To the Vertical Hole in the Event Area

I logged in. After talking at length yesterday, I feel I've become considerably closer to the Centaurs. Ruby and Shio were adored by the children like heroes, and the gathering with the Centaurs, who would be living inside the Black Wall for a while, can safely be called a success.

Well then, shall I head to the event area today? I'd like some company if anyone's in the lounge... I wonder if anyone is there? Thinking that, I headed to Shiratsuki's lounge, where I found Eiji and Mossan sitting on the sofa. All right, I'll invite them.

"Hello, you two. Good evening."

"Oh, Izamu-san! Perfect timing!"

"We're heading to the event area now, and there's somewhere we'd really like Izamu-san to come with us. Would you mind?"

A place they wanted me to accompany them? I didn't know where it was, but for someone who had been looking for companions, their offer was just what I needed. I would be happy to go with them.

"Of course. So, where are we going?"

"You know that dungeon you said you'd cleared before, Izamu-san? It's in the center of the uninhabited island, and there's a deep vertical hole to the north of it."

A vertical hole was a very timely topic. It could serve as practice before we dealt with the vertical hole on the continent of Timburica, where our base was located. However, something else caught my attention. Namely...

"...You know about that dungeon as if it were common knowledge."

"It was being talked about on the forums. There were screenshots of several players riding a ferocious-looking Dragon."

"Izamu-san and Jigoro-san hadn't changed their initial settings, so your faces were blurred, but the other three had apparently become famous for all sorts of reasons... It seems the identification squad didn't even need to get involved."

The strange thing was that they knew, as a matter of course, something I hadn't told them. I had configured my settings so that my face and appearance wouldn't be clearly visible in gameplay streams or screenshots taken without permission. Being photographed without my consent made me uncomfortable. Jigoro probably just thought changing the settings would be a hassle, though.

In any case, when screenshots of Jigoro and me were taken, people could only identify us by our clothes and silhouettes. Those who had actually been there had seen our faces, so they probably already knew we were the monster-player duo that had rampaged on the first day.

On the other hand, Usuba, Akane, and Sebastian apparently had that setting turned off. Promoting their own appearances was probably part of their activities, but as a result, it was perfectly clear who was riding Kal. That was why people had kept coming to Konrad to gather information, exactly as he had intended.

"The special boss is still the main topic, but apparently some people from a clan that enjoys testing things challenged it under various conditions and found new special bosses. It doesn't look like they've figured out how to beat them yet, though."

"I see."

Good, it seemed that Konrad's information manipulation was going well. Thanks to the excellent work of that testing clan, the topic of Kal seemed to be dying down. Would it be all right to bring Kal to the event area now?

"By the way, why are you two trying to take me there? It's not merely a deep vertical hole, is it?"

"That's... something you'll have to wait and see."

"I'm sure you'll like it."

"Oh ho? Then I'll come along with high expectations."

The two of them wanted to surprise me. Since I had the chance, it might be fun to play along. I would follow their directions and see where they took me!

◆◇◆◇◆◇

After moving to the event area, I flew through the sky toward the vertical hole in question, with the two of them leading the way. The item's effect let me fly, while Mossan carried Eiji down safely.

Perhaps because Eiji had evolved into a Boar Orc Heavy General, his body had grown even larger than usual, and his tusks had lengthened. That wasn't all; a magnificent single horn now grew from his forehead. The thick horn, extending straight upward, seemed almost to embody Eiji's own personality.

Mossan's appearance had changed drastically after evolving into a Blood Demon. He looked like a muscular human with bat wings in place of his arms. However, his entire body was covered in coarse fur, and his feet had a birdlike shape that allowed them to grip things firmly.

His face was simply that of an enormous bat, and the fangs peeking from his mouth were extremely sharp. He didn't have a goat's head or horns, but among the three Demons in our clan, he now had the most demon-like appearance.

Mossan's strength had increased along with his evolution, allowing him to fly while gripping Eiji with his feet, although only barely. That meant he could take Eiji flying even when Kal wasn't around.

"Don't look so dejected, Izamu-san!"

"There's no way to break that space."

That's right, Kal wasn't here. Why? Because he had been sleeping in a heap with the Centaur children in the town plaza.

As Mossan had said, I couldn't break that space and take Kal out of it. So, very reluctantly, I had come to the event area without Kal yet again.

"There! It's coming into view!"

"Is that it? It's bigger and deeper than I expected. I can't see the bottom."

The ground Eiji pointed to had a huge hole gaping in it. Was the hole at least twenty meters in diameter? It might have been because we were still some distance away, but there was no doubt that it was also extremely deep.

At that depth, it seemed that the sunlight shining down from above didn't reach the bottom. I was curious about how such a hole had formed, too, but we would find that out once we went there.

