"Um... are you okay? You don't have to push yourself. It's fine if we stop here."
Yunyun looked extremely embarrassedāher face was bright red and she was squirming.
"...I'm fine. You, you don't have to worry about it."
She probably just created a lifelong blanket-kick episode that'll make her face burn every time she remembers it.
Anyway, I calmed Yunyun down and we set off again.
After moving about 30 minutes, we arrived at the Kobold nest marked on the map.
Kobolds aren't much individuallyāthey're about as small as goblins and their combat power is nothing specialābut they live in groups in caves, mine ore, and are smart enough to wear crude metal gear. When they hunt, they move in packs, so once they settle in, they're quite a headache.
I hid nearby and watched. About five Kobolds were guarding what looked like the cave entrance.
"Yunyun, can you hide here for a bit? I'll check if there are other entrances."
"Yes, got it. Be careful."
I quietly scouted around just in case there were other entrances.
"There doesn't seem to be any other entrance. Looks like there's only this one, so the group probably isn't that big."
When Kobold tribes settle in a cave, they start mining ore, and if the group is large or grows, they dig more entrances for ventilation and convenience.
So you can roughly predict the group's size by the number of entrances.
"Let's take out the ones at the entrance first. Quietly. Yunyun, support with just Paralysis."
"Got it."
I used the Kilo Kilo Fruit to make my body as light as possible, jumped onto the cave ceiling, silently landed behind the Kobolds, and instantly cut down two near the entrance.
Kirk?
At the sound, the remaining Kobolds were startled and tried to turn around. I used Flash Step to move to the nearest one and cut its throat.
The other two were hit by Yunyun's Paralysis magic and froze like statues, unable to even scream.
As expected, Yunyun's skills are reliable! I thought, and swiftly finished off the last remaining Kobolds.
"Is this a dungeon raid with a party now?"
Yunyun, who had been hiding, came over with a bright expression, like she was excited.
Seeing Yunyun with the excited face of a kid about to ride a roller coaster, I almost let my guard down too.
"Kobolds are intelligent monsters, so there might be traps. Let's stay alert and move in."
"Got it."
"I'll take point. Yunyun, watch our rear."
"Leave it to me."
We slowly entered the dark cave.
"Light."
Yunyun cast light magic and the cave brightened.
A bit further in, I felt something off about the ground ahead. Looking closely, it was slightly raised compared to the surrounding terrain, and the dirt color was a little different. Like something was covered with soil.
"Yunyun, looks like there's a trap ahead."
I poked the off-ground area with my scabbard, and *whoosh*āit collapsed, revealing sharpened wooden stakes packed tightly below.
"There might be more traps like this. If you see anything strange while moving, tell me."
"Yes."
Yunyun swallowed hard and answered, nervous after seeing the trap.
We bypassed the trap and kept moving forward. Soon, light leaked out and we could hear the sounds of many Kobolds in a wide open space.
There didn't seem to be any more traps.
"Yunyun, turn off the Light and wait a bit. I'll check."
Yunyun nodded and turned off the Light.
I moved quietly and peeked into the space.
About 30 Kobolds were workingādigging the ground or sorting oreāunder torchlight, unaware we were here. Among them were about four adult-male-sized Kobold Warriors.
I moved back to Yunyun and told her the situation.
"What do we do now?"
"They don't know we're here and are focused on work. If we ambush them, we can deal significant damage before the fight starts. Yunyun, since the cave is dark, attack mainly with fire magic."
"Got it."
"And there might be runners, so once the fight starts, block the entrance. I'll do my best to block too."
We finished preparing to ambush in the narrow passage leading into the cavern.
When I gave the signal, Yunyun and I rushed into the cavern.
Yunyun fired Fire Balls in succession, and I jumped and spammed Wind Moon Slash indiscriminately.
Boom~!!
Kiek!, Kueek~!
The Kobolds were caught off guard and died without proper resistance.
With the ambush, more than half the Kobolds died. A few snapped out of it and grabbed weapons.
"Not on my watch~!"
I used Flash Step to move to those grabbing weapons and dealt with them quickly. The remaining ones got scared, gave up fighting, and ran toward the entrance, but Yunyun mixed Freeze and Paralysis to lock their feet.
