## Chapter 744 – Paladin Kim Kat

Somehow, thanks to the warriors who gave us decent directions, we managed to get down to the 3rd floor. We ran into some people along the way, but as expected, no one picked a fight.

I originally thought the dungeon would be crawling with thugs.

Dungeons, by their nature, are very easy places for murders to occur. People are already killing each other outside, so wouldn’t they kill even more easily in a dark place like this where no one would notice a death?

Ah.

Or maybe the guys who made it down here are tough enough that robbing them wouldn’t be worth the risk? I guess picking pockets is something you do while considering your own life.

No, but when you look at those thug bastards, most of them think they’re invincible… Anyway, I still can’t understand the minds of evil humans.

“Isn’t it a bit noisy?”

Liz asked.

“Yeah, I think I hear something. Can you all hear it?”
“Yeah.”
“Me too.”

That was our impression of the 3rd floor.

Unlike the relatively quiet 2nd floor, it was a bit noisy, and it felt like some kind of sound was coming from the depths of the darkness.

“Looks like they’re having a brawl here. Let’s go deeper.”

Karin said, drawing her sword.

She’s right.
We need to check out the 4th floor at least.

We moved forward, illuminating the surroundings with Winia’s light magic. But it’s so wide that the area ahead is shrouded in darkness.

Is it really this huge?

The first guys who came down to this 3rd floor must have had a hard time. Back then, there must have been a lot of monsters and golems. They broke through all that and reached the 4th floor.

But the guys who broke through the 3rd floor are stuck there.

Is it just a matter of time?

“Oh, there are people over there.”
“There are.”

As Karin said, we could occasionally see exploration parties on the 3rd floor.

“…”
“…”

The reasonably well-equipped humans were each holding staves, swords, or axes, carrying backpacks, and checking maps, and they became wary whenever we approached.

I was going to try to talk to them, but their eyes were so fierce that I decided to give up. If I talked to those guys, a murder might occur.

We explored the 3rd floor, remembering the path. The strange sound continued to echo, but we couldn’t pinpoint its direction. The sound was too reverberating.

More than anything, there were a lot of bloodstains on the floor. Starting with what looked like human blood… and even some black blood.

How much further did we move?

ㅡZhiing.

A red glow began to approach from the other side.

Judging by the height, it wasn’t a person.

If a person were standing on all fours, it would be about that height, but whatever. It must be a monster. Even if it wasn’t a monster but a person emitting a red glow and walking on all fours in a dungeon, it would be just as dangerous as a monster.

“Katt-nim, something’s coming.”
“I’m watching.”
“Something big is coming.”

Karin pointed her sword, and I stepped in front of her.

The current formation is Winia, Risha, Ari, and Liz in the rear, Cloudi and Hilde in the middle, and Karin and I in the front.

In fact, with this kind of combination, we could even occupy a castle.

I have no worries.

ㅡThud, thud.

“Urooroong.”

Soon, the monster entered the range of the light magic.

“Oh, shit.”

I was a little taken aback by the sight of it. It was a monster I’d never seen before. A very strangely shaped monster.

“What is that?”

It was a quadrupedal monster about the size of a boar.

But it had no fur at all, and its black skin was clinging to its bones, giving it a very emaciated look. Its upper body was similar to an ape, but its lower body was like a roe deer?

It had five fingers and sharp claws.

Most notably, its face had only a round mouth filled with sharp teeth like a lamprey.

What I thought was a red glow was actually light coming from the ends of two snail-like tentacles on its head.

ㅡSlinking.

That wasn’t all.

Eight black tentacles on its back were moving freely, flowing like seaweed in water. At first glance, it looked like black flames were burning.

“Urooroo…! Uroorooroong!”

ㅡSwish.

A long, red tongue flowed out from between the round mouth and wagged. The monster’s cry was as bizarre as a human screaming in hell with their mouth sewn shut.

“Have you ever seen anything like that?”

When I asked my women, they all shook their heads with unpleasant expressions, saying, “Eww…” It seems like they’ve never seen it before either.

