Chapter 19: 19. Why Is There a Condom...?

"Child, try jumping once."

Having finished my training, I jumped with all my strength.

"Wow... It doesn’t feel like my body."

I was seeing the effects of training in real time, and the strength overflowing through my body felt strange.

"Hehe, now then! Try jumping using only your ankles."

I had my doubts, but I jumped.

The height was laughably low, and my master smiled as she continued her explanation.

"You should make good use of those sturdy joints. From now on, practice jumping with nothing but the strength in your ankles until you can reach half the height you just did."

I had jumped right away, thinking it was merely joint training, but my master explained slowly.

"When you run, do not bend your knees. When you swing your sword, try swinging it using only your wrist."

I tried doing as my master said, but I couldn’t put much strength into it, and it felt awkward somehow.

How should I put it...? It just didn’t feel right.

My master was the type to explain things kindly rather than simply tell me, ‘Repeat it until you understand.’

She immediately noticed my dissatisfaction and explained.

"When you enter a labyrinth, you will inevitably be ambushed. To prepare for that, you must practice responding quickly with the smallest possible movements."

"Ah..."

Come to think of it... that made sense at close range. It would be especially useful if I were slower than my opponent.

When I nodded, my master smiled bitterly.

"It will be useful when dealing with people. When that time comes, do not hesitate."

**

I squeezed my eyes shut and shook off the memories of the past.

I regretted it.

I should have taken her head off in one stroke, but when my sword pierced through her flesh, the vivid sensation traveled up to my fingertips.

"Grrrk!"

Bloody foam bubbled from the mouth of the woman whose throat I had pierced.

The blood that sprayed out as the bubbles burst tickled my chin.

Her eyes, brimming with resentment, trembled as they stared straight at me.

Even so, I didn’t look away. Judging from what had happened before, fighting people seemed unavoidable.

The answer was probably to get used to it as quickly as possible.

It was a relief that I felt awful. If killing a person had made me feel good, wouldn’t I have found myself utterly disgusting?

I pulled my sword from the corpse, which no longer so much as twitched, then flicked off the sticky blood clinging to the blade.

After suppressing the nausea that rose in my throat for a moment, I searched the corpse.

"...My first kill had to be a woman."

It was fucking awful. The cold skin, touching a corpse whose eyes remained wide open even in death, the tingling in my hands and feet—everything.

Suppressing my revulsion, I searched the corpse and put the money, dagger, and adventurer’s plaque into my inventory. I didn’t bother looking at her name...

There was no way she had entered the dungeon carrying only this crap... She definitely had companions.

I moved a short distance away and shoved my head into the ground.

Thud!

I checked the path to the blue dot, counted how many people were along the route, and formed a plan.

The path where I’ll run into the fewest people... Ngh...

There were about four people in sight right now. There was no guarantee they had all come because of the young lady of House Velatus, and some of them were paired up.

The moment I wondered what to do...

Would it activate if I did this...?

**

"Ah, fuck... Why haven’t the bastards who went to the fifth floor contacted us?"

"Still better than going up there and working our asses off."

"Fuck, I didn’t like that bitch. I wanted to kill her myself."

"Forget it. That bitch is pretty damn capable herself."

The pair of mercenaries guarding the fourth floor on someone’s orders had let their guard down and were chatting.

Hellin and Kelly. They were a duo who had worked together since their mercenary days.

"Hey, where are we going after this is over?"

Seeing the lecherous look on her partner’s face, Kelly shook her head.

"You want to go to that male whore district again? I trusted you and followed you there last time, and his dick was as small as a kobold’s cock."

Hellin snickered at Kelly as she frowned and spat out a thick glob of phlegm.

"That’s because you called in the cheap ones. Spend a few silver coins and..."

Hellin wiggled her middle finger and threw an arm around Kelly’s shoulder.

"Fuck, his cock was this big."

Watching that wriggling middle finger, Kelly let her imagination run wild, and apparently got turned on herself as she asked the price.

"...That big? How much do guys like that cost?"

"Thirty silver coins."

"Fuck! That’s fucking expensive! For that money, I’d rather fuck myself!"

"Idiot, their hip work is on a whole different level. Something as big as a middle finger, throbbing like crazy..."

An unexpected sound brought the two women’s dirty talk to a halt.

"Hey, was that a man’s voice...?"

"I wasn’t the only one who heard that, right? Right?"

"Let’s go check it out first."

As ordered, the two set out to kill the adventurer trying to reach the fifth floor.

As they sensed the cries for help growing closer, they approached while holding their breath.

There, they found...

"Help! My arm...! My arm is stuck and won’t come out!"

A man holding a torch in one hand, with his other arm stuck in the wall, was asking them for help.

But the man’s face...

"How much would a guy like that cost...?"

"Don’t be ridiculous... I couldn’t do him even if you paid me three hundred gold coins."

The duo stared blankly at Ryu-o for a moment, then looked into each other’s eyes.

"Rock-paper-scissors?"

"Thirty silver coins. I go first."

"I’ll pay fifty, so you go after me."

"Fifty? Ngh... You go first, then."

