"What?"
At Two Hundred's words, Alex made a sound out loud without meaning to.
"What did you say?"
At that, the knight Loren looked at Alex.
"No, it's nothing...."
Alex, who had been about to say it was nothing, changed his words. He needed to warn them about the demonic beast in advance.
"I tried detecting mana, and it seems there's a fairly strong individual. It appears to use magic... I think it would be best to be careful."
"...Understood."
Loren nodded, but inwardly thought, 'Mages really are impossible to understand.'
Because there was no way a strong monster that used magic would appear in a lowest-grade dungeon like this.
'He seemed polite, but he's just as strange as the rest.'
Thinking that, Loren headed once more in the direction where the soldiers, the young lord, and the people were said to be.
"What do you mean? Your mana?"
At Alex's whisper, Two Hundred answered.
[Exactly what I said. I felt it when you were detecting mana earlier.]
[Why, though?]
Alex whispered as he followed behind the soldiers.
"Aren't you mistaken? Similar mana or something."
[Maybe with blood relatives, but otherwise that almost never happens.]
[Hm.]
[But since this is another world, I can't be certain.]
—!
Just then a commotion was heard up ahead.
Realizing it was the sound of people and monsters, Loren and the soldiers moved with their breathing even more hushed.
"Let's save the people first."
A corrupted dungeon did not vanish, so the mana Two Hundred had felt would still be there.
It seemed he could rescue the people first, grow stronger, and then come into the dungeon and investigate.
[Right.]
The knight Loren and the soldiers hid themselves in the undergrowth and behind trees and assessed the situation.
First they saw the people who had been sucked into the dungeon. Roughly twenty of them. There did not seem to be any dead yet, since it was close to the number they had counted.
But many of them were so badly wounded that they looked ready to stop breathing at any moment. A few had collapsed outright.
At the very front, five soldiers who had been guarding the gate and one noble stood holding weapons, plainly wounded and exhausted.
"Are you all right, young lord?"
Kane, holding a broken spear, and—
"I'm all right. Let's just hold out until the rescue party comes."
—the young lord, holding a sword.
And on the opposite side.
There were goblins holding weapons, and this side looked fresh and unharmed.
"Sir Loren... something is strange."
One soldier said.
"There's no way they'd be beaten like that by goblins of only this level."
A lowest-grade dungeon was not a very dangerous dungeon. It was a place new soldiers and mercenaries went for training.
If the numbers were large it would be hard, but not enough to leave them covered in blood like that.
As it happened, Loren had noticed something strange as well.
"Their skin is purplish. They've been hit with poison."
Just as he said, the skin and complexions of most of the people were purplish.
"But one or two, perhaps — that many?"
The poison used by goblins that appeared in lowest-grade dungeons was a paralytic poison. And it usually took the form of a poison needle that could only attack one person.
Yet here was damage this widespread and this powerful.
Something was strange.
In that instant, what the mage had said came to mind.
A powerful monster that used magic.
'In that case there's no time to hesitate.'
At a situation more serious than expected, the knight Loren made his decision quickly.
"Mage. Please use magic to draw the goblins' attention."
Meanwhile, Loren intended to split the soldiers into two: one team to rescue the people and the other to hold off the goblins and secure time to escape.
"Understood."
Alex agreed with Loren's plan too.
Now, while the demonic beast was not in sight, was the chance.
Just as he was about to use magic.
Crash—!
Something purplish shot past before their eyes and struck the ground near Kane. And the ground melted away in an instant.
It was poison.
!!!
The soldiers' faces filled with horror in an instant. Loren quickly turned his head and looked toward where the spell had been fired from.
"A goblin shaman!"
There stood a goblin shaman holding a staff.
And in the tree behind the goblin shaman was embedded the dungeon core that supplied the dungeon's energy.
"How is there a goblin shaman in a lowest-grade dungeon?!"
But the goblin shaman's appearance was strange.
On the right side of its head, tumor-like lumps of blackly swollen flesh hung as though it had contracted some disease.
"What... is that?"
At that sight, horrifying merely to look at, Loren was appalled.
[The demonic beasts here sure are grotesque.]
Alex, by contrast, was used to the sight of such demonic beasts, and he spoke quickly.
