Chapter 45
Beyond the central door, things weren't much different from before.
A vast dungeon room with a forest spread across it appeared, and a musty smell wafted over us.
That must mean goblins lived here too.
“Something feels sticky?”
As Livnil had said, the forest was sticky overall, and the humidity was high.
Puddles had collected here and there on the damp floor, and the air felt heavy.
Cradling my tail in my arms, I said,
“It feels like my tail fur is getting wet.”
“Then let's put on these cooling robes.”
Claude took out one magical robe that emitted a cool breeze for each of us.
Though they had been made to fit Claude and me, the robes were loose enough for everyone to wear.
“Oh, this is comfortable.”
“But can we fight wearing these…?”
“It's a little big, but I'm fine!”
Everyone pulled on a robe and continued forward.
We occasionally saw the bones of goblins.
They clearly seemed to live here, but we couldn't find them anywhere.
Splash-splash—Even when we tried not to step in the puddles, the earth itself felt muddy.
The place was so damp that I even began to worry whether goblins could live here.
We walked for quite some time, but couldn't find any mechanism or monster needed to get through the room.
Then Chris said,
“Everyone…this puddle doesn't look like water, does it?”
“Yeah, it's a little sticky, right?”
The puddles had been dirtying our feet since earlier.
They smelled strange, and they didn't feel like water either.
“There's magic in the water. Hmm…no way? It can't be…?”
Claude tilted his head and poked at a puddle with his staff.
“The puddles here are probably all slime corpses….”
“Slime corpses?”
“The entire puddle? Then how many slimes would there have been?”
At Claude's words, I squatted down where I stood.
I touched the puddle with my hand, then sniffed it. Sniff, sniff. Then I smelled it again.
“Now that you mention it, it does seem to be slime. But…something is different.”
Until I heard the word slime, I hadn't considered that possibility at all.
Because the smell was different from their distinctive scent.
It smelled somewhat sour, almost acidic, but my hands and feet were fine.
“Just in case! I'll cast protective magic over you!”
“The damp, murky air is suspicious. Please prioritize protecting your bodies.”
Chris and Claude each cast protective magic.
I had thought the humidity was making me uncomfortable, but once the magic activated, my body felt lighter.
“So it wasn't just the humidity?”
“Mm…then the air itself is the problem?”
But I had been hearing a strange sound for a while now.
Crack—crack—
It was such a tiny sound that the others didn't seem to notice it.
But Claude noticed my slight change and said,
“Aris. Your ears have been perking up for a while. Is something wrong?”
“I hear a small sound. But it's so faint that I don't know what is causing it.”
It was about as loud as the heartbeat of someone walking past.
It was so faint that even I could hear it only when I concentrated, so I had merely made a note of it.
“The sound…which direction?”
“Ahead? The sky? It's too faint for me to be certain.”
The ceiling of this dungeon room seemed to be extremely high.
No light reached the ceiling, so it looked dark, and there was nothing I could make out with the naked eye.
“The ceiling….”
Claude raised his staff and fired magic toward the sky.
It was a white sphere that emitted light, and it exploded in midair.
Flash—the sphere cast a bright light for a while, revealing what had been hidden in the darkness.
“W-what is that?”
“A giant nepenthes…?”
The sky of the dungeon—in other words, the ceiling—was filled with enormous vines.
Some of the nepenthes struck by the magical light spat a foul liquid onto the floor.
Splash—!
Strange puddles of liquid sprayed across the floor.
It all seemed to be saliva from the nepenthes.
“It's not slime…it's the bodily fluid of that creature!”
“So that's why it felt strange?”
Claude had said that he could sense magic in the puddles.
That was why he thought they were slime, but the smell was completely different.
“No, everyone! Be careful! These aren't ordinary giant nepenthes!”
As Claude spoke, the glowing sphere in the air vanished completely.
At that moment, a chilling sound rang out. Crack—crack-crack—!
“Was this the sound you heard?”
“Yes! It's a creepy sound, almost like teeth chattering together!”
“We shouldn't have shone light at the ceiling. Everyone, stay as far away from the puddles as possible!”
At that moment, a strange vibration came from the puddles.
They rippled and bulged as though the puddles themselves were alive.
