Chapter 41

Part 16: Dungeon Strategy (1)

After Alex and the female mercenary left, Juan sat on the well's edge and looked around.

The village, now empty and abandoned, had been swallowed by the forest. Such villages were all too common, thanks to the Great War and the monsters left behind.

As a result, people began to live in closer communities after the Great War, and even as they gathered, the powerless commoners had no choice but to rely on the strength of the nobles and knights.

"Well, they say the nobles before the Great War ruled over the commoners without any power. So, it's better than before."

Though his words might have earned him a scolding from struggling commoners and the poor, Juan had little complaint about the current system.

The Duke who governed the territory was an excellent person, and the heir, Simon, was growing well without any bad rumors, despite his young age.

Thanks to the Duke, the territory was safer and more peaceful than others, and his soldier's income was enough to live on.

Recently, his mother's sudden illness had made things difficult, but thanks to Lord Alex, he no longer had to worry.

In fact, people around him were more worried.

When he started following the orders of the illegitimate son, Lord Alex, and traveling with him, his colleagues and friends worried that he had chosen the wrong path.

Even if he was skilled and a good person, the reason was that the illegitimate children of noble families often did not have a good end.

Even his mother, who had recovered, was worried about him, but unlike others, she did not oppose his decision.

"Helping someone who has helped you is what a person should do. Help him until you feel you have repaid him sufficiently."

He shared his mother's thoughts.

He was not thinking of aligning himself with the illegitimate son as others worried.

Of course, Lord Alex was unusually intelligent and mature for his age, and his skill, even when glimpsed from the corner of his eye, was above that of an average knight.

However, it would be uncharacteristic of him to align himself with a young boy to seek advancement.

He was simply helping him to repay a favor, as his mother had said.

"Maybe I'll think about relying on someone when I'm a bit older?"

Of course, there was a risk that Alex might run into trouble before then, and he could be dragged into it, but he could endure that level of risk.

In the worst case, he might die.

'Is a life worth a life?'

He remembered what the knights used to boast about in the taverns.

While he was spending such idle time,

Swish.

The atmosphere around him changed.

He stood up and glared at one side of the forest.

Footsteps were coming from the direction of the fortress.

Clank. Clank.

The sound of metal feet hitting the ground.

As the footsteps grew closer, a knight in plate armor appeared from the forest.

A fully armored heavy knight.

On his back were a long spear and a greatsword, and on his waist hung a battle axe and a warhammer.

For someone to enter such a forest in such armor, they had to be a proper knight.

Juan's expression hardened when he saw the knight.

The armor the knight wore was exquisitely crafted, but it was completely different from the armor worn by the knights of the territory.

Moreover, there was no emblem indicating his allegiance anywhere on the armor.

A knight hiding his allegiance. Such a person would not come for a good reason!

Clank. Clank. Click.

The knight stopped in front of Juan.

As the knight stood before him, Juan's body stiffened, and cold sweat poured down the back of his neck.

'Is this the knight's killing intent I've only heard about?'

Juan immediately felt overwhelmed by the technique of knights and nobles to paralyze people with mana.

However, fortunately, he could still move his mouth.

"I am Juan, a soldier of Duke Grecia. What business do you have in the Duke's forest?"

He could not bow, but he asserted as politely as possible that he was a soldier of the Duke and that this was the Duke's land.

"The soldiers of this territory have some backbone."

A deep, middle-aged man's voice came from inside the armor.

Just by his voice, he was a proper knight, and one with a long career.

Fortunately, he did not seem to be about to draw his sword, so Juan was slightly relieved.

"There seems to be a mercenary I'm looking for here. Do you know where she went?"

However, that relief vanished the moment he spoke his next words.

"A mercenary? When I arrived, there was no one here. I'm alone."

The knight did not listen to Juan's answer. He looked around and then stared at the well.

"Hmm. She must have gone into the well. Unfortunately, I don't have time to play along with your lies after missing her several times."

Juan sighed at the knight's words.

He did not expect that the moment of risking his life would come so soon.

This was like trying to fight a metal club with a wooden stick.

Still, he could not beg for his life like this.

'Is this enough to repay a life?'

Unfortunately, it was a futile struggle that would not help much, and he was only disappointed.

"Whoosh!"

Juan took a deep breath and shouted.

It was a technique to dispel the killing intent he had heard from the knights.

Fortunately, it was not too strong, and his body moved.

Juan drew his sword.

Seeing this, the knight also grabbed the hammer on his waist.

"It would have been easier if you had just stayed frozen..."

While listening to the knight's regretful words, Juan ran forward.

Whoosh.

He swung his sword with all his might at the knight, but the sword was blocked by the knight's armored hand.

In the next moment, he saw the hammer flying towards him.

Whoosh!

Juan closed his eyes.

* * *

Splash. Splash.

After a short shock swept through my body, I realized I was submerged in water.

