Otome Game no Heroine de Saikyou Survival [WN] - Chapter 49
Beginner Hunting Part 2
The three of them from [Blade Fang] had made a name for themselves in the Adventurers’ Guild. On the bad side, of course.
A number of young adventurers who were involved with them had gone missing in the dungeon.
The situation had changed when one of the young male and female adventurers complained to the guild that they had been attacked in the dungeon by [Blade Fang], although in the dungeon, where death was always a possibility, this was not a major problem, as novices could be killed by carelessness.
Still, no bodies were left in the dungeon being processed by monsters, and they were not charged with crimes because there was no evidence, but instead they were just scowled at by the Adventurers’ Guild.
“It was a bad idea to let that fellow go…”
“It’s been going too well so far. We should have just killed him and taken the money instead of thinking about selling the woman.”
“After all, the woman is now dead, too. I think it is time for us to leave this place. The Thieves’ Guild will be glaring at us if we stand out too much, right?”
The three were adventurers, but they were also Thieves belonging to the Thieves’ Guild.
They were not deceiving anyone, both were in their real jobs, but being low-level Thieves with limited Thief-type skills, they devised a way to earn money by hunting novices in the dungeon, rather than stealing.
The reason why thieves did not kill civilians was to prevent the case from getting bigger. If the location was in the dungeon and the target was an adventurer, it would be a gray area, but now that they were suspected of committing crimes, the Thieves’ Guild was beginning to scrutinize them.
“It’s good if we move somewhere else, but do we have enough money to get on the right track?”
“You’re spending too much money. Are you paying our dues to the guild?”
“Either way, we need to make a little more money before we move.”
To change locations and start a new “job” from scratch, they had to pay the guild branch a deposit as well, which was a painful expense for them as low-ranking Thieves.
They decided to do this job two or three more times to earn the necessary money, and were looking for their next prey when they saw a certain girl at the adventurers’ guild.
The girl, who appeared to be a magician and was being harassed by young adventurers, was still very young from their point of view, but she had enough presence to make them understand why the young boys were so interested in her.
She was probably from a good family. Even though she was wearing cheap protective gear, her behavior seemed to exude a good bearing and some elegance.
She seemed to have money and good looks. She was an ideal catch who would fetch a good price if sold to a nobleman, and as luck would have it, she even naively agreed to accompany them for a few days, on their pretext that they would help her out of the situation with the young boys.
The girl’s name was Aria, and upon being shown her Adventurer’s Guild tag, they confirmed she was a novice, a Rank 1 adventurer.
The guild officials, who had seen them approaching the newbie, almost stopped them, but they managed to get Aria out by inviting her to dive in a dungeon to try out her skills.
Aria seemed to be a Rank 1 light magician. She was good-looking, had been trained in etiquette, and could use recovery magic, so she would be able to fetch a pretty good price.
They might not be able to work here anymore, but this girl alone should be able to generate enough money for them, a good amount of cash.
Aria had an atmosphere that made them think so.
Aria, who did not speak much in the carriage to the dungeon and looked outside with a fragile atmosphere, reminded them of a beautiful lone flower that was unreachable.
She was beautiful, but not immensely beautiful. Her personality was not bad, but not charming as well.
However, for some reason, they could not take their eyes off Aria, even though they knew she was still a child. She was a woman with a mysterious charm that made them want to keep her to themselves.
“Magic”…that’s the word that came to their mind.
If she could make people think so highly of her at such a young age, one could only wonder how many people she would bewitch after she became an adult, and how many people would seek her out, abandoning their fiancées or even their positions.
As the three of them gazed in silence, admiring the way her sparkling peach-blonde hair flowed in the wind, Aria suddenly looked back at them, and their hearts jumped.
“Will it take a little longer?”
“Oh, yeah, a little longer.”
The destination, a medium-sized dungeon, came into view. This dungeon was built about 300 years ago and had only 30 floors, making it a relatively beginner-friendly dungeon.
The dungeon was originally a natural cave, but the passageways were made wider and flatter, and the rock surface glowed faintly, making it easy for people to enter and for monsters to settle in.
Many of the monsters that appeared were caterpillars and other insects, and there was not much to be gained other than to get the magic stone, but because of this, there were unexplored areas and many blind spots where people had not explored yet.
“Aria, this way!”
“I know a good hunting spot over here.”
“Don’t tell the others, okay?”
