126. Dungeon, Explosion, Reward (4)
126. Dungeon, Explosion, Reward (4)
"Viola, that arm..."
"The old man—I mean, Yohan—and I made it together."
Viola rolled up her sleeve and showed Lewis and Shuri her steel hand. The prosthetic reflected the hot sunlight, scattering a gray gleam around them.
"So that replaces your arm?"
"Yeah. Testing isn't finished yet, so I don't know how it'll perform in a real fight, but it works fine for everyday life. Now I'm going to make a fortune with this thing."
[She's completely thrilled.]
Viola's excited voice was pleasant to hear.
Seeing her look so much brighter than when she'd first come to entrust herself to me felt good.
All the work I had put my body through to make more than ten prosthetic arms before our departure had been worth it.
"You two. Have you seen Sif by any chance?"
"We were the only ones here."
What was keeping Sif, of all people? Had something happened? Just as I was worrying, I spotted a black thief cat waving a hand and dashing toward us from the far end of the street.
So she was just late.
Sif came sprinting at full speed and stopped right in front of me, then gulped air.
"Sorry, I was getting my little sisters sorted out and I just..."
"It's fine. We're all here now anyway."
She wasn't terribly late, so that much I could wait for.
"So the five of us are tackling the dungeon? Wow, I'm getting nervous..."
Shuri, who had the gentlest face in this rather rough-looking party, wagged her tail in excitement.
She also had the most easygoing personality among us, so I expected her to serve as the team's buffer. She was already friends with Viola, so there should not have been much friction between them.
"Sif, you're on reconnaissance. Lewis, you take point. I'll follow you. Shuri and Viola, you're on the rear line."
"That's a well-balanced formation."
I didn't know how parties were normally composed in this world, but no basic formation was more balanced than a warrior in front and a Wizard in the rear.
Actual adventurer parties rarely included a Wizard, however, because they were so difficult to recruit.
Merely being a Wizard qualified someone for safe work, so few would willingly risk their lives exploring.
"Yohan, why am I scouting? Can't you do it?"
"Didn't you say you knew how to disarm traps? Scout while you handle them. I also have to watch the rear line."
Besides, you didn't have anything else to do anyway. She had practically no combat ability, so having her join the fighting was out... If she'd developed bombs or something, I would at least have had her throw those.
Sif nodded, apparently unable to argue with me.
She was effectively the only person in the party who couldn't fight. Without another role, she'd have no way to earn her share of the credit.
"All right, take a seat. I'll brief you on the dungeon while we have something to drink at the café."
I settled into a corner of the café where I'd once drunk orange juice with Sif and placed a bundle of papers on the table.
"Our destination is an unexplored dungeon discovered in a forest near Velen, west of Kalon. It was named the Beast's Tomb because the party that scouted the entrance found signs of beasts there."
"Beasts, you say..."
"The exact species hasn't been identified. But seeing as even an experienced adventurer was helpless against them, there's a high probability that a powerful monster unlike anything found near the surrounding cities lives there.
"So you must follow my instructions to the letter."
The party nodded without objection. They seemed to understand that following an experienced person's orders was paramount in a situation like this.
...In that sense, their experience in the rift had proven useful.
Kids usually overestimated themselves, acted recklessly, and ended up as a monster's meal.
I held out four small pouches in front of the party. The group glanced at me with faces full of questions, then eyed each other. In the end, it was Lewis who asked.
"What's this?"
"Deodorizer. It won't eliminate your scent, but it'll mask it somewhat and make ambushes less likely."
I'd almost forgotten. I took the key items for this dungeon raid from my bag and placed them on the table. There were four, one for each person.
"Take one of these as well and put it on the moment we enter the dungeon."
"What is this? It looks weird..."
"You'll find out inside. Do not remove it until we've completely cleared the dungeon. It'll be your lifeline."
Taking it off would show them hell. Having already followed my orders in the rift, they accepted the warning without protest. This was why it paid to form a party with people you knew.
With a newcomer, I would have spent ages explaining everything and even longer persuading them to accept it.
"Before we leave, make sure you haven't forgotten anything. Once we set out, there will be no turning back."
"Yes!"
"Understood."
At my words, everyone rummaged through their backpacks at once. I also opened my bag for a final check and went over the items inside.
The things I'd prepared to break through the Beast's Tomb were all in my backpack without a single thing missing.
I hoped everything would work properly.
I closed the bag, fastened the opening tight, and stood up. From now on, we'd have to take a carriage at a leisurely pace if we wanted to arrive on time.
