CH 417

「Hey, hey, hey, hey, how many Sandworms are out here! This is way too many!」

「Just shut up and run! Fighting Sandworms when I have barely any magic power left is the worst situation for me!」

「Wait, wait a moment! Look over there, over there! There are people, people!」

Sandworms were a giant, sand coloured, earthworm like monster over 5m in length. However, it also had three legs extending from both sides of its body and its mouth opened wide at its front, baring fangs as it chased the adventurers. The three frantically fleeing adventurers made a lot of noise as the Sandworms chases after them.

A total of three people were running away, a male warrior with a spear in his hand, a female mage with a wand and a female archer. All three were wearing sand coloured cloaks to hide from the sun.

They had come out here for a request to collect a special plant called a Desert Rose that could found on the desert floors. Fortunately for them, they had come across a blooming Desert Rose partially buried in the sand. Up until that point, it had been good for them.

At the very least, the three of them thought that they had been quite lucky.

However, they soon realised that their luck was only superficial. Just as they cut off the blooming part of the blue Desert Rose, the sand nearby exploded.

Surprised by the sudden explosion, the three of them turned around and saw Sandworms just sticking out of the sand. ……Eight of them.

The mage killed one while the archer and warrior worked together to kill another of the Sandworms.

However, that just seemed to anger the Sandworms. The remaining six joined the battle. ……Even then, they managed to kill another three of them before ending up in this life threatening chase because their mage, who made up most of their firepower, ran out of magic power.

Still, there was still hope for the three. They had found the Desert Rose not far from the small room, less than an hour of travel for people accustomed to this floor. If they could escape to the room, they would be saved……

They had never though that they would come across other adventurers while running away.

No, of course they had considered the possibility. However, thanks to the information about abnormal species, the number of people entering the dungeon had decreased. Those that still entered the dungeon to catch or kill these abnormal species for a bounty had mostly headed to the floors were the abnormal species had previously appeared. In addition, the desert floors were not really preferred by other adventurers due to the environmental conditions. They were also running across the flatter sections of the desert and not the peaks, so they hadn’t thought they’d run into any other adventurers in the direction they were heading.

They might have considered the possibility at the back of their minds, but they didn’t think that their concerns would actually come true.

Seeing a duo of what seemed to be adventurers with weapons drawn at the end of his line of sight, the male warrior running at the front shouted out.

「Heyy-, run away!」

However, although his voice must definitely have been heard, there was no sign that the duo wanted to escape.

On the contrary, the one with a sword moved to the front while the other, with a scythe of ridiculous size, moved to the back. Yes, as if to prepare for battle.

(They’re either stupid or skilled. ……Let’s hope they’re skilled.)

The man quickly thought to himself as he ran across the sand, looking at his two friends running next to and behind him.

The mage was out of magic power, so wouldn’t be able to contribute much. However, the archer still had quite a number of arrows and could still fight.

「We’re going to join up with the two people in front and kill the Sandworms!」

「AHHHH-, I understand! But my magic power is almost gone! Especially since we’re in the desert, I can’t do much if I can’t use magic!」

「I understand as well! But can those people really fight!? I’ve never seen anyone use a scythe like that before!」

The female mage shouted, half in desperation, while the female archer replied back to the man in understanding.

Hearing the archer’s reply, something passed through the male warrior’s mind for an instant, but the distance to the duo ahead was already getting short. He had no time to think of anything else as he shouted out to the two people in front of him with spear in hand.

「We’ll work together to kill the Sandworms! Is that okay!?」

「Yeah, no problem! Just pass us and get ready to fight! We’ll hold them here!」

The man was a little surprised to hear the voice of the person in the vanguard.

He hadn’t been able to see their face because they had been wearing a cloak, but he had still thought they other party had been a man because of their height.

However, the voice had definitely belonged to that of a woman.

(No, I guess there are tall women all over the world. Then, is the person with the scythe also a woman?)

The distance gradually shortened as he thought to himself……a woman holding a sword and a possible woman wielding a scythe. He passed by the duo.

At that moment, the Sandworms noticed the two people waiting for them as they chased the other three.

「HAAAAAH-!」

The woman at the vanguard, Elena, gave a shout as she poured magic power into her sword whip and swung it.

In that instant, her sword whip flew out and the tip jumped into the open mouth of the Sandworm as it tried to swallow her, penetrating its head. Elena shook the hilt of the sword whip and the blade regained its freedom as it sliced the Sandworm’s head from left to right.

However, it seemed like the Sandworm had no sense of pain even after its head was split in half. It continued straight past them……passing by Elena and even the three people it had been chasing. After about 10m, it finally stopped moving and collapsed on the sand.

The three adventurers who had been running away stopped in their tracks as they turned to look at Elena, but their surprise was premature.

『Fire, fall like rain and become arrows that burn everything.』

At the same time, the person wielding the scythe, Rei, cast his magic, forming more than 50 fire arrow behind him.

The female mage was surprised by the overwhelming amount of magic power used.

