Chapter 85
Now, while Ann and Elibel were desperately searching for Earth, what was happening on this side?
Let’s take a look.
At Fáfnir’s hidden floor――――
『……Fafnir?』
「Un.」
The white-haired girl in front of me nodded.
Her long hair covered her eyes, but her mouth was smiling happily.
What was she so happy about?
Hmm, Fáfnir, that’s the one.
If I remember correctly, it’s one of the Eight Great Dungeons in the world, isn’t it?
A super hard dungeon that has yet to be conquered, just like Elibel’s Sage (laugh) dungeon.
Seriously…?
In Elibel’s knowledge, only about fifty floors have been mapped, but I think it was filled with traps just as brutal as my current dungeon.
Especially the one related to the treasure chests.
A profitable goldmine dungeon. And super dangerous,where the monsters that appear are just as strong.
Excluding Elibel’s Sage (laugh) dungeon, it’s another of the Eight Great Dungeons on this continent.
So this is Fáfnir.
I look around again.
Floors and ceilings made of stones that remind me of white bricks.
Moreover, the fluctuations of magical power that I feel from the surroundings.
Surely, these match the features of Fáfnir.
How did I get here?
I remember seeing a strange passage on the way back to my bed, and I found a magic stone there, and I ate it as I entered the passage―――――
…No good, I can’t remember anything from that point on.
The next thing I knew, I was here.
I don’t know what’s going on anymore.
It’s as incomprehensible as the time I woke up and found myself turning into an earth dragon.
After all, Fáfnir is a dungeon located in a completely different place from my dungeon.
It’s located almost in the center of the Faudo continent, in the territory of the Hà Giang Empire.
My dungeon, which has entrances at almost the far ends of the east, west, south, and north, has no connection with it.
In fact, I don’t want to have anything to do with someone else’s dungeon.
Of course, the area I use for the middle layer is also quite far from Fáfnir.
So why?
Teleportation gate malfunction?
But, there was no teleportation gate there, could that passage itself have a teleportation magic formula?
…Is that possible?
I lightly touch the white wall next to me.
The walls of my dungeon are not such white and elegant walls.
It’s more of a rough, bare dirt wall.
Hmm, Fáfnir is a city-goer, huh?
Don’t you understand the goodness of that hand-dug earthen wall?
While exposing such a trivial hostility, I look at the white-haired girl.
Can I learn something if I ask her?
『Hey, where…?』
She’s gone. That white-haired girl.
She was there just a moment ago.
Where did she go?
I look around.
She’s nowhere to be seen.
―――――Hehe, Mr Lizard, over here. Follow the sounds of my claps.
A voice is heard from somewhere.
It’s the voice of the girl from earlier.
Suddenly, there’s a passage in part of the wall.
I’m sure it wasn’t there a while ago.
『….You want me to go there?』
No, but…
It’s overly suspicious.
Isn’t it better to stay in place if I’m lost?
They say it’s better to stay still and wait for help rather than moving around recklessly when you get lost in the mountains.
I have a feeling that Ann and Elibel are looking for me by now.
Then, if I stay still, they should find me eventually.
My subordinates are very talented, unlike me.
――――Muu, but it’s easy to get you here before.
The voice resonates in my head again.
Apparently, she’s displeased that I’m not entering the passage.
You fool, who would fall for such an obvious trap?
If you want to trick me, bring me the finest magic stone!
――――Come here.
I don’t think I can do that.
By the way, you’re the girl from earlier, right?
――――Yes, that’s right.
Aren’t you speaking differently from before?
Besides, why did you disappear?
And how can you talked to me?
I’m not sending a thought transmission, am I?
――――Too many questions…
Thought transmission is basically one-way.
Unless you send your thought after the other person has sent, your thoughts won’t be heard.
At first, I couldn’t distinguish between thought transmission and normal thoughts, and I sent what I thought directly to the other person, but now I can control it properly.
Right now, I’m not in the state of sending thought transmission.
So why is the conversation happening?
―――――Umm, I don’t know.
It seems that she doesn’t know either.
Also, it’s hard to hear you, can you do something about it?
―――――Okay.
Saying that, the passage in front of me distorted, and it returned to a normal wall.
And where the passage had been, the girl from earlier appeared.
Her face seems somewhat sulky.
「You were so easy to fool before. Why is it not the same now?」
『Well, you see…』
That was, well, I was tempted by the magic stone, or rather, the uncontrollable part of me (mainly my appetite) ran wild, which was more of an accident.
That’s right, it was an accident.
It wasn’t my fault, I think.
「I had prepared many things, but you fell for the simplest one…」
『Stop, I can’t hear it anymore….』
Sure, I fell for it, but…
―――Wait? By the way, why am I able to have a normal conversation with this girl?
Normally, I would have felt alarmed or angry that I was brought to such an unfamiliar place.
Why am I so calmly talking to this girl?
Far from being cautious, I even feel a kind of familiarity.
What is this about?
Argh, I don’t know anymore.
I scratch my head in frustration.
