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

My body is not only suffering the side effects of fighting to the death with the destroyers, but I have also been burned by the poisonous acid from the "Great Serpent Well," making it impossible for me to fight normally. This is completely different from the situation when I won back a point on the 27th floor.

I cannot fight that destroyer right now!

With only the thought of escaping and surviving in my mind, I clenched my left hand and unconsciously began to play the "chime" sound.

"────────!!"

After several turns in the maze, the sabers finally closed in to within sight.

It moved with incredible speed and agility across the ground, walls, ceilings, and mazes, leaping and approaching us. Its monstrous instincts compelled it to continue its pursuit of its prey, even as it was riddled with wounds.

Crimson eyes pierced my back, and the "claws" rattled and clattered.

Sensing the rising killing intent behind me, I knew my time was up. I turned around and stretched out my left hand in a sideways posture.

"!!"

The vandals also noticed the "bell" sound.

He noticed the charged "light particles" leaking from the giant scarf wrapped around his left arm.

His crimson eyes widened in astonishment, followed by an angry shout that reached the heavens.

Twenty seconds of charging up.

I twisted my face and roared out the sound of a cannon:

"【Flame Lightning】!!"

Ignoring the terrain limitations, I unleashed the Great Flame Thunder.

On a one-way street that is essentially an enclosed space, the turbid flow of flames surges forward, destroying walls and ceilings.

Just as it was about to be swallowed up by the cannon fire, I saw from the corner of my vision that the monster's massive body folded the reverse joint of its left leg and escaped into the horizontal cave.

In the blink of an eye, the artillery fire unleashed its power within the underground city.

Unable to completely reduce the recoil from the launch, the Great Flame Thunder (fire lightning) fired at a slightly upward angle shattered the zenith, causing the passage to collapse.

“Wu!?”

The explosion, with its hot air and dust, sent me flying.

As Ms. Ryu and I were blown backward, the rock mass continued to crumble, creating a scene of collapse. The violent sounds of falling rocks echoed in all directions.

Finally... when the terrifying sound of collapse ceased.

I rolled face down on the ground and barely managed to lift my face.

When the dust settled, the entire passage was found to be blocked by white, murky rocks.

The wide passageway was completely blocked. We could neither retrace our steps nor allow the vandals to catch up with us.

At the very least, we have to take a longer route to find a solution.

Did we make it through...?

"Hoo, ha... Ugh...!"

It was just good luck.

It was just good luck that we weren't affected by the landslide; there won't be a next time.

After catching my breath for a while, I tried to push myself up from the ground with trembling hands, but failed repeatedly. The reaction force of [Hero's Wish (Skill)] had taken away a lot of my physical and mental strength, leaving me powerless. Not only that, but my consciousness was also on the verge of fading away.

It hurts so much, it's so uncomfortable—it's so painful.

For a moment, I had an impulse to collapse here, exhausted.

A desire arose to just lie down on the ground and close my eyes.

Just as I was being overwhelmed by an irrational feeling of exhaustion, drifting between the narrow gaps of desire...

"...Mr. Kron, Mr. Ni?"

"!"

The murmured voice snapped me back to reality.

Upon closer inspection, I saw Miss Liu lying on her back on the ground, her eyelids slightly open.

She looked around with her hazy, sky-blue eyes and found me.

"Miss Ryu...!"

In that instant, I kicked away the desire for sweet talk. I was finally able to kick it away.

I cannot let anyone die, and I do not want anyone to die.

Just like the dragon girl (Vinnie), no one can be sacrificed anymore.

Didn't I already "promise" to become stronger for this purpose...?

I cursed myself for being momentarily dominated by discouraging words, biting my lip tightly, and finally managed to straighten myself up.

I dragged myself to her side, my knees almost giving way and I collapsed to my knees.

I picked up Miss Ryu's exhausted body.

"……here it is?"

"This is... the 37th floor... the 'Deep Floor'."

In response to Miss Liu's weak and powerless question, I told her, unable to hide my despair.

