I Was a Sword When I Reincarnated (LN) - Volume 5 - Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

Dungeon Crawling

FRAN AND JET finished their meals and immediately headed to the East Dungeon. The food in the cafeteria was pretty good, enough to earn satisfied grunts from Fran and Jet as they went to get fifths.

We asked the lady of the inn for directions to the dungeon, and her explanation was very simple.

“Head to the West Garrison for the West Dungeon, and to the East Garrison for the East Dungeon. You can’t miss it.”

Ulmutt’s dungeons were housed in the large cylindrical structures we saw from the outside of town. The garrisons were made specifically to enclose the dungeons inside.

“How come?”

“We’re all used to the dungeons now, but back in the day no one believed the Guildmaster had actually struck a deal with the Dungeon Masters.”

Fair enough.

To ordinary civilians, Dungeon Masters were a source of pain and unrest. The majority of people were skeptical of Dias’s claims that he had come to an agreement with them. To placate the growing unrest, the kingdom of Granzell installed the garrisons as a failsafe. Even if the Dungeon Masters betrayed Ulmutt, they could stem the flow of monsters at the source.

The thick city walls served the same purpose. Even if the beasts managed to overcome the garrisons, they still had layers of fortification to break through. The citizens of Granzell could rest easy, but what about the local Ulmuttites? Their town was under constant threat.

The lady of the inn explained that the locals were quite pleased to have two dungeons within walking distance. Many Ulmuttites were adventurers and merchants who moved here after the dungeons were discovered.

“Ulmutt has always been a hotspot for dungeon crawlers. They were ecstatic to have guards stationed nearby. It made dungeon crawling a lot safer.”

The locals came to Ulmutt precisely because of its dungeons. After all, they were their main source of livelihood. They probably thought they’d lucked out when the government paid for thick city walls.

Ulmutt was a gathering place of reckless adventurers and ruthless merchants, all of them strong in their own right.

“Can’t wait.”

Same.

I’d never seen a garrison up close before. With the East Garrison in her sight, Fran made her way toward it. The way there wasn’t as straightforward as I thought. I don’t think the architects of Ulmutt’s early years ever heard of city planning. The streets were like a maze. The closer we got to the garrison, the more winding the roads became. The closest districts were the oldest in the city, and the age showed. Buildings and shops were thrown up free from any housing laws, which made for chaotic-looking neighborhoods.

There were hills, dead ends, overpasses. We wandered the streets for about an hour.

“Is this it?”

“Arf?”

Looks like it. We just need to go through that small gate and we should be at the entrance.

The garrison was even more overwhelming up close. At this distance, I could tell that this was no ordinary fort. Its singular gate was tiny, even without a moat. There were no windows, either. I suppose it didn’t need any to contain whatever was inside. 

Soldiers were stationed at the upper levels, ready for any emergency. A small guardhouse functioned as the dungeon’s reception, and ten adventurers were already in line. The two parties were waiting for their turn.

Let’s join the line.

“Hm.”

We still stood out from the crowd. The adventurers in front of us turned to look at Fran and gauge her abilities. However, none of them said anything. Most of the crawlers in East Dungeon were D-Rank and above, and they all felt that Fran was no ordinary beastgirl.

Jet was huge too. Literally. He’d returned to his original size as insect repellent and the intimidation he gave off worked wonders. Even the most boorish of adventurers would think twice before messing with a giant wolf. His only weakness was tight spaces.

“Next…b-big! Big wolf! Really big wolf!”

“H-hey! What’s going on out there?!”

The guard at the counter took one look at Jet, screamed, and rolled down the storm shutters. They reminded me of the sellers’ carts in front of train stations back on Earth. His friends couldn’t see Jet past the shutters. When they rolled them back up, Jet’s sudden appearance shocked them all over again.

“Oh, s-sorry! I got scared for a second there.”

“Please excuse this dumbass, little lady.”

The guard apologized profusely, bowing his head. They were much more polite than the guards outside the gates. This one was actually sorry. Moreover, they didn’t emit any malice or hatred toward Fran. Even she was surprised, enough to be suspicious. She suspected them of plotting something behind her back.

“Hmm…”

“S-so how may I help you?” The guard flinched under the weight of Fran’s stare.

“Are you plotting something?” she said.

The sudden insinuation only confused the poor soldier.

“P-plotting?”

“Us?”

“Hm. You’re nothing like the guards on the outside.”

“Oh, did you run into trouble out there?”

“Most of our good men have been shipped over to Bulbola, you see.”

“We apologize for any inconvenience our remaining forces may have caused.”

The two guards knew what she was getting at right away, and explained their circumstances while processing Fran’s guild card.

Guards stationed in Ulmutt needed to be physically strong enough to patrol the dungeons and deal with rowdy adventurers, meaning a lot of people got the job even if they acted like thugs. They were usually in the minority, however, because Bulbola needed good men, Ulmutt sent its best over to help. The honest soldiers at the core of Ulmutt’s forces were away from home, which meant the unruly guardsmen, who were usually in charge of killing monsters and apprehending criminals, had to work city patrol. It wasn’t uncommon for these guards to start trouble all by themselves. The outskirts of the town got the worst of it. These guards were violent and strong enough to be a threat. 

“Ulmutt’s finest will come back soon enough. Our Guildmaster and high-ranking adventurers have been helping us settle any incidents.”

“You should be careful though,” one of them warned. “You don’t look like an adventurer. I mean, we couldn’t believe it until we verified your guild card.”

“You might be the youngest person to ever set foot in the East Dungeon.”

“All right, that takes care of your registration. I’ve updated your card to show your completion rate and other details.”

He held a round crystal over Fran’s guild card. It looked to be some kind of manatech.

“Details?”

“Yeah. Stuff like the monsters you’ve killed and the level you’ve reached in the dungeon. You can track your quest progress this way.”

That would come in handy. The tracker also made it more difficult to cheat on your quests. Not that it mattered to us. We had no intention of doing so.

“Just keep in mind that you have to get it reset for every dungeon.”

“Got it.”

“You can have this back now.”

The guard returned Fran’s guild card. Now we could get dungeon crawling.

Let’s go.

Woof!

We’ll take it slow to start. There’s a lot of traps in this dungeon.

Hm. Got it.

This would be our first time in a high-difficulty dungeon. We just needed to take it slow. The last thing I wanted was for Fran to suffer death by traps.

Jet, since we want to train our detection skills, you don’t have to tell us where the traps are unless it’s fatal.

Woof.

We left the reception and stood in front of a steel gate two meters high. They really didn’t want any monsters coming into town.

The guards stationed there pulled a lever, opening the gate. I felt mana flow behind the mechanism.

“Don’t go too crazy now.”

“Hm. Thanks.”

After the short exchange, we walked into the garrison and found ourselves under a stone dome. Tiny holes riddled the walls, no doubt to shoot arrows at incoming monsters. There were barricades inside too, and a ditch dug around the dome to slow down a potential horde. At the center of it all was a small shrine.

Is that the entrance to the dungeon?

“It’s tiny.”

“Woof.”

We walked past the barricades and ditches. Inside the shrine, a stairway led down into the dungeon. It sure was small. Still, its size was not indicative of its danger. We shouldn’t let our guard down.

Let’s go.

“Hm!”

“Woof!”

We took a collective breath and headed down the stairs. As we carefully navigated our way down, something came to Fran’s mind.

“You didn’t try to stop me.”

From what?

“From being C-Rank. You know I’ll stand out.”

I guess, but it’s a little late to worry about that after everything we’ve been through, don’t you think? You want to sign up for the tournament, too, right?

“Hm.”

Then you were bound to stand out sooner or later.

“Yeah. Especially after I win.”

Hahaha. Exactly.

“Hm.”

We had been avoiding the spotlight so far. Fran was too beautiful to ignore, of course, but we did our best to not draw any attention. My existence was still a closely-guarded secret, and we didn’t need any noblemen or politicians poking their noses in, but Fran was quite optimistic about the tournament. She would stand out if she won, but by then people would know not to mess with her.