"This is no time to be shocked. We have to move fast."
Just as he said.
The goblin shaman's 「Poison Ball」 fell right in front of Kane. It did not hit him, but Kane could be seen staggering from the poison's effects.
"Let's rescue them and get out immediately."
At Alex's words, Loren quickly came to his senses too.
'Damn it.'
For someone invested as a knight a week ago, fighting a goblin shaman while protecting people was impossible. But fleeing was something he could manage.
"Everyone, move! Mage!"
At that, Alex rapidly rotated the 1st circle ring.
[Will! Focus!]
"「Fireball」!"
Two 「Fireballs」 came into being in midair.
'Down!'
And they shot fast at the goblins all at once.
Crash! Craash!
They were 1st circle spells, but the force was tremendous. The wounded goblins began to burn.
At the same time, Loren and the soldiers ran to their assigned positions.
"Magic?! How?! Loren!!"
The young lord, who had been startled by the 「Fireballs」 appearing in midair, spotted Loren and the soldiers and brightened.
"We're saved!"
"The rescue party's come!"
The people and the soldiers were the same.
"We have to run, quickly!"
"Understood! Everyone who can move, support the wounded!"
At that, the people began carrying or supporting the wounded and walking in the direction the soldiers indicated.
Having confirmed the young lord was safe, Loren quickly joined the soldiers blocking the goblins' path.
"Kane! Are you all right?"
Meanwhile, Alex, watching the goblins warily, approached Kane, who was being supported by another soldier.
"Alex?"
At the sudden appearance of Alex the mercenary hopeful, Kane was startled. There were no other mercenaries here.
"How are you here?"
"Let's talk later. Please hurry and run."
Saying that, Alex cast a spell and created a 「Fireball」.
Crash! Craash!
The 「Fireball」 collided with the 「Poison Ball」 flying through the air, and both burst apart.
[All on target! All ten!]
At that sight, Kane wondered whether he was seeing things because of the poison. How could he use magic? Wasn't he a mercenary hopeful?
Just as Kane was moving with a dazed expression.
The young lord, who was in comparatively good shape, joined the fight and shouted.
"Loren! Mage! Be careful! It uses poison and magic that weakens the body!"
At that same moment, the goblin shaman raised its staff high.
—Kiyeeek!
With that, the bodies of Loren, the young lord, and the soldiers facing the goblins staggered. It felt somehow as though a heavy load had been placed on them.
But there was one who was unaffected.
[...Why are we fine?]
It was Alex.
The area around the arm he thrust forward to use magic glittered briefly, but there was nothing wrong with his body.
Alex was bewildered for a moment, but he assessed the situation at once.
"Let's run."
There could be no objection.
The soldiers, the young lord, the knight Loren, and Alex fell back little by little while watching the goblins.
Craash!
The unaffected Alex used magic and blocked the goblin shaman's attack.
The plan was that once word came that the domain's people and the wounded were near the dungeon's exit, he would hurl a mass of 「Fireballs」 and run without looking back.
Yes.
That had been the plan.
—Kiyeeek!
If the goblin shaman had not gathered magic power to launch a powerful spell.
"...."
If Alex had not seen that sight.
It probably would have gone according to plan.
[Alex? What's wrong?]
[We have to run!]
When Alex suddenly stopped walking, Two Hundred asked.
"Mage, what's the matter?"
Loren, who was enduring the weakening magic and protecting the mage Alex — a knight of one week, but a knight all the same — stopped with a puzzled expression.
And he turned his head and saw what Alex was staring at, transfixed.
It was nothing much.
Only the goblin shaman gathering magic power to use a spell.
But to Alex's eyes it was unmistakable.
The pure white bone fragment embedded in the goblin shaman's chest was glowing dark green.
Yes.
Dark green.
That damned dark green light.
[Huh? That thing?]
[Hold on. This guy's in a strange state.]
[Hey, Alex?]
That skull he wanted to grind underfoot.
That magic he wanted to smash apart.
And... the Demon King.
"Ha... haha...."
The scale of power, the victims, the situation were all different, but a scene resembling that time pressed Alex's trauma button with perfect precision.
[Um... Alex?]