When we reached the airspace above the hole, we slowly descended. Two players were attempting to descend inside the hole, but apparently they had no means of flight. They were lowering themselves little by little with a rope. It was a painstaking and grueling method, but if they couldn't fly, it was probably their only option.

They noticed us and stared, but we weren't going to help them without being asked. They might get angry at us for interfering, and we didn't exactly have that much leeway ourselves.

"...They've come. There are four of them."

My Magic Echo detected four shadows. The two of them had warned me beforehand that we might be attacked in midair. That was why I had been on guard, but I hadn't expected it to happen so soon.

What leaped at us were strange monsters that looked like monkeys. Their bodies were shaped exactly like long-tailed monkeys, but they had no fur at all. Instead, their bodies were covered in slick mucus. The eyes on their faces were quite large and darted around wildly.

Frankly, they were extremely disgusting. I had seen an animal called a naked mole rat before, but these were even more repulsive because of the way their mucus glistened. In any case, I started with 【Appraisal】.

――――――――――

Race: Cave Monkey Lv. 23–25

Job: Light Warrior Lv. 3–5

Skill: 【Vitality Enhancement】

【Agility Enhancement】

【Fangs】

【Climbing】

【Acrobatics】

【Night Vision】

【Stealth】

【Silent Step】

【Surprise Attack】

【Assassination】

【Blunt Resistance】

【Water Attribute Resistance】

――――――――――

Cave Monkeys—in other words, monkeys adapted to caves, apparently. They climbed the walls at terrifying speed, then launched themselves at us with incredible jumping power. It seemed that two were targeting me, while two targeted Eiji and Mossan.

"Oops."

"Hmph!"

I knocked one down with my staff, while Eiji cleaved two at once with his ax. Even in this unfamiliar aerial environment, the level gap was so great that even my strength was enough to mow them down with ease.

More Cave Monkeys climbed up from below, but we knocked them out of the sky without mercy. The experience wasn't particularly worthwhile, we couldn't collect any materials, and there were so many of them that we could hardly descend. They looked awful, too. Was there anything good about this?

"Aaaaaah!?"

"C-Columbus!?"

As we hunted the Cave Monkeys in what had become little more than a chore, the players descending the wall with a rope were attacked by them as well. One drew his sword and cut them down, so he was probably around the same level as me. He seemed to have things under control.

The other player was different, however. They fought back by swinging the climbing pickaxe in their hand, but weren't dealing any meaningful damage. They seemed to be a low-level player who had only just started.

"We should probably help them."

"Yes, we should!"

"Then let's charge in."

Before the words had left his mouth, Mossan charged straight toward the wall. Eiji raised his shield to brace for the impact. Together, the two of them became a single cannonball and crushed the entire swarm of Cave Monkeys.

"Are you all right?"

"Y-yeah. Thanks for saving me..."

"No, we're not done yet. If anything, this is where it begins."

The player who had been attacked seemed relieved, but more and more Cave Monkeys were still climbing up. Mossan warned them that this wasn't the end.

I approached the other player, who had repelled the first wave of Cave Monkeys. I had decided that we should cooperate with them to get through this situation.

"I'm Izamu. Shall we work together here?"

"You've saved me! And thank you for saving Columbus!"

"Save your thanks until they've given up."

"That's true. Ah, my name is Keisuke."

The player hanging from the rope introduced himself as Keisuke. He was a black-haired Human youth, and judging by the shield on his back, he appeared to be a conventional swordsman.

However, since he was gripping the rope with his left hand, he couldn't use the shield he normally would. His posture was unstable as well, so he would have to focus entirely on protecting himself.

"Keisuke, you're a swordsman, right? I'm a mage. I'll bombard them from here, so you cut down any enemies that get through."

"I feel like I'm putting too much of the burden on you, but... I'll do that."

Keisuke understood that his current position was unstable and that he couldn't demonstrate his full strength. Even knowing that the plan placed a far greater burden on me, he agreed to it.

Once I had his consent, I started firing off magic. I used Wave-type magic, prioritizing its wide area of effect, but the enemies were weak enough that I could kill them in almost one hit. Any Cave Monkeys that happened to be outside my magic's range were cut down by Keisuke and fell away. When he had the breathing room, he even used martial techniques that sent slashes flying, so it seemed that our side would get through this without trouble.

The problem was Eiji and Mossan. The two of them were strong enough to mow down the swarming weaklings with ease, but they had to be careful not to catch the other player in their attacks, so they weren't doing as well. Eiji occasionally deliberately thrust an arm or leg in the way to shield the player, so his minor injuries seemed to be increasing as well.

"Ah, come on! How annoying!"

"It was a little easier the other day..."

Eiji was irritated, while Mossan seemed somewhat troubled. In the end, we were forced to fight for nearly ten minutes, until the swarm of Cave Monkeys finally stopped coming.