Cyrene Mines

We started our second week with a change of hunting ground.

We hadn't even bought our full-fledged badges, studied new skills, or upgraded equipment, so Suzune's decision appeared rash at first glance. The thing is, it's not.

I wouldn't have any problems, but if Ken kept facing off against goblins, it'd dull his critical sense. Let alone against stronger enemies, Ken may stumble against equal ones. 

It was hard to call the other members accustomed to the battlefield, but they weren't so poor to let their emotions get the better of them. That was enough of a reason. In fact, that'll be the problem of the unexpected member— or probably not so unexpected.

"There!" 

Ken thrust his sword at the foreman Kobold. The foreman dodged it, countering with a slash of its own. Ken recoiled. He took several slashes to his arm as he retreated. Fortunately, it had been protected by his armor. It wouldn't cause him any wounds that the priest needed to heal.

As described the other day, kobolds were humanoid creatures with canine builds. On the third floor of Cyrene Mines, they were one tier above the goblins, providing excellent progression for the party. 

Cyrene Mines is located 6 km from Alterna. All we know about the place is that it's a den of kobolds of the Bosh faction, and that it has more than ten floors going down. We've already encountered a few kobolds before even venturing in, dealing with them very easily. It's all because they were greatly lacking in gear. Their maneuvers were awkward as well. I didn't need the reader to be further bored with meaningless scenes.

The mine had luminous mosses in many of its sites. They made it easier for the volunteer soldiers, and probably the kobolds, to navigate the mine.

The first floor can be traversed fairly effortlessly. The kobolds formed groups with at most four in the second level. Sadly, they were weak, much weaker than a group of six goblins. Speaking of which, to access the lower floor, the party had used a large vertical hole with several ropes in its circumferences. Naturally, Suzune mapped all of that down.

The third floor was where we came across a group of four kobolds better equipped than ourselves. Well, they were just chainmail.

The taller kobold was called the foreman because he acted like one. The three kobolds under his command we called worker, considering their weapons were mere pickaxes. They were presumably out mining. We'd encounter several on the second floor, but up there, they were visibly lesser than this group.

The minerals on the first and second floors may have been depleted, so they switched locations. Who knows?

"Don't get carried away, Ken!" exclaimed Suzune. Unfortunately, she was late.

I hadn't been particularly aware of this before, but Ken had one notable flaw. 

"Get fucked!" 

He got carried away very easily.

The foreman staggered to the side despite blocking Ken's attack properly. That demonstrated just how much power the warrior possessed. Still, if his opponent was simply more durable, Ken would definitely be in trouble. 

Ken fired continuous slashes at the foreman. Almost all of them were either blocked or dodged by the foreman. Ken was so terrible, it was laughable.

"Kanji!" Suzune shifted her focus to the hunter.

The man in question needed no orders. He fired an arrow into the foreman. 

Despite being pounded by Ken, the foreman was still managing to dodge Kanji's arrow. For better or worse, Ken employed Rage Blow on that occasion. By raising his sword above his head, he brought his body weight to slam into the foreman with more force than all the previous attacks. The foreman is done. 

"Kiyotaka-kun?!" Kikyou called out.

"I'm fine." I responded calmly.

I'm up against two workers. Suzune has one.

Just in case, we don't rely so much on Kikyou in battle when the strikers, Ken and I, can cope with them. If any enemies got past us and went to Suzune, there were still Chiaki and Kanji to help. Even Kei and Yousuke were taught martial arts in their basic training. Kikyou was the top priority, with her role being pretty helpful to the party. At the same time, she is the most vulnerable at the party.

'I get the feeling she's pleased by the fact somehow. In any case, Kikyou wasn't very useful with her Magic Missile, or perhaps just lacked variety with its use. She should learn other skills immediately.'

Kobolds had compact movements. Very much so. As a result, they outclassed goblins in many aspects and posed a higher risk to humans.

One of the kobolds swung his pickaxe at me. I caught hold of its rod, yanking it forcefully. It dared to resist.

I chopped off the other kobold's head before skewering the one in front of me.

'...Death Spots roam inside the Cyrene Mines, don't they?' This hunting activity wasn't that necessary to me, obviously. I didn't wish to meet Death Spots, either. Not much, at least. 'If my party gets wiped out before they can better themselves a little bit, that'll be a tad disappointing.'

Suzune was pretty skilled at drawing the enemy's attention to herself. She rarely went up against the enemy because the durability of her shield was bound to decrease pretty quickly due to her fighting style. Of course, Suzune didn't just defend. She excelled at using her basic skill, Punishment, to knock enemies down in a timely fashion as well. In addition, Chiaki constantly assisted her so that she could do it more easily.

The 'seemingly' valuable stuff from the kobolds' loot was in their talismans. Those include rings, stones, and the like. Anything other than that was of no use. 

Anyway, Ken's response to Suzune's reprimand about his action with the foreman was—

"What's your problem with that?" Ken just snapped.

"That's obviously a problem," Suzune didn't flinch. Ken was terrifying when angry, no party member other than Suzune could remain calm in his presence. "We'll be in a lot of trouble if you go down. Try to think about your comrades."

"Geh, are you only concerned with your own safety?"

"Perhaps. That said, leaving a companion to die would be even worse."

"You certainly don't sound like you do."

"What do you want me to say?"

"To not bothering me."

"That won't do. The leader's job is exactly that."

"I don't need it. Fuck off."

'Well, that was a problem.' I mused. What would Suzune do about it? Considering Suzune's personality, she'd solve this problem by simply taking her time. I have no intention to delve deeply into their problems. But then...

"Our lives are at stake here!" 

Looks like I was mistaken.

Suzune raised her voice. It wasn't to the point of shouting, but it was the first time she had done that. Ken became overwhelmed at once. 

"You think you can whine like this anymore after you die? Once dead, all gates to other possibilities are closed. There is no return. There is no tomorrow. Naturally, you can't take another step. The way you acted a moment ago, it's almost as if you've never thought to appreciate your only life. I never thought you were this foolish."

"What?!" Ken 'was' being stupid over this. Still, Suzune hadn't handle him in the best way. It had been the opposite.

"Are you angered by the fact? If so, reflect on it."

Ken simply getting angered more.

'Now that I think about it, Suzune was pretty indifferent about all this volunteer soldier business.' 

A leader must carry a much heavier burden than their followers. But still, they can be shared. Although the burden still lay mostly on the leader, just the thought that it had been split could help them in many ways.

In Suzune's case, I suspect she wasn't making any attempt to do that, or perhaps tried but couldn't. For one, even if I had no solid evidence for this, given that I didn't communicate with her that much, she'd been trying to confide in me on that a few times now. One of those instances is by the second day we worked as volunteer soldiers.

By not doing so, her frustration might have built up over time, and now just happened to be the peak.

I decided to intervene. "We're in the enemy's lair. Save your bickering for later."

To my surprise, they actually went and did that.

'The situation between them will be awkward after this,' I'm sure of it. 'But, as Suzune said, life is only lived once. As long as they are living, they can still do something to improve themselves.'