Chapter 51: Cave of Insects


    “<i>Kyaaa!?</i> Wh-why? Howe there’s a monster in heeere!?”


    Morning. I wake up to the piercing shrill sound of Natsukawa-san’s scream.


    “WHAT!? Where is it!”


    “Eh, what in the, just, what is this spiky ck Skeleton?”


    “It looks terribly ominous… there’s no doubt it’s a fearsome monster. Get back everyone. I’ll use my light magic to—”


    “UAah! H-hold your horses Souma-san!”


    And so I prevented the newly reborn Rem from being destroyed by a hair’s breadth.


    “—I see, so this is the golem you made, Momokawa-kun”


    I introduced Rem to everyone.


    Appearance-wise, she’s a jet ck Skeleton. And likely because I used Armor Bear parts, a part of her body had took form of an armor-like shell. There was a single horn like an oni’s on top of her head. Her shoulders and limbs had spikes simr to the Armor Bear, and the ck shell looked like it was fused with her bones. She was a size bigger than before, getting up to my chest height-wise.


    “Rem-chan, you got bigger. congrats!”


    “G A G A!”


    Mei-chan sent over some warm words, and Rem seemed to happily nod. Last night when I cast Vile Mud Doll, I sort of understood something. Apparently Rem’s memories, experience and what not are all passed down through the generations. When I make a new Rem, the thing that allows Rem to have independent movement, let’s refer to it as her soul, gets transferred over to the new one as if she got reincarnated. This soul itself stays inside the chaos that manifests when I start making Rem, and the ck Skeleton body only acts as a vessel from what I understood.


    We weren’t with thest Rem for long, but she had fought a ton of Zombies in that short span of time. Her movements had clearly be more adept. If all the growth gets passed down like this, there’s nothing better to ask for. Finally, even my curses are getting some convenient cheat-tier functionality.


    “Hey hey Momokawa-kun, this thing is really safe right? It won’t start suddenly attacking us, right?”


    “It’s fine, she mostly doesn’t have any ego. She’s more like a robot that moves only by order”


    <i>Uhee</i>, stares Natsukawa-san with a suspicious expression towards Rem. I exined it already, but it didn’t seem to work. Well, Rem’s a full-on monster on the outside, so this sort of reaction is expected.


    “It’s called a curse, so you never know when it’ll feel like attacking humans”


    “When that timees, my Lux Sagitta will take care of it”


    “Now now you two, there hasn’t been a single incident where our vocations worked against us so, this should be fine too. I could say my Summon Ice Elemental works simrly to this”


    Souma-san and Kenzaki-san on the other hand, are openly wary towards Rem. But rather than the golem, I’m sure it’s their distrust towards me. For these two,st night’s wanking incident must have solidified their impression of me as a filthy perverted bastard.


    ss Rep, please try and hold them back. I wish you the greatest luck.


    “Anyway, we should really get going. Asuna, can I get you to wake up Kotori?”


    But still, whetherst night or now, Takanashi-san isn’t waking up at all while everyone’s keeps making all this noise… I’m somewhat worried someone might pull a prank on her one of these days.


    With the Thief being specialized in using their eyes and ears, we had Natsukawa-san lead while heading back into the depths of the dungeon. Behind our recon, Natsukawa-san, followed Mei-chan and Kenzaki-san, our vanguard warriors. After them are ss Rep, and with Takanashi-san between them, Souma-san. I was at the very rear. Of course, I had Rem protecting my back after equipping her with proper weaponry like the Iron Spear and Iron Short-sword.


    This vanguard-rearguard formation is constructed such than Takanashi-san is in the safest ce. Myself being in the very back, I can’t say I’m safe in the least. If we’re ambushed from behind, I’d be suddenly on the frontlines after all. If Rem wasn’t there, I’d probably be insta-killed like in those jump-scare monster movies. And obviously, when we’re moving in a row like this, the person at the center would be safest. Even if there’s nobat, the guy at the rear could be left behind without anyone noticing, so there’s that danger too. I kinda feel like it wouldn’t be strange if Souma-san intentionally left me behind after what happenedst night. I’ll be careful.


