The Aventurers are paralyzed! They can't move!

There was a bitter taste in Manna's mouth.

She traveled along the canopy of the dense forest, skipping between branches without making a single sound. On her left hand was her compound bow, while her right hand rested on a full quiver. But despite both her hands being occupied, her balance was perfect, and the harmony of her movements was pristine.

Manna was a perfectionist when it came to a hunt. She disliked using more than one arrow to down prey if she could help it. She hated making a sound when moving. Once a hunter attacked or made a sound, their position would be given away. That would immediately open up an option for her prey to escape – not that she would let it.

She needed to be as strong as possible, as fast as possible. Because if she couldn't, there would be no way for her to catch up as a normal…

"Well, whatever."

It was a shame that she couldn't go with Matthias to his first dungeon. A person's first dive was always memorable; she wanted to be with him so badly during that moment that she was tempted to just leave her babysitting duty to go back and just lie about completing it. The thought of suffering the pains of looking for food, setting up shelter, fighting terrible monsters, and navigating through treacherous corridors as newbies with him only made her feel bliss. That was also the reason why she decided to train as a hunter. She knew what could be eaten, how to set up camp, fight, and assess terrains. She could fill in any of the things he lacked in terms of experience to survive.

But that chance had been taken away from her.

She stopped at a thick branch roughly five meters above the ground. Her spiteful eyes gazed at the woman a distance behind her.

"Tsk. How slow," she spat.

The way the woman moved through the sparsely-wooded areas looked nothing like an adventurer, regardless of experience, should behave. Her eyes were downcast, her steps were unsteady, and her breathing was erratic. She kept walking near the trees where many broken branches and rotten leaves gathered. Though she did it to help herself to walk, all she ended up doing was attracting the attention of everybody within earshot.

Eventually, something big noticed the noise. From behind a bush to her left, a boar monster appeared. Mechanically, Manna took an arrow from her quiver and pulled her bow. She could hit the center of the monster's head with her eyes closed at that distance. But she didn't release the arrow immediately. The bitterness in her heart decided to talk.

"If the girl dies, I could run to the guild alone and return quickly."

She estimated that she could make the round trip in under an hour, including the time she had to explain the situation to the guild. But with that girl, three whole hours was already a generous estimate.

With the way the woman behaved, Manna did not doubt that she would die once the boar found her. There would be nobody to witness Manna's negligence.

Still, she released the arrow and killed the boar instantly. Regardless of what she felt, Matthias left the woman to her care.

"What was that?!" the woman cried out when the boar fell to the ground with a thud. Manna shook her head.

If it was Matthias, he would never shout like that when something surprised him.

She leaped from the branch and landed quietly beside the woman, startling her again.

"Who..."

"Relax. It was just a monster. It's dead now."

Manna led the woman to where the boar was and showed that it was, indeed, already dead. The arrow had punctured the monster's brain through the skull neatly. A small pool of blood had formed underneath the carcass from the small wound on its neck from where the arrow had stopped.

The woman covered her mouth with her hands and suppressed a groan of dismay... but for some reason, her eyes were on Manna instead of the corpse.

Who cares? Manna beckoned to her that they should keep moving. She was about to leap back into the canopy when a hand grabbed her arm.

"Wait!" the woman pleaded. After some hesitation, she was able to squeeze out her words. "You're... Can you… walk with me? I'm…"

Manna looked down at the woman. Her knees were shaking, and her teeth made a soft, chattering noise. Even her hands, though firmly latched, were trembling hard enough that Manna could feel it on her bones.

In a way, Manna's impression of the girl improved and worsened at the same time. On the one hand, it showed that she was not ready to be outside the walls yet. But on the other...

It took a lot of courage to grab her like that.

The earlier ordeal had left the girl shaken. Honestly, Manna couldn't blame her. If she saw Matthias die, then she would probably be the same.

But she wouldn't break down into that mess; revenge was the only appropriate response.

She sighed and pulled her arm away from the girl. Then, she picked up the woman's chin and forced her to stare into her eyes.

"Never touch me again."

She released the woman's head after ensuring the other party understood. Then, without returning to the trees, she walked back toward the town.

********************

Soon, the sight of the town's gray walls appeared. As Manna predicted, leaving the forest took them almost two hours. Along the way, they encountered numerous monsters. They all posed no difficulty for Manna, as the forest only contained weak fodder.

It was just agitating for her to babysit.

