Chapter 38 - For Whom, the Hundred-Handed Monster
Today was a dungeon day. Our now-customary breakfast meeting was underway.
"Why the twelfth floor? I think the tenth is fine," Mizuki asked, making a perfectly valid point.
"It's for Maira," I replied.
"Why is it for my sake?" Maira asked.
"Maira, Mash is only thinking about lewd things, I guarantee it."
She was right, but I crossed my arms and feigned deep, serious contemplation.
"I agree with Mash. I think it's a reasonable choice," Cecily said.
"I agree with Mash, too," Aira added.
"Fam?"
"..." Fam was silent, lost in thought.
"Fam?"
"...I would like to go to the forty-first floor. We have three experienced members in this party."
"Fam, if you truly want to get stronger, you need to think about the path to get there. Stop with these self-satisfying challenges and efforts. You'll only get hurt and end up miserable."
I have a skill that boosts my experience gain. What we need is time to earn that experience. Given the same amount of time, Fam will inevitably surpass everyone else. It's better to be cautious. There's no need to take risks.
I had already told everyone about the woman in the robe and the black panther woman from yesterday. I'd only told Mizuki about the possibility of them being transferrers. I hadn't been able to fully explain it to Maira, who commutes from the church.
I hadn't directly told Cecily and Aira that Mizuki and I are transferrers, or that we can use three special skills. It was only a temporary arrangement until we reached Migul, after all. But they were there when the priest examined my abilities. They must have sensed something.
"Fam, Mash is right. I understand how you feel, but no one here is at a level where they can fight on that floor."
Mizuki's reply was on point. We had only reached that floor because we'd had a high-level adventurer named Reed and slaves acting as decoys.
"Fam, the black panther woman is just a stepping stone. Don't get too fixated on her."
"...Yes. In that case, I'll go with Mizuki's choice of the tenth floor."
With Fam's answer, it was two against two. Everything depended on Maira. Just like yesterday, I wondered where my own vote had gone. I was supposed to be the leader.
"Maira, trust Aira," Cecily said, putting pressure on Maira.
"Hey, Cecily and Aira are in cahoots with Mash today. Maira, don't trust them."
Mizuki sensed something was fishy.
"Even if we were 'in cahoots,' what would we possibly gain from it? This is for Maira's sake!"
Cecily's rebuttal was completely empty.
"Then tell me, how does going to the twelfth floor benefit Maira? I don't see the reason."
"...Aira, big sister, is it okay to trust you?"
"Yes." Aira nodded.
"Alright, big sis, I'm going to ride this big wave!"
And so, our trip to the twelfth floor was decided. I threw a fist pump in my mind.
The dungeon maps at the shop only went up to the tenth floor. Instead, they handed us some paper and a pen.
"This is so inefficient..."
"I have some old strategy notes. I thought something like this might happen."
Maira pulled a hand-drawn map out of her storage.
"Alright, let's just head in, wander around, and come back whenever. Let's go!"
"...Why are you so fired up?" Mizuki shot me a suspicious look.
"Because it's for Maira's sake!"
When I stepped into the transfer circle, every floor all the way to the forty-first was displayed. While my own power only let me access up to the third, the sight filled me with a sense of accomplishment. I selected the twelfth floor. My vision went black, then returned to normal as if nothing had happened.
"Mash, there are traps from the eleventh floor onward. Please be careful."
I nodded at Maira. Her map had the trap locations marked on it. With two healers, we should be fine.
As soon as we opened the first door, four giant bees swarmed us. They were huge, at least a meter long, and their wings buzzed loudly.
While I was hesitating between my sword and my bow, one of them closed in. Fam leaped between me and the bee, slashing at its abdomen. The bee flew upward to escape.
I drew my bow and loosed an arrow. It missed.
Looking around, I saw Mizuki and Maira each facing off against a bee. The last one was attacking Aira, who had thrown up a defensive barrier to block it. Cecily launched a fireball at that bee. It dodged, but its wing was singed, and it fell to the ground.
"Someone, finish it!"
I left my opponent to Fam and rushed over to Cecily and the others. Switching to my katana, I slashed at the writhing bee. It vanished.
"Mash, watch out, there are more of them further in!"
Just as Cecily shouted, the bees ascended.
A sudden gust of wind swept through the room.
"!"
