Not a Single Good Day
The situation was dire. A criminal—or criminals—prowling the Moss Flower Cave. This was on an entirely different level from the western barbarians of Kardun trying to seize a base or the avengers launching raids on pioneer camps.
Kardun wouldn’t bother you if you didn’t touch their occupied strongholds. The avengers were mostly extremists, and even they had largely been arrested by the Orthodox Army after killing innocents. What they truly wanted was the still-unidentified murderer, not indiscriminate slaughter.
But criminals were a different story.
These were the worst of the worst—monsters vicious enough to force them to flee into the second world. We didn’t even know if it was one person or an entire group. If a criminal syndicate approached disguised as pioneers, the headache would be unimaginable. On top of that, even the relatively calm avengers might go berserk. They could start attacking anyone and everyone on the mere suspicion that a No-Named killer was hiding among the criminals.
The worst always invited more worst. The chain reaction had turned the Moss Flower Cave into a lawless zone where no one could trust anyone.
“This is bad.”
Even the usually composed Kalen had beads of sweat forming at his temples. The situation was that grim.
“We should head back.”
So a decision had to be made here and now. The entrances to the Moss Flower Cave might all be different, but the exits always appeared in the same place. If the criminals learned that this cave connected to the first world, they would definitely try to seize the exit. We needed to get out first—or at the very least, scout the situation.
“Pingle, can you guide us by the shortest route?”
Kalen agreed without hesitation. There wasn’t even time to waste thinking.
“It’s pretty far. To go fast, we’ll have to cut through a phantasm habitat in the middle.”
“Then let’s move as quickly as we can.”
“Ugh, what a damn headache.”
It really had become one hell of a headache. There had been risks, but who could have guessed that coming all the way to the second world would lead to this? I already knew my life had shit luck, but even I let out a deep sigh.
While they talked, I quietly approached the corpse. Then I secretly pocketed one of the severed fingers that had fallen nearby. It might serve as a clue if we resurrected it later. Having insurance never hurt.
“Let’s go! We can think while we run!”
As soon as Pingle started sprinting, the rest of us hurried after him.
“What’s going on?”
Babiyen, who had been watching from beside me, finally asked. Her face showed she still hadn’t grasped the full situation.
“There are criminals roaming the Moss Flower Cave. And there’s a high chance they’ll try to occupy the exit.”
“What? How would criminals occupy the exit?”
It was a perfectly reasonable question—how could mere criminals seize an exit?
“Babiyen, the Black Dawn are criminals too.”
“I know that, but the ones who fled to the second world are the ones who figured they’d get caught in the first world, right? So they’re basically low-level criminals.”
She was calling them subpar criminals.
“I wish that were the case.”
But the dwarf Vandal offered a completely different opinion. He strode forward on his short legs with a thick axe slung over his shoulder.
“These are the ones who survived in the second world. They might even be monsters so dangerous they had to be exiled here.”
During the Great War in the past, there had been quite a few monsters too difficult to execute. The strategy back then was to drive them into the second world and wait for the entrance to shift. Rumors said such operations had taken place. The criminals Vandal spoke of were those kinds of beings.
Of course, the chance that any of them were still alive was extremely low. But the mere possibility was the problem.
“Above all, being a pioneer is a rough job, but it’s not one where you fight people. We hunt phantasms.”
Pioneers might quarrel, but they avoided killing whenever possible. Do that and you’d get kicked out of the Pioneer Guild. Criminals, however, were the complete opposite. They were experts at dealing with people. They wouldn’t hesitate to use dirty tricks and knew exactly where a person’s weaknesses lay.
“And pioneers are basically individualists by nature. They won’t cooperate. If they think fighting would cost them more, they won’t bother clashing with criminals.”
The criminals’ goal was already set. In exchange for forgiving their sins, they would demand return to the first world or equivalent compensation. The pioneers were nothing but hostages—hostages who didn’t need to be killed. Pioneers were good at running the numbers in their heads, and the criminals knew that too.
“They’ll either wait for the Orthodox Army to arrive or wait for their affiliated Pioneer Guild to pay their ransom.”
“……And if the Pioneer Guild refuses to pay?”
Horizon, who had been following behind, asked cautiously. What would happen if the Pioneer Guild wouldn’t pay the ransom for its pioneers?
“War.”
A war between pioneers and criminals would break out.
“More importantly, the moment the Orthodox Army grasps the situation and enters the second world, the war is already set in stone.”
Just as Kalen said. War between the Orthodox Army and the criminals was inevitable. So the best choice was to get out before getting caught up in it.
“Everyone stop.”
Pingle, who had been leading, suddenly halted the group. As we all held our breath and froze, we spotted pioneers passing by at a fork in the path. Their faces were uniformly grim. Shoulders slumped, weapons clutched in their hands, they trudged along heavily.
One of them suddenly glanced in our direction. Just as Pingle had sensed them, they had sensed us too. Their bloodshot eyes lingered on us for a moment. A tense atmosphere crackled between us.
While Kalen secretly rested his hand on his sword hilt—
“Let’s go. That bitch wouldn’t be traveling with only this many people.”
Luckily, they moved on. Without giving us another glance, they continued with slow steps and disappeared into the distance.
The suffocating silence that had gripped us finally broke, and everyone wiped the sweat from their faces.
“……Those were avengers,” Kalen said quietly.
Avengers. People whose family or comrades had been murdered by a killer. Every last one of them had madness in their eyes. No wonder people said to be careful with those types wandering around.
From the look of it, they still hadn’t realized there were criminals in the cave. Thank goodness.
“Pingle, please guide us again.”
