An ordinary profession creates the world's strongest

Now, Hajime was running away violently in the grass with Yue on his back. The surrounding area was covered by lush weeds over 160 centimeters high. Hajime's shoulders and below were all hidden by the long grass. If it was Yue, he probably wouldn't be able to see him at all.

Hajime's reason for running away while pushing aside the dense weeds in annoyance was—

“““““““““““““Scared ahh ...

Because there are nearly two hundred monsters chasing them.

After Hajime and the others prepared themselves and began to tackle the maze, they successfully made it down about ten floors. This was certainly due to Hajime's gradually improving equipment and skills, but Yue's magic was also very active.

He possesses magic with all attributes and can use it without any time difference, accurately protecting Shi.

However, recovery and barrier magic didn't seem to be her forte. Perhaps because she had 『Auto-Regeneration』, she unconsciously judged them as unnecessary. Besides, since she had the sacred water, there wouldn't be any problems.

The first thing the two of them saw upon descending to this level was a sea of ​​trees. The trees, over ten meters tall, were lush and dense, and the air seemed a bit damp. Fortunately, unlike the dense forest floor they had passed through previously, this place wasn't quite as hot.

Just as Hajime and Yue were exploring the stairs leading to the lower level, rumbling sounds suddenly echoed around them. The two were on full alert when a monster reminiscent of a giant reptile appeared before them. It looked exactly like a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

However, for some reason, a delicate flower grew on its head...

The sharp teeth and murderous aura undoubtedly showed how powerful this monster was, but when he looked up, the sunflower-like flower was shaking, which was a truly bizarre sight that had never been seen before.

The Tyrannosaurus roared and charged towards Hajime and the others.

Hajime was unhurried, and was about to draw his Donar... but Yue stepped forward as if to stop him from moving, suddenly raising his hand high.

"'Scarlet Spear'."

The flames that appeared in Yue's hand swirled into a vortex and turned into a cone-shaped spear, flying in a straight line towards the mouth of the Tyrannosaurus. It pierced through it easily and melted the surrounding flesh mercilessly, killing it instantly. Then a roar of the earth was heard, and the Tyrannosaurus lay on the ground.

Then, the flowers on the head fluttered to the ground.

"..."

In many ways, Hajime was speechless.

Yue has been stealing the show lately. Initially, she was just loyally assisting Hajime, but for some reason, from the middle of the game, she started to take the initiative as if she was fighting against Hajime, killing monsters in an instant.

Because of that, Hajime's opportunities to fight had drastically decreased recently, making him feel rather useless. Hajime wondered uncomfortably, "Could it be that she thought I was too much of a hindrance and wanted to end the fight right away?" If Yue had truly said that to him, Hajime was confident he would have felt depressed for ten whole days.

Hajime put the half-drawn Donal back into the holster and said to Yue with a wry smile:

"Ah~ Yue? It's great that you're motivated... but I feel like I haven't been doing much lately..."

Yue looked back at Hajime, and although his face was expressionless, he looked very pleased with himself.

"...I want to help...because we're partners."

It seemed like she couldn't stand just assisting Hajime.

Hajime tilted his head and thought about what he had said not long ago - they were partners in life and death, and he relied on her a lot.

At that time, Yue had exhausted her magic power and collapsed in battle, putting them in a dangerous situation. After barely escaping danger, she was still worried about the incident, so Hajime said those words to comfort her... and unexpectedly, those words seemed to have deeply lingered in her heart. Therefore, Yue wanted to show that as Hajime's partner, she was also very useful.

"Haha, no, Yue has already helped me a lot. Since Yue's magic is very powerful, she's relatively weak in close combat, so please be the defender and leave the forward position to me."

“…Hashi… Yeah.”

Yue looked a little frustrated after being reminded by Hajime.

Yue seemed to be overly persistent in trying to help Hajime, so Hajime gave her a wry smile and gently stroked her soft hair. Just this gesture made Yue relax and feel better, so as far as Hajime was concerned, he couldn't say anything more.

Because Shi didn't want her to be overly dependent on him, he had to remind her in many places... Even though he thought so, Shi couldn't help but spoil her. In fact, what Shi couldn't stand the most was this personality of his.

Just as the two of them were being intimate with each other, Hajime's 『Sensory Aura』 detected the scent of monsters gathering one after another.

Around ten monsters formed a siege, moving towards Hajime and the others. Their coordinated movements made Hajime wonder if they were monsters operating in a pack, like the two-tailed wolves. At the same time, they urged Yue to leave the scene. Since the enemy was outnumbered, they needed to move to a location that was as advantageous as possible.

Hajime took the initiative to charge at one of the monsters that were forming a circular formation. He pushed aside the dense branches and rushed out, only to encounter a reptile over two meters long. If I were to compare it to a dinosaur-like monster of the velociraptor family, it would be.

