Chapter 30: Mysterious bangle

As soon as we began to move towards the ruin’s basement, we realized that the ruin was unstable.

“The floor is shaky… I’m likely to tread through it.”

“Yeah, be careful because there are several places in this ruin that are brittle.”

In accordance with Dhal’s advice, the underground passages of the ruin are indeed brittle and some holes can already be seen. Looking down, I can see several goblins. As expected, this kind of place is likely to become the home of monsters.

We proceed while avoiding brittle places and places with holes. For the time being, we aimed for the lowest layer while exploring but it seems that this ruin’s basement is only up to the third level so it did not take much time.

“Everyone, wait! There is a magical beast ahead of us…I think there’s two of them.”

Erna uses her Hell Ears skill to search for enemies. I can also do that if I used my super-sensation skill but as expected, I’ll still lose to Erna’s hearing. Of course, Pero’s sense of smell is also superior. Therefore, it does not make much sense for me to do the searching.

“Pukyuuu”

Two round objects bounced from the end of the dim passage. They look like a freshly squeezed mochi(Japanese version of rice cake) and they have a translucent light blue color. They’re about the size of a soccer ball, but each time they bound, their shape change and their reaction looks like they’re jumping.

I ask Freya a question,

“…What is that?”

“Slimes. They’re the weakest magical beast around here but they have a strong acidity on their body. They’re such troublesome creatures that stick to the mouth and nose of living things as they try to seize their prey.”

Upon hearing the word slime, I remembered the RPG game I played. It should have been the name of the first monster that came out when I started the game. It looks cute, but it doesn’t seem like it in reality. Even though they look like they wanted to become friends with us, they will surely be ignored.

“Waauuu!”

Pero came out to the front, extended his nails and cut the slimes. His movement seems to be the result of training.

―However, the torn slimes split into four just like that.

“Waauuu!?”

Pero is surprised and cuts them again, but the slimes still split up. I become worried so I used the appraisal.

【Appraisal Result: Slime: It is known as the weakest magical beast and it usually lives by eating dead bodies and insects. It is also aggressive towards living creatures, and sometimes it even attacks dragons. It will die if the nucleus in the body is destroyed.】

【Status】 Name:  Slime Race:  Slime Magic attribute:  Water Magic:  Aqua ball Skills:  Shock Absorption (Beginner), Division (Beginner), Hardening (Beginner), Enhanced Digestion (Intermediate)

“Pero, attack the slime’s core”

“Aw!”

Pero start to move quickly. All the slimes were cut into pieces in an instant. I immediately approach the slime that has melted and used Skill Picking. What I got was Shock Absorption, Division, and Enhanced Digestion.

I like to try them immediately but it’s not good to do it in the presence of the Earth Fang guys so I put it off for now.

“Good job Pero. It was a good move.”

“Aw!”

Shaking his tail, Pero looks happy. This might be the best place for Pero’s practical training. So I proposed to Dhal.

“Sorry but, can you leave the fighting to Pero for a while? This seems like the best place for his hands-on training you see.”

“I don’t mind. The enemy here is too weak for us.”

With the permission from Dhal, it was decided that Pero would walk in front and take the lead. Pero from there on killed goblins and slimes, like a fish that has found water, his attacks became sharp and precise each time. He looks like an assassin.

However, Freya, who extremely loves Pero, looks dissatisfied. But I decided not to care. Pero is not a pet animal.

　◇

“Here is the bottom layer”

With Dhal’s words, I looked inside the bottom layer’s room. With Erna’s light magic illuminating the room, the bottom layer of the ruin is quite messy.

In the four corners of the square room, pillars carved with the face of a large person stare into the center of the room, and at the innermost part is an altar-liked half-moon shaped stage.

“It seems like there is nothing in this ruin.”

“We come in vain huh.”

Roy and Nina couldn’t hide the disappointment in their expression while exploring the room. On the other hand, I can sense that there is something in this room. My instinct is screaming intensely. Find the treasure.

After enough time had passed since I started looking around the room, I found something strange.

