"Everyone, prepare for battle!"
An urgent shout. Some fifteen adventurers drew their weapons in unison.
Ordinary longswords, shortswords, or even crossbows.
True to form for freewheeling adventurers, they were all armed differently, yet one thing was clear.
Every single one of them was skilled at handling their weapon.
Battle preparations finished in a flash. In the meantime, monsters were emerging one by one from up ahead.
Red eyes, screeching cries, and small, hunched bodies.
"Goblins! It's Goblins!"
Spotting what the enemies were, Paros shouted urgently. At the same time, three or four adventurers held their loaded crossbows up to the torches.
FWOOSH— The oil-soaked cord wrapped around the tips of the shafts caught fire at once, completing fire arrows.
SWISH— Tearing through the air with a sharp whistle, flames lit up the far side of the cave.
KREEEEK—!
As the flaming arrows flew, the passage lit up in sequence. Well over several dozen Goblins at a rough glance were charging fiercely straight toward us.
"Fire! Keep firing!"
Urgent shouts. Modified for easy reloading, the adventurers' crossbows spat out arrows nonstop.
Goblin carcasses piled up in front of us. Even so, several of them finally crashed into the front ranks of our party.
Beneath the dizzyingly swaying torchlight, a melee broke out. Along with the clash of blades, fierce shouts flew back and forth.
Because our people were mixed in with the enemy, the crossbows couldn't be fired recklessly anymore. I spotted a single Goblin charging straight toward me, too.
Gleaming eyes and sharp teeth bared in a drooling maw.
Its body lunged into the air in an instant. Though small in build, the force behind it was considerable.
Of course, I was already prepared. Lightly pressing the ring on my finger, I drew up my mana at the same time.
VWOOM—!
Reacting right away, a Shield materialized and blocked the space between the Goblin and me.
THUD—
Slamming its entire body headfirst into a solid wall out of nowhere, the Goblin was sent sprawling back with an "Urk!" At the exact same time, an adventurer nearby swung a sword and sent the Goblin's head flying.
"...Not bad."
The one who had delivered the finishing blow was Renia. Readying a thin, rapier-like sword, she glanced my way.
"There's almost zero delay in drawing out the right amount of mana. Did you practice a lot?"
I just did it without any practice or thought, though.
Unlike in the game, where it took a single click of a mouse, activating a ring like this in real life seemed to require a fair bit of practice for beginners.
To me, possessing infinite mana, it was simpler than breathing.
"...Well, more or less."
"Still, you'd better not use that damned Hand Cannon. Unless you want to shrivel up like a mummy and croak on the spot, that is."
"Right. I'll keep that in mind."
Giving a noncommittal reply, I turned back around. The battle wasn't over yet. Goblins were lunging in from all sides.
Because allies and enemies were tangled together, I didn't use Energy Bolt or the Hand Cannon.
Or more accurately, Shield alone was plenty.
A translucent barrier that appeared whenever I pressed the ring and focused my mind briefly. Shields that I could practically conjure endlessly every few seconds—their activation time—popped up here and there, protecting the adventurers.
I couldn't cover everyone, of course, but it was more than enough to tip the flow of the battle in our favor.
After about thirty minutes of fighting, the battle came to an end.
Inside the quieted cave, the adventurers let out ragged breaths.
Two people had lost their lives, but considering we had fought off a horde of Goblins inside a cave, we had held our own remarkably well.
Despite their small, hunched builds, a pack of monsters that packed strength comparable to a grown man's was practically the sworn enemy of adventurers.
After recovering the bodies of the fallen, we observed a brief moment of silence. Shaking off their emotions with practiced familiarity, the adventurers looked at me with newfound respect.
"Your Shield timing was incredible. Is that a support artifact?"
"Mind if I take a look?"
Their eyes had changed. Shrugging my shoulders, I casually showed them the ring on my finger.
There was no reason to hide it. It was an ordinary item you could buy at any magic shop.
"...Wait a minute. That's a mass-produced piece from the Arcada Workshop, isn't it? You spammed this thing like that? Even for me, three or four times in a single battle is the limit."
"Pretty sure I saw him use it well over ten times."
"Did you drink a mana potion or something? Amazing."
Amazed reactions. Several of them seemed to finally realize I hadn't shown confidence in joining this commission for nothing.
"...First off, I think we need to decide where we go from here."
Wrapping up the brief chatter, Paros pointed at the Goblin carcasses and spoke.
"Hmm."
Hearing that, hesitation crept onto the adventurers' faces.
Nine of us remained. The problem, however, was that we had no idea how far this cave stretched.
