A Short Rest

The giant tentacle roared past like a steam locomotive.

Lynch held Miss Valente tightly in one arm while swiftly lashing out with his segmented whip in the other, aiming to hook its serrated barbs into the tentacle.

There was only one shot. Whether they could hitch a ride depended entirely on this...

However, the seemingly solid tentacle appeared to be composed entirely of thick green fog, possessing no physical substance at all. The segmented whip passed straight through the vapor without a trace of resistance.

Veins throbbed on Lynch's forehead as he lashed out with the segmented whip a second time at top speed. This time, his target wasn't the tentacle, but the dead ghoul caught right at its tip as it swept past above them.

The segmented whip passed unimpeded through the green fog and wrapped around the ghoul's corpse with precision, its barbs biting deep into the rotting flesh.

It worked!

The sudden tension traveling down the whip allowed Lynch to finally let out the breath he was holding. “Miss, off we... Holy shit, ahhhh~!”

“Ahhhh~!”

Their speed exploded in an instant, nearly ripping his arm from its socket. The two of them were yanked parallel to the ground, trailing through the air like windblown banners. Their overlapping screams dragged out in long, trailing echoes, whistling down the length of the corridor.

They hurtled through the heart of enemy territory at breakneck speed. The ghouls along the path had already been knocked askew by the passing tentacle; even those left untouched had no time to react, left to stare blankly as the screaming pair rocketed past.

It was hard to say whether the experience was terrifying or exhilarating. Lynch felt like he was riding an otherworldly roller coaster—wildly adrenaline-pumping, driving him to scream at the top of his lungs purely on instinct.

Miss Valente screamed even louder than he did. The young noblewoman had completely cast aside her refined noble composure, clinging to Lynch like an octopus. Her face was flushed crimson from the adrenaline surge as she shrieked, but her eyes were wide open, staring fixedly at Lynch's face with unadulterated excitement.

Tailspin, drift... Dammit, we're going to hit the wall!

Bang! Just in the nick of time, a brilliant glow burst around Miss Valente. Momentum slammed them hard against the corridor wall, only for the shield's force to bounce them back into the air, leaving cold sweat soaking their backs.

“Ahhh~ hahaha, ahhh~ Here it comes again!”

An inhabitant of an otherworldly era, starved of thrill, had never experienced the joy of a roller coaster before; her screams never ceased for a single moment. At first, Lynch could still make out his surroundings, but as they accelerated, the corridor walls blurred into a single continuous line, and the ghouls flashed past too fast to distinguish.

A dozen seconds flew by in a blur. The treacherous corridor, packed with deadly enemies, was effortlessly left behind.

After slamming into the walls a few more times, the deep corridor suddenly opened up before them.

They burst straight into the vast hall from the depths of his dream. In the very center lay a bottomless, gaping pit, above which hung an altar covered in dark-brown scars.

The fog-formed tentacle was pulling straight back into the depths of that abyss.

He had traversed the previous path in his dream, giving him at least some mental preparation. But the situation inside the pit was completely unknown; he couldn't charge in blindly. Hitching a ride to the final station was fine, but if he rode all the way into their garage, he'd be caught fare-evading for real.

With a moment's hesitation, Lynch willed his segmented whip to transform back into a cane.

The moment the connection broke, the two skipped across the ground like a skipped stone. Whether intentionally or out of sheer bad luck, Lynch ended up on the bottom every single time. After three heavy bounces, Lynch felt as though every bone in his body was groaning. Only the instinctual reflexes granted by Cat's Favor mitigated part of the impact; otherwise, he would have shattered into thirteen pieces—and missing even one piece would be a miracle from his neighbor.

Yet that wasn't even the worst part. The most pressing issue right now was... this damn momentum! It wasn't like in the movies at all~!

All of Lynch's knowledge was purely theoretical; only after experiencing it firsthand did he realize how absurd movie train-jumping scenes were. On a smooth floor, they couldn't stop at all, nor could they control their bodies enough to lash out with the whip to save themselves. They skipped across the floor, sliding straight toward the gaping hole glowing with an eerie dark-green light.

Completely out of control, momentum carried them straight over the edge of the pit. Losing the ground beneath them, they fell into the bottomless abyss, surrounded by swirling green mist and a suffocating stench.

The thought had barely crossed his mind when Miss Valente's sharp scream pierced his ears: “Hold onto me, Lynch! Don't let go!”

Where did the honorifics go? Thought Lynch, though his body reacted honestly, his arms quickly wrapping tightly around the young noblewoman in his embrace. He had been holding her like this the whole way anyway; gender boundaries were long gone. Holding on tight was all that mattered.

“Too tight! I can't move my hand!”

Miss Valente struggled with all her might to free her right hand. With a flick of her wrist, the bracelet on her arm flashed softly, and several feathers appeared out of thin air in her palm. They burst into flame without fire, turning into a cloud of ash in an instant, as ancient syllables poured from her lips in an eerie cadence.

It was not a language, yet its meaning was self-evident.

【Arcana, Feather Fall.】

As if drawn by an unseen force, the ash circled around their bodies. Losing all weight, they floated and swayed in the air, slowly descending against the air resistance.

Above, below, left, right—all was void, devoid of any enemies. Only now did Lynch realize that since being brought into Zur Baha Sahr, this was the very first moment he had to catch his breath. The string of extreme tension snapped relaxed, giving him room to notice other things for the first time.

“Phew, saved. What was that? It acts just like a mage's magic... Huh? Are you alright? You look weird—why is your face so red?”

“You're... squeezing... the breath... out... of... me!”

Her watery eyes suddenly turned fierce, the words squeezed out through gritted teeth. After glaring viciously at Lynch, who looked utterly clueless, Miss Valente didn't bother addressing such a stupid question. She snapped testily:

“It's arcana. If you have the affinity for casting spells, you can try learning some.”

“So it's actually that useful? I'll definitely give it a try when we get back.”

“It also depends on luck. Arcana isn't meant for dense people.”

“Is it just me, or does that sound like an insult?”

“How could it be? Aren't you not dense at all?” The young noblewoman bit her lip, secretly rolling her eyes at him with a curl of her lips before pressing her palm against his back. “Don't let go. Bear with it.”

Excruciating pain and itchiness swept through his body once more. His muscles ached, yet he didn't dare tighten his grip, terrified of choking the young noblewoman again.

Before long, the pain from his wounds subsided significantly. Unexpectedly, a burning sensation welled up in his stomach, as if he hadn't eaten for half a month. Just as Lynch grimaced in distress, a small blue pill appeared in Miss Valente's hand, which she stuffed into his mouth.

“Swallow.”

Lynch swallowed without a second thought. “What's this? A bit bitter... Huh, I'm not hungry anymore.”

“Portable food—one pill lasts a full day. A lot of academic scholars like using it to save time on meals. It works great paired with my Rapid Healing.”

“This convenient? I'll stock up on some later. Since it's daily food, it shouldn't be too expensive, right?”

“Well, it's not super cheap either. Only one pound per pill... Hey, hey, don't let go! Heehee.”

The sudden laughter vanished as quickly as it came. No matter how reluctant they were, every journey eventually reached its end. As they floated gently downward, a massive shadow loomed through the green light below.

They had reached the bottom.

Exchanging a glance, their nerves tightened once more.