"Nice! Yunyun!"
Thanks to Yunyun holding them down well, we finished off the rest without much trouble.
"Phew~ good work. Our teamwork's pretty good, huh? Made it easy."
"Hehe~ it's all thanks to you, Tae-jin."
We looked around the Kobold nest. In the corner, iron ore and copper ore were piled up. It was a lot for such a small nest.
"Wow~ we're lucky today."
"Yeah. But looks like it'll be hard to carry all this."
"Don't worry, I have an inventory item."
I'd anticipated this, so I always wore a small bag at my hip to avoid suspicion. I pretended to put the ores into the bag while storing them in my inventory.
"Let's head back now."
"Yes~"
We only arrived at the village in the evening.
As we entered the village, we heard a commotion and people gathered, murmuring about something.
Wondering what was going on, I went over and saw Megumin covered in transparent liquid, hanging off Kazuma's shoulder. Aqua was also covered in transparent liquid.
"Hey! Let go! You got rejected by other parties too, didn't you!?"
"I won't be accepted by any party now! I'll do anything, even be a porter! Please, don't abandon me!!!"
Kazuma tried to shake Megumin off, but Megumin clung tighter.
"That guy's trying to abandon that little girl."
"He's even got a girl covered in slime with him."
"Playing with such a small kid and then dumping herāhe's total trash."
"Look, both girls are sticky. What kind of play did that pervert do?"
People gathered around, looking at Kazuma with contempt as they spoke. Megumin heard that and made a this is it face, shouting even louder.
"I'm fine with any kind of play! Like the sticky play we did with the frog earlier..."
Panicked, Kazuma hurriedly covered Megumin's mouth and said.
"Uwaaaaah~~! Fine, I got it! I got it! I'll take good care of you from now on!!"
Ugh... should I just pretend I don't know and walk past?
Just then, Yunyun, who was watching with me, recognized Megumin and called her name.
"Huh! Megumin!"
"Huh? Yunyun?"
Kazuma and Aqua heard Yunyun's voice and looked at us. Thanks to Yunyun, I missed my chance to ignore them and walk away.
"Kazuma, Aqua..."
"Stop!! Don't say any more. I feel like I'll get even more pathetic if I hear it!"
"Ahem... got it."
Kazuma looked at Yunyun once.
"By the way, who's this next to you?"
"Ah, a party member I got today. This is Yunyun. She's a very capable mage."
"No, I'm not that much... Hehe~ a capable mage."
Yunyun was either embarrassed or happy from the praiseāhard to tell.
"Then who's that girl?"
"This is..."
"I'll introduce myself!"
Megumin, who was being carried by Kazuma, interrupted him, got down, and suddenly struck a pose. Even covered in frog drool, it didn't look cool at all.
"My name is Megumin! An Arch Wizard by trade, and the one who wields the ultimate attack magic, Explosion Magic!"
Seeing this in real life...
"Now! Yunyun, you should introduce yourself too!"
Megumin pointed at Yunyun.
"Uh... I'm..."
"Come on! Quickly!"
"F-fine! It's embarrassing in front of strangers but..."
Yunyun cleared her throat and struck a pose like from a Super Sentai show.
"My name is Yunyun! As an Arch Wizard, I'm not yet advanced, but I'm the one who will wield superior magic! The one who will someday be the leader of the Crimson Demon Clan!"
"Anyway, she's Yunyun. Daughter of the Crimson Demon chief, and my self-proclaimed rival."
"Why did you make me do it then!"
Megumin ignored Yunyun and looked at me.
"Then who is this person?"
"My name is Park Tae-jin! As an adventurer, the one who will slice the sky and dream of being a hero! The one who will someday slay the Demon King!"
I did Michael Jackson's Billie Jean moonwalk pose. Instead of putting my hand on the hat, I slightly covered my face.
"Wooo~!"
"Wow~!"
Clap clap clap!
Megumin and Yunyun clapped for me.
"Ahem... Tae-jin's not this kind of character."
Kazuma and Aqua had faces like they'd seen something they shouldn't have.
"Hahaha~ The Crimson Demon greeting was fun, so I copied it."