CH 199.1

Chapter 199.1: Exploration Team

The first exploration team led by Souma Yuuto had arrived at the underworld area.

「Ma~n, this place is dark and gloomy for sure.」

「Yeah, it’s always dark here, and the mist makes it even harder to see the surroundings. Let’s advance and be wary about a surprise attack.」

In contrast to the vice leader Himeno who tried to show her weak and frail side, the leader Souma reminded everyone to be careful as they advanced.

「I-I’m really scared, Souma-kun… Ca-Can I grab your hand?」

「I’ll be the vanguard since I’m the only one who is familiar with this area. Nakai, Yamada, and Himeno-san will follow while Yoshizaki-san will bring up the rear guard.」

「Well, it’s a reasonable tactic I guess.」

「OOH!」

「Let’s go, young man.」

In a plain tone, Souma Yuuto doled out those instructions.

But, it didn’t mean that he had completely ignored Airi’s remark.

「Himeno-san, I know that you’re scared, but you’ll be a hindrance during the battle if we join hands. This place isn’t a haunted house, you shouldn’t make such kind of jokes in this dangerous place.」

But of all things, he gave her serious caution, making her feel that being ignored might have been much better.

「Ye-Yes… I’m sorry…」

Airi was seriously going to cry since Yuuto was literally scolding her like a father his daughter.

「It’s good that you understand. Himeno-san has the least combat experience, but it’ll be fine if you just follow the rest. Don’t worry, I won’t let any monster hurt you.」

「Sou-Souma-kun…」

Meanwhile, the other three members of the team thought the same thing―― Souma Yuuto, you really are…

Thus, the first exploration team led by Souma advanced.

「This area is dominated by werewolf-type monsters. They’re fast, powerful, and armed with weapons. That’s why please be careful, they really are powerful opponents.」

Yuuto gave his team members a brief explanation about the monsters in the area as they walked into the eerie city shrouded by eternal night.

In fact, the strength of the werewolf appearing in this area was simply off the chart when compared to the goma and skeleton, the common monsters in this dungeon. One could even say that the degree of difficulty was much higher than normal in areas.

「Halt. The enemy is coming… This presence, it’s the werewolf.」

「Eh, seriously, where are they?」

「Oi, don’t mess with us, Souma. I didn’t feel a――」

AWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

A loud howl resounded.

「Ooh, for real, where are they coming from now!?」

「Dammit, it’s hard to see in this darkness.」

The werewolves were rushing from the front rather than using a surprise attack. Though several of their presence could be felt, they used the shadow and the ruined building to hide their figure, waiting for their prey to approach.

「Calm down, there are two on the roof over there, one behind that wall, another two on the right corner, and… Yoshizaki-san, be careful with the one that is coming from the back.」

「Holy cr*p Souma, you even know their positions.」

Even Marie, who was proud of her presence sense as a 『Warrior』, tipped her hat upon discovering the extent of Yuuto’s presence sense.

Though she had yet to sense the presence coming from the rear, Maria readied her 『Black Iron’s Axe』 to protect Airi, their healer.

「ORAAA, COME AND GET IT MUTT!」

""

「SEE WHAT I HAVE HERE BA*TARD!」

Though both Yamada and Nakai raised their weapons, Yuuto came out ahead of them.

「You two focus on protecting Himeno-san. Leave them to me.」

Saying so, Yuuto’s figure vanished―― Or seemingly vanished, since there was no other expression for it.

『Ground Shrink』：High-rank skill of Souma-style martial arts. The way it is used to close in the distance without being noticed gives an illusion as if the ground itself has shrunk.

Both the werewolves and his comrades only saw Yuuto’s figure vanish from the spot and appear on another spot in the next moment as if he had just teleported over there.

「First is two.」

He ambushed the werewolf who just appeared from the corner of the street.

In the blink of eye, the two werewolves succumbed under Yuuto’s shining sword.

「WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!」

The two werewolves on the roof rushed toward Nakai and Yamada.

