Chapter 93: Exploration?

Exiting the royal court, Ray and Kazuma were asked by the King of Holy Kingdom and Forest Goblins to both reduce the population of mindless monsters and subduing a nearby dungeon to temporarily stop the overflowing monsters into the land.

A quest immediately popped up under the category of chain quest as the follow up of the previous quest. Which contains the same content with the reward listed as '???' without further explanation.

(Basically like a main storyline quest in Genshin. They can basically ignore it and do whatever they want but will not further the storyline and unlock certain stuff until it is completed.)

"After activating the quick travel waypoint, I will return to my world for a while." Ray said to Kazuma while leisurely walking down to the centre of the capital where the waypoint is located.

"Huh?"

"Oh, right. I forgot to explain this part." Ray facepalmed before he stopped and turned to face Kazuma.

"Actually you still can return to the world before you are summoned and time in your world will not move while you are still here." Ray explained as briefly as possible but Kazuma still looked at him confusedly.

"Huhhh?"

"Wait a minute… I can still return to that world? No! No. Definitely not. I don't want to return to that party filled with useless members." Kazuma replied with agitation while clutching his head and eyes wide open like he is having a mental breakdown.

"A useless party trick drunkard goddess, chunni mage with obsession to Explosion magic and uselessly durable masochist crusader with non existent hit rate." Kazuma mumbled in his breakdown.

Ray sympathizes with Kazuma since he knew abit about his world. A protagonist of a comedy isekai. Definitely not a life he wanted but also not a bad option if he wanted to relax and laid back for a bit.

"No, wait. Darkness still can be a meat shield even if she can't hit anything. No, I mean as a frontliner tank…" Kazuma thought while standing still but Ray already started walking away.

"Oi! Wait for me!" Kazuma shouted as he ran when he realised Ray was leaving him behind.

———

Few minutes later, Ray parted ways with Kazuma. Kazuma apparently wants to return and grab his party which might be useful in the upcoming task of clearing the nearby dungeon which has been identified literally as a Beginner Dungeon.

Initially Ray wants to clear the dungeon immediately but Kazuma sees this as an opportunity for him to level up. So, he asks Ray to let him do it instead after he brings his party into the Hub's world.

Thus Ray instead wanders the wilderness to seek the waypoints that he can activate to allow quick travel. An action that seems pointless until one considers that quick travel costs no energy and can be used repeatedly without repercussions. The wilderness also has an abundance of fruit, plants and animals that can be stocked up for probably feeding his people as feeding them all cost Ray quite a sizable amount of points if considering the long term cost. Having a way to supply food to his people is considered a priority within long term planning or until they can sustain themselves with farming or something.

Not long after Ray entered the edge of the forest, he was already starting to hear rustling noise from tall stalks of grasses. Though ambush didn't work on Ray simply because he has a minimap that shows a few red dots ahead of him, hiding behind tree trunks and tall undergrowth.

Ray opened his inventory and put on whatever pistol he could grab. Ronson 45, the SAS4 equipment of the Deagle pistol. Shoot very powerful rounds that dwarf all handgun in terms of damage-per-shot but smaller clip size just like its counterpart.

The pistol appeared in his hand, fully black with only a few lines of white visible from a distance. Ray aimed at the ambushing party before pulling the trigger a few times. Large fireballs blast out of the muzzle and light up the dim surrounding temporarily while sound of gunshots echoes through the previously vibrant and lively forest.

All three of his ambushers died even if they were hiding behind a very thick tree trunk. The pistol is also famed for its high piercing stats after all and the bullet effortlessly tears through the wooden obstacles.

Unsurprisingly later Ray checks the monsters, they all turn out to be goblins. The mindless one spawned from the dungeons. Ray checked his system screen and found he just earned 3 points of EXP from killing these three goblins. The amount is negligible compared to the eight digits amount he needed to level up.

Suddenly multiple red dots appeared on his minimap. The mobs seem to be disturbed or alerted by him killing the three goblins earlier. Unbothered that he is outnumbered, Ray just smiled it off before equipping his ACE suit. Armed with just a simple but deadly handgun, Ray cleared his way through the uncharted wilderness.

———

Approximately an hour later of trekking through the uncharted wilderness, Ray found one of the so-called dungeons which he honestly is kind of disappointed. He expected a tall tower made of stone or a deep cavern. What he found instead is a hole in the ground littered with bones and infested by subterranean creatures.

What he primarily sees is giant centipedes with greenish black shiny exoskeleton and they are fighting each other. Other than them, there are giant black ants a few meters away. Seemingly undisturbed by the giant centipedes cannibalising their own fellow species.

Seeing all enemies have exoskeleton shells, Ray swaps off his Ronson 45 handgun for a CM 800 Jupiter which has electrocution ammunition perfect for clearing a horde and close group of enemies. But Ray changed his mind at the last moment and instead pulled out the Ronson WP flamethrower.

