Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, Vol. 5 by Fujino Omori Page B

the bloody carcass of a hellhound staring back at her. “Eeeek!” she screamed as she jumped back in fright.
    “Easy, easy,” said Hermes as he caught her shoulders in his hands.
    The body sprawled out on the ground was most definitely dead. However, with its magic stone still intact, the beast’s body had been left to rot on the ground. The smell indicated it had been dead for nearly a day. Hestia took a deep breath and tried her best to get her racing heart under control. She looked back over her shoulder and could see Hermes forcing a grin in the dim light.
    She was slightly jealous of him; he was used to these long journeys and could probably see what was going on. She puckered her cheeks in frustration before looking down at her feet and regaining her balance.
    A broken sword and the bloody corpse of the monster. That meant that a clash between at least one adventurer and the monster had happened on this spot not too long ago. At the very least, they knew that the adventurer hadn’t had time to remove the magic stone after the battle.
    The more Hestia looked at the scene, the easier it was to picture Bell right in the thick of it. A fresh wave of anxiety overtook her.
    “…Andromeda, where should we search? We could spend days going in circles down here and never find Bell’s battle party,” Ouka asked in a low voice as Hestia tried to clear her throat.
    He was quite an intimidating man, standing more than 190 celch tall, with wide, muscular shoulders. He looked at Asfi for a moment before returning his gaze to the end of the tunnel.
    “Their party was only equipped to spend one day in the Dungeon. Finding a relatively safe spot and staying there indefinitely is not an option for them…I believe something else happened to them—something that made it impossible to retreat.”
    “‘Something else’?”
    “Yes. Otherwise their actions wouldn’t make sense. With only enough supplies to last a day, they would be overwhelmed in no time down here. Perhaps they fell into one of the holes?”
    Mikoto’s and Chigusa’s eyes went wide as Asfi adjusted her glasses.
    “If they did fall too far for them to come back on their own strength, what choices do they have? I highly doubt they’re still wandering around in the darkness, at the mercy of any monster that happens to find them. Considering their condition as a party with limited supplies…I’d say they’ve already been wiped out.”
    She fell silent after drawing her conclusion.
    “Perhaps they abandoned hope of returning to the surface and instead pressed onward to the safe point on the eighteenth floor…I believe that choice has some merit.”
    “…Would they even try that? That would take some serious guts.”
    Those who’d experienced the terrors of the Dungeon firsthand knew how dangerous it was to set foot into a lower level with no idea what to expect. If Bell’s party fell into one of the holes, they would have been forced into that situation.
    Ouka couldn’t believe his ears as Asfi offered another possibility.
    “In their position, I would go.”
    A voice as delicate as the tinkling of a bell rang out.
    The hooded adventurer had been silent up until now.
    Ouka and the other adventurers turned to face her in surprise. She was a good deal ahead of them but somehow within earshot.
    “And knowing them—knowing
him
, someone who’s already overcome one adventure, I think he would go forward without looking back.”
    Her soft, refined voice once again filled the tunnel. However, the hooded adventurer didn’t say another word.
    Asfi looked at the mysterious adventurer’s half-hidden face for a moment before turning to her god. “Lord Hermes, what is your opinion?” she asked.
    “I agree with your reasoning, Asfi.”
    “Um, me too…I have a feeling that…Bell is below us…”
    Standing next to Hermes, Hestia brought her hands together and thought as she spoke.
    Even though she had a direct connection with Bell through her Blessing,