As we talked, we reached the entrance of the first floor. The stone hallways were still tight, with no indication of ever opening up. There wasn’t much height either, forcing Jet to give up on his original size.

“You need practice fighting in that size.”

“Woof.”

Luminescent moss grew on the cave ceilings and lit up the stony path well enough. The light was too dim to shine into every nook and cranny, but at least we could see the way forward.

The road breaks into three paths here.

“Where should we go?”

Theoretically, we should go left.

The Left Hand Theory of Exploration says that as long as you hug the wall with your left hand, you’ll eventually reach your destination. The same applies to your right hand of course. But the theory wasn’t flawless. The exit could be hidden behind a trap wall, and there might be staircases or ladders down. We also couldn’t rule out the possibility that the exit was in the center of the room.

I had looked up the monsters related to our quests, but completely ignored anything about traps or the layout of this dungeon. There wouldn’t be much point in training if we already knew everything. For our exercise to pay off, we had to walk through the dungeon, cautious of monsters and traps.

“We’ll go left.”

Fran took no time to decide.

Our first run through the dungeon didn’t have to be perfect.

Let’s see where it goes.

“Hm.”

For a few minutes, we didn’t sense any traps or monsters.

“Hrmph?”

Oh.

And then we felt something at the same time.

Fran pointed to a crack in the road.

“There’s something there.”

You noticed it too? That’s a Shadow Snake.

The monster laid in a crack, unlit by the bright moss. A black snake coiled in the darkness. Despite being called the Shadow Snake, it lacked the ability to cast Dark Magic. The monster got its name from its habit of waiting in the shadows and biting at unsuspecting heels.

“Trash.”

“Woof.”

Come on, it’s the first thing we’ve run into all day.

It was the size of a rat snake, with shamefully low attack. Aside from Shadow Meld and Presence Sense, it was a perfectly normal venomless snake. The greatest form of defense was a pair of tough boots. The East Dungeon might be more difficult, but not all its monsters were hideous from the get-go.

The Shadow Snake was not worth fighting. It tasted bad, and its crystal was cruddy. The EXP it offered was miniscule, and gutting the crystal out of its corpse was more trouble than it was worth. But I needed the crystal, so the thing had to die.

Fran took it down in one hit, and it yielded exactly one point of crystal. I didn’t feel my usual satisfaction, but still, I couldn’t be picky.

All right, let’s keep going.

“Oh, there’s another.”

Nice.

Fran saw two more snakes, their forked tongues flicking in an effort at intimidation. Were there only Shadow Snakes on this floor? We took care of them in no time and carried on exterminating them until Fran noticed something.

What is it?

“Traps…”

Really? Where?

“There.”

Fran pointed to a section of the floor revealed to her by Presence Sense. There was something odd about it. I didn’t use Trap Sense a lot, so looking through the information took time. I eventually figured out it shot arrows, triggered by a pressure plate.

I see.

Fran sensed it before me thanks to Sensitive Sole. It allowed her to feel vibrations through her feet. She must’ve picked up on the irregular vibration.

That ability was practically useless for me. It might work if I came into contact with the ground, but I’d rather not get dragged around by the blade. The noise alone would be awful.

Let’s disarm it. You wanna give it a shot, Fran?

“Hm.”

I was pretty good at disarming traps with Telekinesis, and could disable even the most dangerous ones from a safe distance. If worse came to worst, I could just trigger them from afar. But Fran needed to get some experience.

Here you go.

“Hm.”

I gave her the set of disarmament tools we’d picked up at the Adventurer’s Guild. They came with a set of pins, tension wrenches, and adhesives. It was the bread-and-butter kit of the scout classes.

There were multiple ways to disarm traps, but the method Fran used allowed her to render it impotent. She would disarm the trigger mechanism so that the trap would no longer activate. The tile’s weight sensor was connected to a hole in the left side of the wall. When the trap was triggered, an arrow would shoot out of the hole. You could render the trap ineffective by wedging the tile with a stopper, or by carefully cutting the wire. Fran chose to cut the wire.

She took a tension wrench and manipulated it into the gap. We were still on the first floor, and it was relatively easy. Fran wasn’t even in the arrow’s line of fire, and could always manually trigger it to expend the trap’s single arrow. Really, the easiest way to deal with it was to not step on the tile. Still, it made for good practice.

“Woof.”

Oh, you took care of some snakes for us?

“Arf!”

Jet killed some Shadow Snakes who tried to ambush Fran while she was working. As weak as they were, they could prove dangerous to an adventurer in the middle of disarming traps. A surprise attack could even make him trigger the trap by accident. Looked at like that, the Shadow Snakes might be more dangerous than they seemed.

“Done.”

Yep. Looks good.

“Woof!”

Dungeons could regenerate, and this trap would reset in a few hours. That applied to the traps ahead of us, too. By the time we got to places where other adventurers had passed, we’d have fresh traps to practice with.

“Let’s look for the next one.”

Fran was having fun. She had an enthusiastic look as she searched for her next trap.

At least you’re not complaining about it.

“Found one.”

She happily approached her next challenge. I don’t know what I would do if she asked to change to a Scout.

“Can I do this one too?” she asked.

Fran’s eyes were gleaming as she held her kit. She took to disarming traps like a child with a puzzle game.

Having fun with it?

“Hm!”

Fran folded her arms triumphantly as she looked at the mechanism on the wall. She soon got the hang of it, and hummed as she went about her work.

“Hmhmm.”

We’ll keep lookout.

“Woof.”

We carried on, disarming every trap we came by. The first level was quite easy. Weak monsters and straightforward, simple traps. By the time we found the staircase leading down, we still hadn’t suffered any damage.

What now?

“Onward and downward.”

“Arf!”

Fran and Jet couldn’t wait. The first level didn’t prove much of a challenge, so the sooner we went down, the better.

I guess the first floor is like a tutorial level.

“Hm.”

Let’s keep going until we find a proper challenge.

“I hope there’s lots of traps there.”

You really are hooked on this trap disarming thing.

If the second floor wasn’t much different from the first, we would continue to the third and so on. We could only start clearing our guild quests from the tenth floor anyway.

Don’t let your guard down, okay?

“I won’t.”

As easy as the floors were, we were still in a dungeon and stayed cautious of our surroundings.

We saw a familiar sight at the bottom of the stairs. The layout of the room looked a lot like the entrance. The road even split into three paths.

If it weren’t for the number “2” written in the center of the room, I would’ve thought that we’d been teleported back to the entrance.

“Should we go left again?”

I don’t see why not.

We didn’t have much to go on anyway.

I wonder what kind of monsters are on the second floor.

“I hope it’s hard.”

Yeah.

We sallied on at our own pace, which eventually led us to the fourth floor. Neither the traps nor monsters had been much of a challenge so far. We hadn’t seen any other adventurers either. They must’ve taken the fastest route through. Eventually, we felt the presence of an adventuring party ahead of us. Fran was in the middle of disarming a pitfall in front of a dead-end. I wondered what they’d make of that. We were wandering around without a map, disarming every trap we ran into, even on paths that didn’t lead anywhere.

Despite her initial excitement, Fran was beginning to look tired. She was getting bored with the easy traps and her tail lolled dully from side to side. At this rate, she could get sick of it altogether. I knew it was an inappropriate wish for an adventurer, but please spawn harder traps!

My prayer was soon answered.

Fran came to a stop at the entrance of the fifth floor. She examined the wall, then stared quietly at the floor.

“…”

The traps here were more difficult. Everything before this one was like a tutorial. 

“Hmm…”

Which was good. Even though she grunted as she looked at the contraption, Fran looked excited again. She examined the trap from multiple angles to decide a plan of attack. As she started the dismantling procedure, we felt a presence approaching from the fourth floor. It must have been an adventuring party somewhere behind us.

The party consisted of about six people. They did their best to suppress their presence, although they weren’t completely concealed. Even working on the trap, Fran noticed them. The room we were in had three branching paths, with the trap Fran was working on to the left. 

