The white crystals covering the ceiling overhead go dark and bathe the entire floor in
blackness.
Blue crystals scattered about the forest and ponds start to glow in their place,
producing a "nightfall" completely different from the surface.
We're on the Dungeon's eighteenth floor, the Under Resort.
"Night" falls on the safe point the moment we arrive.
We traveled through the upper levels and middle levels at high speed while making
sure to keep Wiene out of harm's way. I think we pulled it off only because we used
magic and items like there was no tomorrow. Then again, part of it could be due to our
familiarity with the floors down to the eighteenth and knowing the quickest routes. It
also helped that Goliath wasn't there.
We went straight north from the southern tunnel to the seventeenth floor, heading
directly toward the massive tree in the center.
Many magic-stone lamps sparkle from atop the island in the middle of the lake off to
our left, but we ignore them. A quick stop in Rivira isn't part of the plan. We're going
straight down to the twentieth.
A few isolated encounters with small groups of monsters are all the resistance we find.
We breeze to the middle ground and find the gateway to the nineteenth floor among
the roots of the Central Tree.
"Now for the hard part."
"Indeed. I passed through here once for the quest on the day we met Lady Wiene,
but…"
Wiene inclines her head toward Welf and Mikoto's conversation.
We can't help but smile as we take our first and only planned rest.
I doubt we'll get a chance to catch our breath the rest of the way. Finding a secluded
spot close to the entrance, we all try to replenish the energy we expended getting
down here so quickly.
The enormous tree's roots surround us like a horseshoe, and we're hidden safely in a
hollow in its trunk. Thankfully, no one is going into or coming out of the nineteenth
floor, since it's "night" down here.
Because hellhounds are no longer a threat, Welf, Mikoto, and I remove our
salamander-wool cloaks. I feel lighter already.
Not only that, the cool night breeze feels amazing.
"Lilly, about the stink bombs…"
"Yes, our supply is limited. Lilly would like to save as many as possible for our return
journey. Of course, they're an option in an emergency, but…"
Lilly answers my question while dropping her backpack down on the grass.
Our party will be in even worse shape on the return trip, so saving as many Malboro
stink bombs as possible makes sense. I also understand that it's impossible to avoid
every battle.
Lilly's backpack is so full of weapons and items that it's practically bursting at the
seams. The pieces of equipment that didn't fit inside clatter against one another as she
riffles through the pack to make sure everything is in order. I watch her out of the
corner of my eye, but the trip home is the last thing on my mind. It's the mission that's
important right now.
"Sir Welf, how many magic swords are in our possession…?"
"Three. Li'l E, don't go wasting yours, all right?"
"Lilly knows already!"
Welf answers Mikoto's question before shooting a quick warning in Lilly's direction.
Our party brought along three Crozzo Magic Swords. Two of them are the size of
daggers and are meant to help protect the rear of our formation. Welf has the third
one, a much larger weapon strapped to his back alongside his greatsword. Welf makes
magic swords in advance to help out during our regular trips to the Dungeon. This
time, we brought every single one he had.
Without a magic user to balance our party, I hope we can compensate for our lack of
firepower with these…
…But when push comes to shove…
It all comes down to an adventurer's strengths, what each of us can do.
Weapons and items lend us their power, that's all. We're going to need quick wits and
teamwork to make it through the truly difficult situations.
The bowels of this merciless Dungeon are going to test our mettle as a party.
I don't know what's going to happen… but I can't forget where my trust belongs.
"We should probably get moving."
I talk to the group after about thirty minutes of rest.
As I down the last of the potion in my hand, we walk to the tunnel entrance as one.
Tree roots carpet the tunnel floor, forming a stairwell. A single moss-covered path
reveals itself to us as soon as we reach the bottom. This is the Colossal Tree Labyrinth.
"Lady Haruhime, if you will."
"Y-yes!"
Haruhime begins casting at Mikoto's behest.
It's important that no one else sees her use sorcery. We split up to keep an eye on the
path in front and behind as Haruhime's beautiful voice echoes around us.
"—Uchide no Kozuchi."
Sorcery is a kind of magic that only renarts can use—this one allows Haruhime to
trigger her Level Boost skill.
A hammer appears out of swirling magic energy, coming down on top of Welf at the
head of our formation and enveloping him in light.
"Good to go!" Welf says as he pumps his fist; sparkles glisten around his body.
"So pretty… You're amazing, Haruhime!"
"N-not at all… This is the most I can do to contribute…!"
Wiene has never seen Haruhime's Magic before, and the spell's glow twinkles in her
eyes.
Haruhime constantly casting Level Boost is our key to progressing deeper into the
Colossal Tree Labyrinth. Being on the front lines, Welf must constantly engage
monsters in combat. The stronger he is, the better our chances.
We've done some experimenting with Uchide no Kozuchi and learned it can last for
fifteen minutes—as long as Haruhime puts enough Mind into it. After the spell runs
its course, she'll have to cast it again. We need to be constantly aware of the remaining
time and rely on Haruhime to maintain the effect.
"Drink a magic potion while you've got the chance," Welf insists. Haruhime responds
immediately, saying, "Yes, right away!" Uchide no Kozuchi requires a lot of energy, so
it's better to be on the safe side.
Bringing the vial to her lips, Haruhime downs half the potion.
"Good, now we should be all set—Huh? Hey, Li'l E? What are you doing?"
"Just in case."
Welf turns around to face us, raring to go, when he spots Lilly standing next to the
Dungeon wall. Scrape, scrape.
Using one hand, she is sliding a small knife under the moss growing on its surface.
This plant—often called Lamp Moss—is the only source of light on this floor. Is she
collecting some?
"Lady Lilly, are you…? Surely you aren't planning to sell that on the surface…?"
"Are you so concerned with our familia's finances that you must take measures even
at times like this?"
"Of course not! Lilly knows there is a time and a place!!"
The combination of Mikoto's groan of disbelief and Haruhime's genuine surprise
draws a snappish retort from Lilly, her face suddenly bright red.
Well, I've heard that Lamp Moss sells for about the same price as the crystals from the
eighteenth floor, but…
I want to believe that Lilly has something else in mind.
"There's no pleasing some people… Lilly's finished. Let's go."
Gathering the Lamp Moss in a small pouch and pulling the drawstring shut, Lilly tucks
it into her robe.
Welf and I nod to each other as she stands up. It's time to press on.
"Bell…"
"Miss Wiene, please stay in formation. You don't need to worry about Mr. Bell."
Lilly gives Wiene a sharp warning from a different part of our formation, though her
voice is dampened by the moss and tree bark covering the walls around us.
Welf and I lead the formation, a simple column with no middle rank, where Lilly,
Haruhime, and Wiene bring up the rear. Mikoto is at the tail end.
Normally, Mikoto would be occupying the middle, but this floor is filled with monsters
we've never encountered before. Yatano Black Crow won't fully protect us from those
monsters, so she's in the back to respond to ambushes as quickly as possible. That
way, Lilly can immediately provide her with whatever weapon she needs. Although
Mikoto prefers to fight with a katana, she's just as good with a bow and arrow. Her
ability to adjust to any situation and any position has often proved invaluable.
Lilly and Haruhime serve as our middle ranks in the formation, providing support
with fresh weapons and items as necessary and, of course, Haruhime's Level Boost.
Despite nominally being the weakest among us, they are the party's core. With Wiene
between them, I can't allow any attacks to get through.
As the only Level 3 adventurers, Welf and I have the most difficult job—engaging
monsters head-on or breaking past them.
All this is to protect the one at the very center of our party: Wiene.
"…Bell."
"I know."
Welf whispers to me, the lights surrounding him catching the corner of my eye. I keep
my gaze trained on the path and nod.
Several enemies are already lurking in the darkness ahead of us. I bet we've got only
ten seconds or so before they show themselves, so I tighten my grip on theHestia Knife
and Ushiwakamaru-Nishiki.
…Focus on what's important. No matter what shows up, I will protect Wiene.
A quick glance over my shoulder and I make eye contact with her. Her anxiety is
written all over her face.
—What if the monsters we encounter start talking just like her?
—What if they possess the same feelings we do and can shed tears just like us?
I tamp down those questions with the determination coursing through my mind.
Those excuses that once held me back are gone.
My heart is set; my eyes are focused. I am determined.
Ready for battle, our party ventures deeper into the expansive wooden labyrinth.
Clouds passed in front of the moon high in the night sky.
Hestia looked up atthe lines of gray clouds traveling across the heavens as she crossed
the city streets. Her familia had just ventured into the Dungeon, their mission under
way.
The date might have changed, butthe few people still in the bars and restaurants along
Northwest Main Street—Adventurers Way—were still loud enough to be heard. Hestia
traveled among flickering pockets of light around the magic-stone lamps, catching bits
and pieces of their conversations as she passed by.
"Fourth block of the seventh district." That was the address on the document that
detailed her familia's mission and where she was supposed to wait.
In truth, the place she once called home, the "hidden room under the church," was in
the same neighborhood.
Simply put, it was inside a poor residential area.
"..."
Hestia arrived at the location and examined her surroundings.
With no streetlamps, the clouds in the sky hampered what little moonlight reached
the dim alleyway. Hardly a sound came from the houses that lined the narrow street,
almost as if no one lived there. The only identification she could find was a sign that
read FOURTH BLOCK nailed to a wooden stake at the corner.
Everything about this dark street gave her the sense that something was about to
appear.
—And she was right.
"…I suppose it would be foolish to ask where you came from?"
A ripple passed through the darkness on the other side of the street as a figure silently
entered her line of sight.
The mysterious, human-shaped shadow was swathed entirely in black.
The figure came to a stop about five meders away from Hestia, midnight-colored
gloves creaking at its sides as the person flexed their fingers.
Hestia forced herself to smile at this person's unexpected arrival and slightly
unnerving aura. The corners of her mouth curled upward.
"It is an honor to make your acquaintance, Goddess Hestia. Thank you for traveling all
this way."
"The pleasure's all mine. So, mind telling me who you are?"
The black-robed figure's voice was so indistinctive that it was impossible to discern
the gender of its owner.
Was the cloak that masked his or her identity a way to counter deities, who could see
through the lies of those who lived in the mortal realm?
Hestia's eyes narrowed as she carefully observed this newcomer. There was nothing
to suggest anything about their identity as she pressed for answers.
