“The monster commanding the Stampede might be related to Dungeon City? Hmm…”
“What do you think?”
“That sounds about right, considering how the monsters were acting.”
When Tsutomu shared the conclusion he had just reached with Garm, the latter nodded with his canine ears raised, as if carefully considering the information.
“Heh!” Xeno interrupted, hamming up his tone, “And here I thought they had gathered around because of my irresistible charm!”
“…And so I think the commanding monster is actually working with someone within Dungeon City.”
“Oh? That’s quite a hazardous speculation.”
Xeno, utterly ignored, rested his chin on his hand — though even this gesture of his also seemed slightly exaggerated, earning him a cold stare from Garm.
“The general belief right now is that strange monsters like the Devourer Dragon have been appearing because we haven’t been culling the Dungeons’ monster populations well enough, right?”
“Indeed,” Xeno started to explain, misunderstanding Garm’s cold stare as the latter having a hard time understanding the topic at hand, “There are other theories, of course, but that is the most plausible one. You see, monsters spawn from Magic Stones in the magical energy reservoirs within Dungeons — And after the God’s Dungeon emerged and the culling stopped, the energy reservoir became more concentrated. The result is the appearance of the Devourer Dragon, as Tsutomu just said.”
“…Did you have to provide that exposition? Everyone already knows that.”
“Ah, I beg your pardon.” Xeno paused, pursing his lips like a duck and spending a moment to think before posing a question, “Now, isn’t it still normal for monsters with intelligence to spawn within Dungeons? But they would still need to be humanoid to infiltrate Dungeon City, and I can’t see any of the city’s people actually working with them.”
“Right… Maybe it’s a monster that can disguise itself as a person. But even if that’s the case, I still don’t understand why it would target me specifically.”
“Perhaps it has seen you being commended by House Babenberg? …The possibility of it having infiltrated Dungeon City from way back then — Now that is quite concerning.”
Xeno proceeded to shrug, earning himself a displeased look from Garm. Tsutomu thought about how, since he had always based his monster knowledge on his experience from Live Dungeon, had never considered the possibility of monsters disguising themselves as humans. If it did exist, it would be a monster unique to this world, putting Tsutomu in a completely uncharted territory.
“For a Dungeon monster, though, I think its thinking is too flexible. Even if it has intelligence, isn’t it a bit strange for a recently spawned monster to ignore Christia, who’s practically the commander, and target me?”
“It just means the monsters know how fearsome you actually are, Tsutomu.”
“Garm, I am quite confident in how weak I am,” Tsutomu said, puffing out his chest.
“…Why do you sound proud of that?” Garm narrowed his eyes, sounding reproachful.
“Here’s the thing… People who saw me in the Royal Capital all seemed to think I looked weak — and they weren’t wrong. In fact, as far as my reputation in Dungeon City goes, Stephanie is pretty much as famous as me now, and I didn’t do much during the Devourer Dragon fight except healing people with the Black Staff. Compared to Christia, it’s pretty clear which one should be the target, right? A vulnerable and isolated commander — there’s no reason for the monsters not to go after her.”
In the recent battle, Christia had acted alone, flying high in the sky without any guards and overseeing the unit. While she was a White Mage, her physical capabilities as a Dark Elf and her archery skills surpassed even Diniel. For that reason, Christia had intentionally presented herself as an easy target, appearing isolated with numerous vulnerabilities.
Tsutomu could not fathom the value of ignoring a target like that and specifically targeting him instead. Intelligent monsters in Live Dungeon tended to be prideful in nature, and Christia would undoubtedly attract their attention. Even if it were a monster unique to this world, Tsutomu could not understand why it would not target Christia.
“And so I think there’s a greater purpose at play here. Even if it’s a monster observing Dungeon City, there’s no reason for it not to target the Labyrinth Conquerors.”
