CH 121

“Ah…”

“What is it, master?”

“Ah, nothing Hikari. I was just caught off guard because the scenery suddenly changed.”

“Yes, what happened?

Mia touches a wall with a puzzled look on her face too. Sera then scolds her for not being careful, because there might be traps. Apparently there aren’t any until the tenth floor, but it’s nice to keep in mind that we shouldn’t go around touching things randomly.

But what I’m really surprised about is this Map function. It’s mapping everything like a certain game. And when I use Presence Detection… Oh wow, it even displays the monsters.

Is this all right? Am I playing on easy mode? Am I overpowered in the dungeon?

Then again, we just got here. Maybe Map doesn’t work on every floor.

And our formation has Hikari and Sera in front, Mia in the middle, and I’m in charge of watching our rear. That means Hikari and Sera are going to be the ones deciding where we go for the most part, so I’ll keep quiet and try not to look at Map as much as I can.

That’s what I think, but deep down I know I’m going to end up looking…

“I-if I remember correctly, the first floor has goblins, right?”

“Mia, calm down. We’re all here with you. I know you probably can’t not be nervous no matter what I say, but you’ll feel better as we go on.”

She’s nervous, and gripping her staff tightly. She’s following Hikari’s advice to take deep breaths, but I think she should be more comfortable with relying on her partners.

“Yes, thank you. I feel better. I’m all right.”

It feels like she’s saying that to herself, but she does seem a bit more relaxed. Hikari nods in response too.

After checking on Mia, I look around again.

The way the paths are made reminds me of ones inside rocky mountains. They look rugged, and bumping into them would hurt for sure. I’m pretty sure these walls can be scraped, but not outright destroyed.

No, they’re self-repairing, right? And it would take a very powerful attack to even scratch them, let alone destroy them. At least that’s what I read. I guess no matter the world, there’s always going to be people who won’t be satisfied until they investigate these sorts of things.

The cave is illuminated by light being emitted from the walls. What a strange place this is.

“Master, forward.”

“Yes Sera. Apparently there aren’t any traps in the first few floors, but let’s be careful just the same. Be careful about monsters’ sneak attacks, and let’s head to the second floor for now. But if we come across a group of goblins, kill them and leave one.”

So we can have Mia fight it. Wolves are quick, so they aren’t ideal for a beginner. If possible, I want her to experience fighting just a goblin. Sera was also thinking the same thing, and Hikari agrees.

I don’t know if we should call it good or bad luck, but we soon find three goblins halfway through this path. Are they not smart enough to plan an ambush? It feels like they should be hiding in the shadows as we cross the path. Or are they just overconfident?

It doesn’t matter. The moment we find them, they’re downed in the blink of an eye by a knife and axe.

Then they keep going and get behind the goblin. It starts looking back and forth with a wooden stick in hand. Is it shaking because its friends were killed instantly?

If this was a game, it would be using the run option right now. But its path is blocked from both sides, so it can’t escape.

It looks nervous, but Mia isn’t any calmer.

“Calm down Mia. Remember your mock battles with Hikari and Sera.”

“Y-yesh.”

Your voice cracked. In this situation, would a hero touch or rub one of their breasts to ease the tension and put the focus on something else? That’s just sexual harassment. Nevermind getting a lecture, they probably wouldn’t even speak to me again if I did something like that.

No, that’s not possible, because they’re slaves. It’s all a matter of feelings… What am I even thinking about? My mind is going in weird places. I guess I’m the one who really needs to calm down.

But we’re getting nowhere at this rate. The goblin is kind of bewildered too.

I give Mia a light push on the back. I have to be a bit mean here.

This makes Mia step forward, and the goblin gets ready to fight too.

“It’s fine. Just fight like you always do and it won’t stand a chance. Remember that we’ll protect you if anything happens.”

If she’s in danger, I’ll use a magic barrier with a lot of magic energy.

Mia looks like she’s ready too, and takes another step forward, this time on her own.

That’s the signal to start, even though there’s no gong sound.

The goblin runs and jumps, but is easily smacked down. I think Mia is the one most surprised by this.

Mia evaded the attack and hit the goblin with her staff.

The goblin then faints in agony, and Hikari puts it out of its misery.

“What do you think?”

“H-hum, I… Don’t really know.”

Apparently she was struggling even more than she showed. And it seems it still doesn’t really feel real to her.

“Mia, you moved like you always do. If you can always do that, you won’t have a problem.”

“Yes, you were pretty good, big sister Mia. Have more confidence.”

The two girls compliment her, and Mia’s stiff expression softens. I guess she can finally breathe a sigh of relief. In a way, we were even more nervous than her.

The battle is over, so it’s time to collect materials. Not that there’s much to collect, just magic stones and right ears, that serve as proof that we defeated them.

We don’t get rewards for defeating them, but they count as achievements and add points necessary to rank up.

Sera is the only adventurer here, so only she needs them. How are these things judged when unrelated people are accompanying adventurers?

Inside the dungeon, after we collect the magic stones and get outside of a ten meter radius from the monsters, they fall apart on their own and disappear. A common theory is that the dungeon itself is absorbing them.

Because of this, if people want to take monster materials with them, they need to leave the magic stones, keep someone near the materials at all times, or not let them touch the dungeon directly.

Of course, there are exceptions, but it seems weapons equipped by monsters disappear too.

“It’s so strange how they disappear on their own.”

We keep going after seeing the corpses disappear.

Who knows how far we’ll make it in one day? Our dungeon exploration is just starting.