“I’ll kill that woman!”
“P-please, calm down—”
“Who the hell are you?”
The tiger man turned on me with murder in his eyes.
I’m supposed to be an ally here…
“Lord Ido. This is Okui, a reincarnate.”
“Ah… the kind that just copies the outside and stays weak inside. Tch. What use is something like that.”
The outside… I did genuinely reincarnate, so I should be beast-kin through and through. But I wasn’t going to argue.
“Reincarnates carry special powers. Once the Demon Lord is defeated, conflict with other races is inevitable — we should be gathering reincarnates now.”
“Yeah yeah, do whatever you want with that. Fighting over politics with people too weak to matter — not interested.”
That one stung.
It was true that I’d lived in a peaceful world before this, with no connection to anything like warfare. Even given power, I had no desire to fight.
But I couldn’t afford to be thrown out either — food and shelter weren’t something I could take for granted.
This whole situation is just the worst.
“And the others?”
Between the elder beast-kin’s calm handling of him, the initial fury of revival seemed to have burned off somewhat. The strongest warrior of the beast-kin was at least capable of a conversation.
This old man knew what he was doing.
“You are the only revival completed, Lord Ido. The others will require more time.”
“How long.”
“No signs of revival yet. Likely over a month, at minimum.”
“Fine. I’ll rebuild my strength on my own first.”
Mood deteriorating again.
I did not want to be near a tiger having a tantrum.
“…Going alone against the Demon Lord would be reckless.”
“…I know. Not until the others are back and at full strength — no chance of winning otherwise. …That woman. I will kill her.”
“Good that you understand. Then let us identify the monster concentration zones. That should be the fastest way to recover your strength.”
“No. I’m not going after the Demon Lord. But I can’t just do nothing.”
Wait — I thought the agreement was no direct action against the Demon Lord?
“They built one here too, didn’t they. That insulting dungeon of the Demon Lord’s.”
“There are… reports of something like that in the borderlands, yes.”
“Then I hunt monsters in that dungeon. Rebuild my strength. Disrupt whatever the Demon Lord is planning. That works.”
“…But my lord, the full scope of that dungeon remains unknown. It may be dangerous—”
“Which is why I’m going to crush it. You there.”
“Y-yes?!”
He was talking to me. I answered too fast and my voice cracked.
Something told me this wasn’t going to go well.
“You’re a reincarnate. I was told you carry a useful power.”
I hadn’t said anything of the sort…
“Prove it. If you can keep up with me, I’ll acknowledge you.”
I’d rather you didn’t.
Being acknowledged by him would only mean more situations like this one.
But he was the beast-kin equivalent of a hero.
A freeloader like me had no right to refuse.
◇
“This is useless!”
The tiger man punched the wall. Somehow, impossibly, the wall that had resisted everything actually showed a faint crack.
He hit it again and again, but it stopped short of breaking, and eventually he gave up with a click of his tongue.
“I can’t even break through this. How weak have I gotten.”
From the way he said it, before his death he could apparently have demolished it outright.
Pure power was terrifying in him. The smart play was not to cross him — or better yet, not to be around him at all. So how had I ended up like this.
“Do something.”
“Do something like… what…”
Please don’t drag me into this.
That said, even Lord Ido couldn’t smash his way through an entire maze, and I had no interest in dying here.
Nothing for it — I’d map out a safe path and get him through.
I just wish it were a dungeon I recognized. Maybe it wasn’t one that appeared in the main story?
“I’ll go solve the maze.”
I didn’t wait for an answer — just said it and moved.
The goddess-given skill: Phase. I could pass straight through walls.
Traps, monster attacks, even Lord Ido’s strikes — none of it touched me.
Not that I’d ever use that last part.
He had allies who could use magic, fire, water. My ability was useless against anything that didn’t have physical substance.
It probably only worked against things that were solid enough to begin with.
“This is such a pain. But if I can be useful here, life in town stays stable, so I just have to endure it.”
Kill monsters to level up? Defeat the Demon Lord and go back to my old world?
Not a chance. Do people have any idea how many times I died and gave up on this game?
And that was just pressing buttons — asking me to do it for real was a completely unreasonable demand.
If it came down to that or a stable life in this world, I’d take the stable life.
I missed home. But not more than I valued my own life.
I was not going through that again.
“Oh no… this is going to take longer than I thought. He’s going to be furious.”
I started to phase through a wall and immediately pulled my head back.
Basilisks on the other side.
Those would absolutely breathe poison at me. Phase didn’t help against that.
And ahead of where I could safely see — poison fog traps as well.
…What is this dungeon. It’s absolutely brutal.
I felt equal parts sarcasm and genuine respect watching beast-kin march in here repeatedly.
“Okay, I need to actually map a safe route through this.”
Otherwise Lord Ido would charge through monsters and traps regardless, and I wouldn’t be able to follow.
He might be fine. I wouldn’t be.
Safe route only. Everything else gets called a dead end.
◇
“Not bad. More useful than those elders let on.”
“Thank… you…”
Using the map I’d made, we managed to get through the maze section.
I’d routed us around every trap and every monster.
And then, immediately after, we hit the pitfall and boulder trap — and I fell right in.
…Was this dungeon always this mean? This was definitely from that game, right?
If I’d been playing this on a controller I would have thrown it across the room.
“But I’m the one who pulled you out, so we’re even.”
“Right.”
He’d neatly sidestepped the trap himself.
He was kind enough to smash the boulder and get me out — but if the pitfall alone had been fatal, he’d have walked right past me.
Relying on this person was not an option.
I really should have reincarnated in the human kingdom.
Their hero apparently treated every non-demon race with genuine kindness — a proper good person. Maybe I should just defect.
“You could at least attack something.”
“I’m… not much of a fighter. I’ve been drawing aggro, so please count that.”
The Gargoyle had been attacking me relentlessly for a while now.
Very frightening, but fortunately it was purely physical — nothing Phase couldn’t handle.
Lord Ido’s strikes were chipping away at the stone body, so this one seemed manageable.
“Marginally useful at best. I considered taking you along regularly, but you’re not cut out for it.”
Thank goodness.
If I’d come across as actually capable, he’d have been dragging me everywhere.
I exhaled with relief and followed quietly in his wake.
And then we both got buried alive.