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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“They look fucking ugly.”
Now I couldn’t help but swear whenever I saw these snake brats.
Seeing the snake heads approaching with their tongues flickering threateningly brought back memories of the struggles on the deserted island.
The battle that day when I had to fight for my life against the hydra.
Though these creatures were barely comparable to dirt under the hydra’s claws, I still couldn’t let my guard down.
After all, carelessness was what most easily claimed people’s lives.
“W-will you be alright on your own…?”
“Hey, instead of worrying about him, it’d be more productive to think about how to compose the photos!”
That was not wrong, but it was somehow irritating.
I tried to push the voices of the two chatting behind me out of my senses as I glared at the lizardmen with their dark green skin.
One with something like a slingshot and one with a crossbow and three with one-handed weapons and shields.
Their weapons seemed to be made of iron that wasn’t particularly high quality, but serviceable enough.
There was no way these guys made them themselves, so they probably looted them from humans according to the setting.
I remember this game being quite faithful to its setting.
“Sif. Hold up the screenshot device.”
“I’m already holding it~”
Well then, let’s get moving.
I approached them with leisurely steps, not using my skills as usual.
It was necessary because it would be difficult to take good photos if I dealt with them using skills.
I also intended to revive my sense for wielding the shovel, as I hadn’t properly swung it in a while.
If my skills didn’t work, hand-to-hand combat was all I had left.
By the way, it was grating on my ears.
I glared at the three lizardmen charging at me in orderly movements with their shields in front.
Was this the result of programming, or of training?
I adjusted my grip on the shovel.
The distance, which had been about thirty paces, rapidly decreased.
I waited for the distance between us to shrink to less than five paces.
The sight of three large lizardmen rushing towards me was quite intimidating, but in the end, they were just lizardmen.
As soon as they entered range, I half-lay down my body.
A movement close to what martial arts novels call the “iron plate bridge”.
The bipedal lizards lowered their heads, searching for me who had suddenly disappeared from their view.
Too late.
Before the snakes could react, I swung my shovel at their legs.
No, I cut them off.
“…This is why people go on about mithril.”
Click.
Screams shook the cave and blue blood splattered everywhere.
Without even being able to wipe off the blood on my face, I rolled to the side to dodge arrows.
Then I quickly sliced off the head of a lizardman whose legs had been cut off and threw it at the enemy.
Click.
Seeing the head of their comrade flying chaotically towards them, the lizardmen’s decision was to flee.
But there was no way I’d let them escape.
“You lot have no comradeship, do you?”
I drew a dagger from my waist and threw it.
It was a cheap dagger that could be found anywhere, but leather couldn’t be tougher than iron.
I approached the lizardman who had fallen with a loud scream and kindly put him out of his misery.
“Sif. Did you capture that properly?”
“…Was that shovel a weapon?”
“Of course it’s a weapon.”
“I thought it was just a tool because you always use skills!”
…Well, I guess I didn’t swing the shovel that much.
It was much more efficient to overwhelm low-level dungeons with crafting skills.
There was no need to risk my life in battle like this.
“A-amazing…”
“Put your backpack on again. We’re going deeper inside.”
“Wait, we need to strip everything valuable from the lizardmen!”
Saying that, Sif began plucking out the lizardmen’s eyeballs.
How thrifty.
I watched Sif diligently plucking out eyeballs, then turned my attention to the faint footsteps I could hear in the distance.
…Looks like she’ll be plucking for a while.
Sif, that is.
“Sif. Are you done plucking?”
“I’m finished now!”
“Then let’s depart.”
There was no reason to wait, so we should go find them.
I started walking towards the sound of footsteps.
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Second floor.
As we descended the stairs and arrived at the swamp area, we all sighed simultaneously at the sight of the vast swamp stretching out before us.
It was disgustingly wide.
Small safe zones floated in the swamp and orcs stood on them.
There were two ways to clear this swamp area.
