Volume 1
Chapter 31
We've Arrived
at the Ruins
Translator : PolterGlast
After sending Faith
home, I met up with Tekiru and we decided on how to split the reward. Then,
following Tekiru's request, we were making our way through a forest different
from the one we had been in before.
"I'm really glad
you agreed to come with me, Kushina-cchi."
"Well, I don't
really mind."
Actually, I haven't
heard anything about Tekiru's request except for "going to a ruin". I
know it's supposed to be a very dangerous place, but I don't know any details
about it.
"Man... I never
thought I'd have the opportunity to challenge a ruin so soon."
"Hey,
Tekiru."
"Yeah? What is
it, Kushina-cchi?"
"What kind of place
is this ruin we're going to?"
Then Tekiru tripped
and almost fell over.
"W-What? You
agreed to come without knowing the details, again!?"
"Yeah."
"Don't just give
me that "yeah"..."
Tekiru looked at me
with a dumbfounded expression.
"Kushina-cchi,
I'm the one who invited you, but I don't think it's a good idea to agree to
anything without knowing the details."
"Is that
so?"
"Yeah."
"I see."
"………"
"………"
An awkward silence
fell.
"So, what is this
ruins?"
"……It is an
unexplored ruin near our town."
"Unexplored?"
"Well. Ruins
usually have rare materials and weapons from ancient times. If one finds one,
one can explore it right away."
"So, are we going
to a newly discovered ruin?"
"……No, it's
different."
Tekiru frowned and
shook his head.
I tilted my head at
his words.
"The ruin we're
going to is a ruin that has been left untouched for a long time."
"Huh?"
"A long time ago,
everyone tried to explore this ruin, but no one ever came back—the [Atrocious
Forest Ruin] with a danger level of S. That's the name of the ruin we're
heading to now."
□□□
We continued deeper
into the forest and arrived at a clearing area.
In the middle of the
clearing area was a very old stone building. It was made of many rectangular stones
stacked on top of each other, and some of them were covered in moss or had
cracks in them. Only the entrance was visible above ground, and the main body
of the building seemed to be buried underground. Conveniently, there were two
stone pillars at what was presumably the entrance, each with a stone plate
attached to it, and a candle holder on top of that. The essential candle was
nowhere to be found, though.
"Wow... it's
really old."
"Yeah... We
finally made it here. Well, it's mostly thanks to you, Kushina-cchi. Thanks a
lot."
"Don't mind it,
but... why did you want to challenge this ruin, Tekiru?"
"Hm? What do you
mean?"
"I mean, you're
pretty strong, aren't you, Tekiru? Remember that time with the Red Mantis? You
only retreated temporarily because you needed the equipment to get the
materials, right? You could have hunted it alone, couldn't you? And that was
considered a pretty dangerous monster in the world, wasn't it? If that's the
case, you could have made a good living without having to challenge such a
dangerous ruin."
When I finished saying
that, I noticed that Tekiru had a dumbfounded look on his face.
"What are you
talking about, Kushina-cchi?"
"Huh? Did I say
something weird?"
"No, there's no
way I could hunt a Red Mantis alone! That's an abnormal monster with a danger
level of A!!"
"───? Is that really so?
It was certainly strong, but... it was only about as fast as you, Tekiru.
Besides, its shell was pretty soft..."
"No way! There's
no way a Red Mantis' shell is soft! Actually, I went to collect the materials
afterward, and... the Red Mantis' shells that were scattered around there, I
tried to touch them, but I couldn't damage them at all!!"
"Really...?"
"You're just
weird, Kushina-cchi!"
Is that so?... I
thought I had gotten pretty strong, but...
Well, whatever. I
can't figure it out myself, and if Tekiru says so, that's probably how it is.
Besides, it's not something to think about now.
"I see... but
Tekiru, to answer your question. There's no doubt that you're pretty strong,
right? Then why are you trying to do something so dangerous?"
"I see,
huh..."
Tekiru sighed once.
"……Every
adventurer in this town aspires to it. To conquer this ruin—there's no greater
honor than that. It's like a 'dream'."
