The Mysterious Child: An Adventure Tale Beginning with Numerology

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"Master, Master!"

The lowest underground level.

Originally, this was the first floor of the dungeon "Sand Palace".

This dungeon, accessible only by transfer device, spawns stronger monsters as you ascend. Although it's a small dungeon with only 30 floors, it's located in the demon territory's Depth III, a place that's essentially a monster's nest. Even on the lowest floor, there are no weak monsters.

Seori, who had transferred here, immediately destroyed the transfer device. Even if it's a dungeon that might automatically repair itself soon, this should prevent anyone from following for a while.

Then she changes back into human form. The ceiling was too low on this floor, and it seemed like it would collapse if she moved around as a dragon. Besides, she couldn't use items properly with giant dragon fingers.

Seori takes out a Sugo Ball from her item box and brings it to Ruruk's mouth.

However, since Sugo Balls are quite unpleasant tasting, the unconscious Ruruk wouldn't drink it. Seeing him about to spit it out, Seori unhesitatingly took it into her own mouth and transferred it to Ruruk's mouth.

If Ruruk were conscious, he might have joked that it was quite fitting for Seori's first time to taste like medicine.

But Seori had no room to think about such things.

As a familiar, she could sense her master's life signals. She felt them weakening to the brink of death.

Ruruk's homemade super recovery medicine began to heal the wounds immediately.

The bleeding stopped and the wounds slowly began to close.

Even one pill has an incredible recovery effect, but just to be safe, Seori gave him another Sugo Ball before placing Ruruk's head on her knees and tightly gripping his hand.

She prayed desperately.

"Please, don't die, Master..."

No matter how much the recovery medicine healed the wounds, it couldn't restore stamina or blood.

Seori continued to pray, heedless of her own battered state, tears falling on Ruruk's cheeks.

Ten minutes, thirty minutes, an hour, three hours... only time passed.

There was no sign of him waking up.

"Master... please..."

The loss of vitality from his entire body was visibly apparent. Having lost blood and with a weakening pulse, his condition was such that he could die at any moment.

Despite this, for some reason, his heart was occasionally beating strongly as if trying to force Ruruk to wake up on its own. It was a strange occurrence that might be mistaken for a god trying to help Ruruk.

She occasionally gave him water, kept him still, and continued to pray.

Praying to the dragon god and the creation god was all Seori could do.

Subjectively, the sun must have already set. Seori realized she was feeling hungry. Just as she started to worry about what to do if he didn't wake up, she heard a sound. It was like something crawling.

"A monster...?"

Hearing that sound along with a faint presence, Seori slowly lowered Ruruk's head and stood up.

In the dimly lit labyrinth, outside the transfer device room, something that seemed to be a monster was writhing in the darkness.

...It's scary.

The dungeon is also traumatic.

Just entering makes her legs shake.

But now isn't the time for that. She knows it's not the time to be afraid - yet her teeth chattered.

Perhaps sensing Seori's fearful presence, the monster slowly entered the room.

A Bloody Serpent.

It was a B-rank snake monster.

With a massive body and venomous fangs, equipped with pit organs that can accurately grasp movements even in darkness, it's a hunter of the dark that shows agility belying its huge body.

Its scales aren't particularly hard, but... she can't transform into a dragon here, let alone use her breath. The lower levels of the dungeon would collapse in an instant.

There was only one action Seori could take.

Clenching her trembling fists, she glared at the Bloody Serpent in her human form.

"I-I am your opponent! C-c-come at me if you dare!"

"JURAAA!"

"Eek!"

She froze at the intimidation.

The Bloody Serpent looked down at Seori, narrowing its eyes as if laughing. Flicking its tongue in and out, it approaches slowly, as if enjoying waiting for its prey to run away.

Seori's ragged breathing and the sound of the Bloody Serpent slithering closer echoed.

Unable to bear the creeping fear of the hunter any longer, Seori recklessly charged in to punch it.

"Y-Yaaah!"

"JURA!"

The Bloody Serpent lightly swung its body.

Taking the sideways impact head-on, Seori was blown away to the wall. Her whole body hit hard, stopping her breath, and she fell to the floor.

Even with the high durability of a dragon species, the damage was not light.

