Book 1 Chapter 24
Episode 23
“What’s your name?”
“Rain.”
“Hmph, I thought he made me feel uneasy from our first meeting, turns out he’s a guy who lives up to his name! This little kid is like a downpour.”
“Actually, my name is Sun.”
“What, what? Don’t lie! It’ll all come out when you show your tag, won’t it?”
As they bickered with the archer Rem and delved into the heart of the Red Mountains, human presence gradually thinned, and chilling cries began to be heard.
Two pre-purchased potions clinked from the belt at his waist, and he held a staff in his hand.
Bart told him not to be afraid, saying he would protect him, but Rain’s silence wasn’t due to nervousness, but an intense sense of déjà vu.
“……”
The scorching heat of the Red Mountains and the ceaseless chattering of his party members beside him… Suddenly, the backs of the hero party members flashed before his eyes, and a corner of his heart ached.
“Brother, this is your first time as an adventurer today, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“Are you familiar with the habits of Rat-Spiders?”
He was not familiar.
He was once a being who hunted ‘ancients’ serving the lords of the abyss. He felt no need to know information about monsters left on the continent.
“You just need to know that they are divided into ruling and subordinate classes.”
Bart said.
According to their explanation, Rat-Spiders were divided into queens, soldiers, and workers.
“Workers are pests that gnaw on trees, but they’re busy running away when they see humans. Only the soldier class attacks humans.”
“The queen?”
“They form a colony and give orders to the Rat-Spiders under them. It’s said that catching a queen is like catching a thousand Rat-Spiders.”
Then Rem, who was skillfully walking ahead and tracking the traces of Rat-Spiders hidden in the bushes, snorted.
“Don’t even think about trying to catch one. Only expert adventurers like Bart and I can catch them if we form a party. Not that they come to the surface in the first place.”
Yeah, I don’t plan to catch one.
Of course, that was before he knew the reward for subjugating the Queen Rat-Spider.
* * *
Rat-Spiders are not only large but also creatures with a terrifying appearance.
As their name suggests, you can understand them as having the head of a mouse and the body of a spider.
But there was something more cunning than a mouse and more provocative of primal human revulsion than a spider.
“Ugh-rya-aahp!”
The axe blade, which sharply tore through the air, severed the monster’s flesh and bone, creating a spray of blood.
Shweeeek…!
Shweeeek…!
And then the sound of tearing air flew, trailing a long tail, and when the sound ended, an arrow accurately pierced the mouse’s glabella, causing death throes.
“Awesome, that’s the twelfth one!”
As soon as they arrived at the hunting ground Rem knew, Bart and Rem began to slaughter Rat-Spiders with fierce momentum, their skills being extraordinary even by Rin’s standards.
“Bart, there are many other adventurers! Don’t even think about resting!”
“I know!”
Perhaps because adventurers are inherently a group that shares information, the hunting ground was bustling with other adventurer parties, spaced approximately 50 meters apart.
─Wow, how much is all this.
─Money is multiplying?!
Sitting under the shade of a tree, watching the scene with a languid yawn, it was truly unimaginably boring.
“Am I really not supposed to fight? You said we’d split the profits a quarter each.”
Sammy, the acolyte, leaned against a tree, reading a bible, and then smiled gently.
“Yes. Later, when we camp, you can just start a fire for us. Or make drinking water.”
“That’s it?”
“From the start, the two of them had no intention of making you fight when they recruited you into the party, Brother.”
“What are you talking about?”
Rain replied indifferently, interlocking his fingers behind his head and sprawling on the grass. He felt like he was dying from the heat, truly.
“As I told you at first, they just wanted to help you. They did the same for me before.”
Sammy said he needed to earn money to take the priest exam, and the two of them, hearing his situation at a tavern, insisted on adding him to their party.
“Even though I’ve already earned enough money for the exam, I’m still with them. When you’re with them, you can feel the love of the gods.”
So that’s it.
They’re the kind of people who help others? They’re good people? Just like Rista was.
- Let’s go, Rin.
