The Silent Whip
We spotted a cluster of goblins gathered among the bushes! We hid in the trees and watched their movements. They hadn't noticed us yet, but they were heading straight toward the cave we needed to return to.
Should've expected this the moment I saw the footprints.
Those little bastards had probably left tracks too while hiding from the rain. Now that it had stopped, they were out looking for a new den.
…Should I just strike first? I could wipe them all out.
No. Hold it. Vector Man inside me, stay calm.
Ten of them was too many. I'd already had several close calls from getting careless. Relying only on Beast Regression's defense could easily get me killed. Even if I was fine, Francesca might get badly hurt by a blind goblin.
"…What should we do?"
Francesca whispered from behind the tree beside me. I kept my voice as low as possible.
"Let's wait until they leave. It'd be better to set up some warning traps inside the cave and wait for the next shift…"
My words cut off mid-sentence. Something had changed near the goblins.
—Rustle.
A pair of sandals touched the rain-soaked ground. The footsteps were light and graceful, completely unlike the noisy splashing of the goblins trudging through the mud.
A woman had suddenly appeared from above. What was truly surprising was that she had descended from higher than my line of sight. She dropped from the trees without making almost any sound at all.
"…Few."
The woman with sky-blue curly hair spoke in a small voice. She shook her short hair vigorously from side to side. Water droplets flew everywhere, and some strands stuck to her lips.
High-level adventurer trait) Because she trained so intensely at Carmine, her outfit left her sideboobs completely exposed, and the rain had made her underwear clearly visible through the fabric. It was a sleeveless Narmer-Nile-style dress. The kind dancers wore.
A Narmer native?
I tensed up hard at the sudden appearance of this unknown woman. She gave off the unmistakable rotten-water aura of an absurdly high-level adventurer. In this world, the skimpier the clothing, the higher the implied defense. That thin, fluttering outfit was pure confidence that weak attacks wouldn't even register.
Her expression was blank. I couldn't read a single thought from it. Every movement carried the boredom of a veteran clearing daily quests.
"Kyaaak!! (Food!!)"
"Kyaaak!! (Food!!)"
But the green noobs had no ability to recognize a veteran. They charged at the woman who had descended silently from lethal heights, waving their crude stone tools.
The result went without saying.
—Swish!
Shaaaaaaa!!
The woman's weapon was a whip. Though short like a riding crop, it stretched like a staff the moment she swung it, sweeping across the entire area. Definitely some insane cash-shop item. I could've convinced myself she was just a whale up to that point, but the destructive power of that whip was in the realm of pure madness.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwang!!
That was the sound of the whip being swung. They say the tip of a whip breaks the sound barrier at its peak. This wasn't just breaking the sound barrier—this was a goddamn jet. I genuinely thought a supersonic fighter whose pilot had ejected was crashing right next to my head.
"…!!"
Francesca covered her mouth and trembled. My own legs were shaking violently. They say your knees go weak when you face a tiger. We were exactly in that situation.
Thud, thud, thud.
The goblins who had experienced instant dismemberment rained down from the sky as chunks of meat. One green noob with only its arms and head left dangled from a tree, swaying. It looked like it was saying, "You should die too and join us."
Right then—
"—Who?"
The veteran woman looked straight at our hiding spot. Even though we were crouched behind the bushes, her gaze locked perfectly through the tiny gap in the foliage. I doubted even a laser pointer aimed at me while someone fired an air rifle could have found my exact position that accurately.
This is fucking terrifying!!
Running was off the table. If I bolted now, that fourth-job-change skill or whatever would come flying at my back. I was about to force myself up and surrender when I saw Francesca stand up, tears streaming down her face.
—Grin.
Even though we were apart, when our eyes met she forced a smile. She was planning to step forward and explain in my place. Even if that woman turned out to be a psychopath who got off on killing newbies and blasted her apart with that jet whip!
Thud.
I grabbed Francesca's shoulder. Then I stood up first. Her eyes widened in shock.
"I'm sorry. We weren't trying to spy."
Step by step.
I walked out and stood in front of the silent woman. It wasn't because I was some saint trying to sacrifice myself for Francesca. She was an absurdly strong veteran, but there was still no proof she was dangerous. Whether we ran or hid, if she got annoyed we'd both be dead anyway, so hiding behind someone else's back wouldn't help. Besides, I was better at running my mouth than Francesca.
