Chapter 13: The Dungeon (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 13: The Dungeon (2)
A cave filled with unsightly totems.
The Goblin Shaman, holding a staff topped with a skull, seemed to be performing some kind of ritual, but it looked like it was just for show.
This was a brand-new dungeon. What kind of ritual could a newborn possibly perform?
‘Hobgoblins weren't part of the plan.’
I remember this first dungeon perfectly. It was supposed to be one shaman and four regular goblins, fixed. There's no way I'm wrong.
Is this a change that occurred when this world became reality? Then again, in the original, only my party entered, but now other adventurers are here too. If the difficulty changed to scale with the number of people, that would make sense.
Well, no matter how the situation changes, all I can do is trust in Mirabelle.
“Miss Mirabelle, can you handle this?”
“Just relax, Master.”
Mirabelle began to draw upon her mana.
Kiiieeeeek!
Sensing something was wrong, the Goblin Shaman let out a bizarre cry. It hastily waved its skull staff and issued a command, and the goblins guarding the area charged forward.
The shaman then began to mumble an unintelligible incantation. It was casting a spell.
The goblins tried to stab with their chipped daggers.
Two hobgoblins swung their greatswords and axes.
The distance between them and us was closing fast.
But Mirabelle made no move to counter them. I shot her an anxious glance. Are you sure you've got this?
As if to mock my concern, Mirabelle sprang into action. She lightly tapped the Heavenly Covenant on the ground.
Ting.
A gentle white ripple spread out from Mirabelle. A magic circle was inscribed on the ground. The floor writhed and transformed into a viscous swamp.
The charging goblins began to sink. The panicked creatures flailed, but that only made them sink faster. The large hobgoblins were submerged up to their waists, and the baby-sized goblins had already gone under.
Mirabelle's magical assault continued.
In the game, combat was turn-based, an exchange of attacks and defenses, but reality was merciless. The skilled could attack indefinitely.
Two fire arrows conjured by Mirabelle shot toward the goblins, leaving trails of sparks like fireworks in the night sky.
Just then, the Goblin Shaman finished its incantation. It swayed its body as if dancing and swung its staff, and a thick black mist spread out, swallowing the fire arrows.
But that wasn't all.
As the mist covered the swamp, its binding power weakened, and the ground around the hobgoblins hardened enough for them to stand on. Shaking off the bog, the hobgoblins climbed back onto solid earth.
The Goblin Shaman's spell had completely nullified Mirabelle's magic.
“Anti-magic…”
Mirabelle's brow furrowed in frustration, annoyed that a mere goblin had blocked her. It felt a little strange to think it at a time like this, but her expressions had become so much richer. It made me proud, like a father.
The regrouped hobgoblins charged mindlessly once more, seeking revenge. Though the shaman had blocked her spell, the magic Mirabelle could wield was limitless.
And besides.
“Do you see what you missed?”
“Yes. I won't make the same mistake again.”
Mirabelle must have realized it just now, too—who to eliminate first in a battle.
Mirabelle lowered the Heavenly Covenant slightly. A yellow spark of lightning crackled before the glowing crystal and shot forth.
A spear of lightning, faster than sound.
There was no way a monster that needed to chant could react to a speed that far surpassed perception. A momentary flash lit up the dark cave, piercing the shaman.
The shaman's entire upper body vanished.
The cross-section was charred black, smoke rising from it.
All that remained were two defenseless hobgoblins. With the shaman that protected them from magic gone, the outcome was obvious. They, too, were taken out in one hit by Mirabelle's magic.
A clean sweep.
An entire dungeon, utterly decimated by a single girl with no real combat experience.
Hooo...
Mirabelle let out a deep breath to calm her nerves, then whipped around to face me and asked with a cautious expression, “Um... Was I helpful to you, Master? Have I proven my worth with this?”
So that's what she was worried about.
Such needless anxiety.
This was the time for lavish praise.
“You were magnificent. You've taken another step closer to your liberation.”
“Ah… I'm so glad.”
Mirabelle's cheeks flushed red.
Was she embarrassed by the praise?
I'd have to do it more often so she could get used to it.
I walked past the dead monsters, looking around.
“What is it, Master? Did I do something wrong?”
“No, it's not that. I'm just looking for something…”
I couldn't see the skill book. The drop rate is low, so I had to reroll endlessly back then, but do I have to do that again now?
That's just too unreasonable.
Now, I can't just press an 'auto' button; I have to walk through it myself. The labor involved is on a completely different level from the past, when I could run it hundreds of times a day.
At most, I can only clear this four times a day.
Just in case, I started searching the goblins' corpses. Useless items like [Goblin's Ear] dropped. Next, I searched the Goblin Shaman's body.
[Goblin Shaman's Staff]
- Contains an ominous power. Slightly increases the power of black magic.
This was pretty useless, too.
