Chapter 76: Arrival

Translator: ShiroiKaze/Soyokaze Translations

Two weeks after we began our journey from Solkalis. The trip went almost too favorably as the time went by.

Of course, that doesn’t mean there wasn’t any trouble.

There was bandits, magic beast attacks, avalanches, and other highway trouble. Actually, there was probably a lot more trouble than when we were traveling to Solkalis.

However, between all of us there was enough power to handle whatever came our way easily.

“Hey you lot, if you wanna pass by here, ya gotta give us a little somethin’!”

“That woman might do, yeah? What kind of money can you dudes give us?”

“We could probably make something off of the brats is we sell ’em as slaves.”

“Oh boy…”

Alec and Haster stepped forward with a sigh.

The bandits showed off their poorly maintained swords while surrounding us, but… You know threatening us with those pieces of scrap iron is only going to exasperate us, right?

“Y-Yuuri…”

“Oh, yeah. It’ll be fine.”

The only ones apparently armed among us are myself with Third Eye and a short bow, plus miss Levy with two short swords.

Even though Haster and Alec are wearing scale mail, they aren’t armed.

On top of that, Alec is one-armed.

We probably look like sitting ducks, with miss Levy being the only one who doesn’t even look like a minor.

“This is just annoying. Let’s hurry and clean things up, Alec.”

“Got it, Master.”

“Darn fools… Can’t ya’ll tell how strong yer targets are?”

“Like you’re one to talk.”

“Are you bastards makin’ fun of—Hiii?!”

The bandits were getting hot-headed over our lack of concern, and then screamed.

That was because Haster and Alec summoned their weapons.

Upon seeing the super heavy weapons that completely ignored whether the opponent was a human or beast, and valued only power, they could no longer stand up straight.

“We could let you off if you go now, y’know?”

“Just so you know, getting hit by this thing hurts.”

“I-if we get scared off by some brats, we’ll be laughing stocks!”

“Who would be threatened by those weapons? They’re just for show!”

The bandits made foolhardy statements and began their attack.

They sure mistook when they should be putting that courage to use.

What happened after that was… It could only be described as a splatter fest.

Just two swings. Haster and Alec only swung twice, and turned six people into lumps of meat.

When one of the two remaining bandits got close to us in an attempt to take a hostage, miss Levy intercepted him. He was also turned into something resembling a dust cloth, and died.

I actually couldn’t tell how many times this guy was slashed in a single moment, he was shred into so many pieces.

She really is seriously fast.

The remaining one finally realized what he was up against and started running, but I was afraid it would come back to bite us later if we let him go, so I sent a [Wind Blade] at him from behind to end things.

~*~

So we continued without making a big deal of any trouble like that, and as a result of making our way through our travel plans, the capital of Novelius, Belit’s ramparts stood before our eyes!

“It’s the capital! The tree is huge! The walls are huge!”

“We can see that, so calm down, yeah?”

“Yuuri’s outtin’ herself as a little ol’ country bumpkin.”

“Yuuri, hey, umm… Keep it down.”

“Sis is being embarrassing as usual.”

“What’s “as usual” supposed to mean?!”

I admit that I got a little too worked up and that I’m a country bumpkin, but I couldn’t let that “as usual” stand without complaint.

When have I ever been embarrassing?!

I kicked at Alec’s knees and scraped the mud from my shoes onto him as a finisher. How do you like that, good sir?

“Eww, gross! I just got changed into some nicer clothes. Could you cut that out?!”

I smiled pleasantly at Alec’s cry, and then, while retreating behind Haster, sized up the World Tree a bit.

In five years, we’ll be climbing to the top of that tree…? My motivation is feeling rather far off.

“You two, I know you’re excited, but you need to calm down.”

“Ugh, sorry Master.”

It would seem that Alec was feeling a bit more energized than usual too.

The home of adventurers, the greatest labyrinth in the world, and the very root of adventure.

For young boys, this place is like a magic word to thrill them. That stage of legends stood before our eyes, so it’s hardly surprising.

Those in our surroundings looked on gently when they saw how we were acting.

“Pardon me, are you on a pilgrimage? Or perhaps a school trip?”

“Oh, no, we’re here to register as adventurers… And you are?”

Without a fragment of distrust, a man who seemed like a peddler spoke to us.

Though a little worn out, he was wearing a stylish yet calming outfit made of high quality cloth.

“My apologies. My name is Marco, and I deal in foodstuffs. I’m on the way back from selling goods at the inns.”

“Very courteous of you. I’m Has… My name is Al. I’m here to become an adventurer, and came at the behest of the lady Levy over here.”

“Name’s Levy. A right pleasure.”

“Oh, I’m Ale—GUHO?!”

As usual, the idiot boy couldn’t read the situation and was about to give his real name. So I delivered a flying knee to his vital area to shut him up.

Haster gave his alias out, so you need to do the same.

