Chapter 50 - Companions (4)

Ability is extremely important when looking for companions. But there is another quality just as important.

Trust.

In other words, can you trust them?

Of course, that hardly matters when everything is going smoothly. Everyone can just laugh together and enjoy themselves.

But what if it isn't?

Whether you can trust someone to watch your back even when the worst happens is an entirely different question.

'Maybe this is a question of character rather than trust.'

It wasn't something you could learn by reading a few applications and having a few conversations. A person's true nature was usually hidden deep inside.

If possible, I hoped we would never have occasion to show each other our true natures.

That would be better for everyone.

"I never get used to the smell here, no matter how often I come! Hahaha! Dwalki, are you all right?"

"... Please don't talk to—urgh!"

Turning away from the retching Dwalki, I took a quick look around.

We were in an area on the second floor, accessible through the portal in the eastern region of the first floor where razor mane wolves lived.

Beasts' Lair.

As the name suggested, most of the monsters that appeared here were beasts. Perhaps that was why it stank of filth.

Really, really badly.

"Rotmiller, are you all right? I heard you have an Essence that enhances your sense of smell."

"Thank you for your concern, but I'm fine. I've been here more than once or twice."

"I see."

Was this what eight years of experience looked like?

Something about this man reassured me just looking at him.

This one, on the other hand, needed more observation.

"Anyway, when is our mage going to pull himself together, nyah? We need to get moving and make money... nyah."

Misha Karlstein.

Shows no empathy for a companion's suffering and cares only about her own interests.

I paused just as I was about to add that to my mental assessment of her.

Hmm. Wasn't I the same?

"Dwalki, pull yourself together. How long do you plan to waste our time?"

"Exactly, exactly, nyah! You'll never make it as an explorer if this is all it takes, nyah! Grow up, mage, nyah!"

As soon as I snapped at him, Misha chimed in beside me with a mocking tone.

But Dwalki's reaction was entirely unexpected.

"You're right. It's time I grew up."

Huh? Was he always like this?

Honestly, I'd expected him to spout ridiculous excuses. Or get angry at us instead.

"Let's get going."

"B-but are you all right, nyah?"

"Of course this is difficult. But how pathetic would I be if I became a burden to my companions just because it's my first expedition and I happen to be a mage?"

"I-I didn't say you were a burden... nyah."

While Misha floundered at the unexpected apology, Dwalki struggled to his feet, his face considerably more haggard than before, and muttered with grim resolve.

"I cannot tarnish the honor of Baron Martoin's Family."

"... Argh! Are you pretending to be a noble again, nyah?! I'm not falling for it anymore, nyah!"

"Hahaha! Let's go. I'm truly fine now!"

Seeing him suddenly cheerful as if nothing had happened, Misha fumed, looking as though she'd been had again. With that, we slowly began moving.

"Everyone, follow closely behind me from here on. It may look flat, but there are plenty of pits."

"Pits? I don't see any..."

"They're usually filled with filth, so they're difficult to distinguish. Walk around unaware, and you're liable to fall in."

"... Rotmiller, I'm counting on you."

Beasts' Lair could be described as a canyon landscape. Towering cliffs flanked its narrow paths, and explorers passing through had to find their way through the maze of gaps between them.

'There aren't any traps, but a Scout matters even more here than in Goblin Forest.'

For reference, the monsters here included razor mane wolves, wall moles, saber tigers, werewolves, and Bulkars. Most lived in caves in the cliffs.

Explorers whose primary goal was hunting usually entered those caves and wiped out the packs inside.

Our goal was the third floor, though, so we skipped that.

「You have defeated a Giant Razor Mane Wolf. EXP+1」

「You have defeated a Saber Tiger. EXP +2」

「You have defeated a Werewolf. EXP +2」

「You have defeated a Wall Mole. EXP +1」

We moved quickly, occasionally killing monsters wandering outside the caves, until it was about time to rest.

There were three hours left until the start of day two.

[20 : 58]

We'd spent the entire day traveling. Still, without our Scout, Rotmiller, getting this far would have taken twice as long.

"The entrance is narrow, too. This should make a good campsite."

We cleared out a wall mole den and began making camp inside.