Jet scouted ahead to see where it led and confirmed that it was a dead-end. We shouldn’t be in the way. The other party might think Fran was a little weird for disarming a trap on a dead-end. We’d let them go if they made fun of her, but if they tried anything funny… Well, we’d cross that bridge when we got there.

“Fran? Is that you?”

“Inina?”

Fortunately, I had nothing to worry about.

We recognized the Hatchery right away. I understood why Fran wasn’t on full alert. They weren’t hostile toward her, and Inina was a member of her own race. Not that Fran was completely off her guard. Conduct in dungeons wasn’t equated with life on the outside. Only a greenhorn would let her guard down around a new acquaintance. Fran was still cautious, but Inina on the other hand remained oblivious and approached with a smile.

“What are you doing here?”

Inina treated Fran like a close friend. She stood behind Fran without an ounce of caution. She had a long way to go as an adventurer.

The D-Ranks, Lest, Channum, and Galian, could only sigh at her relaxed attitude. They noticed that even Fran was smart enough to keep her guard up, if only at a bare minimum.

“Sorry about this.”

“Hm.”

Lest’s simple apology contained multiple meanings. Sorry for disturbing you. Sorry for Inina getting close when you’re clearly occupied. Sorry for not teaching Inina better.

Inina tilted her head, ignorant of the silent conversation taking place, although she didn’t bother asking.

“So, whatcha up to?”

“Disarming a trap.”

“What, why? It’s a dead-end. There’s no need.”

“I need the practice.”

“I see. Disarming traps is something you have to do by yourself if you’re running solo.”

“Wow, that’s great!”

Inina was about to pat Fran on the head, but pulled her hand back at the last second, knowing it might break Fran’s concentration.

“Come on, Inina. Let’s leave Fran to her trap training,” Lest said, taking the right-hand path. That seemed to be the way forward.

“Okay!”

Inina herself noticed that she was being a bother and got up reluctantly.

“Take care of yourself, Fran.”

“You too.”

“We’ll talk again next time!”

“Hm.”

Inina waved goodbye, and Fran smiled. An unlearned observer might brush away her gesture as nothing more than a platitude, but Jet and I knew that Fran was in high spirits. She was glad to have met Inina and was looking forward to their next encounter.

That was nice.

“Hm!”

Energized by their conversation, Fran redoubled her efforts.

She progressed triumphantly through the dungeon, dismantling every trap she came across. Although her speed was hampered as the traps increased in difficulty. By the time we got to the sixth floor, the traps were more complicated than all the others put together. It took up an appropriately long time to dismantle too. Fran’s motivation didn’t directly translate to an increase in speed.

“Teacher.”

Yeah. Even the placement of these traps is getting trickier.

“Woof.”

And they’re getting harder, too.

“Hm.”

I used Echolocation to see the insides of the trap. It had the complexity of a Rube Goldberg machine. I didn’t know how much time it would take to dismantle. If I were alone, I would just trigger it from a safe distance. That was probably how Inina and crew handled it.

“I’ll give it my best shot.”

But Fran wanted to solve the puzzle and would probably sulk if I triggered it first. All I could do was be patient.

Fran tinkered with the trap with a serious look on her face. She was in a state of silent concentration, and didn’t notice the beads of sweat dripping from her chin. The only sound was the soft click of metal and her own breath.

“Warf.”

Jet yawned. Although he was keeping guard, he was beginning to slack off. I couldn’t blame him, since the monsters didn’t provide much of a challenge.

Five minutes later, Fran gasped.

“Ah.”

Ah.

Three arrows shot down from the ceiling.

“Woof!”

You okay, Jet?

“Arf…”

He wasn’t hurt, but his tail was grazed by the arrows.

“Arf…”

“Sorry. My fault.”

Fran had cut a wire she wasn’t supposed to.

You probably have to be a specialist to dismantle these traps. They’re getting way harder.

“I’ll get the next one.”

No shame in trying, I guess.

“Hm!”

Fran hadn’t lost her motivation. Since she was training her Disarm Trap skill, she might as well try. We regrouped and carried on.

You better focus, too, Jet.

“Woof!”

The arrows roused our direwolf. He looked determined not to be caught off guard again.

Looks like the entrance to the sixth floor is the same as all the rest.

“Three paths. Mind if we go left again?”

As always, the sixth floor started with three paths, but that was the only similarity. The traps here were very difficult. Fran failed to disarm some of them, and the mechanisms weren’t the only thing that got harder. The arrows were now laced with poison, and the poison gas covered a much larger area than before. There were spikes at the bottom of the pitfalls, and spears jutted out faster from the walls. None of it was enough to kill you in one hit, but it was enough to maim the average adventurer. The monsters got harder, too. We could still easily dispose of them, but they were one Threat Level above everything so far.

Fire Javelin!

“Grrr!”

“Ha!”

Jet and I held off an ogre with spells and gave Fran a chance to chop its head off.

“Hm!”

Nice!

Fran used the quickdraw technique she’d first used during the battle against Linford. Unlike the traditional quickdraw technique, she could pressurize the air in her sheath and easily control the direction of her swing. The pop allowed her to accelerate her slices faster too.

She was still practicing this technique, and there was a lag between her intention to use it and the assault, caused by focusing Wind Manipulation inside the sheath. Too early, and there won’t be enough pressure. Too late, and I would be stuck in the sheath. The sheath’s craftsmanship meant the casting time was about one or two seconds. That might seem like no time at all when faced with trash mobs, but against a formidable enemy it was the difference between life and death.

And the best way to train a skill was to use it over and over again.

Our offensive skills weren’t the only thing that required attention. The main purpose of our expedition today was to train our sense and detection.

Above us!

“Hm!”

Assassin Slime seeped through the cracks in the walls, while a Chameleon Lizard crept over the ceiling. Both were experts at hiding their presence. We could get better at our sense and detection skills just by fighting them, not that they were strong enough to be a challenge.

They were E-Threats, so as long as we were careful with our flank, we wouldn’t take any damage. Honestly, the traps were a lot more dangerous now.

The monsters will get tougher the deeper down we go…

But it was still our first day, and we could spend a couple days training here. On the lower floors, we might get ambushed by creatures that were difficult to detect. Training here would prepare us for that.

Let’s keep going until the monsters get harder.

“Sounds good.”

We cleared the sixth floor and went down to the seventh. There, we met Lest and the others again.

“Teacher, over there!”

That’s Lest!

Or at least, what was left of him.

Two dead adventurers lay face down in a pool of blood, and a young man was crumpled against a wall. We recognized the two immediately—Lest and Inina.

The young man wasn’t too badly hurt, but he’d been knocked out cold. He had brown hair and was of average build and height. He was called Solus, if I remembered correctly.

Fran, heal him!

“…”

Fran!

“Ah…”

The sight of Inina’s dead body sent Fran into a state of shock.

Greater Heal!

And so I healed the lad in her stead.

“Huh… What… Where am I…?”

“What happened…?”

His voice brought Fran back to her senses.

“What happened?!”

She shook him impatiently, unable to contain her anger. Solus yelped at her sudden outburst.

“Eek…”

Fran, he’s still out of it. Calm down.

Inina’s death had shorted Fran’s calm composure. She didn’t have the patience to be nice.

“…”

“Uh, w-were you the one who saved me?”

“Hm…”

“Th-thank you. Wh-what happened to my friends? Are they okay?!”

“Lest and Inina didn’t make it…”

“No! Leader… Inina…! How could this happen…?” Solus cried, looking at the corpse of his former leader. “Uhh…”

“What happened?” Fran pressed.

I felt sorry for him, but we needed to know. 

“We were attacked.”

“Monsters?”

“No. The monsters here aren’t powerful enough to wipe a six-man party like ours, even with the element of surprise.”

“What got you then?”

“People… Adventurers who rob other adventurers.”

I see. People like that existed even in this world. We’d heard rumors of dungeon robbers before. The guild would usually put a wanted sign up, along with a reward for bringing them to justice. That usually made for a speedy apprehension, but these bandits had the upper hand here.

“Adventurers…!”

