Chương 61: Chapter 60: Six Captains, No Tank

Inside the Core Chamber, Owen eagerly pulled the light screen in front of him and carefully examined the adventuring party that had just entered the dungeon. While watching their battle yesterday, Owen had vaguely sensed that something about the party's composition was strange. However, two adventurers had fallen one after another, and the battle had completely occupied his attention, leaving him no time to confirm each of the six members' classes.

Only now did he finally realize just how absurd their party composition truly was. Two rogues, two rangers, one swordsman, and one bard. Owen stared at the light screen for a long moment, then counted them again.

"... Wait. Where's the main tank?" Never mind a shieldbearer whose job was specifically to take hits. There was not even a single proper shield among the six of them.

"Come on, you don't even have a main tank. No wonder six Bronze-rank adventurers still had two members go down against the Whisperer." Owen let out a deep sigh. If he still had a body, he would probably have a hand pressed helplessly to his forehead by now. As he listened to the six of them talk along the way, Owen finally learned that they were all captains of different adventuring parties from around Blackstone Town. They had only formed this temporary party to explore Blackstone Dungeon.

"No wonder you had such a hard time. Your party composition is a mess, and you barely know one another." Owen stared at the six people on the light screen and could not help sighing again.

"Good grief. If this were an online game, the dungeon queue probably wouldn't even let you in..." Before long, the party passed through the Bronze Gate that Cassandre had opened for them and followed the slope down to the ruined church. They did not slow down or even spare more than a few glances for their surroundings before heading straight inside. Owen's traveling-merchant persona noticed the new adventurers and was about to step forward to greet them when the swordsman at the front casually shoved him aside.

The swordsman had short brown hair and a prominent scar cutting across the corner of one eye. Without even looking back at Owen's traveling-merchant persona, he continued deeper into the church with the others behind him.

"Huh? What the hell was that?" Owen's furious roar echoed throughout the Core Chamber. He had never expected these adventurers to be so rude. Were they planning to rob the church next? His anger was replaced by concern. Only when Bishop Lorian emerged from the small room nearby did Owen's unease settle slightly.

"Good thing I'd considered the possibility of people like this showing up." Owen glared at the brown-haired swordsman on the light screen and let out a cold snort.

"Lorian is Silver-rank, after all. You'd better stop acting like an ass, or I'll have the bishop kick yours." ◆ ◆ ◆ Before Bishop Lorian could speak, the brown-haired swordsman cut in first.

"Hey, old man. There's a guest room here, right? Take us to it." Not a trace of emotion appeared on Lorian's aged face. He merely regarded the adventurers before him with indifference. When Lorian did not respond immediately, the swordsman clicked his tongue impatiently and placed his right hand on the hilt at his waist. His eyes narrowed slightly as he stared openly at Lorian. Just then, a hand landed on his shoulder. The swordsman paused. Slowly straightening, he turned to look behind him.

The blonde bard stood there. She calmly met his gaze and gave a slight shake of her head.

"Harlan, we made you temporary captain, not so you could come in here throwing your weight around. Watch how you act." Harlan's lips moved several times, but in the end, he said nothing. He turned toward the other four party members, only to find them staring at him with the same displeased expressions. The swordsman's face darkened further. However, under everyone's gaze, he ultimately restrained himself. With a stiff expression, he stepped aside and let Mirelle move to the front.

"It's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Mirelle, and I'm a bard. Please forgive my companion's earlier rudeness." Mirelle gave Lorian a slight bow, then turned toward Harlan, who was still standing nearby with a sullen expression.

"Harlan." She merely called his name, but her meaning could not have been clearer. Harlan's eyes widened. He folded his arms and glared at Mirelle, his chest rising and falling sharply twice as his face gradually reddened. Lowering his voice until it was barely audible even to himself, he muttered,"Why bother being so polite to these dungeon freaks...?" Mirelle did not back down. She and the others simply watched him calmly. At first, Harlan managed to maintain a straight face and pretend not to care.

However, after only a few seconds, one of his feet unconsciously slid half a step backward. In the end, he let out a heavy sigh and turned toward Lorian with an impatient expression.

"... Sorry." After saying that, he turned toward Owen's traveling-merchant persona and added coldly,"You too." A friendly smile immediately spread across the traveling merchant's previously expressionless face. He waved casually, his tone warm and amused.

