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Translator/Editor: Alyo

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◈ Surviving as a Warrior in a TRPG World ◈

Chapter 49: Ruins (1)

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"Finally...!! Then let's head straight to the ruins! There's no need to waste any more time, is there?"

Having achieved all their lesser goals, including the promotion, the party no longer had any reason to fight monsters. The moment Ilvern gave his approval, Minos urged everyone to head for the ruins at once.

Naturally, the rest of the party, who were either hired hands or retainers, had no objection. They immediately began marching toward the far end of the Boundary Forest.

"Boarman village ahead. We'll go around it."

It was during this journey that Katrin's true worth became clear.

To be blunt, although she was an upper-tier Copper Plate adventurer, her skill was noncombat-oriented, so her fighting ability was not even on par with Gerik, who had only just reached Copper Plate.

Yet her skill, specialized in stealth and concealment, along with her seasoned expertise as a scout, made the journey vastly easier for the party. Under Katrin's guidance, they easily avoided encounters with monsters and cut through the forest almost as if they were simply on a march.

'So that's why every party absolutely needs a scout.'

Gerik watched Katrin make her way through the Boundary Forest without hesitation and couldn't help being impressed. It was nothing like the casual scouting she had done in the safer outer reaches of the forest.

Even when they had no choice but to force their way through, she always secured the first strike or assessed the battlefield beforehand, allowing them to fight under overwhelmingly favorable conditions. Having experienced that several times, Gerik had no choice but to reflect on how much he had underestimated her.

On the fourth day after entering the Boundary Forest, Katrin, who had been giving the same reports over and over, finally gave them a different one.

"I think we've reached the ruins Minos mentioned."

For an ordinary adventurer party, it was a distance that would have taken at least fifteen days to reach after bitter struggles against all kinds of monsters.

Thanks to Katrin, though, the party had reached the deepest part of the Boundary Forest in only four days. Seeing that, Gerik understood once again why the Ashburn family had paid such a high price to assign her to Minos.

"Oh..."

As he pushed through the undergrowth, Gerik stopped for a moment and let out an exclamation at the sight before him.

Collapsed buildings lay beneath trees that had grown over them. The ruins reminded him of Angkor Wat, which he had seen while traveling abroad in his previous life.

Unlike the well-preserved Angkor Wat, however, these ruins were small and abandoned. The deep darkness unique to the Demonwild Forest made them feel especially eerie and ominous.

"Finally...!! Finally...!!"

Unlike Gerik, who felt vaguely unsettled, Minos's eyes sparkled with excitement as he finally saw the ruins he had sought with his own eyes.

"...Isn't it kind of small and shabby?"

Having grown fairly close to Minos over the past fifteen days, Gerik honestly voiced his impression of the ruins instead of hiding what he thought.

Minos did not seem offended by the dismissive remark at all.

"Not at all! Just learning that ruins recorded only in documents truly exist is enough to satisfy me. Besides, if something of this size is here on the outskirts, then there must be larger ruins in better condition deep within the Demonwild Forest!"

"Um..."

"Now that we know ruins matching the documents truly exist here, don't you think that one day, if we improve enough to venture deeper in, we might uncover a world-shaking secret?"

After speaking grandly, Minos pulled a pile of archaeological magic tools from his pack and happily ran toward the collapsed buildings.

"Young mas... No, Minos! Slow down...!"

When the usually composed Minos began acting like a child, Ilvern nearly let the wrong form of address slip out.

He barely cut himself off, then hurried after Minos with a flustered expression. Gerik watched the two with a smile before turning to Katrin.

"Don't you need to stop him? It could be trouble if he runs into a monster."

"No. I figured he'd be like that, so I already scouted the inside."

Katrin answered with a shrug. Gerik nodded, then slowly stepped into the ruins after her.

Following Minos into the largest building, Gerik found him examining the interior in a frenzy while Ilvern stood guard.

'...Magic tools?'

Minos had laid out several items that looked extraordinary at a glance, and Gerik watched them with great interest.

'That lens-like magic tool... seems to identify materials, and that thin book... is it a magic tome that can record a lot of information while staying light?'

Seeing Minos carrying so many expensive magic tools, befitting someone born with a silver spoon in his mouth, Gerik looked a little envious.

After a while, Gerik inspected the unremarkable ruins himself.

'It doesn't look like there's anything here... What is he examining so thoroughly?'

Watching Minos inspect the temple's interior with his archaeological magic tools, Gerik decided to use his cheat-like status window to see if there was anything unusual inside.

The status window showed no reaction, confirming that this was an ordinary ruin.

'It's badly damaged... And it looks like tomb raiders already looted every spot where there might have been artifacts, so there aren't any traces left...'

Unlike Gerik, Minos repeatedly examined the walls and floor with a serious expression, as if he had found some sort of clue.

Several dozen minutes passed. Unable to endure the boredom any longer, Gerik yawned and asked Minos,

"I can't see anything no matter how hard I look... Is there actually something here?"

