Chapter 15: Pave 10 Paths and Earn a Penny (5)

“Young man. No, young friend, may I ask a couple of questions about this dungeon?”

A man asked in a tender tone. His name was Hawk. He was the captain of the party this time around.

He didn’t try to hide the worry in his gaze.

“Although I’m a bit worried that I might make you recall some bad memories.”

“I-It’s all right. You guys are already my saviors.”

“This youngster has some really good manners.”

Hawk seemed pleased as he turned to speak to his comrades.

“It’d be great if you bastards were as sensible as this guy.”

“What are you talking about? At least Felix has just enough education to get by. My son, on the other hand, is a lost cause. Tsk tsk.”

“Youngsters these days don’t have any manners.”

It was a bit funny. Youngsters these days being rude was a topic that was shared in the past, the present, and even in another world.

“You said that your group was assaulted by monsters. For starters, allow me to give you my condolences. However, would it be all right if I asked you what type of monster attacked you the most and how many there were?”

“Golems. It was a unit of golems. There were 14 of them…….”

“What? 14 of them!?”

The adventurers were flabbergasted.

Golems were monsters that required at least 5 properly positioned F-rank adventurers to take care of one golem. The presence of 14 golems was like a death sentence for these men. It was only natural that they would be surprised when the dungeon they invaded without much thought turned out to be this dangerous.

“Kuh, one golem appeared in front of us at first. It was only one.”

I shed a tear.

“Our party may have lacked fame and skills, but we weren’t so weak that we would lose to a single golem. We quickly got into formation and fought back, but, at that moment, golems started to pour out from one of the tunnels on the side!”

The adventurers turned to look at each other worriedly. I grinned in my head.

I lacked the manpower to protect my dungeon. Adventurers continued to invade. The countermeasure I decided to take in this seemingly hopeless situation was simple. I chose to bullshit.

Some people might say that I’m underhanded and call me a cheater; however, this method was undoubtedly called bravado in strategy books. This was the best trick I could use as someone who only had the Acting skill.

‘Please work.’

Even the party that came last week ended up turning around after I managed to successfully deceive them with my excellent performance. Asking a shabby party to deal with 14 golems would be asking for too much. Nevertheless, saying that it worked very well also meant that, in contrast, there were times it didn’t work.

The party leader, Hawk, opened his mouth.

“Friends, comrades, this has become a dire situation.”

He had an awfully serious expression on his face.

“I swore on my name to you men. As a childhood friend who grew up with you all in the same village, as a comrade who has made his way through the rough patch of mud called life with you all, I promised that I would send you all home alive. You guys trusted me. For some of you, this is your first time in a dungeon, but you came here because you trusted me. And yet, I must first apologize to you all. It seems that I can no longer guarantee your safety.”

“Kuh.”

“Well, there are over 10 golems, so there’s no other way…….”

The adventurers sighed. Some of them even turned to look at the path they had passed needlessly.

Different from the monsters that grow naturally in the wild, dungeon monsters go for a lot of money. The leather from dungeon monsters alone is far more luxurious than the leather from wild monsters. They had come to this dungeon after overcoming their fear in order to get rich quick, but their greed started to lose its strength once they realized how tall the wall before them was.

“Fortunately, this young man has shared his information with us. The mere fact that we’ve prevented the future of being wiped out helplessly may possibly be a miracle. If there are those of you who want to go back, then I won’t stop you. But!”

A sound effect resonated all of a sudden.

「Novice Adventurer Hawk has activated the skill ‘Speech’.」

‘What!?’

I was startled. What kind of “dog tap dancing on the hottest day of the year”-sounding news is this?

I hastily checked Hawk’s status.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Name: Hawk Race: Human　　 Faction: Levian Village Attribute: Good(+25)

Level: 3　　　　Fame: 2 Job: Fisherman(B+), Adventurer(F)

Leadership: 20　　Might: 15 　　Intelligence: 3 Politics: 15　　Charm: 10　　Technique: 10

Affection: 26 Current thought: ‘14 golems……that is certainly an intimidating number, but!’ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

‘But? But what!?’

How could a mere F-rank adventurer have a skill? That’s cheating. I have the Acting skill as an F-rank Demon Lord, but am I not nominally a Demon Lord?

