Chapter 554: For the Goddess's Advent
Chapter 554: For the Goddess's Advent
Anyway, with that decided, we made the Ice Cave our first destination.
Since Leia's staff was our only key to the Ice Cave, I'd considered stopping by the harp seals' territory to get a spare, but that plan was shut down by the girls' fierce opposition.
I mean, come on. Relying on just one key is risky.
It's not like I actually wanted to hunt them or anything.
So could you please stop looking at me like I'm some kind of barbarian?
Especially you, my angel. Every time you look at me with those teary, brimming eyes, the mental damage is no joke, so please, I'm begging you, stop.
When we arrived at the Ice Cave, I could definitely feel that it was much more crowded with adventurers than before.
It's the perfect place for leveling up quickly, since the monsters here have high attack power but low defense.
More importantly, its difficulty was just below that of the 4th Floor, which was notoriously tricky to enter due to having the most drastic terrain changes of any floor in the dungeon.
It seemed like every adventurer who'd been stuck before the 4th Floor had flocked here. As a result, we were running into far fewer penguins than before.
Then again, we did run into an unusually high number of them last time.
Anyway, our goal was to find the passage to the 4.5th Floor, so not having to deal with pesky penguins was a good thing, right?
Well, that wasn't exactly the case.
With fewer penguins, the number of adventurers we ran into increased.
We, who had rarely encountered even one or two parties during our entire time exploring the dungeon, had already run into three today alone.
"Oh, the Saint! It's the Saint's party! You guys are the ones who found this place, right? Thanks! We're making a killing thanks to you!"
"Hey! If you're going to be wandering around here anyway, why not team up with us?"
And thanks to my newfound fame, every party we met tried to strike up a conversation.
For us, who were trying to keep the passage between sub-layers a secret, it was, frankly, a complete nuisance.
"No, thanks. As you can see, our party is already pretty big. Any more people would just make things inconvenient."
"Right. That makes sense. Well, good luck! Let's both be careful! Especially since it looks like the Saint already had a really rough time of it!"
Well, adventurers are generally an easygoing bunch, so they backed off easily enough when we refused.
So, my getting stranded has become a pretty famous story, huh.
Then again, after all the fuss everyone made, I guess it's only natural.
"Sigh... At this rate, finding the male penguin in secret is going to be a real hassle."
After the party of adventurers was out of sight, Sara let out a soft sigh and muttered.
"Well, if you think about the Kobold Cave or the Ant Nest, the male penguin is probably hiding in some secret location, too. As long as we can get inside, we won't be discovered. And thanks to them, we don't have to bother dealing with every single penguin, right? They're even completing the map for us. Let's look on the bright side."
As I said that, I tried to wrap my arm around Sara's waist, but she lightly sidestepped me and returned to her position in the rear.
"Hey."
"Idiot. We're inside the dungeon."
Trying to say that with such a prim look isn't very convincing, you know?
Especially since she was the one who got jealous watching me talk to other adventurers and sidled up next to me.
In any case, using the map we'd procured from the Adventurer's Guild, we scoured the areas we hadn't visited before, focusing our search for the male penguin there.
We had already thoroughly checked the places we'd been to before for any secret spots.
"Nothing..."
It was now the 12th day of our exploration of the Ice Cave.
Just as Leia said, we had come up empty-handed again today in our search for the male penguin.
While eating a meal that was quite luxurious for the dungeon, I chimed in with Leia.
"I know. Unlike the Kobold Cave or the Ant Nest, this place is bright, so I honestly thought we'd find it much faster."
"Ugh... The reflection off the ice is so bright it actually hurts my eyes."
Matilda rubbed the area around her eyes with both hands as she spoke.
She was right. Being bright wasn't necessarily a good thing.
Not only was the light reflecting off the ice blinding, but the fact that everything was completely covered in ice made it difficult to find a hidden path, no matter how bright it was.
It was so bad that Diana had resorted to using wind magic, keeping a faint breeze constantly flowing around her.
Her calculation was that if there was a hidden passage somewhere, the wind would flow into it.
"Hmph. If anything, we've had it too easy until now. We have, after all, been uncovering the dungeon's secrets at an incredible pace. Occasionally having to conduct a persistent investigation like other adventurers will be a good experience for your growth."
Watching us complain, Diana spoke in a mature tone.
For someone with the least stamina among us, she sure looked the most energetic.
Surely it wasn't because Leia wasn't clinging to her, right?
She was manipulating wind magic in an ice cave.
With Diana having turned herself into a human fan, even Leia—who loves hugging her—didn't dare get close.
"Still, it might be a good idea to head back for now."
"What? But we haven't found anything..."
"We have to think about Matilda, too."
"Huh? M-Me? What about me?"
At my words, Matilda tilted her head as if she didn't understand, but her expression was one of thrilled anticipation.
Hey, now's not the time to be entering your rosy fantasy world.
You're not tired at all, are you?
"I mean... you were the one who had the hardest time with the strange mana and all that. Are you okay?"
"Ah, ahh! Y-You were worried about that...?"
What's with that "oh, right, that thing" reaction?
And I told you not to get into that rosy mood.
In the past, I could have snapped you out of it by being rough, but now... I can't bring myself to treat you harshly, even if it's just to break that mood.
