You didn’t expect I would continue this right?
Chapter 5: The beginning of a new uproar
Part II
“Now, we will conduct another in-depth investigation. Starting now, I will be issuing orders as your captain, so please follow them! In particular, the search team and Ryoji of the escort team will be detained and punished if they don’t follow my instructions, so don’t forget that!”
The leader of the search team, Reynold Nosuke, answered on behalf of the team.
“Of course. I’ll follow the squad leader’s instructions. Ryoji-san. Thank you for staying with us. Thanks to you, my fear of exploring the depths has lessened. Now we can use our brains without worry. Also, I will put all my trust in you in the cave and we will concentrate on our investigation.”
Reynold bowed deeply to his escort of adventurers and garrison soldiers and began to reminisce about the past.
“We were told that we were child prodigies, geniuses, and pioneers of the future, and our senses must have become numb. That’s exactly what we thought, ‘It’s only natural to protect us because we were chosen’. It was Ryoji-san who gave us a sense of crisis when we had such a conceited feeling.”
The scholars of the search team bowed their heads to Ryoji. Ryoji, who had been watching the scene, nodded deeply, and Reynold continued.
“We were impressed by Ruoji-san who said ‘If you bring discord to the deep probe, you won’t make it out alive. First, you have to let go of your arrogance,’ on our behalf. The training was also refreshing. Only by working on our own can we improve the overall efficiency. If we put our humility on full display, we can achieve the maximum and best results. I will not forget this, and we will remain humble after we return to Royal Capital.”
When Reynold finished speaking, Ryoji began to applaud loudly.
“That’s right! That’s what I’ve been trying to get you to realize!”
“You’re lying! You said earlier that you were doing it because ‘it sounded interesting’!”
“Hey! Marco, don’t tell anyone!”
Ryoji and Marco’s comedic banter made everyone laugh, and the awkward atmosphere of earlier days vanished as if it were a lie, and after reconfirming the precautions taken by the captain, the deep investigation began.
At the entrance of the Cave of Trials, there was nothing unusual, and at first glance, it looked peaceful with few monsters. However, the moment they entered the deepest part of the cave, the atmosphere surrounding the area changed drastically.
“What? This feeling?”
Ryoji muttered, and one of the scholars began to explain.
“It is said that the reason why the air changes when you enter the depths is because the walls of the depths are made of ore that emits the presence of monsters. But we don’t really know anything about it. Even if the ore is collected and brought back, it can only be appraised as plain iron ore.”
“Eh? Is this iron ore? Can you wait a moment?”
After receiving permission from the captain, Ryoji picked up a stone lying nearby and used his skills to extract it.
“It’s definitely iron ore. It’s a good iron ore that contains a lot of iron. I think we should mine it here, but we couldn’t because of the Bull-man?”
“Hey. Could you wait a minute? What did you do?”
Marco, who was watching Ryoji’s work, asked with a puzzled expression.
“What? I just took the iron out of the iron ore, you know?”
As he looked around while answering Marco’s question, the captain, Marco, and the six scholars of the search team, excluding those who had left the area for security were looking at Ryoji and the spherical iron on his right hand in turn, stunned.
(Come to think of it, I didn’t know about the extraction methods in this world. Don’t they use magic to extract it or something?)
“Huh? In my country, we used to use this for extraction, right? Is it different in this country?”
“What’s going on in your country? At least in my country, no one uses magic to extract anything. We’re using blast furnaces to make iron.”
“That’s true. I’d like for you to come to the capital and teach us how to do it now, Ryoji-san.”
When he saw Marco’s dumbfounded face and Reynold, whose face was nearly touching his cheek, he realized that he had gone too far, and Ryoji let out a chuckle.
“Let’s take a break here. Team 1 and Team 2, take a look around! Ryoji’s team will prepare the meal. Other than that, the rest of the team and the search team will rest! But stay alert and be ready for anything!”
Upon hearing the commander’s signal to take a break, Ryoji used earth magic to prepare chairs and desks for the number of people who would be eating, then took hot soup and drinks out of storage and laid out sandwiches and hamburgers for immediate consumption.
“Those who are ready to eat, come over here. I’ll have you wash your hands with water magic. What? What’s wrong? Let’s eat quickly.”
When the meal was ready, he produced the water ball in a fixed position and called out to everyone, but no one came to Ryoji. He looked around with a suspicious expression and saw Marco and the troop leader with resigned faces. As the search team began to argue, he saw the rest of the escort party frozen with astonished expressions. In the midst of this, Marco let out a sigh and answered on behalf of the team.
“Ryoji. I already told you to use that mysterious magic after I explained it to you. It may be common sense in your country, but it’s a bunch of nonsense over here! Pull yourself together a little.”
“Anyone can do it if they know how right?”
“No one knows how to do that!”
