– Adventurer"s Life Day 45 (Wed) – Comnes Town – West – Abandoned Mine

"Hm… What"s this?"

"Is something wrong?"

"This wall is UNNATURAL. It"s like something is HIDING here."

It"s been 2 hours now since we"ve entered the mines.

Wolf bat, Skeleton warrior, Darkness lizard… that lizard with no eyes from before… were monsters we encountered and defeated in this cavern. However right now, in the large area of the cave, there"s a conspicuous wall we noticed along the way.

"I couldn"t really tell what you mean, but somehow I can see some energy coming from there…"

I don"t really understand what Benedetta meant by that, but I suppose that means something.

Though now that they mentioned it, it does seem somewhat off. There"s a small crack on the wall, but the problem wasn"t that, but more like there"s some sort draft coming from it.

"… Wanna take it down to see?"

"I will DO it."

Centurion began knocking onto the wall by the handle of his axe, and after a while of repeating, portions of the wall began peeling off.

By the end, a hole large enough for a person to crawl through was dug out.

"Centurion, could you… nah, have 3 of the skeletons enter first."

It would be bad if Centurion actually got caught into some problems when entering. Not to mention, I have no control over Centurion"s team, so I"m worried about that too.

And so the order would be, the 3 skeletons, Centurion"s team, me, Bendetta, then the rest of the skeletons.

In addition, I can get visual information from the skeletons in front and take control of them. If anything were to happen, we can quickly respond to it.

This ability really is super useful…

… And like that, 12 members of the party entered through the hole…

The inside is fairly deep, as the entire party had already entered through the hole, but after a while the ceiling began to widen until it was possible to walk normally through the tunnel.

However, after a while of walking, suspicious faint lights began appearing on the walls while the end of the tunnel had much stronger lighting.

Reaching there, the surrounding area suddenly opens up into a large s.p.a.cious room.

"It"s big here…"

"The LIGHTING here seems to be MAN MADE. Same with the LIGHTING coming here through the TUNNEL…"

"I see a strange atmosphere inside that room… Please be careful."

I wonder how something like that looks like…

However, I immediately put that thought aside and remained vigilant. Suddenly, my body felt like it gave out some sort of sign inside of me, though I"m not sure if it"s something I should be concerned about.

Taking a look around the room we entered, the ceiling is more than twice my height, while the width could fit about 10 skeletons in a line.

However, there were some rubble collapsed at the end, blocking the entrance to the next room.

It"ll be difficult to enter, but the inside was barely visible, showing a faint blue light shining inside of it.

Inside the next room was circular, same height as the on here, but the length of it is a little longer.

When looking further into that room, my eyes focused onto a conspicuous metal sword, one that seemed to be some sort of historic treasure.

… Looking elsewhere however, and I noticed some human bone fragments laying around it…

Removing portions of the rubble to allow me and the rest to fit through, I approached towards where the sword was, at which I felt something hit against my foot. In a fl.u.s.ter, I stepped back.

On the floor were some rags and pieces of leather. I get the feeling these had been stepped on before.

However, it was only for a moment did I feel relieved.

"Nemo! Over there!"

Benedetta who had been searching through the mountain of rags, pointed out white skeletal pieces inside of it…

Somehow I feel discomforted by it.

… It"s strange… There isn"t a single flesh left sticking to it, but the bone still look new… 

They"re not like the skeleton warriors we"ve been encountering along the way. They"re more like my skeletons… ?

"Benedetta! Get off of there!"

A soon as Benedetta steps back, a rusted sword and spear stabbed from where she had just been. The sword missed, while the spear was barely dodged by reaction, stabbing inside her scarf instead.

An enemy skeleton!

Being different visually from skeleton warriors threw me off and I was a little late to react.

Was it actually hiding inside of there this entire time, and holding two weapons no less!? This isn"t something we should drop our guard from.

Quickly, I brought the skeletons and had them in formation, however the spear wielding skeleton dropped its sword and began leisurely walking towards where the historic sword had been placed.

With a metallic clang, the skeleton had its spear stood upright in front of it, much like how a high ranking guard would stand.

"… Intruders who disturbs my King"s sleep… Do not retreat back from this sanctuary… I will have you join among our ranks…"

The skeleton"s voice echoed inside the room… and the skeletal parts scattered across the floor began responding to that and formed together into skeletons… Is this guy also a necromancer!?

"I am Phillips of Comnia… The most trusted servant of the king… Treasure thieves… your sins may be forgiven… in exchange for remaining here for an eternity!"

