Strange Grief Wants to Retire ~ The Weakest Hunter Dreams of a Hero ~ Chapter 34: Incompetence

Chapter 34

Incompetence

Everyone ford a line going outside. The typical anticipation and exhilaration before a hunter set off on an adventure was nowhere to be seen.

What floated in the air was a sense of tension as if they were heading off to certain death. Even though I had said I’d concede to their demands.

Tino approached the end of the line, and saw them off with an expression of relief. Liz rotated around in front of and spoke displeasingly.

“Hey. Why did you say no? Why? It’s sothing Ark-chan has to co out for right? I want to go. Hey! Cry-chan, please. Ok?”

She spoke with a flattering voice.

Liz acknowledges Ark. The all purpose magic swordsman Ark Rodin seed to be a considerably tricky opponent even for 『Severed Shadow』.

Those blazing pink irises glittered at the hint of a cruel battle. This child was hopeless, she only used a portion of her brain.

What was important was what she ntioned before, the 『high elixer』. That was a transcendently high class product that ca from shrines.

Strange Grief had only ever brought back one of them, and while I wouldn’t hesitate to use it when it was important, if it was used it would be a huge loss.

As Liz gripped my arms and started to pull on them like a spoiled child, I breathed out a sigh.

“No, because you, you don’t have the spirit of cooperation.” “Eh- ...it’ll be fine. Since everyone will go along with .”

That’s not a cooperative spirit.

In the back, Tino’s face was ghastly pale as she peeked over watching Liz. I pinched Liz’s cheek in front of .

Liz looked up at in puzzlent. I continued pinching her cheek.

Even though it should be reinforced by Mana Material, her skin was soft without a single flaw.

Mana Material truly is a mysterious substance.

“To start with, you’ve only just returned from the last hunt. It would be better if you have a little rest.”

If you just stay here quietly everyone will be happy. Of course I’ll be happy as well. At my words Liz showed a sparkling smiling face. Can you always show that expression?

“Kya-, Cry-chan’s soo nice! It’s ok though. Right, Tee?” “Y-Yes! It’s ok, Onee-sama. ...Master.”

“There, see?”

Tino nodded desperately while her face clearly turned paler.

No matter how you looked at it, she only seed as if she was being threatened.

I had known Liz for a long ti. Basically, we’ve had a relationship since we first beca aware of thought. That’s why, sohow I could tell what she was thinking.

Liz’s eyes looked like she had co up with sothing mischievous. You, you’re planning to go in secret. That’s no good.

It wasn’t exactly that the high elixer was too precious. It’s just, while the other parties were in the middle of cautiously progressing, the image of her plunging through the shrine like she owned the place and kicking everyone else around ca to mind.

Reluctantly I put my arm around Liz’s shoulder. As if I was talking about sothing secret, I persuaded her.

“Now now, settle down, Liz. For Liz... that’s right, there’s sothing else you need to do...”

“...Eh? Is that how it is? Well....then it can’t be helped.”

Liz blinked while letting out a disappointed voice. There, now with this she won’t go outside arbitrarily.

Knowing her for so long also ant that I knew sowhat how to handle her. This clan had Ark that was recognised by everyone inside it, but that I was still made the clan master may have sothing to do with this area.

While giving a sidelong glance, Liz parted her lips slightly.

“Mmm, then just Tee should go on her own? The Phantoms have all different types of weapons, it’s perfect for training...”

Oi oi, that’s not good.

This ti the mbers of Footprints would also be there, so she probably wouldn’t go through such a bitter experience again. But it looked like Tino’s affinity with the White Wolves Den was bad.

From the start, Tino was solo so she didn’t match up well with these sorts of missions, and the ability of the Phantoms that ca out was a bit high.

Liz, you may not know this but... with shrines you make sure there is a sufficient safety margin.

After the previous matter, if I sent her back to the White Wolves Den wouldn’t I just be a brute of a Master?

I... want to look good. Not ntioning that the other person is my junior, it’s even more when she’s a young girl.