「I guess barely within the range.」

『Blade of Holy Blood』：Granting sword’s blade with powerful purification ability by applying drop of blood of holy lineage to the sword’s blade.

It was the skill that converted blood into sword, raising the length of the user’s blade, the favorite skill of Dracula, the boss of the underworld area. After that skill transformed into the 『Hero』’s skill, it became 『Blade of Holy Blood』, a skill that allowed its user to raise the length of their blade using the magical power of light instead of their blood――Thus, the two poor rushing werewolves got bisected in the air by Yuuto’s sword.

「There’s only the guy in the back left.」

Upon a closer look, he saw a werewolf coming from the back of their formation, rushing at Maria who had already prepared herself..

As expected, he couldn’t use the 『Blade of Holy Blood』 since there were dozens of metres between them, not to mention that his comrades were also inside the range of his sword. The same went for his other ranged attack, his comrade was inside its firing range.

Yuuto already considered the option of letting Maria deal with that werewolf but… Even if her strength was already boosted by her 『Warrior』 vocation, Yuuto couldn’t bring himself to see the back figure of a girl, facing a monster with a weapon in her hand.

「… Let’s try it out.」

『White Shadow Spear』： Materializing the magical power of light attribute to form a spear. Can be conjured in any place with light.

After a moment of hesitation, Yuuto invoked his spell.

This was another one of Dracula’s favorite skills, conjuring a black spear from his stretched shadow to skewer his foe from below.

When Yuuto used it, what appeared was a dim white glow instead of a shadow, it passed below the feet of his comrades, crossed Maria, and arrived before the werewolf who was about to become the target of Maria’s axe.

At that moment, the spear of light appeared.

Its color was transparent, beautiful like crystal. And yet, it pierced the steel-like skin of the werewolf as if it was made from tofu.

「Okay, that’s everything. The one hiding behind the wall… Has already escaped.」

He knew from his previous experience of traversing this area that despite their brutal nature, the werewolf wouldn’t fight a battle with no chance of victory. Thus, Yuuto just let the last werewolf escape.

Thus, the first battle ended with the group’s landslide victory.

「Aw-Awesome, Souma-kun! You killed all of them by yourself!」

「Be quiet and stay in your place, Himeno-san. We don’t know when another monster is going to ambush us.」

Yuuto calmly called out to Airi stopping the latter from rushing at him.

And seeing Yuuto’s cold, piercing gaze, Airi had no choice but to obey him… Or rather, she felt depressed after receiving another reminder from him.

「I got no chance, at all.」

「It’s not a bad thing, right? Something like this does happen sometimes.」

Despite waiting for the incoming monster with a weapon in their hands, both Yamada and Nakai ended up not even getting a chance to swing their weapon and lowered their weapon again with a rather disappointed looks on their faces.

「Is this just me or, we’re actually useless here?」

Grumbling, Maria also lowered her weapon.

「Well, let’s retrieve the core.」

Though the werewolf in this area was under the category of “Mob”, they would be quite a formidable monster had they appeared outside of this area, making their core quite precious too. Kotaro asked the group to collect as much core as possible, even the smallest bits of it since they could be used as a source of magical power.

At this point, they were already used to dismantling jobs, thus they could retrieve the monsters’ cores with ease and continued on, looking for an even more powerful monster.

===

「Well then, we will go over there. Shimokawa-kun, Nonomiya-san, please take care of Minami-san.」

「Care to explain why I’m the only one receiving this childlike treatment!?」

The second exploration team led by the Class Rep and Shimokawa’s hunting team had arrived in the desolate island area.

The exploration team, whose main job was to collect monster materials, was advancing following the route drawn by Kotaro. On the other hand, the hunting team’s main task was to scout a new area, looking for a new kind of prey, as such they were moving in the opposite direction of the second exploration team.

With the fairy plaza which had been used by Kotaro and Meiko for a while, enjoying the time of their life in a tropical country as starting point, both teams headed in opposite directions.

「But I can’t help but worry since there are two of Momokawa’s pawns.」

Sakura told Ryouko as soon as they started walking.