Chapter 105: Escape from Certain Death 2

“Ah!”

Daphne let out a startled scream and immediately darted behind a large boulder.

“Do you... want my clothes?”

Kent called out awkwardly.

For a moment, he genuinely had no idea what else to do.

Daphne had lost nearly everything she had been carrying—two spare sets of clothes, her weapon, and three days’ worth of rations.

Kent was hardly in a better situation.

Aside from a dagger, a few silver coins, and some gold, he had almost nothing left.

If he gave Daphne the clothes he was wearing, then he would have no choice but to walk around practically naked himself.

After a long silence, Daphne finally answered from behind the rock.

“Then... what about you?”

From her tone, it was obvious that her own clothing was no longer wearable.

Kent suddenly remembered something.

“Wait. I still have a suit of soft armor underneath.”

It was the same piece of armor he had stripped from that wealthy young nobleman earlier.

“I can give you that.”

“...Alright.”

There was a strange, almost indescribable emotion in Daphne’s voice.

Quite some time passed before she finally emerged from behind the boulder.

Her appearance was admittedly rather peculiar.

She still wore the remains of her torn clothing underneath, while the soft armor covered the outside.

The combination looked awkward and mismatched.

Kent, however, did not laugh.

Given their current circumstances, neither of them had much room to worry about appearances.

Daphne walked up to him and suddenly bowed deeply.

“Kent... thank you for saving me.”

Her voice trembled slightly.

“You’ve already saved my life twice.”

“Thank you.”

As she spoke, tears began slipping from her eyes.

“N-no... there’s no need to thank me.”

Kent froze for a moment before hurriedly stepping forward and helping her straighten up.

“Besides, if you’d left earlier on your own, you probably could’ve escaped.”

Daphne stood upright.

The corners of her lips curved into a crescent-shaped smile.

“Kent, that was never going to happen.”

She assumed Kent had only been stammering because he did not know how to respond to her gratitude.

Even so, his words left a warm sweetness in her heart.

After resting briefly, Kent and Daphne continued deeper along the descending passage.

From time to time, they encountered low-level magical beasts.

Kent did not let a single one escape.

As for which route they took whenever the path divided, there was no real plan to it.

They simply chose whichever passage seemed suitable at the time.

Along the way, Kent also found himself in more than one awkward situation.

Daphne needed animal hides to make herself a more proper set of clothes.

At first, Kent tried skinning one of the beasts himself.

After seeing his work, however, Daphne promptly took the task away from him and handled it herself.

Whenever she bent down to skin a carcass, the damaged clothing beneath her armor had an unfortunate tendency to shift.

Kent occasionally caught glimpses he had no intention of seeing.

It was not as though he were deliberately staring.

Someone had to remain alert for danger.

That meant Kent needed to stay on his feet, constantly checking their surroundings.

Daphne, meanwhile, had to bend over while working.

Under the circumstances, a few awkward moments were almost unavoidable.

Thanks to Kent’s ability to cast spells instantaneously, they had already collected quite a few hides along the way.

As for the meat, Kent did not bother taking any of it.

Carrying fresh flesh soaked in blood through the Underdark was practically the same as ringing a dinner bell for every magical beast in the area.

The hides, on the other hand, were thoroughly washed clean by Daphne before being bundled together.

As the passage continued sloping downward, Kent and Daphne passed through several enormous underground chambers.

Unfortunately, none of them were suitable places to rest.

Worse still, more than one of those areas was occupied by Level Three or even Level Four magical beasts.

Kent and Daphne did not dare provoke them.

Whenever they sensed anything dangerous ahead, they carefully circled around and continued onward.

The deeper they traveled, the heavier Kent’s heart became.

Neither of them knew this place.

They had no map.

No idea where they were.

And no idea how far they had strayed from the route they had originally entered through.

Perhaps they would find the way back in a few days.

Or perhaps they could wander underground for years—even more than a decade—without ever finding their way home.

That possibility weighed heavily on Kent.

But he never showed it.

Daphne, meanwhile, was hardly troubled by such thoughts.

Nearly all of her attention was focused on Kent.

As long as she was beside him, she seemed perfectly content.

There was no need to worry about anything else.

In Daphne’s eyes, Kent was practically capable of anything.

He had driven back the kobolds when they attacked.

He had somehow managed to grow the legendary breadfruit tree.

He had carried her out alive from the jaws of the infamous Hellhound.

