Forming a party without guild mediation isn’t particularly rare. Rookies who came together naturally team up, and veterans often team up with acquaintances.
However, conversely, it is often difficult to jump into a party outside of those examples.
If someone is looking for a party without going through the guild’s mediation, it’s normal to assume there’s a “reason” for it. If one has any common sense, they wouldn’t let such a fellow into their party with a quick”sure.”
You might think, then why not just work solo like I tried to do? But it’s not that simple.
First, as a major premise, diving into a labyrinth alone is high risk. If you can’t deal with unforeseen situations by yourself, you could easily lose your life.
Furthermore, as Linfa said earlier, he is a Spirit User—a magic-focused class. It might be one thing for a melee class, but for a pure rear-guard class to operate alone is extremely harsh unless they are a very high-ranking adventurer.
“Kuh……”
Perhaps Linfa understands this too; he bit his lower lip in frustration and looked down. Judging by his reaction, he probably doesn’t have any acquaintances who would let him in.
Adventurers always live side-by-side with the danger of death. Carelessness on the battlefield, discord with comrades, arrogance, and foolhardiness. People lose their lives easily over such things. It’s not uncommon for someone you saw every day to suddenly vanish.
It’s not like I have any obligation to do anything, and adventurers are responsible for their own lives. It might just be unnecessary meddling. But, if I let him go without doing anything and then later realize I haven’t seen his face in a while, I’ll probably have bad dreams.
I hated that idea.
“Um…… what will you do……?”
“Fine, then I’ll go alone…… t-tch.”
When I poked Linfa’s shoulder from behind, he jumped, body shaking, and turned around.
“…………”
I silently pointed at myself.
“W-What is it?”
“Me. Swordsman. Vanguard.”
I made a smile and nodded.
“Gu, nununu……”
For a while, Linfa groaned strangely and agonized over the decision, but before long, he spoke to Carine.
“I-I will…… form a party with this guy……!”
“Alright, looking forward to it!”
While saying that to Linfa, I secretly gave a thumbs-up to Carine. She gave a wry smile and discreetly returned a small thumbs-up of her own.
After finishing the party formation at the guild, we immediately dove into a suitable labyrinth.
However, the goal wasn’t exploration or hunting, but merely to check each other’s tactics.
“Listen, teaming up with you is only until I find my next party!”
“I know, I know.”
Brushing off Linfa’s consistently prickly way of speaking, we advanced through the dim cave.
The interior was fairly wide. Stick-like objects resembling torches were stabbed haphazardly here and there into the rock surface, their light weakly illuminating the surroundings. The principle behind them was unknown. Just a typical mysterious labyrinth object.
Despite being a cave, the air was somewhat tepid, damp, and gloomy.
[The Corpse’s Nest]. Existing to the north of Tandem, as the name suggests, it is a labyrinth centered around Undead-type monsters.
Even grouping them as”Undead,”there are two types: thought-forms like spirits that lack physical bodies, and things like skeletons or ghouls where a corpse is simply moving. This labyrinth mainly features the latter.
Skeletons and ghouls have high durability, but their movements are dull, making their threat level relatively low. The guild designated the labyrinth’s danger level as E. Linfa is Rank D, and I am technically Rank B. It’s just right for measuring ability to some extent. Well, Linfa grumbled about having no business in such a low-level labyrinth at this stage.
“Has Linfa ever come to [The Corpse’s Nest]?”
“……A few times.”
“I see. Then, I’m sure you know this without me telling you now, but if there are multiple opponents, prioritize taking down the archers.”
Linfa snorted boredly at the standard caution.
I let out a small sigh at Linfa’s attitude.
Well, it is an extremely obvious tactic for the rear guard to take out those with long-range attack means first. Plus, the skeleton archers that appear here have poor accuracy and low power, so even if left alone, they wouldn’t be much of a problem.
Precisely because he understands that, Linfa probably feels like,”Why are you telling me this now?”
