CHAPTER 3
DUNGEON DEATH MARCH
Ferocious roars suddenly turned to painful squeals.
The air screamed as it was torn in half by something long and sharp, followed closely by the sound of dying breaths. The wooden sword left afterimages in its wake, looking like little more than a serious practice session.
The movements were unnaturally fast, and she had moved on to the next target before the sound of the crashing impact of the first rang out. Every so often sky-blue eyes flashed from beneath the hood.
Despite being surrounded by more than ten monsters at once, she tore into them with the strength of a hurricane.
“KYII?!”
“GAH—?!”
An Al-Miraj was struck across the chest when it was too slow to respond to her advance. She sliced another in half with one of her blades, her momentum taking her through a third rabbit monster. All three of the beasts fell in less than a second.
The monsters’ net formation was pointless. They weren’t fast enough to protect themselves against the hooded adventurer, her cape swirling with each precise movement. Hellhounds jumped for her suddenly exposed back, saliva flying from their bared fangs. However, the hooded female spun like a top and hit their jaws from beneath with her wooden sword. The devil dogs were launched backward, their muzzles completely shattered.
“KYUAA!”
Two more Al-Miraj jumped into the fray. Squealing with all their might, both of them were armed with stone tomahawks, this floor’s landform weapon.
The hooded adventurer saw the weapons as they were thrown straight at her. She deflected one with a quick whirl of her wooden sword—and caught the second with her bare hand. She spun again and released it without any hesitation.
The monstrous rabbit’s red eyes went wide just before it took the tomahawk to the face. The sheer force of the blow launched it straight backward.
The remaining Al-Miraj stood in shock at the sudden disappearance of its ally before a dark shadow descended over it. The creature looked up just in time to see a wooden sword coming right for its face. “KYU?!” came its last squeak as its eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. The Al-Miraj fell silent.
“S-so strong…”
“To take on so many of them alone like that.”
“W-whoa…”
Takemikazuchi Familia’s Mikoto, Ouka, and Chigusa watched the battle unfold before them with bewildered eyes. They might have had different ways of expressing it, but all of them were shocked by the dominant display of strength and skill.
The search party had reached the thirteenth floor.
They had made it all the way through the upper levels in a few short hours in their quest to save Bell and had now reached the middle levels. Their pace was much faster than anyone had anticipated.
This was all thanks to the mysterious hooded adventurer.
She was eliminating monsters on her own before anyone else had a chance to act. Once known by the title “Gale Wind,” the female adventurer was on a level far beyond that of Mikoto and the others—Level 4, to be exact.
Even Hermes’s ace Asfi watched in awe as the hooded adventurer blazed a trail with unparalleled speed and strength through the upper levels, slaying more monsters in the process than she cared to count.
“OOUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!”
The sound of something rolling at high speed, accompanied by a low roar, reached them. Sure enough, one armadillo monster, a Hard Armored, appeared farther down the tunnel.
Completely unfazed by the wrecking ball rolling her way, the hooded adventurer withdrew one of her small blades. She charged it head-on, blade sticking from the bottom of her hand. Edging out of its path at the last moment, she brought the blade straight through its body on her way by.
The monster’s body kept spinning as it fell apart.
The massive rotating flesh hit a rock in the floor, sending four distinct chunks into the air to land at a stunned Mikoto’s feet.
“Well, I won’t complain about this being too easy. There shouldn’t be a problem even in the middle levels as long as she’s taking the point position…Would you look at that?”
Asfi had been enjoying the show at the front of their ranks when suddenly a few monsters emerging from the wall behind them caught her attention. Takemikazuchi Familia also sensed the danger and immediately moved to protect Hestia and Hermes.
“Excuse me, step this way.”
“Eh?”
Ignoring the two hellhounds for the moment, Asfi grabbed Chigusa’s shoulder and pulled her back.
Suddenly the ground beneath where Chigusa had been standing swelled and shifted as if a mole were tunneling underneath.
Asfi swirled her white cloak to the side and withdrew a dagger from within.
She didn’t even have time to breathe before a Dungeon Worm came bursting out of the wall.
The beast didn’t have a head—just a mouth lined with serrated teeth at the end of the wormlike body. It rocketed toward them with its limbless frame writhing in midair. Asfi lined up the cutting edge of her weapon with the oncoming hidden terror of the Dungeon walls and made her move. Meeting the beast head-on, her dagger cut the Dungeon Worm from mouth to tail in one swift motion.
It split clean in half in an explosion of blood. Chigusa’s body froze as the pieces of the worm flew past her left and right shoulders.
“Let me handle this.”
Asfi turned back toward the hellhounds, both hands now beneath her white cloak.
She had a leather belt wrapped around her thin waist. In addition to her dagger’s sheath, several more holsters dangled from the belt. She pulled something from one of them.
It was two small vials filled with a moss-green liquid. Asfi threw them toward the hellhounds.
“Gu?!”
