There was a bitter taste in Manna’s mouth.
She traveled along the canopy of the dense forest, skipping between branches without making a single sound. On her left hand was her compound bow, while her right hand rested on a full quiver. But despite both of her hands being restricted, her balance was perfect and the harmony of her movements was pristine.
Manna was a perfectionist when it came to a hunt. She disliked using more than one arrow to down prey if she could help it. She disliked making a sound when moving. Once a hunter attacked or made a sound, her position would be given away and it would allow the prey to escape – not that she would let it. So she spent every free time she had training. Whenever she wasn’t doing the chores at home or eating, she would be loosing arrows in the woods; whenever she wasn’t hanging out with Matthias, she would be running on the treetops.
All of it was so she could be qualified as his companion.
She dreamed of the day when they would dive into their first dungeon together. The thought of suffering the pains of looking for food, setting up shelter, fighting terrible monsters, and navigating through treacherous corridors as newbies with him only made her feel bliss. That was also the reason why she decided to train as a hunter. She knew what could be eaten, how to set up camp, how to fight, and how to assess terrains. She could do anything for him.
But that chance had been taken away from her.
She stopped at a thick branch roughly five meters above the ground. Her spiteful eyes gazed at the woman a distance behind her.
“Tsk. How slow,” she spat.
The way the woman moved through the sparsely-wooded areas looked nothing like an adventurer, regardless of experience, should behave. Her eyes were downcast, her steps were unsteady, and her breathing was erratic.
A rustling sound caught Manna’s attention. From behind a bush to her left, a boar monster appeared. Mechanically, she took an arrow from her quiver and pulled her bow. At that distance, she could hit the center of the monster’s head with her eyes closed. But she didn’t release the arrow immediately. The bitterness in her heart decided to talk.
“If the girl dies, I could run to the guild alone and come back quickly.”
She estimated that she could be able to make the round trip in just under an hour, including the time she had to spend explaining the situation to the guild. But with that girl, three whole hours was already a generous estimate.
With the way the woman behaved, Manna did not doubt that she would die once the boar found her. There were would be nobody to witness Manna’s negligence.
Still, she released the arrow and killed the boar instantly. Regardless of what she felt, Matthias left the woman to her care.
“What was that?!” the woman cried out when the boar fell to the ground with a thud. Manna shook her head.
If it was Matthias, he would never shout like that when something surprised him.
She leaped from the branch and landed quietly beside the woman, startling her again.
“Relax. It was just a monster. It’s dead now.”
Manna led the woman to where the boar was and showed that it was, indeed, already dead. The arrow had punctured the monster’s brain through the skull nearly. A small pool of blood had formed underneath the carcass, which came from the small wound on its neck from where the arrow had stopped.
The woman covered her mouth with her hands and suppressed a groan of disgust.
Without a care for her mental state, Manna beckoned to her that they should keep moving. She was about to leap back into the canopy when a hand grabbed her arm.
“Wait!” the woman pleaded. After some hesitation, she was able to squeeze out her words. “Can you… walk with me? I’m…”
Manna looked back and observed the woman. Her knees were shaking, and her eyes couldn’t leave the ground. Even the hands that tried to hold her arm were trembling hard. It was obvious that the earlier ordeal had left her shaken to the core. Honestly, Manna couldn’t blame her. If she saw Matthias die, then she would probably be the same.
Or she would hunt whoever did it down.
She signed and pulled her arm away from her. Then, she picked up the woman’s chin and forced her to stare into her eyes.
“Never touch me again.”
She released the woman’s head after she made sure that the other party understood. Then, without going back to the trees, she walked back in the direction of the town.
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Soon, the sight of the town’s gray walls appeared. As Manna predicted, it took them almost two hours to get out of the forest. Along the way, they encountered numerous monsters. None of them posed any difficulty for Manna, as the forest only contained weak mobs.
It was just agitating for her to babysit.
During the journey, she learned the woman’s name during an awkward moment when the latter tried to strike up a conversation. Her name was Jelyn. Even though Manna couldn’t care less, she had this perk that made her unable to forget names.
As they walked the remaining distance towards the city gate, the guards stationed there called on them to stop. Manna presented her tag.
“Where’s your party?” the guard asked with a ridiculous smile. Knowing that the identity inspection was already over, Manna snatched her tag out of the guard’s hands and grunted.
