Side Story 2: Undersea Dungeon 06

The dungeon was exactly as Silent Sea had described—extremely cramped. The paths were barely two meters wide, and the ceiling was only a little over two meters tall. Even for humans, the taller adventurers would have a hard time navigating this place.

This made it impossible to swing a sword, and careless use of magic would end up hitting allies.

Walking through the corridors posed no issue, but this was way too cramped for proper combat.

Thus, we decided to take our time and proceed slowly, usually with Fran leading the way. However, that job fell to Urushi this time.

Urushi could search for traps and enemies with dark magic and his trusty nose. I was still the one to disarm those traps, but my telekinesis allowed me to handle that job from behind Urushi.


「Oh? So you managed to detect that one? Not bad.」

「Woof.」


「What was that? Even I managed to spot that trap! Pay attention!」

「Kuhn.」


「What!? I didn’t even notice there was a trap here. Good eye!」

「Woof woof!」


Silent Sea shrunk down to the size of a small dog and followed behind Urushi. He was very talkative, scolding or praising Urushi for every little thing he did.

Urushi went through a rollercoaster of emotions, his face shifting constantly. He seemed genuinely happy to be guided by his senior among divine beast kin.

This was different from the total loyalty Urushi displayed towards me and Fran, but he clearly treated Silent Sea with deference, like falling in line behind a leader.

「Woof!」

「Indeed. You dealt with that beast skillfully. Well done.」

Urushi was probably saying something like, “Hehe, how was that just now, Silent Sea-san!?”

Silent Sea always gave praise where it was due, so Urushi’s excitement only went up. This guy really knows how to motivate Urushi.

「Woof woof!」

「Correct. Those are the stairs to the second floor.」

『By the way, how many floors does this place have?』

「My kin has previously reached basement floor three, but no further. We were forced to give up and turn back.」

Apparently, six of Leviathan’s kin had challenged the dungeon, but disarming the traps ate up all of their time. They eventually decided it wasn’t feasible to delve any deeper.

The traps and monsters rise in difficulty the deeper you go, and there was a huge spike between B1 and B2.

Their party had a kraken called ‘Raging Sea’ who was in charge of disarming traps, and according to them, advancing further would be nearly impossible without the support of a trap expert.

That was one reason we proceeded through the dungeon on high alert, but then…

「Kyan!」

『U-Urushi! Are you okay!?』

「Kuhn…」

「This is exactly what I warned you about! You’ve repeated the same mistake you made on the first floor! Are you purposely stepping on the traps to make me laugh?」

「W-Woof woof!」

「You say it is unfair to place a trap right at the entrance? This is a dungeon! There is no such thing as ‘unfair’ in here!」

「Kyan!」

Urushi triggered yet another trap, and this time, it was a pretty dangerous one. Countless spears shot out from the floor and ceiling with lightning speed, and they were crackling with electricity.

Shadow teleportation allowed Urushi to just barely escape, but this would be extremely difficult to avoid for most people.

Well, I get where Urushi is coming from. A trap on the very first step down the stairs? That would be unthinkable in land dungeons.

It’s not a hard rule, but dungeons have a sort of unspoken understanding. The first room is supposed to be a safe zone without traps.

It seems that doesn’t apply to this undersea dungeon though. Perhaps dungeons have some sort of rule or structural differences between land and sea.

Having messed up again, Urushi hung his head and started walking dejectedly. Meanwhile, Silent Sea shouted in a flustered tone.

「W-Wait! I was too harsh on you. Everyone makes mistakes in the beginning. What really matters is being more careful next time.」

「Woof?」

「Exactly. It’s important to grow by learning from your mistakes.」

「Woof!」

「That’s the spirit. Keep it up.」

What a caring guy! He may act all high and mighty on the surface, but he’s always looking out for others. Like a tsundere noble or something.

As we continued through the dungeon, I decided to ask something that had been on my mind.

『Hey, Silent Sea. What species of monster are you?』

Earlier, he mentioned that Leviathan’s kin included a kraken, which made it sound like Leviathan was taking various sea monsters under his command.

However, I’ve never seen a monster like Silent Sea before.

「Hmm? Me? I was created to be able to master several forms, so I do not possess any specific species name. Appraisal should label me as “Leviathan Kin”.」

『Created? By Leviathan?』

「Of course. It would quite difficult to guard all of the world’s seas without the ability to produce subordinates.」

The oceans are wide and include diverse environments, so subordinates specifically adapted to each of those environments became necessary. Thus, the gods granted Leviathan the ability to create special magical beasts possessing homunculi and chimera-like features.

「I am currently in the sea wolf form.」

『Oh, I do remember monster called a sea wolf, but… Don’t you look pretty different from them?』

Sea wolves, true to their name, were monsters that resembled wolves. They were characterized by being good swimmers and possessing the ability to run on top of water surfaces.

Silent Sea’s tail and dorsal fin did resemble that of a sea wolf, but sea wolves had fur covering their bodies. Their eyes should be bigger and fish-like.

「Sea wolf is only the base before I was infused with the power of my master. Well, I suppose it would be more accurate to say I am half sea wolf, half sea serpent.」

「I see.」

「I have several other forms as well, so it’s not like any one of them is my true form. I find that this one is the most comfortable though.」

Leviathan’s kin were apparently created by fusing a base creature with traits from other species and Leviathan’s own genetic material.

That’s super cool! As a man, I can’t help but wonder what Leviathan’s other subordinates look like! Maybe they even have a shark!

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