Magical★Explorer-Chapter 61: Twilight Grotto 1

For the girls to capture the beginner dungeon without me, I made them a simple guide and gave them some combat advise. Afterward, they left to capture the beginner dungeon again by themselves, since they are aiming to get all the skills they can get there, they will probably dive in three more times

Later, I pondered about the dungeons that I would want to dive into first before I challenge the Tsukuyomi dungeon and came up with three candidates. The three dungeons are the place that you can challenge after you beat the beginner dungeon in Magiero. They are places that I think even the current me can capture.

Considering what I want to do in the future and its difficulty being the easiest, the place I want to capture first is……gotta be this one.

“It’s here right…..? No, there’s a mark that looked like a magic circle here too, This should be the place right?”

I can’t help but get anxious. 𝒇𝑟𝐞𝐞w𝐞𝑏𝙣𝑜vℯl.co𝑚

Comparing the field map from my memory and the map from this world, the place that I found is a stone altar covered in grasses and two stone pillars. Placed on top of one of the pillars is a stone imitating the shape of the sun, while the pillar itself is being entwined with ivies.

“But everything was covered in dirt and there’s no other suspicious place around here, the only possible place is this one.”

I found something like a magic circle on the altar but I don’t know whether it will be able to activate or not.

Using body strengthening I remove the ivies to take a look at the altar as a whole. One part is missing from this magic circle, is it gonna be alright if I activate it?

I am a little anxious but for the time being, I prepare to activate the magic circle. To activate it, you have to place a sunstone on one pillar and moonstone on another. One stone has already been placed, after removing the ivies, the other stone seemed to be missing. In the game, Iori trip on it and fall down but of course, I didn’t (I stopped myself in time (barely).)

I lift the moonstone with third hand and move toward the pillar. At the top of the pillar, there’s a hollowed-out place that shaped like you can put it there.

A change came the moment I put the stone on the pillar. A bluish-white light shines through the outline of the stone. The light then moves from the pillar toward the magic circle on the altar. After that, the whole magic circle shines lightly and the damaged part of the magic circle was repaired using the surrounding soil and stone, making a new magic circle. 𝘧r𝗲𝑒𝔀𝘦𝙗𝓃oν𝑒l.𝐜𝗼m

It seems like this magic circle has an auto repair function.

“…….It moved.”

Fuh, after I let out a small voice, the center of the magic circle shines a pale light. I checked my baggage and walked towards it.

—

The destination of the transfer magic circle is not a temple like the one from beginner dungeon, it is a cave that I can’t feel any sense of artistry from. The content of this store’s exclusive DLC dungeon [Twilight Grotto] is as the name suggests, pretty gloomy. Like a cave, the walls are covered with hard stones. If a powerful monster were to smash you against these walls then it will cause a lot of damage to you.

“Well, I collect a lot of magic elements and my body has gotten stronger ever since I came to this world……It feels like I should be fine.”

While hitting the rock wall I recall the practice I had with Claris-san and the others. Looking at Claris-san or Yukine-sempai normally, they would look like any normal girls (with their particular part that overflowing with femininity.) However, their strength is on a gorilla level. If you are deceived by their appearance and blindly charge in, you would be in for a world of pain. But recently, since I challenged a lot of dungeons, experience a lot of combat and acquiring Mind Eye, I have been able to estimate the strength of my opponents from their appearance.

“Comparing to them, that guy is just a small fry.”

I take my hand away from the wall and increase the magic power in my stole a level. Then smack a kid with height around 130 cm with fourth hand.

“Gubehhh, w, wait a……..Bugyaah.”

I hit it before it can say anything. Its appearance may be close to a goblin but this guy was not one. This guy has a horn that goblins don’t possess, a hair that looks like an army deserter and on top of it all, it can talk.

“You have to kill an Amanojaku before it can say anything. They will mostly be lying and try to confuse you, was that right?”

Gathering the information about the monsters that will appear in the dungeon is very important when you are trying to capture one. In the book for dungeon beginner that Takioto has, it said that it is a rule to investigate the dungeon structure and monsters that will appear inside in detail before entering the dungeon.

However, that was only in the case of the dungeon that has been captured already. In an unexplored place such as this, there’s no way to get such information. That’s why you have to be prepared to handle anything that may appear and be more vigilant than usual.

But I have the knowledge from Magiero.

This place might be unexplored to others but to me, it is as good as naked. It is me who is weak so there’s not a lot of places where I can challenge yet.

“If I am a character that can use long-range magic then will I be able to challenge more places? No, I won’t have enough magic power then, since I specialize in close-quarter combat now, I may be better off as I am now.

I retrieved a small magic stone that dropped from the amanojaku and moves deeper inside.

