Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, Vol. 5 (4 page)

It was a rather large bar and café built on West Main Street. A large sign above its front door read T
HE
B
ENEVOLENT
M
ISTRESS
, written in Koine, the universal language.

The café terrace was filled with customers at this time of day. Hermes and Asfi walked right by it and through the entrance.

“Welcome, meow!…Mew? Lord Hermes?”

“Oh! Chloe, it’s been too long! Sorry, but could you call Mia for me?”

Hermes smiled brightly at the cat person who greeted him at the door.

The catgirl stared at Hermes and Asfi for a long moment before
saying, “Sure, meow. Just a moment, meow!” She wasn’t about to refuse the request of a god.

Chloe disappeared into the back of the bar and not two seconds later—

The floor creaked as the massive body of a dwarf woman appeared behind the bar.

“The hell’s a god want in the middle of the lunch rush?”

“Don’t look at me with those sour eyes, Mia. You’re ruining your pretty face.”

“Any more jokes and I’ll take off yer head. I’m busy, y’hear? Ya got somethin’ to say, then out with it.”

Mia was not the least bit intimidated by the god in front of her. In fact, the owner of the bar was scaring Asfi enough to shake in her sandals behind Hermes.

The deity, on the other hand, was not the least bit afraid, and walked right up to the counter, resting his elbows on the edge.

“Well then, I’ll get right to it—could you make an appointment with Lady Freya for me?”

Hermes lowered his voice as he leaned over the counter between them, his face right in front of Mia’s.

The dwarf held her ground, locked eyes with Hermes, and cocked an eyebrow.

The deity’s orange gaze and her piercing stare bored into each other.

Until finally, “Humph.”

“I’m not a messenger for fool gods. You’ve got feet—if you wanna talk to the Lady so bad, use ’em.” Mia practically spit the words out of her mouth, flatly rejecting Hermes’s request. “Hmph,” she angrily sighed out of her nose and disappeared back into the kitchen. Hermes watched her robust body vanish behind the door before turning to Asfi, forcing a smile as if to say,
That didn’t work
.

Not my problem
, she seemed to reply with her disinterested look.

“…Lord Hermes?”

Hermes looked over his shoulder in response to hearing his name, his expression changing in the blink of an eye. “Hm? Oh! If it isn’t Syr! It’s been so long! How’ve you been?”

Syr, dressed in her waitress uniform, had just come into the main part of the bar after returning from her break.

“Yes, a very long time indeed, Lord Hermes. I’m glad to see that you are well.”

“Ahh, you always were the one with the best manners. What do you say, Syr, want to get out of here and have some fun? A date with you would go a long way to healing the heart that Mia just ripped to shreds. You’d do that for me, right—Hey! Ow-ow-ow! Let go of my ear, Asfi, you’ll tear it off!”

Syr politely smiled at the god’s attempt to use what just happened as a pretext for something completely different. “I’m going to have to decline,” she responded as Asfi punished Hermes while silently glaring at him.

Syr guided them to a seat at the bar, Hermes grudgingly massaging his ear along the way.

“Please have a seat here…”

Syr gestured to a seat at a table, but Hermes walked right past it toward the counter.

The chair that Hermes plopped himself down on was normally the seat that Syr reserved for Bell, his usual spot.

The girl was speechless as Asfi took her position behind Hermes. The deity looked up at Syr and smiled.

“Hey, Syr, can I ask you something?”

“Yes…What is it?”

“If you happen to know anything about Bell Cranell, would you tell me?”

The girl’s shoulders twitched.

All the waitresses within earshot made eye contact, silently communicating with one another in the noisy bar and café. Syr looked down at Hermes’s ever-charming smile and constructed a friendly face to hide her true feelings.

“Why would you ask me a question like that?”

“Well, I heard that he is rather fond of this bar.”

Hermes took a quick glance behind him at Asfi before looking back up at Syr.

“You see, I’m very interested in the Little Rookie. What? Don’t tell me you think I’m going to do something strange to him. So how about it?”

Syr politely smiled again at Hermes’s verbal advances.

“There’s nothing that I want to tell you at this time, Lord Hermes.”

She didn’t even blink as she spoke. It looked as though the waitresses had decided to protect the boy.

Hermes shrugged his shoulders like he was joking around. “You don’t trust me?”

The young waitress’s smile expanded as wide as it could go. “No, not the least bit.”

“—CHIGUSA!” a man fearfully called out to his ally.

His shrieks of terror echoed through the rocky cave as a human girl fell to the ground with a stone tomahawk coming out of her shoulder.

Thud!
Dry gravel shifted as she landed hard.

A stream of fresh blood was illuminated by the flickering light of torches around her.

The monsters around them let out a series of high-pitched squeaks and squeals, celebrating their kill.

“Someone from the middle, advance! Cover Chigusa’s spot!”

“H-help her! That wound is deep!”

A group of adventurers and a swarm of monsters were engaged in combat on the thirteenth floor of the Dungeon.

The adventurers’ armor and weapons were all decorated with the same crest, a sword sticking out of the earth.
Takemikazuchi Familia
’s crest.

The party of six adventurers—currently five standing in a ring—were in a defensive struggle against the onslaught of a group of seven Al-Miraj.

However, there had been a weak spot in their ranks.

The rabbit monsters’ quick movements had momentarily confused
the battle party and one of the beasts seized the opportunity to take down one of their frontline members with a tomahawk throw.

The surprise attack had come from an Al-Miraj that stayed behind the other monsters running circles around the adventurers. It was a potentially lethal blow from a monster that had mastered the use of the landform weapon.

“
Kyiiah!
”

“Gah?!”

The Al-Miraj suddenly changed their strategy. They could all see the gigantic opening in the trembling
Takemikazuchi Familia
’s formation and quickly moved to exploit it.

