136 - - an intrusive curse

"Come from the treetops of the Flame Tree.

With Ninessa's words, a glowing white sphere appeared in midair.

The belongs to the auxiliary category, which is rare in the Flame Spirit Tree, but it is a magic technique that can be applied in various ways even though it is a lower branch skill.

It is especially useful in dungeons as a light that does not require fuel and can change its position at will.

A chicken-egg sized ball of light floats up to a hole in the ground and illuminates the back of the hole.

It seems that there is no monster waiting inside.

I would like to escape quickly while the clay figures are attracting a swarm of ants, but that is not going to happen.

"O Lord of the Tree of Life! Please repel the uninvited calamity.

As soon as the vision was secured, Ram Merulla began to recite a prayer.

This is a magical technique of the water spirit tree that prevents physical changes to some extent.

At the end of the chanting, the water wizard girl raised her staff with a large teardrop-shaped rain crystal stone on it.

Immediately, Thor felt something like moisture covering his body surface.

This magic technique would normally only affect one person, but the special priest's staff allows everyone within the range to benefit from it.

The group, having made their preparations quickly, started down the slanted hole with the light of the lantern in the lead.

So far, not a single word has been uttered in vain, except for a few words of prayer.

After about 30 steps, the descent switched to a horizontal level.

The first place on the first level, at the bottom of the hole, looked like a slightly larger room.

The floor and walls seemed to be coated with earth, and when I lightly kicked them, I did not feel any signs of collapse.

The ceiling was smooth and smooth, and the fingertips were high enough to reach if one jumped up.

The construction of this dungeon seemed to be quite different from that of the only other dungeon Thor had ever been to, the Ko-oni no Tsubo (Ogre's Cave).

There were no monsters to be seen within the range of the white light.

However, he could see what appeared to be a passage that branched off in several places.

Thor turned around and looked up at the hole from which he had descended.

The fragile clay giants seem to have long since disintegrated, but there is no sign of ants approaching down the slope.

This was apparently due to the fact that each ant had its own designated habitat.

Therefore, it is possible to easily break away from the pursuit by moving up the hierarchy.

And this easy way out is the biggest trap in this dungeon.

With a sound like the popping of bubbles, the sensation covering Thor's body disappears.

Each descent down the hierarchy causes some kind of irregularity in the body and mind.

This trap, called the "invasion curse," was the curse that caused the "Platinum Flame," an A-ranked party that the boundary town of Dadan prides itself on, to suffer greatly in the previous session.　

It seems that mental and physical abnormalities occur each time one descends a level, and the deeper one goes, the greater the number of abnormalities.

In other words, the further you go, the more shackles you have in your way.

However, it is not difficult for Ram Merulla, who has the blessing of Aluria, the water god who governs healing, to return to the original state if it is a normal (...) state abnormality.

And there are also means such as the substitute foam that protected Thor earlier.

However, there were some abnormalities that even a high ranking magician like her could not cure.

That is the root curse that is added as a characteristic to the skill tree, which once tormented Yuril for a long time.

However, it is said that the invasion curse here is temporary and will disappear as soon as you leave the dungeon.

"Well, it seems that I drew the wrong one from the first layer. I can't feel the magic power returning at all.

The brown-horned girl, who had closed her eyes for a while to concentrate, said in a disappointed tone.

She had summoned such a huge clay figure that it seemed to have drained her of her magical power, but she showed no sign of recovering.

This is a curse called , which causes a significant delay in the recovery of magic power.

A party consisting mainly of magic-users is almost dead.

Last time, when Stratchia and his party hit this curse at the fourth level, they survived by drinking expensive magic restoration medicine.

"Mmmm, if it's true, I'd like to get a silver coin for each touch, but I'm going to ask you to ...... do it for me.　

Staring at Thor, Kugase's face tightens a little and he holds out his hand.

In our prior meeting, we had decided in advance that in such a case, it would be Thor's turn to .

Just as Thor was about to squeeze his hand back, someone suddenly appeared from behind Kugase.

With a mischievous look on her face, Ninessa suddenly puts her hands around the girl's waist.

The red-haired beauty puts her mouth on Kugase's cheek and speaks to her in a teasing tone.　

"Hmmm...hey, how far can I touch you for a single gold coin?

"Hey, don't do that, Miss Ninae."

"Well, if I pay you, you can touch me as much as you want, right?"

That's a figure of speech. Oh, God!

Ninessa, who had softly restrained Kugase from behind, closed one eye at Thor meaningfully.

She seemed to be teasing the girl on purpose to relieve her tension.

Thor touches Kugasse's hand, which is distracted by the girl's back, and quickly brings her body back to the landing site.

"Hey, where are you putting your hands?

"Look, it's done."

"What?"

"Oh, are we done?"

Ninessa easily lets go of his hand and asks with a fascinating smile on her face.

"How's your magic?"

"Oh, it's back. ....... ............ what?"

"Really?

Rummella, who had been glancing at the proceedings from the side, joined the conversation with an impatient tone.

"You've recovered perfectly. It's amazing.

".................. Bullshit. All of ...... in that one moment?"

"Uh-huh. It's full. ......"

The two girls looked at each other and then at Thor's face sullenly.

Then they praised him in slightly less prickly language.

"You're good, old man. I've been thinking about it. This will save you a lot of money!"

"I'm surprised. For someone brought here by that prince, you must have been a pretty handy guy.

Heresy is always hard to understand. But fear not, Thor. Times are only as good as the fools who talk about them.

"Well, I think that's enough chitchat. Prince?"

Nodding at Ninessa's words, Straccia looks around the room with her arms folded.

Then he lifted his eye patch and stared sharply at the passageway leading to the back of the room.

"My accursed, magical eye, point out to me the true path!"

"Second from the right, my prince."

For some reason, it was not Straccia's left eye that showed the way, but rather a dumbfounded-looking Rummella.

With a snap, the prince put back his eye patch, nodded broadly, and started to walk toward the end of the passage.