The monster, clad in scales like armor, twitched its nose again.
Its dark, blackish body began heaving roughly.
“......Greatsword.”
“Right. I’ll take the vanguard.”
The pangolin’s claws gleamed dully.
Each and every pitch-black claw was the size of a child.
They could never be blocked with fists or forearms.
WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
John Doe stood in front while swinging the greatsword left and right.
“You aim for its eyes, nose, or ears.”
“O-okay.”
“And Ritak.”
Even in the dark Ant Nest, his vivid gaze fixed on me.
Yoanes also half turned back.
“You withdraw.”
“Do that. We’ll follow soon......”
It seemed they had never read novels or shonen manga.
Was this not far too obvious a cliché?
The ending of someone who sent his companions away and stalled alone was obvious.
Of course, the situation was a little different.
These bastards had stepped forward saying they would send only me away.
“Stop saying pointless things and focus.”
“This isn’t a monster we can handle while worrying about you......!”
“It’s coming!”
The pangolin thrust its snout forward.
Its nose, which had absurdly caught the scent of prey, kept twitching.
John Doe quickly raised the greatsword upright.
CLANG!
“Kh......!”
It was the kind of sound that should only come from metal striking metal.
Just as its appearance suggested, it was a filthy hard monster.
“Haaap!”
Yoanes kicked off the ground and shot upward.
Her tightly clasped fists looked just like a hammer.
THOOOM!
Her fist struck the pangolin’s forehead.
The impact tore through the air and shook the entire Ant Nest.
Krrrk, krrk.
The pangolin pushed against the greatsword with even greater force.
Yoanes’s elbows were trembling.
“Hit its eyes!”
John Doe shouted through gritted teeth.
It was good judgment.
For an ordinary living creature, those would be weak points.
However, it did not work on a pangolin.
This bastard even had scales covering its eyelids.
Even if one stabbed it with a sharp blade, the blade would break first.
‘It’s not something we’re supposed to catch in the second calamity story.’
The dungeon Ant Nest.
Its other name was the pangolin’s food storage.
In the early stages, one was supposed to farm only Ant Nest and leave.
To kill the pangolin, one had to reach the middle of the story.
Only around then would the stats and equipment be ready.
And now, we had tossed still-soft adventurers right in front of such a creature.
“......Well, they say there’s no gain without pain, don’t they?”
It was difficult to kill a powerful enemy several stages above you.
But the rewards one could obtain were just as good.
‘Though if we die, everything ends.’
Of course, I had no intention of ending the game.
I gripped the flask tightly.
‘Even if its armor is hard, it’s relatively weak to chemical reactions.’
The problem was that “relatively.”
Even if acid was poured on it, the melting speed was slow.
There was a far higher chance we would die before its scales melted.
‘If I add the Diligence effect, I can melt it before we die!’
Diligence was a status ailment with an extreme agility-increase effect.
It was the power of a calamity that had made the forest grow and wither in an instant.
With this ability, the time it took for corrosion to take effect could also be accelerated.
Clatter.
The Diligence Solvent rolled inside the flask.
It was medicine I could not make again.
The material, the Essence of Sloth, had only been a single drop.
If it missed, it was over.
I slowly exhaled.
‘This body’s shoulder is unreliable, but......’
The effect of the Strength Increase Stick happened to remain.
If so, the important part was the software.
“Hup!”
I lifted one leg and took a pitching form.
Kicking my right foot forward, I smoothly rotated my waist.
Carrying the weight that naturally shifted into it, I pushed the flask out from my fingertips.
Spin......
The flask drew a beautiful arc.
CLINK!
The Diligence Solvent landed precisely on the monster’s nose bridge.
Without realizing it, I clenched my fist.
Kieeeeeek!
The pangolin let out a piercing shriek.
It began shaking its head at terrifying speed.
“U-uaaah!”
Yoanes flew through the air like a lie.
To a height where her neck would break if she landed wrong.
‘Oh, fuck!’
Every hair on my body stood on end.
