Volume 8 Chapter 8 Part 1
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Translator: Kell
A little later.
We entered the ruins and checked the surroundings.
“They don’t even check your permit when entering, huh?” Mylia said.
“Yeah. Maybe it’s ‘cause it’s too big, so it’s hard to guard the entrance.”
As far as I could see, there were no guards at the ruins. You’re free to go in and out as you pleased. At the moment, the permit doesn’t seem to matter, but there may be patrols who check for them from time to time.
The structure of the buildings indicates that this place is definitely an Ancient Ruins of Hubris. I don’t see any monsters so far, but since this is the area closest to the town, adventurers could have killed them already.
“Let’s just scope out the place for now,” I said.
“Okay. I thought there would be something when we entered town, but so far everything’s normal.”
“Yeah. Maybe their strategy is to ignore the whole town and concentrate on monitoring the Boundary.”
Based on all that’s happened so far, it’s likely that the enemy’s aware that we’re coming to the ruins. But if they’re only focusing security on the Boundary, it should be easy to spot.
Because if I use Magic Search, I will know where the human beings are in the ruins. I just need to check for areas where they’re grouped up, and I should find the Boundary. Using Magic Search is much more efficient than walking around.
So, I tried to cast Magic Search, and…
“Too many…”
The information we received beforehand about it being a popular gathering place for new adventurers was correct. Mana signatures from what seem to be adventurers were all over the place. Or maybe the Boundary is around here, and all the mana signatures belong to the enemies.
In any case, we would have to take a look first before we could make our move. When we went to the nearest mana signature, we found several young adventurers fighting a monster—a monkey-type one.
“Okay, I managed to block it! Attack!”
“G-Got it! Eat this! Oh shit, it’s looking at me!”
“Hey, stop looking over there! I’m right here!”
They were using a strategy where a tank takes the enemy’s hit, and the one in charge of offense would attack from behind. A rather common strategy in BBO. As long as the tank is able to draw the enemy’s attention, the damage dealer can attack all they want from behind—if it works, it’s very reliable.
But although this strategy looks simple, it requires more skill than you might think. Naturally, the monsters will try to fight back against the attacker dealing a series of painful damage, not just the tank protecting themselves. Using a taunting Skill can distract it to some extent, but if it’s low-leveled, and the attacker goes all out, the monster will ignore the tank and strike the attacker instead.
It’s surprisingly difficult to keep that in mind and adjust the pace of your attacks accordingly. The pace of your attack should vary depending on the skills of the tank and the enemy.
Right now, I think they focused too much on attacking. Fortunately, the party did not crumble, and the tank was able to take the enemy’s attacks again.
“How charming,” Mylia said as she watched the adventurers fight while screaming and shouting. “It takes me back.”
Mylia is famous as a solo adventurer. Maybe things were different in the past?
“Did you do raids with parties, too?” I asked.
“No. I fought alone while watching parties like this.”
Okay. I shouldn’t have asked her that. From now on, I’ll be careful not to gouge out old wounds in people’s hearts. Although it’s been officially resolved, maybe she has some bad memories when she was still a new adventurer, given that there was still a lot of discrimination against special classes back then.
“Stop looking at me like that,” she said.
“…Sorry.”
We checked the areas with human mana signatures, studying the situation. So far, all of the signatures I’ve found belonged to adventurers.
There was nothing suspicious about their movements; they were probably just ordinary adventurers, not agents of the Empire.
Most of the adventurers were beginners, though there seem to be a few veterans mixed in. Rather than hunting monsters, they looked to be teaching the beginners how to fight. We can assume that if we hear yelling in the ruins, it’s just veterans scolding the beginners for their dangerous conduct.
When I cast Magic Search again, I found a slightly different mana signature than before. It was a person acting alone.
All adventurers fighting in this area were in a party. The beginners grouped up to kill monsters, and the veterans were their chaperones.
But the mana signature I picked up showed that there was no one else around them. There’s a possibility that they were a solo adventurer like the old Mylia, but it’s definitely a little curious.
Maybe they were an enemy. Or if they were actually a solo adventurer, I’d like to check them out. If they were, in fact, an enemy, I could learn something by tailing them. Magic Search is actually a spell suited for following someone at a distance.
“There’s someone acting alone,” I said. “It could be an imperial guard patrol or something, but let’s check them out anyway.”
“Isn’t it dangerous?”
“If they were dangerous, then that’s good intel. The Boundary we’re looking for is the most dangerous area to begin with.”
“True. There’s no point in worrying about the danger now after sneaking into the middle of hostile territory.”
We began to make our way toward the source of the lone mana signature.
Several minutes later.
We took the shortest route to the source of the mana signature and looked around to see what was going on.
An adventurer was fighting a monster. It seems that the source of the signature was not an imperial soldier, but an adventurer. Although, they looked to be more experienced than the ones we’ve seen so far. Even better than the veteran adventurers instructing the beginners.
“Power Slash. Hah!”
The man slayed a wolf monster lunging at him with a single sword, then easily dodged the next monster’s attack and thrust his sword at its neck. The Skills he used were ordinary, but he used them well. His fighting style was also on the safer side. It doesn’t look like he should be fighting in the ruins’ normal areas.
I’m not sure if he can fight reliably in the Interior, but if he carried himself well, it should be possible. He could also be heading to the Interior himself.
All this could also just be the Empire’s trap, but it should be worth talking to the guy. I can think about whether it’s a trap or not afterwards.
Suddenly the man turned around. “Who’s there?”
He noticed us even when we were watching from the shadows. Well, I planned to talk to him anyway, so it’s better this way.
“Just adventurers here to explore the ruins,” Mylia said. “We’re not here to bother you.”
“We just wanted to ask you a few questions about the ruins,” I added.
I put away my staff and emerged from the shadows. Putting away my weapon is to show that I have no hostile intentions. Then again, I could fight even in this state if I wanted to.
“If you have any questions, you should ask the guild, not me.” Ge pointed his sword in our direction, remaining cautious.
We couldn’t see it from the angle we were at earlier, but the man’s armband had a large cross mark on it, just like ours, an indication that he had a special class, known as a Lesser Warrior Class in this country.
“You don’t look like you need advice,” he continued. “Hell, you don’t look like you belong in this area.”
We haven’t even shown him how we fight, and yet he already knew that much. Maybe it’s our gear. At any rate, he’ll immediately find out if we lied.
“Yeah. I have no questions about fighting,” I said. “It’s our first time here. Just wanted to ask a few things.”
“I see. You’re strong, yet you haven’t been here before. Quite unusual. Where’d you come from?” He looked us over.
Just in case, we chose clothings that would fit even in the Empire. Did he actually see through our ruse?
“The kingdom, perhaps?”
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