Chapter 10 – ‘Tank Killer’ Dungeon

“Now that I think about it, where is Clashia?”

While brushing off the dust that clung to my clothes, I walked up towards Ornest and asked him about her.
The last person who had been in our party during our time at the magic academy. Clashia Annerose. As expected, Ornest’s eyebrows furrowed at the mention of her name.

“…I’m sure she’s returned to the inn by now.”

He didn’t explain why.
However, it was clear that something had happened between him and Clashia.

“But more importantly, Alec. Is it true that you were dismissed from your post as Court Magician?”
“…Word travels fast.”

Ornest did not want to talk about Clashia right now.
Apparently, Ornest and Clashia’s relationship had not improved much during the past four years.

And unlike Yorha, Ornest did not hesitate to ask about my old occupation. It was very like him, and so I chuckled.

“Well, that makes things a lot simpler. We’ll just have to show them what a mistake that was.”

He said as he put an arm over my shoulder.

“I don’t know how long it will take, but once we are the greatest Adventurers in the entire world, and their country is in trouble, they will have to rely on us. Yes, they will grovel at our feet, won’t they? Make them beg for mercy. What do you think? It will make you feel better, eh? Hehe. I cannot wait to look at those arrogant nobles, and say… No.”
“…Hey, wait a minute. It honestly does not matter to me now. Besides, what was that? How evil are you!?”

I don’t care about it at all.
Well, that would be a lie.

But, are you some kind of Demon King now!? I almost blurted at Ornest’s suggestion.

“…Besides, I always knew that this would happen one day. So now that I have actually been driven out, I am not going to complain about it.”

If anything, I considered myself lucky for being able to continue as a Court Magician for four years.
For the money.

It was my main reason for aspiring to be a Court Magician. However, my father had been against it, saying, ‘I’m not so destitute that I need my kid to take care of me.’ And he ended up leaving the country to prove that he meant it. So, it had all been for nothing, in a way. However, I was at least financially stable.

“Hey, hey. It is only normal to give back what you are given.”
“Perhaps it is normal for you, Ornest. But I don’t think that is how everyone lives in this world.”

They must have been listening.
As Misha and Yorha were also nodding in agreement at my words.
In fact, the girl called Misha was silently mouthing, ‘keep going’ at me earnestly.

…He must be a real pain for the others.

Sadly, I already knew that no amount of admonishing was going to fix him.
After all, this current Ornest was the result of all our old teachers trying to correct him. We would just have to accept him as being unique. I told her this with my eyes.

“…Bu-but…!”

She wailed in despair. Or maybe I was just imagining it.
There was no point in thinking about it, it would just give me a headache.
And so I shrugged and brushed the matter aside.

“Besides, forget all of that boring stuff. If you want to talk, let’s talk about something more cheerful.”
“Eh?”
“Dungeons. That’s what you’re doing now, isn’t it? Fill me in, Ornest.”

He glared at me a little, as if he still had something to say. But it was only for a brief moment. ‘…Fine. If you don’t care about it, I will hold a grudge on your behalf.’ Was his meaningless response, and then he agreed to change the conversation.

“We are currently working on a dungeon that is to the west of Fezel. There is a restriction where you cannot use healing magic at all. And so it is known as the ‘Tank Killer.’”

Healing magic was banned
That meant you could only use potions to heal.
So from the perspective of ‘Tanks,’ who are meant to attract the attacks of enemies, you would not want to take on a dungeon that limited the ways you could heal.
That’s why it was the ‘Tank Killer.’

It was a perfect name, I suppose.

“…We managed to reach the 52nd floor, with just the three of us. But then we hit a wall.”
“And the reason?”
“Our party lacks sufficient firepower.”
“Firepower…”
“Aye. The floor boss was a golem with ridiculous endurance. We might have been able to get past it with brute force, if we had healing magic. But obviously, that wasn’t possible due to the dungeon. And so we decided to call you.”

Golems were monsters that were made with materials like ore, and so they were especially tough against physical attacks.

In general, only magic attacks were effective against them, and their defenses were much higher than most monsters.
Because of this, a battle was guaranteed to be drawn out. And in a dungeon where you couldn’t use healing magic, it would be even harder to take them down.

You could only carry so many potions with you, and if you weren’t doing enough damage to begin with, then I could understand Ornest’s frustration.

“…Well, leaving the golem aside… I’m surprised you would even take on a dungeon with such rules.”

Clashia, the only member of the party who was not here, was a skilled magic healer.
Because of this, she would not be able to use her true power in such a dungeon.

It wasn’t like she had no method of attack. It was just that healing was where she truly excelled. You could not expect her to move like an attacker.

Lack of firepower.

That’s what Ornest had said. I wanted to tell him that he should have known this would happen before going in.

“Clashia must have been against it. There is no way…”
“She was whining about it for a week, I think? But the other dungeon we were considering didn’t allow support magic. And so it was two against one, and it was decided.”

Yorha or Clashia.
When putting them on a scale, Ornest had chosen Yorha. And since Yorha did not want to become baggage, she had sided with Ornest.

“…Well, she has also done what she can to adapt to the dungeon. Because she can’t use healing magic now, she is using a bow. It’s things like that that make her superior to your average attacker. As much as I hate to admit it.”

However…
He added before continuing.

“We still do not have enough firepower. And then we considered calling you.”

…After all, wasn’t killing golems one of your specialties, Alec?

Ornest said with a laugh.

“…I suppose.”
“In any case, we can talk about the little details later. For now, let’s get out of this ‘arena.’ Besides, it will be quite troublesome if we finish telling you everything without that clean-freak. She will start sulking.”

…Clean-freak.
That’s what Ornest sometimes called Clashia, though I just thought that she simply liked to be clean.

They were like a dog and monkey who were at each other’s throats for four years. Their personalities were completely opposite.

Ornest did not care about the small details, while Clashia wanted everything to be neat and tidy and hated rocking the boat.

And since Ornest was always involved in some sort of trouble, it was no wonder that they did not get along.

“Sulkiness aside, it would be rude to leave her out of this. Besides, I’d like to talk to her after being away for so long.”
“Oh, of course, of course. Especially since she seems to be in such a bad mood right now, you may be just the cure to fix that.”

He said with a bright smile.

I suddenly had flashbacks of our time at the magic academy. Yorha and I were constantly having to mediate between these two idiots. I couldn’t help but smile as well.

“Pushing that job onto me. You really haven’t changed in the last four years.”
“But how many things in life actually change after just four years, eh?”
“…Well, you’re not wrong.”

Ornest was in high spirits as he slapped me on the back. And like that, the three of us left the ‘arena’ behind us.

Next Chapter

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