Act 1-38 - The Truth

Chapter 38 : The Truth

We collected Solus’ demon core after we subjugated it.

C rank devil, 《Mineral’s Demon; Solus》’s demon core.

We might be able to sell it for 300k temis.

I’m really grateful when Fedor-san told us 『Let’s split the profit equally for the three of us』.

It means that even in the worst case, I could secure around 70k temis.

Edda was following Fedor-san’s instruction to turn over the Solus’s huge face mask.

The otherside of the meat was rotten meat, soiled, and weathered feathers.

There’s smoke rising from the rotten meat as it sizzled becoming smaller and smaller.

Edda frowned upon seeing that.

「The demon core should be buried under that rotten meat. Please teach her how to take it out, Dean-kun. 《Box》」

Fedor-san grabbed the 《Sub-Void’s Cross》 on his necklace and invoked the skill sealed inside.

The space twisted as something that resembling a transparent box appeared in mid air.

Fedor-san’s hand went into the box and took out a dismantling knife from inside.

「Y-Yes.」

I received the knife from Fedor-san and handed it over to Edda.

「… Must it be me?」

She might be reluctant to do the dismantling job after seeing the rotten meat.

She strapped her Enchanted Sword on her back and took the dismantling knife from me with a bitter look on her face.

She crouched, gripping on the side of the giant face mask and then starting to poke the knife into the rotten meat on its underside.

To be honest… it’s not like I underestimate Edda’s dismantling skill.

She was different from me who couldn’t help but to become a porter, she was already strong enough from the very beginning.

Even after this, I don’t think anyone who saw her power would tell her to dismantle the demon beast’s corpse, it’s simply a waste of manpower.

That’s why I guess I’ll take over if it turns out that she dislikes this kind of job.

Though it’s true that making her learn how to dismantle once in a while might prove to be useful for her in the future, if Fedor-san told me to do this, I can finish this job in a second.

It might take more time if I’ve to take out the battle bone from the demon beast’s corpse but, taking out the demon core from the devil’s corpse is a piece of cake for me.

But, it’s the party leader, Fedor-san’s order, there’s no reason for me to cover for her since it’s not like she refused to do so.

Well, this might serve as valuable experience for her too.

… I might sound like a petty person for saying this but, this is also my little revenge on her.

Edda shaved the rotten meat with a frantic look on her face, her cool face from before has been gone since a while ago.

I put the mana lamp that was thrown away during the previous battle on the ground again.

「If you shave off the surface, it’s better to do so with your hand. I know that demon cores are tough but, just in case.」

While I’m looking at Edda doing her job, It suddenly comes to me, what’s with that 《Cerberus Fang》.

Even though they’re already dead, something was weighing on my mind.

They’re supposed to be able to slaughter adventurers of the same class as Fedor-san and yet, Fedor-san could easily turn the table on them.

I mean, with their abilities, those ambushes, and that trap, shouldn’t they at least put up a good fight against Fedor-san?

And yet, they’re so terrified upon seeing Fedor-san’s physical abilities, it’s as if they never fought against more powerful opponent.

Moreover, 《Cerberus Fang》 should never cause any incident in the upper floor.

I’m pondering if it’s because there’s many people gathered on the 2nd floor.

Though their ambush happened at the innermost part of UG 2nd floor… The things that is weighing on my mind was their motive, I feel slightly uncomfortable since《Cerberus Fang》’s who only aim for the adventurers in deeper floors suddenly lied in ambush right before the stairways to UG 3rd floor just because 『There’s more people in this floor』.

《Cerberus Fang》’s identity was a complete mystery, their gender, age, appearance, or name were completely hidden without anyone ever getting closer to even narrowing down the suspect.

Right?

I shook my head to clear my mind of unnecessary wild guesses.

No, my guess is too shallow.

I mean, Fedor-san who slaughtered all of them should be the first one who noticed that anomaly.

… Wait a minute… seriously?

「Eh? What is this strange sound?」

Suddenly, Fedor-san was looking over his shoulder toward the passage where we came.

「….. EH?」

He didn’t hear that sound.

I sharpened my mind and used 《Odo Perception・Low》 to sense our surroundings.

But, I didn’t find any strange odo sign around us.

「I’m not hearing anything too.」

「I see, I guess it’s just in my mind.」

Fedor-san’s hand grabbed on to 《Wind Dominator’s Spear; Hail》 in one smooth movement.

That action seems to be the most natural action in this situation.

I surely won’t be able to react in time since my mind was occupied with something else just a few moments ago but, let’s conclude the situation.

An adventurer should never lose their focus, especially when they’re on the floor deeper than the 3rd floor of demon labyrinth.

