The Smell of Money
Money, nyang.
The cave right in front of me reeked of it. I love money more than anything in this world. With money, there's nothing you can't do — you don't go hungry, you can wear clothes, you can do whatever you want. And I can pay for my little sisters' tuition. I can give the people I care about the things they want. That's why I love money, nyang.
In that sense, this party wasn't bad. The quest success rate was high, and the members got along. I liked to think I was pretty close with them, but honestly? That was all because it paid. If it didn't, I wouldn't have stuck around this long, nyang.
A party with steady income and no infighting. That alone was enough to make it one I liked — and now we'd even lucked into discovering a dungeon on top of it. I was so happy I could burst, nyang.
I took the lead with a spring in my step. Disarming traps and scouting dungeons was a thief's specialty. Mine, nyang.
And so—
I froze.
The instant I was about to step through the entrance, a nasty sensation crawled down my spine. I stopped dead in my tracks. I could feel the others behind me sending puzzled looks my way, but I signaled them to be quiet and studied the mouth of the dungeon, nyang.
A sense of wrongness. Or maybe you'd call it unease — it came flooding in through my animal instincts. My ears pricked straight up, and my tail lashed and trembled, nyang.
No way...
The excitement drained out of me. I narrowed my eyes and scanned the entrance.
"...It's a trap, nyang."
"A trap?"
My mutter sent a ripple of confusion and unease through the party. Of course it did. A trap right at the dungeon entrance? I'd never heard of such a thing, nyang.
Instead of answering, I picked up a nearby rock and tossed it toward where the trap was waiting.
Whoosh...
KRAKOOM—!!
As if it had been sitting there just for that, the trap came crashing down. Every one of us, myself included, swallowed hard at the sight, nyang.
"A trap from the very entrance of the dungeon... I've never seen anything like this..."
Aria covered her mouth with her hand, her voice thick with disbelief.
"There's no law against it, but... how should I put it. It's an unspoken rule, so I let my guard down. If Ki-ana hadn't spotted that trap, some of us would be dead or badly hurt."
"......"
Brom agreed. Serena sank into thought in silence. The mood was turning sour, nyang.
Honestly, I was shocked too — but I couldn't let this turn into a let's go back kind of atmosphere. This was a hidden dungeon, nyang! Even split among the party, the haul from an unexplored dungeon was enough to live like royalty for the rest of your life. I was not giving this up, nyang!!
"Th-that's why there's even more treasure in there, nyang!? Everyone knows the more a dungeon defies expectations, the bigger the reward, nyang!?"
I forced a smile and tried to talk them around, pitching especially hard at Serena — she was the one I needed to convince.
"Can't we just go in a little further and then decide, nyang?"
"...Fine. We'll go in a little further. But remember this, all of you. The moment anything feels even slightly off, we're turning around."
"G-got it, nyang."
When Serena glared at me, I shrank, nyang... On the other hand, it kind of pissed me off. I mean, it's not like I was going in there just so I could live well, nyang? Why was I the bitch here? We were splitting the money anyway...
Tch...
While I was still grumbling to myself—
KABOOOM—!!
The moment all of us had stepped inside, a thunderous crash roared from behind. I spun around in shock. A heap of fallen rock had sealed the dungeon entrance shut, nyang.
"What the hell..."
Gael stood there with his mouth hanging open. And he wasn't the only one. Every last one of us stared at the sealed entrance in horror, nyang.
A trap? You could call that a trap, nyang? Th-that... I never even imagined something like that. Even my senses hadn't picked it up, nyang!
"A dungeon seal? What on earth is this..."
"I-I've never seen anything like this... This dungeon... it feels like it's breaking the laws of the world somehow..."
Gael strode past the stunned Aria and Rene and inspected the collapsed pile of stone.
"Damn it! We could clear it if we had to, but it'd take days!"
After Gael shifted a few rocks and made his assessment, Serena closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them and spoke.
"We're abandoning the dungeon. However long it takes, we clear this rubble and we get out."
Huh?
"W-wait! What are you saying, nyang!? Abandon the dungeon!!"
I cried out in a panic, and Serena's glare locked onto me. Ugh...
"A sealed entrance. A trap at the very threshold. This dungeon is clearly wrong. We are not veterans. We cannot clear this on our own."
"I agree. This dungeon is far too suspicious. Given our food and water, we should just barely be able to clear the rocks and get out."
"Alright, then let's get to it!"
The room had turned against me, nyang. No...
