361-329 Restart (2)

"Then we'll go down in order. We'll just collect the stacked mash and frozen onions if there's room.

These two foodstuffs that grow on the cliffs, I tried to eat the ones I collected last time: ...... Well, they were edible.

The stacked mushrooms looked like fungus with little flesh, and while I wouldn't say they weren't tasty, they weren't the kind of mushrooms you want to eat a lot of.

The flonion was a slightly flat green onion-like plant that tasted both pungent like raw onion and pungent like ginger.

It's good to use as a condiment to accentuate your cooking, but the taste of both pungent flavors makes it a little hard to use, and it's also the type of vegetable that you only use a little, so it's not something you want to force yourself to collect.

I tried taking them to the adventurer's guild, but they gave me a high price for both, but they are only wild vegetables.

None of them were enough to force me to collect them.

Haruka and the others who had already gone down were only collecting what they could reach and carry in their hands.

It didn't take them long to collect, and everyone except me went down.

"Nao, it's okay.

"Okay.

The rope is reeled in, retrieved, and stowed in my backpack.

As I descend, we are all harvesting flying gars from Toya's doorplate on the ledge.

"Everything okay?

"Yeah. Yeah. It's only piercing the surface, not the steel plate in between.

Yeah. Except there are more flying gars than I thought.

That's not a problem. I'm happy!

Little girl snapping the necks of flying gars.

Yeah, you look pretty happy.

The picture's not quite right.

"Yeah. As long as it doesn't stab me. --Give me a warning a little sooner. That was a little scary.

Yeah. Maybe we should stick to the wall a little tighter. You don't want to get side-swiped.

Copy that. I mean, Toya was [spying] on you too, right?

You'd think she'd have noticed before I warned her. .......

"It's fast, the Flying Gar. I'm not sure what to do. I'm not sure if it's because I'm on my back with the doorplate on my back, or if it's because my detection range is slightly narrower. Also, the sound of the waterfall is too loud.

Oh, there you have it.

If your ears and vision are restricted, your range of detection will also be reduced.

This is the subtle and realistic aspect of this skill.

But it's good to know that you can descend without problems. Now we just need to set up a transition point and start descending.

Yeah, let's go for it.

Yeah!　Let's get the fish!

Yes!　And the bird meat!

Oh, I see it was Mary who dismantled the Arrowhead Eagle.

It was already gone by the time I got down there.

But Mary, you're not the one who's supposed to do the hard work.

Then I went down the cliff over and over again, a hundred times.

One of the cliffs collapsed when we hit it with the impact hammer, but since Natsuki and I had judged that it was suspicious before we hit it, no one was hurt so far.

Of course, no one had fallen.

We continued down the cliff, steadily increasing our stock of fish and poultry, until dusk.

It was around that time that it appeared.

"That's .......

It was me who found it.

It must have been a simple matter of visibility.

It was obvious that Toya, who was carrying a door plate, had a much harder time seeing his surroundings, and Haruka and the others, who were descending the rope ladder, had a little less visibility than me, who was using a rope to descend.

I only noticed this because I was trying to keep my body upright and my legs propped up on the rock wall to avoid scraping the rope on the wall.

We were about six meters to the left of where we had set down the rope ladder.

About halfway between the upper passage and the lower ledge, there was a hole hidden by a little protruding rock.

The size of the hole was just enough for me to stand in and not jam my head, and it was about a meter wide.

It was not a mere crevice, but a passage.

That's where it was.

"Let's see. ......

After a bit of agonizing over what to do, I went back up, set the rope ladder again, and went down to Haruka's place.

I'm not sure if this is a good idea, but it's a good idea.

"What's wrong?

"You can't see it from here, but I found a hole, a passage that leads inside.

I replied to Haruka, who asked me as soon as I came down, and pointed to the place where the hole was, but as I expected, the rocks were in the way and I couldn't see the place from this ledge.

If this is the case, ...... is still a nasty hierarchy.

Are you sure?　You have to go in there. We'll just have to go in, right?

I'm not sure what to make of that.

I guess so. Let's go back and go up there for now.

We climbed up the rope ladder again, and re-linked it to the passage I had found.

The first to go down was Toya.

It was a bit out of place, so we had to be careful. ...... Sure enough, there it was. Flying Gar.

As expected, this level of nastiness is still alive and well.

Toya, who still had more than a hundred flying gars on her back, though fewer than before, went down to the corridor and came back without going in.

"What's wrong?　Wasn't that an aisle?

No, it led to the back, at least as far as I could see. But you can't get in with this on your back.

Oh, yeah, it's heavy, isn't it?

It's heavy, but it's also too much of a hindrance. It's usually jammed. That hole is too big.

By the way, it was just big enough for me to fit in.

Toya is bigger than me, and the door plate is even bigger than that. It's going to be tough to fit in there.

Well, we'll have to clear the board.

Let's harvest!

Mitya moved before he could say anything and quickly retrieved the flying gar from the doorframe that Toya had lowered from his back.

She had already done this many times before, so she was very good at it.

She's better than me, who's always the last one down, and basically doesn't participate in the harvest.

Also, it's better to go down with a rope instead of a rope ladder. To be honest, I'm scared to move from the rope ladder to that hole. With a rope, you can jump right over the top.

Toya drew a picture on the ground and explained, "Like this.

The image of the rope is like that of a Special Forces soldier descending from the top of a building, kicking out the window and jumping in.

If done well, it would be safer than jumping from the rope ladder to the hole.

Yeah. So, who's going to go first? ......

I'll go. If Toya's doorplate doesn't work, I'll be the one to go.

I raised my hand to Haruka, who was looking around at us with some concern.

If we follow the pattern of the past, I don't think the flying gar will fly again, but we can't be too careful in this level.

On that note, I can protect my back with the Isolation Field.

The problem is that if there are enemies in the passage that you jumped into, ...... then Toya, who has a high level of defense, will be more suitable.

I'm not sure what to do.　We'll use two ropes. It's a good idea to use two ropes and stay in the same place to protect my back.

"Yes, that would be safer.

Haruka agreed, a little relieved, but Yuki disagreed.

But what about the lights with Toya and Nao?　It's too dark in there, isn't it?

"Hmmm... Yuki, have you forgotten?　I can at least use the 'light' too, remember?

It's just the light!

I don't get a lot of time to practice.

Besides, I don't have a chance to use it.

There are two professionals who specialize in light magic.

Oh, I see!　That's the elf. That's not fair!

No, it's not cheating.　You can't use magic without practice.

You can't use it if you don't practice it. - I'm practicing it in my bed before going to sleep.

I'm not sure what to do, but I'm going to do it.

...... Well, it's only a little bit, compared to other magical practice time.