This chapter is finally a good chapter in other words not much of the tense c.r.a.pand this chapter is made possible thanks to the donation by On Thai Ann. He alone gave me $50.the leechers rejoice with this extra chapter. Dayyum you guys get 4 chapters in just 2 days. Holy c.r.a.p!

Chapter 13 Secret of Wall Paintings

Seiino!! [ET: Sorry, but there is no proper english word for this.]

The fist strikes a monster while making a dull *Bakii* sound. Eventually, the monster dies with just one punch.

The demon is not the monkey from before, but a wolfy-bearhow should I put it, its appearance is that of a small bear with the head of a wolf. It has red eyes and brown hair. It looks like the mane of a horse.

Its not fast like those monkeys but it does has quite an amount of power. According to Elk this is called as Little Beast.

Its really strange

Elk murmurs while seeing me killing the Little Beast just now.

Strange?by any chance, this guy also doesnt appear here?

Yeah. They live in deepest parts of lower floors. And they are on this first floor

Thats right.

Right after kicking the a.s.ses of those Mad Monkeys (by alone), I heard from Elk that the dungeon is going through an abnormal phenomenon.

This dungeon, Labyrinth of Naga is an ancient ruin starting from ground floor to 6 floors underground. In total it is of 7 floors.

And either the floor itself or somewhere inside the floor are the demons territories. And it naturally distributes weaker demons from stronger demons, which is convenient for adventurers.

There is a food chain made up inside, and due to that there is rarely any change in the distribution.

According to Elk, right now that Distribution is strange.

For example, on the first floor and near entrance only low-levelled Goblin, Rabbit and Wolf appear which rookie adventurer can kill for training.

If they are unfortunate, they will meet up with the Spider which I fought against yesterday or a Black Wolf nothing else.

The more floors you descend youll meet up with more powerful demons or so is the distribution system.

Like, a Scorpion about the size of a dog.

or giant c.o.c.kroaches called as Roach which prefer darkness and crawl super fast.

or flame throwing lizards called as Red Lizard

The Little Beast I just defeated is the most dangerous of them all. Normally, they only appear in the lowest floor. Many say that a rookie cant do anything in front of it.

And that right nowattacked us on the first floor.

This is obviously abnormal. I cant help but think that something is occurring here.

Though Im curious to know the reason for this abnormal situation, but as they say its foolish to deliberately poke a sleeping snake. And so the principle that says Let the sleeping dog lie is important here!

And just like Elk said, I decide to leave here as soon as possible.

I tried tobut due to the demons appearing here and there we cant move as we want.

Well, I can kick their a.s.ses if I was alone but right now there is Elk with me.

I have to fight while protecting her.

And so we are roaming here and there to find the route with monsters that are not much fast.

Even so, there are still monsters like the previous one.

While Im thinking that, Elk is tearing off the useful parts of the Little Beast,

This guys is a rank C? I had only saw it in doc.u.ments beforeif guys like this are loitering here then all the rookie adventurers will be killed.

Hmm, now this is an abnormal situation.

C, huh. This is great.

A goblin is E, the monkeys from before are D and this one even one rank above it.

From what Ive heard, Elks rank is E and her friends are also E and D. Even if they all work together, it will be difficult to survivethis is something even I can understand.

By the way, this demon

Hey Elk, I found it strange when fighting the monkey from before too

? What happened?

Most of these guys are thin?

Let it be the monkeys or this bear-ish (tearing off completed) thing.

Its like their bodily fluids have been sucked out. It seems like they have too less amount of meat according to their body sizeyeah, as if its due to malnutrition.

Elk says that she hasnt see them so she doesnt know about their physique. But if its like what Im feeling

They lost to some other demon in a fight and came here after losing their place to live, maybe?

Nothat cant be. In the first place, this guy is the most strong demon in this dungeon. Others are Mad Monkeys and Statue only

So its impossible to imagine a demon who can defeat them, present in this dungeon, eh

Ah, the Statue is a demon with a body of stone statue and it moves. It mostly appears in historic ruins. Its rank is D.

