by Fujino Omori
“Mari!”
I thrust out my right hand.
“…!”
Her body has disappeared into the water.
“GUA!!”
The aqua serpent roars in surprise as its fangs meet air, and I pause in astonishment, too, still poised to shoot a Firebolt. In that instant, I catch just a glimpse of her. With a swift, graceful movement, almost as if she’s dancing, the mermaid slips past the long serpent’s body stretched across the stream.
—She’s unbelievably fast!!
Even among water-dwelling monsters, mermaids are often called “the birds of the water.” They are able to move with complete freedom within the water, and their speed and ability to turn in circles are unparalleled. Once they are in the water, they are impossible to kill. It’s one reason adventurers search so insanely for these rare monsters.
I thought she was a little absentminded, but she’s managed to avoid becoming prey for another monster.
Since she’s a Xenos, she’s probably even faster than ordinary mermaids.
“Bell! Over here, over here!”
“Ah, okay!”
Her face pops up behind the monsters as if she’s teleported herself there.
To my surprise, she swims faster than I can run. We leave the angrily roaring aqua serpent behind and continue forward. As the mermaid points the way, I can’t help but feel like the sort of spirit that might appear in a fairy tale is guiding me.
Of course, that doesn’t mean we can avoid combat altogether…!
I’m flying solo here, so I persistently fight each monster I encounter along the water’s edge. There’s a crystal turtle with multiple crystals projecting from its body, and a hideous devil mosquito that latches on to adventurers and sucks their blood, and even a light quartz that shoots out rays of light. I try to defeat them as quickly as possible, but I don’t have time to take on every single one. Making my way through the sprawling twenty-fifth floor to reunite with my party on its own requires quite a lot of time. It’s also extremely inefficient for Mari to continuously sing her charm songs. As the flustered mermaid navigates through the labyrinth, we’re forced to change our route numerous times.
After we change directions for the umpteenth time, something unexpected happens.
“Uhh…”
“The stream!”
The waterway that has been flowing alongside the dryland path suddenly breaks off. While the dryland path continues forward, the stream dead-ends into a kind of cove. Perhaps we ended up here because we’ve made so many turns, but there’s no way Mari can follow the path on land. I won’t be able to rely on her navigation.
“Bell, I’m sorry…From here on, I…”
Her shoulders sag dejectedly. Standing beside her, I try to think of another option. The solution that blares across my adventurer’s brain a second later is totally simple and totally primitive. I feel a strong resistance to using it and frown, but this is no time to worry about appearances. I decide to go with it.
“Mari, I’m sorry!”
“Huh?—Eee!”
I splash into the cove and lift the mermaid into my arms. Then, like a prince carrying his princess, I climb back onto the land and dash forward.
“S-see, we can go together like this! I’m sorry!”
As I utter this half-excuse, half-apology, I accelerate even faster.
If there’s no place for her to swim, I might as well carry her. It’s completely obvious. But it also feels totally foolish…to run along carrying this girl with a fishtail for her lower body.
Her tail waves softly back and forth. She’s as meek as a lamb, but her shoulders are tense, and I catch her staring into my face, which is right next to hers. Her cheeks flush faintly when our eyes meet, and she rests her head against my chest.
This may well be the first time in history a human has run overland carrying a mermaid.
I wonder if this counts as outstanding excelia…For a moment, I let my mind wander away from the present situation and laugh drily.
In contrast, Mari’s eyes are sparkling.
“Wow!”
For the first time, the dryland scenery expands before her unsteady eyes. Crystal caves she has never seen before pass one after the next as the landscape changes dizzyingly. It must be like a dryland adventure for her. Her eyes are full of excitement and more joy than I’ve seen in them yet.
“Bell! This is amazing! I love it!”
“Okay, but heyyyyyyyyyyyy!! Please don’t hug me like that!”
