## Chapter 344 – Dungeons and Adventurers (11)
They entered the dungeon field, passed the monsters that immediately rushed at them, and other people who were excited at the thought of fighting them and making money.
The four men and women kept a certain distance, found a spot that wouldn’t encroach on others’ hunting grounds, and began to thrash about among the monsters, as their bodies remembered, after being unable to properly use their skills for a while.
Was it because this was the new form of practical training they had been waiting for?
They were nervous in many ways, but they continued to fight as hard as possible according to the formation they had carefully planned.
Fortunately, after realizing that the monsters in this dungeon were not that difficult for their level, they became very excited and swung their swords happily.
“Aja aja!! Let’s do our best!!”
“Left!! From the left!!”
The more they caught, the more money they made.
Of course, they didn’t have the skills to process the monster materials, but they could leave that to some back-alley artisans who had come to earn money at the outpost later, so it was nothing to worry about.
“See!! It’s not that hard, right?
For us, dungeons are a piece of cake!”
Anesa, who was very excited, gave a bright smile, and Beck, who was looking at a monster entering a blind spot, shouted in surprise at Helen.
“Hey!! Can’t you see in front of you, you idiot!!
Helen…!! Now’s the time!! Hit it with that one shot!!”
“O-okay…!!”
The magic power that began to gather at Helen’s fingertips formed a magic circle.
The magic power emitted from there was fired like a cannonball, exploding among the monsters and inflicting great injuries on them.
If this happened, the monster’s materials, which were blown away instead of being cut by the too powerful magic attack, would lose their commercial value.
In the end, Anesa, who was the one who wasn’t paying attention, gave an awkward laugh and glanced at her other friends.
“Hehe…… Sorry……♡”
“Lose the heart, it’s creepy.”
“You’re just losing money……!!
Work harder for as much as you blew up!!
Work, you little rascal!!”
“I said I’m sorry!!
Why are you guys being so petty!!”
“Don’t you know about gender equality? Do you want to taste a gender equality punch……!?”
“Eek!! I was wrong…
Huh? What’s this……?”
In any case, when it came to money-related issues, friends and lovers were secondary; work was the most important thing.
Anesa, who was trying to escape by twisting her body with a giggle to avoid Beck, her ruthless almost-boyfriend who was preparing a flick to the forehead.
While taking a few steps to the side, she looked at something on the floor that she had discovered, her eyes sparkling with curiosity.
“Hey!! Hey hey!!
I think I found something…!!”
“Found what? Did money fall out…
Huh…? This……!?”
The friends who began to gather around the object that Anesa picked up were looking at it with wonder.
Meanwhile, exclamations began to pour out from those around Glen, who was looking at it with an expression that seemed to recognize something.
“This is probably…… a magic tool, maybe……?”
“A magic tool is lying around in a place like this?”
“Did someone drop it?”
When Helen said something, everyone’s ears were turned towards her, who was a mage.
Perhaps she was a little embarrassed by the sudden attention, as her face flushed slightly, but she soon said,
“Um…… Th-that might not be the case…”
“Helen seems to know something?”
“These things are called… magic bodies……
Magic anomalies sometimes occur in dungeons.
You could say it’s an artificial object that has naturally absorbed magic power?
Of course, it emits magic power in the same way, and it’s not easy to distinguish it from an artifact……
But it’s a slightly different concept from an artificially made artifact.”
“Hee? I don’t understand difficult words very well…
Anyway, it’s something similar to a magic tool, right!?
So this is a jackpot, right?
Yay!! I found money!!”
“Anesa…… Wait a minute…!!
Still, we don’t know what kind of object it is yet…
Let’s put it down on the floor and analyze it…!!”
– Keeeeeeng
At that moment, a burst of light suddenly erupted from the artifact.
“Uh oh…!! What’s happening…!!”
Surprised by this, Anesa watched the light escaping through her fingers, brought it to her eyes, and looked down at it.
“Anesa!! Let go of that…!! Quickly……!!”
“Damn it……!! Anesaaaa!!”
Suddenly, a blinding flash erupted, swallowing Anesa, who was still dazedly looking down at her hand and then looking up at her other friends, Beck, who was rushing to save her, and Helen, who was frozen with a surprised expression, and Glen, who unconsciously pulled her into his arms to protect her.