My feet kicked off the ground before thought could.
“Ritak!”
My name struck my ears.
It was a voice that pierced even through the desperate struggle ringing through the cave.
Even so, I had no time to look back.
The only thing I had to do right now was catch the person in front of me.
I shouted at John Doe.
“You finish the pangolin!”
Yoanes stayed suspended in the air for only a brief moment.
Then she fell at a terrifying speed.
‘I won’t be late!’
I stretched both arms into the air.
Then I squeezed my eyes shut.
Yoanes was fairly large.
To think I was trying to catch someone like that with my body.
It seemed I really had gone mad.
CRACK!
The air screamed and vibrated.
A fierce red light burst forth.
The light spread out as though stabbing in every direction, then shattered.
“Hah, haah.”
I gasped heavily.
“The shield...... was there.”
The strength that had filled my body loosened in an instant.
Thump!
Even the strength left my legs in an unsightly way.
I sank down roughly and heaved my shoulders.
‘I didn’t mean to suffer this much.’
Things truly did not go easily.
Only now did my heart begin to pound.
Kyaaah......
A death cry stuck thickly to my ears.
I abruptly looked back.
THUD!
A massive body was collapsing forward.
It had been crudely skewered by the greatsword from its nose down to the back of its throat.
‘No, he turned the pangolin into a skewer......’
John Doe heaved his shoulders broadly a couple of times to catch his breath, then grabbed the greatsword’s hilt.
The pangolin was already a corpse, so he must have intended to retrieve the greatsword.
However, because the blade had corroded to tatters, only half of it came out.
CLANG!
John Doe casually threw away the greatsword, leaving only its hilt.
“......Whew. That side?”
I looked at the limp Yoanes.
She was breathing comfortably, just like someone sleeping.
“She’s fine. She only lost consciousness.”
Though she needed treatment.
The edge of her hand was swelling blue.
She had idiotically struck the pangolin’s forehead, so there was nothing to be done.
“Can you carry her?”
John Doe silently lowered one knee.
“Hup......!”
I placed Yoanes onto his back.
It was strength I had barely squeezed out after the effect of the Strength Increase Stick faded.
‘Whew, then now for the reward......’
The ant hunting had been quite profitable too.
But compared to the pangolin’s by-products, it was almost embarrassing.
Its scales were materials that would make weapon merchants come running with their eyes rolled back.
Because it was a material harder than plate armor yet flexible.
“......Do you have a knife?”
John Doe stopped adjusting Yoanes on his back and raised his head.
He took a pocketknife from his coat and threw it.
“Uwah.”
I hurriedly caught the knife.
Even if it was in its sheath, he had thrown a knife?
He was a guy who did dangerous things without thinking anything of it.
‘Maybe I should just leave him be.’
I sighed deeply and stood before the dead pangolin.
Its skin was already splitting open like a dry field.
SQUELCH! SQUELCH!
I stabbed the blade between the joints of its hard shell.
It was not difficult to remove materials of a suitable size.
“Lord Wer. Store the rest for me.”
Wer’s ability was quite useful.
Without subspace, I would have had no choice but to suck my thumb in front of the pangolin we had killed.
So there was nothing else to be done.
“......You take this.”
I held out the pangolin hide to John Doe.
He slowly blinked.
“Take it and make armor or something.”
“I cannot. I already owe you a debt.”
His tone cut like a knife.
It was frustrating, as though my throat had been clogged.
‘It’s not as if I don’t owe anything either.’
I looked at Wer, who was diligently storing the pangolin.
I had taken him.
The protagonist’s helper character.
‘I need to provide some other defensive measure so I can feel comfortable.’
It would be troublesome if the game’s protagonist was left weak and struggling.
He needed a minimum safety line so he could roll around in harsher places.
I shoved the hide into John Doe’s arms without listening.
“Enough. Handle the money for making the armor yourself.”
He awkwardly held the pangolin hide with one arm.
In the other, Yoanes was sleeping without a care in the world.
