【Adventurer Mitran】Encountering a Mysterious Existence in a Mysterious Space

Overtime!

““Uwaaaaaaaaaaaah!!?””

Doboon!

Dobo-dobobo!

Dobooooon!

Leseida-san and I had fallen for Ibrabarleg's scheme and been dropped to the bottom of the ruins, but we didn't just slam into the hard ground and get crushed; we were lucky enough to survive.

Because waiting for us at the bottom was something like a pool, full of deep water.

I'll bet Ibrabarleg's special ability, 【Scan】, has a limit on how far it can search, so he couldn't quite tell that where we were falling was water.

Either way, we're saved!

“......Pwah! L, Leseida-san! Are you alive!?”

“S, somehow! Ah, I'm glad I had my younger brother teach me the knack of 【Body Strengthening】......”

“W, whoa!? There's something in this pool!? S, something just got inside my clothes!!”

Flustered as we were, we swam bashabasha to the edge of the pool and climbed out onto dry land from there.

“Y, yikes...... I thought I was going to die.”

All the strength drains out of me in spite of myself, and I flop onto my back and stare straight up.

Looks like we fell pretty deep: the big hole in the upper levels we fell through is hidden in the darkness, out of sight.

Then I sat up and looked all around, and this place wasn't so much a pool...... as somewhere that felt like a canal built underground.

Something like a canal, or a pool, built of fitted stone and clearly man-made, runs on and on in a straight line, and on either side of it are narrow paths like service walkways; that's where we are now.

Here too, magic lamps are set into the walls along the paths, lighting the area a pale blue.

“......Whoa!? Whoa-whoa-whoa!?”

That's when I remembered that something had slipped into my clothes while I was in the water!

It's still flopping around inside my clothes, pichipichi.

I hurriedly grabbed it and pulled it out, and it was......

“Hu, huh? Isn't this......”

“......Hmm, an Ahate River Shrimp, it seems.”

......Right.

It was an Ahate River Shrimp, the local specialty of the town of Nebo that we had eaten so much of.

When I looked into the water again, I saw Ahate River Shrimp swimming there in swarms.

Since we had suddenly dropped in, the shrimp must have been surprised.

There were several shrimp still leaping out of the water with a pichipichi sound.

“Why are there so many Ahate River Shrimp here......?”

“Hahaha...... it's like a shrimp farm...... Well, never mind that, shall we dry our clothes?”

With that, Leseida-san began muttering an incantation.

“‘Water, depart, fly away! 【Dry】!’”

This is life magic!

Ways the other world Ardyst beats Earth for convenience, number one!

Leseida-san's and my clothes dried in an instant.

The one drawback is that it dries things a little too much, so the fabric ends up all scratchy.

“Thank you, Leseida-san. I'm not very good at this magic. I always overdo it and end up almost killing the person inside.”

I end up like a mummy.

I'm truly glad no one actually died!

“Hahaha...... My, my...... I'm glad I did it......”

Leseida-san gave a strained laugh.

◇ ◇ ◇

Now, we couldn't stay in this spot forever.

So, we decided to proceed along the path beside the pool and continue exploring the surroundings.

This straight path, though: in one direction, it hit a dead end right away.

The path was blocked by a wall, and though the pool went on, it was barred by a steel grate in a cross pattern; unless you were something small like a shrimp, you couldn't go any further.

We immediately turned around and began heading in the other direction.

“Mitran-kun...... I am sorry. This entire incident was caused by my reckless behavior.”

Leseida-san seemed to regret having rushed ahead without listening to my warning.

Head hung low, he offered his apology.

“Ah...... it's fine, don't worry about it, Leseida-san. I'm partly to blame too.”

Saying that, I felt a bit down myself.

When Leseida-san rushed off, the truth is, I wasn't taking the danger seriously enough.

I have cheat abilities, after all, so I thought I could get through any pinch.

And yet, while I was turning pale at the sight of a corpse, I fell right into the opponent's trap and was dropped this deep underground.

......This is clearly a mess my own carelessness brought on.

If this...... if Kamasse had landed in the same situation, what would he have done?

I'm sure he'd have gotten through it more smartly.

Combat ability isn't the only measure of an adventurer's skill......

I'm really feeling down......

“Hmm...... in that case, it's like this: we were both at fault! Hahaha, well then, my conscience is lighter too!”

It was probably because I had become visibly depressed.

Leseida-san intentionally acted cheerful and laughed loudly.

“......Ahaha!”

I couldn't help but laugh along.

I was very grateful for that consideration.

When I grow up, I want to become a person who can show that kind of consideration!

◇ ◇ ◇

“......Hm? Oh? What's that?”

Now, after walking on for a while, we came to a spot where the space opened up beside the pool.

Lined up there were...... several large, circular tanks.

Inside them, illuminated by the magic lamps, countless small creatures were wriggling.

“Th, these are...... shrimp, right?”

“Indeed. Young Ahate River Shrimp.”

I wonder if the shrimp that grow large in these tanks are released into that pool from before?

“This...... could it really be...... an Ahate River Shrimp farm?”

“Eh!? Leseida-san, what are you talking about!?”

Startled by what Leseida-san was saying as he looked up at the tanks, stroking his chin in thought, I stared at his face in spite of myself.

But Leseida-san was perfectly serious.

He didn't seem to be joking.

