I tossed Satsuki’s pendant and the recovered thong into my Item Box for the time being, and we hurried onward toward the next floor. As long as the Hero was capable of interfering with [Return], the only way to save Satsuki was to catch up to her as quickly as possible.
(I wonder… is that the kind of thing Daishi-san likes…? Mine are…)
“Hm? What’s wrong, Mina-chan? Is something wrong?”
“W-what?! N-Nothing at all! Pervert!!”
As we ran through the devastated second basement floor of the Nether-Class Dungeon, which had been thoroughly wrecked by [Burial Fist], Mina-chan seemed to be staring downward while muttering something under her breath. Thinking she’d found another one of Satsuki’s belongings, I asked about it. In return, I got yelled at.
Ever since the Panty Incident, Mina-chan had been unusually hostile toward me. Sure, it had been a long time since I’d last laid eyes on such an… enlightening guardian of the nether regions, so I couldn’t deny that my old-man grin had stretched a little farther than usual.
Still, did she really have to keep calling me a pervert and a creep every chance she got?
“The comedy show ends here.”
The dark-skinned beauty in the skin-tight bikini armor had apparently found the staircase leading deeper underground.
We hadn’t run very far from the entrance.
Thankfully, the next floor was much closer than expected.
| > Compared to the first basement floor, this one was pretty underwhelming. > At this rate, they might actually catch up to her. > Hurry up and give Satsuki her thong back already. > Hopefully the Hero hasn’t done anything to her. > The Hero isn’t interested in women. > From what I’ve heard, he’s not interested in people at all. > Apparently he sees humans as tools. > Rumor says every companion he had during the Divine-Class Dungeon conquest ended up mentally broken. > Isn’t it insane that he stopped [Return] from activating? > His abilities are way too much of an unknown. > Still, if they fought head-on, the old man would probably crush him. > Which is exactly why he’ll never fight fair. > By the way, is his MP okay? > Come to think of it, we haven’t checked his stats lately. > Maybe he should take a look before heading deeper underground! |
Right.
Since I hadn’t been leveling up, I had gotten lazy about checking my current stats. I want to hurry, of course, but blindly charging ahead wasn’t the answer either. The viewers had a point. It’s probably best to calm down and take a look at my status first.
| Name: Daishi Ajiri Class: Burial Priest Level: 5 HP: 997 / 1049 MP: 0 / 1099 Strength: 1014 Endurance: 1009 Agility: 5828 Intelligence: 1013 Burial Power: 5443 Surplus Burial Points:0 Skills: 【Burial Healing (Lv1)】 【Burial Fist (MAX)】 【Retribution (MAX)】 【Requiem (MAX)】 【Return (—Unavailable)】 【Cremation (MAX)】 【Clairvoyance (MAX)】 Unique Skill: 【Hell Gate】 【Infinite Itembox】 Title: 【Enlightened One】 |
That was close.
Sure enough, my MP had hit zero. Both [Burial Fist] and [Return] were notorious mana hogs. To this day, I still wasn’t sure which one had the worse fuel efficiency.
…Hm?
Something about the skill list felt off.
[Return — Unavailable]
“…You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“What’s wrong, Mr. Panties?”
“Mina-chan, could you please stop calling me Mr. Panties…?”
“What is it, Mr. Commando?”
“…”
Why exactly was I the one being accused of going commando, Shion?
…Well, I’d like to ask for an explanation, but I’ve decided against it as it would be pointless.
“I can’t use [Return] anymore.”
“Huh? You mean that indecent skill you used to summon my big brothers and that panty earlier?”
The way she phrased it made it sound like her brothers belonged in the same category as the panties.
Was that really okay?
“Y-Yeah.”
“It doesn’t seem like a problem even if you can’t use it anymore. I don’t know who that skill lets you summon, but as long as you have me, you won’t need anyone else.”
She had a point. If [Return] was only being used as a summoning skill, then considering my own abilities and the strength of my companions, it probably wasn’t all that essential. The problem is that the skill’s original purpose is not summoning. By setting a destination point, I could use it to travel there instantly. If that functionality had also been lost, things were going to become considerably more troublesome.
Just thinking about the return trip was enough to make my head hurt.
Still… Why had it become completely unusable?
From what I remembered of the error messages, it felt less like the skill itself had been destroyed and more like some kind of space-time communication setting had been blocked.
| > Huh? [Return] became unusable? > Oof. > Gotta admit, the Hero’s pretty good. > There goes one of his skills. > If he has an ability that directly interferes with someone’s status screen, that’s incredibly dangerous. > Some kind of debuff? > The Guild Headquarters might be involved too. > Dungeon Master, do your job. > What a cheap trick. > I thought the Hero’s powers would be all lightning and thunderbolts. > This isn’t a video game, dude. lol > Anyway, they can’t afford to let him disable any more skills. > Be careful, old man. |
The comments continued pouring in.
Unfortunately, they weren’t wrong. If the Hero truly possessed the ability to interfere with skills directly, then [Return] might only be the beginning. Losing one skill was annoying. Losing several could become a genuine threat.
“…Yeah.”
I stared at the status screen for a few more seconds before closing it.
“We can’t let our guard down anymore.”
Whatever the Hero was plotting, there was no doubt now. He had finally started making his move. If the Hero really possessed the kind of ability the viewers were speculating about, then honestly, I had no idea how I was supposed to guard against it.
At the moment, the only countermeasure I could think of was simple: The instant we encountered him, take him down at maximum speed before he had a chance to do anything. With Satsuki being held hostage, there weren’t many other options available anyway.
“Item Box!”
In any case, standing around thinking wasn’t going to help. First, I needed to recover my MP and keep moving. A dungeon that had merely been tampered with by the Hero wasn’t enough to slow me down for long. We could clear it quickly and work out a strategy against him as we advanced.
“Alright! My MP’s back. Let’s keep moving!”
“Let’s hurry!”
“Let me kill something for a change!”
Although losing [Return] left a lingering sense of unease in the back of my mind, I raised my voice as if to chase away those doubts.
Then, with renewed determination, I bounded down the staircase toward the next floor. Whatever awaited us below, there was no turning back now.
◆◆◆
At the bottom of the staircase stood a magnificent door adorned with the dragon carving. It looked heavy enough to require considerable force to move, but without hesitation, we pushed it open and stepped inside.
Then we saw it.
“This is…”
“What does this mean…?”
“No… It can’t be…”
The words slipped from our lips as we stared ahead in stunned silence.
Beyond the doorway stretched a breathtaking scene—one so awe-inspiring that it seemed to belong not to a dungeon, but to the realm of the gods themselves reminiscent of a divine sky castle.
This is translated by Yume Neiji. Kindly read at yumeneijiworks.com
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