Except for Marco and the captain, he informed the search team and the escort party that the hygiene method was based on water magic. The escort party was pleased to hear that it could also be used as drinking water and that they would not have to carry as much water with them, and the search team asked him to teach them the method after the deep investigation as they wanted to find out the principle.
After Ryoji taught the party how to use water magic to maintain hygiene, the period of absence from work due to injuries was reduced and the party was able to fulfill their requests. Later, the party became famous in Drugul. The scholars of the exploration team helped to spread the hygiene methods to adventurers by making procedures of how to do it, which greatly reduced the mortality rate from injuries and disease infection.
Ryoji and his team’s deep-searching progressed smoothly, and they were nearing the deepest part of the area, which was said to have been surveyed a long time ago.
“There are fewer monsters than we expected, aren’t there?”
Marco replied to Ryoji’s question while drinking water from his canteen.
“Ahh. That’s right. I’m not sure if the number and quality of the monsters are the same as near the entrance to the depths. What do the scholars think?”
“We are of the same thought. There’s not much information yet, so we can’t tell. By the way, what is the situation with the stone that we can’t feel the presence of monsters?”
Reynold asks on behalf of the search team after Marco brings up the topic.
“Isn’t the current situation particularly different? Without someone like me or Carena who can spot the enemy, we’d probably be exhausted from the mere presence of the monsters, wouldn’t we? The only signs right now are those of the monsters that attacked us. But you can rest assured that there are no monsters nearby. “
“Is Ryoji-san’s scouting ability spirit magic like Carena-san’s? Or is it something specific to your Nation?”
After receiving a curious question from Reynold, Ryoji was thinking about how to answer, but he couldn’t talk about the interface and decided to deceive him.
“I can’t teach you this because it’s a secret technique passed down in our family. It’s not like anyone can do it. I’ll teach you what I can, but please don’t pry into this matter too much.”
“I understand. There are many things that Ryoji-san taught me that defy our common sense. More than you think, the information you’ve given us is on a scale that could move the nation.”
“I hope it’s useful. The Uchino family’s motto is ‘Rather than regret not doing something, do it and then regret it.” I will continue to share my knowledge and experience with you. There are things I can’t tell you, though.”
After being told by Reynold in a serious tone with a smile on his face, Ryoji replied, feeling that he was going in the direction that Iorus wanted.
In the meantime, not only Reynold, but also Marco, the captain of the troop, and the other adventurers nearby were listening to Ryoji, hoping to gain as much unknown knowledge and experience as possible from him.
“This is the deepest part.”
When the group arrived at the deepest part of the square, they took a break to investigate the area. The plaza was about the same size as the one where Bull-man had been, but there were no monsters and nothing unusual was going on.
“There was no sign of any change, just like the last report. I wonder if it was a waste of time to have the Scholars come?”
Ryoji spoke up when they were all about to nod in agreement to Carena’s words.
“I’m not sure. There seems to be another passage in the back, should we investigate?”
“What? What? A passage in the back? Where is it? Doesn’t it look like an empty square?”
Ryoji approached the wall while hearing Carena’s behind his back and entered it without a second thought. Everyone looked at him as if he had just vanished, but when he emerged from the wall again, they breathed a sigh of relief and approached.
“How did you know there was a hidden passage here?”
“Years of experience?”
“How many years of experience does an eleven-year-old kid have! If you don’t want to talk about it, just say so!”
“As always, it’s a great tsukkomi!”
Laughing at Marco’s snarky tone, Ryoji suggested that the captain have a meeting after the break.
“So, what do we do? Shall we continue on?”
“We’d prefer to go deeper. We’ve come this far and we’re about to get more information, how can we just turn a blind eye?”
Reynold spoke with excitement, but Marco and some of the escort party voiced their opposition.
“I’m against it. As soon as we found the deepest part, we had accomplished our mission. Why don’t we just take that as a souvenir and go home? I don’t agree with rushing in when we don’t even know what’s going on in the depths. This party is only organized in anticipation of reaching the deepest part.”
“I agree with Marco-san. And our wizards want to study the ores that have a hint of monsters. However, the potion that Ryoji gave out a while ago has helped a lot with the recovery.”
While listening to both opinions, the captain was troubled. The search went smoothly. Not a single person was injured. Marco, Carena, and Ryoji were all in perfect shape. And the scholars wanted to go deeper.
He was also curious to see what was going on in the deeper parts. And if he could find out more about it, he thought, it would be helpful in constructing a future defense line.
“Okay. Let’s go a little further. From here, we will need to do some mapping, so can we ask Carena-san to help us?”
“I understand. I’ll do my best with the spirits, and you can expect a detailed map.”
After listening to Carena’s reassuring words, the troop leader nodded vigorously and gave orders to the teams regarding their future actions.