I’m hungry. Using my brain consumes calories.
Is there any magic stone here? …I guess not.
I want to eat magic stones.
『Sigh…』
Suddenly, I look at the white-painted wall in front of me.
Can I eat this wall?
I give it a lick.
Hmm… It’s not very tasty…
Honestly, it’s mediocre.
It’s not bad, but… somehow, it lacks punch to it.
The magical energy concentration itself is high, but there’s a problem with the quality of the stone itself.
…I give it 5 out 10.
It falls several ranks compared to the magic stones I usually eat or the fruits I get from the forest.
Hmph, your place is lame, Fáfnir.
The taste is far superior in my dungeon!
My dungeon is always delicious!
『Well, I’m hungry, so this is fine.』
Well, there’s no helping it. I’ll compromise.
Thinking so, I start to eat the wall.
I don’t care about the girl watching me from behind.
I don’t care if it’s bland.
「Is the wall… delicious?」
『Hmm, honestly, it’s not that delicious.』
「Then why you eat it?」
『Because I’m hungry.』
There’s no other reason.
Eat when you want to eat. That’s justice.
The girl walks closer.
She picks up a part of the wall that I broke off and looks at it curiously.
Then, she gives it a lick.
「…Not tasty.」
Even a ghost has a sense of taste.
The girl seems dissatisfied and spits out what’s in her mouth.
She’s a strange girl.
It’s brazen to eat stones.
Me?
I’m fine with it because I’m an earth dragon.
Just as I was about to continue eating, I felt something.
『――――――ruru…』
『Hm? What’s that sound…?』
I heard a strange noise.
I also felt a surge of magical power.
The presence is rapidly approaching.
BOOOOOM!!!!!
A loud explosion.
The sound of the wall being shattered.
『….Eh?』
I slowly turn around.
A part of the wall had collapsed.
With a heavy dust cloud, a large black figure emerged.
「Korururu……」
A huge monster making a strange sound was there.
A creature I had never seen before.
It’s entirely black, has four dog-like heads, dragonfly-like wings on its back, a snake-like tail, countless arms like a gorilla ― an indescribable monster.
Moreover, red gems are embedded in the forehead of the dog-like heads.
『What… what is that…?』
No matter how you look at it, it’s a monster. An unknown creature that doesn’t even exist in Elibel’s knowledge.
Warning signals are ringing at full strength in my head.
That thing is definitely bad news.
The magical power I feel is also tremendous.
Amid the dust cloud, the monster slowly surveys its surroundings, shaking its huge body.
「Korurururu…..」
「That’s Fáfnir’s monster.」
The white girl says so without a second thought.
She’s right.
This place is a dungeon.
It’s not unusual for a dungeon to have monsters guarding the place…
It wouldn’t be strange if it noticed an intruder and attacked.
At least, if it were me, I would crush it with all my might as soon as I noticed it.
Especially if it’s a dragon slayer wrecking someone else’s dungeon.
『――――Is this really the time to be thinking about thaaaaaaaaaat!!!!』
Dash!
Fortunately, due to the dust cloud, it doesn’t seem to have noticed us yet.
As fast as possible.
I run away.
「Aren’t you going to fight?」
『Are you nuts?! There’s no way I’m going to choose to fight such a huge monster! The only way to win is to run!』
Luckily, there’s a passage on the opposite wall of the monster leading out of here.
It would be better not to move if we were waiting for help, but we can’t afford to do that now.
Let’s escape for now.
「Ah, wait.」
The white-haired girl hopped onto my back.
What are you doing?
「Take me with you.」
『Why do you need to run?! You’re one of Fáfnir’s!! 』
Hearing that, the white-haired girl looked sad for a moment, but soon returned to a smile.
「I… I want to be with Mr Lizard!」
Saying so, the girl clung to my back.
I can’t seem to shake her off.
Argh, this is too bothersome!
I don’t care anymore, I can’t afford to spend time chatting like this!
It will be bad if we get noticed.
「KorurururuuuuuuuoOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!」
Whoa, it’s roaring loudly.
Terrifying.
『Hold on tight!』
「Un!」
The white-haired girl and I escaped the hall and began to flee into the depths of Fáfnir’s dungeon.
At an unknown place――――
There was another being who sensed the disturbance.
――――What is this?
The anomalies were easily detected.
A sudden appearance of an overwhelming presence.
An unimaginable amount of magical power.
And an uncomfortable sensation, as if something was burrowing inside one’s body.
It wasn’t the weak-winged insects or the noisy humans swinging flashy swords that came before.
This “something” poses a clear threat.
――――This is dangerous.
Solely on instinct, it sounds an alarm.
――――Exterminate it! Eliminate this foreign object now!
And so, “it” issues an order for the first time in a long while.
To eradicate the strange sensation inside.
That monster—”Fáfnir”— issues an order to all of its denizens nesting within the dungeon.
Kill, kill, kill!
Exterminate, exterminate, exterminate!
Receiving that order, the powerful monsters begin to move.
The hunting time has begun.
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