The dwarf, Rotmiller, and Misha.

With three explorers who had years of experience, preparations were over in no time.

Even the mage, who had barely made his presence felt apart from producing drinking water, got his chance to shine.

"With the alarm spell, one person on watch should be enough."

"Why do we need a watch?"

"It's not that we don't trust you, Dwalki, so don't take it the wrong way. As you know, monsters aren't the only things we must watch out for in the Labyrinth."

To be a proper explorer, you needed to be even more wary of other explorers than of monsters.

"Rotmiller worked the hardest today, so he'll take first watch. The rest of us will take turns after him."

"Wait, I don't have to stand watch?"

"Leave this to us and get some proper rest."

The mage was excluded from the watch rotation. This wasn't out of consideration for his poor stamina. It was simply customary.

As explorers were particular about giving credit where it was due, they recognized that the alarm spell alone counted as his share of the work.

'Well, in reality, the custom probably developed naturally from everyone trying to keep mages happy.'

In any case, taking two-hour shifts on watch was unbelievably comfortable.

Six hours of sleep a day?

Compared with traveling as a pair, this was practically heaven.

Of course, that comfort came with the drawback of splitting the loot among more people, but we could make up for that by killing more, stronger monsters together.

"I am the great mage Leor..."

"Stop talking in your sleep and get up, mage, nyah!"

"... Slurp. Is it morning already?"

"I don't know about morning, but it's definitely time to get up, nyah."

Five in the morning on day two.

The first night, which I'd privately worried about, had passed without incident.

We'd all been woken four times when monsters triggered the alarm spell, and once when a group of explorers approached our campsite during the dwarf's watch...

But that much was routine.

"Dwalki should be used to things now, so I'll pick up the pace."

"Hmm, is there any need to rush?"

"The earlier we reach the third floor, the easier camping will be."

From day two onward, we kept conversation to a minimum and concentrated on traveling. Monsters did block our path every few minutes, of course...

But I welcomed that.

「You have defeated a Crescent Rock Bear. EXP+1」

「You have defeated a Wall Mole Queen. EXP+1」

「You have defeated a Blood-Red Razor Mane Wolf. EXP+1」

Did that make every grade-9 monster in Beasts' Lair?

Since this was my first visit to this floor, EXP was piling up fairly quickly. Not that I had an actual EXP bar.

'If I count the monsters I've killed so far...'

Exactly forty.

Forty-four, if the Advanced Mutant variety and Guardian kill bonuses had been properly applied.

'Still a long way to Level 4.'

The required cumulative EXP rose explosively with each Level.

Six for Level 1, thirty for Level 3, and 150 for Level 3.

Of course, it didn't keep increasing fivefold forever, but the actual difficulty could easily feel even greater. Each monster grade only added another +1, and once you ran out of monsters you could hunt, you couldn't earn any more at all.

'... Tsk. Still, it's not like I urgently need to level up.'

I was currently Level 3, which meant I could absorb up to three Essences.

In other words, I still had one slot free.

Of course, I wasn't expecting an Essence to drop before I reached Level 4.

[Dungeon and Stone] wasn't that kind of generous game.

'Of all the games I could've played, why did I choose this one...?'

The regret came too late, but what could I do? Back then, I'd been a genuine freak who got more pleasure out of a game the more absurdly difficult it was.

"Start staying alert, everyone. From here on, only Advanced varieties appear, and their numbers increase sharply."

We'd been following on Rotmiller's heels for about half a day when the terrain—or, more precisely, the color of the cliffs—changed.

From reddish brown to black.

'So we've reached the latter section.'

No grade-9 monsters appeared beyond this point. Still, none of us, myself included, were particularly tense.

"Even the Advanced varieties on the second floor are only grade 8, nyah!"

Our team's average rank was 7. Whatever teams they'd belonged to before, these were people who would have operated on at least the third floor.

Well, this was my first visit.

But I'd been here a shitload of times in the game, so I was an exception.

"Come to think of it, didn't you say you haven't been to the third floor yet, Bjorn, nyah?"

"What of it?"

Thinking she was trying to pick a fight, I answered with an edge, but Misha's admiration was entirely sincere.

