arc3 · 045-ch45

Episode 45: Monster Train

"Dammit!! There aren't any suitable monsters!!"

The one not bothering to hide his irritation was Tachikawa, a third-year student at Explorer High School. He was the leader of the six-member party Urban.

"So tired. I'm sick of walking already."

"Right. What is this, a picnic?"

Agreeing with Tachikawa were Kokubunji Rio and Hino Reina. Even though their stats were higher and they wouldn't be exhausted from walking for several hours, mental stress still built up.

"Hey Fussa, weren't you the one who said let's go this way?"

"Huh? Akishima was the one who said point anywhere, right!"

"What? Don't get cocky."

Akishima put his arm around Fussa's neck and started choking him. Despite getting irritated at Fussa's unexpectedly violent struggling, Akishima tried to send meaningful glances at Rio and Reina, but neither of them noticed.

"Enough of that, let's just get going already. We could handle those five. That's fine, right."

"Huh? ...Well, those are doable. And I'm sick of walking anyway. The rest of you are fine with Machida's suggestion, right?"

Machida, looking lethargic behind them, pointed at five monsters visible from atop a hill. Urban's members were around level 35, and with some of the monsters that appeared in District 3, they still had difficulty fighting.

They seemed to have ventured deeper into District 3 than expected, so troublesome monsters like Curtain Frogs, Rock Earth Dragons, and Madness Serpent Mimics appeared frequently.

They'd been avoiding those monsters, but even so, there's a limit to being picky. The monsters Machida pointed at were a group of five: two Nut Bombarrel Chipmunks, two Sphere Moon Snakes, and one Beginning Frog.

They had the advantage in numbers, but even so, five is a lot. Fewer than four monsters would be ideal, but finding those would take more time.

"Lucky you, Fussa. Machida covered your mistake."

"It wasn't a mistake, though. Annoying."

Fussa, freed from Akishima, desperately fixed his hairstyle.

"I hear Parks still hasn't made it to the second floor either. Let's quickly scatter those small fry and head to the second floor."

"If we're the fastest in our grade to get to the second floor, wouldn't that be sick!?"

"We might even be able to join the same guild as Karin-senpai!"

The party Kagika Rurei led by Karin Rikuzen, who graduated last year, belongs to a first-grade explorer guild. For explorers at the level exploring District 3 of Floor 1 at this point, it's completely impossible to enter a first-grade explorer guild.

"Alright, let's go like always!"

Without any particular pre-battle coordination, Urban headed toward the monsters. The Nut Bombarrel Chipmunks that noticed Urban fired seeds all at once, attacking to keep them away.

"Too slow. [Wind Wall]."

When Rio activated wind magic, an invisible wall appeared between the monsters and Urban. The seeds hitting that wall lost their momentum and fell uselessly to the ground.

"Here we go!!"

Tachikawa brought down a greatsword on the Beginning Frog. The Beginning Frog dodged the greatsword, but because it dodged widely, a follow-up attack wasn't possible. In that opening, Tachikawa swung the greatsword fluidly, cornering the Beginning Frog.

Beside him, Machida with his spear ran through. He intended to take care of the Nut Bombarrel Chipmunks firing seeds from behind.

"Rio!"

"I know! [Wind Ball]"

Because the wind bullet was fired as if to pincer with Machida, the Nut Bombarrel Chipmunks lost their escape route. Giving up on firing seeds, they lunged at Machida to bite him, but he skillfully kept them at bay with the spear.

The thrust didn't defeat it with one hit, but when he delivered a follow-up strike to the rolled Nut Bombarrel Chipmunk, the second thrust turned it to smoke.

"Woooaahhh!!"

Akishima raised his greatsword in an overhead stance and headed toward the Sphere Moon Snake. The Sphere Moon Snake rolled its ball-shaped body and charged to match Akishima's attack. When Akishima's greatsword and the Sphere Moon Snake collided, it was able to strip off scales and inflict a deep wound.

But the Sphere Moon Snake's main attack wasn't the charge. Extending its head from its rolled body, it tried to bite at Akishima's face, left defenseless after attacking.