“Wait a minute, the four faces in this room are facing the floor, not the altar right?”

Everyone gathers in the center after I said that. Looking at it from the center, I understood it. The huge faces are paying attention to the center of the room. Moreover, the floor…

“I can see that there is something on the floor.”

“If there is a treasure, we will discover it!”

“Asking Shinichi-san to accompany us is the right decision.”

While the Earth Fang guys were rejoicing, Erna’s ears twitched. Pero’s nose also snorted and seemed to notice something.

“Air cutter!”

A voice was heard from somewhere, and the floor where we were standing was cut into a triangle. I soon realized that it was a magical attack, but my reaction was delayed because in that moment, the floor collapsed and falls into the darkness.

Looking up, I could see Arvish and Feria’s faces looking down through the hole. They may have heard about us from somewhere and followed us. It’s my negligence! We then fell deep into the hole.

“Buhaa!”

When I fell into the water, I immediately use my super sensation to grasp the current situation. Apparently there is a shore nearby. I immediately did the crawl swimming. Even though it may appear this way, swimming is my forte.

“Help me! Fuah-! I can’t swim!”

With repetitive splashing sound, I saw Erna struggling on the surface of the water so I approached to help her.

“Hey, grabbed by my back.”

“Shinichi! Thank you!”

As she hugged my back, Erna’s chest was pressed on me and it felt good. Even if we stay like this, it will be fine.

“Wauu”

Looking next to me, Pero heads to the shore with doggy paddle styled swimming. From behind, Freya is doing the breaststroke while wearing her armor. And looking around, Roy and Nina were also swimming. However, I can see Dhal on Roy’s back.

Elves and dwarves have bad relationship, but they are unexpectedly similar in some aspects. As we get to the shore, each of us squeezed the water out of our clothes. Erna magically created the light and checked where we came from.

“Isn’t it over there? Such height is about 20m.”

When Erna manipulates the glowing sphere, the white light illuminates the surrounding area, exposing the underground lake. On top of that, there was a gaping hole from where we would have been dropped.

“It seems difficult to climb…”

“Hey, I wonder if we can climb up with Shinichi’s thread?”

I took Erna’s words into consideration. Certainly, this underground lake is not that wide so it might be possible to make a scaffolding with my thread and climb our way up.

It’s indeed a good idea.

“Hey, escaping is good too but take a look at this.”

Hearing Dhal’s voice, we looked back and there was a door on the wall ahead the shore.

“Is this the real bottom layer?”

“I guess so. What should we do? There may be treasures ahead right?”

Dhal and the others start smiling. This may be the real pleasure for those who became Adventurer as a living. If so, it is decided.

“Of course we’ll go in. We are Adventurers right?”

“There’s no problem then. Roy, open the door.”

Roy pushes the stone door and slowly opens it. The sound of stones rubbing each other echoed out, and Erna  immediately puts a ball of light inside.

“Whoa!?”

It becomes extremely radiant that we covered our eyes with our hands. The room is full of golden color and it intensely reflects the light. When I opened my eyes, gold and silver treasures were piled up almost filling the small room.

In the back, there is a striking altar, and a bangle is attached to the black stone table.

“Whoa! Amazing!”

Dhal jumps into the pile of treasures and randomly packs them into his rucksack. Roy and Nina were also dazzled by the treasure and did not look at the bangle which is the crucial one.This is translated by Yume Neiji (yumeineijiworks.wordpress.com)

“If I could only have this… How much clothes can I buy… Ehehehe…”

No, Erna also seems to be blinded by it. Like a zombie, she unsteadily approached the mountain of treasures, she then grab a necklace with big gem on it and start grinning.

As soon as I approached the bangle on the altar, I used the appraisal.

【Appraisal failure ****: ****】

As expected, appraisal didn’t work. The bangle is made with pure black stones forming a black ring decorated with gold, it turned out to be a very expensive item. It obviously has a different feel.

“…..my robe… is it resonating?”

My robe emits a wave of light. As for the bangle, light flows in the same way.

