小嫂子的味道

It was getting dark, thus making it harder to walk, to deal with this I used my elemental magic and created a fireball to illuminate the surroundings.

The area came to light. Surprisingly, this wasn\'t as big of a tunnel as I was expecting it to be. The width was around 7 to 8 meters and the overall passageway was shaped in an oval design.

There wasn\'t much to say, as nothing major happened during this time. Challes was angry because I\'d left the adventurers to die, but not that it mattered to me, but due to that, he was behaving rather not normally.

It was his body language that told me, instead of his usual walking style, he was taking short, reserved steps. His hands hanging down in ease and his head tilted, eyes staring at the ground. It was as if he was angry but didn\'t want to show it since there was nothing he could do about it.

And I would be lying if I said I wasn\'t pleased by the sight. In this journey, I\'d almost forgotten about pleasure, even if someone around me was in pain, I either didn\'t notice or it did not affect me that way because I was not the one causing the pain.

But here right now, Challes\'s pain was something I could enjoy, He was also suffering mental pain rather than physical pain—and I\'d to say I have a special spot for that.

Taking a moment and living this moment in the present, I realized that it\'s been quite a while since the time I had my mind release dopamine after seeing someone else\'s suffering.

I didn\'t break into a grin, I was trying not to—I had the expressions under control. But while it was true that my thoughts were getting blurry because of the dopamine rising in my head, I was still aware of the situation.

Aware of what was going on with me. Aware of the fact that my other side was influencing my actions. Knowing that I had neither the time nor the mindset to push those thoughts back. Aware that I had no other option other than savor Challes\'s pain while I can.

***

After a walk of around 40 minutes, we reached an open compartment, I shone the fireball\'s light forward, and it came back after reflecting on the walls. This wasn\'t especially a big area, and I soon knew why.

In the back of the area, on the back wall, was a small black stone door. I moved forward, got close to the door, and stopped.

"Open it," I said, the command was directed at Challes.

He gave it a thought, and it was clear that he didn\'t want to do it—the reason was simple, as this might very well be another trap. He was hesitating, so I pulled him from the chains that held him, he stumbled a few steps forward due to the force and then took a few on his own.

Standing before the black stone door, he gulped as he raised his hand. The door didn\'t have a knob on it, but it did have a handle. He opened his palm, brought it close to the handle, and held it…

Nothing happened. A little smile of relief washed over his face as he applied force and pushed the door open. However, it wasn\'t that easy. The door was fully made of stone and was thus heavy. He had to lean on the door to push it, only then it slid backward and opened with a grinding sound.

"Huff…this was one tough door," he said as he wiped the seat off of his forehead, but it was most likely that he spoke to himself. Considering that, he was angry with me.

I hushed him to the side and entered through the gate, Challes behind me. I made the size of my fireball bigger since the new area was big and a small light source was not enough for it.

The light fell on the surroundings, and I was able to see what seemed to be the fifth floor of the labyrinth.

This was different from any other floors I\'d been on before. All of it was made with what I think was obsidian and the shape of the floor was not fixed, unlike the others. It was uneven.

In some places the ceiling was high and in some spots, it was so low that you could hit your head, the same could be said was the ground and walls. There were rough rocks, pits, and many boulders spread around. It was like this floor was a different cave in itself.

I moved around a bit and yeah I was carefree because I knew that this floor didn\'t have any monsters. With the light of the fireball, I saw something that made it clear to me that we did use a shortcut. On the other side of the floor was a big metallic door that was closed; you could tell by looking that it was the door from where I was, and other people were "supposed" to enter.

"A little cheating doesn\'t count," I said under my breath, turned in a different direction, and began walking.

I\'d said that there weren\'t any monsters on this floor, and it was because the item I was searching for was here, so rather than being a floor used like a hurdle, this was more the final stage where you get your reward. But that doesn\'t change the fact that walking in here was a mother\'s mess.

The ground was so awkwardly shaped that it was almost impossible to walk without tripping over, bending your leg, or getting a sprain. And I\'m saying this with experience…after falling over three times, and falling over my hand so hard that I thought I broke a bone or something.

Fortunately, there was nothing broken, and Challes also tripped a few times, so I was convinced that it was the land\'s fault and not me being out of energy since I had not slept and this was my third day working continually—four if you count the day I was kidnapped by Challes.

But it was all worth it, since I soon found the place I was looking for. Under a large stone spike that was coming down from the ceiling, was placed a translucent crystal, the size of a small boulder. And in the crystal was stuck a sword.

"Found it… finally," words left my mouth almost on their own as I stood before the crystal and the sword.

"Is this what you were searching for all along?" Challes asked in a rather surprised voice, there was also a sense of disbelief in it. "You did all that! You killed innocent people! Just for this old and dirty sword?" he said.

I didn\'t reply to him. I don\'t want an argument and waste my time and energy to convince him of what I believe is right. Because he was not wrong, after all. The sword in front of me looked less like a real metal sword, it was made of stone and very mossy and old stone.

But that was just it. This was a sword Leon acquired in the novel, and I\'d to say it continued a great deal of power; power that I needed to survive the calamity without losing any of my family members.

However, there were far more powerful weapons than this one, so why didn\'t I go for them? Well, firstly, I couldn\'t since he gets most of them after the calamity. And secondly… I\'ll get into that later.

"Pull it out," I said to Challes as I unleashed him from the chains by making them disintegrate.

He was surprised at first, "You sure you want to leave me free like this, and get a sword moreover? You know that I can attack you with it, don\'t you?". He looked at me in anticipation.

"Oh? Is that so? And do you have the mana to do that? Sure, you can swing that sword at me, but that\'s about it. And I think you\'re saying this while being aware that I can magic way quicker than you could swing your sword."

During all these days I\'d come to understand that he was not lying about losing his mana, this was confirmed when I had unleashed him during the fight with Ents but all he did was dodge their attacks and even failed in that. He was in no condition to face me, and even if he had all his mana…it doesn\'t matter at this point.

He didn\'t say anything after that, it was as if he was aware of his powerlessness but asked about it anyway.

Passing me a sarcastic smile, and then turned toward the sword. I\'d also make his handcuffs and leg cuffs vanish, so he shouldn\'t have any problem taking the sword out.

He moved close, stood before the crystal, raised his hands, and brought them close to the hilt of the sword. Then he changed his position after thinking about something, put his right leg on the crystal, and then got ready to pull the sword out. It was clear that a little pulling power was required here.

He gripped the hilt of the sword, and I created a transparent wall of ice in front of me.

I saw light, then a sound, then flares, flesh, blood, and internal organs flying into the air, toward me and crashing with my ice wall.

The sword filled Challes with an impressive amount of energy, his body cracked and shone through them, burned, and then exploded.

A few minutes later, I realized that I made a mistake… I should\'ve created a roof with ice too. His body exploded so masterfully that it literally created a blood rain and blood fell on me from above too.

"It wasn\'t a bad idea, after all...keeping him with me and all," I mumbled to myself.