“…gh…?!”
Both vials hit their marks and exploded on contact, covering the monsters’ faces with the green slime. It was sticky and strong, binding the hellhounds’ mouths closed before they could unleash their fiery attack.
The monsters immediately started clawing at their mouths, trying to get the green liquid off their faces. Asfi used the opening to withdraw two spiral-shaped darts from a different holster and let them fly.
Both darts pierced the heads of their intended targets. The monsters died instantly.
“I should be more than enough to cover our back.”
Mikoto and the others once again stood in disbelief as the items’ wielder easily dispatched the monsters around her.
Asfi Al Andromeda.
She was a top-class adventurer belonging to Hermes Familia. The title she had received from the gods was “Jack-of-All-Trades, Perseus.”
Known as one of the best item makers of this generation, she was one of only five people in Orario who possessed the Advanced Ability “Enigma.”
“…Hermes, aren’t your children an average of Level Two?”
“Ha-ha-ha, now that you mention it, I forgot to report her leveling up to the Guild!”
Hermes brushed off Hestia’s questioning eyes, smiling and answering like it was no big deal. It was obvious to everyone that the girl who just took down three middle-level monsters that easily was much stronger than Level 2. Hermes knew there was no point in denying it.
While they didn’t dislike the spotlight, members of Hermes Familia preferred to work behind the scenes, unnoticed.
It was very similar to how Hermes himself conducted business.
Hestia knew this from their days living in Tenkai, but she kept it to herself.
“…It’s really dark down here.”
All monsters taken care of, Hestia’s words bounced off the dank walls of the thirteenth floor.
The upper levels hadn’t been much of a problem for her, but the distant lights well overhead didn’t provide anywhere near enough light for her to see clearly. Do the children really come down here all the time? she thought.
Since their basic five senses also became stronger with their Status, this small amount of light was all the adventurers needed. But to Hestia, stripped of her divine power, these Dungeon tunnels were pitch black because her eyes were less sensitive than even the weakest adventurer’s. It kept her on edge. It took all the courage she had to put one foot in front of the other.
The darkness was beginning to overwhelm her. Deities were not immune from its effects. Her shallow breaths were getting more and more staggered as she moved the lamp in her right hand left and right as if frantically searching for a way out.
First the light hit the ash-colored stone walls. Then it illuminated landforms—decent-size rocks that could be broken to make tomahawks—before it flashed on a piece of broken sword. Hm? She focused the light in that direction only to find the bloody carcass of a hellhound staring back at her. “Eeeek!” she screamed as she jumped back in fright.
“Easy, easy,” said Hermes as he caught her shoulders in his hands.
The body sprawled out on the ground was most definitely dead. However, with its magic stone still intact, the beast’s body had been left to rot on the ground. The smell indicated it had been dead for nearly a day. Hestia took a deep breath and tried her best to get her racing heart under control. She looked back over her shoulder and could see Hermes forcing a grin in the dim light.
She was slightly jealous of him; he was used to these long journeys and could probably see what was going on. She puckered her cheeks in frustration before looking down at her feet and regaining her balance.
A broken sword and the bloody corpse of the monster. That meant that a clash between at least one adventurer and the monster had happened on this spot not too long ago. At the very least, they knew that the adventurer hadn’t had time to remove the magic stone after the battle.
The more Hestia looked at the scene, the easier it was to picture Bell right in the thick of it. A fresh wave of anxiety overtook her.
“…Andromeda, where should we search? We could spend days going in circles down here and never find Bell’s battle party,” Ouka asked in a low voice as Hestia tried to clear her throat.
He was quite an intimidating man, standing more than 190 celch tall, with wide, muscular shoulders. He looked at Asfi for a moment before returning his gaze to the end of the tunnel.
“Their party was only equipped to spend one day in the Dungeon. Finding a relatively safe spot and staying there indefinitely is not an option for them…I believe something else happened to them—something that made it impossible to retreat.”
“‘Something else’?”
“Yes. Otherwise their actions wouldn’t make sense. With only enough supplies to last a day, they would be overwhelmed in no time down here. Perhaps they fell into one of the holes?”
Mikoto’s and Chigusa’s eyes went wide as Asfi adjusted her glasses.
“If they did fall too far for them to come back on their own strength, what choices do they have? I highly doubt they’re still wandering around in the darkness, at the mercy of any monster that happens to find them. Considering their condition as a party with limited supplies…I’d say they’ve already been wiped out.”
She fell silent after drawing her conclusion.
“Perhaps they abandoned hope of returning to the surface and instead pressed onward to the safe point on the eighteenth floor…I believe that choice has some merit.”
“…Would they even try that? That would take some serious guts.”
Those who’d experienced the terrors of the Dungeon firsthand knew how dangerous it was to set foot into a lower level with no idea what to expect. If Bell’s party fell into one of the holes, they would have been forced into that situation.