Fran ground her teeth. She made no attempt to hide her hatred. A murderous air seeped out of her every pore.

“They got to Caillou and Channum with traps…”

The killers took care of the frontline by using readily-available traps.

“We were easy pickings once they were gone.”

“Even though you’re D-Rank?”

“We freaked after we saw what happened to the other two. They ambushed us from behind… When they killed Galian, they took out our only healer.”

They took down the tanks and healers, the core to every party. These bastards were tough.

“Me and Inina got hurt in the fight, but Lest used the last of his strength to use a Return Feather. It should’ve warped out anyone who was still alive, but…”

“The three of you are still here…”

“I see…”

Lest and Inina must’ve been alive when he used the Return Feather. However, he lost consciousness as it activated and died from his injuries.

“What did your attackers look like?”

“They wore hooded masks so I couldn’t make out their faces. Their equipment was nothing out of the ordinary…but I think there were five of them, all men.”

Well, what now? The attackers might be gone, but we couldn’t exactly tell Solus to take a hike out of the dungeon by himself. We had to go all the way, or risk losing sleep if he died. And so we decided to call it a day and escort him out of the dungeon. We had explored a fair amount for our first day and this was a good place to stop.

“Sorry about this.”

“It’s fine.”

“Thanks again. I’d like to take the leader and the rest but…”

That might seem like the appropriate thing to do, but that wasn’t the case among adventurers. It was standard practice to leave the corpses behind if anyone died in a dungeon. Bringing them back meant having to lug a corpse around, and I’m sorry to say that made for heavy baggage. It would only endanger the survivors.

There weren’t many parties who had the manpower to carry around the remains of their friends. Everyone expected the other party members to do the same if it happened to them.

“I can’t bear letting them be absorbed by the dungeon.”

The remains of people and monsters were assimilated by the dungeon after a certain amount of time. Monsters were reabsorbed immediately after you carved them up for materials, but people took about a day to fully dissolve. We still had time to take Inina and Lest’s bodies out. 

“All right…”

Fran couldn’t bring herself let Inina fade away either.

“It’s just that I’m not very strong…”

Solus could barely lift Lest’s body. He might be stronger than he looked, but carrying both of them was impossible. He looked at Fran apologetically.

“I’m sorry for dragging you into this…but could you carry Inina?”

Solus bowed his head deeply. He knew how ridiculous this request was, but he was willing to suffer the shame for the sake of his fallen friends.

Teacher, can I?

We don’t have time to look for the rest of his party, but we can take these two.

“Hm. I’ll help.”

“R-really? Thank you! I’ll leave Inina to you.”

“No problem. I don’t have to carry them,” Fran said, storing their bodies in her Pocket Dimension.

“What? Where’d you put them?”

“Pocket Dimension.”

“O-oh! Wow, I’ve never seen that before.”

“Hm. Let’s go.”

“Wait for me!”

Fran went up the stairs and Solus tottered after her, still shocked. We made our way back to the entrance with Solus in tow. He strode along sure-footedly. Despite being healed, he should’ve lost a fair amount of blood. Maybe it was because he was a Scout.

“Fran, do you have any detection skills? I only have Presence Sense.”

“Hm.”

Solus was surprisingly talkative for someone who had just lost his entire party. Maybe that was his way of coping.

Fran only nodded.

Our trip back went smoothly, since the traps we disarmed earlier hadn’t reset yet. Hopefully that would be true for the traps on the fifth and sixth floors. I wouldn’t want to trip them again…

Suddenly, Fran came to a halt.

“Wh-what’s wrong?”

“Someone’s here.”

“What…?”

Solus was startled, but we clearly felt the presence of people ahead of us. The three men slowed down as they cautiously approached.

“Hey there.”

“Hm. Hey.”

“Are the two of you alone?”

“No way! What kind of monster would leave two kids unsupervised in a dungeon!”

“R-right. Where are your friends?”

Solus wasn’t old enough to be mistaken for a high-ranking adventurer, and Fran was still a child. The three men had every right to call them kids. They looked at Fran in utter shock, but soon calmed down and started asking questions.

“Are the two of you really alone?”

“Are you adventurers?”

“Is that wolf your familiar?”

“If you’re lost, why not join us until we find your friends?”

“That’s a great idea!”

“I concur!”

What nice men. They were genuinely concerned for Fran and Solus—but I wasn’t transmigrated to this world yesterday! I Identified them, thinking that their timing was a little too convenient. Their skill sheets were quite grim.

Steal, Torture, Blackmail, Fraud. And they all had the Murderer title to boot.

They would get chummy with an unsuspecting adventurer, and cut them down when they least expected it. Guild cards only tracked the number of monsters you killed; dungeons were the perfect crime scenes.

Were these the guys who attacked Solus’s party? Were they unrelated? I concentrated and felt another presence lurking behind us. Whoever it was had murder on their mind. That made four clearly hostile individuals.

Fran, these men are bandits.

Hm.

Arf?

What is it, Jet?

Arf arf?

Jet tilted his head, wondering why I was back on Identifying people. Hadn’t Dias advised me to be more careful?

Yes. But Dias said that was mainly around nobility and royalty. Not only is it bad manners, but we might get dragged into a conspiracy. Dungeons are a different story. You run into suspicious thugs down here, like the ones standing in front of us right now. Identify is a necessary precaution. What kind of stupid idealist do you have to be to trust heavily armed men you just met?

If they got upset at being Identified, that meant they had something to hide. Maybe they had a powerful skill up their sleeve… I mean if the people we meet in dungeons Identified us, we’d be fine with that too.

And that’s why it’s okay.

As I wrapped up my justification, the men were getting impatient.

“For the last time, we’ll help you get back to the entrance.”

Fran’s silence was getting on his nerves.

Fran, leave one alive for questioning. I think the warrior-looking guy’s the leader.

And the others?

Well, we’re not dragging their sorry asses out of this dungeon. Kill the rest.

Hm. Got it.

Their stats are about average, so stay sharp. Jet, you take care of Solus.

Grr!

Still, I was worried that these men weren’t the ones who’d killed Solus’s party. What if they had reformed their ways and their skills were just a sad reminder of their past?

Hopefully, they would initiate the attack.

As if on queue, the angry man made his move.

“Ah, screw this,” said the leader signaling his hidden ally in the darkness.

A man armed with a dagger approached Fran at staggering speed. He didn’t intend to kill, only injure. It was a dirty tactic, but I was impressed by his wisdom in combat. Fran might seem like a harmless little girl, but he wasn’t about to let his guard down.

Still, too easy.

“Wha—”

He hid his presence well, but not enough to escape our notice. I stopped his dagger with Telekinesis. While he was puzzled at his arm being suspended in mid-slice, I cut off his head with a wind spell.

Fran didn’t even turn.

“Huh? What?”

We left Solus to his bewilderment and made our move.

“Duzz! What did you—”

“You little bit—”

“Guah!”

Fran decapitated one of the men, sliced the head of another to pieces, and smacked the remaining one with the flat of her blade. Their ambush was well-coordinated, but they were poor combatants.

“Gaah!”

The impact sent the man flying into the wall so hard that it almost left new cracks in it. His arm and ribs were probably shattered. His back couldn’t be in good shape either. As he groaned in agonizing pain, the man managed to eke out a whisper.

“Urk… How…?”

“Saw right through you.”

“Damn it…”

He moaned in frustration and coughed up blood.

Teacher, what should we do with him?

We’ll take him to the guild. If he has any more friends there, he can point them out to us.

As we talked, Solus shuffled forward. He brought down his sword without warning.

Clank.

He would’ve killed the last bandit if Fran hadn’t used me to stop him.

“What are you doing?”

“S-sorry. When I look at him, I just…”

This was the man who killed his party. Solus put away his sword, his face pale. He glared at the man with dull eyes and grim expression.

“I know how you feel. But…”

Fran turned to the bandit with murderous rage. If I hadn’t told her to spare him, she would’ve taken his life. For Inina’s sake.

“We’re taking him to the guild.”

“Y-yeah. You’re right.”

