Year 7445, Month 7, Day 25
In other words, what they want to say is that they would be troubled if I die before doing any damage to the ogres at all. It's not particularly like they're worried about my life. As proof of that look, just look at that expression. Both of the couple are completely blinded by their greed. Well even if we just defeat 21 ogres today then that's 17,000,000 Z or so. It's the same amount of sales as two cheap magic items. Of course their eyes would change colors. In order for them to think this way and make them think ogres are easy to deal with, I intentionally dragged them out into wide open areas and make use of paralysis poison in a way where it takes some time to take effect, it was quite difficult making sure they only ended up having to fight against just one at a time.
However, it's already a strategy they've decided on so it's not beneficial to get any pickier with it than this.
"No. It's fine to think of Rokko and the others as Greed-kun's escort. I'm sure that Greed-kun will primarily end up using attack spells but going from the timing at best you'll only be able to the first two attacks and even at best three hits right? You might end up missing other than the first one you use for the ambush and after that if you were to be injured it would be bad if you can't use healing spells anymore."
Including me the four of us on the detached force reply with consent.
"If six of them end up going in your direction then Rokko and the others you all somehow try to hold out with Greed-kun. In that case, we'll probably only have to deal with two of them though so we should be able to finish them off quickly. In the case that six of them come to us, if it's just two then you have Greed-kun as well so he should be able to defeat them quickly just the same. After that it's fine as long as you come to back us up."
"Yeah, we've already fixed out that ogres aren't a big deal at all. It's alright."
"There's no problem even if we defeat all of them right?"
Rokko and the others are powerfully saying. Well, if they're coming to my side then I guess these guys are fine as well huh?
"Oh, Kevin, you've come out quite big that you'll defeat them all. I'll put my hopes on you."
Misu said as if teasing him but her face was quite worried.
"Oh~ unlike that idiot Rokko I still have my charm after all. Even if I were to get seriously injured I can rest easy."
"Ah, Kevin's came last month was it? I used mine up last year the same as Rokko after all..Koritto-san is my charm still not ready?"
"Sorry about that, Jeru. You've already had to wait for over a year but..it seems there's some trouble with the funds to work around it.."
"Eeeh..Even though added an additional 300,000 in the spring as well.."
Jeru bit his lip as if he was troubled.
"How about paying even more on top of that again? I've done it such as that as well."
Haruku said it as if giving Jeru advice. After all this guy as well, is he one of the collaborators with the Rindobel couple?
This order means that some kind of large trouble has occurred.
I instantly used the spell {Detect.Life} but the only reaction I got was that of us {Sun.Ray}. It's only obvious. Both the boss of the monster room and the {Slaughterers} are too far away they're beyond the detection range of {Detect.Life}.
"Giooo~tsu!" "Father!!"
They're too far away so it's just a mumble but I can hear the roars from a monster. It's probably an ogre. After that, it was just vaguely and furthermore difficult to hear, but that was, Ralpha's voice! Did something happen to Zenom!? Zenom's presence still remains on {Party-ization}. However he's not moving. Ralpha is close by his side it seems.
"Is it the voice of a monster.."
"Since ogres are idiots they might be fighting over a goblin."
"Che..It would be good if they don't get in the way though.."
Everyone is saying whatever they please. They're standing still looking towards the center of the monster room. If we can hear it from here then that menas the bosses of the monster room should be able to hear it as well. The {Slaughterers} were gathered together at an entrance of the monster room just the same as the main group of {Sun.Ray}. They aren't 20 meters away from the entrance of the room. Also, they shouldn't have smeared paralysis poison on their weapons yet as well.
Since they couldn't know when I was would move, if they smeared the poison on their weapons too early then it would just dry and be more difficult to absorb into the wounds reducing the effect significantly. During the time I came up to here the paralysis poison I put on my throwing needles has dropped in effect considerably as well. It was quite troublesome reapplying it without being seen by everyone else.
The orders "Abort it." "Make it possible." and "Fainted." continue to enter my head.
Make sure you properly...come along late!
Rokko and the others followed after me in a panic but I steadily pull apart from them.
I quickly accelerated to my top speed.
Toris has stopped moving. Probably Gwine as well.
I felt something snap in my head. Remain calm. It's fine for the heart to burn hot but cool down the consciousness.
The trees flow behind me as if they're flying.
Right now even with my sword in hand and my rubber protectors equipped I'm sure I'm faster than the recent {Usain.Bolt}. Zulu from once upon a time is no longer a match.
"Miduchi!!" Who's voice was that? Ralpha huh?
I can't see anything outside of my field of sight other than straight ahead.
Shit..Just now {Party-ization} stopped working! Miduchi was either knocked unconscious or suffered a serious injury to the point where she couldn't even maintain her Unique Ability or..I don't even want to think about it but she died.
I bit into the end of the glove on my left hand and pulled it off. It's not good, stop getting too hot. Aim to remain calm.
I think that Zenom had just lost consciousness. Since Ralpha was in the way taking off about half of Zenom's armor so I kicked her in the ass to move her out of the way.
""Al-san!""
"Mas-reed-sama!"
I immediately returned back to where Miduchi was and put all my power into it to tear off her leather armor. Her left side was largely and unnaturally dented along with her leather armor. I quickly used {Cure All} two times, three times. Incidentally her breasts were safe. Her heart wasn't damaged. When I used Identify her condition was Reflex Seizure. Thank goodness.
I quickly stood up and gave orders one after another, "Angela to the left! Basutoral you back her up! Gwine you fall back just like that, Bel back her up! The idiot, get to work already!" while charging at the ogre that Gwine was taking on as she covered for Zulu.
