I woke up this morning feeling numb nothingness around my body.

Muscles aching.

And covered from my toes to torso in a blanket of snow.

Huh?

I bolted upright and casted tinder on some wood in the corner and started rubbing my hands together in an attempt to get the feeling of numbness out of them.

I noticed that my mana was extremely low after casting tinder.

I looked around and found the door of the stables open.

Beyond the door, everything was covered in a sheet of fresh white snow.

Once my hands were warm enough, I checked on my son.

It was shriveled up but still alive.

Good.

Wait, it was getting cold a little for the last few days, but there were no signs of this happening.

Does this world's climate work on Minecraft logic?

Still, even if there had been a sudden snowstorm, it didn't answer who left the door open.

"Yawn… Oh, good morning Kazuma, I see you woke up early today, did you finally decide to leave your NEET habits?"

I turned around once I heard the sound of Aqua yawning.

"Umm… Aqua, would you like to tell me why the gate is open?" I asked in a trembling voice as I was still shivering from the cold.

"Oh, I must've forgotten about it when I came back last night. Speaking of which, I saw you were shivering last night and I once read that snow is a good insulator, so I… Kazuma, why are you walking towards me with your axe in hand…? Wait, I'm sorry, AHHHH!"

"What happened to Aqua's hair?" Megumin asked me once we reached the guild.

"Oh nothing much, she just said she wanted a new look so I helped her."

"Oh, how nice of you," Darkness commented from her end of the table.

Aqua was just sitting at the bar, already getting drunk to drown out her sorrow of losing, as she put it, divine long blue hair.

"So how about we go into a dungeon today?" I asked once we finished our breakfast.

"Not that kind of dungeon," I quickly added after seeing the spark in Darkness's eyes.

"Don't wanna," Megumin said.

"Wait, why?"

"I just don't wanna."

Is she scared of the dark or something?

Yeah, that might be it.

Don't worry, you just need to follow us until we reach the entrance of the dungeon, I am planning to go alone from there. If we meet any dangerous monsters on the way to the dungeon, you can take them out with an explosion."

The idea of taking out a strong monster with an explosion might be enticing enough for her to rethink this.

"Hmm? Just the entrance? Will that really be fine?" Megumin questioned.

Yup, nailed it.

"Yeah, my enemy detection is basically only second to top tier thieves, and I was going to put points in trap detection and farsight before entering, so I should be fine."

I had been putting almost every point I had gained until now into leveling up my previous skills.

At first because of the famed operation toad massacre.

And then it just became a habit.

Which was kinda bad 'cause I have up 81 skill points in total, up until now.

81!

The highest level adventurers are around that level.

Everybody gets 1 skill point per level.

So…

They had to grind for years to get that many skill points.

If I actually would have just learned skills, I would have had around 30-40 good skills in my arsenal by now.

Well, I can start saving skill points from now on I guess.

I really don't want to come across some really OP skill set, only to not have points to learn it.

After getting a now short haired Aqua from the bar and a half a day trek through the snow covered forest and hills, we reached our destination…

Keele's Dungeon

A long time ago, there was a genius Archwizard named Keele who fell in love with a daughter of a noble house.

The mage, who devoted his whole life to magic and had no interest in love, fell for the lady at first sight during a stroll through the streets.

Of course, this love didn't bear fruit.

After all, the difference in status decided many things in this world.

As the years went by, he eventually became the strongest Archwizard in the nation.

He didn't hold back in bringing happiness to the country through his use of spells, and was praised by all.

And so, the mage was invited to the castle to a banquet that was held in his honor.

The king said to the mage that he wanted to reward him, and was willing to fulfill one wish of the mage, with no restrictions.

The mage said he had a wish that would never be fulfilled.

What the Archwizard Keele wished for, no one knew.

At least that's what Megumin told me, 'cause this whole thing sounded like a story to just bring more attention to Axel.

As it was only known that after this, the Archwizard kidnapped the daughter of the noble clan, built a dungeon and refused to come out.

The dungeon had always become a good training ground for novice adventurers nowadays.

Specifically if it was winter.

"All right, I'll go alone from here on. The three of you just wait here for me," I said at the gate of the dungeon.

"Are you really going solo? It's preposterous to challenge a dungeon by yourself," Darkness said.

Oh, I know it is.

I just wanted to get that Sung Jin Woo vibes.

Also because this would allow me to level up faster.

Still, this was the first time I would be going solo, so I was kinda nervous.

"I would just be a burden if I follow… Think it over, Kazuma," Megumin said in a voice that was tinged with worry.

I turned to Aqua.

"Go ahead, I am not coming with you, shoo!" Aqua simply said.

Yeah, that's what I thought.

"I'll be going then. It's cold here and you might encounter monsters, so keep your guard up."

I waved goodbye to everyone and headed toward the entrance of the dungeon.

I slowly moved inside the dungeon, making sure I didn't make too much noise.