A flower that looked like a tulip bloomed on its head, swaying constantly.

“…So cute.”

"...Is this a trend?"

Yue couldn't help but say it happily, while Hajime looked coldly at the monster that ruined the serious atmosphere and made an absolutely impossible speculation.

The Velociraptor and Tyrannosaurus looked just like each other, as if to say, "I don't know what flowers are!" They growled murderously, poised for attack, even though the flowers continued to sway...

“Scared!!”

They stared at the flowers, frozen in place. The velociraptor lunged towards them, its powerful legs adorned with twenty-centimeter-long claws that shone with a ferocious luster.

Hajime and Yue jumped to the left and right to dodge.

But it didn't end there. Hajime used his "Aero" to perform a triangle jump to get on top of the velociraptor and tried to shoot the tulip on its head.

All I heard was the sound of gunfire, and the tulip flowers scattered everywhere.

The velociraptor convulsed for a moment, then misplaced its landing, tumbling and rolling across the ground, only coming to rest after crashing into a tree trunk. Silence fell upon the surroundings. Yue quickly walked over to Hajime's side, their gazes intertwined between the velociraptor and the scattered tulip petals.

“…Dead?”

"No, it seems like he's still alive..."

Just as Shi guessed, after a spasm, the velociraptor climbed up and began to look around. Then, when it found the tulips scattered on the ground, it immediately walked over and trampled on the petals violently as if it had seen a murderer.

"Eh~ What's that reaction? What's going on?"

"...Were you pranked?"

"No, I'm not some elementary school kid who'd stick a piece of paper on his back for fun..."

After the velociraptor had trampled through the area to its heart's content, perhaps feeling satisfied, it looked up to the sky and let out a "Chulululu~!" sound, as if to say, "Wow, you see how powerful I am now!" Then, as if it suddenly noticed someone, it turned towards them and was startled.

"I only just realized how focused I was."

"...So you're being bullied?"

Hajime complained to it while Yue looked at the velociraptor with sympathy. Although the velociraptor froze for a moment, it immediately lowered its posture, bared its fangs and growled, and pounced on it in one breath.

Hajime quickly raised Donal, aimed at the velociraptor's open mouth, and fired the electromagnetically accelerated Taurus ore bullet.

The bullet turned into a flash of light, and after ravaging the velociraptor's mouth squarely, it shattered the back of its head and flew out, even penetrating the trees behind it and disappearing into the depths of the forest.

The velociraptor slid across the ground in its still-jumping pose, instantly killed. Both Hajime and Yue stared at the velociraptor's corpse with indescribable expressions.

"Seriously, what's going on?"

"...Bullying, then being shot to death...so pitiful."

"No, stop thinking about bullying. It's absolutely not like that."

Although Hajime didn't understand why, he didn't care since the maze was full of strange monsters. Since the encirclement had shrunk considerably, they moved quickly, searching for a favorable position.

After a while, they came to a place filled with countless sturdy trees about five meters in diameter. The thick branches of adjacent trees were entangled with each other, just like a corridor in the sky.

Hajime used 『Air Power』 while Yue used wind magic, flying to the thick branches above their heads. From there, Hajime intended to snipe the gathered monsters from above and annihilate them.

Within five minutes, velociraptors began to appear below. Hajime wanted to throw an "incendiary grenade" down, but he froze. Yue, who was standing next to him and reaching out to cast a spell, also froze.

because……

"Why is each one wearing a flower?!"

"...Hmm, a field of flowers."

Just as they said, more than ten velociraptors appeared, each with a flower on its head, and they were flowers of various shapes and colors.

Perhaps because they heard Hajime's uncontrollable complaints, the velociraptors all looked in their direction and assumed leaping positions, ready to attack.

Hajime dropped his "Incendiary Grenade" and used his Donar to prioritize sniping the raptors outside of the effective range. A series of gunshots rang out, each one a flash of red, and each shot blasted the raptor's head squarely. Yue also used his "Scarlet Spear" to start picking off the surrounding individuals.

Three seconds later, the "Incineration Grenade" exploded in the center of the group, sending tar, burning at 3,000 degrees Celsius, scattering and incinerating the surrounding velociraptors. Seeing that the "Incineration Grenade" was also effective against monsters on this floor, Hajime breathed a sigh of relief, thinking, "That scorpionoid is indeed particularly strong."

In less than ten seconds, they successfully annihilated the velociraptors. However, Hajime's expression was not joyful. Yue noticed this and tilted her head to ask him:

"……beginning?"

"... Yue, don't you find it strange?"

"?"

"It's a bit too weak."

Yue was suddenly shocked when he heard what Hajime said.

Indeed, whether it was the velociraptors or the Tyrannosaurus, their movements were simple, with no special attacks, and they were easily destroyed. Furthermore, despite their murderous aura, their movements were unnatural, almost mechanical. After watching the flowers detach from their bodies and the velociraptors angrily trample on them, Hajime felt even more strange about the velociraptors wearing flowers on their heads.

