Chapter 55.
A swarm of over a hundred Needle Mouse had completely surrounded Tenji and the others.
Mizue looked as if he had made up his mind that there was no way out alive.
Rikka was still shaken from the turmoil but was looking for a way out.
In the midst of all this, Tenji was beginning to think that the only way out was for him to act now. He was planning on summoning.
[Even if I summoned two Goblins, I don't think that they could handle this number. There are way too many Needle Mice to fight.]
[But the Goblins are indeed strong.]
[Maybe they could afford this battle after fighting daily against the fourth-grade demons in the Hell Realm.]
However, when Tenji compared the number of Goblins to the number of Needle Mice, it was obvious that he would be outnumbered and jittery. Tenji had experienced the advantage of having huge numbers, many tis in the dungeon.
Even if there was a strong explorer in the party, if you are outnumbered by monsters, everyone will often end up in a bad situation.
If there are three targets to protect there, even the Goblins will be very limited in how they can get around.
[How on earth I can do anything but to hope for the benefit of a better leveling up?...]
Tenji was desperately accelerating his mind to sohow find a way to survive from here.
Running away, fighting, praying for help, all of them were not going to work.
------- And that's when it happened.
Mizue smiled gently at his friends Tenji and Rikka, who were in back-to-back formation with him.
"I'm afraid this was not Chariot's test. Looks like we all had the right idea."
"Mizue-kun?..."
"Even if we had good weapons for an average person there's no match for a swarm of fourth-grade monsters. This is common sense. That's the enemy that's now in front of us in countless numbers, and no matter what anyone thinks, it's an enemy that's beyond our ability to handle. There is no way Chariot would bother to prepare such an enemy.... Am I wrong?"
"............"
"............"
"I've always been told that silence is a positive thing. I'm trying to find out. What do you say? Do you want to try to resist a little or fight??"
"Oh, when you say resist... What do you want to do against this number of monsters?" Tenji said.
"If you don't get needles through your eyes, brain, and heart, you won't die. You have to protect them and be prepared to be pierced by needles all over your body. Or another way, you can just die without fighting."
Mizue's words of contemplation made Rikka's face turn pale and her mouth shut.
When she thought of herself dying today, she felt an overflow of regret because she had so much left to do. At the sa ti, she was filled with an inescapable sense of dread at the sight of the Needle Mice gathered in front of her.
"No, no! I don't want to die! I don't want to die here!!!" Rikka scread
"Was that what you were prepared for? If you want to be an explorer, you should at least be prepared to die. If you can't, then you can't be an explorer." Mizue exclaid.
"Yes, I know! But! This isn't right! Why do I have to die just for an entrance test?"
"You can't tell that, all you can do is listen to . It was bad luck, this is what our destiny was all about. Neither of us deserve this. But. We can't change the fact that we are surrounded by these monsters."
"I'm going to die because of bad luck!"
"Yes, embrace it. That's what explorers are for." Tenji exclaid.
"No!"
"You're a selfish bitch. Then what do you want at the end? What do you want? I've heard a few stories of people awakening to their calling at tis like this. All you can do is pray for that. If you don't fight now then you can never beco a true explorer." Mizue spoke so strong words to Rikka.
Rikka then finally realized that her ranting would get her nowhere, so she finally stared back into Mizue's eyes without refuting him. Then next, she began to stare into Tenji's eyes.
Seeing Tenji's pure eyes, Rikka's expression changed to a huff as if she rembered sothing.
"Tenji-kun."
"Yes?..."
Rikka suddenly spoke to Tenji who was still trying to figure a way out.
From Tenji who didn't have much to do with Rikka, he can't help but be nervous about what words were going to be spoken.
"I know I'm being rude, but let ask you sothing. Tenji-kun is a survivor of the Ochanomizu Incident the other day, right?"
"What? What, how do you know?"
"I know soone who works for the Association. She's a woman nad Haru Mamiko, and I heard that a certain young man in black uniform from Japan Explorer High School survived days in front of Black Keroberos. I heard that the young man was just recently awakened to [Swordsman]. That young man is you, isn't it?"
"WHATT????"
Tenji was puzzled.
The information that Rikka just talked about was the most top secret of matters. The fact that there were 25 explorers who participated in that raid and survived was known to Leon, Kaido, a few of the high rank mbers of the association and only doctors involved.
So, there was no way an average woman like Rikka could have known.
