Once the Stampede went past Uga’ol, Leon, though battered from all the chaos, immediately left and headed for Dungeon City. He arrived without incident and reported all the information he had, after which he fell asleep on the spot… while at the same time pushing down a beautiful security lady. No one blamed him just this once, however, as he had been working without rest over the past few days.
Leon’s report revealed that Uga’ol had fallen, the Stampede had not lost much momentum, and that it was certainly still heading towards Dungeon City. More and more of the townspeople, as if feeling a sense of threat from the news, started either evacuating to the south district or leaving Dungeon City altogether.
[I wish I could be one of them…] Tsutomu thought to himself the thought that he had always had, and still had now.
Nevertheless, his feet were carrying him in the opposite direction — the direction of the Guild. Explorers all over the city had been called upon by the Guild and the Security Team, and Tsutomu was on his way to join the gathering. Although there was technically no penalty for refusing the call to action, the names of those who escaped would be made public once the Stampede was over. That was, in fact, a real penalty for an Explorer’s career, so most of them joined in, gathering in different groups at different times.
Many familiar faces could be seen within the busier-than-ever Guild, including Clans he had worked with such as Silver Beast and Ealdred Crow.
The members of the Scarlet Devil Squad were here, too. One among them, Alma, turned away as soon as she made eye contact with Tsutomu. She had been avoiding Tsutomu after the Black Staff transaction, so they had not seen each other that much. As Tsutomu looked away from her slender rear silhouette, someone tapped him on the shoulder from behind.
“Tsutomu.”
“Oh, hello, Garm.”
“…Everyone is already here. Follow me.”
Garm took one look at Alma before beckoning to Tsutomu to follow him. They walked together, and eventually found Amy, Camille, and the other main force members of the Guild. One among them was the tough-looking receptionist with a buzz cut, who was apparently quite battle-hardened. In fact, all of the people in this group had already reached level 70.
“Oh, you’re here, too. I’ve always thought you looked strong, so no surprises here, I suppose.”
“Damn right I am! Looking forward to working with you, Tsutomu.”
By the time Tsutomu finished greeting the other members, someone climbed up on the reception counter and made a throat-clearing cough. They were none other than the hulking, orc-like Director of the Security Team.
Due to the absence of the Labyrinth Conquerors, who usually were the ones in charge during Stampedes, Security Team Director Bruno had been given command instead. The crowd of Explorers became quieter and quieter as Bruno stood up. Then, after a few moments of complete silence, Bruno started speaking,
“Nice to meet y’all~~!”
“……”
Tsutomu was taken aback by the giant with a stereotypical homo tone, and was worried whether or not things would be all right going forward. After consulting Garm and Amy, however, it seemed that they could run things perfectly competently.
The current Stampede’s advance toward Dungeon City was led by airborne Dragons, so Bruno started the meeting off with explanations of how to deal with them. The first step was to intercept them with magic tools. Once they were down on the ground, teams of high-leveled Explorers would proceed to attack them. Medium-leveled Explorers were tasked with going into God’s Dungeon and collecting Magic Stones in preparation for the following monster horde, and low-leveled Explorers would be responsible for miscellaneous tasks such as carrying the Magic Stones and transporting the injured.
“Considering my level, I’m supposed to be a mid-tier Explorer–“
“Don’t sweat the details,” Amy said bluntly, still grumpy at Tsutomu for disregarding her serious answer to him during the conversation the other day.
“Uh-huh…”
“Tsutomu, you can sit this out if you want. I won’t put it against you,” Garm interjected, offering quite a tempting suggestion.
“No, I’ll stay. And look, I’m sorry, but I’ve already made up my mind… I think…” Tsutomu chuckled dryly.
Although he had indeed made up his mind, it did not necessarily mean that he was no longer scared. As such, he had let his thoughts of escaping slip out, which prompted Amy to criticize him, and Garm to try and convince him to prioritize his safety.
The people tasked with fending off the Dragons were as follows: Scarlet Devil Squad, Ealdred Crow, Golden Tune, the Security Team, the Guild main force, and three delegations of the nobility’s private military force. They added up to a total of six different independent organizations, with Tsutomu working as a part of the Guild.
The Earth Dragon had already been defeated by the Labyrinth Conquerors, and the twelve Dragons remaining were as follows: six Fire Dragons, three Ice Dragons, two Black Dragons, and one Lightning Dragon. In other words, each group had to take on an average of two. Despite there being no five-member limits to their parties, the battle was still expected to be extremely difficult.
[Man, I’ve always hated Raid events… Wish I could at least see all my party members’ detailed stats…] Tsutomu thought to himself, feeling quite gloomy.
Raid events also existed in Live Dungeon, in the form of battles where tens of players teamed up. The game’s interface would show the player every participant’s HP and MP, however, whereas this world had no such thing. As such, there was no way Tsutomu would be able to manage things as he had in the game.
Unlike inside God’s Dungeon, <<Raise>> was not usable in the outside world — no second chances, no mistakes allowed. While Tsutomu tried to concentrate himself, Bruno wrapped up their speech and got down from the counter.
After that, the Explorers went their separate ways, while Bruno talked a little with the Security Team members before approaching Tsutomu, poking the latter on his shoulder.
“You are… Tsutomu, yes? I’d like to ask you something, if you don’t mind.”
“Hmm? Ah, yes, of course. What is it?”
“You were the one who sent the compiled data to Uga’ol, if I’m not mistaken? At least that’s what I got from the descriptions the supply crew gave me.”
“…That would probably be me, yes. I asked the supply convoy to take the documents with them.”
“Well then, could you accompany us to the office for a few moments? We’d like for us to share information we have with each other… And rest assured, we won’t do anything bad. Totally.”
