>[Leave the cooking to me!]
So the party member I will take with me are the five people and one monster: Sakura, Maria, Sera, Dora, Mio and Tamo-san.
Other members will stay in this mansion. I have Midori do some production once in a while while she is relaxing in the garden. Lusia and the adventurer team will be focusing on their activities as an adventurer in this town and country. And then, I plan to establish a clan when their fame rises a little more. As for the maid and butler, I plan to let them manage this mansion.
These members weren’t told everything, but they got an explanation regarding our abilities and naturally they are also forbidden to speak about it. I’m sure there will be no problem whenever we come back.
[Though I say that, it will take some time to leave this country, so for the next while I think we will take on a lifestyle where we ride the carriage during the day and we go back here when it becomes night regardless of whether we stay in a hotel or sleep outdoors.]
Sleeping outdoors itself is part of the charm of traveling, but fact is that we reached the point where we can return whenever we want to relax at home.
[This is really a non-journey isn’t it.]
[Yeah, we were able to make it this comfortable in the end. To the point I have to ask “Is this really a journey?”]
[That’s so not something you should say full of confidence……]
Mio speaks with amazed tone.
[Well then Mio, will you sleep outside on your own the whole way?]
[No~~~~. I don’t want that~. Ah, I love you Master! I adore you~!]
Saying so, Mio clings onto me. It is really packed here. As packed as the amount of food Sera puts into her body during a meal.
[Putting aside Mio’s screams of love, which country we should go now?]
[I’ve been put aside!]
Mio is neglected.
Well then, the first agenda is “Which country we are going now?” And so, Kastal queendom features borders with four countries. The one in the west is the kingdom of Eludia. Well, that one’s out.
The next one is Sanokia kingdom in the north. It’s the country Sera was born in and it seems to be a strong country where n.o.bles have a lot of power. So pa.s.s.
The next is the Atto Union in the east. This is a union a.s.sembled with small countries. In creating this union, they raised their right to speak. It might be a good place for sightseeing since individually the countries are small and their culture varies.
The last one is Ishtar kingdom in the south. Also known as the dungeon country. This country has a huge underground dungeon underneath its territory. No, that isn’t completely right is it…… To be more precise, its entire territory has a dungeon underneath it. In short, it means that the so-called dungeon is larger than a single country. And the dungeon is composed of layers, so its real territory is several times to several tens of times larger than its surface territory.
There are dungeon’s entrance all over the place. Furthermore, the dungeon’s entrances have become a city or a village. The inside of the dungeon is a treasure house of resources so adventurers…, no, in this case they’re called explorers, but the resources they bring back are their main special products.
Dungeon like this is, in a meaning, one of the templates of the other world. It would be stupid not to challenge it. So I would like to go to this dungeon country if possible.
I spoke for a long time about the aforementioned country in front of everyone.
[No, I do know about it though, you know……]
Says Sakuya. Well, that goes without saying. I think a queen who doesn’t know about their neighboring countries ought to resign.
[Or more like, they’re unmistakably the country who trades with Kastal the most……]
Ishtar kingdom have low food self-sufficiency rate and an abundance in mineral resources produced by the dungeon. Compared to that, Kastal has very high food self-sufficiency rate. They have abundant forests with huge fields of crops and they also feature a lake and sea we didn’t visit. On the other hand, the mines are scarce, so they’re in a give-and-take situation with Ishtar. There are also many exchanges in human resources by adventurers with pride in their skills challenging themselves in the dungeon.
[But is that fine? That country is part of the Hero supporting faction though……]
Heroes supporting faction. They’re countries that have declared they will support Heroes’ adventure at a national level. While I was busy in the capital, Eludia contacted each nation that “they officially summoned the Heroes, so they desire their support.” They have reached the first stage of their training in the country, so they dispatch the Heroes to each nation with the official stance that they will go around various places to polish their abilities and it seems they’re drawing out support including financial support or so they say.
After checking, what the demon said about waging war with the neighboring countries and destroying it was true. Meltis kingdom, a small country at northern side of Eludia, was destroyed. It seems that most of the royal families were executed and their citizens were either killed or have fallen into slavery.
Under such circ.u.mstances they requested support from other countries in a very clear way, so a several countries didn’t declare support. Incidentally, they have declared that Heroes won’t be dispatched in countries that are not giving support and they will not help them if by any chance demons are attacking them. As for Kastal, it felt like they are saying “What are you saying this late?”.
