Chapter 35: The Ones With A Future

[Various parties in the group channel are asking for you two to join them Lucid.]

Screw them.

Not one party or group wanted us to join them at the start. Of course, we had sent out a request to join as before we first departed but none of them responded so we said nothing about it.

They saw an assassin and a shitty bowman not giving us a second look.

But now that we have a way to rake in contribution points they want us?

Yeah right.

“What do you think Eugene should we join them?” I’m sure he is being bombarded much more than me to join. I also I didn’t want to answer for him either.

“No, I feel we are doing fine. Had our task force been overrun by these hyres hatching not getting to them in time then maybe I would be fine helping. As it is now, we are fine.”

He must have felt the same — A bit shafted.

Still, the contribution points we were making were a pittance compared to what I saw listed over the status tracking bar for the task forces in the other areas.

It was in the millions.

Not only had they slain them at an astounding rate, but the professional adventurers also didn’t need me. They probably had either sensitive enough control over mana or magic to detect it.

Speaking of which, the adventurers and the guardsman really put in work in the last 18 or so hours.

The view began to clear up. The mountains of molten jelly eggs where gone either replaced with stacks of egg-shaped rocks or completely destroyed.

I had seen someone create and control a terribly powerful tornado. Large enough it reached the top of this massive cave. The gusts reached all the way to me. Under that power, the eggs were turned into dust.

We were let off easy being corralled us in the eastern ward.

[Pointa: To update everyone I shall be concluding the situation status of a full-scale emergency and be switching to being on just full alert once the AT taskforce finishes clearing the rest of the hyres in their designated area.

All adventurers will still be on call, please report back to the public clinic once I have given your task force the go-ahead to come back to obtain your sleep replacement pill or use your contribution points.]

The other 3 task forces had all already finished and back at the central plaza. We were the only ones left along with the few guardsmen that had come to help us.

What are contribution points for anyway?

I’ve been too busy trying to make them and never bothered to question what they were for. Besides, I was doing my best here also because my survival is also dependent on how hard I work too.

Sure I could just brush it off and say I’m doing nothing compared to the professional adventurers, but that would be just an excuse for not putting forth my best effort.

[The adventurer guild allows adventurers to use their points to either convert to scales at a 1:1 ratio or spend on guild exclusive essence arts, weapons, and even obtain personal guidance from extremely powerful individuals such as Laurent.]

Huh.

I see it must be to entice us to stay as registered adventurers. Probably because they never know when something like this might happen again.

—Tch.

I clicked my tongue.

I got a bit distracted again thinking about obtaining guidance from a spear user or a mage.

It was easy after hours of aiming and killing the same thing over and over again to lose my concentration.

My mind was begging for something new.

“We’re getting distracted. Let’s move to the next area.” Eugene spoke out.

I was about to say…

Both of us had been stretching our time to stay in this area instead of moving on to somewhere more concentrated with these things.

Avoiding the few patches of still blisteringly hot magma we made our way towards another mound of fiery dungeon eggs.

***

Another six hours had passed. I couldn’t see or sense anymore of the hyres in the eastern ward so we called it in. We were waiting for the guards to double check our work.

Everyone is taking it so much harder than I thought.

I felt their eyes stab at me just standing outside the Scale Cathedral's shield.

Eugene as Eugene was immune and stood silently, though the stares weren’t aimed towards him since they thought I was the one leeching off of him.

“I bet he convinced Eugene not to share it,” Alan spoke nearby.

“Disgustingly greedy, during an emergency too.” One of the girls I had seen with Abigail at Bardi’s spoke too.

With the battles over I could hear the conversations from where I was clearly. They shoot words at me, taking glances as they talked among themselves.

It was easy to say being on the out, but I knew all of them would do the same.

Besides after the first close calls that I had stopped none ever appeared to hatch soon again because Eugene and I were hunting them almost exclusively.

It was also the reason why we racked up so many contribution points while only killing a fraction compared to everyone else.

[Pointa: AT the guards have come back and have finished their inspection of the area. Great job, you are free to come back now.]

Finally. At the words, my feet were quick to move as where Eugene's. Mine moved because I did not want to hear the platitudes of curses at me and Eugene because he just wanted to be efficient I’m sure.

They didn’t send the full brigade to help us but instead a small group. Once we had finished off the last sac the twenty guards that had come all flew to different areas of the eastern ward to make sure we had completed.

[The same was done for the other task forces Lucid. Just a simple safety measure.]

I understood their checks, I was peeved about something else.

I felt their hate was a bit misplaced. Runter and Mei were probably good enough to have joined the stronger task forces, maybe on the lower end of those, but they would have done fine.

Eugene and I ended at 4 and 5 respectively.

Mei ended first by 4 points as she was better suited, but the gap between Runter and the 3rd highest being Abigail in terms of contribution points was steeper than the drop off at the south of the cave.

