Ihoujin, Dungeon ni Moguru

Cirsium(Asamikiku), a genus of thistle.

Its leaves and bracts are spiny, and touching them causes pain. Its flowers have countless rod-like projections sticking out, and look like pincushions.

Also known as Irakusa. It has been said that the word “deceive(Azamuku)” is the origin of its name.

Its flower meanings are independence, strictness, protection, loneliness.

Revenge.

＜Like A Cirsium I＞

【53rd day】 fre𝙚𝓌𝒆𝚋noѵel.c𝚘m

I became the leader again and various things happened.

Starting from the duel between Shuna and Irvin, there was the dispute with Gladvain’s kin, the selling of Midoranga’s materials after dealing with the Guild’s procedures, as well as settling Irvin’s party’s debt. While I was at it, I crushed two of Lemuria’s ill-natured merchant companies, one of which got absorbed by the Zavua merchant company. For that achievement, I was bestowed the authentic “Insight(discerning eye)” by the other god that I was contracted with——Gravius-sama, the night owl.

It only happened every now and then when I was doing work at the merchant company or during adventuring, but I had been able to grasp the authenticity of things. I had mistaken it as my own hidden talent, but to think that it was actually the grace of this god.

Having obtained this ability, I would likely have a reliable eye for the prices of materials, monsters, as well as people. This insight would be useful for adventuring.

However, I received a piece of advice from Gravius-sama:

"Authenticity is constantly wavering. Even what you’ve discerned without doubt to be a pyroxene(a garnet-like rock-forming mineral) can change into a mere rock in an instant. Thus, the value of all things aren’t determined by the eyes of gods, but by the eyes of people. You must discern it carefully. The ‘value’ and ‘worthlessness’ of this fog-enshrouded world of people.”

That advice, which was very god-of-merchants-like, really struck home.

However, I’m an adventurer. Not a merchant. I want to make sure you remember that. It seems that I’ve spent too much time on things outside the adventuring business.

And, once again, I was faced with a problem that seemed like it would take up a lot of my time.

Simply put, it was jealousy.

By way of the dishonest merchants, I was gaining a bad reputation among adventurers.

I was a marriage swindler, an adventurer scammer, cheating the royals, adventuring for the sake of money. A mixture of fact and fiction was spread by them. Especially to the novice adventurers whose adventuring had stagnated, intermediate adventurers, as well as the greenhorn adventurers that were the same batch as us.

However, it’s said that gossip lasts but 75 days.

Fortunately, the infamy was concentrated on me personally, and only good things were being spread about the other party members＜Was it due to sympathy?＞. They often got things free-of-charge at restaurants. As much as five times, I was served the raw ingredients of the dish as is. Among those five times, I was attacked by the still-alive ingredient twice.

It made me mad, but I'm an adventurer. No matter how bad it got, I could clear my reputation through the results of our adventuring.

That was what I had thought. However.

One after another, Shuna and Rana were crushing all those who mentioned those rumors.

Shuna was still alright. If Irvin or me were present, it ended right there after either of us interceded. After that, if we treated him some suitably delicious food, he would be back in a good mood. As for the other party, if we treated him or her alcohol, the misunderstanding would be cleared cordially. All's well that ends well.

Rana was…… troubling.

Seriously.

Tremendously.

It made me happy that she was getting angry for my sake, but she was way too dangerous.

Whenever she blew an adventurer away using magic, she usually blew the entire store away along with the adventurer.

The damages to the surrounding residents was also enormous. Medical bills, repair costs, nuisance payments and hush money. In general, an average of 70 gold coins went down the drain per disturbance. The allowance that I had received from the Zavua merchant company was completely gone. In the worst case, I would have to compensate using the party's operating funds. 𝒇𝐫ℯ𝑒𝒘ℯ𝑏n𝑜ѵ𝐞l.c𝗼𝗺

Also, we would be banned the next time we destroyed the barkeeper’s store.

