Chapter 300

Chapter 300: Chapter 300

"Today was really fun."

Syr sat beside Kiriya on a bench by the street, their fingers intertwined as she smiled brightly.

"I wish every day could be like this."

Kiriya scratched his head.

"Sorry, I—"

"It’s okay."

Syr gently interrupted him.

"I know you want to become stronger. You want to climb higher and see what lies beyond."

She raised her face and looked at him with soft, doe-like eyes.

"I... I won’t become a burden to you."

Her voice grew quieter.

"So please don’t leave me behind, okay?"

As she spoke, her lips parted slightly in an obvious invitation.

Kiriya did not hesitate.

He leaned in and kissed her.

...

After spending a full day relaxing, Kiriya and Jeanne prepared another large supply of provisions and set out for the Dungeon once more.

Ryuu accompanied them as usual.

Unlike her normal calm demeanor, however, the elf was clearly in a bad mood today.

And the deeper they traveled into the Dungeon, the more obvious it became.

"Um... Ryuu, are you all right?"

Jeanne quietly moved closer and asked.

"..."

Ryuu glanced at Kiriya walking ahead of them.

"I’m fine."

Her voice was noticeably stiff.

Inside her head, however, a tiny version of Kiriya was being repeatedly beaten into the ground.

’He said he was taking me somewhere secluded, but... isn’t this still just the Dungeon?!’

She had been looking forward to it so much.

She had imagined some breathtaking hidden paradise, followed by a wonderfully romantic date...

And instead—

This?

With frustration steadily accumulating inside her, Ryuu desperately needed somewhere to vent.

Unfortunately for the monsters along the way, they became her targets.

Anything that so much as poked its head out received the full attention of a Level 5 Ryuu before it could even scream.

Kiriya watched her slaughter her way through the Dungeon with murderous intensity and could not figure out what was wrong.

He asked Jeanne.

She had no idea either.

When he tried asking Ryuu herself, all he received was a completely emotionless stare.

Kiriya wisely shut his mouth.

Eventually, the group reached Floor 37 and arrived at the hidden water source beneath the Colosseum.

Only then did Kiriya turn toward the two women.

"Ready? We’re leaving."

Jeanne nodded.

Ryuu, however, looked confused.

"Aren’t we heading into the Deep Floors?"

"No."

Kiriya shook his head.

"Floor 60 has already been occupied by those Corrupted Spirit clones, so we can’t go there right now. And the floors around the fifties aren’t going to help us grow much in the short term."

He smiled.

"So we’re going somewhere new. Somewhere that’ll help us improve much faster."

"What?"

Ryuu’s curiosity immediately overrode some of her irritation.

Was there really somewhere in this world better for raising their abilities than the Dungeon?

The Great Tree Labyrinth?

Or perhaps the Valley of Dragons?

"Do you trust me?"

Kiriya held out his hand toward her.

Ryuu looked at Jeanne, who had already taken Kiriya’s other hand, then rolled her eyes.

Why was this idiot still asking such a stupid question after everything they had been through?

"All right, hold on tight. We’re off!"

Kiriya called out cheerfully.

Space distorted around the three of them.

Then their figures completely disappeared from the depths of the Dungeon.

Ryuu’s vision blurred.

By the time everything became clear again, she found herself standing in the middle of a vast wilderness.

Snow stretched as far as the eye could see.

Bitter winds screamed across the frozen land like steel knives scraping against bone.

An ordinary person exposed to temperatures dozens of degrees below freezing would probably become stiff with cold within a minute or two.

Fortunately, all three of them were powerful enough to possess considerable resistance to temperatures like these.

They also had Salamander Wool.

Once properly dressed, the freezing environment became far more comfortable.

"Where... are we?"

Ryuu looked upward.

Thick layers of leaden clouds hung several kilometers above them.

No chamber in the Dungeon had a ceiling remotely that high.

Which meant this probably was not the Dungeon at all.

"This place is—"

Kiriya had just begun explaining when a shrill sound tore through the sky.

Something was approaching at tremendous speed.

Shhk—!

Sword in hand, Kiriya vanished from the ground and appeared in midair.

He swung directly at the front of the descending shadow.

BOOM!

A severed head crashed into the snow.

