Chapter 36 — Guilty

Chapter 36 — Guilty

Finally, water.

I went down toward the river. It should be in that direction, right? Yes, I was not mistaken. When I was coming down the hill, I could no longer see it — huge trees blocked the view. I pushed my way through the undergrowth in the direction where I had seen the river earlier.

Oh, there it is.

The river opened up in front of me. The water glittered under the moonlight so beautifully that I literally felt dizzy with relief.

Yes, finally!

I dropped to my knees at the bank and shoved my head right down to the surface, gulping the water in huge, desperate swallows.

And after just the first few gulps—

KHA-AAH!! KKH-H!! KKH!! KHA-AAH!! KKH-H!! KKH!!

Damn it, just what I needed. I rushed the water too much and it went down the wrong way. I started coughing and… fell straight into the river. Great. Now my clothes were soaked, and on top of that it was cold.

Oh! And what is this—? Damn, I stepped on something. What is that? A net? Some kind of plant? No, it really felt like a net. And inside… fish?

Ah, crap! I tore it. Damn. That must have been someone’s trap. Where’s the fish? Whatever, too late now.

Alright… now carefully.

I climbed back onto the bank and went a little upstream. Then I leaned down to the water again, this time carefully, and began to drink more slowly.

Yeah… divine taste.

Better than any drink. Better than any juice. Just pure, cold water.

It felt like I drank two or three liters. Probably less in reality… but it felt exactly like that.

Alright… now I can rest a little. I will just lie here for a bit. I found a relatively soft spot not far from the riverbank and lay down.

Yeah… just a couple of minutes. I will just close my eyes…

---

What was that…?

I woke up sharply and opened my eyes wide — and immediately squinted. Too bright. It was clearly daytime already.

I had woken up because someone had splashed cold water straight into my face — like someone had dumped half a bucket on me.

“Hey, idiot, finally awake?!” a girl’s angry voice snapped.

I jumped up. In front of me stood a girl of about twenty — red hair, neat, down to just below her shoulders, a simple village dress. In her hand was a wooden bucket.

“Hey! Why are you just staring at me?” the girl demanded, clearly irritated.

“Ah… nothing, nothing…” I answered automatically. Why was I even trying to defend myself? She was the one who had just thrown a bucket of water at me. Pretty rude, honestly.

But she was looking at me as if I had done something horrible. As if I had committed some kind of terrible crime against her.

Damn… this silence is going on too long.

I needed to say something.

“Hi,” I said.

“Hi? That’s all you have to say after everything you have done?!” her voice got even louder.

What I have done? I tried to recall last night. No, I had not done anything. I just drank some water, accidentally fell into the river, and then fell asleep nearby. Nothing bad, as far as I knew.

Alright, I should clear this up.

“Excuse me, but I think you are mistaken. I did not do anything. I was just exhausted and fell asleep here,” I said.

“Oh, so you think I am some kind of fool, do you?” she snapped. “Take a good look at yourself before you start pretending to be innocent!”

I looked down at myself.

Damn… my clothes were completely torn, and standing like this in front of a girl… I was almost naked. A wave of embarrassment washed over me and I instinctively covered myself with my hand.

“I am… sorry,” I muttered.

“‘Sorry’? And what is that supposed to mean, huh? What the hell were you doing? You ruined my fish trap!” the girl practically yelled. “Do you even understand how much time I spent making it?! And you just went and broke it! Why the hell did you destroy it?!”

A trap for fish?

Ah, I remembered. Last night I really had torn some kind of net when I fell into the river.

So… that had been her trap?

Damn.

I really was guilty.

I looked down again — there were still torn pieces of net hanging from one of my legs. Apparently part of it had gotten caught on my shoe when I climbed out of the water.

“I am sorry… I will pay for it!” I said. Money was not a problem. I had plenty. And even if it were not enough, I could sell something at the Adventurer’s Guild. Right now, money was the least of my concerns.

The girl looked at me, took a deep breath, and said:

“Of course you will pay. But it does not look like it can be settled with just money. Even if you do not have any, you are still going to work off what you broke. I made that trap myself and spent a lot of time on it. So… follow me. You are going to make up for it.”

“Alright,” I replied.

“Good. Then come along. And do not even think about running away. You will not get away from me before you pay,” the girl said and turned to leave.

I exhaled and followed her.

I had no idea where I was right now or where the nearest Adventurer’s Guild might be, but I had to act according to the situation.

So I just quietly walked after her.

---

POV: Edel

The girl left the dungeon extremely disappointed. It was midnight, and as she stepped away from the entrance she saw only a few guards in the distance. A normal person would not have noticed them, but thanks to her job she could clearly make out the watchers hiding in the dark.

Ignoring them, she simply headed toward the city. Once she was far enough from the camp — the tents, the makeshift town that had grown around the dungeon — her clothing, the adventurer’s gear she wore on top, began to change. In the next second she was dressed entirely in black. After shedding her adventurer disguise, she moved with such speed that to an outside observer it would have looked as if she had simply vanished into the night.

