Not sure when next chapter... today sometime probably..
That morning Saji woke up with a good feeling. There was a bit of numbness remaining in his left arm that Cathy was using as a pillow but that let Saji feel a definite weight. Last night they drank a lot and after returning to Boil Manor unable to do anything the two of them fell asleep just like that.
Today they"ll slowly have breakfast together then after that the two of them will go to the temple to release Cathy and then have the wedding ceremony, after that is shopping. As a wedding gift Saji received 200,000 Z from his employer Al, other than that he also received 100,000 Z each from Miduchi, Zenom, Toris, Bel, Ral, and Gwine, the three slaves Zulu, Maruso, and Giberuti gave him things like a knife, accessory, or tableware. Adding it together with his bonus remaining from the dungeon yesterday and Saji"s current money is just over 1,000,000 Z, after releasing and marrying Cathy, since he also gets paid on the 1st day of next month, there"s still 500,000 Z in leeway after the necessary expenses like inn and food until the end of the month.
Saji kissed Cathy who had already opened here eyes in his arms before getting up from the bed.
"Now, let"s go out. First off is food! Today is going to be busy!"
It was when he was putting on the clothes he just purchased last month and put on his rubber sandals, he suddenly noticed that Cathy doesn"t have any shoes. (Ah, I need to buy some sandals as well. It"s not a honeymoon but it might be good to go to the capital for a few days to do some shopping)Without even trying to hide the smile that naturally appeared on his face he started on the way to the restaurant with Cathy who was still wearing worn-out clothes.
"Eh? I"m fine with just porridge."
While Cathy was showing reservations with just a single bowl of oatmeal porridge, Ah, come to think of it I did too..and he remembered how it overlapped with himself previously, Saji said, "There"s no need to hold back. I"m earning enough for you to eat however much of whatever you like. One day I"m sure you"ll start to work as well though..Just this year your husband has earned a myriad of Z." while holding his chest high and ordered some more bacon, eggs, some smoked oyster, and white bread.
"Saji is amazing!! But, about how much is a myriad? Around 10 silver coins?"
Saji remembered that she can"t do calculations. Prior to that she knows the denominations up to 10,000 but she doesn"t know the digits higher than that. That"s why probably, the only thing she can imagine without thinking anything is up to 99,999. If you were to continue life as a serf of Rockfall village then shopping that exceeds several tens of thousands of Z is pretty much unthinkable(even that if you think about the income or position of a slave that"s something that only happens once every few years) so you could say that"s plenty but from here on out things won"t go that way.
While feeding her some thickly cut bacon cooked over a high flame with the oil come down, along with some eggs lightly covered in pepper, and white bread with the smoked oyster on it and Cathy started silently crying from being deeply moved just like Saji once upon a time.
Saji thought Cathy was so cute he couldn"t help it how she would say "This is delicious!" and get engrossed with it every time she tried eating something. After listening to her story it seems that during the time she was at the slave traders place she always ate vegetable soup and wheat porridge and occasionally there was seconds of the wheat porridge and black bread. Since it seems that there was properly large vegetable pieces in the vegetable soup even then you could say it was considerably better than her eating habits in Rockfall village.
After they finished eating the two of them next started towards the main event of today, the temple. There were parents holding healthy children around 1 years old who seem like they can expect growth from here on out waiting in line to get the naming ceremony done. He lined up at the back together with Cathy. Of course, on the way to coming to the temple he properly stopped by "Slave Store, Ronslail" and picked up the proof of sale.
While they were lined up a middle aged woman dressed in robes who seemed to be an employee of the temple came walking around asking everyone what ceremony they wanted. Saji"s reply was simple. "I want to release her, Cathy, from being a slave and after that marry her." Hearing that the employee and surrounding people all offered words of blessing.
(Ah, this feels so good!)
He scratched his head while embarra.s.sed and said, "No~ don"t they say if you get married in June the bride will become happy. I want to make her happy." and said a famous marketing slogan for a wedding chapel before, "Huh?" twisting his head. Was that from roman mythology...Everyone around him was making faces like, "That"s my first time hearing that." Somehow he started to feel a cold sweat coming on as Saji tried to laugh, "A ha ha.." to cover it up.
After waiting for about an hour, they were safely able to finish the two ceremonies, and after making an offering of a total of 350,000 Z Saji checked Cathy"s status a number of times.
【Catherine.Basutoral/17/6/7445 Catherine.Enforu/18/4/7445】
【Female/21/9/7428】
【Cat-People.Rombert Kingdom Duke Rombert Territory Registered Free Person】
【Special Skill: Night Vision】
【Special Skill: Small Magic】
(Catherine.Basutoral huh..No matter how many times I look at it, it"s good..)
While Saji was thinking that and grinning and Cathy was looking at her own status as well as Saji"s while(Ah, I was really able to marry Saji! I"m happy!) grinning.
Now then, the next place the two started towards while grinning was the clothing store. Since Cathy only has the worn-out clothes that she"s been wearing since the past and it"s getting a little bit too small, so first they need to buy some clothes. Since he still had a lot of money remaining they can just buy an appropriate outfit and then after lunch they"ll leave a message before heading off to the capital and slowly take their time for a week or so.
The two of them purchased a neat shirt, pants, and several pairs of underwear at the clothing store. After buying those and returning to Boil Manor what waited for Saji was a surprising contract. He would graduate from being an apprentice and after his holiday was over his compensation would double, he signed and received his portion of that contract and then after telling Al he would be going to the capital for a week to purchase some sandals as well as playing around, went out in high spirits.
