Kays Translations

Chapter 95: Ruins in the Rock Desert and Comfortable Camping

The day after visiting the Nashara Trading Company, they confirmed the route to the ruins, purchased items necessary for exploration, checked Wami Nashara's memoirs, and focused on preparation. The next morning, they finally headed to the ruins.

The ruins in the rock desert are in the liberated area, so anyone can enter by paying the designated fee at the entrance. It used to be bustling with many explorers.

However, as the liberated area of the ruins in the Kalenberg territory, where they went the other day, increased, explorers began to flock there, and the bustling atmosphere of the ruins in the rock desert became a thing of the past.

After paying the fee to the bored guards at the entrance, they entered the ruins.

This time, they were planning to stay overnight for the exploration, unlike the previous rotation where members took turns for day trips. Therefore, all exploration members participated at once.

Isamu, Annemarie, Eto, Willem, Karina, Felix, Mizeroi, Liddell, and two knights from the floating frame, totaling eleven people.

Silvio and the others stayed in the town, finalizing the specific plans for constructing the workshop.

"The atmosphere here is different from the ruins in Kalenberg,." 

Isamu muttered as they progressed through the ground floor of the ruins.

"Yeah, over there, the ceilings were curved, and the walls and floors were pale gray, but here, everything is straight, the ceilings are high, the corridors are wide, and the color is more brownish," 

As Willem said, Indeed, these ruins were linear and orderly. Although the materials of the walls and floors were similar, they felt slightly rougher.

Also, even if you take the fact that it is an open area, it seems like there is a lot of damage and damage

"Could it be that these ruins are older since they're so damaged?" 

Annemarie asked.

"At first, it was thought so due to the severity of the damage, but after comparing sections naturally weathered with each other, it seems that these are actually newer." 

Willem replied.

"In that case, maybe they were destroyed for a different reason." 

Annemarie speculated as they peeked into various rooms. But as expected, there was nothing left in the empty rooms.

"It's possible that the original purpose of these buildings was different. We still have no idea what they were." 

Karina added.

Unlike the ruins in Kalenberg, where almost every room required unlocking security locks to open, so far, all the doors in these ruins could be opened physically.

"I see, indeed. We couldn't even get into the rooms over there. Well, only we know that those were doors. Others might just wonder." 

As they discussed these matters, they continued through the ruins, but their leisurely conversation didn't last long.

"Nubar! Take care of the one on the right!"

"Yes, understood!"

"Mizeroi and Tiramisu, hold down that big one. Liddell and Marcela, guard the young ladies and attack the big one with magic when you get the chance!"

“”"Understood!"””

Felix rapidly issued instructions and faced two enemies himself.

Their opponents were creatures called Tigonians, bipedal insects resembling grasshoppers, but with stout bodies and surprisingly agile movements.

These Tigonians tended to form groups, with a few larger individuals as the center. The group Felix and the others faced originally consisted of six. They had already defeated two but still had four left.

"Gichi Gichi Gichi"

"Gichitch"

With their mandibles clacking, two Tigonians leaped towards Felix. Instead of jumping high, they lunged forward.

“Ha!”

Felix also lunged forward, diving between the two Tigonians and slashing the abdomen of the one on the right.

The abdomen of a Tigonian lacked the hard outer shell, and it was nearly split in half by Felix's strike.

Continuing his momentum, Felix stabbed the neck of the Tigonian on the left as it turned around.

“Giiiiiiiiii….”

While the head was protected by a hard shell and degenerated wings covered the neck and back, there was no protection around the base of the neck. Felix aimed for that vulnerable spot, and his sword pierced through from the chest.

“Hmmph…”

Twisting the sword, Felix kicked the creature away with his right foot while withdrawing his sword.

The Tigonian twitched a few times before ceasing movement.

"Sei!"

Kin kin!

Nubar, assigned to one Tigonian, deflected the thorny forelegs with his sword and swiftly moved in close.

With a sharp downward slash following a half-circle motion, he cut into the creature's abdomen.

"Gyiii!"

The Tigonian, its unprotected abdomen torn open, screamed and fell backward.

Nubar immediately thrust his sword into the center of its forehead, finishing it off.

The large individual, perhaps 1.5 times the size of the opponent Felix and his friends had defeated, was pinned down by Mizeroi, who was holding a Felis 5 prototype and Tiramisu, who was holding a medium-sized kite shield, while maintaining a certain distance.

Tiramisu skillfully wielded her shield, taunting and provoking the creatures while Mizeroi delivered powerful blows when an opportunity presented itself. Although he wasn't able to land a clean hit, he was able to successfully hold down an opponent who was even bigger and faster than the large Mizeroi.

As they engaged the enemy, Liddell called out from the rear.

"Preparations complete! I'll shoot once the line of fire is clear!"

Behind Liddell, Annemarie, who had been preparing her magic until just now, was visible.

Originally, it was supposed to be Liddell and Marcela shooting, but to conserve mana, Annemarie, who had plenty of mana to spare, volunteered to shoot instead.

Confirming this with just a glance, Mizeroi raised his hammer slightly in agreement and spoke to Tiramisu.

"Tiramisu, I'll deliberately hit the ground in front of that one hard. Use that opportunity to jump back diagonally to the left."

"Got it!"

"Nuun!"

After hearing the response, Mizeroi stepped forward and swung his hammer sideways.

Although the large Tigonian dodged by stepping back, Mizeroi continued the motion, lifting his hammer overhead and then bringing it down.

With a dull sound and a slight vibration transmitted through the floor, the Tigonian flinched for a moment. Taking advantage of the opening, Tiramisu leaped back diagonally to the left, and Mizeroi followed suit to the right.

"Ice Spear, Ice Lance!"

