Otome Game no Heroine de Saikyou Survival [WN] - Chapter 58
Dungeon Trap (1)
Mercenary of Dawn would return to the surface from the dungeon every few days.
Having incurred the wrath of their client, a nobleman, by running away with the belongings of a family member who had requested them, they chose to flee to the dungeon until the heat had cooled off, since the nobleman could not reveal the items, but they still had to return to the surface periodically to replenish their supplies and rest their bodies.
I had no guarantee that they would return on that day, but when I looked into the adventurers’ guild, I found a party of adventurers who looked like them, exchanging magic stones for cash.
They were a party of four, three men and a woman in their thirties or so. One of them, a red-haired warrior, had a combat power of over 700, so I guessed he was the leader of Mercenary of Dawn, Rank 4–Dagart.
[Daggart] [Race: Human Male] [Warrior].
[Magic Power: 170/170] [Strength: 326/380]
[Total Combat Power: 733]
I used Appraisal to match the target’s information with his appearance and equipment. I was told that three of my companions are Rank 3, but all three were not low in combat power.
[Randy] [Race: Human Male] [Heavy Warrior].
[Magic Power: 150/150] [Strength: 402/423]
[Total Combat Power: 442]
[Duncan] [Race: Human Male] [Scout/Hunter]
[Magic: 145/145] [Strength: 270/286]
[Total Combat Power: 403]
[Glenda] [Race: Human Female] [Sorceress]
[Magic: 248/248] [Strength: 179/217]
[Total Combat Power: 541]
My Simple Appraisal was an ability to estimate an opponent’s strength based on his appearance… the way his muscles were built and moved, his height and weight balance, and the amount of energy and magic power he could feel, rather than reading his soul.
With my ability to see magic elements by color and my Detection skill at Level 3, I should be able to read their power more accurately than anyone else here.
The reason why the other three, except for Daggart, had higher combat ability than the average Rank 3 would be because they had multiple skills, just like me.
If they mastered multiple combat skills, even at the same Rank, there would be a clear difference in magic power values and stats. In other words, instead of relying on the Rank 4 Daggart, they had trained themselves and all had attained enough power to be called a Rank 4 party.
Troubling, but not surprising. The fact that they were safe until now while doing something that would make the client resent them was because I thought they must be very skillful at scheming or have a certain amount of ability.
If such people were in the party, they would be my first purely superior opponents.
In previous battles, I had been up against higher-ranked opponents, but I had been able to exploit their weaknesses by catching them off guard and winning, albeit barely because they were alone.
However, in this party, each member’s weaknesses were covered by the others, and by making the most of their strengths, they could show more strength than they were capable of.
Perhaps this battle would be a turning point.
I felt that I was at the crossroads of whether I would become an assassin with only a few tricks up my sleeve or an adventurer with the strength of an assassin.
I blended into my surroundings with a concealment that was not unnatural enough to attract the attention of others.
As I was redeeming the magic stone that Carla and I had used to dive in the dungeon, just in case I had misled them about the purpose of my visit to the Adventurers’ Guild, a friendly looking man came up to the exchange counter, perhaps remembering me from our previous conversation.
“You over there, you are here at just the right time. The Rank 4 party I told you about before is back. …But from the looks of it, it seems that they have already dived into the dungeon.”
“A kind girl gave me a tour for free.”
Perhaps the fact that the staff member spoke to her drew some attention, but when she spoke so while hiding her face with the shawl wrapped around her neck to escape the gazes of those around her, the uncle was a little surprised, but nodded with a gentle smile.
“That’s good to hear. There are very few young adventurers in this town, probably because of the dungeon, so the old staff and adventurers were concerned about you. So, you decided to form a party with that person?”
The reason for all the attention was because I was a child…what a hassle.
“I guess I can’t form a party with anyone other than that noble, but it was just a temporary one.”
I answered casually, and the uncle’s complexion changed.
