About half an hour after knocking down three skeletons in a place with three forked paths and starting down the middle path leading to the 17th basement. Afterwards, though he had been attacked several times by skeletons and zombies, he and his party, who had beaten him without any particular difficulty, were once again coming to the end of the road.

"Left,"

　Elena mutters as she pulls out a map.
　Following the words, the Rays move on to the left aisle without a moment's hesitation.

"If you keep going, you'll find yourself in a hall-like place like a hall. Once we've reached that point, the next level is not far from the next level."
"Oh, it's quite near," Wouldn't it have been better to go straight to the next level when we helped them?"

　At Ray's words, Elena shakes her head slightly and shows her a map.
　There was certainly an almost straight road drawn there, but there was no doubt that the passage was quite long.

"I see. It's a straight line, but is the distance long?"
"Yes. And there was no problem then because we were knocking down monsters, but if we went this way, we would probably have been attacked by enemy monsters that hadn't yet."

　Ray nods convincingly at Elena's words and continues down the aisle.
　It certainly seems to be quite a distance, as shown on the map, and after walking for nearly two hours, you will finally see the entrance to the desired hall.
　I was attacked by monsters a few times on the way, but most of them were skeletons and zombies, and the former, despite frowning at the latter's rotten smell, burned them without obtaining any magical stones or materials from Ray's firebreath.
　And...

"Ugh!"

　The moment Ray sees the entrance to the hall, he moans almost reflexively.
　It's the same with Elena, who has more senses than the two, rubbing her nose against her eyes with tears in her eyes, and Yero pressing her nose against her back.

"Guru..."
"Kyu".

　the odour of so intense afloat

『……』

　Ray and Elena talk to each other with their eyes.
　I don't want to go into this hall or look inside if possible.
　Still, as long as we head to the seventeenth basement, we must enter this hall which leads up to the stairs.
　Eventually Ray steps forward and peeks into the hall, as if he had lost Elena's gaze.
　More than twenty zombies came into the eye. However, a herd does not gather under any will; it simply stays there.

(Why are there so many zombies here?)

　Ray frowns at the strong odor of rotting and explores the interior of the hall, but before long he realizes that there is only one zombie with a different hair color.
　All the other zombies smell bad, their flesh and bones rotting and their eyes and internal organs dribbling and dragging around in the hall.
　It's the same with the zombies Ray looks at. But the figure was distinctly different.
　Of course, the body smells rotten. Unlike other zombies, however, it gives the skin a touch of freshness. There are several other spots of green and purple floating around, and the speed of movement is smoother than that of a normal zombies.
　There was such a thing in the back of the zombies.

(The top zombie species... I'm sure it was a goools. I can't believe you've been here until now.

　I have too much information about goul in my mind.
　Unlike ordinary zombies, a dead body in good condition -- fresh and less damaging -- becomes a zombie, and after a period of greater than normal magic, the body is revived as a goul, the superior species of the zombie.
　The ability itself is like a superior compatibility with zombies, and with some remaining wisdom in life, they sometimes point out the other person's weaknesses or lead the zombies.

(I see. Is that why zombies gather in this hall? It's under the command of that goul. It's troublesome again. No, isn't it? It's certainly troublesome, but it's so bad if you think you'll get the magic stone of Goul.)

　Quickly thinking inside, Ray goes back to where the Elenas are.

"How was it?"
"As expected, there is a flock of zombies in there. But there's one thing that's unexpected. I saw the top zombie, Goole."

　Elena frowns in disgust at Ray's report.
　Of course, it's not an opponent you can't fight against. But you wouldn't normally want to fight a person who has a strong odor that stinks away from you.

"Why don't you use Set's Firebreath and Ray's magic to clean it up?"
"It may be the quickest thing to do, but I want a Goulite, let alone a zombie."
"Glu!?"

　The set screams in spite of itself.
　In order for Seto to absorb the magical stone, he must naturally swallow it. But when asked if he had any resistance to swallow the odorous magical stone in his rotten body, he was reluctant to swallow it.
　Insects are a set that you can eat without hesitation, but it seems to be a different story when it comes to magical stones wrapped in rotten meat like zombies and gouls.
　That's why Seto gives a startling cry, but Ray opens his mouth, gently caressing his head.

"Don't worry. I'm not going to let Seto absorb any of the magical stones in Goole. It absorbs like a skeleton in a death-size way.
"Gururu..."

　He must have been quite relieved by what Ray said. Seto breathes a sigh of relief in spite of himself.

"I understand about the goose. By the way, is it all right to have just one Gool?"
"Oh, not as far as I've seen in the hall."
"Well... but I think you ought to give up your firebrace." It would be no use burning the Gouls by mistake."

　When I hear Elena's words, I'm convinced that there's a point in it.
　But the next moment I shake my head.

"No, I don't want to take much trouble here. Fortunately, Goul is in the back of the hall. So if Seto uses a firebreath to burn the zombies near the entrance and stop the firebreath when the Goole approaches, there should be no problem. ...can you?"
"Gruly!"

　A set of voices telling me to leave it to you.
　For Seto, firebraces are often used and used to. That's why the cry was so determined to meet Ray's demands.

