Chapter 7. Is It Wrong to Do X in the Dungeon? (1)
Chapter 7. Is It Wrong to Do X in the Dungeon? (1)
"Ugh, my back."
After finally straightening up, Serika advanced through the dungeon with a hunched posture.
Watching her, an irrational anxiety began to creep in. If word got out that her back was wrecked from my earlier relentless pounding, Berdia would absolutely tear me limb from limb.
"Uh, Serika, are you alright?"
"I'm fine! I might look like this, but my body's actually pretty sturdy!"
Deflecting my concern, Serika raised both arms to prove she was fine.
Granted, that trap at the entrance was a hollow log designed to be non-lethal, and its mass was relatively low for its size. Still, all told, it was an object that weighed at least as much as a person.
And she took it head-on and came out fine. Did that mean a hero's body was really that tough?
"Serika."
"Eek!"
Just then, Berdia stepped forward and shoved Serika from behind.
As if the earlier impact still hadn't faded, Serika's body staggered violently.
"A leader must be honest with her comrades about her condition. Bluffing is unbecoming."
"I-I know that!"
Serika snapped back and then stole a glance at me.
So she'd been putting on a brave face because she wanted to look good in front of me. Well, rookie hero or not, there was no way she'd be perfectly fine after taking a hit like that.
But as far as I was concerned, I actually thought it was better that she had a pathetic side.
The more of a pushover she seemed, the easier she'd be to fool. Even if someone is one of the Ten Greats, if she's distracted by her charge's sorry state, she'll have a much harder time noticing anything suspicious about me.
-Clatter.
Just then, a scraping sound came from up ahead.
"...Serika."
"I know."
At that cue, the bickering ended and Serika drew the sword from her hip, leveling its tip toward whatever stood on the other side of the passage.
Clatter, clatter.
Approaching with distinct joint sounds was a doll of earth and wood, its eyes flashing red. A Golem, spawned from the magical power of this artificial dungeon.
It looked to be modeled after a goblin, the primary prey for beginners, but when there were more than a few, a lone novice would have a hard time.
"Dave, you stay back for now."
"Huh? You sure you'll be okay alone?"
"I'll be fine. This much is necessary to check the results of all the training I've done."
Heh, well then.
As one of the Ten Greats, she really did have solid confidence in her pupil.
-Clatter!
One of the golem pack charged after the standoff.
The moment its weapon swung, Serika stepped back, pivoted on her foot, and used the momentum to leap forward. Her slash split the golem's head and clashed with the weapon of a goblin charging in from behind.
Clang, clang!
Two successive clashes. Immediately after, she twisted her body to evade a club strike from the side and disengaged.
But at her landing spot, another golem was already waiting.
"Ngh!"
Struck by that golem's attack, Serika stumbled backward. Once her stance broke, the golems quickly righted their own.
Perhaps she realized she couldn't face them with half-baked resolve. Serika soon steadied her breathing and began concentrating on her sword.
-Vrrrm.
A heat haze rose from the blade's surface. With it, she swung in a flash, cleanly bisecting the body of the golem rushing toward her.
Mana.
An energy that permeates all things, manifesting physical force in response to will.
It gathered on her sword at her command, sharpening it and refining its edge.
A technique truly worthy of being called an Aura Blade. For a rookie, her individual skill was genuinely top-notch.
-Crrk!
But there was a crucial difference between these golems and ordinary goblins.
Goblins were alive and feared death; these golems were artificial constructs and felt no such emotions.
-Thud, thud!
Before long, five or six goblins had swarmed in from the surrounding passages and encircled her. The moment Serika saw them settle into formation, her face began to harden.
Was this her first time against multiple opponents? Still, given the parrying ability she'd shown and the fact she could one-shot regular goblin golems, she should be able to handle them to some degree.
"...They're quite well-made."
Setting aside my concern for her, I shifted my attention to the golems she was facing.
They compensate for a lack of strength with numbers and cooperation.
These golems were flawlessly executing one of the main traits of goblins.
"Yeah, goblins are the most numerous grunts even in the Demon King's army. With samples that overabundant, the reproduction accuracy is bound to be high."
In other words, the more thoroughly a monster has been studied and fought, the easier it becomes to replicate them in a dungeon.
In that case, all sorts of common monsters could be generated naturally in dungeons like this one. After all, it's no exaggeration to say that humanity's war against the Demon King's army has been going on since the world's creation.
