21. Back to the Depths

Taking Rindo Kazuha with me, we smoothly passed through the first and second floors, but the third floor was where a variety of monsters appeared.

The baggage I was carrying, Kazuha, was on the receiving end of attacks from every monster we encountered, almost as if it were a set routine.

She got caught in the threads of a giant poisonous spider, her legs bound, and was hanging upside down from the ceiling.

She had a petty knife, so she could have just cut the threads and escaped, but she was just dangling there in mid-air.

I swiftly cut down the giant poisonous spider with a single stroke and went over to Kazuha.

Hanging upside down like that, her skirt had flipped up spectacularly, completely open.

The shape of Kazuha's rounded bottom was so magnificent that I couldn't help but admire it.

She was the type who looked surprisingly slender in clothes; seeing her like this, she was much more voluptuous and had a far more sensual figure than I had imagined. This must be what they called a peach-like bottom.

"Huh, black, unexpectedly."

"Y-yaah! Don't look, help me!"

Didn't I tell you that if you were going to be a burden, I didn't need to help you?

After thoroughly appreciating her surprisingly mature-looking panties, I cut the spider threads and let her down.

The reason I was deliberately being mean was partly because I genuinely wanted to see Kazuha's panties, but also because I thought it would be troublesome if I got too friendly with Nanami's favorite childhood friend.

I ended up helping her out of necessity, but I didn't want her developing any strange feelings for me.

Could it be that she likes me? ...That might just be a high schooler's overactive self-consciousness, but after the Wooser incident, I was being more cautious.

Getting weirdly involved with a girl Nanami liked would just complicate things.

Anyway, I was known as a bad delinquent student at school.

I didn't care about my classmates' approval anymore, and it was just right if they thought of me as a perverted and insensitive guy.

Kazuha, who had landed on the ground, didn't exactly say "Eek!", but she frantically re-tied the torn fabric, holding down the hem of her now shorter skirt, her face bright red up to her ears.

Alright, alright, the usual reaction. Well, at least she didn't seem to be hurt.

"Shinjo-kun, you're so mean..."

"I told you to throw away any naive ideas about relying on me for help. Besides, I don't feel anything even if I see your panties."

Well, I did think it was interesting to look at, so I took my time observing, but in this kind of situation, seeing black lace underwear and a high school girl's healthy and alluring thighs only made me think they were beautiful, not erotic.

A handsome guy like Nanami would probably blush a little and look away while gentlemanly helping her, maybe even raising his childhood friend's affection points.

But I figured that kind of thing was just an act to look cool.

Even a teenage boy in his prime wasn't constantly horny. On a battlefield where lives were at stake, your head cooled down. Circuits like getting excited by seeing a girl's panties were temporarily shut off.

"Does that mean I'm not attractive?"

"It's not about that, we're on the verge of life and death right now. This isn't the time to be worried about whether your panties are showing or not. You need to pull yourself together a bit!"

Enemies on the third floor underground were a piece of cake for me, though.

You never knew what could happen in Genoria, so I couldn't let my guard down. If you thought you might die the next moment, your sex drive would fly out the window, that's how humans were.

Come to think of it, the long-haired blonde and the others who attacked Kazuha were fatally lacking in a sense of danger.

Because they didn't imagine themselves dying, they did foolish things like prioritizing capturing a girl right in front of the enemy.

Someone like me was so alert that even if Kazuha suddenly turned into an enemy the next moment and attacked me with a petty knife, I could deal with it calmly.

Anyone who lacked that kind of imagination would die in the dungeon.

"I'm sorry, I was wrong. You're right, Shinjo-kun, in the dungeon, you shouldn't worry even if your panties are showing."

Saying that, Kazuha suddenly flipped up the front of her skirt herself.

Faced with the unbelievable sight of a classmate lifting her skirt and showing me her panties right in front of me, I froze involuntarily.

"Y-you... what the hell are you doing all of a sudden?!"

"Huh? But you said I shouldn't worry about it showing... did you perhaps worry a little?"

I panicked and reflexively pushed away Kazuha's hand as she lifted her skirt, and then I felt incredibly awkward.

Even if I denied it, my current actions were practically saying that I did care. Damn it!