She's a great magician, so when asked if she could use magic that was more subtle, she said that no matter what kind of magic she used, it seemed that its power would expand out of all proportion.

Looking at the result when I had asked Zenobia to use the same magic as a test, I estimated that it was 30 times more powerful. Moreover, the magic power consumed was also out of all proportion. In the end, it seemed that consuming enormous amounts of magic power to cast tremendous magic was more efficient magic power-wise.

I wonder, is she loved by the god of destruction or something?

For that reason, whenever Rana chanted, it was decided that all of the party members would be mobilized to stop her.

Although she had been disowned, I couldn’t let ill-feelings towards Rana, elves and the Heures family accumulate. That was why another rumor was spread.

“Adventurers will meet with misfortune if they get involved with the foreigner”

In the adventuring business, everyone was constantly gambling with their lives. Even if they had more than enough strength and wisdom, they would die all the same if they were unlucky. That was why adventurers were very concerned about jinxes involving luck. In line with this, I created a few cases where actual harm was done.

The crimes were always committed on the main street, and on top of that, I had chosen periods of time when there were a lot of pedestrians passing by.

For one party, their equipment belts rotted and broke, leaving everyone half-naked in public.

Another party was almost killed by a runaway, unmanned carriage.

Yet another party lost as many gold coins from their purses as the number of times they had spoken ill about the foreigner.

Seeing them lamenting on the main street, the people had a real look at “the curse of the foreigner”.

Two days after that, no matter which bar I went, there was no one bringing up the rumors about the foreigner. On the contrary, people who spoke of it thoughtlessly were beaten up and silenced by the other adventurers.『Don’t get us involved』was the meaning behind their actions.

My name had completely become a cursed word, but well, I was able to divert the ill-feelings away from Rana.

Besides, it’s said that gossip lasts but 75 days.

This was a city where something happened almost daily. It probably won’t be long before it faded from memory and was forgotten.

All told, it ended up taking seven days before we could challenge the dungeon again.

For the moment, we had reached the 13th floor.

Thus far, it had been a piece of cake thanks to Otou-san’s maps.

As the seven of us were acting in concert, I changed our tactics a little.

The average width of the passageways inside the dungeon was 4 meters. So that there would be enough space to move, we could have two or three people side-by-side at most. Taking into account what might happen, we also needed a certain amount of space behind us. It was impossible to advance with seven people side-by-side like Japan’s national RPG.

That was why, same as before, I divided us into two teams.

In front, Irvin, Shuna and me, who was accompanied by Izora.

In the back, Bel, Ea, Zenobia and Rana.

My role was to search for enemies and to “bait” the enemies.

I would use Izora's various sensors as well as my insight to locate enemies. I would then make a pre-emptive attack using the bow, and if I could defeat the enemy, then all was well. If that didn’t work, I would lead it to Irvin and Shuna, and then defeat it together. If there were a lot of enemies, I would lead them to another location, and then slip past them.

As much as possible, I would leave it to Irvin and Shuna to defeat the enemies.

There wasn't anything about these two’s fighting skills that I could complain about.

The two of them were strong.

If the conditions were right, they could probably hold their own even against intermediate adventurers. All that was left, was for me set the stage for them.

Bel was the flying column.

She had a good balance between offense and defense, so I had her flexibly join either the front or the back in battles. She could use the combination magic with Rana as a powerful attack, but I had prohibited its use because it had a high chance of going out of control.

As for Ea, she guarded the rear and provided support in battles.

If the party was taken by surprise from behind, it would be fatal. As the person who was the best at detecting enemies, I had her focus her attention behind us. Her covering attacks were formidable as well. With her skills, she could easily shoot random small fry in the heart or eye.

Zenobia was a dedicated support and her role was to protect the group in the back. And, she was insurance.

To be honest, the firepower of her magic wasn’t great. But her defensive magic was pretty good. Just in case, she was to use her magic to hold up enemies that had escaped Ea’s detection.