"You don't strike me as a Guild employee. So why would you drag me all the way out
here—"
Hestia held up the mission document in one hand as she spoke, waving it from side to
side before words suddenly left her.
She froze in stunned silence.
Divine eyes quivering, she peered deep into the darkness under the figure's hood.
"Are you really one of our children… a human? Something tells me you are…"
"…My, my. No disguise can truly fool a deity."
The robe shifted as if its wearer was laughing drily at Hestia's dumbfounded
expression.
The hooded figure's leisurely demeanor was in stark contrast to the trembling
goddess's forced calm.
"What in the world are you…?"
"I would be more than happy to answer that and any other questions you have.
However…"
The hooded figure raised its gaze to a spot well behind Hestia, the top of a nearby
building.
"…it's difficult to have a meaningful conversation while being targeted."
Hestia's eyes flew open. With those words, the hooded figure spread both arms
slightly.
"I suggest a change of scenery."
Thick black fumes poured from the robe's sleeves a heartbeat later.
"—A smoke screen!"
Miach leaned in for a closer look.
He was on the roof of a building overlooking the fourth block of Orario's seventh
district. At the handsome deity's side was an equally surprised chienthrope, Nahza,
her longbow set and arrow nocked, who also watched in disbelief.
Hestia had requested their "protection" only a few hours earlier during the previous
day's evening. The goddess came to Miach and his followers after her own children
were assigned their mission. She told him that the same message had summoned her
to that spot.
SinceHestia had personally come to his home on her own, Miach accepted her request.
He told his followers that it was a mission from the Guild but kept the information
about talking monsters a secret from them.
Nahza, Daphne, and Cassandra had taken up positions around the appointed meeting
place and watched over Hestia from afar. If the goddess ever appeared to be in danger,
Nahza would use her Sniper skills to eliminate the threat. She had been standing by,
ready to loose an arrow at the first hint of suspicious movement.
"…?!"
Nahza, eyes trembling, was stunned that the mysterious hooded figure was able to
sense her.
The ever-expanding cloud obscured Hestia in a matter of moments and blocked the
entire alley from view. Miach watched the smoke screen—no, the black fog—inundate
the area from his perch on the roof.
He could also see the other deities who had answered Hestia's call for help—
Hephaistos, and Takemikazuchi with his familia—dart out from their hiding places…
However, the alley was empty by the time the haze lifted.
The hooded figure and Hestia were gone.
"Lord Miach!"
"…They saw right through our plan."
Miach donned a sour expression as Nahza raised her head toward him from her
kneeling position on the rooftop.
With Hestia gone, regret overwhelmed him.
"O-ooooh! That was the ghost! The ghost, Daphne…!"
"Ghost? The heck is that?"
"A black shadow that patrols the halls of the Guild Headquarters in the dead of night…!
The spirit of an adventurer killed by a monster long ago, unable to pass on…!!"
"Let me guess, another dream of yours? Like I'm going to believe that."
"N-no, it's nooot! I didn't dream it! My old adviser at the Guild, Misha, told me about
it…!"
"Quiet down, you two!"
The bickering of Miach Familia's new additions irritated Nahza, who was well within
earshot.
Miach took a deep breath before issuing orders to his followers.
"We're going. Staying here any longer would be pointless. For starters, we need to
meet up with Hephaistos and the others."
Nahza, Daphne, and Cassandra nodded before taking their leave.
Miach was about to join them, but he cast his gaze over the deserted alley once more
and watched the last of the fog evaporate.
"Hestia…"
More clouds rolled in overhead, completely blocking the moon from view.
"GRAHHHHHH!!"
Welf roared as he brought his greatsword down on top of the mad beetle, cleaving it
in two.
No sooner did the bug monster fall in a spray of blood than a new monster trampled
the corpse to take its place in the front line.
It was a fierce battle.
Bell's party encountered a mob of particularly aggressive monsters in a room located
along the main route through the nineteenth floor.
"YAAAAA!!"
"GAH!"
In addition to mad beetles, Welf sliced into waves of bugbears on the ground as several
gun libellulas swarmed overhead.
A monster fell with each swing of his greatsword: instant kills.
There were no exceptions. Haruhime's Level Boost gave Welf Level 3 strength and
speed, allowing him to send enemies flying with ease. His thick blade tore through
their bodies with no room for resistance. Filling the dual role of attacker and wall, the
High Smith single-handedly stopped the horde in its tracks.
"!!"
Meanwhile, Bell engaged the monsters at an even faster pace, leaving a trail of corpses
behind him.
Arcs of violet and crimson light cut through the air and vanished. With movements
surpassing those of a normal attacker, more on par with finishers, Bell fought side by
side with Welf to reduce their enemies one by one.
After sending a bugbear flying with a single spinning kick, Bell unleashed an
electrifying inferno into the air.
"Firebolt!"
The gun libellulas unfortunate enough to be directly in the spell's line of fire were
incinerated on the spot. Others in the area of effect caught fire from the intense heat
and crashed to the ground.
The surviving aerial enemies came around for another pass.
Bang! Bang! The monsters launched a volley of the metal projectiles that grew
naturally inside their bodies.
Bell dodged the first round before using his Swift-Strike Magic to counterattack.
Although he kept an eye on Welf's battle with the mad beetles and bugbears, Bell
prioritized the dragonfly monsters because of their long-distance attacks.
Lilly, Haruhime, and Wiene crouched down in a tight circle behind Welf and Bell, who
stood on the front line. Lilly's and Haruhime's Goliath Robes deflected every one of the
missiles but did little to protect them from the impacts. Gritting their teeth, the two
desperately held their ground to avoid getting knocked down.
Their party had never experienced simultaneous ground and air attacks of this
magnitude on previous levels in the Dungeon.
Mikoto stood farther behind them, providing cover fire with a bow. Her main objective
might have been to protect the supporters, but she also found time to assist Bell and
Welf from the rear ranks.
…Wiene! They're going after her!
The metallic rounds descended on them like rain. However, it was easy to see that
most were aimed in Wiene's direction.
Cold sweat rolled down Bell's face.
Monsters, not much different from Wiene, pursued her with the same murderous
intention as people above. It wasn't just the howling bugbears that had her in their
sights, but the mad beetles' and gun libellulas' insect-like, multifaceted eyes were
clearly focused on the vouivre girl.
The gun libellulas launched another volley. Wiene's amber eyes trembled as she
watched from beneath Haruhime's embrace the missiles intended to kill zip toward
her.
Bell flipped through the air, landing in front of her like a knight to the rescue, and
knocked down each of the projectiles with his knives.
"Miss Mikoto, how many are there?"
Assisting the front lines with her handheld bow gun, Lilly called out when she realized
the enemy numbers weren't diminishing.
Mikoto responded with an equally panicked yell after puncturing a mad beetle's head
with an arrow.
"Seventeen, no nineteen—it's still rising!!"
Now that Mikoto had fought these monsters, Yatano Black Crow told her that their
relentless foes were about to receive reinforcements.
Sure enough, more of the creatures poured through the entrance on the other side of
the room.
"Ngh… I'm using it!!"
Lilly watched as Bell and Welf took down monster after monster without making a
dent before she reached to her belt and withdrew a golden dagger—a magic sword.
The two young men immediately jumped away as soon as her voice reached their ears.
Her path clear, Lilly brought the blade straight down with all her might. A stream of
energy burst from its tip.
The electrical blast cut a straight line across the battlefield toward the entrance on the
opposite side of the room. Every fiend in its way burst into crackling flame, bringing
the fight to a swift end.
A boom exploded within the room a second later as though the intense blast of energy
had collided with a wall farther down the passageway.
"…!"
Crack! Not even a moment later—
The yellow blade shattered.
Several hours had passed since they set foot on the nineteenth floor. The monsters
they'd encountered were so strong that the group had been forced to use the magic
weapon several times just to keep going forward.
It had reached its limit. Golden shards fell from Lilly's grasp.
"It gave out… Guess we relied on it a bit too much."
"But just now…!"
"I know. We needed it… but it just wasn't strong enough."
Several emotions crossed Welf's face as he looked at the remains of his handiwork and
stopped Lilly's counterargument by raising his hand.
While it was true that Crozzo Magic Swords were extremely powerful, the blades
themselves were actually rather frail.
"This is my problem," Welf bluntly stated, caught between his skills as a magic-sword
maker and his pride as a smith.
At any rate, the battle was finally over.
"Bell, is everyone okay?"
"Yep, I'm fine. Didn't get hurt."
"But currently there are only two of Welf's magic swords remaining… Lady Lilly, what
is our location?"
"We have pressed past more than half of this area. The twentieth floor is close."
Wiene bounded up to Bell, her salamander-wool cloak flapping behind her like a flag
on a windy day, with a big smile on her face. At the same time, Mikoto approached Lilly
for an update on their location.
Pulling out a map of the floor, Lilly pointed to a spot about three-fourths of the way
down the main route. One of their three magic swords was gone, and they had
consumed far more potions and magic potions than expected. However, the rest of
their weapons were still intact and in good working order. Leaving their item situation
aside, the party remained on track.
The group paused for only a moment to share the update before moving on to their
next task.
Lilly instructed everyone to gather the loot scattered about the battlefield.
"Again, please don't leave behind a single magic stone. Bad things will happen should
a monster find and eat one. Take any drop items that will fit… As for the larger ones,
we have no choice but to throw them into thicker grass."
"Y-yes."
"I'll help, too."
Lilly issued the orders to make sure that their secret mission remained a secret by
covering their tracks. The fighters and Wiene helped the supporters finish the job
before pressing forward.
"I'm just gonna put this out there. I know that the monsters here are stronger and
there's a higher encounter rate, but… Bell and I didn't run into this many last time. Or
is it just my imagination?"
"That's probably because there aren't as many other adventurers. More than likely,
there's nothing else to distract the monsters from us."
Consecutive battles were unavoidable, but the numbers were staggering. Lilly tried to
offer an answer to Welf's doubts.
There were many reasons—one being that suspicious adventurers often flocked to
this floor—but very few parties passed through during the night and early morning
hours. Even adventurers who used Rivira as a base camp preferred to avoid operating
during this time of day. Lilly explained how hungry monsters would gather from far
and wide when prey was scarce.
"..."
"Lady Wiene?"
