Author’s Note:
Ranked 6 in the daily ranking?
When I looked a second time, I found that it was 5th.
Yesterday I said to have my aim at around the 50th, but it seems that it was already achieved.
Furthermore, Bookmarks have exceeded 1,000.
I don’t even know what’s going on…
I’m tearing up, seriously!
Thank you!
「It’s a Goblin!」
The lookout raised a shout.
Using the materials we brought, we should have been in the middle of building a rudimentary base in front of the dungeon right now.
However, from the entrance of the dungeon a Goblin seemed to appear. We had taken out the Goblin patrols in the vicinity to prevent a sudden rush, but it seems we fell behind schedule because of it.
「Teacher, there.」
『Oi, construction of the base isn’t even finished yet. Ah… It’s turned into a complete melee, huh…』
The Adventures and Hobgoblins were fighting all jumbled together. In such a state, throwing large area fire spells into the mix was out of the question. The Adventurers on the other side seemed to be fighting with Donna as their center.
「I’m going.」
『Ok. But before storming the dungeon, we should thin out the ones outside. If the Adventures got annihilated I wouldn’t be able to sleep easy.』
「Teacher doesn’t sleep.」
『It’s a metaphor, a metaphor!』
Fran unsheathed me and started running. First, she headed to the ones fallen into crisis: the novices. Without stopping her run, she mowed down her opponents happily. As for surprise attacks from the rear, they only numbered 1.
「Weak.」
『Even if it’s a Hobgoblin, by itself, it isn’t that strong.』
For now, the status of the specimens that we defeated were like this:
Race : Hobgoblin Swordsman : Evil Beast : Demonic Beast Lv.8
HP: 69 MP: 38 STR: 34 END: 33 AGI: 25 DEX: 23 INT: 19 WIS: 19
Skills:
Coercion ：Lv1, Evasion ：Lv1, Sword Techniques ：Lv1, Sword Arts ：Lv3, Leadership ：Lv1, Instantaneous Movement ：Lv2, Cooperation ：Lv2, Vigor Manipulation
They’re almost the same as a Goblin King, but with a slightly weaker status. As for skills, the experience-rich Kings have more versatile ones, but these Hobgoblins have the Cooperation skill. Fighting a large group would be troublesome indeed.
The rubbish mercenaries that picked a quarrel with Fran before the departure were already lying dead on the ground as proof of this. Being eager for achievements, they seem have gone too far ahead, granting themselves wounds that cover their entire bodies. Even at a glance, it’s obvious that they can’t be saved. Against foes with Cooperation, even if they’re small fry, plunging into them head-first would obviously end like that.
Fran doesn’t seem to have noticed, or, if they were truly unfortunate, she may have simply forgotten about them already.
「Haー!」
『It’s an all you can eat!』
While Fran swung me, I fired invisible attacks like Aura・Blade into the surroundings, cutting down Hobgoblins while trying not to attract attention to myself.
「T-Thank you!」
「Seriously, this cute little girl is ――」
「Eh? Who ――」
「No way ――!」
Oh, the lad from before is still here. Without overdoing it, he’s been fighting steadily. Now, while being too surprised at Fran’s figure, he fell for a moment and got himself into a pinch. He was saved by a senior, though.
The other C and D rank Adventurers are frantically holding the entrance of the cave, so Adventurers with insufficient strength are closer to the base. Therefore, the Hobgoblins attention was naturally directed at the peerless being: Fran.
「Big catch.」
『They keep on coming from the sides, huh. It’s good that we’re alleviating the strain on the other Adventurers, but…』
As for myself, I have to restrain from absorbing magic stones here. If it becomes known that the magic stones from the Hobgoblins that Fran defeated are all missing, various troubles might occur.
Therefore, I’m verifying their Skills one by one with Appraisal, and only absorbing the magic stones from Hobgoblins that have Skills I absolutely want.
『Now it should be fine, right? Quickly, let’s break into the dungeon.』
「Nn.」
If it’s inside the dungeon, then I can absorb magic stones without minding the people around us; I can just hide the evidence by stowing away the enemies’ corpses.
Fran moves towards the dungeon. At the entrance, people and Goblins are fighting, all tightly packed together.
「According to reports: Cave Type.」
Dungeons have various categories, including Labyrinth Type, Cave Type and Nature Type. Cave Type is often seen in recently-created dungeons. Traps are almost nonexistent, but in exchange there seem to be many that have complex structures — almost resembling an ant nest.
