Chapter 99 – 15th Floor. The Heart Does Not Fall

After five waves of bitter cold had passed.

[You have defeated the Howler.]

[You have grown.]

[You have slain the three guardians of the abandoned mine.]

[You have grown.]

[The power contained in the Crown of Madness has been depleted.]

“Haah…”

As the light of the hot lava disappeared, only a dark, gloomy cavern remained, without the flesh-burning heat, the ear-splitting roars, or the staggering vibrations.

A white breath escapes when I exhale.

Clink- Clang-

The silver crown that slipped from my head makes a metallic sound as it rolls far away and disappears.

Feeling troubled by Blue Tongue’s death, I kicked away a piece of ice that bumped against my foot like a pebble.

We weren’t exactly close… that would be ambiguous, but in a dungeon where there were few people to meet, he was one of the few I could communicate with.

He wasn’t someone I should have lost like this.

Crack— Crack-

Before I could be lost in contemplation, the black rock, now cold as ice, in the form of a dragon—the Mountain Elemental, the boss of the 15th floor—began to crack.

“Right. I’ll finish…”

“P-please, O Elemental!”

Just as I was about to raise my scroll to finish it off, an urgent voice came from behind me.

“So you actually defeated those calamities and won.”

“Oh, you old men are still alive.”

I lowered the scroll I was holding as I saw Nauwd and Albert carefully making their way down. The creature didn’t have much health left anyway, so there would be no problem dispatching it.

“Somehow we survived. Though the dwarf’s ale was lost in that chaos, despite all our efforts to save it.”

“So I exerted myself for nothing…”

Of course, it was the Mountain Elemental’s fault for not even waiting for us to enter the 15th floor before starting its activity when the Howler appeared.

If it had just waited patiently, I would have taken care of it eventually.

I clicked my tongue once and raised my axe, the last remaining weapon, as I looked at the statue that was gradually beginning to crack.

“Wait! Wa-a-ait-! Friend, put that axe down!”

Nauwd, startled, ran eagerly on his short stubby legs and stood in front of me, blocking the elemental with his arms spread wide like a shield.

His beard trembled uncontrollably with his wildly beating heart.

“Move quickly. It’s not over yet.”

“Elementals are essential for maintaining the balance of a region! Didn’t it just contain that evil thing! If you kill the elemental here, the next invasion—according to dwarven knowledge—will annihilate the dwarves without leaving even a soul!”

“…”

Though Nauwd was passionately trying to change my mind, to me it was just annoying babble.

Wouldn’t it be safer to just eliminate an elemental that can’t distinguish between friend and foe and burns everything?

As my head began to throb, the image of Blue Tongue, who would have sunk beneath the lava, flashed in my mind, and I heard the axe handle in my grip twist with a crunch under my strength.

“I’m a petty person, and I need revenge to feel better.”

“Oh my…!”

Thump.

I pushed past Nauwd’s shoulder, and knocked off balance by my strength, he landed on his rear.

One step forward.

Drip.

Suddenly, the world spun. With the unexpected weakness that came over me, I stumbled and faltered.

“Ugh.”

“Are you alright?”

I wiped the lukewarm wetness I felt at my philtrum with my finger, and it came away stained with dark, clotted blood.

The Crown of Madness was a gimmick item for confronting the Howler.

It not only allowed breaking the limit of one stat but also provided the only opportunity to see triple digits if I had cheated in previous explorations.

Whether due to the price of such powerful performance or from wrestling head-to-head with something that constantly spewed madness, my condition seemed quite precarious.

“Hmm… I suggest retreating first. Your condition is serious.”

“I’m… fine.”

“If having half your face blown off is ‘fine,’ then I suppose a youth with all limbs torn off on the battlefield would also be ‘fine.’”

As Albert supported me by grabbing my arm, I felt my face and realized that the part that had brushed against the Howler’s tentacle earlier had been completely torn away, leaving it in tatters.

A wound I hadn’t even been aware of.

At Health 3, even a minor attack was little different from a critical hit. As I realized this, a surge of pain washed over me.

“Gnngh… agh..!”

The hormones frantically pumping through the large wound tried to reduce the pain, but if that alone could make pain disappear, there would be no suffering people in the world.

“Healing, healing potion!”

In response to my shout, accompanied by sweat pouring down my back like a waterfall, the mimic obediently took out a potion from inside itself.

Before the tentacle extending to hand me the potion could reach me, I snatched the green liquid-filled bottle and removed the stopper, pouring it over my burning wound.

The cold potion momentarily washed over the wound with a cool sensation, but I gritted my teeth against the volcanic heat rising from within.

“Grrrgh..!”

“After battling such monsters, just being alive is achievement enough to be called a feat. Rest now.”

“F-fuck… we’re not done yet, why should I rest..!”

I feel my flesh regenerating, writhing and knitting back together as I grind my teeth.

Of course, a massive scar would remain. It would make being cut by an axe while shaving look like child’s play in comparison.

Crack, Crack— KWAAANG—!!!

The cavern, permeated with a cool chill, suddenly filled with heat again, searing the memory of lava’s heat into my mind.

The dragon-like elemental, whose surface alternated between hardening black and sinking to reveal its red lava skin, was visible through my red-tinged vision.

I could feel the gaze of the massive entity fixed on me.

“Oh, O Elemental! Please calm your anger…”

Nauwd approached the Mountain Elemental and knelt before it.

I exhaled deeply, then forcibly raised my fallen knee.

‘I’ve used up all the frost staff’s charges, and fire magic would only heal it, so I can’t use Severa. Alraune would also be a bad match. Physical attacks don’t work well either, so only Slime would be effective.’

My gaze crossed with the elemental’s.