I don’t entirely blame him for feeling that way, but that attitude is still an issue. I suspect that when he teams up with others in the future, things like this will contribute to him being dissolved or expelled.
“……Oh.”
While advancing through the labyrinth thinking about this and that, multiple swaying human-like shadows appeared in my field of vision.
Skeletons. There were three of them. Since there was still some distance, they didn’t seem to have noticed us yet.
“Linfa, once we get within range, I’m counting on you for a preemptive strike. After that……”
“For that, right here is enough.”
Interrupting my words, Linfa held up his palm.
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“[Ice Bullet]!”
With the incantation, multiple chunks of ice manifested. Launched forward, they clad themselves in a sharp whistling sound as they pulverized the three skeletons.
I let out a voice of admiration at the result.
“Ooh.”
“Hmph, not even a challenge.”
Linfa tossed the words out boredly, but his tone sounded somewhat boastful.
However, the power and range were indeed enough to justify boasting.
“You understand now, right? I have no business in a labyrinth like this anymore.”
“Yeah, honestly, I underestimated you.”
“Fufun.”
“If this is a low-tier spirit art, I can’t even imagine what intermediate or higher is like.”
“…………Anyway, there’s no reason to stay here any longer. It’s a waste of time.”
Something must have rubbed him the wrong way again, because the atmosphere around Linfa suddenly turned sour. He tried to turn on his heel and leave, but I grabbed his shoulder to stop him.
“Whoa, wait, wait. Since we’re already here, don’t you want to see my skills too?”
“Not really.”
“Alriiiight! Let’s give it our best!”
“Hey!”
I ignored Linfa’s voice and moved forward. Since he evidently didn’t intend to leave me and go home, Linfa followed behind, looking reluctant.
Shortly after, we acquired ghouls wandering the labyrinth. One, two, three…… eight of them. That’s kind of a lot.
“Shall I reduce their numbers for you?”
“No, not necessary.”
Replying shortly to Linfa, whose tone was somewhat taunting, I drew my sword and closed the distance to the ghouls. Noticing my approach, a ghoul turned toward me and tried to attack, but it was already within my range. As we passed each other, I took off its head. First, one down.
The remaining individuals attacked in succession, but their movements were simple and not particularly fast.
What is important when facing multiple monsters is efficiency. It boils down to how quickly you can process the enemies.
If you can use powerful magic like Geld, wiping them out in one go is fine. If you can overwhelm them from a distance with the sheer number of arrows like Elsha, that’s good too. As for Homura, if it’s undead, she’d probably just purify them all and be done with it.
However, unfortunately, I am a swordsman, and due to my constitution, I cannot exercise magic properly. So, what do I do?
The answer is efficiency.
Continue to strike the enemy’s weak points with minimal movement. Putting it into words, it sounds like”is that all?”, but it is easier said than done. It is quite difficult, but the effect when achieved is not to be sneezed at. It also simply saves magical energy and physical stamina.
Well, what I’m trying to say is: you don’t need flashy techniques or magic to defeat monsters. And this is absolutely not just sour grapes because I can’t do those things myself. Definitely not.
I dodge the Ghouls’ attacks with the absolute minimum necessary movement and swing my sword as if letting it glide along their bodies. There’s no need to swing hard. I simply utilize the opponent’s own momentum.
Drop the head, that’s the second one. Drop the leg, that’s the third—the rest is just assembly line work. After quickly neutralizing the others, I stab the Ghoul I had immobilized by cutting its leg, and the battle is over.
“……How should I put it? That felt weird.”
It feels like it’s been ages since I defeated a monster with my own hands. Day in and day out, monsters were usually annihilated without me ever getting a turn…… Ah, crap, I think I’m gonna cry a little.
W-Well, setting that aside. I’d like to think I showed off a reasonable degree of skill, didn’t I? I turned to Linfa, who approached now that the battle was finished.
“Well, that’s about it. How was it?”
“How should I put it…… It’s plain.”
I actually shed a tear.
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