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Volume 2 Chapter 17 - Behind the Scenes of [Lionel] and the Others

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As Lionel and his friends moved to the large boulder and prepared to begin the battle, Allen rushed into the middle of the large herd of bullfangs.

“Here you go!” (Allen)

Each of Allen’s hands grabbed a bullfang by the horn, lifted them up, and then hurled them at different bullfang.

Those gigantic bodies weighing more than 1 ton each were hurled at a considerable speed, dragging in the bullfangs around them as they were blown away, leaving a gaping space in the middle of the large herd that seemed to fill the ground.

Allen then rushed there, grabbed two bullfangs that came attacking him by the horns, pulled them, then threw them again toward other bullbangs.

“This is surprisingly troublesome. That said, I can't just use flashy magic, and when there’s this many of them, if I cut them with a sword, there will be blood coming back at me, or even if it doesn't, I might step on the spilled blood.” (Allen)

While grumbling about that, Allen continued his task of throwing bullfangs.

When Allen first rushed into battle, he was a little worried that it might be difficult for him to fight against such a large herd even with his increased stats, but as he fought, those worries of his disappeared completely.

This was because the bullfangs were weaker than Allen thought. No, it would actually be more accurate to say that Allen had become too strong.

The reason why Allen deliberately exposed himself and rushed into the herd was to draw their attention to himself. If he just wanted to defeat them, he could just shoot magic from a distance or throw a large boulder at them.

However, if he did that, he would stand out and everyone from [Lionel] would know that someone was fighting. That wasn't what Allen wanted.

And another reason why he fought like this was...

“Or rather, if it weren't for the herb collection, I'd be prepared to have the smell of blood on me when I defeat them, but that obstinate geezer's standards are ridiculously strict. I've never done it before, but I bet he won't accept it.” (Allen)

Allen smiled wryly as he remembered the client to whom he delivered the medicinal herbs.

At first, Allen was indignant, thinking ‘Don’t mess with me!’  when he kept being told to redo it every time he delivered some herbs, but as he continued to do it many times, he began to understand his standards, even if only roughly.

Then, perhaps coming to trust Allen for his stable delivery, the client half-forced him to see what kind of experiments the medicinal herbs he had been collecting were being used in, and when he learned of his obsessive research mind, he found it somewhat difficult to hate the obstinate client.

The fact that it was a troublesome request hadn't changed, and since it took a long time to complete it, for Allen who wanted to quickly rank up, it wasn’t something he’d really want to accept, but he had changed his mind to the extent that he’d be willing to accept it if asked to cooperate.

And, having the belief that an adventurer should act according to the request of the client if he accepts a request, Allen went out of his way to fight in a way that would not affect his ability to collect medicinal herbs.

“Well, even if I say it's a hassle, it only takes a few minutes of patience after all.” (Allen)

While saying that, Allen hit a bullfang.

Since it had already been about a minute since the battle started, Allen expected that the escaping adventurers would have already joined up with [Lionel].

No matter how good [Lionel]'s skills are, with the enemy being such a large herd, annihilation is inevitable.

Lionel, the leader, was, in Allen's opinion, an idiot who would risk his own life for others, but he was not foolish. Allen was convinced that he was fully aware of the difference in strength between them.

Therefore, he could naturally predict the choice [Lionel] would make.

The first bottleneck was the escaping adventurers. Until now, they seemed to have been running for their lives, but all of them were injured and their equipment were in tatters. To put it bluntly, if they escape as they were, they'll probably fall prey to the bullfangs before they reach the stairs leading to the 19th floor.

Therefore, their top priority should be healing them.

Fortunately, there was a skilled priest named Torin among [Lionel]. If he offered a prayer in advance, he should be able to heal them without wasting too much time, Allen thought.

After that, it was necessary to exterminate the alarm birds in order to prevent bullfangs from gathering from any direction other than their rear during their escape, and just as Allen himself saw earlier, Pete's bow skills should be enough to deal with it.

It would probably take about 10 to 20 seconds to complete these two tasks. It should have been possible for Lionel, Naseem, and Percy to work together to hold back the bullfangs for that long.

