Reborn in another world as a Hermaphrodite

"Ahem, anyway, Alex, are you ready to go in first?" Katherine asked.

"Yep!"

"Here's your sword and shield... You know how to hold a shield, right?"

Alex froze for a second, realizing that no one in his life had ever taught him to use a shield.

The only time he ever used a shield was when he used it as a piece of block in his hand.

"Just use it to block you, dummy. Don't hold it too hard if they are pressing hard onto it."

Alex nodded as he held onto the sword in one hand and the shield in the other.

"Okay, time for you to lead the way."

As Alex strapped the sword and shield to his back and started going down the steep hill, he quickly realized how heavy his gears were.

Even though the armor itself barely covered every part of his body, they were still way too much for his age.

His mouth was already panting from the sheer weight, with sweat falling from his face as he got stuck on one of the rocks.

"Mom, this might be a little too heavy——"

"Geez, you really need to work on your stamina."

As Katherine chanted some sort of spell from above, a wave of green light appeared on Alex's body.

Within seconds, the armor on his body felt much lighter, almost as if he were just wearing his normal clothes instead of heavy chunks of metal.

At the same time, a light appeared in front of him, shining a light onto the dark path ahead of them.

"Thanks, Mom."

"Don't worry about it."

The six of them continued descending as the slanted entrance started to become smoother and more of a staircase downward.

After going down for almost an entire minute, the five of them realized the dungeon was deeper than they imagined.

"Mom, when are we going to reach the dungeon?" Sophia curiously asked as she started to get a little creeped out by the darkness.

"Just a few more steps."

"Stupid entrance... I'm never going to do this ever again."

As Mary complained about the dirt on her pants, Alex had finally arrived at the bottom of the diagonal road.

There was a giant empty hole ahead of them, with a road leading to mysterious ruins.

From the outside appearance, the building almost looks like some sort of witch house.

"Wow..."

When the others arrived at the bottom, they were in awe of the size of the pit, as the ceiling was almost as tall as the way they had walked down.

"What's that building?" Sophia curiously asked.

"Just an old house that my teacher built. Okay, let's go to the dungeon first."

"This still isn't the dungeon?"

Mary murmured as Katherine led the five of them down the road opposite the house in the distance.

"What's the house for?" Meiya curiously asked as she couldn't understand why someone would want to live underground here.

"Just for experiment... But it's mostly just a place for Amelia to do her experiment now."

"How fitting..." Alex murmured as he thought back to the impression that Amelia had given off.

After walking for a bit, they finally arrived at a hole in the rock walls, big enough for two people to walk side by side.

"Alex, ready?"

With no word spoken, Alex quickly walked to the front with his sword and shield ready.

"Sophia, Mary, you two ready?"

The two nodded as they looked ahead, with both of their face looking a little nervous.

"You three are going to go in first, and we're just going to watch. If you ask us for help, then the dungeon run is over, okay?"

All three of the kids nodded in agreement, with the nervousness replaced by excitement as they walked forward.

---

"Skeleton!"

As Alex charged forward with his shield, he quickly slashed a skeleton that was just about to swing his sword down to his head.

Meanwhile, the other two were standing just a few steps away, throwing spells at the skeleton army ahead of them.

"God damn it, how many skeletons are there?"

With every second passing, more and more skeletons started to overwhelm Alex from all three sides.

"Watch out!"

Having no hesitation, Alex quickly dunked down, with an explosive fireball flying right over where he stood.

"Shit! Can you two not direct it a little further?"

The loud explosion made Alex almost fall onto the floor if it wasn't for his last-second sword stabbing onto the floor.

As he gets back up, the skeleton army has already replaced all the ones who died in the explosion.

Once again, Alex was forced to defend himself with only the shield as his sword was still stuck on the ground.

"Can you two do something?" Alex complained as the skeleton started to pass his shield.

Fortunately, his armor blocked all of the cuts, but the blunt force from the hits was still painful.

"Just give us a minute."

Hearing Sophia's answer, all Alex could do was bite his lips and rush forward, pushing as much skeleton aside.

"Come on, pull out already."

Alex tried to pull his sword out, but it showed zero signs of movement, no matter how hard he tried to pull with his right hand.

At the same time, the skeleton was starting to wrap around him, attacking him from all four sides instead of just three.

"Shit!"

Suddenly, a layer of water appeared around Alex, covering the skeleton's attack, as clanking sounds echoed in the hallway.

"Come on, why is this thing stuck so hard!"

With both hands on the sword, Alex eventually pulled his sword out, allowing him to wield his weapon together.

"Get ready to die!"

As the water barrier disappeared, Alex charged forward, his entire body behind the shield and his sword aimed forward like a lance.

To his surprise, he was able to cut through the lines of skeletons like butter, reaching the end as he stopped.

"Alex! What are you doing!"

Hearing Mary yelling out loud, Alex's brain facepalmed as he completely forgot about his mission.

"Ah, shit! Here we go again!"

Alex quickly began to charge back into the skeleton, breaking through all the skeleton as he didn't even bother using the sword this time.

Despite this, the shield bash was extremely effective, as his short height allowed him to run through their legs.

Just as Alex was about to stop, he suddenly ducked down before covering his head with his shield.

A loud crash sound echoed in the hallway as a bunch of heat radiated onto his back.

At the same time, the hallway finally fell into silence, as if all of the skeletons had finally been killed.

"Alex, what the hell were you doing?"

As Sophia and Mary emerged from their barrier, Alex slowly stood back up before patting the dust away.

"I lost my sword, so I have to get it back if I want to do something... Anyway, good job killing those skeletons."

Turning around, Alex could finally see all of the damage Mary and Sophia had done with their spell.

Piles upon piles of skeletons fell onto the floors, with many more completely disconnected from their head.

The number of skeletons he had killed or knocked down was only a small fraction, not even a tenth of it.

"You forgot Mom told you that your job is to protect us? Not to dive in for a sword that you barely used?"

Sophia complained as the skeleton's bodies near where the two stood indicated they had made past Alex while he had charged forward.

"Sorry. But it's not my fault I lost my sword if you guys didn't throw that spell so close——"

"Alex, tell me, do you think we can move that fireball somewhere else if you didn't move that forward on your own?

Besides, that's the third time you rushed in like that. You know how much it delays us when we have to cast barrier on you?"

Sophia's point made Alex fall into silence. All he could do was awkwardly scratch his helmet and look to the side.

"Let's just keep going forward. I'm hungry already."

Mary's point made the two reach a compromise as the skeleton bodies began to vanish into thin air.

"Mom, how long do we have to do?"

Despite Alex asking it out loud, there was no response, seemingly as if they just had to continue advancing.

"Mom is never going to respond to us. She already said she's only going to respond if we're giving up——" Continue your adventure with mvl

Just as Sophia was about to finish talking, Alex suddenly came to a complete stock, forcing the two to run into him.

"Hey! What's your problem——"

"Shhhh, something is right there."

Sophia instantly shut her mouth as the other two finally noticed the thing that caused Alex to stop.

It was a massive room at the end of the hallway, with a giant skeleton the size of a house sitting on a throne.