Otome Game no Heroine de Saikyou Survival [WN] - Chapter 59
Dungeon Trap (2)
The members of Mercenary of Dawn left the inn around noon and headed directly for the dungeon.
Randy, a heavy warrior, and Duncan, a scout, were in the same room and had eaten on the first floor in the morning, but Daggart and Glenda, who were also in the same room, woke up late, so they decided to eat at that time.
When they arrived at the dungeon, a short walk away, they bought a ready-to-eat meal at a nearby food stall and went straight into the dungeon.
Once they dove in, they did not come out for several days, but they seemed to have carried in unusually little luggage, and from the fact that Duncan had put the food he bought in his bag as it was, I assumed that it was an internal expansion bag with space magic, and that he put most of his luggage in it.
That would change the battle strategy depending on what was inside.
Whether it was to inflict damage gradually or to use poison, if there was an advanced recovery potion or a powerful antidote inside, the attack itself would be futile.
It was not useless to exhaust them, but they were not the kind of opponent who could afford such extra attacks.
In terms of tactics, at first, I was thinking that I should neutralize Glenda, the sorceress, but then I thought that I needed to change my priorities.
But that would be after I took care of Radha, who was following us from behind.
“…I’ll have one of those with cheese between them.”
“Thanks for the purchase, it’s three coppers!”
To avoid suspicion, I diverted my time by buying dry bread with cheese and pickled vegetables from a different stall than theirs.
As I watched the Mercenary of Dawn and the others enter the dungeon from the side, making sure Radha was also following, I paid the shopkeeper a copper and headed for the entrance to the dungeon.
Last time I was stopped for being a child and was able to pass through with Carla’s face, but this time I was a young soldier and was able to enter without being stopped.
Of course, the Mercenary of Dawn was already gone when I entered, but I ran straight down the corridor without any hesitation to eliminate the presence of the Mercenary of Dawn.
I was informed that Mercenary of Dawn was based in a safe zone around the tenth floor. If they were as good as they seemed to be, they would be able to go deeper, but their goal was not to make money in the dungeon, but to kill time safely until the heat of the moment had cooled off.
Therefore, I figured they would head straight down without taking any detours, so I had already checked out the shortest route when I dived with Carla a few days ago.
After a few minutes of running through the corridors of the dungeon with no particular monsters, I saw the Mercenary of Dawn slaying several kobolds far ahead of me.
Kobolds were upright, stray dog-like Rank 1 monsters. They were as small as a child’s height, and although they sometimes carried weapons, their threat level was really not much different from that of a stray dog.
There was no way that such a low-level monster would be a match for a Rank 4 party, and as Glenda watched from the sidelines with a sigh of relief, the three men were handling the Kobolds easily.
I followed them as they headed deeper into the dungeon without collecting any Rank 1 magic stones, and I carefully proceeded deeper into the dungeon, keeping a certain distance from them.
Normally, this dungeon was said to take about one hour per floor, even if you had taken the shortest route. But they seemed to be a bit faster, descending to the second floor in about two-thirds of the normal time.
The second floor was almost the same, with only Rank 1 monsters appearing, and rarely did Rank 2 hobgoblins appear by themselves.
At the third floor, the number of Rank 2 monsters increased a little, and at the fourth floor, High Kobolds (Rank 3) seemed to appear rarely.
At the fifth floor, there were no more Rank 1 monsters, and almost all of them were single hobgoblins and high kobolds.
This was the limit for low-rank solo adventurers. Conversely, even low-rank adventurers could take on the dungeon up to this point, but since it was almost impossible to make money, the party that took on this dungeon had to be at least Rank 3.
Once you had dived this far, you would hardly see any other adventurers. If we were going to spend only one day in the dungeon, we would have to go to a lower floor, and if we were going to spend several days in the dungeon, we would hunt after the tenth floor, where groups of orcs would appear.
I hadn’t done much fighting up to this point because if a Rank 2 or 3 monster was out there on its own, it’s no match for them.
Well… I guess that’d be about it.
