Legend

A giant spider monster over 4m in size. It had a protective colouration that allowed it to blend into the surrounding landscape of the rocky desert. It was a nasty strength that allowed it to wait for prey to approach while pretending to be a rock, attacking the moment its prey came within range. However, the Rock Spider before Rei’s group was now lying on the ground as a corpse with several parts of its body destroyed.

Rei went over to the Rock Spider with his Mythril Knife.

As could be seen from the way it could disguise itself as a rock, the Rock Spider’s carapace was quite hard, though not as hard as real rock. Because of that, the edge of the knife Rei usually used to strip materials wouldn’t have held up against the Rock Spider.

Of course, if he wanted the Rock Spider materials, he could have stripped off the carapace, which was used to make armour, and the legs, which were used in weapons.

However, in this case, Rei was only looking for the magic stone. Because of that, he had no intention of going out of his way to help the adventurer who had claimed ownership of the Rock Spider after being saved by Set and even demanded compensation.

Empowering the Mythril Knife with magic power, Rei cut through the Rock Spider’s hard carapace and removed its heart before gouging out the magic stone.

Looking at it superficially, the Rock Spider barely had any damage, aside from what Set had done to it.

For Rei, who wasn’t that good at stripping materials, this was an accomplishment and about as good as he would get.

「Phew.」

After removing the heart and magic stone more easily than expected, Rei gave a sigh of relief and took out the Dagger of Flowing Water from the Misty Ring to wash his hands and the magic stone.

The adventurer that picked up his sword that had been knocked away by the Rock Spider and the adventurer with the spear both looked at him in astonishment after seeing Rei take the dagger out of nowhere.

「Well then, as promised, we’ve taken our share. The rest is yours.」

(If you can take it back with you, that is.)

Rei thought to himself as he turned his attention to the dead bodies on the ground.

Among the dead was a porter. Without a porter, the two adventurers would naturally have to carry the materials of the 4m Rock Spider out of the dungeon themselves.

Of course, they could carry it if they really had to. But if they did that, they would definitely be attacked by monsters later.

(Although it’s quite regretful to miss out on the materials and proof of subjugation……at the very least, I got the magic stone I wanted. I also don’t want to feed spider flesh to Set.)

That was what Rei thought, but as for Set, it seemed like he wanted to taste the Rock Spider. Set looked over at the two adventurers moodily.

「Elena, should we get going? It’s about time. I want to find the stairs and head back up.」

「I agree. I’m honestly sorry to breathe the same air as someone who is so unsightly as to try to make a profit at the cost of their dignity.」

There was neither hatred or disgust in her tone, not even pity. Of course, there was no friendliness either.

Her gaze towards the adventurer with the spear was as if she was looking at a rock on the ground around her, she didn’t even consider him a living being as she spoke without any emotion.

「Wha-! You just insulted me! I demand an apology!」

The adventurer with the spear realised what Elena had just said to him and shouted back. However, Elena already found it too bothersome to deal with and turned to Rei, who nodded back and turned around.

However……

「Wait! You’re just going to leave us here like this!? If you saved us, take full responsibility and take us to safety!」

When he heard what the man said, Rei turned around with a wry smile on his face.

「Did we save you? We stole your prey, didn’t we? So why should we help you? Did you already forget what you said earlier?」

「That was that, this is this.」

The adventurer with the spear replied without any shame. Rei gave a snort as he and Elena started to leave again.

However, more words were thrown at them.

「Do you not even have the kindness to bring these corpses back to the surface!? If you just leave them here, they will end up as food for the monsters!」

The adventurer with the spear’s next focus was the three corpses lying on the ground. They were the adventurers whom he had formed a temporary party with.

「You have an item box, right? If so, you should be able to take their bodies out.」

「……I see.」

It wasn’t uncommon for adventurer to die in dungeons. However, the guild recommended bringing back the bodies when possible.

This wasn’t just out of sentimentality. Depending on the location, adventurers who died in dungeons could end up becoming undead and attack others.

But, even then, bringing back bodies was rarely done, unless they had been part of a fixed party.

Temporary parties were merely the temporary coordination of several people to make money for themselves. Those who took the trouble to bring back bodies were those who possessed a strong sense of duty, normally bodies would just be left where they were with a keepsake brought back at most.

If you brought back guild cards of the dead, you could earn a few bronze coins as a reward, but it was worth much more money to bring back monster materials, proofs of subjugation, and magic stones.

(This guy doesn’t look like someone with a strong sense of duty though.)

While thinking to himself, it wasn’t difficult to guess what the adventurer with the spear was thinking.

It was the same not just for Rei but also for Elena.

The weapons they had been carrying and all their equipment as well. Even if they could collect them, they didn’t have enough hands to take them back no matter how you looked at it.

The porter had also been among the people to die. Their backpack contained all the materials they had collected up until this point.

「What’s wrong? We can’t bring their bodies back to the surface, but if you have an item box, you can do it, right?」

「……I’d like to ask you a question. Are you trying to get me to carry the bodies because you want the tools and equipment they have?」

Rei, who had become tired of any further exchanges, asked the man with the spear bluntly.

However, whether he had hit the nail on the head or if he was just angry and impatient, the man’s face grew red.

「D-Don’t be stupid! I just want to bring their bodies back as adventurers should! You’re just assuming I would take anything of value from the dead! I demand an apology and compensation!」

「……In other words, you’re saying that if I bring their bodies back up to the surface, you have no intention of taking any of their weapons and equipment?」

「……」

The man probably didn’t want Rei to take him at his word and remained silent.