She’s so excited to experience this unknown world that she’s gripping my neck. I can feel her firm breasts pressing onto me underneath her shell bikini top. I take a huge rabbit-like leap and jump over the swarm of blue crabs blocking our way forward.
If another adventurer saw me like this, my reputation would be done for…!
Bell Cranell tried to take a mermaid home with him. If word of that got around, I’d be branded as someone who has a monster fetish for real.
Dripping sweat and prodded on by all sorts of fears, I rush with renewed energy toward my destination.
“…Damn, I’m getting used to carrying women like this…”
“…?”
Mari tilts her head quizzically as I mutter this sudden thought.
First it was the goddess, then recently Haruhime. I even carried Lilly in all the confusion…I think back on these incidents and let slip a pathetic chuckle. I feel like I’ve ended up so far from where I started…
I have a funny feeling that if Lilly and the others saw me like this, they would be extremely critical of me right now. But I take my mind off that and charge forward as Mari shouts gleefully.
“OO!”
The blue crab’s giant claw came swinging down.
Welf barely managed to parry the attack with his greatsword. Stumbling, he returned the blow with the massive blade. He jumped back as sparks flew from the crab’s hard shell. Finally, on the third blow, the blade found a seam in the shell and slashed through the fleshy body underneath.
“Damn…!”
He wiped the sweat that had pooled beneath his neck.
This was not easy. Aisha had said that even a Level-2 adventurer could fight the monsters on this floor. She was right. If Welf put his all into it, he could unquestionably prevail.
But the fights were bitter. Killing a single monster took a lot of time and effort. In the Dungeon, where monster attacks came one on top of the next, that could be fatal. He would be cornered by the Dungeon’s prime weapon—its resources—and crushed.
The experience was teaching him, painfully, the meaning of the floor standards that the Guild set.
He could not keep up with the demands of the vanguard. The number of monsters in front of the party began to increase. Welf grimaced as the group continued its attempt at escape.
“Yaaaaah!”
“GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”
“…!”
But support was what a party was all about.
A single blow from a fiercely swung blade bisected the blue crab charging Welf.
“What’s wrong, smith? All tired out?”
“…Man. You look pleased with yourself as usual!”
Ouka was gripping in one hand the battle-ax that had slaughtered the crab. Welf smiled spitefully at him.
“I guess I can forgive you in light of how well you used that weapon,” the smith said.
“Yeah…This one is really saving my ass.”
Welf chugged down one of the potions he was carrying and leaped forward toward the monsters. Ouka was at his side.
“Arrr!”
Using a martial-arts move incongruent with his hulking body—a technique he’d learned in the Far East—Ouka ripped off one flank of the blue crab directly in front of him. He followed up with a swipe of his silver ax, easily smashing the enemy’s hard shell and pulverizing its soft flesh.
The Kougou battle-ax.
Welf had forged it for Ouka using varmath, a high-quality Dungeon ore tha
t Hephaistos had given him as part present, part assignment. It was found only in the lower levels. Welf had used the leftovers for Ouka’s shield. The heavyweight gear was exceptionally powerful, sharp, and protective.
Even though he’d gotten the materials for free, Welf made it a rule to sell whatever he could as a smith, and therefore he charged 700,000 valis for the set. That included a steep discount.
Ouka channeled his indebtedness to Welf back into fighting strength and roared with rage.
“UAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!”
Blue veins popping in his powerful arms, he wielded Kougou with both hands.
His abilities were undeveloped compared to those of a second-tier adventurer, but his gear—guaranteed by Welf as equivalent to second-tier level—made up for what he lacked, allowing him to crush the monsters. Swinging the ax sideways, he sliced the crab in half horizontally so forcefully that its magic stone shattered along with the rest of it, and everything turned to ash.
The wall of monsters blocking the party’s path had thinned, and a way forward was now open.
“Amazing vanguard work! Thanks, you guys…!”
“Lady Lilly, now is our chance!”
