NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 22
Kikel and I dashed forward, swords and spears at the ready, scanning the surroundings for any potential ambushes—because who needs a boring escape plan, right?
“Hold on! Stop! Seriously!”
Meanwhile, Amy sprinted straight behind Bolton, a look on her face like she was ready to smash the altar into pieces! She seemed determined to talk him out of it… before things got messy.
Of course, Bolton was way faster than Amy, so it looked like she was about to play catch-up—bloop!
“At this point…!”
She had a last-ditch method to stop him.
“Heyyy!”
As the distance between them didn’t close, Amy bit her lip, narrowed her eyes like a hawk, and hurled the staff over her shoulder.
Whoooosh!
The wood staff, with metal on the end, flew through the air, making a terrifying whistling sound—
PAAAAANG!
And lodged itself into Bolton’s back like a bullet!
“Gah…!”
Bolton lost his balance and tumbled over, rolling like a tumbleweed after getting knocked on the back!
Good thing it wasn’t a spear, or we’d have a red rag instead of a guy on the ground. I was almost impressed!
“Nice job! Go get a spear too!”
Kikel actually clapped!
Anyway, while Bolton was down for the count, Kikel and I quickly rushed to keep a lookout next to him, and Amy showed up a second too late, panting and gripping Bolton’s shoulder tightly.
“Haa… Haa… Sorry for hitting your back, Priest Bolton, but you haven’t forgotten our deal, have you? That altar looks super suspicious! We gotta check it before smashing it to bits!”
“Ugh… I’m sorry… but…!”
Bolton replied with his head down. It was hard to tell if he was really sorry or just in pain.
“Kikel, I need to check that altar. Keep an eye on Bolton for now.”
Amy sighed, her order sounding nice, but really, she meant to make sure he didn’t go off on a wild adventure.
“Got it!”
“Hilde, stay close and keep watch for me. It looks clear, but you never know!”
“Sure, that sounds good.”
I slung my sword over my shoulder and moved beside Amy towards the altar.
—
“Up close, I can tell. This is evidence of undead worship.”
Amy squinted as she inspected the altar, then nodded confidently and explained what it was.
“Undead worship?”
“Yup! Undead means bodies that got back up, and since they can’t age and die, they get worshipped as if they’re immortal.”
She pointed at a stone table atop the altar, perfectly sized for a person to lie down on. It was stained black, and just standing nearby made us gag from the stench of blood and rotting flesh.
“Look at this inscription! ‘Mors bis non venit… Death doesn’t come twice.’ This is a saying of necromancers.”
Oh, that’s what it meant! I’d read about it in novels with Abyss Priests who loved to throw that phrase around.
“Which means this altar was used for rituals to raise the dead as undead.”
“Wait a second…”
“Exactly. I’m right. This dungeon has the touch of the Abyss Priest… Seems he’s absent for now.”
Amy let out a deep sigh, and I could see a hint of relief in her expression.
I felt the same way; if the Abyss Priest was there with us, we could’ve met our doom on the spot!
“…We gotta get out of here.”
In other words, we were about to get hit with an unprecedented crisis the second he returned.
“Right, this is beyond us. Let’s head back. The Guild, Magic Tower, and Church can handle this.”
Amy nodded as if agreeing.
Thank goodness! I was worried about what we’d do if we tried to catch the Abyss Priest too!
“Before that… let’s at least smash this table! Kikel! Come over here!”
“Did you call for me? I’m on it!”
Kikel, who had been keeping Bolton restrained, stepped over quickly.
Amy quickly summarized the situation and pointed at the table, commanding him to split it in half.
“Understood. Time to unleash my strength!”
With a nod, Kikel gripped his hand axe with both hands and raised it high, roaring as he swung down like the thunder!
“Kyaaaaaah!”
With the power of a lizardman behind the blow,
CRACK!
The axe sunk into the stone table as it let out a scream and shattered into pieces. Dried blood mixed with dust surged into the air!
“Good job.”
“Kachak!”
Amy, standing a step back, waved her sleeve to disperse the dust and bent down to reach for the debris.
“Let’s see…”
It looked like she was searching for something when she shouted—
“Oh, found it! I knew it would be here!”
She pulled out a book with a black cover. Just looking at it sent chills down the spine!
“A Grimoire. It looks pretty shabby… but it’s definitely a magic book. Alright, mission accomplished.”
Amy didn’t even flip through the pages but inspected the cover closely before shoving it into her backpack.
“Now let’s go. As fast as we can.”
Nobody objected.
“I also want to… break something too…!”
Bolton, feeling disappointed after only smashing the table and leaving the statues alone, chimed in…
“…With a spear?”
We couldn’t afford to let his fanatic destruction desire loose on some nice statues either.
“I think that’ll take about three hours?”
If the Abyss Priest came back home while we were doing that, we’d be the ones to end up as the new statues.
For these reasons, we rushed out of the room, darting towards the surface.
Kikel carried the weary Bolton, while I supported Amy on my back.
They might’ve felt a bit awkward, but this was the best solution.
Asking them to keep up with Kikel and me would’ve been just cruel!
—
Thank goodness it was way easier to ascend the dungeon than to climb back down!
Most monsters were taken care of, so there was no reason to waste time with fights…
“Here, isn’t this it?”
“Right! The right passage is faster!”
No need to wander through the maze, just retracing the shortest path I remembered!
Because of this, we faced the sun above ground just a couple of hours later.
“Haah…! Haah…! Water! Someone, water!”
“Caaahhh! Not even cold! Did I win against the cold?”
Of course, Kikel and I fell flat from fatigue the moment we hit the surface.
We’d covered a distance that had taken us over a day in just a fraction of the time, so being exhausted was kind of expected.
“Here, drink this.”
I downed all the water Amy handed me and, despite recently recovering from Bolton’s treatment, I pushed myself up, shaking my weak legs.
I wanted to flop down right there and fall asleep… but not yet. No time to relax.
We had to at least make it to a safer spot. We needed to reach the carriage waiting outside the ruins!
“…Can you move?”
“Kyashaa! Cold, so cold… the chill is too strong…!”
As Kikel complained about his fading warmth, he didn’t stop moving. I dragged my feet but kept walking too.
Luckily, the carriage wasn’t too far away, and somehow I managed to get there before dropping like a rock inside!
“Uh, what happened to you all? You look worse for wear…”
The waiting coachman jumped in surprise as he saw us, sweating and worn out.
“Don’t ask! Just go! Fast! As fast as possible.”
Amy interrupted him like a pro, leaning back in her seat.
“You guys are tired, right? Great job. Now take a break.”
She then patted her thigh with one hand while pulling at my head with the other—telling me to lay down on her thigh like a comfy pillow!
“Haah……”
Not having the energy to refuse, nor the mental capacity, I let out a quiet sigh and leaned over her thigh.
It was astonishingly soft.
Even with a helmet on, I could imagine the feeling.
Once I lay down like that, the urge to sleep crashed over me like a tidal wave, making it impossible to hold on!
“Yaaawn…”
With a big yawn, I shut my eyes and drifted off.