The Ratman Shaman's Spirit
The red eyes of the Ratman Shaman move sluggishly. It looks at me, having landed right at its feet. I see the clean, precise sword mark carved from its neck down to its chest. Then, its eyes flicker once more... and lose their light entirely. The massive bulk of the Ratman Shaman collapses.
You have defeated the boss of the Underground Waterway, the Ratman Shaman.
Phew. That was hellishly difficult. It didn't go perfectly according to plan, but I won, didn't I? "Estelle-ssi...!" Flora covers her mouth, unable to finish her sentence. Her expression is a mix of joy and astonishment.
"Senior, wait a moment." My body, drained of all mana, trembles precariously as if it might collapse at any second, but I force strength into my legs and hold my ground. Even if it's tough, I have to clean up properly. I approach the entrance where the magic shield is faintly fading and tear a scroll.
You have used the Scroll of Terror.
A dark, murky mist rises from the scroll, forming an indescribably horrific shape. The Ratmen gathered at the entrance see the figure and flee in terror. Having witnessed their leader, the Shaman, being slaughtered, and with the added effect of the Scroll of Terror, they won't dare to attack us for a while.
"Ugh, that was exhausting." Only then does the strength completely leave my body, and I collapse forward from my standing position. Thud. Before I hit the ground, Flora quickly catches me. "Senior, can I sleep for a bit?" I mutter in a languid voice. Is it because of the sense of accomplishment from pulling it off? For some reason, I feel like acting spoiled. I'm not usually this kind of person.
"You've worked hard. Get some rest." Flora whispers in a warm voice and strokes my hair. Under normal circumstances, I would have rejected it, feeling like I was being treated like a child. But right now, I don't hate the touch. 'Just close my eyes for a moment...'
But in the corner of my darkening vision, something catches my eye. Huh, that. What is that...? Holy crap, wait!
"Senior, holy crap, look at that, that!"
"Why? What is it?"
I bolt upright and crawl on all fours toward the corpse of the Ratman Shaman. A blue flame flickers over the Shaman's body. It's a spirit. A jackpot reward that appears with a 5 percent chance. I crawl like a dog and immediately reach out to the spirit. I have to eat it before it disappears. Even if a meteor falls from the sky, I have to eat this spirit before I die. 'Is my Luck stat high?'
I've caught the boss and had spirits appear twice in a row. Was Estelle actually a lucky person? Since Luck is a hidden stat, there's no way to check it in-game, but I have a feeling that might be the case.
You have acquired the Ratman Shaman's Spirit.
The Ratman Shaman's Spirit is being converted into a spirit item.
It's a bit disappointing that the skill Wild Liberation didn't drop, but hey, at least I got an item. I pick up a small green ring.
— Accessory Item
— Increases melee and magic attack power when equipped.
— A ring imbued with the insidious malice of the Ratman Shaman. It is shaped like a snake biting its own tail. To use this ring properly, a sufficient amount of antidote will be required.
— Additional Options: [Poisoning], [Painful Sacrifice]
[Poisoning] — Has a chance to poison the enemy upon melee hit.
[Painful Sacrifice] — Poisons the user while simultaneously increasing all damage dealt to the enemy. The longer the user has been poisoned, the greater the damage increase.
The abilities are somewhat skewed toward offense, but it's still a very useful spirit item. It's good to use right away, and good to sell later. 'This is why I run dungeons.' My body is weary from the fatigue of the last few days of dungeon exploration, but I'm extremely satisfied because I've reaped the rewards. I finally close my eyes. It feels like floating on a cloud. I have a feeling I'll have a very good dream if I sleep now.
The air outside, which I'm breathing again for the first time in a while, is truly refreshing. We left the underground waterway and returned to the frontier. The first thing we did, above all else, was dispose of the loot. My bag was heavy, filled to the brim with byproducts from giant rats and Ratmen, and it was even giving off a faint smell. There was no other choice.
"We're rich!" Flora says, holding gold coins in both hands with a smile spread across her face. The total money earned from disposing of the loot is 23,600 gold. It was worth the effort of cutting and slicing through rat corpses while holding back the urge to vomit. On top of that, we collected 640 magic stones. It's quite satisfying for a first hunt.
"Senior, still, don't brag too loudly."
"Why?"
"If you brag about money at the frontier, you're likely to become a target for robbers. There's no need to dangerously let everyone around you know that you have a lot of money."
"Eek, is that so?" Hearing my words, Flora's eyes widen. Flora carefully puts the gold coins she was holding into her bag, and suddenly hunches over, nervously scanning her surroundings. I don't know why, but because she's hunched over awkwardly, it almost looks like she's imitating a Ratman.
"...You don't have to be that scared. No, why is this person so extreme? Just be normal, do as you were doing."
"Understood..." Flora straightens her back again. However, her expression is still awkwardly stiff.
"More importantly, about the distribution." I clear my throat and dive into the serious, important topic. There are countless adventurer parties in the world, but despite heroic achievements, the endings are often not very good. The representative cause of discord among party members is the issue related to the distribution of loot. At first, everyone says let's divide it fairly, but that's not as easy as it sounds. How should it be divided to be fair? Once you actually start the distribution, opinions clash. Some parties just divide it equally by N without any complicated fuss, but... even then, dissatisfaction builds up. Someone might think they are doing the work of two or three people in the party, while someone else is doing less than one person's share.
"Senior, I thought about it. I think we should basically divide it half and half, but..."
"Ah, we'll do 2 to 1. Obviously, Estelle-ssi gets 2. How about that?"
Huh? I stop what I was about to say and stare blankly at Flora. What I had initially thought of was a half-and-half split. And since I do more work in terms of processing byproducts or hunting bosses, I was going to argue for a larger share for myself there.
