Chapter 38.3

The pain had eased since it was first fractured, however, even now, any slight movement was so painful that she would probably end up screaming.

“If only I had brought some expensive potions… No, if only I didn’t chase the Silver Wolves all the way here…”

Oiso had come down to the 8th floor in order to gather Silver Wolf materials.

The reason was the difference in quality.

With Silver Wolf fur, the darker it was, the higher the quality.

However, they bought the fur for the same price regardless. Of course, this was a company secret. The Adventurers had no idea about it.

If they did make it public, they would lose their trust as a company.

After all, they had been buying superior materials at a low price.

Still, they had their reasons for doing it as well.

If they paid more for the darker fur, then people would start to dye the Silver Wolf fur.

That would make it harder to appraise them.

And if appraising took longer, their profits would drop.

And if their profits dropped, their prices would have to be raised.

That wouldn’t benefit anyone.

And so Ichibishi bought the materials at the same price, even if the quality was different.

The factory had asked Oiso for materials, and so she had gone out to hunt Silver Wolves, in order to be able to send out the amount that was ordered.

However, she had also become greedy.

If she were going to come out and gather them herself, then she might as well get materials that were of high quality.

If she sent high-quality materials, the factory would think very highly of her!

‘If you order from the Ichibishi store in Sapporo, you’ll get high-quality materials.’ That’s what they would say…

She could pull ahead of the other stores.

She could trample over the much-hated Yuzuki with real capability!!

And the result was this.

The 8th floor had quite a few enemies that had escaped previous hunters.

And Oiso had been surrounded by wounded Silver Wolves and an Owner.

While she tried to cut through them with her trusty longsword, she was one against many.

The group of monsters were more vicious than usual, due to their wounds, and they slowly closed in on her.

Still, Oiso fought hard.

As she slowly backed away, she managed to kill a few of them.

However, things turned bad very quickly.

It was when she had let her guard down just for a second. Her longsword was ripped from her hand.

On top of that, she tried to run, and only ended up falling into a pit, which resulted in a bone fracture.

These were monsters that she should have been able to defeat, but now she was just desperate to run away.

It was quite pathetic.

She had now been in the dungeon for over a week.

Her body was covered in sweat and dirt.

But she didn’t smell.

She had sprinkled a concealment-type powder on herself that erased the smell.

She probably wouldn’t last a day without it.

“Hehe. And so what…?”

So what if she had survived?

Oiso thought with self-deprecation.

The way of the Adventurer is found in death.

It was rare for an Adventurer to get lost in a dungeon and then be rescued.

Adventurers were supposed to be a shield that protected people. And so their lives had the least weight of anyone in Japan.

Unless you were especially valuable personnel, there would be no rescue team.

Or you had to be a ranker class.

Oiso was neither.

And so no one would come and help her.

And yet, she was still trying to survive. There was something about it that felt terribly grotesque to her.

Her own thoughtless actions had led her into this situation.

That was bad enough.

And on top of that, she was now sipping mud water in order to survive.

She felt that it was starting to tarnish her soul.

Wouldn’t it be better to just die than continue on like this?

Yes, this dark emotion almost started to feel like hope in her mind.

On the other hand, there was also a bright light that seemed to shout at her. Live just a little while longer!

“A little longer…huh…”

She had meant to return in one day.

She only had enough food for five days.

She had already run out of food.

Now, it was just about the magic that erased her presence…how much longer would it last…

“…!”

She should just die.

Oiso had been thinking this. But then she thought about what would happen after the effect expired, and she shivered.

It nearly drove her crazy.

But she didn’t even have enough energy to become crazy.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no!!

She didn’t want to die.

Not yet!

Now that it was close and she could see it clearly, Oiso became afraid of death.

Her body shook, and so she wrapped her arms around herself.

Tears fell from her eyes and a moan escaped her lips.

“…Someone.”

Her tears fell to her parched lips.

It stung the wounds there.

It was ridiculous that she was losing valuable moisture through crying.

On top of it all, her throat was completely dry. It was hard to even mumble.

However, Oiso couldn’t stop crying.

She couldn’t help it.

“Someone…help…!”

Just then, the grass that she was hiding in started to move unnaturally.

Was it a monster!?

Oiso looked shocked.

However, there was no strength left in her.

She could only look in the direction that the sounds were coming from. She had to accept her horrible fate of being eaten by monsters.

“…I finally found you.”

—What appeared before her.

His hands were two slimy tentacles.

And on his back, was a writhing plant monster.

—What appeared before her.

A floating, evil mask of the devil.

“AHHHHHHH!!!!”

Oiso screamed as if to let out the last bit of energy that she had. Then her eyes rolled into her head and she lost consciousness.