Chapter 11
Chapter 11
Stop!
The next day.
We stood in front of the Pow Dungeon.
Yeah… we really ended up here.
The day before, while buying equipment, we ran into several adventurers.
Every single one of them tried to stop us, explaining just how dangerous Pow Dungeon was.
It looked like they were genuinely worried we’d throw our lives away on a reckless challenge.
Just like Sienna said, they didn’t seem like bad people after all.
But our decision had already been made.
So all their warnings did was make me even more anxious.
Yuna seemed nervous too, but her attitude was more like, “Whatever happens, happens.”
I thought at least Yuna understood the value of life.
Ah, right.
She’s a necromancer.
Thinking about it that way, it somehow made sense.
“So… shall we go in?”
“Mm! Let us!”
Melaim proudly raised the new shield she had bought.
That thing had been the most expensive item.
Even Tanya’s two daggers and my sword combined cost about the same as that shield.
Yuna was still empty-handed.
Mage equipment was ridiculously expensive.
“By the way, Melaim?”
“Mm? What is it?”
“When we first met, when you transformed into that hunter, didn’t a bow appear too?”
You could’ve just made a shield like that.
“That was merely transforming part of myself. Like clothing.”
Oh.
So that’s how it worked?
Feels like I got cheated.
We entered the dungeon, but there were barely any monsters.
Something felt off.
Wasn’t a dungeon supposed to have more monsters than normal hunting grounds?
“Melaim. Can I light a fire?”
“Hm. I do not need it, but it cannot be helped. I cannot insist on that even here.”
Then Tanya spoke up.
“Ah. I don’t need light either. I have a Concealment skill.”
…Assassins are terrifying.
I should never make enemies of rich people.
Even though two of us didn’t need light, Yuna’s ghostly flame made exploring the dungeon much easier.
Yeah.
It definitely became easier.
But…
why were there still no monsters?
Yuna must have been thinking the same thing. She had relaxed so much she looked bored.
“Guess we got scared for nothing.”
“Indeed. How disappointing.”
At that moment, a muscular green monster appeared in the distance.
Yuna brought her ghostly flame closer to it and muttered something incomprehensible.
“Not exactly noble-looking.”
The next instant, a dagger brushed past my shoulder from behind.
Frozen by the chilling sensation, I watched as the dagger flew forward and pierced the monster right between the eyes.
Before the monster even finished collapsing, Tanya rushed in and stabbed its stomach several times.
Blood splattered across Tanya’s silver hair, but she didn’t care.
She simply stood there, gripping the dagger lodged in the monster’s belly.
“Wow…”
That was all I could say.
Even Melaim seemed impressed by Tanya’s movements.
Yuna frowned.
Tanya came back to us humming happily, looking disturbingly cheerful.
The blue flames illuminating her made it even creepier.
She smiled brightly.
“I think becoming an adventurer was a great idea!”
She must have been thrilled to kill again after so long.
Her smiling face was honestly pretty cute.
The reason for that smile, though…
“Uh… right…”
Melaim, however, grumbled.
“At this rate, there is no need for a guardian.”
Seriously.
Everyone here’s way too strong to protect.
Still, please protect me.
I asked Tanya,
“Come to think of it… you said you were part of some organization, right?”
“Yep.”
“…Were all the assassins there as strong as you?”
Tanya laughed.
“As if.”
That’s a relief.
…
After that, unbelievably, not a single monster appeared.
There wasn’t even any treasure.
Could it be there’s no Death Knight at all?
“So when they said it managed the monster population, maybe it just wiped them all out.”
The one who answered was Melaim.
“That makes perfect sense.”
Huh?
I didn’t understand at all.
“What do you mean?”
“The boss of this dungeon must also be bored. Having declared it would control the monster population itself, all it can do is hunt monsters.”
Do monsters get bored?
Ah… well, that’s coming from an actual monster.
“I slaughtered all the monsters in the place where I lived as well. Sometimes I transformed into a human and hunted them while pretending to be an adventurer.”
Tanya immediately raised her hand.
“I did that too! Though not to pretend being an adventurer.”
I see.
No wonder that shortcut had no monsters.
Unfortunately, when all the monsters were gone, I became the replacement victim.
Yuna nodded too.
“It’s definitely… kind of fun.”
No, it isn’t.
I’m only doing this to pay for food and lodging.
And besides, Yuna can’t even watch monsters die properly.
What’s fun about it?
Well, whatever.
At least it’s good that the party’s motivated.
“Maybe we should do dungeon explorations more often.”
“Mm. Next time, I hope there are lots of monsters.”
“Same!”
I’d rather not.
“Well… wandering around like this is getting old. We should head to the boss room.”
“Huh? We don’t even know where it is.”
Melaim scoffed and suddenly released countless thin tentacles from her body.
The tentacles spread rapidly in all directions.
Melaim closed her eyes and focused.
Wait.
