Chapter 90 — Anomaly (Part 7 )

Chapter 90 — Anomaly (Part 7 )

I kept moving toward the dungeon exit.

I didn’t have to fight monsters much anymore. Now, what we mostly encountered ahead of us was minor trash, and it gave almost no experience points.

My thoughts were occupied with something else entirely right now.

I was still thinking about how I had smashed some old weirdo’s golem.

Yeah, I left quickly after saying I would compensate for the destroyed golem… but I was still a little worried.

No, it wasn’t about the money. I have no problems with money.

The problem was something else.

I’m just not used to talking to people like that.

And still… I answered calmly enough and left quickly. I’m even a little proud of myself.

At the very least, I didn’t say anything rude, and I don’t think I blurted out anything unnecessary.

But that conversation still kept replaying in my head.

Alright… all I can do is hope that when they find me, they won’t ask for too much compensation.

Though, like I said, money isn’t a problem for me. I can always create enough health potions and sell them to the guild.

Oh.

The monsters were gone.

In other words, the road that had only recently been filled with a stream of monsters was now empty.

Though “empty” wasn’t exactly the right word.

I was still here… along with several hundred golems.

I think the dungeon exit is still pretty far away. Ten kilometers… maybe fifteen.

But I think we’ll get there soon.

And for some reason, I started feeling a little worried about something else.

How will people react to this many golems?

About ten minutes later, I saw the wall in the distance.

I was just about to teleport into the Training Room and ask Rem to dismiss the golems. I didn’t want the defenders on the wall to mistake them for monsters and start attacking.

And in general, if they started attacking the golems because they thought they were dungeon monsters… like that guy who had almost attacked them earlier.

Yeah, if they destroyed the golems, it wouldn’t be a huge problem. Rem could summon as many as she wanted.

But I still didn’t want to create unnecessary hostility.

But the moment I thought about it, the golems started disappearing.

Looks like Rem understood the situation on her own and decided that the golems were no longer necessary.

I quickly headed toward the wall.

As I got closer to the wall, there were far more adventurers around.

Yeah, I had also encountered adventurers on the way here. Different teams here and there, but there weren’t nearly as many as there were near the dungeon exit.

And what was surprising was that most of them were F-rank and E-rank adventurers. In other words, low-rank adventurers.

Though, when you think about it, that made sense.

There are more F-rank and E-rank adventurers here than anyone else.

Their positions inside the dungeon are usually closest to the exit, but they still can’t move as fast as high-rank adventurers.

Oh… come to think of it, I’m an E-rank adventurer too.

I think the next time I sell enough trophies at the Adventurers’ Guild, I’ll accumulate enough guild points to rise to the next rank.

The next rank… yeah, I think that would be D-rank.

I hope I catch up with Rem and Sherial quickly.

They’re C-rank right now.

It would be kind of strange if the team had two C-rank girls and the guy was only E-rank.

Oh.

There were a lot of people on the wall.

There were many ballistae standing on top, and it looked like there would soon be even more—farther along, some people were installing new ones.

I quickly approached the gate and exited the dungeon.

Finally.

Now I need to find a secluded place so I can bring Rem and Sherial out of the Training Room without attracting too much attention.

Damn… why are there so many people here?

I searched around a little and finally found a small alley.

It was piled with garbage and all kinds of junk.

But there were no people there.

Good enough.

I teleported into the Training Room.

I thought I would quickly bring Rem and Sherial out and immediately return to the alley.

But what I saw was not at all what I expected.

"Oh, hi, Alisar! You finally came back? I was starting to think you’d forgotten about us," Sherial said in a playful voice.

There were books in their hands. They set them aside and looked at me. For some reason, it felt like I had interrupted their rest. Sherial and Rem were lying on lounge chairs.

As if they were sunbathing on a beach.

Yeah, those loungers could be called lounge chairs, though they looked a little different.

And in general… Sherial’s clothes were definitely not adventurer clothes.

And it would be hard to call them everyday clothes too.

They looked more like a swimsuit.

No… not quite a swimsuit. Sherial was wearing much more fabric than that.

But still, her clothes looked very suitable for relaxation… or a vacation.

Rem’s clothes looked more like ordinary casual wear, but even so…

A sword lay beside her hand.

I only just noticed that there was a dagger lying beside Sherial too.

Yeah, at first glance it looked like they were just relaxing.

But on the other hand, they clearly weren’t defenseless.

And apparently, they were ready for battle even in a situation like this.

"Maybe you’ll stop staring at us and say something already?" Sherial said.

"Or have you already forgotten why you came here?"

There was still a faint trace of teasing in her voice.

Damn… I forgot something very important.

Considering how fast time moves in the Training Room…

Every one and a half minutes in the outside world is one full day in here.

That means… if it took me about an hour and a half to get out of the dungeon and find this alley, then…

More than three months had passed for Rem and Sherial.

That was an enormous amount of time.

"Sorry… I completely forgot about that," I said.

"Oh, don’t worry. We were just resting all this time. Though… over the past few weeks, we started to suspect that maybe you had simply forgotten about us," Sherial said, still smiling.

"So, did you already get out of the dungeon?" Rem asked.

"Yeah. I found an alley where there are no people, and I teleported here to pick you up," I replied.

"Then we’ll need to wait a little," Sherial said.

"We need to prepare."

"Alright."

I teleported back to the alley, counted to three, and teleported into the Training Room again.

The two lounge chairs Rem and Sherial had been resting on were already gone.

Instead, they were standing in front of me—fully dressed in adventurer gear, ready for battle.

I walked up to them.

They took my hands.

And I teleported the three of us back to the alley.

—

"Hey, take all this faster," the merchant said in a good mood. "I still need to return to the shop and gather the rest of my goods. Most of the city’s residents have already decided to evacuate."

The merchant himself was also planning to leave. But before that, I had just bought most of his goods. And not only from him—I had gone through several other shops as well.

I bought a lot of long-lasting food. Touching the huge crates, I teleported into the Training Room together with them and returned back the very same instant.

For ordinary people, my disappearance is almost unnoticeable—I’ve already learned how to teleport there and back very quickly. So right now, I’m just telling everyone that I have a spatial storage skill. It seems everyone believes it.

I’m buying food because it’s part of our plan. We’re going to participate in the defense of the wall against the dungeon monsters, which means we may spend a lot of time in the Training Room. If the food runs out during the battle… that would be very bad.

Right now I’m buying only long-lasting food, while Rem is buying better-quality food—fruits, vegetables, meat, and things like that. You know, tastier stuff.

Someday I’ll have a spatial storage skill too. Yeah, definitely.

Now I need to return to the gate, to the wall. We agreed to meet there.

I could buy a little more food by selling a couple of health potions, but I think I’ve already bought too much as it is.

—

Some time passed.

The first wave of monsters should begin soon.

Everyone was nervous. No one here had experience with situations like this. Besides, it’s not every day that some idiot destroys a dungeon core.

Guards in military uniforms stood near the ballistae. There were also some archers here, but most of the defenders were still adventurers.

Our group stood closer to the center of the wall. It seemed that the main blow would land here.

Well, yeah… the main road from the dungeon was right in front of us.

That was exactly where the monsters were supposed to appear from.

I narrowed my eyes, peering into the distance.

I think I can see something.

Yes… dark silhouettes had begun to appear far away.

Looks like the monsters are finally approaching.