Chapter 551: The Cave Leading Underground

At dawn, as they set their sights on the underground ancient ruins—

Tauro and his companions, with Blue Thunder Beast leading the way, entered a small cave.

It was a narrow entrance that was just big enough for one person to squeeze through at a time. Peering inside, it widened slightly, but it didn’t look like it extended very far.

“How did you think to go into a hole like this…?”

Impressed, Tauro asked Jack, leader of Blue Thunder Beast, how they had come to investigate it.

“Hahaha! It was pure coincidence for us too. One of the monsters we failed to finish off ran in here. Since the entrance was narrow, it would’ve been dangerous to rush in carelessly, so our Bomarne fired blast-fire magic into the cave. After that, I went inside to confirm the kill and noticed a crack in the back wall. A faint breeze was coming through it. That’s when we figured there might be something farther inside.”

Jack watched as everyone entered through the narrow entrance, recounting how they had discovered it by chance. After making sure everyone was inside, he gestured for Tauro to go ahead and entered last.

“It’s through here. We had our battle-axe user, Akku, widen the crack—and that’s how this opening was made. But even this fissure is narrow. No one wanted to go in, so I went first, and after about five minutes it opened into a large cavern. Everyone, follow me.”

Explaining as he went, Jack once again took the lead into the crack his companions had opened.

The rest followed. The fissure was damp and humid with insects crawling along its walls.

Aeris, Ragune, and Zion—the women of the group—had once been made to undergo “training” inside an insect nest at the Dragon’s Den, so even when bugs crawled over their hands, they didn’t so much as flinch.

But the twins Gemma and Gemis of Silver Twin Mages trembled and squealed “Eek!” at the sheer number of insects as they desperately pushed through the narrow crack.

“We’ve probably become numb to this kind of thing…” Tauro muttered, entering last after seeing everyone else through.

Just as Jack had described, after about five minutes of inching along the wall, they finally emerged into a large cavern.

“…This is where it really begins.”

As Jack said this, he had Fores, the forest priest, illuminate the cavern with a light spell, then pointed deeper inside.

“If we descend this wide cavern for about four hours, we’ll reach the ancient underground ruins we discovered. Powerful monsters appear along the way, though, so stay alert.”

Jack warned Tauro and the others.

“…I’m impressed you even thought of going deeper into a cave like this,” Tauro said, admiring Blue Thunder Beast’s spirit of exploration.

Normally, even if someone found a crack like that by accident, they’d think of the danger and stop there. And no ordinary person would consider venturing four hours into the unknown.

“Hahaha. If we were ordinary people, we wouldn’t go that far. But we’re adventurers. It’s our job to step into the unknown, right? Especially those of us in the A-rank band—we’re evaluated and given these ranks because we enter dangerous territory without hesitation. You can’t reach this level just by slaying monsters.”

With a fearless grin, Jack began to descend into the cavern.

He continued.

“And besides, although it’s been a long time and it’s weathered… look at what’s below you. It’s hard to tell with the fallen rocks, but those are stairs, aren’t they? Once I saw this, I had no choice but to move forward.”

Just as Jack said, the descending cavern was difficult to walk through because of the rubble, but clear traces of steps could be seen beneath it.

Indeed, if you discovered man-made structures beyond an accidental fissure like this, no true adventurer could ignore it.

To an ordinary person, this would be considered reckless, but for an adventurer, it’s only natural.

“…I see. So your curiosity led you to a new discovery. I feel like I’ve just been reminded of what it truly means to be an adventurer.”

When Tauro first came to this world, he had felt that the experience itself was an adventure. But for people born in this world, true adventure meant setting foot in places no one had ever reached before.

Although the Adventurers’ Guild had many monster-subjugation quests, Tauro was reminded that it was a handful of elite adventurers who expanded the boundaries of the known world.

“Being allowed to spend long periods away is one of the privileges of high-ranking adventurers like us. We enter unknown territory first and assess the danger. We gain fame and money, while the adventurers who follow gain a safer path.”

Jack understood his position well.

“We want to reach that side soon too,” Gemma, the elder twin and leader of the Silver Twin Mages, muttered to her sister Gemis.

“This is work that goes hand in hand with death. Don’t rush. Acting without enough margin for error can lead straight to death,” Jack said, admonishing Gemma and the others.

It sounded as though he was reminding himself as well.

“There’s a monster reaction ahead. …It’s amazing that a proper ecosystem exists even in a place like this.”

Though Jack had warned them that monsters lived in the cave, Tauro was surprised that they could survive in an underground space that had seemingly been sealed off until Blue Thunder Beast discovered it.

“I’ve wondered about that too. Maybe there’s another cave somewhere leading to the surface that hasn’t been found yet. Or maybe, as you suggested, a full ecosystem has formed down here. That’s something I’d like to investigate this time as well.”

Jack descended the cavern cheerfully while remaining wary of monsters.

Just then, five monsters climbed up from below.

They were creatures Tauro and his companions had seen before.

“Ah!”

Tauro’s eyes widened in shock.

They were Olog-Hai—the newly discovered species of monster that Tauro’s party had recently encountered and defeated, and that the Adventurers’ Guild had since begun watching closely.

“Olog-Hai are a new species of monster. They’re intelligent and well coordinated, so don’t let your guard down,” Tauro warned.

“So these are the Olog-Hai… Why the hell are new monsters like this in the underground cave we found? We didn’t run into them last time. …Let’s go, Longa, Akku. Bomarne, Fores—provide support!”

Though puzzled by their presence, Jack quickly set aside his doubts. A monster was a monster, and they had to defeat it.