Snickering, Hellin approached Ryu-o and spoke.

"Hey, handsome! How did that happen to you? Hm? Thanks, by the way!"

"Ah, I entered the dungeon after receiving a mission to rescue the young lady of House Velatus... I was making my way along with a hand on the wall, and my hand slipped inside!"

"Hey! Did you hear that? He’s someone we can kill anyway! Keep watch!"

A pitifully handsome man with a torch in one hand, while his other hand was completely embedded in the wall, seemingly unable to move as he struggled.

Hellin, who had given her partner the money to visit the male whore district, walked over carelessly...

"Kill me?"

"If I’m satisfied, I’ll sneak you away..."

Swish! Splurt!

The man’s hand had been too fast to see.

Her companion’s blood splattered in every direction.

Beautiful black eyes glowed faintly.

When Kelly saw the corpse of her partner of ten years, divided into five pieces, her mind went blank.

"Huh...? Hell..."

By the time she came to her senses, Ryu-o’s sword, its eyes faintly glowing blue, was before her throat.

Splurt!

**

Ding!

[Level Up!]

Already my third kill.

For my third kill, I had killed her in one strike using the martial arts I had learned, and I even heard the level-up sound, but...

My second kill had been me chopping a person into pieces with my own hands, so it felt...

At least I trembled a little less now that I’d done it once, but it still felt just as awful.

"I should grab everything and get going."

Fortunately, the bug sword worked exactly as I had thought it would.

After sticking my hand and sword into the wall, I dislocated my wrist as I pulled it out, and it activated perfectly.

Whether it was practical in real combat... I didn’t know. Maybe I’d just been lucky this time.

As I considered how best to use it, a paper box fell out of one of the corpses.

"What is this?"

When I opened it, a condom popped out—the kind I’d seen while working part-time at a convenience store.

"A condom...?"

At that moment, a memory from the past flashed through my mind.

[That’ll be 8,400 won, ma’am.]

[Haa... haa...]

[Your hand... Aah! W-what are you doing?!]

After paying for condoms, there was the memory of that perverted woman holding a condom in her mouth and opening her coat...

It was fortunate that the police had arrived quickly. If she’d been carrying a weapon, things could have gone very badly.

"A woman can carry condoms around... But was this in the original story...?"

My thoughts briefly wandered at the sight of such an out-of-place item inside the labyrinth.

I collected the items and headed for the next floor.

**

As I kept going, I eventually found myself in front of a portal.

I avoided one person, but another charged at me the instant our eyes met, so I dealt with them.

After cutting down a few goblins along the way, I finally arrived at the fifth floor.

After moving through, I looked around and found that I had apparently arrived somewhere safe.

Then I heard sounds from the two branching paths.

Clang! Clang! Bang!

"...?"

I immediately shoved my head into the ground and assessed the situation.

When I opened my eyes, a little girl and two sword-wielding mercenaries were fighting behind the thin wall directly in front of me.

"Blonde hair and blue eyes... Found her!"

The situation was bad.

The young lady was clearly in terrible condition, having been kicked into the wall.

A man in a suit was slowly approaching the young lady with a sword in hand...

I immediately pulled my head out and charged into the wall.

If I went around, I would definitely be too late.

While running, I roughly dumped the remaining points into Strength, circulated my qi, and slammed into it at full force.

Thud!

Thankfully, the wall was fairly thin. I squeezed out every last bit of strength I had and forced my way through it.

Ding!

[Transmigrant Title Activated! Agility +3]

The good news was that the title had activated. The bad news was my stamina... It felt like a huge chunk of it had been cut away.

Dragging my exhausted body along, I charged at the suited man as quietly as possible.

I had hoped not to be noticed, but the man leisurely turned around and blocked my sword.

Clang!

"Hm? Where did you come from?"

"The wall."

"So you’re insane?"

The man swung his sword and pushed me away.

Clang!

Judging by the force I felt, I thought I could handle him.

The man before me opened his half-lidded eyes slightly and stared intently at his wrist.

I had worried that I wouldn’t be able to see his pupils, so this was very welcome.

As the man’s focus wandered, I casually extended my sword, and he swatted the flat of my blade away as though brushing off a fly.

Clang!

"Got you."

Swishhh!!

"What the..."

Splurt!!!

"Cough!"

The man’s chest was shredded in an instant.

The moment I raised my sword to make absolutely certain I killed him...

"D-don’t! Don’t kill him!"

Sorry, but I had no intention of doing that.

My master said I must always make sure to finish them off. I didn’t know what skills they might have.

My hand didn’t stop despite the cry, and it shot for his neck, but...

Swish!

The suited man instantly raised his arm and trapped my sword between his armpit and side.

Crack!

The man, whose breastbone had split apart, smiled deeply and simply died.

"Cough...!"

"...?"

It would have hurt less if I had simply cut off his head, so why struggle like that...

"Waaaaah!"

A sorrowful wail turned my attention.

I approached the crying young lady.

"Young Lady Velatus?"

"Hic! Hngh..."

"I’m just here to rescue..."

Trickle...

Ah.

I looked away.

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