WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Alyo

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◈ Surviving as a Warrior in a TRPG World ◈

Chapter 27: Swarm (4)

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Gerik briefly considered making an excuse when he saw the party like that, but decided it would only become more troublesome if he did. He simply shrugged and kept his mouth shut.

Half-elf Tarian looked at the pile of tails on the floor and spoke to their leader, Bruno. She added that the number of tails they had now was more than enough for a scouting report.

"What are you talking about?! Kagosh can keep fighting! Why go back?"

"..."

Kagosh, who had inherited the blood of a warlike Orc, shouted that they should continue the extermination.

Yet perhaps ignoring the dim-witted Half-orc was an unspoken rule of the party, because not a single person paid attention to Kagosh's words.

"...I think we should keep going."

"What...?!"

When Jensen suddenly stepped forward and suggested continuing the extermination, Tarian, who had proposed ending the mission, frowned.

Bruno seemed just as puzzled by Jensen's sudden proposal, so he asked why.

"Don't you remember the reward for exterminating a medium-sized Colony? Thirty silver coins per person. We've gone through all this trouble. We should at least get that much."

"What...?! You're still talking about extermination after seeing this many tails?! It could be a large Colony! The Guild said so too. If we find a large Colony, we're supposed to return immediately and report it!"

They had already achieved enough, and Tarian clearly hated Jensen's suggestion that they recklessly continue the mission. She berated him in a harsher tone than usual.

"And what are you going to do if a Giant Rat Man shows up while we're searching? It would be hard enough to exterminate it, and even if we did, the Guild might refuse to pay us for breaking the contract!"

Risking their lives was bad enough, but Tarian pointed out that they might not get paid either. The other two party members fell into thought.

Jensen, however, did not shrink back after hearing Tarian's opinion. Instead, he smiled triumphantly and argued back.

"A Giant Rat Man... That's a good point! Frankly, if there really was a large Colony, the Giant Rat Man should've appeared already!! How many Rat Men have we killed? But look. Did it show up?"

Jensen calmly began refuting Tarian, citing the ten Rat Men they had exterminated in the first battle and the more than thirty they had killed in the second.

"The fact that it hasn't appeared means there's a good chance the Rat Man Colony here is medium-sized. And around forty is almost the full population of a medium-sized Colony."

Jensen urged the party to continue, saying there was a high chance they had practically wiped out the entire medium-sized Colony already.

"If the Guild carries out the extermination later and it turns out to be a medium-sized Colony, are you going to compensate me for my hard-earned thirty silver coins, Tarian?"

"..."

Tarian fell silent before Jensen's pointed argument. The logic that they could each grab the huge sum of thirty silver coins with just a little more effort swayed not only Bruno, but even Tarian, who had opposed the idea.

Greed began to sweep through the Copper Plate adventurer party. At last, Bruno, who had silently considered it for a long while, spoke.

"...Then how about we search just a little farther? If anything feels wrong, we retreat immediately. If it really is a medium-sized Colony, we secure proof and burn out the Colony to claim the reward."

"It isn't a bad idea... but if we get surrounded again like before, it could become a real headache."

Tarian wanted those thirty silver coins too, but she remained wary because the fierce battle had drained much of the party's stamina.

"Surrounded? That shouldn't be a problem anymore."

Jensen said the Rat Men who had attacked from behind probably had not come from a separate Colony.

He claimed they were most likely a group that had gone out to gather food from the route he had pointed out earlier in the plaza, the route Tarian had not chosen.

"Otherwise, why would fewer than ten of them attack us from the rear? They must've been gathering food outside for the Colony. So there's practically no chance of us getting surrounded."

Jensen's argument was quite sharp. In particular, the fact that no Giant Rat Man, the symbol of a large Colony, had appeared felt like solid evidence.

When it seemed the party was being swayed by his argument, Jensen pressed harder, as if seizing his chance.

"Thirty coins! Thirty!! If we went back to somewhere cheap like Riverbridge, we could eat, drink, and laze around for half a year with that much! Are you seriously going to give that up?"

Thirty silver coins were certainly a considerable fortune even for Copper Plate adventurers. Jensen's words tainted even Tarian, who had clashed with him at every turn, with greed.

"Kagosh gets thirty silver coins! Party must go!!"

Now even the Half-orc Kagosh was getting worked up. Seeing that he looked ready to go alone if the party refused, Bruno seemed to finally change his mind as well.

"Then we'll go..."

"I'll sit this one out."

Just as Bruno was about to say they would continue, Gerik cut him off and said he would not take part in the extermination.

"Wait, you're dropping out now?!"

"Yes. I came as a guide, not to take part in the extermination. What do I gain from going with you?"

There was no chance he would receive the extermination reward, and all he would get was needless hardship. Gerik had not the slightest intention of continuing.

"...You need to be a witness. We agreed on that earlier."

Through the battle just now, Bruno had already realized that this brat was not an ordinary Wood Plate adventurer, but a swordsman of considerable skill. He had no intention of letting Gerik leave so easily.

Bruno wanted to use Gerik as a pack mule if nothing else, so he pressured him by bringing up the "witness" he had mentioned before.

"What do you need a witness for? Didn't Tarian say earlier that the Rat Man tails we've collected are enough proof for the scouting mission? Why would you need my testimony?"

"Uh... well..."