"This place is… familiar… but scary… and cold."
The vouivre timidly wrapped her arms around her body as she scanned the Colossal
Tree Labyrinth.
Haruhime wasn't faring much better, fox ears and tail visibly shaking. Even so, seeing
Wiene so afraid was worse. Putting on a brave face, she reached out and held the girl's
hand.
Bell glanced at the girls in the center of the formation before resuming his constant
vigil. Mikoto, who had slain the many types of monsters they had encountered thus
far, never forgot to activate her Skill periodically as they advanced. Lilly and Welf were
just as quiet as the rest of the party, inspecting the walls around them as if the bark
might crack open at any second to reveal another wave of monsters.
The ceilings inside this sylvan domain were surprisingly high, and small hollows
dotted the walls. While birds or small animals might have called these alcoves home
on the surface, they were the perfect places for monsters to stage an ambush. Clusters
of plants indigenous to these floors popped up all over the place, fascinating the
adventurers who passed through.
Bizarre mushrooms with red and blue spots, grasses with golden thistles sprouting
like cotton, and an astounding amount of vines hanging off the walls like snakes filled
the passageways. Bell caught a glimpse of a dead-end room with beds of silver flowers,
and it was so beautiful that he would have loved to paint the scene if he had the talent.
Everyone knew it was only a matter of time before the next encounter. These moments
of peace were just the calm before the storm, so they stayed in tight formation and
gained as much ground as possible.
…We're still being watched. And…
There were more of them.
Bell studied the surrounding fauna, his head on a swivel, as goose bumps broke out
along his skin.
Had the unknown watchers from aboveground followed them this far?
There were more of them here on the nineteenth floor. Of that he was certain.
The hollow alcoves above his head, the treelike network of branching paths, the dark
spaces behind massive leaves—Bell's gaze traveled from one suspicious spot to
another, seaching for any movement in the shadows. While he saw nothing, he knew
their observers were concealing their presence somewhere nearby.
Just who were they? What were they trying to do?
The ominous air made Bell's heart beat a little harder.
His shallow breaths quickening and dread saturating his veins, Bell knew he had no
choice but to keep pressing forward.
He tightened his grip on the Hestia Knife in his right hand.
"…?"
Without warning—
An unexpected obstacle halted the party's considerable progress.
It completely blocked their path. Confusion ran rampant through the group at the very
sight of it.
They came to a stop in front of a motionless wall of mushrooms.
"No way forward…"
"A-are we going the right way?"
"Hey, Li'l E, what gives?"
"P-please wait a moment. This shouldn't…"
Stretching from wall to wall and floor to ceiling, a colony of gigantic mushrooms sealed
off the route.
A silent barrier of red- and blue-polka-dotted mushrooms stood in their way.
Mikoto and Haruhime voiced their disappointment at reaching a dead end. Lilly
defended herself from Welf's frustration as she pulled out the map and opened it for
a closer look.
"This is… weird."
Welf sniffed and grumbled under his breath.
An inexplicable feeling of recognition overtook Bell upon hearing those words.
...
And he realized immediately why those warning bells were ringing in his head.
However, this was more than a sense that something was off or baseless de ja vu.
It was the knowledge of the lessons drilled into his head by a certain half-elf "older
sister" of his.
If you think you're in trouble—it's already too late.
Many of the gigantic mushrooms making up the colony opened slits that looked
remarkably like eyes beneath their large umbrellas.
"..."
Dropping the act, the mushrooms of many sizes revealed their dark-purple bodies at
once and moved as a unit.
"It's not a wall—they're dark fungi!!"
A wave of cold fear swept through the party as Lilly screamed loud enough to injure
her throat.
Dark fungi.
The mushroom-like monsters had evaded Mikoto's Skill due to the fact that she had
zero experience dealing with them. These monsters preferred to wait for prey to come
to them, hiding among the gigantic fungi that naturally clustered together inside the
Dungeon.
Just as infamous as the many species of insect monsters inhabiting the Colossal Tree
Labyrinth, these creatures produced enormous clouds of poisonous gas.
"!!"
The mushroom caps swelled right before their eyes.
Their clouds of toxic spores made the purple moths' poisonous pollen in the upper
levels look like child's play. It was potent enough to inflict Status ailments on contact
and could even bring large-category monsters to their knees with little resistance.
A series of explosions rang out a second later as the fiends expelled their gas.
It was too late for Lilly and the others to get out of range as the purple clouds flooded
into their path.
In the same instant—
"Firebolt!!"
—Bell made his move.
As the only one equipped with Eina's lessons, it was up to him to keep the venomous
clouds at bay.
Nine bursts of electrifying flames burned through the cloud. As waves of extreme heat
surged through the dense mass of spores like a tsunami, the Swift-Strike Magic
slammed into the colony of dark fungi directly behind it.
The purple clouds that threatened to engulf the party went up in smoke.
"~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~!"
Susceptible to fire, the mushroom monsters writhed in pain as they perished in the
flames.
The conflagration engulfed fungus after fungus, and even the actual gigantic
mushrooms ignited to become towering torches in the passageway.
Bell's quick reaction bought Lilly and the others time to escape the edges of the
poisonous gas cloud even as bits of the spore cloud burned in midair—but the
Dungeon wouldn't allow them to escape so easily.
A dark shadow suddenly appeared on the other side of the inferno, and a colossal boar
burst through a moment later.
"A battle boar?!"
Nearly two meders tall, this was truly a large-category monster.
The wall of flames parted in its wake as the monster charged through with sheer brute
strength. Its eyes locked on the adventurers, and its fur bristled.
It wasn't alone, merely leading the charge of its peers. It roared at the top of its lungs
as a swarm of bugbears and other monsters followed it through the flames.
"Damn it!!"
Welf planted his foot on the ground and charged back into the poisonous purple haze.
Casting aside his greatsword, he grabbed the large shield hanging from Lilly's
backpack on the way.
He held it directly into the boar's path to protect his friends.
"OOOO!!"
"!!"
The silver shield, forged by his own hands, collided with the monstrous boar.
Only with the strength granted to him by Haruhime's Level Boost did Welf, twinkling
lights still hovering around his body, manage to stay on his feet and absorb a blow that
would have sent many upper-class adventurers skyward. Digging in his heels, he lost
only a few steps' worth of ground before bringing the monster to a complete stop.
That was when Mikoto rushed into action.
"HYAAA!!"
Jumping clear over Welf's head, she drew Chizan, one half of a set of twin daggers that
she always kept on her person, and drove it into the monster's neck from above.
It was a clean strike, sending a gush of blood into the air, but it was not enough to
behead the battle boar. Mikoto carved several more slashes into its hulking body as
she spun through the air. The monster collapsed to the ground at the same moment
the blood-spattered girl landed at its side.
"—HA!!"
Bell dashed by the boar's body and straight into the oncoming rush behind it.
He brandished his double knives—a flash of violet light slashed through a bugbear's
neck, sending its head tumbling through the air, as a crimson streak rode the
momentum to strike another monster down in the same moment. Bell's trademark
agility caught the oncoming horde by surprise; they were powerless before him as he
drew them into the fray.
He tore into the bugbears, slaughtering them one by one as Welf and Mikoto arrived
with bigger blades, greatsword and katana; the three of them joined forces to take care
of the rest.
"Haa, haa…!"
Bell slew the last monster as the combat came to an end.
The three humans struggled to catch their breath, faces illuminated by the burning
mushrooms.
Haruhime gawked at the piles of corpses surrounding them and was about to rush to
her companions' aid when Lilly grabbed hold of her wrist. "It's not safe yet," said the
prum, her eyes following the last wispy trails of poisonous spore clouds.
"Sorry, but could a guy get an antidote…?"
"Y-yes, right away!"
Welf groaned as he staggered his way back to the supporters, skin glistening with
sweat.
Haruhime quickly retrieved a vial of green liquid and handed it to him. Inhaling the
toxic spores inside the purple cloud had poisoned Welf. He downed the concoction in
one gulp.
"Seriously, Bell roasted most of them, and I still got hit… Guess this means upper-class
adventurers can't just blindly charge in and hope for the best."
"Consider yourself lucky. There are worse cases of poisoning, and those take much
longer to recover from…"
Lilly continued by explaining how the unlucky ones would have died on the spot and
rummaged through her backpack as Welf's breathing returned to normal. Pulling out
a few items, she turned to the others.
"Mr. Bell, Miss Mikoto, how are you feeling…?"
"It hurts, but I can stand up…"
"Everything feels heavy, no energy."
Mikoto and Bell returned to the supporters, their faces off-color.
Unlike Welf, the two of them both possessed the Advanced Ability Immunity. However,
it wasn't effective enough to completely nullify the poison yet, and they became
painfully aware of the dark-fungus spore cloud's potency.
Sharp claws and fangs weren't the only things adventurers had to worry about in the
Colossal Tree Labyrinth.
"Lady Wiene… You look perfectly normal."
"…? I'm fine."
Being a type of dragon and born in the middle levels, Wiene must have been born with
a high resistance to Status ailments. All the adventurers were looking at her with
concern, but she couldn't understand why.
Lilly sighed before instructing Haruhime to drink an antidote, just to be on the safe
side, and then followed suit.
"Lady Mikoto, Master Bell, what will you do…?"
"Conservation is of the utmost importance. Sir Bell and I will share one."
Living in poverty as a member of Takemikazuchi Familia for so long had taught her to
scrimp and save whenever possible. Mikoto didn't give it a second thought when
answering Haruhime's question.
Bell took the antidote—stamped with Miach Familia's emblem—from Haruhime and
said, "I-in that case…" After drinking half of it, he handed the bottle to Mikoto.
Her heart skipped a beat. With the half-empty vessel in her hands, the realization that
Bell had just drunk from it shot through her like lightning. She stared at it for a
moment before her face became bright red. Only then did it hit Haruhime, fox ears
standing up straight as she quickly covered her eyes.
"One, two, and…" Mikoto whispered to herself, cheeks still flushed, before drinking the
rest.
Even Bell started blushing. A cunning strategy… Lilly thought to herself, fists clenching
as she watched with jealousy in her eyes.
"..."
Then, once everyone had recovered…
Wiene's ears started twitching.
"I hear… something."
"You do?"
Wiene turned, her elfish tapered ears guiding her.
