Next chapter will be later tonight... though not sure when. It might be in 4-6 hours or it might be in 6-12. Have to look through some of them first.
Year 7444, Month 8, Day 26
Just the same as usual, without doing anything special or hurrying along our way, we indifferently explored the 6th floor of the dungeon and then returned to the 5th floor. There"s no way we"d end up running into the members of {Sun Ray}. Yesterday Ginger just had really good luck. I didn"t think we"d run into them either way. There"s no empty headed members among our group who thought we"d run into the members of {Sun Ray} either.
Just, since there"s definitely at least two members among the three missing who can use water magic at least at level 3, it"s not impossible for them to somehow make it to the teleport room on the 6th floor with just them.
That night, when we returned to the teleport room on the 5th floor, we just confirmed once again with Giberuti that of course no one had returned. Even then Zemyunel and the others lowered their heads to me. Well I"ll accept just their feelings. You could say that honestly lowering your head is splendid but it"s not like they lose anything from lowering their heads. Even I lower my head as much as is needed at times like these and if it"s necessary I would even dogeza. If I was told to lick their shoes I would gladly lick them.
When I tried quietly asking Giberuti and they apparently tried to teleport to the 6th floor a number of times but stopped just before it seems. They"re really no good. You should just leave one member remaining in the case they really come back and the rest of you should go and hire a guide or something. If it"s just worrying then even a child can do it. If you were to properly pay us money then even we wouldn"t be against seriously helping out.
Or else is it that? Was there a family member among the members that were separated? In that case they should think about it even more. I guess Zemyunel"s confidence in his own strength is the type that causes him to get drunk on himself. The so-called, I"m a good leader because I"m worried about my members. I"m not the only thinking things like that, the other reincarnated people in our group have scorn in their eyes as well. Of course he doesn"t show even a bit of that att.i.tude openly though. Zulu, Angela, and Giberuti aren"t specifically scorning him but,
"They should just sell themselves already to make money and request master."
"That"s right, if they serve master like that then it would be fine."
"..I see. As expected of Zulu-sama."
And they"re saying some strange things. But, even that is one method I"m sure. If they don"t see that much value in saving them to go that far then they should just give up already. Though I don"t need the type of person who can"t even thing of, execute, or negotiate over something like that right now.
Hn? I guess that means my three slaves are considerably superior? No, it might be better to think that their way of thinking was influenced from interacting with reincarnated people. Putting aside Zulu, even Angela had a strange of way thinking at first after all.
Incidentally, it seems that they ate their own food at lunch today. Obviously I let them eat dinner with us. After we finished eating I discussed whether we should return today or make it tomorrow but everyone agreed that we should continue exploring tomorrow. I mean, in the off chance that we manage to discover them then it"s quite lucky. As expected from their food situation that I heard they shouldn"t be able to properly last until the day after tomorrow. At best they"ll last through the end of tomorrow.
.........
Year 7444, Month 8, Day 27
Once again today we teleported into the 6th floor being seen off by {Sun Ray}. Obviously I let them eat breakfast with us. Since we ended up teleporting into an area for the first time again like yesterday, we just continued exploring like that. We pa.s.sed through several monster rooms and it was just after we finished eating lunch at around noon.
We were poking the floor as usual and just about to proceed. It was a long pa.s.sage connected to a lot of other pa.s.sages. Bel said, "sh" and closed her eyes while concentrating on her ears just as we were moving down a slightly wide pa.s.sage like that. However, she twisted her head as if it was misunderstanding and said, "It seems it was a misunderstanding. I"m sorry." since we were ready for a monster attack we lowered the level of caution and proceeded ahead again.
After continuing for a short while, I couldn"t see anything other than a curve to the left about 10 meters ahead. Just like that we followed the path along to the left and I continued using Identify vision to look ahead and I saw a silhouette about 200m ahead in the pa.s.sage. Bel must have reacted their talking voices just now. I got a bit excited thinking it was a survivor from {Sun Ray}. Obviously the only one who"s noticed for now is just me. However, they sure are far. I guess it would be fine to Identify after we get a bit closer. If possible I"d like to get within 50m and see their face before Identifying. It would suck if their names and faces get mixed up after all. If I look closely there were two shadows. One of them has their back against the wall in the pa.s.sage and is sitting down. The other one appears to be sitting facing them taking a break.