After that, I defeat a lot more amanojakus and when I was thinking about proceeding deeper, a new monster appeared.

“A Nopperabou, huh.” (TLN: Do you guys prefer faceless ghosts?)

Among the famous Japanese Youkai (TLN: Ghost/Demon), Nopperabou was one of them.

The nopperabou that was well-known in Japan had a strong image related to the summer specialty [Ghost Story]. That’s why when you are talking about nopperabou people often think that nopperabou = scary youkai. However, nopperabous in this world are more disgusting than scary.

(TLN: In Japan, people said that if you tell ghost stories in summer it would give you the chill to fight off the heat)

Nopperabou’s face doesn’t possess an eye, nose, or mouth. They always have smooth skin in Japanese illustration but here, their faces are full of pimples and wrinkles, there are also some blood vessels visible which made its appearance so graphic and disgusting. Additionally, since their faces are always expanding and contracting, it made you think that their heart is on their face which plays a role in increasing the discomfort feeling you felt from them.

“At least they are weak.”

I block the nopperabou that tried to rugby tackle me with fourth hand and smack it down with third hand from above. The nopperabou was forced to kiss the ground violently. Since it got no mouth Isn’t the expression “kissing” wrong though?

I immediately try to do a follow-up attack but it already turned into magic elements. I stop my attack and retract the fourth hand.

Oh, almost miss it.

I turn back to pick up the dropped magic stone and keep going in deeper.

“Come to think of it, why can I see despite this place having no light source?”

I can strangely see so well despite the lack of light sources. Well, it’s a little dim though.

Are the walls themselves the light sources? Well, since even the scholars are still clueless about the dungeons, it’s useless to think about it.

“The map of this place is the same as the one from beginner dungeon but…I don’t remember this place.”

The Twilight Grotto is a dungeon that you can skip in an additional playthrough. The reason being, after you cleared it, you would already obtain everything you can from this place, its rewards can even be used after you have finished your playthrough. You can get strong immediately after you start a new game.

“The earning from this dungeon is bad too….”

The monsters that appear here are weak and easy to hunt but in return, the exp point they give is also low. It might be on the same level as the beginner dungeon but there’s nothing good that you can get here. You should challenge a different dungeon instead of diving into this one again, that being said, it can’t be helped, huh.

Later, I dive deeper inside after I defeated more amanojakus and nopperabous.

—-

After I descend the stairs, I was met with another stone cave no different than the previous floor. I already descended four times, so I already expected this kind of environment.

But, can you come out already, monster?…… Rather, there’s only Japanese Youkai here but there’s not much of a variety. Going deeper inside while defeating only these amanojakus became such a chore.

An Enenra (TLN: Smoke monster) appeared after I reach the fifth floor. Their appearance is the same as the game’s illustration, a white smoke a little bigger than a human head with a face like a Haniwa.

Enenra

Haniwa

I enchant the stole with water attribute and taking a stance with third and fourth hands. At the same time. A magic circle the size of its body emerge from in front of the Enenra’s eyes.

The magic that flew out from that magic circle is an elementary magic [Fear Ball]. Since I had prepared in advance I received it with the water enchanted third hand and swung down the fourth hand on its face as I approached.

Contrary to its appearance, the impact I felt was big. I thought that since it was called Enenra their body would be made up of smoke. However, it received a critical hit from fourth hand and fly away like a drunk salaryman.

“Is it okay?”

Since it shows no sign of attacking me, I tried experimenting with them for a bit.

I take a wooden sword out of my baggage and swung it down. But there was little respond when I attacked its face. It yields the same result when I cut off then enchantment for one end of the stole and try attacking it with no element strengthening. It did some damage to its face but the attacks slipped through its body. However, after I enchant it with a simple water attribute, its body also got damaged from the attack.

When I keep attacking it with the wooden sword several more times, it eventually turned into magic elements and magic stone.

After that, I experimented a lot with the enenras as I keep diving deeper.

In conclusion, attacking the enenras with attribute less physical attack is not effective. But if I enchant the attack with attributes, especially water, it will become very effective. And if you hit its face, there’s a high probability that you will stagger it.

“To stagger it, I felt like hitting its jaw is the most effective. It’s like they are human, are they also possessed brain?….. And hitting it with fire attribute attack wasn’t effective as well.”

Its characteristic was going according to the game for the most part. But annoying difference they have from Magiero is…

“They are hard to hit since they are always flying around….”

It might be good to throw a rock at its face but it will take a lot of time. The question remaining is that, is it a monster that worth using a battle magic stone to defeat? It would be better to flee while being careful not to get surrounded and pincer attack by them.

Decided so, I erase my presence and run through the nopperabous and enenras without getting noticed.