Floor 41.
There was a river here, like something out of a water dungeon, and sure enough, sahuagin attacked in massive swarms.
But no matter how many of them ganged up, small fry were still small fry. They were no match for us.
"I'm suddenly in the mood for fish."
Narcissus murmured, gazing at the mountain of sahuagin corpses charred by Agaro's Annihilation.
"Um, woof. Yes. I'm getting hungry too!"
"Right. Why did you just bark?"
"Wof?"
"You can seriously say that after looking at this…"
Agaro was exasperated. I thought the same.
Wanting to eat grilled fish after staring at a mountain of roasted sahuagin corpses — that was something else.
Narcissus said to us.
"Wof. 'Doom Sword.' I want to eat delicious grilled fish."
"Um, um, um, I'm getting hungry."
"That doesn't really help me…"
"Still, you're right."
I was getting hungry too. Fighting was intense exercise. It burned a lot of calories.
Then Juicy perked up her dog ears and started wagging her tail so hard the wind blew.
Her eyes sparkled like the night sky despite it being daytime, and she sidled up to me, looking up at me from below.
"What is it, Juicy?"
"Um, um, um, Wof! Do you have dried meat?"
"I do. But didn't you want fish?"
"Um, um, um, um, woof! Woof-woof! I want dried meat!"
"O-okay, okay!"
She tugged on my clothes and pressed up against me, so I pulled a bundle of dried meat from my pouch.
A palm-sized chunk of meat with a pale pink sheen.
I unwrapped it and was about to cut it with my knife when she told me to just hand it over as-is.
"Woof! Thank you! Woof woof. Nom nom. Nom nom. Nom nom nom nom!"
Juicy squatted down, grabbed the dried meat chunk with both hands, and chomped right in.
That's not exactly how a marquis's daughter eats... Incidentally, Daga had turned into a knife and gone to sleep.
Business as usual. She sure lives by her own rules.
Narcissus came over, brimming with curiosity.
"What's 'nom nom'? Wof, do you have dried meat?"
"Still have some. Want some? Oh, but the grilled fish was—"
"I'll eat it."
What happened to the fish? I pulled out another bundle of dried meat.
She wasn't going to ask for the whole chunk, obviously, so I sliced it with my knife.
I handed the cut piece to Narcissus.
"Oh, that looks good."
"Want some?"
"Yeah, sorry about that."
I handed Agaro a chunk of dried meat. That brought the total to three sticks.
But there's still more. So much more.
Making dried meat is my life's work — I've never let it slip.
The pouch holds a surprising amount, and my stock is always plentiful.
So Juicy — please, stop making that sad face. You look like the family dog who just found out there's no more.
That's really not a face a marquis's daughter should be making... Here, a fresh chunk of dried meat.
"Um, woof. Woof woof. More please, woof! Nom nom. Nom nom nom nom."
"More please, woof." She actually said that.
Narcissus is growling. What's gotten into her.
"It's embarrassing but it's delicious. Hold on — did I just say 'more please, woof'?"
"Nom nom. Nom nom nom. Nom nom nom. Wof?"
"Wof. This is better than the stuff from before."
"Why, thank you — I do put in the work day after day."
I slipped into my witch voice without thinking. Though things are a bit stagnant lately.
What I really want is cherry wood chips.
Wonder if there are any cherry trees somewhere. The dungeon might have some.
"This is making me want a drink..."
"Yeah, it does."
Yeah, I nod along, but I wonder if Ms. Narcissus can really drink alcohol.
Agaro seemed to think the same thing.
"Hold on, hold on. You're a minor, aren't you?"
"How rude. I'm 24!"
"No way!?"
"Really!?"
"Whoa!?"
We were stunned. 24 years old? Yeah, right.
"What a bunch of rude people."
Even if she said that... and then I noticed.
Juicy had already finished eating.
She looked like she wanted seconds, but three of those in one go couldn't be good for the body.
I gave her some tea, and she settled for a chewy white bread-bean.
After the break, we headed to the 42nd floor.
The 42nd floor was a forest.
There, a pack of dogs roamed — their bodies pitch white, with a single eye taking up more than half of their black faces.
"Uwa-owow-woof!"
"Fireball! Fireball! Fireball!"
"Sahagins, zombies, and now cyclops dogs!?"
A delver party was fighting the pack of those bizarre dog monsters.
The wolfman boy carried a sword and shield. The man had a spear. The woman, an elf, held a staff.
Two men, one woman. Just like Draca… They were putting up a good fight.
"Oh, so this area is the one-eye dogs' turf."
"Um, um, excuse me, what kind of monsters are one-eye dogs?"
"Silver-rank, mid-tier monsters. They have a Relic — a beam."
"So it shoots from their eyes?"
"That's right. You know your stuff."
"Their eyes are about the only place that looks like it could shoot something."