“E-everywhere we step is a puddle!”
“Waaah! What is this?! That's disgusting!”
Startled, Chris leaped into Livnil's arms and clung to her.
Holding Chris in her arms, Livnil said,
“I-it's slime! The puddles turned into slimes!”
“They attack like this?”
“The magic is extraordinary. Everyone….”
It was an attack in which the nepenthes brought out stomach acid and poured it directly over its prey.
It seemed to be trying to digest us from the outside first.
But the stomach acid itself was an automatically moving attack robot?
Plop—plop-plop—
Suddenly, hard objects began falling from the sky.
Sniff, sniff. When I smelled them, they seemed to be animal bones…?
“The nepenthes is emptying its stomach so it can eat new prey.”
“Meaning we're the prey?”
“Eek! Livnil…! Behind you!”
Livnil threw Chris to Griff.
Then she drew her sword and cut down the slime approaching from behind.
Slash—!
She cut it cleanly in two, but far too many more were approaching.
“I don't think I'll be much help.”
“Griff, protect Chris. We'll handle it.”
If they were ordinary slimes, Griff's arrows would have helped, since slimes had cores.
But we had no way of knowing whether these creatures had them too.
“Urgh, this…my clothes are burning away!”
“It must be trying to digest everything!”
Countless slimes slammed into us.
They had no particular strategy; they simply hurled themselves at us, trying to cover us in stomach acid.
Thanks to that, we lost all the robes we had been wearing.
But compared to our clothes, our skin had suffered almost no damage.
“We're not hurt at all?”
“Of course! My protective barrier is keeping you safe!”
“Can't you protect our clothes too?”
“It's too difficult to control details that finely….”
As we burst the slimes charging at us and cut down the vines shooting up from the floor…!
We kept running, trying to make it through the room.
“Um…Mr. Griff!”
“What is it?”
“Could you put me down? I, I….”
“No! I'm running at full speed right now!”
At that moment, a vine shooting up from the floor snatched Griff and Chris.
“Kyaaaah!”
“Waaah!”
The two became tangled in the vine.
Griff quickly tried to escape by cutting the vine with the dagger he carried.
But Chris couldn't move, with vines wrapped around her body.
“Waaah! No! W-wait! What is this?! Eek!”
The vines were winding through every part of her body.
It felt as though they were searching for the best place to eat.
“Chris!”
We hurried to cut the vines and rescue her, but how could they be this tough?!
“Ah! W-where are you touching?! Eek!”
The tangled vines were ripping her clothes to shreds.
Some wrapped around her tiny breasts, while the vines holding her legs writhed between her thighs.
“Eek! What is this?!”
Livnil, who had been beside us, also tripped after getting caught by a vine.
We tried to rescue her, but she shook her head and told us to go to Chris.
“I'm fine!”
Chop—! Chop-chop!
We severed the vines and cut away every one holding Chris, together with Griff.
“Ugh…haaah…!”
“C-Chris? Are you all right?”
“Uu…uuuu…The vines…the vines…!”
It seemed the vines had absorbed magic from Chris's body.
Perhaps, as a cleric, her pure magic had looked especially delicious.
“Livnil! Are you all right?”
“Aah! Quickly! Save me! Kyaaaah!”
Claude tore the vines away from Livnil and rescued her.
Her clothes, which she had desperately managed to preserve, were gone as well.
“Ugh, crazy perverted plant!”
“Hurry! Run! Don't let the vines catch you!”
Acid rain was falling from the ceiling. Its concentration was growing thicker, making it difficult even to breathe.
“Ah, I really hate this! What is this place?!”
“U-ugh…please don't look!”
Held in Griff's arms, Chris was completely naked.
Livnil, who was running while diligently cutting vines, was half naked as well.
Even Claude was baring his impressive muscles….
I was no exception.
My clothes had barely contained any fabric to begin with, and they had disappeared long ago, leaving me completely naked.
“Master. Aris…has lost her robe. I'm sorry.”
“Is that what matters? Your body is all right, isn't it?”
“I can move without a problem. But…!”
While everyone was running, I stopped where I stood.
“Aris? Why did you stop?”
“I found it. The boss leading these nepenthes!”
