A New Path (1)
Volter, leader of the Volter Trading Company, a mage, Hans’s father, and the master of the slaves Pyutel and Pyurie, barely managed to swallow the rage boiling up from deep inside his chest.
“What? Meni already formed a contract with someone else? You absolute idiot—why the hell did you yell about canceling the contract?!”
Let’s think positively. Positively.
Other families’ children had returned mentally shattered, but at least his son had come back sane. He tried to focus on that silver lining. Still, the thought of losing Meni of the Mor race—a warrior he had practically picked up for free—made his blood boil. To make matters worse, the two capable mountain-race slaves had paid their ransom to the Merchants Guild and earned their freedom. According to Aiparak’s laws, once a slave mercenary paid their value to the guild, they had to be released. There was nothing he could do to stop it.
“Father, we still have the commission we accepted.”
“The commission?”
“Yes. The guild request we took to raise the party members’ ranks.”
“Ah, the one for delivering fifty kilograms of magic ore.”
Volter remembered it, but it didn’t impress him much. The entire job had been rigged from the start—a self-contained loop designed to inflate the party’s credentials. Fifty kilograms of magic ore should have been worth at least a hundred and fifty gold coins on the open market, yet they had listed the request for a mere ten. Their own party would accept it, complete it, and log the success. Even though the trading company’s mercenary contract had ended, the guild commission remained. Still, it wasn’t enough to chain them down. The only consequence for canceling was a penalty fee, easily paid.
Thinking he had nothing to lose, Volter decided to ask Meni and the mountain-race siblings—who had come to collect their belongings—to finish the commission anyway.
“A… a commission?”
Meni shrank back at the sudden request. The mountain-race brother and sister, who had spent their lives in the highlands, looked equally intimidated. Sezanne, the most experienced mercenary among them, stepped forward and declared they should simply cancel and eat the penalty. I stopped her.
“We could cancel, but we’ll complete it instead. There is one condition, however. If you adjust the payment to the market rate—one hundred and fifty gold coins for fifty kilograms of magic ore—our Golden Dawn Mercenary Corps will take over the request.”
Mage Hans flashed a triumphant grin, certain the bait had been taken. Seeing his son’s reaction, Volter revised the commission to the full market value. It wasn’t exactly a losing deal for them. Once the paperwork was updated and the Golden Dawn Mercenary Corps had withdrawn, Volter turned to his son.
“It’s not even a profitable venture. Why go through all this?”
“You’ve never been to the third floor of the dungeon, Father. Dozens of orcs swarm you down there.”
“I’ve never heard of them swarming like that.”
“That stupid Mor-race woman draws them in. And even if they somehow finish the request, we lose nothing. They’ll probably suffer for days underground trying to gather the ore. Hahaha.”
It was true they wouldn’t lose money, but they wouldn’t gain any either. Volter shook his head at the sight of his son taking pleasure in tormenting others out of pure spite. A successor who put personal feelings before profit had no future running a trading company. He made a mental note to summon his second and third sons.
Sezanne’s words were reasonable.
“I agree that we should take the first official request as the newly formed Golden Dawn Mercenary Corps. But even if we do, it won’t carry much weight.”
As a brand-new company, we could have chosen something simpler and quicker. Yet I had my reasons for accepting this particular commission.
“First, it lets us practice coordinating inside the dungeon. There’s another reason too, but I’ll explain once we’re inside tomorrow.”
“Is there some special reason we need to enter the dungeon?” Sezanne asked, curiosity sparkling in her eyes. I told her she would find out tomorrow and left it at that. We purchased luminous stones and plenty of supplies for the trip, then moved on.
“You need a bow?”
“Yes, Master,” Pyutel answered. “I’m carrying a spear for now, but my sister and I were hunters. Bows lose some effectiveness in dungeons, but if the front-line warriors hold firm, having an archer in the rear providing covering fire will be very useful.”
Only after hearing Pyutel’s explanation did I realize that none of the mercenaries I had seen inside the dungeon used bows. The darkness probably made it difficult to spot enemies at range and aim properly. By the time a luminous stone revealed a target, it was usually too close; at that point a spear was more practical. But if Meni and I could hold the front line properly, Pyurie would have the breathing room to loose arrows from safety. Even if the arrows lacked the raw power of magic, their rapid rate of fire would still be a big help.
“All right. Choose a bow and arrows that feel right to you.”
Pyutel and Pyurie’s faces lit up with joy as they selected their weapons. They promised over and over that they would not disappoint me. I turned to the last member of our new party.
“Meni, if you need anything, just say so.”
“I… I want cake… Is that okay…?”
Even as she spoke, Meni’s eyes were glued to the cakes being pulled from the oven in the bakery across from the weapon shop.
“Of course you can have some! I’ll buy it. Once we finish picking out the bows and arrows and maintain all our weapons, we’ll go eat cake together.”
“R-really? Hehehe. By the way, I can maintain weapons too.”
