by Fujino Omori
Welf ducked under the reckless sideswipe without any hesitation.
Squatting as low as possible, left hand on the ground and right hand holding his sword against his right shoulder, Welf had the eyes of a beast not unlike the one he was about to strike.
Seeing an opening the moment the massive arm passed by him, Welf sprang forward and swung his thick blade at his target.
“—RAAA!”
The sound of steel through flesh. The blade hit its mark, slicing straight through the orc’s exposed stomach.
A dark greenish blood spraying from its wound, the sheer force of the blow threw the monster off-balance. It fell backward, slamming its head against the dirt.
“How’d you like that!”
Welf ran forward and jumped to the side of the orc’s head.
Grabbing hold of his longsword with both hands, Welf’s unblinking eyes locked onto the monster’s neck before he brought the weapon down in one fell swoop.
SHING-THUD! The sound of the impact reverberated throughout the room.
“Li’l E! Next!”
“Already here!”
Leaving the headless monster behind, Welf turned in the direction that Lilly was pointing.
What greeted his eyes was the silhouette of another orc—this one carrying a landform tree club in its right hand. The beast was already dashing toward them. Welf clicked his tongue in frustration, but with his usual smirk still on his face.
“Well, isn’t that a pain in the ass!”
“Lilly is aware!”
Lilly circled around the dead bodies on the ground to get a different angle on the new orc.
She reached inside the sleeve of her robe and withdrew a bowgun, taking aim with her slender arms.
PING! Her golden arrow pierced the beast’s shoulder.
“!”
The orc stopped in its tracks to nurse its injured shoulder. The eyes of its pig head narrowed, forgetting its original target—Welf—and finding a new one: Lilly.
There was a momentary pause.
Seeing an opportunity to attack the distracted orc, Welf took a step forward and planted his left foot firmly into the dirt.
His black coat rustling like smoke in the wind, Welf’s boot carved a new divot into the dungeon floor as he took another step forward.
“EAT THIS!”
The blade that had been resting on his shoulder carved a massive arc through the air.
All of the strength Welf possessed was focused through his right arm and into this single strike. It slammed into the monster’s body at full force.
The longsword hit the orc with enough force to slice it clean in half. The orc’s body flinched, but it was unable to cry out in pain due to the blood spewing from its mouth. The beast’s bloodshot eyes caught one last glimpse of its attacker before its body dissolved into ash on the spot.
Welf’s attack had cut through and destroyed the magic stone buried deep in the monster’s chest.
“Mr. Crozzo, we’re going to have a problem if you keep breaking magic stones! Mr. Bell and Lilly will make less money!”
“What’s done is done. Can’t be helped. Oh, and don’t call me that.”
He turned to face the girl who stood a good distance away with a slightly annoyed look on his face. She was always complaining about something.
“And what about my share, huh?” Welf retorted with a verbal jab at the prum.
Only specs of purplish ash remained on the grassy dungeon floor.
“…Mr. Crozzo!”
“What did I just say about that na—ahh…”
Just when Welf opened his mouth to yell at her, he realized why Lilly had screamed in the first place.
Two new monsters, smaller than orcs, had quietly snuck up behind Welf.
“Silverbacks.”
Muscular bodies covered in thick white fur, these monsters looked like massive wild gorillas. Their name came from a silver mane around their necks and the thick stripe of silver fur running all the way down their backs. The fur on their lower backs was long enough to look like a short silver tail.
Not too long ago, Bell fought one of these beasts during Monster-philia. Along with the Hard Armoreds, they made the lower eleventh floor of the Dungeon an extremely dangerous place for Level 1 adventurers. While they didn’t have the orc’s size, they more than made up for it with power and agility. Fangs bared and muscles bulging, there was only one way to describe them: strong.
Welf turned to face these new attackers when suddenly, THUMP. A third silverback jumped down from a particularly large dead tree and landed between him and Lilly.
“…”
“Geeeh……”
“Shit,” he spat almost like a reflex.
They were ganging up on him. This was one situation that adventurers want to avoid at all costs in the Dungeon.
Fantastic…Like I’m solo all over again.
Feeling the sweat dripping down his brow, Welf took a defensive stance and looked at all three beasts in turn.
After being left out of other battle parties, he had equipped himself with as many potions as he could carry and ventured out into the lower tenth on his own…All the moments when he nearly died flashed before his eyes as he stared down the silverbacks.
I have to run, now…Dammit, I’m pinned down!
His body getting impatient as the monsters started closing in, Welf’s mind raced to find an escape route.
He estimated as he sized up his opponents that he was slightly more powerful than one silverback. However, that meant the moment he engaged one in combat, he would be wide open for the others to attack from behind. Catching a glimpse of Lilly’s startled face, he knew in an instant he couldn’t count on the supporter for any help.
I’m toast, was the only conclusion he could come up with, but Welf chose to ignore it. Swinging his longsword in a wide arc, he brought it to rest on his shoulder before taking a step toward the closest silverback.
