Chapter 92

Author’s NoteIn the comment section there is a lot of messages pointing out that 「Flashback is too long!!!」 For which I am truly sorry.

The flashback will end at chapter 74. It might be hard to understand at the moment but there is a lot of foreshadowing and foreshadowing for foreshadowing going on. Foreshadowed events are still far away but please bear with me for a bit more.

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The floor that actually was a spring trap, forcibly flung me into the passageway that most likely was loaded with more traps.

Since it came to this, there is no choice. Even if I was thrown in here by a trap, going back would make no sense.

The die is cast (forcibly).

「Just who the hell is this 「Koumei」!!!」

「Holding a rich colored ornate fan, he is the mastermind behind countless schemes that made many people dance on the palm of his hand. If you just blame it on him in most cases, you won’t be wrong!」

「What is that? Is he a demon?!」

「Yes he is!!!」

The very moment we land on the ground, we break into the dash. This is already a conditioned reflex. If you halt, you will instantly be done in.

There was a time when I was under the illusion that since those are traps, it is okay to stop.

I was so green back then.

The place where we kicked the ground as if it were aiming for us was soon hit by a projectile resembling an enlarged toy arrow with a birdlime for an arrowhead instead of an actual onearrowhead.

Were you to get hit by this, you will be pulled by a thick rope into the pitfall smeared with grease.

Yea, it was really hard at that time. Even after falling into the pitfall, glue is not easy to get rid off. Unlike grease, it takes almost forever to scrub off, so I ended up jumping into the water spring and washing my whole body there.

And I got hit really hard because 「Now I won’t be able to use it for a while!!!」. That was almost the only time when I was actually at the wrong, so I obediently took the beating. After she hit me over 10 times, I retaliated by yelling 「How long are you going to keep hitting me, you damn washboard!!!」 and in the end, it went with the usual scenario.

By the way, the water in the spring was circulating, so most of it was replaced after 2 or 3 hours.

While being reminded of such bad memories, we pushed forward.

「Kuh, Ha, Aah!!!」

「Buh, Haa!!!」

Suddenly a lot of steps of various height appeared on the flat floor in front of us and blocked our route to hinder our progress.

However, I already was so used to this level of obstacles that this can not be called an obstacle anymore.

Run, run, run.

I’m running at full speed while avoiding the traps using my extraordinary physical prowess.

「Hu!」

By lowering my posture, I avoid wooden stakes coming from all possible directions.

700 meters remaining.

「Out of my way!!!」

Using the strong water torrent, the redhead deflects a ball of glue that was shot from a cannon that suddenly popped up in front of her.

600 meters remaining.

Strong gusts of wind are blowing at us with unpredictable timing.

「Horrah!!!」

If you try to forcibly go against the wind, the lost speed will make you a good target for the traps, so I breakthrough using dive rolls that I learned during PE class, in order to decrease my air resistance.

500 meters remaining.

From the overhead, we were yet again attacked by the birdlime arrows from before and also a suspended ceiling smeared with the same adhesive.

At the same time, spears with glue instead of spearheads came from left and right side.

「You owe me one!!!」

Saying that, the redhead created a thick wall of ice in the shape of a tunnel.

All traps in this dungeon including adhesive are quite strong.

Because of that, the spell that was loaded with high-grade magic power crumbled away after only a couple of seconds.

However, those couple of seconds are enough to escape outside the range of the traps.

400 meters remaining.

「Ugh, it is that annoying thing!!!」

「Invisible block!!!」

In my field of vision, a somewhat blurred area can be identified.

It is one of the several malicious traps that exist in this dungeon.

Transparent blocks made by fixating and solidifying magic power which were mixed-in among several other normal blocks that despite being made with magic, did not leak any magical presence.

For the redhead, her superior magical sense this time around worked against her. It appears that due to unwittingly having the grasp on the positions of normal transparent blocks, she was having trouble locating these types of special blocks.

To avoid blocks with no magical presence, you could only search for them by distinguishing a slight blur that resulted from the way they refracted light.

「I return my debt!」

Pouring magic power into the 「Heavy Feather Slapstick Sword」 changes the color of the blade to dully shining silver.

According to my will, the sword’s blade spreads wide.

「Sweep away magical aberrations, 「Magic Squall」」

By swinging the sword that turned into a huge fan, I create a gust of wind charged with magic power that scatters and disperses the magic power of transparent blocks.

「Even without your help, I could easily handle it myself!!」

「I can say the same!!!」

300 meters remaining.

「Nnooh!!! Uh.」

With the feeling of having my internal organs tightly grasped and shaken, gravity reversed. As if aiming for that, a giant fly swatter appears, intending to send us flying.

Above… And at the destination, a huge glue trap is set as if to catch a giant cockroach. We will end up like some kind of bugs on flypaper if we were to land there.

Of course, in order to avoid it, I make use of the fly swatter as a foothold and propel myself forward.

200 meters remaining.

To rob away our hard-won composure, a ridiculous amount of traps springs up at us.

Water pillars pop up here and there. From the left, right, above and from below bursts of wind are coming at us. The ground itself has changed into quicksand and a lot of magical blocks are planted to block our way.

「…!! …!! …!!」

Splashed with water, hearing killed by the wind, speed dampened by quicksand and concentration chipped away by corners of transparent block hitting our shoulders.

And the last remaining 10 meters.

As we step into this trap zone, the floor and the ceiling are coming closer like a press in an attempt to block our way.

「Tada.」 「Keeeeeeee!!!」

While avoiding all the traps, the redhead and I strangely lined up next to each other at the last ledge.

