Shinka no Mi

Chapter 149: Helen’s Strengthening, Start

The next day, we came to the dungeon instructed by Gassur and the others.

For the time being, we stopped by at the guild to tell him that we would challenge the dungeon, but as usual, the guild is full of perverts such as the nude flasher and the destruction demon, and Gassur finally sent us out with a smile.

The dungeon that appeared in this manner is in the mountains near Terviel, and the general public cannot visit it.

Perhaps because of that, there’s no reception or inspection of person before this special dungeon, and there was just a gaping hole in the ground that was greatly raised.

In front of such a dungeon, I called out cheerfully to everyone who was following me.

“Well then, let’s capture this quickly.”

“Oh!”

“Aren’t you very lively!”

Saria was the only one who answered my voice, but Helen was holding her head.

“I’m going into a ridiculous dungeon this instant, right? What is this? This looseness. Isn’t this strange?”

There’s nothing wrong. This is normal.

Anyway, this is the dungeon, but not everyone will explore it.

Luthia headed over to join Lucius, and the demon army at once, and Rurune, Olga-chan, and Zora went to accompany her.

…… Rurune insisted that she would follow me, but she was caught by Olga-chan, was flicked by a meal, and consented easily to accompany her.

So, to help Helen’s level up this time, there were only the three of us, me, Saria, and Al, who was also a senior as an adventurer.

“Truly, we need two more people…… I would like the party to have a recovery and a shield role, but……”

Al looks at me while muttering so.

” ……Haa …… “

“What is that sigh for!?”

Al’s outright sigh made me want to complain. It’s like she’s sighing at a person’s face!

“What did I sigh for, you ask? While the adventurers in the world teamed up and form a party to capture it, you’re the only one who can do all the roles in the whole party.”

“That’s not true!?”

Regardless of whether I can really do all the roles in a party, in general, it seems that dungeons were captured by a party of six people.

“Well, that’s fine. Let’s enter anyway. The story starts from there.”

With a slightly unconvincing feeling, as soon as she stepped into the dungeon, Helen tightened her face.

“What are you so tense about?”

“You got nervous!?”

Funny. No matter how much I look back on the past, I don’t remember being as nervous as Helen. Even when I was entirely lost in the 【Forest of Endless Love and Sorrow】, I don’t think I’ve had the feeling of being nervous at that point. Well, at that time, I was just desperate to live before being tense, and I went around and got high.

“So? What would you do from here? Would you fight normally and raise your level?”

“What, then it’s not?”

“Of course, the higher your level, the higher your status, and if you can become a 『Transcendental』, that alone poses a threat….. But sometimes combat experience and skill improvement overturn even the difference in status, you know? Of course, you want to raise your level, but I also want you to improve such techniques. To correspond to the Kaizer Empire, still, that might not be enough, so……”

Ooh, really…… As for me, I thought that it was good if her level went up easily, but apparently, it isn’t enough for Helen.

“Then, why don’t I do this?”

“Eh?”

When I was wondering what’s going on, Saria smiled as if she had come up with a good idea.

“Seiichi, can you walk there a little?”

“Wha? Ah………… Woah!?”

The moment I walked to that position as prompted by Saria, a large number of spears from the ceiling came out, the ground became a pitfall, and arrows on the side of the wall assaulted all at once.

I evaded all of it in such a bad posture as to pull myself.

“How about jumping into a trap with yourself like this!”

“Are you stupid?”

Helen said so seriously. Sorry, Saria. I think so too.

“Or rather, you shouldn’t go into a trap by yourself!? What’s a trap for you!”

“Eh? To use for training?”

“The dungeon is pitiful……!”

When Al, who was a person that has common sense, immediately tsukkomi’d, Saria has a strange look. No, it certainly seems to be training, but it’s really pitiful considering the feeling of the dungeon who prepared the trap!

“Mu…… I thought it was a pretty good idea. Even in the dungeon where Zora-chan was, Seiichi was heading to most of the traps by himself, so I wondered if it was some kind of training, but……”

“…… For the time being, I understood that no matter how far Seiichi-sensei goes, it’s nonsense. And, after all, I want to raise my level normally. I’m not that nonsensical.”

“My reputation got damaged way too much.”

Strange. Even though it’s not my intention, I’m going to cry about how you treat me as a nonsense.

Ignoring my appearance like that, Helen and the others head to the depths of the dungeon.

“………… Eh, am I, going to be left in this state?”

I was still avoiding the trap in an unpleasant posture, and I was crying unknowingly while chasing after the three.

◆◇◆

“――――Hah!”

