Chapter 81: Chapter 81: Task Cleared

Translator: ShiroiKaze/Soyokaze Translations

The fourth day since our registration. We start our second expedition into the labyrinth.

Haster was in a disheartened state, as should be expected. Do ya know just how frightening “Sacred Treasure” is now?! I certainly hope so.

“So scary… “Sacred Treasure” is seriously scary. I thought I was gonna go insane…”

He always comes at me as much as he likes, but as soon as I took the ring off for a little bit with him, the initiative was mine.

With a little discipline like this, he’ll think twice before cheating on me, see?

~*~

Now then, this time we’re fully prepared, so I expect we’ll get some great results.

“But y’know those uhh… ultrasonic waves, right? Can we really find where the enemies are with that?”

“Whether you believe it or not can be decided after you’ve seen it in action, Alec.”

“Yeah, even if it doesn’t work, there’s no harm in it. And if the enemies come to us because of the noise, that could be considered a success in its own way.”

Alec expressed skepticism, and Haster gave an optimistic impression in response to my explanation.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Damn you all. You don’t have any faith in me, do you?

“Grrr… Just watch, you two! I’ll show you what this new spell can do!”

I spread my mantle with a fwoosh and prepared to use the spell.

… Yig, why are you covering your ears?

“How rude. I’m not going to fail again, okay?”

“Ugyu~”

“Well, it is Yuuri.”

“Yep, that’s sis for ya.”

“It does make sense indeed.”

“You bunch of…”

I considered delivering some divine retribution on them for stating their rude opinions, but I’ll hold it in for now.

I huge output on the ultrasonic waves would also damage me, so…

From yesterday’s use of it, the image is perfect in my mind, so I activated [Sonar] without a chant.

With the sound of striking metal, an impression of my field of view expanding entered my mind.

I wonder if this is how a certain blind American comic hero feels all the time? It’s kind of nice.

“If we take the right turn ahead of us, then about 120 meters in are three things, and two more 40 meters after that. There’s nothing to the left.”

I report the results. Even though this spell can pinpoint living things, it can’t tell if they’re enemies or not, so it leaves an ambiguous impression.

That’s where I use [Olfactory Enhancement].

“It spells kinda grassy, so I’m pretty sure those are creeping vines. The ones after that smell like animals, so I guess they’re kobalds?”

“Holy heck, you figured all of that out?”

I looked smugly at Alec in his astonishment, and ordered an advance to the right.

After moving forward a ways, sure enough there were three creeping vines growing on the walls.

“And they’re pretty far up to boot… If someone were to accidentally overlook them here, they’d get caught in a surprise attack.”

“The monsters here are strangely clever.”

“Well, not a problem if we’re on to them, though. Let’s hurry and clear them out.”

“Oh, be careful Sir Alec, okay?”

Everyone except Marle was already in easy-peasy mode.

They were outside the range of our blades, so a quick [Wind Blade] to their roots sent them falling. After they were on the ground, Alec and Haster gently exterminated them. If they were intense in their attacks, the parts we’re trying to recover would be in pieces.

Taking the initiative, the creeping vines were trampled without the slightest chance to fight back. Amid collecting the materials, I once again used [Sonar].

“I guess the ones that smell like animals heard the noise from our fight and ran. They went a little farther away. They’re about 70 meters away now. There’s also something else if we take a left turn ahead.”

“Is it what we’re looking for?”

“Yes, it has the same smell. It is definitely that of creeping vine.”

“That sure is convenient.”

“See how awesome it is now?”

Alec expressed his admiration, so my head was getting bigger and bigger.

When Haster finished dissecting the vines, he gave my head a good pat. I’m taking away points for his hand smelling kind of grassy, but it felt nice.

The hunting proceeded well after that, and by the time the sun would be setting, we had defeated 37 creeping vines, and 12 kobolds.

In the whole time we weren’t surprise attacked even once, and it looked like we would clear our mission without any danger.

“Along with what we gathered the day before yesterday, we have 43 now. This was easier than I expected.”

“It’s thanks to your new spell, Yuuri. We’ll have to show our appreciation.”

“Please make sure that appreciation has physical form.”

“Well, I’ll think of something.”

“Is this truly okay? I haven’t done anything.”

Marle ended up only carrying the lantern and tagging along, so she was feeling a bit ashamed.

“It’s totally fine. We didn’t originally plan on bringing you here anyway. It was a good opportunity is all.”

“Yeah, just worry about becoming a healer, and then you can be a great help to us.”

“… Master, when you talk to anyone other than Yuuri, you’re pretty considerate.”

“Haven’t I always? Besides, I think such distinctions are important. Yuuri doesn’t need that kind of consideration.”

“So he’s saying I’m special!”

Hmhm! I puffed out my chest.

Thinking I’m special, I felt a bit of a superiority complex.

“Well then, Levy’s probably waiting anyway, why don’t we head back for today?”

“Sounds good. I’m sure they’re going to be shocked at us clearing the request in four days.”

“Are you sure? If one of us were doing it alone, and we defeated three in a day, we’d get the needed amount anyway, so it’s not all that fast, is it?”

“Hrm… I guess you’re right. Maybe we’re not so amazingly awesome…?”

I guess if we consider continuously killing three of them each day, that would be plenty enough.

Maybe, with our confusion on the first day in the labyrinth, we shouldn’t have lagged behind with that break the next day?

“It’s nothing to worry about. We got results from our first experience of the labyrinth in just three days. Besides, at our pace right now, we could have met the quota in a single day. If you think of it like that, we’ve improved quite a bit.”

“I guess so, huh. What’s important is what happens after we get our full registrations anyway.”

