Chapter 118: Rational and Improvised Idea

"...Seriously? You’ve got to be shitting me..." Nio glares at Typhon.

"If you don’t like it, you can stay naked. You’re not obligated to wear my clothes," Typhon says as she slips into an elegant black dress. Though she’s barefoot and wearing no undergarments, she didn’t have time to pull much out of her inventory before it started working again and then stopped right after.

"...I know... but I feel like you did this on purpose." While Typhon wears something super elegant, what she managed to pull out for Nio was an oversized café-au-lait hoodie and a black collar.

The hoodie is big enough that it works almost like a dress, reaching halfway down Nio’s thighs. It covers her decently and gives her a cute, casual look, but the collar—Nio feels it’s offensive, yet she still wears it because it’s a frustratingly good item.

"Why the hell do you have a collar with instant-barrier magic? That’s such a good spell, equipped on a collar!" Instant-barrier items are incredibly valuable because they protect the user from attacks they can’t see or react to.

"Because a collar takes up little space, it’s discreet, and it doesn’t occupy fingers or ears where I could put important rings and earrings."

"Ngghh!!" Nio lets out a weird sound of frustration, because the logic is sound. Instant-defense items are more worthwhile when they’re discreet and don’t take up important slots.

"Okay, okay, I’ll just have to accept this as it is... at least the hoodie is comfortable and not indecent... though... I do feel a little offended that I’m so small your casual clothes turn into a dress on my body..." Nio glances at Typhon’s chest and then at her own.

"..." Typhon thinks Nio looks absolutely adorable in that simple hoodie, and the truth is she could have pulled out a set of clothes in Nio’s size that would have been far more appropriate, but she preferred to grab something that would be more visually appealing to herself.

She even could have grabbed more items if she hadn’t wasted time thinking about what to pick for Nio to wear.

"Now that we have clothes, how about you tell me how we get out of the first floor? I have the feeling we’ve been walking for days and haven’t gotten anywhere—"

"We have gotten somewhere. The thing is, there’s only green flowers and endless expanse. And yes, I walked in a perfectly straight line, so we’ve covered a lot of ground. As for time—it actually hasn’t even been five minutes."

"W-What!? Impossible!"

"Time doesn’t work normally here, and it’s different on each floor. In terms of walking, we’ve been walking for two weeks, seven hours, thirty-three minutes, and forty-two seconds."

"But in terms of real time, it’s only been five minutes. Which isn’t bad. For our bodies, it’s like we’ve only walked for five minutes. It reduces fatigue and the need for rest."

"...Yeah, but I’m still hungry," Nio says in a whiny tone.

"Naturally. Even if there’s no need to eat in hell, the sensation of hunger still exists. If you want something to eat, why not try the flowers? They’re tasteless, but it should distract your mind."

"You’re dodging my question. I don’t want to eat flowers. Do you think I’m some kind of cow that grazes on flowers and grass? Just tell me how we get out of here. This place is starting to make me feel strange." Nio has begun to feel watched and oppressed.

Not because there’s actually something there, but because this infinite void combined with the black sky creates a disturbing sensation of absolute solitude—yet at the same time, the feeling that there’s something more, as if something is hidden within the darkness.

"Hmmm... seems we haven’t found it yet..."

"Haven’t found what yet?" Nio asks in response to Typhon’s murmur.

"We’re looking for the door to the next floor. It can be either in the sky or on the ground. I’ve seen it about four times, but all of them were in the sky, and it’s impossible to climb up to their height."

"W-Wait, door? What door? I haven’t seen anything?"

"...It’s not literally a door. It’s a tiny fissure, like a deformed point in space. Most people can’t see it, but my eyes are different from most, so I can. The only way out of the first floor is through these doors, but they only appear either on the ground hidden among the flowers or in the sky where you can’t reach."

"Ohhh... wait, so without you here I’d be stuck on the first floor!!"

"Probably not. You’d eventually sense them, but it would take you a long time to notice... we’re different from most. They release magic, so it’s easy to feel considering our power..." Typhon looks up at the sky, spotting another fissure, but it’s another one neither of them can reach.

"Couldn’t we reach it if we made a human ladder?" When Nio asks this, Typhon looks at her like Nio’s being an idiot.

"Hey!! Don’t look at me like that!! I meant like, I climb on your back and fly, and then when we’re close you try to lift me against gravity. I mean, if you have enough strength it would work, right? I wouldn’t have to rely on flight magic or my wings trying to lift my own body, while you’d be lighter since you’re a few meters below me."

"...That... actually isn’t a bad idea. Flawed, but not entirely useless. If we find one that isn’t too high, it would indeed be possible..." Typhon looks at the fissure she’s seeing and calculates the distance based on the position between the ground and it.

"I see one, and I think your horns could touch it. Want to try? It’ll probably hurt you a lot. I estimate the weight from the distance in meters would be equivalent to—"

"Shhh!! Don’t say it. Don’t make me give up before I try. I want to get out of this floor already. The feeling of being watched gives me a certain disgust, plus my eyes hurt from staring at these damn green flowers."

"...Fine. Climb onto my back." Typhon kneels with her back to Nio, who mounts her. When she stands up, Nio spreads her wings and balances with her feet on top of Typhon, lifting herself up. Typhon holds her legs to keep Nio steady and starts walking, stopping above the "door."

"You can start flying from here." Nio beats her wings, lifting Typhon, and rises several meters. Gravity immediately starts pushing her down. Typhon uses flight magic to keep pushing Nio upward.

"..." But while Nio keeps looking up trying to see this so-called door, Typhon is also looking up—staring at Nio’s intimate area hidden beneath the loose hoodie.

’I made the right call not grabbing any underwear for her... she looks so tight and soft. Cute too.’

"Nio, look forward and let your horn touch it. If you try to raise your hand, it’ll be crushed." Nio starts to feel like her neck is going to snap. The gravitational weight on her head is far greater than on the rest of her body, and her horn vibrates from the sheer gravitational force pressing down on them.

"O-Okay..." The ascent becomes extremely slow until Nio’s horn finally touches the "door," and both of them are pulled inside, successfully escaping the first floor of hell thanks to Nio’s not-so-idiotic idea.