wfb 137

<Previous Chapter] [Index] [Next Chapter>

Chapter 137: Rare events bring everyone to the same spot

“And so, Jun and her intrepid friends are off to find the truth behind the dagger they found.”

Whack.

“Stop that.”

I smack the pommel of the dagger as I snap at it.

That guy’s totally lying.

We, Ragnall, Hibiki-chan, the Scarlet Torch, and … Desmond and company(?) and I are looking for a mystical place called The Forge.

It was last spotted on the fourth level of Ploids, but since it wanders, it could also be on an adjacent level so all the adventurers called to search for the Forge are busy scouring the large dungeon.

But Derrick the dagger has been hassling me for a while now as we’re slogging through muck in the second level of Ploids.

Look, I get that it’s really disturbing to wake up in a world with vastly different common sense than you’re used to, and then finding out that you can’t remember anything about yourself, but we ARE kind of busy, okay?

To shut him up, I tried to use Analyze4 on him to see what it would give us, but it wasn’t even able to determine if Derrick was a person or an item.

I gave up after too many ‘ERROR: RE-ATTEMPTING ANALYSIS’ warnings.

…Yeah, there are some disturbing implications when thinking about why it failed, but since neither Derrick, me, or anyone else in our company has any idea on what Derrick is, there’s nothing we can do about it.

My head feels kind of funny after all the error warnings in that weird digital format, especially since it’s been a while since I’ve bothered using Analyze4.

From a crafting standpoint, it’s much more reliable to use experience and discernment to judge the quality and type of materials and weapons instead of relying on a digital readout that might not even give me information that I need.

As for using Analyze4 on people … well… it just feels super impolite?

Although I won’t hesitate to use it on suspicious people, I don’t like the idea of treating others like NPCs and dissociating from the world we’re now living in.

Also, rather than not hesitating, it’s more like I don’t remember to use it.

People sensitive to magic will know you’re using some spell on them, so after being careful about not using it in Nyls, I just got used to not using it.

Apparently that’s not the case for some of the other gamers, though.

“You might have something to do with the Forge so just bear with it for now, and I’ll see what I can find.”

I say.

“While I gratefully accept your comfort, why do I feel like you just want me to be quiet?”

“Because we’re currently out on the field and it’s difficult to concentrate when someone’s talking to you through telepathy.”

At this point, everyone else is pretty much used to me looking like I’m talking to myself.

“Her Excellency did say this dagger might have something to do with the Forge, but it’s not like there’s a guarantee,”

Ragnall said as the vanguard switched again and he came to the back, Obero and Jira taking over at the front.

I semi-glare at him.

“You didn’t have to bring that up, did you?”

“Seriously. Talk about being unable to read the mood.”

“… Look who’s talking.”

The Scarlet Torch actually has a secret weapon in searching for the Forge.

The name of that weapon is Kaso, who is secretly a deva and very sensitive to magic anomalies.

I suspect this might be why Ragnall agreed to work with them so easily…

That said, it’s not like it’s going to be easy to find the Forge just because we have Kaso.

This is a Labyrinth. There are a lot of magic anomalies, not just the Forge.

If Kaso manages to catch the Forge in some large magical transition it would be a piece of cake, but that’s not the only way it wanders, and there’s no guarantee that the Forge will do something like that within Kaso’s range.

But because we’re relying on Kaso’s senses, we can’t us large scale magic, especially area of effect magic.

That includes almost all detection skills and spells.

Which means …

“We can’t even use detection magic for enemies, so everyone keep an eye out~”

Jira called, reminding Ragnall and me to stay alert in the rear.

“… Got that?”

I asked Derrick.

“Yeeeesss….”

It will be helpful as long as he stops talking my ear off.

After I rebuke Derrick, Hibiki-chan giggles.

“It’s rare to find someone that can get on Jun-san’s nerves like this.”

… … I don’t know what to say to that.

Just what is Hibiki-chan’s impression of me?

Besides, it’s not someone, it’s a dagger – no, that also feels impolite.

Just as I sigh, prepared to give up and ignore Hibiki-chan, a ringing sound occurred.

Un?

A Friend Chat at this time?

I usually don’t receive messages in the middle of the day, since most people are usually busy during this time.

“Hello. Troy-san?”

[“Jun, I need help! We were just attacked by some other adventurers!”]

I thought it might be an emergency, but for it to really be an emergency….

But ff there’s a commotion, we might be able to smuggle Troy-san and Suzako-san out of the Extus nobles’ party…

I guess it just depends on if we can get to them fast enough.

“Where are you?”