Their surroundings were quiet. Bell followed the girl's gaze down the path from which
they had come. There was nothing out of the ordinary.
Welf and the others started to wonder if something was wrong with Wiene when…
"…Ah."
"I hear it as well…"
Bell and Mikoto definitely sensed it.
A strange sound.
One that they hadn't yet encountered during their time on this floor.
Wiene possessed enhanced monster senses, far superior to the adventurers'. Fear
flashed across her face—an omen of what was to come. The vouivre girl took a step
back.
"Are those wings? No, not quite…"
It wasn't the telltale signs of other adventurers locked in combat, nor was it a
monster's howl.
The unusual sound reached Lilly's ears. She, too, thought it was the flapping wings of
a bird at first, but it was too metallic. A bead of sweat rolled down her neck. She
adjusted the straps of her backpack as Welf lifted his greatsword into a defensive
position.
The peculiar noise grew louder.
Something was approaching along the path.
The entire party took a few steps back as the ominous tension became too much to
bear.
When their nerves had been wound tighter than a bowstring—the sound's source
revealed itself.
"Are those… bees…?"
Haruhime asked her question in a shaky voice as black shadows began to appear at
the very edge of her vision.
Their insect-like bodies were covered in thick black plates resembling armor. Angular
and menacing, each shadow was as tall as an adult human. Pincers shaped like scissors
jutted from their jaws, but the adventurers were more concerned about the other
end—a poisonous stinger shaped like a pike.
"…Deadly hornets."
Bell turned pale as he said the species's name.
They normally appeared on the twenty-second floor and below as one of the monsters
that prevented third-tier and second-tier adventurers from advancing into the deep
levels.
Its fearsome pincers were one thing, but the deadly hornet's stinger was powerful
enough to pierce heavy armor and even kill Level 2 adventurers in one thrust. Those
who survived its sting usually succumbed to blood loss soon after. With armor strong
enough to deflect attacks that didn't land just right, they were like killer ants with
wings.
Killer ants were known as "novice killers" in the Dungeon's upper levels; in the same
vein, deadly hornets had a nickname of their own: "upper-class killer bee."
Each of the lethal monsters was equipped with four wings, two on each side. More and
more shadows emerged, their number surpassing twenty.
"—RUN!!"
Welf's scream was the signal.
The whole party turned their backs on the deadly hornets and took off as fast as their
legs could carry them.
"Hornets—really, really big hornets!! And too many to count!"
"Please stay focused, Lady Haruhime!!"
"Bell, I'm scared!"
"So am I!!"
Racing past what was left of the gigantic poisonous mushroom colony, the party
sprinted down the middle of the wide main path.
The screams of the terrified adventurers joined the near-deafening buzz of their
deadly insectile pursuers as they fled. Many had painful memories involving bees,
such as a grandfather drawing off a swarm to help him escape or the searing pain in
her tail when she had been stung at her family's home, but nothing compared to this
very moment.
If the hornets caught up, they would be impaled before those massive pincers
devoured them.
Bell's party raced across the wooden ground, their bodies soaked with sweat.
"Why do deadly hornets have to show up now of all times?!"
"This ain't a time for questions, Li'l E! Run for your life!!"
"LILLY IS RUNNING!!"
Lilly screamed, lamenting the Irregular that had ascended several floors to meet them.
Welf howled back, greatsword resting on his shoulder.
The supporters were the slowest members of the party, and the others had no choice
but to keep the same pace. Lilly and Haruhime were going as fast as they absolutely
could.
"…I'll slow them down with Magic!"
"No, Bell! It won't work!"
The insects were too fast. A ranged attack would never land against monsters that
could move so freely.
In this wide and cavernous passageway, taking down any one of the extremely agile
deadly hornets with Firebolt while on the run would be next to impossible. What was
worse was that magic swords weren't an option because there was too much space
overhead, nearly ten meders. They could easily dodge the blast.
But above all else, there were too many.
Welf yelled out that it would be like trying to empty an ocean with a bucket.
"And we do not have time for that…!"
"!"
Mikoto screamed as she saw something farther down the passageway. Bell's head
whipped around, his eyes going wide.
Dark shadows shaped like mad beetles slid over the walls up ahead, right in their path.
Mikoto and Bell sped up, their faces contorted in desperation.
It was up to them to eliminate the obstacles and clear the way for the rest of the party.
"Hah! Haa, haa…!"
Run. Run. Run.
Their formation was in shambles. Welf was in the back, furiously pumping his arms
and legs.
The supporters raced past the corpses Mikoto and Bell left in their wake, sprinting
deeper and deeper into the Dungeon.
Their lungs burned as their ragged breaths echoed through the hall. Their pursuers
were gaining; the swarm wasn't going to let them escape.
"Lilly, what's up ahead?"
"This is a straight path to the twentieth floor! Should be almost there…!"
Bell slipped under a bugbear's claws, his counterattack slicing the creature in half as
Lilly's desperate, almost pleading voice reached his ears.
The party ran through the curving path and, just as Lilly had predicted, they spotted a
large hollow alcove at the other end.
It was the entrance to the next floor.
Their goal suddenly in sight, everyone's eyes flashed as they dashed toward the hole
with even more vigor.
However…
Crack!
"—"
Crack! Crack!
The sounds were coming from their destination as well as the walls on both sides of
the path. A mere fifty meders stood between them and the entrance, but ominous
cracks spread out like spiderwebs. Their environment was crumbling before their
very eyes.
The party fell into stunned silence as a massive horde of monsters was born
simultaneously in the passageway.
A monster party.
The most underhanded of all Dungeon gimmicks.
Mikoto reflexively triggered Yatano Black Crow. Forty-four enemies.
Mad beetles, bugbears, gun libellulas, dark fungi, battle boars—a nightmarish parade
was advancing toward them.
They were trapped in a pincer attack from ahead and behind. The Dungeon had bared
its fangs yet again, sending the adventurers into the deepest pits of despair.
"Aahh—"
Wiene's face froze in fear, the deadly appendages reflected in her eyes.
The rest of the party wasn't faring much better, terror threatening to overtake them.
That's when—
"—KEEP GOIIIIIIIIIING!!"
Welf didn't let it happen.
He screamed at his allies, ordering them forward just as they started to slow down.
Bell, Mikoto, and the rest decided to put their faith in the voice urging them from
behind.
Kicking at the ground, they sped up.
Right into the jaws of the ferocious beasts roaring in their path.
"!!"
Welf sheathed his greatsword and jumped into the air.
With a clear view over his allies' heads, he grabbed a longsword's hilt with his right
hand—removing the magic weapon from the other sheath strapped to his shoulder.
He brought the crimson blade down in one swift motion.
"Breakthrough…!!"
Roaring flames.
The magic sword came to life in response to its creator's call with a burning howl of
its own.
Torrents of flames crashed into the monsters barring their path. Even their dying
howls of agony couldn't escape the inferno.
The rest of the party watched in awe, their eyes opening as wide as they could.
Their path had been transformed into a smoldering gorge.
The Dungeon itself seemed to scream out in pain, the magic sword's overwhelming
power incinerating the walls and ceiling and every plant in its path.
Bell led the party straight into the charred wasteland at full speed. Enduring the heat
and holding their breath to avoid burning their throats, they raced through the
passageway's charred remains.
At the same time, a crick! sounded from the magic sword.
Releasing that much energy at once took its toll on the weapon. Cracks appeared along
the blade, now close to its limit.
"Come on, buddy, hang in there…!"
Welf called out to the sword in his hand, fearing the worst.
Even as it started disintegrating, the magic sword continued to glow as if to reassure
its wielder that it would fight to the end.
" !!"
The swarm of deadly hornets closed in.
There was almost no space left between them. The closest ones flapped their wings at
a frantic pace, the echoes reaching a crescendo as if building suspense before the kill.
Their prey was in range—the fleeing adventurers right in front of them. They raised
their stingers.
"!!"
In that moment, Mikoto leaped off the ground.
The farthest ahead, she dove the final four meders and landed inside the hole.
Bell, Lilly, Haruhime, and Wiene were right behind her, jumping through the threshold
one after another.
As his companions bounded down the stairwell composed of tree roots, Welf made it
inside.
"Of course you'd follow! Take this…!"
The deadly hornets didn't hesitate. They swarmed into the hole en masse, determined
to catch their prey.
Welf twisted his body mid-leap to face the tenacious monsters, lips creased into a grin.
His unblinking eyes on the deadly hornets, he gripped the magic sword with both
hands and lifted it high above his head.
Flight was meaningless.
In this narrow tunnel, no amount of agility could save them in this constrained space.
For the second time, Welf roared along with his weapon.
"GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!"
A massive fireball engulfed everything in its path.
Every deadly hornet began glowing like hot steel in a forge.
" Ahhh!!"
The swarm of lethal insects, having been drawn into the connecting tunnel, were
vaporized into nothingness.
At about the same time, the magic sword let out a high-pitched ring and shattered.
"—Thanks."
This was no apology but gratitude.
Welf smiled at the hilt still in his grasp as he performed its last rites.
The shards gave off one last crimson sparkle as if offering their own farewell.
Then, the explosion launched Welf, Bell, and the rest of the party into the air, as if to
hurl them out of the wooden cavern.
""""""?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!""""""
Torrents of wind carried them down the stairwell.
Light appeared at the end of the tunnel, causing one boy to experience a serious case
of de ja vu. Suddenly, the adventurers flew through the exit.
Thud! Thump, thump! Thud, wham! Dull impacts rang out one after another.
"The twentieth floor…"
"Finally, we made it…"
"W-we… we're here…"
"Hurry up and get off Lilly!!"
"Ooph, oh…"
"Ouch…!"
Mikoto tried to regain her bearings; Welf smiled through his bumps and bruises; Bell
was filled with relief and Lilly with anger while Haruhime and Wiene shook their
heads in pain.
The party slowly untangled themselves after landing in a big pile. And an unexplored
labyrinth filled with looming trees spread out before them.
It all happened so fast.
She remembered speaking to someone wearing a black robe before a black fog
enveloped them. After she coughed a few times, some kind of fabric had been slipped
over her head, muffling any noise.
After that, there was just steady swaying like she was being carried, and then she was
here.
"…Was that some sort of magic just now?"
"Nothing that impressive. Just a simple magic item and a shortcut, Goddess Hestia."