I struggled to continue several times, but I briefly explained to her that we had been swallowed by the "Great Serpent Well" and moved to another floor. I also told her that the vandal had come after us, and that we were temporarily out of danger.

Perhaps it was the memory of the 27th floor returning to her mind, because a light of understanding began to shine in Miss Ryu's eyes.

Then she understood the terrible situation and squinted.

They probably had neither the physical strength to be shocked nor the energy to tremble.

She just stared intently at my blinded face.

"Ugh...!?"

"Miss Ryu!?"

Miss Liu twisted her face and placed her hand on her body as if protecting a wound.

Miss Liu was just as exhausted as I was, and she was also injured. Considering her broken right leg, her injury might be even more serious than mine. Beads of cold sweat appeared on her skin.

"Please treat me quickly! Quickly cast a 'magic spell' on your own body...!"

There were no supplies at hand. During the battle with the saboteurs, the entire leg pack was lost.

I asked Miss Ryu to use her "healing magic".

"..."

Perhaps due to her hazy consciousness, Miss Liu, who had slightly opened her eyes, looked up at me... and slowly opened her lips:

"【The song of the forest has faded into the distance... The melody of life is now remembered...】"

She began weaving incantations intermittently in a hoarse voice.

Then, as if squeezing out her last bit of strength, she placed her hand on my face.

"[Noah...healed]".

I stared wide-eyed, yet the warm sunlight filtering through the leaves still enveloped my face.

I yelled out:

"No!! It wasn't me! Please treat yourself! If you don't heal your wounds, Miss Ryu, you will...!"

While I was still yelling, the wound on my face was gradually healing, and the eye that I couldn't open was gradually no longer in pain.

The wounds on my body, or the charred and rotten skin, gradually healed, starting from my neck, and my strength, which was completely gone, also recovered somewhat.

After Ms. Liu confirmed that my right eye could be opened again, her hand drooped limply down like a doll with its strings cut.

"Why are you treating me?!"

"...I am now...incapable of acting on my own...and useless..."

"...!"

"This is also my last bit of spiritual energy..."

Ms. Ryu answered me while panting painfully, placing her hand on her fractured right leg.

"In that case, we should cure you and let you live... That's reasonable."

"That's completely unreasonable!"

Seeing that Miss Liu was still smiling at me despite her condition, I roared in response.

I firmly rejected that illusory smile, angry that she maintained such high moral character even at a time like this. I didn't want to hear the words her lips were about to tell me.

Miss Ryu must have understood the situation correctly.

He was covered in wounds, exhausted, and completely alone.

We're completely out of physical strength, mental energy, and supplies—a truly desperate situation with no way out. The darkness called "death" could engulf us at any moment.

In order for me to survive, she was planning to give up "something".

"Mr. Crannie...leave me here..."

Just as Miss Ryu was about to utter the decisive sentence...

Click-clack-clack-clack────

The sound echoed all around.

The dry sound was like a broken puppet suddenly laughing.

"──────"

It was clearly an unusual sound.

It was neither a human's voice nor the kind of sound that would be heard in a dungeon.

My gaze was drawn to the front where the sound came from, in the opposite direction of the collapse, to the dark other side where the phosphorescence couldn't reach.

There is something there.

Something is lurking in the darkness.

The sweat dripping from my chin fell onto Miss Ryu's tense face.

very quickly.

That thing appeared silently.

"What—"

The moment I saw it, I doubted my own eyes.

Emerging from the darkness was a white "mask".

It has two twisted horns and two dark holes, floating in mid-air.

That looks just like...

("grim Reaper"……?)

Like a "death" messenger appearing in a fictional fairy tale, clad in black, a skeletal body, wielding a scythe to take lives.

I couldn't help but have the illusion that "Death" had come to greet us, who were suffering from "cruel fate".

However, it started clicking again.

The mask swayed up and down as if making a crying sound.

Like a "monster" that is happy to find its prey.

"────"

I gasped.

wrong.

That's not a "mask".

Those are bones.