His attitude was a clear indicator of what he was aiming for.

「It’s fine, I’ll watch him, so could you please bring the bodies back? Although we were only a temporary party, I can’t bear to see their bodies just dumped in the dungeon like this.」

He must have thought that things wouldn’t get anywhere if they continued like this. The adventurer with the sword called out to Rei.

「Guru~」

It seemed even Set thought that it would be better to move on than to stay and engage in trivial disputes. He turned to Rei and gave a cry.

Rei gave in at Set’s attitude and gave a small sigh as he stored the bodies into the Misty Ring.

The the adventurer with the spear saw that he smiled at Rei. However, Rei decided that he would only feel worse if he kept dealing with the man. After storing away the three bodies, he visually signalled to Elena and Set. But, when they tried to leave again, the man’s unpleasant voice was thrown at them again.

「Wait! What about our escort until we finish stripping the materials!」

「I don’t know. Why do we have to take care of you that much? Do what you want.」

With a short reply, Rei, Elena, and Set continued in the direction of the stairs marked on the map.

As he watched them leave, the adventurer with the spear’s face turned bright red as if it had been set on fire as he stomped his feet.

「Don’t be stupid! If you saved us, then it’s only natural for you to take care of us to the end! But they……damn it, when I get back to the surface, I’ll tell everyone about this and isolate him!」

「Stop it.」

The adventurer with the sword, who had been silently listening up until now, called out to the man with the spear.

「Why! They should have protected us to the end……」

「You’re being unsightly. In the first place, you insisted that you weren’t rescued and that they had stolen the Rock SPider. If so, it’s too unreasonable to ask them to escort us. Instead of isolating Crimson, you will be isolated instead.」

「What are you saying! In the first place, it was only because I negotiated with him that he didn’t take all the Rock Spider materials!」

「As far as I’m concerned, they saved my life, so I don’t mind giving them all the materials. ……Rather, how do you intend to bring everything back?」

The adventurer with the sword spoke as he looked at the corpse of the Rock Spider.

The Rock Spider was a huge monster 4m in size and its materials were correspondingly large and heavy. As for the carapace that could be used as armour, it was naturally larger than a human. The adventurer with the sword could easily imagine how much it would weigh.

「That’s why! If we could use his item box……」

「Haah, that’s enough. Suit yourself. It was my mistake to form a party with someone like you, even if it was a temporary party. I’ll give you all the materials. I’d rather keep my life.」

He looked at the adventurer with the spear in amazement before saying that, sheathing his sword and leaving the area.

His direction wasn’t the direction they had originally been going in……but in the direction Rei’s group had left in. As if chasing after them, he sprinted away from the corpse of the Rock Spider and the adventurer with the spear.

Seeing him leave, the adventurer with the spear kicked the ground to vent his frustration.

「Damn it, what is he thinking, even though I negotiated to keep the Rock Spider, he didn’t even thank me? I’m going to get him to compensate me when I get out of the dungeon. ……First of all, I guess I’ll strip the materials from the Rock Spider. If I had an item box, I could just take the whole thing, but he didn’t even listen to me and just left.」

Perhaps he was irritated that Rei didn’t hear out what he had to say, taking out a knife from his waist, his spare weapon, he tried to stab the Rock Spider’s body with the tip in frustration……

There was a metallic sound as the tip of the knife bounced off.

No, the tip didn’t just bounce off. Looking closely, the knife was missing a whole 1cm from the tip and could no longer be used.

「Damn it, I’m really unlucky today. I had to team up with useless adventurers, ran into monster snatchers, and that adventurer didn’t even listen to me at all, he just looked at me with contempt. Lastly, the only other survivor of the party was heartless enough to leave me behind.」

In frustration, he kicked the corpse of the Rock Spider before realising the next moment how hard it was as severe pain ran up his leg.

Even so, the materials that could be stripped from the Rock Spider in front of him could be sold at a good price at the guild, so he couldn’t give up here.

「It can’t be helped. I had wanted to use the knife if possible.」

Sighing, he used his spear to take apart the Rock Spider.

It might have been because the carapace was torn in some places due to Set’s attacks, but unlike the knife, the spear was a weapon used for battle, so while the spear tip felt some resistance, but there was no difficulty in cutting through the Rock Spider’s carapace.

Even though Rei had known this, he had chosen to cut only the minimum parts necessary to extract the magic stone.

For about 20 minutes, he desperately stripped the carapace off the Rock Spider with the tip of his spear, but when he was about halfway through, he jumped to the side with spear still in hand.

As one would expect from an adventurer who had been able to descend to the 12th floor, he was quite skilled. But that was all there was to it.

「Bah, why are there so many!」

Bhiend him was a giant spider with gray, rock like, skin.

It was slightly smaller than the one Set had killed, but it was still nearly twice his size.

「Gya, Gyaaa, GYAAAAAAAAA-!」

It wasn’t clear if the Rock Spider was conscious of its fellow spider, but regardless, it attacked the man.

「Damn it-! How could this happen to me……hey, someone help me! Hey, hey! If I die, it will be a huge loss for Exil! Hey, someone……anyone help meeeeeeee-!」

He screamed out, but there were no signs of anyone coming to his rescue……the man was reward for his foolishness and was eaten alive by the Rock Spider, the cruellest death a human could ever suffer.