Chapter 9
“By now, it must be morning.”
Jeong Yushin muttered, yawning.
He passed the time drifting in and out of a shallow sleep.
With the narrow chamber’s entrance covered by nothing more than a single blanket, falling into a deep sleep was difficult.
The damp, cold floor was another reason he couldn’t sleep.
The chill from the floor crept into his bones and stabbed at his heart.
Kaal’s party had also tossed and turned several times, perhaps unable to sleep properly.
Especially when he was on watch.
After all, an outsider had suddenly joined a party made up of people from the same village; they had reason to feel uneasy.
“Mr. Ska, you should take the lead today.”
Just as they finished eating, gathered their belongings, and were about to leave the chamber.
Kaal approached and spoke. The dark circles under his eyes made him look tired.
“All right.”
Yushin accepted the torch, took the lead, and guided the way. Din stood right behind him, telling him which way to go.
“You can take the path on the right.”
“Yes.”
Perhaps everyone heading down had already left, because there was not a single sign of another person. They had encountered other parties several times yesterday, but today they had not seen anyone.
Clomp, clomp.
Only the party’s footsteps echoed through the long, narrow passage.
As he walked with the torch, he could tell for certain.
The light was weak.
The distance the light should have reached was swallowed by a bizarre darkness.
Consequently, once they moved even a little farther away, he couldn’t see so much as a blurry silhouette.
He walked on, gazing into the darkness as if entranced.
“Kkikik!”
“Kekike!!”
Yushin’s shoulders jerked and tensed.
Hobgoblins.
“Prepare for battle!”
He shouted and quickly drew his longsword.
Whoosh!!
The sound of air being torn apart.
Yushin instinctively raised his shield.
Bang!
An arrow shot from the darkness struck his shield.
Whooosh!!
Several similar sounds overlapped.
Bang!! Clang!!
He barely managed to block them. The force pounding against his shield was no joke.
That meant they were firing arrows from closer than he had expected.
At that moment, Kaal, who had been behind him, sprang forward.
The sight of him suddenly charging into the darkness startled Yushin.
“Marie!”
Kaal shouted.
“Light!”
Holy radiance drove back the darkness and filled the cave.
Everything became visible.
Five hobgoblins.
The hobgoblins covered their eyes and shrieked at the sudden light.
Kaal dashed forward at tremendous speed and swung his sword.
Slash!!
A goblin’s head flew off, and blood splattered across the cave wall.
‘I need to stick close to Kaal.’
He couldn’t let Kaal be surrounded.
Yushin ran forward as well.
Swish!
An arrow grazed his left shoulder and lodged in a goblin’s chest. Looking back, he saw Anne holding her bow.
By the time he arrived, Kaal was swinging his sword and sending another hobgoblin’s head flying.
Two remained.
The hobgoblins regained their senses, rushed forward together, and swung their daggers.
Their target was obvious: Kaal’s unguarded flank.
Clang! Clang!
He blocked with his shield.
He knocked away every dagger they swung.
Thrust.
Yushin drove his longsword into the chest of the goblin whose stance had collapsed. The blade pierced the solar plexus just below the hard breastbone.
“Gack!”
The goblin crumpled backward. He immediately struck the cheek of the goblin standing beside him with the pommel.
“Kieek!”
The hobgoblin’s teeth broke, and one side of its face was crushed.
Just as Yushin was about to finish it off, Kaal charged in and took off the goblin’s head.
Blood gushing from its neck splattered Yushin’s face and body.
“Phew. Mr. Ska, we work well together, don’t we?”
Kaal said with a smile. His eyes gleamed, perhaps from the excitement of battle.
“Yes.”
He answered while wiping the blood from his face.
He had been startled when Kaal suddenly charged into the darkness.
He had thought Kaal was crazy, but...
‘You had it all planned.’
“Ugh! That’s disgusting.”
Marie, who had come over, grimaced in disgust. The holy light gradually weakened, then soon disappeared.
