Published: September 9, 2025
Satou here. There are various status ailments in games like poison and paralysis. While these status effects were tough enemies in the early stages, by the endgame, you often get items that make you immune to poison, so they tend to become just a characteristic rather than a real threat.
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“What’s that?”
“Don’t look. That’s the boss basilisk. You’ll get turned to stone.”
“Could that be the floor master?”
“No, it seems the upper floors don’t have floor masters.”
Because there are few signposts around here, with normal eyesight you can only vaguely see shadows and shading inside the chamber.
The gigantic lizard that looks like a small hill is the ruler of section 77: the Mother Basilisk. I had vaguely imagined a crocodile-like creature, but it actually looks more like a chameleon. It stands about 7 to 8 meters tall, but its full length is around 70 to 80 meters. If this chamber weren’t nearly 300 meters on each side, it wouldn’t even be able to move.
Besides this boss-like creature, there are about ten 10-meter-class basilisks in the chamber. These basilisks are around level 30, which would normally make them perfect opponents for us, but because petrification is so dangerous, we plan to pass by them without engaging.
“Master, basilisk meat is what the dwarves’ feast smoked meat came from, right?”
“That was…”“It was delicious!”
“It has a bit of a spicy kick, but it goes great with sweet sake.”
“Hmm.”
It felt like they were implying we should hunt some.
“I’ll hunt two or three later, so don’t get engaged.”
“You’re saying petrification is dangerous, right?”
I nodded at Arisa’s question.
“Petrification?” “What’s that?”
“Hehehe~ I’ll tell you~”
“Arisa has a mischievous look! She’s trying to trick Pochi!”
“Come on now, I’ll explain properly.”
When Tama tugged at my clothes and I turned around, I saw the silhouette of a lesser basilisk sneaking in from the shadows. I quickly decapitated it with the Flexible Sword magic and without moving from my spot, stored it away with Magic Hand. Even severed heads like Medusa’s in myths might still have petrifying power. Conveniently, I took out and stored a few lesser basilisks and one basilisk that looked like they might come along our path. I broke one smaller one down into appropriately sized blocks to make it easier to smoke later.
“Nyu nyu~?”
“What’s wrong?”
Tama clasped both hands and tilted her head.
“If you stare, you get turned to stone? Basilisks don’t play staring contests?”
“That’s awful! To not be able to play staring contests means basilisk people are pitiful!”
She was worried about that.
“Right, Perseus defeated Medusa by reflecting her gaze with a mirror. Maybe we should have a mirror-polished shield made and fight like that.”
Why are you so eager to fight?
“Don’t blame me if your clothes and gear get petrified and you end up fighting naked.”
The only ninjas who get stronger the less they wear are overseas ones. And don’t strike weird poses and wink after looking down at your own body—that’s so outdated.
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Finally arriving at section 74, it consists of a corridor connecting about ten large chambers and around thirty small rooms. Thanks to the shortcut from the cockroach room to the basilisk section, we significantly cut down travel time.
The first chamber is half submerged in water—a frog area. Moss-covered giant stones lie scattered on the ground, and near the shore of the water surface float algae and water plants. Large lotus-like leaves grow near the center of the water, and many small insects buzz around the water plants. They seem like ordinary insects with no special effects.
Near the ceiling, bats cluster. They appear to be monsters too, but only single-digit level, so we’ll ignore them unless attacked.
There seems to be a hidden room at the back of this section, so we’ll take it as a teleportation point and occupy it.
After a thorough check, I gave Liza and the others permission to commence combat.