"That's amazing, nyah! It took me a whole year just to reach the third floor, nyah!"

Well, now I felt awkward.

"... I was just lucky."

It wasn't a topic I wanted to dwell on, so I brushed it off. Then the dwarf joined the conversation.

"A year to the third floor? How long did the fourth take, then?"

"Hmm, two years, nyah? Something like that, nyah."

"About the same as me."

"Argh! Suddenly that feels a little unfair, nyah! You've been doing this less time than me, but you're rank 6, team leader, nyah!"

"But you were born into a good family, Miss Karlstein!"

"Argh! I told you not to bring up my family, nyah!"

As their conversation dragged on and threatened to turn into another squabble, Rotmiller interrupted his navigation to stop them.

"Enough, both of you."

His voice, tone, and expression were exactly the same as before. So why did he seem more irritated?

'Well, I guess anyone would be pissed off working hard alone while those two carried on behind him.'

I thought nothing more of it.

* * *

「You have entered the third floor, Pilgrim's Passage.」

* * *

A little after noon on day two, Rotmiller's precise navigation brought us to the third floor.

It was a shame we'd missed a few of the grade-8 monsters available to hunt in Beasts' Lair...

But they didn't appear exclusively on the second floor.

'I'll get another chance to kill them someday.'

Shaking off my lingering disappointment, I focused on the situation at hand.

"Rotmiller! Fall back!"

I was now on the third floor, Pilgrim's Passage. More specifically, we were in Steel Stone Valley, the starting point for the Beasts' Lair route.

And the moment we arrived, we encountered two grade-7 monsters.

"Dwalki! Use your corrosion spell!"

The monster's name was Ayantro.

The simplest way to picture it was a boar with steel tusks, roughly five times the size of a boar from Mount Jiri.

「Leor Wuerv Dwalki has cast the grade-8 curse spell [Corrosion].」

While Rotmiller, who had entered the portal first, retreated from the monsters, Dwalki immediately cast his spell.

At the same time, the dwarf and I dashed forward, each taking on one with our shields.

BANG!

A heavy impact slammed into me from the front.

My old shield probably would have been dented all over the moment it stopped that charge.

Just like the dwarf's shield over there.

「Hikurod Murad has used [Emergency Restoration].」

"Bjorn, why are you suddenly looking at me?"

"I'm not jealous."

Really.

If you used a sturdy shield to begin with, you wouldn't have to bother repairing it every time, would you?

"Where did that come from? Anyway, Bjorn! Don't try to push it back. Just keep it from getting behind us!"

"I know without you telling me!"

Ayantro's active skill was Weight Balance. It granted immunity to knockback.

It was also an Essence the dwarf had absorbed.

「Hikurod Murad has used [Weight Balance].」

Did either of them have a conscience?

The fucking boar had a skill like that when its main move was charging, and the dwarf was shouting at me not to let it push me back.

The anger inherent in my barbarian body welled up.

Was that why?

"Behel—laaaaa!"

Instead of waiting for my teammates to attack, I swung my mace and smashed the Ayantro in the mouth.

CRACK-CRACK!

Its steel tusks, already afflicted with [Corrosion], shattered effortlessly. At that very moment—

"Drop an Essence, nyah!"

Without so much as asking, Misha stepped on my back, leaped high, and drove her dagger into the top of the Ayantro's head.

「You have defeated an Ayantro. EXP+3」

That was one down.

I was about to finish off the other one, too, but stopped to watch for a moment.

Dwalki was casting a spell—one of the few offensive spells he knew.

「Leor Wuerv Dwalki has cast the grade-8 offensive spell [Ice Spear].」

A spike of ice flew through the air and buried itself in the Ayantro's abdomen.

If he'd aimed for the head or heart, he probably could have killed it cleanly in one shot...

But I'd save the detailed feedback for later.

THUNK!

Rotmiller approached the fallen, thrashing Ayantro, pressed his crossbow to its forehead, and fired a bolt, bringing the fight to an end.

Of course, no Essence dropped.

Not that that was what mattered right now.

'Monsters right in front of the portal...?'

It looked like there was a motherfucker nearby.