I'm Not an Earthworm, I'm an Earth Dragon

As we descended, something stirred, and a rumbling shook the ground along with a strange cry from below.

The slope leading down seemed to have no end, and it was doubtful if even light could reach the bottom. At the entrance, there was still some sunlight, so we could see something, but after a while, the only sources of light were the glow from the mage’s book and the torch held by Myungho.

The slope was gentle but narrow, making it feel a bit precarious even for one person to walk. Whenever the path narrowed, I used my ability to create railings and continued onward, but I felt something was off.

“…Altera. That railing looks exactly like the one you just made. Did you make it based on that? Or…”

“…I made that. And that hole-ridden bone, isn’t that where we just passed?”

“Yes, I was only suspicious, but… it seems we’re going back for some unknown reason.”

After returning several times, what was once a suspicion seemed to turn into certainty. No matter how much we moved forward, at some point, we suddenly found ourselves back where we had been before.

Akash and Marie seemed unfazed, walking steadily until they stopped when we did.

“What’s the problem? Why suddenly stop? Did a ghost pop out to scare you? Or what? Is there a corpse lying around?”

“I thought you would know, of course. Akash, we’re going around in circles. Didn’t you know?”

“Of course I know. You still don’t seem to know where you’re trying to enter, but you’re going into a dragon’s nest, right? It wouldn’t be strange if the path suddenly disappeared or a wall pushed you off. Be glad it’s this tame.”

Myungho tried to inform Akash as if teaching him, but that obnoxious guy claimed he already knew everything and rebuked Myungho.

I also thought that guy would know… but his obnoxiousness was inevitable.

“He told you for your own good. Show some resnect.”

“Respect, not resnect. Earthworm. Ah, shall I show you something interesting? Follow me. You’ll soon find out what the one holed up here wants.”

Akash, without yielding a single word, retorted everything and suddenly turned around to go back up, saying he would show us something interesting.

Myungho tried to stop him, asking where he was going alone, but the path was too narrow, so he could only watch. Akash, who had left the group on his own, took a few more steps upward and suddenly disappeared.

“Akash! Where did you go! Marie, go up! I can’t believe this…! Where did he disappear to?!”

It happened so suddenly that Myungho looked blankly at the spot where Akash had vanished, then told the still Marie to hurry up and instructed us to go up as well.

Yuna, hesitant to go up to a place where anything could be, looked back and followed Marie up, and I followed behind them.

As we hurried up, sunlight suddenly poured in. Shielding my eyes with my hand, I heard Akash’s voice from a little above.

“…So, do you know what the owner of this nest wants? Judging by that angry look on your face, you don’t seem to understand. Let me enlighten you. ‘Get lost.’ It’s clear from how it blocks the way down and sends you back to the entrance with just a little movement upward.”

Myungho glared upward, pointed at Akash, and threatened to deal with him later. However, Akash remained indifferent.

“Oh, how scary. You say that, but you’re about to ask me how to get down, aren’t you? It’s so obvious now.”

As if he had been inside Myungho’s head, Akash predicted everything he would do, got up, dusted himself off, and immediately gave the answer.

Even I could easily predict what he would do, but still, Myungho looked at Akash with displeasure and said.

“…Tell me.”

“The living can’t go down there. What we did is as meaningless as punching a slime. Conversely, the dead can go down.”

“…You’ve finally shown your true colors! I knew it from the moment you fired magic at Myungho! You plan to kill us and control our corpses, don’t you?!”

Yuna, somehow understanding those words, suddenly drew her bow and tried to shoot an arrow at that guy. I wanted to help Yuna, but that would obviously make our future adventures extremely difficult, so I stopped her.

“…Wait, let’s hear him out. We can’t use magic right now anyway.”

Akash, despite seeing that I had just saved him, remained indifferent and continued with his cryptic words. Myungho and Yuna seemed to understand to some extent, interjecting with questions here and there, but I couldn’t make sense of most of it, so I just stood there blankly.

