## Chapter 935 – How Long Has It Been?

We retreated, supporting the other teams. Since we were retreating anyway, it would be better to do it all together and discuss things. As expected, the other teams were also fighting the minotaurs like crazy.

Of course, they were pushovers once I joined.

Still, the Ascetic Warriors were holding their own, using a tactic of deliberately taking hits from the minotaurs to latch onto them. They would endure the beating to cling on and stab at the minotaurs’ necks and eyes. The kind-hearted cow-headed bastards couldn’t handle such a wicked tactic.

As expected, they fought well because they were crazy masochists.
We gathered the troops and returned to the starting point.

“Sir Saint! Ah, you’ve all come up.”
“Yeah. Didn’t take long, right? Everyone was fighting.”
“So it was as I suspected!”

Elise clutched her head with both hands as if in shock. It was the moment it was proven that minotaurs were swarming down below.

“There are teams that went to the back! They must be fighting like us, so we need to support them!”

Since it was a straight passage, we had split into two teams, going forward and backward. We had to support them.

“Katt, are you going?”
“Yeah. But it won’t take long this time either. Go up first.”
“Hmph… I will then.”

There were so many paladins here, there was no need for me to exert myself.

“Risha.”
“…Then I shall go up with Cloudi first.”
“Yeah. Do that. You two go up.”

Risha probably needed some time to sort out her thoughts. I didn’t know what was bothering her now, but she would probably tell me when we went to bed later.

Cloudi immediately picked Risha up.

—Whoosh!

She lightly jumped several meters, grabbed the rope, and used her arm strength to shoot herself upwards, escaping in an instant.

The paladins were quickly formulating a plan, so I waited with Elise for a moment.

“Then let’s go!”
“Ooooh!”

And so, I went down with the paladins to support the teams that had gone to the back.

* * *

“Thank you so much, Paladin! To have such skill at such a young age…! The Order’s future looks bright!”
“To slaughter minotaurs so easily! Your skill is astonishing!”
“These old men can’t compete with you!!!”

The paladins who received support expressed their gratitude to me.

The situation was the same here, and the battle ended very quickly as soon as I arrived.

“Hahaha!! Thank you!!!”

After slaughtering a total of about ten minotaurs, we all retreated and went up to the surface. Of course, we brought all the corpses of the ones we hunted this time as well.

This would be valuable data.

“Now, let’s start the meeting quickly.”

After coming up to the surface, we organized the corpses and immediately went into the barracks to hold a meeting. The discovery of these enemies was very important, so we had to come up with countermeasures immediately.

“It seems we need to change our strategy. The minotaurs’ strength is overwhelming.”
“Yeah, getting hit by that fist feels like all my joints are going to break. If we make a mistake, we might suffer injuries that even our healing can’t handle.”
“Hiss. We need to minimize combat losses to carry out future operations. We shouldn’t push ourselves. I recommend going the safe route.”

The paladins and Ascetic Warriors each offered their opinions.

“Indeed. It seems better to focus on subjugating the minotaurs rather than researching the dungeon’s true nature right now. We need to subjugate them all to be able to do research.”

This was the commander’s opinion, and everyone nodded.

“Then, instead of dividing the team into small groups, it might be better to operate with just two teams and face the minotaurs as a group. That should be a safe way to deal with them. Even if they’re strong, we can eventually win if we keep hitting them.”

The vice-commander said with a serious face.

The minotaurs were indeed tricky, and the paladins couldn’t catch them easily, but they could still kill them. In fact, when I went to support them, there were teams that had already killed the minotaurs and were organizing the corpses.

Anyway, if three paladins fought together, it might take some time, but they could catch them without anyone getting seriously hurt.

But what if more minotaurs appeared?
It would be dangerous.

So, instead of splitting up the forces, it was better to just move as a group.

“Then we’ll put exploration on the back burner and focus on subjugation for now.”
“Hiss. Understood.”
“That would be best.”

That was the conclusion.
Subjugation rather than exploration.

“Paladin?”

The commander, who was saying that, asked me for my opinion.
I didn’t really need to participate in the subjugation.

I could kill them easily on my own.

“Since I don’t know when we’ll be able to kill all the minotaurs, I’ll go ahead and explore.”

I could explore.

“Hmm… that’s not a bad idea either. Then we’ll operate the subjugation team, so go down as much as you can and let us know the exploration information. That would be a great help.”

I received permission.

“We believe in you, Paladin!”
“Tell us if you need support!”

The paladins patted me on the back.

“Now, we’re going to carry out the battle in earnest, so we need to distribute supplies.”

The commander said that and called out to the people outside, and soon they brought in several large boxes. —Thud. The things contained in the boxes were holy water and various items.

“These are artifacts that exert power by injecting holy water and divine power.”

Various items came out of the box, and the paladins began to distribute them. I focused on the explanation.

“And this is a relic obtained by killing monsters when we explored the dungeon in the past… Paladin, you can use it.”
“This is?”

It was a golden circlet stored in a small box containing holy water. A jewel was embedded in the forehead.

“It’s a circlet that emits light in the darkness. If you have that, you don’t have to worry about light even if you go into the dark dungeon. It’s charged by soaking it in holy water, and the duration lasts for weeks, so don’t worry and use it.”

They wanted me to use this!!

“T, to lend me something like this!!! Thank you!!!!! I will be able to explore very easily!!!”
“Use it well. That light also chases away evil spirits, so you can cover it with a thick cloth depending on the situation.”
“I will keep that in mind!!”

And so, the distribution of supplies was completed.
I received the circlet and several bottles of holy water.

“We should have the theologians study the minotaur corpses first.”
“We’ll need a lot of data.”
“We have a lot to do.”

