Episode 10 – Utero
What the seven entered was a subspace created by Serena.
Not the inside of the dragon, but the interval between time and space. It was the interior of her ability: “Escondil Utero.”
It was a round, immaculate space. There was nothing inside. No objects, no protrusions—an extremely minimal space. Size-wise, maybe enough for about twenty people to sleep sprawled out. At the very least, there was plenty of room for the seven to relax.
There were no walls, no ceiling, not even a floor.
What they saw around them was the flesh walls and floor from moments earlier, and the massive boulder barreling toward them. They could even see the yellow stomach acid and the swarm of insects rushing in.
Indeed, between the space they occupied and the dragon’s interior, there was a faint “distortion.” The view was slightly warped—like a neatly arranged painting muddied and ruined with water.
“Still… this is one hell of a place,” Nada said, giving his honest impression.
It was a space he had never seen before.
Indeed, he had heard that among adventurers, there exist some who wield Unique Skills (One-Off Abilities) capable of creating their own personal dimensions. Their numbers weren’t large, but their existence was confirmed at a certain probability.
The “color” of the created space differed depending on the adventurer, and some famous ones were said to possess warehouse-like realms containing a thousand weapons.
“An ability that manipulates space… I see. So you’re the adventurer who was rumored a few years back,” Corvo said, looking at Serena.
“…That was long ago,” Serena replied, averting her gaze.
Nada had learned in his Ability class: Adventurers who wield spatial abilities are exceedingly rare. Even in Larva Academy, there may be one per grade—if any. The size and nature of their created spaces differ per person, and by the looks of it, Serena possessed one of the more capable spatial abilities, large enough for the seven to fit comfortably.
“Come to think of it, I’ve heard the story too. My team’s leader once tried to recruit you. Though apparently, you turned him down,” Bramia said, recalling a memory.
It seemed natural that a gifted ability user like Serena would receive all kinds of invitations from various parties. Bramia’s group was likely far from the only one.
“…Sorry, but I barely remember those times. After this power awakened, getting scouted became an everyday occurrence. Though nowadays that’s settled down, so I remember the names of the parties that contacted me recently,” Serena said with a sigh.
“Yeah, makes sense. Serena is amazing, so of course lots of parties want her,” Dan chimed in.
Nada nodded at Dan’s words and took another slow look around the space.
Outside, the boulder, insects, and stomach acid were colliding together.
The insects arrived first—only to be mercilessly crushed by the massive boulder that followed, their soft, dark-green exoskeletons smashed into fragments. Their bodily fluids splattered as the immense pressure obliterated them. The green liquid ate away slightly at the boulder’s surface, but given its sheer size, it only managed to scrape the exterior.
Then came the next threat—the stomach acid.
The yellow torrent engulfed the swarm. The insects tried to resist being swept away, but their shells dissolved at tremendous speed, exposing their insides. Green fluid burst out, mixing with the yellow acid before vanishing downstream.
The boulder, too, was eroded by the acid, though its bulk was so overwhelming that it couldn’t melt entirely. Its surface dissolved as if polished, and it continued rolling away.
At this point, the entire space outside was swallowed by stomach acid.
The pink flesh walls, the insects’ faces, even the scenery—all disappeared. Nada felt as if they were a bubble floating within a huge yellow torrent.
Yet Serena’s space—which she had created—remained perfectly intact, unaffected even by the dragon’s overwhelmingly powerful stomach acid. Not a single person inside was harmed.
Even Nada could clearly understand it now: A party with someone like this… would find dungeon exploration dramatically easier. Escape routes in emergencies, safe resting areas, makeshift medical rooms for the injured—the applications were endless.
Of course, Nada had never worked with an adventurer who possessed a spatial-type ability—not during his Aghiya days, nor before that—so he figured there were probably many other uses for it that he simply didn’t know about.
“Still, this is incredible… Even that stomach acid can’t touch us, huh.”
Clarisse said this while wiping cold sweat from her face as she stared at the room being submerged in stomach acid.
“…This is a subspace. Since it’s completely isolated from the outside world, I doubt anything could affect it—be it stomach acid, the strike of a hero, or even a blow from a monster.”
Even Serena herself had apparently never tested the limits of this space’s durability. It seemed she hadn’t verified what kind of attacks it could withstand. Still, there didn’t seem to be any cases of this space ever being breached before.
“To put it more simply, we technically aren’t inside the dragon right now. Since we aren’t, it’s only natural that the stomach acid doesn’t affect us.”
“Huh? Then where exactly are we?”
Clarisse tilted her head at Dan’s explanation.
“We’re between space and space. To be precise, we’re in a ‘nowhere’ that exists nowhere in this world.”
“Isn’t that scary? Like… what if we get trapped here forever?”
Clarisse wasn’t very knowledgeable about spatial matters.
At Larva Academy, students with Abilities take Ability classes, while those with Gifts take Gift classes. The academy thought it pointless to study abilities you didn’t possess.
Only students like Iris—who had both a Gift and an Ability—or students like Nada, who lacked the credits to advance a grade, ended up taking both.
“…I’m the only one who can open an entrance or an exit to this subspace. If I were to die in here, then yeah, the openings would never appear again. But this isn’t really the kind of situation where you need to worry about that.”
“I see, so that's how it works. But since Serena-san is the one creating this space with her Ability… wouldn’t the space itself vanish if she died?”
“That, I don’t know. I’ve never died before.”
