Volume 1 - CH 16

"We've got a trail of demon carcasses. ...... And they're pretty old. The blood is dry. Maybe it was a day ago. When Hazuki-chan came to our room, Xerius was here. He's further along than I thought."

Mars observed the demon blood that was spread on the ground.

It was completely reddish brown and rough to the touch. It resembled paint that had dried on a palette.

There were some differences from human blood, and most of it was very sticky. The cracks in the paint after it dried were also very strong, and Mars could tell that it belonged to a demon.

After wandering around for about half a day, Mars and the others had gone down two more levels, but they couldn't see Xerius' back.

"Isn't this Xerius guy actually pretty strong? He can slice through even the biggest demons. Maybe I was wrong."

"Everyone says he's a good swordsman. He has good eyesight. That's why no one suspected that he wasn't the [Thunder]."

The hesitant sword line left on the demon's corpse was not bad, even from Mars' point of view.

――If his personality wasn't like that, I'd be happy to have him as a friend, this one.

He thought for a moment, then quickly changed his mind. He remembered that Lilia had been made fun of.

"Shall we take a break?"

Mars called out to Lilia and Hazuki. Lilia nodded silently. She didn't say it out loud, but she had a look of exhaustion on her face. Mars had noticed this.

Her elf's long ears is really useful this time, and she noticed the demon in the distance before anyone else did. The traps were also detected by her by listening to the sounds of the underground operations and telling it to Mars.

Being on the lookout for traps and demons was far more tiring than moving normally.

The distance we walked was about fifty kilometers.

As it was a dungeon, the lower levels were not in a straight line. Sometimes it's the same path over and over again, and sometimes it's another path that looks very similar. Even if the path is only a kilometer long, you may have to move over ten kilometers to get there.

There was a lot of moving up and down, so I was more tired than the distance.

Mars doesn't talk about it, but he feels the fatigue itself. Mars is the one who has to be most careful.

Only Hazuki, who was unaware of such hardships, put on a cheerful face and chased after Mars.

Hazuki was walking behind him, so all she had to do was be alert to the demons that came out.

"I-I'm can still go! You're not that tired, are you, Mars-san? We're either running away from or hiding from most of the demons."

"There's no reason to fight, right? When I have no choice but to fight, I'll fight. I'm not sure why you're taking more risks. Are you a combat freak?"

Whenever Mars and his friends saw a demon, they would hide in the shadows or lure it into a trap that had been set to defeat it.

Combat is a last resort for Malus.

He believes that everything that can be avoided should be avoided.

――We'll have to fight them on the last level anyway, so we'll save our energy until then.

Most of the demons that needed to be fought directly were already buried by Xerius, so there were few obstacles.

Hazuki would deal with the occasional demon we encountered with her magic. Even though Mars had told her to ignore them, Hazuki was strangely eager to fight.

Hazuki's forte is fire magic.

Ashes to ashes, she burns demons to the ground.

Mars wondered if she was cremated because she was a grave keeper, but in this world, burial is common.

From an objective point of view, Hazuki was a dangerous person.

She would gloat over the flames she had set off.

To Mars, she looked like an arsonist.

Mars led the way, followed by Lilia and finally Hazuki.

Suddenly, they heard the startled voice of Hazuki from behind.

"Aahhh!? Noo!!"

"Hazuki-chan!?"

The floor cracked open, and Mars could see the moment when Hazuki fell into the pit.

Hazuki sank down with a look of despair on her face.

――Why!? It wasn't a problem when we came through!?　

There was some kind of switch!

"Pervert woman!"

Imagining the worst possible moment, Mars rushed towards the pit with all his might.

The full force of his body and mind left a tread mark on the ground. Lilia screamed as she saw the ground indented in the shape of her foot.

Mars thought that he could save her. If Malus alone could fall, he could come back up.

With his hand on the edge of the deep hole, Mars looked into the pit.

If possible, he didn't want to see the horrible scene. But he couldn't move forward without checking it.

If the hole was just a pit, there was a chance of her survival.

"Hey, Hazuki-chan! Are you okay!? I'll get you out of here!"

"――Eh, Ah, I'm fine.……? T-thank goodness! If Mars-san hadn't given me that cloth, I'd be dead for sure. ...... I'm about to shit my pants, too. ......"

Fluffily, Hazuki floated up, looking dumb.

At the bottom of the hole were countless metal spears. If she had fallen, she would have become a cruel object.

In the pocket of her skirt, Hazuki had apparently placed a piece of the "Ryurei's Robe", an Elven cloth that could float, which was in the treasury, and she floated in a dangling position around it.

"It's automatically activated? ...... I'm glad ......, I really thought you were dead."

Mars caught Hazuki as she floated up and lowered her to the safe ground where she stood.

Then he slumped.

It was the first time in a long time that he had been really nervous.

In his seventeen years here, He have yet to see a human die.

"Really,……Don't make me worry."

Lilia said to Hazuki in a dumbfounded voice, then looked at her in a huff.

"――You were worried about me?"

