Chapter 38

Chapter 038: Mangrove Island

When the morning sunlight split the water fog, the shape hidden within a mysterious veil was revealed.

It was a place where intricately intertwined trees had lowered their roots onto the surface of the water, and those gathered roots had trapped soil to form an island.

｢You have entered the unknown mangrove island!｣

｢A perfect place to shake off someone’s pursuit, but in this natural maze, even fish often lose their way! Only the future you will know whether setting foot here was the right choice.｣

Malton looked around the island covered in tree roots and said,

“Are you planning to shake off the Kokokura horde’s pursuit here?”

“Yeah. Those bastards will chase us persistently. But the water level is low here, so it’ll be hard for them to swim quickly, and the mangrove colony will make it difficult for them to spot us easily too.”

The Kokokura Tribe’s attacks would continue from here on as well.

They had gotten through safely for now, but they could not keep enduring the steadily growing numbers and increasingly violent assaults forever.

If dozens of them gathered and rammed the rafts, they would be wiped out just like that.

Therefore, the safe way to pass through the Kokokura Tribe’s numbers was not to stop them by force, but to delay their pursuit as much as possible.

And this island was optimized for tying down their feet.

“But… the waterways here are far too complicated. The currents twisted and transformed by the mangroves are tangled together as intricately as a river’s tributaries. If one set foot in a place like this carelessly, it would not be easy to get out.”

“Right.”

“…Do you have an alternative? Knowing you, I assume you have already prepared a countermeasure.”

“Of course I do.”

This place was like a natural maze.

Countless streams scattered and changed according to unexpected variables.

Moreover, since this was after heavy rain, new pools might have formed, and embankments might have collapsed and blocked the paths.

Even for me, who had memorized the dungeon terrain inside and out, it was impossible to recall and calculate all of that.

Therefore, we needed a ‘guide.’

“A guide?”

“Yeah. See that red creature over there?”

Where I pointed, a tiny creature was swimming beneath the surface.

Just as Malton and Radi were about to approach in confusion, the red shape kicked up sand dust and disappeared like an arrow.

“That is….”

“It’s called a Red Sand Crayfish.”

“Ho… Is it a native species here?”

“Yeah. That crayfish usually builds its nest and lives outside this mangrove swamp, but when it searches for food, it comes inside the island like this. The current is slow here, so there’s plenty of organic matter, and it’s easy to find food.”

“Which means… if we follow a crayfish that has filled its stomach and is returning home, we can get out of this place.”

“Correct.”

In truth, that crayfish was not even a monster, but merely an ordinary creature. However, in Velheim, using elements like this well could bring considerable benefits.

“But that crayfish is too fast to capture alive.”

“Right. So if we want to keep it nearby, we need bait to lure it.”

“Bait?”

When Radi tilted her head, I grinned and tossed out the Kokokura hind leg I had prepared in advance.

Splash─! With that sound, blood spread out, and all kinds of aquatic creatures began gathering from every direction.

After waiting patiently for a while, a Red Sand Crayfish cautiously tore into the flesh, then shook its tail and immediately began swimming to the opposite side.

“Everyone, follow it!! Don’t let it disappear from view!”

“Y-You heard him, right?! Everyone, follow that red crayfish!!”

As they hurriedly began following it, an untimely chase broke out in the quiet wetland.

It was around the time they had followed the Red Sand Crayfish deep into the middle of the island.

“Mm…?”

Radi suddenly twitched her nose, then subtly crumpled her expression.

“What is it?”

“No… I think a strange smell just rode in on the wind….”

“What kind of smell? Flowers? Fruit?”

“No, not anything like that… It’s an incredibly unpleasant smell.”

Radi frowned, then turned sharply toward me and said,

“It smells similar to when you came over to my spot without even washing after you returned to the dungeon before, Mr. Doran….”

“…….”

So she just meant it stank.

I glared at Radi bluntly, then spoke to the guild members.

“Everyone, attention. It seems there’s a group of monsters ahead, so stay alert.”

“Monsters? Don’t tell me those frog monsters followed us all the way here…! Everyone, draw your weapons!”

“You all heard him too, right?! We have to defend the boats!”

The guild members each gripped their weapons and prepared for battle.

As they watched the space beyond the reeds and aquatic plants rustling in the wind with wary eyes, a keen tension drifted over the rafts.

Then, the instant they rowed forward and just entered a wide sandbar─

A sudden shout burst out, and at least twenty filthy men came running over in a frantic rush.

““Waaaaaaah!!!””

“People! They’re people!! People really showed up! We’re saved now!”

