Chapter 78 - Standing Up

'Trouble, huh? Better get ready to use the crossbow.'

"Lady Clarice… what are you doing here?"

The elf party was quite a homogenous group. They all had the same type of yellow bow and green cloak. Their boots, gloves, and even arrows were essentially the same. The guy who asked that didn't have the same fine features as most elves. He was a bit more on the rough side. He had long, blond silk hair that was brushed to his back. It made quite a weird combination, considering his square face.

"I don't know who you are, so I don't have to answer you."

"I work for your brother and he told me to pass a message in case I found you here. The message is: Stop being a brat and do what you have to do."

I wanted to chuckle. It seemed like the most obvious thing to day to Clarice. Still, it made me confirm that she was no ordinary elf, and perhaps not asking who her brother was a bad idea. Well, it was a bad idea that we kept doing for the past two weeks, apparently.

"Since you are an errand boy, then you can return to him and tell him to mind his own business."

The atmosphere got a bit weird thanks to that. Clarice was really confident that those guys wouldn't do anything if she was willing to say that much, or maybe she wasn't using her head properly. 

"You should know what the people in this country do behind the curtains. Unless you want to suffer the same fate, you should return home immediately. Even if nothing were to happen to you, you might end up causing trouble for others."

Clarice glared at the man viciously. It was the look of someone who was imagining themselves putting an arrow in the middle of the head of someone. She definitely was someone who had experience with killing, not like I could judge her.

That guy let out an exasperated sigh and then looked at the rest of the group in order to scare us. He also looked pretty disgusted. He looked at me for a while, and the glint in his eyes changed.

"Don't look at them like that, unless you know what is good for you."

Clarice got up and then approached that guy in the eye before saying those words. The atmosphere was getting really tense… if something were to happen, I had to take down those guys before they could draw their bows. Fortunately, my hand crossbow was loaded and ready to be used, but being the one to draw the first blood made me hesitate.

"Very well. I was only told to pass the message, anyway. Regardless, you know your older brother is. Don't let him wait for too long."

The group turned around and then proceeded to the deepest parts of the dungeon. Clarice clicked her tongue and then kicked at the wall as well, but soon she began to groan in pain while holding her feet.

"Sorry, it looks like I caused you guys some trouble…"

"Nothing happened, so it is fine."

Jalal said that, but he was a bit pale… he needed to work a bit on his acting skills. Still, the others didn't feel the need to ask who Clarice's brother was. I wasn't naïve enough to do that since I knew a bit about how things work behind the scenes. I needed more intel to know who I was messing with in case something happened.

"Who is your brother?"

"... Arslan. He is the current leader of the Silver Arrow."

Everyone blinked for a moment thanks to the surprise and then opened their eyes widely. The Silver Arrow was one of the most important and famous organizations in the Elven Society. In terms of influence, their leader was basically someone like a Marquis who could control a massive amount of land and govern its inhabitants.

In the end, I wasn't surprised by that… It made me confirm that most likely, the person who followed me was someone working for them, trying to gather intel about the people that were interacting with the sister of their leader.

'I shouldn't work with parties again like this… even if it has to take a while to clear dungeons, it is a lot better than taking chances to have these kinds of meetings.'

"I bet you are regretting the fact that you allowed me to join the party."

"Are you talking to me?"

"You are the only one scowling at that piece of information."

Apparently, I had to work on my acting skills, too. Nevertheless, I couldn't deny the fact. I could at least use an excuse, though. 

"I am not the party leader and I am just a temporary member. They are the ones who decided that. So, I am just tagging along. Besides, at least you helped us save a bit of time."

"At least? What do you mean by that?"

I decided to ignore the question and resume my preparation for the next part of the exploration. We could wait a bit for the elves' morons to disappear in the distance. We also had to be cautious, since there was the slim possibility that they might ambush us ahead. Still, with Clarice's eyes, we would find traces of them taking their time, so it was fine.

"All right, let's try to find the entrance to the seventh floor before night comes."

"Jalal… I thought that we would be taking our time. There are fewer parties in this section of the dungeon, so the monsters will always keep coming."

