by Fujino Omori
I can just barely guess its race by squinting down the dim passageway.
“We haven’t met one of our own for a while. Even in the middle levels, we weren’t seeing many adventurers.”
“It must be someone powerful. No other familia was scheduled for an expedition at the same time as ours…Lilly thinks only a second-tier adventurer or higher would venture this far for ordinary exploration.”
As Ouka and Lilly talk behind me, the figure of the approaching adventurer grows more distinct by the second. It’s dressed in high-quality leather armor, with a quiver at its hip. I spot a familia crest.
The gear is familiar. I know this person.
I’m pretty sure it’s…Luvis?
I came into contact with him almost two months ago, when I was serving as Eina’s bodyguard. He’s the upper-class elven adventurer who, along with the dwarf Dormul, was pursuing Eina night after night, egged on by his patron deity. I can’t yet make out his face very well because of the shadows, but I’m certain it’s him.
…What’s he doing all alone on this floor?
I’ve heard he’s Level 3, but this is extremely dangerous behavior. Even if he is second tier, I’d have a hard time saying he took all the necessary safety precautions unless he came down here with a party.
Plus, why is he carrying a quiver but no bow? And are my eyes deceiving me, or is his armor covered in scratches and rips? The back of my neck tingles.
A moment later, confusion turns to uneasiness.
“…Everyone, assume a defensive posture! Something feels wrong.”
“Huh?”
At almost the same instant, I take my stance and Aisha warns the others to do the same.
He’s staggering like he could fall at any second.
Actually, he looks like a zombie.
The party reacts with a mixture of confusion and tension to the ominously unsteady form emerging from the dim passageway. Lilly holds her breath.
Finally, Luvis comes to a point directly below one of the white crystals in the ceiling.
Slowly, he raises his face.
“Ah…Oh…?!”
The light has exposed a figure completely covered in blood.
“…!!”
“Wha—?!”
Every member of our party gapes at him in surprise. But the blood isn’t the biggest shock. What renders Lilly and the others speechless is the fact that Luvis’s right arm is missing.
The upper arm is still there, hidden in the shadow of his body, but everything from the elbow down is gone. Luvis stretches his still-intact left arm out toward us.
“He…el…!”
He collapses onto the ground as he utters a fragment of a word.
As if to take his place, a large monster emerges from the darkness.
Green. That’s the only word I can find.
The human-shaped body is two meders high, and every bit of it is covered in moss. Over the moss, tree roots form a kind of protective covering. The monster looks like a giant covered in full plate armor. The fact that its head brings to mind a bald human likely plays a role in that impression. Judging from the short, hornlike pieces of wood protruding from its head, though, it’s probably closer to an ogre. The two huge, emotionless eyeballs glitter yellow.
Its rough left hand grips a nature weapon—a crystal mace that gives off a deep-blue light.
Its right hand grips a human arm.
Luvis’s right arm, torn from his body.
“Ahh…!”
Haruhime lets out a brief scream at the unpleasant sound of the arm being squashed in the monster’s hand.
The blood dripping onto the crystal pathway. The cruelty of the torn-off arm. We all stand frozen and wordless before this shocking scene. I feel like my hair is standing on end.
The hideous monster silently stretches its gore-drenched hand toward Luvis, who’s still lying on the ground.
“Stop!!”
I charge full-force toward this unknown being.
In an instant, I am beside it, on the verge of slicing through it—when the monster’s yellow eyes roll angrily toward me.
“…”
The crystal mace in its left hand swings down next to me with incredible force.
—It’s fast!!
“!!”
I hurl myself forward to avoid the flash of light that carves a whining path through the air. The mace passes above my head, which is nearly touching the ground, and slams into the Dungeon wall directly next to me.
There’s a thunderous roar, and the ground shakes. The crystal wall makes a screaming sound as fissures race through it from ceiling to floor, and the whole passageway quakes.
“Crap!!”