I crouched down and tried to stay away from the walls as it was an easy way to get cornered when encountering monsters.

!?

After a few minutes of treading through the dungeon, my enemy detection activated with a single light.

It could either be a monster on patrol or some undead that got separated from its group.

I slowly moved towards the corner and quickly and silently used snipe and threw my axe at the lone figure.

Thud!

The sound of a body falling to the ground gave me enough courage to peek around the corner.

There was a small green humanoid monster lying on the ground with my axe sticking out of its back.

A gremlin.

Low tier demons like gremlins are more dangerous than a pack of wolves if they gather together.

But alone, they are just like a stronger goblin.

I moved forward after checking if there was any movement on my enemy detection.

After walking for half an hour, I had only encountered a few gremlins.

I guess max level luck was actually useful, despite the number of things that had happened to me that made me think otherwise.

I went down some stairs hoping to find more monsters and loot.

Down the stairs there was a cross-section with one path going to the right while the other went left.

I noticed something after getting off the stairs.

… What is this?

Although I had night vision, I could only see a green silhouette, and couldn't tell the original colour of the object.

It was lying there motionless.

So with my enemy detection not buzzing, I pulled out my adventurers card to put some recently earned 4 skill points into farsight.

The vision around me started to change, and went from night vision to a low resolution version of my normal sight.

I looked back towards the silhouette, only to see a decomposing human body…

"…"

I put my hands on my mouth to prevent myself from screaming my lungs out.

Was it someone who attempted to challenge the dungeon alone like me, or a person who had been abandoned by his party members after dying?

I quickly said a small prayer for him and walked ahead.

Only to stop after a small while when I felt a hand on my shoulder.

I turned around as my enemy detection was silent.

Only to meet with the decomposing face of the corpse I had just passed.

"AAHHHHH!" I screamed this time and jumped away from it, only to see…

Aqua laughing there with the corpse now lying next to her.

"Puhe, you should've seen your face! That's what you get for messing with my hair you damn hikiNEET!"

"Wait, how did you manage to get here without farsight or a torch?!"

After hearing my words, Aqua started to laugh again… I really want to punch her.

"Hey, Kazuma, have you forgotten who I am? Come on, say it, tell me who I am?"

"Goddess of sloth?"

"No! I'm the goddess of water! You could've at least said I'm the goddess of festivities or banquets!"

"Anyway, I'm a goddess after all! My eyes have the power to see through everything. Before you were reincarnated, I accurately told you the cause of your death, right? My powers have weakened after coming to the mortal world, but I still have a couple of godly powers, you know? I can't see through everything right now, but I have no problem seeing in the dark!"

"That's all right and all, but can you at least not involve some poor person's dead body in your next prank?" I said to her as I picked up the corpse and gently laid it against the wall.

I turned back and saw Aqua smiling without a care in the world.

She slowly came to the side of the corpse.

"... This corpse is about to become an undead monster. Kazuma, wait for a moment."

After saying that, Aqua started mumbling something like a prayer, and the corpse emitted a faint light.

She was probably guiding the lost spirit to the afterlife, preventing it from turning into an undead.

I would praise her, but that's literally her job and…

"But, puhehe! This is too stupid, pushing yourself to challenge a dungeon alone- Puhah! Hahaha!"

She is still making fun of me.

We stood there for a solid minute when my enemy detection started to tell me that a lot of monsters were approaching us.

Shit.

My screams and Aqua's boasting must've drawn their attention.

Or the light from Aqua purifying the corpse.

I looked towards the direction where the monsters were coming from, and found a group of 15 gremlins walking towards us with 50 undead following them.

Shit x2

Outside the dungeon, much hadn't changed.

Megumin was lying on some grass as she got bored and decided to use explosion on some nearby wildlife.

If someone asked her why she used explosion on some harmless trees, she would just say that the trees were looking at her the wrong way.

"They've been gone for a while, haven't they?" Megumin said from her spot.

"I wonder what kind of monsters they've encountered," Darkness said with a red face.

"Megumin, can I go with Kazuma next time we go dungeon hunting?" Darkness suddenly asked, facing Megumin.

"Y-Yeah, but why are you asking me?"

"Ah, monsters," Darkness said with a dreamy look.

"Wait, answer my question, why are you asking me?"

Today, Aqua was different from her usual self.

Where did the alcoholic slob go?

"Lost souls wandering the cold dungeons, rest in peace. Turn undead!" Aqua chanted and kept casting turn undead throughout my fight with the gremlins.

We divided them into two groups, where Aqua would take care of any undead and unlucky gremlin that came her way, while I would take out the gremlins and of course any undead that came at me.

Gremlins were a little bit hard to deal with as they kept trying to surround me.

But after I took out about 10 of them and Aqua casted a wide area purification spell, they became easy picking.

She looked just like a holy goddess as she purified the undead with a wide area spell.

She looked stunning with her aura flowing around her and with her short hair.

