Chapter 38: Chapter 36 – Fourth and fifth floor

Maya was in an excellent mood after she cleared the third floor of the dungeon all on her own. Looking forward to a reward of her choice from Sophia for this accomplishment, she teased the girl with it while descending to the fourth floor.

This stage was somewhat different from the others, though. Realizing what exactly this place was, not to mention the monsters in there, the cat-girl's smile had vanished in an instant.

"Uuh, it was n-nice and all, this dungeon exploring but don't you think this was enough? R-Right?!" She had tears in the corners of her eyes, and her face turned pale, almost like a ghost. This was also the keyword for this floor.

Instead of a maze-like area like the previous ones, this floor was one big open space, though it was wrapped into an eerie and thick layer of fog. Looking closely, countless gravestones could be seen, but that wasn't the worst thing. Multiple blue spheres with fire-like properties were floating in the air, and semi-translucent beings wafted through the fog. At the same time, howling echoed all over the graveyard-like place.

"Ohh~, looks fun!" Unfortunately, Sophia wasn't sharing her opinion.

"N-No!" The cat-girl's face was a textbook example of the word despair. "I-I hate g-ghosts!" Her tail and ears were tightly clinging to her body as she hid behind Sophia's back while furiously trembling. "P-Please-, Please let's go back!" Even more tears formed as she was pleading to her.

"…" Unaware of it, Maya caused the opposite effect on her with this reaction. "C-Cute…" Seeing the cat-girl being this scared and frightened had flipped some weird switch inside Sophia again because the gap in Maya's personality was too big, and she started walking forward.

"Noooo!" Her desperate scream had easily overpowered the creepy howling in the area. Having no choice because she didn't want to be left alone at all costs right now, Maya very reluctantly followed the girl while she continued to tightly clutch onto the hem of Sophia's shirt.

"It's sooo cool here!" She was having a good time.

"Uuh, w-why are you no good with spyders, but g-ghosts and stuff are fine?!"

"You seemed to be fine with them instead? Isn't it basically the same, then?"

"B-But ghosts are s-scary!"

"And spyders are nasty!" The two agreed to disagree.

"WuuUuuh" An eerie howl could be heard from very close to the group.

"Eeek!" Unable to bear it anymore, Maya clung with her entire body against Sophia's back as closely as she could.

"…" This move caused her some damage as well. Mentally, at least. The cat-girl tightly hugging her, the feel of her soft body and the warmth radiating from it, together with her extreme shivering for an interesting bonus experience, it was a little too much. "M-Maya, it's kinda h-hard to move…" She tried a more elegant approach to stop her before becoming too embarrassed.

"I don't care!" Instead, she only increased her clinging.

"I-Is that so?" Sophia's mouth twitched. She wasn't particularly angry, far from it, but she was getting nervous due to their closeness.

"C-Can we go now? Like, really…?"

"B-But I want to explore some more."

"Uuh…" Maya was about to fully cry.

"F-Fine," She started to feel guilty, seeing how affected the cat-girl was. "F-Fen, I imagine light magic to be effective? Am I right with that?"

"Indeed. The ghosts and other spectral-based beings will vanish instantly with powerful light magic. Actually, I think this also might be the only way to leave this floor. It feels like the fog is of magical origin and somehow makes it impossible to find the next stairs."

"Good." Having confirmation, she literally turned on the light on the floor.

"G-GuuUuhHhh…" As the entire place was bathed in bright light, anguished voices came from every corner, but these were gone for good soon after. Even the fog had mostly disappeared, leaving only the tombstones and some dead and half-rotten trees in the graveyard-y place behind.

"It's fine now, Maya."

"H-Huh?" She gingerly opened her eyes and hesitatingly glanced around. "Haaaaa…" With a massive sigh, the cat-girl let go of her back and fell on her knees, looking very relieved. "T-Thank you so very much! I'll be grateful to you… for the rest of my life!"

"I-It was that bad?!" Sophia was shocked by her reaction.

"Y-Yes…" The corners of Maya's eyes were still wet with tears.

"I'm sorry for waiting so long then." She felt guilty because she wanted to leisurely explore everything and even teased her when she was this frightened. "Scared Maya made me a little excited..." Those words were barely audible.

"N-No, I shouldn't have freaked out this much…"

"That's not true. Everyone has things they aren't good at dealing with. I have, uhh, quite a lot of them, actually. Ahaha…" She made a self-deprecating laugh. "Just earlier, I completely lost it with these spyders."

"You really did." The answer came instantly.

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"Geh! A-Anyway, I feel bad for not watching you properly or rather, simply ignoring it… or even enjoying it..." Sophia mumbled the last parts only. "I want to make up for it!"

"Ah, then you simply have to always look just at me in the future." The cat-girl had recovered enough to get back at her.

"W-Wha-?!" The way she worded it had a big effect on Sophia. The cat-girl's slight grin, combined with her up-pointing and twitchy tail, wasn't helping either. "T-That's a little…" She wouldn't last long if she were to actually do that. "H-How about you can ask for two things as your reward for clearing the previous floor?"

"Yes!" She almost answered before Sophia finished her suggestion. "I-I mean, you don't have to, but I'll humbly agree to your generous offer."

"There was nothing humble about your reaction!" She couldn't stay still on this one.

"Oh, can I also make one super request instead of two normal ones?"

"I really, absolutely, super don't like the sound of that. Not even a little bit!"

"That's a no, then?" Maya innocently tilted her head while giving her a little wink.

"Feel free to make an even cuter face, but my answer will remain a big, fat no!" She was too scared about the super request to care about her own wording.

"E-Ehehe~." Said wording caused a great smile to appear on Maya's face.

"Hmm?" Sophia couldn't interpret her reaction until she noticed that she had just openly commented on Maya's cuteness in the heat of the moment. Again. It was from the first time this happened. "A-Anyway, let's go to the next floor. This one has nothing of interest left a-anymore, after all." She quickly changed the subject.

"Sure." Having agreed, the two girls made their way towards the stairs at the other end of the graveyard. Fen quietly followed them without saying a word, not wanting to interrupt them, or worse, get involved in whatever they were doing.

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"Huh?" Sophia was confused when the group finished descending the stairs. "What's this all about?"

"That's a good question." Just as much, Maya, too, was confused. The group suddenly found themselves in a huge yet empty room.

"Oh, is this a boss-room?!" She suddenly became excited.

"Boss-room?" Both, the cat-girl and the wolf had no idea what she was talking about.

"F-Forget it!" Embarrassed, Sophia turned her head away. "B-But what is this room, then?"

"Hmm… Ah!" Maya concentrated her gaze at the far-away other side of the dimly lit room and found a hint. "There's something written on a stone plate on that wall!"

"Really? Let's go and have a look!" With Sophia in the lead, they walked towards the mysterious sign to find out what was going on.

"…" Reading the contents of the inscription, the group fell silent, unable to find any fitting words.

 

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