Stray Soul

Less than a minute after we left the stairways, Lazarus joined us. He seemed grumbly and still wasn’t fully supporting of going to the lower floor, even if it was to check on his friends as it was simply too dangerous according to him.

Was that the only reason? Did he really worry about me setting up some kind of trap?

Afterall, there was no clause in the magical contract, that I never signed, that said that I couldn’t hurt them, as, if I ever thought they were going to do something to break the spirit of the contract, I could harm, and even kill them.

Though I wouldn’t do that as I was pretty against unnecessary killing of intelligent people, and even if I didn’t have any problems with killing people, I still wouldn’t bother doing that as I was pretty sure they couldn’t break the contract or find a way to null it, at least not by themselves, so I really didn’t need to worry about them cracking the core or something equally harming to me, or the goblins.

After perhaps 10-15 minutes of walking, we reached a stairway that led to the lower floor, and I entered first as I was currently acting as the group’s tank.

Not that we had decided on me becoming the tank, but I was basically a walking mass of flesh, bones, and metal, that also couldn’t be killed by many things.

So, the least I could do was to read the room, and take my place in the front.

After a minute of me squeezing in, we entered the staircase, went down, and I moved my claws to the door’s handle to—

“STOP!” Lazarus suddenly screamed, and looking at him with one of my eyes at my back, I could see him sweating bullets.

Not only him, but also Caroline was sweating bullets too! But not Xylene. She just looked surprised by Lazarus’ sudden scream.

But by the time he had screamed for me to stop, my claws had already started pushing the door’s handle down, and soon the door was open.

*WOOOSH~*

I heard the sounds of rushing wind as soon as I opened the door, but this was not a normal wind as we were dozens of meters underground, inside a mountain.

No, this sound was coming from a vortex of mana that started sucking all the mana from the stairway we were in as soon as I opened the door, and I could feel the sheer amount of mana it was pulling because it was causing the metallic plates on my body to move and hit each other.

*clank clank clank~*

Surprised by the sheer density of mana in the floor, and the miniature mana storm that was causing them to spin so fast, I wondered what would happen if my soul was ever subjected to these conditions, and made a momentary decision and pushed a small mana tendril outside of my body—and it immediately got absorbed into the mana storm.

“...Oh shit, I could die here.” I spurted out in english accidentally, and closed the door.

Other than this floor being the first floor where my life was in danger, I also couldn’t cast spells here but... I couldn’t cast any proper spells anyways, and the storm was simply not harsh enough to drain the mana in my body away, so it didn’t matter that much to me.

“So... I am just going to assume that this wasn’t here when you were here with the other three?” I asked after a few moments of silence, assuming that this was a new thing as, if Elise and Xavier, who seemed to be pretty intelligent people, went into this floor after sensing this torrent of mana—I was more than willing to let them die to erase them from the gene pool, because, in the future their grand-grand-grandchildren will definitely study biology and become anti-vaxxers.

Though they continued to be silent for a minute more, probably thinking about all the horrible ways that their friends could be dying right now.

“Ahem...” I cleared my throat, though I physically didn’t need to, to get their attention.

Silence.

Then I just grasped two of the metal plates on my body, and hit them together making an awful noise.

“Argh!” They screamed, in protest against the noise, and covered their ears.

“Good, now you are all out of your daze, I assume?”

“Yes, yes we are you...” Lazarus muttered under his breath, though he didn’t finish his sentence.

“So, this... dungeon mana storm or whatever this is, wasn’t here before, right?”

“No, it was not. If it was, even my drunken father wouldn’t dare go there.” Lazarus said, and I turned my head away from him, thinking for a few moments.

“...All three of you have been into dungeons before, right? Is this kind of thing normal? Is this the core’s floor, or some kind of trap floor?” I asked them, and they fell in thought, but after a few moments Caroline started talking.

“It’s definitely not the core’s floor as core’s floor always has unnaturally high amount of mana density, allowing monster on its floor to be at least a rank higher than even the highest ranked monster in the rest of the dungeon.

