Act 2-9 - Calamity Strike On the Way Back

Chapter 9 : Calamity Strike On the Way Back

「Yosh… this is it.」

I tore the kobold’s abdomen and took out its battle bone.

… It was a messy and bloody work thanks to kobold’s thick meat.

Well, who am I to whine about it at this late hour.

Moreover, this work was nothing considering each one of these could be sold for 100 k Temis.

As expected of a 【Lv:32】 demon beast, it was fast, tough, and had herculean strength.

But, it was defeated with Edda’s cooperation.

The next time we fought a kobold or demon beast of the same level, we might be able to give it a good fight.

This fight became a good experience for us.

I snatched 《Tempest Roar[C]》 too.

「Okay, I’m done. How about your side?」

Mani held a blue colored stone in her arms.

It was the Kopald that she excavated from the wall.

「… Ooh!」

Upon a closer look, it has a beautiful blue color.

I mean, a sword’s blade made from this mineral would have such beautiful luster.

Mani showed a triumphant look on her face upon seeing my astonishment.

If I had to say, Mani was a cool beauty type but, her expression became more abundant when it was related to minerals.

When I was looking at the wall that she excavated, the blue colored wall was still there with rock’s splinters below the wall.

But, the color of the cylindrical stone in Mani’s hands was deeper.

That might be the central part she was talking about before.

「… Hou, you excavated quite a beautiful part.」

It was rare for Edda to show her interest.

Well, it might be Edda’s way to get along with Mani.

「It’s a pretty stone right?」

「P=Pret… ty?」

Edda’s eyes opened wide, her lips were opened lightly.

Edda was bewildered, how rare.

「Yea… you’re right.」

Edda was folding her arms, shutting her eyes in her attempt to escape from reality.

This girl… throwing her off her pace was unexpectedly easier than I thought.

「I see… so this kind of stone is considered pretty in the city, is it?」

Though I felt that I just heard Edda’s huge misunderstanding, I decided to ignore it.

『Hey, Dean? what’s the reward for today?』

Beelzebub asked via telepathy with a rather excited voice.

「Let see… four E-rank battle bones, three D-rank battle bones, one C-rank battle bone. There’s this Kopald too, so it should be around… three hundre-nay, it might goes as much as 350k temis?」

I was even more suprised by the result of my own calculation.

I mean, the adventurer’s party of three people who got minerals and battle bones which could be sold for as much as 300k temis in just one dungeon exploration was definitely regarded as a high ranked party in Romburgh’s adventurer guild.

As a comparison, when I was hired as Gilbert and co’s porter, they barely made 100k temis.

『YAAAAAAAAAAAY! LET’S HAVE A FEAST ONCE WE GO BACK, DEAN!』

Beelzebub was literally dancing in joy right now.

「Okay, leave it to me.」

This fella, is she really One of The Rulers Of Seven Deadly Sin… Well, I guess she’s a hopeless case.

We profited a lot from this expedition.

Since both Edda and I were exhausted, we decided to avoid unnecessary battle by relying on 《Odo Perception》.

Thus, we’re moving to the upper floor by taking the route with less demon beasts.

「We took… a little bit of a detour, is it?」

I muttered while walking.

Though we took a detour, it was longer than my prediction.

I mean, if I knew that we had to walk this far, I would rather take a usual straight route to the second floor even if we have to fight several D-rank demon beasts along the way.

「Mani, can you bring the mana lamp closer?」

「Uhm.」

Mani walked closer to me and lifted the mana lamp until right above my head.

「This map… is wrong huh. Well, such things happened every once in a while.」

「It’s a rare case up until the second floor but… the chance keeps rising from the third floor and above. I mean, the more accurate map was only shared amongst a small part of high rank adventurers, and they’re not letting the guild know about that.」

Mani brought her face closer to see the map as she spoke.

「I see… I guess it’s way too dangerous to overly rely on the map due to my lack of experience huh.」

『You’re just unlucky, Dean.』

「Nope, it’s the opposite, we should be able to get some profit by applying map correction to the guild side.」

My cheeks were loosened upon such lucky finding.

『Hou!』

「But of course the staff will conduct investigation, we’ll receive around 10k temis few months later if we’re lucky.」

『Your poor person mentality is… already beyond saving huh.』

Beelzebub said such profound words.

Though I did feel bitter for only getting that much from those stingy staff, personally… I think 10k temis was quite a lot.

「Well, since I can’t feel odo signs ahead. We might arrive in a location close to this route over there if we keep advancing as it is.」

「Shall we use that route?」

Upon walking, I felt that there was something wrong with this path.

Odo was life itself, almost everything had odo in it whether its soil or stone, this was a universal rule.

Normally, it was treated as noise by 《Odo Perception》.

And that noise was weaker… or should I say that it felt different from usual.

「Is something the matter, Dean? what’s with the long face?」

「Uhn… no, it’s just a trivial matter. It might be just my imagination anyway.」

Upon arriving at the end of the road, the scenery that we saw had far surpassed my imagination.

We saw three adventurers whose hearts were gouged out and their bodys were pinned to the wall.

In the center of three circles that were drawn on the floor was something that looked like their entrails.

「… Aah, even though I only need three human lives for this ceremony. You guys were just unlucky. well, I’ll at least mourn for your death.」

A white haired woman clad in deep grey clothes stood in front of this disastrous scene.

In her hand was a giant scythe almost as tall as herself with blades from both sides, like a crescent moon.

The fresh blood on her scythe’s blades were all I needed to know that she was the culprit behind this tragic scene.

With tacit understanding, Edda and I stepped forward while Mani got behind us.

Just a look into the glint in her eyes was enough to convince me that she was a lunatic.

「It really can’t be helped you see, you’ve seen this scene after all.」

Her words had long since failed to cover the mad glint in her eyes, and sadistic smile on her face.

The double headed scythe let out a pale light when that woman turned it deftly with both of her hands, and then, the light vanished.

It was a phenomenon similar to someone canceling magic.

But then, I felt a nauseated odo gushing forth from that woman.

Then, I noticed.

「Hiding one’s presence with Rule(DIfferent Law Magic), is it?」

I did hear before that there was a magic that could deceive perception type magic in Rule(Different Law Magic).

I should’ve noticed this the moment I felt something was wrong with my odo perception.

「No way, the Grey Cult.」

Mani muttered those words from behind us.

That woman’s smile widened even further upon hearing Mani’s remark.

「Indeed. I’m honored for you to know about us! My name is Gaza, best regard.」

The eerie woman called Gaza bowed to us as she introduced her own name.

Speaking of Grey Cult, they’re a group of madmen who worshipped Ouroboros(Samsara Dragon), a Wicked Ancient Dragon which almost destroyed the world a thousand years ago.

Though their numbers are small, all of them were powerful fighters equipped with enchanted weapons, there was a record of their activities ever since a hundred years ago.

Originally, 《Romburgh’s Underground Ruin》 was one of Ouroboros(Samsara Dragon)’s bases in the war a thousand years ago, thus making it one of the Grey Cult’s holy places.