Ouka couldn’t believe his ears as Asfi offered another possibility.
“In their position, I would go.”
A voice as delicate as the tinkling of a bell rang out.
The hooded adventurer had been silent up until now.
Ouka and the other adventurers turned to face her in surprise. She was a good deal ahead of them but somehow within earshot.
“And knowing them—knowing him, someone who’s already overcome one adventure, I think he would go forward without looking back.”
Her soft, refined voice once again filled the tunnel. However, the hooded adventurer didn’t say another word.
Asfi looked at the mysterious adventurer’s half-hidden face for a moment before turning to her god. “Lord Hermes, what is your opinion?” she asked.
“I agree with your reasoning, Asfi.”
“Um, me too…I have a feeling that…Bell is below us…”
Standing next to Hermes, Hestia brought her hands together and thought as she spoke.
Even though she had a direct connection with Bell through her Blessing, that didn’t mean that she could tell exactly where he was at any time. However, the bond they shared was stronger than any human relationship, and she could feel the source of their bond coming from beneath her feet.
She nodded to herself slowly as her twin ponytails reached out in different directions, as if searching for him. It didn’t take long for both of them to point straight down.
“That’s four in favor…That settles it. We’ll set a course for the eighteenth floor.”
Asfi made the decision for the whole group. Mikoto, Ouka, and Chigusa weren’t given the opportunity to speak. Forming a line, they set off to find the path to the lower levels.
The order of their formation didn’t change. The hooded adventurer stayed in front with Asfi in the back protecting Hestia and Hermes. Their front line was strong enough to once again blaze a path littered with slain monsters and lead everyone else forward without much need for the other adventurers to draw their weapons.
Armed with spears and shields provided by their supporter, Chigusa, Ouka, and Mikoto were able to protect one another from the occasional sneak attack. With the addition of Asfi’s range, their formation had no holes.
“To think a party new to the middle levels would choose to go to the eighteenth floor…”
“Yes, it appears that they’re able to make rational decisions under pressure.”
Mikoto and Asfi’s conversation echoed through the last bit of tunnel before the party emerged into a much wider room.
They had seen many like it before: a large, dome-shaped room with rocky walls. However, this one had a bizarrely shaped hole in the floor with stairs leading down inside of it.
It connected with the level below.
“The usual way is all well and good, but wouldn’t it be faster if we went through the holes as well?”
“No, Lady Hestia. The holes in these tunnels open and close on their own, each time making a new path. There’s no way to predict where we’d end up if we went in. We would be unable to determine our location…then the searchers would need a search party.”
“And we can’t ignore the possibility that Bell and his party might still be trying to come up. We might accidentally pass them by. The normal path is our best option.”
If they were trying to return to the surface…they would have to use the stairwells that led up as guidance. If they stayed on this path and Bell’s battle party were coming up, they could meet halfway. Hermes Familia’s reasoning to stay on the main path was flawless.
Hestia nodded in agreement, seeing their point. The hooded adventurer walked over to the hole.
Hestia and the others made their way to the next level, following her fluttering cape as she descended first.
Like a bowstring pulled too far back, they were close to their breaking point.
The tension mounted.
“The stink pouch has run out…” said Lilly with a nervous tremor in her voice.
For Welf, those words didn’t just snap the bowstring in his mind. They shattered it.
They were at the end of the tunnel on the sixteenth floor. Welf and the others had been advancing in hopes of finding another hole leading to a lower floor. They came to a stop in the middle of the path. They didn’t have much choice.
The air was heavy, their breathing hot. The pressure was immeasurable.
The smell that was keeping them safe from monster attacks had faded away. A bloodthirsty aura had taken its place.
The three of them were no more than sitting ducks. Welf had never experienced this kind of intensity. His ears were so focused on every little sound that something as simple as a step forward blurred his vision. He was far beyond his limit. He had to clench his teeth to keep from passing out under the strain.
Bell’s body, the only thing keeping him upright, was also extremely hot. Snap! His heart jumped again as Lilly pulled the pouch off her neck and dropped it to the ground.
All of their eyes were focused farther down the tunnel.
They knew that something lurked in the darkness. Every heartbeat sent a shiver down their spines, palms clammy with sweat. Whatever was shrouded in the darkness had an aura so strong that its very presence was torture.
This ain’t happening! Seriously, what the hell! Cut me some slack?
Welf’s mind had reached its breaking point.
Don’t know, I don’t fucking know! Who the hell survives long enough to be this unlucky?! His thoughts were stuck in a loop. He wanted to ask someone, anyone, if it was really possible for monsters to kill someone without touching them.
Finally—Thud! Thud!
The ground shook as new sounds emerged from the black void.
The guillotine was walking toward them. They were the prisoners sentenced to death in this nightmare.
This. This. This is…
Alarm bells were erupting in Welf’s head. He grabbed the hilt of his broadsword as if it were his last line of defense. His grip was so fierce that his knuckles turned instantly white.
