This afro-wearing freak was Doha.
Somehow, he was a first-class delver.
"Hey, yo! Happy to meet you two here!"
"H-hello."
"Ugh."
Shiro. He'd made zero effort to hide his distaste as he spoke.
I understood the feeling.
On top of that, every eye in the area had locked onto us, which was embarrassing.
"Why are you here?"
"Oh. Work wrapped up and I'm free. Come to think of it, it hit me that I still hadn't been to the earth dungeon! Not having checked out an earth dungeon is just too not-Doha, you know!"
"Ha ha ha ha..."
"Ugh."
His energy was way too much.
I knew he wasn't a bad person, but he was hard to handle.
Shiro's scowl hadn't budged an inch.
"So what brings you two to the earth dungeon?"
"There's something I need to gather, so I came to collect it."
"Oh. The white girl too?"
"Ugh. I'm helping Wof. If you've got nothing better to do, why don't you help too."
"Heh?"
I was surprised that Shiro had invited her, considering how much she disliked her.
"Hey you, okay then!"
And Dokkha agreed just like that. Her grin was annoying.
I was so taken aback that I turned to Shiro.
"Why'd you invite her?"
"Don't be fooled — Dokkha has mastered earth Relics. That makes her the best fit for an earth dungeon. I really, really don't like it, but she's the optimal choice."
"I-I see."
She'd prioritized efficiency over her feelings, huh.
"Alright, let's get in there. For youuu!"
"Wait up!"
Dokkha strode in without a second thought. Shiro and I scrambled after her.
As we walked, I gave Dokkha a quick rundown of the situation.
"Plauma mushrooms and Soup of Life. That's a pretty rare haul, baby."
"Is that so?"
"Plauma mushrooms are an elixir. And Soup of Life is the ingredient for a high potion, yoh-ha."
"An elixir...?"
"Elixirs are used as catalysts for spiritual matters."
Shiro answered for me.
It sounded like the same kind of elixir from my past life's knowledge.
Just like that, we reached floor 16.
It was a ruined city where Rock Lizardmen roamed.
I didn't have any particular business there, so I headed down to floor 17 right away.
Floor 17 was a cave area dominated by underground lakes.
The enemies that appeared were mostly Rock Lizardmen too, probably because it was close to floor 16.
"Hey hey, Rock! I'm running low on beads, yo-ho!"
Dokka sent countless sharp spears erupting from the ground, tearing through the Rock Lizardmen.
Strong. Creepy-looking, sure, but the guy hadn't earned his mastery over earth for nothing.
Just like that, floor 18. Floor 19. Floor 20.
From floor 20, we used a teleportation circle to reach floor 28.
"Whoa..."
"Fo, beautiful."
"Pretty."
Floor 28 was a nest of giant crystals.
A natural palace formed by sheer chance from enormous crystals — it was breathtaking.
Especially the way the refracted light made them shine in seven colors, that was something else.
The monsters here were Crystal Dolls. Entirely made of crystal.
They reminded me of the Fire Men from the fire dungeon, or the Water Dolls from the water dungeon.
They weren't all that strong.
Then again, Dokka was just too powerful.
Three Cerberuses made of crystal and one Orthros appeared.
Cerberuses are three-headed dog monsters. Orthros are two-headed dog monsters.
They vaguely resembled the magical beast Kizumono from the Heisen Great Forest.
I took the Orthros.
Shiro took one Cerberus.
And Dokka took on the other two Cerberuses.
The Orthros only had its heads made of crystal.
Meaning its body was flesh. What kind of monster was that?
The Cerberuses were crystal all the way through.
The Orthros wasn't much of a threat.
I suppressed it with 'Ballistic 6' and attacked with the Banish Chakram.
I sliced off its left front leg with the Banish Chakram to erase it, then took care of the crystal heads.
"Having some reach really does make Banish convenient."
With a sphere, I'd have to get pretty close.
But with a ring shape, I can distort and extend it to cover a good distance.
After I finished and looked over at the other two, Shiro had frozen a Cerberus in ice and shattered it.
"You're done?"
She came over toward me.
"Yeah. Um, Shiro, you're the King of the Death of Light, right?"
"That's right. What about it?"
"I was wondering if you'd use a Light Relic."
"It's not like they're worth using one on."
She shot me down with a perfectly composed look. R-right, got it.
Right after that, Dokka destroyed two Cerberus with a giant bowgun he'd crafted from earth.
That was incredible. Earth arrows had plunged deep into the enormous crystal in the back.
"Yo, hey, haa! That's me, Dokka! Yeeaaah!"
He was dancing and singing.
Still, mastering even a single Relic made you this powerful.
According to the witch, even if someone had the talent for it, Relics weren't easy to master even for geniuses.
Dokka must have put in blood-soaking effort to get here.
"Yuhaa, meefo! Ohh, Dokka!"
Even so.
We warped from Floor 20 and arrived at Floor 33.
Floor 33 had a city on it.
An abandoned city, like Floor 16.
Lurking around were corroded armored knights. Contaminated crystal dolls.
And mineral great lizards.
Monsters that looked like great lizards scaled up to roughly human size.
Visually, they resembled Komodo dragons from my past life memories.
"Oh. It's already night, huh."
Wof's day-night stone had turned black. In other words, it was night outside the dungeon.
Had that much time already passed?
Shiro nodded.
"Perfect timing. We'll stay at an inn."
"An inn?"
"This ruin city has an inn that's still running."
"It does?"
"Hey. White Girl. No taverns around here, yo?"
"There are."
"Knew there had to be..."
"Heck yeah, sweet, this is awesome!"
With Shiro guiding us, we entered the safe zone of the ruin city.
This ruin city had no castle. Instead, there was a pure white, tall tower at its center.
The area around the center was the noble district, and apparently the monsters lurking there were strong too.
Inside the safe zone, the sight of delvers coming and going was surprisingly prominent.
Shiro quietly told me that anyone who could make it here had to be at least a Third-rank delver.
Is that so. Sure enough, there were plenty of delvers with well-maintained equipment.
The inn was right next to the tavern.
Three stories tall, nothing particularly distinctive about the building.
Dohha headed off to the tavern, babbling something about how "the booze is me-ing" him.
We headed into the inn. We'd tried to book three rooms, but.
"Only two are available?"
"Sorry about that."
The receptionist told us flatly.
Well, that's a problem.
"Then two is fine."
"But—"
Shiro paid the innkeeper without missing a beat.
"Here you go. Keys are right here. Rooms are at the end of the second floor."
"Thanks."
Shiro took the two keys into hand.
And headed straight up the adjacent staircase.
"Hold on—two rooms, you know."
"One can be for Dohha."
"Then what about the other one?"
Shiro turned around.
My heart skipped a beat when I saw that face.
"You and me, Wof."
It was a faint, gentle, alluring smile.