Volume 5 - CH 4

The next day, we went to Janatha's store, but it seemed that our story had gone through and Fianna and her friends were waiting for us.

"Hey, Alec. I'll wait in front of your lodge next time, so let me know where you're staying."

Jouga said, so I told him the name of the inn.

"The Dragon's Residence! That's pretty cool! God damn it! I think I'll stay there, too."

"Don't do that. Save your money or you'll be in trouble."

The iron-helmeted dwarf said.

"But hey, it's a barn, I'm sleeping in a barn. I'd like to sleep on a bed in a normal inn."

"Then we'll have to make some money. Let's go."

I don't want to have to take care of this guy, so I say to myself, and quickly leave. We dove into the second layer and continued our search until it was time for sunset. When the battle was over, I told everyone to return to their homes.

"Well, we're going back up to ......."

"Oh, we're going to sleep here, so you don't have to worry about us. I'll be waiting for you here on the stairs in the morning, according to my stomach clock."

Jouga nodded and said.

"Okay."

I wondered if we would be able to meet up with him soon, but it seemed that Jouga's stomach clock was quite accurate, and the next day's search went smoothly.

"Hey, Alec. I'll give you some money, so please buy some bread and dried meat. I can make more money that way than going back upstairs."

"I don't mind, but ......"

I looked at the others, and they seemed to agree. so he left them fifteen gold for three days.

"You're not going to run off with it, are you?"

"Like I will!"

I've been fooled into thinking I'm going to run away with just fifteen gold. I thought about telling him how much money I had, but it wouldn't be funny if Jouga attacked me with a PK. I'll keep that part to myself.

It was on the fifth day since I'd met Jouga and the others, and I'd already finished exploring the second layer, but on that day, Jouga and the others were late.

"My bad, my bad, I just couldn't get up."

Jouga apologized, rolling his shoulders as if he had just gotten up.

"It's too much trouble to wait. Just tell me where you guys are holed up."

"Yeah, there's a small room up ahead with a door that closes. That's where the monster house used to be."

"Oh, yeah. So there are no enemies?"

"If there were, we wouldn't be able to sleep peacefully. We've got the guards in place, so there's no problem."

I had a bad feeling about this, but I'm sure Jouga and the others are at least doing a decent job of keeping watch. The other two, Fianna and the iron-helmeted dwarf, seemed solid, so I was sure they would be fine.

"There's no guarantee that monsters won't spring up. so be careful."

"Ha, Alec, you know what? No adventurer has ever seen a monster pop up, you know?"

"Tell me about it."

I knew what it was, but I didn't want there to be any discrepancies between the reality of this world and my knowledge of it. I asked for an explanation.

If Monsters, once defeated, would reappear out of nowhere.

It's called popping, but it doesn't mean that new monsters will spring up in the adventurers' sight.　

They use this as an excuse to take a break in a small room in the dungeon.

In games, new miscellaneous enemies spring up on the screen, or you don't see them until you encounter them in the first place, but in this world, I appreciate this more.

However, I heard that bosses and pops caused by magic summons are different.

"I guess we'll have to be careful with the bosses then."

"Yes, but Alec, in this dungeon(・・・・・), the boss doesn't appear until the fourth layer."

"...... Hmm. I see."

So that skeleton hero is not the boss?

"Hey, what does the boss look like?" Serina asked.

"What do you mean, the strongest guy on the floor, of course. I'm talking about the best."

Jouga had never had a run-in with the boss before.　

"The boss stays in a certain room and never comes out of its territory." Letty gave us a description.

"So I heard that not many people can go down from the fifth layer. Once the party has defeated the boss, the boss will no longer appear, but the first challenge floor must be defeated in order to proceed."

"So I heard that not many people can go down from the fifth floor. Once the party has defeated the boss, the boss will no longer appear, but the first floor must be defeated in order to proceed.

I see. So, clearing the fourth layer and reaching the fifth layer will certify you as a B rank party?

If that's the case, I thought, the guild examiners could have just said they were taking down the boss, but they might have kept it a secret to prevent people from cheating by buying and selling the parts they took down.

Well, it doesn't matter either way. I'm going to take the straight and narrow.

Thanks to my ability to double the parameters of a normal person and my skill copying, I'm almost a cheat.

As long as I can raise my level steadily, there will be no problem.

The experience of the zombies is still lacking. I get about 50 per zombie, but at level 27, I need almost 10,000 experience. That's why my level hasn't gone up yet.

This means that I need to strengthen my skills, but I don't know anything about Dimensional Slash or Magic Swordsmanship yet.

Welbard-sensei, who replied to my letter, said that he had fought with a Magic Swordman before, but he didn't know the job change requirements.

He said he had never seen or heard of a Dimensional Slash.

However, Nene's level is getting closer to ours, so the party as a whole is improving.

"Master, the enemy is coming."

"All right, everyone, get ready for battle."

Meena's voice brought my attention back to the end of the corridor.

"Five enemies!"

Serina said, already slashing at them.

The zombie does not go down with just a few slashes, so it takes time. But in terms of speed and skill, we are superior to them. If it was one-on-one, we could defeat them with ease.

However, I was concerned about Jouga's staggered and sluggish movements during the fight.

"Jouga, are you sleepwalking?"

"No, I'm not. It's just my leg."

"Your legs?"

"The wound bitten by zombies the other day haven't healed yet."

Fianna said with concern. That's when you stumbled upon the monster house?

"Let me see it."

"No, it's fine! It's just a little swollen. Don't make a big deal out of it."

Jouga said, but if it was poisoned, it would be a problem.

I'm going to need an appraisal here.

【Name】　Jouga

【Age】　16

【 L ｖ】　23

【Class】　Warrior

【 Race 】　Human

【 Gender 】　Male

【 H P 】　102/257

【Status】　Tetanus

【Description】

Grandsword's Slave.

Adventurer.

Personality is cheerful and sometimes active.

"You've got tetanus."

"""Ehh?""

We're all surprised, but the way he's acting, it's worse than poison.

"Meena and Ione, set up a perimeter! We'll set up camp here. Jouga, show us your feet. This is a leader's order."

"Okay. But what's tetanus?"

"It's a horrible disease that causes wounds to heal badly, fever, loss of coordination, convulsions all over the body and finally a painful death." Fianna explained.

"Damn, I'm sick. ...... How much does it cost to treat me?"

"...... It's quite expensive."

"What the...? Seriously?"

Finally, Jouga seemed to realize the seriousness of the situation.

He took off his boots, but his feet were so swollen that he could hardly take them off.

"Uwahh, it's terrible. It's all red. The inside is kind of blackened. ......"

Lily looked at the wound and said with a wince. It's definitely in bad shape.

"You should have told me ...... why you left it alone until this happened."

Fianna said, and healed in rapid succession.

"I didn't realize it was so bad. I had a swollen wound once, but it healed on its own. ......"

"What do you think, Fianna?"

"The wounds do not heal well in this condition. You need to see a priest. I can't handle it."

"Then let's call off the search. Let's go upstairs."

"Wait a minute. I've only got 200 gold to pay them."

"I'll take care of the rest. You owe me."

"I'm sorry."

As expected, the dejected Jouga was not in his usual spirits.