While riding the pa.s.senger carriage shaking on the way to the capital Saji starting thinking about where to go first.
(In order to buy sandals we definitely need to go to Greed Company but before even that there"s a place I want to go right..Though I don"t really know about it for sure so I guess this is fine to put off..)
First off Saji went to Greed Company to purchase sandals and introduce Cathy, but the head clerk Rozural.Rogu wouldn"t take the money.
"Think of it as a wedding fit from us. Even though we didn"t know, since we couldn"t do anything for the wedding of a friend of Al-sama. Please don"t mind it."
(Somehow, it feels like I"ve come to sponge off them? I didn"t have that intention though..)
Also, the employee Reira.Yotlen tried asking in a whisper.
"Do you have any Saya?"
"Yeah, I received some from Al-san as a wedding gift. I"m fine on that end."
Saji replied in a low voice as well. Cathy was playing with Hanna and Kamunal. Since they"re also the same Cat-people they got along together quickly.
Saji confirmed the location of a precious metal store with Reira and left Greed Company. They wandered around their first large city sightseeing while heading towards the precious metal store he was told about and in a short while they arrived at the store. Among n.o.bles there"s also the custom of giving {Marriage Rings} but other than n.o.bles that considerably prosperous the custom hasn"t sunk in almost at all.
However, Saji by all means wanted to give Cathy a ring. Of course something that"s too expensive is impossible but he wanted to send her something that would be in commemoration. As expected a platinum or gold ring is impossible but if it"s silver then it should be alright. If allergies become a problem then we"ll deal with it when we get there. It"s fine if I just buy her another one. Thinking that Saji confidently walked into the precious metals store while Cathy hesitantly followed after.
While Cathy was feeling troubled seeing all of the blinding accessories in the precious metal store, Saji gave her a silver ring that cost 60,000 Z. It"s just a cheap article but for Saji right now this was his limit.
(Come to think of it I remember hearing it"s supposed to be three months of your wages. In my case it"s 600,000 Z huh..Huh? Was that the engagement ring? Well whatever. However, 600,000 huh..What the, if it"s just that much then I can earn it after entering the dungeon just once. It might be good to come again.)
He safely gave Cathy a marriage ring and after they wandered around the capital looking at famous places for a few days but after a single store entered Saji"s sight he was drawn to and entered it. It was an instrument store. While Saji was evaluating the stringed instruments his expression was a harsh one that wouldn"t let anyone near. After asking the clerk he tried sounding them out a bit and would click with his tongue or tilt his head as time pa.s.sed. Without eating for half a day just spending it in the store together with Saji without saying a single complaint, Cathy could be said to be the model wife.
In the end, Saji threw down the large sum of 230,000 Z to buy a single lute(an instrument that resembles a guitar).
..................
One week later, when Saji returned from the capital, he enjoyed the time he slowly spent together with Cathy since they were in the capital. He would wake up in the morning and go for a light run, after that he would shower to wash away the sweat and have breakfast together with his new wife, then they would go out to the cool side of the lake as he teachers her to write simple words. Cathy was considerably fast at learning letters. Saji was(Sh..She"s faster than..even me?) even shocked.
With lunch at noon in between during the afternoon he taught her some fundamental arithmetic while enjoying some tea quietly. Though different from letters which are just a matter of remembering them she was a bit bad at arithmetic. After that he did just a bit of spear training at the edge of town before the two of them went to eat some delicious fish and wine. Of course, he played the lute he purchased when they were in the capital as well. After that, when they returned the inn they used up the rubber hygiene products he received as a wedding gift.
When it came to using the rubber hygiene product Saji felt an indescribable feeling. He"s never even used the pig"s bowels in this lifetime so he doesn"t have anything to compare them with. The last time he used them was in the super high cla.s.s brothel of the capital and since the atmosphere wasn"t ordinary he couldn"t remember the feeling of using it. When it actually comes to using them he felt the quality wasn"t as good as the ones he remembered from his past life. Additionally it was a bit painful that the size was just a bit small. However, since he already understand that there was the difference between heaven and earth of having them or not so he didn"t make any complaints at all.
Incidentally, the preservatives had long since arrived but as expected he didn"t want the first thing he did as part of his newlywed life to be cutting up meat on a cutting board to make minced meat so he decided to forget about {Sausage} making for a short while.
After spending a few days like that it became the day for everyone to return from the dungeon. After counting the days the two of them spent the day wandering around the area of the entrance plaza waiting for everyone to return. Close to the evening when the members of the {Slaughterers} appeared from the entrance Saji and Cathy immediately ran up.
"Welcome back, Al-san."
Saji greeted him with is hand around Cathy"s waist.
Cathy is bashful while showing her new ring.
Seeing that all the members tease them.
"Oh~ we had a big catch this time as well. Everyone, shall we go?"
They all went to the usual magic tool shop in succession and sold the magic stones. This time as well they were able to make in the latter half of 50,000,000, so Saji thought that was excellent. Simultaneously he thought(So the earnings don"t change whether I"m there or not..huh. I need put some effort into it!) that.
Of course, since Saji didn"t partic.i.p.ate in entering the dungeon this time he wasn"t given a bonus. The congratulatory holiday might be paid but since he"s properly paid wages at the 1st of every month so that"s only obvious. During dinner of that night Saji and Cathy talked about the various things they saw in the capital and time pa.s.sed as Saji played the lute he purchased in the capital.