Rebecca glared at Jalal and he forced a smile… the damage that they were suffering was minimal, but even with their protective gear, the fireballs of the fire crows were powerful enough to ignore some of those defenses. It would be different if their gear had two slots for enchantment.

In any case, our group resumed our exploration. Thanks to our experience, we did it just fine. Sometimes the monsters would be able to attack the frontline, but they were on guard and avoided the fireballs. Before long, Rebecca increased her agility enough to be able to wound the monsters and avoid those kinds of problems. In any case, we hurried up and reached the entrance to the seventh floor when I felt my body getting lighter, so the sun had finally set.

"Let's camp here… we are making a lot more progress than I had expected. The next floors will be longer and with more enemies, but I bet that we can reach the boss in two days. Considering our supplies and time here, we will have a bit more than four days to deal with the boss if we need two days to exit the dungeon."

It looked like Jalal wasn't that bad at math, but he was counting his chickens before they hatched… something could always happen and that would delay us a lot. Speaking of delay, Clarice had been pretty quiet since we met her brother's friends or underlings. She already told me that this run could be her last, but she now looked even more certain of it.

"Are you still bothered by what they have said?"

Rebecca decided to break the silence since the others didn't feel like pressing for answers. Since she was a girl, she had more room to ask Clarice that kind of thing.

"Not really."

Clarice looked down, so she couldn't look more foolish trying to lie. Her choice of words was also odd… I felt like a creep trying to psycho-analyze her, so I decided to ignore their talk.

"In any case, your big brother is the leader of the Silver Arrow, huh? That is impressive, despite his age."

"He is over seventy already. He has some skills, but he only got that position because our grandfather decided to retire. Before you think of anything, I am seventeen only."

She said that while looking at me. I had decided to stay clear of their conversation, but it was true that I considered asking her if she was older than Jalal's grandmother. It was only a joke, naturally… While I knew that elves could live for that long, I didn't imagine that they would look like teenagers for decades as well.

It also seemed that despite their lifespan, it seems that they didn't reproduce that much. It was impossible to deny that having a brother who was fifty years older was normal. Only in the Elven society that was a thing. While I was thinking about that, Jalal joined the conversation.

"I thought that in the Elven society, families would support certain organizations. If your grandfather is the former leader of the Silver Arrow and your big brother is the new leader, I would imagine that your parents are part of it as well."

"They are… they tried to convince me many times that some of their friends disappeared, never to be seen again by human hands. For a long time, I believed them, but then decided to see things by myself. Some of you are a pain in the ass and shady, but some of you are nice people. It is the same everywhere."

She said the first things while looking at me. I couldn't deny that. I was indeed a pain in the ass and shady, for the right reasons, at least.

"Sorry, but I will have to return home after this and convince them that their paranoia is unreasonable. Then, one day, we will be able to go dungeon diving together."

"That is fine. Until then, we will have to improve our skills too. It is a fact that we are relying a lot on you and Clive's skill, after all. We will do our best to catch up to your guy's level in no time."

I wondered if that would ever happen… unless they start using their heads or they spend weeks inside this dungeon. It was hard to imagine such a thing. Dungeon diving is useful, but obtaining some support skills when it comes to crafting was pretty good… otherwise, they would need to use a lot of money to obtain decent gear. Since they were a team, they could share the work and make things a lot more efficient.

In any case, we finished setting up our camp and dinner and then we talked about what we should do when it comes to guard duty. I offered myself again to take most of the time watching our surroundings, but that wouldn't be enough. I showed my skills and then disposed of the fire crows with two Rapid Shots whenever they showed up. I had increased my stamina regeneration enough to make that possible.

Still, I also granted the tattoo with Mystic Link, just in case they would need my mana to fight. I didn't get that much experience, but it looked like they had to use my mana a few times.

When the next morning came, we headed to the next floor after we focused our senses and, as we had expected, we soon found a large pack of nine fire crows flying toward us and we barely had time to step on the floor. As if that wasn't enough, they launched fireballs immediately.

Author's Notes: 

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