Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, Vol. 5 (12 page)

“That’s four in favor…That settles it. We’ll set a course for the eighteenth floor.”

Asfi made the decision for the whole group. Mikoto, Ouka, and Chigusa weren’t given the opportunity to speak. Forming a line, they set off to find the path to the lower levels.

The order of their formation didn’t change. The hooded adventurer stayed in front with Asfi in the back protecting Hestia and Hermes. Their front line was strong enough to once again blaze a path littered with slain monsters and lead everyone else
forward without much need for the other adventurers to draw their weapons.

Armed with spears and shields provided by their supporter, Chigusa, Ouka, and Mikoto were able to protect one another from the occasional sneak attack. With the addition of Asfi’s range, their formation had no holes.

“To think a party new to the middle levels would choose to go to the eighteenth floor…”

“Yes, it appears that they’re able to make rational decisions under pressure.”

Mikoto and Asfi’s conversation echoed through the last bit of tunnel before the party emerged into a much wider room.

They had seen many like it before: a large, dome-shaped room with rocky walls. However, this one had a bizarrely shaped hole in the floor with stairs leading down inside of it.

It connected with the level below.

“The usual way is all well and good, but wouldn’t it be faster if we went through the holes as well?”

“No, Lady Hestia. The holes in these tunnels open and close on their own, each time making a new path. There’s no way to predict where we’d end up if we went in. We would be unable to determine our location…then the searchers would need a search party.”

“And we can’t ignore the possibility that Bell and his party might still be trying to come up. We might accidentally pass them by. The normal path is our best option.”

If they were trying to return to the surface…they would have to use the stairwells that led up as guidance. If they stayed on this path and Bell’s battle party were coming up, they could meet halfway.
Hermes Familia
’s reasoning to stay on the main path was flawless.

Hestia nodded in agreement, seeing their point. The hooded adventurer walked over to the hole.

Hestia and the others made their way to the next level, following her fluttering cape as she descended first.

Like a bowstring pulled too far back, they were close to their breaking point.

The tension mounted.

“The stink pouch has run out…” said Lilly with a nervous tremor in her voice.

For Welf, those words didn’t just snap the bowstring in his mind. They shattered it.

They were at the end of the tunnel on the sixteenth floor. Welf and the others had been advancing in hopes of finding another hole leading to a lower floor. They came to a stop in the middle of the path. They didn’t have much choice.

The air was heavy, their breathing hot. The pressure was immeasurable.

The smell that was keeping them safe from monster attacks had faded away. A bloodthirsty aura had taken its place.

The three of them were no more than sitting ducks. Welf had never experienced this kind of intensity. His ears were so focused on every little sound that something as simple as a step forward blurred his vision. He was far beyond his limit. He had to clench his teeth to keep from passing out under the strain.

Bell’s body, the only thing keeping him upright, was also extremely hot.
Snap!
His heart jumped again as Lilly pulled the pouch off her neck and dropped it to the ground.

All of their eyes were focused farther down the tunnel.

They knew that something lurked in the darkness. Every heartbeat sent a shiver down their spines, palms clammy with sweat. Whatever was shrouded in the darkness had an aura so strong that its very presence was torture.

This ain’t happening! Seriously, what the hell! Cut me some slack

Welf’s mind had reached its breaking point.

Don’t know, I don’t fucking know! Who the hell survives long enough to be this unlucky?!
His thoughts were stuck in a loop. He wanted to ask someone, anyone, if it was really possible for monsters to kill someone without touching them.

Finally—
Thud! Thud!

The ground shook as new sounds emerged from the black void.

The guillotine was walking toward them. They were the prisoners sentenced to death in this nightmare.

This. This. This is…

Alarm bells were erupting in Welf’s head. He grabbed the hilt of his broadsword as if it were his last line of defense. His grip was so fierce that his knuckles turned instantly white.

He squinted his eyes, forcing the muscles in his face to tense up as he tried to see into the darkness. At last, the bright spots in the ceiling burning like torches finally revealed a rusty red body, clear as day.

Its short, violent breaths were accented by each step of its powerful hooves. The lights above accented its burgeoning muscles in stark shadows.

The monster that appeared before Welf had magnificent horns on its head, sticking out like beacons of death.

“—”

The head of a bull on the body of a man.

Standing two meders tall and built like a stone wall.

It held a stone battle-ax, yet another natural weapon, with both hands in front of its face. Its eyes were looking down either side of the blade at its prey.

Welf was so overwhelmed by his first encounter with a Minotaur that he forgot to breathe.

“
UWWOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!
”

There was no way to defend.

His will was breaking. First to go was his will to fight, then his ability to face the enemy, then his instincts.

A devastating howl.

