Is it wrong to try to meet someone in a dungeon?

Lily was thrown into confusion, trying to get up by bracing herself on the ground, but a long shadow loomed over her.

She was startled, and before she could even raise her head, she was forcibly grabbed and punched hard in the face.

“Woo-gu!”

"Apologize properly to me, you stinking Palum!"

While the blood was still dripping from his nose, another blow came—a powerful punch landed on his cheek.

Taking advantage of her dazed state, he kicked her. She rolled on the ground a few times until the backpack finally came off her back. Then, as if adding insult to injury, the man kicked her in the abdomen with his toe.

"--ah!"

She flew out like a ball, bouncing on the ground once and twice.

After finally calming down, the swirling pain that swept over Lily was unbearable.

"Ouch, it hurts, waah...!"

"Ha, hahahahahaha! Look at you, you scoundrel!"

Through her flickering vision, Lily could barely make out who was making the sound.

A human adventurer. The man who contacted Bell yesterday. Lily's former employer.

The man gave her a wicked smile, raising the corners of his mouth.

"I knew you were about to abandon that brat, weren't you? I also knew that if I laid this trap, I'd definitely run into you!"

"A net...?"

"In this ridiculously large maze, it would be a pointless gamble for me to ambush and capture you all by myself. So I gathered helpers to guard various key locations."

The underground city was vast; the area below the fifth level was larger than the central plaza, but there were only three or four proper routes leading down to the next level. The man had his recruited henchmen lying in ambush along these routes, waiting for Lily to fall into his trap.

Of all these routes, Lily chose the one he was waiting for.

"When I saw that familiar-looking white-haired brat clinging to a short guy, I thought it was impossible. But... what, did that brat carry something so valuable that it could make you lose your mind? How could you be so careless?"

"...!"

"Fine, that doesn't matter anymore. Before I kill you, you stole my sword, so you'd better make it up to me properly...!"

"Give me everything you're wearing," the man said, his eyes filled with a brutal rage.

He reached out to Lily, who was pressing her bleeding nose, ripped off her robe, and stole her equipment. Lily, who was only wearing a cloth garment, was powerless to resist.

"Magic stone, gold pocket watch... Hey, you even have a magic sword! Hahahaha! You stole that too, didn't you!"

The expensive magic sword made the man overjoyed.

He looked at the dagger, which gleamed beautifully, and was clearly overjoyed.

The man twirled the red dagger in one hand, suppressing a sinister smile.

"Kaka...! Fine, I'll spare your life then, you stinking Palum. Since you've given me such a wonderful gift, I should at least show some magnanimity...right!"

“Ahgu!”

Lily struggled in pain as she was kicked in the abdomen a second time.

Oh no, oh no, oh no! A feeling of anxiety swelled up in my small chest all at once.

She realized that if she didn't find a way to escape, she would suffer a terrible fate.

Just as she was struggling to breathe and listening to the man's voice in a daze.

"That was ruthless, Boss Gerd."

A third party's voice interrupted.

"...!"

"Oh—, you came so quickly."

Looking in the direction from which the sound came, there was a man who looked familiar at the entrance of the cave.

He was one of the group that threatened Lily a couple of days ago, trying to rob her of her money. He was an adventurer from the [Soma Familia] who had robbed her of her belongings countless times before and repeatedly bullied her.

Lily understood everything. The helper the man mentioned was the Soma Familia. He probably thought he could use these guys who had clashed with her after his contact with Bell yesterday, which is why he asked them for help.

"Listen to me, Ganu. This guy has a magic sword, and just like you all thought, he seems to have amassed quite a fortune, hehehe."

"……Yeah."

As the man, Gerd, chattered on and on in a cheerful mood, the middle-aged orc called Ganu narrowed his somewhat gloomy and lifeless eyes. Gerd, in high spirits, did not notice his strange behavior.

"Boss Gerd, I have a suggestion..."

"So, do you want me to give you the Demon Sword? Hey, I captured this Palum, just some extra income..."

"No, no. It's not just the Demon Sword; please leave everything you've stolen behind."

Huh? Gerd's smile froze halfway through, and before he could even ask what was going on, Ganu threw out the object he had been hiding behind his back. "Eek!" The lump of material rolled onto the ground in front of her with a thud, causing Lily to let out a soft scream.

"Kill-killer ants...!"

Those were killer ants, their lower bodies severed for easier transport, half-dead and barely alive. Covered in wounds and splattering purple blood, the monster repeatedly opened and closed its mouth, thrashing its remaining arm in agony.

"Originally, we thought that if we all attacked together, we could handle it. But considering that Boss Gerd arrived on a floor above us, he might be much stronger. So, we adopted this method."

With two more sounds, two more pieces of the killer ant's upper body were thrown over.