There were many magics that formed arrows from the attributes the caster was good at. She herself liked to use magic that created water arrows. However, even so, with her magic power and magic power control, she would only be able to create 10 of them if forced herself. Creating the 50 arrows she could see spread before her eyes would be impossible for her, even if the world turned upside down.

However, Rei didn’t seem to care for the mage looking at him as he judged that there were enough arrows and activated his magic……the magic power consumed by the arrows made them more than powerful enough.

『Pour down, Fire Arrows!』

At Rei’s words, more than 50 fire arrows were released as they flew towards the other two Sandworms.

The fire arrows pierced and burned the area they hit, but didn’t stop there. They continued to pierce into the Sandworms without losing power……eventually penetrating them completely.

「No way……that number of arrows, that power……no matter how ridiculous your magic power is, that’s still a large scale magic. To use it so easily with such a short incantation……」

The female mage couldn’t seem to believe what she had seen as she muttered to herself.

However, reality was reality, two Sandworms lay in the desert with burns all over their bodies, no breath of life present in their huge bodies.

After laying waste to the Sandworms with a force that could only be described as one-sided, Rei and Elena turned to the three shocked adventurers near them.

「Are you all right?」

「……Y-Yeah. That is, thanks for the help.」

The male warrior with a spear finally nodded back after hearing Rei’s voice. He seemed a little surprised, probably because of the male voice Rei had.

If Rei hadn’t been wearing the Dragon Robe’s hood, the man might have mistaken Rei’s baby face for a girl.

「Well, that’s good to hear. ……So, can we consider these Sandworms to be ours, since we killed them?」

「Of course. We were just being chased away. ……Anyway, what kind of party are you? Entering the dungeon with just two people.」

The female archer nodded silently in agreement to the man’s words.

The mage seemed to still be overwhelmed by Rei’s previous display of magic and appeared to be shocked speechless.

That said, in a sense, she was lucky she didn’t have the ability to sense magic power.

If she had that ability, she probably would have been at the point of her legs giving out rather than just speechless. The magic power Rei gave off was overwhelming.

Rei didn’t pay the mage any attention as he shrugged his shoulder in response to the male warrior.

「You say that, but you only have three people yourself, right? I don’t think that’s much different from us.」

「No, we’re usually a party of five. We just don’t have a few members with us today.」

「Hmm.」

Nodding at the man’s words, Rei turned his gaze upwards towards the sky……as if noticing something.

「Well, we certainly only have two people. But, we have other strengths as well. Here he comes back.」

Along with those words, a flapping sound could be heard. The warrior and archer, who were concerned about the sound, looked up into the sky. Their eyes and mouth went wide as they were stunned by the monster that came down, with wings flapping.

The monster had the lower body of a lion and the upper body of an eagle. An A rank monster famous for being the reaper of the skies. That is to say…….

「Huh? A Griffon?」

The warrior and archer involuntarily took at step back at the appearance of Set, as he landed on the ground.

「Gururu~?」

What’s going on? Set gave a cry as he tilted his head and looked at the trio with round eyes.

「No, it’s nothing. Rather, how did your scouting go? Did you find anything dangerous other than monsters?」

「Guru~」

Set gave a cry in the negative as he squinted his eyes in pleasure as Rei scratched his head.

Seeing that they weren’t in danger, the warrior approached Rei somewhat fearfully.

At the same time, the mage finally regained her senses, only to be suddenly pressured by the Griffon in front of her.

The reason the warrior spoke with Rei was because he finally remembered something after regaining his calm. There had been someone spending a lot of time in the dungeon without taking a break recently. That person, accompanied by a Griffon, was Crimson.

To be exact, Rei and Elena hadn’t entered the dungeon yesterday, but it seemed that the man had no knowledge of that.

「Just a small question……could you be the one people call Crimson?」

「Yeah, people call me Crimson. I’m Rei.」

「……I thought so……oh right, I’ve forgotten to introduce myself even though you save us. I’m Pleiades. The archer is Otis and the mage is Sharl. Once again, thanks for saving us.」

Rei silently shook his head at Pleiades’ grateful bow.

「It’s the first time we’ve been in the desert. We’ve never been here before, so it was good to get a feel for what kind of monsters would appear.」

How about you? At Rei’s prompt from his eyes, Elena nodded as she shook the Sandworm blood off her sword whip.

「Yeah, it’s not so bad if you consider it as some exercise. There’s also materials as well.」

Elena replied as she took off her cloak’s hood and looked towards the three adventurers.

Seeing that, the three of them……especially Pleiades, had their breath taken away.

Although they had passed by Elena while being chased by the Sandworms, their lives were in danger at the time, so they hadn’t taken a good look at her. Because of that, now that they could see her face, not just Pleiades……even Otis and Sharl were distracted by Elena.

As for Sharl in particular, she had been stunned after seeing Rei’s magic, only to see Set land followed by Elena’s beauty. In a sense, she was the most shocked person after meeting Rei’s group.