“Exactly. Well Yuuri, be on the lookout for enemies for us.”

“Sure thing.”

This time I’ll be using [Sonar] to secure a safe path back for us.

—Hmm? 20 meters behind us is a less than 2 meter response, and another 20 meters behind that is four responses?

They’re in a formation-ish setup, so maybe they’re intelligent?

After I used [Olfactory Enhancement] to investigate further…

“Haster, there’s a person 20 meters behind us. And four more another 20 meters back. I think they might be watching us…”

“People? Not kobolds or something?”

“Are there any kobolds that smell like cooked meat, alcohol, and makeup?”

“… Probably not. It’s probably another party, but it could be thieves. We’ll try going over and saying hello, but be ready for them to attack.”

“Right.”

“Got it. Marle, take a step back, and Master will head out front.”

“S-sure.”

“Oh, don’t let your guard down either Yuuri.”

“Right-o”

Unceremoniously acting like we’re heading back, we headed toward the party next to us.

Maybe he decided to stop hiding because we were headed towards him, but a man stepped out of the shadows.

On top of that, four people came to meet him.

“Yo, rookies. How’s it going?”

“Quite well. We should be able to get our registration done today.”

I remembered the four people who came forward. They’re the ones who got caught up with Haster at the guild.

All of them had fiendish grins on their faces. I had a bad feeling about this.

The four people were wearing leather armor or breastplates, and were armed with long swords and axes. There also appeared to be a magician among the four people in the back.

—One scout and a magic user. The rest are front-line warriors? Pretty unbalanced, huh.

“Wow, already hunted fourty of them? That’s pretty awesome. You didn’t go exploring here yesterday either, right?”

“You seem to know quite a bit…”

“Aww, don’t be so crabby. We’ll treat you to a drink once we get back… Actually, with your harvest, maybe you should be the ones do the treating.”

“Isn’t this the kind of thing that our seniors should be treating us for?”

“Well, yeah, but—forget it, no treating anyone. This is a pain; just give us your spoils! We’ll put ’em to good use!”

As soon as he shouted, the man quickly drew his sword and came slashing at us.

Leave it to a scout I guess. His expertise clearly shows in his movements.

However, we were being wary of that possibility.

Haster took a step, no, half a step back to dodge the sword, then swung cleaver and blew the man away.

“Gubya?!”

The man screamed oddly as he was blown away. Haster was probably holding back, too. That pattern still remains.

After stepping on the bellows of the man blown away, the remaining slower four were kept in check by a sword swing from Alec.

That swing didn’t actually hit them, but the air pressure it created alone was powerful enough to make them fall on their butts.

“Buwoh!”

“What the hell?! I never heard anything about this!”

That’s when the magician, who was a little further away, finally started chanting.

—A little late now. A magician’s life is all about their activation speed and flexibility.

Aiming for the moment when he should have been opening his mouth to chant, I hit him with a reduced power [Wind Bolt].

With the [Wind Bolt] hitting him just as he was sucking in air to speak, his breathing went into disorder, and he started loudly coughing.

He shouldn’t be able to chant properly for a while in that condition.

“Now then, what will you do? One of you is passed out, and another is powerless. Even if he pulls himself together, we can just make him powerless again, too. Our magician is really skilled, after all.”

“Shit…”

“By the way, we aren’t too bad ourselves. We could take out all three of you with ease.”

Alec thrust sentinel toward them one-handed.

With weapon weight reduction not being popularized right now, it was probably an unbelievably odd sight to see.

“What the hell is with that weapon… You didn’t have that when you walked into the labyrinth!”

“You were watching us in the city? Must have a lot of time on your hands.”

“But if Yuuri’s [Sonar] didn’t pick them up until now, that means they lost sight of us until just a moment ago, right? In which case, we can guess just how good these guys are.”

We entered the labyrinth in the early morning.

Based on the smell of alcohol drifting from them, they must have had a tough morning.

Which means they missed us this morning, and were searching the labyrinth for us, huh?

“Are you guys… Idiots?”

“What was that?!”

“If you have time to spend all that effort, then you could have been advancing in the labyrinth right now.”

“They are well and clearly dropouts, huh. Sorry, but we’re going to be reporting this to the guild.”

“W-wait, please, wait!”

When they heard we would be reporting them, their faces paled. Looks like the punishment really is that frightening.

“You still have some time before we can report it. If you immediately leave the city, change your names and live quietly, well, it shouldn’t be a problem then, right?”

“We’re not gonna get off that easy!”

“Then do you want to fight us to the death? Just to tell you… We’re total novices in the labyrinth, but we’re pros when it comes to battle, okay?”

Along with his statement, I let off an [Electric Shock].

This time it had a clear target, and flew in a straight line to it.

I’m still reflecting on the time when Mister Bhav got caught up in one.

“Gyan!”

The man who got his breathing in order, and was trying to quietly chant, screamed like a dog being kicked, and passed out.

I started my spell after he did, and released it before him… I’m sure they can tell my ability level just from that alone.

“Out magician’s skills are as you see. Now then, what will you do? Just to let you know, you don’t have much time.”

“I get it, we’ll leave town! We’re leaving, so please let us off the hook!”

“Oh, before you go, could you leave your registrations for us? We need the evidence, and if we let you off and you end up doing something shady, well then we’d be in trouble for that.”

“Shit. Fine, I got it…”

The men threw their registrations our way, and ran away in haste.

I called out to them from behind.

“Make sure to live a good life, okaaaay—?”

“We fucking get it already!”

Now then, there was a dispute, but the problem is solved. Now let’s head back.

We have to report to the guild, after all!