Okami Wa Nemuranai - Episode 53.2

“As you might have known already, there is a belief in this country that knights should devote their training to focus in interpersonal combats and leave all the magic beast fighting to the adventurers.”

“Hou.”

“Under Founder King’s policy, all Knights of the Kingdom are obliged to train in Dungeon Finkel, and this obligation extends to us Temple Knights as well to a point. However, in reality us Temple Knights only go into the dungeon as a formality without actual training done. Even the Kingdom Knights don’t always gain strength during their dungeon diving regimes.”

“Hmph.”

“But that’s all in the past now. Kingdom Knights are challenging Dungeon Finkel in earnest, and even us Temple Knights have put aside our differences and join hands together in our Dunngeon Finkel diving regime.”

The 18 Temple Knights are wearing slightly different armors and different crests on those armors. It must be an assemble of Temple Knights from multiple temples.

“What’s with the change of heart.”

“What are you saying now. This is all thanks to you, Lecan-dono.”

“What?”

“After my encounter with you, I thought to myself. The only way for us Temple Knights to go toe to toe with Depth-walking Dungeon Adventurers is for us to also delve into dungeons. Founder King’s order was never in the wrong.”

“You planning to fight me?”

“I do not plan to fight you. Neither do I want to fight Shira-dono. But I realized that there would have been no way for us to defend the temple if an individual on your level ever launched an attack.”

“Hmm? Well I guess that line of thinking isn’t wrong.”

“Vice Commander of Royal Capital Knights, Zaifad Kacchini, and another vice commander, Neisan Aspell appear to have reached similar conclusions, they’re leading the packs in challenging the dungeon. I believe they have amassed quite the strength now.”

One of those was probably the knight Lecan handiliy gave a beatdown at Vouka Lord’s mansion, and the other should be one of the knights who escorted Guide Skalabel to Vouka. Lecan was surprised to find that the two of them see Lecan as thus. But now that he mentions it, it might come as such a surprise after all.

“Kingdom Knights were originally established to participate in wars, but there has not been one in the last hundred years or so. Nowadays their duties are mostly to act as escorts for royal envoys and the royalty outside the capital. But they have acquired a new resolve after their run-in with Lecan-dono. And thus we all started the regime in earnest, and what do we know, the results came to fruition early.”

“What?”

“Ah, no. Please forget what I just said. Lecan-dono. Allow me to introduce my fellow Temple Knights.”

“Hm?”

Derstan introduced all 17 temple knights standing by behind him.

Every one of them was confidently strong without exceptions. There were intensity in their eyes as they saw Lecan. The curious kind.

(These guys are good.)

(Think about on par with Yufu Knights?)

(None of ’em matches Duo though.)

“There are 30 other fellow knights beside us, we enter Dungeon Finkel in a rotation.”

“What’s the right amount of people to explore Dungeon Finkel?”

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“20 to 50 are said to be ideal numbers.”

“All 50 together and they can still fight huh. Meaning the floors’ quite wide yeah?”

“Lecan-dono, how much do you know about Dungeon Finkel?”

“That it’s got 180 floors, in Royal Family’s land, and you need permission from them to get in.”

“I see. Most of the floors in Dungeon Finkel are wide and spacious not unlike meadows, then it turns into a cavern floor every 50 floors.”

“Hou.”

“In meadow floors, the magic beasts move in groups, ranging from 10 to 200 per group. We have records of a maximum of 300 beasts in a group. Hence, the knights usually also move in a group of 50 to 100.”

“That sounds just like Dungeon Yufu.”

“Is that true? I did not know about that. I’m told this dungeon is quite a peculiar one.”

“Dungeon Rotor’s got meadows too but a party only consists of four to five. There were also dungeons that got a party of 50, but they probably don’t get much that way, and hard to fight. Yeah, this dungeon’s peculiar alright.”

“I see. I knew it. I’m not too well versed in other dungeons as you can surmise. Back to the topic, these cavern floors only house one lone enemy. They’re extremely tough, and we fight by besieging them.”

“What types of magic beasts spawn here?”

“It’s apes. Only Ape Ogre Magic Beasts spawn in Dungeon Finkel. This applies to meadow and cavern floors, but the Ape Ogres that spawn in cavern floors are exceedingly large and strong.”

“Hou. Guessing these caverns are pretty big too.”

“They are. I mean by the last floor, 180, its height and width reach hundreds of steps.”

“What. You’ve conquered the last floor?”

“Oh no no. That just cannot be done. After all there are no magic beasts on the last floor.”

“What’d you say?”

“Apparently one did exist in the past. But it vanished somewhere in the annals of history. Nothing but the gigantic fetters that chained that giant magic beast remain on the last floor.”

“Hmmm? But seeing as you’ve gotten to the last floor, you must have conquered the previous 179 floors at least, no?”

“Eh? No, that’s not the case. Ah, right. You cannot proceed to the next floor unless you defeat an especially strong individual on that floor in other dungeons, was it. That’s not how it works in Finkel. Anyone who has stepped inside this dungeon can <Warp> to any floor, even to the last floor.”

Afterward, Derstan gave Lecan the lowdown on Dungeon Finkel.

The Royal Family holds detailed documents on every single floors in Dungeon Finkel, thus Derstan’s group would educate themselves on what kind of enemy appear on what floor and how to deal with them as well as coming up with the right composition and number of people before attempting to explore.

Dungeon Finkel has a good drop rate of treasure chests, and potions drop a lot even on shallow floors. Hence they can explore with a good supply of potions, and potions are useful even outside this dungeon.

On top of that, they are furnished with the finest equipment available to them. All of it allows them to dive deeper and deeper, getting stronger all the while minimizing casualties. Since some of the Temple Knights can use <Recovery>, they are able to work the dungeon out with a relatively small number of people.

Magic beasts that spawn in Dungeon Finkel generally employ physical attacks.

Some of the magic beasts can attack with venomous claws, or use <Intimidation> abnormal status, and very rarely spew fireballs, but they’re few far and between, neither are they a threat to the Temple Knights.

The magic beast on the last floor had vanished long before the founding of Zaka Kingdom.

According to the legend, it was a Greatarm Ogre the size of a mountain with an enormous strength.