Chapter 33 – The Occult Slayer and the Young Man I
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Stepping outside, we were greeted by an orange sky. Satoha’s walking speed had become somewhat slow and hesitant, so I headed to the dungeon while dragging her along. My body still feels in good shape and I want to raid the other C-Class dungeon in front of Sendai Station.
The area before the actual station was congested.
“Hiro, this is wrong. One C-Class dungeon per day! Stop! I’m telling you to give it a rest, am I not!?”
Satoha insisted that it was impossible to invade two dungeons in one day, and tried to stop me. I had been talking about this with a relatively lax attitude, but she seemed to be dead serious with her answers.
“Isn’t it fine, Satoha? Look, it’s here. Right here. If we clear this place, it’ll be perfectly in time for us to eat dinner together afterwards.”
“No! ….Vortexes are no places you raid for fun to kill some time!”
I had discovered the C-Class dungeon between two multi-floor buildings with very few pedestrians. Now I was frantically persuading Satoha to dive into the dungeon in front of us together with me. But, she started to vehemently argue against this.
“No, Hiro. Today is finished.”
“Why, Satoha? I’ve still got plenty of energy in me.”
“Let’s do this dungeon on another day, okay? You entered your first C-Class dungeon just a few hours ago. I firmly object to any further clears.”
“Satoha, do you possibly believe that I’ll fail and die? I have no plans to become careless when challenging this dungeon and my body feels light as well. I can still fight, okay?”
She closed her mouth and sank into silence. Then she started to explain as if slowly and deliberately crafting each word, “Look, I do believe you that you can still fight. Having seen your way of fighting with my own eyes today, I’m convinced of that. You’re suited for this. That’s why I truly believe that you’ll be able to clear it.”
“Isn’t it alright then?”
After making a short pause, she put on a dignified look, creating a pure space with the noise and annoying electric lighting in front of the station as background. She exhibited her determination.
“Hiro, if you indulge in battles to such an extent, you will be definitely swallowed by them. Just…Just as you aren’t an Occult Slayer who studied the moral laws and challenged his own resolution, you don’t have any reason forcing you to continue fighting to such an extent. Fighting for the sake of fighting is dangerous. I don’t want…to cut you down,” she said while casting her eyes down and joining her hands behind her back.
“How have we reached a point where you’d be talking about cutting me down?”
She seems to be burdened by some sort of feelings which she’s now overlapping with me.
“If you one-sidedly dive into vortexes over and over again, I’m sure you will break.”
I…don’t get it. I’m just trying to fight out of my own volition.
The earlier light and warm atmosphere dispersed along the wind, only leaving behind a stifling gloom. I must show her my will and desire.
“Satoha, for me…there’s nothing but this world. I want to dive into dungeons as quickly as possible. I want to dive into them all the time.”
Hearing that declaration, she widened her eyes slightly before turning them away with a sad expression.
“…Do as you please. But, it’s not like it has to be all the time, correct? You can also dive together with me tomorrow. It’s not like it has to be right away, right?”
With a sidelong glance at me, she briskly walked towards the station’s entrance. Even if I were to call out to her or reach out a hand, it didn’t seem like she’d stop.
While operating the Dungeon Seeker’s camera screen, I decided to enter the dungeon.
I don’t feel like I’m alive if I don’t fight. Most likely I’m already broken.
After being wrapped up in a white light, I opened my eyes, just to find myself having arrived at a beach in full combat gear. Sunlight was brilliantly shining down on the place.
However, as I was forced into admiring it with casual thoughts about how nicely warm or pretty it is, I heard a huge number of footsteps. Violet crabs, the monsters of this dungeon, approached me with a force as if to cover the entire beach. The smallest were as big as rats while the biggest ones even reached my size. That huge army of crabs drew closer while threatening me by moving their pincers.
Crabs next after ants, huh?
I breathed in and filled my body with black, glossy mana. As soon as I thought about battle, the mist swirling in my head was cleared away.
I’ll charge these guys while brandishing Dragon Eater.
Yep, as I thought. This is fun. This sensation of wielding power against an unknown enemy in an unknown location. This exaltation which has remained unchanged from the time when I first entered a dungeon. This feeling of being alive I couldn’t experience for the past year. I cut them apart, kicked them away, and crushed them underfoot.
Pulverizing the crabs while accompanied by crunchy creaks and cracks, their innards turned into embers as they whirled through the air. I wonder whether this stuff tastes good.
On the first floor I dashed across the beach, eradicating the crabs without leaving a single one alive. Soon I arrived in front of an awfully luxurious, semi-spherical sand castle. Looking at it, I’d immediately believe it if someone told me that this is a World Heritage in some unknown country.
Thanks to 『Progress of Castle-Taking』, I could somewhat understand the structure of this defense fortification. I’m happy that it’s immediately proving its worth.
I climbed the stairs and opened a sandstone door, starting my clearing of the second floor.
In the middle of the castle’s hallway, which had sand sculptures lined up on either side, I had to dodge knives raining down on me from the ceiling without any sort of prior warning. Moreover, I was forced to kill monsters looking like flying fish who jumped at me out of the walls.
The sand forming this castle was sturdy enough that you could lean on it, but when I tried to thrust a hand filled with mana at a wall, it passed through the material like butter. The occult beings probably fill their bodies with mana and swim through the sand castle while using this quality of the castle to their own advantage. Occult fish successively attacked me from the walls, ceiling, and floor.
So far, no enemy has come at me from behind, but I mustn’t forget to stay on my guard at all times.
I killed the enemies, overcame traps which would pop out of the sand with an ant in tow, and continued to climb while heading for the summit of the castle with its boss room and reward room.
I’ve come to this sand castle by myself. In front of me was a piece of art adorned with decorative designs as I had never seen it before. It looks like this was treated as an item, allowing me to store it away.
….If Satoha had come with me, we might have been able to talk about these strange, Inner World architecture and art.
I do understand her point somewhat. But, I don’t have anything to do besides going into dungeons, nor do I want to do anything else. I don’t know her life story and she doesn’t know mine.
Her figure crossed my mind. In my mind she donned a sour look, but I had noticed that she was showing quite a few emotions on her face even while maintaining a serious expression. The emotion, which she had exhibited earlier when we went our own ways, was one I had never seen on her up until now. Yep, it was one that compelled me into believing so.
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