"Ah, whatever. I should have bought proper underwear before the leather armor. Let's just push through the third floor quickly!"

"Wait for me, Shinjo-kuuun!"

That sudden, unexpected sexy commando move was quite effective.

Her imaginative power to break through my circuit-shutting-down defense with an unexpected action... whether she just thought of it on a whim or did it intentionally, I didn't know, but Kazuha might be much more capable than I thought.

The fact that I was thrown off by something like this meant that I still lacked a sense of crisis myself.

I wanted to become a cool guy who wouldn't be fazed by anything, but I was still immature.

　　　　　※※※

It took time because Kazuha kept getting entangled by tentacles and sprayed with sticky fluids, or hung from spiderwebs again, but we finally broke through the third floor and stepped onto the fourth.

This was the zone of the undead. On the third floor, even if we were attacked, it was something to laugh about, but from here on out, the atmosphere changed. If Kazuha did anything careless, she would die instantly.

"Whoa, the corpses are walking!"

"I told you this was the undead zone, right? There are lots of zombies and ghosts."

A horde of zombies greeted us near the entrance. I switched my weapon to the spirit sword 'Onsetsumaru' and lopped off the heads of the swaying zombies.

Undead were physiologically disgusting, so I also wanted to pass through this floor in a straight line as quickly as possible.

But the hidden room 'Garden' where I was planning to send Kazuha was here, so I had no choice but to go that far.

The spirit sword alone wouldn't be enough. Should I just blast them all at once with a huge fire ball?

"High-tier high, Flame Ia, Soar Foi!"

Whoops, failure.

The flame I released from my palm immediately vanished. As expected, I still couldn't perfectly cast high-tier spells at my current rank.

"Mid-tier middle, Flame Ia, Soar Foi!"

Pulling myself together, I hurled a mid-tier fire ball. With that, the four at the front were blown away. I continued forward, gripping the spirit sword.

I slashed and chopped at the limbs of the zombies that filled the large room, incapacitating them one after another.

"Shinjo-kun..."

As expected, after all the warnings about the mindset needed on the battlefield, she didn't freak out and run away somewhere or cling to me.

Kazuha, who was scared of the undead, trembled as she looked around the corners of the room.

It was good that she wasn't getting in the way, but she was still a burden.

I slowly walked over to Kazuha and hugged her tightly.

"Eh!"

"Don't let your guard down, you idiot!"

A ghost had appeared behind Kazuha. The range of human vision was narrower than people thought. Even if you looked around, it was meaningless if you didn't look behind you properly.

With one thrust from me, the ghost let out a high-pitched scream and vanished.

It was a troublesome enemy that ignored terrain and passed through walls, but at least it wasn't very strong.

"Do you remember the spell to exorcise enemies without physical form?"

"Yeah..."

"Then try doing it to the next ghost that comes. It'll probably be drawn to us and come again anyway."

Weak enemies basically came in groups; it was rare for only one to appear.

Just as I thought that, a ghost suddenly appeared from the wall. Go, Kazuha!

"Low-tier low, Anti-An, Spirit Spiritto!"

"Once more!"

A glass-like anti-spirit blade, through which the other side could be seen, flew towards the ghost, but a weak attack couldn't defeat it in one hit.

"Low-tier low, Anti-An, Spirit Spiritto!"

"Good! You did it all by yourself."

Even though it was low-tier, hitting it twice without failing was impressive.

A cook had no physical plus corrections at all, but they might have some plus correction to their magic rank.

"Um, Shinjo-kun..."

"See? Even you can do it if you train."

"That's not it... could you let go of me now? Sorry, I was told not to worry about it, but still..."

"Ah, I see. Sorry, was it unpleasant?"

Before I knew it, I had been holding her tightly.

Kazuha, looking down, trembled her lips and mumbled something in a muffled voice. Her ears were bright red. Was she that disgusted by being touched by me?

If she was blushing just from being held during a life-or-death battle, it was proof that she wasn't fighting seriously yet. For a moment, I thought about continuing to hold her tightly as a form of harassment, but I decided against it.

Holding a girl over hard leather armor wasn't interesting at all... wait, maybe groping bare thighs or buttocks would be interesting.

But that was just a joke, of course.