I took off the cloak I was wearing to disguise my gender, tucked it behind my waist, removed the ash illusion I had applied to my hair, and gradually closed in the distance between me and them moving forward.
(…1, 2, 3…)
As I lessened the distance with good timing, at that moment, Duncan, the scout, noticed a presence and turned around as if in alarm.
“There’s something approaching behind us!”
“Wait, it’s not a monster!”
At the same time as calling out to Duncan, I used the sign Viro had taught me to use to tell the scouts to alert, attack, and proceed with hand gestures, and Duncan looked surprised and told his companions to keep going.
“A woman…? Or rather, a child?”
Daggart looked back for a moment and muttered in a quiet voice.
I took off my cloak to catch them off guard. I had been getting taller and taller lately, and there were many occasions when they were not on their guard, but they still seemed to be on their guard even when I presented myself as a woman.
I timed my first move so that Radha would disappear into the shadows, but the scout of the [Mercenary of Dawn] was good enough to read my intentions correctly.
“Randy, keep your footsteps quiet. Woman over there, what’s that coming from behind you?”
As I had initially tracked her at a distance of several dozen meters, the distance between me and Radha was about the same, so a whisper would not be a problem.
I gave a small nod to Duncan, who understood the situation and did not let his companion make any sound, then asked in a low voice as he looked ahead.
“Something lurking in the shadows is following me. At first, I was hiding using Concealment to see if it was targeting someone else, but it continued to move along with me, so I thought you guys might be the ones it was after, so I had to call out to you.”
“You… you were following us?”
“I’m sorry. I’m in the middle of something, and I wanted to reach the 5th floor…. and because I don’t have enough money to pay you.”
“Don’t speak so loudly. I don’t care about the money, but… what do you want?”
“This girl has a fighting strength of about 200, so she’s not strong enough to trick us into doing anything.”
Glenda, who had apparently appraised me, whispered this to Daggart in a small voice.
“How about it, Duncan. Is there really something out there?”
Daggart’s doubtful voice gave Duncan a hint of concentration.
“There’s nothing… no, wait, there really is something.”
They were really good… weren’t they?
It was not easy to find Radha’s presence in the darkness, even I, myself, could only feel a sense of discomfort reminding me that she was there.
Instantly alerted, they understood my intentions and immediately took action.
At the same time, I was horrified by the power of the Rank 4 party, but also impressed by Dino’s shrewdness in asking my Master to take care of them, considering the damage that would be done to the guild members if they were confronted with them.
“Maybe it’s that pursuer of yours? If so, he’s our enemy.”
Randy muttered as he made loud footsteps, and I felt Daggart’s wariness of me fade.
“Yeah, you’re right, I guess I wouldn’t suspect a cute little girl, would I?”
Duncan and Randy laughed slightly at Daggart’s joking words, and Glenda glanced at me lightly, as if sulking.
“So what are we going to do about that?”
“Well… Duncan, do you know where the bastard is hiding?”
“No, I’m not exactly sure yet. How about you?”
Duncan recognized me as an adventurer scout and asked my opinion.
“They seem to be hiding, and I could only reveal it for a few seconds, but I can somewhat tell when it’s time to strike. Would you like me to attack it with my magic?”
“You’re a magician, huh…?”
“I’ll leave it to you then, Glenda, Duncan, get ready.”
At the sound of Daggart’s quiet reminder, Glenda gripped her staff and Duncan readied his bow.
They really were good at what they did. Glenda and Duncan set the trap without Radha’s notice.
“Ten seconds later… here we go.”
I concentrated my mind as I chanted a magic spell, more than half of the spell consisted of dark magic.
It was the first time I used it, but I had checked the composition many times and confirmed that it would be activated until the halfway point. The reason I didn’t activate it until the end was because I was suppressing my level from increasing.
“–Shadow Snatch –“
With this the blade would cut through the shadows and snatched away the opponent’s power.
In the magic I had chanted as I continued to walk, a small “darkness” was created from the shadow of my clenched palm.