"It's fine, it's fine. This gentleman was probably just feeling a little impatient. To make up for our rather unpleasant first meeting, I've even prepared a small gift for all of you." At those words, the tips of Harlan's ears gradually turned red. The other members of the party looked away one after another, while Mirelle offered Owen's traveling-merchant persona another slight bow.

However, the traveling merchant's next sentence caused the other five members of the party to turn toward Harlan at the same time, fixing him with looks that could almost kill.

"And that 'gift' is this: from now on, everything you buy from me will be offered at a special rate of one hundred and fifty percent of the regular price!" The smile on the traveling merchant's face grew even brighter.

"Wonderful, isn't it?" Harlan retreated several steps in quick succession. Under everyone's murderous stares, his previously flushed face rapidly turned pale. The next moment, he hurried over to the traveling merchant, bowed deeply, and apologized over and over.

"I'm terribly sorry. Please, you absolutely cannot do that." While still bent low in apology, Harlan leaned close to the traveling merchant's ear and pleaded in a whisper,"If that actually happens, they'll definitely kill me once we get outside." Only then did Owen's traveling-merchant persona give him a teasing glance. He removed a roll of bandages from his waist and stuffed it into Harlan's hands. It was nothing more than an ordinary roll of bandages.

"All right, this is the real gift I prepared. Accept it, and we'll forget what happened earlier." The traveling merchant smiled and waved his hand.

"The special rate was only a joke." The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Oh. Oh... Thank you..." Hearing that, the other members of the party finally breathed a sigh of relief. However, Harlan had barely returned to the back of the group when the older rogue raised a hand and delivered a sharp chop to the back of his neck. Harlan's eyes rolled back, and his body went limp. The rogue crouched smoothly and hoisted Harlan onto his shoulder with ease. Then, as though nothing unusual had happened, he looked toward Owen's traveling-merchant persona and Lorian.

"It's fine. I'm just making sure he stays quiet for a while, so he doesn't disturb the peace of your establishment again." Lorian's gaze settled on the unconscious Harlan, but his aged face remained entirely unmoved. He did not pursue the matter and merely turned toward the back of the church.

"Follow me. The guest room is this way." After leading them into the guest room, Lorian did not linger. Without so much as another word, he walked straight out. Owen's traveling-merchant persona did not enter either and remained in the church hall outside. Once the door closed again, no one spoke immediately. Colvin walked to the door first and listened for a while. After confirming there was no movement outside, he gave the others a small nod. Then he placed Harlan on the bed and pinched his nose shut.

Before long, Harlan, who had been lying completely motionless, furrowed his brow. He suddenly sucked in a breath and slowly opened his eyes. After coughing twice, he rubbed the aching back of his neck and sat up.

"Well? How did they react?"

"No hostility." Mirelle stood beside the bed with her arms folded, unmistakable amusement in her eyes.

"However, Lord Temporary Captain, don't you think you took the performance a little too far?"

"Never mind me." Harlan shot Colvin an irritated look. He deliberately kept his voice low as he spoke, then glanced toward the door again. Colvin shrugged and spread his hands innocently.

"You were the one who said to make it convincing. Of course I had to give it everything I had." He glanced at the back of Harlan's neck, which Harlan was still rubbing.

"Relax. My technique is excellent. There won't be any lasting damage."

"Damn it..." The corner of Harlan's mouth twitched.

"That's what every quack healer says." While the group bickered, a faint white light suddenly appeared on the previously bare wall nearby. The light gradually gathered, eventually forming a slowly swirling portal.

"Hmm. Looks like this is the other exit mentioned in the Guild's report." Harlan climbed off the bed and walked toward the portal while rubbing his chin, carefully examining it for a few moments.

"It doesn't look any different from the one outside the camp... Doro, go through and see whether it leads where the report says." The female rogue in the party rolled her eyes but still strode quickly into the portal. A dozen or so seconds later, the portal, which had only just gone still, lit up again. The first thing to emerge from the white light was a pale middle finger. After returning to the room, Doro immediately walked over to Harlan and jabbed the still-raised finger into his cheek.

"Next time, do simple things that anyone can handle yourself. Just because I'm a rogue doesn't mean you get to send me first for everything. Got it?" Harlan's neck tilted slightly beneath her finger, helplessness written all over his face.

