yemalu

The Mana Crystals from those Rat Shadow Stalkers should be worth quite a bit of money so we took the time to extract both from their corpses.

Unfortunately, the Dungeoneers they killed were completely eaten up by the Rats and somehow they also managed to chew through their equipment too, leaving nothing good for us to pilfer.

Heck, even their coin pouches were reduced to just cloth scraps.

"My apologies for making you worry for me, Mistress," Katsuki apologised for the umpteenth time after she recovered.

"It\'s fine Katsuki, I\'m just glad you\'re ok," I assured her.

"To think that I would not even be able to handle a monster of a level like this… It seems like I need to train even harder…"

"Umm… Everyone has their own specialties so you don\'t need to beat yourself up over it."

"Mistress is really kind."

No, no, this has nothing to do with me being kind, I\'m just really worried that you\'ll go overboard with your own training which I\'m ninety percent sure you\'re going to do once we get back…

I just hope that we won\'t meet any more monsters as strong as those two…

I did ask the rest if that was a normal encounter but Odeta and Katsuki were not experienced enough with Dungeons to tell me definitely. But according to Edir, she claimed that it was definitely abnormal.

It was quite clear that was true given the fact that the seventieth floor boss was a rather weak boss too…

[Name: Dungeon Rat Executioner

Stats:

280 Strength

50 Dexterity

200 Endurance

180 Magic

Skills:

  Martial Skill-(Polearm Proficiency (Tier 2), Greatsword Proficiency (Tier 2), Unarmed Proficiency (Tier 2))

Magic Skills:

Hydromancy (Tier 1), Cryomancy (Tier 1)]

The four of us looked up at the boss monster that was at least three times the size of Odeta wielding a greataxe as long as it was tall, the bladed part of the weapon occupying at least half its length.

After fighting those two Rat Shadow Stalkers, this one just seemed a bit… Weak…

It tried to intimidate us with a roar that shook the room but we didn\'t really react much to it aside from just covering our ears.

"I guess… We\'ll just deal with it like the other bosses?" I suggested.

The others nodded their heads in agreement and we adopted our usual roles in fighting the boss.

Odeta charged the boss and occupied its attention as normal, punching it with enough strength to cause the monster to skid back a few feet.

Katsuki supported her by moving behind the boss and slashing at it with her poison-coated daggers, causing the monster to let out a roar of pain.

Right as it tried to swing its axe towards my Inugami maid, Odeta would close in the gap and deliver another punch, redirecting its attention back to herself.

The Rat Executioner swung the blunt end of the axe at Odeta, smashing it into her arms that she raised to defend herself against the blow.

She let out a growl of pain but was otherwise fine, even as my [Close Wounds] spell took effect on her.

Edir was constantly shooting arrow after arrow at the boss, a big target like this being hard to miss at this range.

The boss let out a roar and icicles started appearing in the air, a sign of it using its magic.

I then went ahead to use my patented plan of shooting multiple [Static Bolts] in quick succession, causing the boss monster to get repeatedly stunned and stopping it from casting its spell.

It also stopped the boss from being able to move entirely and allowed the others in my party to keep hitting the boss until it\'s dead.

Definitely way easier than those stupid Rat Shadow Stalkers that could avoid my [Static Bolt] easily.

As we walked out of the boss room after harvesting its Mana Crystal, Edir spoke up, "Forgive me… Mistress… But… Is your chanting speed incredibly fast?"

I tilted my head at her while trying to act clueless, "Eh? Why do you ask?"

"Because it seems that you have a much higher casting speed than most mages I know… And you\'re even able to cast spells while another one is in effect too…"

I shrugged, "Umm… I received quite comprehensive training when I was young… And I haven\'t really partied with many mages either so I\'m not sure how I compare with others."

"I see…" She drifted off, her voice sounding not too convinced but she decided not to pursue the issue in the end.

We continued deeper into the Dungeon until we turned a corner to be met with a corpse laying at the side of the corridor.

It was a male Mahun wearing mostly leather armour aside from a pair of plated arm guards that reached up to his shoulders and a cloth undershirt.

Around him were the corpses of several different Dungeon Rats, including a Rat Executioner that had its own axe embedded in its head.

The odd thing was that the Mahun was laid in a rest position where it looked like he was just sleeping. His face also looked to be at peace and his sword was placed parallel to his body on top of his chest.

The only reason why we even knew he was dead was because the bottom half of his body was separated from the top half, though it seemed some attempts were made to push the halves together.

The monsters around also looked to have been dissected and cut open for their Mana Crystals too, which clearly meant that someone else was here.

Odeta, Katsuki and Edir showed no reaction to the sight while I was feeling a little melancholic from it.

"A casualty from another party?" I guessed.

Katsuki looked at the dead Mahun and nodded, "He is, Mistress. Most likely their party was ambushed by this group of Dungeon Rats and he was killed by the Rat Executioner."

"But they just left his body behind?"

"Such things happen, Mistress, even amongst Mercenaries. He must have been dead for too long for him to be revived, so all they could do was lay him to rest and move on."

"Don\'t they have burials or something?"

All three of them looked at each other before turning back to me.

"What\'s a \'burial\' Mistress?"

"Err… There isn\'t a custom of burying people in the ground?"

Katsuki blinked at me, "I did not know Mistress also practised Necromancy."

"E… Eh? Wait a minute, I don\'t do that at all! Why would you think that?"

"Because only necromancers would do that, Mistress. A dead body left out like that, even if buried, would eventually turn into an undead. It is the norm for the dead to be burned where they lie."

Edir spoke up, "Oh, I heard the Rejmars and the people from the Modgnik practice this \'burial\' thing, but I think they call it entombing or something."

I gestured to the dead body by the side, "And this one?"

"It\'s different in Dungeons since they are usually absorbed by the Dungeon itself and would thus not have the risk of turning into an undead," Katsuki explained.

"I\'d thought that most of the time the dead would be returned to their families so that they can grieve and lay them to rest."

"That is also practised, though they do not return the body. It\'s difficult for them to carry the body of their companions around and unless their home is near where they died, it might turn into an undead before they can reach the deceased\'s home. In this case, most people take the deceased\'s most precious or personal item and return back to their home with it. In this one\'s case, I would have to assume it was his breastplate since he is missing one."

Ah… I thought that was just his armour choice or something…

Odeta then pointed at the dead guy, "Does Sister Aster want his sword?"

I looked at her, only just remembering that looting the dead wasn\'t seen as taboo here but I can\'t bring myself to do it here since this was just a Dungeoneer like us who happened to die in it.

Yes, that\'s quite hypocritical of me to think like that considering the fact that I\'ve killed others and watched others die as well. Not to mention the fact that the current sword I\'m using also came from such a circumstance too.

Plus, those Mercenaries that tried to kill me were also killed by me with my own hands and I definitely never thought about them being laid to rest or anything like that.

What\'s more, the sword that was on his chest was just a simple unenchanted blade so there wasn\'t any reason for me to take it anyway.

That reminds me…

I turned to Edir, "What about your previous party? Shouldn\'t we have taken something from them to bring back too?"

She shrugged, "I don\'t know them well enough to do that. I guess Mistress might not know this but in parties such as this, if I was the one who died, they would have simply looted my dead body and left me for the Dungeon to consume. It\'s just something that happens."

Wow… That\'s actually kind of sad… To me at least.

I guess that Dungeoneers and Mercenaries also carry such risks on their shoulders…

And if they have a family, their family members also live with the knowledge that they might one day never see their loved one again and there might not even be someone to come back and deliver the news to them.

Harsh…