Volume 2 - CH 33

“It seems the Venomous Centipede’s Short Sword works quite well, right Luce?”

“I’m not one of the Classes with high firepower, so a knife that inflicts abnormal conditions on hit is very welcome! It makes me feel like I’ve become strong all of a sudden!”

Luce cheerfully answered.

“I saw you take some damage, but are you alright?”

“I just got a bit carried away from having a new weapon…. Still, we don’t know what monsters we will be coming across after this, so should I use a Heal Potion, just in case? It takes a bit for those to take effect after all…..”

“[Heal]”

At that moment, Luce’s body was covered by a white light.

When we turned around, a girl with a large staff in her hands was standing there.

Her eyes looked like they were half-closed and she had a benevolent expression on her face.

“Ah, thank you very much….uhm….”

“My name is Mabel and my Class is Priestess. I’ve been brought along because I have a healer Class, but I’m still a C rank adventurer. Please take care of me, B rank adventurer duo-san.”

“Well, we were only recently promoted too. I’m Elma, a Heavy Knight, and this is Luce, a Clown. We are pleased to meet you too.”

During a Raid Quest, whether you can trust your teammates or not is an important issue.

The more people there are, the less they are able to cooperate properly.

It’s not rare for people to even give up entirely on teamwork in such cases, but there are still sometimes adventurers that would rush in recklessly or make a fuss about something out of self-centered egotism.

It’s good to see that at least one of the important white mages seems to be a reliable person.

“Don’t make the one of the crucial healers use her MP for nothing before we even enter the Dungeon.”

A man with a bow on his back interjected.

The atmosphere turned cold in a moment.

It was a brown haired man with a snake-like expressionless face.

He seemed to be around 30 years old.

If I remember right, it should be a B rank adventurer with a Class of Hunter called Celt.

He’s one of the higher level adventurers among those that volunteered for this Raid Quest.

“We are outside, so it’s easy to fall back. She wouldn’t have even gotten injured if she kept close enough to the core group. You should’ve just ignored someone who charges in blindly like that right at the start. To think that the healer that got hired is someone who can’t even pace herself.”

“Aah, I’m sorry about that, Celt-san. I’ll do my best to think before I act in the future.”

Mabel bowed her head repeatedly.

“That’s hindsight logic. It’s not wrong to prioritize cutting down the numbers first when up against so many monsters at once. If it turns into a prolonged fight, then the risk of a monster hitting a weak point and causing significant damage by chance goes up. At least it’s not something you should go out of your way to scold someone about. What you did is even more pointless, even during a Raid Quest.”

I intervened in the conversation.

“You don’t know anything, do you? We are in for the long haul with this Raid Quest. Partly because of the Monster Pool, but also because we need to investigate if there is anything suspicious within the Dungeon. This is a lot different from an ordinary exploration. Don’t make a scene just because your pride got hurt, newbie.”

Using his years of experience as a shield, he moved on to a pointless argument.

Now I’m sure what his aim was.

“…..you came to bother us, so you could gain the initiative.”

Celt broke into a grin from my words.

With his previous words, Celt created an atmosphere where he could influence the actions of the healer and rained in the front liner adventurers at the same time.

A healer is an essential part of group battles.

If you can designate who gets healed and when, you can direct the party in a way that you get most of the experience points and items.

What he said to Luce also served the same purpose.

If the front liners get disheartened and shift their focus to simply tanking the enemy, then Celt with the Class of Hunter who can kill monsters from the back line will be the one to gain the most.

He can effortlessly increase the number of times he can deal the finishing blow on monsters and gain the most experience points.

“Don’t try to make stuff up to make me look bad here, kid. You don’t want more experienced adventurers singling you out, right? Be smart about this.”

Trying to intimidate me, Celt patted my shoulder with quite a bit of force.

After that he turned his back to us.

“Well then….We got quite a haul of drop items here. The rule was that the one who delivered the last hit gets the drop item to avoid disputes, right? Then don’t mind if I help myself.”

Celt gave a casual wave back at us.

He managed to finish off quite a number of monsters in that last battle.

It seems he targeted the half-dead monsters to get as much experience and drop items as he possibly could.

Doing something like that to some degree would be understandable, but he’s especially blatant about it, as if he’s deliberately saying that he doesn’t care about being hated for it.

“…..but those items dropped only because of my Skill.”

Luce complained quietly.

During this Raid Quest, it was decided that as long as it’s not a markedly strong opponent, that one who manages to take down the monster gets their drop items.

With that already decided, it would be hard to argue for an exception to that.

However, this method of distribution is also quite unfavorable for the healer and support Classes too…..

“What a thoroughly unlikeable guy.”

Although, it’s undeniable that Celt is very much used to situations such as this.

I didn’t think that a resident of this world that doesn’t have the knowledge that can be expected from a player would be able to make use of the rules of this world to this extent.

I may have underestimated the wit of the adventurers that live in this world.

“You shouldn’t mind it too much either, Mabel. It was his intention to complain about something and use that to try to intimidate us right from the beginning.”

“It’s fine. As someone that works as a healer, I frequently have the misfortune to come across people like that…..”

Mabel said with a courageous smile.

Then she opened her half-closed eye and glared at the back of Celt.

“That guy is the type that calms down in the end if I act subservient but keep putting off healing him for some reason or another. When we enter the Dungeon, a Hunter like him won’t be able to avoid taking some damage if he wants to earn experience points and the Defense of that Class is quite low.”

Mabel’s shoulders shook a bit from her quiet but malicious laugh.

“I-I see….”

“I still want to get along with you two, so please take care of me.”

“….yes, we would very much like that as well.”

Perhaps the adventurers that managed to survive in this world for a long time are even more tenacious than I thought.

Now that I think about it, the reason why Mabel used white magic on Luce was most likely to establish a favourable relationship with some reliable adventurers.

The timing of that [Heal] was indeed too early if I consider what we’re about to face.