A Certain Middle-Aged Man’s VRMMO Activity Log - Chapter 54

Dungeon and Sentai Heroes? Part 2

We broke through the 2nd floor in an instant; somehow the next stairs are right there close by. This is also probably because of the randomness of luck and bad luck; we immediately descended to the 3rd floor.
After descending to the 3rd floor, proceeding while checking whether or not there were any traps, Green, who was clutching his spear, spoke up.

“Earth-san, is it ok to ask you a question? I know it’s generally considered taboo to investigate other people’s Skills, but is your Thief Skill over 20? To be honest, with all the traps before now, even without the Thief Skill we’ve been able to see through them by noting the somehow or other suspicious spots, but in this dungeon it would have been absolutely impossible to pass through with that sort of intuition.”

Fumu, if they’ve been to all sorts of places and dungeons, then of course they’ve probably had experience stepping on all sorts of traps; they’ll naturally be vigilant against places they think are suspicious because of that experience. But in this dungeon, that common sense doesn’t apply, huh … that’s why Red was going to step forward randomly at the beginning, not knowing that right in front of him a trap existed.

“I won’t tell you the exact number, but I assure you it’s over 20 yo.”

Anyway, he’s not wrong. It’s actually over 30, but letting them know that much wouldn’t be good.
… That means, this dungeon was designed so if you don’t have even 1 person who’s been diligently raising the Thief Skill, you won’t be able to proceed.
The me who actually has the Skill over 30 is able to spot the traps, and with releasing them, Thief Skill has been rising at a tremendous pace; I’d like to ask about the expectations they had with this sort of extreme difficulty setting.

“Chih-, we can’t rely on intuition; it will be difficult from here on, na …”

Blue bitterly clicked his tongue at the dungeon; it must be hard that they can’t use even a part of the intuition they’ve been cultivating up until now.

“Ne, I’d like you to tell me just one thing about what you think, na, Earth-san; about how much damage do you think the most outrageously dangerous trap you’ve seen would give?”

Pink asked this kind of question; even if it’s just a little bit, she probably wants more information. I decide that since I’ve joined their party, I can give out at least this much information.

“If we’re lucky, partial annhilation; if it goes bad, then I expect that we’ll be completely wiped out in one hit.”

To be honest, this estimation is based on the experience with Wither-○○○.1 It’s THAT kind of dangerous feeling I get that I’m making this assumption from. Of course it’s not all just conjecture; there have been many rooms with suspended ceilings2; those rooms are definitely dangerous with high risk traps planted there.
With that as my means of analysis, partial annihilation shouldn’t be wrong. A suspended ceiling alone makes it better to leave the room in a hurry; with traps to trip you up as you leave, that combo would really be The End.

It seems like every time there’s a suspended ceiling in a room, there will always be a trap installed as well. It’s a good example that makes you understand they’re seriously out to kill us.

“… No offense to Black, but without someone who can see through the traps you can’t avoid with just brains and tactician abilities alone, this would be impossible.”

Is what Red murmured.

―――――――――――――――――――

From the 3rd floor, the monsters have increased to include Wights and Soldier Skeletons, in addition to the Skeletons and Zombies. Wights are the physical-attacks-can’t-get-through-at-all ghost-type monsters; Soldier Skeletons are monsters with the special ability to cancel out magic with a fixed probability; to take out the Wights all in one go, Pink tried to shoot a Light Magic AOE attack, but the Soldier Skeletons cancelled out that magic, confirming that they have the special ability to cancel out magic with some fixed probability.

But, with these Heroes splitting them up, they aren’t really much of an opponent, since with a smash they properly send the Solder Skeletons’ bones flying; the Wights are destroyed one after another with Pink’s Light Magic, Blue’s Water Magic, and my own newly learned Wind-Blown Hunting Bow’s Arts, the Wind-Blown3 Arrow.
The Wind-Blown Arrow is a fusion Art that wraps an arrow in Wind elemental magic; because it has magic attack power, it can be used against the Wights. I can finally be considered a magic attacker now that I’ve come to learn magic-bow user-like Arts.
Of course the Fairies near the Heroes also fought; they helped eliminate the monsters.

Well maa, there are no problems on the battle front, and fortunately we also managed to release or avoid the traps, and we’ve also acquired a lot of money and equipment around, but we just can’t find the stairs on the 3rd floor.
Even though we were able to quickly pass through the 2nd floor, like this the time we saved will only disappear … we’re mapping the floor while we look, but in the end the time it took us to finally find the stairs was over 20 minutes. Right now the time we’ve used is 40 minutes … in an instant it was decided that, no matter how we struggled, the 10th floor is impossible.

For now, every member switched our course to make it to the 5th floor at least and descended to the 4th flower… the moment I descended a cold feeling ran up my spine. This VR, right…!?
It was like feeling the hand of the grim reaper caressing me … but, I think there’s no mistake in this premonition; Red and the others just say, “This floor feels weird.” It has the atmosphere like it would be better to move with that amount of urgency.

— That hunch was correct. As we continued the exploration, we discovered a large area that we wouldn’t have thought existed in this dungeon; but because it’s, frankly, a suspicious area, nobody from our group wants to enter since we think there are traps, but … when we continue to the front of the door to check it out anyway, from the other side of the door, “If anyone can hear us, please help-!!” we can hear another player’s agonized voice.