The cool air inside the stone passageway chilled her skin.
Hestia trudged along behind the black robe's shadow through the man-made tunnel.
The tunnel itself was rather cramped, barely wide enough for three people to stand
side by side, along with a low ceiling. While she couldn't tell what material the walls
were built from in the dim light, she could see the seamless surface was engraved with
many patterns. Without any windows or doors to speak of, Hestia was certain this was
a secret passage of some sort.
Well, I sure got outplayed… Hestia thought to herself. From the moment her "guide"
told her to follow, she had done so without complaint. Taking the immaculate planning
and execution of her captor into account, she knew it was useless for a powerless
goddess like her to resist.
She still spoke with her usual casual tone, but both knew who was really in control.
"Very few individuals are aware of this shortcut. It's possible to count on one hand the
number who have used it."
It went without saying that the black-robed figure lighting the way with a portable
magic-stone lamp had their back to Hestia while speaking.
Her guide seemed confident that the goddess wouldn't try to escape. Either that or
knew that Hestia could be easily caught if she did make a break for it. Probably both.
Hestia held in a sigh, frowning slightly at the mysterious figure. Whoever it was, they
didn't seem to have any interest in hurting her. So she focused on the passing walls
instead.
"A shortcut, you say…"
If her captor had been telling the truth, she must have been carried into this
"shortcut"…That meant the entrance was extremely close to their meeting point in the
fourth block.
Visualizing a map of the city, Hestia thought about where the main streets and
landmarks were to get a general idea of her current location. Then she asked another
question:
"Is this a shortcut for your master to use to escape in an emergency?"
"..."
Hestia was confident in her theory, but the black-robed figure's response was only
silence.
Except she got the funny feeling this person was smiling beneath that hood.
Not planning to answer me, I see… That's fine. If my guess was right, then soon…
She would learn everything she wanted to know.
Her captor's master would tell her.
Hestia didn't pry and kept up.
"Oh? A dead end?"
They reached the end of the tunnel a little while later.
Hestia raised a suspicious eyebrow as the black-robed figure reached out to the wall
and ran a hand across the grooves carved into the surface.
"—"
As soon as a few words like an incantation came from beneath the hood, the wall
started sliding away with a low rumble.
Did whoever this is say "Open sesame"…? Hestia jokingly thought to herself as the
hidden door opened, disappearing into the adjacent wall to let them pass.
It connected to a chamber shrouded in darkness.
"..."
Hestia followed the robed figure up a small flight of stairs and into a stone hall.
She looked around the room as details emerged from the gloom.
The floor was covered with large slabs. The ceiling was high overhead, its shadows
seeming to hover in the air around her. The stones that composed the walls were
showing their age. Perhaps it was once a temple, built in the Ancient Times and long
forgotten.
Disregarding the "shortcut," there was only one other entrance to the chamber. It was
located at the top of a stone stairwell, signaling to Hestia that they were underground.
Then her gaze fell toward the middle of the chamber.
"He" was present, sitting on an altar among four lit torches that provided the only
source of light.
"—Ouranos."
The guide led Hestia to the front of the altar. She turned to face the deity, looking him
square in the eyes.
The majestic yet wizened god sat on his throne—a large stone structure fit for a king.
Over two meders tall when standing, he exuded an intensity, a presence, and a divine
authority that were in a league of their own, unmatched by other deities. Heralded as
a "Supreme God" while residing in the heavens, he was one of the truly influential
deities.
White hair and a similarly colored beard spilled from beneath the hood of his robe.
His robust arms were propped on the throne's armrests—a god immovable. He simply
existed in that spot, surveying the chamber like a ruler and a statue at the same time.
A towering, unyielding king, the true leader of the Guild lifted his chin to look down on
Hestia.
"It's been a long time, Hestia."
"Yeah, Ouranos… I haven't seen you in, what, over a thousand years?"
There was no joy in this reunion. Ouranos maintained his calm expression and aimed
his booming voice toward the young goddess.
Hestia wasn't the least bit intimidated by his overwhelming presence and addressed
him like an acquaintance from days long past.
The goddess had only recently arrived in the mortal realm as a participant. She didn't
know much about Ouranos—especially over the last thousand years—other than he
was often referred to as the "Father of Orario."
She did know a few basics, such as the fact that he was part of the first group to
descend to this world, one of the gods who brought an end to the Ancient Times and
settled in Orario.
He had worked together with the mortal children to plug the "Great Hole" in the
ground that constantly spewed monsters—helping to build the "lid" that turned the
Labyrinth City into the first line of defense.
With his familia eventually becoming the Guild, he oversaw both the city and the
Dungeon. However, he realized that someone with that much power must maintain a
constant stance of neutrality. Therefore, he bestowed his followers with political
power rather than Falna.
The last thing Hestia knew about Ouranos was that he spent his days beneath Guild
Headquarters, offering constant "prayers" to the Dungeon.
These prayers—powered by his immense divine authority—kept the Dungeon in
check. It was his will that prevented hordes of monsters from reaching the surface and
plunging the world back into the original state from the Ancient Times. That was how
it was explained.
Given Ouranos's presence here, Hestia reasoned that she must be in the Chamber of
Prayers beneath Guild Headquarters.
The two deities observed each other with the same shade of blue eyes, directly under
Orario's governing facilities.
"This ends my role here, Ouranos."
"You have done well, Fels."
Behind Hestia came the sound of fabric shifting.
Then the person called Fels started to take his leave.
"Well then, I shall excuse myself. I'll be late if I don't set off soon."
With those words, Fels returned to the hidden door.
"Please make yourself at home, Goddess Hestia."
Fels said a final good-bye before disappearing into the darkness.
Hestia watched until the figure vanished, and then she returned her attention to the
god before her.
"I have a lot of questions, Ouranos. Mind if I get some answers first?"
"I'll allow it."
Hestia had known Ouranos was the one who ordered the mission the moment she saw
the hieroglyph message on the document.
While she didn't know how it would happen, she had had a feeling that the two of them
would meet face-to-face at some point.
"Was this mission only your idea?"
"It was indeed. No Guild employees have been informed."
"Are Bell and the others safe?"
"They're in the Dungeon. There are no guarantees."
Hestia's first order of business was to ensure her followers were safe. She frowned at
the god dodging her question, but her shoulders relaxed.
I can still let him have it after I find out everything he has to say, she promised herself
before she reined herself in.
"Such an elaborate scheme… What's with the roundabout process?"
"It was necessary to take expedited measures to ensure our meeting remains
absolutely secret. I was prepared for you and your followers to be wary."
Most likely, Ouranos didn't want anyone else to know that he had summoned Hestia
to the Chamber of Prayers. This forceful method was probably chosen as the least
risky course of action.
Hestia felt that they were being tested at the same time.
Ouranos knew from early on that Hestia and her familia were harboring Wiene.
Everything that had transpired up to today, including the mission, happened under his
watchful gaze.
He saw their decisions, their reactions.
It was all to determine whether or not she was worthy of an audience with the deity.
"Am I correct in assuming that you've called me here because of the vouivre girl—
because of Wiene?"
Hestia changed her course of questioning.
The large, wizened god looked down at her from atop his altar.
"Just what is she? Do you know something, Ouranos?"
"..."
"What is happening in the Dungeon right now? What are you hiding?"
Ouranos remained silent as Hestia piled on more questions.
Her voice reverberated around the dark chamber. Before her last words faded, Hestia
asked the most important question yet.
"What is your will?"
Crackle! Sparks burst from one of the torches.
Ouranos slowly opened his mouth, his majestic form illuminated on all sides by the
flames.
Eyes as blue as the midday sky locked onto Hestia.
"I shall inform you, Hestia, of our secret…"
The clash of swords echoed through the labyrinth.
Slashes and their answering counterstrokes. A cutting edge stopped in mid-swing, met
by a blade and a burst of red sparks.
A shield immediately blocked the subsequent reprisal. The warrior wielding the
weapons felt the impact. Waves of pain shot through its arm, and it let out a
bloodcurdling roar through its pulsating throat.
The deep, beastly roar filled the passageway and shook the battle party to the core.
The Dungeon, twentieth floor.
Bell's party had made good progress, pressing even deeper into this floor they were
seeing for the first time.
Not much different from the nineteenth, this level of the Colossal Tree Labyrinth was
overflowing with plant life. Its walls covered in tree bark, the twentieth floor was a
green maze that dazzled adventurers who traveled through its halls. Their faces were
illuminated by the steady, dreamlike blue glow emanating from the moss-covered
walls.
Lilly guided the party through the halls using her map. The monsters they
encountered were similar to the ones upstairs, with mad beetles and dark fungi,
among others. Mikoto's Skill, Yatano Black Crow, kept them safe from ambushes, while
Bell and Welf knew how to deal with them on the front lines. The group's efficiency
had improved, making their journey much safer and faster than before.
However, a new enemy had appeared.
It was currently crossing blades with Bell and Welf.
"RUOOOHH!!"
"OO! OOOOOGH!"
The lizard warrior howled as it charged the party on two powerful legs.
A blade's flash catching their eye, the two young men blocked it at the same time.
"These things are pretty damn good!"
Welf growled to himself, not taking his eyes away from the red-scaled monsters called
lizardmen.
Standing upright and wielding weapons in both arms, the two monsters attacked
much like adventurers would. About 170 celch tall, they could look Welf in the eyes.
Bell had fought against many creatures in the Dungeon, but this was the first time he
felt as though he was engaging other adventurers in battle.
Mainly because these two monsters attacked with swords.
Their clawed fingers were wrapped around sword hilts and shield grips.
"Flowers as nature weapons…?"
The two lizardmen were carrying "landforms"—naturally occurring weapons that the
Dungeon supplied.
These metallic flowers grew straightfrom the Dungeon walls. Removing the stem from
the flower resulted in a round shield measuring fifty celch in diameter. What's more,
each of the petals could be individually plucked from the flower, becoming daggers as
wide as swords and worthy of the nickname "cutters."
The nature weapons they had encountered up to this point included tree-stump clubs
and stone tomahawks, but this was the first piece of equipment that provided
monsters with the offensive and defensive support equivalent to an adventurer's
sword and shield. Welf parried a cutter away from his body as a lizardman blocked
Bell's knife with its round shield.
"SHAAAAAAAAA!!"
