On floor thirty, a giant goblin king over two meters tall and eight orc general minions appeared in front of us. While the tanks held off the goblin king, the rest of the team wiped out the minions, then focused on the king. Just when the goblin king made itself vulnerable, Yagami-san shouted an order.
“Now! Whale on it!”
The knight in front crashed forward like a tsunami and slashed his longsword at the goblin king’s torso. The goblin king bellowed in rage, only to succumb and collapse a few moments later.
Thus far, that level 14,000 monster was the strongest enemy they’d faced, but it was still easy for such a capable party to handle.
“At this rate, I really will be stuck observing,” I grumbled at the rear. Man, I wanted to fight! But they were too awesome for any danger to come my way. It was a good thing that they were so strong, but what was this feeling? Dreary might be the word for it.
Just when I was about to breathe the feeling out, I shivered like someone had dumped a bucket of cold water on me.
“What was that?!”
I panicked and glanced around me, unable to ignore such a chill. Something terrible was about to happen—and I wasn’t basing this on nothing! I’d experienced a fear like this before at the Remote Magic Tower, a dungeon where everything about it was unlike the usual dungeons. Heck, I still thought a few of its challenges were designed to kill me.
Strength, Intelligence, Mana, Stamina. Those quests challenged every ability I had as an adventurer, leaving no room for me to relax for a measly second. The tower taught me to tap into a much stronger instinct for impending danger, and that instinct was telling me to put my guard up.
But…with the goblin king down, what was there to be wary about? I kept looking around suspiciously like a teenager in a horror movie. Danger could be anywhere.
“Whew. Based on the difficulty of that monster, I’d say there are probably sixty or seventy floors total,” Shinonome-san said brightly. She took a deep breath, relaxed after the surety of killing a monster. “This is where it gets real. We’d better keep it up!”
For a second, when my eyes fell on the goblin king’s heap of a body, I thought I saw its finger twitch. I was about to brush it off when the whole body lurched upright.
“Shinonome, get back!” Yagami-san shouted.
“What?” she said.
Only me and Yagami-san realized what was happening. Shinonome-san’s eyes widened in bewilderment at the reanimated goblin king, which raised its longsword over its head. She screamed.
“Dammit!” Yagami-san swore.
We were both almost ten meters away from her, out of range to help. Shinonome-san tried to jump back, and Yagami-san launched a spell in the monster’s direction, but he wouldn’t make it in time.
There was only one way to save her.
“Time Zero,” I said without hesitation. In the next moment, the goblin king’s head went flying, and the rest of its body fell backward with a thud. Me and my Speed Sword landed where the monster had been standing.
“Huh?” Shinonome-san yelped in surprise when she saw me. “What just—?!”
She tried to back away quickly but ended up nearly falling over, so I caught her.
“Whoa there,” I said.
Our faces were very close, and her chest was pressed firmly up against mine. Somehow, I managed to push that detail away.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
She nodded swiftly, her face bright red. She seemed fine, so that was a relief. Once she found her feet, I let her go and looked at the others.
As I expected, none of them missed what I’d done.
Well, I had to say something. How would I explain this away?
Yagami-san spoke first, his voice tense as he made no move to hide his unrest. “What did you just…do?” he asked.
Out of all of them, he definitely saw the moment I teleported back into existence. He had questions, of course.
“I specialize in Speed,” I said, facing him. “I use a skill that erases my presence when monsters spawn. It only looks like I disappear.”
It was a poor excuse. He hadn’t mentioned the part where I appeared out of nowhere, so maybe I’d just drawn more suspicion onto myself. I really screwed this up.
“You expect me to buy that explanation?” Yagami-san said. He shook his head as if to force himself to accept my words. “No, guild master says it’s not my business.”
He turned so I couldn’t see his face. Was he embarrassed for some reason?
“Whatever you used, you saved a member of this party so… thank you.”
“Um, you’re welcome?” I said, shocked by his sudden attitude shift.
He focused his gaze on the goblin king. “We need to investigate how this thing could move after we killed it. C’mon, Amane.”
Wow. He actually used my name. He was starting to accept me.
“Yes, sir!” I said with a smile.