Chapter 710: An Alliance Proposal
Chapter 710: An Alliance Proposal
Going through the 3rd floor would be safe, but from there, we’d still have to travel all the way to the Emperor Penguin’s room, which would take an unnecessarily long time.
On the other hand, entering through the 4th floor connects directly to the Emperor Penguin’s location, saving a lot of time.
The trade-off is having to fight the 4th-floor monsters along the way, but that’s not much of a problem for us anymore.
So, I wanted to go through the 4th floor if possible, but that wasn't the real issue.
The real problem was that we'd have to once again push through the complex and rough currents blocking the entrance to the ice cave from the 4th floor.
In other words, we'd have to rely entirely on Diana's magic.
You might think, "We passed through safely before, so what's the problem now?" but it wasn't that simple.
Getting through itself wouldn't be an issue, but doing so would consume a large amount of Diana's mana in a short time.
But Diana's magic is our party's last resort and a reliable insurance policy.
Heading into a new area like the 4.5th floor with Diana low on mana was highly undesirable.
For that reason, I gave Diana the choice by asking her directly.
While I'm the party leader and the group's focal point, it's best to let Diana, the one who'll actually be using the mana, make the call.
“Hmm. It's no problem.”
But Diana nodded calmly, without any sign of hesitation.
There was no way someone like her wouldn't have understood the intent behind my question.
“If we enter from the 4th floor, we can clear out the surrounding monsters beforehand, can’t we? We won't be suddenly ambushed mid-transit like when you were stranded, so we can minimize mana consumption. And if need be, we can just rest before moving on to the 4.5th floor. The place with the male penguins has no other passages besides the one leading to the 4.5th floor, correct?”
Diana explained logically to a bewildered me.
I see. Now that I think about it, that was an option.
To get to where the male penguins are, we have to fight the Emperor Penguin and create a path.
In other words, if we don't make a path through the Emperor Penguin, the room with the male penguins becomes a completely sealed space.
This means that once we deal with the male penguins, it becomes one of the few places in the dungeon where we can guarantee perfect safety.
So if we're low on mana, we can just rest there.
Definitely. Even if we end up staying there for a day or two, it would still be much faster than going through the 3rd floor.
To consider all that in such a short time and answer immediately… That's Diana for you. She's a quick thinker.
“Alright. Let's go through the 4th floor, then.”
And so, we used the teleportation circle to head to the 4th-floor town.
Since we had no business in the town, we immediately left the giant air bubble surrounding it and entered the water as soon as we arrived.
We were about to head straight for the ice cave, but… for some reason, Leia stopped at the very back and didn't seem to want to move.
“Leia?”
I called out to her, puzzled, but Leia just blushed bright red and mumbled with her lips, not responding to my words.
Well, we were already underwater and hadn't connected our heads with air bubbles, so she probably couldn't hear me directly.
Still, she should have been able to tell that I had turned around to talk to her.
What was with her all of a sudden?
This morning, she was watching me, Sara, and Diana cause a ruckus with a warm smile… or maybe not. Given the topic, she was a little embarrassed, but she hadn't seemed particularly strange.
Not just this morning, but even just a moment ago, there was no sign of anything unusual.
So for Leia to suddenly blush and act like that, I couldn't help but be confused.
Diana must have felt the same, as she immediately used magic to connect all our heads with an air bubble.
And at that same moment, Leia's soul-cry struck all of our ears.
“I-I really love seeeeex!”
“Youuuuuuu!”
Hearing Leia's cry, it was only natural that Diana's scream, which was closer to a shriek, would follow.
It made sense, coming right after the commotion we had this morning about that.
It was perfectly reasonable for her to think, Don't tell me even Leia has fallen into his clutches and been trained…!
Of course, that was just the logical conclusion, not what actually happened.
“N-No! It's not what you think! It's a misunderstanding! Look! Look at Leia!”
If this went on any longer, my image would be cemented as that of a depraved monster who mercilessly trains the women he loves, so I desperately pointed at Leia.
And there she was, in her Gumiho form, her eyes squeezed shut, her body trembling as if she were holding something back.
“Hah! It's still so embarrassing….”
Well, in the end, she couldn't bear the embarrassment and covered her face with her hands, instantly reverting from her Gumiho state.
Come to think of it, I modified the clothes Leia is wearing, cutting a hole for her tail so she could let it out.
When she turns into a Gumiho, she has nine tails, so wouldn't that one hole be insufficient?
How did they pop out just now? Did her clothes rip, revealing our angel's charming butt…?
“Wh-What in the world…”
My mind had wandered a bit, but the others' astonished voices quickly brought me back.
Come to think of it, is this the first time they're seeing Leia's Gumiho form in person?
They'd heard about it, but seeing it for themselves was clearly surprising.
“You, what is the meaning of this?”
Diana, who had just yelled at me, also seemed to realize her misunderstanding and asked me the question with a slight blush.