But, its only logical if I think about itNh?

I just heard something

? What? Scream of demons?

No, this is coming from before.

I already had good ear and after enhancing my hearing ability along with other senses, I can hear things that Elk cant. So its only natural for Elk have a ? float above her head.

The scream of demons are pretty far right now.

But just for one second I did hear it

The sound of something really big crawling.

I walk while worrying about it and reach a place which is really s.p.a.cious.

Its area is about the gymnasium of an elementary school, no, a little small?

This labyrinth is pretty big and there a lot of places which are s.p.a.cious but this one just somehow seems too much s.p.a.cious.

And in front of us are numerous corridors. Well this is the so called corridor junction place. Pretty cliche.

This place is underground so its cool and refres.h.i.+ng. Air is flowing here from somewhere. This is s.p.a.cious so there is no locked-up feeling here. If you just be careful from demons then this place quite a pleasant place.

Only youre the one who saysthat its pleasant in a dungeon where demons are roaming in crowds.

Oh, I see.

But, this really is more pleasant that I expected. Its s.p.a.cious, its not much humid so there is no need to worry about moss acc.u.mulating here and this place doesnt has any weird smell.

When I once again think about, its does pique my interest. This dungeon is dark and underground then why doesnt this place has any humidity? Is there any drainage system here?

I casually ask about it to Elk,

Yeah, that is because the rock walls here are made of volcanic ash.

Volcanic ash?

Yeah. There is a volcano near this dungeon. Right now there is no danger of it erupting, butlong ago it was an active volcano. And when the volcanic ash piled up after it erupting, it was used to make rocks and it is the ingredient used in making this dungeon. Thats why the drainage is good.

While hearing Elks story, I surveyed this s.p.a.cious room.

I see, so this all is made of volcanic ash.

In my previous world, volcanic ash was white, I think, well this is another world with magic and swords. It wont help me thinking about these things.

Well, now that volcano has also stopped its activities so, there is nothing to worry

Just wait!?

(A volcano near this place?)

My mind grasped something inside the words spoken by Elk in a nonchalant manner.

The things that are coming to my mind arevarious sorts of information that Ive gotten a hold of, after coming here.

There is a dormant volcano near here which used to erupt long ago.

Recently, there have been earthquakes and a part of dungeon collapsed.

The monsters who should be on lower floor are on upper floor and are thin.

Andthe wall painting of snake.

Er, Elk, I need to ask about something?

Eh, what is it?

Do demons, hibernate?

Hibernate? Well there are those who do. There are also those who hibernate for 1 whole year instead of just hibernating during the time of winter. Is something wrong with that?

So then, do you think this hypothesis is true?

I take a deep breath and,

Long ago, and that so, really long ago, this volcano was near here right? Naturally, the climate wouldve been really hotunlike right now.

In general places like cave or underground water areas are places where sunlight doesnt reach and are a lot cooler than the places where sunlight falls on. Then this historic ruin is not an exception from that.

But, if there is a volcano near, then its another talk.

This place where magma falls, it wouldve been more than enough to somewhat warm up the ground of the dungeon. And if it was an active volcano then all the more.

? Well thats true. So then?

After the volcano stopped erupting then the ground temperature fell down and the dungeon became cool and refres.h.i.+ng as it is right now. And that so, even before adventurers started entering this dungeon.

Yeah, well that is true. Ive heard that guild investigated here after the active volcano became a dormant volcano.

I see, then

What if, by any chance.

What if a monster hibernated due to the decline in ground temperature andthat monster woke up due to the earthquakes happening recently?

Eh?

From what Ive heard, it seems like due to the earthquakes the bedrock broke apart which was quite st.u.r.dy.

And all of a sudden an undiscovered treasure room made its debut appearance.

Its possible thatnot only the treasure room made its debut appearance.

And that monster is very ferocious and strong that it eats the monkeys and bear-ish monstersYeah, for example

And then I punch the wall painting of the snake made on the wall beside me.