And even after she had suffered such a terrible injury, he had managed to heal her completely.

So whenever the little dark elf secretly glanced at Kent with those large eyes of hers, they were filled with almost nothing but admiration.

There might as well have been stars shining inside them.

“Ow!”

Daphne had been lost in her own thoughts and failed to notice that Kent had suddenly stopped.

She walked straight into his back.

“Kent, what’s wrong?”

She rubbed herself lightly and looked up in surprise.

Kent did not answer.

Daphne blinked.

Only then did she follow his gaze and look ahead.

The moment she saw what lay before them, she froze.

The thick bundle of hides in her hands slipped loose and fell to the ground.

Her eyes widened.

Even her voice began to tremble.

“A miracle...”

She stared ahead in disbelief.

“This is a miracle.”

Daphne’s eyes widened in astonishment.

What lay before them was an enormous underground space.

Unlike the other vast caverns they had passed through, this one was not swallowed entirely by darkness.

Most underground chambers contained nothing more than a few faintly glowing plants, with scarcely any other source of light.

But here, a hazy radiance filled the air.

And within that dim, dreamlike glow stood an immense structure.

The building occupied more than half of the entire cavern.

Yet even that was not the most striking sight.

In front of the structure stood a colossal statue.

And it was the statue itself that gave off the mysterious, misty light illuminating the cavern.

Kent stared at the magnificent building in the distance.

They were still too far away for him to tell what material it had been constructed from, but even from here, its overwhelming grandeur was impossible to miss.

The structure resembled an enormous temple.

Kent had seen similar buildings in Alliance City.

Because freedom of religion was permitted there, temples of every size could be found throughout the city.

Each one usually had a statue of the deity worshiped by its followers standing before it.

So the moment Kent saw the building ahead, he immediately understood what it was.

A temple.

But this temple was far larger than anything he had ever seen.

It rose nearly a hundred meters into the air.

The statue standing before it was even taller, towering more than a hundred meters above the ground.

Kent, however, had never been particularly interested in gods or religion.

For that reason, he had no idea which deity the statue represented.

But he suddenly understood something else.

He finally had a possible explanation for why the various races living in the Underdark had managed to coexist without constantly destroying one another.

Even members of the same race fought among themselves.

Different races should have had even more reason to become enemies.

Yet somehow, a strange balance had been maintained down here.

Now Kent began to suspect the reason.

Perhaps they all worshiped the same god.

Because throughout the enormous cavern below stood countless kobolds.

Yes.

Kobolds.

And these were nothing like the ones that had once attacked Mu’an City.

Their armor was several times more elaborate, decorated with intricate patterns and far finer craftsmanship.

They were also much larger.

Kent made a rough estimate.

Most of them stood more than two meters tall.

Among kobolds, physical size was usually closely related to strength.

Judging from their builds alone, these warriors had to be at least Level Four.

And there were more than ten thousand of them gathered below.

Kent felt a chill run through him.

A Level Four kobold warrior would normally already be strong enough to serve as the leader of a small tribe.

If there were tens of thousands of such warriors gathered here, then the total kobold population hidden throughout the Underdark was almost impossible to imagine.

At that moment, however, none of them seemed interested in fighting.

They were clearly taking part in some kind of religious ceremony.

Kent narrowed his eyes and watched carefully.

Several dozen kobold warriors stood out from the rest.

They were noticeably taller and more powerfully built than those around them, and instead of ordinary armor, they wore a completely different style of clothing.

These warriors followed several elderly kobold mages who appeared to hold especially important positions.

Kent observed the gathering for a while longer.

Gradually, he realized that the kobolds below were clearly divided into two groups.

Those who were not wearing armor appeared to hold higher status.

Judging from their clothing and position within the ceremony, they were most likely priests, attendants, or other members responsible for conducting the religious rites.

The armored kobolds, on the other hand, were clearly the worshipers.

Thousands upon thousands of armed believers stood beneath the towering statue, gathered together before the ancient temple in solemn devotion.

[Author’s Note:

A quick note here.

There will only be two or three true female leads in this story.

Quite a few female characters may appear, and some of them may develop meaningful relationships with the protagonist, but that does not mean every woman who becomes close to him is a heroine.

There will be unwavering love devoted to a single person, friendships forged between life and death, betrayal, and many other kinds of relationships.

But there will be no harem.

So please do not assume that every female character connected to the protagonist will eventually become one of the main heroines.

In any case, the story will only become more exciting from here.]