Chapter 52: Mills Ruins Raid Begins
The entrance of the ruins were surrounded by fences.
It seems that the most of the ruins everywhere were managed like this. Mills Ruins is managed like this by the marquis too. There was a building erected near the ruins. It looks like a tiny fortress. The people who looks like they’re the ones managing the ruins is going in and out of the building. Most of them were armed. It is said that they also are preventing monsters from breaking out of the ruins.
[Speaking of which, isn’t the Marquis going to send his own soldier to raid this ruins himself?]
Before I entered the ruins, I asked that question to the officer who is in-charge of checking of luggage.
[There are some mercenaries that may be recruited by Creed-sama as his private soldiers. For the mercenaries that had went here, this ruins raid is a great way for them to appeal for him to recruit them.]
A rootless mercenary. The private soldier of a noble family. If people would get to choose, most of them would want the latter.
[Most of all, raiding the new floor of the ruins is also accompanied by danger. Creed-sama doesn’t want to lose his private soldiers that he’s already familiar with as much as possible.]
That means that these mercenaries that they’re sending were just disposable pawns, huh… I was honestly impressed.
[You’re a man who sees through what’s hidden beneath the surface huh.] [W-Well yeah.]
An officer who doesn’t have a remarkable face. He’s trying to suppress his face from slacking. There are some people who act sloppy after being praised. Just like Oyamada when he was praised by the goddess. The check officer glances around the surrounding area. The officer then softly whispers.
[I’ll only tell you this, okay? Actually, you could make lots of money if you sell something like a map of the ruins that you had created or the information on where the monsters live. Creed-sama will buy it later. Well, it’s basically first-come, first-served so you have to be fast when you want to sell these information.]
He talked about a way to make money behind the scenes huh… I feel that I can now understand how their system works. They would first send mercenaries as the advance party in that new floor. They would then try to obtain the information about the new floor from the mercenaries. The strong monsters were being defeated by skillful mercenaries. These things would ensure the safety of the raid as much as possible. Later, the marquis would send his private soldiers to search for the next floor. And if they had found another new floor again, then another set of mercenary recruitment would happen again. A well done plan.
[Hmm? What’s this?]
The officer found Pigimaru in his crystal form.
[It’s a tool for my business. Though I’d like to say that, I’m just in the stage where I still think that “It would be nice if I could get used to using this in the future.”… I’m still a novice when it comes to this.]
I said it as shy as possible.
[An apprentice fortune teller huh? You’re quite multi-talented. Good luck with that.] [Thank you very much.]
The crystallized Pigimaru passed through the check easily. The last process they conducted is a body check from the neck down. I’ve also passed through this without any problem. By the way, a man is in charge of checking a man while a woman is in charge to a woman. It seems that they put some considerations in this. The officer in charge finally completes the process of registry.
[Be careful in there.] [Thank you also for that valuable information.]
While I was being checked, I’ve also gained some more information. When I asked about the other mercenaries, he said that most of them were impertinent people. Some of them just openly looks down on others. That’s why I feel that it’s a good idea that I acted low-key earlier.
I touched the walls of the ruins.
[It seems that I won’t be needing the light from my leather bag while I’m here in the upper floors.]
There are some stones that were buried in the walls that lightly glows. It seems that it wouldn’t be necessary to use a torch in this floor.
An underground pyroxene.
When you dig them out of the wall, they would lose their light. It is said that they would lose their light even if you remove all of the surrounding walls. I heard that they also don’t know the principle of why this happens. These pyroxenes weren’t even spread out through all the floors. Therefore, you would still need sufficient lighting in those areas and the deeper parts where these pyroxenes don’t exist. These were some information that I had also heard from that officer.
[Burrgguuaaahhh!!!]
A monster’s roar. Coming from deep within one of the passages, I saw mercenaries running away.
[Hiiiii! It’s a Kogyuuki! There’s no information about this monster being here before! It probably came out of the new floor!] [They have just discovered the new floor, it’s still disadvantageous to those who goes in first.] [Run away~!]
A small monster that looks like it’s the mixture of a cow and a human chased those mercenaries. They kind of reminds me of those Minotaurus in the Disposal Ruins. This one looks like it’s a small version of that Minotaurus. They have the same golden eye. However, their intimidating aura was quite thinner. Compared to those Minotaurus that I had faced before, as expected…
[Guaa— Bumomooooo?]
It seem that this Kogyuuki noticed me. He turned his body in my direction. It seems that he switched his target towards me.
[Bururuuuu! Buu— guuuauaahhh!]
Nyorori~
A protrusion came out from the side of my neck.
[Pii!]
“It’s coming!”
Pigimaru cried out as if he’s saying that.
[Yeah, I know.]
Today’s Pigimaru looks fired up as he cried out while he’s acting as my lookout. Are you trying to make up for your loss at that time when I was intruded while I was bathing? I don’t think that focusing on loss is that good of a goal but… Well, it’s good that he’s fired up about something.
[Burumoooooohhh!!!]
The Kogyuuki is charging towards me. I reached out my hand on his direction in response.
[
]
Pishi~ Piki—
[Bubuuooo!? Bu…. moomoooo….?] [
]
Paralysis and poison successfully invoked. I pull out the dagger from my waist. I tried to stab the blade against the skin of the monster.
Gusa~
[Buuumooo!]
I can feel that the blade as it buried through its flesh. It’s sticking through his flesh. I pull out the knife.
[As I thought, it’s just that the skin of the monsters in that Disposal Ruins were too tough…]
At least against a monster like this, the sharpness of this dagger is enough to pierce through their skin. It seems that I can use this to peel off its skin as a material. No other mercenaries appeared while I’m waiting for this Kogyuuki to die. After a moment, the Kogyuuki finally dies. My level still didn’t rise. Although I had already expected it, the amount of experience that I get here seems to be low. No, it’s probably just the monsters in the Disposal Ruins give out too many experience points. I promptly left the place. A little later, I felt presences from my back as they approached and their voices called out to me.
[O- Over there! That’s where that Kogyuuki went! We’ll leave it to you!] [Yeah, leave it to me!] [Damn it! This is why I don’t like raiding a ruin after a new floor were just discovered!] [We can’t help it! After the discovery of a new floor, new monsters who reside in that floor would come out after a while!] [Though you said that, only those who get in there first would have higher chance to obtain the treasures! Thank you for your help here, but we’re going in first–!
I turned to a corner without worrying about them. Those several presences stopped behind the corner, near where I had left the Kogyuuki’s corpse.
[I- It’s already dead…]] [It looks like other mercenaries has already defeated it.] [How should I say this… There’s no wound on its body though? Did he defeat it by using a technique? I can’t find anything that had changed from this corpse…] [Don’t you feel that its skin is subtly discolored?] [No way… Don’t tell me that’s the rumored sorcery that I heard recently?] [No, wait. If you look at it closely, there is a wound in here.] [This wound, I think it’s from a dagger…?] [Wow!? It’s just one stab from a dagger!? Against a Kogyuuki!? How skillful is he!?]
It didn’t die from the stab of a dagger though.
[……….]
I decided to quickly descend to the next floor.
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