Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, Vol. 2 (17 page)

“P-playfulness…?”

“Hee-hee! Now, let’s eat some dinner.”

With those words, my ears turn red and my head drops. But the goddess is smiling as she goes to her closet.

I step outside the front door for a moment, waiting until the goddess pokes her childish face out the door and says “All done!” before I join her in the kitchen. I feel bad that I was the first one home and
haven’t prepared anything at all. On the other hand, the goddess’s cheeks are a rosy pink; she must be happy to be working next to me. That makes me smile, too.

“Bell, what were you doing with that thick book? You don’t seem like the type of person who would buy something like that.”

“Kind of sad that you put it like that…but yes. I borrowed it from a friend of mine.”

“Ah, can I see it when you’re done? I haven’t seen many books that are that old. Got a bit of an itch to read it, you know.”

“You really love books, don’t you?”

After cleaning up after a modest dinner, we take turns in the shower before deciding to update my status. It’s been growing faster these days.

The goddess must have finally gotten used to her job working for
Hephaistos Familia
; she has enough time and energy to do this now.

I take off my shirt and lay facedown on the bed while the goddess pricks her finger on a needle to draw out ikoru—the power in her blood.

“Huh…hmmm?…Tsk!”

“G-Goddess…Is my status still growing like before?”

“…Yep, no change at all. Full speed ahead, no other way to put it.”

Her voice sounds a bit scary, so I have to muster up some courage to ask her. Sure enough, a very moody response came from behind my head.

She’s still angry…No, she’s angry
again
.

She seems to get angry every time she updates my status recently…

“Yes, that’s right, you’re a stubborn one. I know, I know, your feelings don’t exactly change overnight.”

I have no idea how to respond to those irritated whispers.

There’s nothing I can do to clear the air but keep my mouth shut and hope the storm blows through on its own.

Suddenly, two sharp pinches drill into my back. It feels like I’m being pricked with a needle.

Hey, wait a second—it hurts!

“Goddess! That hurts! You’re doing that on purpose?!”

“Hmmm?”

“What are you hmmm-ing for?!”

My pleas and tearful eyes don’t have any effect on her. And as though she were saying “No backtalk,” she sticks the needle into the back of my head. Direct hit.

Unable to fight back, I can only wipe my tears on the pillow, completely defenseless.

I’ll make sure she doesn’t sleep well tonight…

“…Well, with the exception of your Defense, all of your basic stats are almost an
S
rank, so of course your growth is slowing down a little bit.”

“…Ah, I see.”

“Still, this isn’t normal…”

The maximum rank for all basic stats in a status is
S
. As each stat gets closer to the top, it takes more experience to improve. As a result, growth slows way down. I’ve heard in some cases, an adventurer could slay hundreds of monsters and not go up a single point.

Now in my case, the fact that my growth has slowed down might be due to this growth barrier, but the fact I’m still growing at all must mean that I’m still going strong.

But as the goddess said, there could be too much of a good thing.

“………”

“…Goddess?”

Seems strange that both her hands and her mouth aren’t moving.

Even after calling out to her, she just sits there silently until…

“……Magic.”

“Eh?”

“Magic has appeared in your status.”

That was the last thing I was expecting to hear.

“Whaaaaaa?!”

“Eeek!”

Astonishment wells up inside me.

I rear my back up like a startled horse.

As a result, the goddess, who was sitting on my lower back, flies off the bed and onto the floor—headfirst with a loud
thunk
, no less.

Wait, crap!!

“G-Goddess!! I’m so sorry! Are you hurt?”

“Didn’t think you’d be getting revenge like that…You’re something else, Bell.”

She’s at the foot of the bed, stuck halfway through a somersault cut tragically short. Her eyes are shiny with tears, her body shaking ever so slightly.

And…her boobs are hitting her chin…?!
No, focus, you idiot!

I reach out to help her, doing my best to keep my eyes off her cleavage, my hands trembling with fear. Soon after that, the whole of
Hestia Familiar
is doing dogeza—the submissive pose on all fours with forehead on the ground, apologizing like mad.

It is quite some time before I see the details of my new status.

“…!!”

I really have to fight the urge to scream at the top of my lungs.

I hold the paper the goddess wrote my status on, my jaws clenched and my hands shaking.

My eyes sparkle with pure joy. Even though I can’t see my mouth, I know I’m smiling from ear to ear.

“I can’t believe Magic appeared…Could it be related to that Skill…? I can’t tell.”

The goddess mumbles something, her eyebrows down as she holds
her chin like she’s deep in thought. Completely different from my reaction.

She keeps looking at my back and then my face and back again, but I don’t care.

“G-Goddess…Magic, I have Magic! I’ve become a magic user…!”

“Yes, I see that. Congratulations, Bell.”

I’m happy, plain and simple.

Joy rushes through my body. I feel like I’m on fire.

At the same time, I can feel tears welling up in my eyes. This is a dream come true. My whole body is shaking in excitement.

I crumple up the paper in my hand and squat down to the floor. I get the feeling that the goddess is beside me, grimacing.

I’m happy—so, so happy! I can finally use magic!

Not just any magic,
that
Magic! The same one that the heroes used as a trump card in the tales of adventure, that one!

“I hate to throw water on your blaze of joy, but we need to talk about your Magic. There’s something that’s bugging me.”

“Yes, Goddess!”

I stand back up and yell my response.

I really need to calm down. I tell myself that over and over as I take some deep breaths and try to make my tense body relax.

“Are you listening? This is just a summary, but Magic requires the user to speak an incantation for it to work. You already knew this much, right?”

I answer her question with a quick nod.

Every type of magic has many different attributes that can be manipulated by the user through a spell that is spoken aloud by the caster.