Of course, Kastal didn’t declare support either. More accurately, Sakuya was worried about it a little. No, it doesn’t mean she’s saying she won’t support me and Sakura you know. ……I can’t say that Sakura suddenly becoming sullen and me letting so much killing intent that Sakuya wetted herself when she brought up that topic had nothing to do with it though.
[If I had to say it, there are a lot more countries that are supporting the Heroes after all. If I say I would stop going to a country just from being told they’re part of the Heroes supporting faction, then the countries I can go to will be nearly gone. MOreover, I have no such reason to avoid Heroes either you know. So nothing will change if I happen meet with those annoying insects.]
[Master is amazing, being able to call Heroes an insect.]
Mio is being impressed on a strange point.
[If you wish, Jin-sama, I wouldn’t mind you calling me “Insect” as well.]
Maria is also a Hero after all…… But Maria, I don’t think that is what loyalty stands for.
[I……, I would rather not meet them if possible. But not going because a Hero may be there is like running away and I don’t like that.]
It looks like Sakura doesn’t plan on running away. We’re not going to “go and meet one”, but it seems that she’s unable to stomach “not going because there is a chance to meet one”. She seems to be quite influenced by me I guess.
[Alright then, we will take votes then. Who is opposing to go to Ishtar kingdom?]
n.o.body raise their hand. Yep, I knew that. Or rather, I don’t know anyone who would raise their hands after that way of speaking.
[Well, if Master would like to go then, then there will be no opposing viewpoint from me. And it seems like I will be able to play a reasonably active role there as well……
[There is n.o.body who can oppose Master with his current way of speaking in the first place is there……]
Everyone also knew. And with that, Ishtar kingdom have become our next destination.
[Well then, let’s leave tomorrow. Although we can return any time, let’s just prepare ourselves.]
With that said, our meeting is dissolved. Each person is working on preparing for our travels. The work is basically buying up the goods necessary to capture the dungeon. With the exception of the main members, they are gathering the necessary luggages for our travels too.
The next day, we finished our preparation and departed from the capital. On the way out of the mansion, we saw the bizarre scene of all maids and butlers lining up and kneeling along the way out. It feels like pa.s.sersby are clearly avoiding me.
The estimate time to arrive Ishtar is around two weeks. In the meantime we will find some cities or villages, so it will be just right if we take our time sightseeing. Sakuya and Alta also told me what kind of villages there are in advance.
About 3 hours later with the horse carriage, Sakuya contacts me with telepathy.
>>>The emergency contact purpose magic item is common in Ishtar but they aren’t used so much in other countries. It comes to the reason because it will be mostly useless outside the dungeon. There are also other dungeon items exclusive to Ishtar dungeon. It’s easy to understand in a sense, an item of some sort that’s useful inside the dungeon, but can’t be used when it’s taken outside. By the way, using it outside just once seems to require an quite a lot of magic stones.
The boundary stones that protects the villages or towns. Naturally, Ishtar’s cities and villages also have them deployed. But due to the special location of the towns and villages, they seem powerless against the monsters coming out of the dungeon. As a result, monster around the entrance will be thinned out periodically, the entrance will be heavily guarded and the soldiers should be stationed there.
>>Speaking of appearing like it, it does appear like it. But the deeper you go into the dungeon, the stronger the monsters will become. But most of the monsters don’t move between strata. As a result, the entrance, where the upper stratum monsters are weak, are popular (?) for beginners.
The entrance is meant for beginners, so there are not that many villages that can safely finish a B rank-ish monsters that came out of the entrance.
>I taught Sakuya my high speed movement combo. Even if I use “Portal” or “Warp”, I could undermine any military movements from its roots, so please keep it a secret is what she pleaded me while prostrating.
I don’t particularly have any problems with hearing Sakuya’s problem itself. It’s just that there’s something I’m curious about so I’m going to check.
>I lowered the tone of my voice a little and addressed Sakuya. Enough about me also being involved in the dealing of the aftermath related to the demon, this is completely an interaction as a country. This isn’t some matter where you request ordinary C rank adventurers. I’ll leave it as if I’m a regular C rank adventurer.
>Sakuya raises a weird voice and explains herself.
