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Several rays of light were running in the basement.

Their movements were unsteady as if reflecting the unease of the source of the light, in other words, the people that were holding the flashlights.

“T-There were these many Big Rats? Also, so many Rat Men.”

“Hn, that’s right. Defeated them all, but it was a hard fight.” (Dry)

“Right… It is not like I am doubting you here, but there’s a big difference between hearing about it and seeing it myself.”

The ones holding the flashlights are Chihiro and the others.

Lanpeach came back heavily injured, so they asked in a hurry what happened. They somehow understood Dry, who is bad at talking, heard about how there were monsters propagating in the basement, and everyone from the team headed to the basement even if it was scary.

Their steps were unreliable, and their faces were filled with anxiety.

The spider Artificial Spirits of Lanpeach are heading to the basement in force. They fortunately followed behind, so the spider Artificial Spirits should protect them if anything happens, is basically the plan here.

The spider Artificial Spirits have expanded their bodies and are around 5 meters in width. They may be reliable, but they wouldn’t be able to imagine that they can’t fight because they are combat engineers.

“It is true… So many Big Rats… Something terrible would have happened if left be. I do hear often about Big Rats taking over abandoned buildings and eating all their residents.” (Chihiro)

“There’s bases full of skulls. Worse ones have skeletons walking around.” (Dry)

“So this base was about to become the same. I need to thank Lan deeply. Thanks for saving us as well, Dry.” (Chihiro)

There are many corpses of Big Rats even within the range the flashlights could illuminate.

There’s several pools of blood and the Big Rats lying on the ground without moving an inch were fanning their fear.

Her body was stiffened like a rock, but she still lowered her head at Dry and thanked her.

Chihiro somehow managed to squeeze out all the courage she had to stand at the front and confirm the state of things.

It is because there’s no doubt that she would be looked down on if she were to get scared here and leave it to the subordinates of the team.

You are done for once you get looked down on. There’s a high chance you would need to live as the bottom of the team.

Even if not, the women who want to make a move on Lanpeach won’t be scared of Chihiro and won’t be reserved.

She is confident of her own beauty, but it is a situation she can’t call stable, so she was confirming the surroundings with an unfazed expression while internally wanting to cry.

“Chihiro-san, uhm…the spider Artificial Spirits are also scary. T-They won’t attack us, right? It is okay, right?”

“Can’t you see that state of theirs? They definitely won’t attack us.” (Chihiro)

The boy that had been allowed to join the team pointed at the Spider Artificial Spirits with a trembling finger.

She remembered his name was Yuuma while showing pressure with a cold demeanor.

Her heart is currently drumming though.

That’s because when the Spider Artificial Spirits picked up the many corpses of the Big Rats, they would shoot a thin beam from their legs and illuminate the place red as they turned them into ashes.

Their bodies didn’t ignite in flames. They would simply shoot the red light from inside them, disassemble them, and change them into ashes.

They simply left small fangs and put them inside themselves.

Watching this fanned their unease terribly, and it made them wonder when they will be attacked, but Artificial Spirits are different from monsters in that they are the same as machines.

They shouldn’t do anything aside from what they were ordered, and Chihiro can’t afford to lose her calm here.

“Right. It should be okay, right? Ah, hey, you shouldn’t get on the spider!” (Yuuma)

“Boo boo, this spider-shan has become mine.”

“Don’t. You might get eaten. Come on, get down!” (Yuuma)

A little girl rode on the head of the spider at some point in time, waving her small legs, and going kya kya in joy, so Yuuma brought her down by force.

Chihiro had the poison inside of her extracted at such a harmless exchange, and her fear and that of everyone thinned. Their bodies stopped trembling and they laughed.

“So, there’s a horde of Rat Men below here…? Those monsters attack you without notice, so that would have been dangerous. It is true… So many…” (Chihiro)

The fear of Chihiro and the others thinned and they went down the staff only stairs with lighter steps, but they were welcomed with further surprise.

The fearsome monster that would bite your head inside your base without you knowing: the Rat Man.

They hide themselves with magic and ambush you, so they found it hard to believe that Lanpeach defeated a horde of those monsters that can assault you even when being careful, but the sight spreading before them was exactly as they were told.

A horde of Rat Men on the ground.

—But there was something more shocking.

“Eh? Is this the water purifier and generator? They are new…right?” (Chihiro)

“Hmm. Dry cleaned them. Did my best.” (Dry)

It can’t be helped that Chihiro would be surprised.

Machines that can supply water and electricity to a massive mall are expensive. Moreover, they are shiny and the monitors are working normally. They are functioning without any fear of malfunction.

It is at the very least not machinery that would be abandoned in the slums.

“Needed many rags.” (Dry)

Dry moved her hand as if to illustrate wiping the machine. She gave her excuse while moving her small body as if dancing.

She looked really cute, but there’s a limit to the deception here.

“Didn’t you return at once with Lan after the fight ended?” (Chihiro)

“D-Done a part-time job to clean fast.” (Dry)

“I-I see…” (Chihiro)

Chihiro stared at her, clearly not convinced, but even someone not intelligent like Dry could tell that this was better to keep secret.