Once the rest of the party joined them, Kaal spoke.
“They said we could cut off their ears as proof of the hobgoblins’ subjugation. Din, Mr. Ska, will you help?”
“Yeah.”
“Yes.”
Din and Yushin helped Kaal cut off the hobgoblins’ ears. Up close, Din’s face was pale. With trembling hands, he struggled to cut off an ear somehow.
By contrast, Yushin sliced through them with ease. It was the result of working at the monster dismantling facility every single day. He felt no guilt over having killed living beings. It simply felt like an extension of his monster-dismantling work.
Thanks to Yushin’s efforts, they collected the ears quickly. There had been five hobgoblins, so they had collected all ten ears.
“Here, Mr. Ska, please hold on to these.”
Kaal handed him the pouch containing the goblin ears.
“Is it all right for you to give these to me?”
He asked while looking at the pouch that reeked of filth and blood.
“Because I trust you to take good care of them.”
It was rather absurd.
‘Is this really the same guy who couldn’t sleep when I was on watch?’
He couldn’t refuse. At least, not for now.
Kaal was the party leader, and the party members were his longtime friends.
Besides, his swordsmanship was exceptional.
A single swing that severed a neck.
It was impossible without innate strength and skill.
“Yes.”
He accepted the pouch and put it in his backpack.
The party started walking again. Yushin remained at the front.
Following Din’s directions, they left the central area.
They encountered another monster.
“It’s a black slime!”
Three slimes were wriggling against the cave wall.
“I’ll handle this.”
Anne, her red hair bright, stepped forward with her bow.
Swish!
The arrow flew swiftly and pierced a slime’s core in one shot.
The slime, its core damaged, shuddered and dropped from the wall with a plop.
‘Wow.’
Anne was also highly skilled with a bow.
Anne fired another arrow and pierced the cores of the remaining slimes as well.
When they approached, the soft, squishy parts had spilled onto the floor like liquid. A stone unlike the cores gleamed among them.
“Wow, it’s a magic stone. It’s pretty.”
Marie came over and crouched in front of it. Kaal picked up the magic stone and put it in his pouch.
“I’ll carry this one. We can’t leave everything to Mr. Ska.”
“Kaal, you’re sweet, aren’t you?”
At Marie’s words, Kaal smiled broadly and patted her on the head.
‘What’s with the sudden lovey-dovey act?’
As a virgin who had never even dated, Yushin’s gut twisted.
That day, Yushin and the others camped at a nearby shelter.
Yushin’s turn at watch was the same as the day before, and there were no attacks.
‘I’m fucking exhausted.’
Rubbing his gritty eyes, he raised the torch.
“Mr. Ska, we only have a little farther to go.”
“Yes.”
Yushin answered Din’s encouragement halfheartedly as he walked. Of the torches Yushin had brought, only one remained. Apart from the one Kaal had used, the other party members’ torches were still intact.
They walked for several more hours.
They encountered five black slimes. As yesterday, Anne stepped forward and dealt with them using her bow.
Hobgoblins subjugated: 5/10
Magic stones collected: 8/10
The quest was practically complete.
With that thought in mind, he walked on and saw the end of the cave.
At the cave’s end lay a broad open space, with a gigantic stele at its center.
As they approached the stele, a blue portal and a red portal opened.
He had learned this in the new explorer class.
To leave the labyrinth, they had to enter the blue portal; to reach the next level, they had to take the red one.
“Let’s go to the next level.”
Kaal took the lead.
“Wait a moment.”
Yushin stepped forward.
This was something he couldn’t tolerate.
Wasn’t this outside the plan?
It had clearly been a first-floor exploration party. That was how the receptionist had introduced them in the first place, and Kaal had said the same.
“What’s wrong?”
“That’s not what I was told. I was clearly told this was a first-level exploration party.”
“Ha!”
Kaal’s lips twisted.
