"Just what kind of monster is this?"
According to the intelligence provided by the Adventurers' Guild, among the monsters distributed in the shallow-floor region, there was absolutely nothing like the enormous creature before his eyes… this unprecedented giant.
An extremely robust physique.
Its body was so large that even within the cave passage it seemed somewhat cramped. Every time it moved, Bell could clearly feel the ground continuously trembling beneath his feet.
That chilling greatsword merely brushed against the wall.
Yet the extremely sharp blade shattered the wall, sending chunks of earth breaking off.
With each breath, one could even see the white vapor expelled from the nostrils of the Minotaur. This kind of oppressive pressure was difficult to accurately describe with words.
But from the monster before him…
He felt an intense threat of death. This was absolutely not something he could deal with!
Run.
That was the only thought in Bell's mind right now. It was also what Lord Takemikazuchi had told him—when encountering monsters you cannot defeat, then run.
"I have to get out of here…"
Facing the Minotaur's gaze head-on.
The oppressive pressure brought by the powerful monster made the boy's legs tremble slightly, but his desire to survive ultimately overcame the body's instinctive fear.
He decisively turned and sprinted away.
As if sensing something, this aberrant Minotaur—one that should originally have appeared in the mid-floor region, but had been strengthened after the dungeon became Soulslike—
Its left hand, clenched tightly into a fist, smashed fiercely toward the wall.
Boom!
The force carried by the punch, the moment it struck the earthen cave passage, instantly spread into spiderweb-like cracks, while chunks of soil continuously fell along the passage.
Attempting to block the adventurer's path of escape.
And even—
The speed the Minotaur burst out with even exceeded that of most adventurers, while within the monster's crimson eyes burned an intense hatred.
It seemed as if it wanted to tear every adventurer to pieces.
Noticing the same thing, and clearly aware that if he were struck by those falling chunks of earth he would die completely at the monster's hands, the boy could only slow down and dodge.
As for an escape route?
There was no time for Bell to think too much. He could clearly feel the powerful monster pursuing him, the distance between them constantly closing.
"I must survive."
He still had a goal he needed to pursue.
And—
The boy longed to encounter a true meeting in the dungeon!
"I absolutely have to survive…"
The price of fleeing in blind panic was that he could not observe his surroundings in time. After being tripped by loose stones on the ground, the pain of scraped wounds surged through him.
But…
There was simply no time for Bell to think. After scrambling quickly to his feet using both hands and feet, he continued to flee toward the dark cave passage ahead.
Until—
The boy reached the end of the cave passage.
...
After the Familia's expedition team had developed to a decent size, not only did their forward speed not slow down, it actually improved somewhat in terms of efficiency.
After all, ordinary monsters could be easily dealt with without Ron even needing to act.
As the exploration team quickly passed through the shallow-floor region, that feeling of constantly being watched by the dungeon did not appear. Only when they reached the fifth Floor did that familiar sensation sweep through him again.
"Why does this feel a bit… off?"
According to the patterns summarized so far from dungeon exploration,
once the aberrant monsters had been mostly eliminated, they would stop spawning and the floor's environment would return to normal. That was also the reason Ron's exploration progress had been slow.
High-intensity combat.
Eliminate all the aberrations on the current Floor, preventing trouble for other adventurers.
His gaze swept across the surroundings. Even the Goblin and the ugly creatures they encountered were at the level of stray dogs by the roadside—ordinary adventurers could casually kick them to death.
"…"
Then what exactly was the cause of this… feeling of being watched?
Ron could not figure it out. Perhaps the reason lay in Cassandra's prophetic dream, before reaching the 13th Floor, which led to the mid-floor region and was called the "First Dead Line."
An Ancient Dragon… was probably waiting for him?
However—
As the team continued forward, thanks to the comprehensive enhancement of bodily senses brought by an adventurer's level increase, even the trembling of the ground was still precisely captured by him.
This was absolutely not something shallow-floor monsters could cause!
And early morning was precisely the peak time for dungeon exploration. Ron frowned slightly and decisively said to Mikoto, "This Floor feels very wrong."
"Let's deal with the problem first."
"…" The girl nodded solemnly.
Without asking too many questions, she quickly followed Ron's pace, leaving Daphne and Cassandra looking at each other, somewhat unable to understand the situation.
"What's wrong with the shallow floors?"
But as Familia companions, they did not ask and simply followed closely.
Following the source of the ground's trembling,
Ron ignored low-level Goblin and Dungeon Lizards, tracking the source of the disturbance. Even though the cave environment was dim, his speed did not decrease at all.
When he quickly arrived at the corner of this passage—
What came into view was a monster with an unprecedentedly enormous body, dark skin, and particularly developed muscles, along with the conspicuous features of a bull's head.
There was no need to guess the species.
A Minotaur.
Even though he had not encountered such a monster in the dungeon before, the bull-headed creature before him clearly looked like a Soulslike, heavily-muscled Minotaur. The greatsword in its hand was something an ordinary Minotaur could not possibly possess.
