Chapter One Hundred and Sixty-Nine: Emergency Situation
It happened when Thor and the other high-ranking adventurers, disliking living in the group camp and saying they’d be fine with a small force, had left the rocky area where Karen and the nobles were concentrated.
First came a tremor in the ground. Then, before long, a roar that seemed to shake the air rang out.
“Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!”
“That’s… an Elder Treant!?”
One of the D-rank adventurers remaining at the camp shouted and gasped.
“Why is the tenth-floor boss on the eighth floor!?”
It was a giant tree monster. Thick foliage, clusters of red berries. A large cavity gaped blackly like a mouth, from which it raised a terrifying cry.
Monsters normally shouldn’t be able to cross the boulders, yet the Elder Treant—far too huge to pass through narrow paths—wriggled its thick roots and crawled over the rocks, charging toward this side. Perhaps because there were many people.
A monster crossing floors. As far as Karen knew, the only possible cause for that was a Stampede.
The next moment, the Elder Treant swung its head in a snapping motion.
“Dodge!”
An adventurer shouted. Someone grabbed Karen, who couldn’t react in time, and leapt back with her.
The next instant, the Elder Treant’s berries rained down on the camp like cannonballs, and Waltride’s tent, where they landed, burst into flames instantly.
“Lady Waltride!”
“Let us go to her aid!”
Therese, who had just helped Karen, said.
Karen ran without time to thank her or even acknowledge the help.
“Lady Waltride! Are you alright!?”
“She’s unconscious…! I’ll use healing magic!”
The tent was crushed and burning, but the place where Waltride had been was unharmed. The princess had fainted while sitting in a chair. Since there were no visible injuries, she had apparently fainted from surprise at the monster’s roar or the impact of the treant’s berries.
Therese used healing magic, but Waltride didn’t wake, her face pale.
“I’ll use awakening magic.”
“No, please leave Lady Waltride as she is.”
Karen said reflexively. The tenth-floor boss. A clearly dangerous monster had appeared.
Waltride would be happier remaining unconscious, not knowing this. If she woke up, as royalty, Waltride might be forced to stand on the front lines, but she couldn’t stand there.
Therese sent Karen a look of contempt.
“What are you saying at a time like this, Lady Karen? Could it be you’re jealous of Her Highness the Princess?”
“Huh? Jealous?”
“Her Highness the Princess was rumored to be with Sir Julius, so I understand you might have uneasy feelings. But this is an emergency.”
Apparently, she thought Karen was trying to expose Waltride to danger out of jealousy. Before Karen, who was dumbfounded for a moment, could voice words of explanation, another person refuted it for her.
“Please do as Lady Karen says, Lady Therese.”
“That’s right. In this case, it’s correct to do as Lady Karen says.”
“Lady Irmlinde? Lady Dorotea?”
“There are various reasons that you, as just a guard adventurer, don’t need to know, Lady Therese. Please follow the words of Lady Karen, Her Highness’s personal alchemist.”
Though Waltride apparently hadn’t told her secret face-to-face, Irmlinde, Dorotea, and the other close maids had somehow figured out various things. From their perspective too, it would be better to keep Waltride unconscious. They apparently understood well that she couldn’t do anything anyway.
Irmlinde wrapped Waltride in a sheet and picked her up. Dorotea packed the minimum of valuables into a box. Karen also gathered up her work tools scattered around Waltride’s tent, where she had been living recently.
While watching them work efficiently, Therese blushed and hung her head.
As they exited the tent in turn, Therese said in a small voice:
“…It seems I misunderstood something. I apologize, Lady Karen.”
Karen shrugged.
“It’s an emergency, so it’s no wonder you’re on edge… thank you for saving me earlier, Lady Therese.”
“No, it’s my job after all…”
They fell back with the mumbling Therese.
Once Waltride and the powerless servants and the injured were moved to a secure area, Karen began her work. She was an alchemist. Her job was to make potions through alchemy.
“Little Karen! I knew you’d be here. I’m glad you’re safe.”
