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＜ 12. Into the crack (4) ＞
“ Hey, is that village over there the place you were talking about ?”
“ Yes, that’s right .”
“… Fortunately, I can feel the popularity in that village. Do you have a village name ?”
“ Hersheba, Hersheba .”
“ Hersebara . . .”
Marco’s face was full of tiredness. It wasn’t just Marco. Andrea and Tricia’s faces were also heavily shaded .
The sun, which had just risen over the mound, cut the shadows into lengths. Footsteps treading on the dry ground. They were able to arrive at the village as their destination only after walking all night .
In the previous village, most of the monsters were cleaned up with Andrea’s outrageous punches, but I couldn’t avoid encountering another group of monsters on the way. It is a body that does not need to sleep or eat, but it was not easy to endure a long battle without rest .
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Not only that, but Andrea’s ominous prediction came true. The distance between villages was not as close as in the game. They had to walk for eight hours, excluding the time they had wasted in battle .
Still, the long march is almost over. Andrea encouraged the party .
“ It’s all over, and once we get to the village, let’s get some rest. I’ll put off announcing what happened in the previous village or finding Priest Emilia later .”
“ Good idea .”
“ Uh, taking a break is also taking a break, but I want to take a dip at the water’s edge… From the looks of it, there doesn’t seem to be any ditches in the village.”
It was chilly in the wasteland at dawn, but everyone was sweating from the intense battle and march. Tricia’s desire to wash was completely understandable, as the sand and dust winds blew intermittently and made it covered in dirt .
Andrea said, turning her head towards Tricia .
“ Even if you can’t use a watering can, you can draw water from the well and wash yourself. Water is precious here, so it probably won’t be free .”
“ It’s fortunate though .”
Trisha let out a sigh of relief. But that feeling didn’t last long .
“ By the way, Andrea. Just like here… isn’t it crazy about playing cards like Adsel ?”
“… yes. This is just a ‘normal’ town .”
“ Whoa, that’s good .”
Trisha didn’t care that Andrea took so long to answer. Trisha wouldn’t have been so easily relieved if she had known his intentions .
Sometimes, that mediocrity is the cause of terrible things. Precisely, the idea that you believe that your actions are ‘normal’. The malice hidden in the swollen rationalization is suffocating someone .
‘ If you enter this town, you will definitely receive that quest .’
I felt a mixed feeling, but I shook my head and shook my head. There was no need to worry about something that hadn’t happened yet .
Hersheba definitely felt more bustling than the nameless shantytown we passed through last night. It’s far short of being a city, but it wasn’t small for a village .
There was a road that cut halfway through the village amid huddled rows of earthen-walled buildings. Several alleys branched out from the main street like blood vessels .
As they entered the main street, a woman carrying a water jar and workers who were not yet awake glanced over at Andrea and her party. Eyes that were not openly revealed, but contained a hint of reluctance. Andrea deliberately didn’t look at them .
Entering one of the alleys, a building that at first glance looked like an inn stood out. But Andrea just passed by. Marco panicked and called him .
“ Andrea, I think the inn is here ?”
“ Oh, sorry. I forgot to explain. You have to stop by the exchange office first .”
“ A currency exchange? What currency exchange do you mean ?”
“ The currency here is not gold .”
Andrea, who entered a particularly small building, soon came out with a handful of white, translucent jewels. He picked up one of them and showed it to his companions .
“ It’s called a rift stone, but it’s used as currency everywhere in the rift. With this, you can get lodging and get special rewards. However, the most important role of all is that it is absolutely necessary when escaping the rift .”
The rift appears in a different place every time, but the clearing conditions are the same. Pay 100 rift stones and go through the exit portal. There was no need to collect Marco’s, so Andrea and the others had to collect 200 rift stones .
One rift stone can be purchased for every
100 gold, so if you have 10,000 gold and find an exit portal, you can escape the rift and skip the 10th floor. It was giving up all farming, so it was unnecessary unless you were speedrunning, but .
Andrea exchanged all of her gold for crack stones. It didn’t matter anyway, since if there were crack stones left over, I could just change them back to gold .
A total of 34 rift stones were obtained. It was an amount that was not enough to just escape, let alone get a reward. Still, it wasn’t enough money to settle for lodging at the inn .
Upon entering the inn, the owner with a pale face greeted them. Somehow, it seemed that the guest was not very welcome .
“ Accommodation is 2 stones per room per day. 3 stones including a light meal and water .”
‘ Stone’ was a unit that the residents of the rift referred to rift stones as currency .
” What’s for dinner ?”
“ Well… nothing great. About corn porridge and boiled pork potatoes? If you want, I can serve you some dried snake meat .”
“ Let’s make two rooms, including food and water .”
Andrea handed over 6 rift stones to the owner. The owner gave me the key and asked .
“ Are you going to eat right away ?”
“ No, let’s eat it around lunchtime. More than that, I want to ask you, has there ever been a priest with a blond hair, small build, and a wooden staff with buds passing through this village ?”
Tsk, the innkeeper clicked his tongue as if he could barely hear it. The innkeeper answering the question was looking at the floor, not Andrea .
“I don’t know. If it’s about a stranger, go ask the village chief who lives across the street .”
Andrea glared at the innkeeper. For a long time, without looking at anything. The innkeeper did not see Andrea until the end, as if something was bothering him .
I didn’t ask further. Because I guessed what the situation was. Andrea was fully aware of the quests taking place in Hersheba. I could guess what had happened just by listening to the behavior of avoiding strangers and those words .
