by Chuuni Suki
However, the trap just now was nothing but overkill if it was against normal humans. If it were a normal protector, it'd be easily cut in two. After all, if you didn't have the equipment that Hajime made from the materials that he'd gotten from the Abyss, there was no other way to survive than to avoid it.
"Well, there is no problem if it was that much"
While watching Yue and Shia's quarrel with skeptical eyes, Hajime told that to himself. No matter how powerful, if it was just physical traps then it wouldn't be able to kill Hajime. Yue also had her "Auto Regeneration." She wouldn't die over a trap. In other words... ...Shia was the only one in danger. Even though he didn't know if Shia had noticed that, it was probably because Shia's stress level had reached the heavens.
"Huh? Hajime-san, what's with those pitying eyes..."
"Please live strongly, Shia..."
"Eh, ee? What are you suddenly saying? Although I could felt something very unpleasant from it..."
* * *
Hajime and his party advanced while being wary of traps.
Even now, they hadn't seen even one demonic beast. Although they considered the possibility that this dungeon didn't have demonic beasts in it, that was just optimism. It wouldn't be strange if they suddenly appeared, because that's also a form of a trap.
Hajime and his party reached an open space after exiting the passageway. The roads were split into three inside the room. For now, Hajime put down the "mark", then Hajime and his party chose the leftmost passage that lead to a staircase that went down.
"Uu~. somehow I got a bad feeling about this. Look, my rabbit ears restlessly move from left to right."
Having advanced a few step on the stairs, suddenly, Shia blurted that out. Just as she said, Shia's rabbit ears stood upright, then began to move left and right.
"You, don't raise any strange flags now. If you say something like that, usually, something will immediately "GAKON"... see!
"I-It's not my fault!?"
"... ...Flag rabbit!"
While Hajime and Shia talked, an unpleasant sound resounded, and suddenly the stair's steps disappeared. It was a considerably inclined staircase, and with the disappearance of the steps it became a slope. Moreover, tar-like slippery liquid began to overflow from the countless small holes on the surface.
"Kuh, this—!"
When the steps became a slope, Hajime immediately transmutated the minerals on the bottom of his shoes into spikes, his artificial arm's fingers were also made into spikes so that he wouldn't slip down. Yue immediately jumped to Hajime before she started to slip. Hajime who read that also braced himself. As expected, they were harmonized even in this place.
However, there was still one more person who was unable to do that kind of cooperation. It goes without saying that it was Shia.
"Ukyaaa!?"
When it became a slope, Shia raised a scream then the back of her head hit the surface hard. "Nuuaa!", as she writhed in pain, then slipped along while covered in that liquid. In that state, with her legs opened in a M character, she collided with Hajime's face.
"Bu!?"
The spikes on his artificial arm came off because of the impact, Hajime was overturned backward with his left arm holding Yue. Then the spikes on his feet also came off, he slipped down the slope headfirst. Shia was on top of Hajime with a reversed position.
"You! Clumsy rabbit! Move now!"
" I am sorry, but to move-~"
While slipping, their speed became faster. Hajime desperately tried to stab the spikes on his artificial arm and shoes on the ground, but they were too fast, so it didn't go well. Then, he tried to transmute the staircase but with the strong disintegration inside the dungeon, it also didn't turn out well.
Shia, while struggling was somehow able to get up. Now, it was as if she was riding Hajime.
"Use Doryukken's stake!"
Hajime gave an instruction to Shia. The Sledgehammer Doryukken that Shia carried had a few gimmicks prepared inside, one of them was to form a stake on the head part of the hammer. It was a mechanism to raise the penetrative power by focusing on one spot. If that was stabbed on the surface they should be able to stop.
"Y-yes, leave it to me!? Hajime-san! The road—!"
Shia tried to remove Doryukken from its fastening/holding device on her back. Then, Shia who looked forward immediately raised an uneasy voice.
Hajime was able to realize what had happened. When Shia slipped before, it was likely dropped.
"Kh! Yue!"
"Nn!"
Hajime immediately called out Yue's name. Even with only that Yue was able to read Hajime's intentions.
"Shia, hold on tight!"
"Y-yes!"
While still riding Hajime, Shia tightly clung to him.
