Chapter 44 - Venturing Deeper (2/2)

Liselotte and Aletia realized that Rio seemed out of it after they arrived on this floor. They were currently standing amidst a clump of grass, with Aletia standing at his left on. Thick, tall grass, coming all the way up to Rio's shoulders, stretched out in every direction as far as the eye could see. Aletia who was the shortest would be completely buried within the 160-centimeter tall grass.

”You seem thinking about something seriously,” Aletia finally commented Rio's strange behavior since they arrived in this floor.

Rio looked down at Aletia who was a head shorter than him and displayed a troubled expression. After a few seconds, he finally shook his head and got a grip on himself. He replied to them, ”I think I'm forgetting about something important, but I can't recall it correctly despite I'm trying to remember it.”

Liselotte and Aletia tilted their heads quizzically from Rio's unclear words. Rio disregarded their curiosity and glanced at the head of the monster which looked like a Tyrannosaurus Rex. When they had first descended onto the floor they were currently on, they had been greeted by a massive sea of trees. Each tree was over ten meters tall, and they were packed together tighter than sardines. The entire floor was extremely humid as a result. However, unlike the jungle floor they had traversed earlier, it wasn't sweltering hot. As they had been searching for the next staircase, they suddenly felt a huge earthquake. Seconds later, they had found themselves face to face with a huge reptilian monster.

It was decided that Liselotte and Aletia would deal with any monster appearing before them. Liselotte needed these fights to be familiar with her sharp increase of status and a new skill she acquired every time she ate monster's meats. For Aletia, though she had abundant battle experience from her past, she had been sealed for 300 years and her skill had become rusty in the result. Thus, Rio allowed them to hog all monsters to get better in a fight.

Aletia could cast any elemental spell nearly instantly and supported Liselotte from the rear. Though she was unparalleled when it came to offensive magic, it appeared Aletia wasn't very skilled with barriers or healing. Perhaps it was because she unconsciously regarded them as unnecessary since she was able to automatically heal any wounds. Furthermore, Liselotte had her Ambrosia with her, so she had no need for healing spells either. Still, it didn't mean that Rio would allow his girls to get meaningless wounds.

Although Rio had less battle experience than them, he had his cheats to fall back on. So, he gave up his chance for fighting monsters for Liselotte's and Aletia's sake. Of course, Rio was always on standby and would support both of them when they were in a pinch. However, it would end at an instant whenever Rio stepped in because his power was unreasonably out of the norm.

The only difference was, for some reason, it had a beautiful flower adorning the top of its head. Its sharp fangs and overflowing bloodl.u.s.t clearly marked a dangerous foe, but the sunflower resting atop its head made it seem more comical than deadly. This was quite possibly the most surreal monster Liselotte and Aletia had faced thus far.

However, the moment Rio saw these surreal monsters appearance, he felt that there was something important about them and became restless when he was unable to remember what he should remember in regards to these flowery reptilian monsters. It was the main reason why Rio was absentminded thus far.

'Shit! I can't remember it!' Rio grimaced suddenly, deepening the confusion and worry Liselotte and Aletia were feeling for him. However, he was into his own world, so he was ignoring them for the time being. 'Wait! Can I create something like a perfect memory recall or something?'

Rio suddenly had an idea. He tried this idea and was pleasantly surprised when the skill he wanted was created.

'Now, let's try to recall the memory of volume 1 of Arifureta. In canon, Hajime's story in the Great Orcus Labyrinth was focused in volume 1.' Rio triggered off his new skill and recalled the content of volume 1 with the perfect clarity. He could remember the content of the book a word by a word, a sentence by a sentence with 100% accuracy.

Finally, he arrived in the part of the Tyrannosaurus Rex with a flower on its head. Rio's eyes immediately turned wide when he finally discovered the reason behind his restlessness.

”Liselotte! Get close to me! Quick!” Rio shouted in urgency, making Liselotte and Aletia speechless by the suddenness of it. Still, Liselotte recovered quickly and approached Rio in a hurry. Meanwhile, Aletia stared at Rio's urgent expression in puzzlement.

Rio ignored Aletia's stare and created a strong barrier around them after Liselotte arrived at his right. The three of them were inside of semitransparent platinum shell in a dome shape. In fact, the barrier was circular in shape and it went down into the ground.

”Hell Scape!”

Right after that, Liselotte's and Aletia's pupils shrunk into dots as they were badly shaken by the unreasonableness of Rio's outrageous existence they were witnessing.