14. Is It Wrong to Pursue XX in a Dungeon
Creak, creak—
We had safely entered the dungeon, but that couldn't last forever. An encounter with monsters was inevitable, whether sooner or later.
It was only natural that the slightly relaxed atmosphere quickly turned tense again.
"A typical quantity-over-quality assault."
Cave bugs, dozens or perhaps even hundreds of them, were crawling out of holes all over the cavern. They looked like beetles the size of an adult's fist, and they were utterly disgusting.
And the one who stepped forward to the front of the party was,
"Step aside! I'll handle this!"
Argol swung his axe vertically. Kwaang! With a loud roar, dozens of bugs approaching from the front were torn to shreds and scattered.
"Grrk!"
"I-I'll heal you right away!"
It would have been much easier if the bugs inhabiting this dungeon were just ordinary bugs, but...
The blood splattering from their exploding bodies was poisonous. Whether it touched the ground or Argol's skin, smoke rose with a foul stench.
[ High Heal! ]
With Elize's support on his back, Argol showed no signs of stopping. As if pain meant nothing to him, he swung his axe again and again.
He even stomped on bugs trying to crawl up his legs to crush them to death.
'Is that guy not even in pain...?'
Perhaps stimulated by his display, Isabella reached for the sword at her waist and tried to step forward. But I immediately grabbed her shoulder.
"M-Master. I also...!"
"Leave it. If you draw your sword and go to the side, you'll only get in the way. Elize's healing is quite high-level, and Argol should be able to handle this many bugs to some extent. More importantly..."
I lightly flicked my finger.
No complex incantation or chant was needed. With a simple gesture, the mana began to change form according to my will.
Whoosh!
Flames erupted. When dealing with bugs, fire is definitely the way to go.
"You need to practice your magic. There's no better teacher than actual combat."
"... Ah, yes!"
Our party composition was extremely simple, if anything.
Argol handled the swarming bugs from the front, and I burned any bugs that got past him with flames. I could have handled all these bugs myself from the start, but then there would have been no point in forming a party.
Anyway, if any party members got injured while fighting, Elize would chant healing spells.
This was enough.
Argol called himself D-Class, but he seemed to be at least C-Class. It was clear that what he'd said on the way here wasn't just empty boasting.
There was no need for Isabella to force her way into such a party.
So the assignment I gave her was...
[ O fire! ]
With Isabella's shout, a fireball created by magic flew out. Its size was larger than expected. But expecting perfection from the first shot seemed to be asking too much.
Wheeeek— Kwaang!
"Gyaaaah!!!"
"Huh...?"
My assignment for her to aim at the bugs approaching Elize, out of Argol's reach...
...had grazed the right arm of Argol, who was diligently swinging his axe at the front, and flew far away to the wall. With the explosion, one of the many tunnels collapsed.
"I-I'll heal you!"
[ High Heal! ]
"Y-you human! Are you trying to get revenge for yesterday?!"
"I-I'm so sorry!!!"
Isabella immediately apologized, bowing almost 90 degrees.
Perhaps it was fortunate, as fortunate as it could be. Though it was a fireball of considerable power, it had only grazed him lightly. With Elize's healing spell, new flesh quickly regenerated.
'But... what's this about revenge from yesterday?'
The atmosphere had been awkward this morning, so it seemed something had happened. I could ask Isabella about it separately later. Anyway, the training wasn't over yet.
"Hoo, focus, Ibel."
"I'm sorry, Master. I'm still too clumsy..."
"It's fine. Argol is tough, so he won't die from something like this."
...It seemed he heard my words clearly.
"Hey, elf. That was hot just now."
"See. The fact that he's grumbling while swinging his axe means he's fine. Anyway, try again. This time, it's okay to use a bit less power. Your magic already has considerable force. Using just half of what you used now would be enough to burn these bugs to death."
"... Yes. I'll try that."
Isabella stretched out her hand again.
This time, it seemed she relaxed her shoulders a bit as I advised, as the form of the flame became much more stable than before.
With less force, her aim stabilized too...