“Hah, everything’s a damn minefield. Got it.”
When Pingle resumed leading, conversation among us died completely. The encounter with the avengers had heightened everyone’s tension.
“The spider nest is just ahead!”
At that moment, Pingle’s shout made everyone’s expressions brighten slightly. They all knew that once they passed the spider tunnels, the exit was right there. Still, they had to proceed while avoiding the spider phantasms as much as possible. It was the part that required the most caution.
“W-wait a moment.”
Suddenly, Horizon grabbed my arm and stopped me. My body lurched forward from the abrupt halt before I barely managed to regain my balance. I knew from Aranseol that she had some skill in combat, but Horizon was surprisingly strong.
“Horizon?”
If she was stopping us in this situation, it definitely meant something was wrong. Sure enough, her face had gone rigid.
“What are you doing? We need to hurry!”
Pingle, who had been ahead, turned back and shouted. With a long way still to go, he clearly thought we were wasting time.
“We… we shouldn’t go this way.”
“What do you mean?”
“U-um, it’s hard to explain, but… well…”
Horizon stammered, glancing around nervously. It looked like she had sensed something.
“Pingle, it seems Horizon has detected something. How about another route?”
“What?” Pingle frowned. After running into the avengers, he was already on edge. Fortunately, Kalen stepped in at the right moment.
“Pingle, check first.”
“Ugh, the spiders have great detection. If we dawdle, it’ll be a pain!”
Even as he stomped his feet in frustration, Pingle faithfully followed Kalen’s instruction. He tapped the walls, felt the floor, and did various other checks before suddenly lifting his head. Then he pulled out a dagger and began slicing through the moss.
“Goddamn it. Fuck.”
A curse slipped from Pingle’s mouth. Something unpleasant had clearly gone wrong.
“Pingle.”
At Kalen’s call, Pingle scooped up a handful of the moss.
“The reason spider phantasms thrive in the Moss Flower Cave is because moss is one of their main food sources.”
The moss in Pingle’s hand was extremely dry and crumbly.
“So when spiders eat it, the moss becomes this brittle. But all the moss around here is in the same state. Even if it’s their staple food, this is way too much.”
Shit.
My face froze. I had learned about the Moss Flower Cave from Uncle Bulldog. The others still didn’t seem to understand what this meant.
“Conclusion only.”
“Damn it, the eggs have hatched. It means the spider queen Arachne laid her eggs not long ago! But the real problem is that this isn’t even her normal spawning season!”
Pingle hurled the moss to the ground.
“It’s those criminal bastards. I don’t know what they did, but they made Arachne enter her spawning period earlier than usual.”
“……Then Arachne, having finished laying her eggs, must be extremely hungry.”
“You know your stuff, Lord Magician.”
Pingle’s face had gone pale as he gave a hollow smile.
“Arachne normally leaves hunting to her offspring, but right after finishing her spawning period, she hunts herself.”
Pingle finally leaned against the wall and slumped down.
“And she’ll devour every single thing that entered this cave without leaving a trace.”
The feeding time of a weekly-grade phantasm, Arachne. It was the worst possible disaster to befall the Moss Flower Cave.
The ranks of phantasms were divided into seven colors of the rainbow, with additional white-grade and black-grade tiers. White-grade was unmeasurable. Black-grade was judged impossible to hunt. Therefore they were treated as entirely separate from the previous ranks.
Pioneer ranks were also divided into eight tiers. Iron (self-grade) – Copper (military blue-grade) – Silver (blue-grade) – Gold (green-grade) – Platinum (yellow-grade) – Mithril (weekly-grade) – Orichalcum (red-grade) – Adamantite (black-grade). These eight ranks were set according to the level of phantasms one could hunt.
Adamantite-grade could basically be considered nonexistent. And right now, a weekly-grade Arachne was roaming the Moss Flower Cave.
To hunt an Arachne, you needed mithril-grade strength. Naturally, the higher the pioneer rank, the fewer people there were. Platinum-grade pioneers were already rare. Mithril-grade individuals were famous across the country. Arachne was a monster that only such people could barely hunt. To the current pioneers, she was practically an object of terror.
“……I think the last phantasm Master hunted in her youth was weekly-grade.”
Babiyen muttered to herself, apparently thinking of the Lord of Red Flames. The gold-obsessed Lord of Red Flames apparently took pioneer jobs if the pay was good. That was why it was a well-known anecdote that she was at least mithril-grade.
I had seen the Flame Harlot—the Lord of Red Flames—with my own eyes. A monster who could fire high-temperature beams without batting an eye. And considering that hadn’t even been her full power, she was an existence beyond rivalry. A weekly-grade phantasm valuable enough to hire someone like the Lord of Red Flames. Its strength was easy to imagine from that value alone.
“Heading toward the spider tunnels like this is suicide. The place will be crawling with offspring.”
Only now did I understand why Horizon had stopped us. She could see through walls using shadows. She must have seen an enormous number of things writhing around.
“Then we have no choice but to turn back.”
Pingle clutched his face as if he wanted to rip it off.
“I can’t guarantee we’ll avoid running into Arachne.”
Besides, turning back would take a lot of time. We all fell silent. Not only the dwarf Vandal, but even the human woman Miren looked grim. Kalen seemed to be racking his brain for a way to overcome the crisis.
I slowly raised my head and looked back and forth between Horizon and Babiyen. I also took in the dry, crumbly moss.
“……If we can confirm that Arachne is definitely staying in one place, couldn’t we still find a way out?”
All eyes turned to me. When a crisis struck, you had to break through it to survive. Something had occurred to me.