Chapter 132: The 2nd Floor
Chapter 132: The 2nd Floor
I decided to save teasing Diana for the night and resume hunting for now.
Sara, with tears still welling in her eyes, wore a determined expression as if to say she would absolutely not make a mistake this time. It was quite cute.
But I had no intention of getting hit again.
I’d been careless before because I hadn’t truly grasped how terrifying a Sand Worm could be. Having been caught once, I wasn’t foolish enough to let my guard down again.
This time, I paid close attention. The moment I felt a faint vibration in the ground, I quickly moved from side to side.
I might be slower than Sara, but my agility was by no means low.
Relying on that agility, I managed to evade the Sand Worm’s attack, albeit by a hair's breadth.
And the body of the beast that shot into the air after failing to bite me was nothing more than a sitting duck.
“Hmph. You should have done that from the start.”
Diana, who must have prepared for the worst, waved her hand to dispel the spell she had floating in the air.
It seemed that, despite her words, she had been worried.
“I let my guard down for a moment because they were so easy to catch with Saint’s Touch.”
“I acknowledge that you are abnormally strong for your level, but carelessness is always forbidden in the dungeon. I have seen countless souls lose their lives that way. I would rather not lose you in such a manner.”
For the first time in a while, Diana spoke with the wisdom of her years.
When she talked like this, I always grew weak.
“Sorry. I’ll be more careful from now on.”
“Mm. I appreciate your honesty. That is a good attitude to have.”
Diana said with a satisfied smile, stroking my head.
She really loves patting my head.
Could she have some kind of fetish for it?
As I entertained such a ridiculous thought, a lecherous smile unwittingly spread across my face. For some reason, Diana’s own smile seemed to grow brighter.
What the. Why is she happy about that?
Could she read minds with magic or something? No, if she could, she should be angry, not pleased.
The mystery only deepened.
As we repeated this process through several more battles, I continuously checked my status window.
It certainly felt like my Martial Artist level was rising faster than when I was using Saint’s Touch.
But a new problem had arisen.
“Hmm…”
“Hm? What is it? Why did you suddenly stop?”
“Don’t tell me your leg still hurts?! We should really head back to the city for today…”
Sara rushed toward me like a hawk.
“No, it’s not that. I was just thinking about how to improve my leveling efficiency.”
“Are you sure? You’re not just pretending to be okay, are you?”
Her earnest concern made a corner of my heart tickle with joy, but at the same time, I still wasn’t quite used to it.
“Of course. Don’t worry. As if I’d do that. You’d just start bawling your eyes out again.”
I gave Sara a playful grin.
“I-I didn’t bawl that much.”
No, denying that is a bit of a stretch, don’t you think?
You cried so much I was genuinely worried you’d get dehydrated.
In any case, it seemed Sara believed that I was really okay.
I started walking again, my mind racing.
How in the world am I supposed to raise my Assassin level?
It wasn’t that my Assassin level hadn’t increased at all.
At some point, it had risen to level 8.
The problem was that I’d just noticed it was level 8 one day, and it hadn’t gone up a single time since.
What were the conditions for leveling up the Assassin job?
Thinking that, as an assassin, I might need to kill the target myself, I tried landing the final blow, but that didn’t raise it at all.
And yet, sometimes I’d check and find it had gone up.
Was the condition assassination, not just killing?
But I had never taken down a monster in an assassin-like manner.
The closest I’d ever come to fighting like an assassin was on the 1st Floor when I tried to sneak up on the sleeping Werewolf-type Layer Boss, only to get caught.
So when did it level up?
I wonder if Diana knows?
I’ll have to ask her later when we’re alone.
If I asked while Leia was around, I’d have no answer when she asked where I got the Assassin job.
Just as it was getting time to wrap up the hunt for the day, the opportunity I had been waiting for finally arrived.
Alright. I was wondering when they’d show up today.
Accompanied by a distinct buzzing sound that was audible even from a distance, a black cloud was rapidly approaching.
