Chapter 11
Chapter 11
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 11
Chapter Title: Kaiden Party
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Whooooosh—
Rooooar—
The night sky resounded with eerie wails.
And the owners of those wails were frolicking in circles across the heavens, illuminated by moonlight.
Sedispecters.
Monsters also known as possession ghosts.
'I should have paced Mia better.'
Kaiden looked up at the flock of Sedispecters circling overhead with a troubled expression.
And that wasn't all.
Skeletons were swarming from all directions, continuously spawning adds.
'To think there'd be a Bait here.'
Kaiden's gaze turned toward one spot, laced with faint resentment.
Precisely, toward the corpse of an unnamed crawler lying far off in the distance.
It was a fairly common occurrence in dungeons.
When a party was wiped out, a panicked survivor would flee, pulling endless adds and forming a monster train in the process.
Eventually, they'd die leading that monster train, causing a monster density spike in the area.
A so-called Bait Point.
'...Things were going too smoothly, so I let my guard down too.'
Fighting near a Bait Point was one of the great taboos in dungeons.
Since the force that wiped one party could easily handle adds from another.
But on the flip side, monster clusters of that scale were just as easy to spot.
Even if cover obscured the view, Miella or Kaiden would normally have noticed and dealt with it.
But they'd spent too much time focused on farming.
In their rush to set up camp before nightfall, this mess had happened.
'We have talismans and holy water. But...'
Talismans to ward off Sedispecter possession, holy water to consecrate weapons against spirits.
Essential consumables for facing not just Sedispecters, but many mid-layer monsters.
'There are too many.'
Simply put, too many monsters.
Even with their experience reaching the 20th floor, they'd never fought a monster train of this size on the 16th.
'...Even if we win, we'll burn through all our consumables. Guess this expedition ends here.'
He weighed the expedition's costs against the profits.
Decent gains, but a bone-deep deficit loomed.
And Kaiden recalled the new party member bearing much of that deficit's blame—the one absent from their old lineup.
Arjen.
With her blessings, at least the worst-case total wipe Rask had warned about could be avoided.
'Thirteen gold hurts, but it's a bargain for our party's lives.'
Ping-! Thunk-!
Kaiden blocked a quarrel flying through the skeletons with his shield and made his call.
"Miss Arjen. Besides physical enhancement blessings, can you also grant mana infusion or weapon consecration?"
He glanced sideways at Arjen as he spoke.
Low odds, but worth asking just in case.
'Given the blessings she's shown so far, she probably hasn't learned those yet.'
Physical enhancement blessings.
Blessings to lighten equipment weight.
And though no injuries yet, the wound-healing blessing every priest learned first.
He didn't know priests inside out, but he knew mastering that lineup wasn't easy.
Still, he hoped for more because Arjen was a crawler with a moniker—even a derogatory one like 'Rusted Silver'.
"Hm? Oh? Yes. Of course I can."
And Arjen affirmed Kaiden's hopes as if it were obvious.
No, beyond that, she faced this horde without a trace of tension, utterly calm.
"But are you really going to take them all on yourself?"
"...Pardon?"
"They're gathered so nicely like this. Seems better if I just handle it."
...Huh?
"Wh-what do you...?"
Kaiden couldn't process Arjen's words. For a moment, he forgot he was frontline and facing a monster horde.
His hand raising the shield drooped.
"Whoa, careful."
-Pop!
Arjen, who'd been behind him, was suddenly at his side.
Silver gauntlet poised near his temple.
Looking closer, the gauntlet gripped a rusted quarrel tip.
'...Caught a flying quarrel barehanded?'
A quarrel too fast even for a warrior's dynamic vision?
"That."
"Y-yes?"
"They're about to charge. How do you want to handle it? If you prefer to fight yourself, go ahead. Otherwise, I'll clean them up."
"......Uh... then, if you would?"
Shrieeeeeek-!
Taking Kaiden's dazed reply as the signal, the Sedispecters drawing circles in the air dove irregularly toward the Kaiden Party.
The talismans would block possession for a while, but if one pierced and possessed someone, friendly fire could doom them all.
In that desperate pinch, Arjen closed her eyes, clasped her hands, and prayed.
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡
Thrill-Nemus
Centered on Arjen, light exploded, tearing away the veil of night.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Keeee—
Grraaaah—
Watching the Sedispecter flock shriek briefly within the light, dissolving like night mist, and the skeletons scatter like dust in the wind...
'Nice. Feels refreshing.'
It cleared out the tension perfectly.
Such densely packed undead within spell range wasn't an everyday opportunity.
One-shotting 100+ mobs with a skill was rare even for flame or lightning mages famed for raw power.
"...Um, Miss Arjen. You could use an exorcism blessing too?"
"Yes. I'm a priest, after all."
Kaiden scanned the surroundings in a daze before looking at me.
It seemed like a clear answer, but he frowned, puzzling it over, then asked again.
"...Then why haven't you used it even once until now?"
"Right. There were skeletons up front too."
Miella chimed in.
Even Rask and Laira looked curious, though they stayed silent.
But unlike their curiosity, there was no grand reason.
"? No need to use it."
Unless it got annoying like this, why should I step up?
"...Even so, with power like that, you could've fought alongside us up front."
Miella looked exhausted yet pouty.
I just smiled silently at her.
'I'm already buffing and healing. Gotta do DPS too?'
Incompetent buff bots.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
'No wonder they had that tragic hero vibe.'
The Kaiden Party had assumed I couldn't use exorcism blessings at all.
'A priest who's cleared lower layers without exorcism blessings?'
First time partying with a priest, so maybe.
After our chat, the dazed Kaiden Party snapped to and began cleanup.
Spirit-type monsters like Sedispecters yielded nothing even when hunted—infamously worthless.
Skeletons at least dropped gear, but nothing valuable. A lucky few wore necklaces or rings.
Even under moonlight, spotting tiny trinkets on this dark ground wasn't easy.
So in cases like this...
"Rest in peace."
"...You seem way too used to this?"
Miella gave me an odd look while we rummaged through the dead crawler's body together.
Ignoring her, I yanked the ID tag from the crawler's neck.
Bodies were hard to retrieve from dungeons, so tags were standard.
This let you claim guild bounties plus any deposits from the crawler's contacts or family.
I examined the gleaming silver tag.
Khalid Jawhari
'...From the Jawhari side?'
"Know him?"
"No."
Miella asked as I stared at the tag.
I didn't know Khalid, but Jawhari was a prominent dungeon city house.
'Gonna collect a nice deposit.'
I thoroughly looted Khalid's body too.
Fancy weapons, coin pouches, emergency funds—mid-layer crawler hotspots.
Key items sorted and bagged in under a minute.
"...You're really a priest?"
"Of course. Didn't you see my exorcism barrier just now?"
"...Humans like this worship gods?"
"Don't zone out. Move."
Bait spots always had a wiped party nearby.
Backtracking Mia's escape route, we found four corpses amid a few skeletons.
All bore multiple wounds, but two had stabbed each other—friendly fire.
"...Ugh."
Miella grimaced at the classic possession-wipe signs.
"Clean up quick and go. Night means more Sedispecters incoming."
"...Can't you just handle them?"
"Fine for a big wave, but small trickles are inefficient."
Miella silently joined me looting valuables.
In five minutes, we'd stripped the wiped party clean.
"...Already done?"
"Right? Thought she was a fellow crawler."
Rejoining the party, Miella shrugged at Kaiden's incredulous look—a full agreement gesture.