Chapter 19 - Ais, you’re overthinking this. (Patreon)

Kael and Bella continued through the 13th Floor, and Kael no longer strayed from her side. In addition, he began taking everything more seriously, keeping a serious expression on his face the entire time as he paid close attention to his surroundings.

Bella, who noticed the sudden change in Kael’s behavior, was pleased.

She smiled. ‘I hope he keeps acting like this from now on.’

Bella wasn’t someone who liked fooling around during serious moments. It wasn’t that she disliked jokes or having a laugh, but inside the Dungeon, where danger lurked everywhere? It simply wasn’t ideal.

Kael noticed Bella looking at him and asked, “What’s wrong? Is there something on my face?”

“...” Hearing his question, Bella looked away and remained silent.

She merely sighed and continued walking.

Bella began taking some of the branching paths between the rocky walls without giving it much thought. She knew the Dungeon’s layout very well. The dust in the air was suffocating, and the smell of the place was unpleasant.

Since there was nothing but rocks around them, Kael wondered where the smell was coming from.

There was no water, and there were no corpses around. Even so, the smell was extremely unpleasant.

“Doesn’t that smell bother you?” Kael asked.

“Smell?” Bella glanced back at him, her expression clearly confused. After sniffing a few times to try to detect the smell Kael was talking about, she couldn’t smell anything. “I can’t smell anything. The dust just makes me want to sneeze.”

“You can’t smell anything?”

The smell in that place was like that of a lake filled with garbage. It was damp and rotten, utterly disgusting.

However, when Kael left the passage they had been in, the smell became weaker.

Kael looked back, feeling confused.

‘But the smell is still in the air... It’s just weaker.’

Bella noticed that Kael really could smell something and said, “Your nose must be very sensitive.”

“I can smell dampness, something moldy. And there’s also a rotten smell, like garbage or something dead.”

“...” Bella was surprised. She tried to detect the smell again, but still couldn’t smell anything. “There’s nothing like that nearby. Maybe the walls are damp for some reason. That wouldn’t be unusual. Your nose really must be sensitive.”

“Maybe...”

But Kael couldn’t accept that explanation. After all, his sense of smell had been completely ordinary outside the Dungeon.

Kael continued following Bella, still bothered by that horrible smell.

Then he remembered the scent he had noticed on the Dungeon’s 4th Floor. A strong smell of grass and something wet. He had noticed a different smell on every floor, but this was the first time he had encountered one that was genuinely unpleasant.

‘Am I going crazy or something? Or does this have something to do with being reincarnated into this body? Is that Goddess behind this?’

Kael sighed, and Bella heard him.

“What is it?”

“Nothing,” Kael replied.

He decided to ignore the smell completely, even though doing so was difficult.

Time passed as they continued onward. As Kael progressed, the smell became easier to tolerate, and monsters began appearing. Many of them were creatures he had already encountered on the previous floor.

However, there were also some “new” monsters for him to face.

One of these monsters was particularly pleasing to look at: a Crystal Mantis. Its entire body was made of crystal. The moment Kael saw it, he was surprised by its beautiful appearance.

Bella was surprised as well, but for a different reason: the monster’s appearance. After all, Crystal Mantises were more commonly found on the 15th Floor, although they could also appear on the 13th. Encountering one here was relatively rare.

“This monster is highly resistant to magical attacks, so don’t try using magic against it,” Bella said.

“Don’t worry, I’ve read about that. Besides, I don’t have any magical abilities apart from my special ability,” Kael said before disappearing from Bella’s sight.

Within milliseconds, he was already attacking the Crystal Mantis with his sword.

Clang!

When his sword struck the monster, his hand trembled from the impact.

However, a small crack appeared on the monster’s body.

Kael teleported back to Bella’s side and said, “You said it’s resistant to magical attacks, but it’s also quite resistant to physical attacks.”

“I never said it wasn’t resistant to physical attacks.”

“...”

‘She has a point,’ Kael thought as he teleported back to the monster, which was several meters away.

The monster was extremely confused because it hadn’t even seen where the first attack had come from. The second attack confused it as well, since Kael disappeared again immediately afterward.

Seconds later, the Crystal Mantis’s body began losing its shape as cracks spread across it, and then it exploded into particles of light.

[EXP +1000]

‘Huh? Only 1,000?’

Kael had thought he would receive more EXP points since he had descended another floor, but that hadn’t happened.

‘Are you serious? ...’

####

While Bella and Kael explored the Dungeon’s 13th Floor, Ais’s group left the Dungeon. Once they were outside, they headed to the Hostess of Fertility to grab something to eat.

Along with his food, Bete ordered a large glass of beer.

After the food arrived, they ate while chatting about random topics. However, the conversation was mostly between Tiona, Tione, and Bete. Ais ate in silence.

In her mind, Kael’s image still lingered.

Tiona noticed that she seemed lost in thought and asked, “What are you thinking about, Ais? Are you still thinking about the man you saw?”

“Yes. I’m trying to remember whether I’ve seen him before. But no, I can’t remember him.”

“You’re thinking about this too much. Why do you care so much? Just forget about it.”

Hearing Tiona’s words, Ais came to a conclusion.

Why keep thinking about Kael? There was no reason to.

Normally, Ais didn’t care about other people unless they were herself or her close friends.

So she sighed and put another piece of meat into her mouth.

Ais decided to join the conversation, putting Kael out of her mind.

At least for now...