Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, Vol. 2 (6 page)

“Giii!!!”

“A…AAHHHHHH!!”

Shing!
The killer ant’s knifelike claws slid harmlessly off Bell’s emerald-green protector.

A trail of sparks popped up in the claw’s wake. Even with the creature’s strength, it couldn’t make a dent in this piece of armor.

Bell launched a counterattack.

Ignoring the jolts of pain in his left arm, he tossed the blade lightly into the air and let go of the Hestia Knife at the same time. His now free right hand caught the dagger in midair.

Slash.

The dagger’s edge found a weak spot between the well-armored abdomen and thorax of the killer ant. Purple liquid spilled out from the wound.

Even though Bell’s dagger was one of the weakest weapons available
to adventurers, it was strong enough to inflict a mortal wound on a killer ant.

“—Gii!”

“Next!”

Bell delivered the final blow to the dying monster before yanking the Hestia Knife from its previously slain comrade. He then charged forward into another incoming group of monsters without stopping to catch his breath.

“Mr. Bell is so strong!!!”

While Bell tore into his next group of foes, Lilly was busy gathering all of the slain bodies into one spot.

She was very efficient. Even with a big smile on her face, she was very aware of her surroundings as she dragged the bodies into a line but never let them touch. Wearing specially made brown supporter’s gloves, she grabbed onto the arms and legs of the lifeless beasts and hauled them across the dungeon floor with no problem.

“Sha!!!”

“Kyuu?!”

Thanks to Lilly’s work, Bell didn’t have to worry about footing and slew a needle rabbit with his dagger.

Bell was a humble person. Even though he possessed the strength to slay a monster in the same class as a killer ant, he wasn’t letting it go to his head. He was following his adviser Eina’s instructions to the letter: Slay the killer ants quickly so that they can’t call for reinforcements. Do whatever it takes to avoid taking on a group by yourself.

Bell had the entire battle within this wide room firmly within his grasp.

“—Gushyuuu…!! ShyaaaaaAAAAA!!!!”

“Yikes!! Mr. Bell! One’s about to be born!”

One of the dungeon walls had split open; a killer ant’s ominous cries were coming from within.

Bell responded swiftly to a situation he had encountered countless times before.

He delivered a finishing blow to the remaining monsters before rushing up to the giant ant attempting to emerge from the crack in the wall.

After sprinting ten meters across the room, Bell leaped skyward and drove his left boot into the beast.

“One, two…!!!”

“Guweiii?!”

Echoes exploded on the kick’s impact.

Crack!
The ant’s neck shattered. Its lifeless body hung from the side of the wall.

“Ohh, Mr. Bell, what should we do? That killer ant is stuck up there?”

“Hmm, what can we do?”

A bead of sweat ran down Bell’s face as he tried to figure out how to get the ant’s body, which looked like it was too big for a small hole, out of the wall. It was well out of Lilly’s reach, but when she looked up and saw the confused look in Bell’s eyes, she couldn’t help but giggle.

“Mr. Bell’s very strong, but weird. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”

“…Don’t laugh!”

Realizing how dismal he looked, Bell cracked a small smile, too.

With the floor almost conquered and the room fully cleared, the two of them set to work on retrieving magic stones.

But now it was Lilly’s time to shine. All Bell could really do was keep an eye out for any monsters that might try to sneak up on them.

“Whoa…You’re really good at this…”

“It’s because this is all Lilly can do to help. Mr. Bell, you slew all of these monsters, so you are the one who is really good.”

Her experienced hands used a knife to cleanly and efficiently remove only the magic stone from the monster in front of her.

Her tiny hands moved with speed and precision, opening a small hole in the monster’s chest before its body turned to ash.

Bell watched her work while thinking about his own woeful way of doing the same task, but decided to comment on something else.

“…Can I ask you a favor? Could you stop calling me ‘Mr. Bell’?”

“Sorry, but that won’t do. It goes against the contract, and it shows who is higher ranking in this party. Supporters cannot be condescending to adventurers.”

“But, Lilliluka…”

“Mr. Bell, please call Lilly Lilly. Other names are okay too, but not by full name.”

“Why are you so concerned about names?”

The third killer ant turned to ash as Lilly looked up at Bell. Her eyes hidden completely by her hood, Lilly forced a smile and said, “Are you listening, Mr. Bell?” before continuing.

“The word ‘Supporter’ sounds pretty, but underneath it all, Lilly and other supporters just carry the bags. Compared to the brave adventurers fighting monsters on the front lines, we’re just cowards who watch from a safe distance and reap the rewards of battles that we didn’t fight in. We’re no better than parasites.”

Given that just by going into the Dungeon, supporters were exposed to the same level of danger as adventurers, Lilly’s speech wasn’t necessarily true. Still, she continued without any hesitation.

“It is arrogant for Lilly and other supporters to think that they are equal to adventurers. The brave adventurers won’t allow it. If Lilly tries, then the honorable adventurers get angry and won’t give Lilly her share.”