Serena cut off Clarisse’s question without hesitation.
It seemed even Serena still didn’t fully understand the nature of her own subspace. There were many unanswered questions, and that couldn’t be helped.
Outside, the subspace was still submerged in stomach acid. There was no sign of it clearing or of them being able to leave anytime soon.
Seeing that, Amarelo looked around at the other six one by one and spoke.
“I believe… this is a fine moment for us to take a rest, yes?”
Serena frowned, as though she didn’t want to think about that suggestion. Bramia snorted through his nose after hearing it. Clarisse, hearing the same words, simply smiled brightly as always. Corvo agreed, saying, “Yeah, good point.” Dan, hearing it, seemed to suddenly remember their original purpose. Nada nodded, letting the words flow past him.
“Our goal is but one—not fleeing from that giant boulder, nor killing those insects. It is to escape the dragon’s body. Yet, unfortunately, we’ve failed to accomplish that so far. Figuring out how to break through this situation… this rest may be extremely important.”
“Sure, what you’re saying makes sense, but… how the hell are we getting out? Does anyone even know where in the dragon we are right now?”
Bramia also desperately wanted to get out, but they lacked even a single clue.
To him, the dragon’s interior was a strange place—like a dungeon, and yet not really a dungeon.
Dungeons had internal shifts, yes, but countless areas had been thoroughly explored by adventurers.
Newly opened paths were often old routes once taken by parties long ago. Sometimes you’d find the marks or symbols left behind by the predecessors who first walked those paths.
Adventurers relied heavily on past experiences and the knowledge left by those who came before them.
—But inside the dragon, none of that applied.
Did an exit even exist?
Thinking of ways to leave a creature’s body, Bramia could only come up with two: leave through the mouth they entered from, or through the rear end. Either way, the problems were endless.
“...What do you think, Dan-dono?”
Amarelo asked Dan, who was knowledgeable about the insides of living creatures, for his opinion.
“...Yeah. I have a rough idea of where we are. For example, the place where we first met up with Nada and the rest was probably the stomach or the esophagus. The spot where that acidic liquid was being sprayed around was definitely the stomach, and the area earlier where all those rocks were is the gizzard. I think this place is also likely another stomach.”
“Why do you think that? There are big rocks here too, and besides, we already passed through the stomach earlier, didn’t we?”
Corvo tilted his head.
“There are plenty of creatures that have multiple stomachs. Some have three or even four—it’s not that rare. And this area is still filled with gastric juice. A place that releases this much stomach acid can only be a stomach.”
No one interrupted Dan’s explanation.
“But we still have a problem. Right, Dan?”
Despite knowing their current location, Nada noticed Dan’s gloomy expression and arrived at the same conclusion.
And indeed, Dan agreed.
“That’s right. Our problem is only one thing. As things stand, there’s no way for us to escape.”
The moment Dan declared that, the shoulders of the other five sank in despair.
“What do you mean there’s no way to escape, Dan?”
Even with her shoulders drooping, Serena glared at Dan as she asked.
“If we wanted to escape, there are a few theoretical ways. The simplest would be to cut open the belly from the inside and get out. But while some parts of the internal walls can be cut, others can’t. Isn’t that right, Amarelo?”
“Indeed. I attempted to cut this stomach earlier, but it didn’t suffer so much as a scratch.”
“Everyone here already knows Amarelo’s swordsmanship is exceptional, even among adventurers—his blade is incredibly sharp. Of course, with Nada’s ability or… Corvo’s, they could unleash an even stronger slash, enough to cut through ‘flesh.’ But cutting through ‘dragon scales’ from the inside is probably impossible.”
“Come to think of it, the reason dragons are considered the strongest among monsters is their incredibly tough scales.”
Serena muttered bitterly.
As she said, Nada also remembered how much trouble dragon scales had caused him before. With normal weapons, cutting them was nearly impossible—hurting them at all was difficult. That’s why people normally target thin spots, eyes, claws, or joints without scales.
“But—based on what I heard, the party Aghiya, where Nada-senpai used to be, and Neve, the group Corvo-senpai once led, both defeated dragons in the past, right? In that case, wouldn’t dragon scales not be that big of an issue?”
Clarisse tapped her chin as she recalled, but Corvo slowly shook his head.
“Unfortunately, no. It’s impossible. I indeed defeated a dragon, but I don’t have an ability that can slice through dragon scales in one strike. We worked together as a team and kept attacking the same spot over and over until we finally managed to peel the scales off. If we could do the same thing here, that’d be great… but I bet something will interrupt us before that.”
“I agree with Corvo. Dragon scales are hard—period. So you might think we could just peel them off. But with a dragon this huge, each scale is massive. Peeling them from the inside is impossible.”
Following Corvo, Nada also concluded that escaping through the stomach was impossible.
“So, the next escape plan. As everyone’s already thinking, the remaining options are escaping through the mouth or the rear. But both are difficult.”
“Dan-dono, I understand why escaping through the mouth is hard, but why would escaping through the rear be difficult?”
Amarelo frowned deeply as he asked.
“Hmm. There are a few reasons. For example, the anus is controlled by strong muscles, and only the dragon can decide when it opens. Then there’s the risk of getting buried in feces and dying when we’re expelled. There are all sorts of concerns. But most importantly, can we even reach that area in the first place?”
At the issue Dan raised, the six of them averted their eyes from him.
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