During the journey, she learned the woman's name during an awkward moment when the latter tried to strike up a conversation. Her name was Jelyn. Even though Manna couldn't care less, she had this perk that made her unable to forget names.

The guards called them to stop as they walked the remaining distance toward the city gate. Manna presented her tag.

"Where's your party?" the guard asked with a ridiculous smile. Knowing that the identity inspection was over, Manna snatched her tag from the guard's hands and grunted.

"They're back in the forest, taking care of some business."

She turned to the other guard who was inspecting Jelyn's tag and grabbed it too.

"Her party's back there as well. Are we done here?"

"B… but they—"Jelyn stammered, about to explain what her circumstances were, but Manna cut her off.

"Are we done here?"

The guards glared at her meaningfully. Manna decided to threaten them slightly by reaching for her quiver. Though this may get her into trouble, even though her tag clearly showed her low rank, there was always a time to be firm on something.

It was not just because she was in a bad mood then. Definitely not.

Manna hated the town guard. Most of the time, they were no better than bandits and would try to rip money off of merchants and commoners through threats or special favors. The only reason why they hadn't been coerced previously was that they were too cowardly to do so when a complete adventurers' party tried to pass. But now that only both of them were present, two women who belonged to different, low-ranked parties, they probably thought they could make an easy score.

They were still cowards at the end of the day. A little threat of physical violence will scare them off. After all, while the guild protected Manna and Jelyn, the guards could be easily replaced.

"Tsk. You're free to go."

"Thank you."

Manna expressed her gratitude with as much poison as possible and walked away. Once they were past the gates, she looked back to Jelyn and saw that her trembling had only intensified.

Perhaps she realized what losing her entire party meant to a low-ranking adventurer, especially for a woman like her.

The best-case scenario was that she would be absorbed into another party. Though she might have lost her friends, she would at least be able to continue her chosen career.

The worst-case scenario would be if nobody took her in.

Most commoners, including her, lived their lives in poverty. Some of them might have a small business of their own, but because of the times, most would only be able to barely make ends meet. To fund the equipment and consumables needed to start being an adventurer, commoners typically sold a lot, if not all, of their possessions beforehand. Weapons, armor, and potions were costly. In the worst case, she might be forced to sell her equipment and attempt to return to a commoner's life. Used goods are always sold for lower prices. Considering people's natures, buyers would try to haggle the price as low as possible, especially if they know the seller's circumstances.

For her benefit, Manna at least hoped she wouldn't be forced into selling herself. But since she was an apothecary, perhaps she could land a job at the apothecary's guild.

As she thought about it, they had finally arrived at the front doors of the guild. Now all she needed to do was to explain what had happened to a random receptionist, and she could rush back to Matthias' side.

However, she quickly sensed that something was amiss. Her sharp hearing picked up the sound of a panicked commotion inside. Since they were in the middle of the road, the conversation of a dozen passersby mixed in made it somewhat challenging to pick up on what was happening in the guild.

Manna took the girl's hand and dragged her through the doors. The scene inside surprised her.

Injured adventurers were lying all over the floor, with guild staff and their own fellows tending to them. They had injuries ranging from deep wounds to shallow cuts and even noticeable bite marks. Several cleric and priest-types were huddled in a corner, looking exhausted. Tens of potion bottles and other consumables were lying on the floor; some had even been smashed, probably due to someone accidentally stepping on them.

"Manna!" someone called out to her. She turned her head and saw Nail jogging in her direction. He looked tired but still alert and ready. He asked worriedly, "Where's your party?"

"They're fine. Both of them are waiting for me back in the forest."

Manna didn't mention that the two entered a dungeon from a breach in the ground.

But, although she was curious about the commotion in the guild, she wanted to get rid of the baggage first.

Nail's mood plummeted even further when he heard of what happened to Jelyn's party. He looked back towards his party. Following his eyes, Manna saw that their scout, Egan, was lying on the floor among the many injured and was being tended to by their cleric.

"I'm sorry to hear that," he addressed the lone apothecary. "If you'd like, you can stay with us until you… find another party. Or if you decide to do something else."

As Manna expected, Nail immediately tried to help the woman out. She had judged that the former was a good-natured man who liked to stick his nose into other people's businesses as long as he could lend them a hand. He was a good character. She also predicted he wouldn't invite the girl to join his party in the end. Bringing in an inexperienced newcomer to a group of veterans, especially one that had reached a relatively high rank as they had, only sounded admirable on paper. Despite that, Nail's party was better off than others, so he could offer at least that much to Jelyn.

