Chapter 48
Procuring Materials (3)
“I shouldn’t have co here.”
At the leader’s words, everyone nodded in agreent. As the party’s leader, he possessed the wide field of vision unique to archers, allowing him to quickly assess danger.
Because of that, he constantly had to keep his eyes peeled, making him far more fatigued than the others. Of course, the others were exhausted as well.
“……It’s suffocating.”
“Don’t ever take it off.”
The gas mask that covered the entire face was tornt in itself. It clung tightly to the face, making movent uncomfortable and breathing difficult.
But none of them could remove it. They all knew it was the crucial thing keeping them alive.
“How long has it been since we entered?”
“Five hours.”
“That’s bad.”
The leader asked the friend beside him who was in charge of the vanguard. The friend answered in a slightly tired voice.
I looked around. Two twin mages, two close-combat warriors. Including myself, the ranged attacker, that made a party of five.
They had ford this party for one purpose: money. In urgent need of cash, they had no choice but to co straight to the Swamp of Gehenna, yet things were far from smooth.
“How’s the path?”
“The poison fog is too thick. Our visibility’s been drastically reduced. We need to find a ‘beacon.’”
Their objective was to collect Poison Sli. Among the low-risk targets, it was one of the few that brought in decent money.
At first, things went smoothly. The two close-combat warriors already knew each other and were close since they were both third-years.
The twin first-years they had recruited in a hurry were quite capable and diligently followed orders. As ti passed, they grew accustod to the party, and things gradually beca easier.
Then at so point, I felt sothing strange. It felt like the visible range had suddenly shrunk. By the ti the leader, who noticed it first, halted the party, it was already too late.
The poison fog had grown much thicker.
“We hadn’t entered Section B yet, right?”
“Yeah. We were just about to move into Section B.”
“But this…”
“It feels like we skipped straight into Section D.”
The sections were distinguished by the density of the poison fog. The outermost area was Section A, where the poison was the faintest, and the closer one moved toward the center, the thicker the poison beca.
If it was Section D, that ant we were almost at the very center. The strange part was that we had just passed through Section A.
So where had B and C gone, that D had suddenly appeared?
“What about the density?”
“It’s definitely D.”
“That’s strange.”
“Or maybe Section B’s poison density increased to match Section D.”
“……That’s even scarier.”
The conclusion was simple. We were screwed. There was no way we could continue like this. Our only option was to return to Section A and painstakingly search for slis again.
The leader wasn’t foolish enough to invite danger just because he was blinded by money. Guess we stepped in shit. Clicking his tongue quietly, the leader ordered a retreat.
“Alright, everyone, let’s head back. We’ll just look for slis in Section A.”
“We’re not going any deeper?”
“Yeah. The density’s strange. We can’t go further in. Let’s play it safe.”
The others didn’t object to the leader’s opinion. They felt his judgnt was reasonable. The twins had only co for experience as well, with no intention of overexerting themselves.
“This is strange.”
“What is?”
If one entered from the entrance and continued straight north, they would reach the center of the swamp. Our party had also been heading north using a compass.
While we were moving south to return to Section A, the younger twin sister voiced her suspicion.
“Yeah, what’s strange?”
“Yes.”
Without even responding to her older brother, the younger sister answered the leader’s question in a firm tone.
At that, the leader—who had been moving for 30 minutes straight—halted the party and suggested a short break.
Since breathing was already difficult and even minor wounds had to be avoided, we had been moving cautiously. The party readily agreed to rest.
“What’s strange? A mage’s intuition or sothing?”
“There’s no change.”
At her words, the party tilted their heads. Thirty minutes was too short a ti to discuss any changes. It had taken four hours just to leave Section A.
Of course, we had been defeating every monster we encountered and collecting byproducts along the way, so in truth we had probably spent about two and a half hours actually moving.
Even so, thirty minutes was hardly enough ti to judge any change.
“It’s only been 30 minutes.”
“There hasn’t been even the slightest change. The scenery too.”
“Hmm.”
It was hard to fully trust the opinion of a first-year who had co to the Poison Swamp for the first ti. Still, the leader decided to trust in the unique intuition mages possessed.
He marked a large X on the biggest tree nearby. Only after the others understood his intention and agreed did the party move again.
“We’re screwed.”
And 30 minutes later. When we encountered the massive tree marked with an X once more, the party’s mood sank into the gutter.
We were going in circles. We were lost. The leader turned to look at the mage twins. They shook their heads. It wasn’t a magical barrier.
“What do we do?”
The best option would be to fire a flare now and wait for a rescue team. But that could actually turn into the worst choice.
A flare was visible to everyone. Which ant not only the rescue team, but monsters as well could see it.
In the worst-case scenario, there might be sothing behind this unexplained situation, and that thing could notice the flare and approach.
If that happened, it would be no different from begging to be killed. Wait ten hours? That was impossible too.
“How’s the stamina of the first-years?”
“Pardon?”
“Can you last five hours?”
“I don’t think we can manage that long.”
It had been five hours since we entered. Nearly an hour to return. Considering the ti it would take for a rescue team to arrive, we would need to endure at least five hours.
But we couldn’t eat in this place. As for water, we could sohow manage since the gas masks had straws attached.
They were mages with relatively weaker bodies, and still first-years at that. For the twins, that amount of ti was cutting it close.
“What should we do?”
At his friend’s question, the leader fell into thought. Normally, waiting would be the correct choice. But it wasn’t an easy decision.
“Wasn’t the path we ca through right next to a Poison Rake Bug habitat?”
“It was.”
“They detect prey through ground vibrations, don’t they? Isn’t there a chance they’ll attack?”
“That’s true. It’s not exactly a low probability.”
