Barely a few minutes later, after Matthias arrived where the guild used to stand, he immediately started to frantically yell out Manna’s name. When nobody responded to him, he once again became frightened of the possibility that Manna may have fallen inside along with everything else. The hole looked deep; so much so that from the outside, it appeared as if it was filled with pitch. A fall from such a height would be fatal for a normal person, and would definitely hurt even for someone who survived.

He felt goosebumps crawl over his arms. A hoarse croak escaped his throat. A thought; what if she… he shook the thought out of his head. Whatever happened, he should be there for her. So, he braced himself to enter the unknown.

But then, just as he had finished mentally preparing himself, Manna spooked him with an ill-humored “boo!”. It almost caused him to jump into the hole out of surprise instead of for more personal reasons. He managed to stop himself by rolling to the side after an inappropriate scream.

“Gyahahaha! What a reaction! That’s great! Do it again!”

“What the hell, woman?! You almost–damn. Do you know how… I mean… I thought you were–”

“Dead?” she scoffed. “You think that would get me? I felt the ground give away early, and I’m faster than you think.”

The way she described the experience made it seem like she had everything under control since the beginning. And anybody that only knew her skills, may have just taken her words at face value. But he knew her more intimately than anybody else. Considering that it was her, she would have stuck around to observe while hiding herself. She would only run once she determined that she could no longer stay for a second longer. Even if she was impulsive, she knew how important information was. And though he didn’t doubt that she was all too capable enough to escape when she needed to, it would have definitely been a close call.

“Too bad, though. I couldn’t take anyone with me. A few people fell in along with everything else–”

“Hey. Show me.”

“Show you what? Pervert. We’re outside–”

“It’s not that. Come out.”

Manna became silent for a moment before replying, “You know how I roll, right?”

“Don’t care. Come out now.”

He wasn’t asking. He demanded Manna step out of the shadows. Being “best friends” didn’t mean he couldn’t do something like order her around. He put on a fierce look that declared that he wasn’t going to take no for an answer. But since he didn’t know where she was at that moment, it felt like he was just glaring at space.

Moments passed. Manna still hadn’t shown herself. There was only an overpowering silence in the air. Not even the distant shouts, screams, groans, and fighting could penetrate the dense, heavy atmosphere. If it was his old self, he would have already succumbed to the first sign of refusal from the other party. But now… he still wasn’t too sure. At least she didn’t burst out laughing, he thought. That gave him just enough boost in confidence to remain where he stood.

“… You are an impossibly stupid idiot.”

Manna’s voice was laced with relief, happiness, and for some reason… anger.

There was movement. The shadows ahead of him trembled slightly. It twisted almost imperceptibly, seeming as if it gained an additional dimension. He wouldn’t have noticed it if he wasn’t focused on trying to look for any signs of her. There was no sound to help him determine what was happening. The background noise drowned everything else. Before he knew it, Manna was standing before him.

“See? I told you I was fine.”

The first thing he noticed was that she was bruised and bleeding in several places. Her thin leather armor had cuts and friction burns where it mattered. Even her face, which she placed a great amount of care and attention to, wasn’t spared from a long cut across her right cheek, from which a trail of blood that reached her chin had dried up.

But otherwise, she wasn’t lying. She was fine.

She was alive.

“Thank god…”

He didn’t know exactly when it happened. But when he closed his eyes for a moment and opened it again, he was already on his knees. His vision was blurry, which prevented him from seeing Manna’s already obscured form properly. Strange, he thought. He should still be augmenting his eyes. The only way he shouldn’t see would be if something had directly blocked his sight.

It wasn’t like there was any wind there, either.

----------------------------------------

“What? Really?”

“Yeah,” Manna nodded with a grim look. “The ground rose slightly before coming down. It was like something had come out of the ground before taking everything down with it.”

She shared her recollection of the event with Matthias while they sat at a large piece of rubble. While she was doing so, Matthias was applying a potion onto the wounded parts of her skin. Since potions weren’t something to be wasted on superfluous or minor injuries, most people simply bit their lips and suffered the annoyances of small cuts and bruises. However, even for someone who prided himself in his thriftiness, Matthias somehow couldn’t stand seeing any wounds on her. At first, he insisted that she drink an entire vial, just in case she had any internal injuries. But she adamantly refused and said that it was fine if it was rubbed onto the skin.

She also stubbornly refused to do it herself, going as far as to fake having a broken arm.

“Did you see what it was?”

“No… I didn’t. I was inside the guild at that time, writing down what you wanted me to report.”