“But, though its hard to tell clearly how dense this floor’s mana is due to the storm, it feels like an understandable increase in mana density from the last floor. Right Lazarus?” Caroline said, and turned towards Lazarus, who nodded towards her and started talking himself.

“Yup, seems to me like so too! And this can’t be a trap floor as... well, trap floors just don’t exist. Dungeons copy traps made by people, and place them randomly across their domain. They don’t designate an entire floor to be a single trap.

“And the only trap we’ve seen in this dungeon has been the explosion trap in the topmost floor—not counting the spider webs of course.” Lazarus finished.

“Then, do you know of a way that can... justify whatever’s going on in this floor? I’ve never been to a dungeon before, I am not ashamed to admit, so I am lacking in knowledge about the weird happenings in the dungeon’s mana sphere like this.” I asked them, and they fell into thought once again.

“...I can’t think of anything that can cause this but...” Lazarus started, but stopped himself to take a break, and breathed heavily.

“But whatever is causing this is not something we can deal with by ourselves. We need to leave the dungeon and go back to civilization.” He said after a few moments, which caused Xylene, who had been staying silent so far, to burst in anger.

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN! DO YOU WANT TO JUST—JUST ABONDON THEM THERE!”

“...Xylene, I know how you feel—”

“You understand how I feel?! Then how can you tell us to just abandon them?!”

“Xylene, you know as well as me that going in there means certain death. Do you really want to go in there, just to die?”

“Yes! If it means I’ll be able to see Xavier for one last time, I’ll walk to my death if necessary!”

“...Do you really think that’s what he would’ve wanted from you?”

“W-what?”

“Do you really think he would’ve wanted you to die for nothing, or forget him and live the rest of your life?”

“Of course he would’ve—”

“He would want you to live, Xylene. Going in there will just be dishonouring him.”

“B-but...” Xylene stuttered, and fell silent. Clearly trying to process what was happening right now.

“...Hah, Caroline. Say something to her.... Caroline?” Lazarus turned towards Carolie, trying to get her to help him convince Xylene to leave the dungeon, but she seemed in a daze, looking at the door and not focusing on anything that was going on.

“Caroline!” Lazarus yelled, which made her turn away from the door, and look at him.

“C’mon, help me convince Xylene to not go in there and get herself killed.” He said, asking Caroline for help. And while he was definitely the most calm minded of the three, or the one that was faking it the best, his calmness could almost be seen as offensive, or inconsiderate.

Though, not that I could do what he was doing any better. If anything, I’d be worse, so leaving him and Caroline to console their friend who probably lost her husband was just the better choice.

But unlike what I thought Caroline would do, which was to just talk with Xylene and convince her to accept her husband’s lost, she instead tried to storm past me, and enter the floor herself.

“Get out of my way!” She screamed, as I was simply blocking the door nearly fully due to my sheer size.

“Caroline, I know I am not close to you, or know anything about you or the others really, but rushing in will not do any good for you. Heinrich, Xavier, Elise, all three of them may be as good as dead.”

“And how do you know that?! Wouldn’t this storm be over if they were dead?! If it continues, it just means whatever’s hunting them knows that they are still alive, and is trying to kill them! We need to go in, now, or we will be too late!” She screamed, and... she seemed to have a point, though I wasn’t sure if her hypothesis was right or not, and just turned my head towards an exasperated Lazarus looking towards Caroline.

I also saw Xylene snapping out of her grief, and immediately moving for her swords, ready to risk her life to perhaps have the chance to save her husband.

“...Can I really let them through?” I thought to myself and... I wasn’t really sure honestly.

There was a big chance that Caroline was right, and at least one of the three were alive, and we had the chance to at least attempt to save them, but the fact that whatever was making this mana storm was incredibly dangerous held true, so, if Caroline and Xylene were let into the floor, they’d likely die.

Perhaps in front of their loved ones, who may already be trying to escape, or destroy whatever monster or trap or thing is causing this miniature mana storm.

