After the last wasp died, Leon and Darya headed to the purple crystal. Leon frowned when he saw that Darya also seemed prepared to see the other world.
"What? Are you not tired?" Leon asked. "Ah... I forgot you slept during the most difficult parts of the battle."
"Hahaha, you are right... It has been a while since I slept so well." Darya said. "I'm not that tired, and I kind of want to see the wasps' world."
"Well, just don't leave my side," Leon said. "All monsters nearby the crystals are bosses. So, things may get messy if we are not careful enough."
"All right." Darya nodded.
Although he believed that there would be no connection between this world and his. He still needed to go to confirm his suspicions. Still, he had to confirm his suspicious anyway. After touching the purple crystal, Leon and Darya saw themselves in the middle of an abandoned city. The buildings around made Leon recall England during the Industrial Revolution; in fact, Leon even saw some chimneys that were still producing smoke. Although there were no cars, Leon saw some machines... machines covered in webs and cocoons.
"It is even worse than I imagined." Leon murmured.
It was hard to find a single piece of wall or floor that didn't have webs, cocoons, or eggshells. It was another world where the sentient beings lost to the monsters. Most likely, due to their high reproduction speed. Just like the slimes' world, Leon also couldn't see any sign of vegetation. It looked like wasps could even eat plants to survive... or perhaps it was because he appeared in the middle of the city. Leon and Darya would never know since they returned soon after confirming that that city had been abandoned decades ago. Even if there were some sentient beings alive, they would never have the information Leon wanted.
"Another failure..." Leon sighed.
"Well... it is just the third dungeon you tried, right?" Darya said. "Don't lose hope yet."
"I will never lose hope because I know that the harvesters have the information I want," Leon replied. "But I'm wasting too much time... and I will lose even more time before I can obtain the power to defeat them."
Five months have passed since the damn lizard summoned Leon to that world; he did improve his status a lot and obtained several convenient spells. Still, he couldn't imagine himself defeating creatures that would invade other planets just to become stronger. Unlike Leon, they not only had a lot of confidence in their powers and but they also were confident in their battle experience. If Leon had some time to prepare and had the chance to use all his skills, he was confident in defeating the soldiers of a city. He did that in Moscow, after all. But the conditions favored him. People of Earth didn't know many spells, and their magic attacks weren't that powerful. Plus, he had several convenient magic items.
Challenging all the people of a world that has been using and polishing their magic skills over the course of seventy years was totally different... the difference between challenging a city that had only a few survivors capable of using magic and challenging the inhabitants of a world like Mieabos was like the difference between challenging a slime and a dragon. Thanks to all that, Leon thought that he would be lucky if he manages to return Earth in less than four years...
Still, the only thing Leon could do was to keep moving forward and polishing his skills. While he was thinking about that, Leon and Darya left the dungeon only to find a few warriors of the lower world. That was kind of becoming a common occurrence, so Leon wasn't surprised at all. Decreasing the population of monsters would undoubtedly attract the attention of the nearest village. Still, Leon was forced to raise his guard when he felt Darya trembling and saw the look in the eyes of the warriors. Although visibly upset, the warriors still approached without drawing their weapons.
"Are you Leon? The traveler?" A warrior with long black hair asked.
"My name is Leon, but I'm a victim of a kidnapping, not a traveler," Leon said. "So, what business do you have with me?"
"We heard that you could produce magic weapons." The black-haired warrior said. "But first, I would like to ask, what she is doing here?"
"... You probably heard this from Eadmund and from his men, but he didn't tell everything." Leon let out a long sigh. "She helped me when I invaded the research center since her life would be dangerous up above; she is with me for the time being. I understand that you don't like the guys above, I'm not a fan of them either. But if you want to negotiate with me, you will have to leave her alone and control your anger a little more."
"... We can do that," The black-haired warrior said after sighing too. "She isn't doing anything. She helped you to decrease the number of wasps in this territory, right?"
"Yes... why all you guys keep observing what I do and only appear after I clear the dungeon, anyway?" Leon frowned. "Well, it doesn't really matter. I have plenty of coins, so this time, I will ask for information instead of money."
"...What kind of information are you looking?" The black-haired warrior asked.
"I want you to teach me the most simple techniques that you guys use that consume stamina," Leon answered. "It doesn't have to be anything especially powerful, just some useful moves or techniques would be fine."
Darya frowned when she heard that, it looked like Leon also intended to learn some warrior techniques. Even though his magic wasn't half-bad, considering that he had come from a world where people just learned how to use mana.