Without a moment to catch her breath, the Bloody Serpent immediately followed up with an attack. This time it brought its tail down from above.

Unable to avoid it, the heavy, giant whip struck her entire body.

"Giii!"

A sound of something breaking came from somewhere in her body. Pain mixed with her breath, and blood leaked from her throat.

No. I don't want to die.

Until now, she had been carefully raised. Kept away from danger, she rarely got hurt. She thought she understood when Ruruk had explained many times that becoming an adventurer involved dangers. She thought she had accepted those dangers, but only now in this situation did she realize.

She had been thinking that Ruruk would surely protect her.

She had been relying on that thought.

"Gugh... it, it hurts..."

For the first time, in a situation where she had to fight with only her own strength while the one she relied on was unconscious, she regretted not having improved her own power. Born as the strongest species, she had only looked at fun things, living without considering levels or skills.

She had lived without effort.

...I don't want to die.

With that thought alone, Seori put all her strength into trying to crawl out from under the Bloody Serpent's body. Even though she was usually timid and pathetic, she was still a True Dragon. Her status was high enough that she had the strength to push away the Bloody Serpent's weight.

As the monster felt its body being lifted by Seori's effort, it still laughed.

"JURARARA"

This time, it began to coil its tail around Seori's body as she tried to escape.

Even a snake as thick as a human arm has enough strength to break a human's torso. No matter if she was a dragon species inside, it wasn't easy to escape from the Bloody Serpent's constriction.

She was being squeezed tighter and tighter.

"Gu, i, gaa"

Compressed, her flesh and bones creaked.

Something else broke. The sharp pain pierced her brain, and tears flowed involuntarily. Still, Seori desperately put in all her strength. Not wanting to die, she endured with that emotion alone.

The Bloody Serpent, at first enjoying its prey that wouldn't give up, gradually lost interest. Prey that desperately resists forgets its fear. For a monster whose favorite thing was to see its prey cowering, crying, and screaming, Seori's resistance became boring.

It was going to kill her anyway. As it was thinking about how to make its prey despair now, the Bloody Serpent noticed the presence that the prey had been protecting at first.

Ruruk, lying in the corner of the room.

The Bloody Serpent left Seori restrained and approached Ruruk.

If it killed this one first, that prey would surely despair and cry out.

"JURARA"

The Bloody Serpent, narrowing its eyes at the sweet imagination, opened its large mouth to swallow Ruruk whole.

"-- I won't let you"

At that moment, an intense pressure burst from behind.

The Bloody Serpent was a monster born in the dungeon. In this sand dungeon where at least B-rank monsters live, even surviving was difficult.

Killing each other among encountered monsters was an everyday occurrence.

Even such a monster felt an unfamiliar presence and turned around reflexively.

What was there was a human figure with both arms covered in white and cherry blossom-colored scales.

"You can't touch Master!"

Seori shouted and kicked off the ground.

The floor broke.

In the next instant, the Bloody Serpent was punched away. Its body of several hundred kilograms was blown away like a toy. It crashed into the wall, shaking the entire room.

"Ju, RA...!?"

What is this thing?

The Bloody Serpent was astonished. The prey that had been just trembling until now was emitting a presence that far surpassed its own.

"Yaaah!"

The Bloody Serpent couldn't catch Seori's movements with its eyes.

Her movements had become too swift. And that strength that could easily punch it up to the ceiling.

Without understanding anything, the Bloody Serpent was continuously punched and--

"--."

Before it knew what was happening, it was finished off and turned into materials.

"Haa, haa..."

Looking at the monster that had turned into materials of skin, fangs, and poison sac, Seori sat down on the floor with a thud.

She looks at her own arms.

"...What is this...?"

White and cherry blossom-colored scales covered both her arms.

Her nails had become as sharp as when she was a dragon, making it look as if only her arms had transformed into dragon form.

Dragon transformation?

But why only the arms?

She had been desperate.

When she was terrified of dying, Ruruk was about to be eaten. At that moment, along with a sensation like something bursting from inside her body, power welled up.

Although Seori was confused by this inexplicable change, the fact was that she had defeated the Bloody Serpent. She let out a sigh of relief that she had been able to protect Ruruk.

"-- Ouch"

She remembers that her whole body, inside and out, was in tatters.

