Chapter 881: I Thought She Said There Were No Undead?
I was going to ask if Mother needed to prepare first before she went in but she just looked behind her and said a single word aloud before I could voice that question out.
"Mary."
A portal appeared and the Trasif Head Maid stepped out.
"I am here, Madam."
Mother simply stretched out her hand and Mary deposited my Pack of Folding in her hand, almost like they had prepared for this ahead of time.
I thought Mary would be joining us but she gave us a bow before stepping back into the portal.
Huh… I guess it'll just be Mother and I then?
Mother then turned to me with a soft smile, "Is my little one ready to go?"
I shrugged, "I guess? Everything I need is in that bag after all?"
"Ufufufu~ Then let us proceed, my little one~"
She reached down and held my hand before leading me to the Dungeon entrance, making it look like we were just out for a stroll instead of diving into a Dungeon.
As we descended the stairs into the Dungeon, Mother showed no signs of letting go of my hand and I wondered if she was really going to just hold on to my hand the entire time?
Right as we reached the first floor of the Dungeon, we found ourselves face to face with a horde of undead skeletons that turned to stare at us with their eyeless sockets.
That lying Ifrit… Either that, or she really didn't even know that there were undead in this Dungeon.
"Ara, ara? Seems like she was lying to us, my little one~" Mother pointed out, mirroring my thoughts with a giggle. "These might even be preparing to leave the Dungeon too, shall we clear them out, my child?"
I nodded, wondering if Mother was still going to hold my hand.
"Ufufufu~ Very well then~" She giggled, materialising a sword in her left hand and stepping forward without letting go of my hand.
Wait… Really? We're going to fight like this?
Oh fine.
I pulled out my Light Sword and wielded it with my right hand, imbuing my mana into it and slashing at the group of three skeletons that tried to charge at me from the side.
The blade cut through them like paper and the skeletons collapsed into a pile of bones on the ground.
On the other side, Mother casually swung her own sword that seemed to be made of shadows like my Shadow Sword except that it wasn't invisible.
The dark blade of the sword cleaved through the crowd of skeletons in front of her and the monsters literally melted into a puddle of goo right in front of her.
Damn… What sword is that? That looks so cool!
Oh whoops, there's more skeletons coming after me.
I slashed my sword once again and cut off their heads before Mother pulled me along with her to cut through another group of skeletons.
With Mother the one leading me, I could not choose where I wanted to go and who I wanted to fight, which I thought was a problem at first.
But then I quickly realised that since I could leave it to Mother to lead me, I just needed to focus on cutting down the skeletons in front of me and nothing else.
Mother then started spinning the both of us around, sometimes switching places with me or even swinging me around so that my sword had a greater reach to cut down even more monsters than if I had just swung my sword normally.
It took me another moment to realise that we were practically dancing amongst the horde of skeletons and Mother was leading me in this dance of swords.
I'm not gonna lie though, this wasn't really an efficient way of dealing with the skeletons but I'm sure the two of us spinning through the crowd of skeletons and cutting them down with our blades made for a magnificent sight.
It took us a while but eventually all the skeletons were reduced to either piles of bones or puddles of goop.
"Ufufufu~ That was simply beautiful, my little one~" Mother giggled, dematerialising her sword so that she could use her free hand to pat me.
"Mnghh… It's only thanks to Mommy though," I pointed out.
"Ara, ara? I'm sure if it was any other person in your place, they would not be able to do what you did, my little one~"
I would say it's more like they would want to fight on their own instead of being led around but what do I know?
Instead, I decided to change the topic, "Should we gather the Mana Crystals, Mother?"
"Ara? I suppose we should~ Let Mama take care of such mundane tasks~"
She raised her hand and a gust of wind blew through the passage that we were standing in, all to gather the Mana Crystals and deposit them in a pile in front of her.
Mother then used my Pack of Folding to store the Mana Crystals, all without letting go of my hand.
If I didn't know any better, it's almost like she was giving herself a handicap by limiting the number of limbs she could use in this Dungeon…
Once everything was stored away, she picked up the bag again and smiled at me, "Shall we, my little one?"
I nodded before looking ahead of us.
In front of the stairs was a long passage that we just went through to stop at a hall with three passageways continuing forward.
There seemed to be some kind of enchantment on them because despite the fact that I should be able to see in the dark, there seemed to be a curtain of darkness that prevented me from seeing anything behind it.
I peered at the three passages in front of us, "Which path shall we take, Mommy?"
"Mmmm~ Why don't my little one decide? Mama shall follow you wherever~"
"Err… Well… How about the centre path?" I asked, pointing at the path in question.
"Fufufu~ Very well~ Mama shall lead the way~"
She strolled forward towards the path without hesitation.
"Umm… Mommy… Shouldn't we be worried about traps?"
"Ara, ara? It will be fine with Mama here, my little one~" Mother assured me.
Since she says so…
I let her lead me down the corridor and, after walking a few metres down, we passed through the dark curtain and I quickly realised that the Dungeon changed from the normal stone floor and walls into a cave-like structure instead.
A few steps after that, we found ourselves in a large cavern where a large waterfall cascaded down from a hole from above, the water pouring down into an even bigger hole in the centre of the cavern.
Both Mother and I looked around the cave, it seemed like whichever path we took would determine what type of environment we would need to face.
I looked behind us and instead of the passageway that we came from, I found myself staring at a solid rock wall.
I wonder if this was already part of the original Dungeon or was it something that the person who conquered this Dungeon added?
Also, I'm just going to make a guess that the person who conquered this Dungeon is most likely an Off-Worlder.
I'm like ninety nine percent sure that it's an Off-Worlder.
Why? Because I sincerely believe that only an Off-Worlder would be able to make something like a Monster Girl instead of a monster to occupy their Dungeon.
I'm willing to bet that the Ifrit from earlier may be part of this Off-Worlder's harem.
"Ara, ara~ It seems like this is a cave system, my little one~ Where shall we head next?"
"Umm… We'll need to go deeper so I'm assuming the stairs are located somewhere below?" I guessed, looking at the hole in front of us.
As we walked closer to the edge to peer down into the abyss, it looked like there were multiple levels of 'rings' surrounding the waterfall to form floors and we were currently standing at the top most one.
I could see that there were relatively shallow inclines of stone that formed ramps to lead from one floor to the other, so I assume that the design of this place was to have us search for the slope on each ring to descend down to the next level.
Since I know that one could only ascend or descend a Dungeon floor through the stairs, this tower of rings would still belong to the first floor of the Dungeon even if you were to descend to a lower ring.
Mother took one look at this and smiled at me, "Ufufufu~ Mama thinks so too, my little one. In that case, shall we?"
I knew what she was thinking about so I just nodded my head.
Both of us jumped into the hole at the same time, spreading our wings to slow down our descent as we aimed for the bottom most level of this cavern, completely bypassing the slopes that we were no doubt supposed to use to descend this part of the Dungeon instead.
And sure enough, when we reached the bottom, there was a set of stairs leading deeper into the Dungeon.
The only problem was that it was being guarded by an entire horde of zombies.
Well… Here we go again I guess…