“They’re back in the forest, taking care of some business.”
She turned to the other guard who was inspecting Jelyn’s tag and grabbed it too.
“Her party’s back there as well. Are we done here?”
“B… but they—“ Jelyn stammered, about to explain what her circumstances were, but Manna cut her off.
“Are we done here?”
The guards glared at her meaningfully. Manna decided to threaten them slightly by reaching for her quiver. Though this may get her into trouble, and even though her tag clearly showed her low rank, there was always a time to be firm on something.
It was not just because she was in a bad mood at that time.
Manna hated the town guard. Most of the time, they were no better than bandits and would try to rip money off of merchants and commoners through threats or special favors. The only reason why they hadn’t been coerced previously was that they were too cowardly to do so when a complete adventurers’ party tried to pass. But now that only both of them were present, two women who belonged to different, low-ranked parties, they probably thought they could make an easy score.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
The problem was that, at the end of the day, they were still cowards. A little threat of physical violence will still scare them off. After all, while Manna and Jelyn were protected by the guild, the guards could be easily replaced.
“Tsk. You’re free to go.”
“Thank you.”
Manna expressed her gratitude with as much poison in her voice as she could and walked away. Once they were past the gates, she looked back to Jelyn and saw that her trembling had intensified.
Perhaps she realized what losing her entire party meant to a low-ranking adventurer, especially to a woman like her.
The best case scenario was that she would be absorbed into another party. Though she might have lost her friends, she would at least be able to continue her chosen career.
The worst-case scenario would be if nobody took her in.
Most commoners, including her, lived their lives in poverty. Some of them might have a small business of their own, but because of the times, most would only be able to barely make ends meet. To fund the equipment and consumables needed to start being an adventurer, commoners typically sold a lot, if not all of their possessions beforehand. Weapons, armor, and potions were not cheap. In the worst case, she might be forced to sell her equipment and attempt to return to a commoner’s life. Second-hand goods are always sold for lower prices and typically depend on the buyer. Considering people’s natures, buyers would surely try to haggle the price as low as they could, especially if they know the seller’s circumstances.
For her benefit, Manna at least hoped she wouldn’t be forced into selling herself. But since she was an apothecary, then if she wasn’t just one as an adventurer, perhaps she could land a job there.
As she thought about it, they had somehow arrived at the front doors of the guild. Finally, she thought. Now all she needed to do was to explain what had happened to a random receptionist and she could rush back to Matthias’ side.
However, she quickly sensed that something was amiss. Her sharp hearing picked up the sound of a panicked commotion going on inside. Since they were in the middle of the road, the conversation of a hundred people mixed made it somewhat difficult to pick up on what was happening in the guild.
Manna took the girl’s hand and dragged her through the doors. The scene inside shocked her.
There were injured adventurers lying all over the floor, with guild staff and fellow adventurers tending to them. They had various injuries on them, ranging from deep wounds to shallow cuts, and even obvious bite marks. Several cleric and priest-types were huddled in a corner looking exhausted. Tens of bottles were lying on the floor, and some had even been smashed, probably due to someone accidentally stepping on them.
“Manna!” someone called out to her. She turned her head and saw Nail jogging towards her. He looked tired, but still alert and ready. He asked worriedly, “where’s your party? What happened to Matthias and Soleil?”
“They’re fine. Both of them are waiting for me back in the forest.”
Manna didn’t mention that the two entered a dungeon from a breach on the ground.
But, although she was curious about the commotion in the guild, she wanted to get rid of the baggage first.
Nail’s mood plummeted even further when he heard of what happened to Jelyn’s party. He looked back towards his party. Following his eyes, Manna saw that their scout, Egan, was laying on the floor among the many injured, and was being tended to by their cleric.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” he addressed the lone apothecary. “If you’d like, you can stay with us until you… find another party. Or if you decide to do something else.”
As Manna expected, Nail immediately tried to help the woman out. She had judged that the former was a good-natured man who liked to stick his nose into other people’s businesses as long as he could lend them a hand. He was a good character. She also predicted that he wouldn’t offer her to join his party. Bringing in an inexperienced newcomer to a group of veterans, especially one that had reached a relatively high rank as they had is a bad idea regardless of how well he meant. Despite that, Nail’s party was better off than others, so he could offer that much for her. Manna’s impression of the man went up by a few notches.