“Th-that’s horrible…!”

“Lilly knew Mr. Bell was a good person as soon as we met. But there has to be a line. If word got out that Lilly wasn’t treating Mr. Bell as a superior, Lilly won’t get any contracts to go into the Dungeon with adventurers other than Mr. Bell from now on. Lilly would have to work for free.”

“……”

Bell had his own morals, and they weren’t about to change. However, he couldn’t speak for other adventurers.

Something that seemed wrong to him might very well be common sense to someone else.

“It might be hard for Mr. Bell, but can you accept Lilly’s request? Think of it as helping Lilly.”

“…Sure thing, Lilly.”

“Thank you very much!”

Bell gave in. If it meant helping Lilly, he had no choice but to ignore his own trivial opinions.

He decided that he would talk to her like a friend around his age rather than a business partner.

“On an unrelated note…Is Mr. Bell really a newbie adventurer? Lilly can’t believe Mr. Bell slew all of those monsters alone…”

Lilly stopped working on the monster in front of her and counted the dead bodies with her tiny fingers.

If she counted the monsters already turned to ash, Bell slew four killer ants, three purple moths, and five needle rabbits, for a total of twelve monsters.

Leaving out the human-sized killer ants, the remaining monsters were all classified as “small,” so it wasn’t that difficult for adventurers to take on all of them.

But the icing on the cake was that Bell slew them all alone. Lilly couldn’t look at him the same way after seeing what he could do.

“Yes, I won. But they almost had me more than a few times…”

“Mr. Bell is fighting by himself, so of course that’s going to happen. Most distinguished adventurers like you come into the Dungeon in a party of three or more, you know? They don’t want to fight solo down here.”

“That’s because they don’t want to, right? Doesn’t mean they couldn’t do it. There are tons of Level One adventurers who are stronger than me, too.”

“That…may be true.”

“You’ve accompanied many parties into the Dungeon, right Lilly? So you’ve seen adventurers who are much stronger than me.”

“…Yes. Lilly has seen adventurers stronger than Mr. Bell…”

“So, I’ve still got a long way to go.”

Lilly looked up at a grimacing Bell with frustrated confusion. He had completely missed her point.

There were, in fact, solo adventurers who prowled the Dungeon on their own. However, Lilly wanted to know if Bell had really only started the job less than a month ago.

Common knowledge said that Level One adventurers could conquer lower levels one to twelve.

To put it in terms of which levels were appropriate for which statuses,
adventurers with a status of
I
or
H
could work in levels one through four,
G
and
F
in five through seven,
E
through
C
in eight to ten, and
B
through
S
in levels eleven and twelve.

However, this was merely the received wisdom. Level Two category monsters would appear beginning with level thirteen and below, so it was generally accepted that Level One adventurers had no hope of clearing any of those floors.

If one were asked to state the average level of an adventurer in Orario, the answer would have to be “One.” More than half of all adventurers worked on the top twelve floors.

Half of the remaining adventurers were at level two, with the remainder a mix of those who had become even more powerful.

The line between Level One and Level Two separated the lower-class adventurers from the upper class, and there was a significant difference. This was because they entered the “Third Tier” class of adventurers from Level Two. Since Level One was average, going beyond that point required a good amount of talent and skill.

Since adventurers’ statuses were considered personal information, they were well protected. Figuring out an average status was very difficult. However, most adventurers who hadn’t yet leveled up to Two spent the bulk of their time on levels seven to ten of the Dungeon.

To put it another way, the average adventurer’s status grades were somewhere between
G
and
C
. That was the line that beginners had to cross to become experts.

Bell was already standing shoulder to shoulder with these “advanced beginners” after only a few weeks of working as an adventurer. It was understandable that Lilly would have some trouble believing what she had witnessed that day.

“Also, Mr. Bell has a good weapon to go along with his strong status.”

The tone of Lilly’s voice made a sudden but subtle change.

Bell didn’t notice, and shyly laughed at her words.

“Yeah, you’ve got that right. I’ve been relying on this knife a bit too much. At this rate, I won’t get much stronger, will I?”

“No, no, it’s a weapon’s dream to be wielded by a worthy master. The point is, Mr. Bell’s strength is wielding that weapon without wasting movement. Today is proof of your strength.”

“Do…do you really think so?”

Bell had his back to Lilly, keeping a sharp lookout for monsters. His hand reached around and stroked the knife.

Black from end to end, it was a very rare knife indeed.

Bell’s fingers ran along the Ἥφαιστος insignia on the sheath of the weapon.

Lilly’s eyes went wide and flashed a fiery blaze.

“Lilly doesn’t know much about weapons, but Lilly knows that knife is special. How in the world did you get it? Lilly doesn’t mean to be rude, but Mr. Bell is still a newbie, and newbies don’t have much money…”

“The goddess…the goddess of my
Familia
gave it to me. Apparently she went through a lot asking one of her goddess friends for it. I think she tried a bit too hard.”