Welf and the others are yelling in astonishment behind me. I’m shocked, too, by the unexpected speed and force of the blow, but I move straight from my doubled-over posture into an attack.
Out of the corner of my eye, I glimpse a few strands of white hair floating through the air, fragments of the crystal wall scattering like rain, and the monster’s nearly closed eyes. This time I thrust Hakugen—gripped in my left hand—upward from its low position.
The fiercely powerful flash of white light seeks the monster’s midriff—but misses by a hairbreadth as the giant steps unexpectedly backward.
“…!”
—It reacted again!
This is not a coincidence. It’s foreseeing my attacks.
The superfast attacks of a Level-4 adventurer who is not holding back!
This monster can’t be—
The tip of my knife grazes its body, sending fragments of moss flying toward me like enemy blood. My eyes meet the yellow eyes of the monster.
In those eyes, I detect not the raw instinct of a rampaging beast but, instead, the will to fight, heavy with a kind of muddy lust. That, and an intelligence that is observing my every move.
In our brief second of combat, I also sense the monster’s high potential.
It’s beyond comparison with any other monster I’ve fought in the Water Capital today.
In other words…
…it’s an enhanced species!!
My mind shrieks silently as it recognizes a skill level and decision-making ability far beyond what one would expect on this floor.
“OOO…!”
As if to affirm my conjecture, the monster sticks out its red tongue and licks its lips.
Using the momentum from the knife thrust that met nothing but air, I release a spinning kick at waist level. This time my right leg, thrust out like a spear, makes contact with my enemy’s body and succeeds in pushing it away from where Luvis lies on the ground.
“Don’t push him too far, boy!”
“We’re coming!”
As the mossy giant is forced to retreat about five meders, Aisha shouts at me sharply, and I hear Welf’s and Mikoto’s approaching footsteps.
A rustling sound comes from the monster’s body, and in an instant the wounds from Hakugen disappear under newly grown moss. The giant looks past me to the members of the party running toward us.
Then, I’m quite sure, it narrows its eyes.
The next moment, it stretches its huge arms out in front of me as I stand in a defensive position guarding Luvis.
What is it about to do? My tension level jumps even higher. I hear a horrible cracking noise as small bumps rise all over the surface of the huge body.
They’re on its arms, shoulders, neck, torso, legs…everywhere.
I could swear it was about to shoot something. A chill runs through me.
“…away…”
At my feet, Luvis is trying to say something. The wounded adventurer is summoning his last scrap of energy in order to warn me.
“Get away! Don’t try to block it!!”
As Luvis utters those words, dozens of pointy bullets—seeds—shoot out from the monster’s body.
“Huh?!”
It’s an unbelievable firearm.
Not flames, not snow, but a barrage of seeds rain
s down on me. They’re not all coming straight on, either—they’re coming from above, below, left, and right. They’re bouncing off the walls of the passageway and attacking me from every angle.
—They’re ricocheting!!
I can’t even track them all because there are so many, flying across my field of vision at random angles. Worst of all, they’re being released at extremely close range. I have no choice but to follow Luvis’s advice.
I abandon my defensive stance, throw appearance to the wind, and leap to the side. As I jump, I grab Luvis’s body and fly with him into the shadows of a crystal mass to our right.
“Haruhime!! Put on your robe!”
“Eeyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?!”
Seeds are reaching the other members of the party now. Aisha shrieks her warning just before they hit. Ouka and Welf, who are in the vanguard, crouch down and manage to raise their shields to deflect some of the seeds. But they can’t stop them all. Mikoto and Daphne go pale and turn away. Aisha leaps out, waving her podao to protect the supporters directly behind her. Haruhime, her tail quivering, lies facedown on the ground with Lilly, both of them covered by the Goliath Robe.
“—Aaah!”
Welf and the other adventurers manage to withstand the rain of bullets, and the steel wall of the Goliath Robe is protecting the helpless supporters, but one voice rings out.