..................
The first day of July, including the slaves everyone of the {Slaughterers} gathered without running to do a final confirmation of Bel"s plan. Today after this they"ll go to the temple and Al will sell Zulu, Maruso, and Larry to Toris. And then Al will vacate the Boil Manor and move to a different inn.
They confirmed the days for when Al should get into contact after leaving the {Slaughterers} based on {Sun.Ray}"s schedule and when he might join them and in the end they were all handed this months salary. Just as planned they all went to the temple when it was just about 9 in the morning.
Since it was something they already spread as rumors since yesterday around noon there was already a dozen or so onlookers in front of the temple. The ones who are the talk of the street {Slaughterers} have their leader breaking away. If that"s really true then they would definitely like him to join their party. Around half of the people who gathered were different adventurer party members thinking that and the remaining half were just there to confirm the rumors and simply onlookers.
During the time Al isn"t around, obviously his room will be open but it came to Miduchi continuing to pay for and secure it. However, in order to keep it a secret publicly, Miduchi would use Al"s room, and during that period Cathy would use Miduchi"s room.
When the {Slaughterers} quickly returned to their inn they all gathered in Zenom"s room and immediately started a conference. Though that"s the case it was just a final confirmation that nothing was missing and didn"t take much time at all.
For the time being the situation is one that they can only pray that Al is able to skillfully join {Sun.Ray}.
The next day was normally a day for them to enter the dungeon but the {Slaughterers} decided not to enter the dungeon until the first information comes from Al. This is because they also felt there was a need to check their formations and cooperation during combat since the leader Al left and since others might predict that it was believed to not be very unnatural. In the morning they went to the edge of town and broke a sweat while training, after the afternoon, while they were in town though they were in a lull state Miduchi and Ralpha still continued pretending with their boring disputes the same as usual.
Since Saji was excluded from those things it couldn"t be helped so he would wander around town with Cathy or go out to the lake, and killed time teaching Cathy arithmetic. It was then that Saji suddenly realized.
(Come to think of it, she was considerably fast to learn letters but slow to understand arithmetic..There might be a problem with the way I"m teaching but..However, since she was able to learn letters that easily she should have some talent right..)
It was when he thought that far, there was something that dawned on him.
(The information on the Status appears to me as j.a.panese. However, I wonder how it looks to Cathy? In the first place, when we got married she looked at my and her own status a number of times..Even though she shouldn"t have been able to read or write at all..)
"Hey~ Cathy. When we got married you were looking at the status but you shouldn"t have been able to read letters right?"
"Yeah, is something strange about that?"
"If you can"t read letters then there"s no meaning in looking at status right? Rather, are letters even properly appearing on it?"
"Eh? Of course? That"s the case. But, things like my own name I can tell from the shape and things like numbers my parents already knew after all. I understood the general meaning. Though I say that just my own. No one would teach me after all."
"I see..So that"s why you were able to learn them pretty easily.."
Saji was able to understand it but if it"s like that then in just the case of the large majority of slaves and Free People it might quite easy to teach them letters, is what he thought. Also, he was able to guess that the reason why the commoners and n.o.bles which make up the lesser percentage of the population don"t easily teach letters to those of the lower social standings was because they would be troubled if they got more intelligent. Things like that, I wonder what kind of objective Al has for the country he declared he was going to make, and started thinking that, if I have the chance next time I"ll try asking, and also thought that.
Putting that aside, yesterday, there"s already started a fierce invitation battle over Al.
It was already predicted that it would be somewhat fierce but for this many parties to call out to him, including Al himself no one in the {Slaughterers} was able to predict it. Putting aside the parties from the top teams down to second-rate, even the adventurers below that you could call riffraff were wandering around looking for chances to call out to him.
Thanks to that you can"t observe who is approaching him until they get considerably close.
...................
Several days later, the {Slaughterers} received contact from Al. Just as planned he was invited and able to join {Sun.Ray}. Also, it seems that {Sun.Ray will be entering the dungeon this month from the 6th for eight days and then from the 21st for eight days, maybe up to nine days, as well as information on the members, the ones who can use magic, what elements they have, and detailed records of their rough abilities based on the short period he trained with them. Although, since it"s also possible they were hiding their true abilities in combat during training so he also wrote it"s best to estimate them as being a bit higher.
Also, it was important but the 18th of this month is a full moon for the secondary moon Neitari but it was also written that they take that day off. It"s implied but basically means investigate it. After reading this report Miduchi said she had connections in regards to investigating so there"s no problem with that. Hearing that Saji thought (I guess she"s going to ask that dark elf in the healing clinic).
In any case, for the next eight days starting tomorrow all of {Sun.Ray} will be in the dungeon. We need to do what we can right now. Think that the temporary leader of the {Slaughterers} decided not to enter the dungeon but gave out jobs to each of the members. Saji was allocated the job of developing {Sausages}.
Ever since he showed the prototype before Saji has made prototypes of {Sausages} contents several times on days off but he"s already raised the level of completion a few degrees. Since the pork that"s sold on the market is salted before being sold if you don"t immerse it in water first it"s too salty that it can"t be eaten.