Normal conversation is fine now, but I just can’t understand what that mage says. He uses unnecessarily difficult words.

“…Magic that treats the living as dead? Okay, let’s say you cast that on us. Why in the world does such magic even exist…?”

“If there’s something that disguises the dead as living, there must be the opposite.”

Myungho, contemplating where to even begin to object, seemed to give up, spreading his arms wide and telling him to just cast the spell already.

Akash nonchalantly said something and shot it at Myungho. A sky-blue veil-like thing enveloped him, then seeped into his body, making him slightly paler.

“…He looks a bit paler.”

“It’s a disguise, but he’s a corpse, isn’t he? Have you ever seen a corpse with a healthy complexion? Now, next.”

Since I also needed to go down and check, I obediently let Akash cast the spell on me. However, my skin didn’t become particularly pale or anything.

Only the living can pretend to be dead, so it’s fine. But what is? Before I could answer my own question, Yuna and Marie were also covered in the spell, and finally, Akash cast the spell on himself.

“Wait a minute. Why cast it on Marie? She’s a doll. If she’s a doll, isn’t she not alive…?”

“The womb is alive. I only need to cast the magic on the womb. No need to think too deeply.”

Myungho muttered something about dwarves again and put his hand on his forehead. I didn’t care about that, and the thought of finally being able to go down made me feel a bit excited.

…The one down there probably isn’t my father. That’s what I felt. Still, since it’s the same species as my father, it should at least help me understand its strength and appearance.

Maybe. Just maybe, if I play my cards right, I might even be able to find out information about my father directly.

Resolutely, I declared that I would take the lead this time. Since there shouldn’t be anything too dangerous down there, I suggested that it would be better if I led the way, and Myungho agreed.

“Don’t overexert yourself making the path. The thing down there might attack us as soon as it sees us. Don’t push yourself too hard, and if it’s too much, let’s run. It’s not something to be ashamed of, right?”

“Got it. Don’t worry.”

…I plan to fight it for at least one round. I want to gauge its strength.

With that thought in mind, I stepped into the endless abyss once more. As expected, there was still light at the entrance.

There was nothing to talk about, and no need to make a path, so I looked at the snake bones embedded in the wall.

They were a bit higher up on the slope, so we couldn’t step on them, but if there were no slope, we probably would have used them as a path. The peculiar thing was that the tail part above was almost decayed and about to turn to dust, but the further down we went, the cleaner the bones became.

At some point, the bones detached from the wall and were located in the center of the pit.

Just before the light disappeared, I saw something red attached to the bones, but the light vanished in an instant, and from then on, I couldn’t see the bones anymore.

“…I’ll make a mark here. If we see this again, it means we failed.”

I conveyed that to the group and scratched a mark on the wall with my fingernail. With nothing else to say, we hurried our steps downward again.

As we went, we could still see the railings I had made and our footprints. I kept making marks so that we could immediately recognize if we returned, and we continued down.

And we never saw the marks again.

We seemed to have walked for quite a long time, but we didn’t see any railings, let alone the marks. And strangely, it felt like our surroundings were getting brighter.

Even so, it was such a vast space that it only meant we could see a little better in front and behind us.

“…It seems we’ve succeeded.”

From here on, it was truly unknown territory. Up until now, the only obstacle had been a barrier preventing the living from passing, but things might be different now.

Here, a spear would be better than a sword, so I pulled out a rock spear from the wall. I also told Myungho to take out that ominous sword of his, and we continued downward.

As we cautiously proceeded, we heard something twitching. We looked around and felt for vibrations, but there was nothing that could have made that sound, so I asked the others if they had made it, but they said no.

“…Akash. Could you perhaps shine the light from that book… towards the center of the pit?”

“Huh? Do you have a hunch? Alright. Here… whoa.”

It didn’t take long to find out what had made the sound.

It was the snake’s body in the center of the pit. A living snake’s body with intact flesh and scales.