Chigusa.
Unable to dodge completely, she’s been hit in the shoulder with a projectile. Her legs collapse under her and she sinks to the ground.
I can’t stand to watch this scene from the sidelines. I leap from the shadow of the crystal mass into the passageway, where the fierce barrage has now stopped.
The monster is staring at me with arms limp at its sides. I’m about to lunge at it with knife outthrust, when—
“—”
“Huh?!”
The mossy giant stomps the ground powerfully, then disappears into a tunnel in the wall.
It’s escaped—no, retreated?!
A monster, retreating?!
As I stand in shock with knife raised, I hear a scream from behind me.
“Chigusa! What’s the matter?!”
“Ohhh, aaaah…!”
As I turn around, I doubt my eyes for a second time.
Ouka is kneeling on the ground with Chigusa in his arms. Her eyes are squeezed shut as if in great pain, and ivy is growing from her shoulder.
It trails from her right shoulder over her arm and chest, crawling inside her battle dress as if to violate her soft skin. The green vine even sucks up the drops of sweat that drip down the back of her neck.
“A plant growing from the wound…?! Ch-Chigusa?!”
As Mikoto’s distraught words sink in, I stare at Chigusa. So that seed bullet is the cause of this—?
Gaping in surprise, I glance back toward Luvis, who I’ve left slumped in the shadow of the crystal mass.
I hadn’t noticed before in the dim light, but now I see. Like Chigusa, a tangle of ivy encircles his body.
CHAPTER 4
A HUNTER AT THE WATER’S EDGE
“Chigusa, keep holding on!!”
Ouka’s cries ring out again and again.
We are in a crystal room in a corner of the labyrinth on the twenty-fifth floor. After the mossy giant unleashed its fierce attack, we retreated to this room to avoid fighting any other monsters. We quickly scarred the walls and stationed a guard at the entrance, and are now trying to heal Chigusa and Luvis.
“Oh sunlight, may you beat back ruin. Soul light.”
Cassandra, our healer, is working her magic on Chigusa and Luvis as they lay on the floor. The staff Chigusa holds beside her is glowing with a warm light that resembles sunlight, wrapping the injured in its embrace. This exceedingly rare form of healing has the power to close any type of bloody wound…but the ivy that is tormenting Chigusa and Luvis does not disappear.
To the contrary, the light of the healing magic seems to spur on its growth, so that it becomes even more vigorous and sprouts lush leaves.
“Ooh, ooooh…!”
“Th-this is no use! I can’t get rid of the ivy…! There’s nothing I can do to fix this!” Cassandra shrieks as she stands over the sweating, groaning Chigusa.
We’ve already tried all the potions and antidotes. All of them were useless. We can’t get rid of the ivy growing from the wounds. When we tried to tear out the vines by force, Chigusa and Luvis shrieked in pain, and when we cut them with our swords, new ones grew to replace them.
Cassandra is at a loss, her voice wavering.
“Most likely, the seeds that entered their bodies have put down roots and are feeding off their strength…So potions and antidotes do the opposite of what we want…”
“Are you saying there’s no chance of recovery?!” Ouka asks, leaning over Chigusa.
“More precisely, I think, the vines will suck the strength from their bodies as they recover…” groans Daphne, who is standing next to Ouka with a gloomy look on her face.
If it was just a question of wounds, they would already be healed. But if they’re being robbed of their vitality second by second, then there is no way they can continue to fight. Not only that—in the worst-case scenario, life itself becomes…
Mikoto has her back turned to the rest of us as she uses Yatano Black Crow to guard the entrance, but she can’t hide her concern. Every few seconds she glances back toward Chigusa.
“This isn’t within the dimension of healing, is it? It’s like the monster is parasitizing them,” Welf says.
“Exactly…a parasitic plant,” Lilly says. Ouka and the others turn pale at their words.