“I’m going to reorganize the teams. Marco, Team 2, and Team 5 will secure the square as a base. Team 1, Team 3, and Ryoji will be the advanced team. Give priority to defeating the monsters. Team 4 and Team 6 will act as the rear support team, defending the search team. If something happens to the advance team, evacuate to the base on top priority. In that case, give priority to the search team. The scholars should think about escaping and act accordingly. Good!”
“””Oh!”””
All of them responded to the commander’s call and began to take their own actions.
“The search is going well for now. It’s a bit difficult to tell when things are going too well.”
Relieved that he could afford to joke about it, Ryoji whispered to the captain who was about to give the order to take a break.
“Captain. There’s a square ahead.”
“Why are you whispering?”
“Because there are too many monsters. I think it’s time to retreat. By the way, I think there are about thirty monsters.”
In response to Ryoji’s report, the captain called the entire team together and explained the situation. In the midst of the tension in the group, the commander announced his decision.
“We’re going to proceed for now. But if it looks dangerous, withdraw immediately. The search team must remember that their own safety is the top priority.”
“Carena-san can you use your magic to find out what kind of monsters are in the square ahead?”
When Ryoji asked, Carena turned her eyes to the back, and mumbled a little, and shook her head.
“The spirits are not behaving well. I can tell that there are a lot of monsters.”
“It can’t be helped then. So, let’s proceed with caution and watch out for noises.”
Under the order of the commander, they proceeded for about five minutes before they noticed a light leaking from ahead. A loud sound leaked out from behind the light, and the captain decided that it was safe to get a little closer, so he instructed everyone to be ready to fire their magic immediately and proceeded towards the back.”
“T-This is!”
The number of monsters in the plaza seemed to be about 30. But the captain was shocked when he saw the true nature of the monsters that existed beyond the light. It was because there were three Bull-Men. One of them was a bit bigger than the other two, and his appearance was dignified as if he were a nobleman.
It’s appearance and the aura it exudes. It smells more dangerous than the last Bull-man. The team leader was about to give the signal to retreat. At that moment, a well-built bull-man looked in the direction of Ryoji and the others, brandished a mace-like weapon, and shouted loudly.
“This is not good! They’re on to us! What do we do now?”
As the captain was at a loss for words in response to Ryoji’s question, the well-built Bull-man started shouting something more. As if in response to the shouting, a kind of magic circle began to glow at the back of the square, and demons began to emerge from the magic circle in abundance.
“Thirty more enemies! There’s still a chance they’ll be summoned!”
Ryoji shouted to his troop leader after confirming in the search mode that demons were appearing one after another from the magic circle. After hearing the report, the commander began to issue orders one after another.
Ryoji handed Cozimo’s sword to the captain and Mithril’s bracelet to Carena, while taking out his own staff from storage.
“Take it!”
He used the Lightning-Ball, Fire-Ball, Ice-Ball, Wind-Ball, Earth-Ball, and other spells that he had been practicing in secret. Explosions erupted in the surrounding area, throwing the crowd of frozen demons into chaos.
Ryoji, who had switched to his mithril sword, quickly closed the gap towards one of the Bull-man and performed a sudden diagonal-slash, aiming at the right hand that was holding the weapon. The Bull-man was probably caught off guard. It raised its arm to block Ryoji’s attack with its own body and tried to catch the sword strike.
“Guoooooo!”
A loud shout echoed through the square. The mithril sword, with its double lightning attribute, showed its full potential and sliced off Bull-Man’s right arm. Furthermore, the sword returned the blow and wounded the left leg as well.
The Bull-Man with fatal wounds on his right arm and left leg was flailing on the ground, but Ryoji didn’t pay any attention to it and slashed at the second Bull-Man as if scooping it up.
“Che! You’d better let your guard down too!”
Although he didn’t think he could understand the words, he swore at Bull-Man. Ryouji, who was stopped by a blow from below, took a short pause. Before Bull-Man could take action, he stepped to the right and tried to deliver a right-handed strike, but it was slightly blocked. When he lost his stance to the harder-than-imagined defense, he ended up receiving a blow from the upper level in reverse.
“Ryoji-sama!”
In Carena’s eyes, Ryoji had defeated the first Bull-Man in an instant but was struggling with the second Bull-Man. The first blow was ducked and Ryoji was knocked out of his stance by a sharp uppercut from it. The axe could be seen being sucked into Ryoji’s body.
Just as Carena was about to collapse to her knees, she heard Ryoji’s voice coming from the shadow of the Bull-Man. What her teary eyes saw was a mithril sword sprouting from the back of the Bull-Man.
“That was close. I thought I was going to die!”
Ryoji came out from underneath the Bull-Man, gave a thumbs up to Carena to let her know that he was safe, and then went to the last Bull-Man who was still watching the battle.
—Part II end—
I won’t use MINOTAUR even though it is.
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Thanks for the treat.