Chapter 45

As they had been told, they didn't encounter any monsters for the first thirty minutes. But once those thirty minutes were over, footprints could be seen every now and then.

And as Estelle and her party went on, more and more footprints appeared.

"It seems like it won't be long until we find the first kobold."

Artemisia spoke up, expressing the obvious.

"I can't wait to fight a little!"

Andre von Rais immediately expressed his will to fight, as always.

Soon enough, they finally found some recent footprints that they could follow.

And, after tracking them down for a good while, they run into two kobolds carrying a boar.

Whispering among each other, they started concocting a plan to take them down.

"They seem to be back from hunting. They might be decent at fighting. We should make a good plan."

"What plan? Let's just charge at them! I need to get warmed up a little. It's getting kind of cold here."

"I agree. They are just two. We could easily take care of one during training. Let's just charge at them."

"I-I think it should be fine."

"Whatever. Let's just charge at them, then."

Estelle gave up trying to convince them. Without waiting much, the five of them charged at the two kobolds.

The two kobolds let go of the boar and readied their weapons as they were approaching.

But Andre von Rais, who led the charge, didn't care. He continued his dash without much care.

Once he was in the range of the first Kobold, he immediately slashed. The Kobold tried to parry using the spear's shaft. Unluckily for the Kobold, Andre's slash was so heavy that it sliced right through the shaft.

It had to be said that the Kobold's spears weren't very high quality.

Three moves later, Andre had already cut off the Kobold's head.

But Estelle wasn't one to wait. While Andre had been dealing with the first Kobold, she had charged at the second.

'If I'm quick enough, I should be able to take it by surprise!'

Making a sudden movement, she stabbed towards the Kobold's chest.

Being as nimble as it was, the Kobold easily dodged.

But as it was landing, Elene Bauer struck it with an arrow right in the eye. Being blind on one side, the Kobold didn't see Estelle's slash coming.

Splat.

The Kobold's head limply fell on the floor.

"Timeo! Scout and hold guard while we loot the kobolds!"

"O-ok!"

While Timeo, who had the role of assassin and scout, checked for any threats, the rest of them scavenged the Kobold's possessions.

But they didn't have much value. The only things worthy of notice were that each had a necklace. One had four pieces of wood attached, all with a little green leaf drawing, while the other had two with pink butterflies on them.

"Does anybody know what these necklaces are?"

Artemisia asked out loud about them, but nobody could reply.

In the end, they just decided to move on.

As they walked, Andre said something to Estelle.

"See? Who needs a plan. We're going to completely win anyway. There's no party comparable to us."

'I sure hope you are right…'

***

'If only I could use my full cultivation! This is so annoying. When will father finally lift this seal?'

The never-ending hours fighting Kobolds eventually tired them out.

Because they didn't own the dungeon map, they lost themselves in the complex structure of the dungeon. They found themselves repeatedly in the same places, over and over. Each time with more bloodstains on top.

At first, that blood was only from the kobolds, but some human stains also formed as time went on. The front line warriors had suffered some light injuries.

"I think we should stop here for today. We're all drained. And, as the headmaster stated, this isn't a single day test."

Artemisia Wernher was the first to propose stopping.

"Stopping? But I can still fight!"

"Andre! You are clearly the most tired of us all. In the last battle, you were the one who made most of the mistakes. Look, I even got injured to cover for you!"

"That's your own fault! I never asked for any help. You actually got in my way!"

"Everybody, shut up! I am the party leader, and I decide. We're going back to that hidden dead end we had found earlier. We're setting up camp there and taking a rest. Things cannot go on as they are now."

"I-I also think we should do it this way."

Timeo shared Estelle's opinion. Even though he didn't do much fighting because of his role, he was still tired from being on the lookout all the time.

Also, having the privilege of watching their fights in detail, he was the most aware of how dire their condition was. They took twenty times as much time to kill one single Kobold in the last fight compared to the initial two.

Even though Andre kept opposing this decision, they eventually set up camp and went to sleep.

Once inside a dungeon, the concept of time became vague. It was dark no matter what hour of the day it was. So, one had no way of knowing what time it was.

But at times, this was also an advantage. Since it was always dark, there wasn't any natural incentive to keep them awake.

The blue of the sky during the day causes humans to stay awake. Because it couldn't be seen in the dungeon, as soon as you turned off your torches, it became night.

Resting was thus pretty easy, given that you could find a secure enough location, that is.

***

Vince's party ended up going inside the dungeon second to last. The Prince's party was the one that went inside just before them.

Like Estelle's party, they didn't encounter monsters for the first thirty minutes.

'Mmh… I sense some kobolds ahead. Though I can't really tell how many of them there are. Anyway, I'll have my party run into them to test their combat capabilities. We need to establish some great team play if we want to clear the first floor.'

