I am currently running towards the dungeon.
'He definitely ran into the dungeon without looking back.'
Although I'm dressed in ordinary clothes with no proper weapon like a push dagger or armor to protect my body, for some reason, I was confident it wouldn't be a problem at all.
'My body feels light.'
It felt incredibly light, probably because I had removed the weight bands I wore all day, but
"My legs still tingle from the poison... But I guess it'll get better once I move around a bit."
Due to the poison, I had to feel a current-like sensation in my lower body with every step.
"...Dungeon, arrived."
At this hour, with the moon shining brightly, there was, as expected, no one entering the dungeon.
"Well then... time to run for real."
My father, who worked in security, held various certificates and medals related to martial arts, and he personally taught me exercises from after I graduated kindergarten,
"Hoo..."
Among those, I excelled at track and field, especially long-distance running.
"Gyaaah...!?"
'Crack! ...Thud!'
Maintaining my pace while running, whenever a monster appeared, my other personality awakened and shattered the monster's head, quickly dispatching them, allowing me to descend much faster than expected.
"Huff... Did I take a wrong turn at first? Finally caught up..."
After continuing the slaughter for a while, I finally started seeing the corpses of monsters presumably killed by Bell, and
"I see slashing or stabbing wounds from a dagger, but no signs of extracting magic stones... That kid who worried about money even while eating."
'Whaaaaaaa!!!'
Following the corpses, a shout that seemed to be Bell's voice echoed from far away.
"It's probably best to wait until he vents his frustration."
Given the nature of my personality that awakens at the sight of monsters, if I went to Bell now, I'd likely lose rationality and charge at the monsters to slaughter them, so I decided to maintain a certain distance and watch for now.
"Gyaaaak!!"
"...Sigh"
Of course, the dungeon wouldn't leave adventurers alone, so while dealing with monsters targeting me, and collecting magic stones from the corpses left behind after Bell passed, I had unknowingly descended to the 6th floor, and
"If I knew this would happen, I should have at least said I'd be entering late..."
I'm not sure if this should be called a benefit, but thanks to Bell, I was able to gain various experiences, such as fighting monsters that only appear on the 6th floor, like one-eyed frogs or creatures whose entire bodies are like shadows?
"My bag is now full of magic stones and won't hold more, so how much further does he plan to go down?"
As I went down, I crammed the accumulating magic stones into my bag somehow, but eventually reached the limit, so I decided to discard the stones from floors 1-2, but
"It feels wasteful to just throw them away..."
At that moment, due to the stingy nature that had somehow developed, I couldn't bring myself to discard them, when
"...What would happen if I ate this?"
With a sudden curiosity and, for some reason, a desire to eat it creeping up, I found myself pouring the magic stone in my hand into my mouth.
'Crunch! Gulp!!'
"...Ugh?!"
When I came to my senses, I had already swallowed the magic stone, and the rising reflux from my stomach almost made me vomit everything I had eaten.
"...Why did I do that?"
Just as I was about to question my earlier actions,
"...Kai?"
"...Oh no."
Reacting to Bell's voice from behind and turning around, the questions filling my mind disappeared instantly.
"Hey, your condition is..."
There were no life-threatening injuries, but there wasn't a single unscathed part on him, and his outer clothes were mostly torn, barely maintaining the shape of clothing.
'...I should have helped him.'
Feeling a slight guilt at Bell's worse-than-expected state, I stood up, and Bell was also looking at me with a guilty expression, but
'Why is he like this again?'
"Because of me, you came without any equipment and got hurt..."
"Ah..."
Only now did I belatedly realize that I wasn't much different from Bell.
'Is that why the poison wore off in the middle...'
My upper body had some blood on it but wasn't torn or anything, so it was fine, but
"Are your legs okay?"
My lower body had the shin area almost completely torn, with things like bone fragments embedded, and blood kept flowing, indicating quite deep wounds.
'I forcibly pulled out the embedded things here and there, but I didn't expect it to be this bad...'
Starting around the 5th floor, the tingling sensation from the poison stopped being felt, but it seems it wasn't because I developed resistance to the poison, but rather because the poisoned blood was expelled outside.
"...I'm fine, so how about we stop and head out now?"
"Ah, yes..."
Once I started being conscious of the wounds, they did ache a bit, but it wasn't to the point where I couldn't walk, so I decided to ascend the dungeon with Bell, but
"..."
"..."
The atmosphere was cold, almost as if a dagger had been stabbed into the chest.
"...So, are you feeling a bit better now?"
"...Huh?"
"I mean, has your grudge eased a bit?"
Seeing his gloomy appearance, contrasting with what he showed in the morning, I unknowingly started a conversation.
"To be honest, I'm still angry... I am angry, but..."
"Since it was all true, you couldn't refute it or even wanted to, right?"
"Yes... Despite having no power at all... and not even trying hard... I was hoping to achieve something..."
'He's a protagonist who is angry but realizes his place and strives to move forward...'
"...Well, that's enough then."
Knowing better than anyone that in situations like this, being present is more helpful than comforting, whenever Bell said something, I repeatedly gave short responses like 'Yeah' or 'I see' from beside him, and
"...We're already out?"
"Yeah, strange, right?"
We were able to quickly exit the dungeon because we surprisingly encountered no monsters.
"Well then... now that we're out, I was going to say let's part ways here..."
"...Huh?"
"...I really can't send you off in that state."
Even if receiving Falna grants physical abilities far superior to ordinary people, the essence is still human, so leaving wounds like that might cause problems somewhere, so I headed towards the Blue Pharmacy first, and
"Ex, excuse me..."
"'I'm back'... but at this hour, everyone should be asleep..."
After arriving at the store, I quietly took out a bit of disinfectant and one bottle of potion from the store and treated Bell.
"Ordinary wounds would be completely healed with one potion, but this disinfectant is to prevent possible secondary infections, so bear with it a little."
"...Ugh!"
When the disinfectant touched the wounds, Bell groaned in pain, but I didn't stop and sprayed disinfectant on all visible wounds, then finally handed over the potion, and
"Here, the potion."
"Th, thank you..."
As Bell drank the potion, a scab formed on the disinfected wounds, then instantly new flesh filled in and the skin regenerated, healing to a level where you wouldn't know wounds were there if you didn't look closely.
"...I'll offset the cost of the potion I just used with the value of the magic stones from the monsters you killed."
Saying that and showing a few magic stones, Bell nodded and rather thanked me with a smile before leaving, but
"Ah, I forgot to tell him he needs to come to the store tomorrow."
I forgot to tell him that we need to go to the Hostess of Fertility together tomorrow morning.
"...Important things always come to mind after the fact, so yeah, I'm not at fault at all."