“It was just a joke. I wasn’t asking for death.”
Dig rubbed his reddened neck and said. Lapis glared at him, still looking unhappy, and he ducked his head and turned away to avoid her eyes. They had moved to a small work shed nearby to talk. The simple shed, despite being dirty with all the dust and mud, was sturdy like dwarves’ handiwork always were. The chairs and table didn’t even creak.
“It’s not a good thing to joke about. At least for me…”
Lapis grumbled. Knowing it wouldn’t go anywhere to keep talking about that topic, she asked Dig, who was sitting opposite her:
“We have to cross the mountain range, no matter what. Is there any map of the Great Tunnel?”
Fueled by the displeasure from the dwarf’s joke earlier, Lapis had become a bit more threatening. As if feeling pressured, Dig nodded continuously while leaning back slightly:
“Of course, there is… Do you want to see it?”
Loren could sense a rather bad characteristic of dwarves from Dig’s response. Seemed like a lot of dwarves had the artisan temperament and did things based on intuition and mood.
Meanwhile, Lapis took one look at the map and immediately gave up on trying to understand it.
“What a mess.”
Gula declared. The map was packed so full with writings and drawings that they couldn’t understand what was what or which route to take at all. Dig looked at it closely just to put it down on the table and out of his sight after a while. One by one, the other dwarves picked up the map and discussed something amongst themselves in a whisper, but all gave up and put the map back on the table in the end.
“Could it be that you guys also can’t read it?”
Loren pointed at the map and asked. Dig relaxed into his chair and answered cockily:
“Our memory is more accurate.”
Loren face-palmed, this was just hopeless. He realized that this was the reason why the dwarves’ guiding business could hold up. If the routes were properly managed, people could pass them with a map even without the dwarves’ guidance. But these tunnels were dug with no planning and no control, and only the dwarves could navigate them.
“Well, please guide us then.”
Lapis leaned towards Dig and said. He replied in a fluster while avoiding her eyes:
“I-I don’t want to die. I know your strength very well, little miss, but I don’t think you alone can make it.”
From Lapis’ point of view, Loren and Gula were just as strong as her, and there should be no worry with the three of them going together. But to Dig, someone who knew of her true identity, it was unbelievable that the other two could be her equals.
“It’ll be a different story if there were more people at least.”
“More people, you say, but…”
Even Lapis couldn’t just find more people to go with them out of nowhere. Not to mention that it couldn’t just be anyone – it must be capable characters whom Dig approved. The difficulty was on another level.
“I’m at a loss here.”
“Is there no other route?”
Loren asked, feeling this was the right time to turn around and take another route if possible.
Lapis tilted her head in consideration:
“I think there is, but I’ve never tried it.”
There were other dwarves’ settlements aside from the one they were currently at, so naturally there should be other tunnels that ran across the mountain range. However, as Lapis wasn’t acquainted with other dwarves, the negotiation would be a gamble.
“We’ll have to manage, some way or another.”
“If we can’t cross this mountain range, we can’t do anything, right? Even if we can gather enough people, won’t the way back be a problem?”
Even if the dwarves agreed to guide them to the demons’ territory, they wouldn’t be able to come back without their escort. But they couldn’t make the dwarves wait for them, or rather until whatever blocking the Great Tunnel was eliminated, their return trip couldn’t be guaranteed.
“If it’s too troublesome, let’s just dig our own way through? I can work real hard.”
“But how many days will it take?”
If they could dig their way straight across the mountains, there would be no need for a guide. But the distance to dig wasn’t a short one, and even Gula couldn’t dig through it in a short time.
“Should we try it?”
Evil Gods were quite sturdy, and Lapis wondered if their beyond-imagination strength would make the impossible possible. Sensing the change in the atmosphere, Gula hurriedly moved away. A knock came right then.
“Are there any soil workers here?”
Without waiting for an answer, the door was opened, and a woman dressed like a hunter peeked in. She had straight blond hair with ears pointed like daggers, and she had a bow in her hand and a quiver on her back. She didn’t seem to think that opening a door without permission was something bad. She then surveyed the shed and, after noticing Loren’s party, said in a flat, slightly surprised voice:
“Loren? Have you been a good boy?”
“Huh? Eh… Is that Nim?”
The woman was an elf, and Loren remembered her. She was from a party of silver rank adventurers Loren had meet during his first job as an adventurer.
“Why are you here?”
“We are silver rank adventurers, we have to contribute something to our country and the Guild. We’re to scout the demons’ territory, a job to earn money as well as credits.”
“Hey, Nim, are the dwarves here? If yes, you should tell us so…”
Loren knew the voice coming from behind Nim. Three people appeared behind her: a thief-like, unshaven man with brown hair, a swordsman carrying a round shield and a longsword, and an old man clad in a robe and carrying a staff. All were silver rank adventurers.
The thief-like man lightly pushed Nim aside to enter the shed. Seeing Loren’s group, his face broke into a smiled:
“Someone came before us? Oh hey, isn’t that a familiar face?”
“Long time no see. Nice to see you doing well.”
“You have one more member? Another girl? Do you aim for a harem?”
“I don’t have such a plan… It just became like this somehow.”
Loren answered with a slightly bitter face. Thinking that he was joking, the man clapped Loren on the back and shoulder. He was a silver rank adventurer called Jack. The swordsman behind him was Ritz, another silver rank adventurer and the leader of their party. The old man who was clinging onto his staff was Quartz, a magician.
“Well, well, it’s not like I don’t understand how you feel, but have some moderation, ladykiller.”
“Jack, you’re a bit noisy.”
Nim, who had been pushed aside, thrust a tight fist into the side of a defenseless Jack. The impact of it seemed to reach his internal organs, and he fell to the ground in a somersault. Nim kicked him aside, then turned toward Loren with an expressionless face and said in a flat tone:
“Loren is a good boy. He won’t gather his companions for such a dishonest purpose.”
“Such trust… Where does it even come from?!”
Jack shot the question at Nim in between painful gasps, and she answered nonchalantly:
“From experience.”
“Ah, is that so.”
Jack weakly collapsed on the ground as if he had used up all his strength and glanced at Nim. She was stroking Loren’s head, who was sitting still in his chair with a troubled expression. Lapis looked at them with envy, and Gula turned to the dwarves, who were taken aback by the rapid development of the situation, and clapped her hands once:
“The problem is solved, isn’t it?”
“What?”
“We have one copper rank adventurer, me, and two iron rank, Loren and Lapis. How about adding those four silver rank adventurers? With this, we can deal with pretty much anything that happens, right?’
In theory, copper rank adventurers who didn’t die during jobs or subjugation could become iron rank after a certain time, but only a handful of iron rank could become silver rank. So, the addition of these silver rank adventurers would be enough to reassure Dig – that was what Gula thought. It wasn’t incorrect, but to Ritz’s party, who had witnessed Loren’s fighting before, being considered as better was a touch uneasy.
“Could you tell us about the situation first? Then we’ll think about it later?”
No matter what, they had just arrived. Lapis gave them a summary about the current situation, what they had to do from now on, and introduced Gula to them, of course, not without withholding “some” information.
