Unexpected, I suppose. But it didn't seem like he was just putting on a brave face.
From Axe's demeanor, he was worried about the others, sure, but he wasn't panicking.
"Why do I think that?"
"Y-yes."
Axe gave a rueful smile.
"Strange as it sounds, it's actually pretty common. Things like this."
"It is?"
"Yeah. Even if you've got a map from a prior survey of the dungeon, most of the time it doesn't change all that much. But that's the thing about dungeons — you never know what's going to happen. It's never impossible. It just happened to be today."
"Is that how it works?"
"We've all got a decent amount of experience as delvers. But none of it was smooth sailing. We've gotten separated by traps and the like too."
"You have?"
"I'm pretty sure this makes three times."
I couldn't tell if that was a high frequency or a low one.
"Anyway, those guys will be fine. And Mineha too."
So he had been worried after all. I noticed that, belatedly.
"Axe... can you hear that?"
"Combat?"
We nodded to each other and broke into a run.
With my Relic, Danger Discernment — three red signals. One white.
Allies. One less red.
"Haaaaaaah!"
A fierce battle cry rang out. High-pitched.
"A woman?"
The next moment, a strange sound reached my ears.
Like swirling wind — what greeted us upon arrival was a sight of pure surprise.
A woman, tearing through kobolds with a lance.
I'd seen that hair before. Flaxen. A fierce, sharp-eyed face — cute, in its way. Clad in armor.
But she was taller than me.
The her Axe and I knew was a fairial. A small, winged race.
But I recognized her. The night Mineha had muscled her way into staying at my house.
The woman who'd been secretly bathing.
I still remember every detail of that night, and I can never, ever speak of it.
Axe narrowed her eyes. That was the look of someone who remembered too.
"That person — no way..."
"Probably... yeah."
She figured it out, huh.
The woman ran the last kobold through with her spear.
She must have spotted us. She turned around right away.
"So you're safe."
"You are—"
"Are you Mineha?"
"That's right. As you can see."
She seemed awfully casual about it, like it was no big secret.
"But that size..."
"It's a Relic."
"I can tell that much, but..."
"Could it be a Relic unique to fairials?"
"Yes. It's a Relic called [Fairy Incarnation] that lets me shrink or enlarge my body and the things I'm wearing."
Mineha puffed out her chest with a proud grin.
Axe surveyed the surroundings with a look of exasperation.
"Damn. The ground's been gouged to hell."
"...Wait a moment, Mineha. That spear. Is it an OOPArt?"
"It is. Good eye, noticing that."
"Because the Relic's power was layered onto the spear."
Relics could be [Imbued] under special conditions, but normally you couldn't imbue one onto something.
If it was even possible, it would only work with an OOPArt that had strong compatibility.
"My Relic is [Spiral]."
"Wait, what? That Relic?"
"Spiral, as in helix?"
When I said that, Mineha's eyes went wide.
"Oh, you figured it out fast. I can make the flow of power spiral like a whirlpool."
"So it's like wind?"
"That's what you'd think, but it's heavier and more powerful than wind."
"Fair enough... it definitely has some punch to it."
The flow of power. Spiral motion, I guess you'd call it.
Even so, all three kobolds had been crushed, torn apart, and pierced clean through.
Incredible. So this is Spiral.
Fortunately, kobolds are made of cobalt ore, so there wasn't anything gross about it.
Why ore-based monsters look like werewolves, I have no idea.
"By the way, where are the other two?"
"...They haven't been found yet."
"I see."
Mineha slung her spear at her hip, shifted back to her original form, and perched on my shoulder.
Then we set off walking. I suddenly remembered something.
"Oh, uh, you both have return stones, don't you?"
"That thing. Right, right. We did have those... that thing."
"That thing, yeah."
Both of them responded with suspiciously flat reactions.
And from the way they reacted, I could already tell they didn't have them.
"What's wrong?"
In response to my question, Ax answered with a wry smile.
"Ideally, it's a Legacy every delver should have. But it's expensive."
"Right, isn't it."
"Even Mineha doesn't have one?"
"That's right. You'd need to be around Rank II to keep one on hand regularly."
Rank III, huh? But Pakira and the others had them.
"It's a consumable, but it's still a Legacy, so..."
"I'd like to have at least one."
"There are times I think it'd really come in handy. But it's expensive."
Ax grumbled out his wish.
Well, I got it—it's useful in situations exactly like this, but it costs a fortune.
"I see. So you don't have one."
"Yeah, sorry about that. By the way, Wof—can I ask you something?"
"What is it?"
"Normally, even asking would be rude and there'd be no need. But with things the way they are, I'm going to ask."
"? What do you want to know?"
I wondered if there was anything about me worth being so formal about.
Sensing my confusion, Ax paused for a beat before speaking.
"I want to know about your Relic."
"I'd like to know too."
"Sure. My Relic is [Danger Discernment]. I can discern danger by color and dots."
"Color and dots?"
"White means safe. Red means danger. Black means death. That's it. Most enemies show up as red."
"So that means you can detect things too?"
"Yep. At close range, I can even see through walls."
"What the heck."
"That's... a pretty great Relic for a delver."
Ax murmured, sounding impressed.
I hear that a lot.