Side Story 2: Undersea Dungeon 11

「Nom nom.」

「Mm. Nice and cold!」

「Woof!」

The fallen ice dragon was being devoured by two wolves—well, one of them had turned into a scylla.

Scyllas were monsters with a very bizarre appearance. A bunch of octopus-like tentacles growing down from the massive head of a sea wolf, and the torso of a blonde woman riding on top of it all.

Apparently, the wolf head could be used to consume food while the human part did the speaking. In this way, Silent Sea could chew on the dragon’s hind leg while engaging in conversation with us.

『H-Hey, Silent Sea… you were a woman all along?』

「Hmm? You hadn’t noticed? Well, I suppose it might be difficult to tell unless you were the same species, or a fellow woman.」

「?」

Uh, Fran is looking pretty confused too… Honestly, nothing about Silent Sea’s appearance indicated gender until now. Her manner of speaking even seemed a bit masculine to me.

That said, her voice was androgynous—neither distinctly male nor female. One could easily interpret it as belonging to a striking gentleman, or perhaps a cool and refined woman.

I guess I assumed Silent Sea was male because of her first appearance as a really cool-looking wolf.

「Either way, the kin of divine beasts do not have much sense of gender to begin with. Without my scylla blood, I would have been born completely genderless. That said, the female form is quite useful for communicating with humankind. I used my more comfortable sea wolf form when meeting you because of the presence of divine beast kin.」

『I-I see…』

The scylla form is useful for communicating with humans? Is it really better than a sea wolf? I feel like plenty of people would find scyllas disgusting…

「Human males tend to prefer my scylla form, but females are the opposite. It seems they find my sea wolf form “cuter” or something like that.」

Ah, so it’s pretty much just plain lust? The essential parts were covered by hair, but the humanoid part of a scylla was just the naked body of an attractive woman. I can imagine guys drooling over her.

As for the sea wolf form… Well, I guess it could be considered cute if she shrunk down to a puppy?

「Woof woof!」

「Hahaha! So you prefer my sea wolf form? Because it looks cooler? Flattery will not get you anything. Here, have some more meat.」

「Woof woof!」

Oh. Urushi seemed to be acting like a gentleman, but it seems he just did it for the food. Now he’s wagging his tail and munching on meat. It’ll be a long time before he becomes a true gentlewolf.

「Master, this meat isn’t cooking at all.」

『Huh? Wait… When did you…?』

Before I realized it, Fran had started roasting a chunk of ice dragon meat on a grill. She must have set it up while I was talking to Silent Sea.

Dragon meat was a true delicacy, so I could understand her impatience. But cooking it wasn’t going to be easy.

『I’ve heard that the flesh of an ice dragon is infused with the ice attribute, so an ordinary flame won’t work. You need to simmer it for a long time or use a mana-imbued flame instead.』

Apparently it could also be eaten raw, like frozen sashimi, but eating too much would wreck your stomach. Like when people overeat shaved ice or ice cream.

『I’ll cook it properly once we’re out of here.』

「Got it.」

『Here, make do with this for now.』

「Nn!」

I handed her some tandoori chicken skewers. Well, they were grilled with curry powder, and Fran will enjoy practically anything as long as it’s curry-flavored…

After a short break, we stepped into the sixth floor.

「This is… rather large.」

「W-Woof.」

Silent Sea and Urushi sounded astonished, and honestly, Fran and I shared the sentiment. The sixth floor was an entirely different design from everything so far.

The floor was a single room even bigger than the area where we fought the ice dragon. The ceiling was about 200 meters high, but the width was overwhelming—probably over 500 meters wide. I say “probably,” because we couldn’t even see the far end.

Water covered the ground, and a thick steam clouded out the air. Visibility was just terrible.

Not to mention the currents. The chamber seemed to be covered in fast currents in knee-deep water, strong enough that even Fran might lose her footing if she was careless.

To top it all off, a massive shadow loomed in the very center of the room. Something as big as a small mountain was moving behind the curtain of steam.

「It’s coming!」

『Take to the air!』

「Nn!」

An ultra-fast blast of water tore through the steam, and it wasn’t just one of them. Countless water projectiles rained down on us at a supersonic speed.

『Tch! That is some insane power! Just blocking one shot with a barrier drained a ton of mana!』

「Shah! Hah!」

Fran dodged most of them, only slashing through the ones about to hit us. Even so, it took a decent chunk of my durability.

Each shot packed a punch. A direct hit would deal serious damage even to Fran. Worse, the barrage only grew fiercer with time.

Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom…!

It covered the entire area with water bullets, so we escaped using a combination of teleportation and flight. In the meantime, we tried to observe the enemy and figure out its identity, but to no avail.

The constant barrage made it impossible for us to get any closer.

How long could our foe keep this up? Were they about to reach their limit, or was this only just the beginning?

Should we ignore the risks and charge in, or try to wait it out? As we hesitated with our decision, the rain of projectiles came to a sudden halt.

「Do not forget about us!」

「Grrr!」

Silent Sea and Urushi went on the offensive. Apparently, they had shrunk down so they could sneak up close, before suddenly transforming into max size and clamping down with their jaws.

「OROROOOOOOOHHHHH!」

「Nrgh! How formidable!」

「Grr!」

The monster unleashed a surge of mana from its entire body to shake off the two giant beasts. That ended up scattering the surrounding steam as well.

Now we finally had a good view of our opponent.

『A blue… kraken? No, more like a giant jellyfish?』

「It has lots of legs.」

『So it was shooting water at us from the tips of those tentacles.』

With that many limbs, I can understand how it managed to bombard us with projectiles. Given its mana capacity, a single misstep might lead to grievous wounds.

「Looks strong.」

But Fran only grinned with delight. She was exhilarated at the chance to face a worthy foe. Truly, I could not ask for a more dependable partner!

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