“These are…something I used to use, but…oh, never mind.” She looked undecided for a brief moment and then reached into the fold again. This time she removed a strange, shiny, rainbow-colored apple. “These are health potions that I made, and this is an everlasting apple. It never disappears, even if you eat it. With these, any human who managed to make their way down here should be able to make it back to the surfa—hmm, no. I meant to say you should be able cling to life and suffer. Do your best to struggle and die a horrible death.”
“Y-you’re giving me these?” I motioned at the items.
“Don’t misunderstand. I’m only doing this to prolong your suffering.”
“Eh… O-okay?” Her expression was so blank, I couldn’t actually tell if she was serious. “Thank you… I will use these and do my best.” I bowed my head and gathered up the potions and apple, cradling them awkwardly in my arm.
How am I going to carry these?
“Seriously…? You don’t even have a magic bag?” she asked.
“A what?”
She facepalmed. Then reached back into the dimensional pocket and withdrew a small blue pouch.
“Just put them in here.”
“Uh, but it’s so…”
“Trust me, it’s bigger on the inside. Everything will fit.”
It sounded absurd, but honestly it wasn’t the weirdest thing I’d dealt with today. I decided to just go along with it.
“Th-thank you so much…Lich-san?” I said.
“A lich is a magic user who has become undead, not my name. My name Lunaère.”
“Thank you, Lunaère-san. I won’t forget what you’ve done for me. I will come back and repay you.”
“That’s unnecessary. These are only to prolong your suffering.”
Maybe she really meant it—her face was so expressionless. But I had a hard time believing she’d make this effort just to let me suffer.
“Okay, then, do your best to survi—suffer. For a long time. Then die.” It was like she was self-censoring.
“Th-thanks?”
With that odd conversation over, Lunaère flew away down the hall.
I tried placing the potions and everlasting apple in the blue pouch. Despite its small size, everything fit in easily. It wasn’t called a magic bag for nothing, I guess. With a small grunt of admiration, I tied the cords of the bag onto my belt.
But while my situation had improved somewhat, I was still ninety floors deep in Locklore’s most dangerous dungeon. Maybe I should have begged her for more help—she seemed sort of nice despite the aura she’d given off. Begging wasn’t that shameless when my life was on the line, right?
But Lunaère was already gone, so that ship had sailed.
“I forgot one thing.”
“Aah!” I stood bolt upright at the sound of her voice behind me and wheeled around. Lunaère stood there, a sword in her hands.
“I don’t know if a monster stole your weapon, but you appear to be unarmed. You should take this. Think of it as a going-away present for your trip to the grave.” Lunaère threw the sword to the ground, and the tip of the blade embedded itself in the floor. It was an ancient longsword—carved from stone with strange runes engraved into it. It didn’t look particularly sharp, but it must have been incredibly powerful to pierce the stone floor that easily.
“Th-thanks again…”
“Struggle with all your might.” Lunaère flew up and away again.
Really…do I even know how to use a sword? I asked myself. Maybe I should throw myself on the ground and plead for her to come back.
No. She healed my wounds. She gave me items and a useful pouch. She even gave me a sword. Trying to wheedle more out of her would be wrong. Also, I didn’t want to make her angry because she was kind of scary.
I watched her go, then gripped the hilt of the sword and pulled… It wouldn’t come out. For thirty minutes, I pulled and kicked with no success. I even gently stroked the hilt to see if that would make it release. It still wouldn’t budge. The sword just stood there with its blade sunk deep into the floor. I wondered what she thought I was going to do with it.
“With these, any human who managed to make their way down here should be able to make it back to the surfa—hmm, no. I meant to say you should be able cling to life and suffer.”
“Ooh…” I realized. “She thinks that I got down here on my own.”
I shrugged and gave the sword one final tug, confirming that it wasn’t moving.
“Might as well give up on this.”
I still needed a plan to get out of here, so I decided to take inventory. First, I double-checked the things I could carry: the everlasting apple, the three red potions, and the magic bag. The sword was a write-off—it would be staying here.
Second, I had my basic skills and they both checked out. The Locklorian language skill had worked fine during my conversation with Lunaère. Status Check was a little more finicky. It let me see all of my own stats, but when I used it on monsters, I could only see their level, HP, and MP. Maybe there was a way to get more information, but I didn’t get a good chance to fiddle around with it when I was being killed by monsters. At the very least, it would give me a rough estimate of how doomed I was.
This brought me back to the idea that Cocytus should be lousy with powerful items—if I could just avoid enemy attacks long enough to find a few. If I could defeat even just one monster, I’d level up and things would keep getting easier from there. I had no other choice but to stay alive and gain experience.
I guess this is what I’m working with, I thought to myself. I’ll try to stay away from monsters and look for items until I can find a way to get some kills.
Cut to five minutes later, when I was captured by a five-meter frog.
Well, mostly a frog. It had eyeballs stuck all over its translucent-blue body and six legs. And tentacles sprouting from its body. And the top half of a blue-skinned human woman growing out of its back.
✦ ✦ ✦
Race: Heqet
Lv: 1821
HP: 10623/10623
MP: 11003/11003