The monsters in the upper levels didn’t have the ability to read the situation. While there wasn’t much change in physical strength, the difference in intelligence between the monsters of the upper and middle levels was worlds apart.

Clashes of steel and stone rang out through the cavern and were quickly followed by human screams of pain and agony.

The Al-Miraj had surrounded the party in a netlike formation—no matter where the humans looked, they could see the ring of monsters getting closer and closer.

“Yah!”

“
Kyuiii!
”

The battle party was losing ground in the face of the monsters’ onslaught.

One girl lashed out against the attack, her shiny black ponytail fluttering behind her.

Stepping in front of her fallen comrade to protect her, the girl swung her blade so fast that her allies saw only afterimages as it sliced through the nearest Al-Miraj.

“Captain Ouka, lead the retreat! I’ll cover you!”

“Thanks, counting on you!”

Mikoto’s violet-and-purple armor glinted as she stood tall and urged her allies to make an escape.

The man in charge of the group gave the order and Mikoto took her place in front of the monsters to cover their retreat.

Her weapon of choice was a curved katana blade more than ninety celch long.

Mikoto faced down the monsters’ pursuit with both hands firmly clasped on the hilt of her blade.

“…Haaaaanh!”

Yelling at the top of her lungs, she charged the first Al-Miraj with lightning speed. She easily dodged its attack as her counterattack hit flesh. The rabbit monsters outnumbered her, but none of them could get past her.

Her graceful, refined movements were completely different from those of the other adventurers and monsters around her. Mikoto’s Level 2 skills made her more than a match for anything on the thirteenth floor of the Dungeon.

Even the Al-Miraj, known as one of the most agile monsters in the middle levels, couldn’t keep up with her movements.

Any one of them that was careless enough to attack her head-on was cut to shreds.

“—
oooooghhh!
”

“!”

The tables turned yet again when a savage roar strong enough to send vibrations through the cavern came from farther down the tunnel.

Mikoto and the remaining Al-Miraj turned to face it.

Two gigantic bodies the size of boulders rolling toward them greeted their eyes.

“Hard Armoreds!”

Hard Armoreds were armadillo-like monsters that had the best defense in the upper levels. The small shield strapped to Mikoto’s back was made from the plating that covered their bodies.

Mikoto was lost for words. She knew that her badly injured and vulnerable friends were still right behind her. They would not be able to escape without her help.

A Hard Armored in its rolled-up state was practically invulnerable to physical attacks. Most blades would just bounce off its spinning body, not even slowing it down.

Her allies would have no time to brace for their assault should either one get by her.

—No choice!

Mikoto stopped backpedaling and let the rest of the party gain some distance.

The surviving Al-Miraj took cover against the walls of the cavern as the Hard Armoreds picked up speed. The average adventurer would have turned tail and run, but Mikoto drew her shield and dug in her heels. Determination swelled within her, her eyebrows arched over her eyes in readiness.

Leaning forward and dropping her hips, Mikoto sprang toward the oncoming monsters.

“—
Grgh
—!!”

She braced the shield against her left shoulder and dove toward the closer of the two. The impact shook her to the bone.

Dadadadada!
The space between each of the Hard Armored’s plates slammed into Mikoto’s shield at high speed, sending even more shock waves into her torso. Each hit was so loud she wanted to cover her ears.

She kept her eyes locked on the monster’s rotation, her feminine frame shaking to endure the sheer force of its attack. But her shield held strong and her stance did not break, heels still firmly braced against the ground.

—NOW!

She summoned up every ounce of strength she had left.

The Hard Armored that she had stopped struggled to regain its balance and started to roll to the side. However, the other one was still rolling full speed and coming up fast. Mikoto moved to engage.

The two monsters slammed into each other with incredible force. The impact sent all three combatants flying, the Hard Armoreds toward the walls and Mikoto straight back.

This proved to be a blessing in disguise. Both monsters hit the walls with such force that their limp bodies fell to the ground. Their bodies unrolled, and Mikoto could see a blank look in their eyes that was synonymous with head trauma.

“Mikoto, that’s enough! Catch up to us!”

“On my way!”

Her party had built a considerable lead and called out to her.

Body beaten to a pulp and armor heavily damaged, she rolled over, stood up, and turning her back on the remaining Al-Miraj, took off with all the speed she could coax out of her legs.

“Are you hurt?!”

“I can still fight! What of Chigusa?”

One of her party members cast fire Magic at the Al-Miraj behind her to slow them down, as Mikoto caught up with the rest of her allies. She wasted no time in asking about her injured friend.

She ran past the end of the line and all the way up to the front of the group.

“Not good. The potions we have may be able to save her, but first we need a safe place to heal. It’s too dangerous here.”

If a simple potion were enough to treat her, there would be no problem. However, Chigusa’s wound was far too deep for items to be of much use.

There was no way to predict when monsters might come bursting out of the walls. The chances of being surrounded while healing if they chose a bad location were extremely high.

Of course Chigusa would be unable to fight, but the person healing her would need to be protected as well. They needed a place where they could survive for a short time at only a fraction of their battle strength.

“That means…”

“Yes, we’ll pull back to level twelve…Sorry to ask so much of you.”

“Please don’t say such things! We are a battle party!”

Mikoto was quick to brush off Captain Ouka’s apology. Defending allies was common sense to her.

The echo of boots on gravel echoed through the cave. Not far behind the members of
Takemikazuchi Familia
were the shrieks and howls of the monsters in hot pursuit.

The entire left side of Mikoto’s body—the side that had taken the brunt of the Hard Armored’s rolling attack—throbbed in pain.
Doing her best to hide this from the others, she looked toward Chigusa.