Chapter 28: 28

28: [Free Exploration] A Dried Drainage

Many minutes passed after we started following No Name.

“We can’t be following a stranger like this! It has to be a trap!”

Said Lucas repeatedly every five minutes. What are you, a cuckoo clock alarm? He tweets exactly every five minutes.

“It’s fine, I tell you. Let us follow her for now.”

I tried my best to calm the party down and headed forward.

After walking for a while, No Name suddenly stopped. All the party members, surprised, took all their weapons up and got ready for battle.

“This is the place.”

No Name pointed at the castle wall.

Upon closer inspection, there was a drainage system there. It had been a long time since it dried up and lost its function.

“If you go through here, you will enter the city. It's slippery, so be careful.”

After walking through the narrow drain with our backs bent for five minutes,

We reached the space where the passage finally widened. After straightening my back, I looked around. The location information of the place popped up in the system message.

[Area 1: A Dried Drainage]

We’ve finally reached the first zone of this Lake Kingdom.

It was the place where the entire city’s drainage system was gathered.

The place was all dried up without a drop of water flowing, and the tortuous drainpipes stretched out like a maze of intricate entanglements.

A magic stone enchanted with permanent lighting was embedded in the ceiling and brightened the space.

Beneath the magic stone laid a pile of stones like those in the backyard of my mansion.

As I approached and raised my hand, the pile of stones spun around and stood up. Soon after, the teleport gate was activated.

[The strongpoint for ‘Area 1: A Dried Drainage’ has been connected!]

Strongpoint.

It’s a safe zone that monsters cannot enter, and is usually installed at the first point of an area.

If you connect the teleport gate, you can continue your exploration from here next time.

Finding hidden strongpoints throughout the city, connecting teleport gates, repeating exploration, and returning home, was the basic routine of free exploration.

After confirming the teleport gate connection, Lily turned to me and pleaded.

“Can I please go home from here?! Please?!”

“Nope, that won’t do.”

Do you think we came with all this equipment and supplies just so we can stop our exploration here? We’re here to finish this entire area.

As I tried to calm Lily down, No Name standing from a distance said without any emotion.

“This is where my guidance ends. From this point on, you must proceed at your will.”

“Thank you for your guidance, No Name.”

After a moment's hesitation, No Name let out a long sigh.

“I must warn you. This place, the Lake Kingdom, has been completely devoured by the nightmare. The further you go, the darker the void will grow, and the more powerful the monsters will become.”

Unlike the dry voices I was used to, this time, I could feel the concern that came from the heart.

“Nevertheless, if you must head to the abyss, I have only one piece of advice.”

No Name whispered, word by word with force.

“You, must, keep, the, light, on.”

“......”

“I wish you only blessings on your way ahead.”

Leaving those words behind, No Name slowly walked away into the darkness, and eventually went completely out of sight.

Lucas, who had been watching No Name with concern until the end, muttered.

“I wonder, who was she? How is she able to live in this city under the lake?”

“Not sure either…”

Demian, who was sticking close to me in the back, let out in a slightly terrified voice—

“Your Highness, the darkness here is very strange. I can’t look at anything with my eyes. It’s as if… The darkness is actually alive.”

“......”

“But how is that woman… able to walk around without even a single source of light?”

I couldn’t answer that question.

Because there were a lot of secrets in this dungeon that even I, who cleared this game on the highest difficulty, didn't know about.

However, there was at least one thing that I was sure of.

“We’ll meet her again. Let’s ask her when we do.”

Here, at the bottom of the lake, we will meet again.

Either as enemies or as allies. In any form.

* * *

* * *

At the first strongpoint, we did some light maintenance.

I quenched my thirst with water and ate a bite of preserved food.

“I-I-I’ll be able to return home safely, right…?”

Everyone looked fine except for Lily, who was trembling in fear.

Jupiter gently reassured Lily.

“Don't worry, miss. This old lady will take responsibility and keep you safe.”

“R-really? Dame Jupiter, will you protect me?”

“Of course, just trust me.”

I was wondering why she was doing something so unlike her, but—

“That’ll only be 1,000 Adel.”

Of course, she was ripping Lily off.

“Sure thing! I’ll pay you right away in cash, actually!”

I quickly stopped Lily who was hastily trying to pull out her wallet. Stop, Staahp!

“Hey, Jupiter! Stop trying to rip her off!”

“Tch, you got me.”

Jupiter muttered as she backed off. You sly old woman!

I tried to calm Lily down after letting out a sigh.

“You don’t have to worry about a thing, Lily. Everyone will be able to return safely.”

“Y-you’re sure, Your Highness…?”

This is the first exploration area. In fact, the difficulty is quite low. If it was too risky in the first place, do you really think I would’ve brought you with limited mobility?

After calming Lily down, I looked closely at the system window.

[Area 1: A Dried Drainage] - Clear Progression: Normal Room 0/3, Boss Room 0/1 - Acquired Treasure chests: 0/2

The first area, A Dried Drainage.

As it was the first exploration area, the structure was quite simple.

It is a simple dungeon consisting of three normal rooms and one boss room. It's a straight line so you don't have to get lost.

The player must proceed through the dungeon from the strongpoint to the boss room, which is the exit.