Finally, they reached the end of the slope and they were thrown in the air. One moment of weightlessness/floating. At that chance, Yue invoked her magic.
""Soar"!"
It was an elementary-ranked magic of wind system. It magic created a strong vertical updraft, and it'd increased one's jumping power. An expert would be able to make pseudo-flight using this magic. However, in this place magical power was hard to maintain. That's why, Yue's magic only lasted for a few seconds and its effect only made Hajime and his party float.
"It's enough."
Hajime's voice that was mixed with praise resounded. That's right, for Hajime, it was enough if he got the time to confirm their surroundings. Yue completely and splendidly answered his expectations.
Hajime, with Yue on his left arm, and Shia clinging to his neck, hung his artificial arm toward the ceiling. Then, he poured his magic power...
PASHU!
A sound come out along with a thin wire with an anchor installed on it and shot out from his artificial arm, it pierced the ceiling's wall. Then, because of the anchor they were fixed to their place.
Hajime and his party were currently hanging with one wire that hung on the ceiling, they felt relieved after confirming the anchor did not come off.
Then, they felt regret when they saw what was under them.
Kasakasakasa, washawashawasha, kiikii, kasakasakasa.
Those sounds came from a lot of scorpions wriggling around. Its length around 10 cm. Although it didn't give off the same feeling as that scorpion-look-alike, it gave them the psychological feeling of disgust. If they didn't halt their fall with the anchor, they would dive into a sea of scorpions, and it gave them goosebumps all over their bodies when they thought that.
""" ... ..."""
The trio fell into silence. Because they didn't want to look below, they looked at the ceiling. Then, somehow they noticed lights emitting into some characters. It was already too late, Hajime and his party inadvertently read it.
"These guys doesn't have lethal poison."
"But, you'll be paralyzed."
"Please be satisfied by lying with these cute children, pugya—!!"
Maybe she purposely set up these phosphorus ores there, those characters were standing out in the dim space. Those who fell here would surely, with scorpions wriggling around their body, desperately try to move, and try to reach out to heaven (ceiling). Then, they'd discover it. Those playful words.
""" ... ..."""
Once again, Hajime and his party fell into silence but because of something else. "Ignore it, ignore it",was what they told to themselves, and somehow they were able to observe their surroundings.
"... ... Hajime, over there."
"Nn?"
Because Yue noticed something, she pointed her finger to a certain place below. There was an empty tunnel.
"A tunnel... ... what should we do? Are we going to climb up to our previous location or are we going over there?"
"I-I will follow Hajime-san's decision. I have been nothing but a burden after all..."
"No need, the punishment will come from the dungeon, so don't mind it."
"That only makes me even more anxious! Isn't it better to just say "don't mind it"~"
"... ...Impudent. The punishment will become twice."
"Wh-wha, Yue-san also joined him!? Uu, even if the dungeon is conquered, the future looks dark."
Hajime and Yue forgave Shia who lamented.
"Haa, no matter, what would be useful is if we could use your "chosen future"~"
"Uu, that was still. Although I've been practicing..."
"Chosen future" was Shia's special magic. It was able to catch a glimpse of the future under some assumptions. However, it can only be used once a day, it was impractical because this special magic required large amounts of magic power to use. Even though Shia specialized in body strengthening, if her magic power drained she'd only be a shameless rabbit. Although the amount of consumption was decreasing because of daily training... ... it was still a long way from mastering it.
"Well, it can't be helped if we can't use it. Rather than returning, it feels better to advance, so let's go to the tunnel."
"... ... Nn"
"Yes."
Hajime shot out another anchor then moved just like tarzan until they safely reached the tunnel.
Hajime and his party advanced in the passageway that was lit by phosphorus ores while being vigilant about any unpleasant traps that might appear.
* * *
Chapter 45: Miledi Raisen II
* * *
At the doorway of a certain passage. You'd noticed that somehow there were only walls in the passage. Normally, one would see it as a dead end. However, some parts of the walls were actually connected to a room from several minutes ago.
Silence lingered in the air, immediately, sparks started to appear from the dead end-like wall, and a hole where people could pass through in a half-crouching position appeared. Creeping out of it were...
"Zehah zehah, hu-hurry it up."
"... ...Nn, it'd be troublesome to be crushed by this."