I don’t know what it was thinking, but my mind was restlessly searching for ways to tear that elemental apart.

The muscles in my back stretched to their limit as all the strength in my body gathered for the most intense and powerful throw.

Albert and Nauwd turned to look at me simultaneously, sensing my momentum, but I had no intention of stopping.

You might say that my judgment is impaired because my head is overheated, but I can firmly state that I’m in an extremely rational state right now. Despite the fact that just a slap from it could melt me without a trace like Blue Tongue, I wasn’t kicking away the head blocking my path.

“Hrrrh—!”

[It feels as though the fog in my mind has cleared.]

I freeze.

The sensation of being spoken to directly in my brain rather than through my ears made my shoulder, tensed for the throw, twitch and stop.

A dignified yet somehow warm-feeling voice. Not human language, but mysteriously, I could understand it—a truly fantastical phenomenon that made me narrow my eyes.

[Was it you who awakened me, small human.]

A gaze that conveyed intelligence, unlike when it had been raging moments ago.

Eyes of gently undulating flames were fixed on me.

“Ooh… O Elemental!”

“Hmm… a strange sensation. Can you also hear, no… feel it?”

Nauwd was overcome with emotion as the elemental spoke, while Albert analyzed the experience of words appearing in his head.

“I just smacked some ice into the crazy bastard to cool his head.”

[Small human, your attitude toward me is sharp. Are you not afraid of an elemental’s wrath?]

“What, do you want to die?”

“What kind of talk is that!”

As Nauwd rushed in, exclaiming in shock at my audacious confrontation with the elemental, I pushed him away with my palm and stared at the elemental with a blank face.

The elemental silently looked down at me.

“Then conversely, is that how you treat someone who saved you when a squid bastard laid some eggs in your home and you couldn’t even come to your senses?”

[It seems you truly do not fear death. I was trying to converse with you to honor your efforts, but you’re hastening your end.]

“Unfortunately, I don’t have confidence in dying to a pseudo-lizard like you.”

The cavern instantly heated up.

Only then did Albert and Nauwd reluctantly raise their weapons, the former seeming oddly excited, the latter with a grim face.

As hot geothermal energy began to seep up, battle was about to commence—

[Uup— W-what is this..!]

“..?”

The Mountain Elemental, which had been preparing to spew lava, suddenly showed signs of discomfort before twisting its body in apparent pain and beginning to destroy the rock walls violently.

Bang— Kwabang—!!!

Rocks fell in the wake of its thrashing.

Avoiding the falling rocks, each of which would be threatening if hit, I saw the elemental’s surface bubbling violently as it performed these strange actions.

[Th… aaah… what… what have you done to me—]

“What the hell is wrong with that thing all of a sudden?”

I looked toward Nauwd, presumably the Dwarven elemental expert among the three of us, but he shook his head in confusion while frantically dodging falling rocks with his short legs.

Though he was getting hit by most of them anyway.

Thud— Thud— Thud—

Now the Mountain Elemental began smashing its back against the wall.

The flame in its chest surged like a solar flare, creating a high pillar of fire that exploded.

PUOOOOOOOONG———!!!

A deafening roar.

[Ah, ah, ah, aaaah—?! My, my heart!!!]

‘Heart?’

The fire pillar rising endlessly hit the cavern ceiling, and the rocks propelled upward by its force pounded the ceiling repeatedly.

Through the open chest cavity, I could see a reddish-hot rounded sphere.

And next to it was…

“Huh.”

[GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAK———!!!]

With an agonized scream, something leaped out of the elemental’s chest after swallowing the rounded sphere.

Charcoal.

Or rather, a carbonized thing that could no longer be called a living being, walking with creaky-squeaky joints that went kigik- kigik-.

Behind it, the Mountain Elemental was melting and disappearing like its essence.

[You have defeated the Mountain Elemental.]

[You have grown.]

“What the…”

The log that blocked my view also announced that the Mountain Elemental had died.

Trudge- Trudge-

The thing, discarding the flowing lava on the floor, slowly walked toward me.

The surface of the already hardened rock crumbled and rolled on the floor with each step.

Crack- Crack-

“You…”

With a feeling of disbelief, I opened my mouth and reached out toward it—

Crack—!

“You look quite painful in that short time, human. Can’t you manage without me after all?”

As it shed its thick charcoal shell like molting, what emerged was a woman with a heteromorphic appearance.

Sharp teeth visible between slightly parted lips, and a blue membrane hidden inside.

“You… Blue Tongue?”

Dark red hair with pointed rocks protruding like horns. The red scales on her arms and legs had transformed into glossy black rocky scales, as if fused with sharp lava rock.

Similar traces were sparsely seen elsewhere. But the biggest change of all—

A body close to human, specifically female.

I already knew Blue Tongue was female, but why had she, who should have burned up after falling into lava, been resurrected with a human woman’s body? I found myself opening and closing my mouth in bewilderment.

“You know, human. I changed because I thought I could. What do you think?”

Blue Tongue showed a slight smile, raising the corner of her mouth—an expression that would have been difficult to recognize with a reptilian face.

Before I could be shocked by her transformation, the ceiling melted by the dying Mountain Elemental began to collapse.

Crack, Crack- Kuboom——

A deluge of water poured from above, as if a lake had formed up there.

“Hold tight! We’ll be swept away!”

Despite Albert’s urgent shout, I rushed to Blue Tongue, who had transformed but returned alive, and embraced her.

“You nearly gave me a heart attack!”

“Hehehe…”

A cascading waterfall.

Between the falling streams of white water, Blue Tongue and I were swept away by the torrent.

“Then I suppose I can taste it now too, human?”

“Huh?”

Taste? What?