"What's this, you know the guy?"
The first to speak up was the man with the bushy beard. Was his name Paros?
It was a natural enough reaction.
She had shoved the door wide open with a rough motion to step inside, only to freeze as she looked at me.
However, her gaze lingered on me only briefly, and soon recovering her usual expression, she answered casually.
"...No. He just looks like a rookie who doesn't belong on this commission."
"Hmm."
Nodding as if he had figured as much, the man shrugged his shoulders.
"Says he's confident in himself. Claims he's been to Parnil Forest before, too."
"...Is that so?"
"Well, having more people doesn't hurt, right?"
Her lips twitched briefly as if she were about to say something, but she soon shook her head. Now that the discussion was already settled, she seemed to figure there was no point in chiming in.
We had had a minor difference of opinion at the shop a few days ago, sure, and in the first place, she probably had no idea what kind of person I was either.
"Anyway, it's been a while since we last saw each other, so come over here and have a drink first."
Looking at the bearded man casually raising his beer mug, she frowned slightly.
"I have no intention of squeezing in among smelly men to guzzle booze in broad daylight. Quit wasting time and start the briefing."
Cold words. Yet no one flared up at her. They seemed to know her personality well enough.
"Tsk. That temper of yours."
Shaking his head, Paros downed the remaining half of his beer in one gulp and wiped the foam from his beard.
"All right. Since everyone's here, I'll start explaining the commission now."
Roughly shoving aside the plates on the table, he pulled out a large map.
"Our target location, the cave, is at the western edge of Parnil Forest. The person who first discovered this place was a hunter."
His explanation that followed matched what I already knew.
While chasing a deer, night had fallen, so the hunter had settled down near the cave entrance intending to spend the night. After clearing away the thick brush overgrowing and hiding the entrance, he had discovered unfamiliar letters engraved on the inner wall of the cave.
"And he reported the place to the Adventurers' Guild right away?"
"Yeah. You could call it a smart call."
A cave giving off an eerie air. Ominous drawings and writing covering the walls.
Instinctively realizing it was beyond what he could handle, the hunter had decided to hand over the information about the cave to the Adventurers' Guild in exchange for a bit of pocket change.
"A few scouts from the guild investigated the cave entrance, and they said they felt faint waves of mana coming from it. It's definitely no ordinary cave."
"So there's a high chance it's a dungeon?"
"As things stand."
Words passed back and forth quickly. Of course, I already knew that this cave was a dungeon hiding ancient ruins.
On top of that, I knew what kinds of traps were waiting for the adventurers inside, too.
"Hmm. The very first entry into a dungeon, huh... That's gonna be dangerous."
The adventurers' reaction made sense.
Even in a low-difficulty dungeon, the first entrants going in without prior information were bound to suffer unavoidable losses and casualties.
"..."
I felt the gazes of several adventurers brush briefly past me. Guessing what they were thinking wasn't hard.
They were probably figuring that in a worst-case scenario, they could use a rookie adventurer like me as a meat shield.
From my perspective, knowing every last trap in advance, I figured it might turn out the other way around, though.
"And of all places, it's in Parnil Forest. With all the Red-Maned Wolves and Great-Horned Black Bears around there, it's a pretty tricky spot."
A newly discovered dungeon and a troublesome location.
That was the reason most of the adventurers gathered here consisted of experienced veterans.
"Looks like that's everything we need to know. When do we leave?"
At the female adventurer Renia's question, Paros shrugged and answered.
"No reason to drag it out. Let's head out at dawn tomorrow."
"Sounds good."
Heads nodded in agreement here and there. As befitted a conversation among veterans, there was no wasted time.
I was all for an early departure myself.
"All right, then let's finish off the rest of the booze. Be a waste to throw it out."
"I'll be heading out first."
Aside from Renia, who was the very first to get up and leave, the remaining adventurers went back to drinking their dark beer.
Since I had no particular desire to linger here either, I brushed past the chatter of the men around me and rose from my seat.
And the moment I stepped out of the tavern to return to the inn where I was staying—
"Hey."
A low voice came from a short distance away. It was Renia.
She walked up with a displeased look on her face. She seemed to have something to say.
Is she about to give me an earful for not listening to her advice back at the shop?
"Just drop out."
"...?"
Sudden words. Before I could even answer, she kept going.
"Bail before we leave or whatever. Don't come along and get in the way."
Ah. So that was it.
I smiled bitterly inside.
She seemed to have judged that a clueless newbie running on sheer enthusiasm might get in the way of a dungeon raid that required cautious progress.
Or else she figured a novice adventurer like me would surely never make it out of the cave dungeon in Parnil Forest alive.
Either way, sure, there was no reason for me to meekly comply. Nor did I want to explain my circumstances in detail.
