Chick 342
by Cristae342
Sensing Groo’s displeasure, Mephisto smacked Bailach’s cheek with his wing.
“Myu-myu!” (What do you think you’re doing!)
“Pii–!” (Pay attention!)
“Myu…!” (Why, you little…!)
While Bailach and Mephisto snarled at each other, Yurian watched their quarrel warily and focused back on Groo’s words.
“Now, let’s go find a camping spot. This way!”
The place Groo pointed to was a dungeon he owned.
Not only was it where he grew potatoes, but its forested main area offered beautiful scenery and plenty of peace and quiet.
It was the perfect place for camping.
Groo pulled a white tricycle out from his inventory.
He switched it to a two-seater, put Yurian on the back seat, and settled Lucifur on his own lap.
Groo cheerfully stroked Lucifur’s head as he sniffed the air with delight.
I’ll dig up some Critato reactor seed potatoes and scout out a spot for camping.
[Skill ‘The Dungeon Is an Open Door’ is activated.]
Groo, casting the skill, opened the door to the hospital room.
But suddenly, as if someone had flipped a switch, the skill fizzled out and was canceled.
The trees before his eyes vanished in an instant, and the hospital corridor came into view.
“Hm?”
What’s going on?
It wasn’t as if he was low on mana.
Puzzled, Groo closed the door and tried his skill again.
[Skill ‘The Dungeon Is an Open Door’ is activated.]
Shaaa—
He heard wind stirring through leaves.
Beyond the door, a forest deeper and darker than usual stretched before him.
Groo entered the dungeon on his tricycle, humming a happy tune.
Screee—screee—screee—
Bailach and Mephisto, still bickering, hurried along behind him.
Bzzt!
The instant everyone entered the dungeon, static flickered across the skill notification window and its contents changed.
[Caregiver’s danger detected.]
[Coordinates of the skill ‘The Dungeon Is an Open Door’ are being redirected.]
What is he planning?
Just then, Joorim felt the sensations in her left hand sharpen to an unnatural acuteness.
No way…
A cold chill ran down her spine.
She had lost Shea, Master of the 99th Floor.
She had no idea what Ijo might do now that he had Shea within his grasp.
The moment Joorim stretched out her hand to reclaim Shea—
“……!”
Her fingertips slipped through a torn space.
A gate?!
But it wasn’t a massive gate. The one before her was barely a quarter the size of any she had seen.
And now, her arm was being pulled into the diminutive gate.
“What is… this—?!”
As she struggled, On Ijo offered her a faint smile. In his hand was a small orb.
“You’re just too dangerous. So stay in here.”
He minimized a great dungeon, opening it inside the orb.
With Groo nearby, there was no need to draw anyone else in.
It was enough for Joorim alone to be swept inside.
The dungeon he had just opened was an RP dungeon. For Joorim, it would serve as a kind of seal.
An RP dungeon reproduces a civilization that once had a system.
He would replicate the scene from when Shea was sealed in the snowy fields, and force Joorim to take on Shea’s role.
Sealed inside, she wouldn’t be able to clear the dungeon alone. Unless someone freed her from the outside, she would have no way out.
That was On Ijo’s plan.
“You will not escape this snowscape.”
With those final words, Joorim was completely drawn into the dungeon.
She now stood in a dazzlingly white snowfield. An icy chill seeped into her bones…
Screee—screee—screee—
…For some reason, a familiar tricycle bell echoed across the snow.
And a child’s humming.
Chapter: I Fell Into Another World and Was Mistaken for a Powerhouse Witch
Screee—screee—screee—
“Hm~ hmm~ hmmm~”
Groo, entering the dungeon in a cheerful mood while humming, never noticed how different this place was from his intended destination.
“Kkyuu…?”
Lucifur, however, noticed something off before Groo did. He poked his head out and glanced around.
“Kkyu?” (This… doesn’t seem like the right place…)
Lucifur tapped Groo gently with a fluffy paw.
But the driver, intent on finding a campsite, paid him no mind.
“Kkyuunnn…”
Lucifur drooped his ears in anxiety.
Just then, Bailach bounded over and hopped onto Groo’s knee. Mephisto, flying, settled onto Groo’s head.
Gasping for breath, Bailach managed to speak.
“Myu… myumyuu?” (Where are we…? Weren’t we going camping?)
“Pii?” (My thoughts exactly.)
Suspicious, Mephisto stroked his chin with a wing, sensing something odd in the dungeon’s magic.
Suddenly, a huge shadow leapt out from beside a tree.
The shadow barred Groo’s way.
“Growwwl.”
[Contaminated Alkert (AAA)]
It was a mutant.
Groo flinched, halting his tricycle.
The creature eyed Groo with bright yellow pupils—
“KRAAAAA!”
It let out a mighty roar, trying to instill terror.
After frightening its prey with a fear skill, the creature planned to devour them alive.
The beast opened its jaws wide, showing razor-sharp fangs—Groo’s hair fluttered in the shock wave.
Groo blinked his big eyes at the mutant looming with its gaping maw.
Just as the creature lunged to swallow him whole, Groo suddenly grabbed Bailach and thrust him forward, squeezing him in the belly like a squeaky toy.
“Myuuu!”
Bailach let out a loud, adorable squeal.
All at once—
CRUNCH!
The mutant was flattened against the ground.
As Mephisto quickly tapped the air, the grotesque carcass appeared to squish and stretch out like a pounded rice cake.
Bailach, pinched in Groo’s grip, furrowed his brows.
“Myu?” (Contaminated?)
“Pii…” (Something’s not right…)
Both Bailach and Mephisto sensed something was off.
Mutants in Groo’s dungeon?!
Groo, whose dungeon typically spawned nothing fiercer than the occasional slime, clenched his fists when a mutant appeared.
I have to protect the seed potatoes!
Those mutated monsters might ruin the Critato tubers.
“Are you ready, Bai?”
Saying so, Groo used his transformation rod and changed costumes—to look like Fakeclaw.
“Myu?”
Meanwhile, a big question mark seemed to float above Bailach’s head.
Preparation? What kind of preparation?
Yet soon he learned the answer—whether he wanted to or not.
“Myuuuuut!”
Suspended before the tricycle like a scarecrow, Bailach screamed.
At the sound, the surrounding mutants turned in terror and began to flee.
Groo used this to his advantage, driving out all nearby mutants and clearing a path.
— Bailach! Louder! Chant the shield to defend the seed potatoes!
Groo shouted joyfully.
“Myuuuuu!”
Bailach wailed, shivering with loathing.
Meanwhile, Yurian giggled in the back, and Lucifur, uncertain what to do, chirped anxiously.
And Mephisto…
Perched on Groo’s head, Mephisto used administrative privileges to read the dungeon’s information.
This wasn’t Groo’s seed potato-growing dungeon.
No wonder the contaminated monsters were here.
It seemed the dungeon coordinates had been mis-set, landing them in an entirely different place…
“Myuuuuu!”
Mephisto, about to warn Groo, glanced down at Bailach, who clung to the tricycle like a crucifix banishing demons.
“Myuuuuut!”
Racing ahead, an impish smile curled Mephisto’s beak as he thought:
“Pii.” (Let’s tell him later.)
After Groo’s finished tormenting Bailach to his heart’s content.
“Myuuuuu!”
“Pipipipip!”
Mephisto covered his mouth with a wing, laughing.
Thus, while Mephisto hid his devious plans and Groo thundered on in his wrathful charge—