Chapter 127: Good And Bad News

Even though I had only come once, Erina’s caresses gave me a deep and peaceful sleep, and I only woke up the next morning to the sound of birds singing and the rays of sunlight streaming through the window and falling on my face.

The next day, I woke up feeling completely refreshed. My muscles no longer ached, and I felt so full of energy that I could easily take on three Derugs with one hand tied behind my back.

I wondered to myself if it was because Erina had given me pleasure the night before, but she certainly didn’t have any kind of power like that—still, the thought amused me a little.

Maybe my body just wanted to get out of that room and head toward adventure after being stuck there for days.

“I think he’s already well enough to go to the dungeon,” Alicia, my dear healer, said as she watched me jump out of bed full of energy.

“Stop that!” Sarah complained. “You’re going to break the inn’s bed!”

“Ah, right!” I stopped jumping—not because Sarah told me to, but because I remembered our fight against the Derug, and that I still hadn’t checked how much we had leveled up or what skills we had gained.

[

Name: Richard Forster

Class: Valkyrie Tamer

Level: 18

Valkyries: 3/3

Health: 220 points

Mana: 105 points

Strength: 26 points

Defense: 11 points

Magic: 18 points

Agility: 13 points

Status Points: 24 points

]

[

Name: Sarah Lockhart

Level: 15

Class: Swordmaster

Title: Valkyrie

Master: Richard Forster

Health: 190 points

Mana: 90 points

Strength: 15 points

Defense: 3 points

Magic: 13 points

Agility: 4 points

Status Points: 32 points

]

[

Name: Alicia Ludvila Von Astrea

Level: 15

Class: Saintess

Title: Valkyrie

Master: Richard Forster

Health: 110 points

Mana: 180 points

Strength: 1 point

Defense: 2 points

Magic: 18 points

Agility: 5 points

Status Points: 32 points

]

[

Name: Justine Blackwood

Level: 11

Class: Sage

Title: Valkyrie

Master: Richard Forster

Health: 120 points

Mana: 170 points

Strength: 1 point

Defense: 2 points

Magic: 18 points

Agility: 6 points

Status Points: 24 points

]

’Good. Now all my Valkyries’ levels have reached the two-digit mark, and we also have a lot of points that we can distribute,’ I thought inwardly.

I remembered our last fight, and how Derug had easily defeated my Valkyries—and that creature was just a subordinate.

The boss, Zalrorg, is a Lich—an undead capable of using magic. Improving Defense wouldn’t protect us against it. To avoid damage from him, I would need to improve both my and Alicia’s Magic so we could strengthen Crystal Wall’s defensive power.

Liches are immune to physical damage, so our options against him would be our offensive magic, Sarah’s Swordmaster skills, and our healing magic.

For this fight—and for the mine as a whole—the best build would be to improve Magic and Agility to increase our chances of evasion. So our stats ended up like this.

[

Name: Richard Forster

Class: Valkyrie Tamer

Level: 18

Valkyries: 3/3

Health: 220 points

Mana: 105 points

Strength: 26 points

Defense: 11 points

Magic: 35 points

Agility: 20 points

Status Points: 0 points

]

[

Name: Sarah Lockhart

Level: 15

Class: Swordmaster

Title: Valkyrie

Master: Richard Forster

Health: 190 points

Mana: 90 points

Strength: 15 points

Defense: 3 points

Magic: 26 points

Agility: 23 points

Status Points: 0 points

]

[

Name: Alicia Ludvila Von Astrea

Level: 15

Class: Saintess

Title: Valkyrie

Master: Richard Forster

Health: 110 points

Mana: 180 points

Strength: 1 point

Defense: 2 points

Magic: 40 points

Agility: 15 points

Status Points: 0 points

]

[

Name: Justine Blackwood

Level: 11

Class: Sage

Title: Valkyrie

Master: Richard Forster

Health: 120 points

Mana: 170 points

Strength: 1 point

Defense: 2 points

Magic: 33 points

Agility: 15 points

Status Points: 0 points

]

’Eh…’ When I finished looking, I realized how weird our build had become.

Sarah was supposed to be some kind of sword wielder, but her Strength was starting to fall behind her Magic.

