Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, Vol. 2 (25 page)

My chest feels like it’s going to explode. Trying to get a handle on my beating heart, I take a deep breath and relax my shoulders.

That’s when the orc roars with all its might.

“GUOOOUUUHHHHHHHHHHH!!”

The starting bell. It’s time for battle.

Hearing the signal, I charge.

I can’t take a hit!

The difference in size is just too great. There’s no way I can block an attack.

If I’m hit, I’ll go flying. The protector on my arm isn’t going to stop anything.

On the other hand, if I’m on the attack…

First target: the lower body. Especially the feet planted firmly on the ground.

Just because it’s big doesn’t mean it’s invincible. Sure, I’ve been scared of its size from the start, but just like all big monsters, it has weaknesses.

When the enemy is big, it can’t hit a smaller, nimble target very well.

This is particularly true for the slow and sluggish orc. Its body is so heavy that it loses its balance very easily.

One hit.

Just one hit.

If I can avoid the first hit, it’ll be wide open to a counterattack.

The orc is getting closer, charging right for me!

“UGHOOOOOOOOOO!”

The orc builds up a head of steam, raising its club as it comes barreling forward.

The dead tree’s roots are round, making it look like a big hammer or club. The orc swings it around over its head, lining me up for its first strike.

Over its head…That means—!

“!”

I shoot forward with no hesitation.

It’s much easier to dodge an overhead arcing strike than a sideways sweep. If I can just figure out where the weapon will land, I can get out of the way. Once the club hits the ground, I don’t have to worry about a follow-up attack.

And the orc can’t defend itself until it raises the club again, so that’s my chance.

I’ll hit with everything I’ve got!

“GHOUUUU!”

“Gotcha!”

“—Gwouhhh?”

I handily dodge the falling club.

I use that momentum to get close to the orc’s right side and thrust the baselard into the beast just below its ribs.

The orc lets out a piercing scream as greenish liquid squirts out of its wound.

The grass below is stained a slightly thicker green.

“Ha!”

I quickly decide to follow up my stab attack with the original plan, and attack the legs.

I spin around, getting the blade as low as possible before bringing it up and into the monster’s thick right leg.

I grasp the shortsword in both hands as it skims the top of the grass before the blade makes contact just below the orc’s knee.

“—??!!”

A deafening roar hits my ears like a wall.

The baselard hits bone and comes to a stop. I can feel both the bone itself and the monster’s weight bearing down on it; the blade won’t go any farther.

But I grit my teeth.

I use all of my strength to lift the orc up, forcing the baselard’s cutting edge forward.

“TAKE THIS!!”

Its leg comes clean off.

The baselard shoots out of the back of the monster’s shin. Its lower leg no longer attached, the orc falls to the ground.

The room shakes with the beast’s scream of pain. The orc is in serious agony, but I can’t stop now.

Thok, thok.
I dash up onto the orc’s back and run to the back of its head. Holding my shortsword upside down, I take aim and thrust the baselard into its skull.

“GIH, GOUghhh…”

“Mr. Bell!! Another one!”

“!”

The orc beneath me violently shakes before expiring. I look up from its corpse to see, just as Lilly said, one more orc charging at us from the way we came in. It must have heard the sounds of battle and become enraged because even as it plows through the fog, it’s ignoring the landforms entirely.

I jump down from the lifeless orc and stick my right arm out, straight forward.

I won’t miss.

I lock my eyes onto its massive frame and pull the magic trigger all at once.

“FIREBOLT!!”

“BAGOUUGHHHH?!”

A bolt of flame sears the air as it hits the newcomer square in the chest.

It lets out a scream and loses a step, but that’s all.

The orc’s ragged chest is burned to a crisp, but it’s not about to fall, either.

It looks like my magic isn’t strong enough to slay an orc in one blow right now. Not surprising—I just learned it the other day. Firebolt’s power is still low.

However…

“—FIREBOLT!!!”

Round 2.

Another Swift-Strike spell hits the orc in quick succession.

I wasn’t really aiming for it, but the magic hits the orc in almost the same spot, and the explosion knocks it back. The blast catches its chin, and the orc looks up at the ceiling as it wavers on its feet, stumbling away from me…and stops.

“……”

The orc silently turns to ash.

The two direct blasts of Firebolt opened a hole in the orc’s chest. The magic stone inside must have gone up in flames and disappeared.

I watch the monster dissolve from between the fingers of my outstretched hand. Only when the last of it disappears do I slow my breathing and lower my arm.

I won…

It worked.

The sword, my fighting style, my magic—everything worked.

They worked on a monster much larger than me, on a large monster not unlike the Minotaur.

As my heart finally slows down, a new flame swells within me.

It’s the feeling of accomplishment. Maybe the feeling of progress.

I’m enjoying every second of the feeling of triumph that’s bubbling up inside me, making my lips quiver in joy.

“Lilly! I did…it…”

I turn around to find her, a look of pure happiness on my face. But all that’s there to greet me is white fog.

The partner who’s traveled with me up until today has disappeared.

My euphoria is gone.

“Lilly?!”

My voice is just a pitch shy of a scream as it leaves my throat.

My head spins as if I had been slapped in the face. But no matter what direction I look, I can’t see hide nor hair of Lilly, just the fog.

I fear the worst at first, but I take a deep breath to calm down, then take off running.

If that male adventurer is responsible for Lilly’s disappearance, she would have fought back somehow, yelled out at least. A monster seems a lot more likely.

I make for the corner of the room where the fog is thickest.

“…?”

