For several days, I took quests in Axel together with Kazuma and the others. Yunyun was also happy because she could take quests with gumin.
At first, we hunted Giant Toads to see how much Kazuma's skill had improved. As expected, while I was teaching him, his skill definitely improved, but recently we had been mostly acting separately, so I hadn't had ti to teach him, and his skill hadn't increased much.
So, I decided to take quests where Kazuma could be active enough while also continuing to teach him swordsmanship.
As expected, his skill began to improve quickly again once I started teaching him. If only Kazuma could grow, I thought Kazuma's party would beco a pretty decent composition. So Kazuma needed to put in so effort.
A few days later, we all headed to a dungeon located so distance away. Kazuma had quickly accepted a quest for a dungeon where a new path had been discovered.
"For a beginner's dungeon, it's unnecessarily far. How presumptuous."
Because it was far, Aqua was full of complaints.
gumin, who could only use Explosion, couldn't enter the dungeon this ti, so Yunyun decided to stay with her.
This dungeon was created long ago by an Archwizard who was said to be the strongest. The lich living here had circumstances and was a good person, so I had been concerned about how to handle it.
I could have just eliminated him, but I wanted to properly help him achieve peace. So I had been waiting for Kazuma and the others to co here.
With Aqua's help, I could land the final blow, steal the abilities, and help the lich move on. So, on the way to the dungeon this ti, I learned [Sacred Turn Undead] from Aqua.
"I'll go in with Tae-jin first. You guys wait here."
"Let's take Aqua too. Dungeons like this have a lot of undead."
"Now that you ntion it, you're right. Okay, Aqua, co with us."
I guided them well, and Aqua ended up coming with us.
The three of us—Kazuma, , and Aqua—entered the dungeon exploration. I took the lead, Aqua in the middle, and Kazuma brought up the rear.
This dungeon was built underground, so descending stairs greeted us first. It was very dark, but Kazuma had the Clairvoyance skill, and Aqua was a goddess, so seeing ahead wasn't a major problem.
As we began searching the dungeon, Aqua found a treasure chest, checked it, and said with a disappointed face,
"Aww... it's empty."
"Many beginners have co here. There might be good things in the new path."
"You think so? Treasure, treasure~"
Aqua was excited by my words. Following the map the Guild had made for us, we continued forward and arrived at the newly discovered path.
"This must be it."
Kazuma pressed the protruding brick on the wall, as reported to the Guild, and opened the new path.
Rumble~
"So this is the unknown territory ahead! Isn't it a treasure trove?"
"I hope so. With everything that happened, the mansion's clothes and furniture were all destroyed. Money is needed everywhere."
Unlike Aqua, Kazuma was worried about practical matters.
We entered the new path and began exploring. Undead monsters appeared along the way, but since they were low-level undead, Aqua and I quickly defeated them with [Turn Undead]. I don't know if it was because I was there, but neither of them seed very nervous yet.
Then we ca to another passage going down, and we slowly descended, feeling the wall.
Grrroooaaarrr~~!!
Then, from below, a monster's roar echoed loudly. From my perspective, it was an underground cave, so the sound echoed and seed loud, but Kazuma and Aqua were surprised by the roar and finally began to get nervous.
"Hey, Tae-jin, isn't this dangerous? Kazuma is even cowering and following behind ."
"What are you talking about? Every ti a sound is heard, I can clearly see you flinching pathetically."
I sighed and said to the nervous ones,
"Guys, it's just the sound echoing because we're underground."
Kazuma and Aqua, looking embarrassed, laughed awkwardly.
"That must be it, right? Hahaha..."
"Yeah, hohoho..."
We continued advancing. Low-level demons and undead appeared, but we handled them well and moved forward. The unfortunate thing was that Aqua's regular [Turn Undead] was more powerful than my one-rank-higher skill [Sacred Turn Undead].
As expected, a goddess is still a goddess...
As we went further in, a large number of undead appeared. Aqua used [Turn Undead] repeatedly, and Kazuma and I handled the ones Aqua missed.
With Kazuma's improved swordsmanship and his level rising, his strength and agility had also increased, so he could easily handle these low-level undead. Teaching him was worth it.
"Let's take a break."
"Okay."
After finishing off all the undead, we decided to rest for a while. Kazuma, finding the number of undead suspiciously large, said,
"But isn't this a bit strange? The number of undead seems too high."
"Yeah."
Just then, Aqua suddenly started sniffing the air and said,
Sniff, sniff!
"It seems there are still undead here. I sll sothing?"
"Huh? Can a goddess sll things like that?"