"I formally took the commission from the guild, and everyone agreed to it. I don't think it's something for you to tell me what to do about."
"What?"
Her face twisted at my reply. Looking as if she were holding back her anger by force, she glared at me.
"...Damn it. Do whatever you want, then."
With that, the brief conversation ended. Whipping around, she quickly vanished between the buildings.
Well, it wasn't anything for me to worry about any further. Thinking about tomorrow's departure, I felt the cool metal of the Hand Cannon inside my pocket and headed back to the inn.
Our departure began right before sunrise. Parnil Forest was located quite far from the city.
The forest we arrived at after roughly four days of travel was exceedingly dense.
"Here, everyone take some and sprinkle it on."
The bearded man in the lead—Paros—passed a small leather pouch toward the back.
It was a powder that was nearly odorless to humans, but carried a scent that the fierce beasts of the forest hated.
After grabbing a handful of the white powder inside and sprinkling it all over our bodies, we pressed on toward the western side of the forest.
True to form for such rugged woods, there was no proper trail, so we even had to camp for a night, but as befitted a party of seasoned adventurers, we managed to reach the front of the cave without any real fighting.
"There it is."
Beyond the vines burned away with fire, the entrance of the cave came into view. Roughly propped up there out of tree branches was a guild marker left behind by the advance scouts.
SHING— Several members drew their swords, while those in the lead lit the prepared torches.
"Let's head inside slowly."
Even though it was broad daylight outside, the interior darkened at once. Holding torches, the adventurers stepped forward cautiously.
Our pace wasn't fast.
Because no one knew what traps might lie ahead.
Nobody spoke a word. Everyone simply took slow steps forward with tense expressions.
My feelings, however, were a bit different.
'It should be coming up any moment now.'
I already knew the traps in this dungeon.
Sure, there was a big difference between experiencing it through a screen and walking through an actual cave, but as I had experienced several times before, my senses—which had grown strangely sharp and keen once my internal mana became infinite—practically erased that gap.
"Wait. Everyone, hold up."
"...!"
My words rang out abruptly in the middle of our quiet advance. Startled, everyone looked back my way.
"What is it all of a sudden?"
"Unless you're certain there's a trap, you don't just halt the vanguard during an exploration. Looks like you don't know better since you're a rookie—"
Ignoring the men's words, I raised my hand and pointed ahead.
"The floor up ahead. Given how the color is subtly different, it looks like a trap."
"..."
"...?"
Words no one had expected. Everyone's eyes followed my pointing finger.
And then their gazes stopped.
When the man in the lead turned up his torch and held it close to the ground, the floor came into much clearer view.
Just as I said, the color of a specific section of the cave floor was subtly different. Almost as if it had been made from a different material.
"...Good heavens. It really is."
"Huh..."
Murmurs of admiration broke out. Paros looked at me as if he hadn't expected this at all.
"How did you spot that?"
It was the kind of trap that was easy to see once you knew it was there, but hard to spot first.
Dark surroundings, plus dirt, dust, and pebbles. Surprise filled his eyes as he looked at me for catching a discrepancy barely distinguishable while on the move.
"I have pretty good eyes."
A simple answer. Disbelief surfaced on the faces of several adventurers.
"Huh."
"...You spotted that just because you have good eyes?"
Standing a short distance away, Renia was looking at me with a rather flustered expression as well.
Naturally, no one harbored any needless suspicions.
The Adventurers' Guild had already confirmed that no one had entered this dungeon before us, after all.
"All right. Let's move around that spot, then."
Skirting that specific section, we resumed our advance. Once we safely passed the trap, relief settled onto everyone's faces.
No surprise there.
Three or four people in the lead had nearly walked right into the trap without a chance to dodge, after all.
I, on the other hand, didn't feel any particular relief or joy.
The reason I had pointed out the trap wasn't to show off my knowledge or out of altruism.
To deal with the situation waiting for us further ahead, I needed as many people alive as possible.
'Going by the distance we've walked, it should be about an hour from now.'
A rough calculation. Even as we resumed moving, I calmly examined the surrounding terrain.
And once about an hour had passed since we set off again—
"Wait, everyone halt."
At the front, Paros stopped in his tracks with a grim expression.
SWISH—
A torch lit up the space ahead.
On one side of the quiet, pitch-dark cave, suspicious traces remained on the ground.
Clumps clearly distinct from ordinary dirt or stone. They were droppings left by living creatures.
And the chance of a docile herbivore living inside a cave—especially a dungeon—was close to zero.
That meant only one thing.
"Fuck, monsters!"
At the same time, screeching sounds echoed out. Far off in the darkness, glowing red eyes rose into view.