Is it wrong to try to meet someone in a dungeon?

Ais's eyes widened at the sight of the enemy's strength.

Her opponent's fighting skills were on par with her own honed swordsmanship. She not only employed pure swordsmanship but also interwoven punches and kicks, her attacks like a raging flood, their ferocity unlike anything Ais had ever witnessed. Her gauntlet-armored fists created black afterimages, and her longsword and foot blades, tracing arcs, attempted to sever Ais's body. She bravely countered with her military saber, her flowing, dazzling golden hair outlining her evasive maneuvers.

Ais found it hard to believe that such a skilled adventurer had never been known for any bravery.

Ais's eyes sharpened, wanting to know who was truly beneath that piece of human skin.

"—[Unleash a beam of light, the bow of sacred wood. You are a master archer]."

At that moment, someone began weaving incantations behind Ais.

The voice came from Lefia, who moved her staff to her side and equipped it. Not even wanting to stand up, she immediately began chanting, conjuring a deep golden magic circle on the stone floor where she sat.

Support fire was imminent. The woman glanced at Lefia, but Ais quickened her pace to stop her.

"Snipe, elven archer! Pierce through, arrow that never misses!"

As the number of slashes increased significantly, Lefia also completed the short chant at high speed.

The enemy cannot break through Ais, who is acting as the forward wall.

Then, accompanied by a clear and melodious voice, the magic circle burst into bright light.

"[Spirit Bow and Light Arrow]!!"

The light arrow shot out in response.

This is a single-shot arrow-shaped spell that emphasizes speed. However, due to Lefia's powerful "magic" and the large amount of mental energy she has poured into it, it can no longer be called an "arrow" but rather a "large beam of light".

That's not all; the magic it casts also has an automatic tracking attribute. Once activated, it will definitely hit, and there's nowhere to hide.

The crystal's straight path was overflowing with light. Seeing the large beam of light hurtling towards Ais, who was dodging the attack, the female adventurer narrowed her left eye—and extended an arm.

“Eh!?”

「!?」

The woman's left hand blocked Lefia and Ais's screams along with the beam of light.

A thunderous roar erupted between the two forces, accompanied by flashes of light resembling splashes of water. The cracked, black arm armor shattered under the strain, but the woman's slender arm remained perfectly still. Not only that, it even pushed the beam of light back.

With brute force, she swung her arm, deflecting the beam of light and slamming it into the wall diagonally in front of her.

"~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~!?"

As the crystal exploded and shattered, a shockwave was generated.

Lefia, screaming in agony, was thrown back from her original position along with the unconscious Luluni. Just then, her handbag slipped from her grasp, and a green orb flew out and rolled to the ground.

The force of the deflected beam of light knocked Ais off her footing, and the female adventurer gave her no time to catch her breath before charging forward.

「!?」

A longsword flashed past his body. A ruthless pursuit had begun.

Ais's golden eyes flickered. The enemy's speed—had increased. Even their astonishing arm strength had grown stronger, and whenever their blades clashed, the impact would paralyze Ais's arm along with the "Sword of Despair."

The opponent's strength is unfathomable.

The emotionless stare into her left eye sent shivers down her spine.

"Ugh—!?"

The downward slash of the sword pressed down, causing the slender body to sink straight down.

At this moment, for the first time, Ais's face contorted with bitterness. This was the first time she had been at a disadvantage.

—It's the only option left.

The enemy's fierce offensive continued relentlessly, and Ais had no choice but to abandon her hesitation. If she didn't make a decision soon, she would be defeated, and Lefia and the others would also be in danger.

Because her magic was too powerful, she never used it in combat against people, but now she was determined to use it.

"【Awaken! (Tempest)!!"

The intertwined incantations summoned air currents.

As Ais cried out "Tear the Silk!", she activated [Wind Spirit Dash], imbuing her sword and her entire body with wind power.