"A dream..."
"That's right.
This is my dream—a selfish one at that. If you become an adventurer in this
town, it's a feat that everyone dreams of once—it's the wish of an immature man
who still couldn't give up on it. So—"
Tekiru turned to me
and smiled.
"I can't thank
you enough for coming with me. Really, thank you, Kushina-cchi."
"………"
When he smiled at me
like that, I was taken aback and looked downward.
What kind of
expression am I making right now?
A dream... a dream,
huh?
I've never even
thought about such a thing.
Is it necessary?
At least, I don't see
the need for a dream.
But seeing Tekiru's
eyes sparkling beside me, I don't know why, but I felt a little dazzled.
Just a little... I
felt envious.
"Phew...…"
I took a deep breath.
"Well, shall we
go then?"
"……But why are
you acting like you're going to work? I told you, this place is super
dangerous."
"Yeah, I heard
you, but... what are we going to do? You're not going?"
"No, I'm going,
but..."
Tekiru sighed.
"……Well,
whatever. Nothing will start if we just keep hesitating here. Let's just get
going."
"Yeah."
And so, we started
walking towards the ruins.
Before I knew it, I
was walking ahead of Tekiru, and inevitably, I was the first to step into the
ruins.
And at that moment───
Bang!!!!
"───!"
Suddenly, there was an
explosion at the entrance to the ruins.
Fortunately, the
explosion seemed to have occurred on the outer wall, so the blast only hit me.
My vision was filled
with black smoke.
"Kushina-cchi!"
I heard Tekiru's voice
from outside. It seems he's okay too.
Gradually, the black
smoke cleared.
And what came into my
view was───the entrance,
completely buried in rubble.
……Am I trapped?
"Tekiru, are you
okay?"
"Y-Yeah, I'm
fine. But Kushina-cchi, you...!"
"I'm fine.
Nothing happened to me."
"R-Really...? No,
that's not it! Right now, you're trapped in a ruin with a zero survival rate,
you know!!?"
"Ah... Yeah,
looks like it."
"Why are you so
calm!?"
"Well, because I
can get out right away. Just stay a little away, Tekiru. I'm going to break
this wall and escape."
"Huh!? Hey, you
idiot, stop!"
"Huh?"
"This ruin is
really old, you know!? What if the entire ruin collapses from the impact of
breaking this rubble!?"
"Ah, right."
Oops. Certainly, there
is such a possibility.
It would be
counterproductive if I destroyed the entrance to the ruins since we are trying
to conquer the ruins, wouldn't it?
"Damn it... just
wait a minute, Kushina-cchi. I'm going to go back and get help right away!
Don't move from there!!"
"Wait, Teki───"
Before I could finish
my sentence, I heard Tekiru running away. He's gone... How is he going to get
help?
Well, he told me to
stay put, so I guess I'll just wait quietly.
Thud, thud
"Hm?"
Footsteps of
something? Or rather, it has a lot of mass, and the entire ruin shakes with
each footstep. What's coming?
Thud, thud
And then what appeared
was───
"Whoa..."
It was a moving statue
made of stone.
The passage of the
ruin was probably about five meters high and three meters wide. It was quite
old with cracks here and there, so there was surprisingly little garbage or
gravel, and it was strangely clean.
And from the depths of
that passage came───a huge stone statue.
It was over two meters
tall and had fairly broad shoulders. It was bipedal and humanoid from the neck
down. Above the neck—or rather, it had no neck. A cylindrical head like a
piston was embedded in the top of the torso. In the center of the cylindrical
head was a large purple crystal that took up about a third of the head, and the
joints of its arms and legs were hardened with fine grains of sand.
It looked like
something you often see in game commercials... yeah, it's a golem! It looked
very similar.
And then, as I was
leisurely observing it───
"………Oh?"
Suddenly, the crystal
in the golem's head glowed yellow.
Boom!!!!
A laser beam that I
couldn't even see with my eyes flew towards me───and with an unexpected
destructive power, most of my body was burned away.
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