by Fujino Omori
This human is dangerous.
The glinting rubellite gaze that shot through him was unflappable, cold, and infused with a single-minded will to fight.
It had been a long time since he looked into a pair of eyes and shivered with that sensation akin to terror.
The light glowing in those red eyes was the flame of outrage. The human was incensed that his fellow humans had been injured and placed in danger.
“—Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”
The boy charged forward gripping two knives.
Fast. Fast. Fast.
One after the next, the black and white blades flew at him, trying to gouge into his body.
But—he was still just the slightest bit stronger than the human.
“?!”
He ignored the blades digging into him and swung his fist down.
Instantly the boy dodged, tumbling onto the floor. The gouge where the moss had flown off his body quickly filled back in.
His body was convenient. It regenerated itself. The more magic stones he devoured, the more his cells multiplied.
When the human stood up, he had an astonished expression on his face. Right away the boy charged again with a speed and force that was less like a rabbit than a wild horse. At least, that was how it looked to him, and he had hunted countless humans.
This opponent was not hurried, just fast. But that did not undermine his composure. He could handle an endless number of those sharp, insignificant cuts.
“Mr. Bell?!”
The small female looked at the boy’s distorted face and screamed. The scent of magic stones was coming from her. After he crushed the boy, he would destroy that female next.
“Yaah!”
The boy, who had been forced to step back before the swinging arms, thrust out his left hand.
He knew all about that trick the humans used. It was called “magic.”
He couldn’t even count the number of times he and his brethren had nearly been obliterated by it back when he was still weak. It was the human weapon he had to be most wary of. But he also knew that in order to use the magic, they had to sing. They needed time. And no matter how short the song was, his attack would be faster.
Idiot. He sneered.
But at the very moment when he planned to leap toward the boy and crush him—something unexpected happened.
“Firebolt!”
It took only an instant.
An instant for the flaming light to be released.
Frozen in the face of this magic he’d never before experienced, he took a direct hit.
A scream burst from his throat.
“EEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA?!”
The monster’s scream rips through the air.
After my Swift-Strike Magic beats out the mossy giant’s approach and hits the center of its body, it swings both arms around wildly in pain.
It was trying to crush me before I had the chance to say a chant…!
I can tell as much from its behavior. That’s the scary reality. A monster that’s not a Xenos has figured out the structure the magic adventurers use and is attempting to counteract it.
This is indeed an Irregular born of the Dungeon, and an extremely unusual and dangerous one at that.
We absolutely have to kill it here and now.
As I make up my mind, I fly toward it.
“Yaah!”
“OOO…?!”
I use the black knife in my right hand to shave off a piece of my enemy’s shoulder, and then with the glittering white blade in my left hand I slice into its torso. The moss huge writhes its blazing body in anguish, trying to escape the violent storm of flames and cutting blades that descend one after another.
Just beyond the spot where it stands recklessly throwing its body in every direction is a strong, fast-flowing current.
—Oh no you don’t!
I raise my eyebrows and stamp on the ground as the monster attempts to dive into the stream and retreat once again. Lurching forward, I try to inflict a fatal blow.
“—”
That’s when it happens.
The monster, who up till this point has simply been running this way and that in a tormented attempt to escape, gets a murderous gleam in its yellow eyes that makes me suspicious. Suddenly those eyes look as sharp as a hawk’s.
Even in the throes of a difficult situation, my enemy has recognized the impatience in its opponent’s heart.
As my body flows forward, wooden whips shoot up around my feet.
“Huh?!”
Tree roots are winding around my boots and tightening around my knees. The roots grow from the moss huge’s calves—which are in my blind spot—and into the ground. They’re an indirect weapon generated by the expanding and contracting wooden frame covering the monster’s entire body.
I’ve been taken in—no, I’ve been outwitted.
This intelligent enhanced species has played its hidden card, and I have to admit it’s beaten me in this round of bets.
“OOOOOOO!”
It lets out a howl filled with pain and anger, and then throws itself backward, dragging me toward the water along with it.
“Mr. Bell?!”
As Lilly’s scream echoes through the room, the tree roots break through the crystal ground and become visible.
I’m hanging in the air with my feet bound and no way to resist. The roots pull taut and drag me closer and closer to the water until I hit the gurgling stream.
“Glug—?!”
I’m overwhelmed by shock and flying droplets, and then the sensation of being swallowed up entirely by the water.
The world turns blue. Sounds become distant, as if a membrane has been stretched over my ears. I am immersed in this cold watery world that cuts off all communication with the land. The sensation of floating lasts only a few seconds, and then my body is swept along at least five meders below the water’s surface.
It got me. That single phrase blinks across my drowning brain.
An instant later, the horrifying figure linked to me by threads of wood rushes at me with fists raised.
“GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!”
Its howl sends hundreds of bubbles floating toward me along with the vibrations from the sound. The moss huge’s enormous fist slams into my windpipe.
“Oof!”
