Текст книги "Overlord - The Invaders of the Large Tomb"

Автор книги: Maruyama Kugane

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Текущая страница: 10 (всего у книги 17 страниц)

The team headed to one of the small crypts smiled bitterly.

“But I should have discussed this with you guys before making a decision. I’m sorry that I went ahead and decided by myself.”

“Well, you couldn’t help it in that situation. Plus, elder is our chosen leader. If our trusted leader decided so, we’ll follow.”

“…You guys don’t look too happy though. Why is everyone smiling so bitterly? Well, either way. Let’s finish the survey quick and if we have some time left over, let’s ask Momon for another spar. This is an excellent opportunity for you guys, too. So how about it?”

“I vividly remember the two of you sparring. Indeed, it was a duel befitting of an adamantite-ranked adventurer.”

“…Even amongst the adamantite ranked adventurers, there are many kinds of people. Right now, “Eight Ripples” in the Empire is not truly an adamantite ranked party. Someone like Momon would be a proper adamantite ranked adventurer. A man who achieved something I could never do.”

“Elder…”

“Hahaha, don’t worry too much about it. If I was still in my prime, I would have been jealous, but now I’m just an old man. I’m not particularly shocked. I’ve seen a few adamantite ranked adventurers in my time, but Momon is a special one even amongst them. I feel that he’s the real deal.”

“Really?”

“Of course. So you guys should ask him to check out your swordsmanship. If you choose to keep adventuring after I die, that kind of experience will prove invaluable in future.”

“I can’t imagine elder dying. Maybe there’ll be a nice retirement.”

“Right. Elder will probably live long like Paradyne.”

“Hahaha, no, that’s too much for me. He’s on a completely different level.”

“What a wonderful team.”

A woman’s voice came out of nowhere. The only women that were with them were the two from Hekkeran’s ‘Foresight’ and the three elven slaves from Eruya’s ‘Tenmu’. But the voice sounded different from any of theirs.

Everyone turned around with weapons ready.

Several women stood at the top of the mausoleum stairs they had just descended. There were five of them. They were unbelievably beautiful, but that was also what made it so strange.

Everyone wore maid’s clothing, but their clothing was unlike any they had seen before. Those clothes had a metallic shine about them, just like armour.

“Who… are you? I’ve never seen you before… Hmm, is there a secret tunnel just like I expected?”

“Women? They are just as good-looking as the beauty of ‘Darkness’… They don’t look like ordinary people.”

“They don’t seem like an enemy… But, not likely to be hired by same people who hired us…”

“What should we do, elder?”

His comrades asked Parupatra while keeping their eyes on the women. Negotiating with them would be the best option, but there was no way it could end that well.

“We have the same numbers… It could be even?”

The opponents’ strength must be equal or just a little above theirs. The reason why they hadn’t attacked when all the workers were gathered must have been because they were not strong enough to take on everybody at once or because they thought it might have been a trap. The reason they finally showed their face must be because they were confident they could win against Parupatra’s group.

Parupatra sweated less and less as he got older but in this moment, his hand that was holding the spear was wet.

“Even so, to put a maid in a cemetery… Someone has questionable taste.”

In an instance, the comrade who had been joking just now shivered, his face pale and his brow full of sweat.

Parupatra also felt a sudden chill come over him, but the reason he had goosebumps all over was not just because of the temperature.

The coldness in the eyes of the maids who were aligned on top of the stair was clearly visible under the moonlight. It was almost as if their eyes were shining

“kILl TheM.”

“..…They need to die.”

“They don’t deserve a quick death. They need to suffer unimaginable pain before dying.”

A murderous aura whirled around the maids. The whirlpool of emotion was so strong, it made one wonder if the world might be collapsing around them.

“Now, now.”

The maid who looked to be the one in charge clapped lightly.

“We were ordered to let none return alive, so killing them is a given. But it’s nice to see everyone being so enthusiastic about it.”

Clack. Metallic sounds resounded down the stairs, which seemed to be made of marble. It was the maids’ high-heels, which resembled greaves.

Parupatra’s comrades backed off as if they had been pushed back. Considering their opponents carried no weapons, they were most likely magic casters. On top of that, the opponent held the advantage of the high ground. They could not afford to keep standing around in wide and open areas without any cover.