The Sphere Moon Snake approached Akishima with eyes wide open, but a spear extending from the side deflected it, and the attack ended in failure.

"Nice, Reina!"

"Akishima, too careless. Lame."

After deflecting the Sphere Moon Snake's attack, Reina continued to thrust at it with her spear. The long-reach spear was effective against the Sphere Moon Snake, and the snake couldn't seem to launch attacks effectively.

Next to her, Fussa was fighting another Sphere Moon Snake. While blocking the Sphere Moon Snake's attacks with his shield, Fussa was steadily wearing it down with his sword. Because the Sphere Moon Snake is a monster with high defense, sword attacks couldn't deal much damage unless they were full-power swings. Even while inflicting countless cuts, it would take time to defeat it.

After several exchanges, blocking a bite attack with his shield and attacking the deflected neck, he'd accumulated considerable damage. Just as he was thinking about going on the offensive, a greatsword came down from the side aimed at that deflected neck.

That seemed to be the finishing blow, and the Sphere Moon Snake's head was severed and turned to smoke.

"Too slow, Fussa. You took too long."

"Even without Akishima doing it, I could have defeated it soon."

It seems Fussa's Sphere Moon Snake was the last one, and the other members' battles had already ended.

"Hey hey! There were five, but that was easy! Us!"

"Like I said. Tachikawa, we're strong. The teacher telling us to only fight few enemies is advice for the weak ones."

Tachikawa and Machida were sharing their impressions of the earlier battle. Both seemed to have felt they could handle it, and they were regretting having always followed the teacher's instructions to fight only few enemies.

"With this pace, we seriously can get to the second floor soon!"

"We've got this, right?"

"I don't want to lose to Parks."

Rio and Akishima also agreed with Tachikawa's statement.

"Finally the walk is over."

"With this pace, we can expect good earnings today, right?"

"True. There's some clothes I want. Let's earn a ton."

Machida didn't like overlooking enemies, and he seemed to feel anything fightable was fine. Fussa and Reina were already calculating today's rewards.

Thus, carrying their single success, Urban advanced deeper into District 3.

◇

District 3 of Floor 1 is the area with the highest death rate for Explorer High School students. Because the level range of appearing monsters is wide, high-level monsters sometimes appear unexpectedly, and when appearing monsters have high endurance, battles drag on and easily attract other monsters—this is one of the causes.

And the timing of exploring District 3 is also bad. Basically, third-years are the ones exploring District 3. Particularly, many are able to explore District 3 during the third year's summer vacation, and the degree of District 3 exploration is connected to job hunting starting in autumn.

There are no few explorers who think strength is justice. Even if it's important at Explorer High to repeatedly return with stable results, it's meaningless if the students themselves aren't aware of it.

Even if educated that "you must not cause trouble for others," there are countless people in this world where that education doesn't resonate. Rather than whether the content is correct, what's important is whether it resonates with the person.

Since being a strong explorer is also a job that earns money, it's understandable to have values where strength is everything. What explorers do to seek strength is to explore by taking risks. The more risks taken, the greater the stat increase when leveling up. Taking risks also means fighting more monsters and higher-ranked monsters, which is directly connected to earnings.

Greater-than-usual stat growth, and results in attractive drop items. These sometimes drive people crazy and distance them from sound judgment.

"Hey! This is bad!! Another Curtain Frog is coming!!"

"That's not all! It brought Nut Bombarrel Chipmunks with it!!"

"Stop talking and move your hands!! We need to reduce the numbers fast or it's going to be bad!!"

Urban was surrounded by monsters. The monsters that were only five at first had increased to nearly double before they knew it.

It all started when they fought a group of monsters that included a Curtain Frog. The Curtain Frog itself was a monster they'd defeated many times before.

But a Curtain Frog in a state where there were other monsters too was extremely troublesome. Aside from the Curtain Frog's high endurance, its attacks were also sharp, making it a formidable enemy. If they tried to defeat the Curtain Frog first, they'd receive attacks from the Nut Bombarrel Chipmunks' seed attacks and the Sphere Moon Snakes' charges. Conversely, if they tried to prioritize the small fry, the Curtain Frog would immediately follow up, and they'd lose the ability to attack.

