The Extra's Return



The shape of the inside of this Mine Dungeon turned out to have a maze-like structure.

The deeper I went, the more confusing it seemed for my mind to remember every bend in the road I had taken. There were many cuts in the path that I had taken. Sometimes there were even confusing forks in the road.

If one were to just enter this Mine Dungeon, not only would they have a hard time facing the Golem, they would already be lost.

It was the same for me. It was fortunate that I didn't have to enter this place alone. If I were to try to explore this place by myself, although I would be able to, it would definitely take a lot of time.

In addition to me not entering this place alone, I had a map in my hand. This was a map that Claude and his party had brought along. The map was in a bag full of food. So, I opened the bag and read it.

Claude said it was a map that had been given by Marquess Stronghold, as well as a map that had been written and developed by the people who had taken the monster-clearing quest in this Mine Dungeon.

Therefore, Claude's party would also have the obligation to add additional details to the map if their party had, intentionally or unintentionally, explored uncharted paths.

And it turned out that there were still many unexplored branches of the road when I looked at the map.

"Are we heading in the right direction?"

"Of course."

Walking while holding the map in my hand, I asked Claude who was in front of me. He was leading me toward the Nest of Darkness. He said the gate to the Nest of Darkness was inside this Mine Dungeon.

I prevented being tricked by him by opening this map occasionally.

By the way, I was no longer the one who was the porter. The person who was the porter was Raiz. In addition to the large shield he carried, he also carried a bag full of food as well as spare weapons.

Previously, I had gotten a surprising answer from Claude when I asked him about the Nest of Darkness.

Originally, I had only guessed that he would probably only know a little information about the Nest of Darkness through the few soldiers they had encountered yesterday. But, who would have thought that he would even know the exact location of the gate to the Nest of Darkness?

It turned out that he had been given the assignment to deliver a slave to the Nest of Darkness yesterday, which was why he knew exactly where the gate to the location was located.

"Once again I emphasize. I only know that that place was the gate to the Nest of Darkness from the talk of the soldiers. So I can't give you any assurance that it was the place you were heading to."

"I understand. By the way, you said yesterday that you and the soldiers of Marquess Stronghold were carrying slaves there, right? Regarding that slave, was it referred to as The Fox by the soldiers of Marquess Stronghold?"

"How would you know? ... Indeed. They called it that. But I couldn't see directly because the cage where the slave was locked up was wrapped in cloth. What's more, my party members and I were just auxiliary bodyguards tasked with opening the way."

At first, I was surprised that Marquess Stronghold dared to bring in outsiders for such a secretive task. However, Claude said, they were just auxiliary people, not the core people who received the task to dispose of The Fox.

"Aren't you afraid of breaking the confidentiality agreement with Marquess Stronghold if you tell me about your secret quest and the location of the Nest of Darkness?"

"We are not telling you where the Nest of Darkness is. We're just doing our quest. And regarding our quest, we never told you the exact content of the quest we received from Marquess Stronghold."

"How could I believe that... Hmm?"

It wasn't Claude who answered, but Sharon.

At my question, which seemed to be trying to understand the state of their party, Sharon gave me a sharp look and answered my question with a feigned dumb face. Shrugging both of her shoulders, she turned back to the front quickly and walked with tight but fast footsteps.

As Claude and Raiz listened to Sharon's answer, they said, "That's it" very casually.

Looking at their response, there were two possibilities. Either the agreement they agreed to with Marquess Stronghold was too weak, or there was no specific clause regarding what they should keep secret or what they could and could not say!

Or perhaps, they dared to tell me all that because I had the status of a slave?

Only they knew that for sure.

As we were about to reach a bend in the road, I came to a sudden stop as my hazard sensor suddenly went off.

"Oh. There's another monster around the corner ahead."

I pointed at the dark bend ahead.

Hearing my impromptu warning, the three of them looked at me simultaneously.

'How did he know?' A question of some sort clearly rose above their heads.

The three of them did not deny my words because this was not the first time I had told them.

As I had been following Claude, occasionally a golem would come our way.

This was the umpteenth time.

At first, they had ignored me. However, now they were immediately prepared to fight.

Not long after, the enemy appeared as I had said.

There were two golems that appeared. It was quite a surprise. This was the first time we encountered two golems at once.

It's not really normal.

Claude said they had also done some cleaning yesterday while escorting The Fox to be thrown into the Nest of Darkness. So, the possibility of a Golem moving simultaneously was quite abnormal.

However, if it was only two Golems, this was not a serious enough problem.

Raiz immediately unloaded his luggage. He immediately blocked the movement of one Golem with his shield.

Meanwhile, Claude fought the one remaining Golem. When Claude finished weakening, not killing one Golem, he would help Raiz. If Raiz was left too long, he would suffer injuries that would hinder the journey.

At the back, Sharon was in charge of supporting the two of them at once.

Unlike when they first entered this dungeon, where they weren't so serious that it took a long time to subvert one Golem, now they were serious from the start and could fight the Golems quite quickly.

"Mountain Splitting Sword!"

"...Ground Shaking! ...Ground Spikes!"

Their cooperation was quite mesmerizing.

Even without my help, they would have been able to defeat those two Golems.

Are you wondering what my role was?

Of course, I'm not just going to watch until they defeat the two Golems.

I also wanted to help so that they wouldn't be viewed me as a burden on the team.

At least, that's how it appears on the surface.

Although in truth, I was just waiting to deliver the final blow to the Golems.

There was nothing sweeter than the act of getting the last hit. I didn't have to waste much energy draining the Golems' Health Points. The three of them wouldn't even be able to complain to me because they didn't know what benefits I could take from getting the last hit.

The Health Point I was referring to was the state in which the Golems were already battered. Their energy was depleted and they had many attack marks on their bodies. It was only at such a time that I jumped into battle.

Duar! Duar!

I simply used the Amplification skill to kill the Golems.

The two Golems exploded and turned into a pile of stones and pebbles.

When they saw me kill the Golems, there was a look of annoyance in their expressions. I'm sure they themselves didn't know why they were upset.

They made the same face as someone who had just eaten a bitter meal. Except for Sharon. Sharon looked sincere, which made me feel very guilty.

Strangely, she kept looking at my face. Over and over... she looked like she was trying to analyze my face.

"Is there something on my face? I'll be embarrassed if you keep staring at me."

"...Ah! Nothing."

She would just say that every time I asked. She had done that many times.

I could only sigh without being able to get an answer.

"I say again, you guys don't mind if I take all that, would you!"

This time, I said to the three of them.

My eyes were focused on the Magic Crystal that was shining brightly on top of the Golem's corpses—stones and pebbles.

From the moment Claude led me to the Nest of Darkness, I was the only one who took all the loot. It was fortunate that Claude kept quiet without arguing with me. If he had complained, I would have had to use force.

I was already quite poor now. There wasn't much money—if not completely depleted—in my Inventory. At the very least, I had to get enough money to pay my debt to Clarista.

Claude and Raiz's faces contorted as I flashed a bright smile. They finally dared not look at me anymore and turned their faces away as if to say, 'Whatever you want.'