Come to think of it, the smile Bart made when he trusted him earlier seemed similar to Rista’s… Wait a minute.
“Sammy, do you happen to know about Trayna?”
“How could I not know her?”
“Has Trayna been branded a heretic by the church, by any chance?”
Heretic… Sammy tilted his head, then furrowed his brow as if something had come to mind, and that was when it happened.
─A-aaaaaaagh!
A desperate scream echoed, and the movements of the adventurers, who had been moving excitedly, stopped simultaneously.
Thud… The ground shook from an enormous weight. The eyes of the adventurers, who stared at the source of the sound, dilated extremely due to tension.
Something large and terrifying was approaching, and in its blood-soaked maw, an adventurer was being chewed, screaming in agony.
“W-what is that?!”
“C-crazy!”
It’s big.
And it’s insanely big.
He had generally known them to be about the size of a grown man, but that one was twice as tall as Bart.
“Q-queen? On the surface?”
Veteran adventurers felt cold sweat drench their hands and feet. Inexperienced adventurers stumbled backward, screaming as they fled.
“No! Don’t turn your back!”
Bart, a silver-ranked adventurer, shouted urgently.
「Rat-Spiders are monsters whose danger level changes depending on whether they are under the queen’s control or not.」
It was written so in Arch-Adventurer Lyuthim’s 『Adventure Log』.
「Normally, they are nothing more than a ragtag bunch, but, as per their nickname ‘army,’ when their commander—the queen—is nearby, they transform into a slaughtering collective that moves more precisely than the mechanical devices of the A-in (兒人; Dwarves).」
The queen’s crest was etched into the eyes of the Rat-Spiders, and they began to emit a chilling phosphorescence.
The rookie adventurers either hadn’t seen those eyes, or hadn’t heard Bart’s voice.
The Rat-Spiders ambushed the fleeing adventurers and sank their teeth deep into their necks.
“This is why rookies…!”
Rem uncorked the gourd at his waist and poured every last drop into his mouth.
Rain, who had stood up to assess the situation, let out an involuntary whistle.
‘Alcohol, Kies’ archery…?’
The basis of Drunken Shot is, needless to say, intoxication.
The power of the archery skills one can use changes with the intensity of intoxication, and drinking an entire bottle meant raising the power almost to its limit in one go.
However, the risks are also certain, with the danger of vomiting or becoming incapacitated during combat.
‘Interesting. Let’s see his skill, shall we?’
And instantly, three arrows were nocked on the bowstring.
Shweeeek…!
Each oddly swayed and flew, piercing the heads of the Rat-Spiders that were ambushing the adventurers.
“Don’t just stare blankly, get up and fight! Unless you want to die!”
As Rem bellowed, the adventurers who had wet themselves at the threshold of death clutched their weapons with trembling fingers.
“Rem, it’s meaningless no matter how many grunts you catch. We have to catch the queen.”
“I know! Sammy! Heal those rookies! Rain, you protect Sammy!”
“Ah, understood!”
Before Sammy could even reply, Rem nocked five arrows simultaneously, aimed at the queen, and plucked the string.
Shweeeeeeek…!
The arrows flew, each arcing upwards, right, left, and downwards… but surprisingly, their points of impact were the same.
‘Kies’ simultaneous impact shot…!’
It was a shooting technique now widely known as the secret art of Drunken Shot. The queen, whose left eye had been crushed, screamed in agony.
“Grrrrrr…!”
“Grrrrrr…!”
Dozens, no, hundreds of Rat-Spiders charged at Rem under the queen’s command.
“Huuuuuuhp!”
But there was a giant who directly collided with that wave of flesh, and that was Bart. With a single swing of his axe, a dozen Rat-Spiders were minced into pieces, scattering flesh and fresh blood.
And into the gaps that opened between the axe swings, Rem’s arrows flew, piercing the heads of the Rat-Spiders.
Finally, as a path opened, Bart, for the first time, gripped his double-bladed axe with both hands, kicked off the ground, and leaped high.
“A-amazing!”