There's already no time to hesitate with using magic. I cut the side of the ogre that was swinging it's club at Gwine as she retreated as I passed by it and after circling around I put my left hand to it's wide back while using {Air Blade} consecutively. Since it fell to it's knees I made use of the fact that it could reach and stabbed my long sword in where it's heart should be.
I pull my sword out while ordering Bel once more, "Bel, take care of Zulu!", and charged at the two Angela was taking on.
"Nu~ryaaaa~!!"
With a flash of fighting spirit I cut the back of the knee on the left leg of the ogre on the left and making further use of that momentum went to cut the back of the knee of the right leg of the next ogre as well. However, it's reaction was better than I thought and it avoided it. I suddenly stopped while lowering my upper body and above the top of my helmet I heard the sound of wind being cut as a club passed over.
"Ah, Sla..{Slaughterers}!"
"Is that, Greed-kun?"
It seems the three suckers finally circled around the rocks and arrived.
After raising my upper body I lightly cut the side of the ogre that was swinging it's club and this time it started to swing at my feet so I jumped to evade it. I quickly used the end of my long sword to cut it's throat. Blood spurted out of it's neck like a fountain. The ogre let go of it's club in a panic to try and hold down it's throat when I cut it's stomach in a straight line this time causing it's intestines to spill out.
I quickly looked towards the other ogre who's left leg tendon I had cut and Angela was parrying it's club with her buckler and I watched as Basutoral thrust in with his spear aiming for the gap that created. Gwine followed up by trusting her spear into it's heart with a powerful step in as well. At the same time the {tomahawk} Ralpha thew stabbed into the ogre's face.
It should already be fine. When I looked around there was the corpses of five ogres rolling around. I guess they defeated one? No, two before I came along huh? One of them had it's arms and legs completely cut off. Miduchi probably did it. Gwine is going around finishing off the ogres that still haven't completely died. Bel raised her face after she finished using heal spells on Zulu and after confirming Toris was alright she walked towards me.
Angela quickly came and knelt in front of me with her head down while saying, "Greed-sama, thank you for the assistance in such an emergency." Just now, didn't you mistake master and Greed-sama. Don't be making such a satisfied face.
Ralpha who was still in the posture of throwing her axe ran over to Miduchi in a hurry and covered her body with the remnants of the leather armor I tore off. It seems she's checking her pulse at the same time. Well, it's fine. She's properly looking at Miduch after all.
Basutoral looked over the surroundings for just a bit before kneeling beside Angela and lowering his head while saying, "Thank you very much." This guy, has he still not escaped from his slave disposition?
Gwine came to my side at almost the same time as Angela and lowered her head while saying "Al-san, we were saved. Thank you very much."
Soon after Bel arrived as well and offered me her gratitude just the same and after that said, "If we can be useful in some way please order us." She was making an apologetic, pathetic, and slightly afraid expression.
"Hey, you, Koloil-san was it? For you to not have realized an attack from ogres, the {Slaughterers} have fallen to the ground I see."
Kevin put his battle axe back over his shoulder again while saying.
"Stop it. It's not strange for these things to happen. And I don't hate the {Slaughterers}. I even think with this I was able to repay some of my debt to them...And while I say that it was Greed-kun who repaid it though, huh? I didn't do anything at all.."
Jeru said to Kevin.
"Right now isn't the time to be saying something like that right? Greed-kun, what should we do?"
Rokko warned the with a composed voice and put the attention on me. Right, we need to hurry.
"It's possible the boss ogres could have noticed. It wouldn't be strange for Rindobel-san and the others to have come out as well. Though I say that I'm sure they haven't advanced very far. We should take over the ogres from here. The ones who will take over the role as decoy will be me and the members of the {Slaughterers} here that can still move. Everyone else follow a bit behind me. That's fine with everyone from the {Slaughterers} as well right? I won't let you disagree. It's necessary for you to work at least that much."
"Eh? But, is it fine? Things like the cut will be troublesome.."It's fine. I won't recognize them making claim on that. It's even possible they could have ruined our plan after all."
I interrupted Rokko as he started talking and said. It's a considerably forceful reasoning. In the first place, no matter what sort of plan {Sun.Ray} was going to take it's unrelated to the {Slaughterers}. It's not like they tried interfere after combat had already started or steal the prey from the side. It's not strange for there to end up being combat anywhere in the dungeon other than the teleport room in the center of the floor.
However, that shouldn't be amusing for {Sun.Ray}.
"You could say the original cause is that I reflexively ran in and saved them. We'll have them return that debt to us here. Let's have them pay it back to us by working for free. All of the magic stones within the room belong to {Sun.Ray}."
I forcibly declared that and looked at the {Slaughterers}. Even if we were to follow the original plan, the chances of accomplishing aren't completely zero but they've certainly decreased. Forcing the {Slaughterers} to work for free and increasing the number of people who take on the danger shouldn't be a minus for {Sun.Ray}.
"Bel remain here and look after the injured people. Ralpha, Gwine, Basutoral, Angela, come with us. I'll work you hard."
Bel was looking at me with an expression like an abandoned puppy but quickly seemed to understand.
Author's Note: TL: note on the time for monsters to respawn being longer the higher level the monster. It roughly doubles in seconds, at around level 10 monster it takes 512 seconds, and for {The Gazer} at level 25 it takes 16770000 seconds, or over six months. (Though in the settings {The Gazer} spawns at level 21) <-- that's just for after the spawn fog starts until it appears. The time between when the fog starts to appear is 10 hours + the floor level. 1st floor = 10 hours, 6 floor = 15 hours, etc...