"I'm Nord of the Audumla Guild. We've been guarding the ruins discovered around here since yesterday. Right now we're out looking for firewood with my companion."
After explaining the situation, I swallowed hard. Now that I could see her clearly, I noticed something I hadn't before.
—Gleam.
The sky-blue-haired woman wore earrings in both ears. The left one was ordinary, but the right one was a silver plate. Not Silver class. There was no way someone with her specs was Silver. If Silver adventurers were this broken, then what the hell was Professor Brammaton? Would he punch a hole in the stratosphere with a Rising Dragon Fist?
That plate was different from normal silver. It was a special metal infused with mana.
It was Mithril, the divine silver.
"Nefertiti."
The sky-blue-haired woman spoke.
"Nefertiti of the Sekhmet Guild."
She gave her name and then hooked the whip at her waist. When I tried to talk, she had put her weapon away. She didn't seem interested in attacking, which was a relief. But seriously, if she'd seen everything, why was she just quietly staring at me?
"Um, did you have something you wanted to say?"
"Yeah."
"Ah, I see. Please ask anything."
I tried not to look at the traces left by that jet whip while speaking. Nefertiti asked without even wiping the water running down her pale skin.
"The ruins. What was there?"
"There was a stone tablet with writing from the primitive era."
It was a question within the expected range. There was no way a Mythril-class adventurer would bother questioning a nobody like Nord about anything else. Of course, I didn't say anything unnecessary. If I mentioned something random and she decided to come check it out, that would be bad. My companions would think I was bringing a two-star back to the dorm.
Silence is golden, eloquence is silver. If you're going to try talking to Mithril, it makes more sense to offer something more valuable than silver.
"Which civilization?"
"I don't really know that much…"
I genuinely didn't. The writing on the tablet and cave walls was primitive pictographs. I didn't know their origin. A better archaeology researcher might know, but it wasn't within the scope of what I'd studied.
"I see."
Nefertiti gave another short answer. She seemed like the type of veteran who couldn't be bothered to even type in chat. Veterans who were too burned out to quit the game often talked like that. They said veterans enjoyed chatting more than hunting, but Nefertiti didn't seem to be one of them.
"…Yeah. Got it."
Nefertiti stared blankly at the sky before suddenly speaking. Her tone never changed, so even if she suddenly shouted "Newbies must die!" and swung her whip, it wouldn't have been surprising.
"Then bye."
Whoosh!
Fortunately, she didn't turn the guy she'd questioned into paste. The veteran woman leaped away using the same silent movement technique she'd arrived with and vanished right in front of me.
Even after Nefertiti left, I stood frozen in place for a while.
Chirr, chirr—
Once it became quiet again, insects began chirping somewhere. I belatedly felt the strength leave my legs and dropped to my knees.
"Fucking hell… I thought I was dead…"
That was terrifying. Not just saying it—actually, genuinely, terrifying as shit. She had a face that could make a living on looks alone, and her sideboobs connected to her armpits were incredible, but my eyes kept going to the whip. It felt like facing a rhino with a gold bar jammed on its horn in a one-on-one standoff.
"Nord!"
Francesca came running out in tears. There were beauties in the world who didn't look ugly even when crying, and Francesca was the type whose crying face actually shone brighter than usual.
"Are you okay?! Are you hurt?!"
Thud, thud, thud!
Francesca came sprinting with those miraculously long legs that somehow belonged to a tall person. But those shorter-than-average legs couldn't handle the speed. She tripped on a root sticking out of the ground and rolled through the dirt.
"Kwaaaang!"
Roll, roll—
"Aigoo. Are you the one who's okay, Francesca?"
I helped the fallen Francesca to her feet. I also brushed off the wet leaves stuck to her poncho. She sniffled and wiped her tears.
"Why did you do that?! I'm the party leader this time, so explaining in front was supposed to be my job!"
"Well, it worked out fine, didn't it? She seemed scary at first, but she was pretty reasonable."