"I-I'm not! ――I just thought it would be bad for my mind and Mars'."

"I-I was scared, but I'm kind of happy ...... because, I though Lilia-san was going to say that I should have fallen ......."

Hmmp! Lilia swore, but Mars smiled a little.

Even if her attitude is not good, Lilia is basically kind. He think it's even more so because he know that she had a bad attitude towards Mars at first as well.

He thought that she just didn't want to see her position change, rather than really dislike Hazuki.

Since Hazuki said she was fine, Mars decided to walk a little further.

Part of him was concerned about Lilia, but the other part of him wanted to keep going as long as he could.

Xerius is working harder than expected, and we don't want him to break through before we do. It would be a waste of all their efforts so far.

But we have to be careful of the new trap we just encountered. He sharpened all his nerves more than ever.

The trap that Hazuki had fallen into earlier was probably a load system. Like the capacity of an elevator, it is triggered when a certain amount of weight is applied. It was probably a variant of that, triggered by the total load.

"W-Why would there be a trap here? I really thought I was going to die, you know?"

"It's for intruders. They are designed to kill."

"Hmm, I wonder. It could be an adjustment in the number of demons, you know. There are a lot of demons that get caught in traps and die on their own, so they might be thinning out the population. That's why the earth is not flooded with demons."

It's not that he's sure, it's just that he has a feeling about it, but he thinks so.

The creator of the dungeon does not seem to have any malicious intent.

It seems to me that the dungeon was created with some kind of intention. However, He doesn't know what that intention is.

One thing he can say is that the inside of the dungeon is a world. In a sense, it could be said to be a different world within a different world.

"――You don't seem very smart, Mars-san, but you know a lot of things, don't you?"

"You're a lascivious woman! How dare you!"

With a pop, Lilia hit Hazuki lightly on the head.

Grrrrrr.

After walking for a while, the three of them heard something that sounded like a roar in their ears.

Mars drew his sword and focused on the dark path ahead, with Lilia and Hazuki behind him.

――Demons. Considering the size of this voice, this demons might be big. ......

Mars was impatient as he kept a tired Lilia at the edge of his vision.

In the worst case scenario, he was considering throwing both Lilia and Hazuki into the Treasure House of Dreams.

"S-Sorry, ......, that's the sound of my stomach. ......"

Hazuki, her face dyed bright red, raised a small hand.

Her demeanor was subdued, but her belly was insistent and loud.

The volume, which really sounded like the voice of a demon, kept echoing in the cave.

"A lascivious woman like to have something in their stomachs, don't they? You're greedy for both the upper and lower mouths. That's the incarnation of the three great desires."

"N-Not the case down there!"

Hazuki held her crotch through her skirt to hide it.

This exposed a good deal of her thighs, and Mars let his gaze wander.

"You were fingering yourself like crazy, though, weren't you? Ypu was like, 'My pussy is feels good!'"

"N-No, I didn't say anything embarrassing like that! ――The way you said it."

"She cum about five times. It must have felt really good."

"I-It was amazing. ...... It felt so many times better than the masturbation I usually do. ...... ――No, no, I don't. I don't usually do that!"

――She's an idiot!

Mars and Lilia thought the same thing. Even Hazuki herself thought the same thing.

"How much do you really do?"

"W-When I'm alone and free, I do it all the time. ...... ――It feels so good! I haven't been able to stop since I was little!"

Hazuki was red in the face and shouted loudly.

Mars got a light erection from the tremendous come out.

"She's lewd. ......"

"Yeah, ...... I've hardly ever masturbated. ......"

"On the other hand, if you don't masturbate, how are you going to spend your time alone? If I wake up in the morning and masturbate in the middle of the night, right? Normally."

Hazuki made a face as if she had just opened up.

She had to admit that she was a little more interested in sex than others.

Whenever she is alone, there is a high probability that she will masturbate. And she will continue until she can't move.

"You're hardcore lewd. ...... Let's go into the treasury for now. We should eat, take a bath, and go to bed. It's dangerous to move when you're tired. If we don't concentrate, we might fall into a trap like she did earlier, and the sound of Hazuki-chan stomach sounds like a demon's voice, which is scary."

It is better to rest until the full time limit in a space where time does not advance.

Normally, this would mean resting in a space with demons while keeping a watchful eye on them. Based on the mental fatigue, it is often not a good rest.

In the case of Mars, the [Treasure House of Dreams] was more of a cheat than a bad magic trick.

It's a last resort because there is a time limit on how long he can use it in a day, but if he encounter a demon they can't defeat, he plan to flee to the treasury.

He brought Lilia with him because of that premise.

If he's alone with nothing to protect, he can do whatever he want. In other words, both Lilia and Hazuki are dragging his feet.

The most important thing for Mars to protect is Lilia.

If he were to lose her, he would make the same choice again.

Mars inwardly felt a sense of urgency to get rid of his weakness, the habit of thinking about things in a somewhat game-like manner.

When he have something important, he can't stand the thought of losing it.

Even though he knew this, Mars had acquired something important again.