After we proceed a bit further I"ll try warning everyone.
Thinking that we continued proceeding. When we approached to about 150m Bel said "sh" in a whisper again and everyone stopped in order to not interfere with Bels concentration. "One..three.." Eh? three monsters? So she wasn"t reacting to their talking voices!?
"I can"t hear them anymore. They were teleported!"
The moment we all heard Bel"s warning everyone stuck their backs to the walls of the pa.s.sage and held their weapons. Certainly it"s true it"s not limited to just their conversation. The other wall of the pa.s.sage Ralpha, Gwine, Zulu, and Angela have their backs to it and this time it"s me, Zenom, Toris, and Bel. And several seconds later a {Cave Boar} appeared from behind on our side and just kept going for a bit like that but quickly decelerated and started to change directions. It"s a chance!
"{Stone Javelin}"
"{Flame Javelin}"
"{Stone Bolt}"
"{Flame Bolt}"
Ralpha, Bel, Toris, and Gwine all fired off their spells at the a.s.s of the {Cave Boar} leaving good sounds as the warheads stab into it one after another. As expected if it takes four attacks from attack spells it should be dead. I doubt it"s still alive.
"Alright, everyone, you did..Ralpha!"
Wow, it was a bit delayed but this time another {Cave Boar} appeared from ahead of us (in other words, the opposite side from the direction we just attacked) and started charging at the back of Ralpha who just used magic. s.h.i.t...I won"t make it in time freezing it! I need to stop it"s movements in one shot!
"{Stone Catapult}"
In a hurry I overdid it..The telephone pole over 10 meters long and 30 cm in diameter gave off a roar as it nailed the {Cave Boar} to the wall almost like an example insect specimen pinned down. Adding to that it pierced through the wall on the other side as well. The {Cave Boar} was only a few centimeters from reaching Ralpha. Obviously since the {Cave Boar} had it"s heart pierced as it was stuck to the wall it died instantly.
Th..that was dangerous...If she were to take a direct hit as expected Ralpha wouldn"t die but she was saved from a severe injury. When Ralpha realized and turned around her face twisted in surprise.
"Wh.."
"Al-san.."
"Master, that is.."
Ah, come to think of it, it"s the first time I showed everyone this cla.s.s of spell.
Something like that doesn"t particularly matter though.
"Nn..It seems everything is fine now. I heard the sound of something hit a wall far away."
Bel was surprised by the telephone pole but she remained calm as she declared it was safe so while we temporarily lightened our guard, the sound just now was no comparison with the usual sounds of combat after all. After all it"s dangerous to suddenly have intruders in the middle of combat. I erased the large stone spear like a telephone pole and the {Cave Boars} corpse fell down with a thud. A~~a, if it"s like this then we probably can"t gather the magic stone. Isn"t it embedded deep into the wall along with it"s heart? Even if it"s undamaged it"s troublesome and I don"t want to spend time digging through the smashed pieces of flesh in the hole in the wall either.
Since everyone realized that there was quite a bit of sound from the combat just now they all looked up.
It should be fine to not worry about attacks by {Cave Boars} for right now but {Vampire Bats} might come flying. Also, there"s no way the people sitting down ahead of here wouldn"t notice either. I tried looking down the pa.s.sage with Identify vision. The guy with his back to the wall remained the same but the one sitting across from them stood up and is on guard with their weapon facing over here it seems...in that case the guy sitting down is injured? Then 【Identify】 should be fine.
【Corpse(Human)】
【Human】
【Condition: Good】
【Creation Date: 26/8/7444】
【Value: 10】
【Durability: 1】
So they died yesterday..either the damage was terrible or it"s after they already took out their magic stone.
"Be careful, there"s something there."
Just in case I warned everyone and used 【Identify】 on the one with their weapon out.
