Crimson Vampire Princess

“That’s the fifth one…!”

The tip of the greatsword I had driven into its throat pierced the nape and the orc fell dead.

I suddenly felt something wrong and looked at my hand—my pinky was broken and bent in the wrong direction.

“Did I do that when I rolled to dodge earlier while still holding the greatsword…?”

I grabbed the broken pinky with my intact hand and forced it back into shape.

Bones cracked and crunching—but there was no pain and it moved fine.

It bothered me that it clicked and snapped every time I moved it…

“Might as well accept that I’ve got so little life left… but my already battered body is taking heavy damage. At this rate my body might break before I can escape.”

About thirty minutes had passed since I cast【Necromance 】on myself.

Five monsters lay dead by that point.

And yet I’m in this much wear and tear.

To make matters worse, I haven’t ascended a single floor yet.

“The place the Minotaur was is on the twentieth basement level. If I can get back there I’ll know the way, and in the mid-boss room on level fifteen there’s supposed to be a warp device that can take me back above ground. It’s fine, there’s still time—until I kill those bastards.”

It should work out somehow.

That hope was shattered when a new monster appeared around the corner.

“Geh!? That thing is!?”

“BRUGAAAAAAARRR!!!!”

A roar that shook the corridor.

There stood a gigantic bipedal, bull-shaped monster.

It was a Minotaur.

“That eye wound… the same individual…? It’s chased me all the way here!?”

The grudge from having one eye taken must run deep; the moment it spotted me it thrust its horns forward and charged!

“Ugh!”

I rolled to the side to slip past it.

I aimed a thrust with my greatsword at its exposed back.

――Crack!

“It broke!!”

The Minotaur’s body, which had even shrugged off an attack from Heavy Warrior Garen, an Rank A Adventurer, bore not a scratch even against the unleashed brute strength of a human.

My weapon was damaged too, but even with my limiter off, at my low level I couldn’t match it.

Hell, even with my limiter off I’m weaker than Garen.

So to get revenge I’d still have to ambush it…

“Before that, if I don’t run from this thing, revenge’s out of the question!”

I discarded the greatsword and bolted through the dungeon.

“BRUGAAAAAAARRR!!”

Of course, the Minotaur gave chase.

“Damn! It’s gaining on me!”

Being a bovine-type monster, its charge speed was insane.

“Got it! Corner!”

I hit a T-junction and turned right at a sharp angle as if hopping.

Right after that, the Minotaur’s horn drove into the wall at the corner.

“BRUGAAAAAAARRR!!”

The Minotaur pulled its horn out of the wall and shook its head left and right to fling off the debris.

During that, I sprinted at full speed again.

“My body’s not tired, but I have no pain sensation, so I don’t know when my leg muscles will tear!”

After continuing this endless game of tag, I spotted a door straight ahead.

There were no other turns, so I shoved it with my shoulder and plunged into the antechamber.

“This is… could it be the final Boss room!?”

The antechamber looked like an old temple interior—clearly different from what I’d been seeing so far.

If this really was the final Boss room, it meant that instead of heading back to the surface, I had been moving deeper in.

A truly ridiculous end…

“That is…”

The Minotaur’s footsteps were closing in.

And yet, I couldn’t help but stop in my tracks.

There was a woman—so impossibly beautiful—and she was a corpse.

“Could it be… the Crimson Vampire Princess…?”

S-Rank Dungeon 【Crimson Night Moon】.

It’s said that at its deepest point resides the Crimson Vampire Princess.

A beautiful woman’s corpse lay at the center of the antechamber.

Golden long hair, alabaster skin, a provocative figure clothed in a deep red dress.

But a thick cruciform stake was driven through her chest, and from it a flood of blood poured, forming a pool.

I found another corpse against the side wall of the square antechamber.

It was the corpse of an old white-haired man clad in robes of the Holy Church.

“That’s a human corpse over there… What’s going on…?”

I worked my half-rotted brain at full throttle to piece the situation together.

The first hypothesis that came to mind was—the Boss of the S-rank dungeon had already been slain.

But the adventurer who killed the Crimson Vampire Princess had perished in mutual destruction.

Therefore, no one realized the Crimson Vampire Princess was already dead, and only a corpse-filled Boss room remained.

Something like that.

“BRUGAAAAAAARRR!!!!”

“…!?!!?”

I was so taken by the Crimson Vampire Princess’s beauty that I stopped, and the Minotaur was already right behind me.

What an idiot!

No wonder my brain’s half rotten…!

“Uoooohhhh!!!!”

I frantically dove forward to dodge.

――Thud-crash!!

A battle-axe slammed into the floor where I had just been standing, sending splinters flying in all directions.

――Splat!

I somehow evaded the Minotaur’s attack, but I plunged headfirst into the huge pool of blood the Crimson Vampire Princess had spilled.

“I managed to avoid the Minotaur’s attack, and then—what!?”

I tried to stand, but I immediately crumpled face-first.

“Damn… one of my legs is gone…!”

I thought I had avoided that attack, but apparently my leg got caught up in it.

Everything below my shin was gone.

I didn’t notice because I had no sense of pain.

“Is this it… damn… to give me hope only to end it like this… this is too much…”

Even knowing it was a futile struggle, I crawled forward to put distance between myself and the Minotaur.

And where I arrived was the center of the blood pool—at the Crimson Vampire Princess’s side.

“The reason I got this far is because I kept on struggling in vain… so I’ll struggle until the bitter end… 【 Necromance 】!!!!”

With every ounce of magic I had, I cast【 Necromance 】on the Crimson Vampire Princess.