174 Not One Step Back - Part 1 (1/2)

I wake up to an embarrassed Ciel and Yunia sharing my dick. I immediately recognize the smell of molten chocolate and smirk, then I see Alissa's expression mirroring mine.

--

No skill up today since we didn't really focus on training. Even my mini chocolate factory wasn't enough to level up Summoning since I'd already leveled it the same day.

--

Today, I spread some not-Nutella on my slice of white bread and have a tongue-gasm. Unfortunately, Aoi seems to be warming up a bit to chocolate, especially the kind with raisins, so our share of the Godly Nectar is decreasing.

We armor ourselves up and prepare to return to the dungeon. Lina and Yunia made sure that everything was cleaned and well-maintained, so it actually feels refreshing to wear it today. Even though it's enchanted with [Breeze], our armor gets smelly pretty quickly if we wear it every day and every night.

I wish we could've met up with Osaria and Klein again before returning to the dungeon, but they're in the middle of nowhere right now, which is just bad luck, unfortunately.

The girls start crossing through the [Gate], and I psych myself up for battle.

What challenge will we face today? What pretentious ”test” will the Dungeon Master make us go through? I'm starting to get tired of this, and I'm beginning to wish that we'd chosen a ”normal” dungeon, instead. Though it's likely that a normal one would have a lot more monsters, so whatever.

Alissa is the last one to cross through, and I'm temporarily left alone. Not only is the reduced ”Sanity” depressing, but the sudden complete silence is deafening.

I still hate fighting and killing, but if I want to establish a women's sanctuary, then I need to fucking do this. The sanctuary may be a silly dream, but at least it's achievable. I'll never get the quiet life that I want until I fucking do this.

I slap my cheeks and stand up straight, then I cross through the [Gate] and my delicate, fair skin is immediately assaulted by the unforgiving fake sun of this level.

I dismiss the summons standing guard, and we start going through our warm-ups as I activate the ship's [Fly] gem. We all feed mana to the ship to top it off, then we drink one of Roxanne's MP potions.

There aren't any monsters in this red desert, with not even traces of Life that Yunia can detect, so we take-off and enter the sand tunnel in the middle of the Colosseum.

Without much to do, I put my points in [Sense Mana] to observe the gravity-defying sand. I manage to detect extremely faint traces of [Telekinesis] keeping the loose sand stuck to the ceiling and walls.

Hana decides to float towards the wall and scoop out some of the sand like a curious nature spirit.

”Gih,” Gify complains.

Gify concedes while grumbling.

Once Hana touches the wall, the grains simply fall down, as if their floating power had suddenly disappeared.

The anxiety of the other girls, and especially Lina, suddenly skyrockets, so Hana stops after just a few seconds of playing with it. It seems that they learned to not play with sand that's floating above their heads from somewhere.

A chain reaction wasn't set off from Hana's touch, but we can easily imagine what would've happened if she overdid it.

--

Nothing happens as we continue going down, so the tension gradually fades away.

Ciel forces herself to stay serious, but the loli silently demanding headpats is hard to ignore, so she compromises and pats her casually while keeping a keen eye focused ahead.

We eventually reach the end of the tunnel and enter the wide room with the double gray doors where the Holly is waiting for us.

Small, floating, stray [Spirit Light]s provide a fluctuating source of light that changes color from white, to a washed-out yellow, to a deep blue, and repeats. They slowly circle around the room, giving it an eerie atmosphere.

”What are these lights?” I ask the girls.

”Not monsters or living beings,” Alissa replies.

Yunia focuses on one of them that's passing close to us and adds, ”They're just spells controlled by the dungeon. Not exactly [Spirit Lights], but something similar.”

”I don't feel any sort of dangerous Light signature coming from them,” Ciel continues.

”Just another weird detail that'll make itself relevant soon, I bet,” I say with a tired tone.

When their color changes to a deep blue, it becomes hard to see, so we cast our own [Spirit Light]s.

We stop the ship in the middle of the room and disembark, leaving the golems to defend it.

We walk up to the double doors and stop in front of them. They don't seem to have any details on them, so we have no clue what to do.

”Should we just knock?” Hana asks.

I shrug, and the girls send back similar feelings to my own through [Bind].

Hana knocks, which makes a low and dull thumping sound. We wait for a few seconds, but nothing happens, so we start touching the doors a bit more.

Alissa puts her ear against the stone and hears absolutely nothing coming through it.

I walk over to the middle and push on them. The doors rumble and start to open, and I immediately jump back in surprise, then we all draw our weapons.

We see… more of the same red sand, smooth gray stone slabs, and the floating lights. The room is actually a corridor, and it even continues on beyond what Alissa can see.

Far ahead, Alissa spots an abnormal floating light. It's larger than the others, but not brighter, just different.

Her ears flick as she hears something, and she turns her head towards the source of the sound.

The tunnel we came from is collapsing.

”No way back, huh?” I question sarcastically, then I take a step forward and freeze.

My [Gate] has been blocked.

”Uh-oh…” I mutter.

The girls tense up, and I relay to Yunia what just happened.