“Hmph. It seems it is my turn to act.”
Diana, who had nothing to do all day since no Mosquito Swarms had appeared, stepped forward as if on cue.
Even if she wasn’t particularly interested in dungeon exploration, it seemed she’d grown bored of just following us around doing nothing.
Sorry, but this time it was my turn, not Diana’s.
I stepped forward and held out a hand to stop her.
“Wait a second. I’ll take them on.”
“Hm? What do you mean by that?”
“There’s something I want to test.”
“Have you already forgotten the promise you made to me this afternoon to be careful?”
“Of course not. But I learned a new skill just to deal with these things. I can’t just not test it.”
“Hoh. A new skill, you say? What kind of skill is it?”
At my words, Diana’s eyes lit up with curiosity.
As expected, the mention of a new skill caught her interest.
“It’s an area-of-effect skill that activates on all targets within a certain range around me. The effect is like an incredibly weak, but continuous, version of Saint’s Holy Water and Saint’s Touch.”
“How weak is ‘incredibly weak’? A combined effect of Holy Water and Touch sounds quite dangerous, even if the power is low.”
“It’s probably so weak you two would barely feel it. But since each of those things is incredibly weak on its own, I think it’ll be quite effective.”
“Hmph. So you believe it is worth testing.”
“Yeah. Just in case, please have a spell ready.”
“Mm. Very well. Let us see this new skill of yours.”
I walked confidently toward the approaching Mosquito Swarm.
Come on, you damn bugs. I’ll show you how a Saint fights.
When the distance to the swarm closed to within a meter, I activated the skill.
Welcome to my holy ground, you lowly insects.
I tilted my head to the sky, spread my arms wide, and struck all sorts of ridiculous poses as I grinned at the swarm.
And then, the countless mosquitoes all rushed me at once.
From the outside, would I just look like a black, humanoid shape?
So many mosquitoes swarmed me, covering every inch of my body, that the thought crossed my mind.
Uh, huh? This is a little different from what I expected.
No, stay calm. I still have Saint’s Touch.
I immediately activated Saint’s Touch.
I felt the mosquitoes clinging to my hands fall away in an instant.
Alright. Now for the ones on my body…
But before I could even wave my hands, another wave of mosquitoes covered them completely.
And while the ones on my hands were falling off, the ones on my body began to plunge the long proboscises on their mouths into my skin.
“Gyaaaah! Help me!”
The skin-crawling sensation made me scream for help immediately.
Lady Diana, save me!
No, wait a minute. How did Diana deal with these things?
In the brief moment it took for Diana to cast her spell, a flashback of the Mosquito Swarm being blown to bits by an explosion spell flashed through my mind like a dying man’s vision.
My… my magic defense isn’t as high as my physical defense.
Does Diana know that?
Have I ever been hit by magic in front of her?
No matter how hard I thought, I couldn’t recall a single time.
That was why I hadn’t bothered raising my Spirit stat until now—I’d never had the chance to get hit by magic.
Having reached this conclusion in a split second, I screamed.
“Wait! Diana! I—!”
Swoooosh!
But Diana’s magic was a little faster.
A torrent of cold water drenched me from head to toe.
The powerful current swept away the swarm of mosquitoes covering me, washing them all to the ground.
“Hm? What was that?”
“Nothing. I always believed in you.”
Of course. It was only natural.
As if our great Archmage would use a spell that could harm a comrade without thinking it through.
To use water magic to cleanly wash only the mosquitoes to the ground… truly the work of an Archmage. Her application of magic is on another level.
Of course, the spell’s power was low, so Diana’s magic hadn’t killed the swarm.
I used Saint’s Touch on my feet and began to stomp on every single mosquito flailing in the wet sand.
A spray of red blood burst out with every stomp, and the thought that all of it was my blood was horrifying.
Just how much did they suck in that short time?
“I shall dispose of them. You should go get treated.”
Diana said this, looking sympathetically at my body, which was swollen all over with bites. But I stubbornly stomped every last mosquito to death before approaching Leia.
