As we moved on through the dungeon, the difficulty of the dungeon increased.
The Skeletons are becoming more and more sophisticated in their disguise, and the number of Skeletons appearing at one time has increased from the initial four to the current eight.
However, the payoff is also just as greatā¦ā¦
[Ah, I leveled up!]
[M- Me too!]
Radd and the others had just reached the halfway point of the dungeon, and all of them had already leveled up.
[Seriously? Weāve only been in this dungeon for less than an hourā¦ā¦]
[Iāve already told you. The enemies here are brittle, but they give a lot of EXP.]
Of course, the monsters are good for leveling up, assuming that you have the means to respond to their surprise attacks and have an advantageous attack method against the Skeletons.
It isnāt as fast as their first exploration, but thanks to the Level-up Recovery, theyāre able to go deeper without depleting their MP.
In the beginning, I was involved in the fighting too, but that stopped happening once Radd and the others got the hang of battling in this dungeon.
So far, I would say everything is going well.
ā¦ā¦However, itās precisely when you get used to it that B&B lays out its traps.
[ā¦ā¦Stop. Itās an ambush.]
[Eh?]
Radd and the other gave me a dubious look when I suddenly stopped them in the middle of nowhere, but still obediently stopped.
The room we arrived in was a little spacious, but empty.
Radd and the others tried looking around, but didnāt seem to find anything out of the ordinary.
[Isnāt it that you had some sort of mistake? I canāt find anything hereā¦ā¦]
[Noā¦ā¦ Look up.]
Lured by my words, everyone in the room looks up.
[Uwaahh!]
A scream rose from Radd and the othersā mouths.
The center of the ceiling of the room, which was fairly high, was covered with several Skeletons.
[They were probably placed there to fall down when you walk directly under them.]
[For there to even be such a trapā¦ā¦]
Itās a trap set up after making everyone pay attention to the ground all this time.
The dungeon is dimly lit, so if you were to normally explore it, you would probably overlook it.
However, once you find them, this situation becomes an advantage.
[Calm down. The fact that they are all in one place makes it easier to deal with them. Aim at them from a long distance, and finish them off when they fall.]
[Y- Yeah.]
The group was still shaken up from discovering the Skeletons on the ceiling, but Radd and the others were Adventurers that were competent enough.
They shot down the Skeletons and dealt the finishing blow to them one after the other.
[Take this!]
Radd swung his sword down at the last Skeleton struggling on the ground.
Even as they had won without injuries though, the sweat on Raddās forehead didnāt go away.
[Old man, how did you even notice those things up there?]
[With this.]
Saying this, I showed them my Decoy Gun.
The device, which had never been used in this dungeon run, now had a blue light on its switch, indicating that it was ready for use.
[But you see, the moment I stepped into this room, this light turned āredā.]
The Decoy Gun, just like the escape item āRecall Plumeā is an item that ācanāt be used while in a state of combatā.
So, I was taking advantage of that limitation.
While I have it out at all times, if I find myself in a situation where I canāt use it, that paradoxically proves that āthe enemy is nearbyā.
For me, the Decoy Gun isnāt an item that can only get the enemyās attention once every 30 minutes.
Itās more like an excellent āexploration itemā that can be infinitely used in any dungeon.
After hearing my explanation, Radd looked as if he couldnāt believe what he had just heard.
[W- What the heck is going on inside your headā¦ā¦!]
[I was just using whatever I can get my hands on.]
And because it allows for that kind of ingenuity and tricks, I consider B&B and this world as a āgod-tier gameā.
Besidesā¦ā¦
[ā¦ā¦The real surprises are yet to come.]
[Eh?]
Shaking my head at Radd who asked back, saying it was nothing, I hurried them on.
And thenā¦ā¦
[ā¦ā¦Weāve arrived. This is our target.]
Soon after, we finally arrived at our target location.
ā»ćā»ćā»
It was a place with a distinctly different atmosphere from the other rooms.
It was larger than any of the other rooms we had been in, and at the far end of the room sat a large door.
[That door. Is that a puzzle?]
