Chapter 11

[The two of them may have split up by now. If you see a barbarian using a one-handed hammer and a shield, don’t prematurely approach and wait for support.]

My description has been circulated.

It’s not too detailed, but that doesn’t mean much.

I don’t think there are any barbarians other than me who use shields.

“Uncle…”

Erwen looks up at me with anxious eyes.

Knowing what’s in her mind, I give her a bright smile.

“Don’t worry. I’m not going to leave you.”

I’ve already decided to help Erwen.

The reason is simple.

I’ve always loved helping people in trouble.

If it benefits me, that is.

“Like I said before, I’ll have nine shares and you’ll have one. Understand?”

“Of course. I will definitely repay this grace.”

Grace…

“Yes, please do.”

There’s no reason to refuse. Although I’m not expecting too much.

“Yes, definitely…”

As Erwen clenches her fists with determined eyes, I tighten my bootlaces and prepare to move.

“Then what should we do now?”

“We’ll move through the outskirts. Summon your spirit again. We’ll talk about the rest as we go.”

“Yes.”

As we walk through the darkness using a fist-sized flame as a lamp, I start checking a few more things.

“For exactly how long can the spirit be summoned?”

“If it just lights up the surroundings, it can last for 10 hours.”

“How long will it take to recover?”

“I’ll need to rest for two hours.”

“Right.”

Things are a lot better than I thought.

If all goes according to plan, we will escape their pursuit without much risk.

Then I will see returns on the risk I took this time.

“Uncle.”

While I was busy thinking for a while, Erwen speaks to me.

“May I ask where we are going now?”

Oh, I forgot to tell her that.

“The second floor.”

“Yes…?”

Don’t look at me like that. You heard correctly.

“We’re going to the second floor.”

“You and I, just the two of us?”

“Yeah, just us two.”

In fact, rather than this being our only option, it’s something I’ve been considering for some time. On the first floor, even if the two of us team up, the net income will only decrease, but…

The second floor is a different story.

“Excuse me… um, uncle? The second floor is completely different from the first floor. You know that, right…?”

“I know.”

On the first floor, three or four enemies appear at a time, but on the second that number can increase to ten. Uncommon variants, and even higher-grade monsters, start appearing.

“But, if we only stay near the entrance, we should be fine. Because you and I match quite well.”

“Really, uncle and me?”

I don’t know what’s so surprising, but a melee tank and a ranged dealer make up a good combination.

That’s why I’d considered going upstairs with Erwen earlier. In that case, even if you split the mana stones in half, your income will increase significantly.

But since there was no way to get past the darkness, I’d discarded this idea.

“Ah, no matter how much I think about it, it looks like jumping into the orcs’ den to avoid goblins…”

Well, looking at her reaction now, I think she would have made a sharp rejection even if I’d offered earlier…

But the situation right now is completely different from before.

“What other way is there? All those guys are on the first floor, you know.”

Erwen now has a motivation to escape to the second floor, and that also gave me the opportunity to raise my loot ratio to 9:1.

Of course, that doesn’t mean this was a decision made entirely without any emotional basis.

[Those who catch that fairy bitch first will be given an additional 10,000 stones and the first chance to enjoy.]

I detest these guys.

No, what I feel about them is closer to hatred than mere dislike.

But by making these guys eat shit, I can get a much bigger reward compared to the miniscule risk, and even the self-satisfaction of doing a good deed?

Isn’t this the epitome of efficiency?

“I will give you a chance to choose. What will you do?”

“I will go…”

Erwen nods with an expression of biting the bullet on her face. It seems that the last communication from the message stone played a decisive role…

Nice timing.

“Then let’s keep moving.”

“… But do you know the way to the second floor?”

“I don’t know exactly.”

“Yes?”

“Don’t worry, though. If you keep moving north, you’re bound to come across it someday.”

Not a vain hope, but in reality.

If you follow the darkness in any one direction, you’ll find a portal somehow. Because this darkness is like a passageway pointing upstairs.

It’s a maze-like structure, so you’ll have to get lost.

It’s worth the price.

“There’s a goblin trap!”

As we keep walking, we come upon a trap.

It took much longer than I’d thought. Originally, we should’ve seen one much earlier.

… Maybe there are fewer goblins where there’s no light? Like in the game?

If that’s the case, then I’m feeling a bit choked.

How lucky am I, that I fell into the dark zone from the start and met a goblin right away?

“I’ll deal with it! You rest!”

Maybe taking this as an opportunity to enhance her appeal, Erwen walks out in front.

“I’m telling you just in case, but don’t use spirits.”

“… Of, of course!”

Looking much too bewildered for it to be a natural response, Erwen approaches the trap.

And…

“Gruck!”

The moment the goblin pops out, she fires the arrow she had kept drawn, from a very close range.

Thunk – !

Oh, that’s kind of like Legolas.

Her skill’s much better than expected. Body movements are also very agile.

“How is it?”

Erwen, who killed the goblin in one shot, looks at me with a happy face.

“Would you have used a spirit, normally?”

“Yes…”

“Well done. Seeing you shoot, you really are a fairy.”

Erwen looks both embarrassed and happy. Does it feel good to be recognized? To be honest, I was being a bit sarcastic. Looking at our time together so far, it was a bit of a backhanded compliment.

I’m not doubting her skill. Just her character.

“But we will fight many more battles in the future. It would be best to conserve arrows as much as possible.”

“Oh, but I can just pick it up and use it again? There’s no need to be picky.”

Erwen bends over and retrieves the magic stone and the arrow before coming back. The arrow looks to be in good shape, with no discernible damage.

