Part Thirteen – After the Battle

We had once again gathered in order to hear from Commander Argoth. Though this time, there was a sense of excitement and celebration in the air, instead of anxiety and fear. We’d successfully defended the fort from the monster army and many were looking forward to what awards awaited us. Strangely, none of the monsters had dropped any items. I found this to be most concerning.

Everyone quieted down when Argoth arrived. There was no one who’d be foolish enough to risk his ire at this stage of the game.

“Well done. Well done to all of you! We have successfully fended off the hordes of monsters and ensured we will see another day! However, not everyone was so lucky. We lost close to a dozen brave warriors during the fighting, but fear not! Their names shall be forever engraved into the walls of Fort Aries, and thus their legacy shall live on!”

His speech is a lot more uplifting than I’d thought it would be. Maybe he’s trying to lift the spirits of those mourning the fallen?

The main reason our casualties were so low was that most of the soldiers were far stronger than the monsters we were fighting. In fact, all the deceased were E-Rank, showing that if you were too cocky, you’d suffer an untimely death inside a Dungeon. There had been multiple injuries, some severe, but it turned out that some of the mages, and the woman that had been with Braddock, knew healing magic. They’d been able to keep everyone healthy, keeping our forces from depleting.

“Now onto the next piece of business. Since we have a few hours of daylight left, you’re all allowed to do what you like, as long as it doesn’t interfere with the Fort’s maintenance. Secondly, for any who were wondering, any items you’ve earned have been deposited in a chest in your room. Thievery will not be tolerated and will be punished by death.”

Woo! Items! Must! Get!

The second we were dismissed, I bolted towards my room. I could never ignore the sweet siren call of new treasure, even if it was from low ranking monsters. Happiness is so close!

I kicked my door in and ran to the chest that had appeared. I began to sort through the contents, looking for anything of utility. Hmm, mostly consumable items, some low rank armors, and some miscellaneous items. Ooh what’s this?

Ring of Lesser Mana Reflection

Rank: D

Effect: Reflection Enchantment

Description: A ring blessed with the power to reflect mana. It’s protection is powered by the wearer’s mana, so the amount of reflection is limited. Cannot reflect spells above a certain Grade.

Oh ho ho! Well this presents all kinds of new information. So this can reflect spells, huh? I wonder if this is how the monsters negated the long-range bombardment. I’ve never exactly been into rings, but if it brings me greater power, then I’ll make an exception.

My mood had soared from all the new loot. It was disappointing that I didn’t get anything else, but what I had gotten was more than fine. I do need to find some new armor soon. Mine's still cracked from the fight with the Matriarch. It’ll last for now, but sooner or later, it’ll break fully. I’ve done a few hasty repair jobs on it, so it should hold up a bit longer.

I’d prefer something lightweight, as I emphasized speed over pure strength. If my armor was too detrimental to my speed, it would be putting the cart before the horse. Ensuring that your armor matched up with your abilities was one the most important aspects to survival.

*Slam!*

“Why the hell did you run off!? Did you forget we were supposed to have a meeting with the other groups?”

“B-but my items. I can’t just leave them alone, they’ll think I’ve abandoned them!”

“They’re items! Inanimate objects! They don’t have feelings!”

“How can you say that!?” Why!? Why can’t you understand the appeal in getting loot? There’s so many wonderful things out there.

“Come on! We have to get to the meeting room, now!”

Wait for me my precious. I’ll be back to check the rest of you later.

“You see? We aren’t the last to get here. In fact, there’s only one other group here.” Of course, it was Braddock’s group, as they’d called the meeting together.

“Grrrr! That doesn’t mean we should flagrantly ignore these strategy meetings.”

“Obviously. But I still think checking over the gear we’ve gotten is just as important.”

We ended the argument there, as we didn’t want those not of our group to witness us bickering. It was bad enough when Cameron saw it, but it would be many times worse if someone unrelated to us saw it.

“So where’s everybody else? If we’re going to have a meeting, we need more than six people to hold it.”

“Heh, well said. It looks like most of the others don’t want to participate. We’re waiting on two more groups, then we’ll start.”

Only two more? That’s quite the difference from the first meeting. I wonder why? And who are we waiting for?