Sharp pains ran across my arms and body. Looking down, I saw several cuts on my arms. A wide-area wind spell?
But I could withstand this level of damage.
I checked on the others. Aira and Cecily were protected by a barrier. Maira was also unharmed. Fam and Mizuki had taken the same damage as me.
"I'll handle the enemy in the back."
I had to cut it down before it could cast another spell. As I broke into a run, a bee from above swooped down.
"Get out of my way!"
I swung my sword in a diagonal slash, but it easily dodged. It was fast.
"Mash, I'll take care of the one in the back."
Mizuki dashed past me.
I took a formal, middle-guard stance and faced the bee.
With precise footwork, I slashed along the shortest possible trajectory, avoiding any wide swings. But the bee evaded my attack and thrust its stinger at me. I parried it with the flat of my blade, knocking it aside.
My lunge had been too shallow. It was because of fear. The usual.
Again. I lunged forward, closing the distance, and slashed once more.
"SCREEECH!"
I split the bee's head open. It still tried to fly, so I bisected its abdomen with a horizontal cut.
The bee disappeared.
I scanned our surroundings. Maira and Fam had also finished off their opponents.
Mizuki was facing a tree-like monster. Its branches moved like arms, and its roots like legs. It was moving in a rather unsettling way. She was striking it repeatedly, but it didn't seem to be going down.
"Move, Mizuki!"
Cecily launched a fireball. The tree monster went up in flames and vanished.
"Which one dropped it?" I asked Cecily.
"The bee."
I checked the drop items. All four had dropped magic seeds.
"A bust..."
"Huh?" Mizuki caught my disappointed sigh.
"I see. But is this really for my sake? Will my turn ever actually come? Or did you just want to leave me out and have fun by yourselves...?"
Maira seemed to have figured it out. But now she was getting resentful. I started to feel sorry for her, and was about to go grope her chest when Mizuki glared at me.
"...Maira, please tend to the wounded."
Prompted by Mizuki, she healed me, Fam, and Mizuki.
"That was a Big Bee and a Rampage Tree. Sometimes Big Hornets appear, so please be careful. The poison from a Big Hornet can be fatal if not treated immediately."
Maira stated this terrifying fact so casually. If the Big Bees were only going to keep dropping magic seeds, this was pointless. I wanted to go home.
"What's the Area Guardian on this floor?"
"The twelfth floor is a Big Bee nest."
"So a massive swarm of them will show up? That might be too much for us."
"It's fine, I'll just burn them all," Cecily replied nonchalantly.
"Anyway, Mash, you focus too much on the enemy right in front of you. I couldn't support you with magic, could I? You're the leader, so try to see the bigger picture."
"...Yes, ma'am." Cecily scolded me. I had nothing to say in my defense.
Just then, another party entered from the direction of the entrance.
My eyes met with the black panther woman leading them.
"Hmph, well now..."
She scoffed.
The woman in the robe was there too, along with a man who looked like a priest and another who looked like a warrior. Both men appeared to be in their thirties.
"We meet again. What are you doing, barely a stone's throw from the starting point?"
the robed woman said. I couldn't see her expression under the deep hood, but I had a feeling she was smiling.
"The enemies on this floor were too strong for us. We're debating whether to turn back."
"Come to think of it, I heard you turned back on the third floor."
"That was five days ago. It's a true story," I said, glancing at Cecily. She averted her eyes.
"Hee hee, is that so? Mind if we go on ahead?"
"Of course not. We're going to rest here a bit longer."
The robed woman's group passed by us. The black panther woman scoffed one more time as she walked past.
"That's the group Fam met yesterday. What do you think?" I asked Mizuki a vague question.
"Why don't we chase them down right now and hit them with a Goddess Summoning from behind? We could wipe them all out. They're kind of pissing me off."
Cecily answered instead of Mizuki. I thought to myself that it was probably because of the way she provoked me, but she was an ally now, so I kept my mouth shut.
"No, that's a bit much..."
Still, it was an option.
"So either the woman in the robe, the priest, or the warrior is a transferrer like us, right?"
Mizuki asked, seeking confirmation.
"...Probably. But there were only four of them. Maybe the other one isn't with them today."
"They didn't look low-level."
"You're right."
However, the middle-aged warrior could be feigning a rugged and dignified air while secretly being level one. It would be a pain if he had an experience-boosting skill like mine.