As a Dungeon Attack addict, I can say with certainty that there has never been an F-rank NPC with a skill. Even the NPCs who eventually become heroes all started without any skills. But what was up with this world……?

‘How high is the difficulty!?’

Hawk proceeded with his speech with a bold and powerful voice.

“We all have families that are relying on us. Our wives and children are probably waiting for us back at the village with empty mouths. How long can they last? That godforsaken region lord has no intention to lower our taxes. Next week from now, that demon-like tax collector will come to our village, but we don’t have enough to pay even half of our taxes.”

Everyone became as quiet as a mouse. I could easily tell that they were all thinking about their homes.

Damn it. Men with wives and children tend to act irrationally. This wasn’t looking good.

“Of course, if we die, then we would be putting the cart before the horse. Honestly, even if we put our lives on the line, winning against 14 golems is impossible. Nevertheless, comrades, what if I had a plan?”

“A plan? How could you have a plan? There are 14 golems.”

“Think about it the other way around! Young man, you clearly said there were 14 golems, right?”

Hawk asked me. I nodded on impulse.

“Y-Yes.”

“There weren’t any other monsters besides them, right?”

“……That’s right.”

Hawk grinned widely.

“That’s where our enemy’s weakness lies. The fact that they only have 14 golems. As you all know, golems are rather slow. Their fists may be fast, but their actual movement speed is slow. Do you get it? If we fall back and attack the golems from afar, then we’ll be fine.”

“Ah!”

“You’re right!”

The other adventurers exclaimed.

On the other hand, my mouth was agape. My jaw was nearly touching the floor. He’s right!

“If this place also had some goblins or fairies, then our plan would most likely fail. However, if there are only golems, then that makes things easy. Use your bows. Just fire your arrows appropriately while walking back. It will probably consume a lot of time, but we should definitely be able to wipe out a unit of golems.”

The adventurers started to chat excitedly. They were acting as if they had already won the battle.

“You’re right! This was such a simple solution.”

“What a relief. I don’t have to worry about my wife’s nagging now. Honestly, my wife would have probably killed me if I came home emptyhanded again.”

A couple of notices appeared.

「Levian Village Adventurer Party(F)’s Speech skill was successful.」 「Levian Village Adventurer Party(F)’s morale has increased greatly!」

I almost let out a swear. Who knew that using the strongest monster among the lowest-tier monsters, golems, as my bullshit card would end up being my downfall.

I was the stupidest person in all the land. I wanted to kill myself. If there were a 1m long stalactite nearby, then I would have probably impaled my head on it. My foolishness played a big part, but the adventurer called Hawk was really something else.

It may sound easy, but actually trying to take down 14 golems with a group of novice adventurers using only stones and arrows was anything but easy. You’d need great courage and tenacity. Their party leader, Hawk, managed to fill them with those two things by making them think about their families and children.

‘If only my skill was that good as well.’

I felt like crying. How could a Demon Lord be worst than one of the lowest NPCs? How could the player, who was at the peak of Dungeon Attack, fall this low? I felt skeptical about life.

Despite my sorrow, I was busy turning the screws in my head.

People say it’s wise to prepare for a rainy day. Even if I didn’t consider the golem’s weakness, I had already devised several different strategies just in case.

“Leader Hawk!”

I hastily got down on my knees.

“Mm? You……?”

“I was moved by your speech! Please allow me to join your party!”

Wrinkles appeared on Hawk’s forehead. It seems he felt troubled. I shouted more desperately.

“I also…… I also have a family. My three younger sisters and my elderly mother are waiting for me back at home…… I haven’t been able to earn any decent profit for the past 3 months…… Our village has been experiencing a famine since last year, so who knows how long we have left.”

“Huh, so you had your own set of circumstances.”

“Just like you all, I dived into this damn dungeon because life was becoming too difficult to endure. And yet, far from making any sort of profit, my comrades, the men of our village, were killed. My family might be all right for now, but what about the other villagers……? If even I don’t manage to earn anything, then, hkk, our village, our village will…….”

The atmosphere became solemn. Only the sound of my sobbing echoed throughout the cavern. There was a moment of silence.

“You…… You are truly.”

Hawk blew his nose.

