Chapter 798: The Dungeon’s Mana
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 798: The Dungeon’s Mana
Matilda, who had started clinging to me again with a pink-hued gaze, was someone I could only manage to calm down when the next person arrived to take their turn.
“So, it’s Sara today.”
“…What. Are you disappointed it’s me?”
“No, that’s not it. I just thought Elder Sister Rachel might be coming.”
“Rachel has work, so there’s no way she could come.”
Well, that’s true.
She did say she had vacation time saved up, but she’s already used quite a bit of it for my sake.
And since we don’t know when this special training will end, she can’t just use her vacation days so regularly.
No, in the first place, it’s ridiculous to ask her to use vacation time just to go hunting with me.
“For the record, Vanessa won’t be coming either.”
As I was coming to terms with this, Sara delivered another piece of news.
“Vanessa too?”
I could understand about Rachel, but Vanessa too?
I mean, sure, Vanessa was just as busy as Rachel, but unlike Rachel who couldn’t arbitrarily skip work, Vanessa had the discretion to take time off whenever she wanted.
“She came last time as a special exception, but she said she can’t leave the mansion empty that often.”
“…Are you sure it’s not just because she’s embarrassed to see my face?”
“Idiot. Why are you asking me? Seriously.”
No, that’s totally an excuse.
Figuring out the situation in an instant, I posed the question, but it seemed Sara had no intention of answering.
Ah, right. It’s not something I should be asking you.
“What on earth did you do… Ah, never mind, don’t tell me.”
But even as Sara pouted, she added another comment as if giving me a hint.
She’s so cute.
“Because you think I’ll get excited if I hear it? Ouch!”
I got my side pinched for adding that unnecessary comment and rubbed the stinging spot as I fell into thought.
Does this mean that the people who will be by my side while I grow will be limited to the members I usually go to the dungeon with?
Then again, considering my purpose for being here, that might be for the best.
Of course, everyone is only providing support, but they’ll still grow as their job and skill levels rise, even if just by a little.
It’s a shame I won’t be able to see Vanessa or Rachel while I’m cooped up in here, but it can’t be helped.
Besides, I’ll have to go back up occasionally anyway to take care of Felicia’s sexual needs.
I’ll just have to treat them well when I see them topside.
And so, I continued to steadily raise my job and skill levels, changing partners each day.
The hunts went smoothly without any particular incidents, and we each completed another rotation.
But on the day I went hunting with Matilda for the third time, trouble struck.
“Ugh…!”
The moment she stretched one foot into the water outside the town, Matilda shuddered as if goosebumps had broken out all over her and quickly pulled her foot back.
“Matilda?”
While hastily checking her expression, I intuitively understood why she had reacted that way.
Because last time—that is, the second time I went hunting with Matilda—there had been a slight sign of this.
I let it slide back then because Matilda had immediately composed herself and acted as if nothing was wrong, but I’d been keeping it in the back of my mind.
It’s about one of my women, so I can’t just neglect it, can I?
And thanks to that, I was able to react immediately this time.
“I’m fine. It’s okay.”
“No, you don’t look fine at all.”
“…I’ve been constantly worried about my grandmother’s health lately. Perhaps my concentration has weakened a little because of that.”
Concentration, huh.
Hearing that, I was certain my intuition was correct.
So that’s what it was.
“It feels suffocating when you go into the dungeon, right?”
Yes. Matilda had shown an adverse reaction to the dungeon before.
Diana had said it was because of the mana enveloping the dungeon, and that clerics, in particular, often had this reaction.
Over time, it seemed Matilda was gradually getting used to it, but now it had recurred.
“…It seems you knew. Yes. But I’m fine. If I focus my mind, I can handle this much…”
“It was a little tough last time, too, wasn’t it?”
Matilda put on an unfazed expression and tried to leave the town again, but I grabbed her arm to stop her.
“That’s why, my grandmother…”
“No. I actually have an idea of what’s going on.”
Matilda was insisting it was because her concentration was shaken from worrying about her grandmother, but my thoughts were a little different.
No matter how I looked at it, the reaction she just showed didn’t seem to be caused by a mental issue like that.
If it wasn’t a mental issue, then it had to be a physical one. But if you asked whether Matilda’s body had changed in any way during this period, that wasn’t it either.
With just one exception.
My gaze naturally drifted to Matilda’s arms and legs.
She was no longer wearing the Cardinal’s robes that completely covered her entire body, but an outfit that truly gave off the impression of a Holy Knight.
Compared to her Cardinal’s robes, it revealed a little more skin, but her curse had healed to the point where Matilda no longer had to fear such exposure.
…Yeah, no matter how I think about it, this is the only thing that has changed.
“…You?”
“Matilda. Let’s take the day off today.”
I should probably look into this properly. It’s not like I don’t have a way to find out.
Therefore, I decided to take a break from hunting for the day.
“What? But if it’s because of me… I’m fine.”
“No, it’s not because of you. It’s what I want to do. You’ll go along with it, right?”
Of course, Matilda protested the decision.
She was so responsible that she had even refused my suggestion to go see her ailing grandmother, so it was only natural for her to object.
But this time, I had no intention of backing down.
So, I deliberately pulled her in by the waist and spoke in a syrupy voice to try and trigger her pink-hued mode.
“……”
But in times like these, Matilda never entered her pink-hued mode.
Seeing Matilda making it painfully obvious with her resolute expression that she didn’t want to be a burden, I decided to change my strategy.