Who isn't excited to purge abominations with a flamethrower? At least Ray is from the wide smirk he is making as he also put on the Hardplate set that been collecting dust in his inventory for extra protection since he might be as strong as gods in DxD world but without any equipment to back up his firepower, he is just a super generator without any conduit.

Stalking behind tall shrubbery, Ray pull out a dozen Cryo Grenades and throw them over to the group of giant ants in the distance before he jump out of hiding with his flamethrower shooting out ignited mixture of thermite and white phosphorus to purge the nightmare fuel of an abomination.

The 10 meters long centipedes screeched in unholy noise of pain while thrashing around as their shell cracked by intense heat and flesh boiled instantly with heat of almost 3000 Celsius.

Two unaffected giant centipedes immediately use it's dexterous legs to close up distance and assault Ray with their giant pincer dripping in venom but unfortunately their pincer unable to immediately pierce the armor as a force field appeared and absorbed the physical damage. Meanwhile Ray pointed the Flamethrower nozzle at one of the centipede's mouths before spraying a load of ignited mixture of fuel hotter than lava which melted its organ instantly.

The other one that also bitten Ray is immediately dispatched when a spray of flame melted its head off. Leaving it twitching and violently thrashing in pain till it died seconds later.

Finally finished with the giant centipedes, Ray looked over to the frozen ants surrounded by a frozen landscape. He summoned 8 operators to deal with the ants and guard the entrance while he started his descent into the hole which he just noticed looked like an ant nest.

In a distance from Ray's location, a duo of goblins covered in black garb that look very similar to those worn by spies and ninjas. They simply observe Ray without any malicious intention as they are only relaying what their eyes sees to a spell caster.

———

In the royal court, the royalty of both kingdoms is present in the room with their respective guards and peoples. Both kings have their attention focused on a spell casted by an elder goblin. The spell casted was an espionage spell normally used to gain vision on the battlefield but was used to spy on both heroes. Their intention is to understand the power of the heroes.

Kazuma already left the Hub world and thus was unable to be observed. Ray however was lingering in this world which became the only target.

The people present in the royal court watched the encounter between Ray and the insects. Majority was surprised. Not because of Ray's triumph against the monster insects. But the destructiveness of his weapons.

The giant centipede is a formidable opponent in general. However, with proper equipment and a decent team, anyone can defeat it. Its primary difficulty came from its venomous bite and hard exoskeleton. Its shell can create a decent armor comparable to armor made from iron or even steel but brittle unlike those metals. Its flesh is also edible and packed with proteins.

Although, those killed by Ray are either burnt into cinder or charcoal. Majority of their flesh simply melted off as the flame was still burning even after a while since it was created. The flame hot enough to melt off the exoskeleton is impossible to recreate even with the current strongest spell caster from both kingdoms.

In the first place, fire spells available to them aren't that great either as none of them are considered high rank like the dragons that lived since the heyday of the Hub world five centuries ago. Even compared to an average dragon, Ray's Flamethrower has greater effect as the heat from the fuel it uses, which would melt metal like butter. However the Flamethrower loses in terms of scale for obvious reasons against dragon's breath.

On the cloud of fog, Ray is seen entering the dungeon while leaving a group of summons which the First Princess explains is like a golem that Ray can summon for battle. The summons eliminate the frozen ants using their weird weapons before standing guard on the entrance.

The spies couldn't further follow Ray into the dungeon since they couldn't pass through the operators undetected and didn't have a place to hide from Ray. Both kings agreed to stop their attempt of observation on Ray for now.

Just when they were about to be dismissed to continue other tasks, a report arrived that Kazuma returned and with him are three other humans they assume are his companions. It isn't unusual for heroes to have companions just like Ray has Ophis and other heroes in legends have their own party members.

Three of Kazuma's companions are female.

One is a gorgeous blond noble lady that looks like a knight with black and yellow inner dress with parts of armor on her chest, left shoulder, side waist and a pair of metal greaves, armed with a longsword.

Another is a young looking lady, around the age of 14. However, by her appearance of a staff and iconic spell caster eccentric looking witch hat, she definitely is a prodigious spell caster at such a young age. Most normal spell casters need long years of learning and pursuing the arcane knowledge to be a decent spell caster. A spell caster this young would normally be hailed as national importance if she appeared in the current Holy Kingdom.

The last one is a lady with such a scandalous short dress, themed in a darker shade of blue which complements her brighter blue long waterfall hair. Her capability is unknown since she didn't possess any notable equipment to denote her class.

All three of them seem to be amazed by their surroundings as they excitedly run around pointing at various things and pestering Kazuma for answers while the man in question is having an annoyed expression.

The spell could only show images, not sound. So, they are in the dark about the conversation between the four.

Kazuma ignored the three and made gestures in thin air for a few minutes before he called his party members to follow him. By the direction they are heading, the four are heading towards the Beginner Dungeon.

