Milk quickly put the gun back into her bag.
Even though she had the proper license, it would be a problem if anyone saw it.
「Milk, you’ve been using magic back-to-back, but how’s your mana holding up?」
「Since they’re both basic spells, the mana consumption isn’t that bad. I can’t cast spells in rapid succession, though. I have to wait about 30 seconds between each shot, but the power should be more than doubled.」
Milk answered Hime’s question.
「Still, it’s impressive that you managed to pull off something this amazing so easily.」
I said, genuinely impressed.
「It wasn’t easy! I even exploded when testing it in the Tenshiba Dungeon!」
「Exploded? What were you thinking, being so reckless?」
「It’s fine! I had the substitute bracelet that Hime gave me.」
Apparently, she had anticipated a misfire and brought the substitute bracelet with her.
The bracelet, which would sell for over 10 million yen, was something we could use rather freely.
Hime seemed to think we could just go back to Shirahama to get more if we needed them, and in fact, we had plenty stored in our inventory.
Once we reach the 11th floor and beyond, mimics will start to appear, though not as frequently as in the Shirahama Dungeon, so we’ll be able to get more substitute bracelets.
「A gun is overkill on this floor. Plus, it’s a hassle if other people see it. It’s better to just use normal magic from now on.」
「Yeah, you’re right.」
Holy water attacks with drug magic don’t exactly feel like ‘normal’ magic, so it looks like she’s recommending using fire stones, fire magic, or earth magic instead.
-0-
As we ventured deeper, another giant rat appeared.
This time, Ayame cast a spell.
Compressed wind crushed the giant rat.
The monster disappeared immediately, but for a moment, I saw something incredibly disturbing.
The transparent nature of wind hammers makes them unable to hide anything grotesque, unlike regular hammers.
And then—
「Huh!?」
From the squashed giant rat, a huge flea emerged.
「「「Gross! 」」」
That was me, Milk, and Ayame.
「It’s a bloodsucking flea. Sometimes they hide inside beast-type monsters. They’re not strong, but they have a skill called ‘Bloodsuck’ that drains the health of the enemy they attack.」
「That sounds like a useful skill if we could learn it.」
「I’m not sure if you can learn it, but it’s worth a try. If you use the Learning skill just before or after the enemy uses a skill, you can acquire it. Here, take this.」
Hime said, handing Ayame a substitute bracelet.
「So I just need to use Learning, right?」
Ayame stepped forward after putting on the bracelet.
The giant flea began moving toward her.
「Isn’t this dangerous?」
「She’s wearing a substitute bracelet, so it’s fine. There’s no record of bloodsucking fleas being poisonous.」
「What about bacteria or something?」
「I’ve never heard of a regular monster being a carrier.」
In that case, it should be safe.
The flea got closer to Ayame, trying to suck her blood through her tracksuit, when—
「Nope! I can’t take this! Yuckkkkk!」
Ayame shouted, swinging her staff down.
The flea was instantly squashed.
Well, I saw that coming.
「Sorry.」
Ayame said, picking up the dropped D-coin.
「Don’t worry about it. This was just practice for Learning anyway.」
Unlike in games, the number of skills you can remember is limited.
At her current skill level, Ayame can only learn two monster skills.
Bloodsuck seems useful, but it reduces the damage you deal by 20%, and only 25% of that reduced damage is converted into health recovery. Essentially, it just replenishes the same amount of damage lost.
Since we have Milk as a healer, it doesn’t seem like we need it that much.
-0-
We pulled ourselves together and continued walking through the seventh floor.
Along the way, we passed an older explorer, giving a polite nod as we went by.
It’s pretty normal to see an average-looking salaryman walking around with a big sword in the dungeon, but for people from a generation without dungeons, it must be quite a shock.
「He looks like the kind of guy whose wife and kids give him cold stares, so he escapes to the dungeon on weekends because he can’t stand being at home.」
Hime said, rather harshly.
After hearing that, I could only see the guy we just passed in that way.
「Do people really come to the dungeon for that?」
I always thought of dungeons as work, but apparently, some people come here just to pass the time.
I guess it’s a lot healthier than wasting time gambling on pachinko or horse racing.
Still, the idea of someone not wanting to be at home, even though they chose to get married, makes me hope I never turn out like that.
Just then, I sensed the presence of a monster.
We walked in the direction of the presence and found it—a clay doll in the shape of a cat.
A cat doll.
「It’s even more of a lucky cat than I expected.」
I said, pulling a maneki-neko from my inventory to compare.
Yep, it’s definitely a lucky cat.
「Taira, why do you have a maneki-neko in your item box?」
「It’s just a coincidence.」
I replied to Milk as I put the lucky cat back into my inventory.
In stories, saying ‘it’s just a coincidence’ is often a cover for some major plot point or hidden past, but in my case, it really was just something that came out of a D-can randomly.
「Ayame, to the front!」
「Yes!」
Ayame stepped forward.
The cat doll jumped toward her.
Please, don’t smash this one.
The tension was high.
The cat doll opened its mouth.
It looked like a nutcracker, and then, a strange, unsettling cat sound came out of it.
So this is the Guardian of Silkworms.
Even though it’s just a skill that seals part of your abilities, and isn’t really harmful, that voice was incredibly creepy.
But unlike last time, it didn’t seem to do any damage, so with this—
Ayame collapsed.
For a moment, I couldn’t understand what had happened.
What just happened?
I didn’t get it.
She had fallen forward.
Why?
How?
The Guardian of Silkworms is supposed to be just a skill that seals part of your abilities. It shouldn’t knock someone out—
「Ayame!」
The first to rush over was Milk.
She quickly turned Ayame onto her back.
She was sweating profusely.
Does she have a fever?
Milk used magic to create a potion and poured it over her.
The potion seemed to be absorbed into Ayame’s body, but her condition didn’t change.
In the next moment, I heard something shatter.
Hime had broken the cat doll.
Ayame’s color looked a little better.
Should we let her rest here until she feels better, or take her back to the surface?
「I’ll carry her. Let’s head back to the first floor.」
I made the call.
Both Hime and Milk nodded in agreement.
What the hell happened to you, Ayame?
-0-
We made our way to the first floor’s infirmary.
As the staff examined Ayame, she apparently woke up halfway through.
「Ayame, are you okay?」
「Yeah… I’m okay.」
Her responses were clear.
They checked her status—both her health and mana were at full strength, and there were no signs of any curses.
「Sorry, Milk-chan. I just felt lightheaded, like it was anemia or something.」
「Anemia? It didn’t look like that at all!」
「… I’m really fine now.」
Ayame reassured her, then turned to Hime.
「Oshino-san, I did manage to learn Guardian of Silkworms.」
「That’s good to hear.」
「It really is.」
「I’m sorry for all the trouble I caused you, Ichino-san.」
Ayame said, bowing deeply from her bed.
「I didn’t really do anything.」
To be honest, I felt uncomfortable being thanked so much when I had been the slowest to act when she collapsed.
「That’s not true. You carried Ayame all the way here, didn’t you?」
「Exactly. It would’ve been much harder if it was just me and Milk. Now, go outside for a bit.」
「Huh?」
「We need to wipe Ayame down and change her clothes. Or would you rather stay and watch?」
「I’ll wait outside.」
I said, quickly turning on my heel and exiting the room.
Though I was relieved that Ayame was okay, I still couldn’t shake the question: what had caused her to collapse?
There’s no way it was just anemia.
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