Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, Vol. 5 by Fujino Omori Read Free Book Online

any adventurer who made even the slightest mistake get away with it.
    The Dungeon was very sly. Like a salivating hunter toying with its prey, the Dungeon didn’t go in for the kill all at once, but strategically wore its meal down.
    Occasionally having monsters howl at them from afar—
    Sometimes shaking the ground beneath their feet with strong quakes—
    And, of course, consistently birthing monsters at just the right time to cut off their escape—
    These little incidents weren’t much on their own. However, not knowing what was coming next weighed heavily on the group. None of them could hide their exhaustion.
    It was much easier to bring down a castle with a broken foundation. Lost physical strength was not easy to recover. And once they noticed something was wrong, it was already too late.
    The prey let out groans of agony, weak bodies hunched over as they fought to catch their breath. Only then did the Dungeon bear its fangs.
    “—”
    Crack!
    A very unwelcome sound reached Bell’s ears, his body already on the verge of collapse.
    He had lost track of how long he had been half fighting, half running away from monsters. His gaze raced around the tunnel, trying to find the source of the noise.
    The walls looked as solid as ever, but the noise was getting louder. The mother Dungeon wasn’t about to pull any punches now.
    Crack, crack!
    The foreboding sound surrounded them, echoing from all sides.
    Huh—?
    Bell was the first to figure it out.
    The sound was coming from above. Welf and Lilly followed his line of sight and gasped.
    A weblike network of cracks and fissures sprawled out over the ceiling above them. The parties stood and watched as the web expanded farther down the tunnel in both directions. It was too wide to believe.
    Another crack, and more echoes. It got harder to tell the difference between new crevices opening and the echoes with each passing moment.
    A piece of rock fell from the ceiling as the entire tunnel groaned, unable to bear the weight any longer.
    Bell’s body was frozen in place. The boy could feel the blood draining from his head.
    —Monsters!
    The second that thought crossed his mind…
    …The ceiling shattered in a thunderous roar as a swarm of bad bats was born from the tunnel ceiling.
    “
KYAAAAAAAAAA—!!
”
    A chorus of high-pitched squeals rang out as the bad bats took wing for the first time.
    The dim lights from above were suddenly blacked out by countless shadows in the air.
    Shrouded in darkness, Bell and the others could only catch a glimpse of the heavily damaged ceiling.
    Until, finally, it caved in.
    “““—?!”””
    Bell’s, Lilly’s, and Welf’s eyes practically jumped from their sockets. All of them sprang into action a moment later.
    It was a rockslide intended to kill. The three of them made a mad dash forward, trying to escape the onslaught.
    One hit after another, new pain erupting with every blow. Their eardrums were assaulted by the thunderous barrage of stones and boulders falling like water. Rocks and boulders just kept coming from above.
    There wasn’t even a sliver of time to look out for one another.
    The three ran as fast as they could to escape the howl of the Dungeon itself.
    “Gah, haa…!”
    At last the rockslide subsided.
    Welf gasped for breath, the air filled with thick dust and debris.
    Bell’s hands broke out in a cold sweat, but he didn’t look in Welf’s direction. He could tell by his voice that he was hurt.
    There was a small cough in the distance. Lilly.
    Wiping away the blood that seeped from the many small cuts on his face, Bell tried to call out to his friends to make sure they were okay.
    “Urkh…”
    However.
    His throat was too dry and full of dust to produce the sound.
    “—”
    Shapes were coming into focus now that the dust started to settle.
    There were several dark shadows climbing over the rubble that sat on top of where he had been standing just a few moments ago.
    A pack of hellhounds.
    In that moment,