For a while after that, the sounds of an axe shattering the ground, flames exploding, and Elize reciting prayers echoed through the great cavern.
Shuuuuk— Pwoong!
"Oh, that one was good."
"I hit it! Master!"
"Right. Keep it up like that."
Isabella's fireball struck a group of bugs crawling out from the side. The flames spread over the bugs' bodies, spectacularly turning them to ash that scattered everywhere.
Argol brute-forced his way through the front, Isabella and I provided ranged fire support, and Elize backed us up from behind...
That strangely balanced strategy continued.
And so, the bug extermination, mixed with a spoonful of relaxed(?) training amidst the tense atmosphere, concluded after about 20 minutes. As a result, the floor of the great cavern was littered with burned bug shells and bug corpses shattered to pieces, leaving no place to step.
The first real battle had been resolved more smoothly than expected.
===
"...So it was a bug nest. Ha, definitely not my taste."
If I had to say, I really disliked it.
Who in the world would like a place crawling with bugs? I don't know how careful I had to be with every step to avoid stepping on bug corpses.
If I ever heard a 'crunch!' sound of a shell breaking under my sole, I'd get goosebumps all over—!
Frowning, I looked around, 'visually' scanning the bug corpses.
They were all just ordinary acidic cave bug corpses.
Rank-wise, they were C-Class, but that was a rank given to them as a swarm, not as individual entities. So, even if you killed one bug, you wouldn't get a decent magic stone.
In short, they weren't very rewarding prey.
At best, you might get magic stone fragments, was the feeling?
But even those were still magic stones. Even if I couldn't bring myself to dissect the bug corpses, if there happened to be magic stones that had fallen to the ground, I couldn't just pass them by.
"Many a little makes a mickle. This is all money."
Using my staff, I poked through the pile of bug corpses and began picking up small magic stone fragments one by one onto my palm. Most were the size of sand grains, but occasionally,
"Oh, a king-size one."
I found some about the size of a fingernail.
While I was engrossed in collecting magic stones for a while, Isabella, who had finished her maintenance, approached me.
"Master? Should I help you?"
"...If you don't mind, look for some magic stones. They're small, but since we killed so many bugs, they should add up to a decent amount."
"Leave it to me! I'll search hard!"
Isabella seemed unusually enthusiastic.
Compared to me poking through the corpse pile with my staff as if I had mysophobia, Isabella unabashedly stuck her hands right in and started rummaging through the corpses.
'Maybe taking on a disciple was a good idea...?'
She's perfect for this kind of dirty work. I thought she was somewhat timid, but seeing her fearlessly handle this, it seems she's got quite some guts too.
Just as I was watching Isabella with a pleased(?) heart, even putting my hands behind my back,
"Yelp!"
Isabella let out a scream.
Clang—!
Before I could even move to see what happened, Isabella immediately drew the dagger from her waist and swung it. The place where the dagger struck was... a cave bug that had been playing dead, hiding, and had chomped down on Isabella's hand.
"...Euk."
"Are you hurt?"
Isabella hid her wrist behind her back while holding it. But if a master just watches their disciple's injury and does nothing, they should be stripped of their qualifications. I immediately approached and grabbed her wrist.
"It just... bit me a little."
"We'll only know that after taking the glove off."
Once I removed the glove, the wound was clear.
Because it was bleeding profusely. Fortunately, it seemed the thick glove prevented the teeth from sinking in properly, as there were no signs of poison.
Her middle finger, soaked in blood...
"T-this much can be healed if I ask Elize-nim for a healing spell. Don't worry."
"......"
I looked at Isabella's hand once, then turned my head briefly to look where Argol and Elize were.
Argol was diligently tending to his axe again after all the swinging, and Elize was offering what seemed like a post-battle routine prayer.
Everyone was doing their own thing, and since they happened to have their backs turned this way, they probably couldn't see this spot well. As that thought crossed my mind,
"Haup..."
"?"
I took Isabella's blood-soaked middle finger into my mouth. More precisely, I wrapped my tongue around her finger and sucked on it.
Slurp, slurp......