Alan was sixth and Chibin was seventh.

Really, they’re just jealous. They know they can’t reach those five so instead direct their frustrations towards me who they felt ‘cheated’ to get this many points.

If our contributions counted like any other I am sure the two of us would be on the lower end.

But the level of anger is causing me to think the stuff I can get with contribution points isn’t on par with what tickets could get me at an arcade.

I shrugged.

Sucks to suck, I mused myself as I picked up pace with Eugene towards the center. I wish I could say it aloud, but I would just escalate the situation and cause unnecessary conflict.

It’s not like they’ve done anything.

Yet…

Either too tired to fly or not wanting to injure their familiars with the hot pools of lava the rest of the AT walked with us close behind. Led by Runter and the special four.

[Legendary.]

Legendary four.

Heh, a thought came.

Bored and feeling a little bullied I turned to Eurval.

Soo, what happened to your model Eurval? Hmmm?

I had a small grin teasing Eurval at its first real failure.

[I-I wasn’t able to complete it, I was very close Lucid.]

Hohohoo~

Could something be the matter? Weren’t you able to write an entire book in a couple of minutes?

I jumped on my high horse.

It’s not so easy coming to conclusions and meeting expectations in this world is it Eurval?

This was also a little payback for the awfully tight schedule I was put on for months.

[I hope you understand my maximum processing capacity is tied to your natural intelligence Lucid.]

…

Ahem

I-I was just joking Eurval.

I actually liked the fact that you chose to do this on your own. If you ever feel the need to do something like this in the future don’t let me stop you!

I really did like that. If my understanding was correct the MAGI and the host are basically in a deeper level of symbiosis.

I could hear the audibly unhappy Alan and Chibin grumble behind me.

“Fuck this, if more of this shit appears and last beats me again… I can’t accept it.” Chibin spoke out.

“HEY EUGENE AND LAST! Let me talk to you for a second.” Footsteps quickly approached from behind.

“Chibin leave Eugene out of your little issue.” Abigail finally spoke out.

Eugene?

Abigail you damn bitch, I’m here too.

As I was turning around to face Chibin something caught my eye.

“Wait, is that a hyre egg?” I looked a little to the right.

The sudden feeling hit me as I pulled out Eurval preparing an arrow.

Chibin flinched but quickly tried to hide it thinking I was about to attack him.

“I think it's going to be hatching soon,” I spoke out to Eugene it would be hard to hit since it was so hidden. I couldn’t see the head inside. Thinking maybe it would be better for him to kill it.

—ZOOOM

Before I nocked my arrow to try at it a wave of massive swordlight passed by me splitting the egg cleanly in two.

—REAAEAAA

The shriek rung out confirming the ‘feeling’ once more.

I turned back to see where the attack had come from.

A horrible looking mix of sourness and fake happiness appeared on Mei’s face as she tried to hide her feelings. Se looked flustered and angry at the same time. Runter, who did look a little down earlier, now appeared absolutely elated.

With those 10 points, I saw Runter’s and Mei’s names switch places.

But the guards missed one?

[This area was done by a different task force the guards probably weren’t as thorough because the adventurers here were stronger Lucid.]

I se—

—PIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMMM

“Wha-what the hell!”

A horrible ringing ripped into my ears. So incredibly loud it caused my balance to fail me. I reached to grab onto Eugene but I couldn’t see anything as the ringing was followed by a blinding green light. I ended up stumbling over but never hit the ground.

Was this issue big enough for him to try and kill me with magic? Attacking me so openly that’s a cut and dry death sentence for him too. It was also why he flinched when he thought I was going to attack him as he didn’t expect me to openly respond with violence.

No that’s not it…

As fast as I finally came around the correct conclusion the reality happened at a much faster pace.

This was the same feeling I felt when I was first dragged into this mess.

I understood now.

I was teleported once more.

And there is only one reason why someone would be directly teleported once already inside the dungeon.

The dungeon’s keeper would be appearing.

The feeling of falling continued from the initial stumble into the darkness. I wonder if it was because I am stronger than I was then that I didn’t pass out this time.

Actually, this meant the entire floor would be teleported does it not? But everyone except AT was outside the barriers…

I clasped my hands together tightly, holding them to my chest as I fell.

Please include the professional adventurers and Laurent guardsmen inside the barrier at the center plaza.

Please include the professional adventurers and Laurent guardsmen inside the barrier at the center plaza.

Please include the professional adventurers and Laurent guardsmen inside the barrier at the center plaza.

Please include the professional adventurers and Laurent guardsmen inside the barrier at the center plaza.

Please include the professional adventurers and Laurent guardsmen inside the barrier at the center plaza.

Oh, but don’t include the Scale Cathedral in the eastern ward.

I wasn’t sure to who I was praying to. I was just praying as a form of hope.