Sword of Gluttony Queen - Chapter 23 - Unpleasant Coincidence

Chapter 23 : Unpleasant Coincidence

Mani and I dived even deeper into the 3rd floor of the《Romburgh Underground Labyrinth》.
I sharpened my senses as I expanded the range of 《Odo Perception・Low》far more than before.
Even if it was just rare chance, we’re basically done for if we met a C-ranked Demon Beast at our current level.

Mani was walking close to the wall as if examining it.
She might have been wondering whether there was a high-grade minerals buried in the wall.
Though Mani was originally a blacksmith, her current main role was porter-slash-miner.

Her curiosity may have stemmed from her natural blacksmith nature.
「Do you want to mine?」

「No, I’ll pass on that. I just want a confirmation. We barely have enough room in our luggage, more importantly, we’re defenseless during those moments if we do mine. I mean most high-grade minerals are located inside hard rocks which are difficult to dig, even for me.」

Smithing was heavily dependent on one’s level but… the same should be applied to mining.
She might be able to use her alchemy to soften the bedrock for a while at her current level.
I also brought mining tools to help her a little although, I don’t think I could help her that much since I didn’t have mining skills.

「…. My 《Kaguna》 isn’t exactly a mining tool either. To be honest I don’t want to use it for anything but smithing… unless I’m in an urgent situation. It isn’t suited for demolishing surface rock or smashing demon beasts.」

I wanted to say, “It’s a smithing tool after all” but… let’s pretend that I know nothing of this matter.
I mean, I knew that whether it’s mining, beating demon beasts, or smithing, Mani always relied on 《Kaguna》.

「Let’s focus on hunting the Gold Maimai. If I remember correctly, there’s a water stone in the 3rd floor of the《Romburgh Underground Labyrinth》 and its location shouldn’t be that hard to reach either.」

「He~, water stone huh…」

The water stone from the labyrinth could be sold for a rather high price.
The demand for it was simply too high.
Because you don’t need to waste too much space in your bag for water, all you need is just a few water stones.
A famous party only brought a minimum amount of water and one of those water stones, as for the one without too much space to spare, they gave one water stone to each member of the party.

Someday, I’ll also become an adventurer who could use the Rock of Spring Water.

「It’s been a while since I came to this place. I’ve never told you about this before but… I came to this floor around five years ago.」

「This place…. Do you mean this 3rd floor?」

Mani nodded.

「There was a mining request for a mineral that I accepted at that time. The mining location was quite deep within the 3rd floor, added to that is the difficulties in mining that mineral. At that time, I even doubted whether it’s possible for someone at my level to be mining that mineral. Unaware of the dangers I accepted that quest. It was a long time ago but, I’ve suffered a bitter experience due to that request.」

Despite the smile on her face, her eyes that were looking at the wall were like that of dead-fish.

「Three people took that quest, one of them is dead. I merely survived due to sheer luck. I couldn’t do anything to complete the request for that time.」

「I see….」

… I might give up too if I didn’t have 《Odo Perception・Low》.
A little while later, the adventurer trio in front of us was still aimlessly looking for that Gold Maimai.
They took a detour when I felt the presence of a D-rank demon beast ahead of them.

As they advanced further and further into the 3rd floor, Gold Maimai’s pace was also slowed down considerably.
As I thought, the wound left by me at that time was a deep one.
Despite taking a detour, the three adventurers were getting closer and closer towards the Gold Maimai.
They just have one worry left.
And that was worrying about the increasing encounter rate with D-ranked demon beast as they were getting closer and closer towards the Gold Maimai.
I never expected that the Gold Maimai would go as far as using other demon beasts to escape from its pursuers.

Thus, my 《Odo Perception・Low》 sensed that the three adventurers in front of us has clashed with D-ranked demon beast.

「… those three adventurers seem to be having a hard time fighting against that D-ranked demon beast.」

「This is a rather troublesome situation, right? If only they retreated….」

Their party must have at least one person with a perception skill seeing that they’re basically stalking behind the Gold Maimai but, could it be that we didn’t need to avoid them?
I guess I need to check their situation again with 《Odo Perception・Low》.

But then, an unbelievable event happened right after I checked the situation.

「O-One of them is chasing after Gold Maimai. Is that guy insane?」

One of the three was chasing after the Gold Maimai, leaving the other two behind.
The other two might become fatally injured.

『Human greed knows no limits. He missed the chance to save his life just because he thinks that he cornered the demon beast.』

Beelzebub said with mild interest.

…. Despite my surprise, it doesn’t mean I couldn’t understand that fool’s reason.
I mean, we’re speaking about massive level up for anyone who killed Gold Maimai.

Turning the table against an opponent who was five levels higher was close to impossible with a magic vessel of the same level.
I don’t know how it was for someone with a high level but, whether someone could defeat a Gold Maimai or not might be a turning point for many adventurers.
The beings called Humans were different from Devils who could theoretically live forever.

As we kept going along the passage, I sensed the Odo of the two adventurers who were left behind beside the ominous statue in the passage as if trying to hide their figures.
We could avoid them if I wished to but… there was also no reason to confront them at this point.

Mani and I exchanged a glance with each other. She guessed what I was thinking about then nodded to me.
I walked on in the front.

「… The two people over there, may I ask something from you guys?」

「W-What in the hell are you doing here, porter brat?」

The one who replied was someone I’m familiar with.
I couldn’t believe what I saw, to think that there was such an unpleasant coincidence in this world.

The one who came out from their hiding place was a young boy who wore a dark hood over his head and… a familiar-looking burly man who rolled bandages on his bloody arm, Gilbert’s teammate, Morgan.