Chapter 51

Chapter 51

Team Halfwits (1)

"Rotmiller, is there anyone nearby?"

Could they perhaps have similar doubts as me?

Rotmiller closed his eyes and opened them again without saying a word. Then he looked around with his newly oval-shaped pupils.

Brown Rotmiller has cast [Thermal Colouring[1]].

The lizardman skirmishers ability, Thermal Colouring'.

Its function is similar to that of a modern thermal imaging camera.

This skill had been quite useful in the game. As long as it was a living creature, this alone was enough to find it out, even if it was using [Stealth] or another similar ability.

"Theres no one nearby."

Rotmiller disarmed the ability and gave a brief reply.

"But judging from the smell, someone was here a while ago."

Coming from someone with two essences that corrected the olfactory stats, the possibility of him being wrong was slim.

I followed up with a few more questions.

"How long ago was it, if you had to guess?"

"Theres a margin of error, but at this level of body odour, Id say around a couple of minutes."

"So theres a very high chance that they left after they saw us coming?"

" Yes."

Rotmiller nodded bitterly, and the dwarf, whod been quietly listening to the conversation, interrupted with amazement.

"Wait, then they were aiming at us?"

"Perhaps not aiming at us specifically. Just waiting for someone to come hunting."

Rotmiller didn't deny it.

He also explained that luring monsters in front of the portal was a favourite technique for pillagers.

Perhaps it was considered a low-risk pillaging method?

Even if its just a mean and petty trick, its amazingly effective.'

Surprise attack using monsters.

Aimed at the exact moment when the adventurers, whod just crossed the portal, were the most vulnerable.

If they got annihilated, great! If one or two got hurt, still good. And if they manage to endure it without damage, you can just back off for a while and wait for the next set of prey.

"Rotmiller! Cant we catch their trail and hunt them down? Killing pillagers is good money!"

"Even if we could, itd be difficult to actually find them. They wont stay nearby and risk being hunted down And above all, we dont have any evidence. We cant rule out the possibility of being the ones framed instead."

"Hey, the dead dont talk!"

Hearing his reasoning, Misha retorted with an angry face, but the dwarf made a calm and cold decision as the leader.

"Were going to make a quick trip back down to the second floor and leave a warning about pillagers in front of the portal."

"Thats the correct decision."

We followed the minimum rules one had to abide by as adventurers, and then left the portal and went on our way.

Naturally, the conversation switched to the topic of pillagers.

However, the more I listened, the stranger it became.

"Youre great, Rotmiller. I never even know that there was such a technique."

"I've only ever heard of it before, but this is my first time falling for this trick. "

"You dont meet pillagers often, after all!"

Uh, what the hell are you shitheads talking about?

I felt alienated from the adventurers chattering all around me, finding it difficult to empathize, and ended up asking some questions.

And then I realized a shocking fact!

"Youre asking me? I guess, about eight times in the past five years? One time they were on the same team as me, and the rest were all just some assholes!"

Only eight times in five years?

Fuck, werent adventurers supposed to meet pillagers almost on a daily basis?

"Yeah, sure it used to be like that about a hundred and fifty years ago!"

Misha said that after the death of the first king, who was also called the Immortal King, the number of pillagers was greatly reduced due to various policies.

But I couldn't understand it.

It was clear that something was wrong.

Because there could be no explanation otherwise.

Once in the Crystal Cave, once in the Goblin Forest, twice in the Land of the Dead'

In total, in the last three months, Id encountered pillagers five times.

What was wrong with me?

When I told this story to get some opinions, everyone, including Rotmiller, looked at me with strange eyes.

"How many sins did Bjorn commit in a previous life?"

"Ha ha ha! Maybe it's because you're here that we met the pillagers today!"

""

I had nothing to say.

What kind of life had I been living?

As I walked sullenly and silently, not having the energy to refute, Rotmiller sighed and spoke.

"Everyone, stop teasing him. Everyone knows that Miss Karlstein is one of the lucky ones, right?"

"Ah! It was like that !"

"I, too, tend to see pillagers about once every three months. So don't worry too much about it."

Ah, uh, um

Thank you for comforting me.

Still, that was different from five times in three months.

Wormstone defeated. EXP+2

You have defeated an iron falcon. EXP+2

You have defeated a steel hill guard. EXP+2

The third floor, the Pilgrim's Path'.

No matter which route you pass though, such as the Land of the Dead, the Goblin Forest, or the Beasts Lair, this is where you end up eventually.

The starting point is different for each route, so if you want to meet adventurers from different routes, you have to follow the road to the centre of the fourth floor, where the portal is.

It took about three to four days on average to get to the centre

For reference, this is the time it takes if you only focus on travelling. From that it can be seen how large the third floor is in size. Its incomparable to the previous floors.

Therefore, in addition to the name of the section, the Pilgrim's Path', each monster habitat is also named separately, and one of them, the Steel Rock Hill', is where we are now.

"Then well camp here today, and tomorrow well move on to the next area."

The boundary line where the area ends.

At that halfway point, we start preparing our camp. The reason being, as the territories of the monsters from both sides overlap here, therere relatively few monsters roaming around.

"By the way, Dwalky, are you alright? You haven't looked good for the past while."

