In almost an instant, the situation overturned completely.
Rock spikes dozens of meters long swallowed the vast cavern whole. Darkness replaced the light. Beneath the cave now impaled and buried by stone, Duncan struggled to his feet. It was only thanks to his Level 3 body and to Letsa sensing something wrong at the last second and shielding him that he had avoided a fatal hit.
What happened?How was everyone else?Where was this place?
Questions flooded his mind one after another, so many that he barely even registered the pain in his body.
"Duncan… are you alright?"
From the darkness came Letsa's weak voice.
"Big Sis Letsa?!"
Duncan immediately groped toward the sound. The wet, sticky sensation on his hand told him at once what he had touched. Ignoring the pain wracking his body, he fumbled a glow stick out of his pocket and snapped it alight. It was a lighting tool made from drops left behind by firefly-type monsters, something commonly used in dungeon exploration. Just to be safe, Artemis had given him two of them before they set out. He had never expected one would come in handy at a time like this.
The orange-yellow glow lit up the cramped space around them and revealed Letsa's condition.
The only word for it was horrific.
To protect Duncan, whose mind had been too exhausted to react in time, the stone spikes had pierced through her abdomen and both legs. Blood was still steadily spilling down the jagged stone. Part of her face was smeared red where it had been scraped. When she saw Duncan, she gave him a weak little smile, though she no longer had the strength to say anything more.
"Drink this. Hurry."
Without another word, Duncan pulled a vial from the pouch strapped across his back. The specially carved glass bottle made its identity unmistakable—
A panacea.
Carefully, he fed the potion to her, then snapped off the pieces of stone that had pinned her body in place. The next second, the wounds that had skewered her began visibly closing at a speed the eye could follow.
"Where did you get a panacea?!"
Watching her body recover from what should have been mortal injuries, Letsa could not help blurting the question out, though she was still terribly weak.
"A special skill. It lets me stash a few things on me," Duncan answered, half-truthfully, while taking out a spirit potion. The shop in his head gave him the ability to buy supplies anytime, anywhere, but its outrageous prices had drained him dry again after he bought the panacea and one bottle of mid-grade spirit potion. Worse, the price had gone up again afterward, flaunting its profiteering nature without the slightest shame.
After downing the last bottle of potion, some of the weakness left his body. Perhaps because his mental energy had recovered a little, his brain stopped numbing the pain, and all the agony came crashing back in one wave. Duncan sucked in a sharp breath. It looked like even if he had avoided a fatal blow, he had still been badly injured. But they were completely out of recovery potions now. Their only option was to find some way to contact Artemis and the others.
"How's everyone else?"
Gritting his teeth against the pain, Duncan asked.
"Lady Artemis should still be alive. I can still feel my Falna—it hasn't disappeared," Letsa said, experimentally moving her body. As expected of a panacea—even after suffering such terrible wounds, it had restored her astonishingly fast. Combined with a Level 3 adventurer's natural resilience, she was recovering even faster than Duncan had when he was severely injured. She still looked pale and drained, but at least she could move now. "But these stone spikes are too thick. I can't sense anyone else's presence through them. What about you?"
"No. I can only tell that Andares is underground in front of us."
Duncan shook his head.
The stone spikes had lifted them dozens of meters upward, and Artemis had originally been standing some distance away from them to begin with. Duncan had no idea whether she and the others had been thrown up to a similar height or buried much deeper below.
"Then we definitely can't just sit here and do nothing."
Letsa forced herself unsteadily to her feet. She smashed aside the rock obstructing her with a swing of her sword. Her body was still weak, but her goddess's safety mattered more than her own condition.
"…I'm sorry, Big Sis Letsa. I'm the one who dragged you all into this."
"Why are you saying that now? If you've got time to mope, use it to figure out what we're going to do once we get out. As for blaming you, I'll give you a proper piece of my mind later. And Lady Artemis too. We can't let her go on being this reckless."
Letsa flicked Duncan on the forehead and scolded him irritably.
"But even so, there's really no good way to break its shell. I can't use my skill anymore."
"…I might have a way to punch through its defense."
"You little brat, you were still holding something back?! Just how many secrets are you hiding? Spill it already!"
"No, no—this really is the last one! It's just… if I use this skill, I'll immediately fall into a weakened state. I don't even know if it'll definitely pierce its defense. So the finishing blow will have to be yours, Big Sis Letsa."
Seeing Letsa ready to smack him, Duncan hurriedly explained.
"…Which means you won't be able to dodge its counterattack, right?"
Letsa fell silent for a moment before asking in a low voice.
"…We don't have any other choice, do we?"
"…"
"This isn't the time to get emotional. Lady Artemis is missing, and the shaking underground is getting worse. If something on that scale hits us again, we really won't have the slightest chance."
When Letsa hesitated without answering, Duncan could not help speaking faster.
"You don't know what you're saying, you little idiot!"
Letsa bit down hard and glared at him. After traveling together day after day, and with Duncan still so young, she simply could not bring herself to agree to a plan that amounted to sending him to his death.
"There has to be a better way. There has to be."
"There isn't! Even if there were, we don't have the time!"
The moment Duncan's words fell, a violent tremor rippled through the ground beneath their feet, and both of their faces changed.
Andares had apparently discovered that some of its prey were still alive. It was smashing apart the stone spikes with its massive claws, searching desperately for the insects that had wounded it.
"If it finds Lady Artemis before us, we're finished!"
Gripping his spear, Duncan smashed apart the chunks of falling stone around them and shouted at Letsa. If Letsa lost her blessing, there would be no one left capable of landing the final blow.
"…Alright! I understand! Stay alive, Duncan! If you die, Lady Artemis will curse me to death!"
Letsa slapped both cheeks hard to steady herself and shouted back.
"Of course. I'm not planning to die. Maybe we won't even need you to finish it off—I might be able to do it myself."
At last seeing her nod in agreement, Duncan let out a breath of relief and answered in a lighter tone, utterly failing to notice the deeper meaning in what she had just said.
"You little brat. Then what do we do now?"
Letsa muttered under her breath, then asked aloud.
"You open us a path out. Start chanting now. I'm going to concentrate all my power into a single point. I won't be able to use my weapon after that."
Duncan lifted his head, his eyes filled with grim resolve.
....
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