“… Right.”

Well, now I feel awkward.

In the game, arrows were consumable items that disappeared with every shot fired. To compensate, one could carry bundles of a thousand.

“See here!”

Erwen holds out her small hand.

“Take it! When you have nine, I can have one, right? I’ll work hard in the future! Then I can earn a little too, right? I’ve promised to buy something for my little brother when I return!”

Uh, ah, um…

“Yeah, work hard…”

What? Are you trying to be sarcastic?

While we moved rapidly north in the dark, intermittently catching goblins here and there, the message stone, which had been quiet for a while, transmitted a voice again.

[Additional information relayed. Hatch Young, who was attacked by the fairy, has raised her bounty to 20,000 stones. Alive or dead.]

It meant that they were within 300m of us.

Perhaps instinctively, Erwen quietly huddled closer to me.

“Relax. They won’t look for us too hard.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah.”

In fact, I was almost certain.

I felt it as I overheard the conversations from the message stone. If I had to describe them as a group, they were like a loose gang of thugs.

There was no sense of cohesion.

Presumably, the group served as a convenient community to exchange information with each other at best. First of all, the first floor was a place where more than five people could not party together.

[I’m planning to go to hunt blade wolves, is there anyone who will move with me? No relaying necessary.]

[I’m tired, so I’m looking for someone to rest with. Come to the pond next to the big rock. No forwarding required.]

In fact, we could hear these communications everywhere as we moved. These people didn’t really care about some bounty being posted.

Even so, I did not relax.

Not because things were going awry, but because things were going too smoothly.

Shit…

At this point in my life, something bad happening was par for the course, but things being quiet just made me more anxious.

“Uncle!”

What?

“There, it’s a ghoul!”

Can’t you see? As she tilted her head, Erwen moved the flame forward.

… She really had great eyesight.

The form of a ghoul finally entered my vision.

Rotten skin, empty eyelids, long sharp nails reminiscent of claws, and scuttling on four legs despite having a humanoid body shape.

It was the same as the illustration I’d seen on the game loading screen.

However, there was one problem…

‘What, why are ghouls here?’

On the first floor, different monsters appeared based on if it was the east, west, north, or south. And the ghouls appeared in the western area.

Did we somehow come to the border while wandering around?

Well, that might’ve been the case. We’d started north, but there had been some dead ends in the way which had forced us to turn around.

I’d have to think about this later.

“… Will I fight alone again this time?”

Erwin, who’d been full of motivation while fighting goblins, showed her dislike for the first time.

Was it scary because it was her first time meeting this monster?

She, too, had a unique side.

“I’ll take the lead. You just focus on the ones in the back.”

“Yes!”

Having shared a rough strategy, I slowly stepped forward.

There was a total of three ghouls blocking the passage, all of them sitting on the floor like dogs.

Step.

Even when I got pretty close, they didn’t even stir.

Well, in the game, you had to enter a certain range to get the first hit, but was this still the same as the game?

Step.

As I carefully took one more step, the three ghouls rushed me at the same time.

“Grurururuck!”

The sound they made was similar to the goblins.

Was it because both were level 9 monsters? Really, they had no uniqueness.

“Hoooaaaaah!”

Rather than retreating, I stepped closer and smashed the head of the ghoul in the lead with my hammer.

Call this Hammer Smash.

Crunch –!

The moment one ghoul was crushed, an arrow came from behind and hit another ghoul.

Thunk!

She seemed to really like the spot midway between the eyebrows.

Then, after knocking back the last rushing ghoul with my shield, the battle ended with a last Hammer Smash.

「You have defeated the ghouls. EXP +1」

The battle thus ended in an instant, but I took a brief moment to recover.

In terms of combat power, ghouls were superior to goblins.

They had a lot more power, and were faster overall.

Well, goblins had their traps, but…

You’d have to be a real idiot to fall for those.

… Assuming, of course, that there was light around.

“Still, they are better than goblins.”

“Yes? Why?”

“Because it takes time to catch goblins.”

As long as you didn’t get overwhelmed in all-out battle, hunting ghouls seemed to be much more efficient than goblins.

Because they set at least one trap, and didn’t run around nearby.

It was also a huge advantage that they didn’t attack unless you approached.

“Next time, it would be more efficient to start by killing one first with an arrow.”

“Yes. I’d be happy to do that.”

After sharing a brief battle plan for the future, I collected the mana stones fallen on the floor and pocketed them.

“I, uncle…?”

“What’s up?”

“I, that’s, now it’s my turn to have one…”

“Oh, that’s right.”

We continued down the passage.

My prediction of us being near the border was correct.

For a while, the ghouls and the goblins alternated, but as we continued northward, it was all goblins again.

How long had it been?

[22:47]

When the third day was coming to an end –

After a break of about four hours, we were heading north again when we found something.

A dark red line drawn on the floor.

“Uh, bloodstains? I don’t think it’s a goblin’s, whose is it?”

… Somehow, I felt like I knew the owner.

So I kept following, and there were pieces of bread fallen on the floor too. Continuously, at regular intervals.

So, I continued to follow the bloodstains. With confidence.

“Hey, it seems you haven’t said anything since a while ago…”

Ten minutes.

“Are you mad at me by any chance?”

Thirty minutes.

“Yes? Uncle?”

Two hours.

“…”

At the end of that long red trail, I finally found the sandal abandoned on the ground.

Swearwords came out of nowhere.

“I…”

“Fuck, are you kidding me?”

“Ah, I was wrong! I don’t know why though!”

There was a portal so close that it’d hit my nose if I fell down.

Editor’s Notes:

None for this chapter.