"Not yet... I think I need to look around a little more."

After giving only that answer, Minos collected several fragments of stone and moved on to the next building. The one after that, and the one after that, were much the same.

To Gerik, they were simply collapsed buildings. Minos clearly saw them differently, though, because he kept searching each one with a deeply serious expression.

"It's getting late, so shall we stop here for today? I'll inspect the rest tomorrow."

'...What exactly is he even doing?'

Minos had been so thorough that, despite the ruins being no larger than a small village, he spent the entire day examining them and still said there was more to see tomorrow.

Gerik did not voice his dissatisfaction, even though he couldn't understand it.

'Well... I'm getting paid to relax, so it's good for me...'

Ilvern had highly valued Gerik's rapid growth on every expedition and, to keep him from leaving the party, had added a daily wage of one silver coin for each day they spent in the Boundary Forest to their original contract.

"Let's set up base camp in the first ruin."

As the scout, Katrin suggested that they establish their base camp in the first ruin they had entered, saying it would be the easiest place to defend and escape from.

No one objected to the expert among them, and the party decided to camp there.

Unlike before, Gerik had gained a great deal of experience over the past fifteen days. He helped set up the campsite with practiced hands, and the party settled in quickly.

Once the base camp was ready, Katrin, who had naturally become the one in charge of meals, prepared a simple dinner.

Gerik sat around the campfire with his companions, quietly eating. Then he suddenly looked up and glanced around.

'Come to think of it... why aren't there any monsters here?'

Gerik had encountered monsters large and small throughout their journey across the Boundary Forest.

Yet for some reason, not a single monster had appeared around these ruins, from the time Katrin had scouted the area until now.

The buildings were collapsing, but some roofs remained, leaving spaces that could be used like dens. Gerik found it strange that not even the common Goblins lived here.

"Katrin, why aren't there any monsters here?"

When Gerik asked, Katrin answered as if it were nothing.

"Most Boundary Forest monsters live in groups. It's hard to form a colony in crumbling ruins like these."

Neither Ilvern nor Minos showed any sign of objecting to Katrin's indifferent answer. Gerik alone seemed to find it strange.

"Why? There are buildings, and there are roofs too."

"Think about it. There are countless underground caves nearby that are more comfortable, spacious, and better hidden than this place. Some are even close to water sources. So why would monsters choose to live in narrow, unstable ruins that might collapse when they could live somewhere like that?"

Katrin's sharp rebuttal left Gerik speechless. Her words naturally brought to mind the underground caves where they had exterminated Goblins and Boarmen.

They had smelled terrible because they were enclosed, but the caves had certainly been spacious and stable. The humidity was relatively constant, and they were advantageous for keeping outside threats away.

'...Come to think of it, if I were building a community in the Demonwild Forest, I'd live in a cave instead of ruins like these.'

Gerik nodded to himself. The monsters he had observed so far were far simpler and more direct than humans.

Given their nature, there was no reason for them to insist on living somewhere that might collapse when more comfortable places were available.

* * *

The next morning, Minos began meticulously examining the remaining ruins as soon as he woke up.

After some time, he called his companions over and headed for the largest ruin they had visited the day before. Without any explanation, he approached a wall and began digging at the ground.

"Do you need help...?"

"No. I won't be digging deep... Just a moment!"

Gerik asked, confused by Minos's sudden behavior, but Minos smiled and declined. Not long after he began digging, broken debris emerged from the soil.

"As I thought..."

Minos muttered to himself as if something had confirmed his suspicions. Unable to contain his curiosity, Gerik asked,

"What did you find?"

Unlike the day before, when he had avoided giving an answer, Minos opened his magic tome and checked the copied ancient writings before speaking slowly.

"Gerik, what do you think these ruins we explored all day yesterday are?"

"...Just old, collapsed ruins?"

Minos grinned at Gerik's reply.

"Right. Most people would think that."

He placed a hand against the wall, then looked around as though inspecting the ceiling.

"If I hadn't read a legend in the documents that seemed connected to the Demonwild Forest, I would have thought so too."

Minos opened his magic tome and showed Gerik the passage from the legend that he had underlined and marked as important.

"This is..."

Gerik read about an ancient civilization that had made a pact with an evil entity and enraged the gods of the Material Plane.

It was a legend about a civilization destroyed by the gods and their followers, then buried alive beneath a massive deluge of earth by the enraged gods.

"I think this ruin is actually the edge of a building, its upper section."

"...The upper section?"

"Yes. My guess is that this ruin is buried. Only a tiny part of it is sticking out."

Gerik was momentarily speechless. The ruin was old and collapsing, but judging by its scale alone, it was by no means a small building.

At Minos's claim that this was only a tiny part of it, not only Gerik but even the silently listening party members looked shocked.

"Then... just how large was this building?"

"The tip of an iceberg would be the perfect way to describe it. There are probably far more sections buried beneath us. This ruin was actually an enormous building."

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