Chapter 24
Chapter 24
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 24
Chapter Title: Sewer (2)
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"Just ignore the small fry slimes. Trying to catch them will only dirty your weapons. And if you're lucky that's all that happens—if any of their fluids splash on you, the stench'll stick around for days."
"You seem to know a lot about this stuff?"
"...I wish I didn't."
Ricar, who claimed to have taken on this sewer cleaning request before, proved it wasn't just talk by sharing some genuinely useful knowledge.
Before long, he'd tacitly taken on the role of temporary leader for our party.
"Give a signal if you spot a variant slime."
"How do you tell if it's a variant?"
"Just point out any that look noticeably bigger at a glance. The variants around here are only going to be ooze slimes anyway."
Following Ricar's advice, we ignored the regular slimes and pushed on, until we finally spotted one particularly massive slime amid the wriggling horde.
-Gurgle!!
It was huge, easily the size of five regular slimes combined. Sure, that still only put it about goblin-sized, but just as Ricar had said, the variant had features that made it stand out at first glance.
Unlike the other slimes that had low aggression and simply slithered past us, this one locked eyes on us and immediately bared clear hostility before charging.
"At least this one's a bit cleaner-looking?"
"It's probably used all its absorbed nutrients on evolving."
The man stared at the slime with a bored expression and drew the massive greatsword slung across his back.
It looked crudely made from scrap iron, but it carried serious weight.
'I wonder if I could lift that...'
As I eyed Koron's hefty greatsword and gauged whether I could wield it myself, Koron calmly hoisted it up and waited for the slime to close in.
-Thud!!
"Hup!!"
The moment the slime kicked off the ground and leaped, Koron relaxed his arms and brutally swung the raised greatsword downward.
-Boom!!!
And that was it.
The so-called evolved ooze slime couldn't withstand the sheer weight of the greatsword. Its body burst apart, and it died in one hit.
Koron shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly, glanced back at us like how 'bout that?, then pulled a small water bottle and cloth from his pouch. He rinsed the shattered slime core once and wrapped it up for safekeeping.
"Ho. You've got some real strength there."
"Hmph."
Ricar gave a slight look of admiration and praised Koron, who snorted softly but didn't deny it.
Having never seen anyone actually use a greatsword that big in person, I watched him with mild curiosity.
"Not too heavy?"
"Huh? Ha. It is heavy, but for someone like me...!"
Was he the type weak to compliments? Koron, who'd been quietly hanging back without chiming into our conversation moments ago, suddenly got chatty and launched into self-praise.
He flexed his muscles, showed off lifting the sword, and even offered me the hilt.
"See? Not just anyone can wield a greatsword like this. Wanna give it a try?"
'...It doesn't feel that impressive.'
Setting aside his attitude of getting cocky off a single compliment, I coolly assessed his skills as middling.
Sure, his strength was impressive... but relying purely on weight to smash without any finesse, and handing his weapon to a stranger after one bit of praise...?
Still, no need to sour the mood with cold criticism, so I went ahead and gripped the hilt he'd offered.
I'd been curious about the weight of a greatsword like this anyway.
"See? Heavy, right? Just lifting something like this takes real—"
-Whoosh!!!
"...Huh?"
When I grabbed the hilt and applied strength, the greatsword rose even more effortlessly than when Koron had just lifted it.
Koron, mid-boast, stared blankly as I held it steady at shoulder height.
'Hm. This much?'
It was pretty heavy... but not unmanageable. Actually, it felt lighter than expected.
"Yeah, it's pretty heavy. Here, I'll give it back."
"Uh... yeah..."
I politely handed the greatsword back, and Koron—who'd been all talk—quietly accepted it with both hands respectfully.
Ricar, who'd watched the whole exchange, approached me with an intrigued look.
"Well, damn. You've got some serious strength too, huh? You don't look it—skinny as you are. Don't tell me you used mana?"
"No way. If I had, would I be taking an E-rank promotion exam here?"
"R-Right, fair point."
Beyond mages channeling mana into spells, this world had various combat styles using mana.
Skilled warriors reinforced their bodies with it or infused weapons before swinging.
To Ricar, the strength I'd shown must've looked like that kind of body enhancement.
"A-Ahem. Let's keep moving."
Koron, who'd been boasting away, coughed awkwardly and urged the group onward.
The request wasn't done yet, so I stopped chatting with Ricar and followed without protest.
'Hm...'
