Volume 3, Chapter 2.2
Volume 3, Chapter 2.2
Translator: Kureha
Editor: Weasalopes
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The chief called out for a lunch break and the two girls took a glance towards the front gate where Dentlis was standing. Since they were currently constructing near the front entrance, even with Haruna’s eyesight, without any special skills, she could see that he was talking to two other people. With Mio’s sight, she was able to tell that one of his guests was a person associated with the temple, most likely in his 40s; and two other girls who were most likely a trainee at the temple.
「I think his guests are from the temple. Most likely an authority.」
「 Ain’t that strange?」
「Right?」
Hiroshi, who has finally recovered has returned from his retreat and joined in with the girl’s discussion. The paint which Hiroshi was mixing before and have handed over to the employees have now turned from red undercoat to a shade of green which was the colour they have intended to finish up with.
「Lookin’ at em, I’m sure he’s probably some type of priest but what’s he doin’ in a place like this? What’s goin’ on here?」
「Personally, I don’t want to know. I have a feeling that we’ll get dragged into their mess…」
「We’ll probably git mixed up in their mess even if we don’t do anythin’…」
Hiroshi’s words became a reality not too long after that. All of this has happened after the three of them heard the strange news about that trainee priestess’s death. So, to an extent, they were prepared to get mixed up with the temple’s trouble.
「Oh, n’ by the way…」
「There’s one person who’s sneaking around.」
「Ye, there is.」
Haruna was surprised by Hiroshi and Mio’s comments. With her atmosphere detection skill, she could not detect that much.
「By da way, Haruna-san.」
「Yeah?」
「That nobility who were talkin’ to ya before, could he be an adaptation for Alvan’s Unique Quest?」
「Oh….」
Haruna gave a realised expression to Hiroshi’s question. She was so used to hearing such pick-up lines that it didn’t even cross her mind that this could have been some sort of quest plotline.
「Also, tis just me or is that suspicious guy comin’ this way?」
「Yeah, they’re coming this way.」
「definitely coming this way.」
As the group saw that the situation was turning for the worst, they internally prayed for the guests to go away. As if to ignore their wish, Dentlis and his companions continued to walk towards the three of them.
「What should we do? I feel like this is one really messed up plotline.」
「Never mind what I said before. I think somethin’ worse than gettin’ mixed up with the temple’s gonna happen.」
「You’re kidding me right?」
「I guess it’s hard for Harun-nee to understand it. It is still pretty quiet.」
「Mio, I can only detect one guy snoopin’ ‘round. Do ya detect anyone else?」
「Out of range, actually, there are two things on the roof emitting an odd amount of murderous intent.」
Listening to Hiroshi and Mio’s conversation, Haruna grasped that something serious was about to take place. They initially decided to wear leather armour to make themselves look more like adventurers. They weren’t expecting that such an idea would actually become practical.
「They’re comin’!」
Hiroshi pulled out his Heavy Maul and focused on the odd shift in the surrounding atmosphere. The reason why he chose Heavy Maul was only that shock type weapons tend to work well against monsters in this area.
「This ain’t good!」
Hiroshi cried out as creature lurked out from the bushes. It was a group of magical creatures related to Stone Golems. However, their abilities were limited to using magic or summoning; and there were only three Stone Golems around. The strongest monster among them would have been the one called Mad Man. However, a class 8 Adventurer would have no problem taking them down with either magic or magical sword. Also, around 70% of people in the area were athletic and had at least a basic combat knowledge. Dentlis seem to have above-average combat skill. Yet even then, the total number of people who have proper combat abilities were only five. As expected, the newbie adventurers were panicking from this very sudden change in event. None of them has made any actions so far.
「Waddaya wait for!!」
Plan or no-plan, they couldn’t let the opponent have the first hit. Putting aside the number of monsters, Hiroshi activated outclass and gathered all the monsters in one place.
「Ain’t ya’ll Adventurers too? Waddaya wait for? T’ least unsheathe ya swords!」
The monsters started to move towards the group. Hiroshi yells out to the newbie Adventurers who are still frozen on the spot. They finally came to a realisation on what they are supposed to do. Taking out their weapons from their bags, they start attacking the nearest monsters.
「Hiroshi-kun, Mio-chan!」
「Thanks, ya a lifesaver!」
「Thank you, Haru-nee!」
Haruna swiftly unsheathed her rapier, placed Goddess’s Blessing on the three of them and reduced the number of opponents without wasting a second.
「Haruna-kun, are you okay?」
Along with his guests, Dentlis came running towards Haruna.