The first was to run at full speed towards the stairs visible in the distance, and the second was to reach them by stepping on the safe zones scattered throughout the swamp in sequence.
The first method was impossible to start with.
I could easily go alone, but with Elisa here, the option of going quickly was out.
So we had no choice but to go with the second method.
“Wow, I really want to get out of here now.”
“The a-atmosphere is eerie…”
“That’s natural for a swamp. Crafting.”
I pulled soil from the intact safe zones to create a path.
Originally, the answer would be to quickly traverse this floor where it was difficult to fight and move, but our goal was to take photos as evidence of dungeon exploration.
I checked the strength of the created path by kicking it a few times with my foot.
“The quality of the soil isn’t great.”
As a bonus, the option of digging straight down to the lower floor was also blocked.
With terrain like this, going straight down would result in plunging into the swamp.
The relatively intact ground at intervals might be different, but… I looked at the safe zone visible about 50 meters away.
How am I remembering this even after 10 years?
It was amazing how much of a game addict I was.
I couldn’t remember my parents’ faces, but I remembered these trivial dungeon details.
That was really something.
Maybe it was due to the possession adjustment.
“Johann? Why are you suddenly spacing out?”
“I was checking the safe zones. Let’s get going now.”
I was the first to step onto the path I had created.
Although I had made the path quite sturdy, I used the repair skill every five steps just in case.
“Repair.”
The path that was becoming soft became firm again.
It was an unnecessarily troublesome path.
I looked back to see if Sif and Elisa were following well, then immediately landed on the safe zone.
“Was it orc hearts that were used as materials in alchemy?”
Or not? Was it troll hearts?
I couldn’t remember clearly.
Maybe I should have looked up a dictionary before coming.
I sized up the bodies of the two orcs slowly rising in front of the bonfire.
Wasn’t it the way of the world to recover your investment when you’ve invested?
…Well, the investment was just a small amount of food and a few pieces of clothing, but anyway.
“Sif. What parts of an orc’s body are valuable?”
“I think only the heart is worth anything?”
“Gweek?”
The orc that discovered us made a strange noise as it stood up.
“Gweeek!”
“Noisy.”
I struck the charging orc’s head with my shovel.
With a clear and crisp sound, the orc’s body staggered.
I hit it with full force, so it must have gotten a concussion.
I then kicked the groin of the other charging orc with a soccer kick and forced it to kneel.
Even the orc with its sturdy body couldn’t resist much while I was making it kneel, perhaps because that area wasn’t as strong.
“…Elisa. Come over here.”
“Y-yes?!”
“We need to take a photo.”
“Gweeeeek!”
“Shut up.”
I gently made a V-line on the orc’s head and slightly adjusted the position of Elisa, who was standing next to me trembling.
To get a good two-shot with the orc.
“Elisa. Strike a pose. It’s safe, so you don’t need to be so scared.”
Elisa, standing between the kneeling orc and the dead orc with its head split in half, made a V sign with her fingers while sobbing.
Oh, they use that here too.
“Sif, take the photo.”
“…What are we even doing here? Geez…”
Along with the grumbling, the sound of the shutter being pressed was heard.
As soon as the photo was taken, I ripped out the heart of the orc that was foaming at the mouth and rolled it into the swamp.
The swamp turned red.
It was a familiar sight, so I didn’t think much of it.
I put the unpleasantly pulsating heart into a pouch I had prepared in advance.
“Did the photo turn out well?”
“Um… I guess?”
Why are you looking at me with such an uncertain expression?
I approached Sif and checked the printed photo.
It was a photo of Elisa standing between a dead orc with its head split in half and an orc foaming at the mouth.
Elisa making a V sign with a tearful face looked pitiful.
It was such a bizarre photo that if someone saw it, they might think it was photoshopped and it would be hard to argue otherwise.
“…The professor will be surprised when he sees this.”
“If we took this to the Dungeon Exploration Guild, it might win Screenshot of the Month! Only you would tell someone to take a scene like this!”
“Don’t shout.”