For Parupatra and his team, closing the distance was advantageous. For the maids, it was the opposite. But why were those maids coming down the stairs? Were they planning to use ‘Flight’ if the situation got dangerous for them?

Watching the maids, who appeared emotionless as if they were wearing masks as they regally descended the stairs, Parupatra’s team gathered behind the warrior’s shield and discussed the next step.

Clack. Making an even louder noise, the maids stopped about halfway down the stairs.

“Now, I’ll introduce myself first. I am the Pleiades’ sub-leader, Yuri Alpha. I think this will be a short meeting, but please take care of me. If we decided to deal with you ourselves, it would be over pretty fast, but due to certain circumstances, we can’t deal with you personally. How unfortunate.”

A lovely voice rolled out like a bell ringing in the wind. The unbelievably beautiful maids’ smiles were overflowing with an attractiveness that could make any man fall in love in an instant.

Parupatra was a former adventurer and had seen many things in his career as a worker. Amongst them were beings that possessed beauty beyond a human being, such as elves. Even so, he had never seen such beautiful women before. It was enough to make one’s jaw drop.

Their contemptuous tone and the sense of superiority which flowed through their words could only be the arrogance of the incredibly powerful people that hid underneath those pretty faces. It was an attitude that did not sit well with men who had braved countless dangers and were confident in their skills. It almost made them want to scold the maids.

But considering the circumstances, it was likely that the maids were stronger and nobody was keen on fighting them. Plus, one of their comrades had been stunned with killing intent and had yet to snap out of his fear.

Perhaps the best option was to retreat to the adventurers—especially Momon—and bring them in as reinforcements.

“Then I shall introduce your opponents.”

Yuri clapped her hands. As if responding to the clapping noise, which travelled surprisingly far, the cemetery shook.

“Come out, Nazarick Old Guarders.”

“What?”

The ground had split behind them and several skeletons showed up.

Is this a pincer attack?! Wha…

Looking up the stairs, the maids were hostile, but didn’t seem to want to fight in person. They appeared to be spectators. He couldn’t ignore them, but they didn’t seem to want to attack, just as they had announced.

Parupatra concluded that the true enemies were the skeletons at the rear and turned around to face them.

Skeletons by themselves weren’t really a difficult opponent. Even if hundreds of skeletons attacked Parupatra’s team, they would be able to clean them up easily. Compared to that, the eight skeletons that had sprouted from the ground were nothing.

But there was one problem.

Parupatra’s comrades gulped and unconsciously took a step back.

The atmosphere around them was different from regular skeletons. Even their equipment was different. They wore magnificent breastplates befitting of some country’s royal guard, held kite shields with an emblem in one hand and various kinds of weapons in the other. On their backs were composite long bows, and all their equipment had a magical glow to them.

There was no way skeletons armed with magical items would simply be regular skeletons.

“Just what is that?”

“Not even you know, elder? I’m not sure… but maybe it’s a sub-species of the ‘Skeleton Warrior’.”

“Sub-species? They don’t quite look like ‘Red Skeleton Warrior’, either…”

A never seen before and unknown opponent would always evoke fear. Especially if they were armed with magic weapons with special effects.

“—Considering how many of you there are, I believe this will be a sufficient number. Please put some effort into it, and show us how far you can run.”

“It’s an honour to face undead like these. But…”

Parupatra thought objectively.

It would be difficult to have too many undead armed with so many magic equipment. Their plan was probably to send out the strongest from the start. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have waited for everyone to come inside and split up.

“—This is the tomb’s ultimate strength, right? Do you really think you can stop us just with this?”

When Parupatra looked up, Yuri looked around as if she had been taken aback.

Bullseye. They had been setting up this trap ever since they started talking to us.

The smartest way to use their ultimate strength was to divide and conquer. Considering the chances they might not run into the enemy, the best strategy was to wait by the entrance, where everybody had to pass through when they were physically and mentally exhausted from searching the tomb.

The opponent’s plan was obvious as well. She probably said “let’s see how far you can run” to encourage them to start running away, so that she could strike from behind, which would be an advantageous position for her. The enemy would need to fight several more times even after this, so they would want to conserve their strength as much as possible. Then there was only one thing to do.

“If we take down all the skeletons here and break through, it’s all over. Am I wrong?”

