A cave dotted with unsightly totems.
A goblin shaman with a skull-studded staff seems to be performing some sort of ritual, but it's more like he's just trying to set the mood.
'What kind of ritual is this, a newborn dungeon, a newborn child?
"There's supposed to be hobgoblins.
It was my first dungeon, so I remember it exactly. One shaman and four regular goblins. It can't be wrong.
Well, it was only my party, but now there are other adventurers, so it makes sense that the difficulty would change with the change in personnel.
Well, all I can do is trust Mirabelle even if the situation changes.
"Miss Mirabelle, can you do it?"
"At ease, my lord."
Mirabelle begins to draw on her magic.
Kirrrrrrrr!
Sensing something amiss, the goblin shaman lets out a bizarre cry. He waves his skeletal staff and barks out a command, and the goblins guarding the perimeter rush forward.
The shaman mumbles unintelligible incantations. It was a spell.
The goblins try to stab you with their toothy daggers.
Two hobgoblins swinging greatswords and axes.
They're getting closer and closer.
But Mirabelle doesn't react. I look at her uneasily. Are you sure she's okay?
Mirabelle doesn't seem to mind, and immediately springs into action. Mirabelle flicks the Heavenly Oath to the ground.
Pow.
A ripple of white spreads out from Mirabelle's center.
The ground shudders and turns into a sludgy swamp.
The charging goblins sink low. Panicked, they flail about, only to sink faster. The large Hobgoblin is submerged up to his waist, and the Nae Goblin has long since gone under.
Mirabelle performs her magic.
The game's combat is turn-based, so it's a back-and-forth affair, but in real life, it's not. If you're good, you can attack infinitely.
Mirabelle's two flaming arrows shot out at the goblins, leaving a trail of fireworks in the night sky.
By this time, the Goblin Shaman had reached the end of her spear. She danced and swayed her staff, and a dense black mist spread out and swallowed the arrows.
For it did not end there.
As the mist covered the swamp, its binding force lessened, and the ground around the Hobgoblin became strong enough to stand on. Shaking off the swamp, the hobgoblins rose above the ground again.
The Goblin Shaman's spell has returned all of Mirabelle's magic to nothing.
"Anti-Magic...."
Mirabelle glares at Ami as if she's angry that she's been blocked by a mere goblin. It's hard to say in a situation like this, but you have a newfound expression, and I'm proud of you.
The reorganized Hobgoblins make another ignorant dash for revenge. Even though their magic has been blocked by the Shaman, there's still plenty of magic Mirabelle can wield.
Also.
"Do you see what you missed?"
"Yes. I won't make the same mistake next time."
Mirabelle must have just realized who to leave out of a battle.
Mirabelle lowers her Celestial Oath slightly. A yellowish bolt of lightning flashed before the glowing crystal and shot out.
A thunderbolt, faster than sound.
The speed was beyond perception, and the creature that was supposed to be the target could not react. A flash of light lit up the dark cavern and pierced the shaman.
The shaman's upper body was gone.
The section was blackened and charred, smoke billowing.
What remained were two hobgoblins, defenseless and exposed. With the shaman gone to protect them from magic, the outcome was obvious. They fell to Mirabelle's magic.
Defeated.
A dungeon taken over by a girl with no real experience.
"Whoa...."
After taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, Mirabelle glanced back at me and asked with a cautious expression.
"I... do you think I was useful to my master, did I show my worth?"
That's what she was worried about.
She was worried about her performance.
This is where I lavish praise.
"Great job, you're one step closer to liberation."
"Oh... I'm glad."
Mirabelle's cheeks flush red.
She's embarrassed by the compliment.
I'll have to do it more often to get used to it.
I glanced around, passing the desperate monsters.
"What's wrong, master, have I done something wrong?"
"No, nothing like that, I'm looking for something...."
I don't see the skillbook. I did an infinite retry then because the odds were low, but should I do it again?
That's so unreasonable.
Now I have to walk, not just hit auto. It's a different level of labor than in the past when I could do hundreds of reps a day.
I can only do four turns a day at most.
I started looking at the corpses of the goblins just to see if I could find any items that would drop, such as the Goblin's Ear. Next, I searched the corpses of Goblin Shamans.
[Goblin Shaman's Staff]
-Contains an unsettling power. Slightly increases the power of black magic.
It's useless.
I picked up the rags the shaman was wearing.