He squinted his eyes, forcing the muscles in his face to tense up as he tried to see into the darkness. At last, the bright spots in the ceiling burning like torches finally revealed a rusty red body, clear as day.
Its short, violent breaths were accented by each step of its powerful hooves. The lights above accented its burgeoning muscles in stark shadows.
The monster that appeared before Welf had magnificent horns on its head, sticking out like beacons of death.
“—”
The head of a bull on the body of a man.
Standing two meders tall and built like a stone wall.
It held a stone battle-ax, yet another natural weapon, with both hands in front of its face. Its eyes were looking down either side of the blade at its prey.
Welf was so overwhelmed by his first encounter with a Minotaur that he forgot to breathe.
“UWWOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!”
There was no way to defend.
His will was breaking. First to go was his will to fight, then his ability to face the enemy, then his instincts.
A devastating howl.
It was intimidating enough to bind any living thing’s mind and body with fear. Taking the full brunt of the category Level 2 Minotaur’s howl, Level 1 Welf was completely defenseless against his own paralyzing fear. He froze in place, his hand still collapsed to the hilt of his sword.
Seeing its opportunity, the Minotaur struck the ground with a mighty hoof and jumped toward him, its massive battle-ax raised high above its head.
Welf could see his own terror reflected in the beast’s eyes.
—Death.
Welf accepted his fate; this monster would be his executioner.
A second later—Slip!
“?!”
Everything Welf could see was suddenly sideways.
The shoulder that had kept him standing was gone.
Lilly quickly ran up to catch him as he lost his balance. Planting his good knee firmly on the ground, Welf raised his head.
There was a pair of shoulders running toward the beast.
“OOWWWWOOOOOOOOO!!”
The white-haired boy powered through the Minotaur’s howl head-on.
Charging forward like a thunderbolt. Swiftly like a rabbit.
Welf’s eyes opened as wide as they would go, but before his shaking throat could make a sound—
There was a great flash before him.
“WOOH?!”
The attack hit its mark. The monster’s ax fell to the ground with a dull thud.
The boy standing in front of the staggering, bleeding Minotaur with a black knife in his right hand and a crimson dagger in his left—wasn’t finished.
He shot forward, blades glinting in the light.
“—AAaaaaa?!”
A countless number of lines crisscrossed the Minotaur’s entire body.
Violet, then crimson, and then violet again. Each color flashed as the white-haired boy unleashed his fury. He was holding both of his blades backhand as he tore into the creature. It couldn’t even cry out in pain under the onslaught.
Lilly and Welf knew one thing as they watched the carnage unfold in front of their eyes:
Bell had snapped.
He charged a powerful enemy without any hesitation. Faster than anything they had ever seen him do—too fast. Welf and Lilly couldn’t follow the storm of blades he was unleashing. Not giving the Minotaur a chance to counterattack, Bell kept piling on the damage with direct hits to its body.
A continuous barrage that not even eyes could capture.
Extreme speed coupled with swift movements: “Rabbit Rush.”
One final flash as Bell cut through the gut of the Minotaur for the last time. Its body falling apart as it took one step back, the beast let out a soft “Ooooooo” as it expired and hit the ground.
It was silent and still.
“…!”
Welf and Lilly looked on with awestruck eyes as Bell picked up the battle-ax that the Minotaur dropped and took a defensive stance. They followed his gaze back into the dark void of the tunnel only to see three more Minotaurs emerge.
Their howls combined in a chorus of terror that left everyone speechless. Even Bell had no hope of taking on three of them at once.
But he didn’t run away. Suddenly—ping, ping.
The tunnel filled with a soft ringing sound like a chime, as little white sparkles surrounded Bell’s hands.
—That’s…
Welf had seen those sparkles before. Those memories suddenly came flooding back to him at the same time that the Minotaurs all charged forward at once.
The attack required ten seconds to build up enough power. Bell braced himself to swing the ax as soon as the attack was ready.
The countdown hit zero. The Minotaurs that had been bearing down on him with horns at the ready took a direct hit.
“—!!”
The tunnel was inundated with a bright light.
It was absolutely blinding. Light seemed to explode from the ax as it stopped the beasts in their tracks, before vaporizing them with a thunderous boom. The explosion took pieces of the tunnel with it.
The aftermath was very similar to the time when Bell had used the same technique to defeat an infant dragon not too long ago. Cracks covered the burned walls like a spiderweb of electricity had torn through the tunnel, floor burned and singed. The path in front of them was littered with smoldering pieces of rock.
At about the time that the last of the smoke and haze cleared…
What was left of the battle-ax fell to the ground in pieces.
Their enemies were gone.
“…”
Welf and Lilly didn’t move, just silently stood there unable to speak.
Bell had his back toward them, shoulders rising and falling with each shallow breath.
He had defeated four Minotaurs in a row.
It was an accomplishment that went beyond his Level or skill and put his technique and strategy on display.
