Labyrinth Exploration
The labyrinth exploration went smoothly overall, even though Benny got confused and cast a bunch of detection spells on her basic magic tome, muttering nonsense like, 'A high-ranking artifact that I couldn't even sense...?' With a swift slice, the Unicorn Dagger slashed through the air, and the kobold frantically digging at the ground died on the spot.
“Ko, kobold?” The one next to it straightened up in confusion, but—
Violent Flame
Whoosh. “Kooooook!” The moment it stood, it was engulfed in roaring flames, screamed, and collapsed.
“Tsk. The power’s a bit underwhelming, don’t you think? And it’s way too noisy when they die.”
“That dagger of yours is abnormally strong, you know? It’s not that the magic lacks firepower. The kobold you just took down was at least your equal, maybe stronger.”
Benny shook her head from atop Shadow, watching from a distance.
“Well, if you look at it that way, it’s basically an ultimate move.”
“Eh. I just think it was a bad matchup. For creatures whose eyes have degenerated but whose hearing and smell are heightened, flashy magic like that is exactly what you should avoid.”
The kobold’s screams. The smell of soot clinging to clothes. All of it gave the enemy a chance to notice us first, turning a potential ambush into a brawl. For me, who could even hide my scent, it wasn’t much of an issue.
“In that sense, your usual style pairs well with the second floor.”
“Because I’m fundamentally stealthy, right?”
I shrugged in response, but when it came to being stealthy, Benny was no slouch either. Shadow could carry itself on her shadow and swim through the ground like it was water. If I rode on Shadow’s back? It went beyond reducing footsteps—I could erase them completely. That was impossible for Rydia, whose armor clanked with every step no matter how careful she was.
With a smirk, I tossed the kobold’s corpse to Shadow. It swallowed the body whole, then neatly spat out only the byproducts and magic stone. I gathered the loot, stuffed it into my backpack, and spoke up.
“Let’s go deeper today. Kobolds are decent enough… but we can’t just keep hunting them forever.”
“True. You won’t improve that way. Did you know? If you only hunt the same monster, the dungeon’s growth rewards drop exponentially.”
“I know. Though it’s less about hunting the same monster and more about… hunting them too easily with set methods. The Goddess favors adventurers who seek adventure, after all.”
“You’re well-informed. But be careful. Your life always comes first. There were plenty stronger than me, plenty more talented, but….”
“In the end, the one who survived was you, Benny. And the only one who became a high-ranking adventurer is you too. I get it. My survival is the top priority. Besides, the Goddess wouldn’t want me pushing myself until I get hurt or die.”
I’d never asked her directly, but I was sure that was the case. It wasn’t for nothing that she’d forced a 4-star item into my hands right before the battle with Those Who Swallow the Twilight and the Thornbush King. If I hadn’t had at least that much, I would’ve been in real danger—and since the Goddess didn’t want that, she’d twisted things to make it happen.
…Though ever since then, it’s been nothing but 1-stars and 2-stars.
“Anyway, if we’re going deeper, we’ll need to adjust our route. Let’s see… from here, heading toward the corrupted gnomes seems best?”
“Better than the Spider Queen, at least. From what I’ve seen, you’re stronger in one-on-one fights than against groups.”
All the monsters here were beings corrupted by madness. In the kobolds’ case, they obsessively dug at the ground. There was no deeper reason. They’d simply started digging with pickaxes instead of swords to survive. After all, most of the second-floor labyrinth had been carved out by kobolds.
But at some point, they stopped digging to survive and began digging just to dig. They’d been eroded by madness.
They dig. They keep digging. If something gets in the way, they kill it. That became the sole principle guiding the kobolds’ actions.
And what fed on these kobolds were the corrupted gnomes. They’d bring all sorts of minerals, including iron, and in return, the gnomes would make them pickaxes and shovels perfect for digging. The kobolds, whose only purpose was digging itself, toiled silently like slaves, while the gnomes grew stronger by absorbing the minerals they received. That was the strange symbiosis taking place on the second floor.
“If nothing else, we’ll be hauling back a lot of iron.”
“Take it easy. If you carry too much, you’ll get weighed down.”
“…Can’t I just leave the load with Shadow?”