The incantation creates a launchpad for the magic so that when the spell is complete, it goes in the desired direction. Think of it this way: The longer the launchpad takes to create—the longer the incantation—the bigger and more powerful the magic will be.

On the other hand, the shorter the spell, the smaller the launchpad, therefore the weaker the magic will be. On the plus side, a shorter incantation can be said quickly. It’s convenient because it can be conjured almost instantly.

“Then I’ll get to my point. My friends have told me that when a person learns Magic, it shows up in their status. Said person learns their incantation by looking at their status. It’s the trigger.”

“Really? But there’s no spell written on the status sheet you gave me…”

“Yes, that’s right. Don’t start thinking that I forgot to write it down, got that?”

“Firebolt” is written in my Magic slot, but there’s nothing here that looks like an incantation. Without one, I won’t be able to trigger my magic at all.

Just as my neck starts leaning to the side, the goddess tells me her theory.

“This is just my hunch, a complete guess. Judging by what was written in your status…your magic might not need an incantation to be triggered, Bell.”

I freeze. Willing my body to move, I unfold the status sheet in my hand and take another look at it.

Sure enough, there is no incantation. The only description given is the words “Swift-Strike Magic.”

…I think the goddess’s hunch is spot-on. Heck, I can’t think of anything else those words could mean.

“I don’t know how powerful it will be, but it has zero conjuring time…‘Swift-Strike Magic.’ I don’t think I’m wrong.”

“So, then, this Fireb—Gholg!”

Both of the goddess’s soft hands cover my mouth.

She’s standing on her tiptoes, eyes locked on mine.

“I would advise not saying its name willy-nilly.”

“Muhegeh?”

“I don’t know what the trigger is, but it might conjure just by you saying ‘Firebolt.’”

Ffffft.
My face is turning blue. I still have no clue what this magic can do, but if I release it here by accident, I might blow our home to smithereens.

“Understand?” the goddess asks. I nod and she takes her hands down.

“The bottom line is that this is all a guess. We won’t know for sure until you try it out…Use it in the Dungeon tomorrow. Then you will know for sure how your magic works.”

“Eh? Tomorrow…?”

“Don’t tell me you want to go now? You just took a shower, right? Your magic isn’t about to disappear!”

“Ah, yes…you’re right.”

The goddess chuckles at me as I slowly nod in acceptance.

It’s already late. The goddess is very tired from work, hiding a yawn with her hand and everything, so we decide to go straight to bed.

After brushing her teeth, the goddess jumps into bed before turning out the light.

I too feel a little sleepy and lay down on the sofa…

Sorry, Goddess.

…for a moment.

My eyes are wide open. Who could actually sleep at a time like this?

I jump up from the sofa. Listening to her breathing and being careful not to wake her, I grab my backpack, already prepped, and leave the room.

Throwing on my armor at all speed, I set my pack on the church stairwell before heading out.

I want to use it right now!

The moon and stars are shining brightly over Main Street. Light spilling out of shops’ and bars’ windows light up their patrons’ faces. The drunken, noisy voices of demi-humans have a very nice rhythm; my feet tap right along with it as I pass by.

Orario still hasn’t gone to sleep. And neither have I.

The white tower grows in front of me as I get closer. I lift the gear on the front gate with a grin on my face.

Once I’m into the first floor of Babel, I head straight down.

I reach the Dungeon entrance hole cover in the basement floor. Through the big hole I go, then down the spiral staircase as if I were
on wheels. It’s still not fast enough for me, so I put my hand on the railing halfway down and jump up and over the side into the middle of the hole.

I tear through the air and land with a solid
thud
. The impact feels so good it makes my eyes water, and my feet shake with excitement.

I’m now officially on level one of the Dungeon.

“……!!”

Crunch.
I come to a halt.

It’s a wide hallway. A short, fat green shadow has popped up in the middle of my line of sight.

A goblin.

This looks good…

The enemy’s size, the distance between us—everything looks good.

I swallow all the spit in my mouth and wipe my sweaty palms on my inner shirt.

It sees me. Yelling at the top of its lungs, it slams its feet against the ground as it charges right at me.

I clench my right fist before thrusting my arm straight out and spread my fingers in front of the oncoming monster.

“……”

My heart pounds away in my ears.

I focus all of my built-up nerves, anxiety, and excitement into my right shoulder.

Short breath.

Raising my eyebrows as high as they would go, I release a roar of my own:

“FIREBOLT!!”

A scarlet light floods my vision a moment later.

“?!”

Scarlet lightning flashes through the hallway.

No, not quite. Electric flames.

The bolts carve sharp, random lines through the air before piercing the goblin.

That’s all that I can see.

An explosive flash of light blinds me the instant the electric flame reaches the goblin’s body.

An orange flower blooms.

“…ah.”

The goblin stands there for a moment, covered in burns, its body smoking. Its eyes go white as it flops onto the floor. The last utterance of the monster echoes through the hallway.

“…No way.”

It works. It really works.

My magic works.

I pull my arm down and take a long, hard look at the palm of my right hand in stunned silence. All those times I’ve tried that pose while working in the fields, and now it’s here.

It’s the hand I see every day. Nothing’s changed.

But now it works.

Magic came from this hand.

“…H…haa-haa-haa!”

I know it works, but I’m not satisfied yet.

My entire body is sizzling. I close the open hand in front of my face into a tight fist.

Yes…!

Real results. Real progress.

This is something that I can see with my own eyes, not just my status on a sheet of paper. I’m finally getting closer to Miss Wallenstein—I can feel it!

Firebolt. Electric flame.

Conjured in an instant, it strikes at the speed of light with the power of fire.

Fire magic faster than anyone.

Magic just for me.

“
!”