"What about clearing the dungeon and leaving through the exit, nyang!? If there's an entrance, there's an exit, nyang! Finishing the dungeon and going out that way might even be faster, nyang!"
I tried my hardest to talk them around, but they all looked away and wouldn't answer.
"Ki-ana..."
Aria came up beside me, laid a hand on my shoulder, and spoke softly. I turned to her — my only real friend — and pleaded, nyang.
"Y-you know why I care so much about money, nyang...!"
"I know, Ki-ana. I know. But none of that matters if you're dead. Serena's right — this dungeon is far too strange. I think we should leave."
This girl stays quiet most of the time, then hits you with the reasonable take right when it counts, nyang!
"Kh!"
I had nothing left to argue. I gave in, and my shoulders sagged. I fell silent, joined the others, and started clearing rocks, nyang.
Damn it... This sucks... Why am I the only bitch here...!
"Kieeek..."
We'd been clearing rocks for a while when a monster's cry came echoing faintly through the dark. At first, I tried to ignore it.
But then—
"KIEEEEEEK—!!"
The sound drew steadily closer. The rest of the party and I had no choice but to go on alert. We stared into the dungeon's darkness with weapons drawn, but the monsters didn't come.
The moment we relaxed and went back to the rubble—
"Kieeek!!"
They cried out from the dark, as if to remind us they were still there.
"They're doing it on purpose. When we go on guard, they pull back. The moment we ease up, they close in. They're remarkably intelligent."
Brom said this as he wiped the sweat running down his face, still shifting rubble.
"We're gonna be fucked later, aren't we? If they hit us after we've worn ourselves out clearing this shit, that's it. But we can't just drop our guard either, can we?"
Gael wiped his own sweat and snapped, his nerves fraying. It wasn't just him. Everyone was dripping with sweat, exhaustion written all over them. The dungeon was hot, and the air was thick with moisture. On top of that we were working our bodies, and our stamina was draining fast. And as if that weren't enough, we had to stay alert for the monsters. I could see everyone's body and mind burning out by the minute.
This is driving me insane.
"This sucks..."
As I wrestled with the problem, I caught sight of Ki-ana, muttering under her breath as she slowly shifted rocks. She was sulking, clearing stones like it was none of her business. When our eyes met, she stuck out her lip and looked away.
And now discord in the party, on top of everything else...
Haa... Stay calm.
I drew a deep breath to collect myself, and made my decision.
"For real, nyang!?"
The words had barely left my mouth before Ki-ana lit up.
"Don't get the wrong idea. We're taking the shortest path out. Even if it means skipping the boss room or the treasure vault, finding the exit comes first."
"Then there's no point in even being here, nyang!"
"Surviving is the point. You have to be alive to make money later, don't you? If you die, none of it means anything."
"......"
Ki-ana's eyes went sulky, her face packed with discontent. I could see the resentment toward me piling up, plain as day. But I didn't have time to soothe her right now.
"Everyone, we move."
"Yes!"
"Okay..."
"Understood."
"Hell yeah! I'd rather fight monsters anyway!"
Everyone answered in their own way — save for one — and in the end, we chose to press into the dungeon.
For all her complaints, she hadn't forgotten her role. Ki-ana took the lead, then signaled us to stop.
"There's something, nyang... something... this is... powder?"
Ki-ana reached into the air, rubbed her fingers together, then looked up. In the darkness of the cave's upper reaches, pairs of eyes gleamed. They were the same monsters we'd seen in the forest.
"Ambush, nyang!"
PWOOSH—
The cry and the attack came as one. The monsters hurled pouch-like things at us all at once. The pouches burst, and powder scattered through the air.
"Poison? Everyone, hold your breath!"
At my shout, everyone covered their mouths with their collars — but we realized too late that the powder was far worse than we'd thought.
"Ugh..."
Paralysis set in.
It works on contact with skin, not just through breathing!?
The entire party showed the same paralysis I did, left completely defenseless. And as if they'd been waiting for exactly that, the monsters drew their bows.
A prepared ambush. Coordinated, systematic movement. It felt like fighting well-trained soldiers. I'd expected this dungeon wouldn't be ordinary, but it was even further beyond common sense than I'd imagined.
This dungeon is dangerous...!
But dangerous or not, we still had to push through. We were adventurers, after all.
"Aria—!!"
"Yes!"
Thud.
At my call, Aria slammed her staff into the floor.
A counterattack.
These monsters.