They wouldn’t survive the Shadow Forest, let alone the Palamu Rainforest.
“Your standards have risen a lot.”
Hmm.
Well, most of the humans I’ve met were either heroes or mages.
Thinking about that, it’s no wonder their skills didn’t impress me.
‘Drip, drip, drip. Look at the blood.’
Drops of blood fell from the bandage of the injured adventurer’s leg.
“Let’s check the wound again when we get to a safe place. There should be a healer among the adventurers who went ahead.”
“O-okay.”
That’s not the problem, walking around bleeding like this will stimulate the appetite of other monsters.
The humans might not know, but as a monster, I could clearly smell the blood.
The nearby termites must be getting hungry too.
“Saak!”
I called Pandan.
And warned him. The smell of blood was overwhelming.
My warning soon became reality.
“What are those…!”
At some point, termites started following our group.
They were clearly termites.
But the difference was in the shape of their helmets.
Unlike the other ants that seemed to wear flat boards, these had something like sharp horns attached.
Looking closely:
──────────────
[Hell Horn Termite lv43]
[Traits]
[Pursuit], [Cooperation]
──────────────
They’re a slightly different breed.
They seem to be stronger ones.
“Scavengers.”
Jericho gritted his teeth.
“Why are they appearing already?”
From what I hear, these are creatures that don’t usually appear at the entrance of the Blade Pillar Zone.
The flustered adventurers whispered among themselves.
“We were already going around to avoid those guys…”
‘Don’t be flustered by mere things like this. Foolish humans.’
I couldn’t just watch and said a word.
They said monster waves never occur in the Great Forest either, but didn’t they end up happening?
‘The magic realm is a magic realm because humans cannot understand it.’
“Why did you suddenly change your way of speaking…”
It was then.
“Queeeeek!”
Once again, termites burst out of the ground and ambushed.
The adventurers gritted their teeth and responded.
Fortunately, this time no one was bitten and dragged away like before.
The adventurers drew their weapons and fought against the termites.
“Don’t lose formation! Hey! Don’t rush out, you bastard!”
Their fighting skills seem far superior to ordinary soldiers.
But they don’t seem used to coordinating with each other.
In fact, I was the one who benefited the most when a fight broke out.
「Using Ferang School Dagger Technique lv2.」
Pak!
The skill level of the invisible hand had risen quite a bit, and I could send the sword quite far.
I stood in the middle of the adventurers and moved my sword.
I shot the dagger between Jericho’s legs to pierce the forehead of a termite.
Jericho staggered, probably feeling a chill between his thighs.
「You have killed Hell Helmet Termite lv29.」
The smell of blood might have drawn them in.
The pursuers following us didn’t miss this opportunity and pounced.
Swoosh, I swung the sword.
「You have killed Hell Horn Termite lv46.」
Magic power, experience points come in.
Not a single drop of body fluid splashed on me.
The adventurers shouted desperately, and the termites made strange clicking sounds.
And I just swung my sword in the center, like the conductor of this concerto.
「Your level has increased!」
Hmm.
Following Pelerian and Helmut’s advice seemed to be the right choice.
‘Good job!’
Rather than biting and tearing at the termite’s heart from the front, it was much more efficient to leave the front line to the sturdy adventurers and fight from behind.
Above all, my magic power was rising rapidly.
Is this the utility of swordsmanship?
Old man Pelerian, didn’t I say learning swordsmanship would be useful?
“You fool! The flower of the battlefield that spews long-range firepower from behind the front line is not a swordsman, but a mage!”
Is that so.
Anyway, isn’t it swordsmanship if you fight with a sword?
I swung my sword wildly.
Just when I thought I might be able to level up one more time, the fight stopped.
“Huff, hah.”
“Damn it, this is completely different from the information we had. Why are there so many?”
They didn’t seem to have expected attacks to be this frequent.
‘Was it always this dangerous?’
“It was dangerous. But there do seem to be unusually many termites.”
It’s been quite a while since Pelerian last visited this place.
It would be unreasonable to compare it to now.
“Wait!”
At that moment, Jericho raised his hand to stop the group.
There were a few footprints left on the ground.
The ground here isn’t that moist.
The footprints remained because there were mud puddles and water pools.
“Are these from the adventurers who went ahead?”
“No…”
The shape of the footprints was unusually thick.
“They look like dwarf footprints.”
Hooh.
The dwarves of Gray Hammer Village had disappeared as if they had evacuated.
They had entered the magic realm as a group.
Why on earth?
For now, we followed the traces and moved forward.
Soon, the adventurers’ faces brightened at the terrain that appeared.
“Ah, a safe place!”
It was a terrain where the pillars were closely gathered to cover the ceiling, and the ground was made of moist black soil.
This was indeed a safe zone in the Blade Pillar Zone.
Termites didn’t come near the wet soil.
The dwarves who passed through earlier seemed to have rested here too.
There were traces of campfires and camping scattered around.
“Wait.”
When the wind blew, I smelled blood.
“There are traces of a fight.”
It seems the dwarves fought here.
So I thought maybe it wasn’t actually a safe zone and monsters were hiding…
But that wasn’t the case.
The dwarves didn’t fight monsters.
They seemed to have fought among themselves, or perhaps with humans.
There was a pile of bodies that had been burned, with human and dwarf bones mixed together.
“There… isn’t that one alive?”
One adventurer said quietly.
Over in that corner, a dwarf was sitting leaning against the wall.
He was pressing his neck tightly with his right hand.
The cloth on his hand was reddish-brown due to dried blood.
“Go closer and check.”
Jericho ordered.
The designated adventurer approached carefully, making an unwilling face.
“Hey, are you alive?”
“…”
“Excuse me.”
The dwarf suddenly opened his eyes wide and swung his left hand.
Thwack!
“Argh!”
The adventurer who was hit in the cheek by the hammer flew back.
The dwarf didn’t seem to be in his right mind.
He shouted with bloodshot eyes.
“You, humans, you filthy humans!”
I heard that surface dwarves were a friendly and hearty race.
He looked absolutely ghastly.
“What are you doing!”
“You, do you know what you’ve done! Humans!”
The dwarf didn’t seem to be in his right mind.
“Because of you all, everyone’s going to die!”
He shouted in a voice like scraping metal.
The excited adventurers drew their weapons, trying to kill the dwarf.
That’s when I stepped forward like a hero.
“Saak!” (Everyone stop!)
I don’t know what’s going on, but calm down.
I stopped right in front of the dwarf and looked into his eyes.
‘Dwarf friend. I am snake.’
I have experience befriending dwarves at the Red Anvil Mine.
Because of that, I might have been overconfident.
“S-snake monster!”
He suddenly threw his hammer at me and tried to throw other objects around.
‘Calm down!’
Fortunately, this isn’t my first experience like this.
This time, I didn’t reflexively bite like I did with the guard captain before.
One mistake is enough.
“Saaaaaak!”
I roared intimidatingly to try to calm him down.
But seeing that, the dwarf tried to get up as if to run away.
Then the wound on his neck burst open again.
Pshhh!
Blood gushed out from his neck.
Thud.
The dwarf collapsed.
「You have killed Dwarf Architect lv60.」
Uh, umm…
This honestly isn’t really my fault.
