Chapter 226: Crying Out Love in the Center of the Lord's Castle
Chapter 226: Crying Out Love in the Center of the Lord's Castle
“Anyway, Silvia, I'm sorry, but could you close your eyes for a bit? It's just a little secret between us, so please don't misunderstand.”
“…Yes. Understood.”
Silvia’s expression turned bitter for a moment, but she soon nodded and shut her eyes tight.
Not only that, she even covered them securely with the palms of her hands.
Damn it. She's adorable. And why is she so obedient?
Anyway, after confirming Silvia had her eyes covered, I started to dismantle the corpse of the Mosquito Swarm.
It might be more efficient to hunt other monsters in the time it takes to dismantle a Mosquito Swarm, but I was just killing time anyway. Besides, this was a Transcendent Species, so unlike other swarms, it would fetch a pretty penny.
And more importantly, I thought it would be a good idea to acquire one more mosquito tail.
As long as this tail also functioned as a secret key, I was sure it was treated as a phallus.
If so, wouldn't it be helpful for strengthening Leia's staff?
With that in mind, I found another tail from the swarm, then approached the cactus to open the secret passage.
After glancing sideways to confirm Silvia still had her eyes covered, I inserted the mosquito's tail into the cactus. With a tremor, the entrance to the ant nest revealed itself.
Silvia flinched in surprise during the tremor, looking lost, but she never took her hands away from her eyes. How commendable.
“Okay, you can open them now. You can take your hands down.”
“Yes. Wh-what is this…?”
Silvia looked shocked to see a hole large enough for a person to pass through suddenly appear on the flat ground where there had been nothing just a moment ago.
“I'm only saying this just in case, but you can't ever tell anyone else about this, okay?”
“Yes. I understand.”
Silvia nodded her head several times and covered her mouth with both hands.
Why cover your mouth? I didn't mean you can't talk right now. Well, it's cute, though.
“Shall we go, then?”
I stepped into the ant nest without a hint of tension.
I already knew. A lot of time had passed, so the entrance would be swarming with ants again.
But I wasn't going to use my Saint skills just to draw aggro for leveling my Martial Artist job anymore. There was no need to be tense.
Following Diana's light magic, which seemed to have gotten brighter with her level-up, we entered the ant nest. As expected, countless ants were lying in wait.
“Alright, let's go. Ah, Silvia, you don't need to join the… no, wait. Could you stay with the others and take care of any monsters I happen to miss?”
“Yes. Leave it to me.”
Even if I didn't need to raise my Martial Artist level, there was no reason to deliberately share experience points when I could level up.
More importantly, Silvia wasn't a permanent member of our party.
If I got used to a two-person frontline by fighting alongside her, there was a risk of withdrawal symptoms when she eventually left.
That's why I had Silvia, whose position should have been on the front line with me, stay in the back with the others.
“You, I'm sure you know, but Holy Ground Proclamation is absolutely forbidden!” Diana shouted from behind me in a desperate voice as I ran forward.
Right. No matter how stupid I am, you think I'd let Silvia be affected by Holy Ground Proclamation again? Don't worry.
No, wait. Is she not worried about that, but about herself getting excited out here again?
Even so, against this many enemies, there was no skill better for drawing aggro than Holy Ground Proclamation.
Even if I used Saint's Sincerity, not every monster would come to attack me.
To hold down even the ones that ignored me and headed for the backline, Holy Ground Proclamation was necessary.
So, I gauged the distance to the backline by eye and activated Holy Ground Proclamation with a range that would never reach them, no matter how actively I moved.
Then, I used Saint's Sincerity and began to fight the ants.
As expected, Saint's Sincerity didn't have the same power as Saint's Touch; monsters didn't just drop dead the moment I grazed them.
But my Strength was 250. In other words, I had reached the limit before the first level cap release.
While a graze wouldn't fell them, as long as I landed a solid hit, the monsters here would be crushed in a single blow.
This might be the perfect level of power.
Furthermore, just like with Saint's Touch before, the monsters were temporarily stunned the moment they touched me to attack, allowing me to engage in some pretty technical combat.
And above all, while I didn't feel the need to raise my Martial Artist level, I honestly wanted to level up Saint's Sincerity as quickly as possible.
I may not use skills often when I'm with my girls, but when it comes to a Saint's skills, the stronger they are, the more reassured I feel, and the more confident I become as a man, right?
The battle continued for some time.
I might think I no longer need to level up my combat jobs, but Diana and Leia didn't know the full story.
That must be why. When it seemed like my and Sara's attacks alone were enough to handle the ant swarm, Diana simply watched without using any magic.
To be honest, it would be hard to tell Diana or Leia that I don't need to level my combat jobs anymore. Imagine telling them I'd been leveling them all this time for the sake of defeating the Demon King.
Our angel would give an awkward smile, and Diana would tease me about it for ages.
I'd better keep all this talk about the Demon King my own personal secret forever.
In any case, clearing out the monsters in the entrance chamber of the ant nest was quite simple with just me and Sara.
To think it would end so easily when we had struggled so much before, even with Diana's magic. As expected, in this world, level is everything.
“Guwon!”
As soon as the room was cleared, Leia quickly ran over to me.
Just because we're in the same party doesn't mean we can see each other's health bars, so she probably thought I was seriously injured after fighting on the front line by myself.
In truth, I wasn't completely unscathed, but it wasn't bad enough to need healing.