“Even I’ve seen all sorts of things while working… I’ve never seen anything so disgusting.”
“Katt… Mama can’t stand it, it’s too disgusting!”
“To be so uniquely shaped, it doesn’t seem like a natural monster.”

That was their impression.
But it really does look strange.

I immediately asked Hilde.

“It really doesn’t seem natural, like Risha said. Hilde? Is that maybe a demon or something?”
“Hmm… it’s strange? This tingling feeling…! It doesn’t seem like a demon, but I feel a similar energy? I don’t really know what it is.”

Hilde is feeling it a bit ambiguously. Her demon detection skills are arguably the best. But this is her assessment.

Anyway, it doesn’t seem to be a demon…

Then, Risha asked.

“Is it possible for the energy of a demon or Pandemonium to contaminate a monster?”

Ah.

“I don’t know about that. But now that you mention it, contamination… hmm… contamination, it definitely feels like something similar. That’s also a plausible theory.”

Contamination.

“You’re saying it’s possible it’s been contaminated?”
“Yes.”

Cloudi said.

“But not just any demon can contaminate anything. If it were contaminated, we would have felt something too, being with Hilde.”
“I don’t have such evil functions, though.”

I stared at the monster and asked Hilde.

“Hilde, then maybe there’s a demon with the ability to contaminate living creatures with a similar feeling? Like, giving them their power to change their appearance. Could it be something like that?”
“Yeah, that kind of clicks.”

Karin agreed with me.

“That could be possible.”

Risha nodded.

“Ah, haha… I don’t really know much about it… I’m sorry for not being able to answer when you’re relying on me.”
“No, it’s not like that, so there’s no need to apologize. You might not know. What.”
“I’m glad to hear that.”

Anyway, Hilde felt something, so I thought it was safe to assume it was related to a demon.

“So, blacky? What should we do with that? It’s still standing still?”
“Why is it standing still?”
“How should I know? Should we just kill it?”
“Let’s do that.”

ㅡWhoosh!

Winia, chanting briefly, immediately fired a Fire Bolt, and the ball of fire, flying at a speed difficult to follow with the eye, entered the monster’s mouth and exploded.

ㅡPoohung!

The explosion sounded strange, probably because it exploded from the inside.

“…!!!”

ㅡThud.

That was the end of it.

The monster, its insides completely cooked, collapsed. The tentacles dancing on its back also drooped down.

“What on earth was that?”

We approached the monster’s corpse, and Liz frowned, grinding the remains with her toe.

“I really don’t know.”

I took out a dagger and dissected the corpse. The inside was completely cooked. I didn’t see anything particularly special… but when I cut open its head, something unique caught my eye.

ㅡGlimmer.

“What is this hard thing?”

There was something like a black stone inside its head.

“I don’t feel any particularly harmful energy. It might be a clue, so keep it for now.”
“Okay.”

I put it in my pocket. That was the only gain for now. The monster that suddenly appeared didn’t have anything else.

“Why was it standing still…?”

Ari said, unable to continue speaking in the absurd situation.

“It’s unnatural. If it was a monster in here, it would definitely be fighting humans, so there’s no reason for it to stand still. The people Father asked about earlier also said they fought monsters on the 3rd floor, right? That’s probably the norm.”
“I think so too… What is it? Really?”

It’s definitely strange.
What the hell was it?

“Did it sense the difference in power? Well, no wonder… There are a lot of strong women here.”
“Could Liz be right?”

The difference in power.
Monsters are sensitive to that kind of thing.

It makes sense.

“But it came to us first, right?”

Cloudi pointed out.

“…That’s right.”

As she said, this bastard walked towards us first.

I really don’t know. But if you keep thinking about something you don’t know, you’ll never know. There’s not a single clue. Maybe we’ll find out as we go. Actually, we don’t really need to know.

We started exploring again without finding out anything else.

* * *

Each time we encountered monsters that stopped and behaved similarly, we killed a few of them, asked the seemingly decent people for directions, and were able to go straight down to the 4th floor.

The 3rd floor hasn’t been completely conquered, and only the route to the passage leading to the 4th floor has been cleared, and the monsters and golems in that path and nearby have been eliminated.