Also, since it was the same for the ones who preserved with spices at the same time as salting, he"s already given up on making use of pork preserved in salt. After all the biggest problem here is the method of mincing the meat. Cutting it into small pieces and then hitting with the knife takes a considerable amount of work. By all means the meat grinder is necessary. However, he didn"t know the structure of the meat grinder from his past life.
I wonder if it"s just a matter of pa.s.sing meat through some gears? Otherwise just pa.s.sing through a bunch of small blades? Regardless of which it is there"s no helping it right away. For the time being I can only start challenging from places I can. The best thing is after all to make the contents with raw pork that"s minced up and just a bit of salt and spices mixed inside. I heard from Al that it"s good to add water at that time.
The method is to mix in shaved ice.
(Shaved ice! Shaved ice huh..If it"s a fixed blade like on a shaver then if you freeze it maybe it would work for mincing pork..But, I"ve never heard of or seen anything like shaved ice. After all I guess there"s no way other than to make it myself..)
Saji felt like he had entered a dead end. He had a big of confidence in his dexterity with his hands but he remembered that he already had quite a bit of trouble at the point he made the thresher. Saws are expensive but not a price that he can"t afford right now. If he enters the dungeon again then he should be able to buy one without problem. In that case, Saji thought it would be best to start putting work into the casing for now.
Without delay, he decided to go and buy some pig"s bowels.
After asking at the butcher and it seems that changing pig"s bowels into condoms is something like a secondary job for the butchers. The rubber condoms that Al sells are one-time use while the pig"s bowels are made to be used a number of times. The sale price itself wasn"t all that different from rubber saya so since the pig"s bowels can be used a number of times, you could say they have the advantage. However, it"s certainly they aren"t something that feel very good and since most people originally threw them away after using them, the only ones who used them a number of times were poor people.
The bowels membrane can be obtained if you put the bowels into slightly hot water of about 60 degrees C and then carefully peel them apart before they cool down. Of course, the large portion other than the bowels membrane is possible to eat. There"s almost no part of a pig"s body that can"t be eaten.
Saji bought about 4 meters of the bowel"s membrane before it was processed into a condom and brought it back right away to try and put the contents inside. What was made..was quite good. However, after all the method of mincing the meat still wasn"t good enough to satisfy Saji at all. After letting Cathy try it and it got a good reputation but other than porridge no matter what Cathy eats she thinks it"s good so her statements in regards to food aren"t all that useful, in the end he repeated making prototypes and eating them himself and letting Larry try them as he made adjustments for many days.
During that time, the members of the {Slaughterers} went to the capital and investigated the location and scale of the temples, on that occasion he checked multiple butchers in the capital but compared to Baldukk the price of pig"s bowels had dropped in price quite a bit. Obviously they pulled Saji out of making prototypes of {Sausage} and did formation training without Al outside of the outer crater during that time as well.
Also, in order to aim for {Scavenger Crawlers} they wandered around the 1st floor for three days and were able to bring back a total of five {Scavenger Crawler}"s worth of feelers and sell them to a shop that deals in medicine. Of course, for the sake of camouflage, including some considerably expensive items they also bought paralysis poison to use against ogres. Close to half of it they put into the bottom of a bag of Al"s understand and handed it over to the owner of the inn while saying it was something Al forgot and pushed it on him.
There was the idea of splitting up the sale price of the magic stones gained on the 1st floor equally but since Zenom firmly declared "It"s only obvious for Toris who"s acting as the leader to get more than half of it" they ended up splitting it up just like that. Though since it only ended up totaling around 1,000,000 Z everyone"s true feeling was that it didn"t matter.
Just, after that when he returned to the inn just Toris was(It"s fine since I"m paying for the food and entry tax from the start but doing the calculations for splitting it up evenly would be troublesome..) a bit relieved. In regards to leading the party in combat for close to the past year they have experience splitting the party up to the 5th floor so there was no problem but he somehow remembered the tension from the first time he was given command.
And then,(This is the tax calculated every month depending on social standing and then that amount is collected, make record of this, then at the end of the year he would go to the government office and pay the calculated taxes for each person right..Even though there"s no calculation software, all of it done by hand..It makes sense why there"s always a lot of paper in Al-san"s room.) he showed a bit of admiration towards Al. And then, with the paper that"s definitely not cheap he remembered he never touched on the price to buy it even for things like contracts.
(Adding to that he also looks after everyone"s training..He went into the dungeon on days off with Miduchi-san and Zulu for his own spell training..and then should have been thinking his company as well. If he didn"t have a grasp on the accounting situation over there then there"s no way he could do something like management. It"s a bit rude but I can"t imagine that Ryogu-san or his family could do it..)
Toris was able to understand that he"s still far from Al. If you were to ask if Toris could do it or not then it"s possible. However, the difference in ability in whether he has the ability to make it possible to put into practice and actually putting it into practice are absurd to even compare in the first place. He was able to think of the difficulty of continuing that for several years without taking a rest.
On his days off, there"s running in the morning and then after that it"s just a matter of using a random magic every couple hours and after that it was just a matter of doing training when it decided, Toris was a bit embarra.s.sed of himself for being satisfied with that. At the same time, he showed admiration for the mentality that could continue with putting in effort in order to fulfill his dreams. And then, he also felt vexing feelings towards Faruergaz and Hirosukol for making fun of Al"s dream without knowing anything.
