The Death Mage that doesn't want a fourth time

101 The meeting between those who crawl on the ceiling

Traps set in Dungeons generally targeted those who walked on the ground and those standing near walls. There were very few that targeted those flying through the air.

The reason for this was that for the Demon King Guduranis, the creator of the Dungeons, they were breeding grounds for the monsters that formed his army and traps for treasure-seeking humans.

It was said that Ricklent, the genie of time and magic, changed this so that Dungeons were a place to train and acquire resources and treasures.

But Ricklent had fallen into slumber before the end of the war, and, of course, the Demon King had been sealed.

Neither the Demon King nor Ricklent had imagined that people would be able to fly.

There were currently races created by Vida that could fly, such as pterosaur-type Drakonids and bat-type Beast-people, but before those races existed, no people could fly except for those with precious Magic Items, those with the ability to use advanced magic and those who had tamed flying monsters.

For the Demon King and Ricklent, it could be safely assumed that there were many more flying monsters than people with any method of proceeding through a Dungeon other than walking across its floors.

Even so, some B-class and A-class Dungeons contained traps targeting those who could fly, but such traps didn't appear in C-class Dungeons and below.

However, there were some monsters in Dungeons resembling caverns and ruins that clung to the ceilings and looked to take adventurers by surprise.

A mucus-like monster called a Slime was clinging to the ceiling in this particular Dungeon.

This Slime, whose instincts as a monster generated by the Dungeon made it prioritize the repulsion of intruders over its own life, patiently waited for its prey to pass by beneath it.

But the Slime heard the rustling of something crawling along the ceiling. It ignored this sound, thinking that it was just some other monsters.

But the source of the sound drew closer to the Slime.

Monsters born in the same Dungeon didn't share any feelings of companionship. Though they prioritized other monsters less than the repulsion of intruders, they were still just prey.

The Slime obeyed its instincts and decided that this approaching monster was prey.

But what approached it was not a monster. It was an intruder with spider legs protruding from its back and bee legs extending from its sides, crawling along the ceiling.

The Slime did not see things as people did, but the presence it sensed was so bizarre that even its instincts stopped functioning.

"Hmm? The reaction suddenly disappeared?"

Vandalieu, who had gone on ahead to use Danger Sense: Death in order to see whether there was any danger such as traps on the ceiling, was confused by the sudden disappearance of the reaction that he had sensed and his gaze began to wander around.

He had been certain that there had been a trap or a monster waiting for an ambush from the ceiling, but... there was no way that a trap would disappear on its own, and even if the monster fled, it was unnatural for it to do so without making a single noise.

He tried using Detect Life and found a response, but it wasn't a very strong one. He hadn't sensed a large danger to begin with, so it was likely a venomous insect or something.

Coming to this conclusion, Vandalieu decided to continue, but then he froze as he felt a wet sensation on his hand.

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