NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 29: - When Folly Piles Up On Folly
Part of the summoned heroes, Shinji Akaba’s party, entered a dungeon near the royal capital.
The first and second floors went well. However, they needed to camp from the third floor onward, and things started going downhill from there. Carrying their belongings became cumbersome and annoying.
On the first day in the dungeon, they carried their supplies themselves, but complaints arose upon their return.
The second time, they hired porters to carry their belongings, but they treated the porters like servants, and they quit.
The third time, they hired a different porter at a high price, but he was assaulted by Shinji’s party and returned with a broken arm. Of course, the porter quit too.
Word spread among the porters about Shinji’s party’s tyranny, and from then on, no one wanted to carry their belongings. No matter how much they offered as a reward, they were declined. People valued their lives more than money. That’s how terrible Shinji’s party was.
So, they ended up carrying their own luggage. It wasn’t karma, but they had to carry their own baggage. It was common sense for adventurers.
In this situation, it was natural for those with lower caste within Shinji’s group to become the baggage carriers.
“Why am I the one carrying all this…”
Three people carried the luggage meant for fourteen, and two of them were scout-type jobs. What would happen if scouts were made to carry luggage?
“Monsters!”
“Damn, so close!”
“Hey, scout! Do your job!”
Making scouts carry the luggage meant they noticed monsters’ approach later. They didn’t even realize such a simple fact. Well, even if they did, it was natural for the lower caste members to carry the luggage in Shinji’s party.
The vanguards attacked recklessly, and the mages cast spells without considering the vanguards or anyone else.
“Hey, be careful!”
“Are you trying to kill us?”
“Could you at least dodge properly?”
“I’ll kill you!”
There was no strategy or coordination. It was simply a brawl based on sheer strength. Moreover, Shinji, the supposed leader, didn’t bother to give any commands. It was the worst kind of battle, complete with friendly fire. Everyone voiced their dissatisfaction with this way of fighting.
“Hyah!”
Finally, Shinji’s well-timed strike annihilated the monster.
“If I’m the one attacking, it’s this easy.”
With their numbers, if they couldn’t defeat a single monster, that would be a problem. Moreover, among Shinji’s fourteen-member group, there were three heroes. It would be strange if they couldn’t win.
Though Shinji’s group fought with brute force, they progressed through the dungeon smoothly. And they reached the boss room on the fourth floor.
Two other parties were waiting their turn in front of the boss room on the fourth floor, but Shinji’s group had no intention of waiting.
“Hey, we’re waiting our turn here.”
“Shut up! I’m a hero. Got a problem with that?”
The summoning of heroes and their entrance into the dungeon had become rumors. They were not just heroes but also a balanced party including swordsmen, mages, and even priests. Moreover, their numbers were large.
Because it was a party of unruly individuals, nobody dared to stop them; in fact, they behaved arrogantly as if they had special privileges.
The Shinji party challenged the boss battle on the fourth floor, but the boss turned out to be unexpectedly strong. Three monsters collaborated in battle.
They were far more intelligent than Shinji’s group, which didn’t coordinate at all.
“Hey, hurry up and defeat it!”
“Shut up, you defeat it too!”
“I’m ahead, you idiots!”
The three monsters toyed with the heroes. The boss was significantly stronger than regular monsters. Even if they were heroes, relying solely on brute force led to significant struggles. Any experienced adventurer would know this, but since they had managed so far with brute strength, the heroes thought they would be fine this time as well.
“Ugh!”
The vanguard was blown away, and a freed monster approached the rear guard.
“Hey, watch out!”
The female mage was hit by a charge attack and sent flying.
The monsters not only attacked individuals but also assaulted others, causing the rear guards to scramble away.
“Hey, what are you doing? Defeat it already!”
Shinji didn’t give precise instructions; he just said to hurry up.
“If you were doing your job properly, we wouldn’t be struggling this much!”
“Me? It’s you, useless hero!”
“Who are you calling useless?!”
“You, useless hero! Hurry up and defeat it!”
“I’ll kill you!”
Eventually, infighting broke out among them.
It took Shinji’s group more than an hour to defeat the boss monster after entering the boss room.
They struggled tremendously, and though there were injuries, no one died.
They used up all the potions they had brought, and the priest’s MP was depleted during the healing. Despite this, the injuries remained severe.
“I hate this. I quit. I can’t keep doing this.”
“I hate it too. Why are the monsters attacking the rear guards? Unbelievable.”
The girls complained, and the boys argued back.
Girls against boys, vanguards against rear guards. They were never a cohesive unit, and now they were on the verge of falling apart. It seemed like they might end up in a full-blown brawl.
“You guys, shut up!”
Shinji yelled, silencing the argument.
However, all eyes turned to Shinji, the one who appeared neat and clean.
“You look quite fancy. Hey, are you slacking off?”
“That’s right, aren’t you a hero? Stop lazing around.”
Thirteen voices attacked Shinji all at once.
Shaking with anger, Shinji finally snapped.
He punched one of the boys who had a hero job.
“Ouch! What the hell are you doing?!”
“Shut up, you bastard! Who are you talking to like that?!”
“It’s you, you useless hero!”
“Ugh! Who do you think you are talking to?!”
A fight broke out between the two, and it spread to involve everyone.
They punched and were punched, pulled hair, and headbutted, but they didn’t use weapons or magic, so a bit of sanity remained.
When Shinji’s group returned to the castle, they were in a terrible state. Their injuries were not from monsters but from the fight; the boys’ faces were swollen, and the girls had bruises around their eyes and cut lips.
“What a mess…”
“How foolish…”
The captain of the knights and the leader of the mage guild sighed, utterly speechless.
Since that day, Shinji’s group’s dungeon exploration came to a halt. With their relationships strained like this, exploration was the last thing on their minds.
Meanwhile, Sayaka Itsukushima, the only one who still remembered Fujii, was desperately learning alchemy. Her dedication made her stand out from her classmates. Sayaka’s alchemist job level increased, and her skill proficiency grew.
“I need to become self-sufficient quickly…”
Fujii was still in this world.
When they were summoned, something went wrong, and he ended up in a different place. Sayaka believed that.
She didn’t consider the possibility that Fujii had been reincarnated and was now going by the name Tooi. Instead, she thought he had been transported somewhere else.
To search for Fujii, she absolutely needed to strengthen herself as an alchemist.
Alchemists were not combat jobs, so traveling alone was dangerous. She needed to hire escorts. To cover such expenses, she thought using alchemy to generate income was the fastest way.
“Sayaka, it’s time to go home.”
“I’ll keep at it a bit more.”
“Don’t overwork yourself.”
“Yeah.”
Her classmates with production jobs left the workshop, leaving her alone. Relying on the light of a lamp, she activated her skills and created a liquid.
“I did it… I’ve made an MP potion.”
Using Greenleaf obtained from the dungeon as a material, she successfully crafted an MP potion.
There were various types of potions like HP potions, antidotes, and MP potions. However, MP potions couldn’t be made unless one was a skilled alchemist.
Sayaka had been working tirelessly, to the point of forgetting to eat and sleep, to achieve this.
She didn’t mind the dark circles under her eyes; she was fully engrossed in her alchemical work. All of it was driven by her desperate desire to meet Fujii again.
She was embarking on a journey to find her first love.