Afterward, Solus suggested that he take point. His rage was still there, so having Solus right next to the bandit who killed his friends was probably a bad idea. We tied up the unconscious bandit and put him on Jet’s back. We healed him just enough so he wouldn’t bleed to death. Even if he woke up, I didn’t think he could do any harm.

The traps reset themselves halfway through the fifth floor, but Solus spotted them with ease and even dismantled a few. He was a pretty good Scout.

About twenty minutes later, Jet yelped suddenly.

“Woof!”

Huh?

“Jet?”

“Arf.”

Jet was holding a thick spear in his mouth. A trap had activated and dropped it from the ceiling. He reflexively caught it in his mouth. Impressive.

“You okay?”

“Urrrf!”

“S-sorry.”

Solus didn’t spot the trap in time. We were speeding out of the dungeon, so maybe his concentration had slipped. Spotting traps was difficult even for us.

Kzzt…

Huh? What was that? My brain felt like it was hit with a static jolt. Not that I had a brain.

Hmmm?

What’s wrong, Teacher?

Did you feel something weird just now? It’s a little hard to describe, but…

Hm?

Fran tilted her head.

You didn’t catch that, Fran?

Uhhhh.

Jet, what about you?

Arf?

Jet didn’t know what I was talking about either, and those two were much more sensitive than I was. Was I imagining things?

“Sorry. I stepped on a trap…”

Kzzt…

There it was again!

What about now?

Hm?

Woof?

They were still oblivious.

What is going on? Did one of my skills sense the traps? It was so hard to understand.

Well, we just have to keep going.

“Hm.”

“Uh, are you okay?”

Solus looked worried. Fran and Jet were tilting their heads for no apparent reason. He must’ve thought they were in pain.

“I’m fine.”

“Woof.”

“If you say so…”

“We should hurry,” Fran said, ordering Solus to keep going.

“R-right.”

We pressed on until suddenly, he stopped.

“There’s something over there.”

“Where?”

“There.”

Solus pointed at something, not that I could tell what. I knew there was a trap on that wall, but I didn’t think that’s what he was looking at. More importantly, was that buzz going to happen again?

“It’s right there. We should check it out!”

Kzzt!

There it was again, still as unpleasant as the first time I felt it. At least now I knew for sure. But before I could figure out what was causing that strange sensation, Fran and Jet rushed to where Solus had pointed.

Did they forget about the trap?

Fran, wait! Solus—

Before I could warn her, Solus tripped the trap. Tiny holes opened all around us, filling the area with gas.

Poison gas!

We had Abnormal Status Resistance and Poison Drain so we were perfectly safe…but the bandit was getting poisoned! I noticed his health draining away and quickly cast an antidote spell. That could’ve ended poorly.

“Oh no! Sorry about that!”

How many times was this guy going to mess up?

“A-are you okay?”

We couldn’t see Solus through the poison gas.

Again, that buzz.

It only happened when Solus said something. Was he using some kind of skill? On us?

Waves of suspicion rushed through me like a broken dam. I looked back on what happened so far. Solus had identified the last of the bandits as the leader and tried to kill him, but how did he know? When we found him, he said they all wore hooded masks. How did he know that they were even men, if they all wore such garments?

Then he’d ignored the adventurer’s rule by asking us to carry Lest and Inina’s corpses out of here. Was he trying to slow us down?

After that, Solus had asked Fran about her skills. I thought it was just nerves, but he was clearly trying to probe her.

He’d tried to kill the bandit leader as soon as we caught him, then started activating one trap after another.

All of this was very suspicious.

But he came out clean from my lie detector. That’s why I’d trusted him so far. He felt like an old friend, despite only meeting us today.

The facts filled me with unspeakable anxiety and dread.

Was Solus using something on us? If so, what? Had I misunderstood somehow? He was acting very suspicious, but I didn’t have any proof…

Fran, Jet, don’t say a word.

?

Arf?

Hear me out—

And so, Jet collapsed to the floor and Fran dropped to one knee, her breathing ragged. It was all an act of course. If my suspicions were correct, Solus would take this chance to do something. 

I could activate Telekinesis instantly, and quietly cast the Dimension spell Chronos Clock on Fran and Jet, allowing them to perceive everything in slow motion. They could easily dodge any incoming attack.

The only downside was that they would hear Solus’s speech slowed down, too. Fran wouldn’t be able to understand what he was saying, so I didn’t cast the spell on myself.

“Did…you cast a spell on yourself?”

“…”

“Fran? Are you all right?”

Solus had felt the casting of a spell. Maybe I shouldn’t have used Chronos Clock. Still, I didn’t know what he might do, and I wanted to take precautions. But this was strange. His only detection skills were Presence Sense and Trap Sense. He didn’t have Mana Sense or Spell Sense, so how did he detect my cast? If his Presence Sense was at a higher level it might have been possible, but his was only Level 5. How did he do it?

And then it dawned on me.

Fake Identity?

And just after Dias had completely fooled us with it too!

The Unique Skill was so rare that I didn’t think multiple people in the same town would have it. I guess that couldn’t be said of the Dungeon City.

As my suspicions toward Solus rose, he walked over to us.

“Urgh.”

Keep groaning in agony, Fran! You’re doing good!

“The poison really got to you… Don’t worry. Soon, you won’t feel any pain.”

I used Essence of Falsehood and found that he wasn’t lying, but his actions contradicted his words. He took out his sword and brought it down on Fran. I guess he wasn’t lying in the end. You can’t feel pain when you’re dead. It was a cliché really. Nevertheless, Fran managed to dodge his attack easily.

“Hm.”

“What?! How!”

Fran stood and drew me.

“Hmph!”

“Aaaargh!”

She cut through Solus’s right wrist, lopping off his sword hand. On the return stroke, she chopped off his right leg.

“Wh-what…”

Solus dropped to the ground in shock.

I dispelled Chrono Clock so she could interrogate him properly.

“Heal.”

He’d just lost an arm and a leg. We weren’t going to restore him to full health, but we couldn’t just let him bleed out.

Let’s start with some easy questions.

“How did you know I cast something?”

“A skill of course.”

He wasn’t lying. He had a skill that could detect it.

“Presence Sense?”

“Heh… Maybe. Or maybe it’s something else.”

He still wasn’t lying, but was clearly phrasing his answers so that it wouldn’t register. Was he used to this kind of interrogation?

Solus either wanted to negotiate or mock Fran. He held his ground and looked her in the eye, but Fran had no intention of negotiating.

“Hmph.”

“Raaagh!”

She wasted no time in plunging me through Solus’s back. I understood the sentiment. There was a good chance that this was Inina’s murderer. She looked at him with ice cold eyes.

“Gaaah!” Solus squirmed and spasmed.

“Heal. I’ll ask you again. How did you know I cast something?”

“And…if I said I didn’t know?”

“Then I’ll keep hurting you until you tell me. Slowly. You can forget about killing yourself too. I’ll heal you out of it.”

“…”

Fran’s lack of expression came in handy at times like these. She sounded dead serious. Although in this case, she really was. Solus could feel it too. I could see the fear in his eyes.

“You’ll spare me at least…won’t you?”

It was Solus’s desperate plea that made me realize he was the source of the strange static I was feeling. He definitely was up to something. It felt like the threatening caress of a blade. I couldn’t ignore it anymore.

Fran, did you feel that?

“?”

What about you, Jet?

Bark?

They were still oblivious. Why was I the only one who could feel it? I had the Mage skill to thank for it, I guess—it allowed me to feel the flow of mana around me. I might not be able to detect physical sensations as well as Fran, but I was much more sensitive to mana.

Did he do something?

Most likely.

“Hm.”

Fran nodded before burying me deep in Solus’s spine. She made it hurt worse for him, too.

“Eeeaaagh…”

I felt his lungs collapse around my blade. A normal person would be dead by now, but when an adventurer got strong enough, they became cursed with durability.

“Urg. Gurg. Eeerk.”

“Mid Heal.”

“Aaah…”

By the time she healed his wounds, despair had come over Solus’s face. He understood that Fran meant every word.

“Don’t try anything stupid.”

“Grrr.”

“Urgh… Huff…”

Solus panted and gasped for air in panic, or maybe because his punctured lung was suddenly healed. He no longer tried to hide his fear. Tears welled up in his eyes.

“Okay, okay, I’ll talk!”

“Answer my last question.”

“M-Mana Sense!”

I knew it.

“How are you hiding it?”

“Y-you have Identify…?”

Fran answered with a gesture.

“Hm.”

“Gyaaah!”

Solus screamed, having been stabbed for the third time. When would he learn? Perhaps his modus operandi was to drag people in through innocent conversation. It wouldn’t work on Fran though.

“Heal. What did I just say? Now answer the question.”

“Okay… Okay! It’s a skill called Fake Identity!”

So far so good.

“Deactivate it.”

“All right! There! I turned it off!”

Kzzzt!

That feeling again.

I could see his Mana Sense now, as well as his real stats…but I hadn’t figured out what was causing the odd sensation.

Well?

He might still be hiding something. Get him to turn it off on everything.

“Hm. You’re not using it to hide any other skills?”

“How would y—o-okay! No! I’m not hiding anything else!”

Solus’s backtalk only made Fran raise her sword menacingly. He screamed and begged for mercy, but his words triggered Essence of Falsehood.

He’s lying. He’s still hiding something.

He was already freaking out from Fran seeing his stats.

“Hm.”

“Aaagh! Wh-why…”

“Turn off Fake Identity.”

“How did you… A-all right! I’ll turn it off! The skill’s attached to my ring, just let me take it off!” Solus screamed, waving his left hand. 

He bit the ring off his middle finger. It was the only way he could take it off, now that he was missing his right hand. But the ring was fixed there. That was the annoying thing about rings. The slightest weight gain or bruise made them get stuck. Solus gnawed and tugged at the ring, but his efforts were for naught.

“Urgh…mggh…”

Fran lost her patience.

“Enough.”

“Wai—aaargh!”

The moment Solus pulled his mouth away, Fran sliced his finger in one quick motion. Although he was screaming in pain, I was impressed that Fran managed to keep the ring intact.

“Heal.”

“Eeerk.”

Unfortunately, the ring shattered all the same. It was one of those pieces of equipment which destroyed itself when separated from its user. However, now that it was destroyed, I could use Identify on the remnants. The Ring of Poison Resistance turned out to be a Ring of Fake Identity.

Now I could see Solus’s stats in their entirety.

Name: Solus

Age: 30

Race: Half Magus

Class: Maze Scout

Level: 34

HP: 208; Magic: 187; Strength: 141; Agility: 237

Skills: Assassinate 3; Lie Detector 4; Acting 6; Stealth 6; Disassemble 6; Deceive 5; Presence Sense 5; Conceal Presence 3; Hush 4; Sword Arts 5; Sword Mastery 7; Throw 4; Poison Resistance 6; Venomology 5; Mana Sense 6; Trap Sense 6; Disarm Trap 6; Spirit Manipulation.

Unique Skill: Fake Identity 2; Coercive Influence

Titles: Traitor; Murderer

His skills and stats were much higher than I’d thought. Solus was about as strong as a C-Rank. In fact, he might be stronger than the C-Ranks we met in Alessa. He had some notable skills too.

So he has two Unique Skills, one of which is Fake Identity.

His own Fake Identity was amplified by the ring. What an interesting strategy. Faced with people who had Identify like us, Solus was able to turn off his Fake Identity at will. However, he concealed his vital information with his ring.

He must have one hell of a Unique Skill to hide.

Coercive Influence, huh?

“Coercive Influence? What kind of skill is that?”

“You see… Wait, all right, I’ll talk! Put the sword down and the send the wolf away! I’ll talk!”

“Grr.”

That was it. Less yapping, more talking.

“This skill allows me to gain affinity with those around me. It makes them treat me like a friend. The only downside is that it’s not strong enough to make people fall in love with me or treat me as their best friend.”

So that’s why we didn’t suspect Solus of any wrongdoing. I noticed the odd sensation, but even then I chalked it up to my imagination.

“The skill lets me evade hard questions and suspicion. Even if someone asks, I can lead the conversation elsewhere.”

“So you used this skill to join adventuring parties and then betray them?”

“That’s right.”

There it was. No wonder he tripped every trap we came across. I felt like it was taking longer to get out of the dungeon too. No wonder Solus hid the existence of Coercive Influence. Under the skill’s sway, he could lull Fran into letting her guard down. Even now, he probably thought he could still get out of this.

“Were the people we ran into the ones who attacked Inina?”

“Yes.”

“Friends of yours?”

“Yeah.” Solus nodded, and Fran’s murderous intent immediately multiplied. She might have activated Menace by accident. Blood drained from Solus’s face as he realized she was no ordinary adventurer.

“Where’s your other friend? You said there’s one left.”

Five bandits attacked the Hatchery, but we only took down four. I thought there might be another one lurking in the shadows but…

“I’m the fifth.”

Essence of Falsehood didn’t trigger. He was telling the truth.

Solus was a meticulous planner. He could’ve picked any number of lies, but he stuck with the truth. Most likely a precaution against lie-detecting skills. With Fake Identity and Coercive Influence, it would take an expert to detect the slightest foul play.

Looking back, most of Solus’s statements had been vague. He misled us, but he never lied. With the help of Coercive Influence, he didn’t have to. That was how he got us.

Essence of Falsehood was useful, but it couldn’t detect someone’s intentions. Solus just taught me that I needed to be careful, even when checking for lies.

“How many friends do you have outside the dungeon?”

“Zero. You killed them all just now.”

Lie.

“You’re lying. How many?”

Fran pointed me in front of his eyes.

“Lie Detector too…”

He noticed that then. He really was careful.

“Do you want to tell me now or should I torture you again?”

“I have four people under me!”

“Hm.”

Honesty is the best policy. This guy was the leader of this crew.

“Where are they?”

“They’re…at the guild today.”

Solus would begin by planning which party to infiltrate. He usually targeted weaker parties, since no one would be surprised if they died in a dungeon. Still, he would let one party survive every month to keep down rumors of him being the source of their deaths. How prudent of him.

He’d targeted the Hatchery because they had obtained a certain potion. A potion made from the materials of a Pandemic Leech, a rare monster in this dungeon. The potion was rare, and indispensable for those who sought it.

Solus heard how Lest got a hold of it, and promptly infiltrated the party. In the end, he killed them all to steal it.

We told him to bring us to his friends. We needed to take out the trash.

Let’s tie him up.

“Hm.”

Don’t let your guard down, Fran. Tie him up real tight.

“Hmph.”

“O-ow! The rope’s digging into my—urrfgh!”

“Mid Heal. Shut up. Don’t talk unless I tell you to.”

Fran punched him in the solar plexus. The blow might have ruptured his internals somewhat because he coughed up blood. She had no mercy for Inina’s killer. Sensing her wrath, Solus only nodded, tears running down his face.

“Jet.”

“Woof!”

Jet was already carrying one criminal on his back, but he was strong enough to carry another. Fran loaded Solus onto him.

Let’s head back.

“Hm.”

Monsters attacked as we made our way out, but they all suffered cruel ends from Fran’s rage. She didn’t kill them in a sadistic way…but it was certainly overkill. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for them.

But monsters and traps weren’t the only things waiting for us.

Adventurers up ahead.

“Hm.”

The adventurers called out when they saw Solus lying on Jet’s back. If they were only curious then all would be well, but one of them knew Solus personally. As an upright and honest adventurer at that.

“What did you do to him?!”

“Solus! Are you okay?!”

It was the party we ran into on the fourth floor.

To people who only knew his façade, Solus must’ve seemed like an awful sight. The three warriors readied their weapons.

“Let go of him right now!”

I didn’t know the kind of work Solus did on the outside, but they clearly thought Fran was the bad guy. One of them pointed his sword at Fran, with Intimidate in tow. Our other captive was an adventurer, too, although the misguided party didn’t plead for his release.

“No.”

“What?”

“Why would you do such a thing? Let him go!”

“He attacked me first. I caught him.”

“Impossible! Solus would never do anything like that! You’re crazy!”

“Am I? Are you his bandit friends too? Are you trying to save your boss?”

“Us? Bandits? How dare you!”

“Just let him go and no one gets hurt.”

“…”

This was bad.

Fran was getting angrier. The three adventurers had antagonized her with Intimidate, and she was coming to the conclusion that they were fair game.

We should spare them—they might be victims of Solus’s lies too. That said, an argument to convince them otherwise might lead to further bloodshed…

Now, what was Solus going to do?

We would be in trouble if he started talking again. He might convince them that Fran was a wanted criminal.

“…”

But he chose to hold his peace. He was clearly awake, but he pretended to be unconscious. He knew that his would-be saviors were no match for Fran. If he spoke up, he would only bring even worse tortures for himself. Very smart.

I thought we could knock them all out cold and be done with it, but a dungeon was too dangerous for that, and leaving them here would be the same as killing them. Fran wouldn’t usually be so murderous, but her heart was consumed by grief and rage. She wanted to lash out.

Jet, Fran, we’re getting out of here. We can’t afford to waste time negotiating.

Fine…

Arf!

I focused on the two warriors in the back and pushed them apart with Telekinesis. Then Jet and I rushed past.

Fran kicked the jaw of the man in front, giving him a nice concussion. He immediately fell to the floor. I apologized, though I knew his two friends wouldn’t leave him to give chase. They would take care of their fallen comrade.

Let’s go!

“Hm.”

“Woof, woof!”

The adventurers yelled at us, but their friend was still knocked out. They had no chance of catching us now.

We’ll sprint all the way to the entrance.

“All right.”

There were no dangerous traps up ahead, and we could ignore all the monsters that we came across. Sprinting was our safest bet against nosy adventurers. The plan worked. We ran into no trouble the rest of the way. After exiting the dungeon gates however, we became the center of attention.

Jet looked as menacing as he possibly could. Plus, there were two half-naked men tied up on his back, their faces covered with cloth. I’d give us weird looks, too, if I didn’t know better. 

We decided to cover their faces after our run-in with the last party. That way, any of Solus’s acquaintances wouldn’t recognize him. In hindsight, we should’ve done that sooner. In any case, Fran and Jet had no trouble standing out in the crowd. They looked too suspicious for the local guard to leave us alone.

“Wh-what’s going on here?”

“Did something happen?”

“Wh-what?”

“That guy’s injured pretty bad.”

The gatekeepers called for backup. This was no time for excuses. We had to tell the truth. Solus’s gang was still out there, and they might escape if we made a scene now. We had to get going.

When the guards questioned her, Fran told them the facts.

“They attacked me in the dungeon and I caught them.”

A crowd gathered and broke into murmurs.

“She did that in self-defense—” 

“That’s ruthless—”

They seemed terrified of her. I guess I could understand why. Here were two men, one of whom was literally missing an arm and a leg. They were loaded on top of this little girl’s giant wolf like baggage. It was quite a terrifying sight really. 

“What? So these are the bandits?”

“Hm.”

“Good job, little lady! Very good!”

Instead of suspicion, Fran received commendations and applause. Guards and adventurers alike were horrified at criminal activity in the dungeon—it was the worst form of betrayal.

I thought they would question her further, but Fran’s looks actually helped her in this case. There was no way this innocent little girl would lie about tying up two grown men and loading them on her fluffy pet direwolf. The only thing left to do was get back to the guild and give these two a proper hearing.

The guards thought the same thing.

“You’re going to the guild?”

“Hm.”

“Then allow us to escort you there.”

We were grateful for the offer. Getting back to the guild would take too much time if we had to explain ourselves to every guard we passed.

“Sure.”

Fran nodded, putting their trust in them. And so we went with three guards leading us, but a strange thing happened on our way. A powerful presence approached rapidly, filling me with terror. I thought it was one of Solus’s accomplices at first and charged up Telekinesis out of pure reflex.

“Frannie, are you all right?!”

But it just turned out to be Elza. Fran readied herself for a battle, but relaxed when she realized who it was. 

Elza glared menacingly at the guards, thinking they had arrested Fran. But after Fran explained the situation, she looked genuinely worried.

“Oh no, Frannie. Are you hurt?”

“No.”

“Thank goodness. Were you scared?”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re so brave. So these are the bandits?”

“Yeah.”

Elza directed her rage at Solus, her face like the mask of a Buddhist Nio statue. The captured bandits trembled in fear, even through their blindfolds.

Elza closed in and whispered into Solus’s ear, “Good for you.”

“Eeek…”

Solus shrieked, though not because of the voice brushing against his ear.

“If Fran had suffered a single scratch, I would’ve crushed you with my bare hands.”

Fran wasn’t hurt, although she did take a face full of poison gas. Not that Elza would ever know. We needed Solus alive and able to give coherent testimony, which he probably wouldn’t be after Elza was through with him.

Hey, Fran. Maybe we should get Elza to catch Solus’s gang for us.

Why?

There’s a good chance that she knows their faces, and she’s definitely stronger than all of them put together. She’d be a lot faster since she wouldn’t have to bring Solus along for confirmation too.

We were attracting quite a crowd. I was beginning to worry if we would reach the guild in time.

Good thing we ran into Elza.

“Elza.”

“Yes, dear?”

“I need a favor.”

“Done!”

“I haven’t told you what it is yet.”

“Consider it done anyway! I’ll do anything for you, just say the word! You want the Guildmaster’s family jewels? You want me to find those mean guards and punish them for you? I can do it!”

Family jewels? Punish? You’re joking. Please tell me you’re joking? Elza’s eyes were dead serious. I felt a chill run down my inanimate blade.

Fran didn’t seem to understand Elza’s suggestions. “I need you to find this man’s friends.”

“Oh? So he has friends, does he?”

“Hm. They’re at the Adventurer’s Guild.”

“Are they now?”

Fran gave Elza their names and appearances, and her eyes glinted like a dragon.

“I never knew we had such idiots at the guild.”

“Capture them any way you want.”

“You got it. You just need them alive, right?”

“Hm. As long as we can get information out of them.”

“All right then. If I kill them by accident, I’ll make up the bounty myself!”

No, we don’t care about the bounty! We need them alive so we can interrogate them about their accomplices and past crimes!

“I’ll be off then!”

“Hm. Good luck.”

Fran, no. You shouldn’t have done that!

“Heeheehee! Oh I feel so much stronger now that I know you’re rooting for me! Braver and stronger and filled with love! Just you wait, Frannie! I’ll serve them up on a golden platter for you!”

Elza sprinted away, evidently delighted that Fran was worried for her safety.

And she’s off…

Teacher?

It’s nothing. Right, Jet?

“Arf.”

I just hoped those accomplices would come back in one piece.

Thirty minutes after Elza disappeared with the wind, we were hurrying back to the guild. If we’d been by ourselves, it only would’ve taken five minutes (we’d already memorized the roadmap), but we needed to wait for the guards to catch up.

“W-we’re here.”

“Woof.”

“Hm.”

The guards were panting and doubled over as we came to a halt. We might have been running a little too fast for them. 

“Gyaaaa!”

“H-help!”

We didn’t even need to enter the guild to know that Elza was having one hell of a time. Fran peeked through the door to see four men kneeling in front of Elza.

“Welcome back, Frannie.”

“These are the ones?”

“That’s right. I made sure to confirm it before laying down the law.”

“I’ll tell you anything!”

“We admit it! We did it! Please just get her away from us!”

“W-we can’t take anymore!”

The three men cowered. 

“So you’re the ones who’ve been attacking adventurers in the dungeons?”

“Yes! Yes!”

“Who’s the leader? Who told you to do it?”

“W-we do.”

“Who is it?”

“W-well…”

“If we say anything…”

The men muttered in fear. Elza leaned in.

“Oh? Are you more scared of this person than you are of me? I guess you need more punishment.”

