The elderly lady shifted her gaze towards the platinum armour. She thought he would have given a flippant response, but instead his reply was gravely serious.
“That might not be so, the power that corrupted the world might rise again.”
On the right shoulder of the armour was a hole, as if it had been pierced by a spear.
“... So the tremors have come again after more than a hundred years. This time, it isn’t something that will help the world like leader did.”
“...The chances for it being just an unlucky encounter is high, but I could feel that the nature of that vampire was evil. And what a coincidence it was. Was the sudden encounter a bad luck, or was I lucky to have learned about their presence?”
“Two sides of the same coin, just interpret it however you like. I already asked before, but can’t you ask for assistance from the other dragon lords?”
“My answer is the same. It is difficult. To be frank, the ones who survived thus far are the ones who did not fight the Eight Greed Kings back then. And they are the likes of Heavenly Dragon Lord that kept flying around in the sky or Deep Darkness Dragon Lord, who knows what he is doing, holing up in that giant cave underground. I can’t imagine these guys lending us aid.”
“I see. However, there is Brightness Dragon Lord, who mingles with humans while making babies. So we might be able to persuade him, right?”
“... Maybe. But my personal opinion is that the chance of waking ‘her’ who is sleeping at the deepest level of the sea city would be higher.”
“Are you waiting for that while you dream? If leader left all his knowledge behind, there would be less trouble. It’s a shame he died so early.”
“That couldn’t be helped. He was shocked after killing one of the companions who came with him. It was understandable for him to reject resurrection. Back then, weren’t you shocked as well, Rigrit?”
The old lady looked into the distance, nodding slowly with a pained expression.
“Yes, ah… that is… so.”
“Rigrit, I feel bad about asking this of you even though you are no longer an adventurer, but can you listen to my request?”
“What is it? I have a hunch, but let’s hear it anyway.”
There was a sword in Tsar’s line of sight. It was a sword that was not suitable for slashing. However, it’s sharpness was beyond anything in this world, an item that was impossible to craft with modern magic.
This sword―one of the eight weapons left behind by the Eight Greed Kings―was the reason why Tsar couldn’t leave this place.
“This is something I had been doing all this while, but I hope for your assistance. I beseech you to collect information about items that can match that guild weapon-sword over there. Or special items like the Reinforced Armour owned by the Kingdom’s adamantite-ranked adventurers, Red Drop.”
Chapter 4. A Handful of Hope
Translators: Nigel, Ferro, Zack Tan, SifaV6
Editing: Skythewood, Rockgollem, Namorax, NoirX, TaintedDreams, JcqC
Part 1
The attack resembled a flood from a broken dam. That was how furious the attacks were.
The enemy was only a mass of low-tier undead. They were nothing for Foresight to be afraid of. However, what could only be described as a human wave attack showed no signs of stopping.
Hekkeran wiped the sweat off his face after beating his tenth group of opponents since the start of the battle, a pair of ghasts.
Although he wanted to rest, there was no time for it. He gulped some water from a pouch on his waist, and signaled a retreat as he calmed his breathing down. However, or rather, as expected, the enemy had no intention of giving them any time to rest.
A group of three skeleton warriors, with a robed skeleton mage mixed into it, jumped out to block their path.
“Conserve your mana!”
“Got it.”
“—Enough, understood.”
In a situation like this where they could be surprised at any time, magic—which could easily deal with any situation—was a trump card they could not use casually. Because of this, they had conserved their mana as much as possible.
That being said, several of their abilities with limited uses per day had already been exhausted. This was the result of being swamped by the large amount of traps and undead.
There were skeleton archers lined up behind barred windows, and out of swords’ reach. It was difficult to deal fatal blows since the skeletons were resistant to piercing attacks, but Roberdyck was able to exorcise the undead.
He was also able to eradicate the undead that were throwing bottles of poisonous gas at them.
He exorcised the flying undead and the “floor-imitators” which glued their victims to the ground with their bodily fluids.
And he also exorcised a team of several undead that caused all sorts of status ailments such as plague, poison and curse.
All this had taken a heavy toll on his daily uses of ‘Turn Undead’, leaving him with only a few remaining uses. Conversely, they had managed to conserve other abilities as well as mana. The only tough battle had been the one with a flesh golem mixed into a battalion of undead.
“Warning! Multiple footsteps from behind!”
“Undead reaction! There’s six of them!”
Along with Imina’s warning—followed immediately by Roberdyck’s—the tension ran high. The reason why the five skeletons ahead of them weren’t attacking was probably because they were waiting for a chance to execute a pincer attack.
Hekkeran considered their next move.
Several options appeared on a list in his mind. First, they could make a pre-emptive attack on the enemies in front of them and bring them down. Or they could launch a suppressing attack on the enemies in front of them, then turn to attack their pursuers. This plan would require good observation skills to determine the strength of the forces in front and behind them, then take on the weaker group first. They could also use magic to hinder one side, then take the opportunity to break through the other.
They were all effective, but none of them could turn the situation around. In a moment of inspiration, Hekkeran decided to trust his instincts.
“Hekkeran! What shall we do?”