Run

“Y-you’re amazing…”

The lizard-man’s eyes darted in shock. That was the only impression he had of the instant offense and defense that had unfolded before him.

“Hey, lizard-man, you hurt? Sorry about your bread. I let those pieces of trash crush it.”

It was good too, Tooyama muttered as he wiped the blood spattered on his hands with the dead dog-men’s clothes.

“It was good… I see…”

The lizard-man closed his eyes, deeply moved, and swayed his tail. Tooyama was beginning to get a vague sense of this lizard’s personality.

“Ah, crap. This isn’t the time to take it easy.”

He suddenly realized it. They were right in the middle of enemy territory.

At that point, the surrounding adventurers finally understood the situation.

A slave had killed their comrades.

Their behavior was bad, and their reputation was not good either. Even so, they were still comrades in the same party, and the adventurers knew that they were skilled.

And yet, while they were jeering, and before someone could even settle the discussion about betting on how the slave would die, three of their comrades had died before they knew it.

“Ki… ll.”

Someone spoke. That voice trembled.

“Kill that slaveeeeeeeee!!”

It cracked. They were terribly panicked.

“Finally? Gray goblins react way better than you.”

Tooyama gave a fierce grin. His narrow eyes twisted in an ugly way.

“Y-you…”

“Don’t worry, lizard-san. I won’t hold back anymore.”

“Huh?”

The plan was already ready.

He had disposed of three irritating guys and felt refreshed, but they were in the middle of enemy territory.

There was a trick to it. A trick for facing a pack of monster species.

Impact.

Speed.

Disruption.

And then,

“Please, ————”

Tooyama muttered softly. He activated what he had already spread and extended throughout the area.

“Absolutely kill him!! Don’t let him escape! Our reputation’s on the line!! If we get defied by an adventure slave— Huh?”

“Wh-what is this, onee-chan?”

“El, stay by my side. Don’t move.”

The adventurers’ eyes opened wide.

Some lost their words, some feared, and some protected others.

Pure white.

A pure white haze shut out the adventurers—or rather, the entire area, slaves and all.

A pure white haze in which one could not see even a few dozen centimeters ahead. It was—

“Is this fog…? Why so suddenly?! Even if this is Herel’s Tower, we’re still only on the first layer!”

It was mist. A pure white mist, as if it had descended from a sacred mountain, through which one could not see even several meters ahead.

The heavy mist closed off the world.

No one moved. They could not move.

Except for two slaves—

“Lizard-san, let’s go! Now’s our chance!”

“That voice, is that you?! I can’t see in front of me! I can’t see!”

“Give me your hand! I’ll pull you! Follow me! Killing every one of them with these numbers is impossible unless I get a little more fired up!”

Tooyama pulled the lizard-man and began to run.

Without hesitation, he dashed through the mist where nothing could be seen.

“Why can you see ahead?! What is this mist?!”

“An ally! Ours! Whoops, right! I might as well finish this off properly!! Hey, slaves—actually, you captured people! You won’t get a chance like this again! We’re running! What about you?! You’re better off doing whatever you want! If you stay, nothing good’s gonna happen anyway!”

Tooyama turned around and shouted into the pure white mist.

After a short silence,

-Waaaaaaaaah?!

-Run, ruuuuuun!!

-Which way, which way do we run?!

-Don’t let the slaves escape!! If they’re going to escape, kill them!!

-Gyaa?! You bastard, why are you cutting me?! I’ll kill you!

-Ah, you bas—Gya?!

-Tch, I got hit! Stop it! You lot! In this fog, you’ll hit your own allies!!

Confusion. The adventurers had completely lost their chain of command.

“All right! Plan successful! Lizard-san, come on, move!”

“Wh-who are you really? An academy mage? No, a church knight? Or an adventurer from the Kingdom?”

“No, I’m an explorer! A second-rate one!”

“Explorer? No, more importantly, why can you move so easily in this mist?! Can you see?”

“No, not at all! But for some reason, I can see an ‘arrow’! Just as planned! Even if I make the ‘mist’ as thick as possible, I can still see the ‘arrow’! Hihihihi, it’s just like a game marker!”

Yes, that “arrow” was once again floating in Tooyama’s vision. In the mist where he could not see ahead, it even politely came with the message [Run!].

“User-friendly, and that helps! Hihihihi, if this wasn’t a dream, it’d be perfect!”

If he had this during exploration, would it not give him quite an advantage? Just being told the point he should head toward was helpful.

Well, if this were not a dream, he had absolutely no intention of trusting such a suspicious arrow.

“What are you talking about?! D-don’t tell me this mist is yours?! A Skill? A magical formula? No, don’t tell me, a Miracle?!”

“What’s that? Anyway, just run, run! There’ll probably be some sharp ones among them. They might chase us on instinct— Whoa?! Uwah, huh?”

Slip.

The two of them fell over.

The ground suddenly slanted, became wet, and water started flowing.