“...You three wait here, I’ll go check on them myself.” I said, which surprised everybody. Assuming from their faces of course.

“Wait—what do you mean you’ll go check on them yourself?” Xylene asked.

“I’ll go check on them by myself. Alone. None of you are coming.” I said.

“Nope, not happening.” Then she countered. Not wanting to let me go there alone. Probably not because she gave a shit about me, but because she didn’t trust me to save her husband.

“It’s happening. Not only because: a) I am literally the strongest being here, in this room. b) All of you are too weak to do anything, and will most likely die a few minutes after entering the room, or possibly in front of your loved ones. And c) I can do whatever the fuck I want, and you have to follow my will, because I am a literal god.”

“A deity.” Caroline corrected.

“My point still stands. If you want any chance of hearing about your friends again, or perhaps even seeing them, you have to stay here, and let me go in there alone and scout forwards. If I ever need your help, which I probably won’t as you all will be just luggage I’ll have to carry if you come, I’ll come back and tell you.

“In the best-case scenario, I find Elise, Heinrich, and Xavier alive, and help them escape the floor and we meet up with you in a few hours.

“In the worst-case scenario, I bring their corpses or some things of sentimental value as keeping their bodies intact in this floor will be hard to promise—especially if they are dead.” I said, and I could see Caroline accepting it, though she was still angry due to the possibility of Heinrich being dead, and was directing that anger towards me.

Which I don’t blame her for. I’ve lost people before, in my first life that is, and can relate to her feelings.

Xylene too was somewhat understanding my words, but her anger seemed directed towards herself, and not me. Probably blaming herself for being weak and not being able to save her husband.

That was a feeling I couldn’t relate to, but I hoped she wouldn’t do something crazy like rushing behind me to save him, as that’d be quite inconvenient.

“And why would you do that?” Lazarus asked, seeming sceptical about my intentions. He seemed more questioning of my motives, but perhaps he was always like that and never showed it as Elise, Heinrich, and Xavier were each capable leaders themselves, and they had made an uneasy alliance with me, thus removing his need to worry about it too much.

But now that he was forced to be the brain of the group, he was acting more cautiously.

“...I don’t know what kind of mental image you have of me, but I’d like to think of myself as a force of good.”

“...What?”

“I know I am an amalgamation of flesh, bones, and metal. But my goals are not as twisted as my body may suggest.

“Hell, a few weeks after I am done babysitting your group, I’ll be going north to save some people from the northern kingdoms from genocide.

“Will I be benefiting from this act? Hopefully, as I am quite literally messing with powers beyond my comprehension. But even if I did not benefit from it, I’d still try and save as many people as I could. And if I had the power to, I’d stop it all together.

“But sadly, I am simply too weak of a deity to act so openly, and can only hope to hide in the shadows of my peers, and only do small acts of good to make the world a slightly better place.

“You don’t have to believe what I am saying, and I don’t exactly expect you to do so in this tense of a situation, as I’d do the same if I were you, but give me the benefit of the doubt, and don’t question me for this once.

“You can decide to think of me as what you wish after today. Perhaps I’ll simply be a talking monster to you, that has somehow managed to rise to deity hood. Or perhaps I’ll be a temporary ally, or just another evil undead or whatever.

“But that really doesn’t concern me as we will most likely never meet again, and even if we do meet, your opinion of me will still not matter in the slightest. Like I said, just give me the benefit of the doubt, and stay safe while I try and save your friends, or at least recover their bodies or some of their belongings.”

As I finished my speech, Lazarus seemed... well, normal. I wasn’t sure if my speech had gotten into him in the slightest, though I hoped it did.

And Caroline and Xylene seemed to have decided to give me the benefit of the doubt like I asked of them, and after a few moments of silence, I opened the door, and was met with sound of rushing wind again.

*WOOOSH~*

But this time, I pushed through the wind, and entered floor -5 proper, and closed the door behind me.

*Creak~*