This enormous monster did not seem to have noticed his arrival and was moving toward the end of the cave passage.
"Why does it feel like…"
"This is a little different from the Minotaur I remember?"
Standing still and staring at the dark-skinned Minotaur in the distance, Daphne's pupils suddenly contracted as she searched her memory.
A Minotaur was a monster that existed only in the mid-floor region.
Even ordinary Lv.2 adventurers could be seriously injured if they were not careful. Why would such a thing appear in the shallow floors—and with so many changes!
The monsters she had encountered before…
In her impression, they only possessed a sturdy physique comparable to that of an adult human. But the giant monster before her made the cave passage appear cramped.
That chilling greatsword alone was nearly comparable in size to the one Ron carried on his back.
Even without directly facing the monster,
with her own Lv.2 strength, Daphne could still feel a clear sense of oppression from the dark-skinned Minotaur. She subconsciously looked toward the boy.
Just as she was about to ask—
Ron seemed to guess what she was thinking.
"Don't be surprised."
"This will be our future dungeon exploration routine."
They had not even truly begun dungeon exploration yet. This damn troublesome thing had already prepared a "surprise" for him in the shallow floors. He drew the short sword tied to his legs and equipped the Shinobi Prosthetic on his left arm.
Just as he was about to fight—
Standing beside him, Mikoto, through the gap not completely blocked by the huge body of the dark-skinned Minotaur, saw the adventurer trapped at the end of the passage.
Very familiar…
Especially that striking head of short white hair.
The Minotaur had not directly chosen to kill. Instead, it was more like it was playing with its prey, trying to completely crush the adventurer's psychological defenses.
The girl decisively drew her katana. "Captain Ron, the adventurer the Minotaur is blocking… is a member of Lord Takemikazuchi's Familia."
"A member of Takemikazuchi's Familia?"
They could be considered allies in Orario.
Ron had been able to develop smoothly in the dungeon until now thanks to much help from Takemikazuchi. And now a member of that Familia had encountered the threat of an aberrant monster in the dungeon—
It was the right time to repay the favor.
Mikoto moved quickly.
But compared with Ron, who used the Shinobi Prosthetic based on the Sekiro template, she was still a little slower. As the mechanism shifted, the grappling hook shot toward the Minotaur.
The target was extremely clear.
The greatsword the Minotaur was swinging.
When the sharp hook tightly wrapped around the sword's hilt, the pulling force combined with the power generated by the Minotaur's swing caused Ron's figure to vanish from where he stood in an instant.
"Then I really should help."
"…"
But when Ron drew closer and finally saw the face of the adventurer trapped at the end of the cave passage by the Minotaur, his mood became subtle.
White hair.
An appearance that could be described as boyish.
Bell Cranel.
At this moment he was pressed against the wall, the red pupils of his eyes filled with fear and the helplessness of being unable to resist a powerful monster.
Wait—
Because of the butterfly effect caused by his own appearance, had the original protagonist of DanMachi, Bell, ended up becoming a member of Takemikazuchi's Familia and even encountered a Minotaur's pursuit in the dungeon?
Strange.
But Ron had no time to think about this strange feeling right now.
What he needed to deal with now—was killing this aberrant monster. Thanks to the high mobility of the Shinobi Prosthetic, he arrived behind the monster in an instant.
And because of the grappling hook's pull,
the Minotaur's greatsword swing was greatly delayed.
But as the rope was cut, the artificially created fast-and-slow slash swept forward with tremendous power toward the white rabbit trapped in the corner.
The greatsword struck the wall.
It instantly split open the soil above, and thick dust along with falling chunks of earth came crashing down toward the novice adventurer trapped in the corner with nowhere to dodge.
"So…"
The motion of the greatsword's swing was somewhat sluggish.
But Bell had no time to think about the reason. Chunks of earth kept falling from above, and when the monster's attack was already close at hand, he subconsciously closed his eyes.
Clang—
A crisp metallic collision echoed through the cave passage.
If he were cut in half by the greatsword, it probably wouldn't hurt, right?
But as the dust gradually dispersed, the boy did not feel any pain. He opened his eyes in confusion and brushed away the stones covering his body.
A shadow completely enveloped him.
But it was not the Minotaur.
Instead, it was the figure of an adventurer holding a short sword, deflecting the monster's strike. That figure standing in front of him felt strangely familiar to Bell.
After experiencing a life-and-death threat, his mind had already stopped thinking. He only saw the huge Minotaur forced back several meters by Ron's comparatively slender figure.
Then—
As if taking care of him, the adventurer who had helped him at the most dangerous moment slowly turned around. Bell would never forget that handsome face.
Ron.
And—his casual reminder: "If the rookie adventurer of Takemikazuchi's Familia isn't injured, then run farther away now. As for the rest of the fight, leave it to me."
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