‘ I need to meet the village chief as soon as possible. However, it was difficult to carry out the quest in such a tired state anyway. Instead, I should move up the time to leave after resting .’
Andrea and the others dispersed to each room. Promise to meet again in the hall a little after noon .
*
thump thump. thump thump thud .
An urgent knocking sound. I intended to lie down for a while, but I fell asleep. Marco, who was resting in a chair, stood up while Andrea, who was lying on the bed, stood up .
When I opened the door, there stood a middle-aged man in a purple turban. Under the sweat dripping from his forehead, he could see nervously shaking eyes. Marco frowned slightly when he saw the unexpected stranger .
“ Who are you? What is it ?”
“ I’m sorry to see you without an appointment. Forgive the rudeness. My name is Jamel, the chief of this village .”
Andrea widened her eyes. I was going to visit soon, but the client came looking for me like this. Andrea got out of bed and went to the door .
“ Nice to meet you, Chief. I had something I wanted to tell you, so I was going to visit you, but it went well .”
“ Yes? What, what are you doing ?”
I came here with a business, but when I heard that there was a business from this side, Jamel looked a little taken aback .
However, there was a reason to ask this side as well as the other side. Even two of them .
“ Isn’t there a shanty town half a day’s walk east of here? A place with two low hills nearby .”
“ Ah, yes. It wasn’t often, but it was a place where there were occasional exchanges. But why is that place …?”
“ The inhabitants there were exterminated. All of them had their heads cut off, but I couldn’t see where their necks went .”
“ Yes ?”
Jamel’s expression changed as if he had been kicked. He studied Andrea’s face carefully and carefully opened his mouth .
“ I’m not sure, but is what I just heard an idiomatic or figurative expression? Or maybe… a joke .”
“ Do I look like I am joking ?”
“ I’m sorry. It’s hard to believe. It was a peaceful town just two weeks ago …”
“ Are you the first to know the village chief ?”
“ Yes, this is really a first for me .”
Judging by Jamel’s shocked reaction, it seemed like this was the first time he had heard the news. I thought there would be some clues when I came to Hersheba, but it was a waste. Andrea decided that further inquiry would be futile, so she decided to ask something else .
“ I’m sorry. I don’t know if it’s the work of monsters or people, but you should be careful here too. By the way, is it because of a request that you came to us ?”
“ Oh, yes, yes. That’s right… It’s a bit ok to say here. If you’ll excuse me, could you please go to my house with me ?”
“ I know the general circumstances. It’s about rescuing your daughter who was captured in the Red Valley Cave, right?”
“ Uh, how did you know ?”
My daughter has been captured by a monster. Please save her. It’s an obvious quest like you’d see in any game, but the way things came to be was much more complicated than it looks .
But that wasn’t what mattered now. Andrea’s interest was not in the inside story of the quest she already knew, but in the whereabouts of Priest Emilia .
“ I heard some rumors going around. By the way, haven’t there been strangers who have accepted this request before ?”
“ Yes? Ah yes… It was .”
“ Didn’t they come back from the cave ?”
“…”
stiff facial muscles. Jamel thought. These adventurers already know how dangerous this can be. If that’s the case, you won’t accept the request easily .
However, the words that came out of Andrea the next time completely betrayed that prediction .
“ No, don’t worry. Even so, I intend to accept the request. But, by any chance, wasn’t there a small, blonde priestess among the strangers ?”
“… Yes, that’s right. How did you know ?”
“…”
The guess was right. Andrea predicted that there would be challengers who had already accepted the request of the village chief after seeing the residents’ reluctance to strangers. And through a conversation with the innkeeper, I predicted that Priest Emilia would be among those challengers .
Seeing Andrea with a serious expression, the village chief was terrified that he might change his words of accepting the request. He spoke again to persuade Andrea .
“ Well, you don’t have to worry about it. I don’t know what happened to the strangers before, but this time it will be different. I also asked other experienced adventurers to do the same. I don’t think it will be that difficult to defeat the monsters with them. Please… save my daughter .”
The monsters living in the cave are never easy enemies. No matter how low you put it, it’s a monster that’s on the level of a boss monster on the 40th floor. Because of this, the village chief’s quest was always designed to form a party with other challengers .
‘ Priest Emilia must have done the quest in this way. It’s questionable whether he’s still alive… but the only way to find out is to go to the cave. There’s no other quest that’s as good for earning rift stones as this one anyway .’
As long as I made up my mind to do it, the important thing was which challengers I would accompany. Andrea tilted her head and asked the village chief .
“ Can you tell me what kind of adventurers you want to be with ?”
“ One was a tall man who handled a long spear, and the other was a priest of the God of Waves. The last one was a very stout man, and he introduced himself as an Atala warrior .”
As soon as I heard that, my ears popped open. Atala, a tribe that has been slowly forgotten after living far from civilization beyond the continental mountains. As far as Andrea knew, there was only one Atala tribe warrior he could face in the rift .
“ Wasn’t that warrior’s name Bagratu by any chance ?”
“ Uh… yes. Maybe it was that name .”
The moment when suspicion turns to certainty. Andrea couldn’t help but swallow, nervous at her newfound knowledge .
Bagratu, a barbaric warrior who entered the dungeon with a mission to avenge his fallen clan .
It is the first playable character in
‘ Dungeon of Infinity’, and it was the character Jung-hyeon deleted to play Andrea before entering this world .
＜ 12. Into the Rift (4) ＞ End