“Nope.” “Ehhh”

“With this we’re finished talking about it.” “Ehhh....”

Liz-chan was still displeased as I took away my arm from her shoulders and raised my face up.

Over there was a hunter... a young man nad Lyle was approaching.

He wasn’t a mber from the early days, but he was a veteran. He was slightly taller than , and the dull tal armour he was well accustod to wearing inexplicably gave off a shine.

Since he was close in age, he was a hunter I was on good terms with.

He recently reached level 5, and I recall really letting loose at the tavern at the ti. “Cry, this request....is it....really going to be ok?”

At a separate spot a short distance away, other hunters were cautiously looking over this way. Apparently this guy drew the short straw.

But, if you asked sothing like that I was going to be troubled. I also didn’t know much information about the mission.

It’s likely I could know even less than Lyle and the others.

But...yeah. I’m the Master. Since I’m the Master I need to conduct myself accordingly.

I should encourage my companions with thumbs up.

“Don’t worry, it may be a difficult mission, but I believe that if it’s 『Footprints』

they will succeed every ti without fail!” “....”

....Hm? How strange.

I thought the flow would have been cheers and war cries, but what ca back was silence.

The hunters in the back, and Lyle himself were wearing indescribable expressions. And Lyle responded as if shrinking back.

“Oh...is that...so? If you can... as the clan master, and a level 8 hunter, could you tell the most important things to watch out for?”

“Most important things...?”

He ca out with sothing difficult again. I turned my eyes to Eva, who had been driven away by Liz to a place a little further off, and without saying anything she gave a nod.

Apparently I couldn’t get anything across through eye contact.

Important things. Important things, huh. The important things involved in exploring shrines went without saying to first rate hunters.

Take care with Phantoms. Don’t have internal discord. The thief should go first to check for traps. Avoid being solo as much as possible. They would be troubled by that kind of advice.

But if there was one other important thing... it was that.

I frowned and let out a groan, but raised my head and sighed.

“I don’t know whether or not it will co out, but if there’s a sli kind of guy you should be careful.”

Well, this should be suitable as an important thing. Really, where had Sytry’s sli gone?

Lyle listened to my words, then looked at as if I was a madman. How impolite, this guy.

“A Sli!? In the White Wolves Den sothing like a sli shouldn’t co out though?”

Usually shrines had phantoms. If a monster entered from the outside, in most cases the spontaneously occurring Phantoms would kill it. So there weren’t a lot of occasions to see a monster inside a shrine.

If the one that was said to co out was the weakest monster, the sli, then that’s the reaction you would expect.

“That’s why I said I didn’t know whether or not it would co out right.”

“...No, I’m not saying I doubt you, but, look. I asked you one thing, but how co you started talking about a sli?”

I didn’t answer and smiled at him.

Hearing our conversation, the hunters in the back imdiately started talking about counterasures for slis. You guys aren’t very upfront...

“Ah, probably, if it cos out it won’t be an ordinary sli so be careful ok?” “Ehh!? Not an ordinary sli? What do you an?”

I don’t know.

It has the sa na as sli, and I think the weak points will be the sa as a sli, but since Sytry is ticulous...

As Lyle was thrown into confusion a second ti, I gave him a smile while within my mind I knelt down and apologised.

§ § §

The room was spacious and well lit, it wasn’t what you would expect from an underground basent.

The well ordered desks were covered in cluttered docunts.

Alongside the wall were bookshelves tightly packed with thick books. The cold air had a pungent odour that assailed the senses.

On racks were countless bottles of chemicals lined up systematically.

On a wide table there were reports cramd with notes written in strange characters different to the language used in the Empire.

At the center of the room was an inverted cone of glass pipes, a strange apparatus that was producing noise.

The ends of the glass ran into the ground, sotis producing small vibrations. As if it was beating.

At a nearby desk, a man wearing a green robe observed and breathed out a sigh. The mans age was verging on the elderly. He had winkled skin and hair that was over half white.

But his actions proved his liveliness.

Those eyes in particular possessed hidden dark energy.

