Jiro Tanaka, 28 years old, has a girlfriend.
His girlfriend is Suella Henderberg.
Memoria Tris.
Occupation: Dungeon Tester (Full-time Employee).
Magic Aptitude: 8 (General Class).
Position: Warrior.
There is no signal to start war on a true battlefield.
If anything, it is probably when both sides sense killing intent and one of them takes the first step.
While recalling words I don’t know who said, I am just running through the battlefield.
I don’t know how many enemies I’ve cut down since entering this dungeon.
Even now, I am cutting down what appears to be the largest individual among them all.
Incidentally, this record of being the largest is updated the deeper I go inside.
Only the beginning was a close match.
The enemy probably also maintained their maximum strength.
When our main forces collide, the time for clean fighting is short.
Moreover, even if the opponent’s abilities have improved, they only have intelligence comparable to a beast with fur.
Actions that disregard strategy cause disarray, and then it instantly becomes a complete melee.
In such a situation where friend and foe are mixed, I don’t have time to be moved by the fact that my skills have improved enough to stay unharmed.
If I have time for such things, it’s better to shave off even a little bit of the enemy.
“Hah, AAAAAAAA!!!”
I can’t afford to say I’m too tired to move.
I forcibly return my ragged breathing to normal with magic and cut down enemies with a monkey’s roar.
Otherwise…
“■■■!!”
“Tch!”
I’ll be eaten.
Right now, black fangs just passed inches from my face.
The enemy situation is such that I don’t know when or from where they will attack.
However, even so, this area is still relatively manageable.
Because…
“Hahahaha! More! Entertain me more!!”
This Oni is enjoying himself to the fullest.
The sight of a single Oni rampaging through the deepest part, where relatively strong individuals are concentrated, must have been exhilarating for those involved.
Each swing of his kanabō sends something flying, creating small craters.
And the Oni’s army advances into the created space.
I am among them, but I have almost no room to enjoy myself because I am constantly being forced to exert my full strength.
However, it is ironic that the area I am cutting through towards the enemy general is the safest.
Of course, that safety is also accompanied by danger, as if on the verge of a cliff.
“Ooraa!!”
That does not change even in mid-air.
I jumped and dodged an individual that attacked consecutively from the Evol Eater that passed in front of my face, but as I couldn’t move in mid-air, about three individuals flew towards me with insect-like wings.
I cut one vertically, used the phản lực to kick the second one towards the ground, and then, with full grip strength, grabbed the remaining one’s nose area and threw it down with all I had.
The two Evol Eaters, slammed into such a dangerous area, were impaled from the top of their heads.
Finally taking a breath, I use the slightly higher vantage point as a foothold to survey the surroundings and see the instructor advancing. I can see the ringleader, unable to move due to its massive body.
While letting out ear-splitting shrieks, it occasionally fires magic bombardment and tentacles at the instructor, even engulfing its allies, but if it were an enemy that could be dealt with from long range, it would have been defeated before coming here.
However, it seems to have taken several attacks, does it not feel pain?
Thinking it had shrugged off the attacks almost unharmed, I see it grabbing nearby rocks and throwing them back.
“As always, absurd.”
It is precisely because there is a superior running ahead like that.
This army of Oni is probably in high spirits.
All the shouting and screaming I’ve heard so far seems positive in its intent.
“I’ll go too, then!!”
Perhaps influenced by that atmosphere, I still feel no fatigue in my body.
Is it because my strength feels like it’s increasing, or is it because of the adrenaline excessively secreted from the fact that I’ve been fighting for three days straight?
Either way is fine.
For now, I just need to fight with all my might.
Kicking away the Evol Eater I was using as the ground, I push forward to catch up with the instructor.
The enemy’s movements are slow.
No, is it my movements that have become fast?
The feeling of my Ore Tree, swung with the intention of even cutting through the air flow, is almost nonexistent.
With a slight feeling of cutting through flesh in my fingertips, I fell one after another, building a mountain of corpses that do not return to magic, and advance while leaving footprints on the ground.
“Yeeeaahhh!!”
My horizontal sword cut mercilessly sliced the opponent’s abdomen in two, and before its corpse hit the ground, I challenged another individual.
With the same momentum, I tried to slash, but I felt something unusual in the ground where I stepped, and before I could understand the cause, my body reacted.
“It’s often said that it’s faster to feel than to think.”
Turning my wrist, switching from an overhand grip to an underhand grip, the tip of my Ore Tree deeply pierced the ground, and at its end, it impaled an Evol Eater that was clacking its jaws.
I slowly pulled it out, swung it once as if to shake off the clinging blood, and started running again.
Running forward from toe to heel, applying force to the ground as if gouging it.
Fortunately, the target landmark is large, and the place where the target Oni is located is easily discernible even in this great cavern where this noise is rampant.
“Well, Instructor, I’ve caught up.”
“You’re late.”
“Don’t compare me to you, I hurried as much as I could.”
“Gahahaha!! You’re not there yet, but it’s passing!”
“Thanks for saying so.”
As for that target Oni…
It could be called the epicenter of the explosion, having cleared out the enemies and standing in the center of the crater, it had stopped its feet.
As I caught up to the instructor and stood beside him, I caught sight of the enemy general, now very close, in the direction the instructor was looking.
“Come to think of it, this is my first time fighting an enemy this huge. Are there any tricks?”
“Huh? You don’t even know that?”
“Sorry.”
The enemy is overwhelmingly large compared to any I’ve fought before.
When challenging such an enemy, my Ore Tree, which is only as long as my height, would be no more than a needle to the opponent.