(Of course~ reincarnated people are excellent. We want them as allies and if we have them it"s rea.s.suring. However, their remarks were irritating. And, I can"t say anything about other people huh..Just because I have days off I"ve spent too much time just wandering around killing time. But, I already understand. At the very least the current Al-san, no, if I can easily exceed the current Al-san"s level, then something like a Count is just another dream. I need to reach the point where Al-san can relax and confer peerage to me..After the matter this time calms down I should discuss things from here on out with Bel as well. We don"t have anymore time to be playing around.)
After thinking that far Toris continued thinking beyond that.
(This time, I thought it was only obvious that command was left to me. I just made a bit of a plan like a leader and I wanted to try putting that into practice, with such simple feelings I said something like it would be a good experience for myself. Just like I know Al-san he should also know about me. It should have been a decision that required quite a bit of courage...I"m sure he had various things he wanted to say as well, he left everything along the base line to us. Even going to the point of taking on the most danger himself..In the first place, even if the matter this time goes well, I wonder how merit there actually even is for Al-san..)
Toris started greatly worrying about it.
(Taking in those two as members is a big merit. That"s for certain. Their Unique Abilities we heard from Saji are quite something. Particularly just as Bel said the day something like 【Resistance(Virus Infection)】 turns into an enemy would be close to a nightmare. If they were to take the clothes or corpse of a patient with an infectious disease and throw it into the source of the river then it would already be out. If you think of it in reverse then that sort of trump card is something you would absolutely want to have in your own hands. Since they kind wander around here and there in territories without being suspected or getting sick..)
Toris"s thoughts continue forward.
(Including that Faruergaz as an ally is a large merit. However, his fallen reputation is a demerit for Al-san. Of course, just as Al-san it"s still at the level he can restore but..if we really go to the point of wiping out {Sun.Ray} then it"s strange for people to imagine that leaving the {Slaughterers} itself was just an act. On the contrary it might even be possible it raises his reputation.
This is also a test case for those two as well. How they a.s.sess Al-san and us who went to the point of putting ourselves in danger to wipe out {Sun.Ray} and get our hands on them. If they get angry over the fact that we deceived and wiped them out then I"m sure those sort of softhearted people wouldn"t be useful from here on out. There"s no way they could do something like war. It"s only obvious they would weigh us down somewhere. However, if just as Bel said, if they know everything and recognize it, then we"ll be able to accept them as splendid allies.)
At the same time, he thought this as well.
(Bel thought things through considerably seriously...Che...I guess that means I"m still falling behind Bel...If I don"t quickly reach a level where I won"t embarra.s.s her I might end up being rejected. I need to give my best and..Ah, I guess it"s that sort of thing..)
It seems Toris noticed something and after making an expression like he understood something, he closed his mouth and started thinking even more in a daze. He only had time until Bel took a shower and returned but after Bel saw him thinking with a serious face and his arms crossed she quietly closed the door and left him alone.
..................
When {Sun.Ray} returned from exploring the dungeon another report from Al arrived. According to that {Sun.Ray}"s activities in the dungeon are almost the same as on the surface excluding the 1st and 2nd floors, they depart in the morning and go to a fixed camp in the evening, then return. Also, it seems their abilities are a bit behind {Black.Topaz} which we saw in combat against the {Frost Lizard} once in the past.
"Just that much huh..Then the fact that those two can"t make it into their first party must mean they aren"t anything special I guess?"
Hearing that Ral evaluated them like but Saji didn"t think that was the case.
On the way from Rockfall village to the capital the way they wiped out close to 10 goblins from on top of a horse with Saji on the back still remained clearly in his impression.
"I wonder about unconditionally a.s.suming their abilities based on just that reason. After all they did receive invest.i.ture as true knight. In the first place, it"s only been three months since they joined {Sun.Ray} which has a lot of members right? If you think about the fact that they can"t properly drill over the formations then it"s only obvious the first party of {Sun.Ray} has always been doing drills on formation and cooperation."
Zenom said that rebuking his daughter.
"But, it"s difficult to decide that it"s completely fraud right.."
"I wonder about that? For example if on the 18th of this month no one moves to obtain them then I think you could call it fraud. Well, we still can"t tell things like but in any case we"ll know soon. We should receive the next report the next day as well."
Gwine and Miduchi have no interest in the abilities of {Sun.Ray}"s first party so they talked about the matter in regards to the charms instead.
"..In the first place it"s plenty just being able to guess their abilities. If it"s just this much then it would be easy to wipe them out with multiple ogres on the 7th floor."
Bel made a slight smile while evaluating them and after that we continued with our meeting. The details were about luring them into the ogre mage room and waiting until they were on the verge of being wiped out for the {Slaughterers} to come running and have just the one witness survive. In Bel"s opinion it would be best if they could do the same thing for the second party as well and use the rescue a condition for them switching to our party but since that"s impossible as expected we abandoned it.
At the end of discussing the situations we could predict quite a bit to Al we said,
"Lure {Sun.Ray} to the 7th floor and lure them into an ogre mage room there. Show off Al"s abilities to them on the way to the room, if possible use a bit of paralysis poison on a small number of ogres and let {Sun.Ray} fight against them in order to mistake the abilities of the ogres. After arriving at the room, if possible try to get at least a few minutes to meet up with us while acting independently (this raises the chances of proposing a pincer attack from behind). Since Al doesn"t have a map of the 7th floor we"ll made preparations and signs to lead Al."
Just like that we sent a list of instructions and then entered the dungeon to start making preparations.
