"Um... are you okay? Don’t push yourself. I’m fine stopping here too."
Perhaps because she was so embarrassed by what she had done earlier, Yunyun’s face was red as a tomato, and she kept twisting her body around.
"...I’m fine. Y-You don’t need to worry about me."
It seemed Yunyun had created the kind of cringe-worthy memory that would make her face burn every time she recalled it for the rest of her life.
Anyway, after calming Yunyun down, we set off again.
After about thirty minutes of travel, we arrived at the kobold nest marked on the map.
Aside from special variants, kobolds were as small as goblins, and each individual was not much of a fighter. However, they were intelligent monsters that lived in groups inside caves, mined ore, and even wore crude metal equipment. They also hunted in packs, so once they established themselves somewhere, they could become quite a nuisance.
Hiding nearby and observing, I saw about five kobolds guarding what appeared to be the entrance to their nest.
"Yunyun, can you hide here for a moment? I’ll look around and see whether there are any other entrances."
"Okay. Be careful."
I quietly looked around in case there was another entrance.
"I don’t see any other entrances. Since there’s only this one, it doesn’t look like a particularly large nest."
When kobolds settled in a cave, they began mining ore. If their group was large or grew bigger, they dug entrances here and there for ventilation and convenience.
That meant the number of entrances gave a rough estimate of the group’s size.
"Let’s deal with the ones at the entrance first. Just support me with Paralyze magic so we can take them out quietly."
"All right."
Using the Kilo-Kilo Fruit, I reduced my weight as much as possible, jumped above the cave, and silently landed behind the kobolds. Then I cut down the two nearest the entrance in an instant.
Kirik?
At the sound, the remaining kobolds were startled and began to turn around. The moment they did, I used Flash Step to rapidly close in on the nearest one and cut off its head.
The final two had been caught in Yunyun’s Paralyze magic and stood frozen like statues, unable even to scream.
Thinking, ‘Just as expected, Yunyun’s skills are reliable!’ I swiftly finished off the last kobold.
"Now we’re exploring the cave with a companion?"
Yunyun, who had been hiding, approached with a bright, expectant expression.
Seeing Yunyun wearing the excited face of a child about to get on a roller coaster almost made me relax too.
"Kobolds are intelligent monsters, so there might be traps. Let’s stay alert as we go in."
"All right."
"I’ll take the front. Yunyun, watch our rear."
"Leave it to me."
We slowly began entering the dark cave.
"Light."
When Yunyun cast a light spell, the inside of the cave brightened.
After going a little farther in, I sensed something strange about the ground ahead. Looking closely, it seemed slightly higher than the surrounding terrain, and the color of the dirt was a little different too. It looked as though something had been covered with soil.
"Yunyun, I think there’s a trap up ahead."
I prodded the suspicious ground with my scabbard. With a whoosh, it gave way beneath us, revealing sharpened wooden stakes densely planted below.
"There may be more traps like this. If you notice anything strange while we’re moving, tell me."
"Okay."
Perhaps the trap had made her nervous too; Yunyun swallowed and answered.
We went around the trap and continued onward. Soon, we saw light leaking from a wide space ahead and began hearing the sounds of numerous kobolds.
There did not seem to be any more traps.
"Yunyun, turn off Light and wait here a moment. I’ll take a look."
At my words, Yunyun nodded in understanding and extinguished the Light spell.
I moved quietly, poked my head out slightly, and surveyed the situation inside.
About thirty kobolds, apparently unaware of our arrival, were focused on digging the ground or sorting ore beneath torchlight. Among them were around four kobold warriors, each about the size of a grown man.
I returned to Yunyun and told her what I had seen.
"What do we do now?"
"They don’t know we’re here and are completely focused on their work, so if we ambush them, we can inflict considerable damage before the battle even starts. Since the cave is dark, focus on fire magic, Yunyun."
"All right."
"And some may try to run, so once the fight starts, block the entrance and fight there. I’ll block as many as I can too."
We finished preparing our ambush in the narrow passage leading into the cavern.
When I gave the signal, Yunyun and I charged into the cavern.
Yunyun fired Fireballs in rapid succession, while I leaped up and began indiscriminately unleashing Wind Moon Slash.
Boom—!!
Kyaak! Kueek—!
Caught in the sudden ambush, the kobolds died without even managing any proper resistance.
Once more than half of the kobolds had been killed in that ambush, several finally came to their senses and grabbed their weapons.
"Not so fast~!"
