Evil Avalon - Volume 1 - Chapter 20

Chapter 20: The Men from Soleil

When I got home, I found my sister ready for our raid. She tapped one foot on the floor, annoyed that I’d taken so long. Moreover, she had been so excited for today’s raid that she’d barely slept the night before and paced up and down the house, waiting for me to return.

She bothered me until I went to my room to change, then we returned to the school. After checking that no one else was at the back of the school, we entered the building, descended to the first basement level, and used the gate in the empty classroom. Upon doing so, we teleported to the chapel on the dungeon’s seventh floor we’d registered the previous day.

“That’s weird,” said Kano, pointing to a corner of the dilapidated room. “Has someone else been here?”

I glanced at where she’d pointed and saw the burnt remnants of firewood. That hadn’t been there before, meaning somebody had visited this room and must have spent the night here.

To get to the chapel, you needed to climb into a pitfall in an obscure area of the seventh floor, follow the tunnel at the bottom, and navigate through the catacombs. How strange. No adventurer would assume there’d be a tunnel inside a pitfall.

Perhaps they’d arrived through the gate? But they wouldn’t need to camp if they could use the gates, as they’d use them to leave the same way they entered.

I considered another player like me might have come, but the same objection applied. Vines used to hide the gate, and I cut them to make the prominent magic circle easier to spot. No player would miss the portion of the gate’s magic circle that remained visible, even if the vines grew back quickly.

Through deduction, an expeditionary adventurer had stumbled upon the chapel, or an adventurer had fallen into the tunnel while escaping trouble. Sifting through my thoughts, I recalled hearing the howls of a demon wolf on our first journey here. Perhaps that wolf had chased someone into the pitfall.

The only other possibility—a slim one—was that a select few adventurers knew about this area.

Whatever the case, it made no difference to me. Golems would spawn in multiple spots in this area, so there’d be enough to defeat so long as only a few people went through here. I put the other adventurers out of my mind and psyched myself for the golem fights.

During our long walk through the deserted landscape to the fortress, we encountered three men sitting by the side of the road. They must’ve been the adventurers who had made the campfire inside the chapel.

One of them noticed me and loudly called out, “Hey!”

He started walking over. I positioned myself so Kano hid behind me so they didn’t realize she was a middle schooler.

“Hey, guys,” the man said again. “Do you have anything we can cook? We’re starving.”

The adventurer that had come over wore a military jacket over a lightweight chest protector and was likely a Thief. But the other two wore full-body sets of demon wolf leather armor that included shoulder pads, chest protectors, gloves, gauntlets, and greaves over their clothes. They also had swords fastened to their belts and were probably Fighters. All three of them sported a badge with the image of the sun on their chest, signifying that they belonged to the same clan.

As I spoke to them, I learned they’d accidentally created a train of demon wolves on the seventh floor. They jumped into a nearby hole in the ground to escape, found the tunnel, and wound up here. So the demon wolf howl I’d heard the other day had been these guys, after all.

The journey back to the outside world would take half a day if they didn’t use the gate, which would be rough on an empty stomach. I shared half of our snacks with them.

These greedy adventurers weren’t satisfied with my generosity, however.

“Don’t be stingy,” one said. “Give us the rest!” He took the other half of my snacks with no hint of reservation.

The three gobbled down my snacks, fighting over the last crumbs. When I said there was none left, they let us go. I’d been afraid they’d ask who we were and what this place was, but they didn’t. Even if they had, I could’ve told them we got lost.

I felt scammed by the experience and shrugged it off to resume our journey to the garden in the fortress. Though, I cheered up when I reminded myself we’d be ready to change jobs soon.

“I was really looking forward to those snacks!” exclaimed Kano, groaning. “And was it just me, or did they stink?”

“Yeah. They’ve probably been dungeon-side for a few days.”

The three men had grown stubble and looked like they’d worn the same clothes for several days. For people who didn’t know about the gates, it was typical to go on weeklong raids. Baths weren’t much of an option for the Assault Clans that raided for several months. The best anyone could do was wipe their body. Adventurers were just people going on journeys, and the role required an open mind regarding rough living.

Although Kano and I could access the gates, we might need to stay overnight to defeat powerful enemies or traverse the mazelike geography of the depths. Hence, I wanted to get the Machinist job and the Golem Castle skill as soon as possible.

Upon reaching the garden, we laid a mat on the ground out of the golem’s range for its detection skill. Then, we placed our bags down and prepared calmly.

Kano drew the two daggers I’d rented for her, then began swinging and slashing to get a feel for them. While the daggers were rather large for hacking, they were much heavier than the knives she’d used. Fortunately, my concern that Kano would have trouble using them was unwarranted since she had mastered an unfamiliar weapon in the blink of an eye. The Dual Wielding skill gave her a power boost when she had a weapon in each hand, but that feat still reeked of a cheat to me. Did the skill bump her fighting intuition as well? I was supposed to be her older brother. How could I save face?

I picked up my hatchet as we set to look for golems until a voice called out.

“Hey! Do you guys know about that weird skeleton deep inside the fortress?”

It was the three snack thieves again. Just when I’d gotten myself pumped up...

“Yeah, that skeleton looks tougher than the rest,” another continued. “See, there’s three of us and two of you. Let’s form a party and take it down together.”

“Hold your horses, Reo. How about we introduce ourselves first?”

The skeleton they referred to was probably guarding the treasure chest in the lord’s room of the fortress. I didn’t know its true strength because I hadn’t used Basic Appraisal, but the monster seemed powerful even in its resting state.

Judging by the adventurers’ armor, they were probably around level 10. They might be at a higher level than me, but they weren’t the ideal team after nearly experiencing death. I also wasn’t thrilled about working with people who had stolen my snacks. Plus, I didn’t recognize that monster from the game and had no clue how strong it was. I preferred leaving the battle until I’d leveled up more and obtained better armor.

