Time winds back a little.
Rei and his companions were navigating through a section of B3F that resembled a maze of interconnected crossroads. While they were following a map and weren't actually lost, their progress had slowed as the monotonous scenery stretched on endlessly.
The scenery was one issue, but the constant need to remain alert for traps and the frequent monster ambushes were the primary culprits for their slow pace.
The monsters themselves were low-rank creatures that could be dispatched with a casual blow. However, every time one appeared, they had to stop, intercept it, extract the magic stone, and carry on. This repetitive cycle made it impossible to cover much ground.
"Tch, more sword bees? These things are really persistent today."
With a single sweep of the Death Scythe, several sword bees were sliced through their midsections and fell to the floor of the dungeon passage.
"Kyu!"
Iero fled toward Seto, pursued by a group of sword bees from behind.
"Guruuuu!"
Seto let out a high-pitched cry and opened his beak. As Iero brushed past him, Seto unleashed his fire breath.
Seto possessed several long-range attack methods, but fire breath was the most powerful and had the widest range. He swept his head as he exhaled, bathing the ten or so sword bees chasing Iero in intense heat. They plummeted to the floor, their bodies scorched black.
Elena also joined the fray, swinging her whip-sword in its whip-like form to tear through five sword bees at once.
Finally, a fireball from Rei incinerated the last few remaining sword bees, and the battle at last came to an end.
"Sigh, why do these things keep coming after us? They really should have gone after those guys from earlier—they were the ones actually looking for sword bee magic stones."
With a heavy sigh, Rei used his dismantling knife to expertly pry out the magic stones and cut away the stinger swords, which served as the proof of subjugation part.
"Now, now, don't be like that. We were told to bring back as many magic stones as possible, weren't we? In that light, this isn't such a bad thing."
Elena replied while imitating Rei's movements to dismantle a sword bee herself.
Cutting off the sword from the tail was simple enough, but she still seemed unaccustomed to removing the magic stone embedded in the heart, and the process took her a bit of time.
Still, she was significantly faster and more precise than Rei had been when he first dismantled a water bear in this world.
"It's true they said they wanted magic stones, but there's a limit. Sword bee magic stones are so tiny that they'll probably be bought for a pittance."
"Even so, wouldn't it be better to sell whatever we have rather than letting the residents of Exil suffer a shortage? Even if it is a bit of a struggle."
"I think it's just a drop in the bucket considering the population of Exil, though."
While talking, Rei continued to store the magic stones and proof of subjugation parts into the Misty Ring.
"If they were beast-type monsters, at least they’d be edible... but bugs, well..."
(I remember hearing that hornets, beehives, and larvae are high-end ingredients back in Japan... but honey aside, insects are a bit much for me. I know it's a pointless hang-up since I eat things like orcs without a second thought.)
Rei could eat the meat of bipedal monsters like orcs or lizardmen without hesitation, but he couldn't bring himself to eat insects.
Seto, however, was pecking at them and eating them like snacks. Iero followed Seto's lead, eating just enough to get a taste.
"Come on, let's keep moving. If we keep this pace, we should reach the stairs to B4F soon."
"We really do need a thief..."
Rei let out another sigh, dreading the slow crawl of trap-searching that was about to resume.
Elena gave a wry smile in agreement, but then—
"Guru!"
In that brief moment of relaxed tension, Seto suddenly let out a sharp cry.
Recognizing the warning in his partner's voice, Rei wordlessly readied his Death Scythe. Elena followed suit, bracing her whip-sword.
Rei clicked his tongue, scanning the area to respond to an attack from any direction.
They were currently standing in the center of a crossroads. An enemy could emerge from the front, back, left, or right.
Fortunately, Seto was staring down the right path. Judging that the greatest threat was approaching from that direction, Rei prepared his magic power, ready to launch a preemptive strike at a moment's notice.
Beside him, Elena spoke softly.
"Enemies?"
"No doubt. But the location is bad. If we pull back—no, that won't work."
Seto tugged on Rei's dragon robe with his beak and shook his head just as Rei suggested a retreat.
"In that case, the fastest way out is to eliminate whatever's coming from the right immediately."
"It can't be helped. At least we can guess what we're facing on this floor. That's a small mercy."
"I suppose so."
Rei gave a small smile.
Nearly everything they had encountered was a sword bee. The fact that they continued to attack despite Seto's presence suggested something was overriding their primal fear. That left very few possibilities. In other words...
"Just as I thought."
Rei muttered as the enemies emerged from the darkness of the passage.
A standard sword bee was about 30cm long. The creature before them was nearly three times the size, measuring about a meter in length.
"A rare species, a high-ranking species, or simply a queen bee... What do you think?"
"Even you don't know, Rei?"
"No, unfortunately. It wasn't in any of the monster books I've got."
He wondered if the labyrinth city sold encyclopedias with more detailed information than the ones in Gilm. He searched through his memories of the books he'd read and Zephyle's knowledge, but he found no information regarding a giant sword bee like this one.
"Then we should treat it as a queen bee for now. It’s a more likely possibility than a rare or high-ranking species, isn't it?"
Elena spoke while readying her whip-sword, her eyes fixed on the sword bees attempting to surround them. Rei nodded and concentrated his magic power into the Death Scythe.
The silence of their mutual observation was broken by Rei's incantation.
"Flame, burn my enemies according to my will."