For the sake of the teams that would come behind them, they needed to destroy the Nazarick Old Guarders. They might be rivals, but comrades on a mission were still comrades. Furthermore, if the other side had predicted that they would flee, staying and fighting would have the least chance of falling into a trap. If their opponents were too strong, they still had the option of calling over Momon as a last resort.

“To think we would become the canaries instead… How should I say, it gives me a headache. But do you guys think that’s all of them?”

“It’s hard to imagine any more undead armed with that kind of equipment lying around.”

“This is the place any intruder must go through. Tactically, it makes sense to position the strongest force here. They know more about this place than us, and I doubt they would make the mistake of splitting up too much of their force.”

“…No, there’s bound to be some more inside the grave itself. But what’s there would probably be lower class undead.”

“Elder… let’s run. They’re dangerous. Really, really dangerous.”

“Our escape route was closed the moment they pincer attacked us. Even if we fly, we’ll probably get shot down with arrows. We need to make our stand here! There is no other way than defeating them head on!”

Amidst Parupatra’s shouts, a voice, part surprised and part patronizing, came from above.

“Well, I guess there is that way of breaking through. We’ll cheer for you, so please start.”

As the words faded, the Nazarick Old Guarders began advancing.

Yuri and company had troubled faces as they “cheered them on”. They were unable to hide their surprise at the unexpected way the situation unfolded. They had not anticipated this at all.

“Hey, are they for real?”

“...Unexpected.”

“Cocytus-sama was surprised as well.”

“IF tHiNGs gO On liKE This… iT wON’t pRocEEd aS pLanNeD.”

A hammer swung through the air while Yuri and her companions looked on.

“Looks like he’s not gonna make it. He’s gonna die!”

The moment Lupusregina spoke, a man received a strike to the chest and fell.

The sound of metal being crushed and the sound of something heavy falling could be heard clearly even amidst a fierce battle.

The first casualty was the human warrior. The Nazarick Old Guarder that wielded a hammer imbued with ‘Lightning’ did not even celebrate his kill and simply moved in search for the next target.

“Cleric-san~ If you heal him fast enough, he won’t die.”

CZ shook her head at Yuri who sounded a little worried.

“...No point. Instant death. Also, the formation collapsed because of him.”

The two Nazarick Old Guarders which the warrior had been holding back advanced, with one heading towards the cleric and the other marching towards the rear of the formation. The cleric had been fighting against two from the start, and now he had to fight one more. He no longer had the room to use his magic. The only thing he could do was to try to dodge the attacks coming from three directions.

Even Parupatra, who was doing rather well for himself, was fighting against three opponents and could not help the others.

“The rogue just doesn’t have the firepower. Don’t they have some kind of trump card in their back pocket?”

Now the rogue who had to fight while defending the arcane magic caster had to take on one more opponent and he had already been facing two. A rogue’s light weaponry was unable to deal a decisive blow against a Nazarick Old Guarder– an opponent who was clad in heavy armor and an undead, who had no particular weak points. He tried to dodge with his nimble body, but against the tireless undead, resistance was futile.

“He’s looking over here with such a sad expression~”

“Should we wave to him?”

“tHAT mUch SHoulD be fIne.”

“If it’s okay~!”

Lupusregina waved her hands at Parupatra with an enthusiastic smile.

“...Direct hit.”

“It’s because Lupu distracted him.”

“Fuee~ Is it my fault, then?”

“...Yes. Your fault. But cheering is good. … Go team.”

“Yes. I hope they fight just as enthusiastically.”

Every maid nodded at Yuri’s words.

In the battle with Parupatra’s worker team, the Nazarick Old Guarders had completely dominated the fight from the beginning. Yuri and the maids almost felt sympathy for the workers while spectating a game that could only be described as a one-sided massacre.

Before the battle started, they had snickered at the useless bravado from the workers, but watching this boring fight, they could not suppress their yawns and started cheering for Parupatra’s team.

“If it’s this one-sided, I really don’t know what to say.”

“...No hidden card?”

“Weren’t they trying to use summoning magic just before?”

“The 3^rd tier one?”

“Isn’t that too weak to be considered the trump card? But trying to make a wall with summoned monsters was a good idea”

“I agree! If they weren’t constantly getting attacked, they might have had time to strategize and rebuild the formation~.”

“BUt tRYiNG to UsE fliGhT, NoT a gOOd plan aS wRINkley Old MaN sAiD.”

