Chapter 186 – Testing grind area.

“I think I’m getting better at this.”

The neck of the large dinosaur exploded before him just like before. His grenade throwing abilities had clearly leveled up as he didn’t even need to aim that much. Just like before the enemy was the same type and used exactly the same tactics. Roland had already figured out the best way to tackle this monster and none of his golems had been damaged in the process either.

“Awoooo!”

“No, you can’t have the mana stone this time either…”

Agni curled up his tail while looking at the dead creature before him. His mouth was watering while looking at the beast with the biggest mana stone that he had ever seen.

“Don’t be a glutton, you already devoured so many on our way here, you’re going to pick up some strange skills…”

Roland gave out a sigh while cutting a hole in the dead monster. This time around he didn’t plan on taking out his runic chainsaw. The monster parts would fetch some coin but he would rather spend the time on the more important issue, the secret room.

‘Let me just check this chest out and be on my way… doesn’t seem to be a mimic, is my luck increasing?’

After checking for traps and hidden monsters the chest was opened up. Inside they found a set of twin daggers with a simple burning enchantment. They were made from deep steel which at this point was very common.

“More crap…”

This was somewhat disappointing as these daggers weren’t of good quality. For someone who could create better runic versions of the same magical effects, this was nothing. If he put it together with the items that he made, he felt like he was lowering the prestige of his own store.

‘Maybe I’ll make some kind of discount bin for items that don’t have much worth or don’t sell that well?’

While thinking about some shop improvements he tossed the daggers into the golem mule. This was already his second time here, now that he was more familiar with the road and the monsters lurking here, his speed increased.

‘If this continues, I won’t need to prepare any traps for that Xornotaurus anymore, but it is peculiar that the boss never changes…’

He could only shrug at this strange occurrence as instead of the boss changing, what changed were the creatures outside this chamber he was in. Without any time to contemplate this issue, he moved towards the second secret opening that led outside this room.

It took him back to the long maze filled with many corridors but no more monsters. Those only appeared when he came out of the area with the various minerals. Just like before, this could be left to Agni as he was itching to sink his fangs into some mana stones.

‘Doesn’t seem that anyone has been here, my secret is safe for now.’

Without waiting he hurried his mule golem up. Within it were his spider drones that he had all repaired. Thanks to the preexisting schematics it wasn’t that hard to remake these golems. Bernir and his wife were able to produce them if he asked them to. The runic program they run on could also be copied over without it taking that much time.

Thus he was able to recuperate the loss of the spider drone that he had lost the last time he was here. The one that he gave to Arthur Valerian was a newer design that he made separately so he was back to having six little helpers again. While for now all of them were busy drilling holes in the ground, he was standing before the entrance to the other secret part.

‘The tier 3 monster should not be able to see me…’

Roland needed to remind himself that the beings inside could not see him even though he could see them. With a pickaxe in his hand, he started striking the area that would lead him to his new grinding spot, that is if he learned to use it.

‘The layer isn’t that deep but it’s somewhat hidden behind rocks…’

It only took him about five minutes to create an opening big enough for one of his spider drones to fit through. Just like before, he could hear the strange combination of heavy armor and bones rattling about coming from the hole he made. There were no tier 3 monsters in the vicinity yet but this just gave him more time to think about his next action.

‘Theoretically, those monsters can’t enter through this gap even if I make it larger, but what of their weapons or magical attacks?’

Roland had read some books about such occurrences but there wasn’t much data to go off of. Finding a spot where two dungeons connected was quite rare and not much had been done in this field of study. The kitty professor didn’t know anything either, this was not his speciality as he found adventuring below his very existence.

‘The adventurer guild probably knows something about it but not like I can ask them for help, any idiot would figure out that I’m hiding something.’

Was it just such a rare occurrence that not many people had the chance to study it? Or was the adventurer guild hiding specific information instead? From what he knew, whenever something like this occurred the adventurer guild swooped in to take charge. This was also one of the biggest reasons that he decided to keep this secret for himself.

Roland peeked through the hole and he could see familiar shadows moving through the lit corridors. It was time to prepare for his investigation but first, he decided to gather some of the minerals that were here before venturing forward.

While he wanted to do nothing more than go through with his test, he needed to gather some materials first. If for some reason he found himself in danger and had to run, he would be wasting the opportunity for mining.

‘Some of the rare ores didn’t respawn fully yet… as expected.’

When looking for the rare material which was the red variant of mythril, he didn’t find any in the last spot that he found it. Ores like durium that weren’t as rare managed to grow back to some extent but it was clear that he could not just form this place with no end. The dungeon needed time to restore itself and rare ores took even more.

Thus together with his small group of drill spiders, he continued to scout for more ores. The ones that were easily accessed were prioritized as he still wanted to save some time. Even then, it took him about two days of hard work to get a load that he was satisfied with. After this, it was time to prepare for the worst.

Love what you’re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

First, he packed up the mule golem while also removing a satchel filled with various scrolls and runic bombs. While he didn’t expect the monsters to come at him through the hole, if they somehow did, he would need to stop them.

Roland had gained quite the expertise with these runic explosives that he created. Even if they were just on scrolls they could create devastating effects. Thinking back to that tier 3 ant queen type monster that he faced, he knew that tier 3 monsters could be hurt even by tier 2 runic explosives.

It was just a matter of jerry-rigging enough of them to create a big enough blast. This time around, he was not going to have his arm explode. Without a high leveled priest anywhere in the dungeon, he didn’t think he would be able to survive it.

With that in mind, he had to create an escape route for himself and Agni. The mule golem could be easily placed in the secret passage to wait. Luckily with his ever-increasing golemic knowledge, he didn’t have to endanger himself too much.

‘I finally got this thing working.’