So there seems to be a lot of unknown territory still.

Anyway, the 4th floor.

“Khaaaack!!”
“Block it!”
“C-rap!”

I was just looking around for a moment, but a fierce battle was underway.

I saw people dying, and fighting them was none other than a huge golem.

ㅡGiiiiiiing!!

The dungeon’s underground was wide and tall.

The golem was also tall and bulky to match. The golem, clad in metal armor, looked like a very complex machine at first glance.

“That’s so cool.”

Geometric patterns were embroidered on the armor. And a red glow was emitted from its eyes.

Overall, it was a golem that felt like a very large knight.

Except that its legs were reverse-jointed, its shoulders were large, and its arms were abnormally long and thick, it was a golem that looked similar to a human. Its hands were also huge.

Its movements were more agile than I thought.

ㅡKwaang!

“Keuhuk!”

As the golem swung its fist erratically, a warrior who failed to react was hit by its arm and flew away, crashing into the wall.

“Hoo… It fights better than the golems used in the kingdom?”

Karin said, touching her lips.

“Really?”
“With that size and those movements… it looks good. It could be operated quite well inside a dungeon like this. Plus, it’s made of metal and its attacks are heavy, so it would be difficult to deal with if you can’t use sword energy.”

I felt something similar.

Looking at it, I could easily handle the golem alone. Even though it was agile, it wasn’t at a level where it could keep up with my movements.

And if sword energy worked, I was confident I could chop it into pieces in an instant.

It’s a reasonably strong golem, but not at my level.

“Heup!”

Just then, a warrior with a large hammer detoured to the rear of the golem, and ㅡPachachang! A mage continuously slammed powerful ice spikes into the golem’s face to draw its attention.

ㅡWhoong!

It was the moment when a fist was about to strike down on the mage.

ㅡKwaang!

The hammer warrior who went to the rear struck the golem’s hamstrings intensely. Judging by the sound, it seems he’s a warrior of the type who has mana in his body, not one who uses sword energy.

ㅡKuoong.

The golem, losing its balance from that, fell forward.

“Tsuap!”

A young swordsman in good clothes who had been waiting raised his sword energy and quickly cut off the golem’s nape. ㅡThud. With that, the golem’s head fell off. Except for the one guy who got hit and flew away, it was a very perfect party play.

I clapped in my heart and headed in another direction.

“Katt-nim… I felt this after coming down to the 4th floor.”
“Hmm? Hilde?”
“That golem too… it felt a bit strange. It fell so quickly that I couldn’t feel it in detail, but I should say I felt something subtle? And now I feel that feeling from all directions. It’s kind of dizzying.”
“What? Are you okay?”

I immediately hugged Hilde’s waist.

“Yes… I’m okay… No, even if I were looking for another demon among demons, I wouldn’t feel like this, the energy is so unique… And what should I say. It’s deep. What I’m feeling.”

What on earth is she saying?

“I… I don’t really know because this is the first time I’ve felt like this…”

This feels just like when Ari heard the words of plants.

“Let’s take a break for a while. We came all the way here without resting… Let’s go to the stairs and rest for a bit.”
“No, Katt-nim. Just a moment before we rest. Let’s look at one more golem before we rest. I’ll think about it while we rest.”
“No, it’ll be hard on you.”
“I’m worried about you.”

Still, if she’s in this state, it’s right to rest.

“Let’s do as Hilde says. It will be okay if it’s just for a moment.”
“Yes… Let’s do as Risha says.”

Then Risha said.

“…Well, okay. Then shall we quickly deal with one and rest?”

The women nodded.

We moved back to the empty path and looked for a golem. Let’s quickly deal with it and go to the stairs to rest. I’ve memorized the entire path to get here.

We can come down to the 4th floor at any time.

It was when we turned the corner with that hasty feeling.

I saw people dressed in fancy armor gathered over there. Are they knights or something? I wondered what it was, but one of them noticed us and said, holding out his palm.

“Halt. This is the area of the Royal Knights. If you’ve come to deal with the golems, go somewhere else.”

Royal Knights?