“Not sure if he was trying to escape or just planning to cast magic from the air…”

“...Priority target. No cover at all.”

The arcane magic caster had already taken a critical injury and was collapsed on his side. If someone was free, they would have used either healing magic or a potion to bring the magic caster back into the formation, but everybody was too occupied. As a result, the only thing the rogue could do was protect him from being dealt the finishing blow.

“But why did they think there would be only that many Nazarick Old Guarders?”

It was a mystery.

Did they think of everything in a way that was convenient for them? It wasn’t because they were stupid. It might have been some human self-preservation method to gather courage and prevent themselves from falling into despair.

“It looks hopeless.”

“Seems so. It looks like it will end soon.”

“OthER sTratEgieS liKE deFeNDinG unTiL tHe otHEr tHieveS REturNeD mIGHt HavE beEN gOOd, toO.”

Everyone looked at Entoma with a cold expression.

“Why’d ya figure they can return?”

“...Brought it on themselves.”

“It would be too much for them to try to leave the Great Tomb of Nazarick.”

A pain-filled voice and something collapsing echoed out. The combat maids looked towards the source and spoke in voice filled with disappointment.

“aH tHe roGUe feLL As wElL.”

“Seems like it’s gonna to be over soon~.”

“We should have let them beg for their lives at the stairs…”

“But they were really confident. I thought they had something up their sleeves.”

It wasn’t sure if the rogue had sprayed it, but the pungent smell of fresh blood wafted all the way to where maids were standing.

“SmELls deLiCioUs…”

“Leave it be.”

Yuri stopped her.

The order from the master was to retrieve the bodies of everyone incapacitated, dead or alive. They could not do something as rude as presenting the body after insects had gone through them.

“FreSH MEat…”

“I’ll ask Ainz-sama for it later, so be patient for now.”

“But won’t we be in trouble now? Originally this was to test how effectively they could take out the ones trying to run away.”

“Looks like it! That’s why lots of strong undead are hiding by the wall.”

“SEeMs CoCYtUs-sAma cALcuLaTEd hE woULD cAtCh tHEm eaSILy.”

“...To attack head on. Unexpected.”

“It’s what happens when you don’t analyze your opponent's strength properly. As for the ones still alive, let’s heal them up and send them off to the interrogation room. For the dead ones… let’s report to Ainz-sama.”

Thus, Parupatra and his team disappeared from the world that night.

 

Part 2

“Start attacking again!”

Greenham’s shout echoed through the crypt filled with the stench of mould and death.

The room was about twenty meters wide and five meters tall. Amidst the room filled with light made by a magic caster and torches dropped on the ground, were the silhouettes of humans.

Along with Greenham, “Heavy Masher” was cornered. The interior was filled with lesser undead such as zombies and skeletons.

Their numbers were stupendous.

Greenham and a warrior holding a shield held back the tide of death from spilling onto the rear of the formation.

A zombie swung its arm at Greenham’s full plate armour. Even if it was an undead that was stronger than the average human being, it still couldn’t dent the steel armour. The rotten hand exploded and foul-smelling splotches of flesh clung to the armour.

The skeletons were the same. With only rusted weapons, they couldn’t get past the full plate armour imbued with magic. Perhaps one might get lucky and pierce the plate, but that was why it was imbued with magic.

Greenham swung his axe horizontally and took one down, but more undead rushed to fill the gap. The horde closed the distance as if to trample them with numbers.

“Damn it! There’s too many of them!”

The warrior holding a shield beside Greenham shouted with a laboured voice. Thanks to his large shield which covered his entire body, he was not injured, but the shield was covered with all kinds of vile fluids. He was smashing skeletons’ skulls with his mace, but he was slowly being pushed back.

“Where did they all come from?”

The warrior’s curiosity was natural.

Greenham’s team had searched several rooms after splitting off from the other teams at the crossroads. Unfortunately, there wasn’t as much treasure as the mausoleum, but after finding a sizeable chunk of valuables lying around, they slowly searched further. When they entered this room to have a look, the door suddenly opened and the undead started to pour in.

A zombie or a skeleton by itself wasn’t a difficult opponent, but their numbers were the real problem. Even if they fell or got trampled, they wouldn’t die, but the undead would reach the rear flank. Of course, the rear flank wouldn’t be taken out that easily either, but against this many, it was difficult to say.