The dwarf, whos finished his sleeping preparations by laying out his sleeping bag on the floor, starts talking to Dwalky.

So Rotmiller, Misha and I start eavesdropping while pretending not to.Rread latest chapters at novelhall.com

"Its clear that there is some reason or other. But anyone who sees this scene in person doesnt wonder why."

"Thats right! I've only ever heard of it, but this is my first time seeing it in person! Normally, Id have been coolly sleeping inside my sleeping bag by now!"

"Ha ha ha! Do you think this friend won't be able to sleep tonight after seeing this?"

After that, the light completely disappears, and the usual darkness envelops the labyrinth again. All the team members, except for me, whos the rookie and therefore on first watch, go to sleep in their own sleeping bags.

But

""

It takes a long time before I hear the sound of sleep from Dwalky's sleeping bag.

It was a bright new day.

Not that the surroundings had really brightened up or anything. It was still just as dark.

But the time was morning.

[08: 10].

After clearing out the campsite, we walked downhill for a while and left the Steel Rock Hill.

And then we reached our first destination.

"Come on, the Orc Colonys just ahead."

Orc Colony.

Among the various areas on the third floor, this place had the highest number of monsters. A characteristic feature was that only monsters of rank eight or higher appeared here.

If you aren't going straight to the fourth floor, you wont find a hunting ground better than here.'

The difficulty level was the second highest among the third-floor areas.

But if my predictions were correct, we wouldnt be facing any major risks.

In fact, with our team, working on the fourth floor was possible.

We had a wizard, and there were three people apart from me who were originally active on the fourth floor.

"Then lets try and clear this area as a team for a while, and decide our next steps based on the outcome."

After reorganizing the team formation, we set foot into the high bushes.

Although I called it a reorganization, it was just sending Rotmiller to the rear and the dwarf taking his place.

"Murad, theres a group of orcs coming at one oclock."

As expected of a popular hunting ground with a high monster concentration, even though we were in the outskirts, we managed to encounter a group of orcs after walking only for a little while.

"Chwi, chwiik!"

A basic set of four orc warriors, one archer and one shaman.

"Just do like you practiced!"

I took my place in the formation wed already put together in advance.

Named, Formation A.

A formation where the dwarf and I were the tanks solidly blocking at the front, and Misha, who took the melee dealer position, freely moved between the shield walls, prioritizing the closest enemies to defeat first.

Reol Webb Dwalky has cast the eighth-grade attack magic [Ice Lance].

Orcs didnt need any special curse-type magics, so Dwalky only focused on attacks.

And the same went for Rotmiller.

In battle, he concentrated on supporting us from the rear using his crossbow.

Although he had one more additional role.

Orc shaman has cast [Frenzy].

All orc warriors have three times the physical resistance for ten seconds.

If a monster ignored the shield wall and rushed to the rear, he had to protect the party member most vulnerable to close range attacks, meaning Dwalky.

"Its [Frenzy] magic! Be careful!"

"Dwalky! Stay behind me!"

"Got it!"

One of the orc warriors in the [Frenzied] state ignored us and rushed for Dwalky, but Rotmiller pulled out a shield to block him.

Of course, as a scout, he didn't have the physical ability needed to defeat an orc warrior one-on-one, but

"Haah, that surprised me!"

He just needed to buy some time by using any of his main or secondary weapons, like his crossbow, buckler, dagger, or fire grenade.

So he could hold on until Misha provided support or Dwalky cast attack magic.

You have defeated an orc warrior. EXP+2

You have defeated an orc archer. EXP+2

You have defeated an orc shaman. EXP+2

So the first battle with the orcs ended smoothly. It lasted about eight minutes in total, and there were no injuries, but I couldnt deny that it took longer than Id expected.

The issue is definitely our DPS.'

Along with our scout, we had two shield warriors.

And orcs had fairly high physical resistance among the eighth-grade monsters.

Of course, we had a wizard in the party, who were supposed to be the pinnacle of damage dealers in this world, but

Dwalky wasnt from the Magic Tower.

His [Ice Lance] that dealt single-target damage was all that he had when it came to rank eight attack spells.

Well, it's because he specializes in curses rather than attack magic, in the first place.'

The value of a wizard doesnt lie only in high-power attack magic.

Theres a matter of compatibility between adventurers and monsters.

But if you have a wizard on your team, it becomes possible to actively hunt monsters of a much more diverse nature.

Still, it's slow, although we do have high stability

It was a bit disappointing in that aspect, but it was a pretty good team.

"Then lets go deeper."

After that, we fought our way towards the centre of the Orc Colony.

The deeper we went, the greater the number of orcs that appeared in a group. At one point, the seventh-grade monster, orc warlord', also mixed in

You have defeated an orc warlord. EXP+3

This hunt also went without difficulty.

But shitty things always happen when everything seems to be going smoothly.

It happened while we were hunting a group of orcs in earnest.

"Ihenro Tauntain."

Suddenly, a low-pitched chant was heard in the distance, across the thick bushes.

And

Craaaaaaaaaaashhh!

A flaming meteorite fell on the horde we were hunting and exploded.

" What the fuck?"

What kind of a dogshit situation was this?

Editor's Notes:

[1] (lit. thermal colours).

Thanks to B0x3R0ck for commissioning the chapter!