Dry has experienced surviving alone without being affiliated with any teams in the slums. She has a high battle sense.

Bringing back the water purifier and generator to basically new as if rewinding time, coupled with ending up attacked even when he didn’t attack led her to conclude one thing…

(Peach-oniichan has a Time Spirit. Also uses stuff like spiders, so might have other powers, but high chance he can control time.) (Dry)

She has never heard of a Spirit that can control time.

It seems like he can only stop time for a few seconds, and even if he can rewind time, he didn’t heal his own wounds, so there must be some sort of restriction.

But she can tell this is an earth-shattering power, so she shouldn’t say this and decided to just deceive them.

It doesn’t seem like it is working though.

Chihiro could somewhat tell her intentions here. That this is probably an ability that Lanpeach doesn’t want others to know.

Even the stupid Dry is trying to not say it after all.

It must be a big secret, and she would only learn about it when Lanpeach trusts her and tells her himself, so she decided to not pursue it.

“Ah, but we might run out of Spirit Crystals.” (Dry)

“Eh?! Ah, because the base has been repaired and the amount that must be supplied has increased, right? That’s troubling…” (Chihiro)

The monitor shows that the remaining energy is low. It will be empty in a week.

“Problems are suddenly cropping out for some reason. Why has it ended up like this? So it is true that fortune is followed up equally by misfortune. They do say misfortunes can be turned into fortunes, but I would rather just have one fortune and leave it at that.” (Chihiro)

Chihiro sighed with a truly troubled face. But sighing won’t improve the situation.

“I am also worried about the injury of Lan. I think he will need a potion with such a big injury.” (Chihiro)

“Hn, should buy potion. Have money?” (Dry)

“Let’s ask Lan if he has money. If not, we have no choice but to use the Ele he gave me.” (Chihiro)

The two and the members of the team went back to the place of Lanpeach to talk about the future and to check the state of his injuries.

Now the only ones left were the Taraworkers silently cleaning up the rats.

—There wasn’t a single lookout, so there was someone who went inside the basement stealthily after hearing the commotion and went there with curiosity, wondering if there’s anything worth money, but the Taraworkers were unconcerned, so no one knew about that.

That person was shocked at the new machines and left the building in a hurry, but no one noticed.

◇◇

Chihiro peeked at Lanpeach, who was sleeping on a dirty bed with bandages tied around his shoulder, and made a questionable look.

“Now that I look at him like this, he has his usual complexion, and it looks as if he is not wounded though. He is gravely injured, and yet, there’s no fever. Could it be that it is a minor injury despite appearances?” (Chihiro)

There’s no high fever even when she placed a hand on the forehead of Lan, and didn’t look like he was in pain, so Chihiro was in wonder here.

“Nope. The fangs of Rat Men reach all the way to the bone. Pretty big injury…?” (Dry)

That’s when Dry remembered something and went silent, tilting her head.

It is true that there was a big hole opened in his shoulder. It was a size that shouldn’t be opened on the shoulder of a human.

She could see even the bones and the flesh was a mess, so even looking at it was painful.

“Why are you falling silent there? That bothers me. Lan had an injury of that level, right?” (Chihiro)

Chihiro saw it too when wrapping the bandages, but she grew pale from such an injury, and couldn’t look directly at the degree of the injury, so she didn’t have a good look.

“The blood stopped quickly. Hnn… I think that’s good, so stop worrying.” (Dry)

But even though he had a big hole in his shoulder, the bleeding stopped soon after.

That felt strange, but Dry figured this had to do with magic, so decided not to say it.

There’s no way the two would be able to tell that Lanpeach is a Transcendental and that his wounds are slowly regenerating automatically bit by bit.

“I-I see…” (Chihiro)

She didn’t seem convinced here, but she did feel like this isn’t the time to be worrying about that, so she placed a hand on her chin and began to think about the future.

“We need Lan to recover quickly. If other teams were to learn that Lan has collapsed, they will try to steal this base. We really do need a potion…but that would require at least 100,000 Ele.” (Chihiro)

Chihiro sighed deeply and was sad that she couldn’t prepare such money.

100,000 is a massive amount for someone from the slums. She has rarely seen such an amount.

Potions that can heal your body are expensive.

People from the slums can’t buy even the lowest rank potion.

“I will check whether Lan has any.” (Chihiro)

Dry is different from Chihiro, who is scared of searching the body of Lan, she has no hesitation.

She searched the pockets of Lanpeach and took out the bills.

“Found it. Found 100,000 Ele.” (Dry)

She showed the bundle of cash with a smug face.

Chihiro clapped and showed a smile.

But she wasn’t calm on the inside. They have to buy a potion for the sake of Lanpeach. They have to confirm if Lanpeach has some, and yet, Dry could go into action immediately while she couldn’t.

She felt conflicted about this and decided to take the next action.

“That’s a relief! Then, I feel bad for Lan, but let’s go buy it with that money. Can you come with me as a bodyguard?” (Chihiro)

“Don’t have Pochifer with me right now, but that’s okay. Won’t lose to your average hoodlum.” (Dry)

“Then, let’s go buy the potion!” (Chihiro)

The opinion of the two was the same, so they looked at each other and nodded, and decided to head to the market.

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