episode_0123

123. Party of 7 (4)

“Woooosh!!”

“Ugh!!”

“Ugh!”

Roy, Tanya, and Lauren, unfamiliar with the portal, collapse on the floor and retch while Sia pats Lauren on the back and Claude pats Tanya and Roy on the back.

I just had to think hard about taking care of Tanya and keeping an eye on Roy.

“It’s cave-shaped.”

“Okay, hmm…”

In the hierarchy divided into maze type and cave type, this time it was a cave type maze.

“Looking at the passageway that was created, I guess some lizards and bugs will come out.”

“You can tell just by looking at the cave?”

“Then.”

Hawk, speaking confidently, answers while looking at the cave wall illuminated by the light coming from the portal.

After some time had passed and the rest of the people had calmed down, they were called together in one place.

“This exploration is mainly for Lauren’s practical training, so the exploration method will be a little different.”

Degururur-

Take 7 small rocks nearby and scatter them on the floor, then lump 4 rocks together and place them in front of you.

“The ones moving are Lauren, Hawk, Sia, and me. We’ll move near the monster like this.”

Then, place two of the four stones in a row in front, and place the remaining two stones in a row behind the stones in a row.

“Even if the four of us move, only Hawk and Lauren will deal with the monsters, and if there are any unexpected injuries, Sia will recover, and I will map the movement route while guarding the rear, checking traps, and protecting Sia.”

The remaining three stones are placed separately in the back.

“The people in the back are guarded by Claude. When they reach a distance of about 20 minutes on foot from the front, Hawk and Lauren stop for a moment. While I go back, Claude slowly moves forward when he hears no sounds of battle.”

People look at the stones with concentration.

“From today, we will move in this manner for about five days to roughly understand the terrain. Once we have a rough idea of the overall terrain structure, we will make a base camp in a suitable location that is considered the center of the hierarchy and the leader will move around in all directions.”

When I finished explaining and looked up, everyone seemed to understand.

Claude would normally have been throwing a tantrum, saying that he had to catch at least one monster, but he just smiled and nodded at the fact that he was protecting Tanya and staying with the rear guard.

“This is the basic plan. Please note that the plan can be modified depending on the state of the traps, monsters, or situation…. Should we get moving for now?”

“””Yes”””

So we slowly began to explore.

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“Shaeek!!”

“Lauren.”

“Lower pressure!”

Kyaaang-!

Phew!!

At Hawk’s shout, Lauren deflects the lizard’s spear with her shield and plunges her dagger straight into the back of his neck.

“Hey, the dagger swing is too big. Adjust it a bit. Oops.”

Chaeng!!

Then, he easily dodges the spear swung by another guy who was rushing at him from the side and deflects it with the side of his wrist axe.

“Net! Huh!!”

Phew!

“Krrrr-”

dump-!

An hour after we started exploring, we continued straight ahead.

The width of the cave did not narrow or widen, but remained the same.

The light from the lantern Tanya is holding is dim, but when she turns around, it can be seen from far away.

I turned my head to look behind me after seeing the two monsters I had just caught being killed, and the lantern light was no longer visible.

“Wait, since the lantern light isn’t visible very well, let’s rest for a moment and then move.”

“Lauren! Are you sick, sir?”

Sia runs up to them and asks them.

“It’s okay. Sia.”

“Then, it’s still easy! Haha!! Go collect Lauren’s magic stones.”

“Okay, Master.”

“Ahem! That master is a bit…”

“What are you talking about, you’re so happy that the corners of your mouth are twitching, old man.”

“You bastard!”

When Lauren first saw Hawk, she spoke to him informally because he was a race she didn’t get along with and was older than her. However, after he trained her to control her body and handle the dagger, she began to treat him respectfully, calling him her master.

I was leisurely walking behind Sia, checking the hourglass and mapping things out.

“Cain…”

“Huh? Why?”

“Even in the labyrinth…”

“Shh, let’s talk about that later in the sleeping bag.”

“Yeah! Hehe.”

Sia, who had nothing better to do while Lauren and Hawk were smoothly catching the monsters, was clinging to me and urging me to have labyrinth sex before going to bed.

And then he gently stroked Sia’s butt.

Kwak-

Cast cast cast

“Hyeop!!”

“Just hold on for a little longer, okay?”

“Ugh… Heh..!”

I gathered my thoughts as I watched Lauren take the magic stone out of Lizard’s forehead, grumbling.

As Mr. Hawk said, since lizards are appearing in this exploration, there will probably be some kind of bug monster as well.

The floor of the cave was not made of stone, but rather of a slightly soft, hard soil… If there were a cavity or a wide area, it could be filled with water or be sticky like a swamp.

“Sia. Isn’t the lantern heavy?”

“Yeah! It’s light!”

As if to show off his biceps, he bends his thin arms and exerts strength, and the way the soft flesh rises up slightly is really cute.

“Now I can walk well without a cane.”

“Yeah! That’s because I trained hard!”

“Good job.”

Swish swish swish-

“Hehehe!”

Because she has been working out hard for a while to build up her stamina, Sia’s stamina has increased a lot and she falls down less often while walking.