Her conversation style was extremely concise for an otherworlder who usually piled on four layers of honorifics like building a basilisk. It stood out even more because I'd just finished talking to that Paragon monk bastard.
But that wasn't what Francesca was pointing out.
"That person earlier—she's from the Sekhmet Guild!"
Her voice was very small, as if she was afraid Nefertiti might be hiding and listening.
"They don't even charge a guild fee, all their requests are monster extermination and bounty hunting, and they worship the Goddess of Slaughter! There's even a rumor that the Sekhmet Church of Narmer-Nile created the guild to spread their faith worldwide!"
"What?"
That sounded like some kind of otherworld Freemason conspiracy. I'd gathered information on the Sekhmet Guild before coming to Sargadis too. The Sekhmet Guild worshipped the goddess Sekhmet of Narmer-Nile, just like their name suggested, and operated as monster hunters across the entire world. But according to Francesca, they were basically an assassination guild targeting monsters and criminals. And they even had connections to the political religious group called the Sekhmet Church. Wasn't this basically a cult running a gang for dirty work?
—Shiver.
Realizing that sent a chill down my spine. It was like finding out the drunk customer you'd kicked out while working part-time was actually a serial killer who'd finished his sentence.
"…Understood. I'll be more careful from now on."
I said while rubbing the back of my neck.
"Let's head back to the ruins for now. Thanks to that person, I was shaking for so long that I really want to sit by a campfire, goblins or not."
"Kuhng. Yeah…"
Francesca sniffled and answered. She didn't object to the idea of making a fire. Goblins? Let them come. Even if a hundred of them showed up, it wouldn't be even a little scary compared to facing Nefertiti.
By the way, why was Nefertiti hunting goblins?
That part was strange. She'd been completely soaked from the start. That meant she'd been hunting goblins even before the rain stopped. Was the Sekhmet Guild's adventurer the one who failed to properly deal with the goblin den, and Nefertiti was cleaning up the mess?
I tried to piece together what had happened, but it was pointless. If she really was a cruel criminal, her way of thinking would be completely different from ours anyway. There was no greater waste of time than trying to understand evil people. Humans were already busy enough just thinking about good things.
***
The first thing we did when we got back was make a campfire. I stripped the bark off the firewood with my utility knife, left only the dry wood inside, and lit it. Once the fire started growing, I carefully added the wet logs without putting it out.
—Fwoosh!
"Fuck yeah! The campfire's lit!"
After several hours of desperate struggle, I finally succeeded in starting a fire.
"And the next shift is here too."
"Damn."
Just as I was about to boil water over the fire, the next shift arrived. Apparently the rotation time had been moved up starting today. They must have adjusted it to match the archaeologists' schedule. Either way, the campfire I'd worked so hard to make got no-look tossed to the next shift. Life was fucking great.
"I'm Frederick, taking the next shift for the ruins guarding request."
A dwarf who lived up to his name appeared and announced the shift change. While I cried in front of the blazing campfire, the dwarf was shocked by the state of the ruined stone circle.
"No, why does the ruin look like this? Is this supposed to be fine?"
"It's fine. The ruins were always like this."
"Huh? What kind of joke is that? Didn't the rain last night do this?"
"Misunderstanding. It wasn't our fault."
Ah, these damn "hao"-speaking bastards. Listening to the two of them go back and forth with their formal speech was driving me insane.
"Don't worry. It's common for ruins to get damaged by wind and rain anyway."
I said something stupid. It was something an archaeologist shouldn't say, but I said it anyway. I was already pissed that I had to say goodbye to the campfire I'd worked so hard to make after only one day, and if I had to keep listening to these bastards speak formally, I was going to turn into the Joker.
"Tsk. Then I'll just leave it be."
"Yes. That's also the natural order of things."
It was complete bullshit, but adventurers always handled ruins like this during explorations. These bastards treated ruin exploration as a basic passive skill. They smashed stone tablets because they were too heavy to carry, and they destroyed artifacts that looked like too much trouble and not worth much money, burying them somewhere. Restoring and studying damaged artifacts usually got dumped on us poor graduate student slaves, so back in my slave (grad student) days, I couldn't even count how many times I'd cursed out adventurers. But now I didn't have to do that anymore, right? So I might as well live comfortably. At least here, I could.