(090) Side Story 「Upheaval starts」
Translation: Tseirp
Along the timeline, this happened around when Ichinosuke obtained the 「D」(TL: Doujinshi)
“Wah, amazing! For the monsters around this area to totally not measure up to you.”
Julio was flattering Jofre and Elise.
Jofre and Elise were indeed slicing the monsters around the area in 2 with his golden sword or delivering swift judgment with her silver whip.
Even if their appearances were seen without the biased light Julio saw them in, they still seemed great.
However, they just appear to be so but it’s not the truth.
This labyrinth is a beginner’s labyrinth and is meant for the sake of leveling up rookie soldiers by using it 3 times a month. It is for the sake of earning magic stones and experience points as they hunt the monsters that increased during the 10 day period.
Since that is the safest method to earn experience points.
In actual fact, since Julio, Sutchino and their delinquent group Secret Society Ma.s.sacre have visited this place without permission to earn experience points and hunt without getting any injuries, it’s a place with only that level of difficulty.
To Jofre and Elise who don’t know about that,
“Well, that’s because this is the strength of a Hero!”
“It’s also because this is the strength of a Monster Master like me!”
They triumphantly announced.
They truly thought that they had become stronger.
Incidentally, the feelings in the hearts of the remaining members Sutchino and Milky were not so simple.
The first to notice the abnormality was Sutchino.
(There are too few monsters.)
The military exercise should have been held 4 days ago. Even so, there are too few monsters.
There had only been 3 monsters that have appeared until now, 2 goblins and 1 baby slime.
Originally, by the time they reach the location they are at, it wouldn’t be strange if they had encountered 3 times the number of monsters they’ve seen.
Just that was enough for him to understand how abnormal the situation was.
However, Sutchino gloated.
(I sure am lucky. If there’s just these few monsters, those 2 won’t be able to play much of an active role and they probably won’t make requests when asking for their cut. They would probably be satisfied if we hand them all the magic stone and items dropped by the defeated monsters.)
Rather than consider the possibility of a dangerous situation happening, Sutchino’s shallow personality that can only calculate the money that has tumbled into his sights will be the ruin of him.
Then, for Milky,
(Fufufu, very nice, Juli x Jof, ahh, it can work! The greatest story is unfolding.)
As usual, she was lost in fascination with her delusions.
Incidentally, there was also a slow donkey called Centaur together with the 5 of them but it was simply silently eating all the gra.s.ses growing within the labyrinth it came across. While also eating mosses from time to time to switch up the taste.
In the end, the 5 people and 1 donkey did not notice the dangerous situation and arrived at the final corner.
“Jofre-san, the room ahead is the boss room! If it’s Jofre, you can easily defeat the boss right!”
“Oo, I see! Okay, let’s go!”
What awaited them when they turned the corner was ― an unbelievable scene.
A scene that demolishes the common sense of this world.
It was broken through.
The door to the boss room that was said to be impossible to be broken by whatever force a monster can generate was smashed apart.
The figures of 5 people could be seen past the collapsed door.
Surprisingly, it was Milky who instantly made a move.
(Extinguishing talisman!)
She deployed 5 talismans that extinguished their presences in the surroundings and gestured to the others to remain silent.
Even though it’s said to extinguish presences, it is only an item that works to the extent of making it hard to notice the people within and to hear the sounds made but it was still effective nonetheless.
Then, she made a motion to fall back and retreat to the blind spot of the opponents as she asked with a gesture.
“What’s going on? Who are they?”
“It’s been thoroughly broken ―”
Jofre and Elise said while not looking tense at all.
Julio was impressed with their calm appearance but Milky’s appearance was different.
She closed their mouths,
(I believe … those are agents from Korat … I can imagine they’ve received special training.)
The looks in the 4 other people’s eyes changed with those words.
Even if it’s Jofre and Elise, they still know that Dakyat and Korat have a cat and dog relationship.
And they seemed to have noticed that the squad have an extraordinary reason to be here.
“What do we do? Jofre?”
“It’s obvious what we have to do! What they’re doing here is that, sabotage work. They’ll likely destroy the G.o.ddess statue and break the labyrinth’s function.”
“For what reason?”
“What reason … hn — … for what reason?”
As the 2 people continued to talk in whispers, Milky pondered with a serious look.
Without the labyrinth, the opportunity to steadily level up is not the only benefit that is lost.
Without the function of gathering miasma, the surrounding monsters will go berserk and it’s plausible that the miasma will instead gather in the labyrinth at Korat’s side and make it easier for Korat troops to level up.
The strength of troops doesn’t only rely on the performance of their weapons and their numbers, levels are also an important factor.
That’s why there is a reason to destroy the labyrinth and Jofre was not altogether wrong.
Milky thought to herself.
(But, how did they destroy it? I don’t think it’s possible to destroy the boss room door using regular methods.)
If they have such technology, wouldn’t there be more efficient methods to use it instead of making use of it in such a roundabout manner like coming all the way here for sabotage works? Milky thought.
“What do we do Julio. With those people there, we won’t be able to place this.”
Sutchino released a weak sigh as he took out a sphere from his breast pocket.
“Why don’t we roll it over there? It’ll be good if they think that it was blown over from when they destroyed the boss door.”
“That’s it! You’re a genius!”
Even though there’s no reason for a sphere to fly out from nowhere even if the boss door has been destroyed, Sutchino who wants the group the leave that place whispered to Julio in an excited voice and he rolled the transparent sphere that looks just like a bowling ball to the room in front of the boss room.
“Don’t!”
Milky tried to stop him but Sutchino peaked out of the corner with only his face and the sphere that he threw out rolled straight ahead, that sphere pa.s.sed through the presence eliminating barrier Milky set up and hit the boss door that had turned into rubble.
The people at the back of the boss room all looked in their direction altogether upon hearing the sound.
Milky immediately prepared for their counterattack.
The talisman that eliminates presence is an item that prevents others from focusing on an area.
Once attention is focused towards the area and the talisman is seen, they would not be able to escape given that their opponents are agents.
Milky had seen through from the very start that Jofre and Elise’s strengths were not a big deal.
“Everyone, please escape from here … don’t worry, with my delusion power, even if they are men with faces covered by masks, I can still sufficiently spin a story.”
“Alright, I leave it to you!”
Julio grabbed Sutchino’s arm who was about to escape.
“Sutchino, that won’t be needed. Don’t worry, we have Jofre-danna here! There’s no way we will lose.”
“That … that might not be the case! Even if that’s true, we would only hold them back if we are here.”
Because Julio who has blind faith in Jofre stopped Sutchino as he was about to flee, Sutchino who could not move now crumbled on the spot.
“Oo, leave it to me! Since I’m a hero!”
“I’m also a Monster Master so I’ll be fine too!”
The 2 of them dashed out ―
“Leader, there are 2 idiots rushing over.”
Perhaps it was a coincidence he called them that, to be accurate, Jofre and Elise appeared but the man that was called leader said,
“Leave them be, it’s time ― Glory to the motherland.”
The same time that was exclaimed, the darkness swallowed the figure of the man as well as the other 5 people there.
When they realized that the darkness was an infinite number of monsters, as expected, everyone began to flee.
Author’s note:
Originally I planned to post the side story as a post-script but I felt that it was better to compile it together so I ended up posting it as a complete post.
The next chapter will be a side story too.