“Nyaa!?”
Does this girl only meow when she’s hit?
Come to think of it, for a cat beastkin, she didn’t add ‘~nyaa’ to the end of her sentences.
Was she unusual?
“Sif.”
“Stop hitting me!”
“Is there a reason you don’t add ‘nyaa’ to the end of your sentences?”
“Why are you suddenly asking such a strange question… Do you think I’m a child? I’m an adult, you know?”
“Um… I-I heard that cat beastkin only do that when th-they’re young, and when they b-become adults, they speak n-normally…”
“Thanks for the additional explanation.”
“I-it’s nothing…”
Perhaps due to the praise, Elisa’s expression loosened a bit.
With my enhanced insight, I could easily notice this fact.
It was good that I praised her.
“Then let’s set off again.”
We continued moving, stepping on safe zones.
Dealing with the orcs was my job.
There were only two or three grouped together at most, so I appropriately mixed skills and shoveling to extort the orcs’ hearts as we approached the stairs leading to the third floor.
“I’ve extracted twenty, so I should get about 10 gold coins~ The lizardmen’s eyeballs were only worth 1 silver coin per pair, so it was disappointing that they didn’t make much money.”
“I guess the supply is high.”
“They’re supplied by the thousands every day from a dungeon called Estarim’s Flood, so they can’t help but be cheap.”
Estarim’s Flood…
I was not sure just from the name… but it seemed to be a dungeon where lizardmen mainly appeared.
“Is the supply of orc hearts low?”
“There are few dungeons with orcs near the Academy. If you report this dungeon, wouldn’t the price drop as the supply increases? After all, a place to get fresh orc hearts would have been found.”
Sif’s words made sense.
Then it wouldn’t be bad to extract as many orc hearts as we wanted here.
The more money, the better.
“I might earn a few dozen more gold coins if I do well…”
“Really? You can earn that much? Then you can give me a bit more for my efforts, right?”
“I did all the fighting.”
“But I took all the photos and I extracted all the lizardmen’s eyeballs on the first floor! I’ve been working so hard taking photos! Wouldn’t it be fair to give me a bonus?”
I considered hitting Sif on the head as she confidently demanded a bonus, but I nodded in agreement.
I was not an evil boss.
I couldn’t ignore the rights of this thieving cat who wanted to work fairly and receive compensation.
“I’ll add 5 gold coins.”
“Can’t it be 7?”
“Fine, I’ll give you 7.”
“Yeah, that’s our great sponsor, I mean employer!”
I smirked as I watched Sif, who was happily perking up her ears without knowing anything.
You’ll be happy for now, for now.
“But remember. When we go down to the lower floor…”
“Don’t worry! I just need to take good photos like I’ve been doing, right?”
I was a bit uneasy.
I turned my gaze away from the confident Sif and looked down at Elisa, who was holding onto my sleeve and looking around.
She seemed calmer than when we first entered the second floor.
She must have gotten used to it after two hours of this.
“Elisa.”
“…D-did you call me?”
“You don’t need to be so scared. It’ll be over soon anyway.”
“What?”
“This is the end, the 3rd floor.”
“Don’t tell me you have an exploration skill too?”
“…That’s right.”
Actually, I was figuring it out based on my knowledge from before transmigrating, but I agreed with Sif’s words.
When I nodded, Sif grumbled, “How many skills do you have? It’s unfair.”
“Stop grumbling. We need to enter the 3rd floor now.”
I looked at the stairs leading down to the 3rd floor a short distance away.
There was no one around.
In other dungeons, there would definitely be enemies blocking the stairs, but considering the gimmick of the 3rd floor, this was natural.
“We’ll set up camp after we go down to the 3rd floor.”
The two nodded with expressions full of relief at my words.
3rd floor.
The place that would be the highlight of this assignment.
“…I hope it’s just like in the game.”
I took a step towards the stairs that were waiting with their mouth wide open for us to enter.
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[Poor Elisa shes getting traumatized XD]
