Takami no Kago ch.60

Hi everyone! Raizu is here!
I was planned to post this chapter on last sunday, but thanks to Golden Week, I got busy with RL family stuff, so it can’t be helped. XD

Anyway, enjoy your chapter!
I’ll post a new chapter of motoyuusha… maybe tomorrow~

So stay tuned!

Translator: Pengu
Editor/TLC: Darknari
Cleaner/Proofreader: Raizu

Chapter 60

It’s been almost 12 hours since we left for the labyrinth that was near the town.
We have been switching places as the coachman. As mutual communication was possible through Ruby, technique was unnecessary. (EN: they are using ruby to talk to the turtle)

According to the map, it should take approximately 4 hours till we arrive.
Certainly, it surely seems faster than a horse. Although it did not seem so because of its swaying stride. It feels like the approximated speed was about 20km/h, I think. (EN: 12mph)

The speed was about the same as dancing on the pedals on a bicycle.

“Ah, nevertheless it is boring.”

First I was cautious of monsters, but eventually I stopped.
Though we saw monsters several times, but we passed by them before we were attacked. As I thought it really does seem fast.
Duo and Luo were running side by side, but I let them rest in the carriage because they got completely exhausted midway.
As Queen didn’t seem to be able to get into the carriage, it was house sitting this time. (EN: for those who don’t remember Duo and Luo are sharp wolves and Queen is an armored mantis.)

“My lord, would thee not like company to while away the time?”

Zir, who was lying down, invited me to play. As I’m free, I said ‘Ok’.

“Then, what shalt we doth?”

As there was no helping it, I gave out a suggestion. An item for killing time was just made.

“Let’s play cards.”

These cards were an item made by Amy, it was almost no different from the card decks which I knew of.

“Oh, that? That is what I saw you making.”

Among all the playing card games, I decided to do [Old Maid] because of the simple rules.
Ayla was not available since she was the coachman for now, but Amy also participated and the game was started with 3 people.
Was it about one hour since we started the card game?
Though we were harmoniously enjoying [Old Maid] at first, but now a stinging tension has arisen.
The reason was…

“This!! I-it’s different from what you said!?”

The one person which kept on overwhelmingly losing and became displeased was Zir.
Zir was insanely weak. She made an effort to have the joker drawn with clever speech, unfortunately her emotions reflected too much on her face.
She was depressed if she drew the joker and smiled sweetly only when the opponent put a hand on the joker.
In addition, she had bad luck drawing the joker and had built an overwhelming 30 losses during one hour.
Moreover, Amy was a serious person so she wasn’t the type to lose on purpose,
Though I reluctantly drew the joker from Zir, but the joker will be left in Zir’s hand if it was noticed.

“I lost again~!!”

Because the timing was good I excused myself from old maid. The purpose was to change coachman with Ayla.

“Ayla, let’s change.”
“Yes, thank you very much. It seems somewhat fun.”

She probably heard the trouble from the back as she jokingly answered.

“Ah, it is still continuing so you can go and join in. That’s it, Ayla, I will teach you an interesting technique.”

I made a promise to teach Ayla old maid and saw her off.
After a while…

“W-why is this card the only thing that comes out!? I-isn’t this the joker? No, is this the anticipated reverse trap!?”
“FuFuFu~.”

When doing this, I taught her to laugh dauntlessly, but she seems to be carrying that out.
The back has become quite after making noise for a while.
It appears that, though they continued to play cards, they were mainly chatting.

“However, that’s mainly the problem.”

Apparently, they are talking about me. Oi! I can hear you―

“What is master?”
“It wast a wench last time and this time that he wast involv’d with.”
“However, is it an act of kindness this time?”
“I am not finding fault with him in particular.”
“… Indeed, that is a different thing.”
“Hm? What is a different thing?”
“Ayla. Zir is anxious that master’s slaves (rivals) might increase.”

“Hmph, because the other day that gent hath seemed to has’t did enjoy himself in some other lodging.”
“It is a little unexpected.”
“Whatever do you mean?”
“Zir, you are too devoted to master.”
“Yea, forsooth. To beest frank, being able to has’t sexual intercourse is the main import.”

Because having sex with a vampire always comes together with a blood sucking session, The hurdle maybe too high for an ordinary human partner.

“Naturally with repeated skinship, affection wells up. Is that not so for ye?”
“It’s only natural. He’s our master, so…”
“Yes. I want to be together all the time.”

I wasn’t able to catch the aforementioned conversation from there. Well, preparations might be good as I do not think it was a good idea that I hear the girls talk any further.
Here also, we are doing a boys talk?

“Ruby, let us have a love story~”

I doubt whether a slime has a male or female gender, but Ruby’s romantic love story was unfolded passionately
In the place where the talk became lively, the grand turtle also participated in the conversation.
You, you were a male?”
The deep talk about the tastes of Ruby or the virtues of the female figure of the grand turtle was done.
The curve in a female shell seems to be irresistible.
Later, I named the grand turle. Because he was a fellow that did love stories.
From time immemorial, people became on good terms with those who do love stories.

“Speaking of the turtle’s name, should it be an artist?”