That was when Welf understood that all those rumors about the boy defeating a Minotaur weren’t just idle gossip.
—Minotaur Slayer.
Welf gulped down the air left in his throat, his eyes locked on the boy’s back.
“I think it’s about time you told me what you’re up to, Hermes,” said Hestia in a quiet but sharp voice.
The search party pressed forward in the dim light. Hestia matched Hermes’s pace while aiming the lamp in her hand all over the place. First toward Ouka and Mikoto, then back toward Chigusa, lighting up all of their faces in turn.
Then she cast the light under Hermes’s chin, casting dark shadows across his face.
“How do you mean?”
“The real reason why you want to help Bell.”
The search party’s current formation was designed to protect the deities in the middle. The hooded adventurer led the way with Ouka and Mikoto on either side of Hestia and Hermes; Chigusa was behind them as Asfi kept an eye on their tail.
Making sure everyone was far enough away not to be overheard, Hestia got in close to Hermes’s side.
“Hey, hey, didn’t I already tell you? When a buddy of mine’s in trouble, it’s only natural I help them out!”
“Enough with the act. We’ve already come this far, what’s the point of keeping it up? I want the truth, Hermes.”
Hestia pressed hard for answers. Even the blue in her eyes turned a shade more serious than usual.
Seeing the stout resolve in her eyes, Hermes decided it was pointless to resist and flashed a weak smile. “All right then, Hestia.”
His already narrow eyes squinted even more narrowly. The corners of his mouth quirked up as he started to speak.
“The reason that I cut my trip so short this time was to do someone a favor.”
“A favor…?”
“Yes. That certain someone wanted me to check up on Bell.”
This favor was the reason that Takemikazuchi had been so suspicious of Hermes in the first place.
Careful to keep her voice low, Hestia pried even further.
“And who is this mysterious someone?”
“The man who raised Bell. His words, not mine.”
This was someone she’d heard about many times—this faceless person who often came up in conversations with Bell. His grandfather.
But according to Bell, his grandfather had already…
“…Bell’s grandfather passed away, did he not?”
Hermes leaned down so that he could speak softly into Hestia’s ear. “Something unavoidable came up, something that he had to keep secret from his precious little grandson. So he faked his own death and has been in hiding ever since.”
She already knew quite a bit about this person from Bell, causing her face to contort as mixed emotions started bubbling up from within her.
“So anyway, he’s been keeping a low profile after leaving Bell behind…You see, Bell’s title and the fact he’s the new record holder were announced at the last Denatos, right? He happened to be sipping tea at the time that he overheard that information. Made for quite the mess, I hear.”
Hermes looked like he was thoroughly enjoying himself as he continued his story.
“As you would expect, being a father figure, he wanted to know what his boy was up to. But he couldn’t go himself. I just happened to be there and made myself available. I go in and out of Orario all the time, so I was perfect. Isn’t that simple?” said Hermes as he extended his finger into the air.
A group of monsters had suddenly appeared in front of their party, and the hooded adventurer moved to engage. The other adventurers quickly snapped to attention to protect from sneak attacks while a one-sided slaughter took place in front of them.
The search party came to a stop. Hestia had been quiet up to this point. Ignoring the sounds of combat, she asked Hermes in a subdued voice:
“So who’s the god using you as their errand-boy? There’s no way it’s—”
“Oh, did I ever say that this person was a god? This was just between you and me, and I’d be grateful if you keep it that way.”
Hermes forced a very unnatural smirk.
Although Hestia wasn’t thrilled that Hermes dodged the question, she could sense no deceit in his voice. She came to the same conclusion as a certain goddess of beauty had—that he had no intention of harming Bell.
And if his favor story was true, he’d be in a rough spot if Bell didn’t make it out of this alive.
“…I understand your situation. However, that doesn’t tell me why you’re down here. There’s no need for you to come this far to check on him. You’d have an unlimited number of chances on the surface, wouldn’t you? I have no idea why you’re in the Dungeon, Hermes.”
Maybe it was because Hermes wasn’t at all intimidated by Hestia, or maybe because he wanted to see her reaction, but he told her the truth. However, there is a difference between telling the truth and revealing how deep the truth goes.
Just how far are you willing to go? she thought to herself as she looked into Hermes’s unnaturally perfect eyes.
“It’s true that I was asked, but I, too, am interested in Bell.”
Hermes smiled.
But it wasn’t his usual charming smile. It was a softer expression, one that a deity normally wouldn’t show.
“I want to see with my own two eyes what he’s capable of, Hestia.”
The god’s orange pupils seemed to sparkle in the darkness as he once again leaned down to Hestia’s height.
Then he whispered in her ear.
“I need to know if he possesses what this era requires of him.”
Another round of fierce explosions.
A whole pack of hellhounds falls to the ground in a shower of sparks and plumes of smoke. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen it by now—Welf’s anti-magic Magic. He still has his hand out, kind of floating in the air in front of us.