“That girl…didn’t she have long black hair?”
Carla was considered a well-known person in this guild. Although he did not give me any details, I heard that the disappearance of adventurers in the past few years was also suspected to be done by her.
Carla was, after all, the daughter of a high-ranking nobleman, and even the guild was not allowed to ask her about the situation, so they asked me to stay away from her as much as possible.
“Keep this between you and me, but a couple of days ago a pair of young adventurers disappeared, so please be careful. I recommend that you form a party with someone else if you want to dive into the dungeon again.”
“I’ll think about it.”
So, the duo that Carla and I had killed was also put on Carla’s tab…. That girl didn’t seem to care about destroying evidence or anything, so I didn’t blame her.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Mercenary of Dawn leaving the guild, and I also thanked the kind looking uncle and left the guild.
When I went outside, they were already out of sight, but Randy the heavy warrior and Glenda the magician did not seem to have any Concealment-type skills, so I could follow their presence if they were only a short-distance away.
When I followed them out of sight, I found that they had stopped at a general store and an apothecary for adventurers to replenish their supplies, and then seemed to be staying at a regular inn near the dungeon.
If things were the same as usual, they would spend the night and then dive back into the dungeon. Since they were buying consumables, they must still be on the lookout for pursuers of the nobles, so I would continue my watch on their schedule.
“…”
Even now, I regularly felt the strange feeling of Radha’s presence.
Sometimes I didn’t even remember the feeling of discomfort because I thought that Radha was moving from shadow to shadow.
Radha did not attack me when I was alone, Radha must be thinking that I killed Guy, but there must be a reason why she still did not attack me.
Even though the Assassins’ Guild branches had broken ties with each other, they may not be able to cause major problems in other areas because of face values.
Besides, I figured that Radha, who had been so agitated by Guy’s disappearance, would choose a place so that she would be able to kill me easily.
Radha thought I would act on the information she gave me. Then the place of the attack would be…in the dungeon.
***
Radha was watching a child called Ash-haired from the shadows.
It was probably that Ash-haired who killed Guy. Dino, the head of the guild, was willing to drop the matter, as assassins often disappeared without evidence, but Radha’s contact with the child convinced her that the killer was Ash-haired.
There was no evidence. I smelled the scent of blood on Ash-haired from my experience as an assassin.
I appraised Ash-haired when she first appeared at the guild, and her fighting strength was less than 200. But Ash-haired was a disciple of the filthy Evil Race. She must have used some cowardly scheme to trick Guy.
However, Ash-haired could not be killed immediately.
Dino, the chief, showed himself like a protector, saying that Ash-haired was his junior-sister. He probably wanted to keep her alive if possible to use him as a pawn to manipulate her Master, someone from the Evil Race.
If the disciple died, then the Evil Race’s anger could be directed at the target. But it was like a bomb that could only be used once.
She was willing to turn against Dino and the Evil Race to avenge her brother’s death, but Radha also felt indebted to the previous guild master and could not take the initiative to betray the guild.
Ash-haired was a creepy kid, even to Radha, who had been killing since childhood.
She looked like she was in her early teens, but even if she had grown up because of magic, her actual age was probably around 10 years old. That said, she easily assassinated the novice-hunting thieves, which others had expected her to fail, and showed bizarreness, which was hard to think a child possessed.
But the most eerie thing about that kid was her vibe.
Although Ash-haired herself was unaware of it, it was probably the reason why she attracted the attention of passersby on the street.
Perhaps Dino and Guy were also bewitched by this charm. Although she was still young, it was easy to imagine that when she grew up to adulthood, she would enchant many people who would be easily misled by her charms.
Radha felt more horror than anger at her brother’s revenge, and she was convinced that if she could not kill her now, she would be a threat in the future.
Ash-haired’s assassination of his target, Mercenary of Dawn, was to take place as planned in the dungeon.
