Episode 13
Before leaving the village, I asked the guards watching the entrance for directions.
"Bordeaux Dungeon? It's close from here. Just follow this road straight. You'll get there after an hour's walk."
An hour? That's close?
Maybe because this was a world without developed public transportation, but our ideas were completely different.
"Ah! I remember you. You passed through here not long ago, right? Looks like you've become a real adventurer."
One of the guards said, staring at me intently.
"Yes. Though I don't have a rank."
"Everyone starts out that way. Take this."
The guard handed me a map with the geography of the surrounding area drawn in detail.
Compared to a modern map, it was shabby, but it still had useful information written on it.
For example, information on appearing monsters. Their weaknesses, and tools that were good to bring along.
Looking at it, I thought it seemed like something adventurers would prepare.
"Is this a map?"
"It's something they sell for 5 silver at the general store. It's an essential item for rookie adventurers. You didn't know?"
"No, this is my first time hearing about it."
Should I have stopped by the general store one more time?
I'd received so many cheat items from the goddess that I thought I wouldn't need anything else.
But the map looked far more useful than I'd expected.
"Thank you. I'll definitely repay you later."
"No need for repayment. I'm just giving you a spare. Just don't get hurt."
The unexpected consideration put me in a good mood.
Even though the adventurers who were supposed to be my peers were busy keeping me in check.
"Fire Arrow!"
No sooner had I stepped outside than I saw goblins.
At this point, it felt like seeing a cockroach in my room. I immediately used magic and killed them.
The red flame took the shape of an arrow, flew toward the goblin, and exploded.
Once Fire Arrow's proficiency reached ★ rank, it could reliably kill goblins.
It wasn't always instant death, but because embers were highly likely to remain and burn the goblin's body.
"Ah, the Soul Stone."
I almost forgot.
After taking the Soul Stone out of my inventory and approaching, white light flowed out of the goblin's body and entered the jewel.
So this is how you collect it.
As I was putting the Soul Stone back,
I realized there was one more item whose usage I still didn't know.
〈Convergence Bracelet〉
I'd forgotten about it because it was so light to wear, but what on earth did this thing do?
I decided to experiment myself.
While searching for goblins hidden in the meadow, I tested the effects of the Convergence Bracelet.
First, after taking it off...
"Fire Arrow!"
"Kek!"
Casting time, power—nothing changed.
I put it on and fired again, but it was the same. The one thing I learned from this was that, up until now, there hadn't been any situation where I'd benefited from the bracelet.
Does 〈convergence〉 mean gathering something?
I used Fire Arrow twice in succession.
If I cast Fire Arrow again while Fire Arrow was already being cast, the mana consumption jumped several times over.
This is way too inefficient.
And it didn't seem like this was possible because I was wearing the bracelet, either.
I wanted to test it more, but there weren't many goblins in the meadow, so they were wiped out quickly.
No helping it. I'll experiment with the rest once I get to the dungeon.
(Fatigue has recovered.)
(MP has recovered.)
I drank the water from the Goddess's Water Bottle and walked again.
It seemed like my destination was near. I couldn't see anything like a dungeon, but I could see people dressed like adventurers gathered here and there.
They seemed to be parties gathered to explore Bordeaux Dungeon.
Salik was there too.
After arriving, I learned that the dungeon entrance led underground.
I was the only one who had come alone, so I unintentionally drew people's attention.
"Isn't that the newbie from the guild?"
"He'll die if he goes in alone."
Sure enough, Salik strode over toward me.
As expected, he came to me himself.
"You still haven't come to your senses."
Salik said one thing as soon as he saw me.
"I don't know about that. How about you stop caring now?"
"Judging from what you're saying, you didn't wander here while looking for herbs. Right?"
Salik's companions snickered.
"That's right. I came after formally accepting a mission too."
"For dungeon exploration, the mission rank is set as the minimum entry requirement. Do you know what that means?
It means that when it comes to the difficulty rising the deeper you go, adventurers bear full responsibility."
"Move."
"What if I don't? Are you going to go tattle to your mommy?"
"You'll regret what you did today for the rest of your life."
"Did you hear that? He says we'll regret it! Haha."
"Oooh, scary."
Snap.
I flicked my fingers.
Since the other parties were only watching from a distance, the only ones who fell into a trance state were Salik and his two companions.
"Salik's two lackeys. You cannot interfere with anything I am about to do."
"..."
"Salik, you are 「terrified by even the smallest pain」."
Clap.
I clapped my hands and woke the three of them.
Then, before Salik could come to his senses, I smashed my fist into his face.
"Urgh!?"
"Oh! That bastard hit Salik first."
One of Salik's companions made a fuss and shouted.
"Looks like you want to get beaten half to death?"
I took a rough stance and provoked him.
"Fine, let's fight. I'll take you on barehanded, so come at me."
It was time for punishment.
I punched Salik in the stomach.
"Hurk!"
Salik reacted with exaggerated shock and stepped back.
"What's wrong?"
I mercilessly beat the stiffened Salik like a sandbag.
When fighting, you usually had to put in a huge amount of strength to knock your opponent down, but I casually tapped him, as if I were lightly practicing on an actual sandbag.
"Hurk! Ghk! Guaaak!"
But because of the suggestion, Salik was so terrified he couldn't think straight, and he was beaten one-sidedly.
"H-hey! Salik. What's wrong with you? Don't act or anything. It's not funny!"
"Beat that bastard down already."
Once Salik started getting beaten, the number of spectators grew.
I confidently hit Salik at random. Why? Because I knew for a fact he couldn't counterattack.
Like choreographed action in a movie or drama. Because of the suggestion, Salik was so scared he took the hits beautifully.
When I hit his face, his head snapped to the side; when I hit his stomach, he bent his back; he even rolled around on the ground while getting hit by me.
"Salik is getting beaten one-sidedly?"
"He isn't even a match."
"That's kind of pathetic."
Since I wasn't hitting him with enough force to actually knock him out, I felt pleasantly winded and amused, like I was doing some light jump rope.
Every time Salik was hit by me, he took mental damage.
It must have been humiliating enough to be beaten by me while unable to come to his senses.
But because of the fear that suppressed even that, he couldn't even control his own body.
"Hurk! Hurk! Stop!"
I grabbed the panicking Salik by the hair and roughly slapped his cheek.
"Says who? You're the one who started this."
Salik covered his face with his arms in fear and trembled.
"Why isn't anyone stopping me? Because you brought this on yourself."
"Hic! I was wrong. So please... stop hitting me!"
Salik's pants grew wet. He had pissed himself while getting beaten by me.
"Good grief."
I threw Salik aside and spoke to the companions behind him.
"What are you doing? Aren't you taking your leader away?"
"......"
With that one sentence, I completely destroyed Salik's party.