With a little bit of bad luck, the front would collapse immediately. Greenham thought this, and decided to use the force he had been conserving.

“We’ll finish this in an instant. I leave it to you.”

The rear guard, which had only been slinging stones so far, started to move.

For Greenham’s “Heavy Masher”, undead like these were not really a threat. But because they weren’t a real threat, he tried to conserve their strength by keeping the rearguard in reserve. If the rear guard attacked as well, the undead wouldn’t be a problem.

“My lord, the god of earth! Please repel the evil ones!”

The cleric holding a holy symbol shouted while exuding divine power. The air filled with negative aura was cleared away and filled with freshness as if a cool breeze had just passed by. A wave of divine power, stronger than usual, swept out from the cleric.

As soon as the ability activated, the undead around the cleric turned to ashes.

Exorcising the undead usually just made them flee, but if there was an absolute difference in strength, it obliterated the undead instead. However, it was extremely difficult to obliterate large numbers of undead because it required a matching amount of strength.

As a result, over twenty undead were extinguished.

“Fly! 「Fireball」!”

A ‘Fireball’ flew from the arcane magic caster and exploded amidst the undead horde. A pillar of flame sprouted for a moment and burned away the undead’s false life within the effect radius.

“Not over yet! 「Fireball」!”

“My lord, the god of earth. Please repel the evil ones!”

The area of effect attacks struck again and the number of undead fell drastically.

“Let’s go!”

“Alright!”

The warrior abandoned his shield, grabbed two maces and jumped into the undead horde along with Greenham. It would have been easy to leave everything to the magic casters, but the reason Greenham rushed in was so that they would conserve as much mana as possible. Especially for the cleric, who could only repel the undead a certain number of times per day. Because it was a job that was especially potent against undead, he would be their hidden card while they were in the tomb.

Greenham swung his axe at the group of zombies. Rather than blood, thick liquid came out from the cut,—it would have spurted if they had hearts—oozing weakly. From the cuts came a disgusting stench, but it was nothing they couldn’t handle.

Rather, their noses were already numb.

Along with the warriors, they attacked, attacked and attacked. They did not think of defense even for a moment. It was the kind of a charge they could do thanks to their sturdy armour supported by magic, not to mention that the undead were weak.

At times, an undead managed to strike Greenham’s head, but the armour absorbed all the shock and there was no strain on his neck. Even when he was struck on his chest or stomach, he barely felt it.

Their opponents were lesser undead. They were only a challenge because of their numbers, but since they had cleared out so many of the undead, they found a bit of breathing room once more. The warrior shouted while still swinging his weapons.

“Until now, we only fought the weakest ones, but considering their numbers, this tomb must have a lot of them!”

“Yea, also it wouldn’t be strange if stronger undead have spawned and are still crawling around somewhere! But I don’t know why they haven’t come out!”

The person who replied was the cleric who picked up the warrior’s shield while keeping an eye on the situation.

“…Perhaps all these undead were summoned. Maybe through some summoning magic or an item.”

Because these undead corpses disintegrated after a certain amount of time, there weren’t enough to fill the entire room with the bodies. These undead corpses also disappeared in a fashion similar to summoned monsters. That’s why the magic caster interjected.

“Some kind of mechanism that mass summons lesser undead? … I don’t want to think about that. Don’t make me imagine this tomb packed tight with zombies everywhere.”

Greenham replied and looked around the room while blowing away a skeleton’s head as if he was trimming a tree. The number of undead remaining could be counted with two hands, and the wide open doors showed no signs of reinforcements for the undead. The fight would be over soon.

In that moment, he felt a chilling sensation rising from the bottom of his feet.

His sense of danger told him to evacuate, but it would be too late in this situation. Even so—

“Alert! Everyone get out of the room—”

The rogue shouted as if he had the same feeling.

But it was too late. The hard floor suddenly vanished. A floating sensation enveloped their bodies and a few heartbeats later their disoriented bodies hit the ground.

Greenham heard his comrades’ pain filled voices, but stood up with his axe that he had not let go while he was falling and attacked the skeletons rolling around on the floor.

“Exterminate them!”

Since the undead took damage from the fall—the skeletons were especially weak against crushing damage, and thus took significant damage from falling—it was easy to mop them up.

Greenham looked around the room only after cleaning up all the undead.