"Got it, got it! Now hurry up and tell us what happened." Only then did Doro release him and sit down on the edge of the nearby bed.

"It leads to the camp gate. Looks like we'll be able to use this place to enter and leave directly whenever we continue exploring Blackstone Dungeon." ◆ ◆ ◆ Owen swore that if he still had a face, his jaw would have been hanging open.

"Damn it. Even I fell for it..." His entire core would not stop trembling.

"These people are amazing!" Owen floated excitedly into the air. At first, he had been complaining nonstop about the party's absurd composition. Then, when the scar-faced swordsman named Harlan acted so rudely, Owen had become angry enough to want to drag him over and give him a beating himself. Never in his wildest dreams had he expected the entire thing to be an act from beginning to end. An act designed specifically to see how far they could push the dungeon.

"That's right, that's right." Owen's core bobbed up and down repeatedly.

"Even if the Guild's report has confirmed that this is a safe zone, they still shouldn't let their guard down completely. Testing things like this can reveal quite a lot." The more he thought about it, the more impressed he became. If Lorian or Owen's traveling-merchant persona had reacted abnormally to the threat, or displayed hostility that contradicted the publicly available information, the party could at least have raised its guard immediately.

"But..." Owen suddenly let out a helpless sigh.

"Try not to go quite so far next time. You almost genuinely pissed me off, Scarface." After confirming that the portal matched the Guild's public report, Harlan and the others left the guest room and exchanged a few more words with Owen's traveling-merchant persona outside. What puzzled them was that the traveling merchant seemed to have completely forgotten the earlier unpleasantness and had returned to his friendly, courteous manner.

Although no one quite understood how his mood had changed so quickly, they ultimately accepted two quests: search for Basque in Graywood Town and gather medicinal herbs. Once their preparations were complete, the six left the ruined church and set out along the forest path leading toward Graywood Town. ◆ ◆ ◆ The actual conditions along the forest path did not differ much from the information provided by the Guild. That only made Harlan more cautious.

Since everything they had seen so far matched the report, they would most likely encounter those goblins riding hounds before long if they continued forward.

"Dane, Tessa, stay alert. The moment the targets appear, stop them before they can reach us. Can you do that?"

"Got it."

"Relax, kid. We won't miss." The two rangers walked at the rear of the party, one on either side, their gazes constantly sweeping across the distant mist. After traveling farther along the path, the group soon spotted a band of purple-skinned goblins gathered around the wreckage of a wagon ahead, jumping around as they searched through it. Harlan immediately raised a hand to stop the party. Taking cover behind the trees, he counted the goblins one by one.

"Twelve... That's troublesome. We don't have a shieldbearer either." He crouched slightly and rested one hand against the tree beside him while thinking for a moment. Then he turned and beckoned Dane over. Dane first surveyed their surroundings to confirm that the Goblin Riders mentioned in the report had not yet appeared. Only then did he hurry to Harlan's side.

"You'll attack first. Take out as many as you can. Once they get close, the four of us will charge in together." Harlan patted him on the shoulder.

"I'm counting on you." Dane did not even look back at him. A bowstring twanged. An arrow tore through the air and instantly pierced the goblin hopping on top of the wagon frame. Its body jerked sideways before tumbling from the wreckage. Only then did Dane grin, revealing a row of white teeth.

"Got it." Without waiting for Harlan to respond, he sprinted diagonally forward while drawing another arrow from his quiver and nocking it against the string. Harlan watched his retreating figure, the corner of his mouth twitching.

"What a... lunatic." Within a few breaths, Dane shot down three more goblins in succession. However, besides the goblins originally gathered around the wagon wreckage, several more suddenly burst out from the bushes on either side.

"Oh-ho? So they know how to set an ambush." Harlan drew his longsword. But before he could give an order, the three figures beside him charged forward, leaving him standing alone as he looked around in confusion.

"Did someone replace the captain?" Harlan hurriedly shook his head and rushed after them with his longsword in hand. Mirelle was at the very front. She moved with astonishing speed, her figure almost leaving a golden afterimage between the trees. She held what looked like a short staff. The moment her thumb pressed the mechanism along its shaft, several metal sections sprang outward at once, and a sharp spearhead gleaming with silver light emerged from one end.