He decided to break through a point of their net. A strange pinging sound filled his ears. He would never get used to the tension that came from being surrounded by enemies in the Dungeon, no matter how many times it happened. He braced his body for battle.
A perilous ambience surrounded them.
The silverback Welf was staring down glared right back at him, its eyes glistening in anticipation.
The monsters made their move as one.
A heartbeat later…
“—One, two, anddd!!”
“GehGOOH?!”
“?!”
Something incredibly forceful flew in from outside the net.
Bell had launched himself like a javelin, his fearsome kick catching the jaw of one of the silverbacks. Caught completely off guard, the beast’s head spun to a gruesome angle as it plowed into another silverback.
Welf and the other beasts stood in stunned silence at the sudden turn of events. Bell, however, drew his dagger from its sheath while still in midair.
“Mr. Welf!”
Ruby-red eyes meeting his gaze, Welf realized it was about to happen.
He leaned back as quickly as he could to get out of the way.
Not wasting any movement or momentum, Bell threw the dagger in his right hand with all of his might.
“GEH?!”
“—!!”
The dagger whizzed past Welf’s face and straight into the eye of the silverback behind him.
The beast reared back, screaming in pain. Taking that as his cue, Welf spun in place as he brought his own blade to bear.
The longsword cut a deep gash into the monster’s body.
“…”
The limp monster fell to its knees. Welf had come to a stop, blade still at the top of its cutting arc. Keeping the same pose, he looked back over his shoulder toward Bell.
Bell had just slain the second silverback and stood over their bloody, motionless bodies.
Welf stared at Bell’s back for a moment before grinning and returning his sword to his shoulder.
“I could really get used to this battle-party thing.”
The white-haired boy turned toward him, nodding in agreement with a big smile on his face.
“You are one fast dude, you know that? I didn’t even see you fly in.”
“I-I’m not exactly sure when I did myself…”
Our battle against the monster party finally over, the three of us are now taking a short break.
We’re still in the same room on the lower eleventh floor. The aftermath of our skirmish is scattered all around. Uprooted dead trees, divots in the ground, ash left behind by monsters’ bodies, even pieces of the dungeon wall are everywhere I look. It’s an absolute mess in here.
Mr. Welf’s longsword is back in its sheath and strapped to his back. He’s standing next to me with his arms folded across his chest as we talk about what just happened.
“This dungeon-crawling thing sure is easier when you’ve got a strong ally with you. ’Course I can’t rely on you always saving my ass.”
“I have a feeling that I didn’t slay as many monsters as I usually do.”
“That’s the good thing about being in a battle party. Your mind and body don’t have to work as hard, and you’re free to move however you want. Your allies cover your blind side.”
Mr. Welf is making some good points. Since he has more experience working in the Dungeon with a party than I do, I’m listening to every word.
“I thought we did pretty well, considering today’s our first day as a group. We’re not exactly reading each other’s minds, but our movements meshed…That’s all thanks to Li’l E.”
“Thanks to Lilly?”
“Yeah. Her actions seem minor, but she had a big influence. Alerting us to new monsters, keeping us from running into each other, she did a great job coordinating us.”
While that is a strange way to say it, simply put, Lilly was guiding us.
It might be better to say she was steering us in the right direction. She could see the whole battlefield from her vantage point, so she knew exactly when and how to assist us. That included keeping us apart.
I hear Mr. Welf say, “She knows how adventurers move.”
I slowly nod as his words click and say, “Ah, that makes sense.” Considering all of Lilly’s experience as a supporter and as a thief, I bet she knows the way adventurers think like the back of her hand.
“She really is something else, Li’l E.”
“It’s times like these when you really can’t think of anything bad to say about supporters…”
“You can say that again,” replies Mr. Welf as he looks over his shoulder at Lilly. She’s in a deeper corner of the room, collecting magic stones and drop items with amazing speed and efficiency.
The two of us had slain a lot of monsters, so naturally there was a lot of work to be done. We offered to help, but she turned us away immediately. “This is Lilly’s job, rest while there’s time,” she had said as she pushed us away from the monsters’ remains.
She said she wanted to do her share.
“Well, whadda you know, we’ve got even more company. Should we head somewhere else?”
“Hmm, we could do that…”
There are a few groups of adventurers in the room now who weren’t here when we arrived.
Many adventurers pass through here, since this room connects to the floor above. Quite a few battle parties use this room as a staging area because there’s no fog. Needless to say, it’s difficult to find any monsters to slay in this spot.
It would be miserable to have to compete with them for loot, and even worse to have something happen that causes problems between Familias. Actually, there were a few parties that edged around the room while we were in combat. It’s an unwritten rule among adventurers: We stay out of one another’s way as much as possible while in the Dungeon.
…Now that I think about it, Lilly was the first one to realize that other adventurers were here. She immediately gathered the bodies of slain monsters in one spot to protect our loot. Kind of like, “These are ours, don’t get any ideas.”
I don’t know if she’s just got an eye for details, but that’s something that only an experienced supporter can do for their party.
