Awakening to a Special-Grade Explorer

Book 2: Chapter 51

Chapter 51.

"Ah!"

Once again, the Rusted Knight kicked the ground hard as he held up his great sword.

This time, instead of a straight trajectory, he leaps upwards, as the saying goes, and tries to attack Mizue from above.

Mizue huffed and took half a step backwards.

"Aahhhh!"

The Rusted Knight seemed to think that was a way out, and he sounded as if he had done it.

However, Mizue immediately leapt on the spot.

"Fukuyama-san!"

"Rashomon!"

As he called out Fukuyama's name when he leapt, Rashomon's defensive wall appeared to block the trajectory of the Great Sword and Mizue.

Mizue changed his grip on the Renkou Sword to his non-dominant left hand and grabbed one of the Rusted Knight's legs with his right.

As if on a swing, he swung his sword to the side to enter behind the rusty Knight with a circular pendulum motion and slash at both joints.

"Hey!"

Mizue's sophisticated sword slashed the rusty Knight's knee joints from the backside, and the boss lost all strength.

He lands on the ground nearby, knocking off the Knight on his stance from the momentum of the sideways slice.

"Gashaaaan"

The Rusted Knight landed with a tremendous sound, but his legs were slashed, and he fell on the spot.

"Yah!"

Then Rikka approached and swung her spear through the joint of her left elbow.

The Rusted Knight whose limbs had been cut off and fell to the ground without effort as black blood splashed out.

With the two of them working together. All of the Rusted Knight's limbs were cut off.

"This is the last time!"

Mizue was on his feet as soon as he could spare a second from landing, and he was running over to the Rusted Knight.

His hot eyes looked down at the Rusted Knight, falling helplessly in front of him. Mizue then readied his continuous strike sword.

Then, as if to drop the sword's tip, he thrust the Renkou Sword into the slight gap between the helmet and the neck.

"What the--?"

At that moment, the Rusted Knight's inaudible whine was heard in the boss area.

The rusty silver full plate glued together by an unknown force crumpled apart, and something black and sludgy like blood poured out of his entire body through the gaps.

There was a pool of black liquid which came out of his body.

A brief moment of silence fell over the boss area.

Not long after that, the boss's corpse began to disintegrate from the edges.

A small, black cross, less than an inch in size, dusted up and was sucked into the ceiling of the dungeon.

"Yes!"

"You did it!"

Mizue and Rikka were feeling the joy of defeating the boss for the first time.

They were splashing sweat from the battle and high-fiving each other with all the joy they could muster without worrying about their gender.

Fukuyama and Kusatsu approached them.

"Good work. Well, you beat it easier than I thought you would. Congratulations on defeating your first boss, you two."

"You're really great! Both of you." Kusatsu said.

Kusatsu held his side painfully but smiled at them.

Seeing this, Mizue and Rikka rushed to Kusatsu and quickly lent him a shoulder to sit on the ground.

"Hey, you alright? How is the bone on your side?"

"Yeah, I think I probably cracked it. Sorry I couldn't stop him."

"No, it's my fault. I'm responsible for misjudging the boss's competence. If I had relied on Fukuyama-san from the beginning, this wouldn't have happened."

When Kusatsu apologized, Mizue bowed his head.

Sure, there may have been some instructional errors, but being able to beat a first-time boss with just a crack in the side is something to be proud of.

That's how great this boss' defeat is in the eyes of the public.

A dry, panting sound cut through the air that was about to become negative.

"Yes, yes, that's enough apologizing. For now, Kusatsu-kun, immediately use the Transition Crystal and return to Chariot's main camp. You'll receive treatment there."

"Oh, yeah! But also..."

"You can't just sit there and complain, okay? That injury needs to be treated right away, it's a bad one in more ways than one."

"I can still do it! I can still fight!"

Fukuyama's words were in effect that made a declaration of rejection.

Passing this test is only a sub-dungeon attack.

Being sent home here was likely to mean that Kusatsu was rejected.

Hearing those words, Mizue and Rikka waited for Fukuyama's following words with a clueless expression.

"No, it hasn't been decided that you've been rejected yet. But you should go back to the main camp and receive treatment for the time being. This isn't a request, it's an order from me. Or can't you listen to your leader's orders?"

For a party or raid, the leader is absolute.

Like Godo, following the instructions of higher-ranking explorers is the absolute rule.

"Wow! Okay..."

When asked how to behave as an explorer, Kusatsu bit his lower lip in frustration but shook his head helplessly.

His expression seemed to have two sides to it; one of accomplishment and the other of disappointment at not being able to reach the goal.

So Mizue asked Fukuyama back to Fukuyama.

"Kusatsu hasn't been rejected yet?"

"That's right, it hasn't been decided yet. It's up to someone on the team to pass or fail... Well, I can't say anymore. I'm often scolded for talking too much."