“Wait, “writing down”? Why?”

“You know I don’t show myself when something’s happening. If I had spoken up without being seen, they might have thought that ghosts had become part of their problems.”

According to her, a good hunter remains unseen until the hunt is over. And for her, the entire ordeal was one big hunt. To be out in the open would be to lose the initiative, which a hunter relied on to tip the scales in their favor. If they couldn’t end it in the first few seconds, then the fight becomes open-ended. And they hated that. It was the reason why asking Manna to come out of hiding was not dissimilar to telling her to give up the hunt.

But she still did so.

“I see… So… what about Soleil?”

According to the guild staff, she was bedridden inside due to sickness. He didn’t think it was possible for such an energetic and young, not to mention muscle-headed girl to become sick, but it didn’t seem like the guild was lying.

Manna shook her head.

“She must still be inside. I only came to give the report, and she wasn’t in the lobby either,” she said slowly. Her agitation and concern were plain in her voice. She was clearly worried about Soleil. To Matthias, who was well aware of how hard it was to gain Manna’s trust, the fact that she cared enough to worry about someone she had just met a few weeks ago showed just how likable Soleil was.

“Don’t sweat it. We’ll get her.”

What else should they do? The tide of undead inside the town was being sufficiently taken care of by the knights and adventurers, while Tolg had shown enough skill and competence to him that he was quite sure that the beastkin mage could deal with it by himself. And besides, he was a magician that could use fire. He was the undead’s natural enemy. Meanwhile, even if he wasn’t sure what was going on at the graveyard, he had faith that Nail’s party could sufficiently handle it. Mie was there, after all.

“We’re going down there?” Surprise was written all over her face. “But we don’t know what’s underneath.”

“Yeah. So what? If it’s a monster, I can take care of it. And if it’s something else, then that’s your job.”

He was brimming with confidence. Unlike earlier, he finally had Manna by his side again. That was all the encouragement he needed. And besides… He wanted to save as many people as he could–especially if it was their friend.

“Did anyone else fall in? Besides the guild staff, I mean.”

According to Manna, there should be people still inside the guild before it came crashing down. But since most of them had become runners for the operation, then there should only be a few of them that had been caught in the fall. If they were lucky, then that meant they only needed to keep their eyes peeled for a few people.

At least, that was what Matthias thought. But the frown on Manna’s face said otherwise.

“There were more. Do you see that building over there?”

She pointed towards a half-destroyed building near where the guild used to stand. A large portion of it had been destroyed. It used to be a restaurant with quite frankly unaffordable meals for the average, run-of-the-mill adventurer.

“The guild repurposed that place to be a temporary clinic. Everybody was huddled up at the corner near the guild so they could carry the supplies over the windows. And when it collapsed, well…”

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

Everybody went down with it.

Matthias felt his blood drain from his face. He didn’t realize that the situation was worse than he thought.

He thought for a short while before deciding on their next course of action. It shouldn’t be that hard to commit. There was an obvious path laid before them. As an aspiring hero, there really was only one choice.

“Let’s still go. Maybe there are people who survived. We have to save them.”

Manna faced him with an incredulous look. But it only lasted for a short moment before she smiled.

“Can’t argue with that. Let’s go. Remember to bring a few vials of holy water. There’s an intact crate over there by the wall. Soleil might need it, right? And we need to stop the zombification if we find any dead adventurers there.” She stood up and stretched. Her bare waist made a beautiful arc that Matthias could still appreciate despite the darkness. Realizing that he was staring, Manna pushed her buttocks out to him and winked playfully. “Stare all you want later. See you there.”

Then, she jumped.

The opening of the pit was around a few dozen meters in diameter. And when he went down, he fell for a good five or so seconds, indicating that the hole’s depth must be over a hundred meters. He wasn’t quite sure; gravity there was different from his previous world. In any case, jumping in would have been suicide for any normal person. Even though he wasn’t normal by a stretch, it was still a jarring experience. The only way he avoided having both legs crushed was to cushion himself with wind magic all the way.

Manna had hidden once again, blending into the shadows like an apparition. She didn’t need any help going down, remarking “What kind of hunter needs help going down a wall?” with a mocking tone.

When he inspected their surroundings, he saw that there were a few passages available for them to take. The hole intersected with several other tunnel networks, including the city sewers. It resulted in a cascade of river water with a particularly unpleasant stench. But among his choices, it was obvious which path he needed to take. After all, it was the only path with a trail of rubble.

As to what had caused the collapse…

“Matt. Look here.”