The “those who refuse cries for help aren’t Heroes” Red kicked in the door and charged in. The other members of our party stayed around the door; they want to help save the other players, but … unexpectedly the door closed all on its own.
There’s 1 trap when the door shuts on its own and traps you inside that requires you to finish the quest inside or else you can’t come out. At this time, when you charge into this room, it turns out to be a trap where you have to destroy all the monsters inside or you can’t come out. Like this, in order to follow Red and destroy the monsters, all of us proceed to charge inside. Inside is a large number of undead monsters and a disheveled party of 6 people, whose situation you can easily tell at a glance.

The number of undead monsters isn’t normal; it’s an amount that will clearly overwhelm 1 party. They probably entered because they thought a room of this size should have some treasure … but in reality it was a Monster House. I wonder if the reason for the cold was this Monster House?

Red heads the assault, while Green follows and cleaves through and Yellow sends them flying. Blue and Pink heal the other party, then return to the fight.
Since I’m checking for the presence of traps, I shoot mainly at Wights with my bow. Even though Wights are weak, they can still use Dark Magic and can put abnormal states on you, so I get rid of them as quickly as I can to support the vanguards.
The number of monsters is great, but with the participation of the overwhelmingly strong Heroes, the momentum of the battle was completely on the side of the players. The other 6 person party that was about to collapse stood up again after being healed; they joined the battle, and the complete destruction of the monsters was a success.

[Clear] in blood-spattered letters floated overhead, and I think the door’s been released so we can go outside. At the same time a single treasure chest was placed into the center of the room.
But … I, who has the Thief Skill, know; that treasure chest is this room’s last trap present.

“Oo, a treasure chest came out!”
The other party is quite thrilled; I know the ability to quickly about-face from almost being annihilated is an adventurers strong point, but … and the man who seems to be the party’s leader draws nearer to us.

“You really saved us; to think we would get reinforcements in this dungeon. You have our thanks for saving us from annihilation.”

That thanks was honestly stated, and Red gave a “We just did what we had to do,” Hero-like response. While watching the conversation go back and forth, 1 of the members of the other party suddenly sees the treasure chest and drew near it …  in a panic I yelled at him.

“Stop, don’t touch that treasure chest! That treasure chest is a trap!”

At that sudden yell, his movement stopped.

“Is your guys’ party trying to monopolize it?”

The player who had drawn close to it expressed his dissatisfaction.

“We have no such intentions; we’re going to leave immediately, and we have no intentions of touching that treasure chest.  If you have to open it no matter what, would you at least let all the members of our party leave the room before opening it?”

Facing the player who wants to open it while saying that, I operated the party-exclusive chat.

[“Leader Red. We should immediately leave this room. I, with my Thief Skill, am giving you a warning about that treasure chest; out of all the traps we’ve seen until now, that one is giving me the most dangerous feeling of them all; I want to leave right away!”]

The response was immediately returned, [“Understood; we will respect your judgment.”]
Red faced the other party …

“Then, we will excuse ourselves. Feel free to do with that treasure chest as you wish, we don’t mind.”

So saying, he then calls out, “Then, let’s be off,” to the party. All members hurried to get out of the room and take some distance; it was then that I finally gave a sigh of relief.

“And, so what the heck was that danger?”

Is what came from Blue.

“That room most likely has 2 big traps set up, is what I’m thinking; the first one is to get caught in the Monster House and killed, and the other is …”

When I had said that much, the door that had just been opened suddenly slammed shut with some force. … Like I though, huh?

“And the other way is, death by human greed. In other words, that treasure chest look-alike is put out, and it activates when it’s opened. In other words, the room itself is turned into a death trap.”

There’s lots of that in horror stories, na; touch something weird and escape becomes impossible, and it’s The End. Even though it’s a game, I don’t have any interest in listening to agonizing death cries; I gave them a warning, but if they ignore it, it can’t be helped … Let’s think about these somewhat unbearable feelings I have towards the room afterwards.

Because the Monster House took some time, here the 1 hour has expired. Because of this, my first Challenge from the Dead’s dungeon attack ended in forced departure due to running out of time.

SKILLS
[Wind-Blown Hunting Bow]Lv7 ↑2UP
[Kicking Assault]Lv17
[Farsight]Lv47

[Craftsmanship]Lv50
[Small Shield]Lv 3
[Stealth]Lv38
[Physical Ability Reinforcement]Lv22 ↑1UP
[Thief]Lv43 ↑4UP
[Whip]Lv34
[Fairy Language]Lv99 (Forced Acquisition) (Unable to be moved to Reserved Skills)

Reserved Skills
[Woodworking]Lv33
[Blacksmithing]Lv38
[Alchemy]Lv40
[Advanced Cookin]Lv1

ExP 9

Titles Possessed:  The One who Charmed Even the Fairy Queen, The One who Defeated a Great Foe Alone

His second name from other players is “The Fairy Queen’s Husband-san”

A/N: Challenge from the Dead special rules:
Fundamentally it’s an individual party MO area, but after 3 floors you are merged with another party.
The merge is only for that floor; after going downwards you are split up again.
When meeting, whether you can get along, or whether you can’t get along, is also random; the devs’ tendency towards harassment has come out.