Rana was our trump card.

If it was just instantaneous destructive power, then Rana was top class, even in Lemuria.

However, there were various problems. Her magic had too much destructive power and range. Especially with regards to restoring her magic power, I had thought that ice cream was able to settle this problem completely, but there was a snag. The amount of magic power that could be restored was limited.

After making experimental desserts and checking the amount of magic power they restored, I had Rana fire off some magic, but on the second day, no matter what she ate, her magic power wouldn’t recover at all. When her magic power was restored again after one whole day had passed, I stroked my chest in relief. It would take much more time to test this. Makina was in the midst of calculating accurate figures.

So long as there were uncertainties with the means of restoring magic power, it didn’t hurt to use her sparingly.

However, just the fact that we had a trump card was reassuring. Besides, the means of restoring the regeneration point had been established. The men, including myself, could afford to be slightly reckless.

I would probably change the party formation depending on the situation, but for the moment, this was what we were going with.

Now, let’s return to the main subject.

＜Like A Cirsium II＞

I breathed thinly and softly.

I killed my presence and kept my eyes glued on the darkness.

In order to search for enemies, the light had been turned off. In the darkness that was too dark for night vision, quietly, very quietly, I advanced.

『Enemy detected. Three o'clock』

「Understood」

At Izora's voice, I gazed steadily in that direction.

A large snake slowly came into view from the end of the dark passageway. It was gracefully meandering its way forward in mid-air.

It had small wings similar to the Guild President’s, but there was no way things like that provided lift. It was flying by means of a mysterious power.

Even though I called it a large snake, it was about 30 centimeters wide and about 6 meters long. Its size was cute compared to Midoranga’s.

The distance between us was 15 meters.

『Enemy has reacted. You’ve been detected』

I held an arrow in my mouth. I nocked another arrow to the bow.

While making a soft swooshing sound, the large snake approached me. For now, I cast aside my question of how it knew my location even though it was so dark.

「Turn on the light」

『Understood』

Izora emitted a light with the same brightness as a lantern’s.

I drew the bow.

I held it at full draw.

Just like my opponent, I thought only of killing. Whenever I drew this bow, I became dispassionate to the core. Be it a god or a devil, I would shoot it unwaveringly.

What I was aiming for was......

『Distance, 10 meters. 8, 6, 4』

The snake opened its large mouth in order to bite me.

……right here.

The string thrummed as the arrow snapped forward. Flexing like a snake, the arrow pierced the upper jaw of the large snake and stabbed into its brain. The large snake fell to the ground and flopped about like a fish out of water. There was less blood than I had expected flowing out.

I nocked the other arrow to the bow.

I watched calmly. Not yet, there was still something.

The full length of the large snake was longer than I had expected. Half of its body was still a dim outline in the darkness and its tail raised itself up and turned towards me.

A shadow approached from the darkness.

I didn’t aim at the shadow. I didn’t aim at things that I wasn’t guaranteed to hit. I shot another arrow at the large snake’s body, pinning it to stone floor. I leaped backwards with all my strength.

Practically right in front of my eyes, a snake’s jaws snapped shut, biting only air.

『Evasion successful』

This large snake also had a head on its tail.

I shot its second head.

「Start pulse scan. Display the location of this guy’s heart with a red dot」

『Understood, pulse activated………………』

There was a slight buzzing in my ears.

『Scan completed』

The heart of the large snake was displayed as a red dot on the LCD of the glasses.

One more arrow there.

Even though its muscles were still twitching, the large snake had definitely died with that.

There were many monsters in the dungeon that wouldn’t die just from having their heads crushed. There were even some that didn’t have heads to begin with. But living things generally died when their hearts were stopped. It seemed that even this common sense would apply less the deeper we descended though.

I kept my eyes on the surroundings.

『No signs of any enemy』

「Understood」

I slung the bow over my shoulder and took out my hunting knife.