The tunnel quickly closes off, completely blocking our exit, but the collapsing stops there. Nothing else happens, so the tension releases a bit.

”I was expecting this to happen at some point,” I comment wryly.

”Things will become much more dangerous from now on,” Ciel says solemnly.

”We haven't seen an exit door since the first few levels. We might not be able to leave if we continue,” Alissa says.

”I'd like to write to my brothers and warn them about this,” Yunia says.

”I'll write something for Klein and Osaria, too,” I add.

”Aoi should go back to wearing her armor. We have ground under our feet again,” Ciel suggests, and I agree.

We send Lina back, and she gives the letters to a servant. We also write one to Confiel to let him know that things are getting serious.

We also decide to leave a [Gate] coordinate here since it seems to be a safe spot. Sand is a terrible material to put a coordinate on since the coordinate could move over time or even get ”torn apart” and become unusable, so I put a [Gate] coordinate on a set of planks and summon an earth elemental to protect them.

We look around and notice that all the floating lights have started to move down this corridor. Since there's nothing else to do but to continue forward, we get back on the ship again and cautiously move on.

We see the floating lights gradually increase as we go deeper. They grow until they're as big as a head, then they start to become oval until their height matches ours. Limbs start to appear, and they shift into a humanoid shape. Their heads morph, and the characteristic long ears of the elves quickly appear.

Naked, glowing male and female elves float around us, all drifting in the same direction: down the corridor. Their faces are neutral, and their eyes are unmoving. Yunia reminds us that they aren't spirits, they're either Light or [Illusion Magical] spells.

Thankfully, they start to gain some clothes, and we recognize all sorts of civilians. Artisans, farmers, servants, soldiers, mages, and even nobility.

--

After half an hour of continuing down this corridor, the scouting Holly finally sees an end to it. The same gray double doors are at the end of the corridor, and a line of glowing elves is waiting for us.

”Yunia, you're not to leave my side since I can't summon you through [Bind], understood?” I instruct her sternly.

She puts on her helmet, then nods vigorously.

The glowing elves are formed into lines on each side of the corridor, giving us an open path towards its end, and clear line of sight to the elves staring at us, which seem to be Lords since they're all wearing a complete set of ornate wooden armor. Branches, leaves, flowers, and roots are used as decoration, giving them an air of fantasy ents, though they're still glowing.

”The title of Lord isn't common outside of Domum or the empire. They're most likely Generals,” Lina says, and Yunia agrees.

We stop a dozen meters from the Generals, but they don't even twitch. They're as still as statues.

Alissa clings to me, then I glide off the bridge and down towards the deck.

”Let me just say that Arreira really knows how to set an atmosphere,” I say as I land.

She lets me go and asks, ”'Atmosphere'? The air?” Then she tilts her head in confusion.

I roll my eyes because the skill translated it literally. ”Mood. He's good at setting the mood,” I respond.

The fake elves are currently glowing with a deep blue light, making for a rather dark and oppressive atmosphere.

”There's no theater like elven theater,” Yunia comments.

”Oh, we should really go to the theater in Goloria or Escanso sometime,” Roxanne adds.

”We'll have all the time in the world for that,” I reply, and we make a circle to talk more easily. ”Anyway… Hana, Yunia, I want both of you with me. Hana, you'll be in charge of bringing Yunia back in case shit hits the… uh, things go badly.”

We land the ship, and Yunia clings to me while I jump down, then the three of us walk towards the glowing elven Generals.

We approach them carefully, paying close attention to their sheathed weapons.

Once we get within ten meters, the elven Generals snap their heads towards me. We freeze both in fear and from the creepiness, but nothing else happens, so we continue walking forward again, just slower.

”Saúdo, paretense,” The elven General in the middle greets us with a neutral male voice.

Oh, fuck, they're talking in Ingua.

While I fumble with my points, Yunia returns their greeting.

Their eyes don't even twitch to glance at her, they just ignore her.

”They called us 'kin,'” Yunia whispers.

Our armor is elven and our helmets are obscuring our faces, so they might be mistaking us for elves.

I clear my throat and say, ”Greetings, kin.”

”Do you wish to pass?” The same General asks.

I glance at Yunia, and she nods. ”Yes, we do,” I answer.

”May we follow?” Another General asks. A woman's voice, this time. I can't tell their genders because of their armor.

”Why would you wish to follow us?” I ask, curious.

”One leads, others follow, and all judge,” a third General replies.

”'Judge'?” I question.

”Worth,” a fourth states.

So, they're all going to judge our worth?

”This is one of the principles of nobility that has existed since the dawn of civilization,” Ciel says through [Bind].

”What's beyond that door?” I ask.

”Struggle,” the first answers.

”War,” the second continues.

”Death,” the third adds.

”End,” the fourth finishes.

Not ominous at all, but why is death different from ”end”?

”If we look at Arreira's life, I guess that… death's not the end…?” Lina questions inside my soul space.

My mouth twitches because I don't know if I should smile or get angry at this annoyingly pretentious Dungeon Master.