Chapter 52

Mills Ruins raid begins

The entrance of the ruins were surrounded by fences .

It seems that the most of the ruins everywhere were managed like this .

Mills Ruins is managed like this by the marquis too .

There was a building erected near the ruins .

It looks like a tiny fortress .

The people who looks like they’re the ones managing the ruins is going in and out of the building .

Most of them were armed .

It is said that they also are preventing monsters from breaking out of the ruins .

[Speaking of which, isn’t the Marquis going to send his own soldier to raid this ruins himself?] n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Before I entered the ruins, I asked that question to the officer who is in-charge of checking of luggage .

[There are some mercenaries that may be recruited by Creed-sama as his private soldiers . For the mercenaries that had went here, this ruins raid is a great way for them to appeal for him to recruit them . ]

A rootless mercenary .

The private soldier of a noble family .

If people would get to choose, most of them would want the latter .

[Most of all, raiding the new floor of the ruins is also accompanied by danger . Creed-sama doesn’t want to lose his private soldiers that he’s already familiar with as much as possible . ]

That means that these mercenaries that they’re sending were just disposable pawns, huh...

I was honestly impressed .

[You’re a man who sees through what’s hidden beneath the surface huh . ]

[W-Well yeah . ]

An officer who doesn’t have a remarkable face .

He’s trying to suppress his face from slacking .

There are some people who act sloppy after being praised .

Just like Oyamada when he was praised by the goddess .

The check officer glances around the surrounding area .

The officer then softly whispers .

[I’ll only tell you this, okay? Actually, you could make lots of money if you sell something like a map of the ruins that you had created or the information on where the monsters live . Creed-sama will buy it later . Well, it’s basically first-come, first-served so you have to be fast when you want to sell these information . ]

He talked about a way to make money behind the scenes huh...

I feel that I can now understand how their system works .

They would first send mercenaries as the advance party in that new floor .

They would then try to obtain the information about the new floor from the mercenaries .

The strong monsters were being defeated by skillful mercenaries .

These things would ensure the safety of the raid as much as possible .

Later, the marquis would send his private soldiers to search for the next floor .

And if they had found another new floor again, then another set of mercenary recruitment would happen again .

A well done plan .

[Hmm? What’s this?]

The officer found Pigimaru in his crystal form .

[It’s a tool for my business . Though I’d like to say that, I’m just in the stage where I still think that “It would be nice if I could get used to using this in the future . ”... I’m still a novice when it comes to this . ]

I said it as shy as possible .

[An apprentice fortune teller huh? You’re quite multi-talented . Good luck with that . ]

[Thank you very much . ]

The crystallized Pigimaru passed through the check easily .

The last process they conducted is a body check from the neck down .

I’ve also passed through this without any problem .

By the way, a man is in charge of checking a man while a woman is in charge to a woman .

It seems that they put some considerations in this .

The officer in charge finally completes the process of registry .

[Be careful in there . ]

[Thank you also for that valuable information . ]

While I was being checked, I’ve also gained some more information .

When I asked about the other mercenaries, he said that most of them were impertinent people .

Some of them just openly looks down on others .

That’s why I feel that it’s a good idea that I acted low-key earlier .

v

I touched the walls of the ruins .

[It seems that I won’t be needing the light from my leather bag while I’m here in the upper floors . ]

There are some stones that were buried in the walls that lightly glows .

It seems that it wouldn’t be necessary to use a torch in this floor .

An underground pyroxene .

When you dig them out of the wall, they would lose their light .

It is said that they would lose their light even if you remove all of the surrounding walls .

I heard that they also don’t know the principle of why this happens .

These pyroxenes weren’t even spread out through all the floors .

Therefore, you would still need sufficient lighting in those areas and the deeper parts where these pyroxenes don’t exist .

These were some information that I had also heard from that officer .

[Burrgguuaaahhh!!!]

A monster’s roar .

Coming from deep within one of the passages, I saw mercenaries running away .

[Hiiiii! It’s a Kogyuuki! There’s no information about this monster being here before! It probably came out of the new floor!]

[They have just discovered the new floor, it’s still disadvantageous to those who goes in first . ]

[Run away~!]

A small monster that looks like it’s the mixture of a cow and a human chased those mercenaries .

They kind of reminds me of those Minotaurus in the Disposal Ruins .

This one looks like it’s a small version of that Minotaurus .

They have the same golden eye .

However, their intimidating aura was quite thinner .

Compared to those Minotaurus that I had faced before, as expected...

[Guaa— Bumomooooo?]

It seem that this Kogyuuki noticed me .

He turned his body in my direction .

It seems that he switched his target towards me .

[Bururuuuu! Buu— guuuauaahhh!]

Nyorori~

A protrusion came out from the side of my neck .

[Pii!]

“It’s coming!”

Pigimaru cried out as if he’s saying that .

[Yeah, I know . ]

Today’s Pigimaru looks fired up as he cried out while he’s acting as my lookout .

Are you trying to make up for your loss at that time when I intruded while I was bathing?

I don’t think that focusing on loss is that good of a goal but...

Well, it’s good that he’s fired up about something .

[Burumoooooohhh!!!]

The Kogyuuki is charging towards me .

I reached out my hand on his direction in response .

[]

Pishi~

Piki—

[Bubuuooo!? Bu... . moomoooo... . ?]

[]

Paralysis and poison successfully invoked .

I pull out the dagger from my waist .

I tried to stab the blade against the skin of the monster .

Gusa~

[Buuumooo!]

I can feel that the blade as it buried through its flesh .

It’s sticking through his flesh .

I pull out the knife .

[As I thought, it’s just that the skin of the monsters in that Disposal Ruins were too tough...]

At least against a monster like this, the sharpness of this dagger is enough to pierce through their skin .

It seems that I can use this to peel off its skin as a material .

No other mercenaries appeared while I’m waiting for this Kogyuuki to die .

After a moment, the Kogyuuki finally dies .

My level still didn’t rise .

Although I had already expected it, the amount of experience that I get here seems to be low .

No, it’s probably just the monsters in the Disposal Ruins give out too many experience points .

I promptly left the place .

A little later, I felt presences from my back as they approached and their voices called out to me .

[O- Over there! That’s where that Kogyuuki went! We’ll leave it to you!]

[Yeah, leave it to me!]

[Damn it! This is why I don’t like raiding a ruin after a new floor were just discovered!]

[We can’t help it! After the discovery of a new floor, new monsters who reside in that floor would come out after a while!]

[Though you said that, only those who get in there first would have higher chance to obtain the treasures! Thank you for your help here, but we’re going in first–!

I turned to a corner without worrying about them .

Those several presences stopped behind the corner, near where I had left the Kogyuuki’s corpse .

[I- It’s already dead...]]

[It looks like other mercenaries has already defeated it . ]

[How should I say this... There’s no wound on its body though? Did he defeat it by using a technique? I can’t find anything that had changed from this corpse...]

[Don’t you feel that its skin is subtly discolored?]

[No way... Don’t tell me that’s the rumored sorcery that I heard recently?]

[No, wait . If you look at it closely, there is a wound in here . ]

[This wound, I think it’s from a dagger...?]

[Wow!? It’s just one stab from a dagger!? Against a Kogyuuki!? How skillful is he!?]

It didn’t die from the stab of a dagger though .

[......... . ]

I decided to quickly descend to the next floor .