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Chapter 257: Ghouls
Translated by Zzonkedd
Edited by Gumihou and Onionpi
The next floor is the notorious Undead Floor.
The one that Adventurers had been avoiding for the past 200 years.
“Alright, I’m going to stamp everyone with the Holy Stamp now.”
“Please,” Elland-san held out his beloved sword.
I stamped the blade of his sword as well as the back of his hand. Then, I stamped all three familiars. [5]
Stamp, stamp, stamp.
Ignoring Elland-san’s muttering as I stamped Dora-chan, I let the little dragon fly off before stamping my hand as well as my Mithril spear.
[6] Suddenly, as though imbued by some weird confidence from the stamp, I brandished my spear and said, “Shall we?”
“Umu, I wonder if we’ll encounter anything worth my time,” [6] Fer looked like he was trying to sound bored, but I could see the excitement burning around his body.
““I can’t wait to beat up Undead again!”” [5]
““Sui will defeat lots and lots~””
[8] Aaahh, where did you get your energy from? Didn’t you have a good fight just now?
[8] Also, even with the Holy Mark, there are Ghouls, Skeleton Mages and Wraiths here. All of which are stronger than the ones from the 9th floor. After all, dungeon logic dictates that the deeper (or higher if it’s a tower) you go, the stronger the enemies are.
It’s best to be cautious. One can’t be too careful here.
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“Mukouda-san, incoming Ghoul from behind!”
“Yes!” I whirled around with my Mithril Spear extended outwards [5].
[8] A rotting corpse was running towards me, scattering bits of flesh and dripping fluids with every step. Yes, it was running.
[8] I had a terrible shock when I first saw it. Granted, it was not so fast that it could be considered an actual run. [6] In fact, if one was being very generous, one could probably call it a jog. Nevertheless, it was certainly faster than a 9th floor Zombie’s shuffle.
[8] I must have panicked quite a lot, because Fer took the time to say, “Relax, I’ve put up a barrier,” before leaping forward to stomp on the Ghouls, making them go squish.
[8] [6] Elland-san kindly stayed with me until my panic subsided enough to realise that I have the [Absolute Barrier] defence. Not to mention the Holy Stamp effect on my weapon and myself.
That’s right, I have the protection of the goddess and the Holy Stamp. [2] After finally calming down, I brandished my spear and shouted, “Sei!” stabbing a Ghoul in the chest and slashing sideways.
[6] It did not take long for me to get used to fighting. Though I must say it was really great to have Elland-san call out instructions and warnings as we fought.
[6] “Sei!” I shouted as I slashed the Ghoul that tried to ambush me.
Elland-san’s sword already went through two Ghouls. [8] The coast was now clear for the moment and Elland-san picked up something from the floor, [3] “Oh, they Dropped some Poisonous Claws.”
The thing that Elland-san picked up looked like a little drawstring leather bag. I supposed the ‘Poisonous Claws’ are inside that bag? How conscientious of the dungeon to neatly pack poisonous items into little pouches like this.
[4] “Ghouls have poisonous claws,” said Elland-san in his serious-lecture tone. “The smallest scratch from their claws could be lethal. I heard that victims of their scratches would be struck down by a fever for three days and three nights before they rot and die.”
[6] “Ah, that sounds bad,” I said, a little more worried now by the Jogging Zombies.
[4] “That’s what I learnt from books. Undead are really rare and not many exist outside of a dungeon. I’ve lived a good couple of hundred years now, but this is the first time I’ve seen Wraiths and Ghouls in person.” [6] He gave Dora-chan a wistful look, “Ah, I’ve since then learnt that books aren’t the most reliable source of knowledge…”
[8] “Ahem,” time to change the subject. “Are Poisonous Claws the only type of Drops from Ghouls?”
[8] “Hmm, I’m not sure. It’s rare for people to kill Undead, therefore the Drops are correspondingly fewer. Although I did read that Poisonous Claws can be used to make some kind of special poison…”
[6] Both of us stared at the innocent looking leather bag.
[8] I know I probably shouldn’t ask, but, “What kind of poison?”
[8] The answer seems to automatically file out of Elland-san’s mouth, “According to my source, a slow-acting poison that induces heart attack after it is ingested. Medicine is not very developed in this world due to potions and recovery magic. Sickness is something really rare too, but people still die of heart attack, which could be ruled as death via sickness…”
[6] “Erm, I don’t like where this is going,”
[4] “Which is why this poison is a favourite among assassins since people who died through heart attack are not examined for poison.”
[6] I looked at the little bag in horror, “Don’t tell me the Guild trade in these too! Isn’t it too dangerous?!”
“Well, it depends on the individual guild. This kind of thing falls in the grey area. There are some… other organisations that would very much like to get their hands on these no matter what…”
[4] “Y-you’re telling me there are Assassins Guild!?”
[6] “Well, not a proper guild per se…” [5] [6] I looked at the bag, then at the hoard of Ghouls jogging over to us. There seemed to be quite a lot of them. It would look quite weird if we appear without a single Ghoul Drop, but…
“How about this, we just pick up all the Drops, and if we happen to have too many of these. Let’s just… burn most of them and only take a few up.”
“That… sounds like a good idea,” said Elland-san, still with that rather wooden looking face.
[6] After all, it would be dangerous if too many of these heart-attack inducing poisons flooded the market.
“Oi! Gather those things quickly and let’s be on our way,”
““Yeah, yeah, I’m gathering them too!””
““Aruji~ Sui helped pick them up too~””
Elland-san and I stared at the large pile of little leather bags.
“… …”
[Gumihou: … Gumi is trying to decide if this is a bonus chapter… the total is 1040 words… Ahahaha, a lot of the words are from Gumi too, hahaha ]
[1] Structural Change: Combine 2 paragraphs
[2] Structural Change: Combine 3 paragraphs
[3] Structural Change: Combine paragraph & dialogue
[4] Structural Change: Change passive sentence to dialogue
[5] Delete Repetitive or Pointless Information
[6] Additional Information for Aesthetic Purpose
[7] Add Dialogue Tag
[8] Creative Licence Taken