It was also great that he understood Manna’s intention when he informed him, not the guild, of the incident with Jelyn’s party first. Of course, Manna still intended to inform the guild later to fulfill Matthias’ promise to her, but being in a high-ranking party’s custody, for the time being, would at least afford her a grace period to look for another party or whatever she wanted.
The woman simply nodded with her head hanging down. She glanced at Manna, trembled slightly, and then walked timidly to Nail’s side.
Finally free of the burden, Manna could finally relax a bit.
Nail called on his party’s archer, Kilo. He gave a quick explanation to the latter and asked him to escort Jelyn to their group. After Kilo walked away with her, Nail turned his attention back to Manna.
“You shouldn’t scare that poor kid,” he sighed. “Anyway, a second entrance, huh? And your party thinks it was purposely dug out.”
Manna nodded. However, she wondered why he would trust their judgment so quickly, even though they were, at the moment, nothing but a group of new bottom-ranked adventurers.
“I don’t think you guys are the kind of people who would make guesses without any good evidence. Besides, regardless of whether it’s natural or not, a second entrance is what it is.”
It was good that he was so agreeable. And since he was easy to talk to, Manna decided to sate her curiosity before finishing up.
“What happened ‘ere, anyway? Why are there so many injured?”
If even their scout had been injured enough that magic couldn’t completely heal him, then something major must have occurred in the dungeon.
Nail hesitated for a short moment before answering.
“A Giga Mandragora suddenly spawned outside the room we camped in. All of us prepared to enter a tomb-type dungeon, so nobody expected an encounter with a high-ranked ruins-type monster and brought paralysis solutions. While most of us were paralyzed, hundreds of low-ranked undead came and gave us a lot of trouble. Fortunately, we were stocked with holy water and we had several clerics, so nobody turned. We’re here tending to those with heavier injuries while thinking of what to do next.”
It was understandable, Manna thought, that the adventurer team was caught unprepared if that was what happened. Tomb-type dungeons required more preparation work than other kinds and necessitated carrying a lot of holy water vials, which were bulky, to ease the load of the clerics. Compounded by the fear of being turned into a zombie, most parties would even bring more than what they thought was needed. Add in the necessary supplies such as food, water, potions, and other things, bringing salves that could address other effects such as paralysis, typically at the very back of their heads.
And unfortunately for everybody, paralysis wasn’t a condition that clerics could cure. As far as she knew, only druids had spells that could remove it, while apothecaries, were the only ones who always had a supply of the corresponding salve that worked. It was a shame that Jelyn wasn’t part of the expedition.
Apothecaries were an unpopular role in parties. They tended to have little to no contribution in combat. While they could heal injuries, clerics did so far faster than them with their holy-attribute spells. And though their roles required them to always have their strange herbs and spices prepared for any kind of situation, anybody could do the same as long as they knew what the monsters they would be facing could do. That incident was just something unique. And despite that incident almost costing everybody their lives, Manna did not doubt that apothecaries would remain unpopular. And that was fine. She couldn’t care less.
Even so, Manna was forced to consider looking for an apothecary to join their party, just in case. She glanced at Jelyn, who was seated in the waiting area talking to Kilo. Ultimately, she shook her head.
The last thing she wanted to do was to introduce a burden to Matthias. Soleil was still fine, given that her strength was palpable even at first glance. She would be an excellent stepping stone for him.
“Thanks for the info. I’ll tell the guild staff about the new entrance now. Bye!”
Manna twisted her mouth and waved as she walked away. Nail also said his goodbyes, but his specific words just entered her ear on one side and out the other.
Anyway, she had already gathered enough information. In her mind, she had already deduced what had happened. It perfectly explained everything, from the upheaval of monsters that weren’t related to the population of the dungeon, the second entrance that appeared seemingly out of nowhere, to the discovery of ruin monsters on a tomb-type ruin.
She was sure that Matthias had already arrived at the same conclusion as her.
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“What the hell is happening?”
“Beats me.”
“Why is there a Giga Mandragora here?”
“Who cares? I just have to beat it up, right?”
“Hmm, I guess that’s right. It’s probably just a coincidence. Never read about such a monster appearing in a tomb-type dungeon after all.”
“Leave it to me. No matter what the enemy is, if it can be punched, then it’s no match for the demon lord.”
“… Oh. Be careful! It has paralyzing spo—”
“Gyaa!”