Chapter 263: Overdramatic Guy
「Alright, we got our bellies filled, so time to seriously move now. Noth, hand me the map. 」
「Here it is. 」
Noth gave the map to Dinosso.
「Retze discovered the trail here and here and it looked like it’s facing this way, coming from this point. In most cases, those possessed with black spirits still follow their original purpose, or should I say the possessed being still follows the vessel’s will. Back in my heyday, the Labyrinth’s 20th level has spirit moss and cave wolves in it. What about now, what saleable items are there? 」
「If it’s spirit moss, then you can only get those from the 24th layer onwards. The cave wolves shouldn’t have changed, but there’s none of them here, huh. You have a hammer in your bags right? There’s a few spots where you can mine some spirit silver. Based on the traces… Should be around here. 」
Retze pointed to a spot on the map.
「Gotcha, then let’s head over there. 」
And that’s what we did.
With a lantern to light our path, we made our way through the darkness. We briskly walked without looking at the ground or the walls this time around.
After some time passed, Dinosso raised his hand to stop us, then he brought his finger to his lips, gesturing for us to keep quiet. Retze turned the lantern off.
Voices resounded as we quietly moved forward.
「Hmm, there’s still nothing, huh. 」
「We be rollin’ on money once we hit the level with silver. 」
「Tell me which smithy handles magic silver in the fortress city. 」
「Yeah, leave it to me. 」
If I have to guess, it seemed like the adventurers were cheerfully talking to each other. But then, there’s no sound of chisels, hammers or pickaxes, tools that should have been used for the demolishing walls. But before that, where the heck are they digging in this pitch-black place?
A small sound resounded in the midst of their conversation. Ack, this is bad — these folks are scratching the wall with their bare hands.
「1, 2, 3… 9, there’s 9 of them. 」
Dinosso muttered under his breath.
I’m scared. Is everyone else other than me still okay? Seriously? I won’t cry, but I won’t know what to do if it gets any creepier than this.
「There’s a chance that I might fail, but won’t you leave this to me? 」
Something must’ve flashed in Chris’s mind
「Sure, but in case a fight break outs, keep in mind that they’re only half-possessed. I’m gonna pinpoint all the locations that I saw — the woman on the right has one on her right shoulder, the guy with her has it on the left. The mage has it right smack in between his shoulder blades, the green-haired guy has his on the flank. 」
「It’s too dark to tell who’s who except for the woman and the huge guy. Can’t see the rest. Ah, but we’ll probably know which one’s the mage by his fighting style, huh. 」
Dean whispered.
「Yeah, you won’t see the silhouette if you can’t see the spirits, huh. 」
Apart from me, most of the folks who have the Sight See spirits in the wild as faintly glowing balls of light… Seems like the black spirits also glow with a pale black light. As for the silhouette, they can only make it out if there’s a spirit floating nearby, apparently.
「It’s fine. Can I borrow the lantern? 」
「Yeah. 」
Chris also brought a lantern, but it’s attached to his luggage, so he borrowed Retze’s and lit it.
「Why, hello there! 」
Chris suddenly called out to the 9 guys.
「… 」
The conversations stopped and an unpleasant mood permeated the air. I absolutely won’t lose against them physically-wise, but I’m sure I’m gonna get beaten by the atmosphere. Can I just slash them all?
What should we do if they attack Chris? I should’ve accepted the commission on my own, I’d be far at ease in that case.
「Were you able to mine magic silver? If you wish, my comrades and I can cast a charm on you so that you’ll be able to dig lots and lots of magic silver! 」
The unsettling atmosphere dissipated a little the moment Chris mentioned “magic circle”.
「…You sure we can dig up tons of magic silver? 」
「But of course! 」
This is way too bizarre, no matter how I think about it.
「Well then, please line up and tell me your name. The place we’ll cast the charm on will differ depending on your name! 」
Chris beamingly said.
「Lady’s first, so let’s start with you. 」
「Jasmine. 」
「Ohh, Jasmine, yours is on the right shoulder! 」
The black spirit’s face (or at least, the place that’s probably its face) became distorted, but it seems the human consciousness, or should I say greed, is still stronger.
The folks didn’t see this whole situation as bizarre themselves, probably because even their human part prioritizes their desire.
「Ah, we will cast the charm on everyone at the same time! 」
Asking their names was only an excuse; Chris and Dinosso made them turn around so that it’s easier to see the spirits, or cut them off, rather.
10 parties, 31 people. Seven groups, 22 folks left.
It was 8 vs 9, so it ended up in just a blink of an eye. Now we have 9 unconscious people lying on the ground. Are we gonna carry them all?
Khan carry two of them on his shoulders, Ash and Dean also carried two people each, while Retze, Noth and Chris carried one each. I held the lantern to light our path, while Dinosso was bare-handed so that he’d be ready in case of emergency.
「Hey, shouldn’t I carry one too? 」
「You’re a ‘mage’, so behave. 」
I told Retze, but he immediately turned me down.
「What are you being vigilant against? 」
Khan asked.
「The Deputy Guild Master of the Fortress City, no, actually, the big wigs of the Adventurer’s Guild. If it’s known that you’re as strong as the hero, they’ll definitely turn you into an anti-hero chess piece and drag you into this mess. 」
Dinosso waved his hand while explaining.
I’d love to help people as much as possible and leave it at that, but if not done carefully, I might end up biting more than I can chew. Roza’s gang is already troublesome as they come, so if we add the kingdom and guilds’ meddling then I won’t be able to freely move as I want.
I can choose to escape, but they might use「Helping People 」as a card against me, or worse, they might even resort to kidnapping and taking hostages. If they decide to attack us then and there, Tina, Vak and En, the weakest among us, would be the first ones to be targeted.
「We are currently pretending Jean-sama is a stranger to us, but if they were to investigate our side, they will immediately know that our party will be short of one person. 」
Yeah, 8 people came here but one would end up “missing” during this Labyrinth exploration.
Well, they won’t be able to find anything if they were to set their sight on me and try to find me. Thus, it’s highly likely that they’re gonna start with the Dinosso and the others since they’re the last people I traveled with — the realization of the possible implication hit me thanks to Butler’s words.
I’ve been walking around instead of just directly【Teleport】to the fortress city, so it’s inevitable that I’ll leave a trace, even if I did my best to restrain myself. Alright, I should be more careful.
「I booked the inn after all, and although it’s done under my name, we all showed our adventurer’s tags at the gate. If they want to, it’ll be a piece of cake for them to piece everything together. 」
Retze explained with an unpleasant expression.
Butler holds at least three adventurer’s tags as far as I know, and he uses them differently depending on the situation, but not many people do that, generally — nah, I’m only fooling myself here, playing blind to my shortcomings. I wonder if Soleil is alright? Did she notice the 『Fae’s Bough』?
「It’s impossible to predict the future. 」
「I didn’t want to go all alone, either.. 」
Ash’s words pulled me back to the conversation, so I also replied to Retze.
「This guy can’t handle seeing people dying in front of him, so he goes overboard making sure they don’t. That’s fine and all, but if they attempt to target and use him because of that trait and they end up crossing a line, the only future I can see is one where this guy explodes and turns the entire fortress city into a wasteland. 」
Ack, you’re so savage, Dinosso.
.
NEXT CHAPTER
RELEASE RATE
I Got Transferred in the Middle of a Mountain
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Current schedule: Every 80 hours
Thanks for the treat.