by Yuu Tanaka
“Yes. We have many A- to C-Rank adventurers, but they’re out investigating a disturbance in the Demon Wolf’s Garden. They’d be able to handle this type of situation in a jiffy, but you know the circumstances… The A-Rank in particular is in a whole other dimension. She’d be able to take care of a weak dungeon in no time flat.”
“She?”
“That’s right. Amanda, A-Rank adventurer and ace of the Guild of Alessa.”
Interesting. Hitting A-Rank was difficult enough, but to think a woman could do it… I’d like to meet her one day.
“Not to mention the Knight Brigade ignored our request for aid.”
“Ignored?”
“You heard me. Ignored!”
“But they’re the Knight Brigade.”
“Right?! What are they even good for if they won’t lend us a hand in taking down a dungeon!”
So much for my expectation of pure and chivalrous knights…
“Their lieutenant is the worst! He’s the son of a nobleman and he’s as snotty, stingy, and mean as they get. I think he has a grudge against adventurers. I wouldn’t be surprised if he overrode the Knight Captain’s authority in this case.” Nell was getting angrier with the noble jerk with each passing moment. Her face twisted with murderous intent, and her low mutterings sounded like the incantation of a curse. She suddenly noticed Fran was still there and snapped back to her cheery smile.
“Ahahaha. Oh dear… The panic must be getting to me. Forget what I just said. Please?”
“Will do.”
“Thanks. You be careful about him though. He won’t be getting in the way of our raid today, but you’re going to have to deal with him eventually.”
“’Kay.”
Other adventurers had filtered into the guild hall as we spoke with Nell.
Didn’t know we had so many members.
There were more than fifty of them. I had never seen so many adventurers in one spot since I got here.
“They’re not that strong.”
Donadrond’s the strongest of the bunch.
The C-Rank adventurer also acted as an instructor to the newbies. There were other C-Ranks in the mix, but no one objected to Donadrond’s leadership.
“What’s a kid doing here?”
Someone objected to Fran’s presence, however. She stuck out like a sore thumb in the hall filled with hardy adventurers, so I’d expected one of them to point out the little girl in the room.
“What do you think you’re doing with that sword?”
A short young man confronted us. His features were so boyish I wondered what a kid like himself was doing there. His armor was still in perfect condition, making the fact that he was new all the more obvious. He looked like a G-Rank, but everyone here was definitely F-Rank and above.
I doubted he’d give the goblins much of a fight. Sure, his stats were slightly better than your garden-variety goblin, but the difference was microscopic. He probably ranked up by doing delivery quests in town. His Sword Mastery 1 was a dead giveaway he’d never been in a real battle. The guild must be desperate if they were letting adventurers like him participate.
“I’m going to exterminate goblins with him.”
“The fate of Alessa hangs on this raid! Kids like you are just gonna get in the way, so go home! What is the guild thinking?”
The boy looked very upset. Fran maintained her cool and ignored him.
“Did you hear me?”
“What?”
“Come on. You’re not supposed to be here. This isn’t a game.”
The prospect of fighting actual hobgoblins in combat probably scared the boy. As it should—they were much stronger than he was. As such, he tried hiding this fact by lashing out at anyone who appeared weaker than he was.
The surrounding adventurers reacted to the scene in different ways. Some thought it was funny and looked on, while some ignored us completely, and other wished the boy would shut up. The argument, if you could call it that, must’ve looked like a schoolyard squabble.
“Hm.”
“Damn it, stop moving!”
Fran avoided the boy’s attempt to drag her out of the hall with a quick sidestep. I thought about telling her to give the kid a break, but none of the adventurers seemed to raise their voices. Many of them were probably seething on the inside, but their comrades held them back.
“Hey, stop!”
“What—”
“Is that the—”
Rumors of Fran’s accomplishments against Donadrond and the goblin horde had been circulating around the guild. Unfortunately, not everyone understood the importance of information—like this boy, for example, and the adventurers who began yelling at us to stop.