If it was too much, he would toss it somewhere on his own.
***
‘Tomorrow is already the day the underground social club opens?’
Over the week, I had cleared quite a few dungeons.
Naturally, I had stripped clean every dungeon managed by Bies Guild.
There were even dungeons I had entered after paying precious entrance fees.
Since I had crafted the medicine to use at the underground social club, it was not a waste.
Even more so because the Medicine Crafting skill had also leveled up by one.
Chomp, chomp, chomp......
Wer held two skewers in both feet and tore into them alternately.
Now, I could buy Bain’s skewers for only 2 vanus.
It was an enormous discount.
“To raise your credit to B Grade in just a few days, truly astonishing!”
“It’s thanks to Yoanes.”
Yoanes had helped me clear dungeons with her hand wrapped tightly in bandages.
She even entered Phosphorfire Forest and Abandoned Garden with me as if it were only natural.
Even when we went to dungeons outside the guild’s jurisdiction, she asked no questions.
She was definitely a different type of adventurer from John Doe.
John Doe had left abruptly after the pangolin hunt.
He said he could not make more debt.
“By the way, is that one usually afraid of ghosts?”
“Yes. She has been timid since she was young.”
Bain smiled.
It was the face of someone recalling Yoanes’s childhood.
‘There aren’t even proper ghosts in Phosphorfire Forest.’
How could I have expected her to panic at monsters like will-o’-the-wisps?
It was even more absurd because she had yanked up the shade plants in Abandoned Garden without hesitation.
It was enough to make me want to grab passersby and conduct a survey.
Nine out of ten would probably say the monsters in the garden were more disgusting.
‘I should understand that she dislikes things without bodies more, I suppose.’
She beat up the boss of the forest, the one-horned giant, just fine.
All was well that ended well.
I picked up another skewer and handed it to Wer.
“I’ll pay up to here and go.”
“You still seem busy! What are you going to sell this time?”
“Today, I’m buying.”
I placed 50 vanus on the stall.
As though regretful, Wer climbed onto my shoulder.
“Oh dear. You gave me too much.”
“It’s a tip, a tip.”
Bain had carefully selected meat for us each time we came.
My wallet was not in such a state that adding the price of two skewers was difficult.
“Then Yoanes is waiting, so I’ll be off.”
Before he could pointlessly keep me there, I quickly moved away.
The place we agreed to meet was the plaza fountain.
Yoanes was looking up at the sky with a dazed face.
“We’re here. Are you really not hungry?”
“Mhm...... I don’t feel like eating.”
She slowly rose.
“S-so, once we buy masks, the preparations are finished, right?”
“Yes. Tomorrow, we have to go to the social club.”
“......Right.”
Yoanes’s face was especially dull today.
Her expression had actually looked livelier on the day we hit three dungeons in one day.
“Um, R-Ritak.”
“Why are you hesitating so much?”
“......J-Jacqueline. We can save her, right?”
Yoanes was fiddling with a mask with both hands.
If she touched it any more, it might wear out before we even bought it.
“That’s why we’ve been preparing the whole time.”
“Th-that’s right.”
Why was she worrying this much about her younger sister?
This was a family member whose level of harm went beyond the limit.
It looked like cutting ties and living separately would be far more comfortable.
“Someone said it. That Jacqueline was the kind of child who would eventually cause trouble.”
“O-only a few adults said that because she was too quick on the uptake, they were actually worried......”
“Abellana criticized her openly.”
“That’s because she cares about me a lot...... yes.”
I snatched the mask Yoanes had been fiddling with.
We really had to pay for this.
“And what about you? Don’t you think about yourself?”
Yoanes’s gaze rolled here and there.
Soon, an ambiguous smile spread across her face.
She picked up another mask.
“Hmm, this mask suits you better, Ritak.”
“Changing the subject, are we?”
I snatched the other mask too.
The eye holes were slanted thinly, making it look as though it was sneering.
I clicked my tongue lightly and headed to the counter.