episode_0092

92. Lauren Bus (2)

After deflecting the ballista with her shield, Lauren turned to us with a proud smile before looking down at her shield.

“Ah… No!!!”

Even when training in the open space every day, Lauren would cherish her shield and polish it to the point of shining every day.

Lauren’s shield was torn where the ballista had struck, and the metal holding the shield’s core was bulging out near the hilt.

Of course, Lauren’s hand, which was holding the shield, was not normal either.

“Ouch!”

Thump-!

Her hand was badly broken and swollen, as if she had felt the pain in her hand too late and had dropped the shield.

“Lauren’s hand..!!”

“Uh….Sister! Get well!!!”

Hwaaak-!

Sia ran to her in a hurry and grabbed Lauren’s wrist, casting a healing spell on her.

“No way, Dong-geul!!!”

When did you give your shield a nickname?

It was a bit awkward to see Lauren with tears in her eyes as she looked at the shield lying on the floor in a hideous state.

“Ugh…”

“I thought you’d be able to dodge or deflect it with your reflexes, but I never thought you’d bounce it off head-on.”

“Mi..I’m sorry Cain.”

“No, I’m not sorry… Just check the shield status.”

“Yeah..”

Usually, there are no other traps in an area or passage where one trap is set, so I started searching through my backpack for an emergency repair kit.

“Hmm…”

“Uh…How can it not work, Cain?”

“Isn’t this just a stopgap measure?”

Knock knock knock-

Taang!

In the labyrinthine layer, most of the monsters that appear are undead, so it doesn’t really matter if you make noise compared to goblins and such.

So I swung my small hand hammer hard and made a makeshift repair to Lauren’s shield.

The skill status is really great. It was amazing how the shield’s appearance was restored to its original state even with a rough tap.

The iron plate covering the outer part of the shield was torn like a sunflower, so I roughly patched it up again, and I finished organizing it by spreading the wick that was sticking out to the handle outward so that I could hold the shield again, and then I handed it over.

“Should I throw this away after exploring or make a new one?”

“Ah…No!”

“A shield that is crushed like that, from the outer skin to the wick, and then straightened out again, won’t last long.”

“But… sniff…!”

I said something to Lauren, who was crying while hugging the hastily put together shield with her nose red.

“I was so nervous that I stepped on a trap, Lauren. If I hadn’t stepped on a trap, the shield wouldn’t have been broken like this, right?”

“Yeah… Sorry..”

“Let’s take a short break and then go. Sia was really surprised and you were too nervous.”

“Okay…”

After sitting for a while to calm Sia down, whose heart was still in shock, he resumed his exploration.

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Knock knock knock!!!

“Cain..!”

“6 skeletons in front.”

In the subsequent exploration, no traps were found and now the first monsters were encountered.

We stopped as we heard Lauren’s panicked voice and Claude’s calm voice saying the skeleton’s numbers.

“What the…what is that, Cain! The bones are moving!!”

“A low-level monster called a skeleton.”

“So why does it move like that…?”

“Um, you don’t know about undead?”

“Undead…?”

I was a little puzzled by Lauren’s reaction, which seemed to be her first time seeing the undead, but I explained that there were such monsters and adjusted the formation again.

“They only recognize us from a certain distance, so Claude and Lauren should take the lead first.”

“Okay.”

“Yeah.”

Bam-!

Toouk-!

Claude and Lauren pull out their backpacks, drop them on the ground, and slowly approach.

Exactly-!

Knock knock-!!

WHEEK-!!!

“Ugh!”

Srrrrung-!

As they get a little closer, six skeletons look at Claude and Lauren at the same time.

Lauren let out a slightly agitated yelp at the bizarre turn of events, and Claude quietly drew his sword.

“Lauren, the two archers are holding swords, so you block the arrows from going to Cain and Sia.”

“Ah…. Okay, leader.”

“And if the guys I missed and dropped come near, you know what Uncle Frank told me?”

“Yeah…!”

Gulp-!

Lauren, who had swallowed her saliva in her first real fight, began to advance slowly with her shield in front. Claude, as I had warned him to be careful about earlier, did not jump forward and stand in front, but stood next to Lauren and watched the skeletons’ reactions.

Taat-!

Knock knock knock knock!!!

Four skeletons, wielding swords, approached and rushed at Claude and Lauren.

visor!!!!

Taang!!!

One of the four clashed swords with Claude, while the other two blocked the blows with the Black Loren Shield.

“Push Lauren!”

“Ugh!!!!”

bang!!!!

And the remaining one was struggling alone with his sword in the narrow passage, so Lauren took advantage of the gap and pushed two skeletons away with his shield, leaving three skeletons rolling on the ground.

Kkirrik-!

“Arrow!!!”

Phew!!!

“Okay… Wait a minute!!”

Thud!!!!