“Pipe down, you brats! You’re both getting in the way, so drop out! There’s still time for you to do delivery quests!”
“I-I’m no delivery boy! I’m an F-Rank adventurer!”
“You’re fresh out of G-Rank! You’re just as weak!”
“I’m still an F-Rank. I have the right to participate in this raid!”
“I’m an F-Rank too.”
“What?”
The man looked surprised and looked down on Fran. He hadn’t expected her to be a legitimate adventurer.
“Gyahaha! If punks like you are F-Rank, that makes us S-Ranks!”
“Are you sure they’re F-Rank? They’ll promote anyone nowadays.”
“What’d you expect from a bunch of Dungeon Scavengers?”
I understood from their tones that they were mocking adventurers in general, but I didn’t know if Dungeon Scavenger was meant to be an insult. Considering mercenaries were the hyenas of the battlefield, I guess it took one to know one.
“I only took this job to tide me over till my next one, but if it’s this easy to rank up, maybe I’ll keep at it!”
These guys were former mercenaries too. From what I’d heard, there’d been a war with a neighboring country which ended faster than expected. Many mercenaries were out of a job when that happened.
I looked at their stats and confirmed they were nothing to write home about. These guys were full of hot air.
“Hehehe. You got something nice on your back there.”
“Oh? That looks like an exquisite sword.”
“Give it here.”
I was so flattered they had noticed such a fine specimen as myself, and I’d fully expected one of them to reach out their hand. I didn’t expect them to lack all sense of the impending danger.
The boy who had picked a fight with Fran had fled, the hairs on his neck standing on end. That was a good reaction to Fran’s clear broadcast of her intent to kill.
On the other hand, the third-rate mercs were still reaching out their hands with a dirty look on their faces.
“Hm—”
“That’s enough!”
Donadrond stepped between Fran and the mercs just as she was about to make her first move. He gave all of them a good beating.
“What the hell do you morons think you’re doing?! We’re heading out soon!”
“W-we didn’t…” The men cowered as Donadrond’s intimidating presence bore down on them.
“Don’t think you can talk yourself out of this one. I saw every bit of what happened. If you kill enough goblins out there, I’ll think about letting you off!”
Fran lost all interest in the three men and backed off, dissipating her intent to kill. We’d better lay low the rest of the day.
The boy complained to Donadrond about Fran.
“Sir Donadrond, you saved that girl and she didn’t even thank you!”
“Hah! Why would she? It wasn’t her I was trying to save.”
“What?”
“Can’t afford to lose manpower before a big battle.”
“S-Sir?”
How dangerous did Donadrond think Fran was? She wouldn’t start chopping people up who were on her side just because they pissed her off. At least, I didn’t think she would. Besides, there was always Healing Magic.
<
br /> Then again, they might be traumatized by the experience…
“Hm?”
Nothing. Let’s go whoop those goblins good.
“Of course.”
Donadrond assembled the adventurers for the briefing. It was an assembly in name only, since the adventurers just gathered around Donadrond in no actual order.
He proceeded to explain the mechanics of a dungeon. He began by explaining our roles and general battle strategy.
“I’ll give you the basics of how a dungeon works since this is going to be the first time for a lot of you. Veterans, consider it a review.”
There were many low-rank adventurers here, us included. None of us had ever set foot in a dungeon, so I at least was grateful for the basic lecture.
For starters, we were told not to destroy the dungeon core so we could use it again in the future. The Dungeon Core was the heart of the dungeon—destroy it, and the dungeon died with it. That included everything in the dungeon, from normal monsters to Dungeon Masters. However, the Core was protected by a powerful barrier, so only an incredibly powerful attack would be able to destroy it in the first place.
The Dungeon Core was connected to the Dungeon Master. Killing the DM would result in the Core going dormant. Other than that, the result was the same as destroying the Core, so the monsters within the dungeon would die out too.
