Chapter 150: Hero Party and Underground Cave (1)
Chapter 150: Hero Party and Underground Cave (1)
Chapter 150: Hero Party and Underground Cave (1)
A saint who hired the hero party as an escort to investigate an orc cave where traces of an attempt to summon a demon were discovered.
She was now in quite a bit of trouble.
"Saint. What are you going to do?"
"Uhm... "
So much so that the hero couldn't answer even if Serena asked him a question.
The saint looked at the stairs she had discovered after searching, no, she had discovered.
Even among the darkest caves, the stairs leading down to the darker basement had no end in sight.
However, anyone could see that the square and angled staircase had been artificially processed, and the faint wind blowing showed that the space below was not a small space at all.
The saint could not shake the feeling that the darkness beyond the stairs, which did not allow an inch of light, was hiding the culprit of summoning the devil.
A saint's intuition is not just intuition. It was clear to her that if the saint had such a feeling, there was indeed some clue, big or small, within it.
But despite this, the reason the saint was in trouble was because the existence of the stairs was completely unexpected.
This is the Orc Cave. I don't know the official name, but it was called Orc Cave because orcs lived there.
However, there was no way that a grand conspiracy like summoning a demon could have been planned with the intelligence of the orcs. There are various subspecies of orcs, but none of them is particularly intelligent. Even the shaman, who was somewhat intelligent, was close to cunning, but far from wise or meticulous.
In other words, it meant that there was someone other than an orc behind it.
The saint came here in person to see if she could find out about it, and for her safety, she even brought her escort back to the place where the knights had already visited...
Stairs going down to the basement?
If the existence of something like this had been known, a report would have been posted when the Holy Knights investigated.
I wasn't specifically blaming the Holy Knights for their incompetence. I watched the hero party's scout, Lev, right next to me as he found the location of the stairs, but it was so complicated that I couldn't understand what he was doing.
But it was clear that the stairs were not in the plan, and the saint now had to make a decision.
Will she go down the stairs and investigate, or will she finish the investigation here and return and then dispatch the Holy Knights again?
Needless to say, the saint was a very important person in the church. She was not only symbolic, but also political. She was not the only sect in the world, but that did not diminish her importance as a saint.
In terms of the saint's safety, it was right for her to investigate again after her return and then come back later.
But if that happens, she won't be able to hire the hero party as an escort the next time she comes.
The reason I hired him this time was because a hero party happened to be passing by and asked for help. She did not have the authority to force the saint to wait until the Knights Templar's investigation was completed. Furthermore, she didn't even want to do that.
Moreover, I was also concerned about the tentacle demon I encountered before starting the cave investigation.
A saint's sacred art and a warrior's holy sword. If either of the two were present, the demon was so powerful that even the hero party would not have been able to avoid sacrifice. This was true even though the devil's condition was not normal.
There may be such a risk, so why not send a hero party and entrust the Holy Knights to investigate? It was natural that there would be great damage, and even then, the devil might not be exorcised.
So it was less risky to conduct a thorough investigation this time.
However, the risk of going down the stairs and investigating was dangerous.
There might be something there. I didn't know that this combination of a hero party and a saint could be dangerous.
Of course, no matter how important the Holy Knights were, compared to the hero party and the saint, they were something that could easily be sacrificed.
Therefore, the saintess repeatedly considered her concerns, considering the values ??of the two options to be similar.
– Tuk.
"... !"
The saint raised her head in surprise at the sudden mild shock she felt on her shoulder and her warm body.
It was Lev who dared to touch her saintly shoulder without hesitation. Lev placed one of her hands on the saint's shoulder and spoke to her in a light manner as always.
"Hey, warrior. "Are we going?"
Serena was covering her face with one hand as if she couldn't see her Lev when she started acting unexpectedly.
"Lev, you... Ha. Okay. We are going Rather, take that hand off. "You're rude to the saint."
"I said it's okay. Our saint is not that authoritative. Right?"
"Yeah... "
The saint was dumbfounded by the sudden situation, but she was able to figure out one thing through "Mind reading."
Lev was now trying to help himself.
'Are you going to help me? Why... No, that's not what's important right now. What did you just say? 'Would you like to take the stairs?'