Though it can’t be helped in the case when one is eating or sleeping, in the case like us, in which we set to explore UG 3rd floor from the very beginning, it’ll take quite a lot of time for us to return to the UG 2nd floor while having a meal along the way.

An adventurer’s most defenseless moment was the moment when they’re doing a dismantling job, they let go of their Enchanted Sword during that moment and focus completely on the job in front of them, completely obvious of the situation around them.

And lastly, the one who nominated Edda to dismantle Solus was Fedor-san.

Fedor-san was smiling as he raised his 《Wind Dominator’s Spear; Hail》.

My mind cooled down right in that very moment.

「EDDA, WATCH OUT!」

「URGH!」

I used all of my strength at that moment and slammed my body toward Edda.

As expected of combat tribe’s born, she still managed to draw her Enchanted Sword while spinning in mid air and landed beautifully on the ground.

Her eyes filled with killing intent was looking at me.

「W-What are you doing!? Are you looking to die!?」

Fedor-san’s magic spear ended up missing its supposed target and hit Solus’s mask instead.

His attack easily crushed Solus’s mask.

「… Missed huh. A rather sharp intuition you got there. It seems I underestimated your wit.」

The smile on Fedor-san’s face has long since dissappeared when he swung his 《Wind Dominator’s Spear; Hail》 for the second time.

It’s as if he was a completely different person from Fedor-san a moment ago.

I could understand this from the cold killing intent he released.

He could easily slaughter me the moment I entered his spear range.

I took a stance with my 《Demon Eater Sword; Beelzera》 and jumped backward.

Edda also took a stance with her Enchanted Sword but, I could feel her hesitation.

「W-What do you think you’re doing, Fedor!? This is…」

She was flustered.

「What I’m doing, is it? Have you not noticed it? Both of you have too great of a Enchanted Sword for someone with such a low level, and no one will make fuss about you two even if you suddenly vanished in thin air, truly a perfect prey.」

He looked at us with eyes that were void of emotion, the edge of his mouth raised up.

This was the first time I saw such an empty smile.

「Y-You must be joking, right? such a thing… I mean, look! You had countless amount of chances… to attack us so far!」

「Yeah, that was my plan. I just never expected that you two would have 《Transcendent Flash》 and 《Odo Perception》. But that’s not a problem anymore. This passage is a dead end… You guys, can’t escape from here.」

《Odo Perception》 was the kind of skill that rarely appeared on 《Legman》 but still, I never expected for him to guess the name of the battle arts.

I looked at Fedor-sa– No, Fedor who shook his face as if laughing at me with a dumbfounded look on my face.

So he deliberately tricked us so far.

Fedor stood in the center of the passage, clearly to block our path.

「Here is my 10th adventurer knowledge. Make sure to block all retreat path of your prey.」

The reason why he just stood behind during the fight against Solus was actually not to prevent Solus from escaping, it was to prevent us from escaping this place.

One wrong move during that fight, I was afraid that he’d choose to become the third force and attacked us instead of Solus.

Fedor seems to have been interested in my 《Demon Eater Sword; Beelzera》 from the very beginning.

Maybe he realized the fact that I acquired a new and powerful Enchanted Sword when he saw that the volume of my bag was more than usual.

A normal adventurer wouldn’t notice such a change in a worthless adventurer like me.

But, the chance for Fedor to ask me to become his porter, twice in the past, was normally close to impossible.

That might be just for the sake of appearance, to make him look like a rather decent person while gathering information for the next prey.

I still have a hard time believing that Fedor has been after Edda’s and my Enchanted Sword from the very beginning.

My heartbeat accelerated due to this sudden revelation.

My breath was getting disordered.

My vision went dark, I feel like I hear the sound from afar.

I’m still refusing to accept this reality.

『Get a grip already, Dean! The current you is no match for this guy!』

Beelzebub’s voice told me that piece of news.

「Let me tell you something more interesting. 《Cerberus Fang》 is none other than me. Kukuku, I almost can’t hold back from laughing seeing those weaklings dare to use my alias. How foolish of them.」

「… EH?」

「Even though it’s just as a diversion… It goes too well, the adventurer’s guild and the army were full of nothing but idiots. Camouflaging it to look like the deed was done by a few people was far too easy, all I need to do is just attack the corpse with a magic tool stolen from the others」

No… The first reason why no one ever doubted that 《Cerberus Fang》 was a group of adventurers was because the camouflage was just that good.

The second reason was because it’s literally impossible for an adventurer to hunt down an entire party himself, not to mention that every single one of his prey, party or not, were died, that’s why no one would think that the mysterious reaper who hunted so many adventurers was, just a single person.

「But, they sure gave me an interesting name. Cerberus is originally a demon beast name after all.」