Is there a relationship between these two?

I picked up the bangle and put it on my left arm.

【The former owner is already dead. Do you wish to own this bangle? YES/NO】

I didn’t hesitate to choose YES.

I’m aiming to have it while Dhal and the others didn’t notice it yet, I don’t feel bad doing it though. My instinct to get this bangle is ringing in my head like a siren. When I finally own the bangle, I noticed a small window in front of me. It is similar to a status screen, but nothing is described inside.

【Storage】 ― ― ― ―

Don’t tell me…, I then grab a golden wine cup and it disappeared from my hand.

And a new display is shown in the screen.

【Storage】 – Golden wine cup

This time around, as I think about them randomly, the treasures in front of me disappear one after another. They were treated as a group and “Treasure” is displayed on the screen.

“Whoaaa! This is amazing!”

Of course, if I think of “getting them out”, the treasures from before appears on the floor. This is surely a convenient tool like a four-dimensional pocket. Isn’t it the best tool?

“Dhal, you can’t carry all the treasures in your rucksack, right? With the bangle I got, I can carry them all you see.”

“Hmm? Bangle?”

As I thought about it, all the treasures in the room suddenly disappeared. I then explained the bangle’s effect to Dhal and the others who panicked.

“…..That means―, Shinichi become the owner of that handy bangle right?”

“It’s as what you had said. On the other hand, I’ll give you all the treasure. We only need this bangle.”

“Well… if you put it that way, that is fine with us too.”

A single bangle compared to that pile of treasure that they can live on, this condition is not that bad at all. Seeing their smiling faces, their happiness isn’t completely hidden.

“Eh!? We will only have that one bangle!?”

The problem is Erna. While grumbling, she complains about it and emphasizes how many fashionable clothes she can buy if we can have some of those treasures. Well, Freya is so focused on petting Pero, and it seems that those treasures don’t matter to her.

“This bangle is a wonderful thing. Wouldn’t it be better if we just make money again?”

“Guuuuu! Shinichi you idiot!”

Erna leaves the room. I think it would be better to buy her some clothes when we return to the Royal Capital.

“Now then, we have to get out of here.”

“Yeah, but how do you get out of here? I don’t even see any stairs to go up from here.”

“Leave it to me.”

After we went out of the room, I stretched a thread on the wall of the underground lake. In addition, I extend the thread on the other side and in about an hour, I was able to build a huge cobweb. What’s interesting is that when I use that skill, how to make a cobweb flow into my head.

The cobweb is not made of the same thread. It is made using several types of threads, including sticky threads and elastic threads. It is a relatively known fact that spiders avoid sticky threads so that they do not get caught in their own cobweb.

Therefore, this time I can say that I made a huge trampoline with an emphasis on elasticity. But still, that did not reach until the hole. I then extended the thread towards the hole, I prepared it like a climbing rope. Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s “spider’s thread” means to escape from hell.

“Okay, it’s done. Everyone should come up.”

Erna heads on top of the thread like that of a tightrope walking, she then jumps on the trampoline and grabs the thread. Just like that, she then climbed up, from the hole she peeked in and shout that she succeeded.

Following Erna, the others escaped one by one from the underground lake and finally, I too get out.

“Now then, shall we head out of the ruins?”

Immediately after I said that, they prepared their selves for battle and we start to go up. Two hours later, we were able to leave the ruins. After that, we returned to the Royal Capital and we are guided to the Earth Fang’s residence where I handed over all the treasures.

Erna was regretful until the end, but it was Earth Fang who brought out this matter and I have the real treasure anyway. It is necessary to know that too much greed will destroy yourself.

After safely going back to the Duke’s mansion, we had dinner and then went to bed. Pero rubbed his sleepy eyes and also entered my bed, curled up like a dog and start sleeping.

Recalling Arvish and Feria’s faces, I became angry. They definitely tried to kill us. In that case, I should get the appropriate revenge. The Homeless’ way is to retort if you get hit.

Feeling drowsy, I too closed my eyelids.

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