Wait…

First Chris and now Aqua.

When did I start to have a thing for short hair?

Even though I found Aqua just aesthetically beautiful, it still counted.

"Thanks Aqua, you've been a great help. It would've been dangerous if I had come alone." I said, and I meant it 'cause without her they would've easily overwhelmed me.

Although it was because of her that they came in the first place.

Aqua was still mad at me from the looks of it, 'cause she refused to look at me.

So I offered to buy her a bottle of wine when we got back, to which she happily accepted.

"Anyway, where are the treasures? This dungeon has been explored so many times, so I wasn't expecting much, but there should be something," Aqua said after a while.

"It must be around here somewhere, 'cause I think we're reaching the dungeon's end."

"Hey Kazuma, look there! There seems to be a treasure chest here," Aqua said as she spotted a box.

"Wait, Aqua!" I said to Aqua, who happily charged towards the treasure chest.

"Why?" she said while turning around,

The urge that she wanted to charge right back at the treasure chest was clearly seen on her face.

"It's a fake treasure chest, watch this," I said as I threw my axe at it.

The moment the axe hit the chest, the walls and floor around started shaking, and the treasure chest opened into a gigantic mouth to swallow the axe.

"Wait! You hikiNEET, that was a divine relic, are you that dumb?!"

I just summoned my axe back and it tore through the dungeon mimic and it landed in my hand.

Huh, I gained a level from that.

"... Hey, isn't this weird? There are way too many undead here. A party without an Archpriest wouldn't be able to subjugate the dungeon, right?" I said after we defeated, or more like Aqua, defeated another undead horde.

It was the 3rd group we had encountered.

They all consisted of at least 50-60 undead each.

This was a dungeon for novices to grind.

But I couldn't imagine how the novices would handle the surge of undead.

Despite casting magic non-stop, Aqua didn't seem tired at all.

But even Aqua couldn't keep it up forever, so maybe it was time to retreat.

"You're right. We didn't even find any treasure, but I'm satisfied after purifying so many undead… Hold on a minute, the scent of the undead is still lingering here."

What, are you a hound now?

No, but seriously, my enemy detection wasn't even triggered. It seemed like this undead didn't have any problems with us.

We had reached the end of the dungeon, but Aqua was still sniffing the air like an excited cat.

Detect trap and enemy detection still didn't have any reaction.

But since Aqua was the expert in this kind of stuff, so there probably was something behind this wall.

I walked forward and knocked on the wall.

Someone knocked back.

That would've been a lot more spooky if I was not standing next to Aqua.

A part of the wall suddenly turned sideways, opening a gap.

It appeared to have been opened from the inside.

"What year is it?" came a voice from inside.

Believe me dude, I don't know either.

We entered the passage with our guards up, just in case.

Only to find a cozy room with a simple bed, a cabinet, a table, and a chair.

The person was sitting on the chair beside the bed.

"Good morning, this is the first time we've met. Though, I don't know what time it is, so should I say 'Good evening' instead?"

He was a skeleton covered in dried skin, with a long robe draped around him.

"I'm Keele, creator of this dungeon. I kidnapped the daughter of a noble. That's right, I'm an evil mage."

Wait, that means the story was true.

Megumin was so gonna tease me for not believing her.

He also told us what he asked that day when we asked him about it.

Keele said to the king that he had a wish that would never be fulfilled, and that was the happiness of the one he loved, who had suffered so much.

"After making this wish, I kidnapped that lady," Keele proudly said.

"... Which means you're not an evil mage, but a good one? To get on the good side of the king, the daughter was offered to the king as a concubine. But she wasn't loved, and didn't have a good relationship with the queen and the other concubines. And you said something like, 'Since you don't want her, give her to me', right?"

After hearing this, the bones in Keele's throat area rattled, as if he was laughing.

"That's the gist of it. Afterwards, I proposed to the lady I kidnapped, and she accepted me. Then I eloped with her while fending off the army of the kingdom… Ahh, that was fun. Oh, by the way, the one on the bed is her. How does she look? Isn't the curve of her collarbone beautiful?"

I looked in the direction Keele pointed at and found a skeleton placed on the small bed.

Things like that made me feel like love still existed in this world.

Even Aqua had tears in her eyes, and although I knew she probably couldn't wait to purify him, even she didn't hold anything against him.

"And so, I have a request for that lady over there," Keele suddenly said.

"Request?"

Hearing my words, Keele nodded.

"Could you send me to the afterlife? This lady should have the power to do so."

When we came out from the dungeon, we had all of Keele's fortune which he had given to us.

It totaled to a whopping 40 million eirs, which was expected as the man had been the best mage of his time.

But we still had 52 million eris worth of debt remaining.

'Did I make her happy?' Keele had asked himself.

To which Aqua had said that the lady had moved on with no regrets.

Keele had made her happy even when living a life on the run.

I don't know why, but I couldn't help but reflect on my own past because of him.