In conclusion, because Helen’s purpose was to raise her level, even if it was a high level, we went along the road without helping in battle until it become dangerous. Instead, basically, so that Helen and a monster are in a one-on-one situation, the other monsters are I, Saria and the other’s opponents.

Even though it’s a one-on-one, I don’t know how far she could go, but when she actually fights, Helen tosses the monster with martial arts-like moves that she has mastered, and she’ll surely defeat it carefully.

Even now, the 『Armor Mantis Lv:201』, making full use of her two iron swords against the huge iron-colored mantis, they’re crossing each other.

And finally, when she flips back from the Armor Mantis’ sickle, she cuts off the head of Armor Mantis with that flow, and the Armor Mantis became particles of light and disappeared.

“Fuu…… It seems that I have leveled up again.”

“Oh! Congratulations!”

I grabbed the leg of the 『Killer Hopper Lv: 411』, a giant grasshopper that attacked me while Helen was fighting, and I lifted it up upside down.

But for some reason, Helen looks at me coldly.

“…… Even though I’m fighting for hours here, can’t you stop being insane for the meantime?”

“Where is the insane element here!?”

Isn’t that unreasonable? The grasshopper that attacked me was too large, and I just caught it because I was tickled by it as a kid involuntarily. When you were a child, didn’t you get excited when you found a big insect? I rise it up.

―――― As we go through the dungeon like this, Al stops suddenly.

“Oi, stop for a moment.”

“Nn? What’s wrong?”

“…… Footprints.”

“Eh?”

Al crouches down on the spot and examines the ground.

I look at it in the same way, but I couldn’t see the footprints that Al said.

“Ah, that’s true!”

“That’s right, it’s not from a monster, it’s from a human……”

Oops? Am I the only one who doesn’t know? Rather, why does everyone know? No matter how I look at it, it’s just a stone ground, right?

Then Al, who noticed my appearance, asked me in an amazed state.

“…… Seiichi. You don’t understand?”

“Now, that’s not what it is, you know!? This is!?”

When I touch the ground appropriately so as not to be realized desperately, an unpleasant sound 『Gakku』 sounded, and the foothold suddenly disappeared.

“A trap agaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaain!?”

Again, I twist my body with a movement that pulls myself, and I avoid the trap with the air as a scaffold.

“Fu…… I was saved.”

“No, why can’ you avoid such instant death traps even though you don’t know the footprints?”

“Rather, why do you know that these are footprints?”

Not only the footprints, but also the traps this time, no matter how I look at them, they’re just ground.

“Haa…… should I say that I was relieved that there was something that I couldn’t do, or should I lament that I can’t do such a rudimentary thing even though I’m an adventurer……”

“Or rather, I feel like Seiichi-sensei is too different, but……”

“I used to refer to footprints and other things when I was searching for prey in the forest, so I’m just used to it!”

Saria’s familiarity is a little different because it’s the instinct and wisdom of wild animals no matter how you think about it, but it seems to be an essential skill of an adventurer to confirm the presence or absence of things like traps, and to find footprints.

Well, there are some adventurers who specialize in traps, so of course, those individuals have higher knowledge and skill to see through it, but still, a minimum level of knowledge is required.

…… When I think about it carefully, I’ve spent all my time without acquiring knowledge as a decent adventurer. I don’t know what footprints are.

Although this body of mine soar in various ways, I still don’t have enough skills to gain from that kind of experience.

When I found out a new issue, I asked Al again.

“So, why do you care about the footprints there? Gassur and the others may have been here at one time, and it’s not strange, right?”

“But these, footprints are relatively new. Besides, this dungeon was researched by Gassur and the others once, as Seiichi said, and they must have judged this to be dangerous. There was no special lookout near the entrance, but information will naturally be transmitted to the adventurers of Terviel, and it’s unlikely that those guys would visit here.”

“Eh? But…… that destruction guy is there always! Isn’t it like a challenge for that someone who’s screaming?”

“Well……I think it’s possible in terms of his personality, but you saw him in the guild before you came here, didn’t you?”

“Come to think of it……”

When I stopped by at the guild, I certainly saw him laughing in high spirit while destroying a desk.

“And, there are no traces of this footprint turning back. That’s why, it follows that in this dungeon there still remains the owner of these footprints.”

“That’s…… an average person might have strayed here, or maybe another adventurer is challenging this?”

“The line of an average person is hardly. It’s impossible to come here without encountering monsters, and above all, if they encounter the level of monster here, it’s over. And, even if it’s other adventurers, if they’ll challenge this, they must have a party of S class guys, but……”

Al glared at the footprints on the ground with a difficult face.