———

Entering the dungeon through the hole, Ray found the hallway still isn't made of stones and instead solidified sand and gravel held together by a substance similar to glue or sap.

He continued walking forward with his Flamethrower aimed at the darkness ahead. He wanted to use the cybernetic device responsible for night vision but isn't compatible since he is using a flamethrower that would light up brightly once he starts spraying the thermite and white phosphorus fuel mixture. His enhanced natural vision is adequate to see 20-30 meters ahead and he didn't need to use a flashlight to prevent alerting enemies.

Another three minutes of walking, he finally arrived in a chamber. The place is absent of enemies again but there are weapons littered the ground. Weapons are an exaggeration because those weapons are nothing more than sharpened sticks or crude tools made of stone.

He didn't go to inspect the stuff on the ground as he immediately walked around the wall to find a total of five more paths leading deeper into the dungeon.

Normally, one would avoid randomly entering a path to avoid being lost but Ray has a minimap that has an auto mapping feature that maps every path he travelled. He didn't have such worry as he selected the leftmost path which also is the widest one of all.

Sure enough, after a few more minutes of exploring the path, He found his first encounter in another chamber which had a constant stream of ants carrying corpses of other monsters in and another line of worker ants existing from another entrance somewhere.

Ray made quick work of them using his Flamethrower and causing large disturbance as ants from the forked path swarm in on him. He had to retreat a little and use the small entrance of his path into advantage to create a choke point.

For three straight minutes he pulled down on the Flamethrower trigger before he heard dry clicks sound from his Flamethrower. Thankfully the thermite and white phosphorus fuel mix didn't extinguish easily as a wall or fire literally separated him from the monsters while he was reloading.

Unbeknownst to him, the real combatant just arrived to reinforce the dying worker ants. A soldier ants triple the worker ant's size charged through the flame harmlessly due to their super dense and resistant carapace that partially resisted the fire, then rammed toward Ray as its pincer got a hold on Ray before pinning him to the wall.

The shard end of the soldiers ant's pincer bit down into Ray but his force field easily shrugged the attack as his barrier durability was taking the brunt of the attack. However, the pincer isn't the real attack but the venom in the pincer is. Fortunately Hardplate armor is made specially to provide protection against physical, chemical and thermal attack. Though not as good as the already broken similar set but infused with Adamantine.

To avoid harming himself, Ray swapped the Flamethrower with a RIA 30 Strikeforce shotgun and activated Hold The Line skill for the extra piercing power before unloading ten thermal shells into the soldier ant's head.

The soldier ant surprisingly still didn't let go of Ray after that and only released an agonizing noise before its pincer weakened its hold on Ray. With a burst of strength and help from the ACE suit, Ray pry open the pincer before dropping to the ground. There he quickly reloads the shotgun and unloads more thermal shotgun shells into the injured soldier ant before moving on to another soldier ants behind the already dead one.

His skill did get rusty after getting comfortable with his overpowered Ouroboros mecha suit. However he is quickly getting a hang of his firearm again since his muscle memories for more than a decade isn't easily forgotten.

For the next one hour, he held onto this position and fought an almost endless horde of ants swarming his position. Somewhere along his battle, Kazuma messaged him using a function of Hub and informed him he is setting off to the Beginner Dungeon with his party members.

After the one hour of incinerating ants, they finally lessened enough for Ray to be a bit relaxed though not for long. Not because of more ants swarming up to him.

Carry on Ray walks deeper in hope to gain some profit diving into this dungeon. He hopes to gain some insight on the dungeon because normally the dungeon would drop something of worth but he hasn't seen any excluding the ants carcasses he incinerated.

Following the tunnel where the worker wants to carry food, he went deeper into the dungeon until he heard an ethereal whisper of a voice definitely from a male.

"..ep…"

"..he…"

"..help…"

Like a broken radio, the whisper repeated but it was definitely getting clear that he was able to understand it was a call for help. Only then a screen popped up in front of him.

[A hopeful wish of a helpless observer. A desperate wish for assistance. The fate of a world hanging on its last thread. A foreigner's involvement and the fate of the world is twisted. Another foreigner is needed to fight another and the call for help reaches the realm outside of time and space.]

[Accept Quest?

(Yes/No)]

[Tips: A random quest like this will occur randomly as Hub receives any request related to reincarnators and transmigrators from another incarnaton hubs, legal ones or not from across all dimensions. For more detailed explanation of the Quest, please refer to Quest Bulletin Board]

(Basically a cross server battle kind of thing. Bad reincarnators or transmigrators go to another world werck havoc and the Hubs put bounty on them to be hunt.)

Seeing obviously no reason to reject it, probably out of confidence that with Ophis, he have nothing to fear, Ray immediately accept it without seeing the full detail and his body fade away from the Ant Hill dungeon into the Quest world.

——————