Chapter 174 – 174. Basement Strategy (2)

“Let’s see. Then how many people will go into the basement… Six like this?”

“Yes. You’re right.”

After taking a bath, a total of six people, including Kessia, Cheshire, and Aram, me, Ayla, and Keker, sat around a table in the middle.

Tomorrow, when the doors to the black market reopen, we planned to go straight to the twisted alley and find the manhole that leads down to the basement level. Before that, we decided to share information for the basement attack in advance.

“For now, let’s talk about each other’s abilities. I think we should have some understanding of each other’s abilities. Then, let’s talk about our specialties in order, starting with Aram and going to the right.”

Everyone nodded at my suggestion. We intentionally hid our power when hanging out with people we couldn’t trust, like at the Tremor Mansion, but there’s no need to do that between us. Rather, it is more appropriate to match the sum when you have a proper understanding of the opponent’s ability.

“First of all, I can handle the magic that demons use. And… If you absorb a lot of demonic energy, you can turn into a demon… And you can handle that big hammer you see over there.”

Since there was not a single person younger than A-ram among those gathered at the table, A-ram naturally used respect.

“Ohh… Magi user. Yeah, I’ve been looking forward to it ever since I said Demon Slayer. If you can absorb demonic energy… It’s very useful. Nice.”

Cheshire applauded and enthusiastically responded to Aram’s self-introduction.

I heard from Ayla a little while ago that it was almost impossible to attack the 4th basement level without dealing with demonic energy, so Aram’s existence was absolutely essential.

Perhaps the reason why Mer unknowingly gave up the right to accompany me to A-ram… Maybe it was because she heard from Ayla, who knew about this internal situation, that she needed A-ram.

“Next is Kasia.”

“Yes? Ah yes. Yes. I am. That’s… He handles spears very well… He can breathe underwater, he sings well, and he’s very useful. My song… Has a peculiar power…”

“Uhm.. Yes. I see Please take good care of me.”

Unlike A-ram, Cheshire’s reaction was a bit sullen. At this, Kessia slightly lowered her head as if she had lost her spirits. She seems to be in a more broken state than I’ve seen before. Her self-esteem or self-confidence seems to be severely diminished.. She also thinks she needs to be fed talent supplements.

“Are you okay. Kessia. You will be useful too.”

“Aww!! Ah yes. I.. Go, thank you..!”

“Uh..? Uh.”

I tapped her on the shoulder to encourage her. But when my hand touched her shoulder, Kessia jumped behind her in a fit of fright. Probably because I used the filling flesh.

Now, Kessia is in a state where the scars that were full of her body have been completely erased. As soon as she came out of the bath, I healed all of her wounds that held her back without even wiping her water.

Kessiah struggled and screamed in pain as her wounds forcibly healed.. But I didn’t stop. I wonder if that was left as some sort of trauma.

Of course, when her wounds were completely healed, she thanked me with tears in her eyes, but it seems that she was still full of fear for me inside.

I just touched her shoulder, and I was shocked…

“Hmm. Keker next.”

“My wife… Has a… Big stomach… Swallowed… Can you keep it… And… Can do… A little… Witchcraft… And doesn’t get sick easily… A peculiar constitution… The original woman is very capable.. Ha ha.. Ha ha..”

A swamp toad that just appeals to himself as competent, as if he was too tired to talk. The way she speaks is that of a lady from Gyu-su’s house, but her appearance and voice are just like rice cake toads. Moreover, his speech was so slow that he seemed to lose his mind.

I saw earlier that the action was surprisingly fast.

“Hey, I’m really sorry. Can’t you speak a little faster?”

“Uh…”

“It’s okay. Ok.. Hmm. For now, you can store things and use magic?”

“Yes, to be precise… Equipment enchantment… Detoxification, help… Special skill…”

It seemed useful in its own way. Above all, I especially liked it because you can put something in your stomach.

“You can carry the beast with you.”

After delivering the beast to Cheshire’s base and examining it closely, the result… This beast couldn’t even walk, let alone run properly. I mean, he’s a very difficult guy to get along with.

Moreover, since it was a living creature, it could not be carried in a large-capacity magic bag, so someone had to carry it without fail. But she said that Keker can be carried inside her, so she can leave it to her. As long as it’s left to me, I think it’s okay for Keker to make a contract with the beast and become a curse.

Maybe it’s because he’s a toad, but the rice cake sticks are big, so it’s good to hide behind his back. It has its own self-healing and detoxification technology, so it may be possible to apply a suitable curse on its own. Of course, I’m not sure how far I can handle the curses used by demons… But wouldn’t it block most things if I had a beast to kill me?

At that time, the rice cake toad girl, who was looking at her beast, said, licking her eyes with her tongue full of bumps.

“Uh… That’s… Kinda…”

“No… He looks like you. Are you embarrassed? Why. Do you want to go back to the clown?”

“Ah… No.. The original girl.. I will gladly… Carry it with me…”

“Good. It’s a good attitude.”

Keker, who was reluctant to devour a beast in the grass, listened to me as soon as I mentioned the clown. It seems that he suffered from the clown’s hysteria. Afterwards, I informed Keker that if he accumulated more than 8 curses, he must beheaded.