Machida desperately tried to take down the Nut Bombarrel Chipmunks, but because the Nut Bombarrel Chipmunks cooperated with each other to provide cover, he couldn't close the distance and couldn't even attack.

Because of this messy battle, the fight dragged on and resulted in gathering the surrounding monsters.

"Hey Rio! Stop the squirrels' movement with magic!!"

"Can't!! My mana is almost gone!!"

"Two Curtain Frogs is impossible!! What do we do, Tachikawa!?"

Urban, which wasn't coordinating to begin with, had their formation collapse further from the panic of being surrounded by monsters.

"We've got no choice but to do it!! Even if we run, it'll just become a monster train!!"

"Fussa!! You were the one who said let's do Curtain Frogs, right!!"

"Don't hassle me even at a time like this! Akishima was the one who said he wanted Proof of Devotion, right!!"

"What! Take responsibility and handle it yourself!!"

"You try handling it! Always talking big!!"

Instead of fighting monsters, they ended up fighting among themselves. Monsters don't just watch such explorers, and the Curtain Frogs' sharp thrusts and the Nut Bombarrel Chipmunks' seeds kept coming without pause.

Urban seemed like it would collapse even if left alone, but the finishing blow arrived. That monster, olive-colored tinged with brown, blended with the ground grass, not letting them realize it was approaching. Then, as if appearing suddenly, four Madness Serpent Mimics attacked Urban.

"Madness Serpent Mimics!??"

"Dammit!! This is impossible!!"

Each individual received the Madness Serpent Mimics' mad charges, but the Madness Serpent Mimics are monsters from level 30 to 40. Stat-wise too, they're at a level where it's difficult for one person to take an attack.

Adding to that, the monsters aren't just Madness Serpent Mimics. Having become two and now free, one Curtain Frog delivered a slap to Akishima, who was receiving attacks from nearby Madness Serpent Mimics.

"Gah!!"

Akishima blew away spiraling. With only six people total, if even one person was missing, collapse would be easy.

And the monster that brought about this collapse was the Madness Serpent Mimic. It was a monster that drove weak-minded people into a panic state.

"Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!! I don't want to die I don't want to die aaaaah aaaaah aaaaahhhhh!!"

Machida was the first to go mad. Without thinking about direction or anything, he just broke through toward the thin area without Madness Serpent Mimics or Curtain Frogs and escaped.

Panic is contagious. Urban's members, who were already on the verge of collapse, completely lost heart at the sight of their companion escaping.

"Not fair Machida die!! Impossible impossible impossible impossible impossible impossible!!!"

"Noooooooaaaaaahhhhh!!!"

"Uwaaaaaa aaaaa aaaaaaaahhhhh!!!"

As if following Machida, the other members also started running from the spot. Naturally the monsters followed them, but there were still members remaining.

"It hurts... Hey!! Don't leave me behind, you guys!! Hey!!"

Akishima, blown away by a Curtain Frog, somehow got up, but what he saw was the sight of his companions escaping and leaving him behind.

"Dammit!! Wait, you guys!! Ugh!? Hurrrrts!! What is this!!"

Just as Akishima somehow tried to start running to escape from the monsters, intense pain ran through the foot he stepped with. Looking at his foot, there was Pseudoviscous where he'd stepped.

Pseudoviscous is a monster that spits acidic liquid, and its body is also made of acid. He hurriedly pulled out his foot and rolled, but the liquid soaked into his clothes and shoes was melting his skin and raising smoke.

"Huuurts like heeeeeellll!!"

Writhing in too much pain, four Madness Serpent Mimics swarmed under Akishima. The Madness Serpent Mimics seemed more interested in Akishima, who was rolling there catching their eye, than the escaping explorers.

"No!! Wait! Stop!! I still don't want to die!! Mom—"

Leaving behind Akishima's death cry, Urban continued running. Carrying a massive horde of monsters behind them.