Normal rooms can be skipped using tricks and gimmicks, but the boss rooms must be cleared through battle.

“Alright, everyone ready?”

After the maintenance, I looked around to see the party members and nodded.

“This should be a breeze with the level of this party. Let’s proceed!”

We stood in a line and left the strongpoint.

With Lucas standing in the front, me behind him, Lily, Jupiter, and Demian.

As soon as we left the strongpoint, unstoppable darkness fell. The darkness came crashing down like a wave.

All of the party members reflexively held up torches and lanterns in their hands.

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The pouring darkness flinched and retreated.

“......”

“.......”

Only silence remained among the party members.

I forced myself to voice out.

“Let us proceed.”

We slowly proceeded forward.

It was an endless passage of tortuous drainage pipes.

Even though it was a dry place without any moisture, for some reason there seemed to be a damp, shady atmosphere.

Lucas groaned as he raised the torch and looked at the pipes on the wall.

“It’s a corridor connected to the sewer pipes… I wonder how long this continues?”

“It ends soon.”

Just like I said, the road soon ended, and a spacious room opened up. This is the first room in the exploration area.

The dungeon in this game is basically composed of rooms and passages.

Random events such as battles against enemies, item discovery, and encounters with NPCs are held in the room.

And the event we will be facing in this first room is…

Shhheik!

Hiss! Hiss!

A battle.

The moment we entered the room, giant gutter rats crawled out from the walls, floor, and even the ceiling.

“Eeeek! Raaaats!”

Lily was even more terrified. Looks like you’re scared of many things, Lily…

[A Dired Drainage - Room 1] - Defeat the enemies! - Lv.3 Giant Gutter Rats: 14

The monsters were only level 3. We couldn’t let our guards down since there were so many of them, but that didn’t mean they were particularly hard to deal with.

“Lucas, you take the frontline. Do not go for the offense, and focus on the defense. Stand your position and guard off the ones that come to attack.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“Demian, you take the shots. These monsters have hardy skulls, so go for the eyes or the throat.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“Jupiter and Lily. Conserve your energies. Only attack the ones that come beyond Lucas’s frontline.”

There was no reason to waste the mana of the mages.

I commanded Jupiter and Lily to fall back and ordered only Lucas and Demian to participate in the battle.

Lucas pulled out his longsword and stood in the front, and Demian pulled out his crossbow. Jupiter and Lily both took a step back.

Now, what do I do?

Of course, I’m just gonna watch. Well, I just stood comfortably with my hands gathered in the back.

Tsschh!

Hiss!

A huge swarm of rats rushed in from all directions. With red-flashing eyes.

In response, Demian fired his crossbow.

Twang! Twang!

The arrows ripped through the air smoothly and flew right into the rats’ eyes.

Kyeegh?!

Thump!

The corpse of a rat that was killed in one blow bluntly rolled on the floor.

But, as I said, Demian shoots accurately, not quickly.

When the arrow knocked down the third rat, the rest had already reached Lucas.

“Hmph!”

Lucas swung his sword long and crosswise.

Flash-!

With the flash of his blade, the rats in the front were decapitated.

Lucas’s level was already at 29. As an SSR character, the stat growth rate was also outstanding.

The rats did not stand a chance in terms of stats anyway.

Flash-! Flash-!

Each time the flash of the blade cut through the darkness, the rats gushed blood out of their bodies one by one and scattered around.

And in an instant, the last of the gutter rats were wiped out.

Lucas wiped the blood off his sword, and Demian sighed and lowered his crossbow.

And I grinned.

“Good work, everyone~ Nothing special, right?”

“Indeed. It was easier than I thought.”

Demian smiled with a slightly exhausted face.

The enemies he had faced before like the Black Spiders or the Living Armors.

Compared to them, these rats were just some cute creatures.

At that moment, Lucas, who inspected the fallen rat corpses, shouted at me.

“There are thirteen in total, Your Highness. Shall I gather the magic crystals?”

“Nah, it’s fine. They’re low quality and we won’t get many… Hm?”

I stopped while I was still talking. Thirteen, did he say?

The information window stated that there were fourteen of th—

HIss-!

At that moment.

I heard a cry from the top of my head.

“?!”

As I looked up in fright, my eyes met the red eyes that were staring down from the ceiling.

It was the last giant gutter rat. Hiding in the darkness of the ceiling, it approached and then ran straight to me.

“Your Highness?!”

“Damn, it’s too lat—!”

Demian and Lucas let out a shout in fright.

It was too late for Lily and Jupiter to cast magic.

The distance between the rat and me was too tight that I’d also get carried away in the burst of the magic.

‘What should I do? What should I-’

It was at that moment that I remembered the glove I was wearing.

The SSR-ranked gamble weapon, Lucky Strike.

Now that I think about it, I had it equipped.

The situation was tense, and so I had to make a swift decision.

“Alright, here goes nothing!”

It’s all or nothing!

No matter how hard I try to exclude as many variables as I can from the game, there will come a time when I will have to entrust the coin toss to the goddess of fate.

I threw out my fist as hard as I could while thinking about that.

Ring. At that moment, a slot machine interface appeared in the corner of my field of vision. What the?!

Three panels numbered 0 through 7 rotated rapidly vertically, then stopped in turn. Ring. Ring. Ring!

And the number I got was…

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