Is that the core?

She said she'd collect socks from her acquaintances once we returned to the surface from the dungeon, so we exchanged contact info.

That said, I obviously can't show my ID as an E-rank adventurer or newbie merchant. Right now I'm the great mage Karina-chan. So I decided to use spatial magic.

I picked up a rock nearby and shaped it into a magatama with a crunch. Threaded a leather cord through the hole and applied a bit of spatial magic, and voila, a communication device pendant is complete.

"Here you go. This stone works as a communication device, so if you talk to it, I'll come flying."

"Communicawhatsit?"

Oh, starting from there.

"You know how wind magic can send your voice far away? It's like that, your voice will reach me. Try talking to it. Keep it quiet since I need to adjust it. I'll cut out loud sounds."

"Yeah… Ahem, ah, Karina?"

"Ohyou!"

Her whisper exploded right in my ear. That's ASMR for you!

Audio content that feels nice and gives you tingles!

"Wh-what, why'd you suddenly make a weird noise?"

"I messed up the adjustment… well, this works too. Anyway, try wearing it."

"Yeah. Like this?"

Mashiro-san put on the pendant I made, hanging it around her neck. The magatama stone settled into the fluffy, furry valley of her cleavage.

Thump, thump, I could hear her heartbeat… Heartbeat ASMR is nice too. Chewing sounds would probably come through too. Yeah, that's definitely bad. Privacy issues.

"… At this rate, your voice and all sorts of sounds will be coming through loud and clear to me. I'll set it so your voice only reaches me when you tap it twice quickly."

"Ah, yeah. Well, I'll return it soon enough."

"Please do. Oh, you can use it to call me if another Black Mantis shows up."

"Ahh… that's actually possible. Since this is the first time a Black Mantis has been defeated in under a week, who knows what might happen."

On top of that, this is apparently the first time a Mithril Devil has ever been defeated. All the more reason we don't know what'll happen. Hmm, looks like I can't leave the dungeon for about a week…

… Wait, in my case I can teleport anywhere, so it's all the same. I just need to be ready if called.

 

*

 

After that, I had her teach me more about the dungeon.

"That's how it is. There might be different rules in other dungeons, but now you know what not to do here? … Even though it's already too late for a lot of it."

"Yeah, yeah. And to add to that, defeating the dungeon boss deeper in is fine, but you can't touch the core past it. Got it, got it."

"Even if you tried to touch it, there's a barrier so you can't."

If she hadn't told me, I might have smashed through or bypassed it with spatial magic and gone to touch it.

"Alright, let's go see the core while we're here."

"Eh, is that okay? The dungeon boss is strong, right?"

"The Black Mantis was ten times stronger. Come on, let's go, Karina."

Saying that, Mashiro-san pulled me to my feet and led the way.

"Ehh, I can go by myself～"

"Shut it, if I let you go alone and something crazy happens again, what then!! I'm basically your supervisor here!"

"Fair point."

Well, I'll follow the senior adventurer's lead here.

She seems like the reliable senior type, like Blade-senpai!

By the way, I gave Mashiro-san just the Black Mantis's head and stored the rest in my backpack (via spatial magic). I also gave her one piece of the Mithril Devil, so I'm leaving the report to you, Mashiro-san.

As for me, please keep it vague like "some crazy great mage passing through," and if they inquire at the lord's mansion in Véraldo, they should be able to verify I exist!

And so, we challenged the dungeon boss together.

Hold back? I've already shown Mashiro-san my true power, so there's no need. And so, the gigantic ant that appeared, presumably the Queen Ant, was torn apart the moment it spawned.

"I was prepared for it, but seriously, you one-shot the dungeon boss? It takes me a whole day, you know."

Mashiro-san said, pulling out a dart and fiddling with it, looking slightly dissatisfied. You wanted to show off too, huh? Sorry!

"… Hey, looking at these darts again, they're so perfectly identical down to the last detail, it's like they were made by a master dwarf craftsman…"

"Oh! Is that the core? And a barrier?"

"Hm? Ah. Yeah, that's right."

Proceeding to the back of the boss room, there was a corridor with a green barrier, and beyond it, a black sphere sitting on a pedestal. So that's the core.