Chương 333: Divine Intervention

I need to be careful with this thing. Although slow, my acid does eat through steel… Doesn't this mean that I could just sink this whole thing and send all of those poor bastards to fend off against the monster-infested waters? Truly, nightmare trials are sometimes just executions for the participants. If I didn't want to play with my food, I would have the option to win instantly. Speaking of playing with my food…

Despite taking several blasts of potent stomach acid all across her body, the green lady is still alive–She's obviously not well at all, but credit where credit is due, she's still trying to stand up, and I feel like that if I gave her a few minutes, she would actually succeed. I can only admire the grit and determination as a warrior myself, especially as a female warrior.

While there may be a bunch of us ladies all over the combat-oriented spectrum, there were still fewer of us compared to men, which is to be expected. I myself only killed it as a knight because I was born physically gifted far beyond what a regular human should have. If I had been just a normal athletic girl, I seriously doubt that I would have had anywhere as much success in this regard. … If that had been the case, I would have had less trouble finding a man stronger than me, though.

So I guess it's all about some sort of equivalent exchange in the end. Or it's just completely random nonsense. It's more likely to be the latter, frankly. I wondered if I should say something before I kill her, but nothing came to mind, so I just split my face open and stabbed her through the head with my murderous tongue. She went limp in a split instant. That's one down. I turned to the slowly reforming monster that had been torn in half moments before I had attracted the orc's attention.

It seemed like this creature would eventually regenerate if given enough time, but it really was nothing much.

"Hey, can you hear your goddess, skin-sack?" Judging by the way the various parts suddenly trembled and froze in place, I would say that it did indeed hear my voice.

"Listen closely if you can understand. I am indeed your goddess and grand-creator, but it would seem that despite having been created by my power, you lack a functioning mind of your own. Seriously, what were you trying to do against this orc woman? Are you stupid? Couldn't you realise that it was completely useless for you to confront her?"

"I was still nourishing some hope that you were actually somewhat smart, but I still don't see the reinforcement that you might have been waiting on, nor do I see any trap that could have warranted being so adamant about fighting her here, face-to-face""Honestly, I am very disappointed. If getting yourself killed won't accomplish anything other than serving as a stepping stone to your adversary, then don't do it at all! Live on to find a better place to throw your life away for me""You hear me?

If you happen to cross over to the real world for some reason, keep this in mind and make sure to say it to all of your buddies. You can just say that you received guidance from the goddess""Did you catch all of that? I hope you did. Try not to get yourself actually killed before the end of this nightmare–Godspeed" With these few crumbs of wisdom, I decided to go ahead and follow the mission the orc woman had been in charge of. Finding maps across this ship wasn't actually that complicated.

There were often simple layouts exposed on the walls. Nara memorised the layout perfectly for me, so I then made sure to spit acid at the other maps I ran into, melting them straight off the walls. Unlike the orc lady who wouldn't avoid any fight, I couldn't even get into a fight to begin with. The monsters roaming around either did their best to get out of my way or would try to help me–Speaking of which, they are strangely good at certain tasks.

For some reason, these abominations, most of them being hardly recognisable as anything but randomly stitched-together body parts, are oddly precise and majestic when opening a door for me. Also, they are weirdly eager about offering themselves as platforms for me to step on. I wouldn't want to make any baseless accusations against what are essentially my creations, but I get the feeling that they think that I enjoy stepping on people.

I thought they were just weird and like being stepped on–Which probably does play a part–But after a while, I can't help but feel that they primarily believe that they are pleasing me by offering to be stepped on and stomped on. What kind of image do my subjects have of me? I don't like stepping on people that much. I only do it a bunch because Mari and Leou are really into it! How would these monsters even know about this anyway? Is it because they are technically my creations?

But if so, wouldn't it mean that they are actually correct? No… I don't… I don't like it THAT much. Huh… Maybe I do? Hold on, let's get back on track. Whilst I was having a debate with myself, I arrived in front of one of the storage rooms. I pushed the heavy door open, basically ignoring the atrocity that waved at me in a bizarrely shy manner, and began browsing through what was available inside.

After having seen the map, I had quickly noticed that this ship had a suspiciously high number of storage rooms, but that was easily explained, and now confirmed by seeing one with my own two eyes. Each storage room only contained one necessary item related to any given escape method–Whatever they may be. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

And as evidenced by the occupant here, at least some of those storage rooms are guarded on top of it, but it seemed to be a bit gimmicky. I couldn't test it for myself since the monster was friendly to me, but it seemed like instead of a combat encounter or a game of cat and mouse, getting the important piece was about playing a game of statues. At least, that's what I assumed since the monster seemed compelled to face the wall opposite the door, and the storage room was filled with drawings of suns.