“Ahh~, the one on the floor over here is Bern. He plans on becoming an adventurer, but as you can see he’s still lacking in training.”

“I’m… Yuurin…”

Haster gave out the fainted Alec’s alias in his place.

He probably took his “Al” name from “Albine,” and Alec’s similarly was probably taken from his “Burns” surname.

A one-armed great sword using eighth-grade-syndrome boy is always going to stand out, so hiding it makes it less likely to make trouble.

Incidentally, I just adjusted my name a bit.

“I am, umm… Umm…”

“This is Marle. She came here to enroll at the academy.”

We gave out fake names one after another, so she seemed to have gotten confused.

Unlike the rest of us who have well-known names, she’s a genuine village girl, so there’s no need to hide it.

“How polite. I sell food at a small pavilion near the big tree, so please come on by whenever you like.”

“But of course. This is our first time in the city, so we look forward to stopping by.”

“Your first time here, eh? This city has many sights to see, so I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.”

“Indeed, we were planning to have a good look around even before we got here.”

A giant tree so tall that you can’t see the top.

And its trunk is thick and studly… The diameter looks to be at least three kilometers.

The roots spread in every direction, with the ones sticking out from the ground alone being tens of meters thick.

Those divide the city into several sections.

One theory suggests that the roots spread throughout the entire continent. That’s definitely taking it a little far though.

“How’s the capturing gettin’ on? Done gone past floor 232 yet?”

“Nay, they seem to be having some difficulty.”

Miss Levy was talking about the highest floor that the active adventurers have reached apparently.

Those who have only reached the fifth floor or lower are called novices, the fiftieth floor and lower are called beginners.

Every five floors in the labyrinth, a powerful magic beast stands as a gatekeeper, so surpassing the first five floors is the first big wall before a newcomer.

From the fiftieth to the hundred-fiftieth floors are the Middle Rank adventurers, which is the most populated group.

From the hundred-fiftieth to the two-hundredth floors is the Upper Rank, which only a handful of adventurers ever reach, apparently.

And then those who have advanced beyond the two-hundredth floor, the top running few people who are at the forefront, called the Top Rank. They garner the highest respect from the city.

Yeah, even the top rankers are at floor 232.

They’ve barely gone past a quarter of the 1000 floor labyrinth.

It’s pretty obvious just how unbelievable a person Bahamut is when considering he conquered the place.

Though his knowledge is of an era long past now, so it’s no longer useful of course.

“Miss Levy, you cleared up to floor 102, didn’t you?”

“Sure did. If I had more support, I probably coulda gone a little further, but goin’ it alone and all…”

“You went through 100 floors alone?!”

“Is that strange?”

“That’s normally where a whole party would get together and eventually reach… Ah, I misjudged you. This isn’t something that’s described on the registration card.”

“Ain’t nothin’ written there but the simple floor I reached.”

The only thing on the registration is what floor a person got to.

In other words, what kind of party you were with, or how many people were in the party aren’t mentioned.

People who challenge the labyrinth alone like miss Levy are naturally a minority, but the fact that she got as high up as she did could be considered proof of her abilities.

“So that means you really are a loner, huh, miss Levy?”

“Shut yer dern trap!”

“Did nobody want to be in a group with you?”

I thought she would be sought after by many, being a gift holder and all.

“Uh, yeah… Well, had a group together before, though?”

“Then why…?”

She has three gifts; “Recognition Blocking,” “Trap Disabling,” and “Peerless Magic.”

The power to scout ahead without enemies even noticing her, the power to disable any kind of trap, and the power to be an excellent magician.

On top of that, she has out-of-the-norm physical abilities as well.

Any one of those abilities would make her a target that those capturing the labyrinth would salivate over, and she’s got three of them.

For a place like a labyrinth, her gifts would probably be more sought after than mine.

So why would she do something as dangerous as going solo?

“’bout that… First party I got together with went an’ accidentally stepped on a trap. People went an’ thought I did it on purpose to get a new party.”

Meaning it was known she has a trap-related gift and yet they activated a trap, which surrounded her in distrust.

It’s not a “Trap Finding” gift, so noticing the traps isn’t even something she’s automatically good at though.

“Ever since, they been treatin’ me like a “grim reaper”… With that kinda past, all the parties I got together with after that would treat me like a disposable scout. Ain’t much I could do ’bout it. So I went an’ ran from the city.”

“And then you heard the Demon King was aiming for the World Tree and decided to come back. Except adventurers outside of this city would probably be a rank or two lower in quality—Oooh, so that’s why you were looking for us?”

“Yeppers. Ya’ll are skilled magicians just tucked away in the backwoods. Ain’t nobody who would pass that up, yeah?”

“It’s a huge pain for us though.”

And so, while we continued our idle chatter, our turn for inspection came around.

Finally we had arrived at the home base of adventurers, Novelius.