【Binnodo.Gekudo/2/8/7421】
【Male/14/4/7420.Human.Sub-Baron Gekudo Family Third Son】
【Condition: Bruising.Stab Wound】
【Age: 24 Years Old】
【Level: 14】
【HP: 69(115) MP: 4(17)】
【Strength: 17】
【Speed: 20】
【Dexterity: 17】
【Endurance: 17】
【Special Skill: Earth Magic (Lv. 2)】
【Special Skill: Water Magic (Lv. 3)】
【Special Skill: Wind Magic (Lv. 2)】
【Special Skill: Void Magic (Lv. 3)】
【Experience: 371240(450000)】
Yeah, it"s certainly a person from {Sun Ray}. I"ve heard their name. Everyone tensed up hearing my warning and they"re looking all over the place while on guard. Even after waiting a few minutes, it seems there"s no attack from above so we took the magic stone from the {Cave Boar} and collected a bit of meat in addition.
Now then, I guess we should move forward.
After advancing a bit Angela,
"It"s true there"s something there...Is it a person?"
she twitches her nose while saying. If I look further down and Gekudo is holding his sword while looking around restlessly. He must have heard the sound of combat and even if it was only a moment saw the flame from the magic. After that, he might not have seen us because we"re slowly advancing while remaining careful of traps but he should know that someone is definitely nearby. Most likely, he should think it"s either his allies in {Sun Ray} or us and might be cautious of an attack from us. He might just be hesitating on whether to raise his voice and ask our ident.i.ty.
"Is it a person from {Sun Ray}?"
Ralpha said in a whisper.
"It would be good if that"s the case."
Gwine whispered a reply. Yeah, it"s a person from {Sun Ray}. This time it would be good for sure if they have some money. Since it seems he"s from a sub-Baron family we can hope for more than Ginger.
"Most likely, there"s a person. I can smell the scent of blood as well. They might be injured."
Angela said. They"re injured as well but the guy who"s blood you smell is already dead...Well that"s just the right timing for a statement.
"I"ll try calling out..Hey!"
I could see Gekudo flinch 100m ahead. He replied right away.
"Hey! Over here~! Hurry, please hurry and come!"
Yes-yes.
"There was one!"
"Yeah!"
Ralpha and Gwine raised cheerful voices.
"Don"t make such loud voices. Let"s hurry just a bit, let"s go."
..............
Shortly later we arrived at where Gekudo was located. Gekudo looked considerably exhausted but after seeing us,
"!!..{Slaughterers}. I"m begging you. Just as you can see. If possible then I"ll do anything as thanks."
and, it seems he was just a bit surprised but he honestly sought help. Yeah, well, that"s fine.
Everyone is waiting for my decision.
"..What about that person?"
and I said while looking at the corpse in a posture sitting down. It seems like Gekudo is injured as well but it"s mostly bruises and the bleeding from his sc.r.a.pes has long since stopped. There"s no need to heal him in a hurry at this point.
"Ah, o, my little sister. I"m begging you, can we please carry her up to the surface? I"ll pay my entire fortune. I don"t mind if you take my weapon as well. If you say that it"s still not enough then even if it"s just my little sister"s magic stone..it"s this but..could you please bury this on the surface? Just as you can see, I"m begging."
Ho...
As I look down at Gekudo lowering his head and begging to take his little sister"s magic stone to the surface I thought. I"m sure older brother would do this as well... No, if it"s older brother then in the first place he wouldn"t fall into this foolish predicament huh?
I crouched down in front of Gekudo and after matching eye level with him, I put my hand on his shoulder and opened my mouth.
"Please raise your head. After that..you should bury your little sister yourself. Can you stand?"
I glanced over at the corpse and it seems there"s a large hole in the flank. A piece of leather armor that seems to be the same as the one she was wearing was on her side. You can tell magic was used to try and heal the wound on the side. And after that, there"s bite marks that appear to be from {Vampire Bats} all over the place as well. The front of her clothes were closed but there"s blood from where the magic stone was taken out as well.
"Yeah.."
Gekudo stood up along with me standing up and,
"Zulu, Angela. Carry this person. Carefully."
and I ordered the two slaves. It seems that Zulu will carry the corpse. He had Angela hold his weapon. I used {Cure Serious} on Gekudo twice and his HP recovered to 87 and,
"500,000 Z is plenty. We saved Ginger-san at this price as well. By the way, could I ask your name?"
and said.