The two adventurers were forced to simultaneously deal with the tenacious lizardman
assault and the ranged attacks of a gun libellula mob coming from behind. The
monsters used powerful side sweeps, quick downward slashes, and sudden forward
thrusts to overwhelm them. The blows shattered the floor beneath them, and the two
humans' limbs trembled under the strain of receiving the attacks.
Their technique might have relied mostly on power, but it was unmistakably
swordsmanship.
"Monsters with sword skills… Well, guess what?!"
Welf yelled back at his unusually skilled foes.
The tables turned as soon as Mikoto and Lilly finished wiping out the gun libellulas
with a slew of arrows.
Welf blocked the lizardman's following strike and, with a well-timed twist of his blade,
sent the creature's flower-petal dagger flying. He exploited the second it took for the
disarmed lizardman to regain its balance, raising his greatsword high into the air.
Surprised realization passed over the monster's face as it lifted its shield up to defend.
Welf smirked at the useless gesture.
He then used every muscle in his body to bring down an overarching slash that cut
straight through the shield and plunged into the monster's body.
"GEH—!"
Welf's sword tore right through its magic stone. The lizardman crumbled into ash
before the halves of its shield hit the ground.
As the remaining lizardman reacted to seeing its companion slain, Bell kicked off the
ground with the speed of a rabbit.
"GAH!"
A crimson arc carved straight through the creature's midsection as the boy slid by,
holding Ushiwakamaru-Nishiki in a backhand grip.
The blade tore red scales off its body as it bit deep into its flesh.
The creature staggered for a moment with a massive gash in its torso before loudly
collapsing to the ground behind Bell.
"That was a real surprise at first, but they're really rough around the edges. Those
weren't techniques."
"Bear in mind that if monsters like that appear in greater numbers… the way forward
will become much more arduous."
Welf returned his greatsword to his shoulder, scoffing at the fallen monsters like a
seasoned veteran, while Mikoto exchanged an empty arrow quiver for her katana. Lilly
and the supporters quickly set to work, collecting magic stones from the battlefield.
"I wonder if any of them live long enough to learn how to do more than just swing."
"While Lilly can't guarantee there aren't… it wouldn't make sense, Mr. Welf. Once it
was identified, the Guild would immediately issue a bounty for such a monster and
send exterminators to eliminate it."
Bell listened to his allies' conversation and thought about the look of insatiable
bloodlust in the lizardmen's eyes. The battle over, he led his party deeper into the
Dungeon.
"Lilly… how far do we have to go?"
"According to the map, our destination is close. Please turn right up ahead."
They had diverted from the main route quite a while ago.
Lilly's eyes never left the red circle over a room close to a pantry in the back corner of
this floor, their mission's destination, as she spoke.
Every party member could sense their anxiety increasing with every step.
Backpacks over their shoulders, Lilly and Haruhime desperately tried to hide their
exhaustion and keep their nerves under control.
Even Welf, who always lightened the mood with a few jokes, was unusually quiet.
Mikoto's Mind was little more than fumes after triggering her Skill so many times. She
took out a Dual Potion, drank the whole thing, and silently wiped her mouth.
Bell led the group at the front, holding idle thoughts at bay while keeping his eyes and
ears wide open. He glanced back over his shoulder.
Wiene looked up, her trembling amber eyes meeting his almost as if on cue. They
seemed to exchange thoughts and feelings in that long moment.
The inside of the girl's hood was glowing red with the light of the red jewel in her
forehead.
The party encountered several more groups of monsters after that.
The path required them to climb over a series of thick, matted tree roots, up a hill, and
through a thicket of lush plant life.
Until finally…
"We're here…"
They had arrived at their mission's destination.
The room was a long rectangle about ten meders wide, and the ceiling was just as tall.
Tree bark covered the walls and canopy, just like every room they had passed by on
the way, and it was all carpeted with Lamp Moss.
Green grass and an assortment of small white rings came together to form a flower
bed growing out of the floor like a patchwork garden.
However, they were not what the party noticed first.
"Quartz…"
Maybe because the pantry was nearby, but the deep-green quartz that resembled
emeralds stuck out from the floor, walls, and ceiling in every direction. The verdant
light of the rock formations reminded Bell of the quest that he and Lilly once
undertook at Nahza's request. For others like Haruhime, this was their first time
seeing quartz in every size and shape like this with their own eyes. The sight took their
breath away. The largest cluster was situated at the other end of the room, directly
facing the party—and covering the wall almost like a miniature iceberg.
Other rooms located close to pantries had the same manner of quartz formations.
"I'm glad to hear this is it, but…"
"There's nothing to see and no one here…"
The group came to a stop at the entryway, Welf scanning the chamber as Mikoto
frowned.
There were no monsters waiting to greet them, let alone a party of people. Everyone
agreed that the quartz was beautiful, but nothing special enough to designate this
room as their mission's destination.
Bell and his party stood in the room's only entrance.
Of course, a way to go even deeper into the Dungeon from that spot didn't appear to
exist.
"Lady Lilly, are you certain our location is accurate…?"
"I am absolutely sure. This… has to be correct."
Lilly again examined her map, along with the one provided with the mission
document, as an uneasy Haruhime asked for confirmation.
Bell paused in front of the tranquil room, the moss's blue light mixing with the quartz's
green in front of his eyes. He set foot inside.
The room was brighter than the path they had taken thanks to the quartz. The party
followed Bell, staying in a tight cluster in case a monster came out of the Dungeon
walls. They also kept their eyes open for a clue as to why their mission had brought
them here.
But it was all for naught.
"There really is… nothing…"
"Dammit, Guild, what did you want us to do?"
At a loss for an explanation, they returned to the entrance.
Welf voiced the frustration everyone was feeling and massaged his neck. Haruhime's
Level Boost was nearing its time limit, so the motes of light hovering over his body
were vanishing as they spoke.
The fatigue they had been hiding, the exhaustion from relentlessly pressing forward
through the Dungeon, had reached a breaking point and weighed heavily on
everyone's shoulders. Meanwhile, the white flowers at their feet gently swayed back
and forth.
—Now that I think about it, the ones watching us…
Bell raised his head from his spot in the middle of the party.
All the gazes he had sensed after they entered Babel Tower, which had only increased
once they arrived on the nineteenth floor, had vanished.
There was no mistake. Whoever had been observing them was gone.
Bell racked his brain, trying to figure out what it could mean, when—
" "
Twitch.
Wiene's pointed ears twitched again.
"I hear…"
"Huh?" Everyone's attention suddenly focused on Wiene.
She looked over her shoulder to the opposite side of the room. Her gaze fell on the wall
of quartz on the other end.
No way… The party was in denial as they watched the vouivre girl focus on sounds
only she could hear. But once they tried…
" "
…they could hear it, too.
It was a song none of them had ever heard before. Growing louder, the reverberations
rang in their ears.
Every eye went wide as the adventurers tried to find words.
"A song in the labyrinth…"
The tone was pure and steady, forming a melody that conjured images of the ocean
under a calm night sky. Lilly whispered to herself, having heard about this somewhere
before.
"Is it… calling?"
Wiene's eyes opened fully as her gaze raced along the quartz iceberg, trying to locate
where the song was coming from.
The others had figured it out, too. The sound waves were coming from even deeper in
the Dungeon, from behind the cluster of quartz crystals.
No one said a word as they climbed to their feet and drifted to the wall as if the melody
were magnetic.
They came to a stop in front of the gorgeous quartz formation.
It looked like one solid piece at first glance… but then they found a dim spot among
the crystals.
The song had grown so loud that now even the quartz vibrated ever so slightly in time
with each note. Exchanging glances, everyone nodded.
Welf stepped forward, took aim with his sword—and brought it down in one swift
motion.
Crash! The quartz broke into pieces, shattering like glass to reveal an alcove in the wall.
"…Well, how were we supposed to find that?"
Welf groaned, whispering at the opening.
The Dungeon always healed itself, repairing the damage it sustained during battles,
but quartz grew back abnormally fast. In fact, the process was already under way. The
party quickly strode through the opening as new crystals formed before their eyes.
Shards of broken quartz littered the path under their feet as they watched the
entrance seal itself behind them.
"…Let's go."
The song was gone, as though it had served its purpose.
Peering down the slope into the depths of the tree, Bell urged his allies forward.
Tension held them in its grip once again as the party formed a line and pressed
onward.
"Could this place be…?"
Lilly's quiet voice trembled in through the dim, bark-covered passageway.
While everyone knew exactly what she was trying to say, no one spoke. Breathing as
quietly as possible, the party was so on edge that they became drenched in sweat.
The path was narrow, but there didn't seem to be a danger of monsters bursting from
the walls. There was no Lamp Moss on any surface. Small quartz crystals dotting the
passage provided just enough light for the adventurers to see one another and their
immediate surroundings.
Bell led the way. Wiene, directly behind him, reached out to take his hand.
The boy didn't say anything as he felt her thin fingers wrap around his, giving them
only a tight squeeze.
Having accepted the portable magic-stone lamp from Lilly in one hand, Bell pointed
forward with the other as the group continued their descent.
"…A spring."
A body of cool, clear blue water awaited them at the bottom of the hill.
The bottom of the wide pool appeared to be five meders deep. It could have easily
passed for a small pond.
The little light the quartz crystals provided glinted off the water. Bell used the lamp to
scan the room, sweeping the beam from one end to the other.
"Looks like the path ends here…"
"That can't be… The song came from here, did it not?"
Haruhime didn't want to believe what Bell just said.
Casting light on the ceiling and the walls revealed only solid bark. There were no
openings that could possibly lead to another path.
Lilly and Welf tilted their heads, examining the room in an effort to puzzle out what
had happened to the mysterious singer.
"…?"
That was when Mikoto discovered something on the water's surface.
A single floating golden feather.
The idea came to her as she stood transfixed by the feather's speckled, golden sparkle.
"Sir Bell, the light."
Mikoto approached the shore with purpose in her stride.
The light from Bell's lamp passed through the clear water, reaching the bottom with
ease.
As every detail came to light, Mikoto caught a glimpse of an opening in the submerged
wall leading away from this apparent dead end.
"I have a theory…"
Mikoto spoke as she removed her katana, armor, and the rest of her equipment from
her body.
Down to a single layer of battle cloth, she dove into the water. Trained in the
unforgiving rivers of the Far East, she used her ninja-like coordination to glide through
the water toward the opening like a fish.