The air in my lungs rushes out in a huge bubble. My body shoots across the streambed like an arrow, totally ignoring any such thing as water pressure. The enhanced species follows on my heels with equal speed.
As my back slams into an underwater crystal wall, the monster punches my cheekbone.
“—?!”
The current carries me along in the direction I went flying. But my enemy is not about to let me go. The roots tying our feet together have become shackles shaving away at my life. The monster rushes toward me with eyes bulging, like some wrathful wave.
I force myself to recover from the last attack and finally think to use the knives still held in both hands to defend myself. But even though I try to time the movement of the Divine Knife with my enemy’s approach, I’m too late. I’m moving too slowly. As the knife swims in front of me horizontally, the monster’s fist buries itself deep in my stomach. Once again bubbles spew from my mouth.
My sense of movement and timing on land is way off down here.
With my hands and feet bound by the water, I’m now in a defensive position with the monster on offense. Although the blue clothes I have on throw off a faint light, my body doesn’t move how I want it to. So this is how things are, even with the benefit of the Undine cloth. From the monster’s perspective, I must be little different from a drowning child. This environment requires completely different movements from land, but I can’t adapt. I’m just tossing about uselessly. The shape of the stream around me has changed, and I sense that I’ve been swept out of the room into the main current.
This blue flowing world is both beautiful and cruel.
There’s the terror of not being able to b
reathe and the certainty that the moment I lose my composure, I’ll be pulled closer to death. As I’m thrown forward by the monster’s blow, I look down at the streambed and see the corpse of an adventurer. His arms seem to be beckoning me to join him.
My body flips over, my feet and head switching places again and again. My equilibrium is gone. Already I have no idea which way is the streambed and which is the surface. So this is how unstable a human becomes when his feet can no longer touch the ground. This is all it takes to throw us off balance.
Confronted with an overwhelming disadvantage in terrain, my supposed Level-4 status is completely useless.
The full terror of this waterside Dungeon, and the essence of what the Water Capital really is, finally dawns on me.
This is—an underwater battle!!
“OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!”
“Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh?!”
Even though the moss huge isn’t a water-dwelling monster, it moves quite a bit better down here than I do. It uses its wooden frame to send out feelers. The shape seems to be designed to reduce the resistance of the water, and sometimes it pushes the frame against the wall or wraps it around a crystal to gain speed or change direction. My opponent has been in the Water Capital longer than I have, and therefore it knows how to handle the terrain better.
All my counterattacks meet empty space. Still, I’m somehow able to fend off the attacks that come from 360 degrees by using my gauntlets and armor. If it weren’t for the Undine cloth, I’d probably be dead by now. Thanks to leveling up, my lung capacity is greater than that of ordinary people and I still have some leeway, but I’m not sure how long I can last. I try again and again to reach the shore, but the cords binding my feet won’t let me get there.
Blood is seeping from where my mouth was punched and where the sharp roots poked in between the gaps in my armor. As the blood drifts away, it clouds the clear blue water and turns it a dingy red. As if drawn by this stream of blood, a large form twists into sight in the distance.
It’s an—aqua serpent?!
The large-category monster has entered this stream from a tributary. The harsh underwater glitter of its eyes is both magnificent and terrifying.
“JAAAAAAAAAA!”
This one is a genuine water-dwelling monster, and it swims toward me even faster than the moss huge. I have no time to defend myself as its fangs sink into my shoulder.
“Ah!!”
I feel a burning pain as yet more blood swirls into the water. I’m starting to think my life is at risk as the jaws seek my bones—when the punishing roots wrapped around my feet suddenly disappear.
Huh?
The moss huge has removed the roots from its body. It stares at me for a moment, then puts out its wooden feelers, turns against the current, and disappears into another tributary.
It released my restraints? Just when it had the perfect opportunity to kill its prey?
Was it afraid of the aqua serpent? That answer makes me suspicious, but I have no time to think. I plunge the knife in my right hand into the monster that’s locked onto my shoulder.
“—!!”
As the huge form writhes in pain, shaking me around as it does, I try to pull its fangs from my flesh.
Just then, I become belatedly aware of a powerful roar vibrating through the water.
—
I look over my shoulder toward the source of the vibrations.
In the distance, I can see a break in the water.
The break seems to be where the stream reaches its end point and falls downward—.
—No…way.
All the streams on this floor lead to the Great Falls—.
Eina taught me that. I said those very words myself not long ago.
Swept along by the current, my body is heading toward the center of the twenty-fifth floor, straight for the enormous waterfall.
Oh crap!!
As it approaches the falls, the stream becomes a veritable torrent. The water is moving too fast. It just keeps accelerating. The mouth of the waterfall is sucking in everything around it and smashing everything to smithereens at its base.
The blood drains from my face as I concentrate all my strength on getting this aqua serpent off me. I recklessly plunge the black knife into its neck, its face, its eyeballs. The monster spews blood and shrieks as it furiously thrashes its long body around. Suddenly I’m thrust above the water’s surface.
“Peh!!”