An injection of mana into a dormant Core would allow humans to use a dungeon for a limited amount of time. Items and monsters would begin populating the dungeon again, which was the chief use of dungeons to begin with. That was why it was crucial that we only killed the Dungeon Master while leaving the Core intact. The Guild would then maintain the dungeon by culling its population of monsters and killing the Dungeon Master whenever it spawned.
“However, we’re working under special circumstances this time. Worst comes to worst, you’re allowed to destroy the Core. Just remember we’re here to capture the dungeon.”
Two hours had gone by since the adventurers left the city of Alessa.
“The goblins are coming!” the guard cried out. The guildsmen were in the middle of building a simple encampment with the materials they had brought. The goblins paid no heed and came pouring out of the mouth of the dungeon. We, who were out on patrol, rushed back, and not a moment too soon.
“Teacher, look.”
They haven’t finished building the base yet. It’s an all-out melee.
The adventurers were caught in a fierce battle with the hobgoblins. I couldn’t even launch an explosive fire attack without causing casualties to our side. The adventurers had all rallied around Donadrond to defend themselves.
“Let’s go.”
Yeah. We should cull the hobgoblins here before heading into the dungeon. I won’t be able to sleep at night if the adventurers got annihilated.
“But Teacher, you don’t sleep.”
It’s a figure of speech!
Fran drew me and charged ahead. We needed to save the newbies before they were slaughtered. Fran cut down every goblin standing in her path. They couldn’t see us since we were coming in hot from behind them.
“Weak.”
Hobgoblins aren’t so tough by themselves.
The hobgoblin we had just killed had the following stats:
Name: Hobgoblin Swordsman
Race: Fiend
LV: 8
HP: 69; Magic: 28; Strength: 39; Agility: 25
Skills: Intimidate 1; Evasion 1; Sword Arts 1; Sword Mastery 3; Command 1; Explosiveness 2; Cooperation 2; Spirit Manipulation
He was weaker than the Goblin King I took down some time ago. However, these guys had the Cooperation skill, which made them much more dangerous in large numbers.
The mercenaries who had been creeping on Fran before the raid lay motionless on the ground. The countless dents in their armor were a clear indication that they were beyond saving. That was what happened when you recklessly fought enemies without good coordination.
Fran never noticed the corpses. I wouldn’t be surprised if she had forgotten their faces by now.
“Haa!”
Take ’em down!
Fran slashed me through the air and launched an invisible Aura Blade toward the unaware Hobgoblins, killing an entire crew of them. The adventurers thanked her, their voices dripping with confusion and awe.
“Th-thanks!”
“That little girl is as cute as she is strong!”
“Huh? Who are you talking about?” The boy we had quarreled with earlier was among them. “N-no way!”
He was actually putting up a decent fight. The shock of seeing Fran was so great that he almost got killed however. Fortunately, an older adventurer saved him.
Most of the C- and D-Rank adventurers were close to the cave entrance, creating a lack of strong adventurers at the base. The hobgoblins picked up on this and began ganging up on Fran since she was their biggest threat.
“Big haul.”
They’re laying off the newbies and coming right at us.
I held back on crystal absorption. People would start talking if they noticed all the hobgoblins Fran had killed were missing their crystals. I settled for absorbing the crystals of the ones whose skills I wanted. That shouldn’t raise any suspicion.
They should be all right now. You wanna go to the dungeon?
“Yeah.”
No one would be able to see me absorb crystals in the dungeon. Moreover, we’d be able to hide the evidence by stowing away bodies in the Pocket Dimension.
Hobgoblins were crowding the cave entrance by the time Fran got there.
“I guess the info was right.”
Dungeons came in many different variations, the Cave Type being one of them. They weren’t known for having many traps, but they had plenty of odd structures like anthills in exchange.