[Are you laughing right now?]
"Mage...?"
Everyone hushed their breathing at Alex's abnormal state.
—!
Just then the goblin shaman, having gathered magic power to the fullest, unleashed its spell. Several powerful 「Poison Arrows」 shot toward Alex and the group like arrows.
Just like the Demon King's attack Alex had failed to block.
"「Shield」."
Craaash!
But this time was different.
The Alex of now could hold Leo, could talk with him, could eat meals with him.
Shing—!
And he could use a sword,
"Ma... mage?"
Fwoosh—!
and he could use magic.
[Huh? He just used 「Fireball」 without the activation word?]
[Silent casting?!]
Neither the people's voices nor Two Hundred's voice reached Alex.
The only thing in Alex's sight now was that goblin shaman. Or perhaps the Demon King visible beyond it.
"...The Demon King has to die."
[This guy's eyes have gone!!]
With glittering eyes, Alex rotated the 1st circle ring madly and began creating 「Fireballs」 in midair.
'More....'
And not content with that, he drew in the mana he could feel through Two Hundred's senses without pause. To create more 「Fireballs」.
'Stronger...!'
Nor was that the end.
Just as he had compressed 「Fire」 and changed its shape to make 「Fireball」, he modified the 「Fireballs」.
To raise their attack power he made them long and sharp like arrows, and set them spinning like whirlwinds on top of that.
Rapidly spinning arrows of flame filled the sky.
[What is this....]
[I never taught you anything like this.]
[! Hey! Any more of this and you're in serious trouble!]
Alex, unaware even that blood had come welling up and was running from the corner of his mouth, tried to burst out all the grudge and anguish, the misery and rage of the 'future,' as though setting his whole body alight.
'Uncle!'
If Leo had not come to mind, he surely would have.
"Ugh!"
Alex instinctively realized his body's limit and stopped.
But he did not stop the attack.
He poured the flame arrows he had already made down on the goblin shaman all at once.
"Die!!"
Craaaash!!
An explosion greater than any so far rang through the dungeon.
[...Wow.]
[There won't even be bones left.]
The shockwave, the dust, and the searing heat pushed toward Alex. Perhaps from using so much power, he was out of breath and his body heaved on its own.
"Haah...."
[Are you all right?]
As though he could not hear Two Hundred, Alex kept his eyes fixed on where the goblin shaman had been and concentrated on recovering mana.
Having seen demonic beasts and demonkind that came back to life again and again, he did not let his guard down.
Soon.
The dust and smoke settled.
The revealed scene was terrifying. The ground was gouged out here and there, and the corpses of dead goblins lay strewn across it.
The goblin shaman, which had taken the concentrated attack, had collapsed on the ground as well, its body burned black.
[That one's a hundred percent dead.]
Perhaps because he had killed the goblin shaman, Alex's reason returned.
To lose his reason no matter how deep the grudge and do such a thing to a goblin shaman, of all things, and not even the Demon King. It was a little embarrass—
'Like hell it is.'
It felt fantastic!
The dungeon core behind the goblin shaman had shattered and vanished as well, but Alex did not mind. Corrupted dungeons did not disappear, after all.
Alex walked forward with a refreshed face. Then he drove the sword in his hand — thunk! — into the head of one fallen goblin.
—Kyeek!
The goblin, which had been alive, let out a death cry.
Traveling with the Hero's party, Alex had learned in his bones that with fellows who kept reviving, confirmation kills were essential.
So he stabbed every goblin whose body looked intact — thunk! thunk! — with his sword.
—Gyeek!!
And now and then he caught one that was still alive.
[Oh....]
[Are you really an ordinary farmer?]
"Not anymore."
Having finished the confirmation kills so satisfyingly.
Alex arrived in front of the goblin shaman's corpse.
It seemed dead, but to be certain he drove his sword into the goblin shaman's head. At that the corpse turned to ash and sank away.
In that spot, where the clothes, the staff, and the body had all burned away, the only thing that remained was the pure white bone fragment that had been embedded in its chest, without so much as a scratch on it.
'It glowed dark green, like the Demon King's skull.'
Thinking there might be a connection, Alex put the bone fragment in his pocket to examine later.