When I stood, everyone got to their feet in unison.
"Then we're moving out."
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"Ugh, my back..."
Sif, who'd jumped out of the carriage first, clutched her back and groaned. I climbed out after her, adjusted my backpack, and looked up at the sky. It had taken half a day to get from Kalon to Velen, so by now the sky was tinged with vermilion.
"My shoulder..."
"Does it hurt a lot?"
"Every time it jolts, it feels like my flesh is getting pinched. I don't know if it's phantom pain or real, though."
At Viola's words, I looked at her shoulder. Her clothes hid it, but pain whenever the carriage jolted suggested there might be a problem with the prosthetic.
"Once we get to the inn, I'll take a look at it for you."
"Thanks, old man."
"Old man...? Old man! She called you an old man! It suits you perfectly!"
Sif, who was standing next to me, tilted her head, then looked at me and burst out laughing. Her laugh sounded oddly like a cat's yowl and grated fiercely on my nerves, so I delivered an ultimatum in a curt voice.
"I'll have to think about just how much to dock from your pay."
"Sorry! I'm sorry! Young, handsome big brother!"
Did she think such blatant flattery would change my mind?
"Ahaha."
Shuri giggled as if she found our antics amusing, but when our eyes met she lowered her tail and became self-conscious.
[Isn't my Contractor a little too small-minded? Women like broad-minded men, you know.]
It was not as though I was unpopular with women.
...Though it felt more like a father-daughter relationship than romantic interest.
I hoped Millia wouldn't cause trouble while we were away at the dungeon.
No, this wasn't the time to be worrying about that. Standing at the very front of the party, I announced the final schedule for the day.
"We'll find an inn, eat dinner, and sleep. You may be excited to visit another city, but don't forget that our objective is the dungeon. No going out tonight."
"Yes!"
"Yes!"
Somehow it seemed like only Lewis and Shuri were answering diligently.
"Which inn are we going to?"
"I was planning to look for one. Do you know anywhere?"
"I'm Kalon born and raised, so I've never been to Velen."
Right, she was from the Kalon slums, so there was no way she'd have ever gone anywhere else.
Just to be sure, I asked the other students too, but no one knew anything about Velen.
I didn't know much either. I'd heard the name in the game, but it was essentially a forgettable village players passed through. Apart from three or four side quests, there was little to see.
"...Then we'll have to search on foot. All right, let's go."
[Those following behind look like a line of ducklings.]
So I was the mother duck, then.
Ignoring Rue's strange analogy, I walked toward Velen's entrance.
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"Hyaaam..."
"Shuri, you okay?"
"Nn... Smack. I'm just not good with mornings..."
I tore my eyes from the main couple's affectionate display and examined the dungeon entrance, where the stench of rotting corpses hung thick in the air.
At a glance, it looked like an animal burrow, but the vicious atmosphere surrounding it confirmed that this was the Beast's Tomb.
"Put your backpacks down here and wait. I'm setting traps in case something unexpected happens."
I extended the shovel from my backpack and scraped a rough design into the ground. That should have been enough.
"Craft."
A pit appeared before me in an instant, wide enough that even a bear couldn't easily cross it. I made similar pits around the area, then called to Rue.
"Rue. I'm going to use magic."
[Big one? Small one?]
"The small one, obviously."
I held out my hand and murmured the activation word.
"Sprinkler."
[Your naming sense, though.]
Transparent liquid sprayed from my hand. Sticky as snot, it scattered from my palm in a fine mist. I carefully coated the area around the traps.
"Old man, what are you spraying?"
"Sticky mucus. Anything that steps in it will be trapped for a while. Small creatures won't be able to move at all."
Put simply, it was like magical rat poison.
Calling it rat poison might make it sound laughable, but if I sprayed it over a wide area like this, any monsters that fell into the pits wouldn't be able to climb out easily.
After carefully spraying the mucus over the traps, I addressed the party standing blankly before the entrance.
"We're going in now. Everyone, light your lamps."
Everyone hurriedly lit their lamps. We didn't know how much light the dungeon would provide, so the precaution was necessary. Being unable to secure a light source, as in the last rift, would have made things extremely difficult.
I shouldered my backpack, stepped onto the descending path, and spoke.
"Maintain the formation I explained and follow me. Do not question my instructions."
From behind me, voices full of tension answered.
It was a satisfactory response.
It was time to head down.
We entered the darkness, which gaped open as though beckoning explorers inside.