"Eh? Ah, so you"ll save me as well! I"m very sorry. Thank you very much. My name is Binnodo.Gekudo. Please call me Binsu. My little sister is Yuriel."
I guess he didn"t hear it like that? Also, even if you tell me the name of the corpse..Honestly I don"t have any attachment to her..though I get his feelings.
"Please don"t mind it. I"m Greed. Alan Greed."
"There"s no one in Baldukk that doesn"t know of the leader of the {Slaughterers}. Greed-san, I"m grateful."
I"m sure that"s true but for the most part there"s the courtesy.
...............
It took close to three hours but we were able to make it to the teleport room on the 6th floor.
"Binsu-san. We haven"t tried teleporting while holding a corpse up until now. That"s why, it"s possible your little sisters corpse might not come along to the 5th floor as well. In that case please pardon us on that."
I think it"ll probably be fine but just in case I thought to say it. If it comes to that then Zulu would have had quite the bad luck to pointlessly carry some heavy luggage for three hours.
"If it comes to that..it can"t be helped. Of course, I feel nothing for grat.i.tude towards all of you."
Is that so? Then that"s fine.
"Return us."
...........
The members of {Sun Ray} were pleased to see Binsu return together with us to the teleport room on the 5th floor. We were able to teleport back with his little sister"s corpse with no problem. Zemyunel came over to offer his grat.i.tude as if crawling. Yeah, just saying it is free after all. If I was you I"d say as much thanks as needed as well. If you add together the total for both Bins and Ginger, 7,000,000, Z, then it"s a cheap price to pay to sell a favor.
..Is what I thought but you can buy a single horse. s.h.i.t, after all it"s a ton of money.
I thought without complaint the first shower was fine going to Zulu but as expected he"s still a slave. I"m fine and I think the other reincarnated people would be fine with it but you never know what Zenom would think. Well, going off the proper order it should be starting from me. Though I feel like I"m the only one bothering over the order of the shower, but that is that this is this.
After taking a warm shower I thought a bit while checking my bayonet. It shouldn"t be all that bad to raise the favorable impression (?) of a top team like {Sun Ray}. If these guys will protect the shower on the 5th floor then I"m quite grateful for that. If we were to fall into a crisis, I don"t think (since there"s no one further than us, in that case there"s no other choice than for us to save ourselves, even if they had more skill than us they wouldn"t normally come to our rescue) even for an instant they"d come to save us but if they feel even a bit indebted to us then that"s a profit. After all we overlooked several 1,000,000 Z. Work for at least that much.
Binsu took his little sister"s corpse and it seems he"s returning for now to bury her magic stone.
I won"t say anything cold like there"s no point to the corpse if you have her magic stone. Since I"m sure no one would want monsters eating the corpses of their family. Even if you"re lucky they"ll just be absorbed by the dungeon and above all else, rather than himself Binsu said he wanted to bury his little sister"s corpse, or even her magic stone on the surface. That disposition is excellent.
Just before we went to sleep Ralpha said "Thanks for today." When I was wondering what it was about, it seems it was how I turned the {Cave Boar} into an insect specimen pinning it to the wall of the dungeon. I can"t remember such small things like that every time.
...............
Year 7444, Month 8, Day 28
It was one day soon but we decided to return today. There should still be one member of {Sun Ray} remaining but if you think about the amount of food they were holding they should already be at the limit. And we should have already sold them plenty of favors. However, couldn"t we at least hit an altar room in the end?
..We didn"t hit one. Obviously we never ended up running into the last remaining member. We just made clear the traps on another course through the 6th floor. No, just that is plenty though.
We explored until evening and after withdrawing our camp, I made an apologetic face while telling Zemyunel that we would be leaving. Eh? Of course I erased all of the raised dirt that we use as a bed. It"s only obvious right? Let"s return right away, have some alcohol, and go to sleep. After all, the night of the day after tomorrow I"m entering the dungeon again and heading towards Karl"s place.