"Well, I don't think that was at a level where you'll only feel troubled, right? Wouldn't you normally die from it?"
It was the trio of Hajime, Yue, and Shia. Hajime and his party were wandering around after escaping via the tunnel inside the scorpions' room. Then, they arrived at a room that had a standard trap where the ceiling dropped down and crushed them.
They were unable to escape the room because the range was too vast. Immediately, Hajime and Shia used their backbones to support the ceiling, and with that chance he used transmutation to make a hole in the ceiling.
Most of all, transmutation was becoming harder to use because of strong magic disintegration in this place, the speed of transmutation became a quarter of the usual, and the range only one meter, while the amount of magic consumption became tenfold the usual. That's why, Hajime only managed to transmute a small space just enough to hold three people, and they moved toward the exit.
"Damn, even "High-speed magic recovery" was useless. The amount of recovered was too small"
"... ... for now, do you want to drink... ... recovery potion?"
"Now now, please drink your full~"
"You guys, somehow you have too much composure..."
Hajime who felt a little tired, sat while leaning on the wall, Yue held the gesture of feeding someone chocolate, while Shia got the magic-recovery potion from her pouch. Although it was possible to use the magic crystallization stone to replenish his magic, while it was convenient to get magic power from it, he wanted to preserve it. Furthermore in this situation it was more appropriate to use a magic-recovery potion.
Hajime who felt that he was in a play, as a salary-man with Yue and Shia, and thought, "I can't make any rebuttal on it", while he received the recovery potion and drink it in a flash. It tasted almost the same as Li**vitan D. Hajime felt the differences in speed and amount of recovery from magic crystallization stone was significant compared to this, but he could feel that his vitality had recovered a lot. "Ush!", was how he psyched himself up and stood up.
Once again, they discovered those annoying sentences.
"Pupu—, in a hurry~?, how uncou~th"
Apparently these annoying sentences were a set along with the traps. Miledi Raisen... ... was a person who put in a lot of effort to harass someone.
"W-we aren't in a hurry! Absolutely not! We aren't that uncouth!"
Having traced Hajime's gaze, Shia who found those annoying sentences let out, "GRR!", while protesting toward those characters. It seemed Shia's hostility toward Miledi already reached the heavens. She reacted every time she found those annoying sentences. Probably, if Miledi was still alive she would have said, "Good prey have come!", while grinning.
"Ignore that, let's go. You don't need to mind that every time."
"... ...What you thought is important."
"Uu, okay."
Afterwards, they advanced on the passage, and they reached rooms with other traps waiting. Suddenly, poisoned arrows came from every direction, sulfuric acid-like liquid which melted anything that entered the pitfall, there was also a room where the floor turned into something like an Antlion Nest, with a worm-like demonic beasts in the center of the room, also the annoying sentences. The stress level of Hajime and his party increased at mach speed.
Even so, they passed through all of the traps, and arrived at the biggest passage they had gone through in this dungeon. Its width around 6-7 meters. It gradually became a slope that bent to the right. It was probably a passage that descended in a spiral shape.
Hajime and his party kept vigilant. There was no way that a passage like this didn't had any traps in it.
After a while, their thoughts proved to be right. An unpleasant sound, "GAKONn!", of a mechanism could be heard. Immediately, they realized that they hadn't stepped on or pushed any switches. Then, you didn't need to use switches before!, was the grand rebuttal that Hajime thought, surely Miledi Raisen would have been happy to hear that as he let out a "Guh."
What kind of trap is it now?, was what Hajime and his party thought while examining their surroundings vigilantly. Then they heard something.
GOROGOROGOROGOROGOROGOROGOROGORO
It was the sound of something heavy rolling down.
""" ... ..."""
The trio went silent and looked at each others, then they looked overhead at the same time. They couldn't see anything because the slope was curved. The strange noise became louder, then... ... a giant boulder as big as the passage rolled down from the curve. The rock was in the form of a big ball. It was a completely standard trap. Surely, after they desperately ran away, those annoying sentences would be there.
Yue and Shia already turned their heels to run away as fast as they could. However, they were immediately stopped. It was because Hajime didn't move away.
"... ...Nn, Hajime?"
"Hajime-san!? Let's hurry or else we will be crushed!"