The Villainous Noble Who Kept Rewinding After Death: The Story Somehow Changed When I Committed Suicide

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The Villainous Noble Who Kept Rewinding After Death: The Story Somehow Changed When I Committed Suicide

Chapter 51: Monster House

About two hours after entering the dungeon, we finally reached the third floor.

“This place is way too big…”

I had heard beforehand that this dungeon was vast with a complex layout, but the paths were even more convoluted than I’d imagined, and dealing with the monsters that suddenly appeared took up a lot of our time, causing the delay in reaching the third floor.

The strength of the monsters wasn’t anything extraordinary, but the fact that we never knew when they’d show up was truly a hassle.

“Shall we take a short break?”

“Sure.”

Feeling a bit mentally exhausted from the unchanging scenery and the sudden monster attacks, we leaned against the wall and sat down.

“By the way, we haven’t run into many other adventurers, have we?”

“It’s kind of strange considering how many there were at the entrance.”

Though we’d passed through various paths to get here, we had only seen about three other parties, which felt surprisingly few given the number of adventurers we’d seen at the entrance.

“Maybe everyone else used teleportation magic to go to different floors.”

While it was nice to not run into other adventurers, I couldn’t help but feel a bit bored. I wanted to see how others were tackling this dungeon.

After resting for about 15 minutes, we stood up to continue our exploration of the twisted paths within the dungeon.

A few hours later, having reached the fifth floor, we began discussing what we should do next.

“Should we head back for today, or go a bit further?”

“How about we find the way to the sixth floor and then head back?”

“Sounds good. That way, next time we come, we can get to the sixth floor right away.”

After a moment of thought, we decided to go with Fiera’s suggestion, and we started walking again.

“Fiera. Wait a second.”

After walking a bit, I noticed a hidden passage using my magic sense and called out to Fiera.

As I touched the hidden passage and channeled my magic into it, a door that hadn’t been there just moments earlier appeared.

“What is this?”

“It’s probably a Monster House.”

A Monster House is a special room filled with many monsters, and defeating them all will reward you with a treasure chest.

While some might see it as a lucky room since it offers a treasure chest, the monsters inside are all tough opponents, and in order to leave the room, you must defeat all the monsters. If you lose, your party faces complete annihilation.

“What do we do?”

“Since we’re already here, let’s go in. I’m curious about what we’ll get!”

“All right.”

As we entered the Monster House, the door closed behind us, and the room lit up.

The interior was pretty spacious, and the walls were a bit rough.

“Okay. What’s coming out?”

I held Ignido in one hand, waiting for the monsters to appear when a bunch of round water orbs formed around us, gradually enlarging and taking the shape of fish.

“It’s like being underwater.”

It was so beautiful that I almost got lost in admiration, but I quickly shifted my focus when the monsters attacked us.

“Fiera, how about we make a bet on who can defeat more monsters?”

“Sounds good. The loser has to obey one request from the winner.”

“Okay, I accept that condition. Now, let’s do a countdown. 3…2…1!”

As soon as I finished counting, Fiera and I kicked the ground and split in two directions.

(These guys aren’t much individually, but they are overwhelming when they swarm together.)

The fish acted in schools, and the little ones charged at us as a group.

As I enhanced my eyes and brain, I dodged their attacks while cutting at them with Ignido, but with so many of them, it was hard to kill them all.

While I was considering my attack strategy, other fish were launching scales or water blades at me without respite, intent on my demise.

“This is annoying. ‘Phoenix Flame!’”

Growing tired of dealing with them one by one, I summoned a huge bird made of fire and sent it flying towards the swarm of fish.

The water-based fish evaporated as the flaming bird approached, one after another, turning into magic stones that fell to the ground.

“All right. That makes 120 of them.”

Once I confirmed that there were no more fish around me, I looked over at Fiera to see how she was doing.

She had transformed her hand into a claw using partial beast transformation and was launching claw attacks, also using the ability from her Ice Serpent Gauntlet to freeze and kill the fish.

Fiera’s battle quickly concluded, and I made my way over to her and spoke.

“Good job. How many did you defeat?”

“120.”

“Same here. I guess that means it’s a tie.”

While the bet ended in a draw, I didn’t particularly have anything I wanted Fiera to do, so I headed towards the spot where the treasure chest was supposed to appear.

However…

“No way. I’m the winner.”

Fiera said that and suddenly launched a claw attack at me.

I tilted my head to dodge it, and the large jellyfish-like monster that was about to attack from behind was cleaved in half and vanished.

“That was close! What would you do if I died?”

“Don’t worry! If that happened, I’d follow right after you. Besides, I believed you could dodge it.”

Hearing her response, I couldn’t shake the feeling that her love for me was growing stronger each day.

“I’m not planning to die with you, you know.”

“Too bad. More importantly, since I won, you have to listen to me!”

“…Just don’t ask me to do anything weird.”

“Don’t worry, it won’t be that bad.”

Since I was the one who let my guard down and lost, I decided to accept this punishment and finally approached the treasure chest that had appeared in the center of the room.

“Hang on a moment. ‘Appraisal.’”

Before opening the treasure chest, I used Appraisal to confirm if it was genuine.

It’s not uncommon for mimics—monsters that can disguise themselves as chests—to eat adventurers, so checks like this are important.

“No problem. You can go ahead and open it.”

When I gave her the go-ahead, Fiera wagged her tail as she opened the chest. She looked just like a dog who had been forbidden from a treat, and I almost forgot she was a wolf.

“What’s this?”

“Let me see.”

Inside the chest was an earring adorned with a green gem. When I appraised it, I saw that it had wind magic attached to it.

“This earring allows the wearer to use wind magic, albeit in a simple way. It also seems to make the wearer a bit lighter and easier to move. As for wind magic, it mostly allows you to create gusts… Hmm. Here, you can have this.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. With this, your speed will increase even further, and it should complement your Ice Serpent Gauntlet nicely.”

The Ice Serpent Gauntlet can emit frost that slows down those it touches.

If she uses that ability and combines it with the wind from this earring, she could widen the area of effect and enhance her attack range.

“Thanks!”

She said that, walked close to me, and slightly lowered her head while leaning in so her ears were right next to me.

“What’s up?”

“Put it on for me. You can touch my ears, too.”

“Ugh. Fine, I guess.”

Giving in to her request to touch her ears, I put the earring on her, and for a while, I enjoyed the fluffy sensation.

After that, we left the Monster House and continued our dungeon exploration without any issues, eventually finding the stairs leading to the sixth floor. We then stepped onto the teleportation magic circle on the fifth floor to wrap up that day’s expedition.