CH 278

Episode 278 – Settling It

The moment I had defeated the bear-shaped mummy, I couldn’t hold out anymore and collapsed to my knees. I knew in my mind that the battle wasn’t over yet, but my body wouldn’t listen anymore.

Feeling gradually returned to my numbed body, and along with that came the pain that washed over my entire body. I was covered in broken bones, countless cuts, and muscle damage from moving beyond my physical limits.

I knew that I was in bad shape, and the cold sweat wouldn’t stop. I looked over and surveyed the situation in my surroundings, which I hadn’t had the chance to look at while I was fighting the bear-shaped mummy. Outside of the deserted area I was lying in, there was an intense battle going on, but the number of mummies had reduced considerably.

Rosalie was standing before the summoning magic circle, defeating monster after monster as they were being summoned, while Aruna was shooting the flying mummies out of the sky as they tried to approach. They were working perfectly together, and I was a bit relieved to see them fighting a steady battle even though they were outnumbered.

If the battle situation turned against us, it would surely be my fault. I hadn’t had the chance to think about it during the battle, but I probably could have more easily defeated the bear-shaped mummy if I had just asked for help from the two of them instead of fighting it alone.

As I watched them fight, I prayed that the Mask Queen wouldn’t summon any new, powerful mummies who could overturn the currently stable battle situation. After summoning six humanoid mummies, it stopped summoning mummies completely. I turned my gaze to the Mask Queen, who appeared to have run out of magic power as she had stopped periodically casting [Fire].

The only mummies remaining on this floor were three monkey mummies, two bird mummies, and finally, the six human mummies which were flailing about as they were being summoned. Aruna and Rosalie also seemed to have noticed that no new mummies were going to be summoned. They increased the speed of their attacks in what seemed to be a last spurt of strength dedicated to destroying the remaining mummies.

Aruna was attacking with liberal use of her Skills, while Rosalie was slaughtering the monkey mummies at a blinding speed. And finally, the last remaining monster on the floor was the Mask Queen. With a diagonal slash from Rosalie, the Mask Queen scattered into ashes.

“Lewin-san! Are you okay?!” (Rosalie)

“R-Rosalie, thanks for your hard work. S-Sorry I couldn’t f-fight until the very end.” (Lewin)

“No, no! We were the ones who left the strong enemies to you―more importantly, your injuries…” (Rosalie)

“I t-think… I’ll be f-fine.” (Lewin)

Rosalie ran over to me as soon as she had cut down the Mask Queen. When she noticed the wounds all over my body, her face turned pale.

Even though I had said that I was fine, I could tell that this was the most dangerous state I had ever been in. The pain was obvious, and I was starting to feel a chill emanating from the core of my body. If I lost focus for even a second, I would immediately lose consciousness.

“You can’t even move so you’re not fine. Rosalie, give Lewin some recovery medicine.” (Aruna)

“Y-Yes!” (Rosalie)

Aruna came over a moment later. They took out the recovery medicine that I had given to them before just in case and poured it over my body. Even though the pain subsided slightly, I was still far from being in a condition to walk on my own, so Rosalie ran towards the Safe Area with me on her back.

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“Those are some terrible wounds. I’m surprised you could even continue fighting in this state. Look at this older wound, it’s soaked through and already starting to fester.”

“I kind of used a Paralysis Potion to forcefully suppress his sense of pain so I could move.” (Lewin)

“This is a Paralysis Potion, huh? …Blegh. This is pretty much just poison, isn’t it? It’s totally insane to use this on yourself.”

Gelt had quite the intimidating appearance, with facial hair that was thick enough to hide his expressions as well as a huge, muscular body. But underneath that exterior was a wise and gentle person who knew a lot about medical treatments. I was reminded of Xenia, who had been kind to me back when we had first met in the Safe Area on the 20th layer, and felt that many adventurers were kind people.

“Alright. That’s it for the treatment. After this, keep taking medicine and resting for a few days, and you should be able to move just fine.” (Gelt)

“Gelt-san. Thank you so much for offering to help us even though we weren’t acquainted. We’ll definitely repay this favor to you one day.” (Rosalie)

“Hahahah! Don’t worry too much about it. Somehow, trouble seems to go hand in hand with diving into the Dungeon. It’s just good etiquette to help each other out when someone else is in a bind. The next time you run into someone in the Dungeon who’s in trouble, just remember the favor I did for you today and help them out,” Gelt said with a fresh, invigorating laugh.

I wanted to follow Gelt’s example in helping out a fellow adventurer in trouble. I especially felt this way due to the entire incident.

“Lewin, I’m coming in. I did as Gelt said and mashed up some Medical Herb, All-Herb, and Diphen Herb.”

Diphen Herb was a plant that had the effect of [Sleep (Low)]. I hadn’t used it myself nor paid much attention to it before since the effect was only “Low”. But it was just right for allowing me to sleep despite the pain in my body, and Gelt was kind enough to share some with me.

“I appreciate it. Have him drink it right away.” (Gelt)

Aruna glanced over at Gelt and nodded at him before giving me the medicine to drink.

It wasn’t made with the bitterness-removing process that I had learned from Elf’s Tears and had always used when brewing potions, so it was extremely bitter and tasted terrible. My face twisted into a grimace as I swallowed it down, forcing myself not to spit it out.

“Then I’ll excuse myself now. We won’t be coming back for a few days, so hopefully you’ll be up and about by the time we next meet. See you later.” (Gelt)

“Thank you so much, Gelt-san.” (Lewin)

Gelt left the tent, casually waving his hand in farewell. After seeing him off, I fell into a deep sleep under Aruna’s protective watch.