"Oh?"
Something square, the exact texture and size of a book, was felt deep in the shaman's bosom. I pulled it out with excitement.
[Goblin Shaman's Book of Magic]
-The Goblin Shaman's magic book.
It floats!
Yes, it floats. There was an anomaly called Hobgoblins in the boss room that only the Shaman could get out of. As the difficulty level increased, the chance of the reward popping up increased dramatically.
"Is that what you were looking for?"
"Yes, it is. It's a gift for Miss Mirabelle."
"...."
Mirabelle gives me that look again.
I wondered why, but it was understandable. The Celestial Oath is a relic of the deceased. And this time, it was from the corpse of a goblin.
Somehow, I only seem to give Mirabelle things from the dead. It's weird when you're in a good mood.
"It's essential for revenge."
"If that's the case.... I'll be grateful for anything you give me in the first place."
Mirabelle grudgingly agreed, since it was revenge.
I sighed and tucked the grimoire into the inside pocket of my coat. In the game, I could just say I wanted to learn a skill, but I don't know how it will be here.
I guess I'll just have to take my time.
'It's weirder than that.
As far as I know, the original name was [Spirit Tome], but now it's [Goblin Shaman's Tome].
Well, it shouldn't matter too much. The item the Goblin Shaman was dropping was the Immutable Soul Tome.
I'll tell you more about it when I'm resting at the inn.
Boom!
A huge explosion filled the cave. The cave shook like an earthquake, and the bats hanging from the ceiling flew out in swarms.
BANG! BANG!
The explosions didn't stop there. They were getting closer. Something is approaching from the direction we came from.
"What is it? Are there any monsters left?
Mirabelle's tension was instantly raised, and she was on high alert when the last wall she'd built was smashed.
"A wall every step of the way. What kind of lunatic does this to a dungeon? Just try getting caught, I'll grind you to powder."
The voice sounded nervous.
It was a familiar voice.
I could see the silhouettes of two men in the cloudy dust, moving closer to us.
Soon, they emerged from the dust, dressed in impeccable white robes despite the dust they must have been covered in.
"Hic."
Mirabelle let out a lone groan and instinctively flinched back. They were the clerics she'd met at the tavern.
"Huh? What's that, that cheap shot?"
The priestess said a line that sounded like something out of a weekend soap opera. When she made eye contact with me, she looked surprised and pointed a finger at me.
"And there's a cute little boy with you. Were you both adventurers?"
"Haha, yes, I'm an adventurer as well, but what brings you here, Priestess?"
Mirabelle's trembling intensifies as the priestess moves closer. I pull her close behind me.
"...We've gotten reports that all of the pathways to the crossroads are blocked, and the Guild has requested reinforcements to deal with the anomaly."
The priestess senses my wariness. Her eyes narrowed in displeasure, but she didn't complain out loud, perhaps because of our previous history.
It was the handshake that hit the wall.
He hadn't expected the priests to come, but he knew he'd be in trouble if he didn't get the Grimoire of Souls.
"You're the ones who built these walls. It's you guys, right?"
He sounded convinced. I can't deny it. I can only respond like a slave trader.
"Yes. Did you happen to meet any new adventurers on your way here?"
"You mean the party of kids? Yes, we met them in the rest area on the way here."
"Well, the boy in charge of the transposition abandoned the party and tried to make his way over to us. It was a bit of a mess, both for us and for them."
"So?"
"No matter how hard we dropped him, he followed us. We had to drop him. We're okay, but the boy's party could have lost it and been wiped out."
The priestess smoothes her chin with her hand, thinking.
"But was it necessary to block every path? They're not the only party in this dungeon, and by blocking the way, we harmed them all. There must have been another way."
"Hmm, maybe so, my thinking was short. If I ever meet them, I'll apologize formally and offer them an apology fee, which I'm sure they won't lack."
It's a world where money can buy soldiers. I wonder how hard it would be to convince a few ill-equipped newbies.
Give them a sleeve, and they'll thank you for the wall.
"Well... if the parties come to an agreement, there's nothing more I can say."
The priestess couldn't be pushed any harder than that, as I meekly admitted fault and offered a plan of action.
"I apologize that you have traveled so far for us. We will take you outside for a meal, and then we will be off...."
"Not before."
The priestess restrained me.
Her aura of release is eerie for a moment. Her gaze is tight with hostility.
"You found something here."