Chapter 43

Surrounded by the undead, the majority were Dead Citizens, followed by Skeletons.

No matter how many Dead Citizens Hikaru cut down, they kept coming. As long as the magic power circulating in their bodies didn’t run out, they would continue to attack.

As a result, the flesh was scattered everywhere, creating an overwhelmingly foul smell.

"Maybe we should leave. It’s too smelly..."

"Hikaru"

Lavia frowned. She probably wanted to say that someone might die while they were fooling around.

One of the adventurers was injured and lying on the ground, and another was out of magic power. The situation was barely manageable with three people forming a triangle to sandwich the two.

"...I understand. It would be a bad start to the day if we died like this. Lavia, be ready to cast fire magic."

"Okay."

Lavia let go of Hikaru’s hand, and he approached the back of the undead alone.

"Voo"

"Aah"

"Guaa"

"Goo"

"Aah"

In an instant, Hikaru cut down five Dead Citizens.

"What... What the hell!? They just fell over on their own!"

The adventurers didn’t understand what had happened. Hikaru had been using "Stealth."

"---Adults, all together now."

When Hikaru, who had released "Stealth," called out,

"Hey, you’re that kid from earlier!?"

"You cut down the Dead Citizens while we were distracting them! You’re stealing our kill!"

Hikaru wanted to sigh. Clearly, he had "thinned out" the Dead Citizens, but they called it "stealing."

"Ah, then I’ll give you these rotten corpses. The rest, you adults take care of."

"Wait, hold on!"

"Do you think we have any obligation to wait?"

"Wait, I said wait!! --Ugh"

A Dead Citizen attacked, and one of the adventurers almost lost his balance.

Meanwhile, a Dead Citizen also attacked Hikaru. But,

"Lavia!"

Hikaru instantly put some distance between them, and Lavia cast "Fire Breath." Two of them were burned together.

"Wow, what’s that fire magic!"

"Help me! Please!"

"You guys! Don’t you have any pride? He’s just a kid!!"

"If he can help, it’s fine!"

Hikaru said firmly,

"Is this discussion going to take long? We need to hurry, so I’m going to leave."

The leader-like man shouted,

"Help us! Please!!"

"---Right. Lavia"

"Okay."

Lavia cast "Fire Breath" in succession. In no time, most of the Dead Citizens and Skeletons turned to ash, and the remaining two were taken care of by the adventurers.

The air was filled with the strange, savory smell of burning flesh and heat.

"Haaaaa..."

The three adventurers, who were completely exhausted, sat down. Hikaru checked the Soul Cards in the meantime---but there was nothing particularly noteworthy. Two "Swords," two "Great Swords," and two "Bows"---that was it.

Boring, Hikaru thought as he and Lavia started walking. Since the path continued, they inevitably had to pass by the adventurers.

"Hey, you guys..."

"‘You’re going to die soon anyway. If you die and increase the number of undead, it’ll be a problem’---right?"

Those were the words the adventurer had said to Hikaru at the dungeon entrance.

The adventurer froze as if he had swallowed a stone.

"Once you catch your breath, run quickly. I’ve cleared out the undead around here, but the noise we made will attract more from far away."

"Huh"

The adventurer who had quickly sought help from Hikaru stood up. He pressed a handkerchief to his injured arm without treating it.

The other adventurers also stood up and fled towards the entrance.

The leader-like adventurer was the last to remain.

"The exit is that way, right? You can’t even tell the direction anymore?"

"What are you going to do? What was that magic earlier!?"

Lavia answered the leader-like adventurer.

"‘Fire Breath’"

"...Huh?"

"It’s a beginner-level fire magic."

Leaving the stunned man behind, Hikaru and Lavia continued on.

From about 30 meters away, the two of them would have seemed to blend into the darkness.

At a sufficient distance, Hikaru held Lavia’s hand and activated "Group Concealment."

Hikaru decided not to kill any more undead. It was inefficient for raising the soul’s rank and would also wear out his weapons.

"If this were a game, we could use them freely... Well, some weapons have durability settings, but still."

"Game?"

"Yeah, don’t worry about it. The tip of the ‘Strength Dagger’ is already worn out."

Skeletons are hard. Since he was breaking the bones to extract the magic power inside, his weapons would likely wear out quickly.

He tried throwing a small stone, but there was a problem: the sound of the wind would alert other monsters if thrown from a distance.

He wondered if they could hear sounds---if their hearing was still active. Sound is vibration, so it’s possible they could detect it.

He could destroy a Skeleton’s head by getting close and throwing a stone, but picking up pebbles to save the dagger seemed troublesome, so he stopped.

"We’ve come quite far. Should we take a break?"