I had my suspicions about who was still to arrive. I’d been too preoccupied with getting my loot to find out what had happened on the other walls, but Alicia filled me in. The brutish man, whose name was Sampson, had led his team of berserkers to utterly crush the monsters on the southern wall. They’d even attacked the ones on the other segment.

Finnél, the narcissistic fencer, had been posted to the northern wall. His group had forcibly taken control of both segments, but achieved great results. They’d killed the least number of monsters, but had fully kept them from climbing onto the walls. They’d apparently had some kind of oil that they’d poured down the monster’s ramps, before setting it alight.

I’d already suspected it, but the woman with Braddock had indeed been a mage. A healer, to be exact. She had repeatedly cast healing spells, which kept their group healthy. The other man, Jansen, was a demolitions expert. He’d used a series of home-made explosives to keep them from being overrun and deal with the ramps in a similar manner to how I did. Throw in Braddock’s leadership and tanking skills and they had a really well-balanced party.

Wonder if he’d be willing to teach me how to make explosives. It’d be nice to have them if we ran out of Combustion Bombs. Though regular explosives are probably inferior to them.

The Ring of Lesser Mana Reflection had reminded me of the unknown ring in my bag. I’d forgotten about it while it simply went from one bag to the next. Since the System had no idea what it was, I hoped I might get a hint if I compared the two.

They’re similar in design, but the magic contained is completely different. I can’t even hazard a guess about what it might do. It’s just as mysterious as the monster I got it from. I haven’t seen anything else like it since escaping the labyrinth. Mysteries upon Mysteries.

“Hey, whatcha got there?”

“Gyaa!”

I’d been so focused on inspecting the rings, that the woman had completely taken me by surprise. She giggled as I retook my seat and calmed down. I had thankfully not thrown the rings when I jumped up, as that would’ve been even more embarrassing.

“Ooooh, sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you like that. I was just curious why you were concentrating so hard on those rings.”

“Should you really be sneaking up on people you don’t know? What if I’d attacked you?"

“Now why would you do that? You don’t seem like someone who’d attack without a good reason. You only punched that one guy because he kept harassing your friend, right?”

How the heck does she know that!? I don’t remember her being anywhere near where I was back then. And why’s she so friendly? And so close! She’s practically in my face!

“Fine, fine! I’ll tell you, just give me some damn space!”

I had to physically push her back in order to get room to breath. Oi, this is going to be a pain in the neck, isn’t it?

“Just look at this. It’ll make sense once you’ve Analyzed it.”

I set the unknown ring on the table, allowing anyone else to Analyze it. Analyze didn’t work on items in someone’s possession, like when they were equipped or in a bag. You had to physically set something down to let others see the info.

“Hm? There’s no description? How does that happen? I can feel some kind of enchantment on it, but I’ve no idea what it does. Where’d you get something like this?”

“From a C-Rank Dungeon. It dropped after I killed some kind of lich-like monster. I couldn’t Analyze it, so I’ve got no idea what it was.”

That got everyone’s attention. Sampson and his companions had arrived while I was talking and they were giving me skeptical looks.

“You’ve been in a C-Rank Dungeon before? What was it like? What monsters were inside? How long did it take to clear?”

Gah, so many questions! And she’s back in my face!

“Get back! I’ll answer your questions, so don’t get so close! There’s no need to be up in my face!”

I had no problems explaining the Nightmare Labyrinth to others. In fact, I thought that if they knew I’d been in a C-Rank Dungeon, they’d be more liable to listen to me when I warned them.

“Even if all the monster we saw were F-Rank, we need to keep up our guard. They’re more than likely going to show up in greater numbers than anyone’s expected. You’ve all cleared D-Rank Dungeons before, so you should know just how dangerous they can be.”

D-Rank monsters didn’t appear everywhere inside those Dungeons. Outside of the Boss fight, they usually roamed alone and were rare to boot. But I’d encountered multiple D-Ranks in the labyrinth. Even if they’d been alone, each fight had been more difficult than the last. And I had the sneaking suspicion that there would be multiple C-Ranks here.

“Hmph, so you’ve cleared a C-Rank Dungeon, so what? It doesn’t mean you know everything, or that you’re better than us! I bet you haven’t actually cleared one! You’re just trying to-.”

It had been the man sitting beside Sampson who’d spoken up, but he was cut off by his leader slapping the back of his head. While he clutched his head, Sampson spoke his own question.

