“Good grief… one thing after another.”
An elderly man muttered irritably.
Despite his small stature, it was obvious even through his worn gear that his body was unusually well-trained for his age. His name was Ark.
He was the Guildmaster of Vegaltia’s Adventurers’ Guild, reigning at the very top.
The vast underground space beneath the Adventurers’ Guild had been constructed with a specific purpose.
Here, at the entrance to the dungeon, the space served as a battlefield in case any monsters emerged from the dungeon—designed so adventurers could repel them effectively.
And now, it seemed, that “just in case” had come true.
Normally, the dungeon’s monsters wouldn’t stray far from their territory. But now, they were all advancing toward the surface at once, spilling out from the dungeon entrance.
This phenomenon was called a dungeon rampage.
It was an extremely rare and catastrophic irregularity. The only way to deal with it was to continue defeating the monsters as they emerged until the rampage stopped.
The guild immediately issued an emergency call to the adventurers. They fought tirelessly, determined not to let a single monster escape into the city.
“GRRAAAAAAH!!”
“Hmph.”
Ark effortlessly pierced the head of a vicious monster lunging at him with the spear in his hand. Quickly withdrawing his spear, the enormous, lifeless body of the monster crumpled to the ground with a sickening thud.
“A-amazing, Guildmaster…”
“That monster… isn’t it one that should only appear after the thirtieth floor?”
“To take it down in an instant… there’s no doubt he’s still fully capable in the field.”
The young adventurers held their breath as they witnessed the sheer skill of the former S-rank adventurer.
“This isn’t the time to be admiring him!”
The voice came from a burly man who slashed a nearby monster with his sword, snapping the younger adventurers back to reality.
He was Gain, an A-rank adventurer.
“Y-yeah, no matter how strong he is, the Guildmaster is getting on in years. He can’t fight forever.”
A petite woman, casting an offensive spell spoke in agreement. She too was an A-rank adventurer, and her name was Emily.
“…She’s not wrong, but having it stated so bluntly does sting a little,”
Guildmaster Ark muttered with a faint frown, then bared his teeth in a ferocious smile.
“But you know, lately my body feels unusually good. I might even be able to match my prime days if I’m careful.”
Then he pierced a monster in its weak spot, finishing it in an instant.
“(This is all thanks to that girl’s treatment. It’s not just that my mana circulation improved—my body has clearly become lighter ever since.)”
Ark thought to himself.
At that moment, a column of light suddenly poured down from above the frontline adventurers. The wounds the adventurers had sustained in battle vanished before their eyes.
“E-everyone, please keep going…! I can only support you, but…”
It was Colette, the girl who had just cast the area-of-effect healing spell, shouting desperately.
“‘Only support’…? Come on, a healer who can casually cast such a wide-area healing spell is pretty rare, you know?”
Emily, speaking with a hint of exasperation, was nodded at in agreement by Ark, who was also deep in thought.
“(Moreover, every adventurer here has received the healing to their mana circuits from her, and they’re clearly stronger than before. In terms of contribution, she might even surpass Gain and Emily themselves.)”
Ark thought so. But there was one more person whose contribution rivaled Colette’s.
“C’mon, c’mon, c’mon!!! Hahaha! With this many monsters swarming out, it’s the perfect chance to test my blades!!”
A woman, carrying dozens of weapons on her back, laughed maniacally as she slashed through monster after monster. It was Zeta, a masterful blacksmith and a B-rank adventurer, displaying her incredible prowess.
Every weapon she crafted possessed performance comparable to that of national treasure–level arms. Not only the spear that Ark wielded, but most of the adventurers gathered here now used her weapons.
“Just a light thrust is enough to pierce even a dragon’s scales… Once you’ve experienced this level of performance, there’s no going back to your old weapons.”
She had already been known as a highly skilled blacksmith, but suddenly the quality of her weapons improved dramatically.
When she began calling her previously forged weapons “failures” and started breaking them, many had seriously worried that she had lost her mind…
“Has the performance of her weapons gone up again…?”
“Ahaha, we might see her destroy her past works once more.”
Recalling that time, Gain and Emily exchanged wry smiles.
“(Without those two, we wouldn’t have been able to hold back the monsters so easily… But still, if even more vicious monsters start appearing from the lower layers, I wonder how long we can hold out.)”
Ark’s apprehension quickly became reality.
“““Aaah!?”””
The adventurers were blown away en masse.
Before them stood a Destrol, a monster that appears around the fortieth dungeon layer. A colossal figure over ten meters tall, wielding a massive club nearly five meters in length.
Of course, if it were only this one, defeating it wouldn’t be particularly difficult, but…
“““Ooooaaahhh!!”””
“Monsters from the deeper layers are appearing one after another…”
“Their strength is nothing like the monsters we’ve faced so far!?”
“E-even with Guildmaster Ark and Gain here, it’s going to be tough…”
The deeper you go in the Vegaltia dungeon, the stronger and more vicious the monsters become. The fortieth floor and below are called the deep layers, where even A-rank adventurers find exploration extremely difficult.
“…This is bad. At this rate, we won’t be able to hold this area. I didn’t want monsters spilling out into the city, but… I have no choice.”
If too many monsters gather in this underground space, maintaining the front line will become impossible.
On the other hand, if they retreat to a more open area above ground, they could pick off the vicious monsters one by one, making the battle more manageable and giving them an advantage.
However, in that case, it would be impossible to avoid causing damage to the city.
Just as Ark was about to make this difficult decision—
Zubazubazubazubazubazuu!!
A sudden gust of wind blew through, and the monsters began turning into nothing but chunks of flesh one after another.
Dodododododododododo!!
With a tremendous crashing sound, the bodies of the monsters were crushed and flattened.
“W-what…?”
When Ark looked, he saw the figures of two girls on the battlefield.
Both were familiar to him.
“Coming to help.”
“This is quite a situation!”
They were A-rank adventers, Fana and Anje.
“…Well, well, well. You’ve returned at the perfect timing, haven’t you?”
And then there was one more.
It looked unmistakably like a baby, barely six months old.
“Need some extra hands, Ark-ojiichan?”
This is translated by Yume Neiji. Kindly read at yumeineijiworks.wordpress.com.
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