Hard Passage
A week had passed since we began our exploration of the Barabdd mountains.
While we did take a break day in between as well, still, even after a week, we had yet to find any signs of the Cave of Bahamut and were starting to struggle with the exploration.
The thick miasma that spread every eight hours was turning out to be a lot more annoying than I imagined, and while when we started the exploration I thought the intervals were big enough to not be an issue but………
Considering we had to make it back to the safe zone everytime within that period, it was hard to get any decent amount of exploration done, and because of that, our progress had been far worse than I had originally expected.
If we were simply aiming for the summit, 4 hours was more than enough but, considering we had to explore the entirety of the middle section of the mountains as well, this amount of time was simply not enough.
The harsh cold reality of the situation had been made very clear to me during this past week.
Which meant, there was only one choice left for us……..
While once again hiding in the relay point safe zone in the middle of the mountains that we had become quite familiar with now, I made a certain suggestion to Ralf and Esta.
“Ralf, Esta, I have a suggestion to make, mind listening?”
“Sure, what is it, all of a sudden?”
“I’m thinking we should stop coming here to hide during the thick miasma. Honestly, because of how much time the to-and-fro constantly takes, our exploration is not making any progress.”
When I said that to the two, they showed a grim expression and stayed silent.
The middle section of the mountain was already abnormally dense with the number of monsters you would encounter, and add to that the miasma, and it would become almost unimaginable.
So I understood why they were both hesitant but……….if we don’t take a bold step here, the situation was only going to get worse.
“I’m not sure if we could really handle the monsters during the thick miasma but……….you’re right, we’re certainly not going to be finding anything the way we are progressing right now.”
“To be honest, the same thought had been appearing in my mind as well. I imagine it will be extremely tough but, if we don’t try, we might spend a lifetime here in these mountains and still not find out where the Cave of Bahamut is.”
“Pretty much. For now, let’s wait for the miasma to get thick around the safe zone, and then go out and do a test run to see how well we can handle the monsters during this time.”
“And if it looks like we can manage, we’ll continue exploring, is that it eh!”
“Yes, and if it seems impossible, we’ll halt the exploration of the Barbadd mountains for now, and instead we’ll focus on improving our individual abilities instead.”
“I agree with this plan. We have been getting used to constantly being in the miasma anyway, and Chris-san’s [Sticky String Manipulation] has been very effective so I think the chances of us being able to handle even the thick miasma is quite high.”
“Yep, I’m in favour as well! In the first place, if we don’t get used to the thick miasma, how are we ever going to explore the actual Cave of Bahamut itself anyway? Honestly, makes you wonder why we’d been hiding until now!”
Excellent.
I have the agreement from both of them, so now we can start exploring even during the thick miasma.
First, we’ll wait for the next wave of miasma around this area, and test our strength while being close enough to this safe zone so that we can run away in case things go wrong.
By the way, there is almost zero info when it comes to these thick miasma phases and no one knows what kind of monsters show up here or how strong they might be.
Thinking of it another way, one might say that no one has ever survived facing the thick miasma and then lived to spread the info, so I was already aware of how dangerous things might get.
“Chris-san, I think it’s about time, the miasma sets in.”
“Alright, everyone, take formation and let’s head outside.”
I gave a quick order, and we left the safe zone with Ralf as our vanguard as always.
We had walked through this path multiple times this week but, this time because of the miasma, the colour of our surroundings looked very different……….making it all seem very eerie.
We hadn’t seen any monster yet, and it was that weird gap where the miasma had only just turned thick but the effects had not yet begun to show.
As we waited in an open area for the monsters to start showing up, soon enough, slightly away from us, monsters began to spawn rapidly.
The first monster that showed up was, a small humanoid monster——–a goblin.
But it was not a normal goblin. It’s skin was a darkened black colour and looked oddly muscular.
In its hands was a sword the size of its entire body, and it also had a shield hanging from its back.
And perhaps the biggest difference was the fact that it was wearing what looked like black-coloured cap.
I think I had heard of these from Bors-san some time ago, this goblin was considered the highest in the species ranking, a Black Cap.
It was very obvious that this was no ordinary goblin, but was the strongest type of goblin that had killed countless adventurers.
And now, 10 of those Black Caps had spawned in front of us.
“Are those………Goblins? Aren’t goblins weaker than the Blue Ogres that we fought at the foot of the mountain?”
“No, these aren’t normal goblins. They are the strongest of its kind, the Black Caps. They are hard to hit because of their small bodies and are extremely agile, so do not underestimate them for even a second.”
“This is the first time I have heard of them.——— From here on, I will also actively take part in battles. If they are really so agile, then I’ll focus on dulling their movements, and once they are stopped, Chris-san, and Snow should deliver the killing blows.”
“Got it. We’ll follow your lead Esta.”
“Then, I’ll draw the aggro from all of them on me as always! From here on out, there’s no more holding back!”
Seeing the Black Caps, both Ralf and Esta were fired up as well.
Until now we had been focusing on different duties as we explored but, from here onwards, all of us will focus entirely on killing the monsters in front of us and nothing else.
I suppose I’ll also stop thinking about saving stamina, and go wild on these damn monsters eh.