[Haru Mamiko... I didn't know her na, but she might be soone to watch out for.]
Perhaps because Tenji remained silent, Rikka began to explain/
"The connection with Chariot, the look on Godo-san's face when he was talking to him before he left, the black-robed "swordsman"... doesn't it sound sowhat like Tenji-kun's story?" Rikka said, looking at Mizue.
As they were discussing this, the Needle Mice were slowly swarming nearer and nearer.
"You guessed from there?"
'That's right. Mamiko-san didn't give details, but how did you survive Black Keroberos back then? Is it possible for you to do that right here?"
The question made sense to Tenji.
Rikka identified that person as Tenji from the fragnted information she heard from an acquaintance, and she wanted to ask him if he could use that thod of survival here.
"Tenji... Is that true?"
Mizue's eyes widened in surprise as he looked at Tenji.
Tenji wondered how he should respond.
[The only thing to answer for is 'I made it through hiding among the corpses', a fiction made up by Leon. But no matter how I think about it, this thod can't be used in this place. There is not a single corpse to hide. But there soon might be.]
[Then make a corpse. If soone thought that, the last thing we wanted to do is to make a corpse.]
[We absolutely must avoid a situation where this could lead to the three of us killing each other.]
[And so, the true answer to Rikka's question is 'I have awakened to a special grade vocation'.]
[If I answer this then I will be able to release the Goblins and engage in full force combat here.]
[Still, it's obvious that I'm going to be jittery, so I'm going to be running a battle that's almost a gamble, depending on the benefits of leveling up.]
[Which story should I tell - which story should I tell?]
[No, there's no point in hiding it here anymore. It's already an obvious fact that this is a dungeon that is clearly out of Chariot's hands. As Mizue-kun said, there's no way there's a test to ask the participants to do sothing about this number of Needle Mice.]
Tenji took a few seconds to think all that.
Tenji looked up, nervous about telling his story for the first ti, but determined.
"Hiding in a pile of corpses, that's the answer. That's how I survived."
Both Mizue and Rikka's faces turned pale at the unimaginable answer heard from Tenji's mouth.
There were no more words to be spoken. It was a thod that only a clearly ntally deranged high school student could have used to hide in a corpse and survive for four days.
Or soone who was willing to die trying to escape death.
But Tenji quickly spins his next words.
"-- and this is a false testimony given to the Association." Tenji said.
"What?"
"What? What do you an?"
"The truth is that I awakened to an unknown calling and defeated Black Keroberos."
They both open their mouths wide at Tenji's words.
"So, please keep what's about to happen to in secret... Don't ask too much and don't tell anyone. Also, this is a very high stakes fight, so you must follow my instructions. Is that clear?"
[The young man in front of defeated Black Keroberos.]
[It is too hard to believe, but if it were true, I might make it through this place alive.]
They quickly ca to the sa thought.
"I get it. It's obvious there's nothing I can do now. I'll ask you about it later, but right now, I need you to do everything you can to fix this." Mizue said with a calming voice to Tenji.
"Yes, I'm going to trust Tenji-kun now too." Rikka said to Tenji.
"Thank you. Then, Mizue-kun, can you hold this sword for ?"
Tenji thanked them for their imdiate decision and forced the Iron Sword in his hand towards Mizue.
"Yes. Are you sure? You can use my double-stroke sword if you want."
"I appreciate it, but don't worry, I have stronger weapons."
The three of them had been in a back-to-back position until now, but Tenji stepped forward from his spot.
The Needle Mice swarm was unpredictably silent waiting for the three to make a movent.
He summons a sword as he flips the 'Book of Enma' in the air.
He had already verified that he doesn't need to say a word when summoning them. However, in order to show the two of them what he is about to do with words, Tenji dares to put his demands into the 'Book of Enma' aloud.
"Co out, Red Demon Sword."
At that mont, Tenji had a red-black sword in his right hand.
Rikka also instinctively had goosebumps from the summon.
"What? From where?"
Rikka was surprised at the phenonon aloud.
But Tenji's actions did not end there.
He thrust his hands forward, preparing to exercise another ability that is the essence of Hell Beast Summoning.
"Summon-- 'Goblin'"
When he said those words--
Two small portals with a disastrous purple color appeared on the ground.
[TLN: This is my favorite chapter so far. Now I really want the Goblins to demolish all the Needle Mice.]
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