Like that I named him Picasso.
Well, there might be various retorts, but there was no guy that knows of a turtle that likes pizza in this world so there was probably no problem. (EN: I think this is supposed to be a pun Picasso → pizza)
We finally arrived at the destination when we were having a heated discussion.
The entrance to the labyrinth game (dungeon) was like a throat in the middle of the wilderness. The stairs that dive underneath the mounded dirt hill was clearly visible.
There were several tents and a cattle shed around the dungeon. The tents are probably stores.
I admired the vitality of the merchant business in such a place.
I left Picasso at the cattle shed and approached the entrance to the dungeon. Signboards were put up all around.
[Dungeon of Selva], [Please come in], [It’s fine, it’s a dragon’s labyrinth], [Be careful of ferocious dragons], etc. the contents covered a lot of ground.
Probably, Selva was the master of this labyrinth.

“How fishy~”

Though the expectations of the labyrinth had fallen in one go, I had already come here. I can’t return empty handed.
I decided to enter inside for now.
The stone interior spread out. The ceiling was about 2.5m. The width of the passage we are in was about 5m wide. (EN: h-8ft w-16ft)

There was no consistency in the width, a room like space was visible from here.

“Is the limit up to two people in the passage?”

I informed the battle formations and roles that I thought of beforehand to Ayla and the others. The ring that I had put my magic in before was passed to Amy and Zir.
I decided to declare the kind of magic and target in advance.With this, it’s possible that overlapping magic can be prevented.

“Ayla will go in front with me. Amy and Zir will support from the rear. Amy will also map the place. Zir, please scout with the ghosts. There is a compass so please use it.”

I sent Duo and Luo to the rear as defense. There was also the scouting by Zir’s ghosts, so we won’t be attacked by surprise.
I advanced through the passage carefully. It seems the hierarchy that we are in now was the upper layer. The [Dungeon of Selva] was formed of three layers, an upper layer, middle layer and lower layer.
The layers were separated by stairs with a [Guardian], if I can’t beat it I will not be able to advance any further. It’s exactly like a dungeon in a RPG.

“Master, there is a group of five orcs in the expanse ahead. Also, though they are distant, there are several orcs that don’t smell pleasant behind us. They are hanging around the passage.”

I ignored the orcs from behind and aimed at the five of them in front. I advanced without being noticed by the orcs while confirming the exact location from Zir.
The orcs are hanging in a larger place than the passage. They seemed to be eating something. They were all each chewing something like dried meat.
I gave instructions to everybody behind me. After confirming the status, all the orcs were about Lv.10. I might be able to defeat them without a problem even if I confronted them head on.

“Zir, please put them in an abnormal state with a ghost.”
“Yea, t’would beest troublesome if they were to runneth wild hither. So, [Sleep].”

Zir released the sleep ghost. The orcs inside began to doze off at once.
When I stood by and looked inside after about 5 minutes, the orcs were completely asleep.
The work was divided among all the members and it was skilfully and efficiently put in order.
Afterwards, we encountered about 4-5 orcs whenever we went to wide places. But we always had the initiative and were also superior in level, so there was no problem in the advancement.

“Yeah, it is an easy win however, this, probably something will happen before long.”
“Something? What do you think it is?”

Because I was confirming where we went while mapping it, my soliloquy was probably heard.
Amy had come on over.

“Indeed, there seems to be only orcs.”

Are we advancing well? Were we made to think that we are advancing smoothly? This labyrinth was fabricated.
In other words, I can think that this was something like the creator’s intention.
I thought it might be my imagination, but there was definitely something like a trap.

“Fragrance Ant!? If the scent sachet is thrown out in such a place, we will be surrounded in no time!?”

When I advanced further a little, a different monster came in that was mixed into the crowd of orcs.
Especially, when unskillful disposal is done it will cause the fragrance ant to summon monsters with the scent.
Because there was no helping it, I arrived at the room and cleaned it up with Flame Whirlwind (Fire storm) to take care of that thing.
How many rooms has it been now where I’ve monotonously launched Flame Whirlwind (Fire Storm)?
Something suddenly ignited from the flame which I shot into a room and caused a large explosion.
*Zu-n* a low sound was heard shaking the labyrinth walls. (EN: the onomatopoeia is for gloom or doomed so I have no I have no idea why it’s being used here)
Because of the sound of the explosion, my ears were buzzing. As for this, my ears will not able to be used for a while.
I would have borne a serious injury in the blast if I had not hidden myself at the entrance of the room.

“It is this.”

Because the buzzing had lessened, I confirmed the inside of the room. Amy brought one of the remaining materials, a slightly blackish powder wrapped in a paper parcel.

“This is [Nitro Powder]. In that room, there might have been a Nitro Powder Butterfly.”

I fought the nitro powder butterflies several times at the necromancer’s event.
It places itself in a slightly higher position and scatters its scales, it was a frightening monster that detonates when human magic touches the scales of its body.
This explosion was caused because the flame was shot in the room where a nitro powder butterfly exists, it reacted to the scales of the nitro powder butterfly and caused a huge explosion.
There seems to be a lot more cruel traps than I thought in this labyrinth.
It might be for the best to dispose of the fragrant ant with flame. However, when I entered the room with fire, this time the ‘Caution: Flammable’ nitro powder butterfly was mixed into the group.
Perhaps, many adventurers hesitate what they should do. However…

“Zir, please tell me whether there are nitro powder butterflies from now on. And if there are monsters that are strange, please tell me.”
“Yea, I understand. Prithee entrust this to me.”

We have to advance steadily with more scouting parties.
We gained control of the upper layer smoothly, and at last we finally arrived at the [Guardian]’s room.