To the trained eye his green robe and the silver staff placed beside him were items hard to obtain even for Magi treasure hunters.

The mana in his body was dramatically high, and defensive ability was his strong point.

Outside of shrines, his equipnt was of the highest grade.

From the ceiling above muffled footsteps could be heard. The sound of hunters passing by.

Originally the sound of footsteps should have been almost inaudible, but the surveillance magic set up when the room was constructed communicated the unusual state of the shrine.

“They’re here now as well, huh...”

While looking up at the ceiling, the man muttered, not seeming overly disappointed.

He knew this had been coming.

The great work the man had been trying to accomplish over several years wouldn’t be concealed forever.

No matter how unpopular of a shrine the White Wolves Den was, hunters would eventually co.

Things would have to proceed slightly faster.

With Rodolph’s invasion, signs of success were at last within sight and the sponsors were excited with the results.

With a little more ti, the makeshift rescuers wouldn’t have survived.

It was upsetting to throw away the 『laboratory』 that had been set up with great pains, but it wasn’t as if this was the only 『laboratory』. There were others in reserve.

Anger disturbed the thought process. Composure must always be retained.

He recalled the report that ca from the Capital, and talked to himself while stroking his moustache.

“『Infinite Variety』, huh... a botherso man. Why do these hunters always stand in my way?”

The man was once a Magi that could boast of having high reputation, treasure hunters were simply a target of scorn.

Putting their own lives at risk, sneaking into shrines and stealing the produce, they were an existence close to grave robbers.

Coarse and uncivilised, with no respect for knowledge or history. Scoundrels that acted as if the mysterious force of Mana Material was their own power.

But – the present situation was slightly different.

While grasping his staff, the Magi’s lips curved into a sneer.

A laboratory built beneath a shrine. After being imrsed in research for several years, the mysterious force could be used to greatly increase the power of a Magi. And, that force had greatly altered the Magi’s understanding.

Mana Material. An unknown force that no one knew how to control yet.

It could be understood as a powerful force from seeing the hunters that received the highest benefits swaggering around as if they were important.

After just a few years of basking in it, the man gained several tis the power he had gained previously over decades.

If that was the case, how powerful was a 『Level 8』 of which there were only a

handful of hunters?

There was no scorn. But there was also no excess valuation.

“...there should be no problems in withdrawing from this place but...hmmm...”

The Magi looked up at a place in the ceiling – where a specific passage of the White Wolves Den should be.

Currently there were about twenty people that had arrived to investigate the White Wolves Den.

At this ti they should be looking into what the cause was that raised the shrines level, and to examine the 『origin』 that they shouldn’t be able to find.

Unless a particular accident occurred, the likelihood of more personnel arriving was low.

If the man just left like this, over ti the White Wolves Den would return to normal.

If it was like that ― it would be too boring.

“If I’m evacuating anyway, I may as well do a final experint...”

Pulling out a desk drawer, he took out a single phial.

Within it was an ink black liquid that differed to any existing potion.

What the man was looking at – was a taboo article created by chance by his disciple.

An experint in manipulating Mana Material.

A by product of several years of research, a potion to make Mana Material run wild.

Up until now it had been too dangerous to use, but there was no hesitation now that he was evacuating.

The phial was set with a specially made syringe to pierce into the thick fur of the Phantoms that appeared in the White Wolves Den.

If this was revealed to the surface, even if though it was created by chance – his disciple would probably gain fa comparable to the man’s own.

Of course, manipulating Mana Material was taboo in any country, so it would only be within the worlds underbelly.

“Ku ku ku...Sofia, you won’t be able to see the results, you’re going to regret it...” Murmuring the na of his top disciple, the Magi stood up holding his staff.

Even under normal circumstances, the level of the shrine had sprung up. With a further enhancent, twenty hunters of slightly higher level would be nothing special.

a

Translator Notes

An interesting tidbit – phial and vial are words for the sa thing, but phial hasn’t been used for a century for whatever reason. The original said ampoule, which I can’t recall seeing before so I was hesitant to use it, though it seems used in costics. Serum may be another translation.