Volume 2 - CH 2.3

Translator: DarkHeartedAlchemist, Editor: Krizzeir

Chapter 2: Let’s Make an Underwater Dungeon, Part 3

「Here, hurt! Here, Hurt!」

「There, there, Sofia. Pain,pain, go away! Feeling better now?」

Mari kept patting crying Sofia’s head. When she finally stopped, she clung unto Mari’s skirt and looked at Aur with terrified eyes.

「Lord Aur.」

「It was my bad. I’m sorry.」

When she urged him, Aur apologized to Sofia and lowered his head. When she saw that, she smiled as if nothing had happened.

「Pa! Pa! Come, hom!」

「Papa?」

Confused, Aur picked Sofia up.

「Didn’t she called Mari “Mommy” earlier?」

「Mama!」

As if she understood the question, Sofia proudly declared while she pointed at Mari.

「Papa!」

Somehow, Aur couldn’t help it but cringe when she called him like that.

「Well then, little fruitcake, who am I?」

Lilu pointed at herself, feeling somewhat excited.

「Liru!」

「Why only me?!」

Lilu felt deeply hurt by such cruel omission.

「So, what is this all about?」

「I’d like to know too.」

Aur asked Lilu, who muttered 「Why was the only one abandoned?」 and then offered them an explanation.

「Just yesterday, she was just like a newborn baby, and today she suddenly started talking.」

「Such a fast growth rate is obviously not normal.」

When he saw her in the morning before he headed out of the Dungeon, she was just a newborn unable to walk or talk. But now she was able to stand on her own two feet and could articulate some simple words.

「It’s like she jumped in time from a one year old to around three year old.」

「Could this be due to the Dungeon’s influence?」

「Or maybe because of the constant presence of high amounts of magical power?」

Aur nodded to Lilu’s suggestion.

「The Seed in the Sea Dungeon works like a spare, but most of the magical power is going here, but then again there is not that much of it, so it’s highly unlikely, but the possibility itself is not zero.」

「So, Sofia is going to keep growing as the output of magical power increases?」

「That I do not know. I’ve never even heard of something like growing with magical power in the first place anyway.」

Aur knew of the cases involving demons where they used their magical power to increase the size of their bodies, but this was the first time when he saw someone who also developed intelligence because of it.

「Just what on earth are you?」

He just smiled wryly at himself as he looked at Sofia as she was playing with Mari at the side. Even if he were to ask her that, it is highly unlikely that he would have received an answer.

「You think we could understand it better if she grew up some more?」

「Maybe could, maybe we couldn’t. Honestly, I have no idea what to expect anymore.」

「Well, let’s put that aside for now and have lunch. The dining room is this one right here.」

Lilu exclaimed loudly as she pushed Aur by the back.

「Do you think she’s able to eat normal meals right now?」

Looking at the glittering Sofia, Lilu had doubts about that, although for now, she never once complained that she was hungry.

「Hmm, because of the nutrition she receives from the magical power that’s flowing in I doubt she’d starve, but there’s no harm in giving it a try.」

She was probably at an age where she could normally eat most of what the adults ate.

The dining room was filled with the fragrance of Lilu’s freshly baked bread. Aur and Mari sat at the table, with Sofia situated on Mari’s lap.

And then, at that time.

「Aw!」

Sofia suddenly cried out.

「What’s wrong, Sofia?! Are you hurt anywhere?!」

「Aw! Awawawaw!」

Mari asked Sofia while examining her closely, but all she did was repeating the same words while she tugged at Aur’s shoulders.

「No way.」

Aur noticed something, and he hurriedly rushed back to the Dungeon Seed room. He touched it with his finger, and send his energy throughout the entire place.

「It’s an intruder.」

It was exactly as he expected.

「Eh? But we didn’t do anything yet?!」

Lilu cried out. It was just like the time when Yunis invaded them.

「It’s moving fast. Looks like it’s heading straight here through the waterway.」

Only the limited amount of people should knew of the Dungeon’s existence on this new continent.

「You think it’s the same person that wrecked the ship?」

「The possibility is quite high.」

That would be the most logical explanation.

「Wait a goddamn second! Wrecked the ship?! WRECKED MY BABY?!」

「It’s a long story.」

Ignoring the screaming Lilu, Aur waved his fingers and summoned the illusory screen that displayed the intruder. He was swimming in the water with such ease and speed as if he was a bird flying through the sky.

Because the intruder was in the water the visibility was poor, but it was apparent that he was quite an agile one. He evaded every trap, including arrows shooting from the wall, spears falling from the ceiling and even the lightning missiles as if it was nothing.

Moreover, he was going along the shortest route to the Dungeon, so he was well oriented in its layout.

「This guy is bad news, I’m going to intercept him. He cannot be allowed to advance any further. Lilu, you stay here and take care of Sofia.」

「Wait, I’ll go with you!」

Lilu made a clone of herself and handed Sofia to him.

「Is this okay with you?」

「Couldn’t have been better.」

Aur grinned menacingly and tapped the ground with his stone cube shaped into a cane. It activated a magic circle on the ground, and in the next instant, they were all enveloped in a brilliant flash of light.

「Kyaa!」

Accompanied by a strong tremors, the whole room expanded into a large hall that centered on the passage to the chamber of the Dungeon Seed. There were no other exits from here, and the only way forward led through them.

「He’s coming.」

If his aim was the Dungeon Seed, the heart of the Dungeon, then whoever that intruder was, he’ll have to get it over their dead bodies.

In the next moment, a geyser of water erupted from the ground, and a woman with a lower body of a fish jumped into the surface.

「A mermaid merfolk, huh? No, what is this, exactly?」

Although she looked like a mermaid, she had a deer-like horn growing out of her forehead.

The mermaids that Aur knew almost never wore clothing as it would interrupt them while they were swimming, but this one here wore some kind of thin clothing made from an unknown material.

And above all else, the atmosphere around her and the amount of magical power that he could feel from here were on an entirely different level than that of a simple mermaid.

「Tagada, Yuuero!」

The woman raises her voice and shouts something.

Aur, who knows hundreds of the world’s languages, never heard that one before, therefore he couldn’t understand what she was saying.

He didn’t even know whether or not she was hostile or friendly.

The only thing that he was sure of was the fact that those were words with some kind of meaning behind them, not just a random outcry.

「Who are you and why have you trespassed into our Dungeon?!」

He asked the woman as Lilu and Mari prepared themselves for battle.

「Tagada, Yuuero!」

She repeated her words, but they still did not understood her.

「I don’t understand, but you’ve trespassed onto my territory.」

Aur’s cube changed its shape again, this time to two bladed sickles. It is an indication of open hostility that can be understood even without words.

「Ferrennyie!」

The woman screamed, and the water behind her flew towards Aur like arrows.

「So be it.」

Sickles morphed into a shield and blocked all of incoming attacks.

「I’ll make you regret picking a fight with the Demon Lord.」

Aur declared ominously.