In regards to investigating things on the night of the 18th, Miduchi already said with plenty of confidence that things were perfect so we decided not to worry about it. We prepared an excessive amount of food and after calculating the amount of time we"d need for making preparations, we decided to enter the dungeon the day after tomorrow.
.....................
The {Slaughterers} arrived at the teleport room of the 6th floor on July 19th and quickly got to making the preparations. Since the teleport room on the 7th floor leads to the ogre mage room in the South, we put signs at the teleport destinations we had already identified, then put those along the split paths leading to the room so Al wouldn"t get lost. The reason why chose the South room was because there were a lot of large rocks rolling around the entrance to the room from the side leading to the teleport room, so it"s easy to hide ourselves.
Furthermore, while we were in the middle of making those preparations a single incident occurred. It was when the combat members had split up into groups three to investigate the teleport destinations. Using magic from a distance is effective against ogres but since the paralysis poison is the most effective, Toris took command of Gwine and Saji who were using the spear to maintain distance, Bel who can use the bow took control of Zenom and Zulu, and the other one who can use the bow Miduchi was managing Ral and Maruso. Additionally, since Zenom and Ral use axes as their weapons even if they smear paralysis poison on them only the first attack has much effect so they were split up.
Since Toris had no bow he prepared himself to be the group that was in the most danger but the largest number of ogres they"ve met in the halls at once until now is 5 so they read it that if they just use paralysis poison there shouldn"t be any problem and they weren"t worried about it at all.
Since Miduchi is quite skilled in close combat as well, Zenom and the slave who"s skill was quite good Zulu were put under the command of Bel, and she ended up taking command of Ral and Maruso herself.
The place where that Miduchi"s group teleported unfortunately was right next to a group of five ogres. It was just as those ogres to the shape of surrounding the teleport destination as well. Miduchi quickly shot one of those that was right in front with an arrow dipped in paralysis poison but the paralysis poison isn"t something takes effect immediately. Following that while she was shooting the next ogre by it with an arrow Ral and Maruso each took on one ogre. However, here Miduchi dropped her bow on the ground and used magic while pulling out her scimitar. Almost simultaneously Maruso noticed and warned Ral, "Watch out!!"
Ral had completely forgotten. Other than the teleport crystal rod in the center of the dungeon they can only be seen or touched by the ones who teleported using them. While the pedestal which has a height of about 70 - 80 cm and stretches out another 1 meter for the thin crystal rood, putting aside the crystal rod, the pyramid shaped pedestal looks like a splendid obstacle.
She unintentionally predicted that the attack that comes from that direction would have a later timing.
Immediately Miduchi created a large amount of air behind her and sent Ral flying.
However, either she had good luck or Miduchi calculated it, since she just flew into a group of bushes a few meters away she didn"t suffer any major injuries. The ogres who were hit with the same wind were blow away as well though it was just a distance of about 1 meter they still ended up having their stances collapsed. Without missing that opening, she immediately sent a {Stone Arbalest} flying and finished off the one that was near Ral. However, there Miduchi couldn"t completely avoid the attack from a different ogre in another direction.
Different from Al, Miduchi is the same as most normal people and has to remain concentrating quite focused in order to activate spells, during that time she can"t take almost any actions. Of course, extremely slow speed like a turtle is possible but something like that doesn"t have much meaning at all.
Even then while it was incomplete that she was able to avoid a direct hit immediately after activating a spell was worth admiration. Although, that attack itself was from an ogre that took the paralysis poison, so it was just a bit but it"s actions were getting dull.
Even the ogre"s club which just grazed Miduchi"s left shoulder was enough to leave her with a large injury. However, it"s not as if Miduchi pa.s.sed out. She quickly switched to using the scimitar with her remaining right arm and instead cut off that ogres arm while also cutting the arm of another ogre nearby it off at the same time.
"Sorry, I can"t use the bow anymore!"
After hearing those words from Miduchi, Maruso started using her broad sword with the paralysis poison smeared on it to apply small wounds to the ogre in front of her.
When Ral finally jumped out of the bushes she chanted "beku.nosu.nimuru.fon.saizu.ka.doren!" to send a {Flame Arrow} at the ogre that was coming up from behind Miduchi.
........................
After they finished off all of the ogres and while Ral was using {Cure Light} on Miduchi twice Maruso was confirming the teleport destination number. It seems it was a miss.
"..Thank you for saving me.."
While Ral said that apologetically, Miduchi replied "You"re welcome" while smiling.
"You know I, don"t really like, Miduchi very much.."
Without meeting eyes, while Ral was just looking at the condition of her wounds she whispered. She used a healing spell but the flesh that was torn off her shoulder hasn"t sealed.
"Oh, that"s a coincidence. It"s the same for me."
Miduchi endured the pain while lifting the edges of her lips and replying.
"Nn, I know.."
Ral said while carefully cutting the leather around in the area of the wound with a knife.
"I see."
"What are you saying? Let"s quickly go back."
Maruso interrupted the talk between the two.
When they returned to the teleport room on the 6th floor they soon ended up being in the care of Toris and Bel"s healing spells. After having Bel use {Cure Serious} 7 times including another 5 uses of {Cure Light} from Toris, Miduchi finally felt her ability to concentrate and use spells return. After that just one use of {Cure All} was plenty.
After that they took a break to recover mana and they all decided to do the investigation of teleport destinations.
That night, after they finished their meals in the teleport room on the 6th floor, Ral started talking to Miduchi.