“You are truly a splendid young man! At most, I’ve only been thinking about my own family, but you’ve been worrying about your entire village……. What a noble lad. Is this not beautiful!? Throughout my forty-five years of life, I, Hawk, have never felt this embarrassed! Just knowing the fact that a lad like you will be leading our next generation has made this dungeon adventure meaningful!”

He grabbed both of my shoulders before speaking in a stuffy voice.

“Aye, aye! We shall go together. We must! We aren’t strangers! We were all born in this accursed world. Are we not all struggling to live our lives? My close comrades! What do you think?”

“Ha, you’ll make me sad if you think we’d have a different opinion.”

“We are also warmhearted men of Levian Village! If you weren’t moved by that lad’s conviction, then you have no right to cross the violet river!”

The adventurers patted my shoulder as they walked past me. One by one, they met my eyes before giving me a firm nod.

I naturally nodded back at them. A silent commune among men was exchanged back and forth. I pulled out a bottle of alcohol from my bag.

“We can’t have such a blissful day without any alcohol. Fortunately, I was the porter of my party. There isn’t a lot, so everyone can only have one sip, but does the quantity matter? Let us firm our resolves together before the battle.”

Yeah! Yeah! The other adventurers agreed in unison. I passed the bottle. The adventurers each took a sip before passing the bottle to the next person. Since ancient times, alcohol has often been used as a tool in war. A small amount of alcohol was capable of raising your morale, after all.

“Now then, lad. You’re the last one.”

Hawk handed the bottle to me. I politely received the bottle and emptied it in my mouth. Once Hawk saw me do so, he raised his arms.

“We will win!”

“Ooooooaaah!”

“We will go home alive!”

“Ooooooaaah━━!”

A received a notification telling me that their morale had raised greatly again. There was no reason for it to go out of its way to tell me. The man in front of me was bursting with vigor. I joined in on the shouting. I cheered so fiercely that I spat out the alcohol that was in my mouth.

Right when the group was about to depart, it happened.

“All right. Let us go…… Rajeev?”

As soon as one of the adventurers took a step forward, he fell to the floor as if the ground under his feet had sunk. The others became alarmed and approached him.

“Hey, what’s the matter? What’s wrong all of a sudden!?”

Their previous energy had vanished like thin air and a wave of confusion swept over them.

But that was only the beginning.

“H-Huh……?”

“The ground……?”

Within the span of a few seconds, all of the adventurers started to fall one by one. The last person to fall was Hawk. As expected of the leader. Till the very end, he was perplexed by the chaos.

Once a minute had passed, I was the only one left standing.

“Bleh.”

I gathered the saliva in my mouth and spat it out. I took out some detoxifying herb just in case and chewed on it. Preparing a trump card was a good idea.

I took out a dagger and proceeded to walk between the fallen adventurers.

Schnk! Schnk!

Each time I passed an adventurer, I stabbed my dagger into their throats. Death without any cries, fear, or surprise followed. It seems some of them were able to resist the drug somewhat as they groaned on the floor; however, groans weren’t capable of stopping a blade. My dagger slit their throats without any problem.

……I didn’t want to do this.

These people were all good humans. That’s right, humans. A race of people that were hostile towards Demon Lords. If they want to live, then I have to die, and if I want to live, then they have to die.

I was the one to live this time. That was it.

I stopped in front of Hawk’s body.

“It would have been better if you had gone back, Leader Hawk.”

I stabbed his neck. I felt my blade penetrate his muscles and scrape a bone.

I raised my head. I stared at the ceiling for a while.

The ceiling was high. Different from the sky outside where it became clearer as it got higher, the ceiling of a cave became darker the higher it was. I started to get a headache, so I took off my cheap helmet and threw it aside. Clang, the helmet let out a metallic sound as it hit the floor.

“Damn it.”

I kept swearing over and over again as I looted each and every corpse. I gathered every item that could be sold for a fair price.

How long did I have to keep this up for? Is there truly an ending to this world……? They must have felt my emotions as I noticed my goblin and golem approach my side. They stood next to me silently.

It was the day after this that Lapis arrived in order to tell me about the outbreak of the Black Death.

***

TL Note: Thanks for reading the chapter. The next chapter will take somewhat longer to translate as I have to take care of 3 assignments over the weekend (Also Code Vein has just come out and I may or may not be on that grind). I’ll return to my regular pace once I’ve finished these assignments.

I’ll see you guys in the next release.