episode_0018

The destination of the extermination squad was a rural village called Daina.

Since I didn’t know how to ride a horse, I was sitting on top of the carriage with Oren.

I could see some adventurers riding on top of the luggage compartments around us.

I felt a little relieved knowing that I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t ride a horse.

I should learn how to ride a horse later.

While chatting with Oren on the way, I learned that the situation in Daina village was more serious than I had thought.

There were already several casualties, and the monster lair was rapidly expanding.

“In these group requests, you can gauge the danger based on the level of the participating adventurers,” Oren told me.

Indeed, there wouldn’t be a need to call a gold-ranked adventurer for something trivial.

As someone participating at the novice level and being treated as an outsider, I honestly didn’t feel the gravity of the situation.

As we approached our destination, I closed my eyes on top of the carriage and focused my mana.

Ever since I learned mana conversion, it had become a habit to gather mana whenever I had time.

At first, the changes in the strength attached to my body were significant day by day.

But now that mana had accumulated in my body quite a bit, it was difficult to feel a clear change even when I converted mana whenever I could.

Still, every time I converted mana, I could feel a slight accumulation of mana in my body.

Until I felt like my body couldn’t absorb mana like Oren, I had no intention of neglecting this training.

* * *

After half a day, the extermination squad arrived at their destination, Daina.

As soon as we arrived in Daina, all the adventurers except me seemed to be planning their strategy under the command of the squad leader, Mileia.

And my task here was…

“Hey, young man! I’ll be counting on you this time too,” the bald man who had been the leader of the laborers in Kubele approached me with a smile.

I had to unload the heavy wooden boxes loaded onto the supply carriage again.

“Just leave it to me.”

I’ll show you the skills of a pro laborer trained with mana in his body.

Normally, I might have complained about being asked to do such menial work, but I was actually feeling good about it.

As the only novice-ranked adventurer among the laborers, I was the only adventurer among the laborers.

Somewhere between an adventurer and a laborer.

Since I didn’t need to fight monsters anyway, I could earn a bronze rank by just passing the time until the extermination was over.

So, I satisfied my desire for recognition by fulfilling my role and receiving praise from the labor leader.

“Put up three. No, four.”

“Are you sure? It’ll be hard to balance if you stack too many.”

“It’s fine.”

With a slightly worried expression, the labor leader stacked more boxes on top of the one I was carrying.

I was truly an ace laborer now.

I moved four boxes at once and transported them to the designated location perfectly.

“Wow, adventurers are truly amazing.”

I enjoyed the sense of pride as I heard the labor leader’s admiration.

There was a way to receive praise without much effort.

Isn’t this a privilege unique to novice-ranked adventurers used as laborers?

It’s not that I didn’t want to be promoted, but if I didn’t find happiness in these small things, negative thoughts would only increase.

I wonder what the other adventurers are doing now.

“The monster extermination squad led by Mileia divided the 12 adventurers into two groups of six.

The monster lair they needed to exterminate this time was filled with goblins, orcs, lycans, ogres, and other monsters gathered together like one species.”

The target the extermination squad had to fight was truly a monster variety pack.

As narrated, I could see the adventurers splitting into two groups.

Bronze adventurer Oren was in a different group from Mileia.

The adventurers heading towards Mileia all seemed to be in a tense mood.

With only one Gold-ranked adventurer leading the expedition, the rest of the adventurers under Mileia’s command were probably Silver-ranked.

“The expedition team has decided to break through the fortified monster stronghold with the advance team led by Mileia. The rear team, composed of relatively weaker adventurers, will clean up the monsters left behind by the advance team.”

It was an embarrassing strategy to call it a plan, but with overwhelming force, it was the most certain method.

I set the box down lightly, listening with interest to the narration of the situation.

A frontal assault.

If the monster stronghold was fortified, the monsters would have a significant defensive advantage.

Yet, using such a strategy meant that they were confident they would not be defeated.

I wanted to witness Mileia in battle, but I realized there was no way to do so and gave up.

Perhaps one day, if I diligently built up my skills and raised my adventurer rank, I might have the opportunity to see it up close.

“However, they were so focused on subduing the monster stronghold that they neglected the surrounding reconnaissance and village defense.”

At that moment, the narration began to deliver ominous news.

“In fact, another monster stronghold had emerged near Daina Village. Neither the expedition team nor anyone in the village was aware of this monster stronghold. And the monsters here were about to awaken and launch an attack on the village.”

“What…?”

If that was true, it was a serious problem.

The expedition team had already finished organizing and was about to depart.

That meant the only ones left in the village would be ordinary villagers with almost no combat ability, and me.

