Vol 2 Chapter 28 (1/2)

Humans and Demons are Accepted Equally

Having arrived at the designated spot indicated by the request, we dismounted the cart, and looked around the area

In Dalien’s reions, most areas turned into dense forests

Apparently, soe here and there in the past, but because of monster attacks, these plans ended in failure

Mysteriously, it was impossible to burn down the monster infested woods

If you tried cutting therow to replace it

For that reason, the speed of the forest’s spread was also so

A large amount of researchers speculate that the reason for this lay with the monsters

When ic was sucked into the trees, and this led to rapid growth…

Fro it, it truly was a troublesome phenomenon

But the opinions of the First and Second Generation were different

According to the First…

『If you e here, you’d be able to sell all the lumber you could dream of!』

The Second also…

『You couldoff the deforestation business What a waste… back in my day, I lived after a certain someone had already cut down the monster-infested forest, so I wasn’t able to do that』

The views of a truly powerful generation

The troublesole lifetime Well, because of that, the Second lamented his loss of a source of income

Unloading our luggage, we ended up going out on a survey of the area

We left le coachman, and we divided into our party of four and Rondo-san’s of three to rotate between protecting our belongings and scouting

Zelphy-san issued orders to us

“You don’t knohat sort of monster you’ll find No matter what happens, run, and head to the location I told you of before Also, there are also some survivors, make sure you can issue treatment and food rations at a moment’s notice”

Perhaps the coach, as he readily nodded

Capable people to support parties like these weren’t too popular of an occupational choice, but they were essential positions

Usually, a party of six would have at least one of those sorts

It was desirable to have two, if possible

If you took on istic support, increased in numbers

It was said that rather than thesupport in the back were more numerous

“Should we also get a supporter on us?”

As Rondo-san said that, Rahu-san shook his head

“You’re hiring a supporter for a party of three? Our profits’ll drop At least get four or five of us before you get one for the party, right?”

Zelphy-san offered the tarning

“Don’t lose focus First, confirs Make sure you frequently rotate your lookout If an unforeseen event happens, then think and act for yourselves Got it?”

If you couldn’t protect your own life, it was unthinkable to be able to save another’s

I got the feeling Zelphy-san said so

I turned to Novem and Aria

“Are either of you tired?”

Novem shook her head, but Aria’s face looked pale

Perhaps she orn out fro of the cart

The Second gave me some advice

『Have Aria rest She’ll probably hate it, but persuade her to take up lookout after resting a while If you just rando out like ‘if you don’t rest now, there won’t be a second chance,’ she’ll likely consent』

So eager that she wasa pointless effort That was the current Aria

After gripping the Jewel once, I tried persuading Aria

But before that, the Third threw out his opinion

『Oh, ht now, Zelphy-san’s acting as this party’s leader』

He has a point

I looked at Zelphy-san She was sending a worried glance at Aria

(If you were that worried, then you should have taken custody of her yourself)

I offered a suggestion

“Zelphy-san, can we put Aria on break? At this rate, it will be a long time before we’ll be able to rest”

“W-wait!”

Aria raised an unsatisfied voice and drew closer to me, but Novem raised her staff to stop her

“The one ill decide is Zelphy-san”

“S-still…”

To a vexed Aria, Zelphy-san spoke

“It’s true that if you don’t get in souess… Aria, go take a break Don’t think I’ you the easy way out here When the ti you on lookout Until then, make sure you rest up so you can carry out your job properly”

The look in Zelphy-san’s eyes seemed to say that objections were not permitted

Aria reluctantly consented

(She surely thinks she was removed from the party because of her ineptitude)

The cold was cold to her

『At ti She arbitrarily locked herself into a mindset she built up for herself Truly troublesome』

On that opinion, the First shot back with a weaker attitude than usual

『She’s still young, so there’s no helping it! Consider the long term here!』

The First was frankly in favor of the girl, but if I had my say in it…

(… I’er than Aria, you know…)

There were sos I was dissatisfied with

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For an adventurer to fight enerally the forest

Even if they go to the forest, it wasn’t like they really enter it They stay in wait somewhere around the entrance

They prepared soroup when they eed

They kept the on unobstructed land and ambushed monsters that were lured out Quite an efficient style of battle

But as long as the bait wasn’t proficient, then they may end up with casualties

After heading to the forest, we started to search for the footsteps of theadventurers

Nearby, there were traces that a cart had paid the area a visit recently

There were the traces of a ca only its horses

I used Skills to confir situation

(… There aren’t any monsters, or anyone else at that matter)

As I confire from afar, I found traces that it was broken into

“There don’t seem to be any monsters”

Zelphy-san took a hard look at my face

“What is it?”

“No, I was just thinking about possibilities here, but could it be that you possess a Skill? Support Class at that?”

During the bandit subjugation, I acted separately from her

This was the first time I showed her my use of a Skill What waslike that

According to the Second:

『You’reit quite blatantly obvious Well, it’s not like you’ll be hurt or anything if it gets out Just affirue』

Hearing that, I nodded

“Yep, it sure is a Support Class Skill It’s quite convenient”

I wondered as on Novem’s mind when she heard that, but when I turned s

Zelphy-san si like, ‘That so?’

“Anyways, on to the cart investigations And wait, there are traces of blood on the ground”

The three of us approached it, and there, a bloodstain remained

Novem…

“Could it be bandits? They were raided here or so?”