“….?”

“Phew.. Got it. Leader.”

Claude, who reacted belatedly to an arrow shot by one of the archer skeletons at the rear, shouted urgently. He saw Loren, who pushed the skeletons away with her shield and let out a sigh of relief as the arrow flew into the empty space created around Loren, who reached out with her beast-like reflexes and caught the arrow.

“Uh… Good job Lauren.”

“Huh! That’s about it.”

“Let’s finish.”

“Yeah!”

After seeing Claude and Lauren successfully subdue the skeletons, I approached them.

“Lauren. How did you catch the arrow?”

“Huh? You just caught it?”

“Yeah…”

“I tried to deflect it with my shield, but I was so busy pushing them back that I didn’t have time to deflect it with my shield, so I caught it with my hand. I’m sorry for showing my lack of skill.”

“No, good job…”

After successfully completing the first real battle and collecting the magic stone, we continued our exploration.

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“Okay, let’s stop here for today.”

“What? I’m not tired yet, Cain!!”

“Look at Sia.”

“Heh….heh….huh…”

“Hey! Is Sia okay?!”

“Sister… I’m tired…”

The exploration that followed progressed quite quickly, thanks to Lauren’s confidence gained from her first battle.

After exploring for six hours like that, we were a little more than the pace the three of us usually go at, so we were on the verge of fainting.

However, Sia’s stamina has improved considerably thanks to exercising, so she is holding on, but seeing her wobbly legs, I decided that it would be difficult to continue any further, so I decided to end the exploration here.

“Once you get in, 6 hours is a lot.”

“I see…”

“It’s only Tier 1, so there’s no need to push yourself too hard.”

“Okay, Sia, come here and I’ll rub your legs.”

“Ugh…thank you, sis..”

As Lauren looked after Sia, Claude and I began preparing to set up base camp.

“Since it’s not a cave, I don’t need to set up any traps or anything like that, right?”

“Oh, let’s set up the tent first.”

In a maze-type layer, traps and monsters set boundaries based on the block and rarely go outside the boundary, so if you have already defeated monsters or dismantled traps, there is no other danger in that area.

First, we took out and set up a tent, like a camping tarp, and set up dry firewood for a campfire and simple tools for cooking food.

“Cain. Should I pitch a tent or just put down a sleeping bag?”

“Lauren, this will be your first time doing something like this, so let’s take our time and set up the tent.”

“Okay.”

If someone saw them, it would look like they were preparing to go camping, with a one-person tent and sleeping bag taken out and set up inside the tent.

Lauren, who had been patting Sia on her lap, began to see her eyes sparkle as she watched the base camp gradually being completed.

“Wow….”

“How about Lauren? This is what came out of our party’s porter, Cain’s backpack…”

Tsk-tsk!

“Bam!!”

“A porter? You want to rummage around.”

“Ouch!”

He punished Claude, who was teasing him by calling him a porter, by low kicking him in the thigh, and called Lauren and Sia to the bonfire.

“We will have a meal and talk about what we need to reflect on and improve on from today’s exploration.”

“Yes~”

“Ah…I see.”

“I don’t have anything to reflect on, do I?”

And then there was a reflection session looking back on what happened during today’s exploration.

“Lauren, aren’t you nervous anymore?”

“Yes.”

“Then I wish you would react better when I tell you to be careful of traps.”

“Hmm… Okay.”

“Sia is….”

“Yeah!”

“I felt like my stamina had increased considerably. I walked longer than when the three of us did it, and I didn’t fall down. And when I fixed Lauren’s hand, I used a healing shield, but I still had this much stamina left. Good job.”

“Hehehe!”

“Claude is….”

“Why, what. Did I do well?”

“Well, I didn’t show off, and I had to tell the party members the number of monsters I encountered and their status. Of course, Lauren also had to analyze and judge monsters like Claude when he met them.”

“Ah…I see.”

“Then, that’s the end of today’s reflection session! Let’s take off our gear in front of the tent and prepare a meal.”

So Claude and Lauren headed to their tents to get their gear off, leaving Sia and me alone at the campfire.

“Hey, Kaiin…”

“Huh? Why Sia.”

Sia, her face red and her hands twitching, comes to me and whispers in my ear.

“Mi…even in a labyrinth, massage…”

“Oh right, that’s right.”

In the past, I told Sia that when I was getting rid of bad water, I had to go to the labyrinth and get it out. At that time, I told Sia that I had to do it every day because she was addicted to masturbation. Now, this is what happened.

When we set up the tents, we lined up in a row: Claude, Lauren, me, and Sia. I’m going to sneak into Sia’s tent later when she sleeps.

This terrain is one where there is no need to stand guard, so Claude can sleep soundly.

Lauren has good ears, so she’ll probably listen to the biting and sucking sounds and watch from outside the tent.