Chapter 21: Uncontrolled Birthing Hole
Working together with the village’s warriors and the earlier adventurers, it took us a bit of time to clean up the monsters that descended on the village.
Alicia finally arrived at the village after sending off the girl and coach driver to a safe place. Then she gave healing to the wounded. The place was inside the durable building where the villagers evacuated into.
「……The wound is deep, let’s treat it quickly.」
Alicia who was hiding her face with her hood said that and activated her healing skill.
She was healing the wounded adventurers, the village’s warriors, and the villagers who evacuated into this building one after another.
Magic skill whether it was attack magic or support magic consumed quite a lot of magic power, so it shouldn’t be possible to use them excessively but……as the Sacred Knight, Alicia was apparently extraordinary in that aspect too. She healed all wounds without even using MP recovery potion.
The strength of her healing surpassed the Clergyman who was permanently stationed in this village. Excluding the heavily wounded people, she was able to heal many of the wounded until they would have no difficulty with living normally. Even the heavily wounded manage to escape from life-threatening condition.
「Uwaa, amazing. I can’t do nothing except giving emergency treatment. I’m really glad that Alici……Allie is here.」
「……Ehehe, praise me more.」
Alicia smiled bashfully when I praised her using her fake name.
While I was being impressed by Sacred Knight’s latent potential like that.
「What are you saying you brat!」
「Wah!?」
The male villagers and senior adventurers suddenly retorted at me.
「We would already be exterminated before we could be healed if someone monstrously strong like you didn’t come! Hold your head higher! If not then we’ll just feel more wretched!」
「Right right! That magic sword? I don’t know what kinda sword it was but, the way you moved also wasn’t ordinary. Of course this healer girl’s healing magic is also absurd but, your strength is also the same.」
「Really……I don’t know how to thank you……! If you two didn’t come then my wife and daughter, and of course I would also all died! Thank you, thank you so much!」
「I thought you’re strong because you won against Rainy-san but, to think it’s by this much huh……now I’m heavily indebted to a mere rookie.」
It made me shrunk in embarrassment instead from getting told something like that by everyone.
After all what I did was only swinging around my penis to a swarm of monsters.
But the villagers couldn’t stop thanking me. They didn’t stop there, they even started bringing out their remaining valuables from their broken houses, so I hurriedly stopped them. They would need to repair their village after this, so I couldn’t accept their money.
「All of you don’t need to go that far! I simply have the strength to defeat the monsters by chance, and I’ll get enough money if I take home the materials from the monsters! ……Ah, but if you really feel grateful, please keep our weapon and skills a secret from everyone else, that’ll be a big help.」
I would have to get famous as adventurer after this anyway, so there was no need for me to hide my strength.
But I didn’t want to let the detail to be known as much as possible, so insisted for just that one thing alone. ……And yet,
「Not revealing other adventurer’s skill and weapon and also not prying about them is just common senses! Not to mention that you’re our savior, there won’t be anyone here who is going to spread it out!」
「That’s right! Just let us thank you with something!」
「For now let’s eat! We’re going to treat you guys with the most expensive ingredients that we have in this village!」
Perhaps they were in high tension from suddenly getting bailed out from a despairing situation. Everyone wouldn’t stop. Awawawa, what to do. While I was at my wits’ end like that.
──*KAAN! KAAN! KAAN! KAAN!*
A bell’s sound reverberated. The villagers froze with startled looks.
Alicia and I also looked to each other in surprise.
After all this bell’s sound was something that was shared in any city and village.
It was a signal for monster attack.
「Aa!? We just finished exterminating the monsters though!?」
「That bastard Geis, he talked about standing guard on the watchtower just in case but, is he mistaking something from being too high strung!?」
Everyone complained while taking up their weapons and came out of the building.
Alicia and I also ran ahead of them to outside.
「……Tsu! There are really more monsters……!?」
When I looked outside, I saw multiple silhouettes heading toward here from the forest at the south.
Black Grizzlies. They were level 50 monsters whose distinctive characteristic was their muscular large body.
「Dammit! Just that sudden monster attack in that large number was already incomprehensible, yet it’s still not over!? What the hell is going on!?」
The villagers screamed. They and the senior adventurers fought together with us and we managed to cut down the monsters quickly.
But the faces of everyone there were dark in a complete opposite from before.
It was only natural. Multiple monsters appeared again right after an attack by that many monsters before. That was a sign that it would be impossible for them to regain their peaceful life even after this.
「There might be, something causing this……」
Alicia muttered. There I suddenly thought of something and asked the villagers.
「Umm, this is just a thought but, did the first monster attack also came from the south?」
「Eh? Aa, now that you mention it……they suddenly appeared in large number so I’m not really sure but, certainly it felt like most of the monsters came from that direction.」
Perhaps it was just as I thought.
Next I also talked to the lookout and confirmed that the monsters mainly came from the southern forest. In that case……the possibilities that I could think of weren’t that many.
The senior adventurers were also nodding quietly as though to affirm my theory.
「I’m thinking to investigate the forest for a bit. It’ll be dangerous if there’s another monster attack, so we won’t be able to spend too much time with it though. Can someone guide me into the forest?」
I didn’t say much so to not make the villagers anxious as I asked that to the surrounding.
「We had also tried investigating the forest several times for anything strange after the monsters started to damage our fields but……if you say that then let’s try investigating it one more time.」
One of the village warriors said that and raised his hand to accompany us.
Next a senior adventurer also spoke up.
「You’ll also need someone acting as messenger in case something happen. We have enough fighting strength to deal with another monster attack if they come bit by bit like just now, so we’re also coming with you.」
The senior adventurer decided to come with us along with his party.
There were still other adventurers remaining in the village, and a lot of them along with the village warriors had been healed by Alicia’s skill.
If it was only that many then we would be fine even if we had to retreat. Deciding that, I nodded with thanks to them.
「Then let’s go.」
Alicia and I entered the forest where the monsters lived together with the people who decided to accompany us.
.
.
.
「……Coming. Four from the front, and two are moving to pass us from the sides.」
「Again! There’re enough forces remaining in the village but, let’s deal with them here if possible!」
A while after we entered the forest.
I cut down (with a normal sword!) the monsters that got caught in Alicia’s detection skill while walking through the forest single-mindedly.
Just as expected, monsters kept appearing inside the forest, so we continued battling intermittently.
But this was more convenient instead for us in order to search for the cause of the appearance of the many monsters.
If we headed toward the direction where the monsters came from, we naturally would arrive at the source of the monster appearance.
「T-that boy is really a monster huh when I look at him once more……or rather how did he know the location of the monsters? Is it the boy’s detection skill?」
「I called ourselves as messenger but I actually also planned to help the boy fighting but……at this rate we’re really going to end up as just mere hanger-on……」
「Perhaps they also don’t need a guide for inside the forest……?」
Surely they never even dreamed that Alicia who possessed powerful healing skill actually also could use detection skill and secretly taught me the location of the enemies.
The senior adventurers who were following behind Alicia and me were muttering in astonishment as we marched toward the direction of where the monsters came from.
After we marched for a while like that.
「W-what the!?」
The village warrior who volunteered to guide us inside the forest let out a voice of astonishment.
「Impossible! There wasn’t anything like this at all several days ago! How……how can there be a mature dungeon here!」
His voice trembled from being unable to accept the reality.
But ahead of our gazes……the huge cave that was gaping wide open at the bottom of a cliff pushed the hard reality toward us. Monsters were spilling out from there even now.