“Please, let’s just rest today. I need a break sometimes, too. I’ve been hunting for days on end. And there’s something I need to check.”
“…Something you need to check?”
Matilda didn’t even react to the first part of my sentence, as if she knew I was just exaggerating, but the last part seemed to have caught her attention.
“I’m talking about your reaction. I have a hunch about it. Come with me.”
“What? Wait?! You?!”
Matilda still seemed like she didn’t quite understand, but I ignored her, grabbed her hand, and immediately headed for the teleportation magic circle.
The place I headed to was, of course, the mansion.
“Diana!”
“Gah?! W-what is it? You’re here?”
When I burst into Diana’s room with Matilda in tow, Diana looked at me in a fluster, as if she had been in the middle of some suspicious magic research again.
“Are you busy?”
“N-not at all! Not busy in the slightest! Not at all!”
She was definitely up to something suspicious.
From the looks of it, she was doing something related to me again.
Was she researching my Saint skills?
Well, that’s not what’s important right now.
“Perfect. There’s something I need to ask you.”
“Hm? A favor, so suddenly? What is it?”
“Here.”
I pulled the hand I was holding with Matilda’s forward, and she stepped forward with a still-clueless expression on her face.
“Hm? Lady Matilda?”
Of course, Diana looked just as clueless.
Looking at the two of them, I decided to start by explaining the situation.
“I see. Her resistance to the dungeon has… So, what is it you wish to ask of me?”
“Diana, you can tell the type of mana, or its characteristics, right?”
“Hm? Well, of course.”
At my words, Diana nodded as if I’d stated the obvious.
As expected of the Archmage. So reliable.
“Then could you check the characteristics of the mana contained in Matilda’s curse?”
“…I see. So that’s it.”
And as soon as I said that, Diana seemed to have grasped my intentions perfectly.
“However, to do that, I will need to see and touch the traces of the curse with my own eyes. Is that all right?”
“…Yes.”
And it seemed our Cardinal also understood exactly what I was getting at.
Normally, Matilda thought the marks of her curse were hideous and would keep them completely covered, never showing them to anyone, but this time, since the matter was so important, she readily nodded in agreement.
“…Should I undress here?”
“Hmm. Before that, you. You should step outside for a moment.”
“Okay.”
Usually, I would have joked about wanting to watch, but this was not the time for that.
I obediently went outside to wait.
As I waited for the results in front of the door, it wasn’t long before Diana opened it and reappeared.
Behind her, Matilda, fully dressed again, was adjusting her clothes.
“Your guess was correct.”
As I stared intently at Diana’s face, she slowly nodded and confirmed it.
I had expected it, but so that’s really what it was.
To put it simply, it was like this.
The mana that filled the dungeon was none other than the War God’s mana.
And the holy power used by clerics was, naturally, our Goddess’s mana.
The reason clerics felt such immense pressure in the dungeon was likely because of that.
And Matilda, who was talented enough to become a Cardinal at a young age, was born with a body optimized for receiving the Goddess’s mana, which meant her constitution had an equally strong rejection of the War God’s mana.
However, there was a mechanism that gave Matilda a resistance to the War God’s mana: the curse, which was made of mana with characteristics similar to the War God’s.
In other words, the curse enveloping Matilda’s body was a curse from the era of the War God.
I had thought it was strange.
No matter how incredible the curse was, it was one that even Diana, who was said to have mastered all existing magic, didn’t know about.
Furthermore, it was a curse so powerful that no priest could cure it.
And it was a curse that prevented its target from having sex, a curse that could only be seen as targeting the followers of our Goddess.
And finally, the fact that she got it by tampering with ancient ruins.
From the very beginning, there were an overwhelming number of factors that made me suspect it was a curse from the era of the War God.
But even while thinking that, I honestly hadn’t paid it much mind.
Whether the curse was from the War God’s era or not, it was a curse that didn’t work on me, and one that I could break.
But to think that thanks to that curse, Matilda was able to navigate the dungeon properly.
Thinking back on it now, I should have been suspicious.
When Matilda first went into the dungeon—that is, when she followed me to the 5th floor from the start—she had seemed perfectly fine.
And at that time, the curse was spread all over her body.
But after that, once I learned I could break the curse, I gradually began to undo it for her. As a result, this time, Matilda showed an adverse reaction as soon as we went to the 4th floor.
The only question was that after that, Matilda seemed to have adapted to the 4th floor.
To be precise, it was after I was shipwrecked and then rescued.
…Huh? Wait a minute. Matilda definitely said back then that she got used to it because she was so worried about me that she stayed in the 4th-floor town, right?
But judging by her reaction just now, she never had a problem inside the dungeon towns. The adverse reaction only appeared outside the towns.
In the first place, devices that alter the nature of the dungeon’s mana are installed around the teleportation magic circles in towns, so you’re never exposed to the dungeon’s true mana.
Which means that no matter how long she stayed in the town, there’s no way she would have adapted to the dungeon’s mana… Damn it! How have I missed this until now?!
“Matilda, does that mean you’ve been forcing yourself to endure it this whole time?!”
“……”
At my shout, Matilda couldn’t give any answer and just turned her head, avoiding my gaze.
So that’s what it was!
Matilda hadn’t adapted to the dungeon’s mana. She had just been foolishly enduring it.
And now, as I started this special training and we had sex more often, the curse began to break at a rapid pace. The growing adverse reaction finally became too much for her to bear, and she ended up showing it.
Damn it. And here I was thinking, ‘It’s about one of my women, so I can’t neglect it!’ I didn’t notice at all