I stick my face out of the water. But the air I had been longing for so desperately is tasteless. Burning with impatience, I beat Hakugen against the serpent’s cranium. Finally, the strength drains from its jaw and it releases me.
It’s too late.
I’m already at the end point. The waterfall is sucking me unhesitatingly toward the precipice.
I reach out my hand but find nothing but air. The next instant, a terrifying floating sensation overwhelms my body.
One more second and I’ll be dragged over the edge along with the wat—
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!
An explosion of water is pouring down. Huge drops beat onto my skin. My screams lost in the roar of the falling water, I am swept downward in the biggest waterfall in the Dungeon, the Great Falls.
CHAPTER 5
BRIDE OF THE WATER CAPITAL
“Mr. Bell, Mr. Bell?!”
Lilly’s cries were swept away by the flowing water.
She was surrounded by the spider’s web of streams in the room full of crystal clusters. Facing the place where Bell had disappeared into the water, she called his name again and again.
“Master Bell has been pulled under by the monster…” Haruhime said, standing in a daze beside Lilly.
“We have to save him right away! The water is flowing so quickly, he’ll be carried out of the room before we know it!”
Lilly threw off the Goliath Robe and backpack as she spoke, exposing her thin body dressed in shorts and a small coat of Undine cloth. She was about to dive into the water after him.
“It’s useless, Lilliluka!” Daphne shouted. Laying Luvis, whom she had been supporting, on the ground, she grabbed Lilly’s wrist and pulled her back.
An instant later, the fangs of a raider fish skimmed past the tip of Lilly’s nose. Lilly stood dazed as blood trickled down her cheek where the fang had grazed it.
“What the hell are you doing? If you or I jump into that stream, a monster will kill us! Did you forget how dangerous that water is?!”
“B-but…but Mr. Bell!!”
Lilly was more upset than she had ever been before. Daphne was staring at Lilly, her mouth shut tight, when Aisha, Welf, and Ouka returned with the three elven adventurers. Although the blue crabs had slowed them in helping Bell, they had succeeded in slaughtering all the monsters on land.
“Miss Aisha! Mr. Bell has—!”
“I know; I saw.”
Aisha handed the injured elves over to the flustered Cassandra, then glanced toward Mikoto. In addition to Yatano Black Crow that allowed her to perceive enemies, the girl had a similar skill called Yatano White Crow that let her see allies with the same Falna as her. She shook her head, a pained expression on her face.
“Sir Bell’s signal has left the room…”
“That…”
The remaining color drained from Lilly’s face as she realized that Bell had been swept away along with the enhanced species. Welf and Ouka, who were out of breath, stared in the same direction as her. Aisha sighed.
“Okay, you guys. We’re not going to save Bell Cranell.”
“Wha—?!”
“We’ll never catch up if we chase after him, since he’s been swept up by such a fast current. Plus, how quickly can we move if we’re carrying these injured elves?”
“M-Miss Aisha! Wait a second!”
“Relax, shrimp. What are we gonna do if our party’s brain—you—falls apart?”
Lilly had been about to lash out at Aisha, but a long, thin finger poked he
r in the forehead. She bent backward as tears pooled in her eyes, staring in confusion at Aisha.
“Bell Cranell can handle this floor on his own.”
“…!”
“That kid’s status is weird. He’s already above average for a Level Four, and in terms of speed and agility, he’s practically at the very top. I don’t know how much potential he had already saved up, of course.”
In other words, Bell was way above the minimum level required for the twenty-fifth floor. Aisha snorted before continuing in a disgruntled tone.
“Bell Cranell is stronger than I am. Not that I want to put that to the test.”
“Miss Aisha…”
“Even if he’s drawn into an underwater battle, I’m sure he’ll stubbornly find some way to survive. Just pray for him to get back onto the shore through his own strength. There’s no way he’ll die on land.”
Hearing this vote of confidence from the second-tier adventurer, Lilly let her frenzied emotions finally settle down. Aisha looked at her face, which was starting to take on its typical expression as the analyst of the party, and finished her argument.
“If you’re gonna worry about anyone, it should be us. Am I wrong?”
Lilly waited for a moment, then slowly nodded. The prum squeezed her childlike hands into fists.
“…Miss Aisha is right. Let’s stop thinking about Bell.”
“Lady Lilly!”
“Hey now, Li’l E!”
“Just calm down,” she said, taking a deep breath as if she was talking more to herself than to Haruhime and Welf.
“We have to put the safety of the party first. If we don’t save ourselves, we’ll only be more of a burden on him.”
“Li’l E, you—”
“Bell will be okay. Let’s have faith in him.”
It was clear that she, together with the renart, cared more for the boy than anyone else in the party. But she did not put those feelings into words. Instead, she pushed her personal emotions aside and donned the mask of a commander.
“The situation has changed. Lilly proposes that we escape from this floor.”
“…!”
Not only Welf but Aisha, too, looked surprised at Lilly’s sudden leap to a decision.
