Chapter 103: Maze (3)

“So, what’s that? That was made with a whole unicorn horn?”

“Yes.”

“And when you brought it to my arm, it glowed?”

“Wow! Virgin!”

“…Jonah, you’re carrying it around just fine yourself?!”

“Wow! Virgin!”

“I should just stop talking….”

After briefly hearing the situation, Benny sighed, clutching her purple hair.

“Ah, but Benny. That’s not what’s important right now.”

“Was there ever anything important you wanted to say to begin with?”

Benny, who had been interrupted while fighting and had her virginity questioned, trembled and spat out thorny words…

Seeing her glance alternately at me and the Dagger, it seemed my virginity was more important to her than her own hymen.

Well. When the world reversed genders, it surprisingly became a world where women preferred men’s chastity.

Because of the influence of the Goddess of Love, polygamy or polyandry isn’t condemned… But it seems that the importance placed on the first experience hasn’t changed.

In that sense, it’s really hard to tell whether a man is pure or not.

A woman bleeds, but a man shows nothing. Therefore, it’s inevitable to be concerned about clear and easy-to-understand results like now.

I shook my head, putting the Dagger I had been flaunting into the Subspace Ring.

“Do you think I’m always joking around? You just saw it, Benny. The corrupted earth spirit crumbled just like that.”

“…Ah. If you had shattered the Magic Stone, it would have disappeared, not crumbled.”

“That’s right. I was so startled that I didn’t bring it with me, but there should be a Magic Stone somewhere over there.”

I pointed backward with my thumb. There was Shadow, swallowing an entire pile of ores and spitting out only the good ones.

Among the things it spat out, there might be some Magic Stones.

“By the way, Shadow is really competent. It’s hard to tell what’s inside ores unless you’re an expert, right? So, I was planning to take anything that looked special and have it appraised by the Guild.”

“Well, I’ve been through the second floor before. I made Shadow memorize the appearance of the ores back then. Of course, I still remember it too.”

The second floor is classified as the upper layer of the Labyrinth, with maps and all sorts of information perfectly organized and distributed for free or at a low price.

The classification of the ores guarded by the corrupted earth spirit is one of them.

Benny gave a shrug, nodded her head and continued speaking.

“I see. So, you mean it’s strange that the corrupted earth spirit reacted to the unicorn’s horn?”

“Yes. Just to be sure, is it possible for spirits to engage in sexual activities? I mean, not just high-ranking spirits with clear forms, but also lower-ranking spirits like the one we encountered.”

Half-breeds with spirits are extremely rare, but they do exist.

The torn remains of the God of Life have also affected the spirits.

However, being able to reproduce with other species and enjoying sexual activities are entirely different matters.

In the first place, aren’t they a species that doesn’t reproduce normally but appear naturally? They don’t have sexual desires.

Perhaps that half-breed was simply a result of responding to the partner’s request. Or it could have been out of a desire to see offsprings.

At least, it wouldn’t have been due to sexual desire…

Then why did the earth spirit from earlier die after receiving the special attack effect properly?

“Could it be that some lunatic is going around pounding the ground?! Or maybe, they are compacting the soil and satisfying themselves?! Isn’t it terrifying to think that there might be a crazy serial rapist who gets aroused by dirt?!”

“…Sigh. What should we do with this pervert.”

Benny let out a long sigh. She then stood on her tiptoes and struck a boastful pose, pushing out her flat chest.

It seemed like she was trying to imitate a teacher giving a scolding, but no matter how you looked at it, it seemed like Benny was cosplaying as a teacher as she began to speak.

“The Unicorn Dagger definitely contains the power to harm non-virgins and non-chaste individuals. But, doesn’t it also have other abilities?”

“Poison? Could it really have been toxic soil….”

“Not that! I mean purification! Purification! Haven’t you realized after all this time what you’ve been saying yourself?! What ‘corrupted’ earth spirit means!”

“What? But strictly speaking, aren’t monsters just crazed and powerful creatures?”n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Usually, yes. If it were an ordinary monster, it would just be like a regular plant or animal that got stronger. But spirits are different.”

According to Benny’s continued explanation, spirits were fundamentally incarnations of nature or divine messengers.

They were a race born purely from power, unmixed with the flesh and blood of other beings.

In both good and bad ways, they are completely pure.

“But madness, a foreign substance, has intruded into such a spirit.”

“Its purity has been tainted?”

“Exactly. And when nature is tainted, we call it contamination.”

“Aha.”