"Miduchi..I still don"t think I can come to like you. But, I think I could become your friend. Would you try using {Party-ization} on me once more?"
Ral stretched her hand out to Miduchi while speaking in a loud voice all the other members of the {Slaughterers} could hear. Miduchi quietly grasped Ral"s hand she stretched out. Furthermore, in order to carry out this plan Miduchi"s Unique Ability {Party-ization} is absolutely required. They"ve already explained to the slaves it"s a special type of magic. Also, since Miduchi"s proficiency level is still low there"s a limit to the number of people, so two of the slaves still can"t be included.
"..Ah..I see..it"s this sort of feeling..Ah, Al, he"s already entered the dungeon I see..Though I don"t know what floor it is..He~ Hmph, so this is how it feels."
Everyone who was watching over with their hearts beating had their expressions loosen up. Everyone felt that Ral was added to {Party-ization}.
"Hm..Hmph..It"s not like I feel like I could like you either..You charge at me for no meaning after all...Well, but, if..if you say you want to become my friend and lower your head, then it"s fine if I let"Ha!? If I just come out a bit easy what is it? That att.i.tude!? This opportunist!"Yo..You called me an opportunist again! This b.i.t.c.h brat! Stop trying to show some s.e.x appeal!"You"re a brat as well right! Don"t get so full of yourself, this rotting corpse!"I"m not a brat! I"m already over 40!"Then you"re long since an old bag! Hmph, you"re jealous of my youth right!?"Ha..wait until you at least have b.r.e.a.s.t.s as big as mine before you try to compete. This flat chest!"Fl..Fl...They aren"t flat!"Oh my, but he said that if it"s just that much you don"t know which side is her back! "Mukyi~!! Don"t lie! Al wouldn"t say something like that! In the first place I already know! That hair color, it seems it"s unsightly if it"s black? Don"t be making it white, this make-up old bag~!"
Before it turned into a fight that turns into a grapple Zenom forcefully entered between them and separated them before slapping them. If the both of them weren"t women Zenom might have had to stand on the tips of his toes.
"Stop that already! The two of you! This isn"t the time to be doing that right now!"
Saji shrugged his shoulders like "This is no good~"
......................
In the end investigating the teleport destinations took a full two days. Starting the next day they teleported into a location which leads to the teleport room and then moved to the Southern ogre mage room from there. It"s to place the landmarks on the split paths along the way. They got close to the ogre mage room and then returned, this time they included another teleport destination, they placed them at every split pathway they could think of. The {Slaughterers} took almost a full two days for the work.
And then, they circled around the wall of the ogre mage room while going to the teleport room on the 7th floor and after making that their camp sight, they started sweeping up the ogres along the way to the entrance of the ogre mage room. They did a number of round trips around the outside of it and carefully make sure there was nothing they were overlooking.
They had heard from Al that monsters revive in the dungeon after time pa.s.ses and from their experience up until now they understood that they definitely revive but not a single one of them could have predicted that the fact that they didn"t have a grasp for that duration would end up leading to the failure of the plan in the end. Rather, they even felt satisfied that they were able to finish up their expected preparations in four days instead of the five originally expected.
While taking walks they went in directions other than the South and defeat ogres while continue to standby as the {Slaughterers} waited for Al to appear on the 7th floor, in the early morning of July 25th, the sensation they had been waiting for appeared. The leader Toris stood up.
"Al-san has arrived on the 7th floor. Let"s start making preparations. Once Al-san started moving we will as well. Larry, start making preparations for lunch."
All of the combat members started silently confirming their equipment. Soon after Larry handed out bentos with sandwiches he made to each person and then they started waiting for movements from their real leader.
They had already finished sweeping up the path to the ogre mage room in the South yesterday evening. They should be able to arrive at the entrance of the room in less than an hour. Since they departed with a considerable amount of leeway, they arrived at the waiting place around 10 am.
They carefully checked the surroundings to make sure there were no goblins or ogres and Miduchi scouted out the ogre mage room. She made casual use of the spell {Detect.Life} while also hiding her presence as she confirmed the appearance and number of the ogres Miduchi returned and "There"s 11 ogres. As expected I can"t tell if there"s ogre mages mixed in or not but with that many of them I"m sure several are mixed in." reported that.
After hearing Miduchi"s report, Bel, "Yeah, it"s no different from the last time we pa.s.sed through. All we need now is for Al-san to skillfully lead {Sun.Ray} and then it would be good if he can come over here alone." said while smiling and looking at the tune of her bow strings.
Just like that we continued to wait and even after it got close to noon, {Sun.Ray} was still a considerably distance from the room. Toris decided to finish up eating now so everyone ate lunch. Since he received everyone"s words that today is the critical moment Larry prepared sandwiches using luxurious beef. Everyone recognized that he had started to prepare roast beef since they arrived at the 6th floor but they were looking forward to when it came out. The white bread had completely swollen up from absorbing the meat juices but it was sandwich good enough to not mind something like that.
Finally Al arrived on almost the opposite side, around the Southern entrance of the room. After arriving he quickly stopped moving so it was believed he was taking a break.
"Now everyone, we can"t let our guard down for even a moment already. Everyone properly hide yourselves behind the rocks. There"s no guarantee Al-san will be able to come alone after all. It"s fine right now but once Al-san starts moving we need to completely hide in the shadow of the rocks."