It was not the time to divide into advance and rear teams to attack the monster stronghold.

Leaving a group to defend the village was essential to prevent a disaster.

But I couldn’t immediately inform the expedition team of this fact.

As a mere Novice-ranked adventurer, no matter how much I said the village was about to be attacked, I would be treated as a lunatic.

“There was a communal graveyard on the outskirts of Daina Village. Recently, with the increased activity of monsters, a significant change had occurred even beneath the communal graveyard. The corpses buried there were turning into monsters without anyone knowing.”

The expedition team, having finished organizing, began to move slowly to leave the village.

Some villagers waved goodbye to the expedition team as they left.

“Darn it.”

“Why the long face all of a sudden?”

The foreman approached me as I watched the adventurers leaving the village, his eyes filled with concern.

“Oh, it’s nothing.”

“I told you not to push yourself too hard. Since the work is done, rest until the expedition team returns.”

“Oh, okay…”

I replied dryly and looked towards the village entrance where the expedition team had disappeared.

Children ran towards the carts, their laughter echoing through the village.

An old man watching over the children with a staff, a young couple who had also witnessed the departure of the expedition team from their doorstep – there were many ordinary people living in this small village.

And all of them were unaware of the impending disaster that would soon befall the village.

“And so, the expedition team of twelve adventurers set off towards the monster stronghold in the northern forest, leaving the village behind. They had no idea what would happen in Daina Village tonight when they returned from their expedition.”

“Tonight…”

I quietly pondered the attack timing revealed by the narration, swallowing hard.

“Excuse me, could you tell me where the village communal graveyard is?”

“If you’re looking for the graveyard, it’s right over the hill behind the village. It’s close by.”

Any villager was stopped and asked for directions to the communal cemetery.

The hill pointed out by the villager was so close that it could be considered part of the village.

If monsters were to come out from such a close place…

There was not much time left.

It was already nearing lunchtime.

The attack of the monsters appearing from the cemetery would happen tonight.

Since there was no evidence to prove my words other than the voice in my head, I couldn’t rely on anyone’s help.

So, I decided to first check the situation at the communal cemetery.

Organizing the information narrated in my head, the monsters attacking tonight were those who had transformed from the corpses in the cemetery.

That meant the number of people buried in the communal cemetery was the number of monsters attacking.

By examining the scale at the cemetery, we could know the size of the enemies we had to deal with.

As we crossed the hill as the villager had informed, the cemetery came into view.

Perhaps because it was a small village, fortunately, the scale was not that large.

“No wonder no one knows…”

The scenery of the cemetery was so peaceful that it made me wonder if the narrator was talking nonsense.

Among the densely lined tombstones, various flowers bloomed between them.

In front of some tombstones, there were small items or flowers left by family or friends who had come and gone.

Standing on the hill where the cemetery was visible at a glance, I roughly counted the number of tombstones.

Even in this small cemetery, there were a little over a hundred tombstones.

Considering that there were graves without tombstones, it meant that over a hundred monsters would attack the village tonight.

If the corpses turned into monsters, they would probably be undead monsters like skeletons or zombies.

I thought it would be good to get help from priests or the church, but unfortunately, there was no church in this place close to the free city of Kubele.

Is there no way?

I had never fought any monsters other than Blue Slimes.

Although I trained my body with magic conversion every day, I was just a novice adventurer who had just set foot on the path of an adventurer.

I didn’t have the confidence to protect the village alone against over a hundred monsters.

“Brother.”

At that moment, a soft voice came from behind, and I turned around.

While contemplating the scenery of the cemetery, a girl who was only about waist-high approached me, holding a white flower.

“Is there someone you miss here too, brother?”

The girl handed me the flower with her small fern-like hands.

It seemed like she misunderstood something because I kept looking towards the cemetery.

I took the flower the girl gave me absentmindedly.

“Give that to the person you miss. I’ll give it to them, brother.”

“Do you live here?”

“Yeah. I live over there with my dad. When mom misses us, she comes here.”

The girl pointed towards the direction of Dyna Village.

“I see.”

I lightly patted the girl’s head.

Tonight, Dyna Village would be under attack by monsters.

Honestly, I had no confidence in being able to protect the village alone.

But knowing that the village would be attacked, I couldn’t just sit back and do nothing.

Running away would be easy, but the guilt of conscience would linger for a long time.

There were many people in the village leading ordinary lives.

I was not a hero, nor was I a high-ranking adventurer.

But knowing what would happen in this village, I felt that I had to do what I could.

After all, running away could be done when the situation got worse.