The groans of the undead echoed once more through the forest.
"I can't believe they're still coming," I grumbled.
"Something must be drawing them here, but what? There doesn't seem to be any tombs nearby," Dikon said, equally confused.
"W-Well, thinking about that isn't going to help us right now, so why don't we just go inside already?"
Following Aqua's words — the first sensible thing she'd said all night — we decided to ignore the endless army of corpses pouring out from the trees and ran into the castle, making sure to slam the doors shut behind us.
"It must be the demon's magic. Another defensive measure in case the barrier failed."
"Of course! What else could it be? Nice thinking, Kaizer!"
I shot my companion a suspicious glance.
"Hey, Aqua… you wouldn't happen to know the real reason those zombies wouldn't stop chasing us, would you?"
From the other side of the door came the sound of undead hands scratching at the wood.
"What!? Are you seriously suggesting those zombies have something to do with me?"
"I didn't exactly mean it like that. But now that you mention it…"
"Hey! Can I ask why you're still looking at me like that? Apologize right now for doubting your beautiful archpriest companion and thinking I'm attracting those undead with my goddess aura!" Aqua shrieked, basically confirming my suspicions.
"Whatever. That doesn't matter right now. We're in enemy territory, so we'd better move carefully."
We kept running until we reached what looked like a vestibule. The demon was clearly waiting for us. The moment we stepped inside, skeletons armed with swords and spears came out to greet us.
If I went by the video games I knew from my old world, these were the weakest type of enemy, usually appearing in the first dungeons.
Just to be safe, I didn't let my guard down.
Their bodies were so brittle that they literally flew apart with every swing of my sword.
"Argh! Damn it! These enemies are way too strong!"
When I looked toward Dikon, I saw he was surrounded by three skeletons, who kept attacking him with their rusty blades.
"Blizzard!" the young man shouted.
Supposedly, Blizzard was one of the most powerful ice spells. However, with such low stats, all that came out of Dikon's hands was a chilly breeze that barely bothered the skeletons.
In fact, they looked even angrier now.
"WAH! Goddess Eris, I entrust my soul to you!"
It looks like Dikon had already accepted death, so I started running to help him.
"Kaizer! I'll boost your stats! Bles—!"
Aqua was about to cast Blessing on me, but I stopped her with a hand gesture.
"You'd better save your mana!" I shouted. "We don't know what kind of enemies might be waiting ahead!"
I finished off all the skeletons with ease.
"Thank you, Mr. Kaizer," the boy said between gasps. "I think… I think I'll be fine… damn… the other day some Enchanted Rabbits kicked my ass… and now this… Argh! I clearly got too cocky…"
Yeah, well, I don't think that's exactly the problem.
"Hey, you said your name was Dikon, right? When you're on a quest, you can't let your guard down for even a second. As an expert archpriest, I know what I'm talking about, trust me," Aqua said, acting all important.
And a second later… she was gone.
A massive figure emerged from the shadows and swallowed her whole. Only her legs stuck out a little from what appeared to be the mouth of a creature.
"This can't be possible…" I said in shock as I realized it really was a giant toad.
How the hell had one of those things gotten inside the castle?
"WAH! It ate her! That thing just ate Miss Aqua! What do we do, Mr. Kaizer?"
"Huh? Ah, don't worry about that. She'll be fine."
"What!?"
"Those skeletons really did a number on you, didn't they? You should use this moment of distraction to take some potions and recover. I'll check my gear and rescue Aqua while I'm at it."
"W-While you're at it?" Dikon looked at me with wide eyes, clearly horrified by how casually I'd said that. However, he didn't know that Aqua was already used to this kind of treatment. So there was nothing to worry about, really.
Once we were ready, I simply took care of the toad (which was very busy with its dinner) and freed a very traumatized Aqua. She was now crying on top of a huge puddle of slime.
"BUAAAAAH! It's not fair! Why does this always happen to me?!"
"Come on, don't cry," I said, offering her a hand to help her up. Aqua took it, and once she was on her feet, I made sure Dikon wasn't listening and whispered:
"Besides, you look incredibly sexy when you're covered in slime. You have no idea what I'm planning to do to you when we get back to Axel."
"You're the worst," the goddess said, slightly blushing.
And then she started wiping her sticky hands all over my armor.
"Aah! What are you doing!? Have you lost your mind!?"
"Oh, what's wrong, Kaizer? I thought you liked it when I'm covered in slime," Aqua replied mockingly.
"Wow, you two are really something," Dikon said as he approached after drinking several potions. "Especially Miss Aqua! That strategy of attracting the toad and distracting it so Mr. Kaizer could deliver the final blow was just too amazing!"
"Hehe… O-Of course."
"Sure," I sang. "Very typical of you, right, Aqua?"
And so, after receiving a punch to the stomach from an irritated goddess, we continued deeper into the castle.