountain.」
In short, it was the time to prepare for crossing the mountain.
Since we’ve come this far, I decided to go ahead with the boss fight.
「Uooo, the skeleton is hugeeee!」
As expected, the boss monster that appeared was a giant skeleton. It was nearly twice the height of a normal skeleton, and naturally, the thickness of its bones was on a completely different level too.
As if that wasn't bad enough, it was equipped with a boorish-looking greatsword.
To be honest, for someone who had only been defeating skeletons along the way, Hayama-kun might have a hard time when suddenly confronting this kind of enemy.
「As expected of a boss monster, it's really got this intimidating presence… Kinako, Beniwo, let’s get fired up and go!」
「Victory goes to the first striker『Terra Fortis Sagita(Rock Spear)』!」
Thus, the skeleton boss exploded to pieces after being struck by Kyouko's advanced magic with a resounding BOOM!.
Well, time to retrieve the boss's core and leave this dungeon.
「…. What's the matter?」
「That sword looks like it is made from valuable metals, so let's take it with us. Help me carry it.」
「Don't you have anything else to say?! We came here ready to face the boss!」
「Whether you like it or not, you'll eventually have to face life-or-death battles. As long as you can take it easy, it's better to do so.」
My first CN project, why waifu though? Well, coz the main heroine's job is buying soy sauce till the end of act 1
Harem, Hero, Demon King, Seven Deadly Sin, Seven Virtue, Sacred Beast, Sword and Magic, Dystopian Future, DESTINY PROJECT HAD IT REALIZED!, Dungeon, Dragon, 72 Demons, Reincarnations
===TN: Those Who Can't Wait For more Jil-kun's, I've Uploaded Advance chapters in Fox<–HERE and in (cheaper 10/$10) with a paywall of course===
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