As Radd murmured, the door at the back had a meaningful pattern painted on it, and in front of it was a lever.
Next to the lever, there were four rotating relief carvings, two on the left and two on the right, embedded in the door.
[Itās a typical trapdoor, isnāt it? I think the door opens when setting the four relief carvings in a specific combination and pulling the leverā¦ā¦ but the problem is, so far, thereās nothing that could give us a clue to the patternā¦ā¦]
Nuku is analyzing with a troubled look on his face, but I moved forward without minding them.
[O- Oi, Old man?]
[You guys wait right there.]
I stopped Radd, who was about to follow me, and made my way to the lever.
[ā¦ā¦I told you to wait though.]
[Iām waiting here by Nii-sanās side.]
Sighing upon Resiliaās irrational remark, without hesitation, I put my hand on the lever.
[W- Wait, Old man! You still havenāt set up the mechanismā¦ā¦]
[Yeah. But thatās enough already.]
I shake off Raddās words and pull down the lever with all my might.
Immediately after that, a grating warning sound echoed through the area.
And the strange phenomenon didnāt stop there.
[B- Bones were coming out from the groundā¦..!]
Bones started popping out from the ground here and there in the room.
Using the extracted parts of the bones as footholds, they gradually pulled up and revealed themselves.
[Skeletons! But this numberā¦ā¦]
As Prana had warned, what emerged from the ground were Skeletons.
Their numbers were a total of ā16ā.
The number of Skeletons was four times as many as the four Skeletons we first encountered, and they were about to appear on this spot.
[Can you really just absent-mindedly look at them spawning? If you donāt whittle down their numbers before they completely come out, youād end up being in trouble.]
[T- This b*stard! Everybody! Unleash your ranged attacks! Weāll weaken them as much as we can before they come out, and then weāll cut their numbers down!]
Radd shout brought everyone back to their senses, and their mortal struggle began.
ā»ćā»ćā»
[D*mn it. Theyāve got outrageous numbers.]
Breathing heavily, Radd andĀ the others managed to fight off the Skeleton horde on their own and stood their ground.
Although Resilia and I helped them out a bit, it was mostly Radd and his party that fought them off.
They had become much stronger than I had expected.
[You did great. To be honest, I thought it would be more of a struggle at first.]
I clapped my hands at them, and perhaps offended by my attitude, Radd exclaimed.
[O- Old man! When you do something like that, couldnāt you have warned us beforehandā¦ā¦]
[Ahh, sorry about that. However, you better get used to it. There are still lots of enemies ahead after all.]
I said and went to the center of the room once more.
Seeing this, Raddās face turned pale.
[O- Oi. Oi, Old man! No wayā¦ā¦]
[Yes way.]
The ātrapā in this room is the reason why this <Undead Labyrinth> is said to have changed the strategy of B&B.
Normally, once a monster has been defeated, it wonāt respawn except after waiting for a certain set amount of days.
Adventurers usually systematically defeat a limited number of monsters to level themselves up.
In such a worldā¦ā¦
This is a miraculous device that can bring forth an inexhaustible supply of monsters at the flick of a switch.
Itās common in games that monsters attack as a penalty for wrongly activating a device.
Itās also common in games that the same trap is triggered every time a mistake is made, since the penalty for disarming a trap can be solved by a random guess.
However, the combination of those two has caused quite an outrageous situation that shouldnāt have happened in B&Bās system.
As a result, this device allows the player access to āinfinite EXPā!
Even though the game wasnāt widely known for its strategies, this technique was picked up by internet message boards and information sites that publish game tricks, and it quickly spread among the players of B&B.
And thus, the <Undead Labyrinth> trap became famous as the most famous level-up spot in the history of B&B.
[Well then, letās go.]
Lightheartedly saying this, I put my hand on the lever again.
[W- Wait right there, Old man!]
[R- Rex-san! That isā¦ā¦]
While Radd and Mana flusteredly tried calling out to me, I hummingly pulled down the lever.
Immediately after that, a grating warning sound echoed through the area, and thenā¦ā¦