“Hmm… Let’s assume I’m something like a king ruling over the monsters. There must be a monster under my command that can bring back information. That monster would be lurking in Dungeon City, reporting exaggeratedly on Tsutomu’s achievements, perhaps? Relatively speaking, since the Labyrinth Conquerors weren’t operating in Dungeon City for long, they targeted the more famous Scarlet Devil Squad and Absolute Helix instead — does that sound plausible?”
“I’m with Tsutomu on this one.”
“Hahaha… Two votes against mine by default, eh?”
“If there ARE multiple intelligent monsters then… honestly, I don’t feel confident in winning this Stampede…”
“With the cooperation of House Kantjelucia and House Babenberg, along with other major Clans, and the support from the Royal Capital this time, you shouldn’t worry too much.”
“Hey, there you are!”
While the three continued to discuss various speculations about the monsters based on the recent battle, a fourth voice interrupted them.
Amira, dressed in casual attire after taking off her red leather armor, approached with loud footsteps. Without stating her business, she took one look at Tsutomu and pointed her chin at the hallway.
“Tsutomu, I wanna talk. Do you have a moment?”
“Huh? Uh, sure.”
It was unusual for the lazy Amira to summon him without stating her purpose. Tsutomu immediately stood up, thinking it might be related to Leleia.
“Oh, Xeno — sorry, but can you inform the other Clan members about this? Also, since it’s still just speculation, don’t spread it around randomly, all right?”
“Of course. Now, time to increase the number of my theory’s subscribers…”
“Tsutomu’s speculation is more accurate.”
“Your faith really is quite something…”
Seeing that Garm had no intention of giving in, Xeno shook his head. The two of them then left the inn’s lobby, exchanging a few words as they went. On the other hand, Tsutomu followed Amira as she headed toward her room.
▽▽
“So, what’d you want to talk about?”
“Hey, no need to hurry. Let’s sit down first.”
“And where CAN I even sit?” Tsutomu promptly asked, visibly annoyed by how messy Amira’s room was despite it having been rented out just earlier today.
Amira, sitting on the bed, roughly smacked the space beside her. Tsutomu instead used his foot to sweep away the scattered clothes and newspapers and sat on the floor. Amira clicked her tongue lightly.
“C’mon, man, any one of us could kick the bucket tomorrow — So I thought maybe you’d wanna spend your V card, y’know?”
“…Right, you have a point there.”
Since leaving Dungeon City, Tsutomu had been aware of his mortality, so he figured it was wise to do what needed to be done before it was too late. However, he merely agreed with the idea and had not considered getting involved with Amira in that way at this point in time.
“…Huh?”
Amira herself, seemingly surprised by Tsutomu’s somewhat profound-sounding response, was left frozen with the face of a bully facing retaliation. Then, when their eyes met, she hurriedly fumbled as if facing a ferocious beast. Holding the blanket like a tower shield, she peered down at Tsutomu from behind it.
“S-so… we’re actually doing it?”
“What? No, why would I do that?”
“Huh…?”
“So what’s the matter? Did Leleia start something?”
With the topic so casually shifting to something completely unrelated, Amira grumbled to herself, emitting a threatening atmosphere. She shot a resentful look at Tsutomu, then released the blanket she had been holding.
“Who the hell cares about her? This is about me — well, my transformation.”
“The <<Dragon Form>>?”
“Well, first of all, you gotta get a closer look.”
Amira slapped the bed again. Tsutomu, now that he knew that the talk was actually about the Dragon transformation, immediately agreed to sit on the bed. Amira distanced herself slightly, then stared at Tsutomu with an expression that seemed dissatisfied with something, while the latter leaned slightly forward to listen to her.
“You know how unique skills can branch out into other skills?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
In the recent battle, Weiss had used the Holy-elemental skill called <<Phoenix Flame>>, derived from the skill <<Phoenix Soul>>.
Similarly, Bruno, the Security Team director, could use <<Muscle Dash>> and <<Muscle Punch>> derived from <<Muscle Body>>. However, these derivations could only be acquired by extensively using the initially obtained unique skill.