The documents that Radha gave to Ash-haired were falsified to the point of being unnatural, and it was Radha who arranged for the assassination to take place in the dungeon. With other liaisons present, she wanted to avoid killing Ash-haired in the city if possible.
Nevertheless, she did not falsify the material on Mercenary of Dawn. This was not because she thought Ash-haired alone could assassinate them, but because she wanted to see Ash-haired’s skills.
Radha did not underestimate Ash-haired. She thought ash-haired would use the sneaky methods of the Evil Race, not to mention their fighting prowess.
At the same time, however, Radha also believed that Ash-haired did not have the power to kill her, although her low combat power may hurt her if she was not careful.
It was said that a man could only fight a single opponent by using his wits with a difference of at most one rank, since a difference of two ranks would make it easier for her to lose his edge and resist magic.
Radha, however, had not given up on killing directly.
She would destroy the Ash-haired’s traps and finally kill the Ash-haired herself when she was cornered by her target and was in a desperate situation.
Mercenary of Dawn dove into the dungeon again as expected, followed by Ash-haired, who also disappeared into the dungeon.
Radha also used shadows to infiltrate the dungeon without being spotted by the soldiers guarding the entrance, but she felt a slight sense of discomfort as she watched the Ash-haired girl tracking Mercenary of Dawn.
(…what?)
She knew that Ash-haired could use a skillful Concealment for a child. But that was… for a human race.
Concealment, detection, night vision, and other scouting skills varied considerably by race: cat-beastman like Radha were corrected for concealment and night vision, and dog-beastman were corrected for detection.
Humans were particularly poor at night vision, which affected detection as well, and because of this, there was a slight difference in concealment even at the same level.
Yet, Radha had almost lost sight of Ash-haired several times after entering the dungeon.
(…The distance between Ash-haired and the target is strange. What’s going on?”)
Radha was proud that her Shadow Walk ability was invincible, but it still had its drawbacks.
As a characteristic of spatial dark magic, it would not be effective unless it was completely isolated with dark magical elements, and while it was isolated, no outside information could reach the target.
The space isolated by dark magic was no longer an environment in which creatures could survive, and Radha could only maintain the isolated space for a few seconds as it crossed the shadows.
Normally, a part of the isolated space was opened and only hidden in the shadows, but even so, Radha was isolated from information only for those few seconds when it moved.
The distance between Ash-haired and Mercenary of Dawn was narrowing. How could she get so close and not be spotted by a Rank 4 adventurer?
After descending to the fifth level of the dungeon, when the other adventurers were out of sight, Radha, who was beginning to grow impatient with the situation, Shadow Walked up close to them to get information.
(…What is this?)
The moment she released the isolated shadow space, she saw a small black shadow floating a few centimeters in front of her.
Normally, Radha would have noticed what it was. However, being in the dark to hide in the shadow, her mind, which was beginning to get impatient, delayed for a moment to realize what it was.
At that moment, something leaped out of that small shadow, and without being able to avoid it, a dark throwing weapon pierced Radha’s throat.
“….(Guh)!”
Radha was unable to speak as blood poured into her trachea, and soon she ceased to breathe.
Confused and unsure of the meaning, Radha stepped out of the shadows to escape the attack anyway, and suddenly an iron arrow and a magic Ice Arrow flew in and pierced her defenseless torso.
As if to toddling Radha, who unexpectedly fell to the ground, a small shadow appeared on the floor again, and then a blade flew out from it, piercing Radha’s right eye.
(Is this Ash-haired’s knife? And this little shadow is her sorcery?)
The magic was similar to her own Shadow Walk.
Feeling the light of her life fading, Radha appraised the Ash-haired standing with the Mercenary of Dawn with her remaining left eye and realized that they had been deceived from the beginning.
[Ash-haired] [Race: Human Female] [Estimated Rank 3]
[Magic Power: 135/210] [Strength: 141/148]
[Total Combat Power: 403 (With Physical Enhancements: 473)]
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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