They had fallen into a magic trap which made the floor disappear. Looking up, the ceiling was far above them. At least twelve meters above. Three meters above the floor was a door, and three meters above, for total of six meters, was the open door through which they had first come in. They had fallen about two floors total.

If describing the overall shape, it was like a long pillar. The bottom was shaped like an inverted pyramid, and the slope was steep enough to make someone fall all the way towards the centre if they slipped. Actually one of their comrades had already fallen down and was pinned in the middle by all the zombies that had fallen down.

It was amazing that nobody was hurt after falling from such height.

The strange thing about the layout was at about three meters up from the bottom where there was a closed door. There were four tunnels on each side, for total of sixteen.

“It’s almost like the room was designed to drown people. Like water would start pouring out in massive quantity from that door. No, even worse, it could be something like slimes.”

“I agree. We should look around that door to see if it’s safe to escape through.”

However, it was difficult to climb two floors up on a smooth surface with nothing to grab onto. The rogue could probably climb without a hitch, but for someone wearing armour like Greenham, it was impossible. Comparatively, the door on the bottom had was an unknown, and possibly dangerous, but it would be easier to reach.

Just as they were discussing how to climb, something stuck its head out from one of the sixteen tunnels. It was a bloated corpse, a “Plague Bomber”.

The reason why it was bloated was because it was filled with negative energy. It was an undead which exploded upon death to inflict damage to the living and heal the undead.

The undead built like a slab of flesh flung itself out of the tunnel. It hit the floor with a disgusting sound, but the problem was what came next. Its circular body could not gain traction against sloped floor and crashed into Greenham’s team like a boulder.

“Watch out! Get away!”

“Don’t say that to someone who’s in charge of all the thinking.”

Everyone, including the magic caster who was nearly crying, barely dodged the undead as it kept rolling towards the centre of the floor. When the next plague bomber peeked out, they realized the previous one was just the first of a horde and instinctively knew what was about to happen.

“Run! This room’s going to get buried with them.”

If anyone was pushed by an undead, they would fall towards the middle and be crushed underneath the bodies. Even if they did not die from being crushed, they would be immobilized and continue to take negative damage by plague bombers exploding from their comrades’ attack.

“This trap really is evil. Someone boost me up!”

“Nonsense, then that person won’t be able to dodge any attacks.”

Even if they dodged the first attack, they would lose their balance and won’t be able to dodge the next one. Asking someone to become a boost in situation like that was cruel.

“Then I’ll use flying magic!”

“Don’t bother with ‘Flight’! You can’t haul all of us up by yourself.”

“Not that! Crap, they’re falling! I’m talking about ‘Web Ladder’.”

“That sounds good! Then to that nearest door please. Greenham, please cover him!”

“—No, don’t bother. We’re going through the door we came through! That door is dangerous!”

There was no time to ask the rationale behind why he thought the door was dangerous, but their trust in Greenham was absolute.

“「Web Ladder」!”

The magic activated and spider web spread up the wall.

This magical spider web had a strange stickiness about it. If one didn’t want to move, it would stick in place, but if one wanted it to move, it would let go immediately. It was a magic perfectly suited to use in place of a ladder.

Greenham’s team climbed with perfect movement, despite their fear.

The one who barely reached the open door first carefully surveyed the area. If they were pushed back here, then it would really be the end.

He breathed a sigh of relief. The worst case scenario had been avoided and there was no sign of undead. After he finished checking for undead, he hopped into the tunnel and pulled up the people underneath.

“We’re alive! To think we were almost crushed to death by undead, it’s got to be one of the worst kind of death out there.”

“The design of this place is just evil. My legs hurt from the fall, cast some healing magic for me.”

“I think negative energy just scratched the tip of the foot when it exploded. Really scary.”

“We were lucky. But please don’t ask magic casters to dodge attacks anymore.”

Everyone complained while catching their breath.

“Oi, Greenham, why did you want to avoid that door? I thought that door would be the real deal. They usually always have an escape route near dangerous place.”

“It was just a hunch… Do you mind throwing a useless weapon at it?”

Greenham replied with his regular tone and the rogue threw a dagger at the door. The dagger flew straight and appeared as if it would hit the door, but part of the door sprouted a tentacle and deflected the dagger.

“That’s… a “Door Imitator”! No, considering the colour of the tentacle, it might be an undead Door Imitator. A monster that restrains the opponent with sticky tentacles while attacking them.”