Not everyone would get the reference since it was very clearly something that had been based on my own childhood memories. Leton, Maarkus, and I would play statues, but for whatever reason, it was sun-themed. We liked to play it in the evening when it was getting dark, with the one playing as the sun shining a light when turning around. It was quite fun… When Maarkus was the sun, I would always slow down my step so that Leton could actually keep up in spite of his limp.

"Good old days, huh?" I picked up the one item stored in this room. It was a gear.

"Old days…" Before I realised it, the gear had already been turned into a misshapen hunk of steel. Crap, I wanted to slightly damage it so that it wouldn't work properly… I threw the useless object to the side and left the room. Is everything alright, Mara? All is well. Let's keep going. I should be able to visit a few more storage rooms before the blind boy might get suspicious of how quiet I am.

I managed to get to three more storage rooms, where I sabotaged the items so as to render them useless, but without making it immediately obvious that they would serve no purpose either. Also, it seemed like all the storage rooms were about playing the game of statues to get the item and get out of the room. I would presume that if one failed, the monster would chase after them, or perhaps activate some sort of special ability.

By roaming throughout the halls and checking on lower areas, I realised that currently, each 'floor', if they could be called that on a ship, only had three monsters roaming them at most. None of them was very strong. They looked horrid, but none were faster than the regular running adult. Their main strength was that when merely wandering around at a slow pace, they were completely silent.

It would seem that they were quiet so that people would actually walk right into them in a corner without realising it before it was too late. In any case, once I was done, I climbed back into the captain's room after three hours of fooling around. The blind boy was still all wrapped up in blankets, and seemed to have actually fallen asleep. I frankly don't know how sleeping works when they are already sleeping and are in a nightmare, but it clearly seems to work somehow.

"Time to wake up, boy" I slapped him across the face, making him jump up with a startle, but since he was still all wrapped up, he just looked like a fat snake having a seizure. After freeing him, we went back down with the others.

"Did Miss Orc come back?"

"No…" Someone further away, who probably thought that I couldn't hear him, noticed the fresh palm imprint on the blind boy's face and shook his head dejectedly.

"Truly a lucky bastard…" I really can't get away from the men who just want me to beat them up, huh? I pretended to wait alongside everyone else, maintaining my cool even as most of the others were starting to look paler and paler as the hours ticked by. It didn't help that there was a clock constantly making noise as well, really putting emphasis on the passage of time.

All the while, I kept on gripping the blind boy's hand, probably a bit too tightly, judging by his expression, but I needed to maintain contact so that Nara could work on trying to hijack his basic system so that I could thwart the plans of whoever wanted to harvest his memories to peer into the nightmare trials.

"M-Miss… Could you… Could you not be so rough, please…?"

"It's always too rough with you, isn't it?" I distinctly heard the guy who wanted to get slapped fold as if he was having a heart attack, muttering more nonsense under his breath.

"Damn it… If you don't know how to play the game, let someone else play!" Messing with this guy was a very nice way to kill time whilst absolutely nothing happened. People weren't even discussing with one another. Everyone was just anxiously waiting around, hoping that the green lady would reappear. A dead woman wouldn't show up, obviously. But contrary to what I was expecting, someone did show up eventually. A duo, in fact… A duo I felt like I had seen before.

A few knocks came at the door, and the voice of a man resounded from behind it. Judging by the intonation, it was at least a middle-aged man, a fact confirmed once the door opened, revealing long, unkempt brown hair and a beard that had clearly never learned the definition of a razor. A cloaked swordsman who seemed to be a solitary wanderer, accompanied by a most adorable little girl–Instead of a mousefolk, it was some kind of chicken girl.

She didn't have any feathers, only yellow fuzz that made her look like a big puffy ball. She didn't seem to be the kind of beastfolk with hair, yet she lacked a beak whilst having talons for feet and hands. A more unusual kind of beastfolk, but it did nothing to remove from how cute she looked. Hopefully, this cuteness is accompanied by a good personality. The newly arrived duo settled in their own corner, but I couldn't help but want to walk over to see if I could pat that head at least once.

Upon my approach, the swordsman reflexively reached for his sword, though.

"Is something the matter?"

"... Nothing. You are a knight too, aren't you?"

"I've held a sword once before. Does that count?" I shot him my best smile, but it seemed like he found me suspicious, so it didn't work.

"May I know why you are coming over?"

"What else but to check on this most adorable little girl?" My genuine affection for cute things must have come through, as he relaxed.

"I found her terrified, hidden in a room. Such trials aren't something any child should be forced to go through""Unfortunately, I am afraid the Nightmare Plague doesn't spare anyone" Since he is clearly combat-able, I should keep an eye on him. The other can be used to look at the little chick.