She repelled the enemy's offensive with an explosive increase in speed.

"What!"

The woman's left eye turned pale with shock.

Ais knocked the longsword away, then unleashed a powerful upward slash imbued with a strong wind. The opponent quickly defended, but his body couldn't withstand the force and he was sent flying backward with astonishing momentum.

The wind howled and roared. The shockwave from the slash blew off the enemy's helmet and tore apart their human masks. Crack, crack, crack! The female adventurer staggered backward, scraping against the stone slabs, and finally managed to stop before slowly raising her head.

Her hair was as red as fresh blood.

The strands of bright red hair that flowed out after the helmet was removed were originally long, flowing hair, now bearing the marks of being carelessly cut with a blade.

Next are her green eyes, like precious gemstones.

A tattered bandage still clung to half of her face, revealing the woman's true appearance. Amidst her snow-white skin and beauty, her long, narrow left eye widened in astonishment.

"That gust of wind just now... I see, you are 'Arya'."

Hearing the name (word) she whispered, Ais's golden eyes widened.

A sudden, intense heartbeat jolted my chest. The shock, so powerful it left me speechless, swept through my entire body. My mind was filled with the question, "Why?"

Ais's delicate throat trembled with shock.

Both sides looked surprised, and for a moment, a strange silence fell between them.

"—Aa ...

Just then, suddenly...

The pearl that rolled to the ground—the female fetus—cried.

「!?」

The piercing scream from behind made Ais turn around.

The red-haired woman, who had also heard the sound and was filled with anxiety, didn't even have time to act...

The fetus struggled to move inside the pearl, its tiny hands and head with strangely shaped eyeballs piercing through the green membrane.

“Aa ...

As if triggered by Ais's magic, the fetus began to move. Its small body seemed to possess immense strength, leaping like a thrown pebble with a distance several times its own length.

As the horrifying eyeballs approached her face, Ais dodged with a large movement, and the fetus jumped directly into the air, dripping liquid all over its body.

It came into contact with the carnivorous plant monster buried inside the crystal wall and parasitized the monster.

"Varied--"

"Oh oh ...

Between Ais and the red-haired woman, the carnivorous plant, which should have been on its last legs, screamed.

The fetus, which was attached to the long body, gradually dissolved into the monster's skin like an imprint, and changes began to occur centered on that spot.

Like veins emerging, red, vein-like lines began to surge across the entire long body, and the monster's cries grew increasingly shrill.

It let out a mournful howl filled with saliva from its mouth, shuddered heavily, and then its long and large body began to swell.

Its muscles bulged.

Lefia froze in a corner of the road. Her azure eyes reflected the monstrous creature's agonizing struggles and constantly shifting forms.

It changed, and then changed again.

Perhaps that was unconventional growth, or perhaps it should be called evolution.

Could that precious orb be a forbidden fruit capable of forcibly transforming monsters into other life forms?

Before Ais's chilling gaze, the part where the fetus was attached made a sound, and something began to bulge out.

It was almost like a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis, or the outline of a human body pushing against the flesh, trying to crawl out from under the skin.

"—Ooh ooh ooh!"

The monster, writhing in agony, was only halfway through its transformation when it suddenly attacked without warning.

Faced with the monster's chaotic attacks, Ais rushed out and picked up Lefia and Lulune. She led the two out through a crystal passage formed by the monster's repeated collisions and destruction.

"Damn it, all of this has been for nothing...!"

The loudly exclaiming red-haired woman also left the scene.

A monster covered in thick, bright red leaf veins chased after Ais and her companions. Ignoring the terrain, it smashed through crystal pillars, roaring deafeningly as it relentlessly pursued them. Ais used her flying steps and continuous leaps to escape across the Crystal Streets. Realizing she couldn't continue fighting like this, she was forced to head towards the Crystal Plaza.

As for the monster parasitized by the fetus, it would immediately pounce on any other man-eating flower monster it saw during its advance without any mercy.