It was fine if she disliked me, but if I tried to touch her butt, she might scream and run away.

Kazuha had just been almost attacked by those guys, so it would be cruel to stimulate her too much.

She wasn't Kumiko. Fooling around in a dangerous place was the height of stupidity. Kazuha probably disliked me for treating her roughly, so I didn't need to play the scumbag that much.

If the other person was Segi, I could probably get away with some sexually harassing jokes.

But girls were hard to understand, and you never knew what they would do. I should just quickly throw her into the safe zone.

"Um, um... it's not that it was unpleasant..."

"Let's hurry up, the destination is almost here."

The fourth floor had many dangerous enemies, so I wanted to pass through it quickly. Having someone else with me was more nerve-wracking for me.

Ignoring Kazuha, who was still saying something, I quickly continued exploring into the next large room.

Fortunately, perhaps due to the effect of me passing through twice and killing a lot of undead, the number of monsters wasn't that high, and we reached the small room at the back that led to the 'Garden' without much trouble.

Poking the floor with the tip of my sword, I triggered a trapdoor.

Driving in stakes and lowering a rope, I descended smoothly while pushing against the wall with my feet.

As I landed with a thud and looked up, Kazuha was peering down from above.

"Wait a minute, Shinjo-kun, I'm just a little..."

"What? Are you scared and can't come down? Just try your best and come down with guts. Even if you fall, I'll catch you, so hurry up."

As I urged her, Kazuha, as if having made up her mind, descended the rope.

It was easy for me, but thinking about it, a three-meter rappel might be difficult for a girl.

"Kazuha, be brave and loosen your grip on the rope. You're wearing gloves, and even if you fall and get hurt, a health potion can heal you, so all that's left is willpower!"

"No, I still can't! I just can't muster that willpower..."

How weak.

With such a lack of courage, how did she even manage to follow me this far? Alright...

"Your panties are completely visible!"

"Kyaaaaaah!"

When I provoked her, she hurriedly came down.

It almost looked like she was falling, but I caught her firmly below.

"You're lighter than I thought."

"I'm sorry."

"How are your hands? Does anything hurt?"

"N-no, I'm alright, thank you."

After setting her down, I looked at her palms, and thanks to the leather gloves, she was unharmed.

I checked her body front and back, but she didn't seem to have bumped into anything or gotten burned by rubbing against the rope.

"Hey! Don't just stand there blankly."

"Ah, yes!"

I snapped at Kazuha, who was still staring blankly at her gloves.

She was probably tired, but the destination was right there.

"Alright then, the area beyond here will be your safe haven."

Further inside was an iron gate. I smoothly passed through the side of it with a diagonal movement and entered the inner area.

"Eh? How did you get in?"

"It's like moving forward and to the left side at the same time from the side of that wall."

"Eh? Eh? I can't move through the wall at all!"

"Hmm, well, it takes a bit of knack."

I went back for a moment and hugged Kazuha, who was flustered and bumping into the wall.

It seemed she disliked me. I was troubled by how she recoiled every time I touched her, even just through the leather armor.

"Eh? Waaah!"

"Rindo, just stay still! Calm down and match the movement of my body, move slowly with the feeling of sinking your body into the wall."

She was fidgeting without understanding, so I just kept hugging her and forcefully pushed Kazuha's body into the wall.

"Ah, I got in..."

"It's easy once you try, right? Getting out is the same feeling, but you don't need to come out until the game is over anyway, so it doesn't matter if you can't get out."

"Yeah, amazing..."

"What is? Come on, hurry up."

Every movement was slow; maybe it couldn't be helped since she was a girl.

Kumiko would joke around at times like this but would move much more nimbly, but it would be impossible to ask Kazuha to do that.

I took Kazuha's hand, who was standing there blankly, and proceeded further down the passage.

Opening a button-operated door at the end, we entered a large room that was dazzlingly bright.

"Beautiful..."

Looking up at the sunlight pouring down from the sky, Kazuha murmured in admiration.

The first time I saw it, I was also moved by the mystical and beautiful sight. This was the only healing area in this dungeon, the 'Garden'.

Since Golden Week is over, I will adjust the update frequency.

The next update is scheduled for Saturday, May 9th.