Fukuyama began to laugh deceptively, but to the participants, his words were indeed words of hope.

-Pass or fail, the team decides.

It means that if even one person here can finish the task, the possibility of passing remains for the entire team.

Realizing this, Mizue and Rikka bent down to make eye contact with Kusatsu with a bright expression and dared to laugh.

"Leave the rest to us. We're really grateful for Kusatsu's shield so far, I don't think we would have made it this far without you. I'll see you on the ground again."

"That's right! I can't look at Kusatsu-san as a stranger anymore! We're going to the final test together!"

"...Yeah, thanks! Well, I'll be back before I get in the way."

Kusatsu's face turned slightly happy.

Then, holding the 'Transition Crystal' that Fukuyama gave him in his hand, he muttered quietly 'Transition.'

Instantly, his body began to emit a bluish-white light. When a slight shuffling sound was heard Kusatsu's figure had already disappeared from the scene.

Transition crystals are very expensive.

It is an item that allows you to move to a pre-set location instantly and is something that advanced explorers carry with them at all times.

However, this could only be used on the ground or in sub-dungeons.

In the main dungeon, you can't shift to the designated location, as if some force is blocking the powers of the crystal. Using this in the main dungeon will result in you being randomly shifted to somewhere in the dungeon.

The one that Kusatsu used just now was a fourth-grade transition crystal, an item that has a maximum transition distance of no more than three kilometers.

Perhaps the transition location was set in that tent at the entrance.

"I forgot to return Kusatsu-kun's Iron Sword to him. Well, I can return it later! So, everyone from Group 26! Good work so far!"

Fukuyama said in a cheerful voice when Kusatsu was gone.

"So far?"

Mizue was a little caught up in the way he said that.

He could have just said "Good work" without daring to use the word "so far," but it sounded as if Fukuyama was strangely emphasizing the word "so far".

Suddenly, Fukuyama's handsome smile starts to look eerie.

"Yeah, just a little further and we'll be at the end of this sub-dungeon. It's about 50 meters ahead. That's where the end gate to the sub-dungeon is. So, I know you're tired, but we're almost there! Let's get this over with!"

As Rikka heard the word "It's over." she was glad from the bottom of her heart.

Rikka thought that this sub-dungeon could still go on with Kusatsu being sent back.

The basic structure of the sub-dungeon is said to exist from the first boss area to the fourth boss area. So, she expected there to be at most two more boss battles.

But Fukuyama said they were almost at the finish line.

That means the current boss area was the last in this sub-dungeon.

"Let's go! Mizue! We're almost there."

"Yeah... Let's go!"

Mizue's reply was somewhat unsure.

With the cheerful and slightly natural Rikka. They headed for the exit that appeared before they knew it in the second boss area.

The exit to the boss area appears as soon as the battle ends.

A door appears when you find yourself in a different dungeon. You have to go through it to get to the next dungeon.

Until now, no one had ever seen the scene where the exit of the boss room appeared.

Researchers sometimes describe this as "intentionally imperceptible".

They then go under the exit of the boss room.

After walking about fifty meters, they found an end gate that led to the surface.

Sub-dungeons usually open an end gate at the far end of the dungeon, and the collapse phase of the sub-dungeon begins when any one person passes through it.

The sub-dungeon gate gradually narrows over the course of about a week, and eventually, it disappears.

After the attack, it is customary for the guild to use the one-week grace period to take the lead in collecting the demon ore and materials from the monster carcasses.

"That's the end gate, isn't it? I've seen it in pictures several times, but there's a certain atmosphere or horror that I feel when I see it in person..."

Rikka looked at the jet-black gate and couldn't help but let out a thought.

The entrance gate to the sub-dungeon is "white", no matter what grade it is.

And the exit is always "black", no matter what grade.

Conversely, the entrance to the main dungeon is "black", and the exit is "white.

Researchers speculate that this makes sense, but they still don't know why.

"I'm used to looking at it, as you'd expect, but it does look that way at first. But once you get used to it, the 'black' gate starts to give you a sense of security."

"A sense of security?"

"Yes, yes. The black gate is the image that signals the end of the exploration. The sub-dungeons have exits in this color, and the main dungeons are usually entered through a black gate and exited through a white gate, right? Every time I go back, I pass through this black gate, so it feels like the end to me."

"I see. I didn't know that."

Mizue is satisfied with Fukuyama's words and turns his head to that black end gate.

Tenji also gazed at the end gate that he hadn't seen in a long time.

"Well, it's finally over." Tenji said from the bottom of his heart.

[I knew there was no room for Goblins. I had Fukuyama-san next to me the whole time, and somehow Mizue-kun beat most of the monsters alone. It was painful that I didn't get to do anything, but it was a good experience.]

Thus, the 26th group arrived in front of the end gate.