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Volume 8 Chapter 7 Part 3

Translator: Kell

The next day.

We left the inn without any incident and headed for the city of Etonia, where the ruins were located. So far, no one seems to have noticed us, but I can’t say for sure since I didn’t check with Search Enemy.

“I think Etonia will be more heavily guarded,” Mylia said. “What’s the plan after we arrive?”

“We’ll have to check the situation first, but for now I’m thinking of going to the guild. It’s the best place to gather information about the ruins.”

The ruins at our destination seem to attract new adventurers. The Ancient Ruins of Hubris, which we’re about to visit, is bordered by a place called the Boundary, where the difficulty level changes dramatically. Inside the Boundary—we called it the Interior in BBO—the level of difficulty is just about right for us, but outside that, even beginners who don’t know much about Skills can easily clear the area.

Ruins are handy for beginners because monsters of a fixed level regularly spawn there. They don’t drop very special items, so it might not be that worthwhile, but there could be monsters with edible meat, allowing beginner adventurers to earn enough coin.

However, we’re not going to the guild to make money. The Ancient Ruins of Hubris is fundamentally an extremely vast area. The Interior, where high-level monsters spawn, is small, but the rest is much larger than a small town.

There’s only one Boundary to enter the Interior. An Altar of Bestowal is a special terrain that does not appear in low-level areas, so you have to enter the Interior to find it, but if you search randomly, it could take a couple of months. In BBO, we had a lot of manpower so finding one didn’t take long, but we’re only two people at the moment.

That’s why we’re going to rely on the guild’s information network. The preliminary investigation by the intelligence department didn’t yield any direct information about the Interior. Any kind of clue should shorten our search time considerably.

“The guild, huh? Won’t that expose us?” Mylia asked.

“There’s a good chance they’ll know we’re in town. If they wanted to, they could even launch an attack. Worst case, they’ll find out about our fake IDs too.”

“And we’re still going?”

“We could lie low, but we’ll just get attacked at the ruins anyway. But whether or not they’ll attack us is another matter. From the enemy’s perspective, it’s the Border that’s most suited for an assault.

If you think about it from the point of view of the assailants, it doesn’t matter if they find out about our presence in town. If they attack in town, there’s a high possibility that we can escape using civilians and buildings as cover. They’re a bunch that don’t care about civilian casualties, but the location is not that suitable for an attack since there are many places to hide.

On the other hand, the Boundary is the perfect location for an assault. There’s only one Boundary in the first place, and if I wanted to achieve my goal, I would definitely have to pass through it, so the ambush would definitely succeed. There would be no innocent bystanders around, and there would be far fewer places to hide than in the city.

For the enemy, the most important thing to watch out for is me outmaneuvering their main force and completing the ritual without even having the chance to engage in combat. If they fail to kill me in town and I head straight for the Boundary, there’s a chance that I can reach the Altar before the enemy’s whole force can catch up to me. They would want to avoid that at all costs.

If you think about it this way, even if the enemy is able to locate me, it’s highly likely that they’ll deploy their maximum force at the Boundary or at the Altar of Bestowal itself. Stake out either of those and they won’t miss us.

However, the Altar of Bestowal is usually in the Interior, and dangerous monsters will be lurking about. It’s possible that the enemy will even use the monsters to kill me, but if they want to be safe while on stakeout, the Boundary is their best bet.

Of course, we’ll be on the lookout when we pass through the Boundary, so surprise attacks are much easier in the city. Regardless of whether or not their main force will come, it would be better to be on the lookout for attacks in the city as well.

With these thoughts in mind, we continued on toward the city.

“Let’s avoid doing anything that might arouse suspicion,” I said. “If we’re not exposed, the better.”

“True. You, in particular, tend to stand out in a lot of ways, so you’d better be careful.”

“I don’t think I’ve done anything to draw attention.”

“You’re not even aware, huh? All the more reason to be careful.”

Between me and her, I think she’d be the one drawing attention in the guild. With her alias Flame Spear, just stopping by the guild will make her the talk of the town. It’s not like I’ve been acting conspicuous every time, but there must be a good reason for my drawing attention.

Well, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there. It’s not really that serious to require a rehearsal on how to behave naturally.