To trap the girl, they lured her through the first floor of the dungeon, which was crowded with people, to the depths of the second floor.
The three of them were also adventurers, but their combat skills were not that high. When they attacked adventurers, they usually used poison first.
When break time came, they would give them a weak sleeping potion mixed in with their food or drink.
Not many would be mixed. If they were given a heavy dose of sleeping pills, they may lose their lives.
However, although they once mixed it in with the lunch meal and tea at break, Aria’s condition did not change at all.
(Was she being too cautious?)
The short-haired guy turned his attention to Aria, who followed him without a hint of villigiance.
The man in charge of poisoning her was the redhead. He was a womanizer, but not the kind of guy who would be interested in a girl who looked like a child. Seeing him talking to Aria to get her attention again and again irritated the short-haired guy.
Could he be serious? The thought crossed his mind, and he turned to look at the shaved head man, who was also looking at the redhead, his mouth twisted uncomfortably.
(Don’t tell me he’s also…?)
The short-haired man shuddered. He wondered if both of them had been seduced by the girl’s magic and were trying to make her their own.
He could not allow that to happen. He would rather have her than let the other two people have their way with her.
When he looked at Aria, his eyes clouded over like a mist was covering them and appearing as though mesmerized. Just looking at her made his chest ache. While he was staring at Aria alone, the red-haired man who was staring at her as well suddenly fell down as if in a coma.
“Hey, what’s going on…?”
“Uh…ah.”
The two people who tried to run to him also realized that they could not speak properly and soon fell down one after another, the same as the red-haired man.
What happened? Strangely enough, they had rarely encountered monsters before coming here, but had they stepped on a trap in the dungeon without knowing it?
In his hazy thoughts, the short-haired man remembered Aria’s presence. Even if this was poison, Aria, a light magician, might be able to do something about it.
The short-haired man looked up as if clinging to his last glimmer of hope and saw Aria looking down at them with cold eyes and gently pulling out a sharp black blade.
(…I see)
After he had realized the look in those icy eyes, the man finally understood.
She was not just a dainty butterfly being hunted by a mantis, but a beautiful poisonous spider that ensnared the mantis in its threads and ate it.
***
I cut the throats of three people who were stuck by the poison with a knife to finish them off. It would be a good idea to give the three tags to the client as proof of the accomplishment of the request.
It was surprisingly easy to clean up the mess, but maybe it was because these three people were too careless with me… they were surprisingly lenient with the kids, weren’t they?
Since these three had voluntarily brought me to a place where no other adventurers would come, I could leave the disposal of the dead body to the monsters.
Now–
*Hyun!!!
I ducked as I bent down to crawl on the ground to avoid a blade thrown at me from behind, and the crescent-shaped blade had pierced the wall of the dungeon.
Aiming for the opening, I quickly finished my targets. With this, I should be able to defeat most opponents in this place with ease. I moved to the side and stood up after checking my weapon, I pulled it out, and looked toward the end of the corridor.
“Why don’t you come out now?”
I called out through the darkness, and the air shook slightly as a man oozed out of the darkness.
“I’m surprised. I was pretty confident in my concealment, but how long have you been aware of it?”
The man who appeared was Guy, a Cruzian who taught me many things at the Assassin’s Guild.
“Since last night at the church.”
“Since the beginning? Wow, that sure does damage my confidence.”
“You were properly hidden.”
Still, not as well as Viro. On the contrary, his skill made him look like a normal human to my eyes.
“So how did you manage to avoid that attack? I don’t think I’m that bad at it.”
“The question is, what are you trying to do?”
The one thrown at me from behind was the half-moon sword Guy was holding, and although I managed to avoid it, it would have killed me if I had done a bad job.
“You’re not going to say that it was just a greeting, are you?”
“No way.”
Guy grinned and pulled out a one-handed sword from his waist that looked like a crescent moon and tossed it around in his hand.
“Kira asked me to do something for her. She wants me to make you suffer a little. Dino is monitoring her, so she can’t move, so I’m going to do it in her place.”
I wondered if he was thinking of killing me, my Master’s hostage. No, Kira might have tried to kill me, but I guess it was the reason why Dino was glaring at her at that time.
“What, ash-covered. You ain’t surprised, are you? I thought I was playing the good brother?”
“You’re the one who’s not surprised, Guy? Did you notice my identity?”