"Um, um, as expected of Wof!"
"What weird dogs."
Exactly. What even is a beam-shooting dog.
"They're monsters, so…"
"Oh, it fired!"
A streak of light shot from the one-eyed dog's single black eye.
The boy caught it perfectly on his shield.
Impressive. That shield — it looked like a small round iron buckler, but he took the hit flawlessly.
Could it be a Relic? Also, "boy" was relative — he was older than me.
Black hair, green eyes. Fierce-looking. Probably around sixteen.
"Hmm. Agaro, what should we do?"
The reason I didn't rush in to help right away was that it was a tough call.
When it's a commission to cull one-fang dogs, people sometimes think you're stealing their prey.
That kind of judgment call is tricky, so we held back and watched.
"The lot of them. They're fighting, but there are too many one-fang dogs."
"'Doom Sword.' They look like they're about to be overrun. What'll you do?"
If the one-fang dogs fired their beams all at once, they wouldn't stand a chance.
Agaro made the call.
"Let's go. If they die on us, the hangover will be terrible."
Shouldn't that be the morning after, though? Hearing that, Nashisesu, delighted, charged forward at full speed.
She turned Banish into a long-handled double-bladed axe and split a one-fang dog's head open.
"Uwah?"
After splitting it open, Nashisesu let out a strange sound. What was wrong?
"W-who are you?"
"Huh, no way. Purple hair and eyes... 'The Second Coming of Generous'!?"
"Is that Agaro of the 'Doom Sword' over there!?"
The delvers exclaimed one after another.
As expected of a first-rank delver. He really is famous.
"And that one's the hireling from Torquetam!?"
The man with the spear said. So Juicy was pretty well-known too.
Well, I'm a fifth-rank delver. In certain circles I'm unfortunately famous, but generally speaking, I'm a nobody.
This is how it should be. Yeah. This is fine.
— Banish!
I cancelled out the one-eyed dog's beam with Banish.
Then I drove Wood Flash through the bewildered one-eyed dog.
"Ugh!"
A weird yelp escaped me. It felt like stabbing a slippery eel.
Ah, so that's why Narcissus made that weird noise.
"Bwoof!?"
Juicy let out a weird bark too.
What even is this gooey, strange texture?
Three of the one-eyed dogs lined up and fired their beams.
The targets were Drika... the three delvers.
"Oh, quit it alreeeady!"
Agaro swung Flametongue. The dark blue flames of Doom spread out and wiped out the beams.
For some reason, all three turned toward me.
They fire their beams straight at me, full force.
They must have given it everything. The three beams merged into one—
Gonta
Beam.
What kind of thing is that to fire at someone. Seriously.
— Rave Move!
Like a dream come true —— I readied [Wood Flash], drew back my arm, and thrust forward in one clean motion.
I drove [Wood Flash] into the [Gonta
Beam
] and split it clean down the middle.
The momentum carried straight through, piercing and severing all three Ichigan Dogs like a scythe.
Mm. The feel of it is gross! Times three, no less!
The remaining Ichigan Dogs must've figured they couldn't win, because they started to run.
They were fast runners, and chasing them through the forest sounded like a hassle, so I let them go.
"You pierced right through that massive [Beam]!?"
"Come on. No way. That's basically an ultimate technique. Who even is that kid?"
"He's no ordinary hired hand!"
"For the record, he's a Rank V delver."
"Oh, pardon me. Is that so?"
"So that's how it was…"
"Sorry about that. So it is."
"Yep, that's right. Anyway, my name is W—"
Just as I was naturally sliding into my introduction…
"Ah, ahem. Woof. Woof woof! As expected of Master Wof!"
"Not bad, Wof. Why'd you bark just now?"
"Waf?"
"Not bad, Wof."
My name gets around before I can even introduce myself. Can't be helped, I suppose.
The instant I let out a dry chuckle, the color in the eyes of the three delvers changed as they looked at me.
They were trembling and staring right at me. What?
"Wof!? You're *that* Wof!? The 'Night Conquest King'...! That explains why you're so strong... So you actually existed..."
"The 'Night Challenge King' Wof — the one who supposedly brought down that 'Impregnable' dungeon!? No wonder, it all makes sense! So you really were out there..."
"The witch's apprentice who's close to Torquetam — no, who somehow wrapped all three of them around his finger — the 'Night King'... who is also the 'King of the Red Room'... Hydrangea's most wanted man, the one every woman wants to spend at least one night with — and that's— you— this kid? Wof... So you actually exist..."
They all spoke at once, sounding as though they'd just encountered some kind of monster.
"………………"
Ah— ah— ahahahahahahahaha—!!
Ha— ahahahahahahahahah—!!
Ah— ah— ahahahahahahahahaha—!!
A— ahahahahahahahahahahahah—!!
Phew.
Ah.
Let's just stop adding "King" to everything, shall we?