“No! From what I heard from Rydia, I’m supposed to help you grow quickly. Weight management is part of being an adventurer. If you don’t like it, buy a backpack with a weight-reduction enchantment.”
“Those weight-reduction backpacks are expensive and tiny.”
“Then buy one with subspace magic too.”
“…Those are so expensive only high-ranking adventurers can afford them.”
“If you don’t have money, you make up for it with your body. That’s what being an adventurer is all about, right?”
“Make up for it with my body…? Have you been looking at me that way all this time, Benny?”
When I glared at her with deeply disappointed eyes, she flinched and frantically shook her head.
“N-no! I don’t know what you’re thinking, but it’s not that!”
“Right. You just don’t want to be the bad guy to the end, huh? Fine. I’ll just treat this as something I’m doing on my own.”
With a resigned tone, I dropped the backpack I was carrying with a thud. Then I reached for the buttons on my top, and Benny shrieked, covering her eyes.
“Y-you idiot! What are you doing all of a sudden in the labyrinth…!”
Even as she said that, she peeked through her fingers, stealing glances my way. Seeing her both embarrassed and intrigued, I grinned and suddenly hurled the backpack at her.
“Take that!”
“Huh…?”
Benny stared blankly. Meanwhile, Shadow, wriggling beneath her, swiftly extended a tentacle and snatched the bag. Then it opened its sharp maw and swallowed it in one gulp.
“Good job! Only spit it out when I tell you to, okay? Even if Benny says to spit it out, don’t listen?”
-Grrrr. Shadow blinked, growling happily. Only then did Benny realize she’d been tricked and started hopping in place.
“Hey! That’s not fair!”
“Here it is. And if we’re going after gnomes, it’s better to keep as much metal off your body as possible, right?”
I shrugged, letting her anger roll off me. Half of it was to dump the load on Shadow… but the other half was sincere.
Gnomes absorbed earthly energy from minerals buried in the ground to strengthen themselves. Since they were born from traces heavily imbued with the Earth God’s power, it was essentially reinforcing their own origin.
But you had to remember that gnomes had become monsters too. Storing up all sorts of minerals and absorbing their power was fine. The problem was that corrupted gnomes had grown obsessed with the act of hoarding minerals itself.
A gnome’s madness was greed. Absorbing earthly energy from piled-up minerals would let them grow tremendously, but they only hoarded. Because if they absorbed the energy, the minerals would turn back into dirt.
Well. From an adventurer’s perspective, the attitude of clinging to minerals and staying weak was welcome. It was basically a treasure goblin.
Still, you couldn’t underestimate them. Elementals were fundamentally different from ordinary plants and animals in their very origin. Their power, their way of viewing the world—everything was on a different level. Not superior or inferior, but literally alien.
For example… a gnome’s ability to sense minerals. Gnomes had normal senses too, but separately from that, they could feel earthly energy itself. Naturally, any metal equipment imbued with earthly energy would be detected by a gnome no matter what.
My Sound-Eating Steps might be an exception… but a gnome’s mineral detection wasn’t like a search skill. It was an utterly natural sense, like recognizing part of your own body. There was a chance it wouldn’t work if I was unlucky. Better safe than sorry.
After teasing the indignant Benny, turning every kobold we encountered into a corpse, and storing our spoils in Shadow’s belly, we pressed on. How long had we been at it?
Before long, the narrow, claustrophobic passage ended, revealing a sizable cavern. But that didn’t mean we’d reached a safe zone.
A space where strange moss growing on the walls emitted a bluish glow in place of lighting. In the center, instead of a small stele, there was a massive pile of raw ore.
No matter how unrefined the ore was, and no matter how little of it was actually useful to adventurers… with this much, even after sorting, the yield would be substantial.
But I couldn’t honestly rejoice. After all, wealth always came with a gatekeeper to protect it. That was practically a rule of the labyrinth.
A small dwarf sat silently atop the ore pile. Its body wasn’t made of flesh and blood, but of earth. It had a vaguely human shape, yet the details were crudely formed. Like a child’s hasty drawing brought to life.
Confirming the creature endlessly stroking the ore it clutched, I quickly pulled back. Then I whispered softly into Benny’s ear.
“Elementals die if you cut their throats, right?”
“Hiiit…!”
“???”
Hey, don’t get ticklish from a whisper at a time like this. It’s distracting.