Volume 4 Chapter 2 (2/2)

[I’m also quite tired right now. Normally we would be able to defeat the monsters within several shots however they didn’t falter at all.] (Til)

[It hasn’t even begun as these guys were much easier to deal with as compared to the other monsters. At this level monsters often have a balanced composition with monsters in the front line and monsters meant for the backline. This time we only faced off against monsters who were better suited for the back line.] (Yuuya)

I’m going to account for a Luna-boost in the future as it was a powerful move we could do since she was light. However, we can’t use it willy nilly as it would isolate Luna within the enemy’s formation.

[Being thrown by Yuuya was exciting.] (Luna)

[Ah. That’s what I thought too. Yuuya-niisan do that to me next time!] (Til)

[What would having our backline thrown to them do..] (Yuuya)

As Til typically prioritized her enjoyment, she suggesting something ridiculous as I picked up the items dropped on the floor and my sword while Phil and Til picked up their arrows. Arrows were an important resource right now as we had to preserve our resources as much as possible.

[Are the number of arrows sufficient for the two of you right now?] (Yuuya)

[So long as we are frugal about them we should be able to make it until the boss battle. It’ll be pretty exhausting to constantly use Arrow generation for this.] (Phil)

[Ah, we’ve been using the arrows onee-chan bought in the city, however, our offensive abilities have dropped quite a bit.] (Til)

Normally they would have used their skills to produce their custom arrows however we had used up all of their generated arrows in the battle against the Coronoa Dragon. They had tried to generate enough arrows before attempting the dungeon however it wouldn’t have been enough so I had Phil head out and purchase some arrows and potions for us.

[We’ll do something about it as long as we can.] (Phil)

If we had one more day to prepare we would have enough arrows however time wasn’t on our side.

I walked towards the center of the temple as a statue of a goddess appeared holding a rose. The transcript in front of the goddess read “Fill up the cup with flames and it’ll illuminate your path.”.

[Yuuya, what will we do? I don’t see any path for us to proceed.] (Luna)

[Well, just wait a moment.] (Yuuya)

I took out a flint and the oil we used for our campfires from my magic bag as I filled the cup with oil and ignited it with the flint.

[The writings say that the goddess would lead the way once the cup was filled with flames. With this, we should be able to proceed.] (Yuuya)

After a minute or so, there was the sound of earth shifting as the statue slid aside, revealing the stairs under its original position. This temple was a dungeon that went deeper underground and if the riddle wasn’t solved then you would only spend your time wandering around above ground.

[Yuuya-niisan, this dungeon leaves a bad taste in the mouth as you would be stuck here if you didn’t know about the riddle.] (Til)

[I’m of the other opinion as I think that this is plenty easy. Having the riddle come out at the beginning of the dungeon meant that you wouldn’t have to waste time to return after traveling deeper into the dungeon.] (Yuuya)

[Uh. That does sound worse.] (Til)

Til made a disgusted face as Selene was deep in thought.

[Selene, what are you thinking about?] (Yuuya)

[This feels a little suspicious. Why didn’t the guild advise us about the solution to the riddle?] (Selene)

Selene was sharp as she noticed this sort of details quickly.

[You’re right. This is strange since the guild actually wants us to clear the dungeon. If they wanted us to clear the dungeon then they would have actually advised us on how to solve the riddle.] (Yuuya)

It was strange. The guild shouldn’t want us to spend our time about the mysteries as they even went out of their way to give each of us a Return Stone, they should be advising us on this.

[Could it be that the guild knew that if it was Yuuya, that we would be okay?] (Phil)

Phil came up with her hypothesis as I came to that sudden realisation. I thought that our party was nominated for this quest as we defeated the Coronoa Dragon. However, it could be that someone with information recommended our party for this quest instead. If you knew that I and Phil were both once top-tier adventurers before our levels were reset, it wouldn’t be strange for us to be nominated and even neglect to advise us on the riddles.

[Even if that is so, it is meaningless for us to think about this for now. Let’s head down.] (Yuuya)

No matter how much we theorize, we won’t get our answer until we get out of here. This dungeon is a gold mine so let’s be sure to make as much money as we can before we get out of here tomorrow.