She immediately took out a Sugo Ball from her item box and drank it. Once again placing Ruruk's head on her knees, she waited slowly for the wounds to heal.

Taking a breath and drinking some water, she remembers the fight just now.

Her hands start to shake.

"...Master..."

She could have died. Ruruk could have been killed.

The feeling of fear wells up again.

This wasn't something that could be easily overcome. It was just because she had been desperate. Just because the opponent had been careless. That's why she had been able to survive.

If she had run away alone, if she couldn't feel Ruruk's body temperature like this, she surely wouldn't have been able to endure. She would have been crushed by anxiety.

Hugging her shoulders and trembling, Seori prayed with teary eyes.

"Wake up, Master..."

"GUGIGI!"

But this is a dungeon.

It's common sense that fighting flashily attracts nearby monsters.

What appeared before Seori was a giant humanoid monster carrying an axe -- a Black Goblin. Of course, it's a B-rank monster.

The Black Goblin showed an ugly smile and approached, licking its lips.

Seori, almost crying again, stood up to protect Ruruk.

"I-I am your opponent!"

"GYAGYAGYA!"

Seori fought desperately.

Wrapping her arms in dragon scales, she wielded her robust strength as if to shake off her fear. Her combat ability, a step above what she had before, was worthy of the name of dragon species.

But even so, she couldn't escape unscathed.

Seori, unfamiliar with battle, couldn't avoid cunning attacks. She didn't know about tactics. She fell for feints, and when Ruruk was targeted, she used her own body as a shield to take the wounds.

After defeating the Black Goblin while getting battered, she drank recovery medicine to heal her wounds.

Before those wounds could heal, another new monster appeared.

She continued to fight while covered in wounds.

She endured poison, coughed up blood, and faced the monsters that kept coming, over and over, while enduring pain and suffering.

Again and again, forcibly healing her body with recovery medicine.

Before she knew it, the room was full of materials. She couldn't remember how many times she had defeated monsters. It was like an endless series of battles, as if someone was sending in monsters. It felt like a test of endurance against an invisible opponent.

No matter how many monsters she defeated, her fear never numbed. No matter how much she healed her body with Sugo Balls and High Potions, her stamina and spirit, drained of blood, couldn't hold out.

Clenching her fists, hiding her master behind her back, Seori continued to fight.

"I will... protect... Master!"

She continued to protect her master desperately, shedding large tears, with a runny nose, crying all the while.

Even with her consciousness becoming hazy, she continued to defeat monsters until the very end.

"...Master... I will..."

But there's a limit to everything.

Once she fell to her knees, she could no longer stand up.

Vaguely watching the defeated monsters turn into materials, Seori collapsed.

Seori didn't know, but she had been fighting continuously for a whole day.

But mercilessly, another new monster enters the room.

She no longer had the will or strength to fight.

"Grrrr"

Hearing the monster's growl, Seori realized she was going to die.

"Master..."

Seori, still collapsed, grabs Ruruk's hand.

The recovery medicines she had been using continuously had already run out. If she fought and got wounded now, she would die without being able to heal her wounds even if she defeated the monster.

There was no longer any meaning in resistance.

She didn't want to die. She really didn't want to die.

"...Together... right..."

If she was going to die anyway, was it okay to have this much of a wish?

She didn't want to survive alone, nor did she want to die alone. It was lonely and she hated it.

So at least, she wanted to be with Ruruk in the final moment.

In her fading consciousness, Seori whispered softly.

"...I'm sorry, Master..."

Ruruk still hadn't regained consciousness.

She couldn't protect him. Only that regret burned in her chest.

From the beginning, she never had the right to stand by his side. If it wasn't her here, surely someone could have protected Ruruk. She was sorry to Elenora and Saaya.

If only it wasn't her here--

"Ah"

Just before losing consciousness, in that very last moment, Seori tightly gripped her hand.

Pakin!

What broke with a light sound was a thin silver plate she had barely managed to take out from her item box.

Immediately after, what appeared across space was a single slime.

"What's going on~?"

Punisuke, summoned in front of the unconscious Seori and Ruruk, looked around at its master, companion, and the monster, then said cheerfully.

"Hmm, I don't really understand but... protecting Master and Dragon Big Sis is my job!"