The unicorn’s horn isn’t just a mop-like ultimate weapon. It’s also plastered with abilities like enhanced natural healing and purification effects.

I haven’t experienced it yet, but they say most poisons won’t affect me.

“Wait a minute. Does that mean the madness was cured?”

“Not a chance. The body’s purification power and the erosion from the madness clashed, and in the end, the body couldn’t withstand it and broke down. Oh, maybe in the very last moment, they regained their sanity. It was such a short time that it probably didn’t mean much.”

“……”

Only then did the words it left at the end start to bother me.

It kept repeating ‘do’, right? Until now, I thought he was calling me a thief…but it might mean something else.

Like ‘run away’. Or ‘help me.’

“…Benny. But how do you know all this? Ah, it’s nothing, it’s just that you know so much in detail that it’s fascinating. I wonder if all mages are like that.”

“Hmm. Not really.”

Benny shook her head. She continued speaking as she gently stroked Shadow, who had just returned after swallowing only the good gemstones and Magic Stones, having finished all the sorting.

“Experiments related to madness are something I’ve experienced firsthand. That’s why I know it well. They experimented not only on humans but also on monsters.”

“Oh.”

So it was just a personal story.

As I scratched my head in awkwardness, Benny consciously lifted the corners of her mouth and spoke.

“Alright! Now that we’ve all rested, shall we move on to the next? Anyway, we now have a weapon that works well against corrupted spirits, right? That means we can hunt safely and easily!”

“You’re making me feel like even taking a break right now is a waste of time!”

“It actually might be a waste. After all, you’ll need to come with Lydia next time. You can’t make Shadow do the carrying, so even if the battles are easy, you’ll have to return quickly because of the loot.”

“…!”

Come to think of it, that’s true.

Benny was only helping out today in Lydia’s place, and there was no promise that she would always come to the Labyrinth together in the future.

I need to get the most out of Shadow while I can…!

“I’m counting on you today!”

-Grr?

I tapped near Shadow’s enormous eye a few times and then quickly lay down with my ear to the ground.

Faintly, I could hear the rhythmic heartbeat. Using the heart left behind by the God of Earth as a guide, I recalculated the optimal route.

“We should go this way! Don’t fall behind, okay?”

“Do you think I’ll be lost on just the second floor? Jonah, you be careful!”

I started to move forward, leading the bewildered Benny.

As I navigated through the maze-like interior, I effortlessly turned every monster we encountered into Magic Stones.

The kobolds couldn’t detect my stealth, making them easy targets, and the corrupted earth spirits noticed and reacted the moment I drew my weapon, but they collapsed with just a touch, so they were no trouble either.

There’s a saying that the easiest level in the Labyrinth is the second floor.

The first floor is tough due to inexperience, and the third floor is difficult because the monsters are purely strong and the gimmicks are dangerous.

The second floor is relatively manageable, with neither particularly strong monsters nor significant traps, and by then, one has enough experience to handle it easily…

I was beginning to understand that saying. I thought I had breezed through the first floor except for the King of Thorns, but the second floor is even easier.

Of course, the story would change if I encountered other monsters.

For instance, the Spider Queen is a monster that carries dozens of baby spiders.

I am confident in handling one or two opponents better than anyone, but fighting against multiple enemies makes me uneasy.

Stealth will be broken after the first few slashes, and my stamina is still weak compared to a second-floor adventurer.

However, I have no intention of progressing that far yet, so it’s not an immediate concern. What I need to do now is.

“Die!”

“Kokokok…!”

Stabbing the back of the kobolds endlessly digging the ground.

“I’ll make good use of your treasure!”

“Rumble…!”

And focusing on robbing the vault of the corrupted earth spirits.

How many times did I repeat moving without rest until I got tired of piling up the loot?

“…Shadow says it’s full?”

“Yes.”

Shadow, who had been eating endlessly, declared a strike.

Come to think of it, we did feed it a lot. I bet today’s earnings match those of the previous week.

“There’s no helping it. Shall we head back now?”

“Yeah. By now, it must be dark up on the surface, so we should hurry if we don’t want to get scolded by Ellie.”

“I’ve always thought this, but both Miss Lydia and Benny seem to like Ellie but are afraid of her. Did something happen?”

“Well, there’s a world of women that men just don’t understand.”

“…???”

So, what is that supposed to mean?

No matter how much I probed, Benny wouldn’t tell me the details. As I kept pestering her, we found our way to a nearby Safe Zone. And then…

“Something feels off.”

“This seems like the way we came from, right?”

Despite having the Pathfinding skill, I got lost.

Something is wrong.