I used Flash Step to move to the ones who had armed themselves and quickly dealt with them first. The rest, seemingly terrified, gave up fighting and fled toward the entrance, but Yunyun cleverly mixed Freeze and Paralyze to bind their feet.
"Nice one, Yunyun!"
Thanks to Yunyun tying them down so well, we were able to finish the remaining kobolds easily without much effort.
"Whew~ Good work. Our teamwork is pretty great, isn’t it? Thanks to you, that was easy."
"Hehe~ It’s all thanks to you, Tae-jin."
When we looked around the kobold nest, we found iron ore and copper ore piled up in a corner. It was a large amount for such a small nest.
"Wow~ We got lucky today, didn’t we?"
"We did. But I don’t think we can carry all of it."
"Don’t worry. I have an inventory item."
To avoid misunderstandings in situations like this, I always wore a small bag at my waist. Pretending to put the ore into the bag, I stored it in my inventory.
"Let’s head back now."
"Okay~"
It was evening by the time we finally arrived back in town.
As we entered, we heard a commotion. People had gathered around it, whispering among themselves.
Wondering what was going on, I went over and saw Megumin, drenched in transparent liquid, clinging to Kazuma’s shoulder. Aqua was there as well, likewise covered in transparent liquid.
"Hey! Let go of me! You got kicked out of another party too, didn’t you!?"
"No party will take me anymore! I’ll be a pack mule or whatever you want! Please, don’t abandon me!!!"
Kazuma tried to pull the clinging Megumin off, but she clung to him even harder.
"That man is trying to abandon a little girl."
"And he’s got another woman covered in slime beside him."
"After playing with such a little girl and then throwing her away, isn’t he complete trash?"
"Look, both girls are all sticky. What kind of play did that pervert do?"
As the gathered people spoke while looking at Kazuma with contempt, Megumin, still hanging from him, wore an expression that said, ‘This is it!’ and shouted even louder.
"Any kind of play is fine! Even that sticky play from earlier involving frogs..."
Panicked, Kazuma hurriedly covered Megumin’s mouth and said,
"Aaaahhh~~! Fine, I get it! I get it! I look forward to working with you from now on!!"
‘Ugh... Should I just pretend I don’t know them and walk past?’
Just then, Yunyun, who had been watching alongside me, recognized Megumin and called her name.
"Oh! Megumin!"
"Huh? Yunyun?"
At Yunyun’s voice, Kazuma and Aqua noticed us and looked over. Thanks to Yunyun, it seemed I had missed my chance to ignore them and walk away.
"Kazuma, Aqua..."
"Stop!! Don’t say another word. I feel like I’ll become miserable if I hear any more!"
"Ahem... All right."
Kazuma glanced at Yunyun once.
"But who’s the girl beside you?"
"She’s a party member I found today. Her name is Yunyun, and she’s a very capable mage."
"No! I’m not that capable... Hehe~ A capable mage..."
It was impossible to tell whether Yunyun was embarrassed or happy at being praised.
"Then who’s that young lady over there?"
"This is..."
"I’ll introduce myself!"
Megumin, who had been riding on Kazuma’s back, cut him off, climbed down, and suddenly struck a pose. Even though she was soaked in frog spit and looked anything but cool.
"My name is Megumin! I am an Arch Wizard by trade, and one who commands the strongest offensive magic: Explosion Magic!"
‘I’m actually seeing this...’
"Now! Yunyun, you should introduce yourself too!"
Megumin pointed at Yunyun.
"Uh... I..."
"Come on! Hurry up!"
"F-Fine! It’s embarrassing in front of people I don’t know, but..."
Yunyun cleared her throat and struck a pose like one from a superhero squad show.
"My name is Yunyun! Though I am still intermediate as an Arch Wizard, I am one who commands advanced magic! One day, I shall become the leader of the Crimson Demon clan!"
"Anyway, this is Yunyun. She is the daughter of the Crimson Demon clan’s leader and calls herself my rival."
"Then why did you make me do that!?"
Ignoring Yunyun, Megumin looked at me.
"Then who is this gentleman?"
"My name is Park Tae-jin! An adventurer who cuts the sky and dreams of becoming a hero! One day, I shall slay the Demon King!"
I struck Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean moonwalk pose, slightly covering my face instead of placing a hand on a hat.
"Whoa~!"
"Wow~!"
Clap clap clap!
Megumin and Yunyun applauded me.
"Ahem... Tae-jin isn’t normally this kind of person."
Kazuma and Aqua looked as though they had seen something they never should have seen.
"Hahaha~ The Crimson Demon introduction was fun, so I tried copying it."
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