The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary

Chapter 17: Recursion to Interception

“Blast them in an area with Fire Ball.”

“Against that many? Same thing as pouring water on a hot stone. Don’t recommend it.”

“Block them using Earth Wall.”

“Make a wall large enough to block this entire corridor? I can do it but…against that many it’ll only give us a moment to pull ahead.”

After Loren told them to use their heads, Quartz and Lapis, under Loren’s arms, were discussing ways to try to deal with the goblin horde.

Although it seemed like a discussion, all they were doing was Lapis giving suggestions and Quartz saying it won’t work, and to Loren it didn’t look like they were getting anywhere.

“How about Fire Storm?”

“I can use it, but twice is my limit. Do you think that would do anything?”

“Most likely not.”

Lapis glanced behind her and replied weakly.

There were so many goblins that Loren didn’t even want to try and count them, and even he, who wasn’t an expert in magic, could see that there were too many to get rid of using a spell once or twice.

“Mister Quartz, you must be quite the magician, being able to use Fire Storm.”

“I’m impressed at your deep knowledge in magic as well, Miss Lapis”

Loren, irritated that the two started complementing each other and laughing, looked up at the ceiling.

“I don’t mind you guys being friendly and all. But if we don’t think of something quick, we’re all going to be goblin food.”

“No, I believe Nim and I would become seed beds.”

Although Lapis gave an unexpected return to Loren’s slight joke, Quartz returned an objection to it.

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that. A woman from the other party most likely was killed and eaten.”

“I don’t like the thought of being the mother of goblins, but being food for them sounds quite annoying as well.”

Loren was slightly confused at her words, which lacked a sense of danger.

It wasn’t like she didn’t care at all for the party, so Loren thought maybe there was a good reason for her not to feel any danger. He was about to interrogate her about it, but Nim’s desperate voice caught his attention.

“This isn’t good. I’m almost…”

Out of the people running on their own legs, Nim, who most likely had the least amount of stamina, started to slow down.

Despite Loren’s stamina and strength, there was no way he could carry another person along with the two under his arms already.

Even though his back was open, anyone could see that if he carried Nim on his back it would just make him tire faster.

“If I carry you on my back, it’ll be less of a problem.”

Unexpectedly, the one who said that was Jack.

Loren was surprised that it wasn’t Ritz, who was stronger that Jack, who said it but instead it was Jack that did. Nim’s reaction to it surprised him even more.

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“Sorry…I might have to count on you.”

“Whoa, this is really bad!”

Jack must have sensed something from Nim’s modest response and panicked, but it didn’t help the situation at all.

“It’s not much of a solution, but I do have an idea.”

Loren decided that if no one gave an idea, even a slightly unreasonable one, they would be wiped out soon enough, so he ran up next to Ritz.

Ritz turned his head towards Loren.

“Hey, do you remember the way back?”

“Not me…but Jack should remember.”

Loren turned to Jack for confirmation, and saw Jack nod.

“Then can we go back to the hatch where the goblins came down from?”

“Can’t use the route we came, but we’ve been going through the same corridors for a while now, so it’s possible.”

Loren felt gloomy at the fact that they’ve been going in circles a few times.

It meant that they wasted time and stamina, but he knew it couldn’t be helped because in their current situation, there wasn’t time for them to make calm decisions or track where they were going.

“Then take us back to the hatch.”

“What are you going to do there?”

To Ritz and Jack, that hatch which rained down a lot of goblins was something they wanted to avoid, and couldn’t see at all what Loren was trying to suggest.

“There’s that many goblins that rained down from the upper floor. I’m sure there aren’t any more of them coming down right now.”

“Why does that matter…”

“They were able to come down at once, but they won’t be able to do that climbing up, right?”

Goblins couldn’t fly.

That was something anyone knew, but since they couldn’t, they would have to use the ladder to get back to the upper floor.

When they came down, they could ignore their casualties and come down many at a time, but if they were to climb the ladder that Lapis had put down, only one or two of them could climb it at once.

“This way we wouldn’t get crushed by their numbers.”

“B-but think about it. They aren’t that dumb. They’re not going to wait for us to climb the ladder, right? If they reach us before we’re all out that’s the end.”

Ritz pointed out an obvious problem with the plan.

Loren knew that based on how Ritz wasn’t that good at climbing ladders, they would be swarmed by the goblins before he even had a chance to climb.

“We can buy time with magic. Use Fire Storm to burn the front and Earth Wall to block the ones in the back.”

If they tried to block all of them with a wall, it would break instantly from the goblins’ momentum.

So, Loren thought that they could burn the front and kill their momentum, then stop them with the wall.

He didn’t think that would be enough to stop them, but it would be enough to buy them some time.

“I see. You can count on me to do that.”

After hearing Loren’s plan, Quartz bumped his fist on his chest, telling him that he could do it.

But that wasn’t enough to take Ritz’s anxiousness from his face.

“But that’s not a number that you could just stop at once.”

“We just have to climb up before the wall breaks. Even if we don’t make it in time, it’s my plan. I’ll take the rear.”