"Of course! A goddess is an expert at this kind of thing!"
I thought it was a bit absurd, but I let it go. Apparently, when you beco a goddess, you also get a dog's nose. Looking beside , Kazuma also seed dumbfounded by her words.
Aqua followed the sll to a dead end. Watching her, Kazuma said,
"Maybe there's nothing there?"
"That's strange. I'm sure I sll sothing..."
Then, suddenly, the wall at the dead end disappeared, revealing a hidden area. From inside the hidden area, a voice was heard.
"Is there a priest there? I am 'Kill', the Archwizard who created this dungeon and kidnapped a noble's daughter."
The lich, introducing himself as Kill, rambled on about his story.
To summarize: long ago, Kill was a hero of the kingdom. He fell in love with a noble's daughter who had been offered up to the king to curry favor, neglected and abused within the castle.
He asked the king to give her freedom, but the king refused. So he escaped with her, even risking war with the kingdom, married her, and lived happily.
"So the person lying on that bed is that noble's daughter?"
I asked, looking at the skeleton dressed in won's clothing lying on the bed.
"Yes! Isn't her collarbone line beautiful?"
"But why did you beco a lich?"
"Because I was fatally wounded by the kingdom's soldiers while protecting her. I had no choice. So, I have a request. Could you purify ? I want to go to her now. In exchange, I'll give you the treasures I've collected."
Pretending to be moved, I stepped forward and said,
"I'm moved. Would it be okay if I purified you? No, I want to do it."
"If soone moved by my old tale does it, I would be even more grateful. I'll leave it to you."
I asked Aqua for support and decided to perform the purification myself. Whether my acting was effective or not, Aqua readily agreed to help. Aqua drew a large magic circle where the lich was and signaled when she was ready.
"Okay, I'm ready."
"Oh, thank you so much. Undead can't do sothing like suicide, you know. I was just waiting to rot away. I'm so glad you ca."
Before I cast the spell, Aqua, as a goddess, spoke to Kill. Kazuma, unaccustod to seeing this side of her, watched with fascination.
"Having forsaken divine providence and beco a lich, Archwizard 'Kill', in the na of Aqua, the Goddess of Water, I forgive your sins.
After Tae-jin's purification, you will see before you the goddess Eris, whose breasts are unnaturally large. Even if there is an age difference, even if you are not a man and a woman, if you are fine with any form, please ask her. Tell her you want to et your lady again. She will surely grant that wish."
After hearing Aqua's words, I thought sothing was strange. Even if the noble's daughter had already moved on, saying that any form was fine, even if they weren't a man and a woman, ant they could et as, say, a monster and a human.
This could easily turn into a curse if sothing went wrong. But the hopeful part was that ultimately, Eris would grant the request, so I trusted she would handle it well.
Anyway, I prepared to use [Sacred Turn Undead], and Aqua activated the magic circle while simultaneously infusing with divine power to support .
"Sacred Turn Undead!!"
As I shouted, with Aqua's powerful support and the power of the magic circle, the lich began to disappear, moving on.
"My wife, I will co to you now..."
With those words, the lich disappeared.
Ding~
[You have obtained the abilities (S) Explosion Magic, (A) Konosuba Advanced Magic, (B) Konosuba Interdiate Magic, (C) Konosuba Low-Level Magic, (C) Undead Summoning.]
[(A) Explosion Magic has been absorbed into (S) Explosion Magic.]
[(A) Konosuba Advanced Magic rges with (A) Konosuba Advanced Magic to promote to (S) Konosuba Advanced Magic.]
[(B) Konosuba Interdiate Magic rges with (B) Konosuba Interdiate Magic to promote to (A) Konosuba Interdiate Magic.]
[(C) Konosuba Low-Level Magic rges with (C) Konosuba Low-Level Magic to promote to (B) Konosuba Low-Level Magic.]
(C) Undead Summoning – Can summon undead from corpses.
I definitely gained a lot. I could now use magic of sufficient power, and [Explosion Magic] might even be more destructive than gumin's. Additionally, the lich had moved on peacefully, so it seed I had obtained everything I wanted from this dungeon.
"Let's go back."
"Yeah. That lich, 'Kill'... I hope he gets to et his lady again."
We started to head back outside, but Kazuma, still having doubts, continued,
"By the way, besides that lich Kill, a lot of undead kept appearing. We've been encountering strange amounts of undead in this dungeon. Could it be because of you, Aqua?"
As Kazuma began to catch on, Aqua beca flustered.
"I-I don't think that's... the case..."