Is she searching for the boss room with tentacles?
That’s cheating.
Tanya crouched down and poked the tentacles curiously.
Yuna was making her skeletons perform some bizarre dance and watching them.
I had no idea what kind of dance it was, but the synchronized movement was strangely impressive.
Not long after, Melaim grinned.
“Found it faster than I expected.”
A blade grew from her hand.
Then she cut off all the thin tentacles.
Startled, I asked,
“Can you just cut those off?”
“It is too troublesome to retrieve them. Once I eat something, they replenish quickly enough.”
“I see… but aside from the boss room, wasn’t there any treasure?”
“None at all.”
That was disappointing.
“Well… shall we go to the boss room? Anything you need to prepare or ask?”
I looked at Yuna and Tanya, but neither said a word.
…Honestly, I expected at least one question.
Well, maybe it was better this way.
This would be my first time facing a dungeon boss too.
Anything I could explain would just be hearsay anyway.
…
In front of the boss room.
A massive, ornate door radiated a vicious aura.
This was…
way scarier than I expected.
On the way here, I kept looking around, hoping maybe there was treasure Melaim had missed.
But there was nothing.
I asked Yuna,
“Wouldn’t it be better to summon your skeletons in advance?”
“I think summoning them behind the boss monster would be better. Should I summon them now?”
Really?
Looks like Yuna had a plan.
“Like when you first met me? That is clever. Undead detect life energy, so an undead ambush would be effective.”
Yuna puffed up proudly, clearly pleased her strategy had been acknowledged.
I said to Melaim,
“But you dealt with it easily.”
“As if such tricks would work on me.”
Tanya suddenly got interested.
“What? What story is that? Sounds fun. Tell me too!”
“If we make it back alive, I’ll tell you.”
Yuna looked like she wanted to say something, but held her tongue.
“Then I assume preparations are complete? I shall open the door.”
Watching Melaim place her hand on the boss room door, I nodded nervously.
Yuna looked tense too.
Tanya, on the other hand, showed no signs of fear at all.
Creeeak—
The door opened.
A massive chamber.
At its center stood an undead giant of overwhelming size.
A terrifying greatsword fit for its immense frame.
Dark crimson armor.
A blood-red cape.
The savage undead looked at us entering and spoke.
“Hm?”
…That was a lot dumber than I expected.
Melaim asked the Death Knight,
“What were you doing?”
Honestly, I wanted to ask too.
I’m pretty sure it had been drawing something on the floor with its sword.
And the moment we walked in, it hurriedly erased it with its foot.
“…Living ones. Your foolish bravery shall cost you your lives.”
“I asked what you were doing.”
“…”
Then Tanya spoke.
“I saw it! It was drawing a picture of someone sitting in a chair with their hand on the head of someone kneeling.”
She even saw the details.
Impressive.
But the Death Knight clearly didn’t want to continue the conversation.
“Take this!”
The Death Knight charged at us at terrifying speed.
Clang!
Its greatsword swung toward us, but Melaim blocked it with her shield.
The shield dented slightly, but Melaim looked relaxed.
“Impressive! An ordinary human’s bones would have shattered!”
I couldn’t just stand there!
“Hyaaah!”
My sword, Karaman Mark II, struck at the Death Knight’s wrist.
No… struck wasn’t the right word.
Scratched, maybe?
I aimed for the wrist holding the sword, but only barely cut into it.
Why is it so hard?!
The Death Knight looked at me with surprise.
Don’t look at me like that…
At that moment, Tanya suddenly leapt in and buried both daggers into the Death Knight’s chest.
Unlike my attack, her daggers sank deep.
But it still didn’t look fatal.
The Death Knight jumped back, widening the distance.
Then it casually pulled the daggers from its chest and sneered.
“Did you think my heart still beat?”
At that moment, six skeletons were summoned behind the Death Knight.
They rushed in and attacked from behind.
“What is this?!”
As the Death Knight turned to look at the skeletons, Yuna’s ghostly flame latched onto its eyes.
She said it wasn’t hot, but apparently it could be used to block vision.
That was clever.
The Death Knight panicked and swung its sword in a wide arc.
One skeleton outside the range survived.
The rest were destroyed instantly.
Yuna summoned more skeletons.
They charged again.
Several attacks landed, dealing minor damage.
The Death Knight hurriedly destroyed them.
But the skeletons kept coming endlessly.
While cutting down skeletons, the Death Knight suddenly shouted,
“Wait! Stop!”
But merciless Yuna summoned more skeletons behind it.
The Death Knight swung again and destroyed them.
At that moment, tentacles shot out from Melaim, striking through the opening.
“Grrk!”
The Death Knight took the hit and shouted irritably,
“I said stop!”
The Death Knight roared.
And then—
Melaim withdrew her tentacles.
Yuna’s skeletons stopped moving too.
Melaim asked,
“What is it?”
They actually stopped?
Why?!