“As expected, Bart of the Pitch Black!”
“Why is that monster still silver-ranked?”
The leg strength that propelled his entire body, clad in plate armor, so high was indeed tremendous.
With a battle cry, Bart brought the axe blade down vertically onto the queen’s crown. The gravity born from the enormous weight added power to Bart’s cleave.
Everyone expected that cleave to split the queen in two… but the axe, which seemed poised to tear through tough hide and shatter the skull, stopped abruptly in mid-air.
‘That’s…?’
Bart felt that something was wrong with a warrior’s intuition, while Rain felt a familiar chill run up his spine and shouted urgently.
“Bart! Evade! Drop the axe! You’ll die if that hits you!”
As soon as Bart heard those words, he let go of the axe and simultaneously rolled his body to the side.
It was a precarious moment.
From the severed surface that the axe blade had torn, bubbles began to seethe, and dark blue venom surged forward.
Gurgle… gurgle… gurgle…!
Bart’s prized pitch-black axe liquefied, dripping onto the ground as black water, and plants touched by the vapor withered away.
Meanwhile, the queen’s wound was healing instantly.
“What is that? Super-fast regeneration…?”
For the first time, a look of astonishment, not tension, spread in Rem’s blinking eyes.
And then the queen ambushed Bart, who had lost his weapon and was defenseless.
Bart grabbed the queen’s maw with his iron-clad hands, avoiding being bitten, but the superiority of strength was clear.
“Ugh, uwaaahp…!”
As the iron armor crumpled and his arm bones broke, Bart let out a painful groan.
“Bart!”
Rem dodged the Rat-Spiders’ attacks and continuously shot arrows at the queen, but it was useless.
With the sole intention of killing Bart, the queen ignored the arrows embedding themselves in her body and steadily pushed her maw closer to Bart.
‘That’s definitely….’
At that moment, Rain’s face turned ashen and his fingertips froze for a much more serious reason.
‘That’s Dark Poison… that unpleasant chill and repulsive stench.’
There was no mistaking it.
Dark Poison was a soul-corroding venom, a fearsome ancient abyssal power used by masters of black magic.
The reason why Fridde, the Priestess of the Fire Dragon, the best cleric of her time, was part of the hero party.
The reason why Archmage Rin had to enter a dormant state using the magic called “Juyeosogye Dae-ban.”
Wasn’t all of that due to the danger of that Dark Poison? If so, there’s a possibility that a master-level black mage who enhanced the queen is nearby…
‘Black magic capable of enhancing a monster? Are there remnants of the Black Church still in the world?’
Rain quickly drew a breath, then asked Sammy, who was treating an adventurer with a bitten neck by chanting holy words.
“How much…?”
“Huh?”
“That thing, how much is it…!”
There was no need to intervene in this situation. No one would blame him for not intervening.
He just wanted to run away.
He didn’t want to fight anything that dealt with Dark Poison, if nothing else. An intense trauma was encroaching on his brain, and his breathing was becoming shallow.
“Ah, it’s probably about twenty gold coins! As I said before, it has the same effect as eradicating a thousand, and it’s hard to catch because it’s deep underground… normally!”
This body is not yet complete.
If he had to use “Juyeosogye Dae-ban” again due to one mistake… and if he were to wake up alone in another world again…
A shudder ran through him as his thoughts reached that point.
“Twenty coins, okay, twenty coins…!”
The only reason I’m interfering here now is for the money I need. If I split that by a quarter, I’ll have more than enough to get a book from the black market.
‘This action isn’t due to altruism, nor is it out of loyalty to the party…’
It’s just for the money, for myself.
The Archmage rationalized his actions in such a way, wetting his parched mouth with dry saliva.
In truth, what drove him were Bart’s smile and Sammy’s voice, crisscrossing in his mind.
- As I told you at first, they just wanted to help you, Brother.
It’s not out of gratitude either.
It’s just that if another idiot like that dies before me, I’ll have unnecessarily disturbing dreams.
“…Magic circle construction, 4th tier (formed).”