Putting strength into the leg that was forward, I leap over all of the remaining distance.

We jumped putting all of our strength into it.

A little more, just a little bit more and we will get out of this trap zone.

(Faster, faster, faster!!!)

However, a rushing mind gives birth to rational thought.

With things going like this, even if I bent my legs, I will get stuck around the knees.

When I got caught by a similar trap before, my leg hit the floor that was rising up and I was thrown back to the starting point just like that.

「Shit!!! Whoa?!」

Just when I thought that there is no hope, I was hit from behind with a gust of wind like it was trying to push me forward.

「Fufun, now you are in my debt again!!!」

While softly drifting in mid-air, the redhead made a pleased expression.

「Damn, you went and took all the good parts.」

While saying that, I also laughed.

Anyway, with this, I can finally get out of this dungeon.

Right when I thought so.

Even though we were taught that lesson just a moment ago, we already completely forgot about it.

Beyond the trap zone, right in front of the door that was our goal, there was a floor painted in yellow. What that place was as a safe zone, was nothing more than our misunderstanding.

It was a perfect spot to set up a trap to laugh at us when we drop our guard down.

「「…?!」」

While we, obeying the laws of gravity, were performing a free fall, the yellow floor gradually disappeared like an opening maw.

At that moment, hot air coming from below scorched the skin.

There was a trap of a completely different nature from all the traps we have encountered before.

At the bottom of that hole was a dancing and twirling blue colored blaze.

Burning vigorously, the flame resembled a big kettle that was welcoming us.

(Fa, Ku, I will die?!)

Up until now, unless something extraordinary were to happen, none of the traps would deal direct harm. At most, it was at the level of getting bruises, smeared in glue or lightly humiliated.

But this one is different. Even with amazing physical capabilities of my body, if I was to be exposed to a flame with such dense magic power, it will not end well for me.

I did not get any serious injuries in his dungeon until now, because there were no traps with such intent to it. If we could come unscratched this far solely because of our physical abilities, then we could have just pressed forward by directly demolishing all of the traps.

We did not do that because we couldn’t.

And now a trap from the dungeon with that much strength bares its fangs at us with the intention to harm us.

And those flames aiming to devour us rise up even higher.

「Something! There has to be a way?!」

Up close, the yellow floor was much wider than it would seem when I inspected it from afar. A tailwind like the one from before would not give enough speed or distance to jump over it and get to the door

Of course, even if we wanted to go back, the passage was already shut.

Due to the impending mortal danger, the world lost all of its colors and everything was moving so slow as if it were swimming in coal tar.

「…?! If I reproduce that!!」

I frantically begin to execute the idea that appeared in my panicking mind.

I did not have the ability to turn magic power into actual magic. However, it does not mean that I completely lacked the technique to use magic power.

Strangely, I had no hesitation about putting my idea into practice.

And although I did not specifically think about it, the name of the skill naturally escaped my mouth.

「「Sky Walk」!!!」

「Mm? That flame is, Ngya?!」

Creating footholds out of magic power, I take the redhead that was nearby under my arm and run in the air.

The footholds that were made just from hardened magic power, though far-cry in terms of quality, were in principle the same as those transparent blocks that tormented us so much.

As I am kicking off those and accelerating, the blue flame burned up even bigger as if it was dead set not to let us escape, it rose up similarly to a head of a dragon.

「Make it in time!!!」

Since we could not afford to lose momentum here, we tumbled over and rolled onto the other side of the door.

Since I did not even think about stopping, after rolling past the door, we kept rolling until finally crashing at the great speed into the wall.

「Oooooohhh!」

But, as a price for that, the head of the redhead made a loud, dull sound.

Well, better than dying.

「With this we are even.」

「How are we even, you fool!!! Because of you, I hit my head really hard!!!」

The redhead stood up and was loudly screaming at me.

「What is that triumphant look you dumbass!! Are you an idiot, are you an actual idiot?」

「Compared to being burned alive, hitting your head is no big deal.」

「Ahh? What? You did not notice?」

While rubbing her head, the redhead gives me a glare.

「Huh? What?」

「Well, this.」

The redhead walked to the door into which we rolled a moment ago and stuck her hand into the still roaring flame.

「You?! You idiot, what are you doing!!!

I scream with a voice that cracked up a bit from surprise. It was unthinkable that she would be unharmed after sticking an undefended hand, without any preparations into the flame with such magical density.

Contrary to my expectations, the redhead laughed as if making fun of me.

「Fu, fu, you are panicking too much, fool. Look, nothing happened to me.」

「Ah, Eh?」

Indeed, a hand that she pulled out of the flame was not burned and did not have even a single scratch on it. Of course, even the kimono that she is wearing was not burning and did not sustain any damage at all.

「Eeeehm… What? What does that mean?」

「This flame is nothing more than elaborate illusion that only looks like it is powered by an insane amount of magic. You can touch it or do anything you like and it will not cause a single injury.」

Saying that, the redhead gave an evil laugh.

「Well? Some tricked idiot surely would try to run like his life depends on it?」

「Ah, Kuh, ugh.」

「「With this we are even」, huh!!」

「This… This is…」

「Oh, that was one unprecedented look of triumph. Surely one of the top five that I have seen in my life. You know, I think you will be better off retiring as an adventurer and becoming a street performer?」

「Ughgugugugugu!!!」

What’s with her, she is a demon after all!!!

Nonetheless, it would be unbecoming for me as a person to attack her or start yelling, so I just mobilize all of my reason and try to endure it.

After finding good material, the redhead was mocking me with it to no end. I am unable to find where can I point my resentment and decided to keep accumulating my anger for later use.