In the next order, Cheshire talked about his ability. Cheshire said he could use several types of laser weapons and space-type superpowers. A laser weapon… I can still remember the last time I wiped out the undercover bastards with a beam gatling gun. In terms of firepower, it’s probably overwhelming.

And Ayla was good at magic through various accessories. I haven’t seen him use it properly yet, so it’s a little hard to evaluate it, but he seems like the type to solve the situation with a lot of different tools. The items you can sell to me are limited, but there seems to be almost no limit to the accessories you can use.

Finally, it goes without saying that I specialize in tentacle ejection and abyssal maw. It feels like I’m constantly eating with these two, but… Anything I’m familiar with is the best. If you try to use various skills for no reason and your actions get twisted during battle, you will just fail. Even if it’s a tentacle source tool or an abyss source tool… What should I do if I don’t have the combat sense…

“Okay, so we’ve roughly checked each other, so please explain the basement floor.”

“Huh. I’ll do that.”

Cheshire opened his mouth. This is where she must have gone underground most of the time.

“First of all, as far as I know, there are up to four floors in the basement. And there is a piece of my soul on the 4th floor. First of all, the first floor is a dark maze. Even if you turn on the lights, it doesn’t get very bright. From there, clone monsters called the Underground Guard crawl out like crazy. They’re monsters created by the devil… Be careful because their nails contain poison and curses. And if you don’t make it to the goal point, the cave that leads to the second floor… You might get surrounded and die.”

The Underground Guards are the ones I encountered the last time I visited the Black Market for the first time. It was flooded with insane quantities.

“Still, since Ayla has a way to kick it out… It should be a bit of a defense. Right?”

“Of course.”

Fortunately, it seems that there was a defense measure, probably because he had already experienced going down to the fourth floor. If so, it’s a bit reassuring.

“Then on the second floor… This is a place called the Mirror Room.”

“A mirror room?”

“Yes, mirror ghosts sometimes appear in the mirror room on the second floor, but there are fewer hostile creatures than on the first floor. Of course, mirror ghosts are extremely dangerous, so you have to keep them as low as possible. And the real problem is that it’s made of mirrors on all sides, so it’s easy to get lost… And there’s a high risk of falling out with your teammates.”

“Ah…”

“You have to keep your mind as straight as possible. If you don’t… The unimaginable will happen.”

“Whoa.. Cheshire, do you remember that time? When we lost each other.”

“Of course… It was almost… 15 days to find each other? I think I was drifting in the mirror room around that time.”

“That’s right. It was. Thinking that if I left first, the other person might still be looking for me… I searched really hard.”

The two of them talk as if they are recalling memories… They drifted in the mirror room for 15 days avoiding mirror ghosts… I don’t think we can waste that much time in the mirror room.

Above all, Cheshire and Ayla would be able to escape on their own even if it took more than a week, but that was impossible for the four of us, including me. Moreover, there is no way to deal with the extremely dangerous mirror ghost…

“Don’t waste too much time just looking for each other… First of all, you have honey wine, so if you feel like you’re not good enough, drink this and escape. The destination is here, Cheshire’s own room. If you look for it for a while and decide that the attack is a failure, please escape immediately.”

“Okay, I get it.”

“Now, wait a minute.. Um, what about us..?”

“Uh?”

Keshia and Keker look at me as if they are embarrassed. There wasn’t enough alcohol to distribute the honey wine to the two of them. So while I was at a loss as to what to do, Ayla suggested a way.

“You… This. I have it.”

Ayla took two of her rings from her arms.

“This, this…”

“The mineralization ring. If you activate it, your body will harden very hard. What can I do? And since my magic is imbued in the ring, if I activate it, I can feel it when I’m close. If you feel like you’re going to get lost in the mirror room and die, activate it. Then I’ll go get it.”

“Ah.. Go, thank you..”

“Thank you..”

Kessiah puts the rough ring Ayla gave her on her finger. However, Keker only had 4 fingers, and he couldn’t wear a ring because he had thick frog hands.

“Ah.. Bo, the original woman.. Should have swallowed.. And have it..”

Keker gulped down her ring. Her stomach pouch looks pretty useful.

“Okay, then I’ll continue explaining. About the third floor…”

The third floor was said to be a world made up of pipes like sewage somewhere. It’s extremely unclean, and it’s dangerous because there are several lower demons roaming around, she says.

“Here, as long as you handle the parasites well, there will be no problem.”

“Huh. That’s right.”

Finally, Cheshire began to explain the fourth floor. He explained that the fourth floor was a very large warehouse and a distribution center. Because it is so extensive, it is difficult to find the soul, and all the objects placed there are cursed items and there are also slanderous demons called warehouse keeper, so it is extremely dangerous.

Moreover, the demonic density in the air is extremely high, and because of that, the yellow fog is stuck everywhere, blocking the view. It’s a difficulty that makes you vomit even if you just hear the story.

“Whew… Then you shared roughly all the information, right?”

“Huh. Now, just close your eyes for a while and start attacking.”

It seemed like the conversation was over as I stroked my messy hair, so I took out a bottle of alcohol from my bag.

This is an ‘infinite impulse’.

I plan to feed this to Kessia and Keker. No matter how much I thought about it, the difficulty level of the dungeon was insane, so I thought that even if I fed it, my survival rate would increase.