Trust

Everyone was in great shock that the bag containing the food had been stolen. In particular, Rakar, who was in charge of the survival bag, was even more shocked than the others, and apologized to everyone with a look of frustration.

,I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have put the bag down….

Everyone offered words of comfort to Rakar, who was blaming himself for his mistake.

,It can’t be helped. Who would have expected it?

,A raccoon is a bad guy…. Who would have thought there would be a thief raccoon in the dungeon.

,It’s okay. There will be a way….

Seeing the party members comforting Rakar, I could tell that I was in a good party. They could have been angry about the food being stolen, or annoyed at the situation. But the party members comforting Rakar felt genuine, not fake or acting.

Although the atmosphere was warm, the worst situation remained. We couldn’t survive without food in a situation where it was expected to take at least two days to clear the dungeon.

Of course, if I wasn’t here.

I decided to trust the kind party members who were comforting each other and putting their heads together to solve the situation. If they were important characters in the novel, I could have predicted what kind of settings they had, but. They are all extras who don’t appear in the novel.

They are unknown extras whose personalities, backgrounds, and environments I don’t know, but I opened my mouth because I didn’t want to see Rakar, my first friend who approached me first despite the malicious rumors, frustrated, and because I thought I could trust them enough based on what they had shown me so far.

,I can solve the food problem.

At my sudden words, the party members who were discussing how to solve the problem all shut their mouths and looked at me with surprised eyes.

,Re, really?

At Aria’s surprised question, I nodded and took out food from the space warehouse.

,It’s magic called space warehouse. You can store and take out things in a space in another dimension.

When I took out the chocolate I had received from Ellie as a test. Everyone was surprised and their eyes sparkled.

,I have enough food to last about a day.

At those words, their gloomy expressions brightened up.

When I took out the remaining chocolate and jerky that I had bought to eat after training, and a canteen full of water from the space warehouse. Aria’s eyes welled up with tears.

,Th, that’s amazing magic…! What kind of method is it? Dimension expansion magic? No, is it summoning magic?

Aria, who was making a fuss, sent me a burdensome gaze and came so close that our bodies touched, her eyes shining.

,It’s magic certified by the headmaster-nim.

I can’t talk about the details, so I used the headmaster-nim as an excuse. Aria nodded as if she understood.

,As expected, it’s amazing magic that requires certification…!

Ignoring Aria, who was sending me a burdensome gaze, I turned my head to the party members.

,Because I suddenly did an internship, I only have enough food in the warehouse for one day. I think the only thing left to do in this situation is to clear the dungeon as quickly as possible.

Everyone nodded as if they agreed with my words.

,Thank you for giving me a chance to make up for my mistake, Ross. I’ll really work hard.

I smiled and said to Rakar, who was sincerely grateful.

,You’re doing a good job already, Rakar. And I think, it doesn’t seem like it was a coincidence that the thief raccoon appeared.

At my words, Rakar’s eyes lit up and he asked.

,Why?

,Think about it. This internship is said to be to develop the ability to respond to sudden variables. Suddenly, a thief raccoon appears in the dungeon and runs away with the food bag? It seems like this is a situation that was deliberately induced to see how we would deal with the situation where the food disappeared.

Everyone nodded as if they understood my explanation. The appearance of the thief raccoon was strange, and it was a big variable in clearing the dungeon.

And one more thing…. I didn’t tell the party members, but the reason why I’m sure that my guess is correct is.

When I made eye contact with the thief raccoon, the smile it showed me was the same mischievous smile that I had seen on Nelson’s face someday.

Maybe not only us, but other parties are also being attacked by sudden thief raccoons and going crazy, making good memories?

I put the exploration bag in the space warehouse in case a thief raccoon resembling Nelson appears again.

After sharing chocolate and water and taking a short break, we maintained our formation and worked hard to get out of the maze.

*

Thanks to Kane’s ability to detect traps, we were able to remove or avoid the traps that appeared from time to time, and we finally arrived at the stage.

When we opened the door and entered the stage. White striped ants the size of humans came into view.

,They’re white striped ants. They’re weaker than goblins now, but as time goes by, the ants will get stronger because of the pheromones emitted by the queen ant. Removing the queen ant is a priority, but….

Kane, who was explaining, let out a low groan.

,The problem is that it’s difficult to kill the queen ant in this situation where the ants are protecting her. The queen ant itself doesn’t have combat power, but if you use magic or approach her, the queen ant will obviously run away into the cave-

A spear that came out of the dimensional exit pierced the queen ant’s head. Kane looked at me with a dumbfounded face as I pulled the spear out of the dimensional entrance.

,That’s it. Now let’s just clean up the remaining ants.