According to the Conjurers who used disposable Familiars to scout, there were nothing resembling traps on the inside. For the large amounts of goblins coming and going traps would be a hindrance after all.
There was no talk about any kind of special rooms, either. About these ‘special rooms’, they’re essentially areas with peculiar effects such as sealing Transfer, sealing Recovery, or absorbing Magical Power. If they’re entered without noticing the difference between them an normal rooms, there’s a high risk of total annihilation. The ones that seemed to have ways to detect the difference concluded that there weren’t any such places here.
For us, this was good news. Without having to mind traps of any sort, being able to focus purely on battle is great.
『Forward!』
「Nn.」
『Yahooー!』
Fran crossed over the wall established at the cave entrance by the Adventurers by running through the air. Donna, who saw the spectacle, was astonished. With round eyes he looked up to her. Oioi, if Fran had a skirt on then he’d be guilty, right?
「That was… Aerial Jump?! Isn’t that supposed to be a Sky Knight’s unique skill?!」
Ha? Is this… Slightly bad?
『Sky Knights? Judging from the name, it gives the impression of a fairly high ranked job…』
Sky Knight, huh… How highly ranked is that occupation, I wonder. Depending on the answer, the use of Aerial Jump might be barred in front of others. At any rate, it’s related to the “sky[1]”. Seems strong.
「Teacher, too late.」
『Mu…… Is that so?』
Well, Fran has a point there… Or rather, from now on such things will happen from time to time, so hiding everything might be meaningless in the end. If that’s the case, maybe it’s better to have accidentally used it while becoming serious.
「Aside from that: Goblins.」
『Oops, that’s right.』
「Teacher uses magic. After landing, I’ll finish them.」
『Understood.』
Fran uses Floating, ascending even higher. Matching that, I invoked Tri・Explosion.
*DOdoDOon!*
The crowd of Hobgoblins in the vicinity of the entrance were blown away all at once. The explosion ended up creating a smoke screen in front of Donna, but even with that, with Hobgoblins as his opponents, he has the power to kill them with a single strike. Fran landed and without a moment’s delay attacked the routed enemies.
「Sonic・Wave!」
Lv5 Sword Art: Sonic Wave. It’s an art that releases a shockwave, so it was a good choice for knocking down the clustered group of Hobgoblins.
「Chance.」
With the number of Goblins at the cave entrance diminished, Fran rushed in with a *woosh*.
「W-wait! Only Rank D Adventurers and above should be entering the dungeon!」
We knew that, of course. However, in order to have no one hinder us from entering despite that, we went and acted before they could give out any orders. Donna and the others were still fighting against the Hobgoblins, after all.
「Shit–! Go, chase after the little miss!」
「Ah yer right. Normally it’s ‘ye reap what ya sow’, but lettin’ such a tiny girl die just don’t sit right.」
「You idiot! It’s got nothing to do with that!」
「Ha?」
「If left alone, that little miss will take all the sweet spots!」
「No way, that little girl will?」
「That Aerial Jump from before, and even the Magic she just cast…! When you’re thinking about that little miss, ignore her outward appearance — think of her as a remarkably skilled Adventurer wearing the skin of a child[2]!」
In regards to the raw materials after the fight’s been all mopped up, the Guild splits them equally among all of the Adventurers involved (after taking a cut for itself, of course). However, you’re permitted to keep the loot for yourself if you defeat something alone, and place the corpse inside of your item bag.
In other words, the more you defeat, the more you earn. That seems to be a measure put in place to increase the motivation of the Adventurers, but depending on the situation I’d think that it could cause quarrels and reckless delving… Like how we delved into the Dungeon at our own convenience.
「Teacher.」
『This is…… A clump of experience points!』
Within the dungeon, the Hobgoblins are packed like sardines.
「Please.」
『Ou! Flare・Blast!』
Lv1 Blaze Magic: Flare・Blast. It’s a magic where a wave of heat is formed by converging flames. Its range isn’t particularly wide, but it’s far more powerful than Fire Magic.
*KyUUUin――BoBoOn!*
The heat ray pierced the goblins, and the shock wave mowed down any of the remaining ones. When firing this magic in a narrow space like a cave, its power is tremendous.
Once again, Fran plunged forward.
『We bought a Transfer Feather using the money we had on-hand, so let’s go as far as we can!』
[1] ‘Sky’ can also mean ‘Heaven’. (天)
[2] This is essentially the expression ‘a wolf in sheep’s clothing’ with ‘child’ instead of ‘wolf’. In Japanese ‘clothing’ is usually subbed out with ‘skin’, too.