Annemarie, who had been waiting, launched her ice spear.

Reducing the number to conserve mana, she created fewer but slightly larger ice spears. One pierced deep into the chest of the Tigonian.

"Gyii!"

The Tigonian screamed in agony. Mizeroi immediately rushed in.

"Seeyaaah!"

Taking advantage of his momentum, he swung his Felis Prototype 5 at the creature's waist and activated it just before impact.

Bang!

With that sound, the Tigonian, still in a curled position, was blown away and slammed into the wall.

This signaled the end of the battle, and a collective sigh of relief escaped.

"That was good, Nubar. Even if you think you've defeated them, don't let your guard down and make sure to finish them off properly. These monsters are tough."

"Understood! Thank you!"

While checking his sword for any abnormalities, Felix addressed Nubar.

Nubar was the youngest member of the knight order. He had just passed the knight order's entrance exam held every spring and had joined recently. He was selected for this exploration to gain experience while still rough around the edges due to his excellent physique.

"That was quite a move. My attacks require charging up, so creating openings like that is really helpful." 

"Yes! Thank you, Mizeroi-Senpai!"

Mizeroi, who had been facing off against the large Tigonian, also spoke to Tiramisu.

Tiramisu, along with Marcela, was one of the few female knights. Leveraging her large physique for a woman, she excelled in combat using a large shield.

Tiramisu was also a devout believer of Orihime and had recently become good friends with Mizeroi, the chief believer of the knight order.

"Phew, the number of monsters here is a lot different from the ruins in Kalenberg... Is this the fifth time?"

Isamu, taking a break to drink water, asked Annemarie.

"Yes, it's the fifth time. As soon as we entered the first basement level, the number of monsters suddenly increased." 

Annemarie replied, also drinking water.

When they were progressing through the ground floor, they encountered goblins that had taken up residence, but it was nothing significant.

Since there was hardly anything left, and they had Wami Nashara's map, the party went straight down to the first basement level, but the situation changed drastically there.

There were just too many monsters. Although they hadn't been on the first basement level for more than two hours, they had already encountered groups of Tigonians five times.

"Yeah, they've disappeared... So, does that mean these are also creatures that emerged within the ruins?"

"Yeah, it seems so. There's talk that where magic is dense, monsters also tend to emerge easily, so maybe the underground here has dense magic. And because fewer people are exploring, the monsters aren't decreasing."

"Yeah, since they're not being culled... I hope they don't increase further ahead..."

After taking a break, Isamu continued advancing while discussing these matters with Willem.

Even afterward, they encountered groups of Tigonians several times, and by the time they descended to the second basement level, a considerable amount of time had passed.

Deciding to stop advancing further, they decided to camp at the landing where they descended the stairs for the night.

According to Willem, such landings were relatively free from monsters, and if necessary, they could escape to the upper levels, making them suitable places for camping within the ruins.

"Phew, I'm quite tired."

Isamu chuckled as he set up a simple tent.

"I didn't expect there to be so many. It's been a good experience for us," Felix said, his expression grim as he skillfully set up the tent beside Isamu. With over ten battles under their belt, it wasn't surprising.

Since the battles also involved old magic from Annemarie and Isamu, they had plenty of firepower and magic reserves, but their stamina was another matter.

Everyone looked tired.

Once the tent was set up, they began cooking.

In their previous explorations, they had only eaten dried meat and toasted bread to avoid making fires, which would produce smoke and draw attention, and also because firewood was bulky. However, the miniaturized magic stove completely changed the situation.

Isamu, in charge of making soup, placed a pot on the stove and began chopping ingredients directly into the pot.

He chopped up preserved Twibelle (similar to onions) and Ortel (similar to carrots) with a petty knife and added them rapidly.

If Lord Selfars, who disliked vegetables, saw this, he'd turn green.

He then tore up salty dried meat and added it, along with dried Lemura (similar to tomatoes) for flavor and frozen concentrated soup stock.

Lemura was mostly eaten fresh, so Isamu had personally made the dried version as an experiment, taking dried tomatoes as a reference.

The soup stock was stored in a small, lightweight, powerful refrigerator they had brought along experimentally, based on Mizeroi’s suggestion to Isamu, who was struggling with how to transport perishable meat for Orihime. 

Increasing its size would raise the internal temperature, but reducing it didn't pose a problem. It was a solution that maximized the advantage of having fire with the magic stove.

Orihime, sitting on Mizeroi's lap, happily received the boiled and cooled chicken.

However, Mizeroi, who was feeding her the meat, and Tiramisu, who was watching beside them, had even more blissful expressions.

"This...! This isn't the level of camping food... It warms the body and tastes wonderful." 

Felix said, closing his eyes and savoring the soup.

Beside him, Liddell and Marcela nodded in agreement as they eagerly devoured it.

"Soup stock made by Chef Guido. It's top-notch."

 Isamu said, also enjoying the soup with a satisfied expression.

"Dried Lemura is delicious like this... I didn't expect it." 

Eto said, squinting as he dipped the bread, baked by Karina and topped with cheese, into the soup.

"You can conjure water with magic, boil water with the magic stove... It's easy to forget we're inside a ruin." 

Willem said, soaking his feet in the footbath after the meal.

They had heard that the skin of the river sharks they had killed during their river descent was highly waterproof, so they had it sewn together to make waterproof cloth, passed wire through it to make a collapsible bucket, and filled it with hot water to enjoy a makeshift footbath.

"Just soaking your feet in water can relieve fatigue to this extent... This is wonderful." 

Mizeroi said happily as he soaked his feet in the footbath with Orihime on his knee.

Thus, the group overturned the common sense of camping in the world of Ethersia, both physically and mentally warmed, and ended the first day of exploration while taking turns keeping watch.

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