Chapter 66

Eminira Dungeon (7)
Fifth floor.
Unlike before, this area is a grassy plain where the grass reached up to my knees, and even looking far into the distance, it was all grass.
The monster here is called a Taupe, about 40 cm in length, and resembled a mole.

Taupes are masters of pit traps.
They dig pit traps everywhere and attack anything that falls in with their sharp claws.
When I asked about the size of the pits, I was told the surface opening is about 40 cm in diameter, and the hole is about 1 meter deep. However, it expands further underground, where the Taupes wait.
Once you fall into a pit, it attacks from all directions—front, back, left, and right—from underground, so your legs get hurt and it's hard to climb out of the hole. Sounds like a real hassle.

Since they're underground, it's hard to defeat them, and you can’t get any loot.
After all, they’re a full meter under the soil.

“This is my time to shine.” Said Brother Gerald, who was apparently the first to take one down.
He cut down the grass with his sword, and when he found a pit, he fired a fire spell, Fireball, at it.

Then, a giant magnet came out from Brother Gerald’s magic bag.
The magnet had a string attached to it, which he lowered into the pit. After spinning the string around, he pulled it up.
Two iron plates were stuck to the magnet. When he dropped the magnet again, he retrieved one more iron plate.
Each iron plate was 15 cm tall, 15 cm wide, and 5 cm thick.

The Golden Wings also used Allie’s ice magic to attack the pit, then used the magnet to scoop up the iron plates.
Apparently, these magnets can be rented from the Adventurers’ Guild.

The pits are deep, so swords aren’t effective—you have to use magic.
Diving into the pit to grab the loot is dangerous since a Taupe might still be there, and the pits aren’t large enough to move around in.
Even if you miss a few dropped items, the magnet is definitely safer.

This seems like a place where we should focus on quantity.

“Brother Gerald, Meyer, use wind magic to clear the grass in this whole area. As close to the ground as possible.”

“Hardt, what are you trying to do?”

“I want to see how many pits there are. If we want to collect the loot efficiently, it’s better to find the pits quickly...”

“Got it. Meyer, help me out.”

“Understood.”

When Brother Gerald and Meyer cleared the grass around us, they found pits spaced about every 15 meters.
Even if I wanted to help fight, my Waterball still doesn’t have enough power...
But since I was mostly just observing on the fourth floor, I want to join the battle this time.

“Wilson, can I have one of those ice blocks from earlier?” I asked, and he gave me one that was a 30 cm square. Perfect size for these pit traps.

But it’s cold, and I didn’t want to carry it, so I thought maybe I could move it using water and drop it into the pit.

I used water to carry the ice block to the nearest pit and dropped it in. There was a thud as it hit the bottom.
Looking into the pit, part of the ice had cracked, so I shot a Waterball at it and shattered the ice.

To see if the beast was defeated, I had them drop the magnet in. When it came back up, there were two iron plates stuck to it.
We tried again, but this time, no plates came up.

“Hardt, I saw what you did, but can you explain it to me?” Asked Brother Gerald.

I told him that I thought my Waterball wasn’t strong enough.
But I still wanted to participate in the fight, so I remembered the ice chunks from the boss room earlier.
I figured if I dropped the ice into the pit and then shattered it with Waterball, the force of the ice shards flying out might defeat some of the Taupes. That’s what I was testing.

“And why did you move the ice with water?”

“Because it’s cold and annoying to carry. I just thought, maybe I can move it with water, so I tried it.”

“Hardt, mind if I give it a shot too?” Canal said, so we had Wilson produce five more ice blocks.

Canal and I took the pits near our position. The remaining pits were handled by Brother Gerald, Miss Allie, and Wilson.
Wilson said he wanted to compare whether Waterball or ice was more effective.
The male members of the Golden Wings were in charge of pulling the iron plates out with the magnet.

The test results showed both methods were equally effective.
But considering the extra steps involved in dropping the ice, just casting magic directly was simpler.
Still, for people like Canal and me, who don’t have strong enough magic, the ice method worked well.
Normally, only E-rank or higher adventurers are supposed to be on this floor, so my method probably wouldn’t be used in general.
Still, I’m glad the ice came in handy.

Brother Gerald, sounding a bit fired up, said,
“At this point, let’s just clear all the grass ahead of us and defeat every pit trap we find!”

I thought he was going overboard, but Atre and Ripka said they wanted to join the fight too, so I stayed quiet.

“We really are overpowered, this team.” Muttered Miss Linka, but we all pretended not to hear it.

We steadily cleared the monsters and made it to the boss room.
There was one group ahead of us, so we rested while waiting our turn.

What do you think about this chapter?