Of course, since Manna wasn’t visible at all, he had to determine where she was referring to using clues. Usually, it was an arrow. And just as he thought, there was an arrow sticking out of the ground a few feet away from him.

When he came closer, the first thing that he noticed was a corpse. Judging by the revealing robes, it must have been a female mage. Probably. What is it with mages and their attires, anyway? Mie had her entire body covered, but why did the others wear such skimpy clothes? However, because of its state, it was impossible to identify who that person is… though, it might have been a stretch even if it was intact given that Matthias didn’t know many people in the guild.

It had been crushed. Flatter than a pancake, literally speaking. That was why Matthias could only determine its gender since clothes took being flattened quite comfortably. Otherwise, the only body part that remained in relatively good condition was her right foot.

“... Why are you looking at her foot? Didn’t know you were into that, man. Eww…”

Matthias scoffed. Only people with a higher state of mind could understand the appeal of a clean, well-shaped foot. Well anyway, it wasn’t like that. How could anyone not be drawn to the only part that hadn’t been crushed?

And it definitely wasn’t a large piece of debris that did it.

“That’s a big foot.”

“I’d say it’s average. Mine’s a bit bigger. Just a bit. And it looks better.”

“Moron! That’s not what I meant!”

He tried to make his exclamation as quiet as possible. But since he was so used to her teasing, he was able to let it go almost immediately.

“Yeah, yeah. Sure, sure… You have a point. That’s the biggest track I’ve seen in a while.”

With a length that easily exceeded Matthias’ upper torso, the three-digit track had displaced the soil to a depth of around ten or so centimeters. The massive weight that came with it was easily enough to crush the body of a fragile human being.

“Whatever it is, it’s four-legged. And its right claw is broken. Reptile or a bird… the soil’s pretty loose and damp, so it should weigh… a ton or so.”

As expected of a hunter, a single set of footprints was enough to give her enough information to roughly determine what they were up against. It wasn’t the first time Matthias had seen… well, heard her do it, but he was still impressed nonetheless.

“It also has a tail. That said, dragon? Eh, too heavy.”

“Dragons are extinct, too,” Matthias recalled the time a few weeks ago when they fought against a large, undead drake. If possible, he didn’t want to fight one again. But that did match her description, so he brought it up.

“Nah. Can’t be. Zombie or not, the imprints are too shallow for it to be a drake. Unless it’s a young adolescent. Maybe it’s a basilisk.”

That made sense in that context. Drakes were quite heavy for their size. The only reason why some of them could fly wasn’t because of the physics behind their wings, but because of the magic in them. But basilisks were smaller, had roughly similar body structures, and had records of burying themselves underground.

That said, they started to look around for any survivors. Their landing area was filled with debris, sewage water, soil, and, unsurprisingly, undead. Though it helped that most of them had already been incapacitated, some “fresh” ones still came from the walls or down the hole sporadically. It made looking for people a time-consuming process. And unfortunately, even after a quarter of an hour, he still hadn’t found a single living soul.

Most of everything had been destroyed, even the crates of holy water to combat zombification.

“Are these everyone you saw inside the guild?”

They had gathered the remains of those they had found in a relatively flat area of the hole. He didn’t know how Manna did it while hidden, but whenever he looked away there would be a new body lined up on the ground. Anyway, maybe it was kind of expected, but Soleil wasn’t one of the bodies. If anything, Matthias had a feeling that he would eventually encounter her in some convoluted location… like half-buried and surrounded by scorpions. She was the kind of person that would make that situation unsurprising.

“Well, everyone I saw at the guild, yes. The others are probably from the neighboring building. But…” Manna suddenly paused. “Uhhh… I think there’s something over there that you should see.”

“What is it?”

“A uhh… survivor? Umm… I don’t exactly know how to describe it…”

With such vague terms, it really would be difficult to know what she was talking about. But at the very least she could broadly call her finding a “survivor”. That was great, he thought. Maybe that person might have even seen what had happened inside the hole as a first-hand witness.

What he had failed to take into proper consideration was the latter half of her statement.

“Where is he? Why didn’t you dig him out? We could have treated him.”

“Well… I don’t think that’s necessary…”

Despite her words, he heard an arrow fall near him. Instead of being embedded on the ground like usual, it was lying on the soil like a dropped stick–it’s almost like an indication of Manna’s exasperated mood at that time. Still, he didn’t bother himself with such a “trivial” detail. He raised his head towards where it was pointing to; a small pile of rubble that was at least half of his height.

“What am I looking for?” he asked as he eyed it for anything that may seem strange. But he couldn’t identify anything noteworthy about it.