His rasping, exhausted breaths are right next to my ear.
“—”
“?! Welf!”
Plop. His neck goes limp, head hitting my shoulder. His body goes slack in an instant. All of his weight suddenly comes down on my shoulder. Bending my knees, I fix my grip and prevent him from falling over.
His face falls in front of mine as I fight to regain balance. Welf’s eyes are closed, his face absolutely drenched in sweat.
Mind Down…!
We’ve depended on him too much. Mental power, or Mind, is required to use Magic. Welf has used so much of it that his body can’t take the mental strain anymore. Tears well up in my eyes as I look at his listless body hanging over my shoulder.
All the magic potions and double potions we had are long gone.
We can’t help Welf.
“…ah.”
I hear a long, weak breath behind me just before the sound of something falling over.
I turn my head around just in time to see Lilly’s eyes roll into the back of her head as she falls headfirst onto the gravel path.
“Lilly…”
I take a step in her direction. Just like Welf, she’s out cold.
The combination of anxiety and fatigue—a new kind of stress we never experienced in the upper levels—must have worn her down.
She’s been passing her healing items to us, never taking any for herself. Her Status is the lowest of anyone in our party. She probably ran out of strength a long time ago and has been willing her body forward until now.
“…!”
The only sound left in the tunnel is my own breathing. Suddenly everything looks darker and more terrifying than before.
But it’s just my imagination. The Dungeon hasn’t changed at all.
This is just, for sure…some kind of symbolism, seeing my fear come to life.
There’s no one left to help me. I have to face the terrors of the Dungeon alone. All of this darkness and despair surrounding me is all in my head.
I can hear my heart pounding in my chest. Suddenly the air feels cold. My eyes fly open, scanning the tunnel.
“…!!”
I clench my jaw so hard that my teeth feel like they’re going to shatter.
I grab ahold of Lilly’s outstretched hand and pull Welf closer.
I have to overcome this fear. I have to confront it head-on before it crushes what little courage I have left.
I don’t have enough time to be scared. Move forward. Stand.
All of us are getting out of this alive…!
“Forgive me…!”
Welf’s broadsword, Lilly’s backpack—they’ll just slow me down.
I throw away anything heavy, leaving them with only the most basic equipment, and pick them both up. I get Welf situated over my right shoulder and hold Lilly’s small body under my left arm.
Leaving most of our party’s equipment behind, I move forward again.
“Gah, uwaa…!”
Welf’s arms dangle in front of me, swinging back and forth like a pendulum.
It goes without saying that unconscious people are heavy. But I can carry them, keep moving. It’s all thanks to my Status, but I can move forward with the weight of two people in my arms.
Breathe in and out, lift one foot, push off the ground.
I can hear Welf’s metal greaves, the armor on his lower legs, clack together with every step I take.
I have to find a hole before any more monsters show up…!
If the monster attacks now, it’s over.
Wouldn’t be much of a fight, wiped out before I could even move. I can’t protect them, and escape would be next to impossible.
A tsunami of cold sweat runs down my body as my muscles scream out in pain. I can’t think about that right now. I need to focus all of my strength on pressing forward.
“!”
There’s one.
Another tunnel intersects this one, making a four-way intersection. The path to the right ends in about ten meders. But I can just make out an opening in the dim light at the very back of it.
Taking a quick look around to make sure no monsters are waiting to ambush us, I hurry over to the hole.
I step on the lip of the hole and take a look down. Then I take a deep breath and jump.
“—Uff?!”
Air whistles past my ears before a hard impact.
I miss the landing. My feet hit at a bad angle and I lose my grip on Lilly and Welf. Both of them roll forward, their unconscious bodies sprawled out on the cold floor.
Throbbing pain floods my body. I force my shoulders up and crawl over to them. The cool pieces of gravel that were stuck to my face fall off as I go. I can hear them hitting the floor around me.
Finally arriving next to my friends, I grab their bodies and climb to my feet in the darkness. Then I take my first step on the seventeenth floor.
My body…it’s too heavy…
My arms and legs feel like they’re made of lead.
There’s something really strange going on. I’ve been at my physical limits for a long time now, but this is far beyond anything I’ve felt before.
There’s only one reason I can think of.
“Heroic Desire, Argonaut.”
It’s this skill that gave me the strength to finish off those Minotaur. I felt like something had been pulled out of me as soon as I launched that charged attack. Like all of my Mind and physical strength had been totally sucked dry.
Of course, an attack that powerful wouldn’t come without some kind of price. Doing my best to ignore the side effects of Argonaut, my brain desperately urges my body forward.
“Hanh, hahh…”
How long have I been down here? I lost track of time a long time ago. A full day? It could be longer for all I know. I’ve never wanted to see the sun so badly in my life.
I’m pretty sure the seventeenth floor is a shade darker than the higher floors. Haven’t seen any monsters yet, so I concentrate on my breathing, my chin tight.