And after the intense flash subsided, in a certain place in the dungeon where the four people had been standing, only a quiet silence lingered, as if nothing had been there from the beginning.
Only something of a strange shape, which might have been a magic tool, lay alone on the ground, emitting a small burst of light as if it had been there from the beginning, and then slowly fading away.
.
.
.
.
.
.
In a place where silence and stillness lingered, so quiet that only the sound of his own breathing and the sound of his heart beating wildly in surprise could be heard.
Glen, who was staggering slightly with a slight dizziness, but holding the precious thing he had embraced tightly as if he would never let go, soon regained his senses and began to speak.
“Ugh… Hey… He… Helen…!!
Are you… okay……? Helen!!
Answer me quickly…!! Hey!!”
“Uh……? Glen……? Hee!
When did you hug me……!?”
However, as an unexpected voice began to be heard, he was startled and released his arms, and when he checked the existence in his arms, someone he had never imagined was blushing in his arms.
“What……? Anesa…!?
Why are you……!?”
Anesa, who was also flustered, quickly escaped from Glen’s arms and began to joke around.
She was still blushing and maintaining a ridiculous tone, imitating Glen’s voice from just now.
“Hee~ Helen~ Answer me~!?
Your voice sounded so urgent just now?
Oh my~ You two……!?
No way…!! Are you in that kind of relationship……!?
Kyaa!! What should I do, what should I do!!
I have to go tell Helen that Glen hugged me!!”
“Don’t joke around. I don’t think this is a situation to joke around in.”
In response to Anesa’s words, who was hiding her embarrassment with a playful voice, Glen held his throbbing head for a moment, then shook his head from side to side to regain his senses.
And in response to Glen’s suggestion, Anesa also erased the playfulness from her face and slowly drew her sword.
“I actually agree. We…
Until just a moment ago, we were definitely……”
“Yeah, we were probably on some flat ground in the dungeon.
But this place is……. It’s like some kind of cave…”
The two people’s gazes were focused on scanning their surroundings to grasp the situation, as the place they were in had suddenly changed.
This place, where echoes reverberated as if it were a deep cave, and the surroundings were surrounded by something similar to tree roots.
Whether the surrounding environment had changed, or they had been moved somewhere.
It didn’t take long to deduce that either way, it was due to the artifact from before.
And in an instant.
“Watch out!!”
“Eek!!”
In response to Anesa’s action of screaming and swinging the sword she was holding, Glen tried to grab the hilt of his sword, which he had not yet drawn, but then changed his mind and stopped as if frozen.
– Swish
With the sound of something being cut cleanly and splattering strange bodily fluids, something whose body had been torn in half brushed past his head and shoulders. Glen, who had trusted Anesa and stopped in his place, realized that the crisis had passed, and then slowly drew his sword.
When he finally looked down at what had fallen to the ground, there was a grotesque creature with many legs and a strange fleshy shape, dripping bodily fluids from its cross-section and making its last struggles.
“Ugh…!! It looks really disgusting!!
What is this…? Do you know this?”
“It might be a common sight in the front lines.
But we don’t have any experience there.
From now on, we need to be thorough in guarding our surroundings.
I’ll watch the front, so you guard the back.”
Normally, there would have been a set formation, but since they had been separated from the rest of the group, the two had no choice but to rely on each other.
Still, the two smiled at each other with a sense of relief that a trustworthy friend remained, and decided to make it their goal to meet up with the separated group first, with their backs to each other.
“Okay…!! Let’s find Beck and Helen first…!!”
“Okay. Then let’s leave a mark first…”
– Clang
In order to explore a place that might be a maze, it is most efficient to leave some kind of mark first.
Since the surroundings were all made of tree roots, Glen swung his sword as if slashing the side wall, checked a neatly cut bundle of roots, and immediately began to walk forward.
And the figure of Anesa, who was following him with a tense expression, was disappearing into the darkness of the passage with him.
“Then…… shall we go……”
But they didn’t see it.
The bundle of roots that had been cut down by the sword for marking was slowly wriggling and finding its place, and then slowly healing back to its original shape as if it had never been cut.
