We start heading back to the entrance, which is in an awful state.
Before we know it, there are a hundred ogres near it.
“If we waited there, we wouldn’t have had to go looking for them…”
Says Argo, but more than half of them are here as a result of our hunt.
“Should we hunt them?”
No one’s doing it, so we’re free to do so.
I also see some parties that were left stranded and can’t go back.
It will take us over two days to get there. And since we already met our quota, we don’t need to go out of our way to hunt them.
Someone here would be happy to do it if they were orcs, but ogre meat has some quirks that makes it not be as good.
It can be prepared in a way that makes it taste better, but it takes time and effort. And it would be trouble to deal with all of it.
We could just sell it all in the guild, but that might cause another ruckus. We already have the materials of close to two hundred ogres, so that would be another hundred. I say close to two hundred because we took down some ogres in a way that ruined their materials.
“Is there a way around it?”
“No. Or rather, it’s almost like they’re blocking the way.”
It feels like they’re blocking the entrance.
I was thinking people could come down the staircase and ambush them, but strangely enough, that’s the only place where there aren’t that many. And even the ones that are close aren’t that close.
I don’t think people could be ambushed right after coming down the staircase, but is there some dungeon rule that prevents them from getting close?
“Is there a variant species?”
“Variant species?”
“Yes, it’s like a superior species. It has a higher intellect than normal ones, and special abilities. Well, it’s not something that you find frequently. They’re rare like named monsters, but not as rare.”
…I’ve encountered one of those rare ones before.
“Well, it’s not worth thinking about it too much. If they are there when we get there, we’ll hunt them. That’s all.”
Argo doesn’t sound bothered.
It’s like taking down a hundred is easy, variant or no variant.
“It’d be hard if it was just us, but we have you guys too. We’re counting on you.”
Since people aren’t getting close, we could use powerful magic to exterminate them.
It would be hard to coordinate with other adventurers, and even harder to trust my back to them.
It would be one thing if we knew them, but since we started coming to a dungeon in the empire, we haven’t really met anyone friendly.
Argo and the others don’t seem to have any acquaintances here anymore either. That’s why most don’t know they’re A rank.
So basically, we don’t have to rush, we can walk through the dungeon at the same pace as always.
We don’t have much to do as we walk through this never changing scenery with no monsters, so we talk more.
Some talk about fighting, some about food, one asks questions about Morrigan, and others chat about nothing in particular.
Still, we make sure we’re cautious. I know there aren’t any monsters around thanks to Map, and Rurika, Hikari, and Guilford can also tell, but we still have to watch out for monsters suddenly spawning. That said, nothing as bad as them spawning right next to us happens. If that sort of thing was allowed, we wouldn’t get much sleep at night.
However, we still can’t be a hundred percent sure they won’t spawn nearby. After all, dead people wouldn’t tell us about it.
“How are things over there, Sora?”
“They’re not fighting, but there’s some movement.”
“What kind?”
“Some parties are getting together.”
“I see. But then we won’t know what they’re doing.”
It’s hard to tell from Map alone if they got together to beat back attacking monsters, or to band together to clear a passage.
“Hn?”
“What?”
“Some people are moving away.”
“…Are they scouting?”
“Scouting?”
“Yes. They’re probably going to fight. Maybe they don’t have a lot of food and consumable items.”
Argo says they’ll be fine as far as meat goes, because of the monsters they take down, but the same can’t be said for potions and such.
And most importantly, water.
“You can create it with magic, but without a sorcerer, that’s not possible. Not to mention that even if they have them, they’ll want to conserve magic energy to fight. There are sorcerers that are only a hindrance in battle without magic.
That’s why many parties make sure to have water even if they can create it. Even knowing it’s one more thing to carry.
I see. You need it to survive after all.
And as Argo predicted, the next day, the battle between the adventurers and ogres begins.
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Thanks for the treat.