Chapter 58

After school, I met up with Kanae as planned. We entered a café in the shopping district and had a light meal while talking.

Kanae, as usual, had apparently cleared several A-rank dungeons. She mentioned that she often teams up with other explorers and that she wants to introduce them to me someday.

"These are nice people. I'm sure they'll be good to you, Kimiaki."

"Are they all A-rank?"

"There are some B-rank explorers too. Three front-liners, two back-liners, and two supporters, all adults."

"Then I'm the youngest. Anyway, the way Kanae talks about her companions is somewhat dazzling."

She must have spent a long time with them. The bond they share is evident, and it gives me a sense of relief.

After all, this person is often called a savior or a preacher. Even though she occasionally acts mature, her usual behavior is crazy, which makes me uneasy.

Hearing such ordinary human stories makes me feel relieved. I feel like I've been somewhat poisoned by her, but I mostly blame her. I'm not bad!

"Let's put that aside, Kimiaki. I heard you want to consult me about something important enough to stop your dungeon exploration... What happened?"

"Ah, yes. Sorry, actually—"

I quickly got to the point.

Yesterday, I met F-rank explorer Aizawa, a classmate of my sister. She has no combat skills and only support skills, yet she is trying to take the E-rank promotion exam.

She was very anxious and not calm when I talked to her. Her master, Mochizuki, had gone missing in an E-rank dungeon four days ago. It seems that a lich had taken up residence in that dungeon, having fled from the nearest B-rank dungeon.

Aizawa's goal was to have Kanae accompany her into the dungeon to witness the lich's defeat as a form of revenge. I told her everything I knew about the situation.

"That's an extremely reckless plan. No sane explorer would go along with such a foolish request."

Kanae, as an A-rank top-tier explorer, dismissed it bluntly.

"Right."

"Any explorer knows that a lich is a dangerous monster, one that even a B-rank party would struggle with. I understand that she's upset about losing her master, but this is an unreasonable request."

For her to say this much. Indeed, from what I've read in the materials, a lich is a terrifying monster. As an undead, a lich can control lower-level undead monsters like C-rank ghouls, D-rank zombies, and E-rank skeletons, forming an army.

Individually, these monsters are not much of a threat, but in large numbers, they are overwhelming for a small party. There is a recorded incident in an American dungeon where a lich expanded its army, creating a stampede-like situation. Hundreds of explorers were deployed to suppress it, and the battle was almost like a war, causing significant damage to non-explorers.

It's impossible to deal with such a dangerous monster while babysitting. Not just Kanae, but anyone with common knowledge, sense, and judgment would refuse. Wait, does that mean I'm not normal for even considering it? Am I unconventional in a bad way?

'If Kimiaki were normal, wouldn't the whole world be abnormal?'

Suddenly showing up to insult me! I don't want to hear it from someone as abnormal as you!

While protesting Reibe's rude remarks, I turned back to Kanae. I understood how unreasonable and unconventional Aizawa's request was. The problem was the lich. How would the Explorers' Guild handle the situation of a B-rank monster residing in an E-rank dungeon?

"What will happen to that dungeon and the lich?"

"To be honest, I had heard about that dungeon. I knew that the explorer Mochizuki had gone missing."

"Ah, really?"

"The higher the rank, the more sensitive you naturally become to such information."

She smiled. Indeed, the higher the rank, the more aware one must be of the community's movements, especially for someone of her caliber.

With that in mind, I prompted her to continue. She nodded and added:

"Currently, that dungeon is under an exploration ban and is sealed off. Logically, the guild will soon form a high-rank party to tackle the dungeon, including the lich's defeat."

"It's too dangerous to let regular explorers go in."

"Especially since there have already been casualties. The guild will take it seriously."

As Mr. Goudou said—

Two days later, a high-rank party was dispatched by the guild to the relevant dungeon, and they successfully cleared it.

...However, the lich was still missing.

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