Just as Hajime was about to advise Yue to proceed cautiously, his 'scent sense' detected another approaching monster. A vast number of monsters were gathering from all directions. Hajime's current sensing range was approximately a twenty-meter radius, and within this range, countless monsters were already heading in a straight line.

"Yue, it's bad. Thirty, no, forty or more monsters are rapidly approaching us. It's as if someone is directing us to do so. They're surrounding us from all directions."

"...Are you going to run away?"

"...No, at this density, there's no way to escape. The best way is to annihilate them from the top of the tallest trees."

"Hmm... I can use extra-large magic."

"Okay, let's teach them a lesson!"

Hajime and Yue moved at high speed, searching for the tallest tree in the area. They then leaped onto its branches and smashed the thicker branches below, making it difficult for the monster to climb up.

Hajime held Donal up, quietly waiting for the right moment. He could feel Yue gently grasping the hem of his shirt. Since his hands were busy, Hajime leaned slightly closer to her instead, and Yue tightened her grip on the hem.

Then, the first group appeared, not only the Velociraptor, but also the Tyrannosaurus. The Tyrannosaurus began to ram the tree trunks, while the Velociraptor used its claws skillfully and climbed up the trees nimbly.

Shi pulled the trigger of Donal's gun. As the gunshot rang out, several flashes of light descended, killing all the velociraptors that were climbing trees with their claws.

After the bullet was fired, Donal's chamber ejected. Hajime used one hand to turn the gun around to eject the shell, then held it under his left armpit to reload the bullet. This took five seconds.

As if to fill this gap, the "incendiary grenade" dropped before the shooting exploded, and the flames spread all around. Hajime continued to shoot at Donal, but he had already killed fifteen of them. However, Hajime was not satisfied.

Because there were more than thirty Velociraptors and four Tyrannosaurus Rex crowded below, they gathered together, wanting to break down the big tree they were in, or climb up the tree to attack them.

"beginning?"

"Not yet...wait a moment."

Hearing Yue's call, Hajime answered while shooting down the velociraptor. Yue also believed in Hajime and she concentrated her mind and continued to gather magic power.

Then, the number of monsters below finally exceeded fifty. Although the number was too large to determine, it should have reached the number of monsters captured by "Scent Sense" beforehand, so Hajime sent a signal to Yue.

"moon!"

"Hmm! 'Frozen Prison'!"

The moment Yue cast her spell, the ground beneath the tree where Hajime and the others stood began to freeze. A crackling sound echoed, and in an instant, a layer of pale ice covered the ground. As soon as the magic touched the monster, icicles suddenly blossomed like flowers, creating a cascade of icy blossoms.

The monster was instantly frozen, powerless to resist, its eyes losing their luster. The frozen area was a fifty-meter square centered on the designated coordinates, its power truly living up to its name, "annihilation magic."

“Huff…Huff…”

"Thank you for your hard work, as expected of a vampire princess."

“…Hehehe…”

Seeing the surroundings resemble a frozen hell, Hajime offered Yue pure admiration. Yue, affected by the use of the highest-level magic, had completely depleted her magic power. Her shoulders rose and fell with each breath, and she must have been feeling a strong sense of fatigue.

Hajime wrapped his arm around Yue's waist, supporting her as she collapsed beside him, while offering her his neck. Hajime intended to draw her blood, to heal her. While the sacred water could heal her to some degree, perhaps due to vampire characteristics, full recovery took a long time. Therefore, blood seemed the most effective method.

When Yue heard Shi's praise, a slight smile appeared on the corner of her mouth. She laughed shyly a few times, and then her cheeks flushed as she prepared to put her mouth on Shi's neck to suck blood.

However, as if to stop her, Hajime suddenly stood up with a stern expression, because Hajime's "breath perception" had discovered more than a hundred monsters.

"Yue, the number of monsters has doubled again."

「!?」

"This is incredibly strange, isn't it? We just wiped them out, and yet they're launching a special attack again... It's like they're being forced... That flower... could it be..."

"……parasitic."

"Does Yue think so too?"

Yue nodded as if confirming Hajime's guess.

"...There should be a real body."

"That's right. Unless we kill the guy who put those flowers on them, we'll have to fight against all the monsters on this floor."

Before being overwhelmed by the human wave tactics, Hajime and his friends decided to find the real monster that might be controlling the monsters, otherwise they would have no time to find the stairs leading to the lower level.

As there was no time for Yue, who was sitting on the ground, to suck his blood, Shizheng was about to give her the holy water, but Yue refused. When Shizheng was wondering, Yue opened her hands and said to him:

“Hashi… hold me…”

"How old are you? Ah, you're not planning on sucking blood while walking, are you?!"