『Souya-san, please check its fangs』

「Alright」

I inserted the hunting knife into the snake’s mouth and opened it. It was dangerous, so I made sure to not touch it with my bare hands.

『There are grooves in the fangs』

「Is it perhaps a poisonous snake?」

『Yes, Izora will take a sample. Please bring Izora’s body closer』

I unhooked Izora from my waist and brought her closer to the snake.

Two robotic arms extended out from the mini-pod. In one hand was a case with a row of test tubes. The other hand squeezed the base of the fang and collected a sample of the venom. Subsequently, a tissue sample and a blood sample were also collected.

『It’s completed. Just in case, Izora will create antibodies for the party members』

「I’ll leave it to you」

『This large snake has the same pit organ and infrared detection mechanism as a normal snake. Let's be careful of that next time』

「Understood」

I stared at the snake's corpse.

It was quite fleshy.

Wasn’t reptile meat said to taste just like chicken breast?

『Team member Souya, Izora wants you to heed this warning; most of the monsters cannot be eaten. Of the 23 samples taken from the different species of monsters that have been defeated so far, toxins that are harmful to the human body have been detected in 19 of them. The larger the monster’s size, the stronger the toxin, so Izora suspects that it works in a similar manner to the Ciguatera toxin and gets accumulated in the monsters’ bodies. ………You’ll die, alright?』

「What a shame. So, can this guy be eaten?」

『Izora won’t know unless we return above-ground and let the main-pod analyze it』

「Is that so? What a shame」

Procurement on-site and making food in the dungeon………………is impossible, I suppose. For various reasons, it's dangerous.

「I'm returning to the party now. Please inform Ea」

『Understood』

I had given Ea and Irvin communication devices. Using them, we could contact one another as long as we weren’t more than two floors apart.

After recovering my arrows, I pushed the corpse of the large snake into a corner of the passageway, poured flammable oil on it, and then set it on fire. Disposing of corpses for the sake of subsequent adventurers was good dungeon etiquette.

There were monsters that were drawn to fire, but more than anything, monsters were drawn to blood.

Disposal completed.

I left to join up with the party.

「Izora, turn off the light」

The dim light went out, and I was enveloped by the quiet darkness again. Behind me, the snake continued to burn.

『Haaa………』

Izora made a show of sighing. No, she doesn’t breathe, so she was only playing the sound.

『………Haaa』

Oh, is this basically……

「What's the matter, Izora?」

……an appeal for me to give her some attention?

『Well, perhaps it’s because Izora is used to being with Irvin-sama, but Izora doesn’t feel satisfied when Izora is with team member Souya』

I was completely off the mark.

「Are you that dissatisfied with me?」

『No, you’ve achieved results that are several dozen times better than Izora’s initial estimates. Even a person who is incompatible with modern society can adapt to an alternate world. It sort of seems like it happens often, though Izora isn’t sure, but Izora does think of you as an interesting case』

「Why, thank you」

Was I praised, I wonder? I'm a little happy.

『But, team member Souya, you’ll manage somehow even without Izora, right?』

Oh, Makina also said the same to me.

『Irvin-sama is a person who is useless without Izora beside him. Despite how he looks, he’s quite careless, so if someone isn’t there to properly keep him on a tight leash……… Fufu』

Outside of adventuring, according to Izora's wishes, the mini-pod was left with Irvin.

「Don't get too obsessed with an individual and forget your work」

『Izora won’t do something like that. Starting with the tactical plan for normal battles, Izora is constantly running simulations on battle plans and formation plans so that it’ll be fine even if anyone isn’t present. Also, for when Irvin-sama becomes the leader, or when Irvin-sama becomes a hero, or when Irvin-sama and Izora――』

「That’s enough」

Somehow, she was looking like a Yandere girl who meddled excessively with the guy she liked.

「I’ve got visual contact with that Irvin, so please contact him and tell him to not attack as it’s just me joining up 」

『Understood』

I could see a faint light ahead of me.

