Chapter 28

Ossan, does it *DISCLAIMER: I DON'T REALLY KNOW j.a.pANESE, THESE ARE MACHINE TRANSLATIONS THAT I TRY TO PUT INTO PROPER ENGLISH. READ AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION. *I HAVE A DISCORD SERVER IN CASE YOU WANT TO BE NOTIFIED WHEN I'M ABOUT TO POST A NEW UPDATE.  Zeros and the others went down the endless, bleak tunnels defeating the monsters that appeared along the way. However, it took them a long time to get to places with vein deposits, where they could extract metallic ores from.

As they progressed towards the deeper layers, the number of monsters, as well as their strength, increased. 

The monsters are supplied with mana from the dungeon, so for that reason, they don't starve, however, that brought upon the side effect of having a complete loss of appet.i.te. Because of that, they surrender themselves to their s.e.xual desires and spend their time breeding, or to their more violent instincts, fighting against each other. Such creatures gave the impression of missing something as living beings, though, despite that, they were still a threat.

Nevertheless, strong monsters bring about huge opportunities for mercenaries to make money. Extraordinary profits can be made by selling their materials and magic stones. Depending on the case, it can be an extremely profitable business. 

As they descended, it became more difficult to spot the traps set by the dungeon, but fortunately, Zeros was capable of easily detecting them, thus they were able to advance safely. 

"There's a trap over there. It's a relief that they don't explode."

"Don't say unpleasant things, mister. I don't want to get caught in one of those."

"You'd have to be an extreme m.a.s.o.c.h.i.s.t to like it, right? I wouldn't mind seeing that though."

(*T.N: referring to Iris.)

"I really don't get you sometimes, Rena…"

So far, they haven't found anything but pitfalls, but the were some traps released poison gas, traps that gave electric shocks, and many more different kinds. Explosive traps, however, being the worst amongst them. 

In the game, even if players were caught in them, there wouldn't be any loss of body parts, but now that it's reality, there's always the possibility of losing one's limbs in an explosion. 

Recovery magic isn't able to completely restore someone's body to a perfect condition, and even if that were possible, the body wouldn't be able to replenish the necessary nutrients to reconstruct limbs.

No matter how strong the regeneration ability of a creature may be, it's necessary to meet the appropriate conditions to fix the missing parts. There's a discrepancy between the game and reality. In this world, it was impossible to regenerate a person's missing limbs. 

And in particular, reincarnators had a strong tendency to nonchalantly get themselves into reckless situations, probably because they retained the common sense from the game. But doing such things when it's become reality, is akin to throwing away their lives, and supposing they could overcome them, it would require them to have an unreasonably high level, like for example, Zeros, whose level is over 1000. 

"Enemy ahead. Oh, Big Spiders. Should I defeat them?"

"And their numbers? How many are there?"

"There are three. It should be a walk in the park for you, girls. What will you do?" 

The three look away. 

"That spider's magic stone can be sold for quite the price, right?"

(*T.N: Keep in mind that Rena(probably) said おいしい[oishii], which in this context I think it means profitable/desirable, but it can also mean delicious, as in a delicious meal.)

"But, it looks tough. I don't think I can cut it with my sword."

"Even so, I really want the experience points…"

"'Delicious*' huh? Now that you mention it, deep-fried spiders taste just like shrimp. I wonder if I could eat this one too…"

(*T.N: and here Zeros interprets Rena's(probably) oishii as delicious/tasty.)

"""You want to eat a spider!? No, wait, you've eaten spiders before!?"""

On one occasion, when he traveled abroad for a business trip, he went to an extravagant restaurant, where he was served a deep-fried tarantula. 

He has even eaten a huge centipede before, showing his skill to be able to live anywhere. Though the representative of the local partner company only served it as a joke, he never thought he would seriously eat it. 

Zeros [Osako Satoshi] may have the extraordinary power of environmental adaptation.

"Ahh, it tasted good with alcohol……"

"""So you did eat it!!"""

"The cold monkey brain looked absolutely disgusting though… They serve you the monkey's head on a plate, so you have to eat it while it's staring at you."

Cigarette smoke drifts in the air. For some reason, a cold breeze blows through, as if to accompany the sad man's melancholy. In another sense, it was hard to be a salaryman. The continuous all-nighters spent crunching looked like heaven on Earth in comparison.

"Oh, but the calf's brain was delicious, wasn't it? It looked like a little cow's head but it was properly cooked. It had a nice, smooth texture."

"Please stop!!!"

"Nooooo!!! Now I'm imaging it!!"

"……(bukubuku)"*T.N: foaming sfx.

Jane had a mental breakdown. She fainted while standing, with foam coming out of her mouth. Zeros' gorey cuisine description had an immense effect on the girls' overactive imaginations. They seemed to be having delusions about the strange high-quality dishes.

"By the way, what should we do about the Big Spiders?"

"You want me to fight in this state? Are you an S, mister? You're really an S, aren't you!??"