“To begin with, the ecology of the Ahate River Shrimp is full of mysteries...... In truth, even where they spawn and multiply...... has never been made clear. Until now, the most anyone had guessed was that they probably multiplied somewhere upriver, but perhaps......”

“Wait, so all the Ahate River Shrimp were farmed in these ruins? These mysterious ruins were an ancient shrimp farm?”

“......I don't know. It's nothing but unknowns......”

As we talked, we passed by the small shrimp tanks.

And there, yet again, something like a tank had been set up.

But there were several points where it was clearly different from a tank!

First, the liquid filling the cylindrical object was not water.

Because that pale light-blue liquid was faintly glowing on its own!

And the creature inside, which didn't move a muscle, was not a shrimp.

It was a furry creature about the size of a bear.

Roughly speaking, its shape resembled a bear.

However, its fur was purple, and it had no neck or head.

Its face emerged from the chest area, and its mouth was large enough to swallow a human whole with ease.

What's more, its arms were thick as logs; one punch from those, and a human wouldn't stand a chance.

Its claws and the fangs extending from its mouth were sharp and terrifying.

Though hidden by the fur, its entire body was likely covered in powerful muscles, and it would probably exert terrifying physical strength during combat.

“This is......!?”

Goosebumps rose on my skin in spite of myself at the sight of this terrifying creature I'd never seen before.

“Why, this is an Ebi Eater!!”

Leseida-san shouted in astonishment!

“Ebil Eater!?”

“No! Ebi Eater!...... You've probably heard that the town of Nebo was once troubled by a mysterious monster, right? That mysterious monster is this thing! The one in this tank is small in size, but...... it's a spitting image of the stuffed specimen of the mysterious monster displayed at the Ahate River Shrimp Memorial Hall in the town of Nebo!”

“What!? Then this guy is...... the same kind as the Ebil Eater that attacked the town of Nebo!?”

“I told you, it's not an Ebil Eater, it's an Ebi Eater! Contrary to its vicious appearance, it was named so because its stomach contained nothing but shrimp!”

Explaining all this to me, Leseida-san pulls a notebook from his pocket and starts scribbling notes!

“In other words, this place is a shrimp farm after all...... But the purpose of farming the shrimp is not to feed humans. The Ahate River Shrimp were raised as feed for these Ebi Eaters...... and some portion of those shrimp escaped into the Ahate River, where we humans have been catching them......”

Leseida-san's brain is running at top speed, putting together one astonishing hypothesis after another!

“Wait, wait a minute, Leseida-san! Then, what are these Ebi Eaters? Why did whoever built this facility want to raise these Ebi Eaters!?”

I held my head in confusion and asked!

Leseida-san stopped his note-taking for a moment and fell silent.

After a while, he slowly spoke.

“That is...... surely...... to make them the Guardians of these ruins.”

“Guardians......?”

“Guardians, to guard what sleeps in the deepest part of the ruins...... the relic......”

“Relic......? You mean, the one that villain mentioned at the end...... the demon sword ‘Soul Devourer’......!?”

Our discussion had just begun closing in on the mysteries of the ruins, and it was just at that moment.

Bashan, bashan, bashan!

My 【Super Senses】 picked up the sound of something hitting the water somewhere far away!

“......Leseida-san, be quiet...... there's something over there.”

“What......!?”

I drew my sword and, holding it at the ready, began to move slowly toward the sound.

“Could it be...... an Ebi Eater escaped from a tank...... and is catching shrimp......?”

“............”

I didn't know.

But it's possible.

Leseida-san said earlier that ‘nothing but shrimp came out of the Ebi Eaters' stomachs,’ but if I remember right, the Adventurers' Guild report said this mysterious monster attacked any human it found, indiscriminately.

So if the source of this sound is an Ebi Eater, we can't expect a friendly meeting.

I swallowed hard and stepped forward cautiously.

Ebi Eaters floated in the faintly glowing liquid.

In that space where such tanks towered like a forest, Leseida-san and I gradually approached the sound while hiding in the shadows of the tanks.

Bashan, bashan, bashan!

““............””

And now the sound was getting really close.

We looked at each other and nodded, then slowly peeked out from the shadow of a tank and looked toward the source of the sound.

What we found there was a pool, much like the one before.

However, it seemed quite shallow.

The floor of the pool was visible beneath the shimmering surface of the water.

And on the surface of the pool, Ahate River Shrimp were jumping up and down.

Why?

Bashan, bashan, bashan!

It was because of the existence making that sound as it plunged its arm into the water, snatching shrimp faster than the eye could follow and tossing them into its mouth again and again.

The shrimp were in a panic, trying to escape from it.

And that existence, still preying on the shrimp.

It was small.

Roughly the same size as me.

Yes, it was not an Ebi Eater.

The truth about what had been making the noise shocked us so much that we froze, eyes wide, in spite of ourselves.

I think that's only natural.

Because it was just too unexpected.

That thing.

The one preying on the shrimp.

Was a girl.

A black-haired, black-eyed girl, with something like murky black cloth wrapped around her whole body.

That girl kept on catching shrimp, utterly single-minded, and kept on eating them.

Without so much as cooking them. Raw.

“......What are you lot?”

After a while, the girl noticed us standing there in a daze, turned her face toward us, and said that.

““No, what are you?””

My retort and Leseida-san's came out perfectly in sync.