"Co to think of it, when the Dullahan attacked before, he also targeted you with the undead he summoned, didn't he?"
I explained the reason to Kazuma. Since Kazuma's level was now high and he wasn't just hunting Giant Toads anymore, I thought he needed to know the truth to avoid danger.
"I think it might be because Aqua is a goddess. The wandering souls and undead, seeking salvation, gather around Aqua, don't they?"
Kazuma, having heard my explanation, finally seed to understand.
"So you're saying the reason so many undead have been flocking to our party all this ti is because of her?"
"Possibly. But you got a lot of experience points because of it, right?"
"Damn! So the tis we struggled because undead chased us like mad in the forest with skeleton hordes or the swamps with ghouls – it was all because of Aqua."
Unlike the original story, Kazuma's party had taken many quests besides Giant Toads, so they had often faced undead. Rembering how undead had sward them each ti, Kazuma was dumbfounded.
As such talk went back and forth, Aqua, breaking into a cold sweat, looked away and whistled as if it had nothing to do with her. Seeing that, Kazuma, even more irritated, asked very sincerely,
"Hey, Tae-jin, couldn't you please take Aqua off my hands? I'm tired of undead suddenly swarming us."
"No, like I told you before, Aqua is your special perk."
What was he trying to do, pawn off a bomb on ?
"Ugh~! Damn! Can't I return her and get a different perk?"
Kazuma ruffled his own hair with both hands, regretting his choice and agonizing over it.
"Anyway, let's hurry back. gumin and Yunyun are waiting."
We started moving with in the lead again, just like when we entered. This ti as well, quite a few undead attacked, so it took so ti to deal with them, but we all erged from the dungeon safely, without injury.
When we ca out of the dungeon, gumin and Yunyun approached us happily.
"You're a little late. We were worried sothing might have happened."
We had left around early lunch, but it was already evening, so it had indeed taken a long ti. Kazuma sighed and said,
"Aqua has a constitution that attracts undead, so they sward us and it took ti."
"What do you an?"
When gumin asked, Kazuma explained.
"Wh-what?? Then all the tis we struggled with undead before were..."
"Yeah, because of Aqua."
As everyone looked at Aqua, she tried to avoid the crisis with her characteristic rhetoric.
"It can't be helped that I'm noble and overflowing with life force! And instead, like Tae-jin said, we got a lot of experience points. Plus, today we got the treasures the lich collected, so it's not so bad!"
I said to Aqua, though I doubted she would change.
"Still, you should try to control it a little. It might be fine when you have room to spare, but if undead swarm you when you don't, it could be dangerous."
"Tae-jin's right! So control it."
Then Aqua, pointing at Kazuma, made an absurd argunt.
"So you're saying I should lower this holy aura to Kazuma's hikikomori level? If I did that, how sad would all the devout Axis Church followers in the world be!"
"You're not sorry at all! You should learn from that lich Kill and get so of his purity!"
"A hikikomori telling a goddess to learn from an undead!!"
Seeing that this was unlikely to end, I stopped the two of them.
"Enough. Let's go ho. The sun is setting. And it's a bit of a distance from Axel."
"Ugh... fine. Let's go ho for now."
We returned to Axel Village, bathed at the bathhouse, and received the quest reward. Plus, we had the treasure, so today was a pretty good day financially.
Seeing that, Aqua suggested we have a drink before going ho, so we ordered food and Shuwashuwa at the Guild and had a drink.
Aqua, after drinking her Shuwashuwa, looked at the treasure and said,
"Gulp, gulp. Ahh~ I hope we can keep earning like this. Now we can afford to take quests more comfortably."
"Yeah, if soone hadn't blown up the house, this never would have happened."
Hearing Kazuma's words, gumin flared up and said,
"And whose fault was that!?"
With that, Kazuma and the others started bickering again. I gave up on stopping them, quietly drank my alcohol, and returned ho. But starting the next day, a problem arose. Darkness ca to visit, dressed up nicely, and made an absurd request to .
"So you want to pretend we're dating with the intention of getting married, to convince your father?"
"Yeah, originally I was going to ask Kazuma, but... Kazuma just doesn't seem suitable..."
Hearing that, Kazuma flared up and said,
"What's wrong with !!"
It seed Darkness's father wasn't very happy that his daughter continued to work as a dangerous adventurer.
As soon as Darkness ca ho, he kept arranging marriage etings for her. So Darkness had no choice but to lie to her father, saying there was soone she was dating among the adventurers.
"No matter what, I'm already married..."
"Don't worry about that. I already talked to Luna."
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