Then, as soon as they were ready, everyone should simultaneously climb up the large boulder and escape. What they must not make a mistake here is that no one should fall behind.

Allen had only read about it in the documents, but one of the characteristics of bullfangs is that if there is a person in a high place such as a large boulder, it will pinch its companions between its horns and start spinning and send it flying like a cannonball.

Its speed was quite considerable, and a direct hit would be impossible for a normal person to withstand.

There is some time before it is sent flying, so they could just escape before then, but once it starts, it is practically impossible to avoid it as it comes flying at you from all directions.

It will take a while for that state to cool off, so if you try to climb the boulder after that, a bullfang will fly at you immediately. In other words, if you don't escape all at once, any escape after that will be hopeless. That's why it was important that no one fell behind.

On the other hand, the bullfangs spinning on the spot and throwing their companions made their pursuit slow, albeit temporarily.

In other words, if they could get through that, they would almost certainly be able to escape. Because of that advantage, Allen predicted that Lionel would go to take up a position in front of the boulder.

“Oh, it's begun, huh?” (Allen)

A dull, weighty sound echoed from the direction of the large boulder where Lionel and the others were, making Allen look over there and be a little taken aback. After all, three-meter-long bodies were flying toward the large boulder one after another.

Allen knew this in his knowledge, but seeing it in person was a big difference. As Allen watched the reddish-brown boulder dyed black one after another at an incredible rate, he realized that ‘They will certainly die if they fall behind during this.’

“Now then, should I just keep at it for a while before calling it a day? It'll probably be okay even if I don't, but just in case.” (Allen)

Returning his gaze from the large boulder, Allen resumed his fight with the surrounding bullfangs.

After continuing this for a few minutes, Allen thought that there should be no problem as long as he did this much, and after securing one bullfang as a souvenir for Rebecca, he was about to leave from the middle of the large herd when he noticed something unusual.

“Why are those guys still surrounding the big boulder?” (Allen)

What was reflected in Allen's eyes was the scene of a large number of bullfangs surrounding the large boulder where Lionel was supposed to be a while ago.

If they were chasing Lionel and the others who had run away, the herd should have extended in the direction of the stairs leading to the 19th floor, and if they were too far away, there would be no alarm birds chirping, and they would return to their herd and then move away naturally.

As Allen watched the scene in doubt for a while, a bullfang near the large boulder flew into the air and slammed into the ground a short distance away. That bullfang didn’t rise up and disappeared into the shadows of the other bullfangs.

Watching the scene, Allen didn't miss that there was a hole leading deep into the large boulder where the bullfang had been blown away from.

“Don't tell me, someone fell behind?” (Allen)

‘Impossible,’ contrary to that expectation of his, Allen once again looked at the bullfang that had been blown away, and at the hole opened in the large boulder, and let out a sigh.

“I told you that not everyone you save is a good person, idiot Rai!” (Allen)

There's no way people who mishandled the alarm birds and were chased by a large herd of bullfangs would know about this floor's emergency evasive maneuver of opening a hole in a large boulder, so Allen was convinced that the ones over there were the members of [Lionel].

“Did the adventurers prioritize saving themselves and run ahead? Or did they get the better of them? Either way, they're good for nothing.” (Allen)

Allen made a bitter face as he clicked his tongue.

In a sense, this result could be said to be Lionel's own fault for continuing to ignore Allen's warning, but that didn’t mean this would be the end, that's not even in the back of Allen's mind.

“Well, I'll wipe your ass this time. You better learn from this and start using your head a little... Aah, I feel like it’s impossible. Well, whatever. Those guys are deep in the hole, so they probably won't be able to see what's going on outside, so let’s just quickly settle this and go home.” (Allen)

Allen randomly threw away the bullfang he had been carrying with the intention of dismantling it and taking the meat as a souvenir, and broke into a run again.

There were still the large herd of countless bullfangs in front of him, but there was no fear in Allen's eyes, and soon his magic began to overrun the area.

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(T/N: there’s the explanation. Translating the previous chapters without knowing this explanation is just too confusing, I’m glad I don’t immediately release the chapters I translate, as I can edit them when I release them several days (or weeks) after that.)

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