“Really. You have to be more careful.”
Leia said, looking upset at my state as she began to heal me.
It wasn’t something I should say after making her wear such a pained expression, but I was personally pleased because this side of her really highlighted her angelic gentleness.
“Seriously. And what was with that weird pose at the beginning? You just stood there all confident and then got your ass kicked without doing anything.”
Sara chimed in from the side.
Having completely regained her pace during our battles, the cute girl from this afternoon was gone, replaced by the prickly Sara I was used to.
Well, her afternoon self was cute too, but I was more familiar with this version, so she was easier to deal with.
Besides, I knew that even though she acted like this on the outside, she was really just upset that I’d gotten hurt.
“No, that pose is required to activate the skill…” “Liar.” “Yeah…”
I felt a sudden urge to crawl into a hole and hide.
What was I supposed to do? The skill’s name is Holy Ground Proclamation.
It’s the kind of name that gently tickles the dormant middle-schooler sleeping inside every man, so I couldn’t help myself…
“Haaah… Still, I can’t believe it didn’t work at all. I thought it would at least work on mosquitoes.”
“Do not be so discouraged. It was not a complete failure.”
“Huh? What do you mean? It was a total failure.”
“If it had been, the mosquitoes would have flown toward us as well. They did not come this way at all and instead rushed you exclusively. Does that not mean it at least drew their aggro?”
Ah, I guess so. Looked at that way, you could call it a partial success.
Though the ideal scenario was for the mosquitoes to drop dead from the pleasure granted by Holy Ground Proclamation alone.
Still, for a skill that consumes so much essence, it turned out to be a simple area-of-effect taunt.
Was it such a trash skill that even my Charm stat couldn’t salvage it?
“Still, it’s weaker than I thought. I really thought it could handle something like mosquitoes. Ah, right. Can I try using it on you guys?”
“What?”
“W-What are you saying?”
“No, you guys are the most familiar with my skills. I was hoping you could give me your impressions of its power.”
“What are you talking about in the middle of the dungeon!”
“Miss Sara is right! What are you thinking!”
“Ah, no. I didn’t mean it in a perverted way. This time, it’s really for the pure purpose of skill research. It barely did anything but draw aggro from mosquitoes, so it can’t be that strong, right? I’ll just activate it for a second and then turn it right off.”
This time, I really wasn’t lying.
I had no expectation that this skill would get them hot and bothered. I was speaking from pure, genuine curiosity.
Of course, I could always check after we returned to the city, but curiosity is a funny thing, isn’t it? When you’re curious about something, you want to know the answer right then and there.
“Ummm…”
Sara and Diana stared intently into my eyes, as if trying to see through to my true intentions.
Naturally, having nothing to hide, I met the gazes of the two beauties with my eyes sparkling brightly.
“The way your eyes are sparkling more than usual makes it feel like you’re full of ulterior motives.”
“I agree. He’s such a pervert.”
What? How could they say something so cruel?!
My delicate heart was now deeply wounded.
“Sob. It really was just pure curiosity.”
“Don’t lie.”
“Do not lie.”
For the first time in a while, Sara and Diana were in perfect sync.
It was just sad that the reason for their harmony was to slander me.
“I-I believe you!”
Thankfully, I had my angel, so my mental state didn’t completely shatter.
“M-My angel!”
I immediately dove into my angel’s embrace to heal my wounded heart.
Ugh. This truly was the hill of happiness.
Just being here heals the soul.
“Oh, my.”
Leia, though slightly flustered, gently hugged me back.
But the blissful moment didn’t last long.
“What do you think you’re doing! See, you did have ulterior motives!”
“What is this behavior in a dungeon! Unhand her at once!”
You’re the ones who hurt my delicate heart, I was just soothing it a little.
I wanted to protest, but the expressions on Sara and Diana’s faces were so terrifying that I gave up immediately.
You can call me Guwon, a man who knows how to read the time and place.