Chapter-11 · EP-180

Episode 180: Crossroads

"Well, which way should we go…?"

As I stood imposingly in the middle of the crossroads, pondering which path to take, Mei chimed in from behind.

"We can just go through all of them one by one."

That was certainly true. It wasn't like we could only go down one path.

Just in case, I used Presence Detection on all three paths, but I didn't sense anything from any of them.

"Maybe there aren't any monsters either…"

"Is that so?"

Hikaru reacted to my mutter.

"You're not going to say there was no Skill Orb after all, are you?"

Mei, still suspicious, glared at me.

"No, nothing's decided yet. Let's just try going. Alright, let's start with the right path."

With me again in the lead, we advanced down the passage.

I was in front, Hikaru in the middle, and Mei at the back.

That way, if an enemy appeared from behind, Mei could handle it.

But that slight worry turned out to be unnecessary. Without encountering any monsters, we reached a small, open room.

It was a circular, empty space.

"Nothing here…?"

I stepped into the room. Then, a slime oozed out of the center of the floor.

What was different was that the slime was green.

"A slime?"

"Wait, Ichinose-san, the color is different. I'll use Analysis."

Hikaru used her skill.

But before that, I already knew. Normal slimes are pale blue. And when you think of green slimes…

"It's a Poison Slime!"

Hikaru, after analyzing, immediately said its name.

Poison Slimes are poisonous slimes that appear on the eleventh floor of dungeons in the Tokyo area. If it appears on the first floor, it should be weaker than the ones on the eleventh floor. But the biggest problem is that it has poison.

"Young lady, stay back!"

I had antidote and had fought poisonous monsters before, but it was too much for Hikaru and Mei. Poison is dangerous.

My tension transmitted to the two, and they held back without trying to step forward.

I advanced toward the Poison Slime.

The Poison Slime also slithered toward me.

Its movement was far faster than the sluggish movement of a normal slime.

But not as fast as an Acid Slime.

I calmly landed the first strike.

Smack! Ripples spread across its surface.

One hit wasn't enough to kill it!

I quickly landed a second hit, then dodged, moving out of its path.

Thinking that touching it would poison me, I was extremely cautious.

The Poison Slime, having passed me, went a short distance and stopped, then turned around and came back toward me.

I hit it with another two-strike combo, and this time it vanished.

The Poison Slime's gem seemed slightly larger than a normal slime's.

"…Is it over?"

Mei, who had been watching worriedly, called out.

"Yeah, no problem."

"Did you get poisoned?"

"No."

Hikaru also offered a word of concern. The battle was surprisingly anticlimactic.

Wondering what monster might come next, I looked around without letting my guard down, but it seemed there had only been that one; nothing else appeared.

"It seems there was only one monster. I wonder if there's any other treasure…"

This was my first time exploring an unexplored area, but how do you find treasure? Is there a treasure chest? Or is it just lying on the ground…?

We searched the room thoroughly, but found nothing of note.

"This room seems to be a miss."

When I muttered, Mei replied.

"Then let's go back to the fork and take the next path."

"Yeah, yeah…"

We trudged back to the crossroads and took the next path.

This was the front path. We went back from the right path and then turned right again.

Advancing, we came out into another similar small room.

Worried that a monster like the Poison Slime might appear, I carefully stepped into the room.

Looking around, moving slowly and quietly.

There was no sign of anything appearing in the center of the room. I turned around, scanning the entire room to see if any slime might come out from a crevice in the wall. The ceiling wasn't very high, and there were no slimes crawling on it.

"It looks like there's nothing here."

At Mei's words, I also relaxed my guard.

"This room seems to be a miss. So that means the last one, the left path, is the correct one."

I said with a smug look, but the two weren't looking at me.

…Well, fine.

We returned once more to the crossroads and proceeded down the last path, the left one.

Advancing down the passage, it was also a small room.

There was no sign of a Skill Orb.

As I slowly entered the room, a pale blue object appeared from the center.

It was one we'd seen to the point of boredom on this floor. A normal slime.

I slowly swung my iron sword down.

The slime vanished in an instant, the feeling of the sword making contact barely noticeable.

All that remained in the room was the Magic Gem the slime had dropped.

We looked around the room.

It was Mei who broke the silence.

"So, Ichinose… where's the Skill Orb?"

"…Huh?"