One of the mages had sent their familiars to scout the cave in advance, and they found no traps inside. Considering the goblin population, traps would’ve made it hard for them to get around. It didn’t have any trap rooms either.
Trap rooms came equipped with special force fields that prevented movement or healing. If you had the misfortune of walking into one, it could be the end of you. Fortunately, the scout mages had confirmed there were none in this dungeon.
It was great news for us. We were free to go berserk without worrying about traps.
Let’s go!
“Yeah.”
Woohoo!
Fran jumped over the towering meat wall that was the adventurers crowding in front of the cave. Donadrond couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw her jump through the air. Or maybe he was looking up her skirt… He better not have.
“Is she using Air Hop?! That’s a Sky Knight skill!”
Uhh, maybe we shouldn’t have done that…
Sky Knight? That sounds like an advanced Class to me.
Sky Knight… The name itself told me it was strong, but how strong? We were going to have to hold back on our aerial maneuvers from now on.
“Too late for that, Teacher.”
Yeah… It is, isn’t it?
Fran had a point. This situation was bound to happen again, so there was little point in hiding it. We may as well use it to our heart’s content.
“We need to kill goblins now.”
Right. You’re absolutely right.
“Use your magic, Teacher. I’ll take care of the stragglers.”
Got it.
Fran used Float to further increase her altitude. When we got high enough, I rained down Tri Explosion on our enemies. The explosion blew away most of the hobgoblins who were covering the entrance. The blast wasn’t as impressive as the one I had used on Donadrond, but it was enough to kill the weaker hobgoblins.
Fran landed and began swinging at the stragglers.
“Sonic Wave!”
A Level 5 Sword Art, I unleashed a shockwave toward the horde of hobgoblins and blew them away.
“Now’s our chance.”
“Wait! It’s dangerous for anyo
ne lower than D-Rank to enter the dungeon!”
We knew that, which was why we charged ahead, so that no one would get in our way. It was a good thing the hobgoblins were keeping Donadrond and his crew busy.
“Damn it! After her!”
“Yes sir! I don’t know if I’ll be able to sleep at night if that little girl died in there. I mean, she brought it upon herself, but—”
“That’s not what I’m talking about, you dumbass!”
“Sir?!”
“If we don’t go after her, there won’t be anything left for us to kill!”
“Sir, you’re kidding…”
“Did you see that Air Hop she pulled? You better get over her looks, kid. She’s an adventuring prodigy wearing the skin of a little girl!”
The guild’s policy on raid rewards were as follows: The guild would collect the materials from the fallen monsters and sell them off. They would then distribute the money equally to participating adventurers, after fees and profit of course.
However, any materials an adventurer put into his item bag was the property of said adventurer. The more monsters an adventurer killed, the more money he would ostensibly acquire. This incentive worked quite well. However, it came with the risk of an adventurer abandoning their position, like we were doing right now by charging right into the dungeon.
“Teacher.”
My God… LOOK AT ALL THE EXP!
The dungeon was a buffet of hobgoblins.
“Take care of it.”
Oooh, you can count on it! FLARE BLAST!
Level 1 Flame Magic, the spell shot out a concentrated ray of flame at a target. The area of effect wasn’t particularly large, but its destructive capacity was much stronger than regular fire magic.
The spell whined before blasting its beam. It pierced through some of the hobgoblins, while the remainder were blown away by the explosion. It was very effective in the confines of a cave. Fran charged through the hobgoblin horde and pressed forward.
We had some money left over for a Return Feather, so let’s see how far we can go!
“Haa!”
“Aaah!”
Fire Javelin!
I used the spells that were faster to cast to keep the hobgoblins at bay. Fran cut down the ones who were lucky enough to get close. We had great synergy.
We didn’t keep all the goblin remains for ourselves, though. We left some for the guildsmen who would eventually make it through here. There was no need to be greedy and get on their bad side. Besides, I didn’t want to hit the storage limit for my Pocket Dimension since that would suck.
