208 - - a sign on one's way home

The battle with Kobold Commander, the master of the labyrinth, lasted only about ten minutes.

The battle opened with Sisan charging in from the right side, drawing the attention of the monsters.

The commander, who lifted his large sword, let out a yell, and four of his men with pickaxes and digging plows headed immediately for the shield boy.

Hink and Eckria immediately attack the two Kobold Bombers in the rear, who are now easier to target thanks to the movement of the wall players, with arrows and firebombs respectively.

One of them fell down with the explosion sound, losing the upper half of his body.

The other one is shot in the arm with the first arrow and its movement is blocked, and Hinck fires three volleys of at it, knocking it down.

After a pause, Riccar rushes in from the left side and challenges Kobold Commander to a single combat.

He moves behind the monster in a circular motion and plays with it by moving out of range of his greatsword.

Sissan was knocked down by the four Kobolds, but he quickly activated his and was able to withstand them.

The archers and flame wielders, under the direction of Alethea, attacked one by one, concentrating on one by one and eliminated them.

Five minutes have passed so far.

The remaining five minutes are left to surround the lone Kobold Commander and beat it to a pulp.

The great sword wielded by the monster is blocked by the shield of Sisan, who is clad in , and the battle ends without any particularly dangerous moments.

"Yes!"

The leader, a boy, shouts with a bouncy voice, clenching his fists unusually.

He seemed to be very happy to be able to use his shield to its fullest.

"Did you see that, Moe?　Look how cool I am!"

Riccar, who had used his speed to distract a much larger opponent and successfully drew him to him, breathed hard and was proud of his victory.

However, Moe, who had been named as the winner, was cowering by the wall with a cage of insects, not moving.

Riccar rushes over to him with a surprised look on his face and peeks in, and he looks up at him with a blank stare.

"Hey, what's going on?

"Moo is ...... already tired of ...... studying."

Moe replied in a mumbled voice and nodded his head.

The red-haired boy, his eyes wide open, hurriedly shakes the child's body.

"What the hell, hey!　Are you all right!"

"Muuu......, be quieter......."

Moe answered in a troublesome manner and yawned cutely with his mouth open.

Then she turned her eyes back to the dimness again and started to shake her head.

"Oh, I've reached my limit, haven't I? Maybe I ate too many snacks."

"Heh, are you sleepy?　In a place like this?　Seriously?"

Riccar, who looked stunned at Sola's words, turns around when he hears the noise behind him.

There, around the stone lid, he sees his friends' faces breaking into tears.

"Oh, I forgot!　Hey, hey, hey, don't get excited about the oleander!"

"Why is Riccar so ...... picky ...... already?"

"Yes, yes, I'll give you a hug, big sister."

Moo clings to Sola as she picks him up, munching and squirming.

Normally, I would let him doze off on his favorite sled and pull him along, but unfortunately, we were on foot today, so that was not possible.

Sola and the child, who had been dexterously re-positioned on her back, headed for the back of the room.

The place where the miasma hole had been was already covered with round, flat stones, and Sisang and the others were shouting excitedly over the rewarding properties that had been sealed up.

If it is the trunk and fruit characteristics of one's own skill tree, one can dimly see them if one concentrates.

"Oh, it looks like we've got a golden tree!"

"That's a good guess. That's good, Riccar."

"I'm . This will make it more bearable."

" was ......"

"Ek-chan, you bump into me a lot, so maybe it would have been better that way."

"Yeah, yeah, congrats to everyone!"

Apparently Sisang the shieldman and Hink the archer have .

Riccal the Swordsman has , and Eckria the Flame Wielder has .

Alethea, the water user, has , and all of them seem to have acquired the appropriate characteristics.

Incidentally, it seems that here, as in the cave of the kobolds, only the four characteristics are given.

"Okay, we can't dawdle now. This is the moment of truth.

"Oh, I've got a lot of experience, so I'll take care of everything!

"You're talking too much again. So what are you going to do?　We don't have much time."

The master of the labyrinth has been defeated, the maze has been sealed, and the maze will disappear in an hour or two.

The group hurried up the ramp to the mushroom room.

Sisang looks into the room and ponders with a difficult expression on his face.

By nature, circular shields are not suitable for protection from the knees down.

Furthermore, a small shield that covers only up to the elbow can only manage to block an attack aimed below the navel, but it will cause a collapse of the body position.

Similarly, Riccar's sword, which has a short blade for easy maneuvering, is not effective against an opponent who runs around on his feet.

Their equipment is designed for a reasonably large target.

Hinck and Eckliea, who are not strong under pressure, will not be able to exert their full strength if Sissan and his men, who support the front line, cannot stand up to them properly.

Besides, the flame wielders, the trump card, are not even allowed to send out a single spark of fire in this room full of exploding mushrooms.

"............ Well, it doesn't have to be here."

With a thoughtful look on his face, Sisang pulled out of his backpack a rag to wipe his sweat.

A few minutes later, the group is ready to go, and once again peeks into the room where the mighty Baitachi stands in the way.

"Okay, let's go!"

"Oh!"

"Yeah, anytime."

The young men are shouting, but their voices are muffled by the cloth covering them from the nose down.

All of them nodded to each other with nervous faces after having taken measures against the stench, which might have been comforting.

Sisang's plan went something like this

First, Riccal, who has become even faster with , enters the room and lures out the white weasel.

As soon as he appears, Sora immediately stops him by .

Then he will probably release a stinky fart, but he will try to avoid the white weasel and run across the room to the other side of the corridor.

If he chases after you, you him there again.

Once a certain distance is established, Ecclesiastes will show his true potential in the corridor where there is no danger of catching fire.