Sniff, sniff. I was certain.
A very strange smell was coming from somewhere in the ceiling.
The foulest smell among all the nepenthes was wafting from it!
“Is it over there? You're sure, Aris?”
“Yes, Master.”
Without hesitation, he immediately threw another glowing sphere.
Flash—!
The luminous sphere revealed an enormous nepenthes.
Red magic was slowly wafting from the creature.
“It's a red monster!”
Claude's eyes lit up as his gaze locked onto it.
Even after the sphere disappeared, he continued to stare as though he could still see it.
“Everyone. Keep moving forward. I'll handle this.”
At his words, everyone stopped and turned back toward us.
“How are you going to reach it from here? Would arrows help support you…?”
“Ha-ha~ Don't count on my sword!”
It looked to be at least eighty meters up.
Claude raised his staff and aimed it at the creature.
“It's fine. Aris, get ready.”
“Yes, Master.”
I raised my greatsword and stood in front of Claude.
Then the two of them said,
“Huh? What are you planning? Claude, I can understand, but…Miss Aris?”
“Are you going to throw your sword? Can you really do that?”
Could I hit it by throwing my sword?
If I could, I might have destroyed this entire dungeon long ago.
[Ice Pop]
Countless ice missiles shot from Claude's staff.
I immediately leaped forward and listened to the explosions ringing out from the ceiling.
Boom—boom—!
I smashed the slimes and vines charging at me.
A massive nepenthes fell to the floor in the distance.
“Grrrrr…!”
The creature, which had been comfortably hunting from a great height, had been attacked and knocked down.
It had been having an easy time in the darkness, so it had no ability to protect its body.
“Haaah!”
I swung my sword and cut it down in one stroke.
At that moment, an awful surge of magic poured out, but…!
“Aris!”
Claude had already reached me and cast a barrier around me.
“Kyaa!”
“Don't worry!”
Claude caught me as the magic storm sent me flying backward.
At the same time, he took up the greatsword himself and drove it into the floor to brace himself.
“Whew! Are you all right, Aris?”
“Hah…haa, yes! Master!”
He wrapped one arm around my bottom and held me up with his hand supporting my back.
Being naked was a little embarrassing, but he was warm and it felt good.
“Then…we need to find the magic stone.”
“Yes. I'll help too!”
While Claude searched through the nepenthes's corpse for the magic stone, I protected him from attacks by the other creatures.
Livnil's group also ran over and began helping us.
“Whoa~ You cut it down in a single stroke?”
“And knocking it down was impressive enough, but you actually thought to go and cut it down….”
After obtaining the magic stone, we were able to leave the dungeon room safely.
“Hah! Fresh air!”
“Ugh, it was so sticky and disgusting!”
“Haaah…that was awful.”
Our clothes in tatters, we collapsed onto the floor just as we were.
After catching our breath, we gradually came to our senses and only then noticed what everyone looked like.
“Ugh, please don't look this way.”
Chris was the most sensitive about it, naturally.
She said it was her first time being naked in front of men.
Claude used earth magic to create a bathtub on the spot.
I poured water into it and said,
“Master even made water for us. Wash with this.”
“Lady Aris…you can't walk around naked. At least put this on!”
Chris handed me a towel, but I shook my head.
“It's fine. I need to wash Master, so I'll be going.”
How fussy she was.
I hoped Chris would find a partner soon too.
“Aris. Are you here?”
“Yes, Master. Please sit in front of me.”
Claude made partitions for each of us.
Unfortunately, Griff had to wash separately from Livnil because of Chris.
Of course, I was with Claude.
Claude's spatial inventory had everything.
Sitting on a small bathtub chair, he said,
“I think it's about time we reached the boss of the first floor.”
“Do you think so?”
“Red monsters have started appearing. I didn't expect them to appear in that form, though….”
I wiped the sticky substance from him while subtly leaning against his back.
“Master. Can't you just focus on washing comfortably for now?”
“Huh? Oh. Sorry, Aris.”
“No, it's fine. I'll wash the front too.”
Claude spread his legs, saying that he was counting on me.
Seriously…this was completely natural by now, wasn't it?
‘To wash him.’
I focused on his crotch.