Meni pulled a whetstone and hammer from her bag. The handle of the hammer was dark with years of use. She explained that while she couldn’t repair anything that required a forge, she could easily fix chipped blades on the spot.
“Oh, that’s actually really useful.”
She truly had inherited the dexterous hands of her dwarf bloodline.
“Meni, this little one is Call. Call, this is Meni. Over there are Pyutel and Pyurie.”
Call, whom I had left at the mercenaries’ guild, barked as if he understood every word. He licked the hands of our three new companions, carefully memorizing their scents.
I turned to Sezanne. “I heard that the training grounds here can turn anyone into a mage using an all-purpose stone. How exactly does that work?”
Since I could create the stones at will, I wanted to awaken Yanne as a mage.
“I’ve seen it done,” Pyurie said quietly. “They lay the person down, place the all-purpose stone on the center of their chest, and then a mage does something. After that, the person becomes a mage.”
It sounded like the mage forcibly guided the subject’s mana flow while the stone generated power. Once the subject sensed the flow, they could manifest magic and officially become a mage. They would be taught the basic Fire Bolt spell and sent on their way.
I crafted an all-purpose stone and handed it to Sezanne. She placed her hand on Yanne’s chest and guided the mana flow. Before long, Yanne was able to cast magic too.
“You’ll need to practice casting every day for a week to get used to it. And keep that all-purpose stone on you at all times.”
When Meni saw Yanne succeed, she immediately wanted to become a mage as well. But anyone could tell at a glance that Meni was born to be an in-fighter. Turning her into an out-fighter made no sense. Still, I pretended to consider it and opened her status window to buy time.
As expected, her magic power was only 1.
“Meni, if you become a mage you’ll have to eat less cake. Look at Sezanne over there. Would you be okay looking like that?”
“Ugh. No. I want to eat lots of cake.”
Meni shook her head vigorously at the sight of the slender Sezanne.
“Hey, why are you dragging me into this? I want to eat lots of cake too!”
The first and second floors of the dungeon were so easy that Meni could have cleared them alone. We reached the staircase leading to the third floor without breaking a sweat. Everyone tensed as we descended. I took the lead alongside Meni.
Using my minimap, I skillfully located only groups of two or three orcs that had split off from larger packs. The strategy was simple: Meni and I, both possessing strength that orcs could not overcome, blocked with our shields. Once our vision was clear, Pyurie—the mountain-race huntress—provided covering fire with her bow while Yanne launched iron pellets. We never even needed Sezanne’s magic. The only precaution we took was fitting Meni with a gag so she couldn’t roar and attract every monster in the area.
“Only two or three at a time? The third floor is easier than I expected. We’ve already taken down more than twenty. Let’s head back up for today.”
We had gathered several kilograms of magic ore, so we turned toward the staircase leading upward.
“Wait. Stop!”
I called everyone to a halt just as the stairs to the second floor came into view. I walked over to the side wall and ran my hands across its surface.
“Meni, push the bottom section with your foot.”
We pushed carefully, trying not to make noise. Suddenly there was a heavy clunk, and the wall began to tilt backward.
The section of wall we had gently pushed swung open, revealing a brand-new passage.
“A… a path…”
“Don’t tell me… the reason you accepted Volter’s commission without changing it was because of this?”
The Aiparak Dungeon was over forty years old and had long been considered fully explored. The sudden appearance of a hidden area left everyone stunned.
“That’s right. Yesterday, while fighting orcs and heading back to the second floor, I noticed something strange. I bought the maps sold by the guild and even the ones made by parties that frequently clear the third floor. Neither of them showed this passage.”
I used the maps as an excuse, but the truth was that a single red dot at the end of this path had bothered me. Both maps were completely blank in this area.
“This passage might lead to a staircase for the fourth floor, or it might open into an entirely new dungeon space. We bought plenty of supplies, so let’s check it out.”
Everyone knew how heavily we had shopped at the weapon store and provisioner yesterday, so no one objected. The newly revealed corridor stretched straight ahead. We left a luminous stone behind and walked for a long time. When we looked back, the angle of visible light had narrowed. The path was curving very subtly. The turns changed direction—sometimes left, sometimes right. We walked for over three hours. By the time everyone’s stomachs began to growl and we stopped to eat, we had probably covered twenty kilometers.
After the meal I cast buffs on the tired group. We continued for another thirty minutes until a red dot appeared on my map.
Red entity detected ahead.
“Something’s coming. Raise your shields and hold position.”
Pyutel, a former hunter, looked startled by my warning. Relying on luminous stones limited our vision, yet I—who stood behind him—had noticed the threat first. I kept my eyes fixed on the slowly approaching red dot, tension tightening my chest. It might be the same entity that had been marked on my map yesterday near the wall. We waited a long time, but nothing appeared. According to the map the target was right in front of us, yet we saw nothing.
What is it? Where is it hiding?
“Above! It’s above us!”