Volume 22 - CH 25

The Red Slime's mucus was so powerful that it could melt even a steel breastplate.

I wiped off the slime's mucus, but the cloth I was wiping with melted as well, so I guess I shouldn't cover myself with it again and again.

「Okay, I guess that's about it.」

I wiped off most of it, and the melting stopped.

「Thank you, Alec, but my armor's gone. Ah!」

Camilla looked surprised when she saw her condition, but hmmm, her clothes melted and her pink nipples appeared from underneath. Hello.

「Don't look! Honestly. Ugh. ......」

Blushing, Camilla quickly tied off her own breasts with the rope she took out of her 【Item Storage】 and hid them. But this reaction, it looks like a virgin.

「Are you okay, Camilla?」

The warrior Damien was worried.

「I'm fine, at least this much. Let's move on.」

「I don't mind if we go on, but that red slime is nasty. Your equipment will be useless. If we find them again, why don't we take a detour around the path?」

Hage the Thief suggested this, but Camilla frowned and shook her head.

「No, we can't. If we don't follow this map, we'll get lost easily. The map is not complete, it only shows the route in detail. There are traps, and if we do, we'll never get out of here.」

「Whoa, we better not do that.」

Hage seemed to remember that, and shrugged his own mouth into a heap.

After a couple more battles, our impromptu party moved on.

In the aisle, there were stone statues facing each other on either side, resembling two angels. They were holding candlesticks to light our way.

「Wait, there's something beyond those statues.」

Hage said, raising his dagger and approaching cautiously. There's something on the ground ―― it's cowering.

「It's not moving. Oh, what, it's just a bone.」

Camilla says it looks like nothing, but it seems to be the remains of the adventurer who challenged us here.

「Wait a minute. I'll see if I can find anything useful.」

「Come on, Hage. I don't think any adventurer who'd fuck up in a place like this would have any good gear. Besides, if we accidentally find a memento with a recognizable name, we'll have to deliver it to someone they knows.」

When Camilla said that, Hage snorted in a mockery.

「Hah, I don't care. It is the fault of the person who fucked up. I'm sure he'd rather help other adventurers than leave his equipment to rot in a dungeon like this.」

There was no way we could know what the dead were thinking, and there was no one to argue with Hage.

「Okay, that's all. Sorry to keep you waiting. Camilla, which way do we go next?」

「The hall up ahead is our destination.」

Camilla said, checking the map.

This is a straight corridor, but it's unusually wide and the ceiling is high. It seems to be about ten meters high. This is a good place to take a break and get a good view, but I feel uncomfortable.

「Ohhh, finally, I'm tired of walking!」

Hage shrugged his shoulders and smiled coquettishly.

The quest has come to a close. However, as soon as they heard this, the sinners who had been following us quietly up to this point began to try their best to escape. They were afraid of being sacrificed.

「Eeekkk」「N-Noo!」「Noooooo!」

「Goddamn it!」

「Haha, that's not good.」

Damien laughed and pulled on the rope that held them together, but he seemed could hold up five people. That's some serious strength.

「Oh, look! I can see the altar now. We'll be rich if we can tie these guys to that top and get rid of them! Yoo-hoo!」

Hage jumped up and down on the spot and did a little dance. Camilla scolded him for it.

「Hage, the work is not over yet. Let's not get carried away later.」

「Come on, Camilla. It's already a piece of cake.」

Indeed, that's the situation.

There was no monster in the hall in front of me, the floor was raised about 20 centimeters high, and the pillars connecting the ropes were visible.

..............I don't like the look of it.

I think about that and why I feel that way.

The conclusion came quickly.

「It's too quiet.　」

It's partly because this is a game-like boss room, but more than anything, it's too quiet here.

「Huuh?What are you talking about, dude?」

Hage twisted his head as if he had no idea what I was talking about.

「That's right. I'm wondering ...... why there are no monsters here. There's not a single monster from the passage we just left.」

Maybe it's because she's a famous adventurer on this island, but Camilla seems to have a good intuition about that sort of thing.

「If you're worried about it, just clean it up and go home. There's no need to stay long.」

Damien said as he tied the end of the rope to a pillar, but I guess that's fine with Damien and the others.

「Then you guys go home first. I've got things to do here.」

I say. The reason I came here in the first place was to challenge the Seven Trials.

And I already know it's here.

「Wait, Alec, what are you going to do? Are you trying to get a look at the Cow Prince? Stop that.」

Camilla warned me.

「Heh, why not? It's not every day you get to come here. Alec wants to see it and go home, so he's just going to have a look around. Let's let him do what he wants, okay? Hehe.」

Hage recommended it with a grin on his face, as if he had calculated that he would get a larger share of the reward.

「It's not good to get separated. You can't go home, you know.」

「Hey, Damien, tsk, that's not necessary.」

「I don't care. I have a skill called 【Auto Mapping】. With this skill, you'll never get lost once you're on the path.」

「Well, maybe you won't get lost. I know, because I have the same skill. But as a leader, I can't allow that. Even if the party we've formed is an impromptu, I can't just let my members die. In the name of this "Thousand Hands".」

Camilla says something cool.

「I have no intention of dying, so don't worry. Go ahead and leave. This is where the party breaks up.」

I say.

「Hmph, I don't like that. ......」

「Come on, Camilla, let's get out of here. See you later, Alec. When you get back, tell me how the cow prince was at the bar. I heard him mooing, gyahaha」

Just as Hage was about to leave with one hand raised, his body was suddenly blown away.

There was a loud bang, and I, Camilla, and Damien all scrambled to our feet, but couldn't do much more.

「Damn it, Hage!」

「Well, it's no good. That sound is not going to help.」

Damien was probably right. I could even hear it crashing into the wall, but it seemed like an unusual force was at work. The source of the force - I can see a large shadow slithering from the other side of the passage.

「Camilla, you and Damien look for a detour. If you have auto-mapping, you should be able to find somewhere.」

I instruct as I draw my sword.

「What are you going to do, Alec? Are you going to buy us some time?」

「No, I'm not. I'm here to defeat him.」

It's the second trial.