You can’t create a nominated request to an adventurer who is C rank or lower. To be more precise, there are no compelling forces in a nominated request for them.
I honestly don’t care about the rewards, but it’s only proper to prepare some when it comes to requests after all.
>It seems she didn’t particularly thought about it. Rather, there is almost no reward Sakuya can give me, now is there. I mean, Sakuya is already my subordinate……
>With that I cut off the telepathy with Sakuya. Well, this means I can look forward to my reward later……
[That’s how it is. It’s too bad, but no sightseeing I guess. We still have another chance for that. For now, I’ll go ahead and head towards that one village with high speed movement.]
[Jin-sama, I shall go along with you.]
Maria also raises her hand as if it was natural. Well, I guess that’s how it is.
[Okay. The rest of you, please return to the mansion with the carriage and prepare for battle. There’s a chance it will become a large scale battle.]
I wouldn’t like it if the carriage goes along and gets involved in the battle. I should feel relieved if I leave it in the mansion.
[We even took so much trouble riding on this carriage up to here, it’s all for nothing isn’t it……]
[Well, there is nothing we can do about this. For now, let us set up a “Portal” here.]
Since our preparation is done, Maria and I advanced using rapid movement combo.
It’s a high speed combo that allows us to cover seven days worth of distance traveled in one hour by foot. This time we’re going out even more seriously and cover two weeks worth of distance within thirty minutes. Not setting up a portal in the villages along the way probably makes this more effective.
I reached a nearby area, so confirm the situation of the village from the map.
「うわー……」
[Uwa~……]
[This is terrible……]
Maria frowns and speaks.
What we see from here are huge amounts of red dots and gray dots with green borders. In other word, it means there are a lot of enemies and dead villagers. There are also many dead on the monsters’ side, but there are still around ten B rank monsters remaining.
[It’s going to look bad if we don’t hurry.]
[Yes.]
We open “Portal” at a somewhat nearby place and summon the other members.
[Sorry to keep you waiting.]
[Yeah, my bad for doing this right away, but the situation is quite dangerous. The monsters are quite spread out, so we will exterminate them in pairs. The pairings are me with Maria, Mio with Sera and Sakura with Dora.]
[[[[Yes!]]]]
>
[Next time, okay?]
>Dora has the role of a shield, so we’ll slightly lack mobility if she’s with me. If I let her fly then it’ll be a different story though……
[Err, are you going to call out the base group?]
[Yeah, can I leave the call out to you Sakura?]
[Yes, you can.]
[Then, move out!]
With a loud yell, we start the monster examination in pairs.
We arrived at the village. The damage is larger than I thought. There is a fire here and there. I guess it looks like there are monsters who can use fire.
Fire Fang
LV 23
Note: A wolf possessing fire elemental fangs. Its whole body is covered with high temperature.
Flare Tail
LV 20
Note: A lizard possessing a fire tail. It’s not so adorable like a Char***der.
Those are the B rank monsters in this area. The concept of level hasn’t spread, but it’s safe to consider monsters of around level 20-30 to be B rank monsters.
A: What you just mentioned, how about we make a simplified chart of monster levels and ranks.
Who’s going to make that……?
Besides those, I see the familiar goblins and unfamiliar monsters now and then.
Dummy Tail
LV 9
Note: Lizard-type monster. Regrows its tail immediately even if it is cut. A slo***ke.
Dungeon Worm
LV 12
Note: Earthworm-type monster that lives inside the dungeon. Has an over-all length of at most one meter.
Dungeon goblin
LV 7
[Dungeon Club]
Note: A goblin from the dungeon. No great differences between them and ordinary goblins.
Dungeon Club
Cla.s.s : Club
Rarity : Common
By the way, the skill seems to be a skill that can earn you compensation inside the dungeon. It’s mainly an ability that’s focused on support skills like not losing your way, or not becoming so hungry and few other stuff, it doesn’t really raise combat power.It’s not important, but almost everything within the dungeon is like magic power, so it wouldn’t be strange no matter where the monster springs forth. Of course, only for monster suitable for that stratum…… And at that time, skill will be added to the monster born inside the dungeon.[First of all, we rout the B rank monster, got me? Other than that, kill them starting with the strongest possible monsters.]
[Yes!]