I noticed Kano furrowed her brow when glancing at them. She wasn’t eager to join them either.

Seeing our reluctance, the bearded adventurer proudly introduced the party. “We belong to the Soleil Clan, a part of the Colors group.”

Soleil, you say? I thought. That’s the second time I’ve heard that name today.

The man dressed as a Thief introduced himself as Masaru Manaka. Hearing that, I remembered that the Manaka in Class D bragged about Soleil earlier in the day. This Manaka was probably his brother, and that was the last straw for any chance of me joining them.

“I’m sorry to say that we’ll have to pass,” I said.

“Say that again?” bellowed Manaka threateningly, immediately growing hostile.

The other two behind him started glaring at us.

They had to make things difficult, didn’t they? I wasn’t sure whether we’d have to fight the adventurers and chose to use Basic Appraisal to be safe.

Name: Masaru Manaka

Job: Thief

Strength: Slightly Stronger

Available skills: 3

Name: Reo Akihisa

Job: Fighter

Strength: Equal Strength

Available skills: 2

Name: Kazuya Ichiwatari

Job: Fighter

Strength: Equal Strength

Available skills: 2

This was the first time I used Basic Appraisal on another person and discovered it displayed text sequences as an image in my mind. The information faded when my concentration drifted, so I’d need to practice using it properly.

All three had switched from the beginner Newbie job to a basic job. Basic Appraisal would only measure* strength relative to mine, telling me if they were stronger, weaker, or of equal strength to myself.

*TIPS: Basic Appraisal records strength according to the below relative scale.

Pathetically weak: Five or more levels lower.

Much, much weaker: Four levels lower.

Much weaker: Three levels lower.

Weaker: Two levels lower.

Slightly weaker: One level below.

Equal strength: The same level or one level above.

Slightly stronger: Two levels above.

Stronger: Three levels above.

Much stronger: Four levels above.

Much, much stronger: Five levels above.

Unbelievably stronger: Six or more levels above.

I was level 8, so the older Manaka would probably be level 10. Akihisa and Ichiwatari were around level 8 or 9.

Based on their available skills, they likely had Basic Appraisal and one or two skills they had picked from their basic jobs. I doubted they’d persisted as Newbies long enough to get Plus Three Skill Slots.

What was my next move? My “secret weapon” could make short work of all three, but that could bite me in the ass later.

“This bastard just used Basic Appraisal on us!” one shouted. “Do you really want to pick a fight with Colors? Do you wanna die that much?”

It annoyed me that these low-level nobodies from a sub-clan of a sub-clan were throwing their parent clan’s name around. Instead of picking a fight, I politely declined their offer to team up.

“We’re only level 8 and would just get in your way,” I explained.

My protest fell on deaf ears, though. They argued, and I argued back. Kano intervened just as I tried calming myself down by imagining knocking them all flat on their backs.

“Bro, let’s go along with them for now, or we’ll be here all day,” she said.

“That’s what I like to hear!” an adventurer quipped.

I heaved a sigh. This team was persistent, and I had to acknowledge that. If it went south, we could always run away. I had no confidence in their ability to plan dungeon raids. They were out of food and hours away from civilization, so it was reckless to go treasure hunting.

The turn of events had aggravated me but cheered the three adventurers up. They began boasting about their exploits.

“Guess what?” one of them asked. “The Golden Orchid Clan wants us to join up! They’re a direct subsidiary clan to Colors!”

“Yep,” another confirmed. “Soleil has been good to us, but I’m sure they’ll let us go. They know we’re itching to join the actual Colors Clan.”

“I still can’t believe we’re gonna be in the Golden Orchid Clan,” said the third, laughing.

I bet they asked you to join them to do the dishes, not wanting you to fight for them, I thought. There’s no way the actual Colors Clan would tarnish their reputation by letting in scum like you.

“Bro, stop grinding your teeth. They’ll hear you,” whispered Kano.

“I’ll try,” I responded.

We headed to the fortress and went inside. All the while, I clenched my fists.

The skeletons inside the corridors were already defeated. The group huddled to discuss our strategy once we arrived outside the lord’s room.

“Here’s the plan,” declared an adventurer. “We all go in and beat the shit out of it.”

“You took the words right out of my mouth,” another chimed.

Put them back please? I thought.

The group had no tank, long-distance roles, or information on the skeleton lord, leaving us with few options. Surrounding the monster and attacking from all sides to prevent it from singling anyone out wasn’t a bad plan.

“I’ll check it out with Basic Appraisal first,” suggested Ichiwatari. He explained that he’d peek through the crack in the door, appraise the skeleton, and give us the all-clear to proceed if the monster was manageable.

Nobody said what we’d do if the appraisal didn’t have good results, but there was probably nothing to worry about. Even if it were level 9 or 10, there were five people here, so between us we could handle it. A chance of the skeleton being a floor boss existed, but I couldn’t recall ever encountering one in DLC-exclusive areas. Even if it were a floor boss, its level wouldn’t be higher than twelve on the seventh floor. We’d be more than capable of escaping, if nothing else.

I wanted to ask Ichiwatari what the appraisal said, but he was still staring through the crack. Yet he stood perfectly still.

I was unhappy with him keeping us in suspense about the results. Basic Appraisal gave monsters a bit of aggro and worked like a taunt skill, meaning that the fight had begun as soon as he had cast it.

Manaka also seemed unnerved by Ichiwatari’s silence and asked, “What’s wrong, Kazuya?”

Ichiwatari began breathing heavily. “We’re screwed, run—”

“Guooohhh!!!”

The door to the lord’s room exploded, sending Ichiwatari flying, and the skeleton walked out menacingly.