“C-Can we get out of here now…?!”

Radi slightly poked her head out from behind her sight and muttered,

“Freshwater pirates…?”

“No, they’re….”

I gently pressed down on her crossbow with my hand and sighed.

｢You have encountered stranded adventurers!｣

｢They are so starved by terrible hunger that they would even chew through shoe leather! It is probably not your imagination that some of the adventurers are barefoot.｣

｢If you rescue them, the adventurers will be deeply impressed by you and spread today’s heartwarming tale far and wide.｣

‘As expected… They were all gathered here.’

If the missing adventurers were alive, I had been certain they would have taken shelter here.

Though I had not expected there to be so many of them.

Seeing the adventurers’ wretched state, a guild member let out a sigh of relief and lowered his weapon.

“T-That scared me… I thought they were mobs.”

“Are they adventurers who got stranded trying to cross the wetland? W-What should we do, Mr. Doran?”

The guild members hesitated, alternating their gazes between the crayfish moving farther away and the adventurers, and I was conflicted for a moment.

I had no obligation to help them. However….

‘…This complicates things.’

The fact that they were here meant they had already been attacked by Kokokura hordes several times and chased here.

Indeed, the men lying ill with wounds that looked as though they had been cut by scrap metal and with infections proved that fact.

In that case, the moment we left the mangrove swamp, we would face a great Kokokura army whose anger had already reached its boiling point.

‘At least dozens… No, it might be over hundreds of them….’

The more the Kokokuras’ numbers-based assaults were blocked, the more rapidly they grew.

If we left these people behind, it would mean fighting a great monster army with only a small number of guild members.

It became necessary to reorganize the plan.

“…People come first. Let’s stop for a moment.”

“T-They’re coming this way!”

“Please give us some food!! We haven’t seen proper food in days!”

“…Wait. I understand that you are desperate, but do not approach more than necessary. And for our safety, I would like you to disarm completely.”

After mooring the rafts and aiming my sword at them, the approaching adventurers faltered and backed away.

Adventurers encountered in a dungeon could turn into bandits at any time, so after confirming that they would not attack, I searched through my backpack and took out bread and jerky. The guild members approached and asked,

“Mr. Doran, do you intend to share food with them?”

“…We have no choice. If we don’t help them, they’ll certainly die. We also have food the merchants gave us before we left the wetland, so… if we ignore them and leave like this, wouldn’t it make for an uneasy night’s sleep?”

In truth, I planned to restore their strength just enough to use them as both shields and fighting power, but since I had decided to help, it would be better to package it as goodwill.

When I handed over the food with as much of a good-natured smile as I could manage, the starving adventurers shed tears and bowed their heads again and again.

｢The adventurers are deeply moved.｣

｢The more one encounters help at the edge of a cliff, the more keenly it sinks into one’s bones! When they return home, they will spread the story of the savior of Mangrove Island!｣

｢Assuming they can return safely, that is!｣

｢Due to people moved by your goodwill, Strength and Agility increase by 2 each.｣

｢You are fulfilling the conditions for the hidden stat ‘■■’.｣

‘…Wait.’

“What did you say?”

I froze as I stared at the string of characters shining in the Log Window.

I checked again, wondering if I had seen something wrong, but it remained the same.

｢You are fulfilling the conditions for the hidden stat ‘■■’.｣

‘A hidden stat….’

In Velheim, there were only four main states.

Strength, Agility, Luck, and Intelligence.

There were other secondary elements as well, such as Insight, Charisma, Dexterity, and Faith, but their direct influence on combat was relatively small.

And there were ‘hidden stats.’

Among hidden stats, there were negative ones such as Sloth and Fastidiousness, but sometimes there were ones that displayed incredible effects like joker cards.

For example….

[Indomitable]: Immune to all status ailments!

[Undying]: Can recover from the brink of death once every n days.

[Avatar]: All skill values greatly increase, and all stats rise by n*100% for n seconds.

Stats with insane, cosmic horror-level effects like those!

This was also why I had called Malton an S-Rank talent and actively recruited him as a companion.

In every cycle, that bastard had been loaded with things like that.

Right now, he was weakened by the aftereffects of the curse, but even now, he was probably hiding at least a few hidden stats as trump cards.

And yet, in this situation, I was getting a hidden stat too.

However, instead of joy, a sharp alarm was ringing in my head.

‘What the hell is ■■…?’

There was no item in my memory blacked out so darkly like that.

Could I even call that text in the first place?

And I felt like I had seen something like this before….

“…I remember.”