"Uuu… The monkey's freshly severed head… Noo!! It won't disappear!!"

"……(Ah, I can see a flower field)"

After receiving a critical hit from those words, she was about to depart to Nirvana. Jane, the usually strong-willed woman, was, surprisingly, emotionally weak.

Zeros breathes in the tobacco smoke once again. 

"Women can't live without being tough, but if they aren't kind, they are not women, huh?"

"Mister, that hard-boiled* kinda mood really suits you. So, why don't you stop wearing such a shabby outfit?"

(*T.N: Apparently it's a literary genre that's similar to crime fiction but usually ambianced in the 20's or 30's; So, I guess she's telling him to dress more elegantly?? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardboiled)

"I refuse. This is a policy of mine."

"That's a lie, isn't it? I don't think you have such a thing, mister."

"… Is this where I should cry?"

It sounded like a cruel thing to say to him, but it was a fact that he liked to dress like that. He wasn't different from your ordinary farmer. 

While they were messing around like that, the three spiders had gone somewhere else. The girls had missed their chance. In the end, Zeros was irritated at the three for having let slide a perfectly good opportunity to make money.

The old man was lonely. 

Incidentally, it wasn't clear whether he ate the cold monkey brain or not…

As Zeros continued to advance while feeling the stinging cold gazes of the three people behind him, he finally reached a T-shaped junction. p.r.i.c.king up his ears, he heard the weak noise of metal striking against something from a place that seemed to be deeper in the mine. 

It was a sound too strange to be from a battle as it was quickly being repeated over and over. 

"… Is not from a fight, is it? It sounds like someone blindly hitting a metallic surface."

"I don't know. Isn't it your fault, mister?"

"The only people come here to do other than fighting is mining. It's not that strange."

"Zeros-san, we haven't forgiven you yet though?"

It was a serious problem once a woman ended up in a bad mood. Their gazes were painful.

However, all the nagging coming his way, as one would expect, ended up annoying him a little, and spontaneously started saying things like 'speaking of which, the cold monkey brain had a really strange flavor…', and so on. To which, the three girls immediately covered their ears all at once. 

"Why are you saying such a thing now!? I imagined it again!!!" 

"……(purupuru)"*T.N: shivering sfx.

"I knew it, after all, you're an S… Uuu… just when I was about to forget…"

"No, it doesn't really mean anything. Nevertheless, I thought that not paying attention to those weird signs would lead to your deaths in a dungeon."

He nonchalantly recites such a thing while flashing an absolutely perfect smile. He unexpectedly had such a personality.

"It's useless to worry about something like that… Ah, Big Spiders. It seems they're heading towards the direction of that sound. Their numbers are ten… What will you do?"

"I want to get spider threads if I can. It's the raw material for making spider silk."

"I know it sells at a high price, but there are ten of them… It'll be difficult, right?"

"Even so, we can make a lot of money. It can be a good challenge for us."

They seemed to have decided to hunt them. The mercenary life looks to be less profitable than one would expect. In addition to the wear and tear of weapons and armor, they have other regular expenses such as healing medicine and food. 

Moreover, most of the money earned from requests will disappear instantly due to the immediate living expenses when there isn't work to be done. It was hard to live by for them without securing extra income. They were actually in desperate financial straits. 

—

Following the Big Spiders, the four turn right at the T-shaped junction and quietly head towards the direction of the metallic noises. 

The hitherto fast-paced noise changed to a more violent one, the sound of fighting.

【s.h.i.t! The spiders are coming!!]

【We gotta keep going!! We're saving Christine-sama soon!!]

【I know, but this thing won't open!!]

【Hurry up, there are a lot of them!]

It looked like they were in trouble. 

Four mercenaries seemed to be fighting the Big Spiders. Normally, they wouldn't intervene, but without thinking it twice, the four people move. 

"Teeeeeeii!!"

With the longsword above her right shoulder, Jane slashed diagonally downwards, twisting her body as she does so, while Rena pierces the spider's body as it flinched from the previous attack.  

"Iris!"

"I know! 〖Rock Blast〗!!"

The countless rocks released from Iris' hands are shot towards the group of Big Spiders, successfully defeating three of them with a single magic attack.

Simultaneously, Zeros runs like a gale, slashing left and right, cutting the spiders' legs, and instantly dismantling another three. 

"Four remaining!"

"Thank you for your help! We are…"

"We'll talk about it later!"

"Right! My bad."

With the addition of another four combatants, they managed to subjugate the spiders that attacked them. 

Rena and Jane immediately moved onto dismantling them, while Iris tried her best to not look at such a scene of carnage. It seemed like it was physiologically impossible for her. 

"You guys saved us back there. Allow me to thank you."

"No, no. It's natural to help each other out in these kinds of situations. So, even knights are in trouble sometimes. Can you tell me what happened?"

"!? How did you know we were knights?"