It had been four hours since they entered the dungeon. Hikaru took out his pocket watch.

There were clocks in this world. The mechanism that marked time was made by combining four types of spirit magic stones: fire, wind, water, and earth. Since it was based on magic, there was no time discrepancy. To Hikaru, it was a mysterious technology.

Incidentally, it was a rare item, so he had borrowed it from the guild. A high deposit was required.

"It’s almost evening..."

He sat down and took out his canteen. This was also made using spirit magic stones, and it would fill with water if left empty. Spirit magic stones were cheap as long as they were the size of scraps.

He drank some lukewarm water and passed it to Lavia. Lavia held it with both hands and took a small sip.

"Are you not going to collect anything?"

"Spirit stones. I guess picking them up could be good."

"They’re over there."

"Huh?"

Looking to his side, about 5 meters away on the path, he saw a pebble-sized stone with a seven-color sheen.

These were used as magic catalysts and could be bought for about 500 Gil each.

"Didn’t these only appear in the temple’s garden?"

"That seems to be the case. They also appear in graveyards..."

"I heard that the ones in graveyards are picked up by slum kids. It’s a good way to make money."

Incidentally, this was Roland’s knowledge. Roland had a lot of such information.

It made sense, considering he had studied how to travel to another world.

"Do they appear more often in dungeons... or places with a lot of undead? There are parties that specialize in collecting spirit stones."

"Yes... there are some over there too."

"Huh?"

There was one about 3 meters away from where Hikaru had picked one up.

"You’re good at finding them."

"?"

Lavia tilted her head.

"Hikaru, can’t you see them? They’re clearly visible in the dark."

"Is that so? ---No way."

Hikaru turned off "Magic Detection."

Then---

"There they are."

Looking back at the path they had walked, he could see about three within the visible range.

The magic power flowing from the spirit stones had probably made them hard to see as a form of camouflage?

"‘Detection’ is inconvenient."

"Um?"

"Never mind---let’s go a bit further. I want to fight some undead that get stronger at night."

"Okay."

The two of them started walking.

Soon, they encountered "Enhanced" undead.

Unlike the previous undead monsters, which had approached with strong force while making sounds like "Aa" or "Uu," the night undead were---

"An athlete..."

Hikaru muttered to himself.

They were incredibly fast. They could dash and even climb walls.

The sight of a skeleton jumping was somewhat amusing.

"---Well, they don’t seem to have noticed us, but it would be troublesome to fight them..."

"It might be because it’s so dark, but I’m sleepy."

"Let’s eat and sleep."

They entered a nearby house, closed the door securely, and burned "Holy Oil" before turning off "Stealth." The undead didn’t seem to be coming closer.

"Hmm?"

At that moment, a voice was heard from outside.

"Turn back here!? You’re kidding! We’ve had no harvest because we’ve only been in the lower areas! I paid you a high price!"

"Cut the jokes. We have barely any ‘Holy Oil’ left. We can still make it back if we start now."

"Are you still adventurers!?"

"Adventurers don’t take risks, old noble."

"Ugh..."

Hikaru peeked outside the door---more trouble.

* * *

"---‘Ponsonia Royal Relic Research Fund’? What is this?"

Princess Kujastria raised her head from the documents.

The senior clerk in the office was already preparing to leave.

"Your Highness, shall we leave this for tomorrow?"

"Let me check this. They’ve had a considerable budget for the past five years. This year’s annual budget is 200 million Gil."

"Is it being used by the ‘Ponsonia Royal Relic Research Society’?"

"That’s what I’m asking. What is it?"

"---I’ll check."

The senior clerk, who clearly wanted to go home quickly, started looking through the official directory on the bookshelf.

"Ah... It’s the research society started by Sir Balbus. If royal relics are discovered, they are prioritized for purchase and preserved as records."

"Sir Balbus... the historian Gafarsti ni Balbus?"

"You know him well."

"Still, 200 million Gil is too much. Does Father know about this?"

"The patron of the research society is His Majesty."

"Hmm...?"

Kujastria tilted her head.

Indeed, her father, King Ponsonia, served as the patron of various organizations, but it was mostly just lending his name. Moreover, the initiators were mostly beautiful women, and he provided the national budget as pocket money. She had never heard of him being the patron of such a "serious" research society, especially one with such a large budget.

(I’ve never heard Father talk about the country’s history or the royal family’s past... What is this research society? Five years ago---did something happen five years ago?)

She was unsure whether to investigate this matter further. The country was currently in a local war with the Quinbrand Empire, and the central government had no extra resources for additional work.

"Clerk. Should I investigate this matter---?"

The senior clerk had already left the room.

"Haah..."

Sighing, Kujastria placed the document on top of the pile and moved on to the next one.