If it was a place where Goblins lived, there was almost zero chance it was a shallow cave.
"Damn it. It probably stretches at least dozens of times farther than what we've covered so far. Remember that cave in the corner of the Hessen Territory last time? That was a Goblin colony, and the length picked up by detection magic alone was thousands of meters."
"...Hmm."
Groans rose from here and there. Several people were already glancing back toward the entrance as if missing the warm sunlight above ground.
"Damn it. So what, you want to turn back just like this?"
Naturally, there were opposing views too.
"Do you have any idea how many days it took to prepare and travel out here? I even put off a bunch of other jobs because this one was supposed to be a sure thing! Rather than go back empty-handed like this, I'm going all the way to the end."
Opinions split right down the middle. The gap wasn't easily bridged.
What I wanted, naturally, was the latter.
"How about we press on just a little farther?"
I spoke up toward the adventurers fiercely trading arguments.
"No more, no less—just two more hours. We just finished clearing out the Goblins blocking the way ahead, so wouldn't it be a waste to turn back right now?"
Smoothly delivered words of persuasion. Several adventurers slowly nodded.
"Yeah... It definitely would be a waste to just leave. The mana reading from earlier means there's a high chance a relic or treasure is hidden somewhere in this cave."
The mood gradually tilted my way.
Coming all this way and getting nothing out of it would be a considerable loss.
All the more so for adventurers who had to invest over a week in round-trip travel alone.
"All right! Then let's go for just two more hours."
After a bit of back-and-forth, the conclusion reached was satisfactory. That was thanks to my say carrying more weight after my standout performance in the fight just now.
After dividing up the gear of our fallen comrades appropriately, we moved deeper into the cave once more.
Just as the experienced adventurers had guessed, the actual length of this cave was considerable.
Forget two hours—even if you invested two full days, it was questionable whether you would reach the very end.
However, I had a special reason for suggesting two hours.
A shortcut.
A trick I had figured out after multiple playthroughs that bypassed the long, tedious traps and monsters to reach the end of the dungeon right away.
"Wait. I see something up ahead."
After we had traveled for well over an hour, one of the adventurers in the lead stopped in his tracks.
Wondering if it might be more Goblins, he cautiously raised his torch. Holding a small shard of mirror at an angle, he reflected the light forward.
And what came into view was—
"...!"
"T-Treasure!"
Dust-covered statues, a handful of gold and silver coins, and pieces of metal lay scattered across the floor.
Urgent cries. The adventurers, who had been walking anxiously for fear of returning empty-handed, rushed toward the treasure at high speed.
Granted, it fell far short of what they had first hoped for, but it was obviously better than walking away with nothing.
Dropping hurriedly to their knees, the adventurers brushed the dust off the items and calculated their worth.
And in the meantime, I—
'Is it here?'
Quietly slipping off to the side of the adventurers absorbed in the loot, I examined the wall of the cave.
Before long, I spotted a small stalactite. Its tip was carved blunt like a handle.
Rather than a trap, it was a mechanism cleverly hidden in a corner at a height and angle hard to spot.
'Thought so.'
Delight welled up inside me. Pretending to search the floor nearby, I yanked hard on that stalactite.
And then—
Rumble, rumble, rumble.
A sudden vibration began. As the ground started shaking, the adventurers panicked and scrambled to their feet.
"A-A trap?"
"Damn it. Move the loot first!"
Frantic shouts rang out.
The adventurers began haphazardly tossing the items toward a safe section of the floor that wasn't shaking.
The ground began to split open. Thick clouds of dust rose as a gaping dark fissure revealed itself beneath my feet.
It opened at a speed where anyone could escape to safety if they wanted to.
Yet I didn't dodge. Instead, I stood still in my spot and waited for the fissure to give way beneath me.
"It's a trap, run!"
"Damn it. I knew it!"
Shouts rang out through the vision-blocking dust. I stepped straight into the fissure that had opened in front of me.
With a dizzying lurch, my body plunged downward.
A narrow shaft built like a slide carried me deep into the bowels of the cave.
The shouts and noise up above grew fainter and fainter. After sliding down like that for maybe twenty minutes—
With a light jolt, I felt my body come to a stop.
Slowly, I picked myself up. The chamber I had arrived at along the slide shaft was quite spacious.
There was no need for a torch.
Because a soft glow was emanating from up ahead.
"...!"
The exact same sight as in my memories.
Beneath a stone dais, gold coins and jewels lay piled in heaps.
What caught my eye, however, was right above that.
Two pebbles shining with a luminous glow atop the dais.
They were runes.