“…… Well, I guess it’s no use thinking about it. As I said before, there’s no sign of this turning back, and maybe we can meet this guy in the dungeon.”

“Fuun…… but do you often meet other people in dungeons?”

Since the games on earth are the first to float in me when it comes to dungeons, somehow, I have an image that it’s difficult to meet other members in the dungeon, but……

“That is, if you go to a popular dungeon, there’s even a fight for prey, too. Well, there are implicit rules, and it’s not like it’s such a lawless zone, but……”

“Then you’ll just have to say hello when you meet them!”

Saria says so innocently, but Al had a difficult expression.

“Now then, I wonder if the guy who’s ahead of us is a good guy……”

“Eh?”

“…… It’s nothing. More than that, this is a valuable dungeon. Not only to increase Helen’s level, perhaps we can find a right item for you in a treasure chest?”

“Yes! Not only the level, equipment is also important. I’m demanding for too much power, that such a simple thing slips out of my mind……”

“Well, if you don’t have the ability, it’s useless to have a good weapon. Now then, while raising your level at this rate, let’s find some items.”

Helen, who nodded happily at Al’s words, chased after Al.

“……I was originally her teacher, right?”

“Cheer up!”

Saria’s kindness kept me from being in tears. (TN: Poor Seiichi)

◆◇◆

“Fuaah~…… I’m sleepy.”

When Seiichi and the others are successfully walking through the dungeon, the 『Deity(Kami to) 』 of the 【Demon God’s Cult】, Destra the ?Extinction(Zesshi) ? was leisurely walking in the dungeon.

His appearance doesn’t look like a human who’s treading a dungeon, and despite being full of super powerful monsters, he was defenseless to the end.

“Oh, a treasure box righto.”

And even though a trap might have been set, Destra opened the treasure box without hesitation.

Then, purple smoke spews from the treasure box, and it covers Destra’s face.

“Uwa, kehho kehho.”

Nevertheless, Destra lightly frowns, and nothing changed.

“Mo~! You don’t have to go out of your way to put lethal poisonous smoke in it.”

As Destra says, the trap that was set in the treasure box, was a powerful poisonous smoke that will kill you if you inhale it for a moment, and even if you hold your breath, it’ll invade the skin, a dangerous thing that can result in death.

“This totally cheeky dungeon ―――― let’s kill it?”

When Destra narrows his eyes and says so, while coughing a little, the whole dungeon suddenly trembled.

However, when Destra notices that there’s something in the box, the atmosphere he had a while ago has scattered like a lie, and he checked the contents of the treasure box with a lively appearance.

“Oh, Lucky! It’s a proper weapon, not a shoddy item.”

Inside was a legendary weapon called 『Sword of the Blood River (Ketsuga Tsurugi) 』.

The red streaks stretched like a blood vessel on the jet-black sword are eerily pulsing.

“Etto…… Hee, the wound of the slashed opponent cannot be closed. It can also change freely by the owner’s will……”

Destra, who read the ability of the weapon using the 『Appraisal』 skill, has a complacent and evil smile.

“Yeah, yeah yeah! This is really nice! I really like it! What’s this doing here, this pretty good item!”

With Destra’s good mood, the shaking of the entire dungeon was also subsided.

Then, to Destra who was looking at the sword and frolicking, an 『Assassin Spider Lv: 789』, that erased its presence, which had been overlooking him and sticking to the ceiling until now, as it fall down behind Destra without a sound, and when it attacks as it is ――――

“Gi, gi!? Gi, gi ……”

―――― The Assassin Spider died.

“Nn?”

And Destra turns around, as if he just noticed the Assassin Spider.

“Oh, it looks like I’ve been targeted by something. Well, he was out of luck.”

As if he knows that everything that attacks him will naturally die without any feeling of it, Destra uttered so.

He ignored the corpse of the Assassin Spider who died without knowing why and tried proceed further, but Destra suddenly stopped.

“Nn~”

And then, looking at the end of the road that he has followed, he realized something.

“…… Hee. I never thought that people would come to a place like this. It would be troublesome if they see me, and I can round them up here, but that would make Yutis angry. Then there’s only one option left~!”

Destra said so and held his palm towards the end of the road, and he tries to do something ――――

“―――― I dunno. I can just kill them from here, but I’d like to see their dying faces anyway?”

As he says that, Destra begins to proceed again.

“Now then, what kind of people will come? I look forward to it.”

――――Thus, the encounter between Destra and Seiichi and the others was steadily nearing. And the fact that he approached them here and never left…… For Destra, it was the end of everything.