“Oh. You certainly look like you have transformed after you dress right. The average person may not be able to tell, but when a kid grows up to your size, people who could tell, can tell. The position of the hip is different between men and women.”
“Really…”
I didn’t know that. I would take that as a note for my future disguise.
“You’re also unlucky that Kira marked you. I’m sure she’d be satisfied with a big scar on your face. I hope you’ll accept the pain. From now on, don’t act too smart. After all, you want to live long, don’t you?”
Guy readied his half-moon sword and let his murderous intent seep through. Guy’s magic power was low, but his status was high, and he was a nasty opponent if confronted directly.
“I don’t care about that, but… I didn’t tell you why I wasn’t surprised and why I was able to avoid the surprise attack earlier, did I?”
“Hmm?”
Guy stopped moving slightly at my words as he took a stance, ready to pounce at any moment.
“That’s because…”
I strengthened the magic I had been casting for several minutes now.
“Because I believed that woman would definitely try something.”
“Huh? Ah… ah? Aaaaah…”
Guy fell to his knees with a strange look on his face, and then he shouted in confusion.
“What? No way, is it poison?”
Guy stared at me with puzzled eyes as his body suddenly stopped moving.
“When did you do that? There was no time to do that!”
“I’ve been using poison for a while now.”
Poison was not always used in liquid form. Strong poisons both smelled and tasted harsh, so ever since I entered this section, I had been using [Wind] to vaporize them little by little to trick their sense of smell. Vaporizing it weakens the effect, but it was not a problem if I took my time to apply it.
“Why can’t I move…damn…”
“It’s a poison spider’s neurotoxin that Master made. It’s pretty effective even if you’re resistant to poison, you know?”
“If you use such a thing, you’ll…”
“I know the poison well enough.”
I waved my hand using [Treat], which had been triggered the whole time, though I doubted Guy could see it.
No matter how powerful the poison was, if you know what kind of poison it was and how it was composed, it could be eliminated with [Treat]. It was originally a magic that took a long time to eliminate the poison, but it was possible to deal with the poison in small doses. Because of that, I had kept my silence the whole time, but those three were caught off guard and hadn’t noticed anything even until they died.
“…Ha…haha…stupid…using poison on yourself, are you crazy?”
“Maybe.”
“Oh come on, seriously… All it would take is for you to get hurt a little, and it would all come full circle, you know? Do you know what will happen to Celeshura if you do something wrong and the guild finds out?
Just as I was held as a hostage against my Master, she was also in a position where she could not run away.
Dino and Guy believed that this was the reason why my master and I could not be enemies with the Guild of Assassins.
“Guy, you’re an assassin, but… you’re so naive.”
“What…”
I tossed the ceramic jar at Guy, and it cracked near him, its contents slightly sticking to him as well.
“Hey, what’s that smell?”
“It’s time for the poison to spread, so I added an insect magnet to the mix, so hang in there.”
I moved away from Guy, who was still kneeling, and using Concealment, I leaned my back against the dungeon wall, crossed my arms, and waited for the right moment.
A few seconds later, I heard the footsteps of a fast-moving monster that couldn’t wait for the poison to spread, and the color on Guy’s face turned blue as he soon realized what I meant.
I would not fight directly against a vanguard-type assassin like this.
I had researched this dungeon and learned that it was insect-based, so I went to an apothecary in town and bought materials from monsters to create a medicine that would attract insects using pheromone-type insect magnet, which insect-based monsters favored, which I would have used to assassinate the three of the targets.
“You’re going to die here!”
“Ashe-hair! What are you doing? You will antagonize the Assassin’s Guild by doing this!”
Guy, whose presence had been revealed because of his scent even though he had used concealment, slashed down the caterpillar that attacked him with his one-handed sword while slowly becoming paralyzed by the poison.
A few caterpillars would not be a problem for someone as powerful as Guy, but what if there were dozens of them? The more he moved, the more the poison would spread on his body, and the caterpillars, attracted by his scent, would come rushing in one after the other.
“Ash-haired you bastard!!!!”
Swallowed by the swarm of caterpillars, Guy’s figure soon disappeared.
Amidst the sound of crunching bone and flesh, I answered his last question to Guy, whose consciousness and existence I did not know if any remained.
“You have become my prey.”
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Also check out my other novels: Reincarnated into a Game as the Hero’s Friend, Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear, and A Girl Who Was Told “You Have No Talent” Turned Out To Be A Talented Monster