“You serious? You know that that’s not a number one person can handle, right?”

“I just have to deal with the ones that get past the fire and the wall. I don’t think I’d have to face too many at once. Just try to climb as fast as you can so that doesn’t happen.”

Loren gave Ritz a smile, and after thinking for a moment at his words, Ritz gave the order to Jack.

“Jack, take us back to the hatch.”

“Got it.”

“Quartz, get ready to use the magic Loren talked about.”

“Got it.”

“When we get there, Jack, you go up first. Then help the others up. I’m the leader of this party, I got the rear.”

Ritz, reluctant about Loren taking the rear, announced that he would be the last one up, but Loren denied it with a shake of his head.

“With how slow you climb the goblins are going to be all over you. There’s no way we can let you take the rear.”

“But still…”

“With a bit of backup, I can scale the ladder easily. I’m the most suited for the job. Don’t worry.”

While Ritz had been clumsy and slow when he climbed the ladder earlier, Loren had dashed up the ladder like it was nothing and caught Quartz.

Ritz couldn’t say anything more, because it was obvious with a glance who had the better chance of surviving.

“I may be new to the whole adventurer business, but I was a mercenary before this. I’ve covered my comrades’ asses so much that I’m bored of it. Leave it to me.”

“Sorry…I’m counting on you.”

Ritz bowed his head slightly, and Loren nodded, telling him not to worry about it. Then Jack let out a nervous shout.

“We’re about to reach the hatch! You’d better pray that it ran out of goblins to pour down!”

If there were still goblins coming down from the hatch, they would be pincered in by them and the ones chasing them and there would be no chance of survival.

But Loren thought that it wouldn’t be realistic because it would mean that the ruins contained an unimaginable number of goblins in it.

That thought led Loren to think that this was the best chance they had to get out, and Jack saw the hole in the ceiling and shouted.

“They’re not dropping down anymore!”

“Nice! Looks like luck hasn’t left us yet! Start climbing!”

Jack, who was in front, jumped onto the ladder and started climbing without even breaking momentum.

Ritz, who reached it a moment later, readied his sword and shield and Nim ducked past him and followed Jack up the ladder.

“Old man, the spells!”

“Swirl before my eyes, o scarlet flames, rage before me. << Fire Storm >>”

At Loren’s signal, Quartz started chanting his spell.

A swirling pillar of flame erupted from the ground and reached all the way up to the ceiling, burning all the goblins in the front.

The flames covered up the whole corridor and killed quite a bit of goblins in its wake, and screams and shrieks erupted from the goblin ranks.

“Stand fast, wall of dirt. << Earth Wall >>”

The heat coming from the flames and the shrieks and burning smell coming from the goblins.

The wall burst up and completely separated them from it.

“Now’s our chance! Climb!”

Lapis, who Loren freed from under his arm, ran to the ladder and started climbing at a speed which matched Jack and Nim.

Meanwhile Quartz, who had used two spells in a row, looked dizzy and was climbing at a slower pace than he had before.

“Come on, climb a bit faster will you…”

“Don’t rush him. We don’t want him to fall.”

Loren stopped Ritz, who impatiently tried to rush Quarz.

If he slipped and fell again, he would have to catch him again, and in case he couldn’t, Quartz might receive injuries that could immobilize him.

Putting that into consideration, it was easier if they made sure every one of them reached the top safely, even if it took some time.

“But the wall isn’t going to last much longer.”

They succeeded in killing the goblins’ momentum with the fire and the wall, but they were already onto breaking the wall that Quartz had set up.

“What’s going on? I know the magic only lasted for a bit, but with the amount of flames, it should be burning hot in there.”

In Loren’s calculations, the fire would make the walls and the floor burning hot, making it difficult for the goblins to approach the wall.

Since the goblins were barefooted, their feet would burn if the approached the burnt floor.

But the goblins had already rushed up to the wall and started banging on it.

“There’s definitely something wrong with them. Goblins shouldn’t have the pride or guts to be so persistent in chasing their prey.”

Ritz had his sword and shield raised, but he looked pale.

The fact that these goblins were like nothing he had faced before made even a silver adventurer like him anxious.

“Think about that later. Right now, just think about escaping. Here, your turn to climb.”

Quartz, who was climbing for his life, just got pulled up by Nim and Jack.

When Ritz saw that, he hesitated for a second, but immediately sheathed his sword and started climbing the ladder.

But his climbing speed was far from being fast.

Loren hoped that he would reach the top before the wall crumbled, but fate seemed to sneer at his wish, as a large crack appeared in the wall while Ritz hadn’t even made it to the middle.

“Looks like I’m going to have to fight one.”

Luckily, the corridor was large enough for him to use his great sword with no problem at all.

Watching the crack widen and listening to the pounding behind it, Loren reached behind him with his right hand. He grabbed the handle of his sword, removed the cloth wrapped around it, and pulled it out.

He gripped the sword with both hands, his left hand above his right, and prepared himself.

The wall crumbled, as it were waiting for that stance, and as soon as the burnt up goblins saw him, they roared and rushed toward Loren.