Chapter 7: The Dig

Intrell Village was a typical “Village A” in novels, the kind that boosted the protagonist’s fame and experience points. Therefore, this village wouldn’t appear in the latter half of the story.

However, she and a few other readers had noticed that Intrell Village was mentioned later. By a demon.

“[The one infiltrating the southwest of the empire created a new legion and swept the surrounding area. Well, they were eventually subjugated.]”

Whether this news reached the hero’s party was unknown. The author hadn’t mentioned or described their reaction.

But one thing was certain: the appearance of goblins and orcs near this village was influenced by a demon.

Click. Click.

The metal rod she held was a device that detected such demons. She had made it on a whim after hearing the idea from an acquaintance.

‘I should have put more effort into making it.’

This device only indicated direction; it didn’t reveal the demon’s exact location or form. The detection method was also rather crude, and the rod could easily spin in circles.

Still, it was better than leaving it in her subspace for magic tools and forgetting about it. She took advantage of the hero’s party’s distraction and slipped out of the village.

Click.

“Hmm, from here, this way. Hmm.”

The detection rod subtly adjusted its direction, searching for the demon. She nodded, impressed by its performance.

“Well, well. Look who I made. Gotta point the way clearly.”

You should always look ahead when walking. She had forgotten that obvious fact until just now. Fortunately, despite falling into a ditch, she wasn’t injured, and the detection rod was intact.

She brushed off the ditch water from her robe and struggled out of the ditch. After confirming no one had witnessed her clumsiness, she cleared her throat and resumed walking.

Waaaaah…

Quite a distance from the village, she heard faint war cries. It seemed the hero’s party had begun their operation.

‘The demon might show itself soon.’

She needed to prepare for battle. She checked her white robe again for any dirt.

She spun around like an idiot to check the hem of her robe, but since no one saw her, she didn’t dwell on it. Sometimes, being too smart made you do stupid things.

‘There’s a fine line between genius and idiot.’

That’s what her actions just now were.

Click.

“Is it here?”

At a certain point, the detection rod started spinning instead of pointing in one direction. They bumped against each other, turned their backs on each other—it was chaos.

This meant the target was right here. If the demon had materialized, it should be visible.

But since it wasn’t visible, it meant it wasn’t here. She looked down at the ground.

“What should I use to dig?”

She entered her subspace filled with magic tools and started looking for a suitable tool. She hadn’t used them in so long that they felt like new magic tools.

Perhaps because of that…

“Hum, hum~”

She found herself humming as she searched through her magic tools.

The hero’s party began their monster subjugation. Aswell, the hero leading the charge, traversed the mountain, constantly running through the mock battle plan in his head.

His holy sword and abilities could easily slay goblins and orcs. But Aswell didn’t consider that power to be entirely his own.

A precarious power that could disappear at any moment.

That’s how the hero viewed the holy sword, and accordingly, he repeated grueling training and study every day. More knowledge offered various ways to dominate the battlefield, and more power made those methods possible.

This was also the teaching of Serin, his first teacher. She was currently heading to the opposite side with him to establish a base.

Raphilia was waiting in the mountains to clean up the remaining monsters, and Aria, the non-combatant, was tending to the patients in the village. Their coordination, honed over a year, wasn’t perfect, but it was good enough.

‘Rui is…’

Come to think of it, Rui wasn’t there when they were greeted by the villagers earlier. Since Aria didn’t know either, Rui must have gone somewhere immediately after the meeting.

‘Either she went to sleep, or to do research.’

Based on Rui’s behavior so far, it was highly likely to be one of those two. He had been observing Rui’s actions, so he could be certain.

‘I forgot to mention the ingredients for monster hunting.’

Rui had said she joined to obtain ingredients for magic. But now that they were in a place overflowing with those ingredients, she wasn’t participating in the battle.

‘Is it because goblin and orc ingredients are common?’

Unfortunately, Aswell knew nothing about the supply and demand of magic ingredients. But based on his own experience, he could make some inferences.

Rui must have encountered goblin and orc byproducts several times. So it was understandable if she wasn’t interested.