With some lingering hope, I lifted the rags the shaman was wearing.
“Oh?”
I felt something rectangular deep within its robes. It had the exact feel and size of a book. My heart pounding, I pulled it out.
[Goblin Shaman's Grimoire]
- A grimoire that belonged to a Goblin Shaman.
It dropped!
Yes, it had to. An anomaly like hobgoblins appeared in a boss room that was only supposed to have a shaman. If the difficulty goes up, the drop rate for the reward should obviously go way up, too.
“Is that what you were looking for?”
“It is. It's a gift for you, Miss Mirabelle.”
“…”
Mirabelle gave me that look again.
I wondered why, but it made sense. The Heavenly Covenant was a keepsake from the dead. And now, this was something I'd picked off a goblin's corpse.
It seemed I was only giving Mirabelle things that belonged to the dead. It would be strange if she were happy about it.
“This is essential for your revenge.”
“If that’s the case… Besides, I’ll gratefully accept anything you give me, Master.”
Mirabelle reluctantly accepted my excuse about revenge.
I let out a sigh of relief and tucked the grimoire into my inner pocket. In the game, you could learn a skill instantly, but I wasn't sure how it worked here.
There was still plenty of time, so she could learn it slowly.
‘Something's strange, though.’
As far as I knew, the original name was [Soul Grimoire], but now it's [Goblin Shaman's Grimoire].
Well, I probably don't need to worry about it too much. The item dropped by the Goblin Shaman was, without fail, the Soul Grimoire.
I'll figure out the details while resting at the inn—
BOOM!
Just then, a massive explosion filled the cave. The cavern shook as if from an earthquake, and bats hanging from the ceiling flew off in a swarm.
CRASH! BOOM!
The explosions didn't stop there. The sounds were getting closer. Something was approaching from the direction we came.
‘What is it? Are there still monsters left?’
Her relaxed tension instantly snapping back, Mirabelle stood guard, watching the entrance. And then, the last wall I had erected was shattered.
“Blocking every single path with walls. What kind of lunatic would pull a stunt like this in a dungeon? If I find them, I’ll grind them into dust.”
An irritable voice rang out.
It was a voice I recognized.
Through the thick cloud of dust, the silhouettes of two people appeared, drawing closer. When they emerged from the dust, they were wearing immaculate white robes, despite having surely been covered in dirt.
“Hic.”
Mirabelle let out a sharp gasp and instinctively flinched. It was the clergy from the tavern.
“Huh? What the? It's that jerk from before?” the priestess muttered, a line straight out of a weekend drama. Her eyes met mine, and she pointed at me with a surprised look.
“And the cute little one is with you, too. You two were adventurers?”
“Haha, yes, we do a bit of adventuring on the side. But what brings a priestess like yourself here?”
As the priestess approached, Mirabelle's trembling intensified. I pulled her behind me.
“…We received a report that every path was blocked. The guild requested our assistance in dealing with the unusual situation.”
The priestess noticed my wariness. She wrinkled her nose in displeasure, but perhaps because of our last encounter, she didn't complain openly.
More importantly, was putting up the walls a bad move?
I'd wracked my brain for a solution because I would have been in deep trouble if I couldn't get the Soul Grimoire. I never expected the clergy to show up.
“These walls. You put them up, didn't you?”
Her tone was already certain. There was no point in denying it. In that case, I would simply respond like a slave trader.
“Yes. Did you happen to meet a party of new adventurers on your way here?”
“You mean that party of kids? Yeah, we met them at a rest area on the way.”
“Their frontline fighter, a young boy, abandoned his party and tried to join us. He was being completely unreasonable. It was quite a predicament, for us and for his party.”
“So?”
“No matter how we tried to shake him, he kept following. We had to lose him. We would have been fine, but we judged that his party could have been wiped out without their frontline fighter.”
The priestess stroked her chin thoughtfully.
“Even so, was it necessary to block every path? They aren't the only party in this dungeon. By blocking the way, you inconvenienced all of them. Surely there was another way.”
“Hmm, perhaps you're right. My thinking was short-sighted. If I meet them, I will formally apologize and offer compensation. A sum that will not be found lacking.”
In a world where you can sway soldiers with money, how hard could it be to win over a few poorly equipped newbies? If I slipped them a little cash, they'd probably bow their heads and thank me for putting up the walls.
“Well… if you reach an agreement with the parties involved, then I have nothing more to say.”
Since I had readily admitted my fault and even proposed a solution, the priestess couldn't press the matter any further.
“I apologize for making you come all this way. Allow me to treat you to a meal outside. Now, if you'll excuse us, we'll be on our way…”
“Before that.”
The priestess stopped me.
Her relaxed demeanor vanished in an instant, replaced by something chilling. Her gaze, fixed on me, was brimming with hostility.
“You. What did you pick up in here?”