Asnakelike this

Immediately after,

SFX: ZuriZuriZuri (Crawl)

-!?

I hear it!

This time I clearly hear it.

The sound of something approaching us at a really fast speed.

Er, Minato?

Elk asks me after hearing my reasoning and after hearing the crawling soundwhile making an expression as if she understood the situation immediately, or rather her face is saying that she was made to understand the situation.

Her face turns pale and her legs start quivering along with her face saying Please say that what Im thinking is wrong.

Its ajoke, right?

Why dont you ask it from the guy behind us?

Immediately we turn our face back,

and it is the superb timing that it made its appearance before us, while coming from the other side of darkness.

The thing that appeared before us is a Snake.

The same d.a.m.ned snake whose artistic paintings are made all over the walls of this labyrinth.

Its more thick than a log and its skin is like an armor that can outs.h.i.+ne other armors sold at shops and its length is about 15 metresrather than calling it a snake its like a dinosaur type of big serpent.

Its like that anaconda which I saw in hollywood movies in my previous life. The impact from seeing it up front is out of this worlds measuring machine. Yeah.

No doubt it. This guys is the reason for all the abnormal situation.

(POV changes to Elk)

(Whatis that!?)

I switched my eyes between the faces of Minato and that Snake repeatedly and fell down as if the power from my legs has been lost.

AhEh!?

My voice wont come out. I cant put any power in my legs.

I absolutely cant do anything against the demon which is not a normal demon.

I cant even move my own body.

I cant put power in my legs, I cant stand up. I cant run.

Now that Ive lost power in my legs and sat down, I can do nothing but only wait for death to come.

The ground under my b.u.t.t, is getting wet and warm.

Looks like I have peed.

But there is no time left for me to even feel embarra.s.sed about it.

Even after Minato sees me, I dont feel any speck of embarra.s.sment, nothing at all. I dont care about that.

I realized that I dont even have time to think carefully after my sub-consciousness speaks in my mind Youre going to die in the end.

I dont have any chance of being saved in front of this demon.

And even if my legs could move, this guy is so large that its obvious it will catch me easily.

And I can already imagine myself becoming a prey to that guys big mouth.

I am peeing and crying too.

I lost all my hope while being in that miserable state.

SFX: ZuriZuriZuri(Crawl)

Most probably, it sensed that I dont have any intention to run. The big serpent came towards me slowly without hurrying.

Slowly that face, fangs, eyes and everything that will lead me to my Death is approaching towards me.

SFX: ZuriZuriZuri(Crawl) [ET: *snaps*nfm;lisadgtoe hdrghoisg;kohdjo;ihdt]

The sound of it crawling near me reaches my ears. It is gradually becoming larger.

Not just its appearance but also with the sound of it approaching me is enough to instill fear in me.

I cant move, cant resist, but Im still scared,

My heartbeat becomes faster and I can properly hear it,

I cant stop my tears, my body is quivering, and my teeths are already chattering.

I am sure that Im looking really miserable right now, but I

I

SFX: Hyuu (Flying sound)

Eh?

Suddenly, I feel like my body is floating in mid-air.

Immediately after,

I landed near the wall on the opposite side of the snake and now the distance between us quite a lot.

I land there while being held by Minato in his arms.

A second later, I realize that I reached here while being held by Minato.

Within just one second, we distanced ourselves from the snake to an unbelievable extent.

After seeing Minato from up closeI understand that in contrast to me, Minato is quite calm even after seeing that scary devil demon.

Minato puts me on the floor gently,

Stay behind, Elk. or rather, dont move from here.

Minato separates his eye from me and stands straight,

and then starts walking towards the snake while scowling at it.

For a second, it looked like the snake became bewildered. Its natural, after all, even the snake wouldnt have predicted it.

That a human will,

A person from the frail race which is small and weak than him is not having any speck of fear or shock like me and is standing in front of him br.i.m.m.i.n.g with the expectation to fight it.

Well thenfinally someone I can fight to my hearts content made its appearance?