It was a crossroads. Irvin was there with his shield held at the ready.

Here’s a guy that’s popular with women. Starting with the innkeeper’s daughter, there’s also the waitress at the bar, the widow of the merchant company, many female adventurers ranging from greenhorn to advanced, and to top it off, an A.I. from a foreign land.

What an illustrious career, and what an extensive range too. Moreover, with just one smile from him, all of them had stopped quarreling and became all smiles.

He is handsome, tall, skilled, has a strong sense of responsibility and cares for his friends. He doesn’t discriminate against other races, is weak against vegetables and alcohol, and a shade of melancholy crosses his face sometimes.

I may be biased, but this is the kind of person who should be a hero.

By no means did I mean a mass-murdering dirtbag hero like Varner. Even if god acknowledges him, I never will.

「Hey」

「Good work on checking the area」

He gave a conscientious reply to my perfunctory greeting.

「Welcome back, dear. Are you hurt anywhere?」

「No. I fought a snake along the way, but I defeated it without injury」

I reassured the worried Rana.

「What? You should have called me. I wanted to try out my new sword」

I got booed by Shuna. He was doing practice swings with his new longsword.

It had cost 50 gold coins, and was a somewhat famous sword. I had wanted to prepare one that was the same length, weight, and material as his previous longsword, but I didn't have the time.

From what Makina could tell after analyzing it, the longsword that Shuna’s teacher, Regure, had passed down to him had a very unusual composition. It had Widmanst?tten patterns, which were only found on meteorites, so that meant that meteorite iron had been mixed into its steel.

It would probably take time for the analytical capabilities of modern science to shed light on how its toughness and strength were achieved.

『Irvin-sama, please spread your map. Let’s update the areas that we’ve finished searching』

「Alright」

Irvin spread his hand-drawn map, and Izora projected an image on it. Using a piece of charcoal, I marked the areas that we had finished searching with Xs.

『Ea-sama too, your map please』

「Okay~」

Ea also spread her map and I marked it in the same way.

I had given hand-drawn maps to Irvin and Ea. Just in case Izora and I both died.

I put a finger on Irvin’s map.

「I looked around in a clockwise direction from the north」

This place where the party had gathered was the center of this floor. From here, we were going around in a circle as we explored the surroundings. This exploration wasn’t for the sake of descending to a lower floor.

「Only the northwest section is left. If we’re unable to find any trace of him there, then――」

「I'll give up. I’m the shield of this party. That’s what’s most important right now」

「I'm sorry, please do」

「No, I’m the one who is taking up the party’s precious time. This is good enough」

We were looking for Irvin's friend who had gone missing on this floor.

I was concerned about what they would do, so I had put Varner and Luxgaru under surveillance, but they hadn’t been searching for Sanperie.

On the day that they had run into us, they had a disagreement with the adventurers that they had hired and got into a fight. They hadn’t explored the dungeon ever since. Alcohol, women, violence and swordsmanship practice. That was how they spent their days. What a good life they led.

The chances of Sanperie’s survival were despairingly small. I didn’t hold out any hope for that.

As someone who was also Irvin’s friend, and as the leader, I wanted to at least recover some proof of his life. However, in response to this, Irvin had replied,『Spend only one day on the search』Any longer than that and it would impede the party’s progress. Everyone’s thoughtfulness was hard to bear, he had said.

I had hesitated, but I could understand Irvin’s feelings. For just one day, we would give it everything we had and search. With Izora’s sensors, we should be able to find traces that other adventurers wouldn’t notice.

「Well then, everyone stand by again. I’ll——」

「Onii-chan」

「Hmm? What’s the matter?」

Ea drew close and snuggled up to me.

「I'm hungry」

Shuna and Bel raised their hands.

「Oh, me too」

「Yes! Yes! Me too!」

Rana also raised her hand gingerly.

「Umm………………me too」

「Oh, I’m sorry. I’ll prepare it immediately」.