"Well, then I'll go from behind to support you with the magic of the wind. ...I honestly don't want to attack zombies with a connecting sword. Of course, it's a different story if it comes to the crunch."

　Ray, who had been listening to Elena's words, couldn't help but speak with satisfaction.

"Well, I don't want to attack zombies, either. -- well, there's nothing we can do but absorb the Goul's magic."

　With a small sigh, Ray turns his eyes to Sett.

"Set, please."
"Gurling!"Screaming at Ray's voice, he heads straight to the hall entrance, opens a clump and exhales a fire brace.

"Vo..."
"Oh... Uh... Uh...

　A zombie approaching to Seto with a cry like that.
　Each time I hear the sound of rotten meat hitting the cobbles, such as vetcha and vicha, dragging rotten internal organs to the ground.
　But the firebreaths, released at the zombies, are preferentially directed at by the people approaching them and burn up rotten meat.
　A few minutes after Seto's firebrace was released from the doorway of the hall. Suddenly bright around... and the firebrace, which was wrapped in hot air, extinguishes the flame.
　This is because most zombies in the hall have already been literally burned out.
　Only a few zombies and Gour, Ray's goal, remain.

"Glu?"

　Ray caresses Seto on the head, asking if this is all right.

"Oh, it couldn't have been more. Thanks to you, we have fewer enemies. Now, I'll bring down Goul in a minute, and Seto will wait here."
"Grull!"

　Backed by Seto's cry of "Cheer up," he takes a step toward Goul, who, unlike the zombies, is watching the entrance in the background.
　Elena stands next to Ray.

"Leave the zombies around you to me. I was going to support Sett, but I didn't have to."
"Okay, I'll leave it to you."

　Because we trusted each other's ability, we were left to each other without having to go into each other's hands.
　Realizing this, Elena puts her right hand out to the zombie approaching Ray, who has taken a step forward.
　There's nothing in that hand. Instead, however, magic was concentrated.

"Now, I'm the other one! Don't think you can get close to Ray so easily!"

　The zombies were turning their feet from Ray to Elena, wondering if a faint cry echoed around them, or if their rotten brains felt anything in their voices.

"Oh... Uh... Uh...

　Watching the zombie approaching him sideways, Ray continues to walk through the hall.
　Goole, who was also his goal, stood still in the back of the hall and looked at Ray.
　There is no sign of intention in his eyes, but he still looks at Ray eerily.
　Purple and green spots appeared, showing the freshness of the skin a few steps higher than the zombies, but still the corpse, the ribs on the right were bare.
　Ray looks at the body and approaches it as if he were searching for a weak point.
　And then we approached about 5 meters away.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

　With a loud cry, Goole kicks the ground and runs toward Ray.
　The speed is overwhelmingly faster than that of zombies. When I looked into the hall, I wondered what it was that I was wandering around.
　But it's only a matter of comparison to regular zombies, and it's much slower than the monsters Ray has fought many times before.

"Ahhhhhuhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

　a goul raising one's arm with a scream
　They have somewhat more stretchy skin than ordinary zombies, but still have torn skin and visible flesh in some places, even bones.
　Determined that a death-size reception would send pieces of rotten meat flying around him, Ray steps back to avoid Goul's attack.
　The arm swung down cuts through the sky... but the next moment, for some reason, Goul's right arm approaches Ray's face, which he should have avoided with plenty of leeway.

"What!"

　Surprised by the unexpected development, he spins a death-size handle with his wrist and hits the wrist of Goul, frowning slightly at the feeling of hitting the crisp rotten meat that came from his death-size.
　I kept my distance from Goole and finally understood what had happened.
　Goul's arms are stretched out.
　No, it would be right to say that the bones, shoulders, elbows and wrists, have been removed, resulting in a wider range of attacks on Goole...
　It was an attack method unique to the undead, which was painless.

"Another tricky way to attack,"

　Ray frowns slightly, but then pretends to take a step forward as if there is a way to do it, and then swings his death size down again as Goul raises his arm to intercept Ray.

"Hit!"

　a flying attack at close range that was fired to intercept the attack as intended
　The slashing from Death Size slashes off Goul's right arm the next moment.

"Ah, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh!

　He probably didn't notice that he had lost his arm. Gour tried to shake down his arm, which was supposed to be nonexistent, but lost his balance and fell onto the stone pavement...

　Cut it!

　Ray could not miss such a big gap, and the death-size blade, which was wielded through magic to scoop up both feet from below, cuts off both legs from the knee, and cuts off the left hand from the second arm with a blade that also returns.

"Rest in peace!"

　the last blow to a goul that lost its limbs and could only crawl on the cobblestones.
　The blow which cut Goul's chest in two cuts off the magical stone which was present in his left breast at the same time.

"Even the top zombies don't acquire skills?"

　As it was said, Ray, who couldn't master the skills, clapped his tongue.
　After that, I looked around and found the rest of the zombies had already been cleared by Elena and had nothing particularly to gain - they didn't want to dismantle them - they just went through the hall and went on... and then went through several forked paths to find the steps to the 17th basement.