But rather than answer her, I first asked Leia about her intentions.
“No, we finally figured out how she can transform into her Gumiho form… but more importantly, Leia. Why the Gumiho form all of a sudden? There's no need to transform right now, is there?”
“But… you went to all the trouble of figuring it out for me, Guwon….”
In response to my question, Leia slightly parted the hands covering her face and peeked at me through her fingers as she mumbled.
It seemed Leia knew why I'd been so enthusiastically helping her control her Gumiho abilities lately.
“Yeah. But you still can't control it perfectly. It's okay for now. Let's save using your Gumiho abilities in the dungeon for when you're more used to it. An ability you can't handle properly can lead to unexpected accidents.”
“Aww… Okay… I'm sorry….”
“No. You don't need to apologize. You were just trying to help, even if it meant pushing through your embarrassment.”
“Guwon….”
As I said that and wrapped my hand around Leia's shoulder, she finally lowered the hands covering her face, took my hand on her shoulder, and hugged it tightly to her chest, giving me a warm look.
“Ahem! Ahem! So, what kind of abilities can you use in that form?”
But there was no way the others would just stand by and watch us get lost in our own little world.
Well, even though we were right in front of the town and unlikely to be attacked by monsters, we were still inside the dungeon, so it was to be expected.
“Y-Yes? Um… let's see. …Maybe immobilize someone?”
Leia, who had been hugging my hand to her chest, flapped her hands and quickly moved away from me. She paused, finger to her chin in thought, then tilted her head and answered.
“Why is that a question…?”
“S-Sorry. I don't really know either….”
“When you transform, don't you get a feeling like you can do something, or does that not happen?”
Since she had used a binding skill on me before when she completely lost her senses, I thought the abilities she could use would naturally come to her once she transformed into a Gumiho.
“Well, that's true, but….”
It seemed my guess was right, as she nodded in affirmation.
But if that's the case, why did she say that just now? And why was she blushing again?
“It's just… when I become a Gumiho, well, other thoughts come to mind first, so my memory….”
Seeing my bewildered expression, Leia's voice grew smaller and smaller as she explained.
Seeing that, I immediately understood what she was talking about.
“Ah, ahh! Okay! I get it! Including that, let's wait until you're more proficient before using it for dungeon exploration! For now, let's just proceed normally! Got it?”
“Okay….”
And so, after that brief happening, we finally began to make our way toward the ice cave in earnest.
Having defeated even the 4th-floor boss, the monsters there were no longer a threat to us, so we advanced without any particular problems.
The 4th floor is convenient since it's all water, meaning we can just move in a straight line toward our destination.
Well, swimming can't be faster than running, so in the end, our speed was about the same compared to other floors.
In any case, we arrived safely at the place with the complex currents leading to the ice cave without any incident.
And even after arriving, it was just as uneventful.
We didn't even see the large, whale-like monster from before. We easily cleared the area and, with anticlimactic ease, used Diana's magic to block the currents and enter the passage to the ice cave.
“We got here so easily it's almost a letdown.”
It was such an easy journey that even Matilda, who has the most trouble adapting to life on the 4th floor, said something like that.
Well, our goal this time was the 4.5th floor, so we shouldn't get complacent just because we passed through the 4th floor easily.
“I know. It'd be nice if the 4.5th floor was this easy, too.”
We exchanged such idle chatter as we headed through the passage toward the ice cave's boss room, where the Emperor Penguin would be.
But perhaps saying that was a bad omen.
“…Doesn't it feel like this place is… shaking?”
With Sara's words, a trial suddenly befell us.
Just as Sara said, the inside of the passage was trembling as if there were an earthquake.
And we immediately learned the source of the vibration.
“Ugh! Something's coming this way!”
As that shout came from beside me, a giant black missile shot toward us at high speed.
To be precise, it was aimed at me, walking at the very front.
But no matter how fast the black missile flying toward me was, it wasn't so fast that I, with my Moon Shadow Warrior job, couldn't react.
Since there was a precursor in the form of the vibration, I could have easily dodged it if I'd wanted to.
But if I dodged here, the girls behind me would definitely get hurt.
Making that judgment in a split second, I hurriedly raised both hands to block the missile.
“Guwon-nim!”
But faster than I could act, Silvia, shield in hand, quickly passed by my side and stood in front of me, blocking the way.
“Kuh!”
And as if she'd made the same judgment as me, she took the missile head-on with her shield instead of deflecting it to the side.
But the missile seemed to possess a force so powerful that even Silvia had trouble taking it all.
Silvia's body was pushed back little by little, and only after I braced her from behind did our struggle against the missile reach a stalemate.
“Why the hell is this thing all the way up here?!”
Only after the missile stopped moving could I finally get a proper look at its identity.
The missile was none other than the ice cave's fake boss: the Emperor Penguin.