---

In less than ten minutes she was already moving through the corridors of a large mansion and stopped in front of a massive door. Her heart was pounding. She was nervous — the mission she had been given had not been completed. She understood that it was not her fault and that, most likely, she would not be punished for it… but the anxiety would not leave her.

She knocked.

“Come in,” she heard a woman’s voice from inside.

Edel took a deep breath, opened the door, and entered the room.

“Edel, you are back?” the woman said. She was sitting behind a huge desk buried in papers. From the sheer number of documents, it was obvious she had been working until now, despite the late hour.

“I am sorry, Master… I could not complete the mission,” Edel said, her voice sincere and regretful.

The woman lifted her eyes from the papers.

“I was certain your level was high enough, that you were fully prepared. How did you fail this mission?” her voice was slightly harsh.

At those words, a faint shiver ran through Edel’s body. She knew her master was not trying to scare her — she was simply demanding an explanation. Still, the fear sat deep inside.

No, this woman was not a bad person. Quite the opposite — she had taught Edel everything she knew. She trained her, guided her, helped her grow stronger… but for every mistake, she also gave punishments. Punishments so harsh that Edel never wanted to repeat the same mistake again.

They were not physical punishments — but each one was a grueling ordeal that made her stronger. And yet… they were terrifying.

“I fulfilled all the conditions… but the secret corridor, the secret level of the dungeon — it did not open,” Edel answered.

“This was your third time, correct? Third time… You have done this mission twice before, have you not?” the master asked.

“Yes, Master. This was my third time,” Edel replied.

“In that case… someone else has learned about this secret level. That could cause us trouble,” the master said, frowning slightly.

“I am sorry, Master,” Edel quickly bowed deeply.

“This is not your fault,” the woman said. “But we must find out who it was. Who learned the secret. This is not something that just happens by accident. The conditions are too strict, too precise for the secret level to open randomly.”

Edel nodded silently. Her master was right — she understood that very well. Chance was out of the question. Theoretically, yes, there was a possibility… but it was so tiny it might as well not exist at all. No one could just randomly fulfill the requirements to unlock the secret level.

The first condition was to clear the dungeon from beginning to end eight times in a single day.

That meant entering the dungeon, completely clearing it, defeating the final boss — and repeating all of that eight times within twenty-four hours.

Considering that even a party of third-rank adventurers usually needed at least ten hours to make it from the entrance all the way to the boss room, doing eight full clears in a single day was practically impossible.

The second condition:

All of this had to be done not by a party, but by a single person.

One adventurer alone had to clear the dungeon eight times in one day.

Only then would the door to the secret level appear.

Third, even if the door to the secret level did open, the inside would be filled with a massive number of monsters equal in strength to the dungeon’s final boss. Even a fourth-rank adventurer would not be able to defeat all of them alone.

And since this was a third-rank dungeon, most of the adventurers who came here were first or second rank, sometimes third.

Fourth-rank adventurers had no reason to waste time and strength on a third-rank dungeon.

And those who reached fifth rank did not even glance at such low-level places.

On top of that, this secret level of the dungeon opened only once a month. If someone fulfilled all the conditions and took the reward, the entrance would not appear again for an entire month. Their organization had used this for years — every month they took the reward without revealing the secret to anyone. Only members of the organization knew about it.

And now… someone from the outside had clearly learned about it.

The thought that there might be a traitor among them, someone who had sold the method for accessing the secret, sent a cold chill down her spine.

If that were true… things could end very badly.

Each one of those Source Mushrooms that could be obtained from the secret level sold for several hundred gold. They were bought mostly by nobles and rich merchants — there were very few of these mushrooms, and there was always a buyer. Considering that the reward for clearing the secret level consisted of tens of thousands of Source Mushrooms, it was an incredibly tempting prize. Whoever had taken the reward could make a fortune.

But for their organization, Source Mushrooms were not merchandise. They did not sell them. They used them to strengthen their own people. Some were given to the higher-ups, but most stayed within the organization: every member ate one Source Mushroom per day. Little by little, it made them stronger. Yes, at high levels the increase was small, barely noticeable. But for the newer, weaker members it was a huge advantage.

And losing access to them could be disastrous for the entire organization.

“Edel, I have a task for you,” her master suddenly said.

“Yes, Master. Please give your orders,” Edel replied.

“Tomorrow, take your team and someone else with a high-level Appraisal skill, and head to that dungeon. You are to watch who enters. If you see anyone of the fifth rank, report to me immediately.

The one who took that reward — who obtained so many Source Mushrooms — will definitely return for more. People are far too greedy to let an opportunity like that slip away.”

“As you command, Master,” Edel bowed and left the room, heading to her quarters.

Tonight, she would rest well, and in the morning she would leave with her team.

And when she caught the bastard who made her stand before her master in such shame…

She would be sure to teach him a lesson — for daring to steal what belonged to her organization.