I had known there was water below from the rocks that fell first, so I had fallen with ease, but the water seemed deeper than expected.

A puddle under a tomb at the bottom of a well.

It was absurd even to experience it firsthand.

Moreover, this sword was so heavy that despite my vigorous paddling, my body would not rise to the surface.

I could have let go of the sword and swum up, but I could not lose it in such a place.

While struggling, a small hand grabbed the back of my neck.

It was the female mercenary, the phoenix hunter.

She grabbed the back of my neck and swam up. As she used her strength, we rose quickly.

Plop.

With her help, I managed to get out of the puddle.

Exhausted, I panted and saw a bright light.

It was the light from the lantern hanging on her waist.

She had managed to keep the lantern even as we fell.

The lantern was still shining despite being submerged in water.

Come to think of it, she had found me in the water thanks to this lantern.

"Huff, huff, what a magical lantern. A waterproof lantern, no less."

At my words, she tapped the lantern on her waist.

"Phew, you never know what might happen in the mercenary business, so I paid a fortune to an alchemist to get it."

Even after living for ten years, I could not understand the technology of this world.

In a world that struggles in the Middle Ages, a waterproof lantern?

It's completely overtechnology!

Moreover, it was hard to believe that she had bought it for mercenary work.

It must have been to find the ruins of her ancestors.

In any case, the puddle, visible by the light of the intact lantern, was much larger than expected.

At least the size of a small reservoir.

If I had fallen in the center, I might have exhausted myself swimming and dropped my sword.

"You should have told me the altar was going to collapse."

At my words, she looked troubled.

"I didn't know. I only heard that a passage leading downward would open."

We looked up.

A large hole in the middle of the uneven ceiling. The hole, which seemed to be over 10 meters wide, had no visible end.

The tomb we fell from must be at the end, but the light from the lantern did not reach that far.

If her words were true, the hole must have been sealed before.

'Too old, maybe?'

The passage under the altar, like the cracks in the walls, had not withstood the passage of time.

"Do we have to climb back up there?"

I shook my head inwardly as I spoke.

The place we needed to climb was the hole in the ceiling above the reservoir.

This space, other than the reservoir, was not very large, but it seemed difficult to climb the walls and hang from the ceiling to reach the hole.

Moreover, we had to climb a long way into the hole.

It was impossible to climb without climbing equipment.

In this absurd situation, I even thought of suicide.

"Damn, I'll just fall again, won't I?"

The message was still visible in front of me.

Oh my God. Even dying wouldn't help now.

If I made a mistake, I might repeat time in this underground forever.

That couldn't happen. I had to escape before I died.

At that moment, she, who had been looking at me worriedly, spoke.

"While falling, I saw several caves in the walls. The hole we fell through must have been caused by those caves."

Thanks to the lantern, she had been able to see the surroundings while falling.

"The caves looked the same as the ones we can see here. They must connect to the caves in the hole in the ceiling."

She pointed to the walls around us.

The walls of this underground square, where the reservoir was, had numerous holes.

From small caves barely large enough for one person to pass through to large caves where two people could walk with their arms spread.

Her words reassured me.

Indeed, there was no law that said I had to die.

I immediately stood up. With a goal set, I had to move.

First, I took off my outer clothes and shook off the water. To move, I needed to be light.

Seeing me, she also took off her cloak.

Under the cloak, she was wearing a tight leather armor.

Her figure in the leather armor was different from her androgynous face. Rough mercenaries would have whistled and chased after her.

Only then did I understand why she insisted on wearing the cloak.

As she shook the cloak, pouring mana into it, the water quickly dried.

There was such a method.

I also tried pouring mana into my outer clothes.

As expected, it was not easy.

"Give it here. That's not an easy technique."

Seeing me struggling, she dried my outer clothes for me.

It was a quite useful way to use mana. I had to learn it before we parted.

Thanks to her, I put on my dry outer clothes and picked up my sword.

"Which cave should we go to?"

"Hmm."

She also looked troubled at my words.

"Well, we should go to the largest one for ease of movement."

After a moment's thought, she decided on a cave after looking at my sword.

If I didn't have the sword, I could have passed through even the smallest caves thanks to my small body. The longer I stayed, the more I realized I had made a mistake in bringing the sword.

Just as we were about to head towards the largest cave,

A thought came to my mind.

"These caves didn't just appear, right? This doesn't seem to be a limestone or volcanic area..."

"Oh... You don't think?"

If the caves were not naturally formed, something must have created them.

If we were lucky, they might have all died long ago.

Rustle.

The sound coming from inside the caves suggested we were not so lucky.

The sound grew louder, and the creatures revealed themselves from the darkness of the caves.

They were unfamiliar creatures with red eyes larger than horses.

I heard her tense voice from beside me.

"To think there are still monsters in such a deep place..."

I had hoped, but it was indeed a monster.