After a short while Al started moving and aimed straight for the center of the room. Feeling that everyone gasped thinking, did {Sun.Ray} charge into the room? but while Toris was keeping his cool he said, "It"s probably scouting. But, this means that after a short while there"s a higher chance he should start taking action. Everyone, don"t let your guards down." and everyone agreed. Saji couldn"t tell if it was as Toris said and Al is alone or not but after all it seems it was reconnaissance, after a short while they felt him return to his original position.
And then after another short while, they finally started to feel Al walking along the wall as Saji licked his lips from the tension.
All of the {Slaughterers} moved into the shadows of the rocks and crouched down.
Al was moving considerably slow.
"This is irritating."
It"s only obvious for Ral to talk to herself so no one replied. They just kept crouching down and waiting. In order to feel Al"s movements Saji had his eyes closed as he concentrated. There were a considerable number of members who had their eyes closed while following his movements.
Another 300 meters..280 meters..260 meters...
"They"ve gotten quite a bit closer."
Bel said something they already knew. Everyone was concentrating their consciousness on Al. The {Slaughterers} were lined up in roughly three rows as they waited. In the front line from the left was Angela, Saji, and Bel. In the middle line from the left was Ralpha, Gwine, and Toris. And in the back line from the last was Zulu, Zenom, and Miduchi. Since their position was setup so in front of them was rocks and on their right was the wall of the pa.s.sage, normally the left side would be the front.
240 meters..220 meters...
They might be able to see him pretty soon. Saji moved a bit to try and look out from the gaps of the rock in the direction of the room.
"Sh...Don"t move yet!"
Zenom and Toris warned in a whisper. Momentarily Saji froze up his body trying not to move.
It was just then!
"Giooo~tsu!"
Just as they heard the roar of an ogre they were completely not expecting from right behind them, Zenom raised his voice with a "Gu!!" as he took a hit from an ogre"s club to the back and was sent flying into the wall. He"s not moving at all. He"s either lost consciousness or seriously injured.
"Father!!"
Ralpha who reacted immediately tried to stand and move into a position to guard Zenom and was hindered by Gwine who tried to pick up her spear from the ground as she tripped forward. But, thanks to that she was able to evade the attack from a different ogre. However, soon after Zulu and Toris ended up taking attacks from ogres and were mowed down as if mowing the gra.s.s. It seems those two were still conscious and struggling.
Even after being ambushed by ogres the {Slaughterers} didn"t prepare to flee. It was a shock that three people were defeated suddenly but if it"s just a crisis of this level they"ve experienced it a number of times. However, this time everyone"s posture was too bad.
"Miduchi-san!"
Bel turns around with her face stiff as she pulls her bow and calls out to Miduchi.
Miduchi immediately understood the meaning of that as she jumped over the fallen Toris and jumped towards the ogres that suddenly attacked while sending out the orders with her Unique Ability. At the same time she cut off the arm of an ogre that was about to swing it"s club down on the fallen Zenom again as she ran by it. But there were too many ogres. There were 5 of them. Even after pa.s.sing by it"s side there was another ogre waiting beyond that. She ended up jumping into that of her own will.
Saji and Gwine weren"t able to go on guard with their spears right away either and thanks to Ral who tripped over that they weren"t even able to aim it towards an ogre right away. The only one who was somehow able to stand at the front while her fallen allies made the footing worse was Maruso and if she doesn"t put in some desperate efforts to hold out even more serious injuries will probably appear.
Gwine and Saji quickly fixed their stances with the spear and while each one of them took on an ogre, it"s severe that Ral isn"t standing at the front line while she"s trying to use healing magic on Zenom.
"Ral! Stand up!"
Bel sends an arrow flying towards an ogres eye while reprimanding her. After that entered her ears she stood up as if she remembered and Miduchi was struggling several meters away surrounded by 4 ogres. One of those seems to have already been defeated as it was laying on the ground not moving much at all and the first one she cut of the arm of has some serious wounds as well. But, she"s outnumbered and overwhelmed, while being surrounded Miduchi took a direct swing from an ogre to her side and bounded off of the fallen Zenom before flying all the way into the rocks they were hiding behind.
"Miduchi!!"
Ral shouted. However, while she needs to use healing magic when she tried to approach a different ogre from the one that defeated Miduchi threw it"s club. She ended up catching her feet on that. She reflexively stuck her hand out trying to stop from falling over but what she grabbed was the leather armor band of the fallen Zenom. Since that band tore Zenom"s appearance became as if half of his leather armor was removed.
Simultaneously Bel felt the sensation that {Party-ization} was cut off but also felt hope in the fact that Al was running nearby as well. She noticed that the trembling in her hands had disappeared as she pulled back the bowstrings and was aware of the smile on her face.
Saji and Gwine had already gotten into their stances. After Gwine jumped over Zulu she was maintaining her distance from one ogre and on her side Saji was lined up as they had a two spear line up formed to keep the ogres in check. An arrow stabbed into the eye of the ogre that Miduchi cut off it"s arm and the ogre let out a dull scream as it fell over. Three more.
It was then. A number of stone spears came flying and flew over everyone"s head keeping the ogres in check.
Since Saji was too engrossed in the combat in front of him he had no leeway to notice Al"s approach through {Party-ization} and was surprised by the speedy rescue that came running.
Author"s note: This isn"t 125-139 but 125-133 right. Well it"s fine, they group up again here after all.