So I was wondering if it would be okay if I said I wouldn’t bring my walking stick on this expedition, but it turns out I was worried for nothing.

“Hmm….”

“Mister. What’s wrong?”

Loren and Hawk, who had finished mining magic stones, approached me and sighed while touching the corner of their mouth.

“No, this is my first time seeing a passage this long.”

“Really? Hmm… That’s right. It’s a straight line without any angles?”

There were only two battles, and even considering that, the passageway was straight even after moving for an hour, so listening to the old man’s words, something seemed a bit strange.

“Mister, then like this….”

Square, square…

I drew a small square spiral that converged from the outside to the inside on the end of the parchment I was mapping and showed it to the old man.

“It’s not like this structure, right?”

“No way, most of those types are labyrinthine layers. It’s cave-shaped, but this kind of passageway is a bit unusual.”

I don’t know, but then I guess I’ll have to call the rest of the group here too.

“Hey Sia, when you see Tanya’s lantern light, it blinks twice, right?”

“Yeah!”

At my words, Sia puts her backpack on the ground and fixes her lantern, and squints and glares until she sees the lantern lights of her comrades slowly approaching from behind in the distance.

After what felt like five minutes, the faint light of a lantern began to appear in the distance.

“I see it!”

As she shouted that, Sia took out the lantern cover and blocked the light, and then started to move.

“Blink blink….”

“Blink blink…”

Before departure, Sia muttered as she lowered and raised the lantern cover, making the lantern light blink twice at regular intervals as instructed.

Then, the lantern light visible in the distance also blinked twice with a time difference like Sia, and the speed at which the light grew bigger became faster.

“Okay, Sia, let’s sit down and rest.”

“Yeah!”

While I was resting with my group, Claude, Roy, and Tanya soon joined me.

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“First of all, I think you should be careful because the shape of the passage is a little different.”

“Um… Sir, do you know anything?”

“You bastard! I don’t know either, so why don’t we all come together and talk about it!”

“Aha.”

And Claude’s stupid noises.

“Cain, if this is the structure of the cave, it doesn’t seem to be a natural structure. Maybe there’s a large space like the cavity we explored last time? It might not even come out.”

“That’s right. It could have been like this, or it couldn’t have been. We can’t be sure because we don’t know where the portal we came from is on this level.”

“Then…”

Roy is scared, but he tries to give his opinion after seeing Tanya’s stomach.

“Sister, are you tired?”

“Haha this is nothing Sia.”

“Awesome!”

“Hoohoohoo! Even Sia has gained a lot of stamina. That’s amazing.”

“Really? Hehe!”

Lauren and the cheerful Sia, who are trying to be friendly with the main character.

match!!!

“First, let’s all move together until we reach a bend or a fork in the road. The shape of the cave is too artificial, and I think it may be a mixture of cave-like and maze-like terrain.”

“Hmm… That could be…possible.”

Mr. Hawk nods after hearing my opinion.

“Roy and Tanya might be scared because the monster is so close, but please understand. Just in case, for everyone’s safety.”

“Okay. Okay.”

“Sister Tanya. Trust me!”

“Claude is so handsome.”

“Hahaha!!”

“Ugh…!”

Just like when he first saw Tanya, Tanya’s body was pressed against Claude’s rather than Roy’s.

The only difference from then was Roy’s reaction, he didn’t show any anger or rage, he just gasped.

“Then don’t go too far away, but three of you follow from about 15 meters away, and the leader moves according to the original formation.”

So we decided on a direction to explore, regrouped, and started moving.

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“Let’s stop here for today.”

“After… The straight line distance is 4 hours?”

“The distance from the first straight line to the second bend is similar.”

Hawk approaches and looks at the map I mapped out.

“Is this… really spinning around?”

“Maybe so?”

There wasn’t as much fighting as I thought.

I fought a total of 15 battles, and the only monsters I encountered were 1 to 3 lizards.

There were no patrols or anything like that, and we just moved through a cave that was just like a tunnel for 10 hours without any traps or anything.

“Let’s make a base camp at the bend and stand guard just in case.”

Following my instructions, everyone sets up base camp and begins preparing for camping.

Hawk, Lauren, and Claude worked on the hard work while Sia, Roy, and I prepared meals and arranged the sleeping arrangements.

We decided to install a screen on the outside of the section where the road bends in the shape of the letter L, and we arranged the tents in a single row diagonally from the top of the bend.

Claude’s personal tent was placed at the outer end, Tanya, Roy, Sia and I placed our tents next to it, Lauren’s was placed on the opposite end of our tent, and Hawk’s tent was placed on the opposite end.

bang!!!

BANG!!!

“Is this height enough?”

“Oh, Lauren, you did great. Here.”

“Thank you, Leader.”

Claude hands Lauren the large sheets of cloth he brought as a screen, as she forces tent-like stakes into the passage on both sides to block it, as it is too wide to block with backpacks.

After I set up the curtains on both sides of the passage, Claude, who had returned to do other work, smiled and gave me a thumbs up when he saw the tents I had placed.

He looked completely absorbed in Tanya, who had a boyfriend and was pregnant with his child, after having been roasted for eight hours.