It was intimidating enough to bind any living thing’s mind and body with fear. Taking the full brunt of the category Level 2 Minotaur’s howl, Level 1 Welf was completely defenseless against his own paralyzing fear. He froze in place, his hand still collapsed to the hilt of his sword.

Seeing its opportunity, the Minotaur struck the ground with a mighty hoof and jumped toward him, its massive battle-ax raised high above its head.

Welf could see his own terror reflected in the beast’s eyes.

—Death.

Welf accepted his fate; this monster would be his executioner.

A second later—
Slip!

“?!”

Everything Welf could see was suddenly sideways.

The shoulder that had kept him standing was gone.

Lilly quickly ran up to catch him as he lost his balance. Planting his good knee firmly on the ground, Welf raised his head.

There was a pair of shoulders running toward the beast.

“OOWWWWOOOOOOOOO!!”

The white-haired boy powered through the Minotaur’s howl head-on.

Charging forward like a thunderbolt. Swiftly like a rabbit.

Welf’s eyes opened as wide as they would go, but before his shaking throat could make a sound—

There was a great flash before him.

“WOOH?!”

The attack hit its mark. The monster’s ax fell to the ground with a dull thud.

The boy standing in front of the staggering, bleeding Minotaur with a black knife in his right hand and a crimson dagger in his left—wasn’t finished.

He shot forward, blades glinting in the light.

“—
AAaaaaa?!
”

A countless number of lines crisscrossed the Minotaur’s entire body.

Violet, then crimson, and then violet again. Each color flashed as the white-haired boy unleashed his fury. He was holding both of his blades backhand as he tore into the creature. It couldn’t even cry out in pain under the onslaught.

Lilly and Welf knew one thing as they watched the carnage unfold in front of their eyes:

Bell had snapped.

He charged a powerful enemy without any hesitation. Faster than anything they had ever seen him do—
too
fast. Welf and Lilly couldn’t follow the storm of blades he was unleashing. Not giving the Minotaur a chance to counterattack, Bell kept piling on the damage with direct hits to its body.

A continuous barrage that not even eyes could capture.

Extreme speed coupled with swift movements: “Rabbit Rush.”

One final flash as Bell cut through the gut of the Minotaur for the last time. Its body falling apart as it took one step back, the beast let out a soft “
Ooooooo
” as it expired and hit the ground.

It was silent and still.

“…!”

Welf and Lilly looked on with awestruck eyes as Bell picked up the battle-ax that the Minotaur dropped and took a defensive stance. They followed his gaze back into the dark void of the tunnel only to see three more Minotaurs emerge.

Their howls combined in a chorus of terror that left everyone speechless. Even Bell had no hope of taking on three of them at once.

But he didn’t run away. Suddenly—
ping, ping
.

The tunnel filled with a soft ringing sound like a chime, as little white sparkles surrounded Bell’s hands.

—That’s…

Welf had seen those sparkles before. Those memories suddenly came flooding back to him at the same time that the Minotaurs all charged forward at once.

The attack required ten seconds to build up enough power. Bell braced himself to swing the ax as soon as the attack was ready.

The countdown hit zero. The Minotaurs that had been bearing down on him with horns at the ready took a direct hit.

“—!!”

The tunnel was inundated with a bright light.

It was absolutely blinding. Light seemed to explode from the ax as it stopped the beasts in their tracks, before vaporizing them with a thunderous boom. The explosion took pieces of the tunnel with it.

The aftermath was very similar to the time when Bell had used the same technique to defeat an infant dragon not too long ago. Cracks covered the burned walls like a spiderweb of electricity had torn through the tunnel, floor burned and singed. The path in front of them was littered with smoldering pieces of rock.

At about the time that the last of the smoke and haze cleared…

What was left of the battle-ax fell to the ground in pieces.

Their enemies were gone.

“…”

Welf and Lilly didn’t move, just silently stood there unable to speak.

Bell had his back toward them, shoulders rising and falling with each shallow breath.

He had defeated four Minotaurs in a row.

It was an accomplishment that went beyond his Level or skill and put his technique and strategy on display.

That was when Welf understood that all those rumors about the boy defeating a Minotaur weren’t just idle gossip.

—Minotaur Slayer.

Welf gulped down the air left in his throat, his eyes locked on the boy’s back.

“I think it’s about time you told me what you’re up to, Hermes,” said Hestia in a quiet but sharp voice.

The search party pressed forward in the dim light. Hestia matched Hermes’s pace while aiming the lamp in her hand all over the place. First toward Ouka and Mikoto, then back toward Chigusa, lighting up all of their faces in turn.

Then she cast the light under Hermes’s chin, casting dark shadows across his face.

“How do you mean?”