“Mr. Ska, we have to complete the quest, don’t we?”
“We can complete it here. There’s no need to go down.”
“That’s because we haven’t seen any monsters on the first level. Veteran explorers told us—and we’ve seen it ourselves—the second level is no different from here. Is there any point in wandering around looking for monsters we can’t even see, wasting time and supplies?”
“The new explorer class emphasized that the cardinal rule...”
“Ha, fuck.”
Kaal spat out a curse.
“Mr. Ska—no, Ska. Did all those years teach you nothing? I told you to learn from real life. Go outside, talk to people, and interact with them. Explorer training? Cardinal rules? You naive bastard. If they told you to drop dead, would you?”
....
“Just say you got scared. That’ll make you look less like an idiot.”
‘What’s with this sudden blowup?’
Apparently, Yushin had touched a sore spot.
“Since we disagree, let’s split up here. I’m going back.”
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Kaal drew his sword and blocked his path.
“You’re crossing the line.”
Yushin drew his sword as well. The longsword’s cold blade glinted in the torchlight, flicking like a snake’s tongue.
“Move.”
“Compensate me. How much time and money have we wasted because of you without even completing the quest? And you’re just going to run?”
“What bullshit.”
He raised his shield and took a stance.
“Mr. Ska, calm down.”
When he glanced over, he saw Anne standing there with her bow trained on him.
Din held a dagger, while Marie chanted a spell, muttering something under her breath.
‘We’re fucked.’
“How much do you want?”
“Twenty silver coins.”
Kaal’s answer was so absurd that a laugh escaped Yushin.
That was what he would have to earn by working at the monster dismantling facility for two months without a break.
“I don’t have that much money.”
He told the truth. Even excluding the cost of staying at the inn, he had spent most of what he earned on weapons and armor, exploration supplies, and tuition.
All he had left was two silver coins and a few copper coins.
“We’ll find out when we search you.”
Fuck.
‘Getting shaken down by kids younger than me in another world.’
“Kaal, shut your mouth.”
Anne snapped coldly, and Kaal fell silent.
“Mr. Ska, I’ll be honest. We absolutely have to complete this quest. We have an injured friend, and we need money for treatment.”
“You can do it here, can’t you?”
“At the lowest possible cost. We came up from the countryside penniless, so things are pretty tight.”
“Why are you so sure? We might not encounter any monsters on the second level, and we might get lost.”
“A veteran explorer told me at a tavern that monsters become more noticeable starting on the second level. If we complete the quest by subjugating more than the required number, we’ll receive extra payment, so it’s fine even if we wander a bit.”
“Even so, isn’t this outside the plan?”
He asked, half resigned.
“The Guild knows that plans sometimes change. I heard that, in such cases, decisions are made by majority vote.”
A majority vote?
It was obvious that everyone but him would vote to go to the second level.
He decided not to ask anything more.
The Guild was not lenient toward people who ignored the majority vote and left a party without authorization. They would certainly be penalized. It was stipulated in the rules.
What would happen if the advice given during a Guild class by ‘a certain’ someone clashed with the Guild’s official rules?
Did advice take precedence over the rules?
He did not know.
“What if I still refuse?”
“Your sword looks pretty good.”
“Isn’t that extortion?”
“Having it transferred through the Guild isn’t so bad. You’ll lose your sword and get penalized to boot, Mr. Ska.”
A perfect no-win situation.
This fucking sucked.
He let out a deep sigh.
“All right.”
‘What could possibly go wrong? It’s only the second level.’
He was being careless, too. Although Kaal’s party seemed somewhat awkward, they appeared to be competent. Besides, he had no money.
Kaal approached and patted Yushin on the shoulder.
“Then we’re good, right? Let’s work well together again. Sorry for speaking casually. You looked like an idiot, crying and carrying on because you didn’t want to go, so I misspoke.”
....
“Go in first.”
Kaal pointed at the red portal with his sword, and...
Yushin entered the red portal.