Five minutes later, they casually ran into a group of three kobolds. Those kobolds had their spears in hand and were clearly on guard.

'Tch. They must have found some corpses left by previous parties. The whole population of kobolds is probably already alerted. Well, they make for better practice target this way.'

Vince extracted his bow and signalled for everyone to stay put.

He charged his arrow and waited for a good chance. Sure enough, the opportunity came. One of the kobolds turned, and right as its vision turned towards Vince, an arrow pierced his head. It had been cleanly aimed at its nose.

The nose was the best place to hit a kobold when going for a one-shot kill. The skull had a more extensive cavity for the nose than the ones for the eyes. Thus it was easier for the arrow to pierce and damage the brain.

The Kobold fell flat on the floor.

"Everyone, go. Gero, you are tanking the one on the right. I'll give you support. Nicole, Zack and Harlow, go and take care of the other one quickly. Nicole is the most agile, so she should be focusing on distracting it. Zack and Harlow, go for their tendons in the legs. I already explained earlier where those are. Once you cut them, the battle is already over."

"Tch. I accepted you as the party leader, but that doesn't mean you have the right to tell me how to fight."

"Then don't. If you don't want to heed my commands, just stay put and watch. I don't want a troublemaker who just breaks our rhythm."

"Nicole, are you going to listen to that guy for real?"

'I knew this Harlow guy would spell trouble… Why did I even bother accepting him in the first place.'

"Well… he's our party leader, so…"

"Just move! The kobolds are coming towards us. Anybody who doesn't want to follow orders can stay put."

The only one who stayed put was Harlow. The other guys all listened.

Gero only had to parry two stabs from the Kobold before Vince killed him.

Zack and Nicole cut the Kobold's tendons successfully, and once the Kobold fell on the floor, they stabbed it in the heart.

In under thirty seconds, they had subjugated three kobolds.

"Well done, everyone. I'll now proceed to give you some tips. I want you guys to work on what I tell you. Nicole and Zack, you should learn to look at your companions. With enough practice, you'll eventually learn to grasp the other's intentions on the spot. That way, you'll be able to coordinate much better.

Although you don't need it to defeat kobolds, it will become a great tool later on. As for Gero, you are still scared. You parried those hits fine, but you never countered. You have the physical strength to do so. You only have to win your fear."

"What about me?"

Harlow rhetorically asked.

"You said it yourself, right? You already know how to fight. You clearly won't need any advice even from the king himself, so why would any of my suggestions be of any help?"

Vince rhetorically answered.

Harlow was on the brink of snapping, but he kept it inside.

***

By the time they decided to set up camp, they had already killed at least fifty kobolds. Yet, none of them had suffered any injuries. But they were all pretty exhausted. Except for Harlow, of course.

"Good work, everybody. Let's set up camp and get a good night rest. Tomorrow we'll continue with training against kobolds. By tomorrow evening, I think we will be working together well enough to accelerate further.

As for today, I'll cook dinner for everyone.

Meanwhile, you should set up the tents. We have three tents. Nicole will be sleeping alone as she is the only girl."

Eventually, the lot of them sat in a circle around a little campfire, holding their hands out to warm up.

Vince served each of them a hot bowl of soup.

As soon as Nicole tasted the first spoon, it looked like stars had lit up in her eyes.

"Mmh! It's so good!"

Seeing Nicole devouring her soup, the others dived in and had similar reactions as well.

They all looked like they wanted more; too bad there wasn't any left.

"I'll promise, if you guys work hard enough, I'll cook you all so much food you'll ask me to stop on the last evening."

"How can you tell it's evening?"

"I'm proud of my internal clock."

"So you aren't sure…"

Zack looked a bit disappointed at the answer.

"Anyway, we have warmed ourselves up enough. Go to sleep. I'll be the first to keep watch. After me, the rest of the time will be Harlow since he's such a great fighter. I'm sure he's used to keeping watch."

""Okay""

***

After a good nine hours of sleep, they woke up. Once they packed their stuff, they resumed their advance.

As they walked, they encountered many corpses everywhere. Eventually, they found the party that was leaving them behind.

It was the Prince's party.

'Unexpectedly, they have great teamwork. I guess having a prince as the party leader made it easy.'

Vince then told his party members something.

"If we follow them, we won't be getting any kobolds to fight. Although it might look like a good idea to conserve our energy by taking advantage of them, it's not. I won't be explaining why.

Let's take a detour. Although it will be longer, it's guaranteed to have many kobolds to fight."

Harlow tried arguing again, but at this point, everybody but him trusted Vince's judgement. Thus, his opposing Vince was all in vain.

After a bit of walk, Vince suddenly heard five people's footsteps. He could tell they were running in his direction. But that wasn't all.

Vince could also clearly hear Kobold's footsteps! And not just one or two of them…

"Everybody, get ready to fight!"