“If yer saying this, then I assume you have proof?”

His tone was low, but not threatening. More like he was deep in thought. He did give off a muscle-headed air, but maybe he wasn’t as thick as he seemed. But as for proof, well the only thing that came to mind was the Nightmare’s Twin Swords. They were a cut above any other weapon I’d seen and since only I could use them, I wasn’t afraid of someone trying to steal them from me.

I took one of them from its sheath and stuck it into the table. Unlike regular equipment, the Twin Swords couldn’t be Analyzed even if I didn’t have a hold of them. Only those I let Analyze them could and even then, they wouldn’t see the whole picture. Just the description and rank, though I had no idea why it was those two specific things.

Anyway, all of that was because of their Unique Rank, something I’d yet to come across again. According to Insight, Unique Equipment was extremely rare and could only be used by one person. They also had the most potential and were even capable of Evolving, whatever that was.

It was the healer who spoke first.

“So you got them from that Dungeon?”

“Yep, they were the clear reward. They were also the weapon that the Dungeon's Boss used, but I don’t think they had the skills then. If they did, I would have never survived that particular fight.”

Since I’d made my point, I sheathed the sword, taking care not to damage the blade when I pulled it out of the table. Since it seemed Finnél wasn’t going to show up, we decided to start the meeting.

“So is anyone else worried about those ramps they used? Why did they wait for the second wave to bring them out? It would’ve made more sense for them to come out during the first attack.”

Alicia had a good point. They could’ve used the first wave to get the ramps there, then send the second to run straight up once they’d closed in. Instead, the second wave was slowed by having to transport them, while the first was completely massacred. From a tactical perspective, it didn’t make any sense.

“That reminds me, how’d you three destroy the ramps? Jansen prepared some explosives for us before we arrived, but yours were not only blown apart, but burned as well.”

Oh, does he do things right! To think he’d check out the damage to the other ramps.

“Simple. We had some consumables called Combustion Bombs. They’re pretty much just a souped-up grenade, with an incendiary effect. I saw some in my loot chest, so others should’ve gotten some as well.”

“I saw some of ‘em too. Didn’t know what they did til now, though. Should be useful.”

I’d rolled one of them to Braddock and Sampson so they could check them out. Their appearance wasn’t anything grand, a simple sphere with several bands all the way around and a single switch to set it off. It worked like a kitchen timer, so it was user friendly and could be set up to a minute at most.

“Woo, that’s a relief. I only have so many bomb materials and getting more is going to be rough with everything happening, so having these is a godsend.”

I’d half expected Jansen to get upset about the little explosives, but he seemed pleased. I suppose making effective and sturdy explosives wasn’t easy. Especially if you need to make sure you didn’t blow yourself up.

“So did anyone else notice anything? We should work together to share anything we know. Any way to boost our chances of success are welcome.”

We went around the table once more to see if there was anything else, then adjourned the meeting. Almost immediately, the healer jumped towards me again, pelting me with more questions.

Gah! Too close again!

[Finnél’s POV]

What fools. They’re so concerned with surviving that they haven’t even the slightest idea how to gain the most here. I guess commoners are only capable of that much. That’s a constant in any world.

He’d come to this backwater world in order to gain as much as he could for his house. As a low ranking son, both in terms of succession and in his System rank, he had little use to his family. He was a card that could be easily discarded. He wanted to change that.

“Young Master, we’ve finished our preparations. We can begin anytime. Are there any targets you’d like us to prioritize?”

He had to stop and think for a moment. At that farce of a meeting, he’d gotten the chance to observe a number of the Earthlings. A few had stuck in his mind. He could use the Scanning Skill since he was born, as he was of the Du Valec noble house. Everyone born with that bloodline had it. It was one of the signs of being nobility.

Scanning was an upgrade to the basic Analyze skill. It allowed you to check the most basic details of someone’s status, as well as the Rank and effects of their equipment.

“Yes, prioritize those who were at the first meeting. While it is still low-rank, most of their equipment was of decent quality. There’s always a need for those kinds of gear, even if we don’t use it ourselves. Oh, and grab that healer and the archer. They’ll make for excellent merchandise once we’ve returned.”

The agent bowed to him, then stepped back into the shadows. A nefarious plan had begun without anyone else being aware