Sometime later, two adventurers who had been traveling with Ganu appeared at another passageway, imitating his actions. Three blocky ants, thrown in total, emitted a curse-like groan that echoed endlessly in the center of the cave.

Lily and Gerd's faces turned pale in an instant.

When killer ants are in a near-death state, they emit special pheromones. These pheromones are special rescue signals that allow them to call upon their companions.

A clump of ants still clinging to life is like a time bomb that summons an army of insects.

"Are you guys all crazy?!"

If three killer ants are allowed to continuously release pheromones, how many other insects (companions) will they attract?

Gerd's screams echoed in the room, but Ganu and the others remained expressionless.

Only Lily, with her ashen face, could truly understand the obsession with money and the madness of those bound by the "divine wine."

"You wouldn't want to become bait for those monsters while you're fighting us, would you, boss?"

"babble!"

Five killer ants appeared in one go from the passageway that Gede was facing away from.

This cave has a total of four entrances. Three of the entrances were occupied by Ganu and his group, and the remaining one was just blocked by the monsters. Anger, fear, and wavering made Gerd's face turn red and green in turns. He gritted his teeth in hatred and threw all the luggage he had stolen from Lily on the ground.

"That damned bastard!"

Running past Ganu, who was making way with a cold smile on his face, Gede fled the cave in a flash.

Before long, howls like those of wild beasts echoed all around, and after a struggle between something fighting, the howls abruptly stopped.

Lily, bewildered, had no way of knowing what was happening deep within the passage from which giant ants were endlessly gushing forth.

"Chirp...!"

"!"

The killer ants quickly began to engulf the entire cavern, and one of them approached Lily's face.

His body, already badly beaten, was unresponsive. The monster's claws reached out, followed by a spray of blood and gore.

The slashed killer ant collapsed, unable to continue its attack.

"Are you alright, Erd?"

"Ganu, sir..."

With the blood-stained sword slung over his shoulder, Ganu grinned as he looked down at Lily.

"I came all this way to save you, you know? After all, we're comrades from the Familia."

Seeing the man in front of her say such shameless things, Lily bit her lip and clenched her fists.

His companions stood by, blocking the killer ants and barely managing to hold off the monsters' encirclement.

"Yes, I came all this way, Erd? For you, I risked danger to come to such a terrifying place?"

"……yes."

"...You know what I mean, right?"

He spoke in a somewhat affected tone to Lily, whose head was hanging low.

Ganu's eyes were fixed on Lily, whose shoulders were trembling, but he didn't really pay any attention to her.

He only sees money. Strictly speaking, it's "divine wine" that can be bought with money.

Despite his seemingly calm demeanor, Ganu harbors a dangerous and unsettling inner world.

"Hey, hurry up! This is really bad!"

"I know!... You said you had no money yesterday, but you didn't produce any, did you? Your lie has been exposed. If you dare to try to evade the issue again..."

"Okay! I understand!"

Seeing the barely rational expression on her face, Lily nodded.

She didn't have time to spare and couldn't bear to part with it, so she handed the small key pendant she had hidden on her person to the man.

"What's this?"

"The key to the goblin rental vault in Orario's East District..."

"You mean a safe point? How could such a small box possibly hold a large sum of money...?"

"It contains goblin gems..."

"……I see."

The goblins possessed valuable gems and minerals with a definite value and reputation. Lily exchanged her hard-to-store gold coins for gems at the general store and hid them in the rent vault just in case.

With a cold smile on his face and nodding repeatedly, Ganu grabbed Lily by the collar and made her stand up, then lifted her lithe body directly in front of his eyes.

"Ganu, sir...? What do you want to do...!"

"Because the situation is getting a bit bad. Look around. We're about to be surrounded."

A group of nearly twenty monsters was gradually surrounding Lily and her companions. Only one passageway remained unblocked.

Lily, lifted high, swung her thin legs, but only dangled emptily in mid-air.

With a stubble-covered face, Ganu grinned lewdly.

"You can be the bait."

"!"

"Erd, distract those bugs for us, and we can escape through that passage. There aren't many monsters there yet. If you buy us some time, we can drive them away too."

She stared at Ganu in astonishment.

Lily looked to the side in astonishment and saw that everyone else had a wicked smile on their face.

"You're useless without money. So, as a final act of support, why don't you give us a hand?"

She was thrown out.

It drew a parabola high in the sky, flying over the heads of the killer ants.

The monsters reacted to Lily's approach and all looked up at her.

Lily's time froze. She watched her companions leave laughing, and finally collapsed to the ground.

The impact nearly stopped her breathing, but that was all.

"……Ha ha ha ha."

Lily lay on her back, staring at the dungeon ceiling, laughing maniacally. The killer ants turned towards her in unison.

In the end, things had turned out this way, and Lily inexplicably wanted to laugh.

Adventurers can't be trusted after all.

If this outcome is retribution for my actions, then it's going too far, Lily thought.

(...Ah, but...)