Volume 2 - CH 188

The light was so strong that I could not open my eyes, but after a while the light seemed to subside.

When I slowly opened my eyes, I found myself in a cave.

And there was a staircase nearby.

It seemed to be an ascending staircase.

Around me were Alena, who was still dazzled and had her eyes closed, Uchikage, who had taken off his blindfold and was checking his surroundings, and Reizen, who was probably blinded by the light and was flailing helplessly.

That’s sucks.

“Where is this place ……?”

“hmm…… it’s a very narrow place. What’s at the end of the stairs?”

I looked at the end of the staircase and saw a light spilling out toward me at the far back.

The light seemed to be very warm, and I could hear people’s voices coming from the back of the light.

Whether on the ground or in an underground adventurers’ camp, it seemed we were finally going to be able to get out to where the people were.

“Let’s go!”

“Where’s Ouren?”

“Ahh …… Alena must be seeing that light too ……”

Alena was still not moving after a while, and I thought she’s just joking, but it seemed that she too was looking directly into the light and could not see what was ahead of her.

There was nothing I could do but hold one hand and lead her to the stairs. …… I couldn’t ask a child to walk up the stairs when she couldn’t see in front of her, so I decided to hold her up here after all.

Reizen seemed to be panicking because he couldn’t see anything in front of him, so Uchikage held him by the scruff of the neck and dragged him over to us.

But that light …… was so strong that even though I have dazzle resistance, I couldn’t see anything in front of me for a while.

If someone didn’t have that resistance, they wouldn’t be able to open their eyes for a while even if they were closed.

Uchiakage seemed to be saved thanks to the blindfold he was wearing.

“Alena, hold on to my clothes-“

“It’s hard to grab……”

Well, …… there’s an iron knitted into these clothes that says they can’t be ripped to shreds,…….

That’s why it’s hard to hold on to it.

I’m not sure what to expect.

After a while, Reizen’s eyesight seems to have returned and he is able to walk again.

However, Alena’s eyesight still seems to have not returned.

Since Reizen is a humanized tortoise, his recovery time may be faster than that of other people.

By the time we reached the end of the stairs, people’s voices were getting louder and the surroundings were becoming brighter.

The light was clearly from the sun, and its warmth even made me feel a little nostalgic.

“Hmmm… …….”

Going from a dark place to a bright place suddenly makes you feel a little dizzy.

But it soon subsided and I was able to get a good look at my surroundings.

There were many tents set up around the area, selling a variety of goods, and many adventurers and merchants were there to purchase them.

The store seemed to be thriving, and the workers in the store seemed to be constantly busy, hustling and bustling about.

This place looked familiar.

This was the adventurers’ camp where we had set up our luggage before we dived into the dungeon.　

“… are you back?”

“I saw it!”

“…… So we’re really come back huh?”

“I can see it!”

A few adventurers heard Alena’s loud voice and looked at us and pointed at us.

Then Uchikage and Reizen came out, looking dazzled by the sunlight they were exposed to for the first time in a very long time.

At that moment, a man let out a loud voice.

“Hey! There’s a group coming out of that magic circle!”

“What did you say?!!”

“Where are they?”

The man said in a loud voice, and other people started rushing to our side to see if it was true.

We were soon surrounded by the crowd, and we couldn’t move at all.

“Oi guys, what the heck!”

“—!!”

Alena was startled and nuzzled her face into mine.

When so many people are suddenly coming toward you, it’s no wonder she’ s startled.

The crowd also swarmed into Uchikage and Reizeni’s place, making it difficult for us to even meet up with them.

What in the world are these people?

“Hey, you! You just came out of there!”

“If yes, so what?”

“You conquered the dungeon, didn’t you?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

The man still seemed to be in a state of excitement and proceeded to explain in the same tone as before.

“What, you don’t know? When you conquer the dungeon, you come out of that cave! That’s the proof that you conquered the dungeon!”

“I didn’t know that. ……”

Apparently, that was common knowledge to the people here.

I thought that gathering information was important, and made a note of it as a point to reflect on this time.

That reminds me, I don’t really know what to do after conquering a dungeon.

Conveniently, someone who seems to know a lot of things is asking me some ongoing questions, so I’m going to ask him about it.

“Excuse me buddy, but what are we supposed to do now?”

“The heck, man ……  you’re adventurers, right? Then look at your guild card!”

“Guild card?”

I immediately took out my guild card from my magic tool bag and looked at it carefully.

The letter “B” was written in small letters in the lower left corner and the number “1” was inscribed above it.

I had never seen anything like this before I came here, but I wondered when it had been inscribed.

” There was something written on it, wasn’t there? That’s the proof that you have conquered one of the B-rank dungeons!”

“He-“

I wonder if there was some kind of trick in that magic circle.

Maybe it’s better not to worry too much about this kind of thing since we are already in the world of magic.

The fact that this kind of magic circle exists in this dungeon probably means that other dungeons also have magic circles like this.

It’s kind of interesting that dungeons are kindly designed only in these places. ……

There may be dungeons where the magic circle is not the only proof of having conquered the dungeon, though.

At any rate, it seems that there is no problem if we head to the guild after getting this proof.

The guild staff will take care of everything after that, and if we bring our guild card, we will be promoted to one rank higher.

I would say we did our best, but I think …… the dungeon is a little unrewarding.

I think it would be nice if they gave us a little more rank up.

I wonder if there are any other rewards …….

Well, if we sell the loot, we can get something worthy of it. ……

At any rate, I will have to report that dungeon to Maria, the guildmaster.

I think I killed all the monsters in the dungeon, so there may not be anything to worry about.

“Shooo! Move out! Get out of the way!”

“Ouren-sama, excuse me.”

“Hm? Whoa!”

As soon as I shouted, Uchikage came next to me and leaped while lifting me up.

I was startled by the suddenness of it, but I managed to stabilize myself and prepared for the impact of the landing.

There was Reizen lying on the landing spot, which had probably already been thrown away, but Uchikage retrieved him as well and leapt once more.

With this, I think we can escape from the surroundings.

“WHOAA!”

“What an Oni, ……. Uchikage! Get down and use the magic stone to get back.”

“Right away.”

Uchikage carefully landed on the ground and let us all down.

“Hey, Reizen, are you okay?”

“Aren’t you treating me too mean, Uchikage?”

“So picky……”

“See? That’s what I mean?” 

“Come on, stop wasting time and let’s get out of here.”

After dropping Alena off, I took out the magic stone that I purchased and put magic power into it.

Then, in an instant, I was able to return to the church.

I’m still not used to this sensation.

Now, let’s go see Maria’s troubled face.