"I'd be happy with that, but... are you sure?"
"Of course. Our party can't function without Estelle-ssi. I'll follow whatever Estelle-ssi says."
The conversation ended more smoothly than I thought. Moreover, Flora readily yielded the spirit item to me as well. "Because it seems like it would be more useful if Estelle-ssi uses it than me." That's certainly true. It is true, but... I was going to try to persuade Flora to let me have the ring even if it meant pushing it, but I didn't even need to do that. Is this girl a fool, or a pushover?
"Then, I look forward to the next hunt as well." After finishing the distribution, Flora bows her head. I see. I realized it then. She is by no means a fool. She noticed. That I'm a bus driver. That if she just boards well and doesn't offend me, I'll take her to the destination on my own. She must have judged that choosing to go on the next hunt, and the hunt after that, together is more advantageous than coveting a little bit of immediate gain. 'She's actually pretty smart.'
It's not bad for me either. I don't have to argue about loot distribution, which is a headache. At least at this stage, Flora is a party member who is sufficiently helpful. Perhaps there will come a moment when I have to say goodbye at some point, but for now, it's fine to go together.
"Excuse me, Estelle-ssi. What should we do now?"
"Well, I don't know... shouldn't we each get our gear ready, rest, and then meet up again?"
"Then— would you like to go wash up first?" Flora says, her eyes sparkling. "I didn't know when I was underground, but now that I'm out, I can tell. The smell coming from our bodies is no joke right now. It would be nice to soak in hot water and wash up cleanly. How about it?"
"Uh...?" I couldn't find a response for a moment and just gulped. Flora's words are absolutely correct. I have to wash. I had been feeling it since a while ago too. Since I've been rolling around in that dirty underground waterway for days, my body must be reeking of filth right now. However, there is a reason why I can't readily accept Flora's suggestion. A reason I can't possibly explain to Flora.
'Why wash together again. ...No, from her perspective, it's a perfectly reasonable thing to say. Because we're both girls? But still.' Flora must have made the suggestion out of pure goodwill, hoping to become closer as comrades. I was engulfed in serious agony. Even though I'm a girl. I'm actually a man. But I'm a girl right now, so wouldn't it be fine? No, even so, I can deceive the heavens and the earth, but I can't deceive myself. It's ethically wrong. Even Confucius would curse me for this. But then again, what the hell, who cares? Just close my eyes and do it once. Honestly, I'm curious too... If not now, when— countless thoughts flash by in just a few seconds. The conclusion I reached was...
"I, I don't want to wash..."
"Pardon?"
"Senior, go wash by yourself!"
A coward's choice. It was to run away just like that.
The Lich's Mansion, inside a hidden secret room. A pair of a man and a woman stand here. Anna, a beauty with cutely upturned eyes. Eden, a man who wears a gentle smile but has a somewhat chilling atmosphere. There are one or two epithets that follow them. However, if there's one that is most famous— it would surely be 'The Hero's Companions'.
"Not here," Anna says in a playful tone. "Lich, where did you go? Are you dead?"
The Ancient Magic Restraining Device is a work created by Anna's hand. The concept is an eternal prison. It was a work she herself was quite confident was made well. But the Lich, who should have been trapped there without a way out, was nowhere to be seen now. Vexingly.
"Anna-ssi, the Lich does not die," Eden says, adjusting his glasses. "It is correct to see it as having escaped."
"Eh, how? That doesn't make sense."
"A being that revives endlessly is also nonsense. There must have been some kind of escape method we don't know about."
Anna pouts and taps the restraining device for no reason. As if the restraining device had done something wrong. Eden scans the secret room with sharp eyes.
"More importantly, how it escaped is no longer important. So, where is the Lich now? We need to find that out."
"But even if it escaped, it's not much now, is it? In its current state, it wouldn't even be able to handle a single wild boar."
"That may be so."
Eden examines the floor carefully. Amidst the thick layer of dust, there was a mark of something being dragged. Eden tracks the trail of disturbed dust like a skilled detective.
"That is why we must capture it again while it is weak. If we let it regain its strength, it will become a headache."
"Ugh— annoying. I don't know. I'm not interested. It's not fun at all, chasing after the tail of a weak Lich."
Anna, who was following with her head tilted and an awkward gait, eventually starts to complain. She is called the greatest genius in history among mages, and the youngest Tower Master of the Fire Mage Tower... but she is a personality who always moves based on interest and cannot stand boredom for even a single second. For Anna, this was quite a long time to endure.
"Anyway, Michael will handle it. He's a gr—eat hero, so what's a Lich to him? Honestly, I think you're making a fuss for nothing."
"...If you don't feel like it, you may return first, Anna-ssi." Eden says, rising from his seat and dusting off his priest's robes.
"Ah, can I?" Anna asks, looking delighted.
"I will stay and search the surroundings of the mansion more. As you said, the current Lich is nothing, so I should be able to suppress it on my own. Could you come pick me up when I contact you later?"
"Sure. Good luck—" Anna quickly uses magic before Eden changes his mind.
"Long-distance Controlled Spatial Teleportation"
⟨ Spatial Teleportation ⟩
The pinnacle of spatial movement magic, crossing mountains and seas to move to the other side of the continent in an instant. It is a high-difficulty magic that fewer than ten mages across the entire continent can use.
"Hmm." Eden watches for a moment as Anna, wrapped in a magic circle, disappears. The companion who had been chattering noisily is gone, and silence returns. The stillness and quiet that Eden loves most. Eden smiles gently, as is his habit, and begins to track the Lich's footsteps again with persistence.