There was no need to save my strength when I had already revealed everything to the party members. More than anything, we had to finish the battle as quickly as possible because of the food problem.

When the queen ant died, the ants started to go crazy. But as Kane said, the ants who lost their queen were weaker than goblins.

While Rakar and I blocked the ants’ charge, Aria’s fire magic and Luna’s auxiliary magic spread the fire, and most of the ants burned to death.

When the cleanup was over and we left the stage, Kane, who had been making a dumbfounded expression until then, shouted.

,That’s a complete cheat ability! You can do ranged assassination while being melee!

One more person besides Aria was sending me a burdensome gaze.

,That’s right, it’s an incredibly outstanding magic. Its versatility is endless.

I was a little dumbfounded by Aria’s shrug as if to say, ,Did you know now?, but. The good atmosphere continued because of her nonchalance.

After a short break, we continued to break through the maze using the left-handed method.

There were a few ambushing monsters while walking, but Rakar, who was in a state of hyperfocus to make up for his mistake, cut off their necks with his sword as soon as they appeared.

As a result of enduring the traps and ambushes and moving forward, we finally escaped the maze and found the stairs leading down.

,How about setting up a safe zone here today?

I nodded in agreement with Rakar’s words. We had been marching hard because of the food problem, reducing our rest time.

We were also very tired from fighting goblins, monster rabbits, and white striped ants, and we didn’t know if we would be able to rest if we went down.

,Then I’ll set up a safe zone, so everyone rest.

When I said that while taking out the exploration bag from the space warehouse. Everyone sat down and rested their tired legs. Rakar still had a guilty conscience, so he helped set up the safe zone without resting.

The safe zone has the effect of alarm magic that alerts you to the approach of monsters and prevents smells and noises inside the safe zone from escaping to the outside. Thanks to that, there was no need to set up a separate watch, so it was a very important item in places where it takes a long time to clear, like this dungeon.

When I finished setting up the safe zone and returned to where Rakar and the party members were. Luna was checking the lower floor with guide magic without resting.

Whether the magic was over, Luna wrapped the chalk back in paper and put it in her arms and said.

,The lower floor is like a mine.

,A mine?

,It’s a structure that keeps digging underground. There are several paths, but they eventually converge towards the deepest part. It goes down quite deep, so the guide magic doesn’t reach.

Rakar said at Luna’s explanation.

,There’s probably a stage in the deepest part. The boss of the dungeon will be there. There may be attacks on the way down.

I put my hand on Rakar’s shoulder, who was worried about ranged attacks.

,If we do as well as we did today, we’ll be able to handle it tomorrow. Let’s get a good night’s sleep without worrying today.

There was no need to worry in advance. There might not be an attack when we went down, and going down itself might be a problem.

In the end, no matter how much we worried about the situation on the lower floor, nothing would be solved.

Fortunately, Rakar nodded as if he understood what I meant.

We simply divided the jerky and chocolate with the party members and ate it. We were almost out of food now, so it was a little dangerous if we couldn’t clear it tomorrow.

I wondered if there was a way to get food in the dungeon. Thinking about it, I took out the exploration bag from the space warehouse and took out the small box containing the sleeping bag inside.

When I put the palm-sized box on the floor, the shrinking magic that was on the box disappeared and the sleeping bag appeared.

I took out the adventure bonfire that was in the exploration bag and set it up. The party members who had finished eating took out their sleeping bags and spread them out in a circle around the bonfire.

,This is the first time I’ve actually seen an adventure bonfire.

Luna and Kane also nodded at Aria’s appearance, who was shining her eyes as if it was amazing.

,A bonfire that doesn’t emit smoke and doesn’t require firewood, the magic engineering department seems to be good at making these unique items.

Luna, who was in the magic engineering department, smiled slightly as if she was happy at Kane’s words.

Everyone was happy at first in the atmosphere as if they were camping, but everyone was tired because they had fought three big battles today.

A conversation continued for a very short time, and then one by one, they fell asleep. I heard a few good night greetings.

Looking at the party members who had fallen asleep, I fell into a strange feeling.

This world was the novel I created. I changed the imagination in my head into words, and that world was changed into reality.

The story of Roel, the hero who will save the world, and the heroines is the main content of this world.

But getting out of that story. Becoming friends with people who didn’t appear in my imagination or in the novel, protecting each other, and having conversations made me feel a strange feeling that I couldn’t explain

Even though I know that all of this is fake that I created, I had a dualistic feeling that I wished all of this was real in one corner of my heart.

I don’t know if it’s an enlightenment as a writer who massacred the villagers with a line of words written without thinking, or because I became friends with the party members for a day….

I sincerely hoped that their lives and efforts were not just byproducts for Roel’s story.

While thinking about that, I couldn’t stand the fatigue and fell asleep.