“Whoa, what the hell is this?!”

A waterslide. The place that had been a level stone-paved corridor just moments ago tilted and flowed.

Naturally, both the explorer and the lizard-man slid down the ground smoothly like flowing noodles.

“Ugh, kh, it’s ‘Herel’s Tower’!! Anything can happen here! Uooooooooh?!”

“What the hell is Herel’s Toweeeeeeeeer?!”

A falling sensation too real to be a dream, water dancing, bodies bouncing, and before his eyes went completely dark—

………

……

…

Woof! Woof!

Ahaha, you’re smart! …Why would someone abandon you?

Woof? Woof!

Ah, sorry. It’s almost curfew. …My home is an institution, so I can’t take you back with me. …I’ll come again. I’m sorry, I don’t have any food either.

Whine, sniff.

We’re the same, aren’t we? Abandoned, with no home. But still, we want to eat, don’t we?

Whine…

Right, let’s do this. I’ll go get food from that place. The people at the institution hit me. They say I’m cheeky and crazy in the head, so they’re fixing me…

I hate that place now. I’ll leave. Hey, if you’d like, with me—

…………

………

…

Drip.

“Nn… Ta… rou…”

“Hey! Are you all right? Good, you’re breathing. Do you know who I am?”

He faintly opened his eyes. A lizard face was peering down at him.

“Ngh, lizard…? Huh, where’s Tarou…? Mm, actually, wait, Babel’s Great Pit, huh?”

Rubbing his eyes, Tooyama sat up. His ragged clothes were wet, but there did not seem to be anything wrong with his body.

“Sorry to wake you while you’re dazed, but please get up. Unlike you, I have no confidence in my arms. …We have slid down to a terribly strange place.”

At the lizard-man’s words, Tooyama looked around.

A waterfall.

They were beside a waterfall basin. The area was dim, but rocks glowing green, red, and blue served as the light source, allowing him to see.

Even when he looked above the waterfall, he could see nothing. He had no idea how far they had slid down.

A stream extended from the waterfall basin. There was airflow, and wind was blowing. That sensation was truly real, and he was starting to seriously feel that something was off about this being a dream.

“I woke up from a dream, and then another dream… huh. But my back hurts… Don’t tell me this isn’t a dream?”

“Hey, please, get a hold of yourself. Now that things have come to this, the only one I can rely on is you… Huh…”

The lizard-man let out a breath at Tooyama’s absentminded muttering. But immediately after, he stared at a certain point and froze with his mouth hanging wide open.

“Huh? What’s wrong? You froze, and…”

Tooyama followed his gaze, and when he saw it, he lost his words.

It was a one-eyed giant.

Green skin and a crude loincloth.

A giant that looked about eight meters tall was crouching down, staring at Tooyama and the lizard-man while drooling.

“Oh… Looks like we can’t be friends.”

“C-Cyclops… Even I know that… A monster, a giant species…”

『Guuh… Uoooooooooooo!!』

“Lizard-san!! Get down!!”

“Huh, wha?”

A huge palm swept sideways.

While shoving the lizard-man away, Tooyama dropped to the ground as if rolling.

『Guwoooooooo?!』

Whoosh. A tingling sensation touched the tips of his hair. The monster’s attack had grazed him.

“Uhyah?! Hi, hihihihihi, one hit from that and it’s over! It reminds me of ‘Mother Goose’!”

An explorer laughed at danger. His brain, boiled by the intoxication of the dungeon, transformed danger and fear into exhilaration.

“Wh-why are you laughing?”

“Huh?! Because it’s scary and interesting, obviously! When I want to laugh, I laugh! That’s my desire too!”

Yes, explorers became drunk on mortal danger.

Laughing, Tooyama picked up a handy stone nearby and threw it with all his might. His target was that huge eye.

Tap.

『Guh?』

The thrown stone hit its eye directly. However, it had no meaning at all.

“Hmm, yeah, no good after all. I shouldn’t have thrown away that hand axe.”

Tooyama, who lived fairly by impulse, tilted his head.

Now then, the “mist” had not spread enough yet.

However, he was upwind, and the monster was downwind. As he was considering whether to just use it already,

『Guwooooooooo!!』

“Ah, crap.”

No weapon. No tools. He had not prepared his trump card yet either.

A strike from that huge arm. If he mistimed it, he would be flattened and die.

Even though he understood that, Tooyama Naruhito simply could not stop laughing.

“Oh, you laugh before death, slave?”

Sizzle…

『Guh?』

Sway. The Cyclops’s neck tilted.

Its huge arm moved to hold its neck, then stopped still.

The next moment, its neck came off. It had been sliced off by a sharp blade.

A pleasant smell of cooked meat drifted through the air.

“Hmph, how anticlimactic. To make prey like this the target of a hunting competition… As expected, unless they are at least Tower-Class, or at least ‘first-rank,’ they are not even fit to be playmates.”