Wiene, Bell, and the others watched with bated breath… Bubbles rose before Mikoto's
head breached the surface a few seconds later.
She pushed the wet hair plastered to her face out of her eyes before giving a firm nod
to her allies above.
They all exchanged glances and began to disrobe.
Mikoto briefly emerged to collect her katana and knives. They followed her example,
leaving everything but the essentials behind before entering the water. Lilly and
Haruhime removed their Goliath Robes and backpacks, filling small pouches with as
many items as they could fit.
Joining Mikoto and Ouka on trips to nearby rivers in her youth had served Haruhime
well. She swam with relative ease while Welf walked along the bottom, weighted down
by the massive sword he refused to leave behind. Lilly held her dagger-length magic
blade tight against her body as she zipped through the water like a minnow. Wiene,
who had been reluctant, held on to Bell's arm as he helped her in.
The water blurred their vision and chilled their skin as they filed into the hole.
It opened into a long submerged passageway that was illuminated by quartz crystals
poking out of the bottom as if to guide the way.
Their Statuses allowed them to hold their breath much longer than the average person
could. Mikoto led them to a fork in the underwater path. Once there, the group noticed
light filtering down from above and changed course.
Kicking their legs as fast as they could, the party made a break for the surface.
"—Pwah!"
Their heads popped out of the water one by one only to find what resembled a
limestone grotto instead of the wooden alcove from whence they came. With black
stone walls extending in every direction, only the dim quartz light remained
consistent. The party climbed out of the water, Wiene and Haruhime shaking their
bodies to dry off.
Bell was quick to find a new path in the blackness—one leading even deeper into the
rocky labyrinth.
"So this is…" said Lilly, appalled, as she peered into the dark, unexplored corner of the
Dungeon.
"…'Frontier.'"
The Guild possessed a great deal of Dungeon map data.
While it was being used to assist modern-day adventurers, it was the adventurers who
came before them as well as the brave explorers from the Ancient Times who had
originally gathered it. These people had blazed the trail with no knowledge, putting
their lives on the line to discover new routes and make maps of every floor. These were
grand achievements.
However, there were still areas yet to be explored.
The Dungeon was far too immense to ever be completely mapped.
People sometimes overlooked branching passageways in the never-ending journey
deep into the Dungeon.
There were also special cases like this one, where pristine terrain had yet to be
touched by explorers.
"Frontier."
Just as the name suggested, no one had ever been here before.
It wasn't recorded on any map—not even top-class adventurers knew this area
existed. Lilly, Bell, and the rest of the party gaped at the thought.
"..."
A large opening connected to what seemed like a dark abyss.
Bell's party quietly took their first steps.
They fell into formation around Wiene. Bell held the magic-stone lamp high as
everyone followed his path.
Quartz crystals provided nothing more than a slight glimmer. The lamp's beam was all
they had to cleave through the darkness. They were so on edge, a few confused their
own heartbeats for far-off footsteps and the rock crunching beneath their feet as a sign
of danger. The passage was quiet, but the party heard every little sound. Without the
occasional familiar monster cry in the background, the silence was deafening.
There was no way to know what creatures they would encounter.
Should an as-of-yet-undocumented Dungeon gimmick or an Irregular occur, death was
a very real possibility.
This was pure, unbridled "unknown."
Their throats were dry, but their skin was slick with perspiration. Their five senses
were focused beyond their intended limits. Their minds had never endured such
stress, and yet, at the same time, they also felt sharper than ever before. Nothing was
more reassuring than a familiar hilt in their grasp. The "unknown" revealed more of
itself with each step, just like it had for their forebears.
Bell led the party farther and farther into the Frontier. Just as everyone's anxiety hit
its peak, the rocky tunnel's end came into view.
"It's dark…"
And it opened up.
Bell and Welf were suddenly freed from the claustrophobia that plagued them in the
tunnel. This new space was extremely wide, overwhelmingly so. The words that fell
from Welf's lips resounded off into the darkness.
This was probably a large room. However, it was pitch black.
The lamp's illumination couldn't penetrate far enough into the darkness to find the
opposite wall.
"...Um, Mikoto."
"Sir Bell?"
"Are there any… monsters in here?"
"N-no, not as far as I can tell…"
Bell struggled to control his trembling voice as he asked.
Something was there.
There was definitely something in here.
More somethings than he could count were watching them.
They hid in the darkness, masking their presence while observing the adventurers'
every move.
Terror crept into Bell's veins as he realized how very many eyes were looking at him.
Mikoto's Skill couldn't detect them. That left only three possibilities: these were
people, they were monsters they hadn't encountered before, or they were simply
lurking just outside Yatano Black Crow's range.
A fresh wave of cold sweat ran down Bell's neck as his mind raced. He had to issue
orders, get Haruhime to recast her Level Boost, make sure Wiene was protected, and
so on.
However, there wasn't time.
An incredible killing intent swelled within the darkness.
""""""!!""""""
It swept over Bell, Lilly, Welf, Mikoto, Haruhime, and Wiene like a jolt of electricity.
The animosity was intense enough to halt these upper-class adventurers in their
tracks.
Suddenly, thud thud thud THUD THUD THUD!! The unmistakable sound of feet
charging directly at them reached their ears.
At the same time, whoosh! Several feathered wings took flight.
"!!"
Bell's left hand guided the lamplight toward the closest oncoming sound.
The beam cut through the darkness, but Bell could make out only one thing—scarlet
scales.
"—RUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!!"
Bell's eyes flew open as he recognized the reptilian-warrior howl.
—A lizardman?!
A lizardman with bloodshot eyes didn't give Bell a chance to attack as it stepped deep
inside his space.
The lizardman wielded a long curved blade in its left hand—a scimitar. A flash of silver
scythed down with blinding speed.
" "
The invisible swordsmanship stole Bell's breath away.
The Hestia Knife in the boy's right hand had moved to the right place out of sheer luck.
The two blades collided directly in front of his chest.
Immediately after, he felt the impact with his entire body, making his vision swim
before hurling him to the side.
"Bell!"
The boy slammed into the ground, rolling away from the party as Welf's yell
reverberated through the room.
The lamp fell from Bell's grasp, and a reptilian foot crushed it beneath its talons.
With the light source gone, the area was plunged back into darkness.
"What the hell is going on—?!"
"HYAA!!"
"—?!"
Welf's heart was racing in his darkened surroundings when a small shadow zipped
toward him.
He promptly raised his greatsword overhead, where it crashed into something with a
high-pitched metallic ring. The impact was strong enough to drive him to his knees.
Sparks scattering from the collision briefly revealed the attacker: a diminutive
monster wearing a red hat.
"A goblin?!"
The plump bottom-rung monster disappeared into the veil of darkness. Welf watched
with stunned eyes, unable to believe its strength.
"!"
"!!"
Even farther back in the rear guard, Mikoto recognized the sound of projectile
weapons whistling through the air. Jumping over to land by Wiene, she deflected the
shots with a sweep of her katana.
"—Feathers?!"
In the instant it took her precise blade to repel the projectiles, she realized what they
were as they fluttered before her eyes.
Still recovering from the shock, she realized another volley of feathers was heading
right at her from the same direction.
"Everyone! Wiene!"
"GAAAAAH!!"
"!"
Bell had gotten back on his feet while yelling in his party's direction, but then another
flash of silver descended upon him.
He dodged the lizardman's blade by the slimmest of margins, and the monster howled
as it pressed the attack.
Bell moved to engage an opponent he could barely see.
"Wh-what in the world is…?!"
A metallic ring echoed in the chamber; a burst of sparks scattered through the air. The
bestial howls combined with the adventurers' panicked gasps in the chaos.
Bell's party was forced into a desperate last stand, relying only on sound. The battle
left Haruhime powerless to do anything. In the obfuscating dark, the pandemonium
reached a fever pitch.
"!"
At that moment…
Lilly's hand, which had plunged into her spare pouch the moment combat began,
brushed against what it was so desperately searching for. While fighting against fear
and panic, the devoted supporter ofthe party made a quick decision and grabbed what
she needed to overcome their trial.
She pulled a small bag out of her pouch, opened it, and flung it forward with all her
might.
"Lamp Moss!"
"!"
"?!"
The bioluminescent substance spilled out, spreading across the ground.
It was the Lamp Moss Lilly had harvested on the nineteenth floor.
Pieces of the Colossal Tree Labyrinth's primary light source lifted the shroud of
darkness surrounding them.
Friend and foe alike were caught by surprise as the battlefield came into view.
"…!"
That's when Bell's party definitively learned the true identity of their attackers.
"Huuooo!"
"OooOOooOO…!"
A lizardman, a goblin, and a harpy flapping its wings in midair appeared.
The species of monsters might have been different, but they each had one thing in
common: all of them had equipment, whether scimitar or hand ax, shield or armor.
"Monsters…!
"…With weapons…!"
Bell and Welf could hardly believe their eyes.
Both clearly remembered the posting on the Guild's bulletin board:
A report stating that monsters had been seen stealing equipment from adventurers or
looting it from dead bodies in the Dungeon. It had even displayed a sketch of them
with the gear. Both young men felt as though that drawing had come to life.
"H-how many of them are there…?!"
At the same time, Lilly was more distracted by the other monsters farther back.
In addition to the harpy, a gargoyle and a griffin circled the space above their heads.
Meanwhile, on the ground were… lamias, al-miraj, formoires, war shadows, the
humanoid spider called arachne, unicorns… The horde was composed of myriad
monsters hailing from the upper, middle, lower, and even deep levels of the Dungeon.
The space almost seemed big enough to fit the surface's Coliseum, and the number of
eyes watching them in the room made Mikoto and Haruhime turn pale.
Wiene fearfully looked around at the numerous monsters that had many of the same
features she did.
"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!"
The lizardman facing Bell let out a ferocious roar, and the other monsters started to
move all at once.
The blue-green light emerging from the ground illuminated claws and fangs as well as
the raised swords and axes.
"All these guys…!!"
"They're after Lady Wiene?!"
The attacking monsters' weapons were all aiming for the vouivre girl at the center of
their party.
Breathing ragged and eyes filled with bloodlust, they headed for Wiene with drool
spilling from their mouths. Welf and Mikoto desperately tried to hold back the
onslaught threatening to overwhelm them.