"Yeah. You seem perfectly fine, though?"
"You... you..."
Hey! I told you not to try and kiss me inside the dungeon!
"Guwon. How long do you think you were stranded?"
Sara answered for Matilda, who was now incapable of speaking.
"Huh? Why are you bringing that up again all of a sudden?"
"Except for when she was asking for help from the Holy See and the priests in this city, Matilda has been in the 4th Floor's town this whole time. Plus, she was so worried about you that she couldn't even pay attention to the strange mana. So she's gotten a little used to it."
I see. Even if they built a town where people could stay, the dungeon was still the dungeon.
The mana was still strange, so Matilda had essentially been training on the 4th Floor the entire time.
And the fact that Sara knew this... I see. No wonder everyone seemed to accept Matilda more easily than I'd expected.
It seemed that while I was gone, the girls had grown much closer than I'd realized.
"So I guess we can consider Matilda's problem solved. I never thought she'd overcome it like this. When you think about it, me getting stranded wasn't entirely a bad thing..."
"Guwon-ssi."
"I'm sorry. It will never happen again."
I had tried to make a joke, but Leia's single utterance forced me to apologize immediately.
Please stop looking at me like that. It's really not good for my heart.
"But as you say, it might be a good idea to head back for now. Have we checked all the areas marked on the map?"
"Yeah, for the most part. Except for the path we took before, the one leading to the Emperor Penguin."
The other adventurers who came here were primarily focused on hunting rather than exploring.
And since we had already revealed the path to the 4th Floor, the mapped area wasn't very large for the amount of time that had passed since this place was made public.
Besides, our goal was exploration, not hunting, so we moved much faster.
"But we already checked there before, didn't we?"
"That's what I'm saying. I can't believe we couldn't find it even after searching every nook and cranny with wind magic. Don't tell me the male is hiding somewhere that's completely blocked off?"
No, that can't be right.
In this dungeon, you basically have to create a passage using a penis to get through a blocked area.
But what we're looking for right now is a male penguin.
To have to create a passage with a penis to find a male in a region with only females...
It's a complete contradiction.
"...Hah!"
But the moment she heard my complaint, Silvia, who had been happily sipping her warm soup, suddenly looked up with a startled expression.
"Hm? Silvia, what's wrong?"
"Th-There is!"
"There is? What is?"
Spurred by her words, I quickly scanned our surroundings, but there were no monsters in sight.
"A-A blocked place, I mean! I have an idea where it might be!"
"What?! Where!"
"It's where the giant penguin was!"
A giant penguin? You mean the Emperor Penguin, right?
Where was there something like that... Ah.
Once my thoughts reached that point, I had a good idea of what Silvia was trying to say.
"Of course! You mean the places the Emperor Penguin broke through!"
Right. Unlike the other penguins, which just left beak marks on the walls, the Emperor Penguin had completely smashed through them, attacking us from all sides.
And now that I thought about it, the terrain destroyed by the Emperor Penguin seemed to fill back in much slower than other parts of the dungeon.
At the very least, the holes didn't close up before our fight was over.
The only potential problem was that the Emperor Penguin's body wasn't that large compared to other bosses.
Of course, that was just compared to other bosses; it was still huge compared to the regular penguins.
The girls could probably get through just fine.
But... would I be able to fit?
Well, I'm sure it'll work out somehow.
Before worrying about that, we first needed to find out if that was really the path to the male penguin.
Ah, but before that...
"Silviaaa! Why do you only do such adorable things?!"
I had to praise Silvia first.
"Hyaaaaaaaang!"
"Hey, you idiot! What are you doing all of a sudden! Are you trying to kill Silvia?!"
"It's fine! Silvia's in combat mode right now!"
Sara smacked my back repeatedly as she yelled, but I spoke with conviction.
"N-No, I'm noooot! I-I'm eat... dy... iiiing..."
With those last words, Silvia's voice began to fade.
"S-Silvia? Silvia?! This is bad! At this rate, we'll have to use Healing Sex...!"
"Hyaaaaat!"
It seemed she hadn't fainted this time.
Silvia flailed her arms and legs, slid across the ice floor, then scrambled behind Sara and started trembling.
"Guwooooon..."
"Hey, for the record, I was just trying to praise her out of pure goodwill. Besides, even I wouldn't actually do that in here. The Healing Sex thing was obviously a joke..."
"Hmph? Is that so?"
As I made my excuses, Sara gave me a sweet smile.
Strange. It's definitely pretty, but it's also terrifying.
"I love you, Sara."
"Yeah. I love you, too."
I still got a smack for it.
Well, it was loud, but it didn't hurt.
It seemed that despite her act, my telling her I loved her just before had worked.
She's so cute.
"What were you just thinking?"
"Nope. Nothing."
You know, sometimes I wonder if she can actually read minds.
It can be genuinely creepy at times.
And from behind Sara, Silvia bowed her head frantically, apologizing to me with a sorry expression.
Seeing her, I gave a small wave and a smile.
It's fine. It's fine. In fact, I want to praise you even more. I'll praise you plenty when we get back.
I had already told her she'd be the very first one I'd hold when we returned.
Seeing my smile, Silvia must have guessed her fate, because her body gave a violent shudder.