It was also great that he understood Manna's intention when he informed him, not the guild, of the incident with Jelyn's party first. Of course, Manna still intended to tell the guild later to fulfill Matthias' promise to her, but being in a high-ranking party's custody, for the time being, would at least afford her a grace period to look for another party or whatever she wanted.

The woman simply nodded with her head hanging down. She glanced at Manna, trembled slightly, and walked timidly to Nail's side.

Finally free of the burden, Manna could finally relax a bit.

Nail called on his party's archer, Kilo. He quickly explained to the latter and asked him to escort Jelyn to their group. After Kilo walked away with her, Nail turned his attention back to Manna.

"You shouldn't scare that poor kid," he sighed. "Anyway, a second entrance, huh? And your party thinks it was purposely dug out."

Manna nodded. However, she wondered why he would trust their judgment so quickly, even though they were, at the moment, nothing but a group of newbies.

"I don't think you guys are the kind of people who would make guesses without any good evidence. Besides, regardless of whether it's natural or not, a second entrance is what it is."

It was good that he was so agreeable. And since he was easy to talk to, Manna decided to sate her curiosity before finishing up.

"What happened 'ere, anyway? Why are there so many injured?"

If even their scout had been injured enough that magic couldn't completely heal him, something significant must have occurred in the dungeon.

Nail hesitated for a short moment before answering.

"A Giga Mandragora suddenly spawned outside the room we camped in. We all prepared to enter a tomb-type dungeon, so nobody expected an encounter with a high-ranked ruins-type monster, so most of us were hit with its spores. While most of us were paralyzed, hundreds of low-ranked undead came and gave us a lot of trouble. Fortunately, we were stocked with holy water and had several clerics, so nobody turned. We're here tending to those with heavier injuries while thinking of what to do next."

Manna thought it was understandable that the adventurer team was caught unprepared if that happened. Tomb-type dungeons required more preparation work than other kinds and necessitated carrying a lot of holy water vials, which were bulky, to ease the load of the clerics. Compounded by the fear of becoming a zombie, most parties would even bring more than they thought was needed. Add in the necessary supplies such as food, water, potions, and other things, bringing salves that could address other effects such as paralysis, which undead never dealt, were typically at the very back of their heads.

And unfortunately for everybody, paralysis wasn't a condition that clerics could cure. As far as she knew, only druids had spells that could remove it, while apothecaries were the only ones who always had a supply of the corresponding salve that worked. It was a shame that Jelyn wasn't part of the expedition.

Apothecaries were an unpopular role in parties. They tended to have little to no contribution in combat. While they could heal injuries, clerics did so far faster than them with their holy-attribute spells. And though their roles required them to always have their strange herbs and spices prepared for any situation, anybody could do the same as long as they knew what the monsters they would be facing could do. That incident was just something unique. And despite it almost costing everybody their lives, Manna did not doubt that apothecaries would remain unpopular. And that was fine. She couldn't care less.

Even so, Manna was forced to consider looking for an apothecary to join their party, just in case. She glanced at Jelyn, seated in the waiting area, talking to Kilo. Ultimately, she shook her head.

The last thing she wanted to do was to introduce a burden to the party. Soleil was still fine, given that her strength was unique and prodigious even at first glance.

She would be an excellent stepping stone for Matthias.

"Thanks for the info. I'll tell the guild staff about the new entrance now. Bye!"

Manna twisted her mouth and waved as she walked away. Nail also said his goodbyes, but his specific words just entered her ear on one side and out the other.

Anyway, she had already gathered enough information... and it looked like she wasn't being an idiot after all.

She already had an inkling of what was going on earlier that morning. Manna simply chose to act dumb because, at that time, even she thought it was a ridiculous idea. But after hearing what had happened at the dungeon, her absurd theory suddenly had some validity.

And she was sure Matthias had already reached the same conclusion as her.

********************

"What the hell is happening?"

"Beats me."

"Why is there a Giga Mandragora here?"

"Who cares? I just have to beat it up, right?"

"Hmm, true. It's probably just a coincidence. Never read about such a monster appearing in a tomb-type dungeon. Maybe it got lost."

"Leave it to me. No matter what the enemy is, if it can be punched, it's no match for the demon lord."

"… Oh. Be careful! It has paralyzing spo—"

"Hkkh!"

"Ah."