「If you have time to worry about me, please try and take down the monsters!」
Dentlis takes down three Mad Man to show off to Haruna, who in return yelled back at him. Someone else responded to her cry.
「This young lady is right. Don’t you agree, Dentlis-kun?」
「Alvan!? Why on Earth are you here!?」
「While I was following down some suspicious atmosphere, I was certain that something will happen here. So, I decided to hang around and wait. Was there a problem?」
「Just fight if you have time to irritate others! 」
Haruna gave out a warning to the two figures who were starting to argue. Then, she took out the core of a Stone Golem which Hiroshi was holding it back. The newbie Adventurers were fighting back well. The number of monsters was decreasing steadily. Yet the person who was contributing the most was…
「Is that all ya got? I dare ya’ll to come at me! I’ll take down every single one of ya!!」
It was Hiroshi who managed to trap all the Stone Golem. They were immobilized with pressure. Hiroshi’s quick tactic gave him control over the battlefield. Though, one of the Stone Golem was crumbled to pieces by his first attack. Then Haruna took the final blow on the last one.
「Haru-nee! Back up!」
「Got it!」
Mio took down some monsters, taking some burden off Hiroshi. Then, she changed her weapon from a dagger to bow and arrow. She aimed the bow at a figure hiding up on the neighbouring roof. Fired out two shots to confirm their location. The arrow pierced through the figure’s forehead and their heart. Then, the suspicious figure melted into the air; and the atmosphere in the backyard changed.
「huh?」
A trainee girl was dodging the attacks, trying her best to not get in other’s way. Suddenly, a stone hand grabbed her leg.
「Take dis!」
Hiroshi spotted the hand, and came in running, immediately crushing down the Stone Golem’s hand. He pulled out a construction hammer from his pouch. Then he chased after the hand, crashing one stone hand after another. It was almost as if the hands detected some type of interruption. A countless number of stone hands started to grow out from the ground. The hands were also attacking middle-aged men. Yet they were able to escape easily due to their natural strength.
「There ya at!」
Hiroshi found the core of the stone hands. He changed his weapon back to Maul; and activated Heavy Weight the moment it hit the ground, swinging it down with Smite. At this point, all the Stone Golems and most of the other monsters have been taken down. The only one that remained on the battlefield was the stone hands.
「What the!?」
「Huh, Gram Dawn, well that’s something you don’t see every day.」
Hiroshi pulled out a Gram Dawn from the ground. A monster which protects the second floor of the Sweltering Tower. They are only located on the second floor of fifteen storeys high tower. Yet it is one of the bosses in the advanced class dungeon. Its general ability was far superior compared to Stone Golem. In fact, they are nine times stronger than any monster which tends to appear in the desert area. Gram Dawn is known for merging with the ground and giving unpredictable attacks. They are considered to be a “gateway boss” to become an advanced class adventurer. Even Dentlis who has a decent combat skill twisted his face at the sight of the monster. So, this monster is not considered an easy opponent. However…
「Ya ain’t nothin’ more than a pile of stone!!」
Gram Dawn’s strength was only a fifth of Corrupted Ent. Also, this monster did not use fire-based ability; shock type weapons and weapons of higher-class were effective against it as well. So, for Hiroshi, this monster was nothing more than a goose. Without a moment to waste, he sliced up the monster, immobilizing it, and neatly left the core behind. After all, a monster which barely managed to beat Cerberus by its physical ability wasn’t a deadly monster for Hiroshi.
「u, um…」
「Let’s collect za core first. Tis a small quality check.」
Ignoring the trainee girl whose face was bright red, he immediately moved onto material gathering.
「Um, I would like to help. Is there anything I can do?」
「Lemme see… Could ya bring over the parts of Stone Golem? Jist the ones ya can carry would be fine.」
Seeing Hiroshi’s reaction, the girl changed her approach. Following Hiroshi’s instruction, she started to carry over some smaller and lighter parts of Stone Golem. Seeing the girl, the other adventurers started to look up to Hiroshi and started to carry over more parts of the Stone Golem.
「We should get back to our work.」
「Alvan! Wait up!」
「We shall meet again, Dentlis-kun. Oh, and you, young lady over there.」
「What is it?」
「Next time we meet, how about grabbing lunch with that hero boy over there?」
「I will kindly decline your offer.」
To Haruna’s smiling rejection, the newbie adventurers looked up to Haruna. Immediately after he left, Tatsuya and Makoto showed up, just missing the most chaotic part of their incident.