Jujutsushi Wa Yuusha Ni Narenai

Chapter 202.2: Exploring the Desert Area

The mummies had dirty bandage-like clothes coiling around their bodies. Although their appearance barely reached the passing mark as horror movie props, they would become sitting ducks upon entering combat due to the lack of a protector. Not to mention that they were bare-handed too.

I could pretty much tell from their figure and movement that they were just your average Joe. Their only merit was their superior numbers.

「Tch, troublesome fella.」

Tendou-kun raised his hand and fired three huge fireballs. The explosion blasted away the mummies.

「The heck, you seem to be all fired up, Ryuuichi.」

「I’m not. Oi Natsukawa, the entrance is around this side, right? Let’s get going already.」

「Y-Ye~sh」

Owing to the fact that I had some leeway in giving orders, the mummies were defeated from the moment they showed up until finding the entrance. The entire process was very smooth, that’s why a party with strong members was truly the best party.

On the other hand, it felt like I had nothing to do at this kind of party.

「Let’s get going.」

The discovered entrance opened to the outside. It wasn’t a gate or door and was already open from the very beginning, more like one of the stone slabs that acted as a gate was already gone.

It felt as if there was no intention to hide the entrance. It was a pyramid and yet didn’t prohibit any intruder from entering the building.

「… It feels like there’s nothing inside.」

Natsukawa-san, who went inside and used all her senses to detect traps or ambush, reported back with a rather disappointed look on her face.

When we followed her lead and went inside, there really was nothing. It was just a vast space lacking the air of the tomb of a king. This pyramid was just for show.

「This might be just the entrance. The real deal might be hidden underground, right?」

The entrance of the magnificent temple-like pyramid was a letdown, but there was a huge staircase on both sides of the entrance hall leading underground.

The real thing might start after we stepped underground.

「Which stairs shall we choose?」

「Natsukawa-san, your call.」

「U~h, that’s too much expectation.」

As a result of pointless worrying while strangely having a sense of responsibility, Natsukawa-san chose the stair on the right side of the entrance from our perspective.

「U~hm, there really is nothing… But don’t you think it feels like a cave?」

After confirming the safety of the stairs, we went down the long staircase, this place felt like the combination of both a natural cave and a stone dungeon.

「This place kinda reminds me of an insect cave.」

「There’s a place like that, eh? I kinda missed it.」

We had fought at rock spider boss, Yokomichi’s, disgusting entrance before getting caught inside a monster house-like trap. Our party would have been annihilated for sure had Souma-kun not come to save us back then, but my impression of those events was rather unimpressive because Asuna had pushed me out of the teleportation ring.

「But, there are a lot of traces in this place suggesting that it is not entirely a natural cave. It seems to have been dug out by a monster.」

「Uhm, it feels like… A tunnel?」

「Maybe they even mined coal.」

「I bet they’re mining fantasy-esque metal such as mithril.」

Well, whether it was a Mithril mine or some other, we would know the answer once we got in there.

The natural stone pillars had obvious traces of being reinforced all over the place. There was also a small, shining white panel every once in a while. And just as we advanced slowly into the man-made dungeon tunnel――  The first one to notice something unusual was Natsukawa-san.

「There might be a monster ahead. There’s only one but… It’s huge and seems to be OP too.」

Natsukawa then looked silently at us as if seeking our opinion.

「Not as big as Yamata no Orochi, right?」

「Well, that one is a special case.」

「Then let’s go. This party composition is the strongest.」

Natsukawa-san looked at me as if asking me if it was really okay to go with a seemingly easy-going decision, however, if that fella was an extremely dangerous one that could insta-kill all of us, none would survive fighting that guy anyway.

「Let’s go, Natsukawa-san. Don’t worry, we will win this fight.」

「Leave it to me, Souma-kun!」

Mei-chan then whispered to me as we saw Natsukawa-san getting all fired up thanks to Souma-kun’s refreshing-hunk smile.

「When push comes to shove, I’ll carry you to escape.」

Yup, never forget to prepare an escape route. Mei-chan truly understands me the most.

Well, now that there is no problem with my self-protection measure, let’s follow Natsukawa-san to see the so-called OP monster.

After walking for a while, I could finally feel the presence of that monster.

　CRUNCHCRUNCHCRUNCHBAMBAMBAM

There was an ominous noise akin to breaking something tough.

「We will be arriving at a spacious hall at the end of this tunnel, the monster has been waiting in there.」

Natsukawa-san whispered.

I had already confirmed the direction with a compass magic circle note, the area ahead of us wasn’t the boss room. It was just a venue that kept a powerful monster, something like an extra boss.

「Leave the timing for rushing to me.」

She might have already been prepared. Natukawa-san spoke to Souma-kun and then went toward the plaza.

Unexpectedly, the battle had yet to begin when we entered the venue.

The said monster kept eating without even noticing our arrival.

「Kotaro-kun, what kind of thing is that guy eating right now?」

I knew the reason Mei-chan asked that question— none of us knew what kind of thing the monster was chomping right now.

The monster who was standing by in the plaza was a glowing minotaur.

It had a pair of splendid horns and a physique rivaling that of a Gogma. Its behind that was facing toward us looked like a cow’s behind no matter how you looked at it. Welp, that tail looks so delicious.

And upon a closer look, it was not that its flesh was glowing; the glow came from the crystalline shell covering its entire body. Overall, it looked like a huge neon light in this plaza.

The crystal minotaur, abbreviated as crystaur, was shoving its head onto the wall.

Yes, that guy didn’t eat grass or meat, it was eating the frigging WALL. Is that wall a delicacy for them? How does it taste?

「… I see, this fella ate magic stone.」

Welp, I had gotten too captivated by the crystal I forgot that upon a closer look, the surface of the rock was filled with glowing light akin to a starry night sky.

The ensemble of red, blue, and yellow was definitely stone containing magical power, otherwise known as 『Magic Stone』, which we became familiar with recently.

And the thing that crystasaur ate was none other than the magic stone on the wall.

「Oi, are you done observing that monster already?」

「Ah, my bad Tendou-kun, please wait for a while.」

「Finish it quickly.」

Tendou-kun drew his king’s sword from the golden magic circle. A thick magical power overflowed from his body, it was very obvious that he was itching to fight the crystasaur.

At that moment, the crystasaur which was completely engrossed in its meal until now had finally snapped.

『Hero』, 『King』, and 『Berserker』 assembled together. When such an assembly emitted its killing intent, even the dullest monster would notice them.

「Fuu… GRRR, MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!」

The crystasaur then raised a warcry that shook the entire room, its ruby-like eyes glowing with ominous color.

And thus, the battle began.