As he spoke, a ball of fire about 30cm in diameter manifested at the butt end part of his weapon.
"Fireball!"
The spell was completed, and the sphere of fire streaked through the air, aiming to incinerate the opponent thought to be the queen bee.
"Kikikikiki!"
The queen bee vibrated its wings, producing a screeching sound that echoed through the passage. It was clearly a command. As if shielding their queen, a swarm of sword bees threw themselves in front of the fireball, incinerating themselves to stop the projectile. Seeing them sacrifice their lives for her, Rei clicked his tongue.
(Being the queen, she's an expert at coordinating her underlings. In that case, I have to take her out first, even if I have to force it.)
Making a split-second decision, he glanced at Elena.
Understanding his intent immediately, Elena swung her whip-sword in its whip form.
The blade, guided by her magic power, wove through the air on a complex trajectory, bypassing the common sword bees to strike at the queen. However, just before impact, another sword bee threw itself into the path of the blade, stopping the strike with its own body.
"Guruuuu!"
Seeing an opening, Seto used wind arrow to pierce several sword bees surrounding the queen.
"The path is open! It was your mistake to underestimate us!"
With that, Rei threw a spear from the Misty Ring, aiming straight for the queen bee.
The spear sliced through the air, piercing and shattering the sword bees that tried to intercept it. It maintained its trajectory, heading straight for the queen’s swollen abdomen. But then—
"Kikikikiki!"
The queen bee buzzed its wings, and a wind barrier erupted between Rei's group and the swarm. It shielded the queen and obscured her from view.
Rei's spear pierced through the wind barrier, but its path was diverted, missing the queen entirely.
"Wind magic!? I didn't expect her to have a trump card like that."
"Rei, it's no use. I can't see the other sword bees either. They must be retreating."
"A tactical retreat? I see. In that case—"
Just as Rei muttered that, the wind barrier dissipated, revealing the other side.
The queen bee was gone. All that remained were several sword bees skewered to the wall by Rei's spear.
To make matters worse, the corpses of the fallen sword bees had been caught in the wind barrier and ground into fine powder. There were no magic stones or proof of subjugation parts left to salvage.
Rei clicked his tongue and let out a long sigh.
"I expected her to run after her subordinates got away... but to grind her own underlings' corpses to dust like that. Does she know we're after the loot?"
"It's possible. Most insect monsters don't think, but I've heard that some can be surprisingly clever. She might be one of those. Especially since she’s likely a queen bee. What's the plan?"
Elena asked, though she already knew the answer.
This was Rei's first encounter with a sword bee queen bee, so obviously...
"I haven't absorbed her magic stone yet. We're going after her."
"I thought so. Honestly, this is why I can't leave you alone, Rei. I... I have to stay with you to keep you out of trouble."
Elena finished with a bit of a stammer.
It was her best attempt at an appeal, but unfortunately, it was lost on Rei, whose mind was entirely focused on the queen bee’s magic stone.
Rei scanned the surroundings and looked in the direction the queen bee had fled. After a few seconds of thought, he made his decision.
"Sorry, Elena. I really want that magic stone. I know we should be heading for the B4F stairs, but..."
"Sigh. I understand. I knew you'd say that, Rei. I do wish you'd pay a little more attention to me, though."
She let out a small sigh, realizing her appeal had gone unnoticed, but she had no intention of opposing Rei's goal.
"Shall we, then? Though tracking her through all these crossroads will be difficult. Seto, can you do it?"
"Guru!"
Seto gave a reassuring rumble and leaned into Rei's hand as he stroked his head.
Seto closed his eyes for a moment to enjoy the touch, but he quickly snapped into action. The scent was still fresh, but it would fade quickly.
Rei and the others followed close behind as Seto began to run.
Usually, they would have advanced cautiously to avoid traps, but doing so now would guarantee the queen bee's escape. They decided it was worth the risk to sprint through the passages and catch their target.
Rei and Elena didn't need words; they simply locked eyes, confirmed their resolve, and broke into a run.
(Fortunately, the traps on B3F haven't been anything too dangerous so far.)
Rei thought to himself as he chased Seto’s back.
Elena ran beside him, with Iero perched on her left shoulder. It was a group of two humans and two familiars, and Rei felt a strange sense of satisfaction at how well they communicated without needing to say a word.
They sprinted through the dungeon, turning left and right and charging straight through crossroads without a moment's hesitation.
Occasionally, they turned a corner only to run into monsters, but most were low-rank creatures like goblins. Rei’s Death Scythe and Elena’s whip-sword cut through them as they passed, and those that escaped the blades were crushed by Seto’s powerful forepaws.
The most unfortunate of them was a goblin that happened to bump into Seto’s shoulder. Seto, find it more a nuisance than a threat, simply ground the goblin against the dungeon wall without slowing down. By the time it was finally released, the goblin had been ground down to less than half its original mass.
Then...
"Guru!"
Seto let out a short roar.
Rei knew they had caught up, but then he heard the sounds of an ongoing battle.
Angry shouts, screams, the sound of blades clashing and heavy impacts. Hearing those noises, Rei recalled the voices of the adventurers he had met near the stairs.
As he turned the final corner, the scene was exactly what he had expected.
He unleashed the magic he had been holding in reserve, incinerating the sword bees that were closing in on the adventurers.
"Do you need some help?"
He called out.