The outstretched hand froze in midair.
The Goblin crouched on the ground stayed wary and silent, and an unbearably awkward hush began to fester across the quiet floor.
“…” Oh dear, this had gotten a little complicated.
An awkward smile surfaced on her face as Adi, the one who had called out to him in the first place, scratched her cheek in mild dismay.
She’d called out on a sudden impulse, sure, but what was she supposed to do now?
Shaken by a scene far too astonishing, the girl had exposed her own presence without much forethought.
At this distance, cutting down a Goblin whose latent potential was only Level 1 would be easy.
But now that she knew this was a creature capable of communication, striking without a word felt like something she’d taste bitterly whenever she recalled it later.
And though he had clearly understood her words, when she thought it over, there was really no reason for a monster like him to answer her at all.
True, he hadn’t shown any open hostility, but that didn’t mean a conversation between them could actually take shape.
Still unwilling to give up, the girl waved a hand before his eyes.
“Hey, hey, hey, Mister Goblin, do you understand what I’m saying?” “…” What answered her was more silence.
The tight-lipped Goblin had no intention of attacking Adi— but the tiny, gradual shifts of him inching backward did not escape the eyes of a Level 2 adventurer.
He still seemed on guard, as if watching for whether she might launch a sudden attack.
The blunt girl, who never acted against her own nature, was caught in a knot of indecision.
She had a premonition: if she let him slip away here, she would probably never get the chance to see him again.
So, driven by instinct, she did something that stunned even the monster already braced to flee.
Adi Varma crouched down, bringing her eyes level with the Goblin before her.
Then she unfastened the one-handed straight sword at her waist and set it on the ground— Sacred Oath.
A second-grade armament produced by the Hephaestus Familia at a cost of sixty-eight million valis, deliberately specialized at its wielder’s request with a “No-Kill” function it never truly needed.
Deep within the danger-riddled Dungeon, facing off against a creature that possessed reason, the girl laid down her own weapon of her own accord.
[Hiss—] She heard something the monster before her had been straining to hold together shatter apart.
As he drew in a sharp breath, his eyes filled with the very same astonishment she was used to seeing in ordinary adventurers.
Even as she took pleasure in her bold gambit paying off, an ominous thought suddenly flashed through the girl’s mind: Um—if some other adventurer happened to walk by, wouldn’t this scene stir up a few unnecessary misunderstandings?
An adventurer stripping off her weapon in front of a monster—if word of that got back to Orario, people would absolutely accuse her of having a monster fetish!!!
And if her big sister ever found out—!
Realizing a beat too late that her own behavior was a touch off, Adi’s cheeks flushed red, and even her stomach began to throb with a faint phantom ache.
This strange sight left the Goblin—who had been about to flee—dumbstruck in place, until at last he slowly spoke: “What is this supposed to mean?” The voice that came from the monster’s mouth was, unexpectedly, a rather pleasant boyish tone.
“I’m showing you that I bear no hostility toward you, Mister Goblin.” “…Weirdo.” At this merciless, blunt assessment, Adi’s mouth twitched.
It wasn’t as though other adventurers back in Orario had never called her that.
But this was the first time she’d earned such a verdict from a monster of an entirely different kind.
Still, by the look of things, at least he no longer had any thought of running.
“But in that case, Mister Goblin, you should be able to sit down and talk properly with a weirdo like me, right?” Reassured by that thought, Adi relaxed and put on the same smile she’d worn at the very start, reaching a hand toward the Goblin before her.
The monster’s face took on an expression that seemed genuinely, profoundly exasperated.
He likewise tossed aside the frying pan he’d been gripping so tightly, flinging it against the rocky wall, and instead clasped the goodwill Adi extended.
“In any case, let’s move somewhere else first,” the low-tier monster who spoke in human words said, rising to his feet.
… The frying pan he’d cast off was swallowed by the glimmering blue wall and vanished without a trace.
The Goblin and the adventurer—who by all rights should have been locked in mortal combat—advanced one behind the other toward the depths of the floor.
What a weirdo I’ve run into, thought Artorias, leading the way up front.
This adventurer trailing behind him looked plenty strong, so how could she seem so… not very bright?
Was she actually serious about disarming herself in front of a monster?
A weirdo.
Even after being handed such a verdict by a monster like himself, the female adventurer before him still showed no intention of raising a hand against him.
With a few sparks of interest and curiosity rising in him, he began to size up out of the corner of his eye the adventurer girl following behind, her gaze practically sparkling.
Short pale-blue hair that suited the Dungeon’s surroundings perfectly, an adorable profile undoubtedly worthy of a main-cast heroine— and those azure eyes that always seemed to hold a gentle smile, paired with lips fixed in a perpetual upward curve.
In a word, a girl who would willingly extend her hand to a monster like him was the sort of good soul that made a first-time acquaintance feel instant warmth toward her, the very picture of the popular ideal of a kind-hearted person.
As for keeping this calm an attitude while facing a monster that could speak, the only one Artorias could recall managing it was Bell Cranel, the protagonist of the anime.
Facing the unknown without fear and without rushing to conclusions, choosing instead to reason it out and form her own judgment—compared to those mass-produced small-fry adventurers who charged at him without a word and got smacked unconscious by a single swing of the pan, there was clearly some decisive difference between the two kinds.
And with that piece of high-grade gear at her waist that she’d just re-equipped—the kind no bit-part character could ever own— Artorias suddenly had a hunch.
Could it be that this girl he’d actually stumbled upon was some remarkable adventurer?
Then why had he never once seen her in the main story?
Carrying that question, he came to a stop at the outermost edge of the floor.
“This is the place.” Artorias shattered the outer wall with a single punch, and through the crack spilled a scene wholly unlike the gloomy Dungeon within— brimming with green light, thick with trees, a crystal-clear spring shimmering as if it mirrored the moonlight.
The monsters dwelling here lay resting atop glowing quartz pillars.
Sensing an intruder, they were about to lash out—then, spotting the Goblin ahead, they instantly scattered like startled birds and beasts.
Long since inured to this sort of reaction, Artorias paid it no mind.
Once he and the adventurer behind him had fully stepped inside, the crack that had just split open sealed itself back to normal in an instant.
He casually found a spot by the water’s edge and sat, cleaning off the fresh blood and grime his hands had picked up during the day’s routine work.
“Oh, so this is where the fifth floor’s pantry is.” The adventurer behind him clapped her hands together, a look of sudden understanding dawning on her face.
“No one comes here to interrupt us while we talk.
When you want to leave, just break the wall yourself.
I’ve never once run into an adventurer in this place, so there’s no need to worry about being discovered.” Artorias nodded.
“My name is Artorias.
As you can see, I’m a monster, the sort that’s at odds with you adventurers like fire and water.” “You, the high-grade adventurer lady who should have struck me down the moment she laid eyes on me—what is it you want to get out of me?” Having decided to lay all his cards on the table, he sat cross-legged, his sharp gaze fixed on the girl’s face, questioning her true intentions in the manner of a monster.