Bruno, seeing that Amy had her white tail suddenly pointing up, cracked a wry smile at her. Tsutomu, although oblivious to Bruno’s gesture, agreed to the invitation.
“Yes, I understand.”
“You have our thanks. This way, please.”
Tsutomu, although apparently overwhelmed with worry, left the Guild together with Bruno, heading for the Security Team’s head office.
――▽▽――
After a few hours of both serious discussions and small talk, Tsutomu was released from the Security Team’s head office, and looked to still be overwhelmed with worry on his way out.
[Okay, they didn’t keep me as long as I expected.]
His expected reasons for the Security Team’s call were to ask him things such as his origins and how he had gained information on the Dragons. In reality, they had only been brought up as an off-hand comment during the small talk, without going into any detail.
In fact, the meeting had been mostly positive, with Leon — who had been there as well for reasons unknown to Tsutomu — and the members of the Security Team praising and thanking him for saving so many people with the provided information. Tsutomu, guessing that they had let him slide because of his contribution, had proceeded to provide the Security Team with all the information he had regarding the Stampede. He had no issue in doing so, what with them not being something that needed to be kept secret, and could even help save lives down the line.
After that part, Tsutomu had also been impressed by the way the Security Team Director, the effeminate Bruno, asked him questions. He had been relieved, and somewhat let down, by how normal and completely reasonable Bruno was, but he still proceeded with caution all the while. The case with Amy’s raid on Solit Company also came up amid the discussions, embarrassing Tsutomu quite a bit.
Tsutomu was then let go as the sun started to set, right after which he headed for the market where the Monitors were. There, he was surprised to see that things were not quite the same.
Monitor #1 was showing a mid-tier Clan, as did many of the other single-digit ones. The market in the vicinity was less active than before, too, with the number of stalls greatly dwindled and the number of spectators down to almost half.
Tsutomu walked through the relatively empty market, observing everything with curious eyes. At one point, he heard some thunderous sounds from outside of town, so he headed toward that direction instead.
Outside of the city gate, people gathered behind the magical barrier that had been put up by the nobility’s forces as practice, and outside that perimeter, a gigantic boulder was crashing down onto the empty wasteland. Tsutomu cast <<Fly>> and ascended, bypassing the crowd and getting a good look at what was happening.
“<<Meteor Stream>>,” a beautiful, black-haired woman chanted and waved her Black Staff.
Moments later, a rain of meteorites poured down from the sky and fell on the area.
“<<Explosion>>.”
And then the meteorites on the ground exploded. The already uneven terrain of the wasteland was roughed up further, making it even more difficult to navigate through. Such was the magical prowess of Alma, demonstrated during this training session among the major Clans.
Amid the gut-wrenching sounds of the impacts and the resulting dust storms, the crowd cheered from behind the barrier. Alma, being a top-leveled Black Mage and having recently learned a never-before-seen skill, the <<Meteor Stream>> was gaining more fame in showing it off.
She was famous for doing this in God’s Dungeon as well, what with her preference for spells such as <<Meteor>> and <<Meteor Stream>>. The Scarlet Devil Squad used to be a Clan centered solely on the Clan Leader, but now the image was starting to shift to him and Alma sharing the spotlight.
Meanwhile, Rook was leading a discussion among Ealdred Crow members, deciding on a formation on the scale of a platoon or two. Ealdred Crow had boasted that they would be taking on four Fire Dragons, their confidence fueled by the Magic Stones the Guild had supplied them with.
“<<Summon — Golem>>.”
Rook cast his summoning spell over a hundred times. The army of Golems formed into a wall, holding each other up like a coordinated gymnastics team. Looking closely, Tsutomu could see that the fortress-like structures in the area were made of Golems as well.
Summoners had a limit to the number of Eidolons they could summon in a given area. Go over the limit, and the older Eidolons would turn into light particles and disappear. That was the case only inside God’s Dungeon, however. In the outside world, excess Eidolons were instead downgraded to puppets without their own will, effectively dead bodies.
Taking advantage of that, Rook summoned Golems and deliberately turned them into soulless husks, but not before forming them into makeshift walls. These walls, positioned outside the city’s magical barrier, would most likely become useful during the battle.
Rook had already been hoarding Magic Stones before the Stampede, and the Guild had also provided him with more. The Magic Stone that had dropped from his team’s Fire Dragon attempt was set to be used here as well.
Summoners were technically limited by the cost of their summons; if they wanted to make a profit fighting in the Dungeon, they had to limit their summons to a few at a time. Otherwise, they would only end up in the red, at which point Dungeon exploration would become unviable despite making progress.
If they could summon without concern for the cost, however, they would be able to exert tremendous power. Rook, backed by the Guild’s financial support and Ealdred Crow’s operating funds, and also top-leveled personnel of various Jobs in his Clan, was plenty powerful to take on four Fire Dragons, especially if those Dragons were brought to the ground.
Golden Tune, on the other hand, was allowed to sit out the Dragon fights, due to their previous failure to defeat the Dungeon’s Fire Dragon, and also Leon’s contributions as a scout. Though they could showcase some great powers with potential sacrifice, they ultimately lost in terms of firepower to the Scarlet Devil Squad, and in terms of stability to Ealdred Crow. During the upcoming battle, Golden Tune was instead set to act as Leon’s scouting party and support the other Clans.
“Aha! Tsutomu~~!” A certain white-haired girl cheerfully called Tsutomu and came running to him from outside the barrier while the latter watched all the Clans do their thing.
Staring closely, Tsutomu saw that it was Amy, practically hopping as she waved to him.
“Good thing you’re here! We’ll be having a briefing session over with the Guild’s crew! C’mon!”
“Oh, all right. I’ll be right there.”
Once Amy knocked on the barrier, a hole large enough for one person to go through opened up. Tsutomu went outside and followed Amy on her way.
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