[“We’re escaping to the second level, the swamp!”]

Escape, huh?

That doesn’t sound so good.

Also, is it alright for Troy-san to be speaking to me since he was pretending to be mute?

Although, certainly, it doesn’t seem like he has the leeway to worry about something like that.

“Where’s the entrance to the third level? My friend says they’ve been attacked by adventurers and are retreating.”

At those words, Ragnall and the Scarlet Torch made stern faces.

“Attacked by adventurers?”

“Even if it’s a party led by Extus nobles…”

They exchange glances before shooting off in the direction I assume is where the entrance to the third level is.

Yeah, it’s pretty serious if there are adventurers going around attacking other parties.

Although we were also thinking about attacking the noble from Extus, our plan was more about leading monsters to attack them and taking advantage of the resulting chaos.

If we did it in such a sloppy way as straight up attacking them, there could be some nasty repercussions…

Sure, we could just sink the bodies in the swamp, I guess, but even though the Scarlet Torch had been joking about killing the Extus noble and his party, we really weren’t planning on actually going through with it.

If they managed to survive the monsters by the time we squirreled Suzako-san away and faked her death, we wouldn’t have minded helping them out.

… No, even just thinking something like that so casually means my morals from Japan have shifted to a different set, hasn’t it?

I wonder when I started viewing the deaths of others so indifferently.

As A-rank adventurers, Ragnall and the Scarlet Torch have a responsibility to investigate adventurers killing adventurers, but one of the parties is the target we were going to attack, and I didn’t think it was strange at all.

Well, since they’re not officially Guild staff, if they determine the attack is due to a personal grudge and not due to a party that hunts other adventurers, Ragnall and the Scarlet Torch will probably look the other way and pretend not to have seen anything.

And I didn’t think that was wrong either.

“… I feel like my moral compass has gone astray.”

I can’t help but sigh.

“It’s easy to be indifferent towards the deaths of strangers when you live in a world that’s not at peace. Well, it’s not easy for most people who come from safe environments with strict moral paradigms to accept that they rank others’ lives differently.”

“I think it’s worse for people to happily accept that they rank other peoples’ lives differently.”

“There is certainly truth to that. Perhaps heroism arises in the conflict of understanding reality yet yearning for an ideal.”

Having a far too philosophical conversation with the dagger at my side, I try to squash down the unease I’m feeling.

It’s not about killing people, although it’s true that I’ve avoided it as much as I can – or put another way, I prefer maiming or capturing, but it’s not like I don’t have blood on my hands.

Ew.

A-anyway, the problem is that Ploids is a really big place.

Its levels are also really big.

It’s going to take two or three hours just to reach the entrance to the third level, and that’s just counting direct travel time running at full speed.

That’s not counting the fact that the ground is a swamp, unstable and full of mud and mires, nor the fact that monsters are hiding in all that muck, just waiting for prey to come by.

Desmond and the elf twins have long since gotten split up from us to avoid the inevitable monster train that’s going to be following us, but even if it’s inevitable, it’s against the principles of an adventurer to drag a monster train through the Labyrinths so we have to waste time cutting down some monsters, at least.

That means we’re looking at nearly four hours to reach Troy-san and the Extus noble’s party.

I’m not worried about Troy-san; he has gamer cheat skills for hiding in plain sight and escaping, but I highly doubt he’s going to be willing to leave his lady friend, Suzako-san, behind.

Even if we ignore the fact that the Extus noble has control over her slave collar, the problem is that exact slave collar that, aside from keeping control over the slave, it also has engravings on it that interferes with spells for stealth and escape.

What bad compatibility with Troy-san’s skillset.

To be honest, there isn’t anything like teleportation so I feel like it’s a little overdone, but there is ground shrink and shadow crawl so I suppose it makes sense to counter all transitory spells.

Either way, it means Troy-san probably won’t be able to run away as effectively as he normally would, and … honestly, I have my doubts about how effective Troy-san’s combat abilities are.

And even if he’s strong, he’s still pretending to be a dumb-and-mute guy, so it would totally blow his cover if he suddenly beat down the attackers that are apparently strong enough to make a party with actual knights from Extus have to run.

…Yeah, I’m worried.

But I can’t use ground shrink on such shitty terrain – or more like, I’m completely inexperienced in moving through a swamp, so it’s not like I can go on ahead or anything.

Also, I don’t know the way, so I’m relying on you A-rankers to get us there sooner!

—

We make it to Troy-san’s side in under four hours, because the Extus noble and their party has been moving in our direction this entire time while trying to escape their attackers.