"The swords you guys have possess a family crest, so you're probably the knights of some n.o.ble, am I correct? I tutored a n.o.bleman's children for a while and I saw ma.s.s-produced swords like that before."

Even when disguised as mercenaries, knights never replace their swords, as they are important items that can be used to identify themselves when moving without their distinctive armor on some missions. 

Because they are ma.s.s-produced, all swords have the same shape along with a seal engraved on the handle indicating that they belong to this kingdom's knights. 

In addition to that, a family crest could be engraved on the swords' guards, proof that the knights have gained the trust of a n.o.ble family, and are designated as close aids.

By showing this, they would reveal the ident.i.ty of the n.o.bleman they served, and it would distinguish them from knights serving other families. 

"What a magician! Please lend us your wisdom here."

"I don't think I'm such an important person to be called that*…… but well, what's the issue?"

(*T.N: So, this was completely lost in translation, but the knight referred to Zeros as 貴殿[kiden] which is apparently a super respectful way of referring to one's male equals or superiors.)

"Christine-sama, the Lord whom we serve, fell into a pit shooter trap. We've been trying to help her somehow, but the opening won't budge."

"Wha!? This is really bad…"

"Who would think of such a villainous trick…Kuh…"

A pit shooter is a common trap in dungeons. In short, it will randomly send you to another floor of the dungeon. You may end up on the upper floors, but in some extreme cases, it can also drop you off at the deepest part of the dungeon. 

Naturally, the strength of the monsters there is in a different league, so if rookie mercenaries end up there, they will not be saved.

Depending on where you fall, you could end up as dungeon fodder. 

"I was too late to notice that this place was a dungeon. The question now is whether this is connected to the deepest layer or not…"

"A dungeon!? Wasn't this just an abandoned mine!?"

"Mister. These people, maybe they're comrades of that kid you helped out before? Probably it was her who fell down…"

"Don't say more, I understand. But, I've opened one of these once, so I should be able to do it again, I think."

Zeros tries to get on the closed opening of the pit shooter trap. It's tightly shut and doesn't budge even with the full weight of an adult male.

"It won't open. It's going to take us some time to find a route around, so it's better to…"

――― Gakon!

While thinking, 'let's try to blow it away with magic,' the top opened just when he was about to prepare a spell, and so, Zeros disappeared after dropping straight into the opening. 

It completely looked like a failed sketch comedy routine. 

"Misteeer!?"

"Magician-dono!?"

"Oi… That won't end up as a double accident, right?"

"That was on purpose, wasn't it?"

"But now we're able to get where Christine-sama is. If he's that skillful, he'll probably be alright. We'll take a detour and go to her rescue."

The knights started to move fast, while Iris waited for the two girls who were still dismantling the monsters. She wasn't worried about Zeros at all, after all, she knew the stories of the 【Annihilators]. Rather, she was worried about the dungeon. 

Luckily, the pit shooter trap was a slide. However, just before it, there was a three-meter fall, which ended up with him smashing his rear before slipping down said slide that, unfortunately for him, had an uneven surface, so the pain in his b.u.t.tocks was severe. 

He felt a bit numb, probably because he hit his back too hard. 

"Ouch… I really hope my behind doesn't end up abraded… Well then, It seems I ended up in the same place as her, but I wonder where the princess[*T.N: ohime-sama: Rich, sheltered girl] is right now… Isn't this another cliché?"

The lonely Zeros starts walking while rubbing his lower back. The place he fell was a narrow s.p.a.ce around three meters from the top.

The path seems to only be going in one direction, but as he doesn't know what he might find ahead, he's carefully advancing while being on high alert for any surprise attacks. Incidentally, the walls of this tunnel also glow in a pale blue hue.

Zeros stopped in his tracks and began to think with a serious face. 

(This light… is not radioactive, right? Given that the laws of physics seem to be the same in this world, it wouldn't be strange for such a thing to exist. It wouldn't be funny if my hair falls off while I'm walking around…)

The true nature of the light is a stone that glows in the dark called 【Luminescent Stone], and it doesn't emit anything like harmful radiation. 

However, he was terrified that it might actually be a dangerous thing. Though, if it was really radioactive, it would've been game over for him the moment he set a foot inside the mine either way. Nevertheless, it took him some time to realize that fact.

――― Gyiiooooohhhhhh!!!

Zeros returns from his delusions with the sound of what it seemed to be a monster's roar.

"Looks like there's no time to think about that, I should hurry up and look for her. It would be awful if she ends up as monster fodder, after all."

While monologuing, Zeros, to whom the rescue was the absolute priority, proceeded to run towards the commotion at full speed.

At the end of the pa.s.sage was a precipice, and there was only a small foothold about thirty centimeters wide. There was no other way to get through there other than sticking his body against the rock wall. However, he realized that the pa.s.sage he had to cross before reaching it was too narrow for an adult male like him to pa.s.s.

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"Just what kind of uncivilized place is this…? I've never even done rock climbing before."

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