Once Phillipos stated his name, he took a stance with his spear, and rushed right in to attack!

"What is this!?"

The shields I had been secretly prideful of creating, was pierced straight through by that spear wielding skeleton!

… At least the armor managed to block it, but even then the armor seemed to have been badly damaged by that attack…

And then…

"Die!!"

Without hesitation, Phillipos dragged the skeleton down to the floor with it"s spear still stuck to the shield and made another stab at its armor!

The skeleton stopped moving… This is actually the first time a skeleton of mine had been defeated like this and I couldn"t hide my upset over it.

I had hurriedly ordered the skeletons to form up in line.

"Is that how the head of this group operate? To cower behind his behind their comrades in order to win!"

… Shut it, this is how I do things here!

However, in that time, Phillips had already took out another 3 of my skeletons with his spear.

I"m going to lose at this rate… but I still haven"t shown all I"ve got yet.

I made eye contact with Benedetta for only an instant, before throwing my stones at Philips and his skeletal group.

"Impudent!"

The stone aiming at him was repelled by his spear, but another skeleton of his had its shoulder shattered from that.

"Benedetta!"

I rushed straight to the skeleton with the ruined shoulder, while Benedetta followed right after once she figured my intention.

"Have you gone desperate now!"

Philips also begin to intercept us… but,

"Your opponent isn"t me!"

"What!?"

It doesn"t seem like he noticed the golem"s coin mixed among the many stones I threw…

With a thunderous echo, the golem appeared behind Philips and approached him.

"Hmph!"

The golem"s body had been impaled!

I started sweating buckets when I heard some pieces of rocks crumbling, but the golem took out its fist and smashed it right into Philips… however, that guy actually stopped it with his spear… what"s with that guy.

But that"s fine for now, we"ve got priorities our own.

Now with that plan successful, me, Benedetta and the other skeletons will all confront the other enemy skeletons.

As some were damaged from my initial attack, it shouldn"t take long to take care of these…

"Nuu!"

"WE too are HERE."

The remaining undamaged skeletons had been attacked all at once by Centurion"s team… and like that, the last skeleton grunt had collapsed to the ground.

… But, however….

"Don"t compare me with the likes of them!"

By the time I looked behind me, the golem had just been sent flying in the air, and before it even managed to collapse to the ground, he sent the b.u.t.t of the spear to a nearby skeleton"s head, crushing it entirely… No way…

In the time it took for the golem to pick itself up again, that guy sent Centurion"s subordinates flying when blocking it"s attack, and utterly smashed another 3 skeletons.

Almost risking her life, Benedetta interrupted him before he did any more damage. I brought out all the remaining skeletons to encircle him all the while screaming at Benedetta to not do anything rash…

By the end of it all, 20 of my skeletons had been destroyed, and the golem"s legs had been ruined to the point where it was unusable, but…

"Ohh… My king, I couldn"t protect you in the end… Forgive me…"

Leaving those last words, that d.a.m.ned skeleton finally lay on the ground collapsed and stopped moving.

I"ve also noticed a shallow wound pierced from my side. Because of the adrenaline rush, I was a little late in noticing it and large amounts of blood had been flowing out…

Seeing it, Benedetta rushed back to the entrance of the room in a fl.u.s.ter in order to grab one of the potions from my bag…

"Guugh!!!"

I could barely hold in my scream!

… Benedetta ran back in the room, but seemed relieved in seeing the light that had shone up from under me…

From behind her, however, I noticed a shadow approaching behind her… but I couldn"t speak up.

"Gyah!"

"It took a lot of time, but at least it was well worth the wait…"

Benedetta seemed to have lost her consciousness after having been struck with a blunt weapon from behind.

And the perpetrator of that, seemed to be a male warrior adventurer with chestnut hair.

… This guy, I"ve seen him somewhere before!

"You all! Put your weapons down now!"

b.a.s.t.a.r.d! I had my hand slowly move towards my waist… 

"Oi kid! Don"t go do anything strange! I"ve seen what you"ve been doing before! Don"t you know what"ll happen to this girl!"

The man pulled up the unconscious Benedetta and pushed up his sword against her neck… 

I don"t think I can think of a way of breaking out of this pinch…

—- Summoning Memo —-

Centurion Team:

Members: Centurion, Skeleton 1, 2

Equipment: Hatchet, Shield, Armor and helmet

Other Skeletons:

3 – 16: Club, Round shield, Armor and helmet

Stone Golem: 1

TL note: Dun dun duuuun