Weaving my way through the dead trees, a horrible smell hits my nose like a ton of bricks.

I bury my nose in my sleeve and look around for the source. It doesn’t take long.

There is a hunk of bloody, raw meat at the base of one of the trees.

“Isn’t that…a monster lure…?”

I kneel down next to the oily mass of processed flesh to get a closer look.

No doubt about it. These things are sold in item shops. Adventurers like me can use these trap items to draw monsters to them and increase their haul of magic stones and dropped items without leaving their usual route in the Dungeon…

But why is there one here…?

“—”

The sound of heavy footsteps reaches my ears. Orcs.

As in not a lone orc. The impacts of many sets of feet are coming all at once; it sounds like the world’s worst drum line.

And then I notice something else. There are masses of glistening, slimy meat scattered all over the place.

I stand there, stunned. The footsteps are close enough that I can get some idea how many orcs there are. Air leaves my lungs.

…Oh shit…

—Four.

I curse to myself in a numb silence as their shadows appear in the fog, all walking in a line, side by side.

Taking down even one of these took everything I had. Four at once is impossible. I don’t stand a chance. I’d be surrounded and sent into the afterlife in seconds. And then there’s their size. If they used any of the natural weapons around here, there’d be no escaping their wide range.

I have to get out of here, now.

There’s no way I can get out of this alive.

But what about Lilly?

What if she’s lying injured in this room or can’t escape for some reason?

Do I leave her behind? Do I leave Lilly to die?

The orcs lured here by the smell of the bloody meat notice me, and
they’re less than pleased. The dark green veins in their thick, muscular arms slowly pulse as they glare at me.

It’s to the point now that I won’t be able to get away without drawing my sword, but I still can’t move an inch.

Suddenly, something flies at me from out of sight, whistling as it cuts through the air.

“Huh?!”

Clang!
The thing strikes my left leg holster, sending a piece of it flying. The piece containing the Divine Knife.
That
piece.

I see a small golden arrow sticking out of the holster as it flew up and away.

The orcs see my wide eyes following the holster, figure that’s their chance, and all come at me at once.

“OOUUUUUGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

“!?!!”

Two of the orcs grab landform weapons and take a big swing in my direction.

I make one of the most ungraceful dives ever but manage to get out of the way.

I don’t have time to catch my breath. As big and clumsy as they are, the remaining two orcs cover the distance between us in no time flat.

“E-gaaa!!!”

I scream out as massive arms come at my head from all directions.

This is serious! What the hell am I gonna do now?!

I’ve never felt this vulnerable as a solo adventurer before. I don’t even have time to breathe as I dodge the storm of fists and strikes raining down from the orcs around me.

When I dodge an overhead strike and happen to glance past the monsters, that’s when I see her.

She’s a safe distance away from the orcs, walking as if she were in Central Park.

“Lilly?! Eh-dahhh!!!”

The next attack comes down the moment I yell for her. I can’t lose my focus, even for a moment.

While I’m dodging for my life, Lilly picks up the piece of my leg holster and takes out the Divine Knife.

She then looks it over carefully before tucking it into her shirt and looking in my direction with her usual smile.

“Sorry, Mr. Bell. This is where it ends.”

“Lilly, what the hell are you saying?!”

“Lilly thinks that Mr. Bell shouldn’t be so trusting of others.”

I catch another glimpse of her between orc limbs: she’s tilting her head to the side like a cute little girl, even though I’m screaming at her.

Her eyes aren’t covered by her hood or her bangs, and as always, her cute little smile.

But she looks somehow…lonely.

“I hope you find an opening and escape.”

Lilly speaks from the other side of the orcs, like she’s leaving her last bit of advice.

Then she adjusts her bulging backpack before turning her back to me.

“Good-bye, Mr. Bell. We won’t be seeing each other again.”

She takes one last look over her shoulder before running off into the fog.

“Lilly!
Lilly!
—Dahhh! Enough already!”

“BUGOuuhhh?!”

“You’re too nice, Mr. Bell.”

Lilly ran through the halls of the Dungeon, carrying bags that no normal person could hope to lift.

Grasping the straps of her backpack, she kept on going forward with no hesitation in her steps.

Lilly had told Bell a total of two lies.

The first was that she was a dirt-poor supporter.

Lilly was a thief. Or “con artist” might be a better way to put it.

She targeted adventurers with high income and class, especially ones who had valuable weapons and armor.

For example, she’d worked with Bell up until this point because
he’d been her target. Or rather, to be more precise, the
Hephaistos Familia
knife he carried had been her target.

The story about being poor was nothing more than a way to approach him.

And the second lie…

“Hmm.”

A breeze blowing against her as she ran pushed her hood down. Her fluffy, furlike hair and dog ears were exposed.

Lilly reached up to lightly pet her ears as her lips recited an incantation:

“
Stroke of midnight’s bell.
”

As if she had been dosed in ash, a gray dust covered her head.

A light flashed without sound, and the ears on her head were gone when it cleared.

That wasn’t all. The bangs that covered her eyes and the furry tail behind her had disappeared as well.

“Looks like a full transformation isn’t necessary. Changing out a few parts is just as effective.”

If Bell had been here to see this, he would surely have been shocked.

Her big chestnut eyes looked cheerful, her face that of a cute girl. The dog-girl child was gone.

There was no doubt now—Lilly was the prum girl who had run into Bell that day in the back alley.

Lilly’s second lie: Who she really was.

She had been running away from that male adventurer and used her “Cinder Ella” magic to change her appearance from a very suspicious prum girl to someone else entirely.