“What a…nice goddess you have.”

“Yes. She’s very important to me.”

Bell didn’t notice the hidden twinge of jealousy or the shaking in Lilly’s voice.

Lilly finished off the last needle rabbit a bit more roughly than necessary before standing up and sneaking up behind Bell’s back.

“Mr. Bell?”

“Oh, you finished?”

Lilly flashed another big grin as Bell turned to face her.

“Since we’re here, we might as well get the magic stone from the killer ant in the wall.”

“I agree. But how?”

“If Mr. Bell cuts open the thin part of its chest, that will be enough. The magic stone is in there, anyway. Lilly will take it from there.”

“I gotcha. So…”

“Here, Mr. Bell.”

“Eh…Ah, okay.”

Bell took the knife that Lilly handed to him. He was about to draw
the Hestia Knife, but Lilly’s knife would work. Bell walked over to the killer ant, the lower half of its body still inside the wall. Grabbing the thick skin on the monster’s upper body, he lined up Lilly’s knife with the thin area between the killer ant’s upper and lower body.

Hmm…This knife is really hard to use…

Bell stood on his tiptoes as he fought with the shell-like skin, struggling to cut it open.

He was completely focused on cutting the ant open, never once looking behind him.

With his arms up and in front of him, his sides and back were completely open and defenseless.

“Huh?”

Something didn’t feel right. A shock ran through his brain.

His head flipped around.

“Have you finished?”

Lilly was standing right beside him, looking up at the ant’s body with big eyes and standing as tall as she could.

Bell blinked his wide eyes a few times and chuckled to himself. He held out his hand, gesturing. “Just a moment.”

Bell finally guided the small blade to the top of the killer ant’s chest. Lilly quickly moved in to claim the stone.

“Well then, shall we call it a day, Mr. Bell?”

“Eh? Already? I can keep going, no problem.”

“No no, you’re being overconfident. Today, Mr. Bell has slain many purple moths, a monster that spreads poisonous wing-scales during battle. The effects are not immediate, but if you breathe in too much, your body will be poisoned.”

“N-no way!”

“It’s true. Lilly was careless and forgot to buy more antidotes…Lilly suggests going back to Babel Tower for treatment.”

As soon as Lilly finished speaking, Bell remembered Eina saying that he should be aware of where he was while battling moth-type monsters. Bell put his hand to his head with a small gasp and agreed with Lilly’s proposal.

“What is being poisoned like…? Wait, when do the symptoms show up? I’ll need all of my strength to slay monsters, otherwise…”

“There is no problem, Mr. Bell. Lilly knows a fast way to get back to Babel without having to fight any monsters.”

“Y-you do?”

Lilly nodded her head in a resounding “yes” and pointed toward the exit of the room. A group of adventurers stood just outside the archway. They turned and left upon seeing that Bell and Lilly had already slain all of the monsters within.

“If we trace the path of other strong adventurers, there won’t be any monsters. They prowl the Dungeon for monsters…I mean, dropped items and magic stones, right?”

“Oh, I see.”

“Even if monsters come out, we can just hide in the shadow of another party and they will take care of them for us. The idea is to choose a path with people, and we can avoid all battles.”

Usually, Bell would avoid adventurers from other
Familias
to prevent any difficult situations from happening. But in times like this, it might be the best option.

This was a good way to get out of a bad situation, if they could pull it off.

“Many honorable adventurers are in the Dungeon at this time of day. If Mr. Bell sticks close to Lilly, he won’t have to use his weapon even once.”

Lilly looked up at Bell with one of her big smiles, and he was struck by just how reliable the girl was.

“Lilly, you really are amazing. You are a ‘supporter’ for a reason: I can count on you.”

“Mr. Bell will learn many things too with experience. Now, let’s get moving!”

Lilly snatched Bell’s hand and half pulled him out of the room. Following the footprints on the dungeon floor, they ran past a few groups of adventurers on their way to the top. Whenever a monster showed up, they were always close to the battle party. Lilly’s instincts were spot-on.

She was so efficient, it was almost as if she had done this hundreds of times.

“Mr. Bell, Mr. Bell. About today’s payment…”

“Well, you have helped me out a lot. So I think we should split it fifty-fifty…”

“All magic stones and dropped items collected today are yours, Mr. Bell. May your wallet be warm tonight.”

“What?! But that leaves you nothing! Didn’t you say you wanted at least thirty percent?!”

“Your trust is worth much more to Lilly. Today was a day for Mr. Bell to learn about Lilly, and think of this as a thank-you gift.”

“To…learn about you?”

“Everyone gets this trial day, not just you, Mr. Bell.”

So today was just a test for Lilly. Bell didn’t feel right about it at all.

Bell blushed as he looked at the girl, wanting to apologize.