Chapter 243: Caterpillars & Hairy Caterpillars

Translated by Zzonkedd

Edited by Gumihou

As we travelled down the passageway, three White Caterpillars suddenly appeared and undulated unnervingly in front of us.

Ugh.

““They’re mine!””

Stab! Stab! Stab!

Icicles formed and skewered the White Caterpillars.

“Migyuuuuu…”

“Bigiiiiii…”

“Gyuuu…”

The Caterpillars all sort of… shook and bodily fluids flew all over the place before collapsing like a pricked balloon. Pricked balloons that emitted really high pitched noises. Fortunately, as per dungeon logic, the corpses and the disgusting fluids soon disappeared, leaving a bundle of beige coloured threads behind.

Clap, clap, clap.

Applause?

I turned my head and, sure enough, it was Elland-san. The dragon-otaku elf was applauding with flushed cheeks at Dora-chan’s performance. [1] This Elland-san…

He had been fairly normal, even competent until just now. Was he trying to get onto Dora-chan’s good side? He seemed to be getting more and more uncontrollable.

“Awesome! Amazing! Look! There’s even a Drop. It’s White Caterpillar Thread. Dungeon quality Threads are especially popular so this is a good find.”

I blinked.

Was the applause for the Drop? I mean, this was not the first time he’d seen Dora-chan fight, after all.

[6] … …

[6] Never mind, I think it’s better not to dwell too deeply into what this crazy elf is thinking. As long as he’s not forcing his affections on Dora-chan, it should all be fine.

Maa, no matter what, Elland-san is a former S Ranker. So it’s good for me to study his methods and learn what I can from him. [5]

“But, since these few floors are popular with Adventurers, I expect the price of this Drop item should have fallen?”

“Not so, the Caterpillars here are slow but are difficult for people without long-range attacks. Their sticky threads are particularly problematic.”

“What happens to people who are attacked by the threads?” I asked. [8] “I mean, I assume that party members with friends could probably help their paralysed friends, but what happens to solo Adventurers?”

“Solo Adventurers get eaten alive.”

“Geh,” my face twisted. I stared at the space where the White Caterpillars had been. Gross, how awful it would be to be eaten alive by these disgusting creatures?! I flexed my fingers, thank goodness I have Fire Ball magic.

We continued our journey and came upon a Grey Caterpillar. It was just as gross as the White Caterpillar but grey. It also has horns.

““Sui will defeat it~””

Sui extended a tentacle, but I quickly stopped her.

““Hold on, Sui. I want to try defeating it with my magic. Could you let me kill this one?””

““Ehhh? Sui wants to defeat it~””

““Sorry Sui, but I want to test out my magic here. I’ll let Sui defeat the next one, alright?””

““Nnn… alright, but Sui gets the next one~””

Awesome, I stepped forward and extended my hand. “Fire Ball!”

A 30cm Fire Ball flew out of my palm and struck the Grey Caterpillar.

Thwump!

“Miigwaaaaa….”

The Grey Caterpillar actually swelled up and exploded from the sudden heat expansion. Guts and Caterpillar juices splattered all over the place. I think some even hit the ceiling. [TZ 1]

“Yosh!” I cheered. At least I can still use my magic down here for these disgusting creatures. [6] I certainly don’t want to attack these exploding meat bags up close. As per dungeon guidelines, we quickly moved forward after collecting our Drop. The rest of the Caterpillars, Grey and White, were defeated by Dora-chan and Sui.

Fer had elected to follow behind us after a bored, “You guys take care of the small fries.”

Still, he always alerted us whenever there was a trap ahead.

The Pit Trap I’m looking down now was one of them. [6] Fer had warned me ahead, so we stopped and tossed a rock to trigger the trap, edging around it after that. I happened to look inside and shuddered at the needle-sharp spikes embedded within.

Eugh! Chills ran down my spine.

Meanwhile, Elland-san continued to be Dora-chan’s one-man fan. Every time the little Dragon defeated something, he would cheer and call out things like ‘Wow!’ or ‘As expected!’

I don’t really mind it, since this was a fairly harmless manifestation of his dragon obsession.

Unfortunately, Sui soon became jealous.

““Mu… Sui also defeated lots…””

[6] ““Of course, of course, Sui is the most awesome Slime! Don’t worry about that uncle elf, he’s just dragon obsessed.””

““Really?””

[6] ““Yes, really. Sui defeated lots of monsters too~””

[6] ““Yes~ Sui defeated lots~””

[6] The next thing I knew, I too became a one-man fan for Sui and yelled out, telepathically, ‘Wow!’, ‘Way to go, Sui!’ at random intervals. [5]

Thanks to Sui and Dora-chan, the monsters were quickly and efficiently wiped out. All Elland-san and I did was cheer our respective favourites and picked Drops off the floor.

Unexpectedly, Elland-san’s praises soon encompassed others as well, “Everyone is too amazing! Especially Dora-chan, but really, I have never gone through a dungeon so easily!”

Ah, well. I had experienced the same thing back at Doran’s dungeon so I wasn’t quite as excited. [1] Nevertheless, I’m very grateful for my familiars. [6] If not for them, I’d probably never even set foot into a dungeon.

Speaking of which, Grey Caterpillar Drops were small vials of Paralytic Potions as well as Grey Caterpillar Thread.

Unlike what its name suggested, Grey Caterpillar Threads were unbelievably white. The whitest white one could say and is very popular among female nobles. As for the vials of Paralytic Potions, these were favoured by archers who would daub a bit of it on their arrowheads to paralyse or slow down their victims. In short, it’s one of the basic arsenals for archers.

As we travelled down the passageway, destroying monsters and collecting Drops, we eventually reached the Boss Room.

Luckily, there were no other Adventurers in there.

I took a peek inside and blanched at the large number of Grey and White Caterpillars. Their disgusting, undulating bodies covered nearly half the room.

““Yaaaa, let’s goooo!!!””

““Ah, Sui will go too~””

Dora-chan and Sui burst into the Boss Room and began to wreak havoc. I must have blinked because a second later, nearly half of the Caterpillar bodies have exploded. [6] Eww, I backed away and resolved not to look anymore. I mean, I know it doesn’t reflect well on my status as an Adventurer, S Rank not-withstanding, but giant exploding worms really are disturbing.

It took nearly five minutes of non-stop blasting before everything went quiet.

[6] There was no real boss in the so-called Boss Room, only Caterpillars, which was a bit of a disappointment since a higher being would have better Drops. Still, Elland-san and I had a good time picking up Drops from all those worms. I can never like a Caterpillar, but I can’t say I hate their monster Drops.

After collecting the items off the floor, our party headed for the stairs at the back of the room and made our way to the 11th floor.

[TZ 1: Quite disgusting lol]

[Gumihou: I’ll say.]

[Onionpi: I enjoyed the chapter, but the caterpillars are… kind of graphic]

[Gumihou: Er, that may or may not be Gumi’s fault]

[TZ1: Of course it is]

[1] Structural Change: Combine 2 paragraphs

[2] Structural Change: Combine 3 paragraphs

[3] Structural Change: Combine paragraph & dialogue

[4] Structural Change: Change passive sentence to dialogue

[5] Delete Repetitive or Pointless Information

[6] Additional Information for Aesthetic Purpose

[7] Add Dialogue Tag

[8] Moved dialogue from Elland to Mukouda. Changed explanation to question for more natural conversation flow. The purpose of the dialogue was to impart information anyway.

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