As I did, I clenched and unclenched my fist repeatedly, recalling the weight and feel of the greatsword I'd wielded for the first time.
'...Could I make it work?'
"What're you thinking so hard about?"
"Nothing. Let's go."
I shook off the thought and trailed after the group.
Having encountered one variant slime already, I kept a moderate tension, aware another fight could break out anytime.
.
.
.
.
The promotion exam request we'd taken was to eliminate variant slimes infesting Riville's underground sewers.
But there was no way this vast sewer system had just one, so we continued searching and hunting them down.
-Gurgle!!
"Got one over there!"
Ricar pointed out a massive slime in the distance, and I tensed my legs before leaping straight to it in one bound.
Timing it perfectly, I drew my sword mid-charge and thrust at full speed. The slime's wobbling core pierced cleanly, and its body exploded moments later.
"Whew."
"Not just brute force, eh? Well, I'll be."
As I sheathed my sword and shook off the slime fluids, Ricar clicked his tongue and arrived belatedly at my side.
"You sure you're really E-rank? You move like a seasoned D-rank... hell, maybe even C if you're good."
"It's not that big a deal."
I watched Koron and Haksen—arriving after Ricar—scramble to collect the core from the ooze slime I'd felled, while lightly massaging my body.
This made five variant slimes down already.
Having gauged their strength in the first skirmish, I'd been proactively taking them out ever since.
'Enemies at this level... I could probably handle ten at once.'
Ooze slimes were fragile enough to go down with a single precise strike to the core, and their sluggish movements made them perfect for testing the results of my training.
Thanks to throwing myself into the action to practice swordplay in real combat, the other party members barely got a chance to shine.
Suddenly, aside from Ricar—who at least had sharp senses for spotting them—the other two were relegated to cleanup duty after I'd finished the kills.
'Is the average D-rank adventurer weaker than I thought?'
Judging by how confidently they'd challenged the promotion exam and Koron's subtle swagger, those two should be closer to D-rank than E... but the gap between them and me was wider than expected.
Of course, that didn't mean I'd reached C-rank yet... but I'd surely surpassed fresh D-rank level with ease.
'At this rate, I didn't need to buy those potions afte—hm?'
As the disappointingly easy promotion exam started loosening my tension, I noticed something pinned under the remains of the slime I'd just killed.
"This is..."
"A corpse."
Ricar spotted the same thing and casually named it.
Pinned under the slime was a human body—or what was left of it. A badly decayed one, long dead.
"Sewers like this are perfect for killing someone and hiding the body. Corpses aren't exactly rare."
Acting like it was no big deal, Ricar prodded the corpse indifferently with his boot.
"Been dead a while. Clothes stripped clean suggests robbery-murder. Someone looted the belongings and dumped it here."
"Hm..."
By now, stumbling on a dead body didn't shock me anymore.
As Ricar said, in this world where life was cheaper than on Earth, seeing the occasional corpse wasn't uncommon.
Especially dumping them in filthy sewers like this—happened on Earth too, often enough.
Even so...
'What is it?'
Something felt off about the corpse. A faint, indescribable unease.
Hard to pinpoint exactly—a vague sense of wrongness.
Shaking off the odd feeling, I stepped closer to inspect it.
"What're you doing? Praying for its soul or something? Still got some fresh innocence left in you."
Ricar misinterpreted my actions and eyed me even warmer than before, but I ignored him and carefully examined the body.
'Wounds... rotted away. Blood's all clotted black, belly bloated with gas.'
Everywhere I looked, it screamed perfect corpse.
Yet that nagging discomfort persisted.
-Drip.
Taking advantage of Ricar not watching, I reached out and touched it.
Cold, devoid of any human warmth. Revulsion welled up from deep inside.
'Just a corpse... a plain old corpse.'
Dead for ages. Gases made it impossible to ID the original person, no belongings to pinpoint identity.
Even after close inspection and touching it, I couldn't figure out why it felt wrong.
"Done? Let's move. Lingering here's gonna mess with your head."
In the end, unable to identify the source of the unease, I let Ricar drag me along to continue the request.
.
.
.
And.
Deep in the sewers somewhere.
"Kuhuhu... good... so very good..."
A ragged man in a black robe dredged a corpse from a pile of filth, heedless of the grime coating his body.
Far from repulsed by the muck-covered body before him, he wore an ecstatic expression. Kneeling there, he began to pray.
"Ooo... O twisted life, grant your humble servant your blessing..."