Blood sprayed through the air as the enormous body followed, slamming heavily into the ground and revealing its true appearance.

It was a gigantic bird-like beast.

Its wings stretched more than ten meters across, while its two claws were razor-sharp, looking almost as though they had been forged from the finest steel.

Ice-blue feathers covered its body, with several brilliantly colored plumes growing from the crown of its head.

The combination gave it an unusual appearance—beautiful yet unmistakably vicious.

Its presence was powerful.

Judging by the standards of the Dungeon, it was roughly comparable to the dragon-type monsters around Floor 53.

Around Level 5.

"It... didn’t disappear?"

Ryuu was genuinely surprised.

In their world, every monster originated from the Dungeon.

Once killed, almost all of their bodies turned to ash, leaving behind only the magic stone and occasional drop items.

It was practically an ironclad rule.

Yet here, the monster’s corpse remained completely intact.

"Are we... even still in our own world?"

Ryuu turned toward Kiriya and asked seriously.

"No."

Kiriya admitted it without hesitation.

"This isn’t the world where the Dungeon exists."

He then gave Ryuu a simplified explanation of his ability.

By the time he finished, the elf looked thoroughly stunned.

"A strange bloodline... the ability to travel between different worlds, challenge powerful opponents, and gather resources from multiple worlds..."

Ryuu slowly began putting everything together.

"So that’s the secret behind how you became strong so quickly."

At last, Kiriya’s completely unreasonable growth rate made sense.

While other adventurers could spend one day training in the Dungeon, Kiriya could potentially spend a week—or even a month—fighting powerful opponents in another world during the same period available to him.

Of course the amount of excelia he accumulated would be completely different.

"Then Jeanne..."

Ryuu turned toward the blond woman beside him.

"I came from another world too."

Jeanne smiled.

"That explains it."

Ryuu nodded.

She had always wondered how someone as talented and powerful as Jeanne could have remained completely unknown.

If Jeanne came from an entirely different world, then it made perfect sense.

"Ryuu-san, I just told you my biggest secret."

Kiriya smiled and lightly tapped the tip of her nose with one finger.

"So? Feeling a little better now?"

"When was I ever in a bad mood?"

Ryuu had actually been delighted by the trust he had shown her, but his teasing immediately made embarrassment and irritation flare up again.

Her stubborn refusal to admit anything made both Kiriya and Jeanne laugh.

The cheerful sound carried through the frozen wilderness.

"Huh? There are actually people out here?"

A clear female voice suddenly interrupted their laughter.

The three turned toward the source.

A girl who looked around sixteen or seventeen stood not far away, curiously studying them.

She was tall and slender, with features so refined they seemed almost sculpted by an artist.

Long ice-blue hair fell to her waist, tied loosely near the end with a simple leather cord that added a touch of youthful charm.

Standing amid the endless snow, she looked like the most brilliant ice-blue rose blooming in winter.

’She’s adorable...’

Jeanne immediately felt an urge to hug her, though she restrained herself.

Ryuu admired the girl as well, but her gaze carried much more caution.

The reason was simple.

They were standing in a frozen wasteland, yet this girl wore nothing more than a T-shirt and shorts and looked as comfortable as though she were lounging at home.

That alone was abnormal.

More importantly, the attack they had just experienced proved that dangerous beasts roamed freely across this region.

Yet the girl wandered around without the slightest concern, her complexion healthy and her condition perfectly relaxed.

That already said plenty.

This girl was strong.

"Hey."

The ice-blue-haired girl spoke casually.

"My name is Esdeath. Strangers, tell me your names."

"Jeanne."

"Ryuu Lion."

"Kiriya."

The three introduced themselves in turn.

"Kiriya."

Esdeath nodded.

"Not a bad name."

Her gaze shifted toward the blood dripping from his sword, then she pointed toward the corpse lying in the snow.

"You killed that Danger Beast?"

"That’s right."

Kiriya flicked the blood from his blade and returned it to its sheath.

"You killed a First-Class Danger Beast... with one strike."

Esdeath’s smile became dazzling.

"You’re strong."

The moment Jeanne and Ryuu saw that smile, however, a bad feeling rose simultaneously in both of them.

Sure enough, Esdeath planted her hands on her hips the very next second.

"I’ve decided."

Her grin widened.

"From now on, you belong to me!"