“Uncle Sepl!”
After confirming Karen’s safety with a relieved face, Sepl plopped down the pot he had been carrying.
“You’re going to make potions, right? You can use this pot.”
“Is Mr. Gunther also in that group?”
What Sepl handed to Karen was the huge silver pot she had once used to make curry—probably made of mithril. Though it wasn’t an alchemy cauldron, it would tremendously increase the magical efficiency of alchemy.
“Yeah. All the C-ranks except Gunther went off to look for a new campsite.”
“Thanks, I’ll use it.”
“Sure. That Elder Treant showed up like it was waiting for Thor and the other high-ranking adventurers to leave. I mean, why is it even here in the first place?”
“Mm. Be careful, Uncle Sepl.”
“I’m a D-rank adventurer on the verge of C-rank, you know? An Elder Treant is nothing.”
If it were really nothing, Sepl should have already been promoted to C-rank. Karen swallowed the feeling of wanting to voice her endlessly overflowing anxiety and saw Sepl off.
She made a makeshift stove and placed the pot Sepl had brought. What Karen could do as an alchemist was make potions. Medicinal herbs grew all over the place. While doing the familiar work, Karen observed what was happening up front.
Those on the front lines were D-rank adventurers and the Royal Knights.
“Hold out for a while! If we hold out, the high-ranking adventurers will return—!”
Gunther’s words were drowned out by a distant roar.
If Karen’s memory was correct, the roar came from the direction Thor and his party had headed to set up their camp. There was a high possibility that something was happening over there too. Not just Karen, but everyone realized that possibility in an instant.
“Hey, knights! If the fire gets on you—hold your breath and fall back! Take off your clothes! Roll in the dirt! Don’t go anywhere! If you stay here, we’ll put out the fire for you!”
Sepl recovered his composure faster than anyone and began shouting instructions.
“First, we’ll cut off the branches!”
“Don’t touch the leaves! You’ll get hurt!”
Gunther and Sepl shouted instructions.
Instructions from adventurers accustomed to dungeon monsters.
The knights also nodded without anyone trying to voice an objection.
If those Royal Guards had been here, chaos would have been inevitable. Karen patted her chest in relief again that they weren’t there.
But it was still too early to feel relieved. The Elder Treant was a rank C monster. Naturally, the recommended adventurer rank was also C. It was even recommended that a full party—or even larger—take it on.
It was a heavy burden for D-rank adventurers. In that case, the knights became the hope.
“Lady Therese, in terms of adventurer ranks, how strong are the knights?”
“Most of the noble knight orders are D-rank or lower.”
Therese answered while healing the injuries of the wounded with magic.
Karen was startled while pouring magical power into every corner of the huge pot.
“Huh… really?”
“To become stronger, I chose the path of an adventurer.”
Karen’s eyes went round at Therese’s immediate answer.
“Then… doesn’t that mean they can’t defeat that?”
The Elder Treant’s subjugation rank was C. And depending on its size, it was even recommended to take it down with an entire clan. One C-rank adventurer alone couldn’t hope to bring it down. That’s why when adventurers passed the tenth floor where Elder Treants were, they were promoted to C-rank as a party.
“I believe it’s possible to defeat it. But if they’re the ones doing it, we must be prepared for casualties.”
Therese, her face pale, stared intensely at the struggling fighters in the chaotic battle.
Seeing her profile, Karen remembered. The knight order of Therese’s family, Baron Folant’s house, should be participating in that.
While staring with a pale face at acquaintances, friends, and perhaps family members among those facing life-threatening battle, Therese murmured, "But…”
“Ah—”
Karen inadvertently cried out, interrupting Therese’s next words.
“Mr. Julius!”
“—Yes, that’s right, we have Sir Julius.”
Julius, a knight, possessed strength on par with a B-rank adventurer and had conquered the Ehlertt territory’s twenty-floor dungeon.
Karen had lost sight of him for a moment, but when she noticed him again, Julius was already standing before the Elder Treant.
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