I didn’t want to improve Alicia’s Defense, so I put most of her points into Magic, and now she looked like a cannon, even surpassing Justine. Well, it will improve her abilities, and for this fight she can work both in defense and offense.

It still looked weird to me, but I can adjust that later when we level up. I’ll also need to balance their stats so they don’t end up with too big a deficit in Defense, but for now, I think it’s fine.

Yesterday, Alicia did us the favor of preparing a fresh stock of Holy Water. That way, we’d have a significant advantage against Zalrorg. If we took the secret passage—a shortcut to the dungeon’s core—we could defeat the Boss and return before the end of the day.

“Huh?” As I thought about the secret passage, something Freya had told me while we were still in Brandish’s room resurfaced in my mind. “Sarah, how did you get me out of the dungeon?”

“Eh?” Sarah and Justine reacted with surprised looks at my question.

“The secret passage was very narrow, and we had to crawl through it. How did you manage to bring me back while I was unconscious?”

The two girls glanced at each other, and finally Sarah stepped forward. “The truth is, Rick, we were desperate to get you out. You were unconscious, and Ghosts could appear at any moment, so we had to make a drastic decision.”

“What exactly did you do?” I asked, not very enthusiastic about the answer.

Justine spoke up. “It’s my fault. I was the one who suggested it to Sarah. There was no way to carry you through the passage. I even decided to make an exception to the rule we had before.”

“Hey, you know you have to give me some context. How am I supposed to understand that?” I said. Freya had told me part of it, but I was still missing details.

“Do you remember what Justine said about not using fire powers inside the mine?” Sarah asked.

“Yes—because there could be flammable gases.”

“So you two…”

“Yes,” Justine confirmed. “We took the risk and used our combined fire powers to blow up the secret passage.”

I placed the palm of my hand against my forehead. “That was extremely risky. You could have died doing that.”

Sarah crossed her arms. “There was no other way. We needed to save you, and fortunately you’re better now—safe and sound. But…”

Sarah stopped herself. Whatever she was about to say was worse than their desperate attempt to rescue me.

Justine continued her explanation, “Unfortunately, right after we got out through the passage we had blown open, the structure collapsed, and the shortcut was completely buried under rubble.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. That was bad news.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to try blowing the path open again. More parts of the mine could collapse.”

I sighed. “You’re right. Well, there’s nothing we can do about it. We’ll have to go through the front entrance.”

Even though I said that, Sarah still seemed uneasy. She looked embarrassed, avoiding my gaze. Justine didn’t look much better either.

“You’re not mad at us?” she asked.

“There’s no reason for me to be. This is definitely a setback, but you did what you thought was best at the time. And like you said, I’m alive, so I have nothing to complain about.”

Hearing my words seemed to ease my wives’ hearts. Both of them blushed slightly and formed small smiles on their lips.

It looks like we won’t be back until the end of the day now—if we’re lucky enough to clear the dungeon today. Remembering my assistant, I called out to her, ’Brandish, are you there?’

“Y-Yes, g-good morning!” the girl replied nervously.

As I heard her voice, I remembered last night, when my soul had somehow woken up in her bed. She might still be embarrassed about that… and then there was what her boss had told me.

’I know what you did while watching Richard with the girls.’

Those words from the goddess of love lingered in my mind. It didn’t take much to understand what she meant, but I pushed the thought aside. I wanted to talk to Brandish about it, but I needed to stay focused so I wouldn’t mess up today’s mission.

’C-Can I h-help you with s-something?’ Brandish asked shyly.

’Good morning, Brandish. No, I was going to ask for some advice. I just wanted to talk to you before we head out, and also…’

I paused, thinking about how to say it. On the other side of this world were Freya and Brandish.

Freya was a goddess with a difficult temperament. Even if I happened to be her type, I’d still have to put in some effort to get on her good side.

Brandish, on the other hand, seemed easier to interact with—but she was very shy. Confronting her directly about what Freya had implied didn’t seem like the best approach.

’No, it’s nothing,’ I said at last. ’I just wanted to say goodbye before the mission.’

’I see… Then I—I hope you all have a nice day.’

Our conversation ended with a simple farewell. Even though I told myself not to dwell on it, my mind kept drifting back to those thoughts as my party headed toward the dungeon.

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