Hazure Skill ‘Mapping’ wo Te ni Shita Ore wa, Saikyou Party to Tomo ni Dungeon ni Idomu Chapter 36

Barely Escape

Translator: Masakibluei

Tap Tap Tap.

The sounds of wet footsteps approaching. Slowly and surely.

Do you really want to use this strategy?

Is it okay to do it this way?

I bite my lips to hold my anxiety.

At the same time, I keep looking at the direction where the sound comes.

-----Tap Tap Tap

The end of the passage is being lit by the candle. The monsters which are lurking in the darkness are not visible yet. Everything will be fine. This is the right strategy. I try to reassure myself.

-----Tap Tap Tap

I have to pay attention to Erin too.

She is trembling inside of my arm.

In order to calm her down, I squeeze her shoulder.

------Tap Tap Tap

Just according to our plan, we are hiding close by the passage. It will be fine.

We curl to each other and conceal ourselves inside the ivy plants which are growing around the wall to hide from the monsters.

To avoid being detected by the monster, I have to hide our presence. A little bit more…

Activate skill

<<Stealth>>

Tap Tap Tap

Something emerges from the dark.

Something green? Or blue?

It looks blurry, I don’t know what it is.

Tap Tap Tap

The sounds of wet footsteps are coming and going.

What is that? Is that a frog??

The body of the monster is being reflected by the candlelight. The surface of the skin is covered with something wet like mucus. The monster that looks similar to a frog is walking calmly with its two legs. It may not be right to call it a frog because it can walk properly. But if you look closely, the leg is thick. The legs look like pure muscle. If that thing jumps, it may be able to reach 10 meters height. 

Is it twice as big as us?

The eyes are very large just like the size of a human’s torso. But the arms are very small. It the same size as my arm.

It walks with two legs just as the 16^th floor horse-man, but the impression is completely different. The horse-man looks more similar to a human but the frog looks more like a beast. I cannot sense any intelligence or any sense of order from the beast. The beast probably acts by instinct.

Tap Tap Tap

The frog beast comes really close to us. It was within the reach of our hands. It walks veeery slowly. Please just quickly go away. I can feel my heart is beating louder as the beast is coming closer. The sounds are very loud. If it comes any closer, it will find us! No matter how hard I try to suppress it, the sounds won’t stop.

No. This is not my heartbeat. This is Erin’s.

I slowly turn my head to look at her. Erin is trembling really hard and her eyes are dead. This won’t work. Even if I use all my concentration to increase <<stealth>>, we will still get found out!

Even though I gently press her body, Erin won’t stop trembling. Her mouth is open and she is about to scream out of fear.

Get a hold of yourself!

I really want to shout at her but it will not do any good.

Without any choice, I forcibly close Erin’s mouth with my right hand. Immediately, a very small scream of ”Hyaaaa” is resounded in the palm of my hand. Instinctively, I feel like I want to knock Erin down.

I feel the same, you know?

Just hold yourself. Do you want to get killed?

No matter how hard I hold her, her tremor is not showing any sign to stop.

My palm gets wet from her saliva and her voice is about to break out. Tears are starting to form from her bright red eyes. This is impossible. When I feel like giving up and turn forward, the frog beast has disappeared. The frog beast turns left and slowly fading into the dark.

When did the frog beast pass us by?

Meanwhile, Erin has gone limping and pass out.

After confirming that the frog beast had gone away completely, I release my hand and start to breathe in relief. The sound of my violent breathing can be heard.

“Let’s go, monsters are coming from behind!”

I stand up quickly and pat her shoulder. A wet gaze is directed towards me in responding. At first, I thought she will complain about how rough I was when I covered her mouth. But her response was completely different.

 “I cannot do this.”

Following my suggestion, Erin stands up but she looks like she lost all her spirit. The usual bullish and strong girl is no longer here. Hearing Erin whines make me a bit anxious.

　＊＊＊

How many days has it been since we came to this current level? 3 days? 5 days? Or maybe a week? No, maybe it has been only 24 hours.

In this place, there is no sunshine. The passages and rooms are lit by candles in this 20^th floor dungeon. There is no sense of time at this place. Whether it is morning or night, there is no way to figure it out.

In such a situation, it is quite depressing to continue wandering around the area that does not look safe. It is evident that without adequate rest, our physical and mental state will go downhill.

“It looks fine here. Let’s go to sleep.”

“Yes. Don’t worry. If I sense the monsters are coming closer, I will wake you up.” I gently pacify Erin who is already lying down and wrapped in a blanket next to me.

When her mental state is still unstable, it is better to treat her with more care. As much as I can, I choose more encouraging words when I speak with her.

 “I understand. Then I’ll go to sleep. “

 “Good night, Erin.”

 “Good night.”

After that, she covers herself completely under the blanket to block the light of the candles. It reminds me of a hermit crab that hides under the shell to run away from the terrifying outside world and withdraw into a safe space. While looking at the hermit crab which is leaning against the magic staff next to me, I also sit down in a similar stance by the wall. Honestly, this is terrible. I also already at my limit. I want to close my eyes a little bit and rest for a while. In order to be able to sense any approaching monster, <<Search Enemy>> skill has to be activated all the time.

In order to keep activating <<search enemy>> and <<stealth>> at the same time, I have to be on guard while sleeping every day. If I did not do this, we would have been dead by now.

No. Even if I survive up until now, tomorrow I might be finished. My body feels really heavy already. I'm so exhausted. 

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Translator note:

This is probably the first chapter where I can see Erin's weaknesses. On the opposite, Note has grown so much over the course of the stories. He has become more reliable. I feel proud of our boy. 

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