“Then is the beacon our only option?”
Of all things, we were close to those troubleso creatures. The chance of running into them wasn’t high, but it wasn’t low either. It would be better to put as much distance between us and them as possible.
In the end, the party chose to move away from the Poison Rake Bug habitat. We decided to search for the beacon located on the opposite side of their territory.
If we could just find the beacon, we would be able to get almost proper rest. Deciding that stabilizing our exhausted bodies and minds was the priority, the leader guided the party.
“Danger!”
The older twin brother, walking at the very back, shouted loudly. The first to react was his younger sister.
She imdiately drew up her mana and lifted the ground. A massive wall of earth that enveloped the entire party. The hemispherical earthen wall completely sealed off our rear.
“Poison Rakes! Damn it!”
The mont the earthen wall rose, sharp pounding sounds struck against it. What forced its way through into the wall was a sharp thorn.
Recognizing what it was at once, the leader shouted in dismay. The sound of thorns striking the earthen wall rang out in succession.
The younger twin sister hurriedly poured more mana into the hastily ford wall. As it grew sturdier, it no longer seed like it would be pierced.
“We’ll be surrounded in no ti!”
They weren’t exceptionally fast, but there were many of them. Aside from those attacking, the rest would obviously move to encircle us.
The leader continuously loosed arrows, warning of the danger. His skill was remarkable—each arrow struck a Poison Rake Bug—but he couldn’t kill them in a single shot.
The older twin brother, who had been forming blades of water and firing them wildly, clicked his tongue.
“They’re already here! We’re surrounded!”
Before he could even finish speaking, sharp thorns ca flying in. Those without long-range attack ans deflected the incoming thorns.
The third-year male student stepped in front of the twins and swung his sword. Clang, clang. The recoil felt as though he had deflected steel arrows. It wasn’t impossible to block, but it wasn’t sothing he could keep up forever.
The third-year female student, positioned slightly to the side where the leader was, furiously threw punches. Her fists wrapped in mana deflected the thorns even without a weapon.
“Is there no other way?”
“Do we have no choice? Barrier!”
Perhaps because it was such an urgent situation, no clever solution ca to mind. A few ideas did occur to , but they all required prior preparation.
Judging that we absolutely needed ti, the leader asked the younger twin sister to put up a barrier. She gritted her teeth and drew up her mana.
In front of the hemisphere, earth wriggled upward. There was no need to rush, so although the speed was slow, the barrier was ford with its durability raised to the utmost.
Those who had been desperately fighting outside only stopped attacking and defending when the barrier was nearly complete.
Leaving behind those who had successfully thrown themselves inside before it closed, a sturdy hemisphere made of earth was completed.
“Speak of the devil.”
“……Is there a way to break out?”
With a safe place to catch our breath finally secured, the leader released the breath he had been holding. At his lanting remark, the third-year male student asked gravely.
Individually, their combat power was weak, but there were simply too many of them gathered together. On top of that, they had the advantage of ranged attacks and the variable of poison.
Extermination was virtually impossible; our only choice was to flee.
“I can dig a tunnel.”
Just in case, after reinforcing the earthen barrier with another layer, the younger twin sister presented an alternative.
If that were possible, escaping safely would be easy. The problem was whether she was in any condition to do that.
She had just cast an extraordinary barrier spell. There was no way the mana consumption had been light. In fact, though her face was obscured by the gas mask, her breathing was noticeably rough.
“Is there a way to kill them?”
“No. We’d need to hit the entire area at once with a powerful, wide-range attack.”
“I-I can do it.”
At the third-year female student’s question, the leader firmly shook his head. We had roughly estimated their number at about a hundred. It wouldn’t be easy to eliminate them all in a single blow.
The older twin brother expressed his confidence. Even if such a spell existed, the leader was skeptical.
“You’re water attribute, right? Is that spell water attribute too?”
“Yes.”
“Then it’ll be hard. I don’t know what spell it is, but killing them all in one strike won’t be easy. They can even fly.”
“Ah, that’s true. My spell is slow.”
We exchanged opinions while catching our breath. The darkness where nothing could be seen and the sound of insects’ wings flitting around only made the mood gloomier.
“Can we make a small hole? I want to check outside.”
“Just a mont.”
At the third-year female student’s request, the older twin brother stepped forward. Using water, he slowly dissolved the earth and made a hole.
Using a sword would have been easy, but it might have damaged the barrier itself, and a hole that was too large could draw attention.
“I’ll recover my mana and then we’ll dig a tun—”
—Kiiiiing.
The leader stopped mid-sentence and had to shut his eyes. All sides were blocked, and aside from the small hole, there was nowhere for light to enter.
Yet just now, he had reflexively closed his eyes from the glare. The light had been so intense that a groan escaped him.
After that ca a chilling sound. The shriek of tal grinding against tal as sothing spun violently echoed out.
It raged for nearly five seconds before subsiding. Caught in the sudden upheaval, everyone was flustered.
“I don’t hear the wingbeats.”
The party waited calmly. Was it a trap? While doubting, the leader realized we had no choice but to go outside.
Assessing the situation ca first. Saying that he, being the quickest, would go out first, the leader dismantled part of the barrier.
“What… is this?”
The first thing that t him outside was a pungent sll. An unpleasant stench of burning, along with the distinct charcoal scent of scorched wood, rose into the air.
What soon ca into view was a massive scene of destruction. Had sothing long been swung around? Everything of middling size had been completely pulverized.
Anything that wasn’t a sowhat thick tree had burst apart. Among them were the Poison Rake Bugs that had tornted us.
Every single one had fallen to the ground, twitching.
And on top of them, I saw a young man with sea-colored hair, diligently stabbing them with a shovel.
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