At the same time, she began singing a powerful, stirring melody, a stark contrast to her usual soft-spoken manner.

"North wind, rise! Battle spirit, soar! We fear nothing!" A faint red light appeared in Mirelle's eyes, and her lips curled into a broad grin. Three goblins closed in on her from different directions. She kicked hard against the ground and shot forward, her spear instantly piercing the goblin directly ahead. The other two closed in from the left and right. Mirelle kicked the corpse free from the spearhead, twisted at the waist, and turned.

Her spear swept outward with a howl, knocking both goblins off their feet at once. On the other side, Colvin wielded a dagger in his right hand while sending throwing knives flashing from his left. Before two goblins could even reach him, throwing knives flashed through the air and buried themselves precisely in their eye sockets. Just then, another goblin suddenly sprang from a shallow pit nearby. Colvin narrowed his eyes and slipped aside from its lunge.

As they passed one another, the dagger in his hand swept smoothly across its throat. The goblin stumbled two steps forward before pitching face-first onto the ground. Its throat had been cut completely open. Colvin frowned in disgust, pulled out a cloth, and wiped the blood from his blade before charging toward the remaining goblins. Doro stopped several paces behind the front line. Holding a light hand crossbow, she shot down every goblin that attempted to approach her.

Just then, the sharp bark of a hound suddenly sounded from the distant mist. Harlan had only just caught up with the front line, but the goblins around them had already been reduced to a scattered handful. He simply stopped in the center of the battlefield and shouted,"The dogs are coming! Watch out!"

"You could at least tell us the direction instead of shouting nonsense, kid." Harlan's expression darkened, and he hurriedly turned his head. Dane and Tessa were already positioned on opposite sides, their bows aimed toward the approaching Goblin Riders. Who am I? Where am I? What exactly am I even doing here as captain? Those three questions probably described Harlan's feelings better than anything else at that moment. Two Goblin Riders were approaching.

As they drew closer, the slings in their hands spun rapidly above their heads, producing repeated whistling sounds. Tessa released her bowstring first. The arrow cut across the path of the rider on the right, forcing it to rein in its mount instinctively. The hound beneath it hesitated for a brief instant. During that tiny pause, Dane's arrow tore through the air from the opposite side and buried itself deep where the hound's foreleg met its torso.

The hound immediately lost its balance and tumbled across the ground. The goblin on its back clung desperately to the reins in an attempt to steady itself, but it was still flung violently from the saddle. It had barely managed to prop up its upper body when another arrow pierced its skull. The second Goblin Rider fared no better against the pair's crossfire and soon collapsed alongside its hound. At that point, aside from the six of them, nothing Harlan could see was still on its feet.

Tessa slung her shortbow across her back again, still holding an arrow in one hand. She idly tapped its shaft against her shoulder strap as she strolled back toward the group.

"Kid, your command isn't bad, but you still have plenty of room for improvement." Nearby, Dane also jogged back to the party. He glanced at Tessa first, then turned and examined Harlan from head to toe for a moment before nodding seriously. Harlan's eyes widened.

"No wonder nobody wanted to take the captain's position! You're all making me look completely useless!"

"Not at all." Mirelle's warm, elegant voice came from behind him. Harlan turned around to find Mirelle strolling leisurely toward them, her spear collapsed back into a short staff. The sight made the corner of his eye twitch. Mirelle covered her mouth and laughed softly.

"You have quite a talent for playing the villain. Ha ha." Harlan took several deep breaths, but in the end, he still could not hold it in. He threw back his head and roared at the sky.

"I'm so incredibly grateful to all of you!" The others hurriedly accepted his gratitude with great humility, nearly causing Harlan to choke with rage on the spot. While he was still fuming, he suddenly caught sight of a white orb of light floating between the trees nearby. The orb bobbed up and down in midair. It almost seemed to be... luring them toward it.

"What's that?" Harlan stared at the orb for a moment, then turned toward the others.

"Should we go take a look?"

"Kid, aren't you supposed to be the captain?" Harlan choked on his words. He looked toward the white orb again. The image of Rayne's party, whose reputation had recently been rising throughout the camp, surfaced in his mind, along with all the new information they had brought back from the dungeon time and again. Finally, he nodded firmly.

"Let's go take a look. Maybe we can bring back some new information too."