The sound of metal overlapping rang out. A muffled voice, impossible to tell as male or female, echoed through the space.

Someone was standing on the shoulders of the headless giant.

“Ohh, seriously?”

“Impossible… A Cyclops in one strike? It’s a giant species that even first-ranks need several people to handle. N-no, don’t tell me…”

“Kakaka, oh? Our branch-line Lizardonian, what is wrong? Your scale color is poor.”

With a rumbling tremor, the huge body that had lost its head collapsed.

The one who had jumped down as if it were only natural walked toward them while stepping on the giant’s body.

Armor.

It was armor.

Even in this darkness, in this space where the only light source was glowing rocks, it was easy to tell that the armor was glittering gold.

A knight in armor was there, wearing an extravagant full-face helmet decorated with two gallant horns and armor with an incredibly luxurious mantle.

In that hand, a red-hot three-pronged great spear was raised. Had that thing cut off the giant’s head? That strength was unbelievable.

“H-hey, lizard-san, what’s wrong? Did your stomach act up?”

The lizard-man immediately curled up.

Folding his tail, he began crawling on the ground while trembling.

“…No way. You, no, you are… a dragon?”

“Oh! Oh! Kakaka! You see through the contents of my armor, which is imbued with a prayer of concealment! Lizardonian, you appear to have rather thick blood… Good. I shall praise you.”

“…A dragon? That armor?”

Tooyama looked at the armor. He could not find a single draconic element anywhere.

“Are you, are you truly a human from Imperial territory? Herel’s Tower, and a dragon, that golden armor… There is only one person it could be, isn’t there…?!”

“Human species over there. Unlike the Lizardonian, you are slow to catch on. Shall I kill you?”

The armor’s muffled voice. He could not tell whether it was male or female.

“Huh? What’s your problem, you—bweh?! L-lizard-san! What are you doing?!”

The moment Tooyama talked back to the armored bastard’s words, the lizard grabbed his shoulder and pushed him down.

“P-please. You are my benefactor! But right now, lower your head. Please!”

While being held down by the lizard, Tooyama reluctantly bent his knees. The armored bastard watched that with satisfaction.

“Oh, oh-ho-ho. Lizardonian, you are good. I do not dislike a clever lizard who understands his position.”

“Therefore, I have thought of one amusement. An amusement that seems more interesting than slave hunting.”

The armored bastard who had jumped down from the giant’s shoulder walked toward them happily, humming to themself.

They pompously fluttered their mantle.

“Hey, why is that guy acting so high and mighty? Also, lizard-san, aren’t you shaking?”

“Be quiet! Rather, how can you be so calm?! That is a dragon! A ‘Tower-Class Adventurer’! No matter how skilled you are, that one is on another level, a being who has half-stepped beyond the laws of this world!”

“Kuku, lizard, do not praise me so. Hmm, not a bad feeling. Slave, good, raise your face. I permit it.”

“Y-yes!!”

“…………”

“Hmph, human species, you… have a strange scent… Well, fine. Slave, I shall praise you. You did well to break the adventurers’ shackles and escape. Around now, the layer slightly above here must be becoming quite amusing.”

“Amusing, you say…?”

“Well, probably. That was the goal.”

“Kaka! Human slave, so you really were aiming for that! Good. Apart from that attitude, you are unexpectedly not bad.”

“Wh-what do you mean?”

The lizard-man blinked in confusion at the exchange between Tooyama and the armored bastard.

After thinking for a moment, Tooyama said,

“…Lizard-san, this is the kind of place with monsters in it, right? And the people above are those adventurers, amateurs who look like they only have high pride. Then there are the slaves who all started running at once after I provoked them. Humans making a huge commotion in a monster den… What do you think will happen? Who do you think will be happy?”

The lizard-man seemed to understand from that. He gulped and nodded.

“Kakaka!! Ahh, well now, you have fine eyes, do you not? The eyes of one who can kill. The eyes of one who has taken countless lives according to his own will and desire.”

Every time that armor spoke, the core of Tooyama’s body trembled. Tooyama knew a very similar feeling.

A being that had gone beyond limits. A monster species. The same feeling as when facing those strong creatures infesting the modern dungeon.

“…………Hey, lizard-san, maybe, just maybe, this isn’t a dream?”

The sensations were so real that sweat ran down Tooyama’s face.

“You are still saying that?! Please, get a hold of yourself. Just don’t joke around in front of that person right now.”

“Kaka! Well, fine, fine! Now then, I have a proposal for you lot. No need to tense up like that. Yes, it is a game.”

“A g-game, is it?”

“…………This is not gonna be anything good.”

He had a bad feeling. A very bad feeling came from this armored bastard.

“You lot shall kill each other now. I shall free the survivor from slavery and let them return alive from this Tower.”

It was a very bright voice. Even muffled, he could tell. The armored bastard was enjoying this.

“I swear it upon the name of myself, the ‘Hoarding Dragon.’”

“…Huh?”

“See? I knew it.”