    “<i>Wuwuh</i>, heyy, are you <i>absolutely sure</i> we’re going the right way!? No like, do we seriously have to go in there!?”


    Natsukawa-san at the head stops. Naturally, the rest of us follow suit.


    “No mistaking it… the magic circle is pointing straight in there”


    ss Rep reconfirms. I’m not doubting her, but I quickly check my circle too and, yup, no mistake there.


    “I have a bad feeling about this”


    “Same here… but we have to pass this, this cave”


    That’s right, we are currently in front of not the familiar stone passages, but arge cave that looked as if it was forcefully dug through the wall. It’s size is simr to therge tunnel-type passages. Being as wide as a highway, it had a ceiling tall enough to pass arge truck through.


    Of course, unlike the dungeon ruins, the ground inside was earthen. The ce looked tough to walk on. Most striking of all was the absence of light panels.


    “<i>Hiee</i>… It’s pitch dark in here…”


    “We’ll be needing a light then”


    “It’s alright, I’ll do my— Summon Lux Elemental”


    As Souma-san chants, a white, fairy-like little ball of light, one more, a total of 4 gently fly out.


    “Sakura, are you alright using this many?”


    “They don’t need to fight, so the mana expenditure is fairly low. And I’m just letting them drift around us, so I don’t need to concentrate on moving them either”


    Those sure are convenientmps. The light elemental things were going here and there, getting closer and farther, all by themselves. Plus, it’s all hands free. I hope my curses can achieve this sort of convenience someday.


    “Now, let’s keep going”


    With spirited words from Souma-san, we step foot into the eerie cave.


    “Heyy, emm, anyone know where this cave ends…”


    “Since the circle is showing us, I believe it should connect to somewhere inside the dungeon”


    “This cave is clearly different from the architecture inside the dungeon. I don’t think we will get to a fairy square before it ends”


    “<i>EEeeeh~</i>, this suucks!”


    “Let’s just pray that we get out quickly”


    We’ve been 10 minutes inside this suspicious cave. I’m walking quietly, listening to the radio that is the girls in the rearguard. Luckily, it doesn’t seem like they’ll leave me behind anytime soon. There’s Takanashi-san among them, so our durable vanguard has to be considerate and trek at a slow pace. If it’d been just been me, I bet they’d be aiming to get out of here as fast as possible. It’s in ces like this that a person’s appeal and standing are tested.


    As I kept pondering about the interactions between us cast members, something happened, and Natsukawa-san called out.


    “Careful, everyone! There’s something there!”


    “Sakura, I need more light. Looks like there’s monsters moving in those side paths!”


    With this cave as the root, there were quite a number of small holes branching out like alleyways. We’ve been well aware of them since we came in. Looking at the construction, I thought just maybe… But it looks like monsters really doe out from there. I’m willing to bet they’re the ones who dug out this cave.


    “Here theye!”


    What came were reallyrge ants. Their height being around that of Rem, a meter and a bit. Alit by the white luminescence of the light elementals, their carapaces shone in ominous ck glimmer. As their bodies became more visible, I could clearly discern that they were indeed, insects.


    Like insects, they had 6 feet. But only 4 of them stood it on the ground, the 2 in front were raised up, acting like arms. Its posture looked simr to that of a praying mantis. But that loud droning and horizontal mandibles on their heads were uncanny to ants. So, I’m calling them ants.


    And much like ants do, these Big Ants also appeared in a swarm. There wereing out one after another in lines from the holes around us.


    In no time, there was a forest of ants facing us, making that annoying shrill buzzing as if they were excited to find some appetizing prey. It doesn’t look like we can avoid this fight.


    “Watch out, these ants might spit acid!”


    I shout out a warning to our frontliners, and simultaneously, the battle begins.