Zelphy approached and squatted down, before shaking her head

“No, there really is nothing in this area There’s an especially high density ofhere would be hard Some time has passed since the blood was spilled, so I can’t really say anything about it, but… it looks like the horses were attacked here”

There were bones lying around nearby

The report frouild said only the adviser had perished

There was no saying no one died while ere on the way here, but perhaps they fled

Zelphy-san simply looked around the area

“There’s no traces of a fight What’s more, the inside of the cart… has been laid to waste quite terribly”

So had happened, and the barrels and wooden crates had been smashed The contents were taken away

Since they didn’t use a pick or pry and had to destroy the by human hands was low

What was more, the monster materials were left alone

If it were bandits, they would take and sell them off somewhere

Rather than killing the horses, taking possession of them was more convenient, and they’d probably actually take the cart in its entirety

“If it wasn’t infighting, then reatest possibility”

We circled around to see if anything was left behind

But we didn’t find anything

“It seems they stayed put around here and repeated battles by approaching the forest But if that’s the case, then rather than there having been a battle here, it looks like only the cart was assaulted”

With her experience as the base, Zelphy-san assessed the scene

But all of that was but a prediction

We couldn’t deny the possibility of bandits being remarkably stupid

Novem confirmed our plans hereafter

“What are we going to do now? Should we return, or perhaps set foot into the forest?”

Zelphy-san thought for a little and checked the height of the sun

“Let’s go check out the area close to the forest And return to camp”

To observe the forest from afar, we left the area

But in the end, even if observed froes in the forest

Zelphy-san apparently had co to her, nothing had really changed

Just that it had expanded a little more than before

I used a Skill to check its contents, and I sensed so dreadful

The Second…

『Lyle, tell them quickly… a labrinth has manifested』

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Night

I returned to the ca, and rested until my shi+ft for watch was to come around

Aroundasleep

Generally, you didn’t hear of tooadventurers

And wait, there weren’t too many parties out there who could prepare two separate tents to facilitate that

If they had inners and poor adventurers slept in the saardless of male and female

(It’s )

Up until now, I had never ventured that far out to fight monsters

Of course, that was probably because I was still thought of as lacking in the necessary abilities

There, I heard the First’s voice

『Lyle, stay how you are, and listen The ones sleeping beside you are adventurers If you let out a sound, they’ll likely wake up』

The Third offered an explanation to me on the current situation

『It’s not strange for a labyrinth to manifest in a forest More so, that’s the standard Forests and caves, and also abandoned mansions and forts, they store up mana and become labyrinths』

In this case, the cause was probably that the entrance to the forest had become a labyrinth

Using eway-like formations

Perhaps because not too much time had passed since its birth, the labyrinth wasn’t all too deep

At a relatively close point, a treasure-filled place labelled 『Deepest Chamber』 appeared

It was the biggest room, so my ancestors told me there was no doubt about it

Zelphy-san seemed to be of the same opinion, and she was under the opinion that soed after they had accidentally drifted into the labyrinth

The Sixth…

『My Skill has no h With your current level, Lyle, from the outside of the labyrinth, you probably won’t be able to distinguish friend from foe』

I did check it fro of the insides

It was as if a haze had been cast over it, and I couldn’t get a clear grasp of it

The Fifth also…

『My Skill’s the same From outside, that’s the limit Of course, for you, that is Now it’s about our opinion on the matter』

In the end, the Fourth came forth as usual

『According to the First, there’s no doubt there’s soh to defeat a veteran adventurer… We’re fine it if you want to enter, but I don’t recoo all the way to the Deepest Chamber』

Hearing that, I grasped the Jewel

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Morning

Thinking the labyrinth was clearly suspicious, we left the guard of the cart to Rahu-san

We ended up with a party of me, Zelphy-san, Novem, Aria, Rondo-san, and Rachel-san to enter the labyrinth

If ere left on guard duty, ouldn’t be able to rescue the adventurers who had beco within

What was more, there was an absolute necessity to take Nove

In cases where ere immobilized by injury, we could count on her

As a result, the skilled Rahu-san ended up house-sitting

He seemed reluctant, but there wasn’t another way If we didn’t return in the set time, Zelphy-san forced the idea onto him to return to Dalien immediately

When we set foot into the labyrinth, it was different from a normal forest

With passages made of lined up trees, it really became a maze

The unnaturally lined up trunks, and the breadth of the ay…

More than anything, the air felt heavy, and it became harder to breath We could still breath normally, but it was stressful

Rondo-san looked at me and tapped my shoulder

“Get your breathing in order If you take in that much air, you’ll wear yourself out This is h Don’t worry”

I nodded and steadied myself

And I used my Skills

Full Over

Map

Search

I used the First’s, Fifth’s, and Sixth’s simultaneously

My raised power from Full Over let me forcibly make use of the other two

By doing that, I was able to get a clearer picture than when I tried it outside

As a detailed map of the labyrinth floated up inand where the adventurers were

(I’ the Fifth and Sixth’s Skills is almost a cowardly move)

The staff-wielding Rachel-san chanted a spell

And the surroundings becahter

“Sorry, but if I’ it alone, I’ll need a rest in about two hours Nove the way? It can just be for ten minutes”

“Yes”