The Water Magician

"It looks like we've been separated..."

"Yeah. Is it a transfer trap?"

Amon said, and Zeek agreed.

"I heard from Ryo-san before. Apparently, Arthur from the Royal Magic Guild mentioned that there are places in the dungeons of the Western Nations that have transfer traps."

"Is this it?"

"And there are also rooms with magic nullification spaces. I believe Abel-san mentioned this to Ryo-san."

"...That means it's a mage killer... or rather, a priest killer as well."

Zeek replied with a wry smile at Amon's information.

Although they were separated, both remained calm.

"To be honest, if it's just Amon and me, we can manage most of it. But if the other four are divided into pairs... Well, anyone should be able to handle it, right?"

"Yeah... Eto-san and Harold... they should be fine. Eto-san and Gowan too... I feel like they'll be okay as long as Eto-san isn't transferred alone."

"Certainly."

Zeek agreed with Amon's speculation, and they both ended up laughing.

They were a B-rank party and a C-rank party.

Each of them was fairly strong.

"Well then... shall we move on?"

"Yes!"

Zeek encouraged, and Amon nodded.

They had prepared a procedure in case they got separated.

Although they hadn't anticipated being separated by a transfer trap, separation itself was a possibility in a dungeon.

There were various traps, such as pitfalls and moving walls.

In the West Dungeon, they could return to the surface by conquering the layers.

Thus, they had decided that if they were separated, each would conquer their respective layers and then regroup on the surface.

With that agreement, the two began to advance.

The problem did not lie with them.

"Complex traps... they're clearly trying to kill us."

Nils muttered, yet he did not stop swinging his sword.

Next to him, Harold was also wielding his sword.

Behind them lay Gowan, still prone.

Eto was firing arrows with a repeating crossbow while occasionally giving Gowan an antidote potion to drink.

"Only two potions left!"

Eto shouted, signaling their dire situation.

However, even hearing that, Nils couldn't come up with a good idea.

They had been forcibly transferred, with the first trap being a magic nullification space...

And lethal poison arrows.

Additionally, they were facing a massive onslaught of goblins.

Five poison arrows had struck Harold.

Gowan had knocked Harold aside and slashed down with his twin swords... but one arrow had hit him.

Due to the magic nullification space, Eto's Heal and Cure could not be used.

They could only barely keep him alive by regularly administering potions.

In such a state, they were facing a large number of goblins.

Of course, each individual goblin was not particularly formidable.

But still, numbers equate to strength.

Nils and Harold were still cutting them down, but eventually, fatigue would catch up to both of them...

Clang.

Nils sliced through an incoming arrow.

"Even goblin archers have shown up."

There was a hint of panic in Nils' voice.

They had to be cautious of attacks from both close and long range... the difficulty of that was exponentially higher than before.

And the progression of fatigue was accelerating at an equal rate...

(This is getting really bad.)

Nils could not voice that thought; he could only think it to himself.

In this moment, Nils was the leader.

He was also the commander.

Ryo had always emphasized the impact of a commander's words.

And the respected King Abel as well.

Sometimes, one must say things they do not truly mean!

"I'll cut down the archers too! Gowan, just hang in there a little longer!"

He shouted almost as a roar, so that Gowan, who was battling the poison, could hear him.

But that was fine.

Nils' voice gave a small boost of vitality, albeit slight, to Harold and Eto, who were on the verge of losing hope.

They mustered their spirits.

But...

Before Nils, Harold's fatigue reached its limit.

"Ugh!"

A goblin archer's arrow pierced Harold's right thigh.

Seeing that, the goblins surged at Harold all at once.

"Don't underestimate me!"

However, Harold was still a C-rank swordsman.

And he was a man destined to become a duke.