With that, the meeting ended, and I went outside. Now that I had obtained the holy water and the circlet, I would be able to go deep inside very easily.

“Sir Saint! That is an ancient relic! An artifact from the era before the Idol War!”

Elise, who had followed me out, shouted as if moved.

“Oh, really?”
“In those days, there were more superior magic and engineering technologies than now, so relics with performance that cannot even be compared to the present are often found in these ancient dungeons! That must be one of them!”
“Well, well.”

It was an item that could be worth money.
Well, that’s usually how dungeons are.

You go down to find something like this and either die or get the item and come out.

That’s usually the feeling of the business.

“With that alone, exploration will be easier!”
“Certainly… but Elise, what about you? Can you stick with me this time too?”
“That’s… I think I need to talk about it.”

—Elise!

At that time, the Ascetic Warriors called out to Elise.

“They’re calling me! Then, Sir Saint! I’ll see you tomorrow!”
“Yeah, yeah! See you tomorrow!”

I immediately returned to the lodgings.

“Have you returned?”

As soon as I arrived, Risha approached me.

“Hooh, what is that?”
“It’s some kind of ancient relic.”

I immediately gave her an explanation about it.

“Hehehe, you’ve borrowed something good. Such relics have great research value, but we can’t carelessly touch borrowed items. Now, let’s hurry up and eat.”
“Yeah.”

Risha seemed to be in a better mood… Well, if something’s wrong, she’ll tell me later. I immediately told them about this story.

* * *

—Crackle!

Risha’s black lightning raged, and the minotaur’s arm exploded and was torn off when it was hit by it.

—Kuaaaaaaaah!!!!

It was truly destructive power.

That strong minotaur was rendered helpless with just one blow. The guy who lost his arm screamed and resisted, but he was hit directly in the chest by Risha’s second attack and collapsed as he was.

“This is really working too well? I’m surprised every time I see it.”
“Hehehe, really? It didn’t work well on the Spirit King and the Beast King though.”

When I said that, Cloudi laughed and answered.

“Each race has different characteristics. It seems clear that the minotaur race is vulnerable to black magic.”
“It really seems that way.”

The minotaurs were indeed vulnerable to black magic and were no match for Risha. Compared to other powerful monsters that had strong magic resistance, they couldn’t withstand Risha’s attacks.

The exploration was going very smoothly.

On the upper floor, the paladins were divided into just two teams and were subjugating the minotaurs, and we were just continuing to go underground for the purpose of exploration.

It seemed to be going very well today, which was the second day.

I wanted to be with Elise, but she said that she would have to subjugate with the people of the same Order this time. No matter what, she would feel sorry for the people of the same Order if she only stuck to my side.

It was a natural thing.

Well, and the circlet I was wearing on my head was emitting a bright light. The minotaurs covered their eyes when they saw this light, so it was very effective.

“But Risha, do you know anything about that black aura?”

—Halt.

“…”

Risha hesitated for a moment at my question.
Then she licked her lips once.

“Well… I don’t know much either.”

She answered slowly.

“And don’t point out that I don’t know a lot!”
“Hehehe, I won’t.”

The black aura that the minotaur wore on its arm was different from what demons or heretics used. Even I could feel that alien power. I had never seen anything like that.

Anyway, we continued to kill the minotaurs and went underground, looking for a way to go down.

“Oh my, where is this?”

In the meantime, we entered a huge cavern. We came to this place after going down a long staircase. The ceiling was high, and the space was very wide to the left and right. Several sturdy pillars were also embedded.

It looked like a hall that could accommodate a large number of people.

“Why is it so wide?”

And there’s bound to be something in a place like this.

—Buzz.

As soon as I thought that, a red glow emanated from the other side. We naturally prepared for battle… What? Only one glow?

“Why only one?”

—Thump.
—Thump.
—Thump.

Along with the loud footsteps that soon followed, I realized why only one glow had appeared.

“Kuaaaaaaaah…!!!”
“Cyclops.”

It was.

“It’s a Cyclopsaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

It was the legendary giant monster Cyclops, with only one big eye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The huge eye that flickered ominously was the only one, and it was stuck right in the center of its face!!!

But there was no nose!!!

There was no nose, and there was only a strangely torn mouth below the eye!!!! No matter how pretty Red Mask is, if she had such a mouth, she would never be called pretty by people!!!!!

Above all, the body, which was larger than the minotaur, looked like the most extremely honed human body!!! It was insane muscle!!! But decisively, it had no genitals, and above all, its skin was gray!!!!!

“It only has one eyeiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!!!!!!!!!!!”

The legend of the one-eyed man who appeared in the two-eyed village…!!!! The one-eyed man was always a crippled piece of trash! But as much as he had lived while being treated like that, he had a terrible hatred and destructive power!!! Thus, the one-eyed man vented his resentment at being persecuted and massacred the two-eyed men (modern humans – Homo sapiens sapiens)!!!!!!!!

The most terrible ancient record proves it!!!!!!!!

I couldn’t help but scream immediately after recalling that hellish story.

“This isn’t realityyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyat!!!!!!!!!!!!”

It was a terrifying sight that I couldn’t come to my senses!!!! Insane fear seized my mind, and I couldn’t help but grab and pull out Vugal while screaming in despair!!!

—The most terrible kind of fear strikes my brain!!

I’m so scared…!!!!

It’s terrible fear! I felt like I was going crazy because I was so scared! I could clearly feel my mind splitting into very small pieces to the point where I could no longer maintain my sanity!!!!

“Teeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeng!!!!!!!!”

But even in that moment, the strong soul gives the most ideal solution.

If you’re scared.
If it’s scary!!!!

Just get rid of that scary being!!!

“I’m scared, I want to get rid of it quickly!!!!!!!!!!”

The one-eyed man is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have to kill them all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!