“See, I also recently got a new skill from the <<Dragon Form>>.”
“Whoa, that’s cool! When’d that happen? After we got to the Capital?”
“Nah, it was a little while after we got through layer eighty.”
“Huh? Why’d you not tell me sooner?”
“I’ve been testing it out with Korinna’s help. I still don’t know if it’ll work properly, so don’t get your hopes up too much.”
“Sure. So what do you need me for?”
“Just stay close to me. Face the other way… and stay still. Like, really, don’t move,” Amira spoke in an unusually subdued voice, still feeling agitated from the earlier joke she had made.
“Okay, okay.”
Urgently prompting Tsutomu with a hurried tone, Amira mumbled something under her breath, then used her fingertips to scratch and peel off a red scale from her neck.
When she had tested this with Korinna, she had primarily used it on the neck, so she used her right hand to comb Tsutomu’s hair up, revealing his neck — and upon seeing it, she gulped audibly.
Realizing that she could not bring herself to touch his neck, proceeded to look down at his back — but then the mere thought of reaching inside his clothes made her face flush with heat.
[Shit, this is what I get for making that weird joke…]
Amira shook her head as her breathing became slightly erratic. Then, she forced herself to act, grabbing Tsutomu’s right, pressing her scale onto the back of his hand, and then uttering the name of the newly emerged skill on her Status Card,
“<<Dragon Union>>.”
The red scale on Tsutomu’s hand began to faintly glow. Amira, holding Tsutomu’s right hand with both of hers, felt her mental energy gradually being drained, but she did not let go. Tsutomu, on the other hand, experienced a sensation of strength welling up from within.
“<<Dragon Union>>, huh… What does it do?”
“…I don’t know how it works exactly, but it looks like it gives the effect of <<Dragon Form>> to other people.”
“Like, all stat ratings up by one rank except LUK? That’s huge.”
“Nah, half a rank is probably the best I can do for now. Besides, it feels DISGUSTING how much of my energy it drains. So yeah, it’s not good for actual combat yet — Need to get more used to using it,” Amira explained, seeming exhausted from having consumed a significant amount of mental energy compared to her usual <<Dragon Form>>.
Tsutomu, whose hand had been gripped quite strongly, gently moved Amira’s hand away and raised his up to the ceiling, observing the back of it — and he saw a layer of red scales covering it.
“Now wait a second… does this also make me a Dragonewt Deity?”
“…Hell no. They’ll go away when the <<Dragon Union>> wears off.”
“By the way, do you have to use one of your scales every time? Like, doesn’t it hurt when you peel them off?”
“Yeah, it needs a part of my body. A few scales aren’t a problem, though — I don’t feel anything when I pull old scales off. It’s like trimming nails.”
“Huh, I didn’t know that. I guess there’s really no problem with it, then.”
Tsutomu looked at Amira’s neck, observing with interest the spot from where she had pulled her scale. Amira, suddenly being approached like that, became flustered, her ears turning red.
“And you’re right — it does look like it uses up a lot of energy. Your hands were burning hot, too. You’re not sick or anything, are you? …Gah, it’s still burning!”
“HNG–!!” When Tsutomu gripped Amira’s hand, she let out an inarticulate scream. Then, she shook off his hand and widened her eyes. “WHOA–!? Hey, hands off! I’M FINE!!”
“What’s with the sudden outburst… Well, anyway, if you train it like <<Dragon Form>>, you’ll probably get better results from it. It’s a good skill, as far as I can see. I’m happy for you. If you can master it, your tactics will have a lot more flexibility.”
“S-shaddup! Now get outta here! I’m done with you!”
“What? C’mon, I still want to talk more about that skill…”
“Well, I got things to do and places to be! I’m BUSY! Get your ass outta here!”
Although Tsutomu still wanted to verify more information about the <<Dragon Union>>, he was promptly kicked out of the room. Seeing Amira visibly exhausted from using it just now, Tsutomu agreed to leave, thinking she needed to take some time to rest.
<hr/>