I tossed it so that it floated behind me, and timed my walk to exactly ten seconds, I threw the darkness at the shadow beneath my feet.
This was an application of the dark magic Shadow Walk that Radha used.
Radha’s Shadow Walk was powerful magic, but from my point of view, it had fatal flaws. One of them was the large amount of magic power consumed, which Radha suppressed by keeping it in a standby state, but this made it impossible to use any other magic.
And the biggest problem was that while crossing the shadows, she would be cut off from outside information.
If it were an assassination attempt from a surprise attack, there would be no problem, but in a direct fight like this, that few seconds of information blackout would be fatal, and if the target could determine when and where the assassin would come out, it would be a fatal gap.
Therefore, she would only be able to cross the shadows with her weapon to reduce consumption and avoid the information cutoff.
Thanks to this, [Shadow Walking], which was Level 4 dark magic, became equivalent to Level 3, and the consumption of magic power was reduced to about one-tenth.
[What?]
The attack hit the throat area, which I had been aiming for.
Radha, caught off guard in an absolute safe zone, became confused and jumped out of the shadows to avoid further attacks.
In this state, I could have landed another attack, but instead, I turned around to show the others that the trap was triggered, and was followed by Glenda’s magic and Duncan’s arrows piercing Radha’s torso.
The Shadow Snatch was still difficult to control, but I could keep it up for about five seconds. The remaining Darkness slipped to the floor, and the projectile was thrown under Radha’s feet again, piercing her face directly.
“…”
Radha’s eyes, colored with astonishment, reflected me as she fell to the ground. Still alive… but she was bound to die here.
As the arrow flew from Duncan again and pierced Radha’s head, confirming that the killing blow had been made, and the darkness disappeared, I had the sensation that something had grown inside me and my magical power and strength had increased.
[Aria(Alicia)] [Race: Human Female] [Rank 3] 1Up
[Magic: 135/210] 30Up [Strength: 141/148] 3Up
[Strength: 7(9)] 1Up [Endurance: 7(9)] [Agility: 11(14)] 1Up [Dexterity: 8]
[Short Sword Technique Lv.2] [Taijutsu Lv.3] 1Up [Throwing Lv.2] [Thread Manipulation Lv.2]
[Light Magic Lv.2] [Dark Magic Lv.3] 1Up [Non-Attribute Magic Lv.3] 1Up
[Life Magic x 6] [Magic Control Lv.3] [Intimidate Lv.3]
[Concealment Lv.3] [Dark Vision Lv.2] [Detection Lv.3] [Poison Resistance Lv.2]
[Simple Appraisal]
[Total Combat Power: 403 (With Physical Enhancements: 473)] 187Up
Levels had been raised as planned…this would work.
The men breathed a sigh of relief as Radha stopped breathing, and Glenda, the sorceress, turned to me excitedly.
“What is that magic? I’ve never seen that before! How did you do that? Tell me!”
“Oh, yes. Oh, that’s a nice necklace…”
Glenda smiled proudly, though she looked at me for a moment as I complimented her on the pendant that fell from her large, bouncy bosom.
“You know what I mean? It’s nice, isn’t it? It’s made of a gem called Tears of the Spirit, and I liked it so much I begged Daggart to give it to me! Hey, tell me about the magic you just did, and I’ll show you the necklace later!”
“Yes, sure.”
I smiled at the stolen goods shaking in front of me and pointed my right palm upward at Glenda.
Normally, it was against the law to ask another adventurer about his or her handiwork. But they were so relieved to have defeated the assassin that they left Glenda alone with a wry smile on their faces.
“Shadow Snatch…”
Glenda peeked at me excitedly as I created a small darkness in the palm of my hand by invoking dark magic.
“How can you attack with this?”
“Oh…ah!
“…Ah?”
At that moment, the tiny crossbow gimmick in the left hand shot out an arrow, which was sucked into the shadow and penetrated Glenda’s eyes to her brain as she peered into the darkness.
Glenda’s remaining wide-open eyes reflected my expressionless face as she quietly collapsed.
Three more left.
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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