Rustle.

“…”

The sneaky footsteps right in front of him.

Goblins.

‘Do they have scouts now?’

This was still outside their territory. If he could hear the sounds of a small group of goblins moving, they must be scouts.

And the presence of scouts was a warning that the main force would soon move to expand their territory. If they had been even a day later, Intrell Village might have been wiped out.

‘Let’s finish this quickly.’

He would eliminate as many as possible, swiftly, so that Lia wouldn’t have to work too hard. At the same time, he would ensure their safety so that Aria and Serin wouldn’t blame themselves.

‘…Just in case, let’s kill them cleanly.’

And he would kill them cleanly, in case Rui needed them.

Shing.

The holy sword began to glow. Blue letters emerged from the black gloves gripping the holy sword, imbuing Aswell with various formulas.

Just changing his gloves made his posture more comfortable. Aswell lowered his body and shot forward like an arrow.

—-!

—-?!

Swish!

And so began the one-sided battle between the hero and the monsters.

Hmm.

She couldn’t find a suitable tool no matter how hard she looked. The demon beneath her wasn’t particularly proactive, so there was no need to rush.

It had concealed its presence until the hero’s party left, so it was likely to remain dormant. So she had time… but she still had to return before the hero’s party finished their work.

‘Otherwise, it’ll just raise suspicion.’

She didn’t plan to tell the hero’s party about the demon she was hunting. She didn’t know what kind of impact it would have, unlike the other events she had read about in the novel.

Honestly, the possibility of her gaining a dramatic power boost from capturing this demon was extremely low. So, she would just catch it and return quickly.

“Deploy.”

She summoned her pen and chanted the spell.

“Diffuse. Status. Analyze.”

Blue and gold letters quickly filled the air. At the same time, several ingredients were pulled from dozens of subspaces that appeared around her.

“Hmm, this one’s bone will do.”

She drew a line in the air with her pen, as if dragging something. A long bone, floating in the air, followed the trajectory of the line and stopped in front of her.

“Deconstruct. And… hmm.”

As her thoughts dragged on, she started pacing in circles, a habit she had developed while conducting research in this world.

She circled around something, like the Earth orbiting the Sun, and now, the long bone became her axis.

“Complete decomposition? Or partial? Or fragmentation?”

The bone’s form changed with her words. It turned into dust, then partially reformed, then took on the shape of sugar cubes.

Rustle.

“Fragmentation it is. Then, add scales and wing membranes, fuse. Shape transformation.”

Rustle. Crack!

“The appearance is very good. Now for the core ingredient…”

—Uooooh!!

“Huh?”

She had been so engrossed in creating the magic tool that she hadn’t heard anything approaching. A green figure armed with a crude stone axe and shield, an orc, charged at her with a ferocious grin.

But it never reached her.

Bang!

It crashed into the translucent sphere surrounding her and collapsed unconscious. An orc’s axe. Since it was controlling the goblins and orcs, this should be a suitable core ingredient.

“Sorry, but I’ll be taking your axe.”

Leaving the unconscious orc behind, she proceeded with the final process. A magic tool resembling a drill was finally complete.

It was strange that the orc had charged at her. That wouldn’t normally happen. Sensing something amiss, she turned around and examined the orc again.

She saw traces of fear paralyzing its reason. It hadn’t attacked her of its own volition.

That meant…

“You noticed.”

Bang!

Like the detection rod, she struck the ground hard, and the drill started rotating, digging into the earth. Now all that remained was to wait for the drill to reach its target. The demon might have set up barriers and other defenses, but the drill would pierce through everything, creating a direct tunnel hotline between them.

“I should have brought some snacks.”

She had only eaten a small breakfast because she was sleepy, and now she was getting hungry. She imagined the carrot soup she had eaten in the previous village.

“I should ask the village chief.”

Carrot soup was a common recipe in the empire. This village probably had its own special version of carrot soup.

Crack! Crack!!

—-!!!!

The sound of something hard grinding against the tip of the drill. She looked down and saw something like black plant roots spraying purple liquid. And then, a scream.

It was the demon.