Gerik threw their own words back at him, leaving Bruno speechless. Bruno's eyes shifted as he thought for a moment, then he spoke again.

"...A witness for exterminating the Colony is important too."

"Jensen said that too. He said we could claim the extermination reward by bringing back part of the Colony. That means there's even less reason for me to be there, doesn't it?"

Gerik said it would be better for him to return and make an interim report, so they would have some protection in case of an emergency.

As Gerik refuted him logically based on their own conversation, Bruno had no choice but to admit that the brat in front of him had a sharp tongue.

"We treated a brat who's still wet behind the ears nicely, and this is what we get..."

Perhaps his temper had finally been provoked, because Bruno's expression began to twist. Even Kagosh, who had looked favorably on Gerik, and the rest of the party grew stiff-faced.

"Oh, are you going to kill me?"

"We could beat you up and drag you along."

"Aha... And if a fight breaks out after that, can you trust me to watch your backs?"

"...!!"

Gerik stressed that killing him or forcing him along would bring them no benefit beyond emotional satisfaction.

Making a skilled Warrior fight through intimidation was no different from carrying a viper in one's bosom. The threatening look on Bruno's face began to ease.

"...Still, can't you help us out a little, considering all we've been through?"

Bruno still did not seem to be considering sharing any of the reward. Watching him change his tune in an instant, like the seasoned adventurer he was, Gerik inwardly found it absurd.

Still, Gerik had realized through their conversation that they had no intention of letting him go. So he made a small gamble.

"One silver coin from each person. Give me four coins total, and I'll join you. You can afford that much, can't you? You're each taking thirty."

"One silver coin? Hmm..."

The amount Gerik proposed was certainly not bad. If this arrogant brat had failed to know his place and demanded an equal share, they might have cracked his skull with a mace instead of asking for help. But since he only demanded such a "small" amount, Bruno's party looked thoughtful.

"Leader. We can give him that much, right? If we're going to exterminate the Colony, we need to finish it today without reporting it first."

If they did not deal with the Colony quickly, the Adventurers’ Guild might sense that something was strange and dispatch additional people.

It would be troublesome if others got a share of their reward, and Jensen also suggested they be somewhat generous with Gerik, both to repay the debt they owed him for saving their lives earlier.

"Kagosh agrees. Gerik is a useful Warrior. He deserves it."

"Phew... Fine! I accept the deal. Let's do that."

Once it seemed the small deal with the party had ended amicably, Gerik agreed and casually slipped in another condition.

"Then, while we're heading to the Colony, could you answer some questions I have? Things like tracking... or what kind of equipment is useful..."

"Pfft. You're a damn clever one. Fine, we'll do that! That's how an adventurer should be!"

They had thought Gerik was a clueless brat, but his attitude made him seem like a promising adventurer who had come prepared. The party responded favorably.

"All right, it looks like we've settled everything. Let's get moving!"

With the party's opinions settled, Bruno led them, after a short rest to recover their strength, into the Sewer once more.

Fortunately, the narrow Sewer had no major forks in the path. Not long after they started walking, they easily found another open area.

"...It's a dead end? This doesn't look like the Colony."

The open space, no larger than a small storage room, had only a drain wide enough for a child's head. There was no sign of any passage.

This clearly appeared to be the end of the Sewer, yet strangely, there was nothing in the open space related to a Rat Man Colony.

"Tarian. Is this the right place?"

"The tracks clearly led here. If you look closely, there are Rat Man traces all around."

"...Could the place Jensen mentioned be where the Colony is? And this is... some kind of future site for a new Colony?"

Thinking they had come all this way for nothing, Bruno let out a harsh curse. Yet despite the circumstances, Jensen, who should have been smug, said nothing and only examined the brick walls with a torch in hand.

"Jensen. I think we should go back to the place you mentioned earlier."

"Shh. Just a moment."

Ignoring Bruno's request, Jensen continued examining the Sewer's brick wall.

That was not enough for him either. He set down his pack, took something out of it, and began using it in his search.

'Did he find something...?'

Jensen examined the wall with a chisel, a punch, and an iron pry bar. He even struck it with a horseshoe-shaped gong, making sounds as he worked. The entire party held their breath and watched.

He looked exactly like an expert who had found something suspicious. Even Kagosh, the impatient and dim-witted Half-orc, quietly watched him.

Diiing.... Wooong....!!

The horseshoe-shaped gong had only repeated the same ringing sound whenever Jensen held it to the wall, but for the first time, a different sound spread through the Sewer. Jensen quickly put it down and scattered powder he had prepared beforehand.

"...Found it."

When he scattered the grayish-white powder, strange lines began to appear on the old brick wall that had looked ordinary. Excited, Jensen used the punch and chisel to try to widen the gap.

After working for quite some time, he finally used the iron pry bar to pull at the gap in the wall.

Creak...!! Grriiind...!!

The sounds of something breaking and being pulled echoed throughout the Sewer. Before long, an unnatural squeak came from the wall, a sound that should not have been there, and the wall opened like a door.

"...Do Rat Man bastards make secret doors these days too?"

Rat Men had intelligence no better than beasts, yet they appeared to have even used a secret door to build their nest. Bruno cursed in disbelief.

The appearance of the secret door made not only Bruno, but the rest of the party as well, sense a deep secret beyond it.

"...What do we do? Are we still going?"

Footnotes:

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