Chapter 274
We had now walked through the tunnel that was an odd combination of stone and wood for several minutes . Due to the layout, we were able to reach the floor where the humans were before encountering any monsters . Still, if any of them had Presence Detection, they would know we were coming…
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“Maybe we should knock first . ”
“Monsters wouldn’t knock, so they’d know it was a human coming . ”
I thought as we looked at the door that would surely lead to these humans . It would be nice if they would just open it from the other side .
We played rock, paper, scissors to decide who would hit the door . Daniela did rock . So did Manager . And Lemon . I did scissors . By the way, apparently it was some Hero who had popularized this little game in the world .
I glared angrily at my scissors and then adjusted the sword at my belt . I wanted to be prepared in case I was attacked .
“Alright, I’ll go then…”
“Be careful . We do not know what will come out of there . ”
“Then why don’t you come too?”
“I will watch over you from here . ”
“…”
Daniela sent me off with a cool smile . And so I stomped purposefully towards the door . That was when I heard something on the other side . I paused for a second, but there was no point in stopping now . Would it be a snake or a demon…? I sighed, stood in front of the door, and knocked .
“Hello . ”
Nothing .
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“We felt a human presence nearby, and so we came to see . We have no intention of fighting . ”
Still, there was no answer . What to do…
“…Asagi?”
“Hmm?”
I turned around to look at the three others, but they looked puzzled . Apparently, none of them had called to me . Just then, the door in front of me slowly opened . The person on the other side was a man with reddish-brown hair . He looked a lot older than when I had last seen him…
“So it is you, Asagi!”
“Rex! Ah, it’s been a while!”
Rex was the Adventurer I had said goodbye to in Spiris . He’d been the leader of a party I encountered while in the woods . They had been trying to hunt a wyvern . Tank and Danny had been taken down by its breath, and the party was in terrible shape . I helped them and we became friends .
“Ah, wait . There are monsters nearby . We should be quiet . ”
“Yes, we’ve been running away from them . Is Daniela with you? Anyway, you should come inside . ”
Rex quickly scanned the area . Then he waved towards Daniela and the others and gestured for them to come . Daniela seemed relieved when she saw Rex’s face, but Manager and Lemon still looked cautious .
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“It is fine, we know him . An old Adventurer friend . ”
“Ah, you are pretty! I’m Rex . An old friend of Asagi . ”
“Hmm… Rindo . Nice to meet you . ”
“Lemonfrost . Pleased to make your acquaintance!”
They introduced themselves briskly as they entered the room . There was one woman who looked like an Adventurer and two men who looked like civilians . Maybe merchants . So, Danny and Darius weren’t here .
“And you’re as radiant as ever, Daniela . ”
“I am glad to see that you are well, Rex . But where are the others?”
“Ahh…”
Daniela had been wondering the same thing, and so she asked him . Rex started to scratch his cheek uncomfortably . I noticed there was a scar there that hadn’t been there before . It suggested a terrible fight . Perhaps they…
“I split up from them . …You can say, we weren’t quite compatible…”
“Compatible…”
It made me think of a rock band .
“I didn’t want to fight wyverns and giants monsters anymore . You understand that, don’t you? You saw what Danny looked like after… And so I suggested we mainly go to dungeons, where the survival rate is a little higher . But they insisted that Adventurers had to hunt large monsters . They said it was every Adventurer’s dream . The last fight only made them more determined . But I was scared . No, I’m not suggesting that dungeon crawling is easy, alright? But it’s not grand battles against giants that I want . I would rather carefully disarm traps and fill out my map…”
I understood how he felt . The sight of Danny’s blood had made me panic . I had never seen someone wounded like that before, and I could still hear Rex’s scream in my ears . Danny would have been dead without Wesley’s potions or Darius’s strength . And if I hadn’t been there… Well, I didn’t want to think about it, but they would have all been dead .
And if you considered challenging the wyvern to be the root of all of that, then it would be harder to repeat it . They say that you must not confuse bravery with recklessness . This just meant that Rex was not reckless enough to challenge monsters that were above him . And he had the courage to choose a steadier path . On the other hand, perhaps Danny and the others were not so reckless as to suddenly change the path they had been on up until now . And while it was different from Rex, it was still brave as well . Who knew which side was right . But they were clearly unable to continue together .
“…Well, that’s why I’m here . I mainly travel through dungeons now . I found a few smaller ones first to get me started and help me learn . So now I’ve come here to Reserentrible to stretch my feet a little . Life sure is strange…”
So he’s had quite an adventure too… Well, he was involved in a disaster now .
“That must have been tough . ”
“Aye . Ah, but this is no time for such talk . Allow me to explain to you what has happened . ”
I nodded . Rex now looked very serious . Just like he had during the fight against the wyvern . I turned to the others . They were also ready .
“These are the people that I helped after the disaster occurred . Rerik the weapon merchant and Lime, a food merchant . ”
“Hello . ”
“Nice to meet you . ”
Rerik was thin and had slanted eyes . Lime was much older and quite wide .
“Do you know that residents here are responsible for their own safety once the evacuation order has been sent? I knew about it, but I still couldn’t abandon them . And so we’ve been traveling together and searching for the exit . But then we encountered a most horrible monster . ”
“So, you’re currently hiding from this monster?”
“Aye . You’ll recognize it easily . It has very long legs . Eight of them . And poisonous fangs . Yes . This poison even melts through floors . To be frank, it’s a poisonous spider . But there is half a human body coming out from the spider’s back . It made my skin crawl… What? Man or woman? Uh, it was a woman . ”
Yes .
“But what is most dangerous is its movements . The webs allow it to move in every direction above the floor . And its attacks are tricky . It’s particularly bad because the passage up ahead is wider . That is its domain . ”
“I think I understand . So there is a crazy spider monster in the way and preventing your escape . ”
“Yes . ”
I also understood that Rex was terrible at explaining things . I understood that it was dangerous, but that was about it . But it made sense now . There were so many people here making noise, but it hadn’t come for us because it was protecting its nest .
And to think that I would finally encounter a female Arachne in this dungeon . Maybe it was fate . I had never thought I would actually meet a half-human girl monster in real life .
“By the way, I remember that you left some book about that at the shop once . ”
“Shhh!”
Manager, some things were best left unsaid!