Indeed, taking down one big creature like a wyvern is a hundred times better than killing lots of small termites.
‘Still, it wasn’t easy.’
“Wyverns are never easy monsters. Especially if they attack in groups, they’re very dangerous.”
Pelerian said so.
Indeed, if I had been alone or if there had been even one more wyvern, it would have been dangerous.
‘Old man, why on earth did you build a dungeon in a place like this?’
Pelerian’s dungeon was even further beyond passing through the Blade Pillar Zone.
“Isn’t it because it’s damn hard to get in? So not just anyone can come.”
‘I guess… But how did you get in, old man?’
Delfram’s dungeon wouldn’t need to worry about intruders.
Wyverns guard the air, and termites guard the ground.
So how did Pelerian find his way to the dungeon?
“What else? Just use invisibility magic and fly there.”
Invisibility and flight magic.
Those were advanced magics that even I haven’t mastered yet.
I thought to myself that the path of the magic swordsman was indeed the right one for me.
I should study magic diligently too.
Pelerian would have been so happy if he had heard this conversation.
But there was no chance to tell him.
“Guooooo-”
“Kuooook!”
Because wyvern roars echoed in the darkened night sky.
“Th-there’s more!”
The adventurers were shocked.
We had taken down one Grey Horn Wyvern, but it wasn’t the only one.
‘I thought there might be one or two more.’
There was a reason I didn’t ambush it at first.
The ‘Mated’ trait written in its characteristics.
If so, there might be another wyvern nearby, right?
But that was my mistake.
“Guo!”
“That seems to be the wife.”
One as big as the one we just caught.
“Kurererere.”
“Kugegegegek!”
And three others that were a bit smaller but still threatening.
Not a couple, but a family?
No less than four more wyverns joined in.
This would be dangerous even if I used Gigantification.
There was only one answer.
‘Run away-!’
“Run away!”
We had no choice but to run for our lives.
I climbed onto the shoulders of the adventurer who seemed to have the fastest legs.
It was Pandan’s shoulder.
“Emperor’s grace-!”
Pandan made an imperial expression.
His trademark composure was nowhere to be seen anymore.
“Net guns!”
As Jerico shouted, the adventurers hurriedly loaded their net guns.
There were a total of four net guns.
All four had been fired once just before.
The gun’s structure was far from modern. It was a muzzle-loader where you put the projectile in through the muzzle.
Of course, since it’s not a gunpowder weapon, I don’t know the exact principle, but.
It meant the adventurers were struggling to put projectiles into the muzzles while running frantically.
Jerico loaded his gun the fastest.
Whoosh!
One of the younglings was hit by a net.
It fell, but surely it wasn’t killed.
Bang- Whoosh!
The other two also fired their net guns.
But this time, both of them missed everyone.
The wyverns evaded the nets with evasive maneuvers.
The mate of the dead wyvern descended fiercely.
The adventurer who was loading the last net gun got scared and.
“Ah!”
Stupidly dropped the projectile.
The wyvern seized that opportunity.
Thud!
As the wyvern plunged down and rose up again, the adventurer who had been there disappeared.
“Uwaaagh!”
The scream faded away.
The wyvern that had risen high into the sky dropped the adventurer it had been carrying.
A long fall.
And the scream stopped.
Not caring about the adventurer who had become a piece of meat, the wyvern flew back this way.
Just in case, I shot a beam at it.
It didn’t even flinch.
‘Even the beam is useless.’
Well, it was skin that even swords couldn’t easily penetrate.
It was difficult to inflict damage with just a ‘beam’, not a destruction beam.
I was fine, but the adventurers were terrified.
“Shit, shit!”
Even Jerico cursed.
That’s when it happened.
A ray of hope rose in the night sky.
The color of hope seems to be red.
The red line shining in the sky over there was clearly a flare.
I don’t know who fired it, but at least it should be safer than the wyverns.
“That way! Run!”
The adventurers ran like mad.
The wyverns finally caught one who lagged behind.
The younglings tore apart and mangled the poor adventurer in mid-air.
The organs he had cherished all his life fell with blood, plop plop.
“This way, over here!”
Waiting at the place where the flare was fired was a hooded person.
Jerico and Pandan’s expressions brightened.
It was an adventurer.
The adventurers they were supposed to support ended up helping Pandan and Jerico instead.
He was gesturing in front of a hole that was gaping in the ground.
A gesture to come in.
If that’s a termite mound, it should be just big enough for one person to barely enter.
But the adventurers had no time to hesitate.
They jumped into the tunnel one by one.
Starting with the one who was waiting.
Jerico.
And finally me and Pandan.
“Kweee!”
The wyvern that arrived late tried frantically to stick its head into the hole.
「Using Beam lv3.」
Even if I can’t inflict a fatal wound, I can at least make it very painful.
The wyvern that failed to catch us roared in anger.
“Kweeeeeeek!”
The inside of the tunnel reverberated.
“Huk, huuuk…”
Jerico and Pandan breathed roughly.
In an instant, so many of their companions had died, leaving only the two of them.
“Jerico!”
The man who had guided us said, taking off his hood.
“…Jakob!”
Jerico was surprised to recognize him.
“So you were the support that was coming!”
But Jakob didn’t look happy at all.
“Surely you two aren’t all there is?”
“No, the rest are all dead.”
“All dead? Where’s the mage, the mage who can use invisibility! The mage we asked for support!”
Apparently, they had made such a request.
But as far as I knew, there was no mage in our group.
“There was no mage to begin with.”
“What nonsense are you talking about!”
The adventurer named Jakob yelled.
Now that I look at him, his condition wasn’t normal either.
His whole body was soaked in grime, and judging by his bloodshot eyes and trembling hands, I could tell.
“Why did only you two come!”
“You know high-level mage resources are limited.”
“Damn it, we’re all dead now!”
Jakob finally started to cry.
The atmosphere became gloomy.
It was Pandan who broke the silence.
“…Where is this?”
He asked the very question I was curious about.
Yes, where exactly is this place?
I thought it might be a termite mound, but it wasn’t.
The floor was paved with stone, and a long corridor stretched into the darkness.
“…It’s an underground ruin we discovered. We came in to escape from the wyverns.”
“A place like this… But why are the wyverns rampaging like this?”
“Because we half-succeeded in our mission…”
What does that mean?
“Fortunately we found this place and could hide… but I don’t know what this ruin is for either.”
“At least it’s safe from the wyverns, right?”
“Yeah, for now. Follow me. The rest of our group is further inside.”
However, it seemed their bad luck wasn’t limited to just this.
I asked Pelerian to confirm something.
‘What is this place for?’
“Even I haven’t seen this place before. But roughly reading it…”
Ancient ruins usually have something written on them.
And both Pelerian and I could read the inscriptions on the wall.
‘Wyvern’s Altar?’
That was the name of the ruin where the adventurers had hidden to escape from the wyverns.