"The magic sword isn't an option like this…!"
The battle had transformed completely into a wild melee in the darkness. Engaging
the monsters in hand-to-hand combat, Welf and Mikoto could potentially get caught
up in the blast.
The chamber's entrance, their only escape route, had been blocked off at some point
during the fight. Lilly yelled in frustration, frowning as she loosed a barrage of arrows
into the air only to have the harpies overhead launch a volley of feathers in her
direction.
"Lilly! Haruhime!"
"Lady Wiene!"
As the attack neared the supporters, Wiene shielded them with her one wing.
Haruhime and Lilly embraced the girl as her peculiar appendage spread open. The
pain and shock from the attack drew a groan from her.
"I-it hurts…"
Another round of feather missiles descended on the girl—but then Bell turned toward
them from his distant location.
"—FIREBOLT!!"
A roar.
Swift-Strike Magic streaked across the chamber to protect Wiene and the girls.
Several thunderous bursts of flame cut through the darkness and collided with the
harpy and the griffin in midair. Shrieking in pain, the monsters fell to the ground in a
trail of smoke. The gargoyle, along with the other airborne fiends, used their wings to
shield themselves from the magical attack like Wiene had done earlier.
"SHAAAAA!!"
"!"
The snarling lizardman charged forward and slashed at Bell as if to remind him who
his opponent actually was.
Bell had been interrupted in the middle of launching more ranged attacks and only
barely managed to dodge.
The lizardman carried two weapons: a longsword in its right hand, a scimitar in its
left. A breastplate was firmly strapped to its chest over its scarlet scales. Metal plates
covered its forearms, waist, shoulders, and knees, protecting the vital areas. The
equipment might not have been the highest quality, but the lizardman could be
described as fully armed and armored, standing a head and shoulders taller than Bell.
Bell grimaced as he drew Ushiwakamaru-Nishiki and faced his opponent with double
knives.
This lizardman… It's strong!
Not only was its first strike fast enough to create afterimages, it was smart enough to
exploit the darkness for offense and defense.
Being on the receiving end of the monster's onslaught, Bell was well aware of the
creature's potential. There was no comparison between this lizardman and the one he
fought earlier on the twentieth floor. Its strength, speed, and skill with the sword were
in a different league. Welf might have been joking around about one of them honing
its technique, but this monster fit that description. The possibility that this could be
some subspecies of lizardman popped into the back of his head.
In terms of Level, the monstrous warrior could be beyond him—while only a guess,
Bell couldn't shake the thought.
Bell's rubellite locked onto his foe. It glared back at him, running its tongue eagerly
back and forth behind its sharp fangs.
He would never reach Wiene and the girls without winning this fight.
Silencing every doubt, the boy held nothing back as he charged forward to defeat the
lizardman.
"Hya!"
"GRWAAA!!"
The Hestia Knife slashed forward, leaving an arc of violet light in its path while the
monster's longsword came down with its full strength behind it.
The two closed upon each other and collided.
""!""
The blow confirmed Bell's suspicions. The lizardman was incredibly powerful.
At the same time, the lizardman was taken aback by the boy's incredible speed.
Rubellite eyes met reptilian pupils.
The faintest of grins appeared on Bell's lips, and the lizardman bared its fangs in what
resembled a ferocious smile.
""—OOOOAAAAHHHHH!!""
Bell and the lizardman roared at the top of their lungs as they crossed blades again in
a flurry of strikes.
"Li'l E—do it!"
—Elsewhere, Welf stood as the last line of defense holding back the advancing horde.
He yelled over his shoulder, using the flat part of his blade as a shield against the
onslaught.
"But—"
"JUST DO IT!!"
The formoire laid into his makeshift defense with a metallic club. Knowing that the
next block might be his last, Welf wasn't about to let Lilly object. The prum was
hesitant, glancing to the other side only to see Mikoto fighting for her life against
several monsters at once.
Tightening her grip on the glistening dagger-shaped magic sword, Lilly bit her lip
before finally hardening her resolve.
"FIRING!!"
With that, she swung the red dagger with all her might.
A river of flames surged from the Crozzo Magic Sword in a straight line.
Welf and Mikoto noticed a sudden wave of red light in their periphery and
immediately dropped to the ground. Using their incredibly quick reflexes, the
monsters jumped out of the fire's path at the last moment. The beasts shrank away as
a corner of the room erupted into a ball of flames.
"AHHHH!!"
"RUOOO!!"
Bell's battle with the lizardman continued unabated, the two going blow for blow as
flames danced in the background.
Their profiles were cast in a soft orange light as longsword and knife collided. The
scimitar streaked through the air, only to be intercepted by a crimson blade. Then as
a violet slash arced forward, the longsword halted its advance.
The monster had displayed a powerful fighting style that included fierce kicks and an
approach to swordsmanship that made good use of its combat instincts, all backed by
sharp, unyielding counterattacks.
Bell's body became a blur, and the lizardman's blades sliced through empty air. Sparks
erupted from the armor that stopped the boy's attack. The monster knocked him
backward, but not before a line of scarlet scales was ripped from its body in a spray of
dark-red blood.
Then…
"SHAA!"
"WHA—?!"
Their stalemate was broken.
Bell was trapped between the scimitar and the longsword. Caught in simultaneous
attacks on the left and right, he blocked both weapons with his knives. In that moment,
something flew in from an impossible angle and nailed him in the stomach.
—A tail!!
The third strike came from an appendage as thick as a log.
The completely unforeseen attack from a creature that shouldn't be very experienced
fighting adventurers sent Bell reeling.
It was the perfect final blow. Striking from an angle that the boy never thought to
defend, the lizardman's tail knocked Bell off his feet. Now was the monster's chance
to finish him off, and it used the opportunity to drive its clawed foot into Bell's chest
in a powerful kick.
The boy hurtled backward through the air.
"GAH!"
"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!"
The lizardman declared victory with a roar as Bell's body bounced deeper into the
room like a river rushing through broken levees.
He lost his grip on the Hestia Knife and Ushiwakamaru-Nishiki, and the weapons flew
from his hands.
The lizardman warrior wasted no time in turning around, shifting focus to its original
prey. Its bloodshot eyes landed on the vouivre girl surrounded by adventurers, and it
charged.
" !!"
Wiene reflexively cringed in fright at the pounding footfalls and savage roar.
Cutting straight across the scorched battlefield, the lizardman raised its longsword
high overhead.
The monster's long shadow fell over the girl unable to stand when…
"No!!"
"!"
Haruhime jumped in front of her, arms open wide as Lilly embraced Wiene, placing
her own body in front like a shield.
Two more shadows jumped into the fray as the strike hurtled toward its target.
"Oh no you don't!!"
"I won't let you!!"
A terribly battered Welf and Mikoto brought their greatsword and katana crashing
into the longsword.
Two blades came together in time to catch the longsword. Their weapons audibly
groaned as the two adventurers fought the incredible power and weight—and then it
stopped.
The longsword came to a halt a tiny distance from Haruhime, who was positioned
directly in front of Wiene.
Rattle rattle rattle! The lizardman tried to force its weapon forward, its orpimentcolored reptilian eyes wide with shock at the strength of the humans holding it back.
" "
Just then… ring, ring.
The lizardman's ears picked up a chime.
Shifting its gaze to the source of the sound, it saw an adventurer bounding toward it
like a blood-splattered rabbit. And then a punch of bright white light.
A five-second charge.
Bell's eyes flashed as he unleashed every bit of anger with his entire body.
"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!"
Impact.
"GOHOO!"
The glowing fist collided with the lizardman's cheekbone.
Several broken scarlet scales soared through the air. Now it was the lizardman's turn
to be sent flying.
The blades fell from its grasp and loudly tumbled across the floor.
It worked…!
Bell had used his Skill, Argonaut, while moving at high speed.
Seeing Wiene in danger had provided him with an extra spark of emotion and
determination. Up until now, he'd been able to charge Argonaut only with his feet
firmly planted on the ground. The situation had forced him to do a Concurrent Charge.
The lizardman bounced off the ground and hurtled through the air into a pitch-black
stalagmite a good distance away, finally coming to a stop.
The other monsters had fallen back, forgetting to even bellow after seeing the magic
sword's destructive potential. Silence hung in the air.
At the same time, Bell paid no attention to his numerous injuries and stood with his
back to Wiene, ready to face the next challenger.
"GEH—"
Clawed fingertips digging into the floor, the lizardman pulled itself up using the
stalagmite for support.
Still seated on the ground, the monster made a noise in its throat—when it suddenly
lifted its head and cried out toward the ceiling:
"GUH-GYA-GYA-GYA-GYA-GYA-GYA!!"
Bell, Wiene, and the rest of the party watched in disbelief.
The murderous aura and rage that had been washing over them just moments ago
were gone. It was almost comical to see a lizardman holding its gut and cackling like
this.
Scanning the room again, the party realized that the other monsters' threatening
glares had disappeared as well.
"GYA-GYA-GYA-GYA-GYA—!"
Slowly but surely, the cackling cries began to change.
"—HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!"
They started to sound much more like a person's laughter.
"Eh…?"
"Wha…?"
Haruhime's and Lilly's astonishment at the sound was plain on their faces. Welf,
Mikoto, and Bell were just as dumbfounded.
Unable to comprehend what they were seeing, there was nothing to do but stand and
stare.
Realization started to set in. Each member of the party glanced at Wiene before
returning their gaze to the lizardman.
"That's new! Never met adventurers like these before!!"
Never in the familia's wildest dreams had any of them expected a lizardman to start
speaking, let alone with this level of fluency.
The monster happily slapped its knees a few times before climbing to its feet.
"Adventurers willing to sacrifice themselves to save a monster! Haaah! Don't know
what this feeling is, but I like it!"
"—Didn't I tell you, Lido? These ones are different."
Flap! A new set of wings took flight.
A single golden feather fluttered to the ground from overhead. One of the winged
monsters—a siren—glided down.
"I know that voice…"
"There's no way…"
Bell and Welf flinched as soon as they heard the new voice's unusual inflection. The
golden-winged siren landed with a smile on its face.
"So we meet again."
One look at the monster's sky-blue eyes was all Bell and Welf needed to be certain.
It was the strange robed person—no, monster—they had encountered on the
nineteenth floor.