As Daphne gave the valiant Ouka a sweat-drenched smile, Mikoto urged the party forward.
Daphne, who was concentrating on unexpected attacks from the sides, swung her baton-like dagger. While she defended Lilly and Dormul and the others in the center, Mikoto supported the vanguard.
Mikoto was single-handedly filling the gap left by Chigusa. Using her skill, she would instantly identify approaching enemies, then throw her knives at them before they reached the party.
The throwing knives, called sakuya, were stained crimson at the tips, as befit the meaning of their name—“red nights.” Welf had made the ninja weapons according to Mikoto’s specifications. They were forged from blood onyx, an ore found in the middle levels. Although they entailed some sacrifice in throwing distance, the weapons handled far better than a bow and arrow. Mikoto gripped four of the throwing knives between her fingers and aimed for the eyes of approaching monsters. When the enemies faltered, Ouka and Welf rushed in to kill them using their ax and sword. Sometimes Mikoto even ran forward herself and bravely filled the gaps between the two boys.
My head is about to explode…!
Aside from Aisha, who was drawing forward the pack of monsters at the rear and then slaughtering them, Mikoto currently bore the heaviest burden of anyone in the party. She was not only providing support from the center and filling in at the vanguard, but she was also scouting out enemies. Her role of course demanded physical stamina, but her continuous use of Yatano Black Crow was also sucking away her mental energy minute by minute. Although it could be revived with items or magic, the psychological burden was heavy. Her all-around talent with various weapons and positions was precisely what made it so weighty.
Since Sir Bell isn’t here right now, I have to keep pushing myself…!
As sweat poured down her body, she mentally whipped herself to fight harder with both her throwing knives and katana. Just then, Ouka and Welf started making a commotion.
What’s that?!
A figure about as large as Ouka was charging toward them straight on.
Mikoto’s net of perception hadn’t registered it—in other words, it must be a type of monster she hadn’t encountered yet.
“A crystallus urchin! All of you, clear out of here!” Aisha shouted from the rear. She knew more about this floor than the others.
The monster’s ball-shaped body was covered in long, sharp needles. The blue marine species was charging toward the party by rolling at high speed. Watching it crush the crystal ground as it advanced furiously, sending up fragments, it was easy to imagine that anyone who got in its way would be similarly split into a thousand pieces.
As Mikoto watched, her violet eyes zeroed in on a hideous jaw in the center of the rounded surface. She could see a large glob of mucus hanging from the circular mouth full of countless teeth.
“Hey, Big Guy! What are you doing? Get out of the way!” Welf shouted, turning pale.
“Chigusa and the other wounded can’t run! If this thing makes it to the back, someone will be caught in those needles!” Ouka replied, raising his shield.
He was right. The dwarves, weakened by the parasitic vines, could not run fast enough to escape. The same was true for the elves they carried. But given Ouka’s status, he and his varmath shield would be turned into a mincemeat pancake if he tried to take on the huge needle-covered shell head-on.
Mikoto watched Ouka drip sweat as he prepared to intercept the urchin, and her eyes narrowed.
Ah—there’s something familiar about this scene!
Over three months ago, she had been protecting the injured Chigusa in the middle levels when a hard armored charged them from behind. The fight had ended with injuries on both the monster’s side and theirs, and ultimately they had been in such a wretched condition that they even decided to lead a pass parade into Bell’s party. If only she had been stronger then! She still regretted what had happened.
She smiled at her current difficult situation. Then she moved forward as if something was pulling her.
“Mikoto!”
She moved past the startled Ouka and leaped to the very front of the party. Returning the Iron Tiger Kotetsu to her hip, she pulled a new weapon from her back, sheath and all.
It was a new blade made by Welf, called Shunsan, meaning “Spring Hail.”
The cutting edge at the sword’s tip was like a flame. It was far superior to the two blades at her hip, Kotetsu and Chizan.