There are still a lot of monsters and villagers inside the village. It looks like the defense capability against fire elemental monsters is low, because there are a lot of wooden buildings.
[We are the adventurers who have come from Kastal to your rescue! Come run in our direction if you’re running away!]
We secure a position in the village center and shout with a loud voice. It’ll make it that much easier to save them if they notice and run this way.
[H-Help me, please!]
As soon as she said that, a lone woman runs this way. Approaching from behind her is the B rank monster, Fire Fang. When I look closely, I see a several corpses of what appears to adventurer scattered about at the direction the woman ran from.
She clings onto me like she flopped onto me. She is around my age and is injured, but can be called a minor injury. I could call this a bonus if it weren’t for this situation though……
[It’s all fine now. Be relieved.]
[Bu-But that monster is considered a B rank…Hii!]
Right as she said that, the Fire Fang leaps at me. I turn the Spirit Sword – Incomplete towards the direction it’s leaping from. That alone made the Fire Fang split in two. That went little too easy……
[Amazing……]
Although they’re B rank monsters, they’re naturally a small fry from the perspective of the current us, so this is a natural conclusion.
We gradually expand the safe zone while we cut down nearby monsters. We have Map, so we locate the hiding villagers and guide them towards the center of the village.
After Maria instantly killed a Flare tail by herself in the beginning, I directed the monster subjugation to direction opposite of me.
In the middle of it, the base group, Cloud and the others also joins in and proceeds with the monster subjugation inside the village. Conversely the members outside the village are subjugating by slowly advancing towards the village. It currently doesn’t seem likely for them to slip away either.
The base group is also able to safely subjugate the B rank monsters. Looks like the strengthening of my subordinates are also going favorably.
The ten B rank monsters and around thirty of other monsters inside the village end up being annihilated not even ten minutes after deployment.
For now let’s issue some instructions.
Okay then, search for injured people in the village.
A: Twenty of them are critically injured, thirtyfour of them are injured and sixteen are deceased. I will disply the location of the critically injured people one by one.
Got it. Start from the people who are about to die please.
A : Okay.
I head to the critically injured people’s location Alta is displaying. Most of them lost something their arm or leg. As one would expect, I can’t use “Revive” so I use a regular High Heal to cure them. Although it doesn’t repair what they lost, it stops the bleeding and recover their HP until they’re safe.
I go around the village and apply recovery on them in order. The adventurers and guards fought first in order to stop the monsters and hardly any of them are alive. Some of villagers also fled towards the direction of the forest, some of them were protected by the other members and others are killed on the way by monsters.
A: The number of dead people after Master and the others arrived is 0.
I applied recovery on a fair amount of villagers, so I get in touch with Sakuya.
>>>I’m probably sounding imprudent, but it has that disappointed meaning in it. I a.s.sumed it was at the size of the stampede from Tiara forest……
>>I can’t kill the monsters and then just go “Okay, goodbye” I guess. It’s a fact we’re here as per request from the country……
>>>I will cut off contact for now. Her articulation failed a bit, but is it really okay I wonder…….
[Jin-sama, the treatment of the injured people and the firefighting has been done. We’ve finished collecting the subjugated monsters.]
[OKay.]
Listening to Maria’s report, I head over to the largest building in the village. At this moment we had all the villagers including the injured people head towards that building.
[Who is the one in charge of this village?]
I ask villagers that gathered here. Among those villagers, a lone woman approaches me. It’s the woman I saved in the beginning.
[I think I probably have become what you said.]
[Probably?]
[Yes, my father was the village chief, but he tried to let the villagers who are attacked by the monsters escape and…… At that time, you could say I’ve become the so-called subst.i.tute village chief.]
[Okay. Then I will inform you about us. We are the adventurers who were requested by Kastal, the country who received the call for help from Ishtar.]
[Yes, we have submitted a call for help to the country. But then I don’t think they will arrive on time if you hadn’t come.]
Even if you use a horse, you will still need at least three hours from the nearest city. With just that amount of time, this place would likely be annihilated I guess.
[After this, we plan on keeping watch on the dungeon until people are dispatched.]
[Are you willing to go that far for us? You were willing to exterminate all of the monsters and treat the injured people. Moreover, you were willing to use magic for that and then you’re even willing to go so far on top of it……]
She’s making an apologetic face, but it is obvious that this village doesn’t have any other choice. Even if you look around, there are only a few men who are safe. A lot of men fought in order to deal even a little damage to the monsters and they were either critically wounded or dead.