Come on knees, bend!
They’re screaming out in pain.
My ears are ringing, practically begging to be released from this grueling trek.
I’m trapped, alone in the darkness, searching for an exit I can’t see. And even if I find it, is there a light at the end of this tunnel? Is there any hope left?
Part of me wants to give in, give it all up right now.
It’s so appealing. Just give up and embrace the end.
“Give me…a break…!!”
I adjust my grip on my friends. Even though the words came out of my mouth, it feels like Welf said them.
I’m the only one left. If I give up now, they die too. My friendship with them is the only thing keeping me going down here at the edge of hell.
Slowly, I make my way through the stagnant air. Every sound, every echo seems to summon the scythe-wielding spirit of Death himself. I can feel him reaching for the back of my neck, fingers brushing against me many times.
I realize something while being pushed this far to the brink:
I’ll die the moment those fingers overtake me.
Just like so many adventurers before me who never made it home from the Dungeon.
The tunnels are…converging…
The rock walls seem to open up in front of me, wide enough for large groups of adventurers to easily pass through. The massive tunnel didn’t bend or fork, so it was kind of like walking inside a giant snake. The ceiling is extremely high; little beads of light no bigger than candle flames are the only things I can see.
I decide to go toward the wider end of the tunnel. It should lead to the deepest part of the seventeenth floor.
Lilly told me when we decided to go to the eighteenth to look for the widest tunnels, and I’m going to do just that.
The Dungeon is quiet.
…Why?
The seventeenth floor is too quiet.
I have no answer. Every little sound seems to echo forever. The pieces of rock that get kicked out of the way roll into the darkness, the sounds of their tumble quietly fading away.
There are no monsters here.
I could feel them around me before, but this place feels empty. It’s completely unnatural, going this far in the Dungeon without a single encounter.
It’s like they’re waiting for something—no, they’re afraid of something that’s about to be born.
The monsters are hiding, staying as quiet as possible.
A cold shiver runs up my spine.
I’ve got a bad feeling about this.
But I can’t stop now.
Reasoning manages to overpower my instincts and drive my feet faster toward the end of the tunnel. The jockey is whipping his horse, pushing onward. The silence is my window of safety. I can still make it through.
I enter a wide-open tunnel area that seems to be designed for an absolute behemoth kind of monster. I rush toward the other side, nearly losing my balance more than a few times as I try to look around.
Then:
“…!”
I made it across.
And into a very wide, very tall room.
The shape of this room is completely different from all the other random and haphazard designs I’ve seen so far in the middle levels.
The large, circular entrance leads to a rectangular room that has to be at least 200 meders long. This place is even bigger than the Dungeon Pantry. I think it’s about a hundred meders wide, the ceiling a good twenty meders over my head.
The walls and ceiling are made of many different-size rocks piled on top of one another—with the exception of the one to my left.
Completely smooth, it looks like someone or something built it with their own hands. I can’t believe my eyes. Whoever this massive artisan was, their flat wall ran from one corner of the room all the way to the back. It’s overwhelming.
There’s a strange kind of beauty to it, but it feels so unnatural. It doesn’t belong here.
“The Great Wall of Sorrows…!”
This place—it floods you with a feeling of bewilderment before suddenly vanishing.
It has left so many adventurers with such an empty feeling of despair that the ones who made it back alive from the seventeenth floor seeing it gave the wall that name.
It’s a Dungeon wall that only bears a certain type of monster—the wall of the king.
I gulp down the air stuck in my throat and tear my eyes away from the wall. I have to make my way through.
There aren’t any monsters in here. The wall is looming over my left side as I travel deeper into the room, struggling to regain control of my beating heart. I take another look at Welf and Lilly, tightening my grip. Their eyes are closed, bodies limp and helpless.
We can still make it.
We can still make it through here without any problems.
I can see the exit, the entrance to a small cave at the end of the room. If I can just get there—
I brokenly laugh at myself—such a one-track mind—as I set a course for the exit.
Crack!
“—”
I heard it.
That sound.
My head whips to the left.
There it is, right in front of me. My eyes shoot open.
A massive crack runs down the wall from top to bottom like a massive lightning bolt.
“…!!”
My mind goes blank, but my feet speed up.
Holding Welf and Lilly even tighter, I lift my heavy legs as fast as I can.
I’m not even halfway through. The exit is far, too far away. I’m moving as fast as I can but I’m covering no distance. What is going on?!
Crack! Crack! Even more lightning bolts run down the Dungeon wall, deafening echoes filling the room. Pain and fear wash over me as each one hits my ears. The entire room is shaking. A sudden avalanche of wall fragments slams into the Dungeon floor, splitting my eardrums.
This is all building up to one critical point. That’s when I feel it—the loudest impact yet.
A deafening explosion.
I can’t breathe.
There’s a moment of stillness, pieces of the broken wall falling to the ground, a few relatively soft echoes. The wall behind me has been completely destroyed.
