Boom.
A roaring sound echoed through the dungeon.
The goblins I was fighting were all knocked down by the explosion of magic stones, and within seconds, they turned into magic stones themselves.
“Is this the slime bomb you mentioned earlier? It sure has a lot of power,” I said.
It seems like Hotaru had finished her battle too. There were at least twenty of them, and to take them down in such a short time was truly impressive.
“It’s powerful, but the cost-efficiency is terrible,” she complained.
I grumbled about the slime bomb. Making it using slime magic stones was no different from making a spear. However, unlike the spear, the bomb uses a large number of magic stones.
Making it was simple: you just coat the slime magic stone with other magic stones without altering its shape, and finally cover it with my own magical power.
If I could ignore the number of magic stones needed for the coating, it would be the perfect weapon.
“About the magic stone costs, how about we make it a shared party expense? I’ll even handle the engraving. Please trust me with your weapon, Kuro. You still don’t trust me, do you?”
“I trust you, but that’s not the issue. If we make it a shared expense, most of it will probably fall on you. Engraving is out of the question. It’s not something you can do casually. You understand that, don’t you, Hotaru?”
The high price of magic weapons with engravings is not just because there are few enchanters, but also due to the tremendous magical power required to engrave them, which lowers productivity.
It’s said that an enchanter usually needs to rest for about three days after completing the engraving.
Even once they can move again, it’s not that their magical power is fully recovered; they’re just able to do the bare minimum.
If an enchanter were to exhaust all their magical power, it would take at least two weeks for their magic to fully recover.
“I see… It would interfere with our dungeon exploration… I’m sorry, that was a selfish suggestion.”
“No, it’s fine. Your suggestion was very appealing. But I’m just the type who doesn’t like owing anyone. Let’s just focus on aiming for the second floor.”
“Right.”
Hotaru said that and turned her focus ahead.
Looking at her, I felt a little worried. Was it really the right decision to reject her suggestion?
Had I really been able to communicate and reach an understanding with her?
I pretended not to notice the weight building in my heart and followed Hotaru’s back, believing it was the right thing to do.
“Hmph!”
With the goblin I had cut down out of sight, I directed my naginata at an approaching wolf-like monster.
There was no more conversation between Hotaru and me. Both of us were desperately responding to the ongoing attacks. Even Hotaru, who was usually so composed, was now panting as she swung her sword.
I had taken on the role of clearing the path to allow Hotaru to focus on the enemies in front of her.
Hotaru was facing two golems.
The dungeon had expanded as we progressed, becoming as large as a baseball stadium. With the walls no longer in the way, the golems were able to fully utilize their strength.
But Hotaru was different from before. She had already inflicted a fatal blow on one of the golems.
One of them was now off-balance, its right arm completely severed at the shoulder, making it unstable.
Hotaru had started using a new enchantment called “Gravity” today.
“Gravity” increases the weight of the target, and Hotaru was using it on her sword.
The damage caused depends on speed and mass. In other words, with both “Boost” and “Gravity” in play, Hotaru was incredibly strong.
“Kuro, let’s move forward now.”
Hotaru’s voice came from ahead.
When I looked, Hotaru had already defeated the golem and finished collecting its magic stones.
I too had swiftly dealt with the remaining monsters and made my way toward Hotaru.
But after walking for a bit, Hotaru suddenly stopped.
“Hotaru, what’s wrong?”
“This might be bad,” she said.
She grabbed my hand and used “Boost” to start running.
“‘Might be bad’? What do you mean?” I asked, trying to keep up with the speed of her enchanted run.
“A large number of monsters have appeared. We need to run!”
With that, she increased her speed even more.
I had no idea where the monsters were. How had Hotaru sensed them? Was it from the sound or some kind of presence?
As she dragged me along, I heard her mutter, “They’re coming.”
At that point, I understood.
A loud noise, like a plane passing by, and a violent gust of wind.
I glanced back.
A dragon, staring right at us from afar, with a horde of wyverns surrounding it.
It was utterly incomprehensible.
Up until now, we’d seen wolves and golems emerge from the dungeon walls, but a dragon? That was too much.
It was like the sun coming to kill ants.
Overkill.
“I’m going to take a gamble and use Slash. Kuro, you should run ahead. I’ll stop in five seconds.”
“I don’t think that’s necessary. The entrance to the second floor is in sight. To the right.”
Despite being buffeted by the wind and barely able to speak, I managed to point out the blue light marking the entrance to the second floor, which could be seen from this dark dungeon.
“—It would be more certain if I were the decoy.”
Hotaru had probably never intended to use Slash from the start. Engraving Slash had taken about a minute last time, and the dragon was slowly closing in.
Hotaru must have known it was impossible.
“If Hotaru dies, we won’t be able to proceed with dungeon exploration. I can’t let that happen.”
I tried to speak without tripping over my words, but I messed up at the end.
It was embarrassing.
“I see. Then please get caught.”
Hotaru suddenly turned right and kicked off the ground.
Her speed was even faster than before.
The dragons struggled to turn and continued chasing us.
At first, they were barely visible, but now they were only a few meters away.
The dragon began lowering its altitude, aiming to catch us.
The entrance to the second floor was less than 100 meters away.
At the same time, the distance between us and the dragons had decreased to about 200 meters.
Hotaru kept accelerating.
But the dragon, with merciless intent, swung its forelegs at us—
—And missed.
Hotaru jumped.
She made it to the stairs leading down to the second floor.
Bathed in a blinding blue light, we passed through the first floor and tumbled into the second, where lush greenery surrounded us.
“Hahaha!” My laughter echoed.
Hotaru laughed along with me.
“Hehe, we made it to the second floor.”
“Yeah.”
I looked up at the sky above the second floor. The blue sky seemed out of place in a dungeon.
“Dungeons are fun,” Hotaru said.
I turned to look at her.
She was smiling softly, her expression far more gentle than I had ever seen in school.
“Yeah, they really are.”
Even as an adult, working as a mercenary like this doesn’t seem so bad.
—Such a fleeting dream filled my heart.
