Appraiser"s Job Chapter 13: Now, to the Dungeon!
In the corner of a prairie came the rumble of various large and small boulders tumbling about. It was there that the dungeon we were going to survey was located. The numerous boulders overlapped each other, creating a path just wide enough for a single person to pa.s.s through. It could be the entrance we were looking for.
No, no, no. It definitely is the entrance.
I took a small breath and drew the sword from the sheath at my back. The sword was supposed to be light. Why then, does it now feel so heavy in my fingers?
I seemed to be more nervous than I was aware.
Mr. Larsh laughed, placing a hand on my shoulder. "We will protect you, Mr. Io, even if you don"t prepare for combat"
"Try to not get separated from us, okay?" said Ms. Ruka as she stood next to me with her wand at the ready.
It"d be best if I stood near Ms. Ruka and provided tactical support; if I stood on the front lines near Mr. Larsh and Mr. Lloyd, I"d just become a hindrance. It"s a complicated feeling, being protected by a woman.
"Well then, let"s go," Mr. Larsh said, lighting a portable lantern and entering the dungeon. Behind him followed Mr. Lloyd, with me further behind him. Ms. Ruka made up the rear guard.
The interior of the dungeon was a bare cavern with scraggy rock walls. Luminous moss like plants were growing here and there, but for all that illumination, it was still barely visible. The air was dry and vaguely sandlike. My nose became itchy as I sniffed lightly.
"It"s quite dry…"
"Looks like there"s no watering hole nearby. It"s a typical dungeon layout," Mr. Larsh said lightly stroking the wall, looking up at their surroundings.
"Let"s continue."
Quickly scanning our surroundings, I followed along.
With only one path to follow, it didn"t seem likely that we would get lost.
At the corner we stopped, looked back, then restarted our pace.
And like that it finally appeared before us. The transparent body was round like a nut. It dissolved into a pudding like shape. It"s a slime.
"A slime?..." Mr. Lloyd said, wrinkling the area between his eyebrows as he stared at the slime.
Slimes typically have a high resistance to physical attacks. While it"s not impossible, killing these monsters with ordinary weapons was quite difficult. It is an established theory that the elastic jelly-like bodies absorbed the impact from the attacks, but what about the current situation?
And it wasn"t the case that I wanted to deliberately look at it.
I had a job to do.
Putting the slime into the center of my field of vision, I activated my magic, "Appraisal Sight." The magical words with the results appeared with a pop, leaving only single reading. I nodded my head.
Mhmm.
It was a normal slime with no special annotations
"A normal slime, is it?"
"Ruka," Mr. Larsh called out.
Ms. Ruka nodded and readied her wand as she began to focus her consciousness. The tip of her wand glowed with a madder red light. She cast "fire arrow." The light grew into the shape of an arrow and clad itself in flames. The arrow pierced a hole through the center of the slimes body.
When it comes to taking down a slime, using magic is far more effective than utilizing a weapon. Fire magic in particular had the immediate effect of evaporating the slime"s jelly-like body. Due to the gaping hole in its body, the slime immediately collapsed into a limp, disorganized puddle spreading out on the dungeon floor.
Somehow or another we managed to take it down without any problems.
"We still have a ways to go before we reach the depths of the dungeon. Brace yourselves. Let"s keep going."
Mr. Larsh pa.s.sed over the slimes inanimate puddle and proceeded further into the depths of the dungeon. Continuing after him, we resumed our previously interrupted pace.
Footnotes:
T/N: Enjoy your weekend, everyone!
Credits: