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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Yuziro
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Gaendal returned a little over an hour later.
“I don’t know whether to call them bold or reckless, but they seem quite careless… No, what is this delicious smell?”
Upon arriving, Gaendal couldn’t compose himself due to the aroma of the stew Yekaterina had prepared, and we couldn’t laugh at him. To us, who had been drooling and waiting for over 30 minutes while smelling this fragrant stew aroma, he was our savior, not a subject of laughter at all.
“Let’s eat first and then start.”
Since it wasn’t a long-term request, the ingredients Engrim had packed focused on maximizing flavor without worrying about freshness, and Yekaterina’s decision to boldly make a stew with those ingredients was absolutely correct.
Even disregarding the warmth spreading from our stomachs, the stew was truly delicious.
“How can such food come out while camping?”
It wasn’t an empty compliment; it was tastier than the stew sold at decent inns.
Even Alisha’s stew, which I missed so much, couldn’t keep up with this.
Seeing that everyone else felt the same way as they unanimously praised the stew, Yekaterina laughed heartily and tapped her chest, which was as bountiful as her muscles.
“The ingredients are one thing, but I’m confident in my stew! It contains ingredients passed down through generations in my family, so it wouldn’t be a flavor you’ve commonly tasted!”
“Ah! So that’s why you added that unidentified liquid! It’s really useful and handy!”
Rellie, who seemed to have already tasted her cooking while working together, showed a reaction indicating there was something she could guess.
Unidentified liquid? Do the people of Rubil have some secret method for making chicken stock?
“Yekaterina, as compensation for the earlier advice, I’d like to hear more specifically what that ingredient is later.”
“I’m glad it suits your taste. Food is meant to be shared! I’ll tell you as much as you want!”
Yekaterina was now a versatile cultural warrior who had long since shattered her first impression.
“Phew. This just reaffirms the importance of a meal. Anyway, there’s nothing too serious, so listen while eating.”
Gaendal, who had been captivated by the food like us, sated his hunger to a reasonable extent and began conveying the results of his scouting.
“The surroundings are unexpectedly normal. Appropriate monsters. Appropriate adventurers. Maybe because of that, they don’t seem to suspect at all that there could be demon worshippers settled in an abandoned dungeon.”
Rather, those bastards were boldly pretending to be affiliated with the Adventurers’ Guild and politely turned away those who approached.
The fact that he even had the opportunity to see that much in such a short time made Gaendal feel that this request had quite a stroke of luck, and we all couldn’t help but nod in agreement.
“Of course, they’ll have shift changes, but I don’t know when that will be. One thing for sure is that the guys I saw didn’t guard carelessly. It’s safe to say they clearly know what they’re doing and how dangerous of a bridge they’re crossing.”
“Still, it’s not a request we can just breeze through.”
According to the information Engrim provided, apart from two women who had been active as archers and one mage, the rest were all ordinary warrior-type adventurers.
Personally, I considered the one who was a mage and yet participated in such a thing to be the most dangerous, both ideologically and in terms of motivation, but it seemed the others hadn’t joined half-heartedly either.
Their age range was said to be from the late teens to early twenties, so while there was a possibility they were just brimming with enthusiasm and lacking in preparation, we couldn’t rule that out.
“The most fortunate thing is that no matter how much rest we take here, they’re indifferent enough to the surroundings that they won’t find it strange. This will be an advantage when we actually start the raid, so it’s quite satisfactory.”
“Will we be able to see Egga’s ambush again, like with the bandits?”
Perhaps because the display I showed when dealing with the bandits was so impressive, the party members began proceeding with the conversation while keeping in mind the situation where we could naturally ambush at close range.
As expected, demonstrating my skills against them once was a wise choice.
“Ideally, it would be great to take out about 4 people in sync with their shift change before starting.”
“Huh? Wouldn’t it still be better to deal with them separately?”
“If they’re guarding like that, I have a strong feeling they’ll actually let their guard down more in an environment where they think they have an overwhelming advantage. The relief personnel will also want to quickly wrap things up and head inside if it doesn’t seem like a big deal, so I wonder if their attention might become scattered. What do you think, Eldmia?”
It was a part I hadn’t particularly considered, so Gaendal’s speculation sounded incredibly plausible.
Not only did I have nothing planned, but it also didn’t seem particularly dangerous, so it was a very attractive tactic.
“Honestly, it’s a part I hadn’t taken into account, so I don’t have any other opinions. However, I think Gaendal’s conjecture is very plausible. It would be worth trying.”
“Wouldn’t it be dangerous?”
“If Engrim’s information is accurate, they wouldn’t assign the sole mage or the two archers to guard duty. In terms of the approach, there’s no problem.”
In the end, in a world where power reigns supreme, no matter what happened to their family, if they were outstanding, they could have found another path without necessarily joining hands with demons.
Rather, those with such skills would have kept their distance from demons, considering them a dangerous element that voluntarily leaps into the kingdom’s extremely sharp vigilance.
“They’re guys who had no choice but the extreme option of allying with demons. Their skills will be mediocre at best, so there’s nothing to fear.”
Naturally, the ones scattered inside the dungeon were a greater threat than the guards outside.
Just as the discussion about the ones outside was settled, Gin, who had finished his meal, unfolded the interior map he had received from the guild and took out a monocle from his bosom to wear it.
“Let’s see… I heard it was a dungeon where goblins used to gather in groups, but the structure resembles a temple. In ancient times, temples associated with earth gods were built with this kind of structure, digging underground.”
Muttering professional knowledge, as expected of a dwarf, Gin checked the map one by one while holding it close, then soon spread out a map with numerous X marks drawn on it over the surface of his axe.
“It was a temple dedicated to the god of clinging swamps. I had a chance to investigate one that surfaced in another region about 20 years ago. The marked places have definitely collapsed. They were designed to crumble quickly when maintenance ceased, due to structural problems which intentionally distorted the characteristics of the land that met the conditions for building the temple at that time.”
“Oh, that’s quite interesting. An ancient god that had to be worshipped while deliberately creating such an imperfect structure.”
As Gaendal said, it was indeed a difficult-to-understand building.
Doesn’t this resemble a secret base more than a temple?
While pondering that, Gin scratched his head with the back of his charcoal-holding hand and answered.
“It seems to have been regarded as a kind of evil god. As befitting a rejected religion, they were thorough with secrecy and security. Our conclusion was that it was a defense mechanism to destroy the temple in case the followers’ visits unintentionally ceased or information needed to be deliberately damaged.”
“Huh? But since it transformed into a dungeon and revealed itself, it remained intact enough for the guild to create a map, didn’t it?”
“Look at the map, the date of the dungeon’s abandonment is 3 years ago. Even if maintenance is neglected for just a month, irreversible cracks form. It’s definitely shattered.”
Regardless of how this person remained at the Azure-rank or how Engrim found him, every time Gin explained something, I could feel the already low perceived difficulty of the request gradually decreasing.
“That’s really interesting. But when the dungeon revealed itself, they wouldn’t have known such maintenance was necessary, so how did it remain intact?”
Rellie, who had been constantly exclaiming in admiration, tilted her head and raised a question we all could sympathize with.
And as if waiting for that question, Gin grinned and tapped the map while answering.
“That’s the really fascinating part. The structure is maintained simply by stepping on the floor in areas frequently visited by people. Those places that are inevitably stepped on unless deliberately avoided. If left unattended for a long time, those floors get destroyed and spring up, causing collapse.”
“My goodness… The temple is one giant mechanical device.”
“That’s right. Well, thanks to that, our job has become much easier, so isn’t that fortunate?”
It was indeed much easier, as the X marks Gin had drawn alone numbered over a dozen.
After that, we further streamlined the plan by making a few more markings, estimating things like sleeping quarters and storage rooms, and before we knew it, the sun had risen high in the sky.
I wanted to go scouting right away to observe the shift change personnel, but the fatigue from the 4-hour forced march couldn’t be ignored, so we decided to rest first.
“Let’s have Gaendal and I do the scouting later.”
“Oh, did you learn such skills too?”
“We’ve lived together for a long time, so it won’t be too hard.”
The tracking and scouting techniques I had directly learned from an elf, who praised me saying the forest was like her home, couldn’t possibly be inferior, could they?
Unfortunately, the others had no connection to such things, so for now, only the two of us went to sleep.
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