Blood immediately drained from the men’s faces. 

“Oh gods, please! Solus! E-Rank Adventurer Solus is our ringleader!”

“He’s hiding his real strength! He’s strong enough to beat a D-Rank!”

“He would kill us in an instant!”

Solus genuinely terrified his men. He was stronger than them, and he wasn’t above using dirty tricks to dispose of his targets. They’d worked with him for a long time and the mystery of his real power made them believe that he was a monster. Granted, he was pretty strong.

“Very good. And you’ll be all right. Fran already took care of nasty Solus, didn’t you, Fran?”

Elza’s question made Fran the center of the guild’s attention.

“Is that the Swordceress—”

“The D-Rank—”

“She’s a Black Cat—”

“Sh-she’s adorable—”

She didn’t immediately win the adoration of her peers. Not that they hated her, but the adventurers were mostly just curious. 

“Here.” Fran pulled Solus down from Jet’s back and tossed him to Elza.

“Hurk.”

“Thank you, dear.”

Elza took off the cloth covering Solus’s face, and his friends screamed in terror. Even bound and maimed, Solus still terrified them. It took them a while to get over the shock.

“I-Is that really Solus?”

“No way…”

Fran unloaded the other bandit.

“Where do you want this one?”

“Hang on, sweetie. One at a time. The GM should be here soon.”

“Hm. Got it.”

“What do you want to do in the meantime? Shall we have tea?”

“Hm.”

“As for these idiots—the rest of you, don’t let them out of your sight.”

“Understood!”

Elza left Solus and his cronies to the watchful eyes of the guild and led Fran to the guild watering hole. I had my doubts about leaving them unsupervised, but the adventurers were determined to follow Elza’s commands. They stood guard with eagle eyes, terrified of the punishment Elza might rain down on them if they failed. And this was the Adventurer’s Guild. As good as Solus was at sweet-talking, he was still surrounded.

Elza and Fran had tea for about thirty minutes. By the end, a large number of empty plates were stacked high in front of them as they had both eaten a large number of cakes. Elza did most of the talking while Fran nodded and ate, but both seemed to be enjoying themselves. She was a good conversationalist, with lots to talk about. I could see how she would be popular among both men and women.

“Now what’s all this about?” Dias said as he finally returned to the guild.

“You’re late,” said Eliza. “What were you doing?”

“Making the rounds. Looks like you had fun.”

“Oh, you don’t know the half of it.”

“Good, good. So, you’re the traitors I’ve been hearing about?”

“Eek!”

“Aah…!”

Boy, Dias was feeling murderous today. He had the aura of an A-Rank Guildmaster, and no mercy for traitors. Some of the surrounding adventurers even turned pale.

“Hmm. You’ve been up to some awful things, I see.”

Had he used Mind Read? If he had, I hadn’t felt it. The skill was hard enough to detect on its own, and I wasn’t even the target. I had to work on my detection skills more.

“And this is the ringleader?”

“Yes, he is. His name is Solus and he’s very good at hiding his powers.” Solus did his best to lie low. He avoided putting on airs or bragging about his strength, hiding behind the guise of an unassuming youth.

“Indeed. The fact that I have trouble remembering his face is testament to that.”

Dias.

Teacher, is that you? I didn’t know you could send private messages over Telepathy.

Well, I can. Anyway, Solus has the Unique Skills Fake Identity and Coercive Influence. You need to be careful with the latter. He can immediately gain your trust if you let him talk.

“Hmm…you have some interesting skills, I see.”

“Wh-who’s to say?”

“No matter. You’ll feel like talking soon enough. I’ll make sure of it.”

The frost in Dias’s voice sent chills down Solus’s spine.

“What’s going to happen to him?”

“We’ll process him, of course, and he’ll either get the death penalty or be sold into hard labor, though I doubt he would make a good slave. He might use his skills to give his owners the slip. Death penalty it is. Either instantly or by torture.”

Death by torture? This world really was violent. But I agreed with his decision. Solus could have easily escaped otherwise. The other bandits were pleading through their gags, but they failed to win any sympathy.

There was one problem though, which was quite unfortunate.

Solus’s Unique Skill.

Coercive Influence was amazing. Though relying on it constantly could cause problems, the skill would probably remain hidden if we only used it once in a while. It was Solus’s abuse of it that led to his downfall. Nevertheless, Skill Taker was still on cooldown. I had to wait another two months to use it again. I doubted Dias would let him live that long. I had to give up on it.

“Hm,” said Fran. “That works.”

“Good. Thanks for your help.”

“Sure. I need another favor.”

“What is that?”

“I want you to give these two a proper burial.”

Fran took Lest and Inina from her Pocket Dimension. Dias and Elza winced.

“So he attacked the Hatchery?”

“No… They were such good boys and girls…”

They knew of the party’s good intentions. Dias agreed to give them a proper burial. Fran wiped the blood from Inina’s face and draped a piece of cloth over her body. Her eyes were filled with sadness, grief over the passing of the first Black Cat she’d met in a long time.

“We’ll bury them in the adventurers’ cemetery.”

“Thank you.”

“One more thing. Elza and Fran, you have the right to claim these men’s belongings. Will you take them?”

“I don’t need to. I just wanted to help Frannie out. You take it, sweetie.”

Teacher?

We’re good for equipment. But maybe they have some interesting magic items on hand. Potions would be nice.

“Any potions?”

“We have some life potions here. Most of them are low level, but one’s pretty good. But here’s an interesting concoction. A Drawback Reduction potion.”

“What’s it do?”

“This is my first time seeing one. It’s rare. But it reduces the drawbacks and costs of a given skill.”

Wow! Will that work on me? It had to be extraordinarily rare if Dias had never seen one.

“Does it work on inanimate objects? Can I use it on a magic item that’s on cooldown, for example?”

“That’s an interesting line of thought…but it should work, since it’s an enchanted potion.”

I could use it to reduce the cooldown on Skill Taker!

“I’ll take the high-level life potion along with the Drawback Reduction potion. You can keep the rest.”

“Of course. Then allow me to split the bounty between the two of you.”

“Oh, I don’t need it. Helping Fran is reward enough for me.” Elza refused her reward, despite being the one who apprehended Solus’s accomplices.

What should we do?

Well, if she wants to give it to us, then we have to accept. Tell her you’ll take her out to lunch or something. Just taking her reward without doing anything in return scares me.

There’s nothing quite as terrifying as a free lunch.

“All right. I’ll take it. But you have to let me treat you in exchange.”

“So we can have lunch again?”

“Hm.”

“Goodness me! Really? I would love to!”

Right answer. Elza squirmed her muscular body in utmost ecstasy. She couldn’t care less about the lunch, but she certainly loved being with Fran.

We’ll let the guild take care of the rest.

“Hm.”

That Coercive Influence skill, though…

“Hrmph.” Fran grumbled.

What?

You don’t have to get Coercive Influence, she said.

Why not? It could come in really handy.

I don’t want it. You said you wouldn’t use Essence of Falsehood at the beginning because of how scary it is. But you’ve been using it more and more.

Uh…

It’s only a skill that lets you see through lies, and you’re only using it to protect me, I understand that. But that just means I’m too weak to defend myself.

Fran…

Even if you say you’ll only use Coercive Influence when you absolutely have to, you’ll probably end up using it even when you don’t.

Well…

I couldn’t argue with her. I had been using Essence of Falsehood a lot.

But skills that let you read others’ minds scare me, Fran thought. That fat noble…the one who had Essence of Falsehood?

August Allsand.

She had completely forgotten his name.

August and Solus both had rotten hearts. I’m sure their skills corrupted them and they lost their faith in other people. That’s why I don’t want you using it.

How many times had Fran taught me instead of the other way round? And I was supposed to be her guardian. Yet again, I realized how pathetic I was.

Yeah…you’re right, Fran.

I was weak. Convenience was my greatest temptation. I would make every excuse to use those horrible skills.

Right! I’ll put Coercive Influence behind me!

Hm. Good. We don’t need it.

I was so proud of her.