Although it is shameful to reveal my lack of experience, it is better than dying, so I asked honestly, and the instructor replied with his usual menacing smile.
“Hit it with all your might. Then it will fall eventually.”
“I thought you’d say that.”
Honestly, I didn’t expect to be lectured on logic in a place like this.
The instructor’s answer was the predictable “simple is best” response.
In a way, it’s a more carefree and understandable answer than advice from a renowned swordsman, but realistically, it’s disappointing that he didn’t give me any specific advice.
However, I unfortunately don’t have time to ask for specifics here.
The enemy, seeing me as a threat, has started to move.
“Oh, it can be detached, huh?”
“It can probably be detached. The intention is to eat it later for nourishment and recreate it.”
It detached its large egg-like body, which constituted forty percent of its body, and slowly moved its massive form.
The now lighter main body planted six sharp legs on the ground and, with a shriek, extended a number of tentacles it would be tedious to count.
“Are each of those feeding organs?”
“This is good. Cleaning will be easy.”
“You’re so carefree. I’m full of anxiety because the worry of being eaten has increased.”
“Don’t worry, just ignore the tentacles. A good strike to the enemy’s gut will end this fight.”
“Is it really that simple?”
“It is that simple. Fighting is about kicking, punching, beating, and the one standing at the end is the winner.”
As I sighed at the fangs visible at the tips of the wriggling tentacles, the instructor nonchalantly offered countermeasures.
While we were having this conversation, the tentacles were gathering energy.
They are preying on the dead Evol Eaters.
“Well then, it’s irritating to be attacked first. I guess it’s time to make a move.”
Simultaneously, I see several tentacles coming towards us, and our Oni also starts to move.
The instructor slowly walks out from beside me.
His steps are as casual as if he were going for a stroll, exposing his body, harder than steel, to the tentacles.
The tentacles, thinking they had found choice prey, attacked the instructor one after another.
“Watch this, Jiro. This is one kind of attainment.”
Without being intimidated by such a sight, the instructor casually thrusts his kanabō into the ground.
Then, he stirs his fighting spirit.
“This is a souvenir for the afterlife. I will carve the path to hell for you.”
That fighting spirit gradually expands, forming a giant red shadow.
“Now, now, let’s start the fight with the Oni. If you defeat me magnificently, you’ll get a standing ovation. Don’t worry. Oni are a race that finds unparalleled joy in battle; they won’t resent you even if they lose.”
As the instructor slowly pulls back one foot, the shadow also pulls back and assumes a ready stance.
“But know this, this fight will not end half-heartedly.”
What I previously described as explosive sounds and epicenters was just the beginning.
Without even a moment to react, the instructor’s arm blurred, and countless tentacles vanished.
Did he swing his kanabō?
No, that’s wrong. That was just the pressure of his fist.
As evidence, the kanabō remains thrust into the ground next to the instructor.
What the heck, Oni with a kanabō? Was that a lie?
It’s not a joke that fighting with one’s own body is stronger than wielding a weapon.
This is the true stance of the Oni King.
“■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■!!!!”
“■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■!!!!”
The roars of the Oni and the monster collided, and they poured their strength into crushing each other with all their might.
This scene is now beyond anyone’s intervention.
It’s obvious that if I take one step closer, I’ll be minced.
Even watching from afar, the storm caused by each of the Oni’s punches makes me feel like I’ll be swept away.
It must be said that the opponent, who continues to recover even when hit by such blows, is also formidable.
No matter what I say, no one’s voice will reach the instructor until he defeats the opponent.
So, I decided to step back and whittle down any opponent that seemed like a nuisance.
“?”
Then, what appears in my vision is the giant cocoon left behind after being detached from the main body.
It sits eerily, maintaining its silence, a giant object that is completely out of place in this scene of such intense combat.
That was the organ that produced the Evol Eaters until now.
Is it possible for it to fall completely silent?
Wouldn’t it at least expel any remaining eggs or an Evol Eater about to be born in the womb?
“No way.”
I have no certainty, but by the time I realize it, I’m running at full speed.
An unfounded intuition drove me forward.
The instructor said.
General Kuzuryu is a general who breeds and nurtures.
His ability is reproductive capacity.
Then why is the enemy discarding that ability and fighting the instructor head-on?
Because they were cornered?
Because they have no remaining strength?
Because they have the ability to defeat the instructor even head-on?
All of these questions resonate as dissonance within me, making me push my legs even harder.
The battlefield woven by the Oni and the monster is like land being bombarded, and running through it would be foolish.
However, my intuition tells me that I must take the shortest route.
Rocks Exploded, and their fragments grazed my cheeks, but I didn’t blink, concentrating all my nerves forward, and ran through the battlefield.
And, thanks to that, what awaited me at the end of the battlefield was a monster that had cracked the cocoon, revealed a giant mouth, and was about to swallow the instructor along with the monster.
Realizing that this was the real threat, my action was simple.
In a field of vision where time seemed to slow down with magic circulating, I rushed forward with all my might and, to prevent its mouth from closing, jumped and swung my Ore Tree down with all my strength.
“It’s hard!!”
Still, I managed to make a slight cut at the edge of its mouth.
A brief balance that stopped the monster’s movement.
That moment was enough for the instructor to notice my presence.
“Instructor.”
And in that instant…
“I leave the rest to you.”
I was able to entrust it to him.
“Jiroooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!”
After feeling like I was floating in the air, my vision turned dark.
Side END
This is all for now.
We look forward to your continued support of this work.
