NOVEL NEXT Chapter 136: Sometimes We Fail. That's What It Means to Be Human. Part 2
“Haa… Then, what should we do?”
As soon as Lily sighed, her expression turned tired and she asked me so. Eh, I’m a little hurt by that reaction, though? Well, it’s kinda expected if we look back on my actions so far…
“…We won’t go with yesterday’s method since it’s cold. Let’s go with a different method today.” “……Even if there are other ways than that, it will be nasty, won’t it?”
Why did you immediately decide that it’s going to be nasty? Today’s method was actually quite good.
“I want to move my body more~” “Do you want to go head-on against multiple spellcasters?” “That sounds bad when you say that, but the three of us can win, yeah?”
That might be the case. But…
“I don’t want both of you to get hurt.” “…If you say so.” “…I’ll put up with it then.”
Yeah, please don’t be rash.
By the way, we started moving after discussing! Just like yesterday, I used the magic armor to hold them in my arms, approaching the entrance of the cave. According to Norn’s [Detection], there were no monsters around. But goblins might come out of the cave, so we were cautious.
Once we reached the entrance, I covered two-thirds of the entrance again as I did yesterday. And this was where things were going to be different.
Today’s nest was barely enough to fit the magic armor. If I froze it like how I did yesterday, it would be impossible for me to enter. Moreover, it slopes gently downward as we go deeper.
So I would use [Multitasking]1 to use two-attribute magic at the same time. While making water with water magic and pouring it into the cave, I shoot a high-voltage current to the water with lighting magic.
Pouring too much water would be troublesome when we enter the cave to collect the corpse, I keep the amount moderate while adjusting so that the entire floor of the cave got wet.
“Giiii!?” “Gwahhhhh!!??” “GWAH AGWAH AGHH!!!!?”
Ohh, I could hear the screaming faster with this method.
“…Ren, this is a bit too much.” “It’s worse than yesterday’s…”
Hahaha! Say anything you want!
The goblin nest capture operation laced with torture continued for around 30 minutes. I cut the magic once I couldn’t hear screams anymore. Next, we rushed into the nest to collect the corpse. But…
“It stinks!” “So smelly!” “It stinks so much…”
Yeah, it smells really bad. Very much so.
The already stinky goblin nest became even worse with the burnt smell of the goblin corpse that burned to death alive with a high voltage current! I definitely didn’t want to go into the nest still smelly! How could I erase this smell! No, I’m inside the magic armor so it didn’t affect me, but what about the others? Ah, Norn already went far away before I knew it. I’m sorry…! I’m sorry…!
Ahhh! No way, this operation was a failure! But…
“…I definitely don’t want to go in, but we have to.”
Right. In the worst case, I could just go alone… I did this myself, so I would do my best…
“Lily, what if you use that?” “That? What do you mean? Did something happen?” “It’s wind magic quirks. Applying the wind attribute of the Magic Sword to the clothes will create a pocket of air around our body. Then we can block this stench, right?” “Ah! That’s right! Arisa, you’re a genius!”
Oh, there’s such a method!?
When we tried it immediately, we succeeded in blocking the odor as Arisa said! Arisa, amazing! You’re great!
…I’ve been thinking about this for a long time, but Arisa actually used her head a lot even if she acted like she wasn’t, you know? Or is this her true ability? …Which is it?
With Arisa’s wit, we took measures against the odors and finally rushed into the cave. Well, we were greeted by brutally charred corpses. I collected all of them in [Storage].
Ummm… Yeah, the magic stones were safe. It’s good that I managed to adjust my magic properly.
As we proceeded through the cave, we also found the corpse of the spellcasters. Even so, the second one was still alive, just barely.
“Hup!”
Arisa attack! And the goblin was dead!
“It didn’t struggle. How boring.” “Put up with that, Arisa.” “I know~”
Yeah… Sorry about that? As compensation… I’ll cook delicious food?
The innermost part of the cave was still a hall, which seemed to be where the leader resided. Same as in the previous room, one spellcaster was still barely hanging on to life.
“Hah!”
Slash its neck! And the goblin was dead!
“Does being a spellcaster mean that their magic resistance is also high?” “I think so. But Ren also restrained your power, right?” “Yes. I don’t want the magic stones to break…” “If you don’t restrain it, I think it’ll die. Even if it’s a spellcaster, it’s still a goblin after all.” “Are you sure about that?” “I’m sure about that.”
I see.
“But this strategy is a failure.” “Yeah… I’m sorry Ren, but I’d like you to not do this in the future when we’re in a small closed-in-place. “I understand. But don’t you think this will be quite effective when dealing with lizardmen in swamps?” “Ah, that might be true! …No, forget that. We will have to step on the water too, so we might get hurt from the electric shock.” “Oh… Then I’ll have to think of a way to deal with that.” “…Is that any?” “There must be, right?”
Then we returned to the town as we had a light chat.
The next day, we heard that the guild’s investigative team who went to the cave had a hard time with the smell.
Just as expected.