As Mikoto leaped out into the path of the crystallus urchin, it hurtled forward, cutting up the monsters in its way. A cloud of blood and flesh filled the air. Mikoto sped forward, her awareness sharpening as she went.
The voices of Ouka and the others behind her grew faint. Even the sound of the monster rolling toward her disappeared.
She was prepared for this. Takemikazuchi had taught her new skills. She had a fantastic new weapon from Welf. If she couldn’t get through this—if she couldn’t overcome the same setup she’d encountered before—then her whole life up till now would be a fiction.
—I can be like Bell, too!
The next instant, her body was on fire.
She slipped the sheath on at her hip and placed her right hand on the hilt. Taking a fighting position, she prepared to draw the sword.
Of all the moves she had learned during her ten-day training with Takemikazuchi, the one she was about to use was as powerful as the Full-Moon Throw. It was the most advanced quick-draw she knew, and her teacher, the god of combat, had ordered her to name it.
“—!!”
The monster groaned as it rapidly narrowed the gap between them, crushing crystals as it went. The instant it was about to make contact, Mikoto loosened her sword from its scabbard.
At just the right moment, with just the right breathing, she slid the blade out.
Takemikazuchi hadn’t looked very pleased by the name she selected, but she was satisfied she had chosen well. Actually, she had based the name on the one the god had given her. In other words—
Zekka. Eternal Flower.
The flashing blade whined piercingly as it bisected the hard body of the crystallus urchin.
“Whoooooaaaaaa!!”
“N-no way!”
“She cut it right in half!!”
Welf, Ouka, and even Lilly forgot where they were and cheered as they watched Mikoto turn the monster into an enormous pile of ash. She swiftly returned Shunsan to its scabbard and raised her right hand in a fist.
“Hurry, everyone! Onward!”
Her heart still pounding with excitement, she turned to shout back at the rest of the group. The whole party—second-tier adventurers Luvis and Dormul included—was struck with admiration. They rushed down the open passage, their morale high.
“M-Miss Mikoto, you’re amazing!”
“Thank you, La
dy Haruhime!”
Haruhime was waiting for Mikoto when she returned to the middle rank. As the two ran desperately forward with the rest of the party, Haruhime handed Mikoto one of Nahza’s new High Dual Potions. As soon as she chugged it down, her physical and mental strength were completely restored.
For a moment, Mikoto blushed under the excited gaze of Haruhime, who was serving as her supporter, but she quickly switched gears. Once again, she began using Yatano Black Crow to search for enemies.
“Three on the right, six in the water, and another one hiding behind that crystal!”
“Mr. Welf, please turn left and attack with your magic sword in four seconds!”
As Mikoto told the party where the monsters were, the information was channeled through Lilly. She made all decisions at her own discretion, having been entrusted by Daphne with commanding the group. Drawing on experience gleaned as a supporter, she assessed her companions’ movements, coordination, and degree of energy and instantly filled any hole that opened. Unsatisfied to simply sit back and command, she also provided support with her hand bow gun and magic sword. In effect, she was controlling the party as if it were an extension of her own body.
The combination of Mikoto’s extraordinary ability to identify enemies and Lilly’s decision-making skills saved the party from disaster numerous times. Now that the group had lost its core—Bell—these two were unmistakably steering it forward.
Then there was Cassandra.
“Miss Cassandra! Recovery, please!”
“Yes, ma’am!”
The girl was dispensing her healing magic according to decisions made by Lilly, who had the best overall grasp of battle conditions.
“Heavenly light, once rejected. Merciful arms that save my shallow self. Rescue my miserable companions in place of my words that cannot reach them.”
Cassandra passed Chigusa to Haruhime and began chanting as she waved her crystal rod.
“Oh sunlight, may you beat back ruin—”
The speed and confidence with which she sang the words were evidence of her abundant experience and skill in healing her companions. She adjusted the amount of magic power she dispensed depending on the severity of her patient’s wounds.