“…Since we’re already here, why don’t we eat lunch? There are a lot of people in here, so we shouldn’t need to worry about monsters sneaking up on us.”
“Good point. Plus, it’d be a real pain to give up this spot. Let’s take advantage of the situation. Lunch sounds good.”
His reasoning sounds a bit pushy, but at least he agrees with me.
We’ll start eating as soon as Lilly gets back.
All these people…I know it’s the lower eleventh, but each party looks insanely powerful…
Even the air around each group exudes strength and experience.
The same goes for their armor and weapons. Sharp, sturdy…The list of words that comes to my mind just looking at them goes on and on.
An animal person with a robust bow strapped to his back, an Amazon leaning on a particularly large battle ax, a majestic elf wearing a silver white cloak and carrying a staff…They’re a mix of races of humans and demi-humans, with a few interesting quirks.
How many of them have leveled up…?
By and large, the parties that crawl the eleventh and twelfth floors are preparing to venture forth into the middle levels. So there have to be quite a few Level 2 adventurers in here right now.
…Am I really on par with any of these people?
I’m Level 2, so we’re equal at least on paper…but looking at the huge muscles on that dwarf makes me want to make myself as small as possible. My goal is much, much higher, so it’s not a good sign that I’m getting intimidated so easily.
I’m sure all of them have some impressive Magic and Skills…
Wait a minute, I have a Skill, too…
Can’t believe it took me this long to remember that I learned one, too.
“Heroic Desire, Argonaut.” I completely forgot about it up until now, so I wasn’t exactly trying to test it out…
I fought like normal, nothing strange happened…did it?
I’m faster and stronger than before, but that’s because I leveled up. I don’t think a Skill will have any effect on that.
“Active Action. Choose to move. Attack, not counterattack.”
I tilt my head to the side as I remember the goddess’s words. “Hmmm…”
I have no idea what she was talking about. Choosing to move, attacking and all that…That’s normal to me. And yet nothing unusual has happened. Maybe it takes more than movement to trigger it?
Magic needs spells to activate, so maybe this Skill does, too?
How did I…
…Learn a skill called Argonaut in the first place?
Because I leveled up?
Because I slew that monster, the Minotaur?
Because I wished from the bottom of my heart that Aiz wouldn’t see me in another embarrassing situation?
…At that moment, I…
I want to be—
“—a hero!”
That’s what I wished for.
“…”
Just like the heroes in fairy tales.
Just like the men who could face down powerful enemies without fear.
Just like the women who risk everything to save lives.
To become that, to be one step closer, that was my desire.
Heroic desire.
“…Hey, Bell. What’s that?”
“!”
A voice drags me out of the depths of my memories and back into the present in the blink of an eye.
Welf is standing in front of me, eyebrows cocked in confusion.
I’m about to ask him what’s wrong, but I follow his gaze to my right arm first.
Small specs of light are shimmering around my arm.
“…Eh?”
My eyes go wide as a dumbfounded sound rolls off my tongue.
The small lights are spinning around my
forearm, their white light softly pulsing.
The lights are smaller than a snowflake, about the size of a grain of sand. They disappear as they rotate toward my arm, only for new ones to appear in their place in an endless cycle.
Sparkle, converge, dim, and repeat.
It’s as if my arm is stuck in a whirlpool of sparkling white light.
Ping, ping. The lights are making sounds as they glisten.
All like little chimes.
“…”
“…”
Mr. Welf and I look at each other.
He looks just as surprised and confused as I am. I don’t think I could give him any answers even if he asked me.
What…what is this…?
My eyes are focused so hard on my right hand, and I’m surprised it hasn’t fallen off yet.
I can see Mr. Welf’s gaze going from my face to my arm over and over again. Just as he’s opening his mouth to speak—it happens.
“—oooOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!”
A ferocious roar stampedes through the room, making my ears scream in pain.
“?!”
Mr. Welf and I flip around to look in that direction. No, not just us. Every other person in the room is looking that way, their eyes wide with terror.
It’s in the room’s entrance. Amber-colored scales emerge from the fog flowing in from the next room.
Not only scales, there is a long tail, sharp claws, and a ton of fangs as well.
It’s only about 150 celch at its tallest, but it looks like it’s more than 4 meders long—a small dragon.
“An infant dragon…?!”
The voice of an adventurer I’ve never met rings out.
This four-legged beast is a species of dragon, said to be the most powerful type of all the monsters in the Dungeon. While it doesn’t have wings, its muscular body is covered in thick amber scales. I can tell just by looking at this thing that it has the potential to overpower an orc. Its head twists from side to side as it scans the room with red eyes the size of dinner plates.
Infant dragon.
It’s a rare monster that only appears on the lower eleventh and twelfth floors of the Dungeon.
Considering that only four or five of these things roam the Dungeon at a time, it takes a considerable amount of luck to encounter one of them. Then again, infant dragons have annihilated entire parties of Level 1 adventurers. So they weren’t all that lucky…