But I couldn't bring myself to say that to Leia, whose hands were gathering a bright light as she caressed my body.
No, in fact, I pretended to be in more pain and clung to her.
“Owowow. Leia. Rub this part too… I mean, heal it.”
“Hehe. Yes. Here? Or a little deeper inside?”
When I pointed to my inner thigh, Leia smiled gently and even teased me a little.
But she soon put on a serious expression again and focused intently on healing me.
I'm sorry for making you worry and heal me so earnestly, my angel.
But your touch just feels too good.
The fact that I could boldly ask you to touch me here and there after every battle without worrying about what anyone thought seemed to make coming to the dungeon worthwhile all by itself.
I wonder if I'll be divinely punished for using the dungeon for this purpose.
“Diana. From now on, you don't need to conserve your magic. Just use it as you see fit.”
I said to Diana while harvesting magic stones from the ant corpses after my treatment was finished.
“Hmm? But wouldn't it be better for me to stay put so you and Miss Sara can raise your job levels? I thought that was why you had Miss Silvia fall back as well.”
“That's true, but honestly, our levels aren't really suited for wandering around the 2nd floor anymore, are they? We just came here because we were curious about what this place was. So I think it'd be better to increase our exploration speed rather than focus on leveling up.”
“Hmm… Well, if you say so, it makes no difference to me.”
Diana seemed a bit puzzled that I, who had been so focused on efficient leveling before, would say such a thing, but she seemed to find it convincing enough and nodded in agreement.
After that, Diana began to unleash her magic, and our speed clearing the ant nest became several times faster.
As expected of the Archmage, whose job level rises on its own as long as her main level goes up.
The ant nest had a complex structure, like a spiderweb of large rooms connected by short passages, but for me, with a map displayed in the corner of my vision, the complicated paths were no obstacle at all.
Honestly, I was more concerned about the ant eggs attached to the rooms than the complex map structure.
At first, we advanced while destroying all the eggs in the rooms, but from the third or fourth room onward, we just left them and moved on.
I mean, there were just too many eggs.
The walls and ceiling were packed with them, everywhere but the floor, and it was a real pain to destroy them all as we went.
It might have been better if they dropped magic stones, but since there was no reward, it felt even more pointless.
In the end, I concluded that it was too difficult to destroy all those eggs just as a precaution against a potential what-if, so we were advancing while leaving the eggs alone.
As we progressed through the ant nest, I could feel that among the monsters popping out, there were larger and stronger ones.
But they weren't at a level to be called Transcendent Species. Their magic stones were also too shabby for that.
They were probably higher-tier monsters, like the relationship between Goblins and Hobgoblins on the 1st floor.
Since they're ant monsters, maybe they're worker ants and soldier ants?
As we moved from room to room, the proportion of soldier ants to worker ants gradually increased.
And finally, when it felt like all the ants had become soldier ants, a creature that looked like a Transcendent Species appeared.
Its body was about three meters long.
No, seriously, even for a Transcendent Species, isn't the size difference with the regular monsters too much?
The soldier ants were only about a meter long at most.
Because its body was so large, the teeth on its mandibles felt like longswords.
But it was still just a 2nd floor monster.
I already had a record of taking down an Orc Transcendent Species on the 2nd floor when my level was much lower. There was no need to be afraid of a creature like this.
I slammed my fists together once as if to psych myself up and charged toward the creature.
Have a little taste of the power of 250 Strength!
Without using any skills, a punch swung with pure power slammed squarely into the creature's face.
Thump!
And with a dull sound, my fist bounced off.
What is this? Physical resistance?
The creature was staggering, so it wasn't completely unaffected by the impact, but the important thing was that it wasn't crushed and was still maintaining its original shape.
I can't believe there's a creature on the 2nd floor that can withstand an attack from 250 Strength.
I really underestimated it. As expected, a Transcendent Species is different.
…is what you think I'd say?!
I immediately enveloped my fist in Saint's Touch.
In the first place, I didn't beat the Orc Transcendent by punching it to death, I drained it dry!
I unleashed a continuous flurry of punches with my Saint's Touch-enveloped fist at the Transcendent Species.
Ora o… whoops. Is that copyrighted? Anyway, it's a RUSH!
Kieeeee!
In the end, after I'd landed only a few blows, the creature let out a strange scream and collapsed to the floor.
Heh. I won.
Fight fair and square?
What are you talking about? What in the world do you expect from a Saint?
A Martial Artist? That just helps with my movements. I'm a Saint!
After the first Transcendent Species appeared, they began to show up quite frequently.
Honestly, this was just supposed to be a way to kill time, but as I explored the ant nest and completed the map, I got a little absorbed in it.
Since there was no real danger, it reminded me of playing a game.
So, before I knew it, I checked the time and saw that it was already past dinnertime.
Just how far have we come?
I checked the map and saw that we had come incredibly deep inside.
At this rate, just walking back to the exit without any fighting would take a long time, wouldn't it?
We might not get back until the middle of the night.
“Hey, everyone. It's about time we head ba—”
Rumble, rumble, rumble.
Just as I was about to suggest we turn back, a powerful vibration, as if the entire space was shaking, washed over us.
KRA-BOOOOM!
And then, one of the walls suddenly collapsed as if it had exploded, and its figure was revealed.
A colossal size that seemed to fill the entire space. Wings on its back.
A monster with a presence that seemed to declare to anyone watching that it was the boss of this place.
The Queen Ant had made her entrance.