Mills Ruins raid begins
The entrance of the ruins were surrounded by fences .
It seems that the most of the ruins everywhere were managed .
Mills Ruins is managed by the marquis too . ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ novel·fire·net
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 . ]
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 .
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 .
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 . ]
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...
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!]
A protrusion came out from the side of my neck .
Pigimaru cried out as if he’s saying that .
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 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 .
The Kogyuuki is charging towards me .
I reached out my hand on his direction in response .
[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 .
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 , 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 .