We found them holed up in a safe area for adventurers – and by that, I mean it’s a platform built with small huts on it for adventurers to spend the night in.

In a Labyrinth, there are rarely any ‘safe’ areas like there are in video games.

It seems like the Extus noble’s party has suffered too many casualties and have decided to defend once they found a place with firm footing and shelter.

Crash!

Slam!

Crack!

… They did well to last for two and a half hours, with the viciousness that their attackers are attacking them with.

But they Extus noble has ten knights, some adventurer-looking people, servants, and slaves – a lot of people, while their attackers are … there are five of them.

Actually, only two of them are doing the attacking.

… What the heck is going on?

“… Ragnall.”

As I’m feeling shocked at this surreal scene of a few toppling the many, in such a dynamic way, Obero’s voice sounds, dropping several octaves from his usual, jovial tone as he overlooks the chaos over the scene.

“Ah, yeah. Let’s stop this.”

Ragnall and Obero shoot into the fray, splashing mud everywhere, as Jira puts her hand on her hips.

“If they’re going to kill each other, they shouldn’t do it at a safe area! That costs the Guild money to build! Those guys are tearing it apart.”

“Isn’t it the fault of the people hiding in the safe area?”

Perielle isn’t showing any mercy either.

“But… this makes it difficult to sneak Suzako-san away in the middle of all this…”

Hibiki-chan says.

That’s true.

The Extus party is hiding in huts, and they’ll be on guard after this.

It’s also more important for the A-rankers to confirm that the other party isn’t just going around murdering adventurers, and Hibiki-chan and I can’t expect them to avoid their duties for us.

Even if we’re trying to rescue our ‘kin’, there are a lot of gray areas when it comes to Unaffiliateds, people from the Countries, and slavery.

I always feel like this stupid, shaky ‘peace’ that everyone’s trying to maintain should be broken down since it can’t really protect anyone or anything that’s not related to the Labyrinths, but maybe that’s why most Unaffiliateds live in or near Labyrinth Cities.

… Nn?

“Are Obero and Ragnall having problems subduing the fight?”

I suddenly notice something strange.

Everyone expected it to be over quick once Ragnall and Obero jumped in, but … is that girl over there actually matching Ragnall in strength?

Even if it’s not perfectly blow for blow, she seems to be able to trade attacks easily with him.

Wtf.

“Looks like those two aren’t normal people, huh?”

Jira says as she licks her lips, suddenly pulling her daggers out and preparing to run out and join them as Perielle and Kaso also ready their weapons.

“… Would it help if I enclosed them in some barriers?”

I ask, pointing at the two people fighting Ragnall and Obero now.

“… That would probably stop the fight, yes.”

Perielle lowers her sword at my suggestion.

Let’s see, a barrier capable of withstanding Ragnall’s strength under normal circumstances – not too much trouble.

“So you manipulate normal mana freely like this too… you really are an absurd being made from a Spirit Tree.”

“Shut up, Derrick.”

I form two boxes around the two attackers, surprising the crap out of them.

The one in the rear, fighting Obero seems to be unable to get out of my barrier boxes and he’s given up after he can’t even draw his bow in the enclosed space.

But the one in the front…

Bakiiin-!

With a shrill sound, she manages to punch through the barrier.

“Huh. That’s unusual.”

I mutter.

It doesn’t feel like it was her strength that got her through.

“Jun-san, I think it’s a skill.”

Hibiki-chan seems to be thinking what I’m thinking.

“The guy’s a typical rearguard, so I’ll leave him to you,”

I say as the girl breaks the other person’s barrier too.

“Got it.”

With that, Hibiki-chan and I move at the exact same moment.

“Flare!”

It wasn’t exactly a spell, but I call out what I’m doing nonetheless as I erupt a burst of light in front of the two attackers, casting their shadows behind them.

In that instant, Hibiki-chan sinks into her shadow before popping out of the boy’s shadow, stopping him effectively with a dagger against his throat while clinging to his back.

As the girl hesitates from her temporary loss of vision, I close the distance in an instant, catching her saw-toothed saber with my katana.

… It’s not a saw-toothed saber.

Those are all nicks and notches.

God lord, do you even do maintenance on your weapon?

… Ah. I got distracted, that’s no good, but it also doesn’t seem to matter right now.

The girl in front of me stares at me with wide eyes.

“Japanese…?”

Haa…

With cheat skills like those, Hibiki-chan and I thought as much.

---

<Previous Chapter] [Index] [Next Chapter>

---

<a/n: All the plot points (except for Seimei’s) are happening now. Gl Jun.
2ndchances [update]>