"Be careful, they'll get your eyes! Breathe through your mouth as much as possible."

"Okay, okay. So where are they?　Moo."

"Mmmm ......?"

Moo, who had been sleeping peacefully and comfortably, shook his head in disgust when he was pecked on the cheek.

You're my only hope here. Please, Moo!

"Oh, my God!　Riccar already."

Moe reluctantly activates the , while making a sideways decision to open only one of his eyes.

Then, as if at random, he points to a corner of the room.

"There."

"Heh, where?"

"Uh-oh."

"Well, it's hard to understand. Where is it?

"So, there!"

Saying this, Moo shakes his finger strongly, and a small purple lightning suddenly shoots out from the tip of his finger.

.

Sisang and the others looked at the arcing lightning projectiles with stunned faces.

The lightning darted in an arc, and Sisan and the others looked on in stunned disbelief, but just before it hit the pile of exploding mushrooms, it barely dodged out of the way.

At first, there was a small popping sound.

Then a series of loud pops hit their eardrums.

The sound rises and falls, and the combined roar shakes the air.

At the same time, a terrifying gust of heat erupts, searing the skin.

As he rolled down the slope, Riccar shouted out loud.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!　What the hell are you doing?

Seconds later, maybe dozens.

Sola lifts his head, which still has ringing in his ears, and checks the situation vaguely.

The first thing he felt was the vibration caused by the warmth in his chest.

Realizing that it was Mu, whom she had held in her arms, the girl speaks to her in a panicked voice.

"Are you all right!　Moo-chan."

As she asked this, Sola quickly realized why the child was shaking and let out a breath of relief.

The child was laughing.

She was curled up in a ball, hugging her cage, and sounding truly happy.

Moe, his purple eyes shining brightly as if he had been sleepy a moment ago, answered Sola's call with great vigor.

Did you see that?　Sola-chan. I heard something go bang, bang!"

"That's because it was Moo-chan who did it."

"Is that so? So it's all Mu's fault. Oh, no!

Exhaling again at the child's lack of remorse, Sola quickly inspects Mu.

It is a wonder that there is not a single burn on his body, even though he must have been exposed to such an explosion so close.

Sola twists her head as she realizes that her own body is similarly free of burns.

"Fu......, is everyone all right?"

"No, I'm fine, somehow."

"Me too ......."

"Ugh, my head is still spinning."

"Just get off of me!"

Just before the exploding mushrooms burst, Riccar grabbed the girls in the rear guard by the necks and threw them down the aisle.

Thanks to this, Eckliea seemed to have suffered only an abrasion when she tumbled down.

It is already healing with the .

Sisang and Hinck seem to have stepped forward to protect Sora and the others.

The boys' bodies show no signs of burns, though they were exposed to the blast.

However, both of them had bruises all over their bodies from sliding down the ramp in an impossible position.

However, thanks to the , they seem to have no trouble moving.

Apparently, they escaped into the passage diagonally downwards, so they did not get into a bad situation.

The fact that he had a cloth covering around his mouth saved him from inhaling the hot air.

"Okay, everyone is safe. What happened up there?"

I peeked in fearfully and saw that the mushroom room was just a room.

Not a single piece of the exploding mushrooms that had covered every nook and cranny remained.

The walls are scorched and the pillars are cracked.

On the ground, only charred chunks remained.

Is this ......?

Oh, maybe it's a white weasel.

It seems that even the sturdy fur was powerless in the face of such an explosion.

Sighing at the sight of their pitiful foe, Sisan and the others decided to bring back at least the corpse.

The meat of the white weasel was said to be very tasty and sweet.

Sora carried the white weasel on her back, and Eckria, who was surprisingly strong, was in charge of carrying the white weasel.

"Maybe the Kobolds are reemerging. We're running out of time, but let's not be hasty and take them down. Yeah, I'm sure we can make it.

"Yeah, I guess so."

"I'm a Zeccocho now, man."

But let's do our best!

"Well, I guess I'll be the scout."

Hinck, who is more alert than the others, is assigned to scout the area as Moe is sound asleep.

The dungeon is about to collapse, but the group carefully makes their way back.

Surprisingly, however, no monsters appear in the narrow passage.

In less than an hour, Sisan and his group arrived at a narrow passage leading to the surface.

"Oh, you're back, good job! I'm going to take the rope down now."

Thor's voice came down from above, and Sora and the others slumped to the ground as if they had run out of strength.

One by one, they tied themselves to the ropes and were pulled to the ground.

By the time they had all escaped, the sun was already setting in the west.

With high spirits, the young men and Thor set out for the city of Bossalia.

There were a few battles along the way, but Sisan and the others, who had grown stronger through their experience in the dungeon, kicked them out without a hitch.

Sora, who had spotted the outer wall of the city in the distance, smiled with relief and quietly whispered to Thor next to her.

"Hey, Thor, how did you get through that narrow hole?"

Even though the blast tends to go upward, an explosion at that distance would definitely have an impact.

It is indeed impossible that there is not a single scorch on his clothes.

On the way back, Sola noticed that the ground was a little damp.

This is a phenomenon often seen when a person is frozen by Yuril's magic.

He concluded that it was probably the work of Thor and Yuril, but the question was how they had entered the dungeon.

Grinning, Thor answered coolly.

"You've been watching me very closely, Thora. What a simple story, I wasn't that tall when I was your age either.

"I see, you've taken me back twenty-five years. Oh, I guess you've got it backwards then, Uriel.

"Age is cruel. ......"

"Hmmm, Thor, there are many good things about getting older."

"Yes, that's right, Mr. Euril. I think it's best that you stay the way you are, Thor!

Moo went three days without snacks.