"Is this really a coincidence?"
Cecily wondered. It wouldn't be hard for them to know we were going to the twelfth floor, since we'd been talking about it at the shop near the entrance.
"The warrior was at the shrine by the dungeon entrance," Fam said.
"What? You remember him?"
I remembered seeing a few adventurers there, but I couldn't recall him at all.
"No, but I remember the smell of roasted corn. It left an impression."
So that must have been the warrior.
"In that case, they might have actually been planning to tail us."
Cecily said. Since they were just loitering near the entrance, they couldn't exactly hide, so they just walked past us like that. But for what purpose? To scout our fighting style?
"It's possible, but..."
It was also hard to believe it was a coincidence. We couldn't reach a conclusion.
"Won't it be awkward if we run into them again? Should we try a different floor?"
That sounded like something I would say, not Mizuki. But I had a reason I couldn't back down now.
"Since we're here, I want to fight a few more times. But let's not push on toward the Area Guardian."
"...Alright."
Mizuki nodded.
We continued to fight. Magic seeds dropped ten times in a row, and I became so enraged that I was about to summon Racshell to protest, but Mizuki stopped me. After that, however, the bees started dropping the honey extract I was after.
I gave it all to Cecily.
"You know, I've never seen a magic seed drop before, but now that I think about it, one dropped when we first met, too... What is going on?"
Cecily looked unnerved as she took the honey extract.
"Is this enough?"
"It's enough, but you'd get a lot more if you just sold the magic seeds and bought the extract with the money."
"There was that option..."
She was right. I dropped to my knees on the floor. We could have just turned back after the first fight.
"But listen, Cecily. Drinking something you made, and then doing it with you... that's what gets me the most fired up."
"...Yeah, yeah."
Cecily replied with an exasperated air. But I was being serious.
"I think it's about time you told me how any of this is for Maira's sake."
Mizuki was getting quite irritated.
"Mizuki, Cecily is going to use the honey extract to make an aphrodisiac for Mash," Maira explained.
"...Fam, let's go home. We need to prepare for our departure the day after tomorrow."
Mizuki tried to leave, beckoning Fam to join her.
"Mizuki, Master intends to bring my sister into his fold. If you leave now, it will stop with me and my sister. Your turn will never come."
Fam suddenly started speaking in brutally frank terms. She was reading my thoughts perfectly. If so, I wished she could also read my feelings for her from the incident on the tower yesterday. And I wished she'd remember Cecily and Aira, too. And Racshell and Claire.
When I thought about it like that, obtaining this aphrodisiac was an urgent matter. Of course, Mizuki would probably get furious if I said that out loud, so I kept quiet.
"...Hmph."
Mizuki, who had been about to leave, turned around and came back.
"Well, well, Mizuki. I never knew you were so eager to do lewd things with me."
I grinned at her.
"Grr, I can't deny it because it's true, but I really want to punch Mash... I wish I could activate Super Kill on him."
Mizuki was saying some pretty dangerous things, so I decided to stop provoking her.
"...Everyone, I know you're all experienced, but could you please be a little more, umm..."
Maira seemed to be struggling for words, so I figured it was time to get back to exploring.
"Maira, this map is wrong. This is a dead end up ahead."
The straight corridor ended in a solid wall. It was supposed to continue straight for a bit longer.
"That can't be... no, it's a monster!"
Maira raised her mace. The other members also readied their weapons.
It was a humanoid monster with multiple arms, even larger than the goblin king I'd seen before.
It had to be well over three meters tall. How foolish. There was no way it could fight properly in a narrow corridor like this.
"N-no, it can't be..."
Cecily and Aira were stunned.
"It's a Hecatoncheires!"
Just as Mizuki said the name, the monster roared.
"ROOOOAR!"
The sound was so loud it felt like my eardrums would burst. The entire corridor was shaking. No, it was distorting.
When the monster's roar stopped, we found ourselves in a space that resembled an Area Guardian's room.
"The Area Guardian of the fortieth floor..."
Cecily's voice was filled with despair.
I looked for an escape route. There was a closed door behind the Hecatoncheires.
Was the door behind us open? I turned around and saw another Hecatoncheires standing there.
Thank you for reading. To those who have bookmarked and rated this story, I am truly grateful. It encourages me to keep going. I'll do my best. Thank you for pointing out typos.