Boom.
Something huge has come out of the hole, shaking the room with its first step.
“……”
I stop moving. It feels like invisible strings have latched onto me.
No, stop—don’t look!
But my body doesn’t listen to reason. My neck seems to twist on its own as it guides my eyes over my left shoulder.
Before I know it I’m facing the beast, my ears ringing in pain.
“……”
I can see it emerging from a large cloud of dust.
It’s too big to be real. Thick neck, shoulders, arms, legs. It looks almost human. It’s hard to tell in the darkness, but its skin looks grayish brown.
It has greasy black hair coming from the back of its head that’s long enough to reach its shoulder blades.
There’s one thing I can say with absolute certainty: Of all the living things I have ever seen, this creature is by far the largest.
—This thing.
My entire body shudders.
This isn’t the same traumatizing fear that overtook me that day against the Minotaur.
This is awe. The human reaction to realizing the existence of a different scale of power.
The disparity between its existence and mine.
—This is a floor boss.
It’s a giant standing more than seven meders tall.
Monster Rex—Goliath.
“—Oooo.”
The dust is clearing more and more every second. Then one of its red eyes—the size of a human head—moves.
My tiny body is reflected in its huge eye. Its whole body turns to face me as the room shakes beneath its feet.
A new flame ignites within me.
My body suddenly free from paralysis, time moves once again.
“OWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!”
I take off.
Every fiber of my being wants to be anywhere but here.
The Goliath’s piercing roar chases me down the room. The floor jumps beneath me every time the beast takes a step. My ears are overwhelmed by the explosive echoes swirling throughout the area.
Just run. Just run. Just run.
I can feel its murderous eyes lock onto me. Once again I’m being chased by Death himself. Terror drives out any feelings of fatigue or exhaustion. The only two things on my mind are keeping ahold of my friends and getting to that exit tunnel.
The walls of the room rush past me as I make a mad dash forward. The entrance to the eighteenth floor seems to bounce in front of my eyes. But above all else, unfortunately, the giant’s steps are getting closer.
Run, run, run, runrunrunrunrunrun!
I let out a scream at the same time the Goliath fills the space with another howl.
A great gust of wind comes from behind me. I get the feeling something is raised far above me, like two hands making one giant fist. An attack powerful enough to pulverize everything is coming in fast.
Even faster, even bigger, one second faster, one step more.
I put every last ounce of strength I have into one kick off the ground.
A desperate dive, an attempt to escape.
I pass through the entrance to the tunnel.
“OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!”
The brute force of the attack.
The moment I reach the relative safety of the tunnel, a powerful shock wave overtakes me from behind—the brunt of the explosion.
“Gahhh?!”
I’m launched higher into the air.
The immensely powerful wind picks me up and throws me like nothing more than a human-shaped feather.
Then suddenly from behind—BANG!
My body slams into the tunnel wall, but my momentum keeps me going.
Another impact, and another as I tumble down the narrow path.
“Geh, uah, gahhh—?!”
Ceiling, floor, and wall zip by, my body bouncing like a little ball.
My eyes spinning, pain mounting from all the impacts, I lose my grip on Lilly and Welf. The three of us tumble together farther and farther down the tunnel.
My mind is in a haze, waves of pain erupting from more places than I could count. Through it all, I get the general feeling that we’re going down.
Deeper and deeper into the tunnel, our bodies bloody and broken, until finally—
“Uh—?!”
Whoosh.
Our bodies are practically thrown out of what is most likely the tunnel exit.
We hit the ground at full force and slide to a stop.
I’m on my stomach, and I don’t have anywhere near enough energy to move a muscle. I don’t think I can even raise my head a single celch.
Everything around me is sideways and tinted red.
Every celch of my body is screaming in pain. I must be in pretty bad shape. The wounds on my cheeks are open again, my head covered in fresh blood.
But I land on something soft, maybe…grass?
Everything around me is bathed in a warm light. What’s going on? I have no idea.
“…”
Fssshhh. Is that the sound of leaves rustling in the breeze? Where are my friends?
Lilly and Welf are…here. Both are still breathing. The three of us fell together, side by side the whole way.
I feel my consciousness slipping, but not yet. I can’t give in yet!
Not until the two of them, Lilly and Welf…Have to help them. Heal them, fast.
Move, move! I scream at my stone-cold body…Wait, is that someone coming?
“…!”
Shf, shf. That’s the sound of footsteps on grass; they’re close.
They’re right in front of me, looking down on me, their shadow over me.
That moment—my body jolts into action.
Gashi! My right arm rockets forward and grabs ahold of a thin leg.
I can feel the boot shake in my grasp as I weakly raise my head and try to speak.
“Please, save my friends…!”
Like trying to break free, pleading with my very soul.
My eyes shift up to look at my savior.
Shapes blur together into one form with long golden hair.
Everything goes dark.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login