After coming to her senses, the saint quickly finished her thoughts and asked Serena a question.
"What did you just say? "You're coming down?"
"Yes. We will go. As a warrior, I can't leave such a dangerous place alone."
"Ah... "
It was like that. These were warriors, hero parties.
Unlike the saint who was in charge of the church's affairs and always considered risk and return when making decisions, a good and just hero party.
And since she said she would go to the hero party, there was no other option for the saint.
If the hero party were to be lost here, it would be a great loss for humanity, and it was obvious that if the saint went with her, her survival rate would increase dramatically.
In other words, the worries that the saint had been worrying about for a long time were useless.
"Why did you tell me that now?"
No matter how saintly she was, she couldn't help but become a little sharp in her tone of voice because she had worked so hard.
Fortunately, Serena responded without being offended by such sharp language.
"Because she didn't want to influence the saint's decisions. This is a dangerous place. This is where her life could be lost. "You can't go with us and be in danger because of us."
"Then what if I said I wouldn't go in?"
"I would have gone back first and come back after completing the escort request."
"Ha... "
So, since it was a dangerous place, it meant that the saintess's own will would be respected. If she had known first that the hero party was going, she would have gone along anyway.
But that means that the saintess knew about her troubles but kept silent...
The saintess thought that the warrior was frustratingly sophisticated.
"How is it. It was decided quickly, right?"
Lev revealed the truth that his party leader had not told him and laughed as if he had done nothing wrong.
It may have been excessive behavior for a party member, but other party members, including the hero, did not particularly scold Lev.
I don't know if Lev is that kind of person and gave up, or if Serena is the type of person who doesn't care about things like the authority of her party leader, but first of all...
"Can you please let me go now?"
The first thing she did was ask him to remove her hand, which was still on her shoulder.
"Oh. I forgot. Hehe."
The saintess glared at Lev, who responded naturally, but her gaze was much less powerful than before.
?
"Front at 1 o'clock! Five birds 30 meters ahead!"
"Leave it to me!"
– Piyung!
As soon as Lev's report came out, Silphiere, who had left the demonstration, pierced the monster's forehead as it was about to come out of the darkness.
The arrows fired one after another hit the chest of the monster next to me. In an instant, the two fell over, and Gaidon's shield charge exploded into the disorganized ranks.
– Cooung!
The monster, which was hit by a tower shield so large that it completely covered Gaidon's body, screamed and fell as if it had been hit by a carriage.
When Gaidon escaped from his brief stiffness after being charged and tried to find another monster, all that remained was a corpse that had already been turned into a monster/animal by the warrior's sword that had already dug in after Gaidon.
A landslide victory.
It was a battle that ended so quickly that it was difficult to even consider it as a battle.
However, the hero party's complexion was not so good.
"These... "
"Yes. "It's an imp."
The saint confirmed the words of the warrior who had identified the monster.
An imp is a monster about the size of a child, with pointed ears and a hooked tail.
At first glance, there is not much difference from goblins. In fact, the power of each imp is only weaker than that of a goblin.
However, the reason the hero party was not in a good mood was not because the imp was strong or difficult to deal with.
Although the imp was the weakest, it was definitely a demon.
In other words, it meant a monster that did not appear in nature, and the existence of the imp was also evidence that someone had summoned the devil.
If you think positively, there is a possibility that you were summoned together when you summoned the tentacle demon you encountered outside the cave, but if you think negatively, there is a possibility that someone is continuously summoning demons.
I didn't know that maybe there was a third possibility.
In any case, what is clear is that there are summoned demons underground in this cave, and it was too optimistic an assumption to think that the only summoned demons were imps.
"... Everyone, be careful around your surroundings."
The atmosphere of the hero party changed completely at the words of the party leader, the warrior.
A little while ago, he was relaxed while maintaining minimal tension, but now he has a sharp mood that feels like he'll cut himself if he touches it.
Even Lev, who had been light-hearted the whole time, listened seriously to the surrounding signs.
Although the saintess was surprised by the atmosphere of the hero party, which she had never seen in the past few days, she felt trustworthy.
At least she felt safe with this group.