Screaming and swearing stop. The coughing and footsteps continue.

Not being able to rely on [Dungeon path] and [Shadow wall] is annoying.

Luckily, thanks to [Immortality] continuing to run, I can run and recover from every break.

I carry Gron in my arms, and from the volume of the voices, I understand that I am approaching the group.

“We didn't have to do it. We shouldn't have. It was recklessness!”

I recognize Fulzo's voice.

“Instead, it was necessary. That creepy thing can't exist in our future home! Cuff, cuff!” Amerio barks in his annoying voice.

“Don't you understand!? Your short-sighted ideological attitude will make us lose this house! You have expelled a protective entity, and now you have awakened that monstrosity!”

“Shut up. Amerio is right. No coexistence is allowed with aberrations. Protective entity, you said!? That beast is evil.”

I shake my ears. Is it possible that they continue to think of me as evil just because I do not look like them?

However, they have awakened a sleeping creature... it must be a deceased person, then.

Yet, the sleeping deceased breaks down and becomes part of the dungeon.

This creature, that blonde girl like me… why are their bodies preserved like this?

“Do you know what I'm telling you!? Damn you. I don't let my comrades die for your stupid ideas. Keep the money, we'll do it ourselves. We will save our people without needing you and your gods!”

“How dare you!? You who are without an ear! Your ugliness is so offensive that—”

“Cough, bleargh—Kavfyra, leave this wretch alone. As you can see his companions seem more sensible. Let's go and leave him here.”

By now, the voices are so close that even Gron can hear them.

Sound of footsteps.

“Are you abandoning me!? You really are—HA!”

Ci-cin.

That scream.

…unhappy thoughts take over my mind. Maybe Fulzo…

I turn a corner and arrive in another corridor.

I run, I run, and I arrive in a room. The frozen pool and the cables hanging from the ceiling.

No metal quadrupeds are present.

I hear talking and footsteps in the distance. But it does not matter. Fulzo is in the middle of the pool.

He holds a hand on his abdomen, and his expression is suffering.

“Fulzo!”

He turns, and we lock eyes. “Noble N!”

That noble is new. Maybe the situation makes him formal, or he thinks he needs to make amends for leaving me alone.

Well, it does not matter.

I slow down to a stop in front of him. All around, I see some bursts of the iridescent substance with a pungent odor.

Did they also exhale the hydrocarbon?

During [Astral journey], I did not think it was possible to breathe in the landing place.

“Are you hurt?”

Fulzo pulls his hand away from his abdomen.

Ci-cin!

HA! He's bleeding.

“Calm down, don't make that face.” Luckily the ‘noble’ already seems to have been eclipsed. Fulzo smiles. “It hurts. Damn bad. But in astral form, no matter what, I will wake up in my world. Haha!”

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“Where are the others?”

“They abandoned me. I know I shouldn't cry on you. After all, we did the same to you.”

I scratch my ear. I rock thoughtfully. “Hmm… you didn't stab me.”

“Just because half of them fear you. With me, they didn't exist—damned swordsellers.”

“Oh—I thought you were a team.”

“Sometimes you are surprisingly naive. Prrr… you could tell from the initial tensions that they weren't a united party. My friends and I often argued, but no one wanted to dominate the others. Instead, that Priestess and that wizard. Tsk, you scoundrel who does good only by accident.”

Fulzo and I exchange a perplexed look.

“Gron, you seem pretty upset.”

“Prr… these things make me angry. A party is a family, even more so when something important is at stake. Thinking about people like Kavfyra and Amerio only brings back bad memories.”

Yes, I can understand.

I look back at Fulzo, who has meanwhile gotten up. The wound continues to bleed, soaking through his clothes. He takes off his backpack and rummages inside.

He takes out a roll of goods and hands them to me.

“We may be in astral form, but if I don't stop the bleeding, the journey will end here.”

He starts treating himself, and I watch him while he dabs his wound. He bandages himself.

Under his suit, he has a muscular body covered with scars. I am sorry for him. It is a common fate for many warriors, and I know it.

“Can I ask you what happened? I reached you because I heard some explosions.”

Fulzo gets dressed and shakes his head. “We have met a monster. It's not the first. We met two smaller creatures with spikes instead of legs. They were already frozen, so we ignored them.”

“While this last monster?”