“Chigusa…!” the teary-eyed Haruhime says, gripping the hand of her childhood best friend.
Through all of this, I’ve been listening silently to the conversation. I look at Luvis.
Like Chigusa, his face is wet with sweat. His right arm has been wrapped in cloth to heal it, but it’s hopeless to think he’ll be able to recover the forearm. On top of the fact that the monster crushed it beyond all recognition, it’s already starting to rot. Reconnecting it is simply not an option.
“Oh, ahh…!”
Trapped in a nightmare of pain even as he lays unconscious, Luvis squeezes his tightly shut eyes into a grimace. It’s fair to say that this one-armed man’s career as an adventurer has been cut short. He’ll either have to retire or soldier on with a heavy handicap.
To be honest, I’ve talked with Luvis only a handful of times. I have no idea what kind of person he is or even what his goal is in exploring the Dungeon. Still…it’s more of a shock than I expected to witness someone I know fall into an irrecoverable situation like this.
The reality of the Dungeon and its dark labyrinth is that it yields brilliant success on the one hand and a constant stream of victims on the other.
As this truth confronts me, a shiver passes through my body. If I had encountered a situation like this when I first arrived in Orario, I might well have been reduced to a pale, quaking mess.
But now…
I quietly squeeze my hands into fists as I stand before my one-armed fellow adventurer. I look up. Next to me is Cassandra, her arms limp at her sides, overwhelmed with disappointment.
“I’ve never seen anything like these symptoms…! There’s just nothing I can do…!”
Perhaps because she has lost hope in herself as a healer in the face of these mysterious symptoms, which are due to neither “irregular ailments” nor curses, Cassandra’s calm, drooping eyes pool with tears.
“How can we save Chigusa and Luvis?” I say, forcibly breaking into her daze. My tone is so strong it shatters the fretful atmosphere hovering around the party and surprises even me.
“Huh…?”
“Please give me your opinion as a healer, Miss Cassandra, even if it’s just a hunch.”
She’s kneeling, so I get down at eye level with her and grip her right hand with my left. Squeezing it to give her courage, I speak slowly to the teary he
aler.
“No one is dead yet.”
“…!”
“Everyone is here. If we think about this together, we can save them.”
The eyes looking into mine widen. I stare resolutely back, and Cassandra’s cheeks suddenly flush. When I release her hand, she looks a little bashful and presses her left hand to her heart as if to hold it in place. I can sense that Lilly wants to say something, but for the time being, she’ll have to wait. Cassandra shifts her gaze back and forth and answers me timidly.
“W-we can either rush them back to the surface and have them seen by a better healer than me…someone like the Dea Saint of Dian Cecht Familia…”
“Yes?”
“Or…if we kill the creature that planted the seeds in them…”
I nod at Cassandra, who, despite her lack of confidence, has shared her own ideas quite clearly. I smile at the same time, to show her my gratitude.
“Does anyone else have an idea? Please speak up if you do.”
“Sir Bell…”
“Bell, you…”
“I’m an idiot who can’t do anything but fight, and right now I’m useless…I need all of you to help me, for the sake of Chigusa and Luvis.”
I look around at the group as I speak. Lilly and Welf seem surprised.
Items and magic have failed to restore the two adventurers. On a Dungeon quest, that’s a death sentence. Every adventurer feels the terror of that in their very bones. Anyone would panic if their only means of recovery failed while they were in the Dungeon.
I’m trying to sweep away that feeling of panic. Even in form only. Even if my confidence is an illusion.
I’m playing the role of leader. That, I am certain, is my function right now. Like I said to Cassandra, my only way to break through this is to rely on my companions, however irresponsible that may be.
I’ll do what I can, and as for what I can’t, I’ll rely on them without regret. There’s nothing shameful about it. After all, that’s what a party is for.
Maybe because she’s admiring me, or maybe just because she’s happy, Lilly smiles as I admit my own weakness and call on the group for help.