He was able to identify the various tables and chairs that the guild used at their in-house restaurant. There were also bricks, part of a bar counter, broken pieces of cups, plates, utensils, and other recognizable objects from that area. Comically, as if to mark the final resting place of the restaurant, the handle of a broom stood erect at the very top of the rubble. A fork had even somehow stabbed into the handle, jutting out of the picture like a sore pimple. Perhaps in some worlds, it could even qualify as a sort of contemporary art.

“Dig around the middle of the pile.”

Since it was difficult to convince Manna to come out of hiding, Matthias had to do the work all by himself. While he was worried about Soleil, he couldn’t just ignore someone right in front of him. So, he dove right in and started digging. The faster he could finish, the better.

It didn’t take long for him to reveal the first vestiges of the survivor.

“What the hell?”

A foot.

“... I thought you weren’t into feet?”

“Oh, shut up. Why is he upside-down?”

“Why are you asking me? I wouldn’t know.”

He continued to dig the body out as fast as he could. Having his arms augmented helped immensely. He could handle large chunks of what used to be walls and whole tables with ease. Meanwhile, Manna took care of the rare undead that got too close. Though they were just doing their own thing, they were still very efficient. Soon, Matthias had managed to completely unearth the “survivor”.

“She’s… asleep?”

With long, golden hair, skin as pale as snow, and long, inhuman ears, they quickly identified the individual as an elf. But, she was likely not “just” a half-elf like Mie. Something in his gut told him that what he was facing was more than that. The ears were too long, for one. Miraculously, despite being trapped underneath a small pile of debris, she didn’t suffer so much as a scratch on her skin–though her face was quite dirty. Her figure was quite small as well, resembling a fourteen-year-old with a late growth spurt. And of course, that was also small.

“Pfft! Flatty.”

“I was trying to be subtle.”

But what was most eye-catching was her attire. She wore a long, ornate red dress with white accents lined with gold and sun motifs. It had a lot of frills, particularly where the dress separated on the waist to reveal the ankle-length skirt underneath. On her head was a similarly, excessively long veil that was adhered to the top of her head with a band. It was opaque at the top and then gradually became transparent as it flowed all the way to her knees. It was the kind of dress that one could never expect someone who looked so young to wear. It reminded him of those fortune tellers in his old world that used crystal balls and constellations to make predictions of the future.

They were all scammers, though.

“Is she… clergy?”

Matthias had doubts about it, but the theme fits well enough. He had never seen anybody wear that kind of attire, though. The style was entirely unfamiliar as well.

“Wake her up, dude. We still need to look for that idiot.”

She was right. They didn’t have any time to waste. He shook his head and gave the sleeping beauty a light nudge. With that failing, he quickly resorted to extreme measures and poured a small amount of water onto the girl’s face.

“If she drowns, I’ll pretend I don’t know you.”

He ignored Manna and nudged the girl again. The liquid quickly entered her nose once she inhaled. The reaction was exactly as he had hoped. The girl suddenly sat up and started coughing. It took her a few moments to recover. Like a child, she looked around while squinting slightly due to the lack of light. But since even elves lacked the night vision the beastkin were so proud of, she, of course, wasn’t able to see anything.

“Light,” she cast. It was a simple line to cast the simplest of holy-class spells. Perhaps Manna was on the money. Most of the time, people who could use true “light” spells were those who were affiliated with the church or another, minor religion.

Matthias didn’t budge from his spot overlooking the girl. When the light came, the very first thing she saw was his knees. Naturally, her gaze moved up, and eventually rested where they could meet eyes.

She was surprisingly calm, even after what happened. There were barely any ripples in her large, mud-like gray eyes.

“Hmm? Who are you?”

“I’m Matthias. Adventurer. Are you all right, miss?”

It was weird calling someone who looked so young “miss”. But considering she’s an elf or at least a mixed-blood, then her age must be at a value higher than what her appearance suggested.

“Matthias…? Ma…tthias…” she murmured; her graceful countenance ruined by a baffled look that could only fit a delinquent. Then, it changed into a face of indignant anger.

“You?! Have you any idea how long I waited? What’s the big deal, standing me up for two days?”

The girl reached out and grabbed his collar. There was a surprising amount of strength in her skinny arms. Matthias wasn’t able to brace himself from shock and ended up collapsing onto his knees to level with the girl’s face.

What the hell was she talking about? Matthias had no idea. Or rather, he had clearly forgotten.

“Is this how you treat your new party members? Huuuh?! You piece of shit!”