“Frightening. I've never seen anything like it. It rested as if dead. But not frozen. A metal reptile whose joints emitted hellish heat. Kavfyra wanted to use the holy explosive to purify the area—we'd never done that.”

This story is doubly interesting. Confirms my theory. There is a sleeper who has been awakened.

Furthermore, it shows that something is at work in this place without my knowledge. If it had not been for these adventurers, who knows when intervened?

I beat my heel on the ice. It is thick, so my taps will not break it.

Ci-cin.

Think, think, think…

“What do you want to do now?”

Fulzo pats his abdomen twice and makes a face. “I'd say I'll try anyway. Going back empty-handed—well, it would not make sense. Without a solution, we are all screwed.”

“And for that creature, you woke up?”

“Haha, I'll try to avoid it. That's all.”

I scratch my elbow. I am not convinced. Fulzo may be an expert weapons elf, but he's showing off.

I would help him, but I doubt he alone can do much.

“Listen, prr. Why don't we look for the exit? Going down, we could find more hospitable places. Also, once you leave the Sanctuary, carrying Fulzo would be easy with your skills.”

Fulzo cracks his shoulder. He nods. “Do you have any secret abilities?”

“Nothing fishy.” I lower my ears. “This place prevents me from functioning properly. The inhibition of magic applies to me too.”

“Oh, I see. Well, if you're interested, Kavfyra and Amerio have formulated a theory about it. Some spells they were able to cast. Indeed, the holy explosive should have nullified the interference field.”

Ci-cin.

“Really!?”

“Yes. It seems to be the energy coming from that giant creature. That was one of the reasons we tried to destroy it.”

“What do you mean?”

“That being emits a magical field. The wand melted upon analyzing it.”

If it has become incandescent with me that I am at [lv: 88], evidently it is a creature above [lv: 90].

Here, we enter the realm of the immeasurably powerful. I can understand that devices created by mortals are in trouble.

“But didn't the wand just record the hierarchy, as you call it?”

Fulzo nods. “Partly. We can obtain more information in the hands of a magician like Amerio. For example, you can understand the origin and intensity of a spell. And from that body came an interference spell of inaudible strength.”

I twist the umbrella shaft between my fingers. “So, you think it's that being… hmm, I don't see why bother.”

“We have already talked about it. As you can see, I only gained one stab by opposing,” the mercenary sighs.

I feel sorry for him. I bet when he dies, he will be judged [Dream], but I cannot guarantee the same for Amerio and Kavfyra.

In light of this, he did not tell me on a practical level what to do immediately.

Gron's proposal seems the best. My gaze passes from one to the other.

Gron shines its fur.

Fulzo is checking his equipment. An ice axe, ropes, knives, a sword, and ties of the iron protection.

When he finishes, Fulzo looks up at the ceiling. He turns to look at the pool and nods.

“Yes, since my team betrayed me, I will accompany you to find an exit.”

♦

Since the alternative is to go back, we decide to continue along the corridor also taken by the rest of the party.

We are aware of the risk of encountering them. We are ready if necessary.

It is not that I am happy with the situation. Possibly, I will try to avoid engaging in a fight. But I know well that it is not always possible.

One thing that interests me is being able to approach that creature.

The fact that it did not exterminate them despite their aggression gives me hope that it is a sentient being, and open to a possible dialogue.

I may be wrong. But if it is as strong as Kavfyra and the others assumed. Then, it could have retaliated against them immediately.

Furthermore, if that being is the origin of the [Sanctuary], it would be best to have it deactivate the spell.

Hoping it is not a passive and perennial [skill].

Sigh.

The branch of the building we took is strangely linear. There are rooms with frozen tanks and corridors. One in sequence to the other, without the possibility of deviating.

The yellow stripes on the walls flank hieroglyphics and enormous written numbers, but only when approaching a new room.

I guess it is some numbering. If only I had the grimoire with me.

On the last trip, I could not recall the grimoire. But it has mapped the area already visited. I noticed this when I did a subsequent check.

In any case, map or not, I cannot open it. So, it is useless, and I do not even try to evoke it.

Cables and pipes hang from the ceilings of several rooms we pass through. The light continues to come from spotlights and white lights.

The concrete gray is always the same. As monotonous as the darkness prevalent in the dungeon.

It takes about an hour of walking…

…a roar.

A second.

A…

BOOM!

[Holy explosive]!