Conversely, creatures for which no samples exist...
For instance, exceptionally powerful elite variants within a species, or the "officers" handpicked by the Demon King to serve as his inner circle—it would be impossible to replicate and train against them through a dungeon.
"...So this is the limit, after all."
Damn.
Here I'd been hoping that the humans might know something about how to deal with that damn woman.
-Clang!
Even as I brooded, the clashing of weapons continued to ring out.
Having dealt with the goblin golems that had encircled her, she was now facing off against the sole remaining one.
This one was larger than the others, wielding an axe easily twice the size.
A monster modeled after a Goblin Champion, the pack leader.
-Clang! Clang!
Despite the massive axe swings, Serika answered with her own sword.
But unlike the small fry before, this opponent was several weight classes higher. Parrying came with unavoidable, punishing recoil.
With her current strength, it was impossible to create an opening and cut it down.
"Serika, focus."
Watching Serika, Berdia called out decisively.
"This isn't arm wrestling. You don't need to match its strength. Evade instead of parrying."
"I-I know that!"
"If you know, then cut its throat instead of giving me an answer!"
-Boom!
The axe slammed into the ground.
But Serika, who had been about to charge, reeled as if overwhelmed by the impact.
Even though there was an opening, her inexperience stopped her from acting. It was only natural such a display would look frustrating to a seasoned veteran.
"Haaah...!"
But she was born with the destiny of a hero.
Inexperienced as she might be, her innate potential was nothing to scoff at.
-Boom!
While she steadied her breathing, the axe swung again. Serika raised her guard, and with the leg that had been driven back, she kicked off the wall and used the recoil to leap upward.
The axe that had been aiming for her missed and embedded itself into the wall.
Seizing that opening, Serika bounded over its head, and her sword was already striking the back of the golem's skull.
-Slice!
As the mana-forged blade split its head, the huge body beneath crashed to the floor with a thud.
The moment she single-handedly took down over ten goblin golems and toppled even the Champion,
she stopped gasping and sweating, broke into a bright smile, and turned toward me.
"I... I did it, Dave!"
"...Huh?"
"All by myself, I defeated every single enemy here! How's that? Isn't that amazing?"
Serika planted a hand on her hip, radiating confidence. Looking at the shattered golem remains scattered at her feet, anyone could see her strength was impressive.
That is, impressive for someone who's only just become an adventurer.
"You're getting too full of yourself, Serika."
"Eep!"
Berdia immediately approached the ecstatic Serika. Tension snapping back into her spine, Serika slowly turned to face Berdia.
Her earlier battle had certainly displayed her skill without holding back, but to a veteran's eye, there were more than a few things to criticize.
"You could have easily fought with evasion as your focus, yet you kept parrying without a care for your body until the very end. And when you attacked, you unnecessarily widened your stance and left yourself open for a counter... You do realize that all of that could be lethal in actual combat, right?"
"B-But I won, so it's fine, isn't it?"
"One slip and that would have been the end of you. Especially that final move—it looked like nothing but vanity, you just wanted to end things with a flashy stunt."
"...Ngh."
Serika groaned and averted her eyes from Berdia. Clasping her fingers together and pouting, she muttered,
"You could have at least praised me a little... why does it have to be right in front of Dave..."
"What was that?"
"N-Nothing! C-Come on, Dave! Let's keep going! As you can see, I'm perfectly full of energy!"
She then hurried me along and raced off toward the next passage.
The sight made it look like she was running away from a nagging mother, but the fact that she brought me up twice in the process was something that nagged at my mind.
It wasn't anything especially strange. Relationships formed under hypnosis affect emotions even without conscious awareness.
And a physical relationship can give the other person a lot more special meaning than people might think.
So for her—someone I'd met just today—to keep fixating on "the person she'd been intimate with"... it wasn't that unusual.
"...Dave,"
Of course, at this point, whether that was good or bad... it was definitely bad.
"Serika seems to be paying you quite a lot of attention. It looks like a few things happened when I wasn't around."
Berdia glared at me with wary eyes.
It seemed she wasn't pleased that the hero she was raising was growing attached to a man she'd just met.
Damn, as if being demoted wasn't humiliating enough, now a lowly grunt from the Demon King's army like me has to draw the ire of one of the Ten Greats.
