Chapter-02 · EP-038

Episode 38: Rescue Battle

I ran towards the direction of the scream.

The shouting grew closer. It seemed it hadn't been far from where I was.

I reached the spot quickly.

I passed through a narrow passage and entered a wide open space where a battle was already underway.

Several explorers were fighting, surrounded by multiple goblins.

One explorer had fallen, and a goblin was on top of him.

"Get off him!"

Another explorer attacked that goblin, slashing it with a sword and sending it flying.

I wondered if the explorer who had been attacked was alright.

"I'll help!"

Before I could fully assess the situation, I had already rushed in.

"Thank you!" the explorers called back upon hearing my voice. At the same time, the goblins noticed my presence. So much for a surprise attack.

But it couldn't be helped. If I could divert even a little of the goblins' attention, it should make things somewhat easier for the explorers.

I charged at the goblin in front of me.

My fighting style relied on accurately targeting the goblins' weak points. Brute force was still a struggle for me. So, even though I was concerned about the explorers' situation, I focused on defeating the goblin before me first.

I thrust at its throat, the attack that had proven most effective in previous fights. The goblin doubled over and fell.

I didn't have time to finish it off. Goblins attacked from both sides, and I dodged by moving sideways.

Fighting two at once was still difficult, but I could handle them one by one.

The positioning changed, and from my perspective, the two goblins lined up. Now I could defeat them in sequence.

I kicked the nearest goblin in the solar plexus with my toe. It doubled over, stunned. I quickly thrust with my wooden sword. As that goblin died and vanished, the next one was right in front of me.

I sidestepped the goblin charging straight at me and swung my wooden sword with full force at its face. It bounced off the ground and tumbled over.

I glanced back at the explorers. Two of them were fighting the remaining four goblins. I was worried about the one who had fallen. The two fighting were also bleeding.

I moved to go help them immediately, but a sharp pain shot through my leg.

The goblin I hadn't finished off earlier had latched onto me.

It had wrapped itself around my leg, digging in its claws and biting me.

"You bastard!"

I slammed the hilt of my wooden sword onto the back of the goblin's head. It vanished from the blow, but the wound from its bite remained on my leg.

"Guh…"

A jolt of pain shot through the bitten area.

I was injured. I had been careful not to get hurt until now, but I'd finally been wounded.

I quickly finished off the other downed goblin I hadn't killed yet.

I couldn't let my guard down. This was a life-and-death fight between us and the goblins.

Worried about my painful leg, I rushed to help the struggling explorers.

I struck the back of the head of one of the four goblins surrounding the explorers, and the other three turned towards me simultaneously.

"You're…!"

The male explorer who saw me said something, but I didn't have time to pay attention.

Three goblins leaped at me at once. This was bad. My leg hurt too much to dodge.

The weight of all three clinging to me made me fall.

"Damn it!"

I protected my face and neck with my left hand while spinning my body to regain my footing.

I tried to stand while pinning one goblin's neck down.

A sharp pain in my side. Another goblin had bitten me.

"You bastard!"

Desperately, I poked the goblin biting me in the eyes. I felt the unpleasant sensation of crushing its eyeball with my finger.

The goblin, hit by the attack, let go and screamed. I pinned it down, fixed its head with my left hand, grabbed its chin with my right, and twisted with all my might.

Crack! Its neck bone broke, and the goblin died and vanished.

I shook off the other two, picked up my fallen wooden sword, and stood.

Then, despair hit me.

Not only the two before me, but three more goblins that had appeared from somewhere were now engaging the explorers. That was why they hadn't been able to help me.

I grimaced at the intense pain in my leg and side. With these new wounds, could I defeat these goblins?

As I gripped my wooden sword, feeling that fear, I noticed the sensation had changed slightly.

"Could it be…?"

Steeling myself, I charged at the two goblins before me.

I swung my wooden sword. One goblin fell with a single blow.

"This is…"

I turned my sword and defeated the other with another strike.

This feeling was clearly different from before. And I was defeating goblins in one hit. This meant…

"Did I reach level 3?"

I then charged forward and quickly scattered the three goblins around the explorers.

"Haa, haa… Are you alright?"

"Th-thank you… Hayashida…"

After a brief thanks to me, he immediately rushed over to his fallen companion.

"Hayashida! Are you okay!"

The man called Hayashida had bite marks on several parts of his body and was bleeding heavily. His breathing was ragged. He seemed to be in a critical condition.

The other two also had wounds here and there, bleeding from them.

If I had arrived any later, they might have been wiped out. I was glad they were saved.

"I'll get a potion out now, just hold on."

The man who seemed to be the leader took out a potion—I saw the number '1', so it was probably a Rank 1 potion—and put it into the mouth of the fallen man.

"Ugh!"

The man named Hayashida groaned for a moment, and his wounds sparkled.

After the light faded, his breathing seemed to have calmed somewhat. Looking at the wounds, they appeared to be closed, but…

"It's no good, the wounds are deep. Let's head back and go to the first-aid room."

The leader said. The injuries were apparently too severe for a Rank 1 potion to fully heal.

The two with minor injuries also took Rank 1 potions to heal themselves.

"You should take a potion too, quickly…"

"Ah, I don't have one right now…"

"Is that so? Sorry, I didn't realize. This might not be enough to thank you for saving us, but please take it."

Saying that, the leader gave me a Rank 1 potion.

I gratefully accepted it and healed my injuries.

"Sorry for what I said earlier…"

After my injuries were healed, the leader apologized to me. Seeing his face, I remembered. This was the man who had told me to shout for help if something happened.

As it turned out, I ended up being the one to help him.

"I acted arrogantly because I thought you were younger. I'm sorry. We're just amateurs who started exploring a little over a year ago, and we acted so high and mighty…"

"Ah, well, I'm only fifteen and just started exploring recently, so it's no problem."

I answered with a smile. The man's eyes widened in shock, and he froze.

"F-fifteen?"

"Ah, I'm a student at Dungeon Academy. So even though I'm fifteen, I have an explorer license."

"No, that's not what I meant…"

"More importantly, we should get your companion to the first-aid room quickly."

"Ah, right. Yes."

We ended up leaving together. He kept apologizing profusely the whole way, and I was a bit flustered by an older person apologizing so earnestly.

I parted ways with the three as they headed to the first-aid room and started my journey back.

Still, today was fun. I managed to push my exploration all the way to the third floor, and I even raised my level to 3.

But there were still many challenges.

First, when fighting higher-level enemies, a wooden sword felt unreliable. I felt like a steel sword would have made defeating the goblins much easier. I might need to reconsider my equipment.

And the necessity of potions. If I didn't get injured, I wouldn't need them, but when I did, it was difficult to continue exploring, and returning with injuries was also tough. I really should carry at least one.

But potions were expensive. I heard a Rank 1 potion cost about 10,000 yen.

Even if I sold the Magic Gems I got today, it would only amount to about 4,000 yen.

My round-trip transportation cost was 1,000 yen, and it wasn't even enough to buy new exploration clothes to replace the ones that got damaged. In other words, I was in the red. I received a potion today, but if I had bought it myself, it would have been a huge loss.

I realized I still had a long way to go to become an explorer who could earn money.

As I was rocked on the train home, I still felt that my first solo dungeon exploration today had been fun. I headed back with a sense of satisfaction.