What’s gathered here are mostly women, children and the elderly.
[Don’t mind it. It looks like our reward will come out nicely after all.]
[……I understand. Thank you very much. Ah, my name is Lona. I’m sorry for the belated introduction……]
[I’m Jin. Leader of the adventurers here to the rescue.]
As we are having this kind of conversation, a lot of villagers are trying to go outside the building.
[Where is everyone going to?]
When Lona called out to those people, a middle-aged woman with relatively small injuries replies to her.
[Aah, these adventurers will be keeping watch for us, won’t they? We’re thinking about about gathering the corpses of the people who died. It’s too pitiful if they’re exposed to the weather forever after all.]
[Oh, I will aid you as well. Jin-san and others, please take care of the vigilance.]
[Alright.]
I didn’t think about the human corpses during battle after all. I can’t do something like picking them up with …… We can’t leave them there either so I thought about collecting them while being on guard. We can also help, but our work is more or less keeping vigilance.I choose the timing and to bring out our carriage. The outline is something like we went ahead and the carriage will catch up to us. Right now I’ll leave it at the village’s outskirt. With Tamo-san under it.
Around three hours later, the knights from the nearby town arrived. Who appears in the front is an old man in his forties, dressed in an extravagant armor.
[Are you b.a.s.t.a.r.ds the adventurers who arrived from Kastal?]
I judge with only those few words. Ah, this guy, he’s a useless person of a knight.
[Yeah, that’s right.]
[Tch, we’ve been contacted by Kastal and heard all the monsters that came out were exterminated. Is that true?]
[Yeah, we are keeping watch to make sure no monster can leave the dungeon.]
[Hmph, we will take over that work from now on. You b.a.s.t.a.r.ds should immediately leave this village.]
Say, why is this guy so aggressive and hostile?
A : Isn’t it because his work has been stolen by Kastal? Ishtar seems to be bragging about having adventurers and knights with higher quality than Kastal.
I see, he can’t stomach the fact adventurers from Kastal’s side played an active role and…… Woah there.
>>>>
He’s not a pleasant conversational partner, but we will also come across such people very often if we’re traveling. It’ll never end if you do that for each and every one of them. I think it’s fine to leave them be unless they look like they’re going to harm us directly. Of course, I’ll give them no mercy if they do harm us directly……
[Alright. We will leave his village as soon as you finish taking over our watch.]
I actually wanted to try and enter the dungeon from this village, but it just had an anomaly and it seems better leave it alone if we’re not entering it for investigation purpose.
When I go towards Maria and the carriage, the aforementioned self-important knight approaches me.
[Hey, adventurer. There are hardly any corpses of monsters in the village. What is the meaning of this!?]
[Ah, we can use , so we’ve collected the whole portion we have defeated.][Tch, hey. Leave behind the corpses of the defeated monsters here. We will be investigate them after all.]
His att.i.tude is really bad. I don’t like this to be honest, but there’s no doubt about the thing about needing them for investigation.
[There were also B rank monsters, so that’ll be a nice sum of money. Is it fine if I deliver them to a nearby large town?]
Dungeon monsters also have magic cores. Of course, since they’re B rank monsters, its core will be a nice sum of money. Whether the amount of money can be paid up just by doing business in this place is said to be a delicate matter.
[What foolish things are you b.a.s.t.a.r.ds saying? Why do we have to pay money?]
[What are you yourself saying? Monster defeatd for the subjugation request becomes the adventurer’s property. That is, unless it’s excluded from the contents prior to the request.]
I didn’t hear about this from Sakuya. Anything she didn’t say should follow the usual treatment.
[Don’t say selfish things, outsider! Just be silent and and do what we say!]
[That makes no sense.]
[What did you say!? Taking on that att.i.tude while addressing a knight, do you b.a.s.t.a.r.ds intend to make enemies of this country!?]
Look who’s talking? To think he’s taking on such an att.i.tude towards the party that came here to the rescue. Maria is also preparing for war…… Since it looks like he’s going to harm us I was about to acknowledge him as an enemy, but just at that time resounded a unfittingly calm voice of a woman.
[Would you mind waiting for a moment?]