I had definitely witnessed something similar to that immediately after using the [Orb of Andira], which was governed by the Evil God who presided over death.

At the time, I had not had the mental room because of the pain, and when I checked again, the Log Window had been wiped clean, so I wondered if I had seen things, but….

‘I didn’t see wrong.’

As expected, there was some system in this world that I still did not know about.

Judging by the fact that it appeared when I showed goodwill to the adventurers, it did not seem to be a negative stat for now….

As I contemplated with my eyes glowing beneath my hood, I turned at the presence of others and found Radi and Malton approaching my side.

“Mr. Doran, are you thinking of taking those people and leaving here? If we split them between the rafts, it does seem like we can barely fit everyone….”

“Yeah. Right now, we need even one more person who can fight.”

“Someone who can fight… Are you planning to break straight through the Kokokura Tribe?”

“Yeah. The moment we leave here, an enormous army will pour out. We won’t be able to avoid a battle. We’ll have to check directly to see just how large their scale is, but….”

When I climbed onto a raft with a serious expression, Radi and Malton looked at me in puzzlement.

After leaving Malton behind on the sandbar in preparation for the possibility that the adventurers might revolt, I headed beyond the wetland with Radi.

While we followed the Red Crayfish through the maze-like winding mangrove swamp, Radi kept watch over the surroundings and spoke.

“Wait, the smell of the water has changed. And there’s an alien stench….”

“You mean the fishy smell of frogs?”

Nod.

I quietly set down the oar.

The movements of the Red Sand Crayfish we had been chasing had also noticeably slowed.

Realizing that the end of the mangrove swamp was not far off, I suppressed my presence, and the view that had been blocked by tree roots opened wide, revealing a foggy lake.

Sure enough, countless Kokokura warriors were writing there.

｢You have encountered a massive Kokokura army!!｣

｢They harbor terrible killing intent toward the humans who slaughtered their kind! Until they tear the intruders to pieces and sink them beneath the water, they will never stop.｣

‘Those adventurer bastards… They must have stirred them up quite thoroughly.’

I had roughly expected it, based on the state of their injuries, but….

Radi gasped when she saw the great monster army, then chewed hard on her lip.

“Damn it… This is the first time I’ve seen so many monsters gathered in one place… Is it even possible to break through that?”

“…Breaking through without any damage is impossible. There will definitely be casualties.”

“Is there a way to minimize the damage? Since frogs are nocturnal, if we sneak out during the day….”

“That would actually be more dangerous. Frogs aren’t completely nocturnal in the first place.”

Because Kokokuras were cold-blooded animals, their activity changed greatly depending on the external temperature.

When the sun rose, their body temperature increased, meaning the reaction speed of their muscles and nerves became faster.

But….

“H-Huh… Don’t those Kokokuras look strange somehow?”

“What do you mean?”

“No, they seem to be sparkling a little… and they look much bigger too. There’s something subtly off about their silhouettes….”

Radi sniffed at a sudden gust of wind, then frowned with a look of certainty.

“The smell… The smell has changed.”

“What do you mean, changed?”

“When we met that Kokokura horde before, there was a revolting metallic smell hanging thick in the air, right? From their scrap-metal weapons….”

“Well, yeah.”

Because aldehyde molecules were produced when iron oxide came into contact with oil.

“…But from that horde, there’s no metallic smell at all. Even though they’re swarming that densely.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means their equipment changed from scrap metal to some other material….”

That was when it happened─.

Mossy sunlight that had been hidden behind the clouds poured down and illuminated the dungeon, clearing away the thick fog spread across the lake.

And they saw it.

A great army of hundreds, thousands of Kokokuras stretched endlessly along the horizon.

The ominous armaments packed so densely over their bodies that not one of them was uncovered.

Decisive battle-class weapons, each and every one worth a house with a garden, or a small fortress.

[Helm of the Hatred-Eating Beast (Legendary)]

｢A grotesque helm twistedly forged from metal of the underworld! It distorts space to prevent fatal wounds aimed at the head!｣

[Deep-Sea Breastplate That Calls the Tidal Wave (Legendary)]

｢A breastplate forged from the tough spine of a Lamia to withstand the pressure of the deep sea, nullifying 90% of blunt-force impacts!｣

[Slaughtering Javelin (Legendary)]

｢A merciless javelin forged from carved bones of beasts defeated in Lancelot’s Arena! The moment this javelin’s blade touches a human, it will separate soul and body in one stroke!｣

｢Creator: Lord of the Volcano｣

“……What?”

Something was going very seriously wrong.