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Chapter 168: The Lucrative Underground City (1)
Mira woke up after spending the night on the Ancient Underground City’s second floor. Her eyes were still drowsy as she slipped out of her sleeping bag and started putting on her clothes, which she had left drying overnight with Concept Magic. She passed her arms through the sleeves and her head popped out through the neckline.
「Hmm…who are you?」
There was a man being held down by the Holy Knight Mira left as nightguard. His eyes were focused on Mira, filled with excitement, but when Mira spoke to him, he quickly looked awkward and nervous.
「Umm… I just saw you enter the cathedral, and it seemed like you were alone so…」
The man tried to act like he had come there being worried about Mira’s safety. But his eyes were still glued to Mira’s chest, which was not yet covered, his face making it obvious he was overtaken with lust.
「Hmm, just a nightly creep, huh. What a helpless lecher…」
Mira knew how cute she was, so in a way she understood why someone would feel that way. But she did not approve of such an attitude whatsoever, so she gave the order to the Holy Knight, which flung the man into the air without mercy, as a small punishment. After a short moment the groaning voice of the man was heard.
With that unexpected event out of the way, Mira began preparing breakfast without a worry in the world. Though there was almost nothing to prepare, all she had was some bread with fruit, finished with some All-Seasons au Lait.
Mira finished eating and stored everything before heading out of the small room and into the large cathedral that led to the third floor. Half of the adventurers she had seen there the night before had already departed, and the cathedral felt a bit larger and emptier.
But Mira noticed a group of only female adventurers there too. Two of them caught her attention the most, a beautiful female knight and a cute spellcaster.
They were the couple Mira accidentally walked in on the night before. Both of them quickly noticed Mira too, their faces turning red and looking somewhat scared. They seemed afraid Mira would say something strange to them, as they joined their hands tightly together as if praying.
(I’m rooting for you!)
Mira nodded at them, and then placed her index to her lips. Then she turned away like nothing happened and walked through the cathedral. Behind her, the couple let out sighs of relief and smiled at each other.
She reached the other end of the cathedral. The special door that would not open unless someone who had the five glyphs was there, and nearby was a group of five adventurers discussing how they would proceed. Mira overheard them mention how a warrior in their frontline was in bad shape, so they needed to reorganize their formation.
The warrior in question was leaning against the wall, seemingly in pain. Mira was baffled when she noticed him, and they looked at each other. That warrior was the same guy who had tried sneaking into Mira’s room. He had been restrained by the Holy Knight all night long, before being thrown as punishment, so it made sense that he was not in good shape.
The group was starting to debate on retreating and coming back another time. They were still discussing that when Mira went and started with an insincere 「Umm, sorry…」 before revealing everything that happened that morning. That prompted the group to apologize very sincerely to Mira in return, not blaming her for having roughened the warrior up. The two women in the group actually congratulated her for dealing with it that way. contemporary romance
Apparently that was not the first time he tried to pull a stunt like that, and had caused them problems in the past too. But they still continued traveling together because sadly they were childhood friends, and everyone laughed a little. The entire group had known each other from a young age.
In the end they decided they would stay there resting for a day, and then continue going through the dungeon later. Mira proceeded to cross the first sealed gate toward the third floor, while she heard the groans of the man behind her, being punished by the rest of his group.
Mira crossed all the gates and arrived at the third floor. It looked rather similar to the second floor, and also had a specific condition, though the gimmick was a little more complex than before. Still, that was little bother to Mira who could just go on Pegasus and gather all the glyphs in just four hours. She quickly arrived at the next floor.
Mira was now on the fourth floor. The Union had limited that one to rank D adventurers or higher, and was much better illuminated than the previous floors.
「I’d like to clear this floor today as well.」
Even though this was underground, there was enough light to see the entire floor. It was filled with large white mansions and palaces, looking like a residential district in a big city.
The fourth floor was also half the size of the third one. But it was still incredibly vast, the furthest end seemingly covered in a soft haze.
「It’s always a bit shocking to see how different this is from the third floor.」
She quickly summoned Pegasus and took to the air, watching the scenery underneath her while muttering her thoughts.
Even though most of the wood constructions had rotted, there was still a certain splendor to the fourth floor, which had been coined two names by former players.
One was Aristocrat City. Which as the name implied, had been given to it due to its high class appearance, making people guess that nobles once lived there. That was the impression the buildings there gave.
「And there it is, the first palace.」
After a few tens of minutes passed, Mira landed on a palace that was a bit bigger than the rest, located in the eastern end.
(The east is where the sun rises. So the thing was lighting all the torches here, if I remember correctly…)
Mira jumped off Pegasus, her skirt rolling up before she landed, and then she looked up at the palace, which rivaled the royal castles of some small countries in size. She tried to recall her memories, which had grown hazy.
One had to gather glyphs in the fourth floor to descend to the fifth as well. There were only three there, but they were harder to obtain than the five of previous floors.
The glyphs could be found on three palaces that were bigger than the rest, located on the north, south, and eastern sides. One had to complete a certain condition in each before the path to the crystal ball opened.
「Well, let’s get this over with.」
Followed by Pegasus, Mira walked forth, heading into the palace. The moment she took one step inside, countless skeletons emerged from the abandoned garden and charged at Mira.
But Mira was perfectly calm, as a bright lightning flashed. Pegasus’ lightning turned all the skeletons to dust.
That was the reason behind the second name given to the floor. The Bone City. Various types of skeleton monsters would spawn in the different sections of the city, making it the perfect hunting ground for warrior classes with smashing attacks, or necromancers and saints, who were strong against undead monsters.
The eastern section was mostly filled with skeletons that moved fast. Though no matter how fast they were, they could not match Mira and Pegasus. Even while flying there, whenever a skeleton came out, Pegasus would instantly take it out.
「Tis’ an enyormous catch!」
There was a small cat running swiftly around the garden, now devoid of skeletons. It was Cait Sith, carrying a placard that read ‘Bony Fantasy’.
Undead Monsters would often drop Magic Stones when defeated. All the devices Mira bought in the Dinowal Store that ran on Magic Batteries could also be powered by Magic Stones, so she had Cait Sith gathering all the countless Magic Stones left by the skeletons. fre(e)webnovel
Cait Sith had a cloth bag tied to his back, which made him look like a sneaky thief. He quickly ran around, picking up all the Magic Stones and nimbly stuffing them into the bag. Once done, he said 「This is everything, boss,」 with a rather self-pleased smile.