Ais and the others turned around in surprise and saw several monsters overlapping each other.

Then, Ais's golden eyes.

A female body seemed to have transcended the monster's skin as if she had achieved metamorphosis.

*

"What's that? An octopus!?"

"That guy is on the 50th floor...!?"

As the battle raged throughout the town, Tiona and Tione saw the enormous creature that suddenly appeared and both cried out.

As Tiona said, the behemoth truly resembled a giant octopus. Its more than ten tentacles were transformed from a carnivorous flower monster, each seemingly possessing its own consciousness as it twisted, thrashed, and wriggled. Above the base of those tentacles was a brightly colored body—the upper body of a woman, and from a distance, the entire form resembled the legendary half-human, half-octopus creature lurking on the seashore.

What triggered Tione's memories was the female-shaped monster she encountered on the 50th floor during the previous "expedition". Although the lower half of the monster that Ais defeated looked like a larva, it was easy to find a lot of similarities.

Her trembling upper body stopped moving, and she slowly raised her faceless features. The man-eating flower woman's body began to move.

Seeing the colossal monster begin to move towards Crystal Plaza in the center of the city, Tiona and Tione rushed out.

"No one around here has been attacked by monsters anymore, right!?"

"We already herded everyone we rescued back to the square! Let's go!"

Hearing Tiona say this as she ran alongside, Tione kicked the ground and roared back.

Around them seemed to tell a story of one-sided battle, with the carcasses of man-eating flower monsters and severed heads crashing into rocks or crystals.

Tiona and her companions leaped across the utterly destroyed tents and huts, heading straight for the town center.

"I'd love to know where those monsters came from... but the most important thing right now is to deal with them."

"Yes, that's true."

"How can you all be so calm?! Can't you be even a little bit panicked?!"

Perth's screams echoed all around, while Riveria and Finn looked up at the enormous creature.

Following Ais, who was carrying Lefia and Lulune as they fled in, the man-eating flower spear, used as a foot, invaded first, followed by the female form that arrived in the plaza with a deafening roar. Although Riveria's fire magic had drastically reduced the number of monsters, the adventurers were still fighting the remaining horde. Now, seeing that overwhelmingly hideous and terrifying sight, they all held their breath.

The octopus-like carnivorous plants had grown significantly larger than their original slender bodies, their diameters resembling those of giant tree trunks. Bright red veins shone from every corner of their yellowish-green skin, as if driven by anger or madness.

Compared to the lower body that emitted a series of loud, distorted roars, the brightly colored upper body remained calm and composed. Its face, devoid of eyes and nose, had slightly parted lips, as if it could swallow a person's head whole, and a wavy head of waist-length green hair cascaded down the back of its head. That long hair was the only beautiful part of the entire deformed body.

The countless tentacles that had formed from the front of the outstretched arms now hung like tree branches from the man-eating flower that served as its feet.

"Was the monster on the 50th floor also transformed from that kind of fetus...?"

Lefia, who had been put down by Ais, looked up at the man-eating flower woman's figure in front of her.

The female creature, which had parasitized and absorbed several carnivorous plants, was larger than the individual on the 50th floor. This woman was six meters tall, not far from the previous one, but her width was astonishing due to her long legs. Even with her legs folded up, she would probably be over ten meters wide.

"We've arrived!"

"Ugh—it's even more disgusting up close."

Tiona and Tione descended from the sky onto the square.

Under the red sky where the embers of flames were gradually diminishing, the female figure looked down at Ais and her group, who had all gathered.

"!"

It made a move.

The man-eating flowers that had been transformed into legs suddenly lifted off the ground like wild dogs raising their heads, scattering sand as they charged towards Ais.

Ais handed the unconscious Lulune to Lefia's care and ran in the opposite direction to avoid harming them. The carnivorous plant's chin passed over where she had been standing, destroying the twin crystals in the center of the plaza.