I drove forward, wringing out every last drop of strength. I regulated my breathing as best I could while my legs pumped.
The dim, narrow passage stretched on endlessly. Cold air brushed my cheeks.
Gregg, Gilbert, Ruda, and Tino were running just ahead of me.
Even though I was giving it everything I had, the gap wasn't closing at all.
I realized something.
Wait—were they holding back so they wouldn't leave me behind?
Gilbert, still running at ease despite the massive sword in hand, glanced back at me and furrowed his brow.
Before I'd arrived, they'd been in a dire situation, yet there was composure on his face now. Had he recovered while running?
"At that pace, you'll be caught. You need to pick up the speed—"
"You idiot! Kai is being considerate of Tino's injuries!"
"!! Oh, right… sorry about that."
Ruda's shouting retort made Gilbert snap to awareness, and he quickly apologized.
Wait—injured? And my best speed was on par with Tino's injured pace?
Wait—I'm not slow, am I? Tino's just fast, right?
Could I have been unconsciously holding back without even realizing it?
That stung a bit, but her words helped settle me. I checked that no strange sounds were coming from behind and came to a stop.
I had no Thief skills, but if there were pursuers, Tino would let me know. It seemed we'd shaken them.
Seeing me stop, the others did too. Had we gotten closer during the exploration? They were remarkably obedient.
"?? Are we done already?"
"Looks like we shook 'em. That was dicey. Really saved our asses."
Gregg thanked me, but really, I should have been the one apologizing.
Still, regrouping came first.
I held back the urge to vomit, steadied my ragged breathing, and looked at Tino.
Tino flinched at my gaze and hugged her own shoulders, as though frightened.
"M-Mastaa…"
"Kai. Tino really… she really did her best," Ruda said, sounding oddly defensive.
"Yeah, yeah. You're right. …I'm sorry. If only a single word could make it right."
"!?"
It went without saying. You could tell just looking at her that she'd pushed herself.
After all that running, her normally immaculate hair was in disarray, and her complexion was poor. Something had caught on her right thigh, tearing the black shorts and exposing white skin—and the contrast drew my gaze almost involuntarily.
Noticing my stare, Tino suddenly grabbed the hem of her shorts and yanked them aside, baring an expanse of thigh.
…What are you doing, of all places? They're already short enough as it is… I can see your underwear.
Tino averted her eyes, embarrassed. As I stared at her with lips pressed tight, Gilbert spoke with a look of exasperation.
"Thousand Transformations… can you do healing too…?"
…Ah. So that's where the wound was. Come on, say something. I'm not going to notice on my own. I thought you were just messing around as usual.
Well, stopping was for the healing, technically.
She thrust out her well-developed white thigh as if to show me.
Faint traces of blood vessels were visible beneath the skin, but I couldn't see a wound.
But of course—just because I couldn't see it didn't mean there was no damage. After all, that was apparently why she could only keep up with my maximum speed.
I did have a recovery Treasure Weapon. Of course I did. I'd never be without one.
I removed the silver cross necklace from around my neck—『Compassionate Devotion』—and pressed it against Tino's thigh.
The blue light emitted from the cross sank into her skin like water being absorbed, and her expression relaxed for just a moment. Sorry I didn't notice sooner.
"Thank you, Mastaa. It doesn't hurt anymore."
Well, I still needed Tino to push herself a little longer.
Watching the healing, Gilbert let out a small breath of relief.
"Ah… so the healing really is from a Treasure Weapon."
Everything is from a Treasure Weapon, every single thing—what's your point? Huh? Got a problem with that?
If this weren't a Treasure Hall, I'd already be in a foul mood heading back to the Clan House.
"Kai. Those Wolf Knights… did you take them out?"
Gregg asked while keeping watch over the path we'd just come from.
Whether I'd taken them out was an easy question—absolutely not.
Wolves had good noses. What those Wolf Knights had feared was the smell of slime clinging to the capsule.
I wasn't sure if slime even had a smell, but there was nothing else it could have been.
Right about now, those things were probably raging with fury. They'd been fooled by an empty metal capsule and lost their prey.
From here on, all we needed to think about was escaping.
They'd looked terrifying, but once we left the Treasure Hall, those Phantoms shouldn't follow us.
Besides, our rescue targets were surely dead by now.
I sighed, then stretched broadly. The sword was a shame to lose, but my life mattered more.
"That's not what we should be worrying about right now. Let's just walk for now."
"O-okay."
So the problem was… where were we, and where was the exit?
§ I took point and we walked in silence. Whether from exhaustion or not, no one spoke.
The White Wolf's Den, just as the map had shown, had narrow passages branching like an ant colony, with similar-looking scenery continuing endlessly—it was impossible to tell which way we were going.
It didn't seem to be a particularly large Treasure Hall, but there was even a chance we were retracing our steps.
Wait—why was I leading? I'm not a Thief, am I? Isn't that a Thief's job?
There were two Thieves in this Party, for crying out loud.
I tried stopping to let someone else go first, but the moment I stopped, Tino and the others stopped too—so no matter how long I waited, I stayed at the front.
Where'd your usual initiative go, Tino?
I looked at Tino, but the moment our eyes met, she immediately looked away.
It was like she was rejecting me. "I don't want to talk to you, Mastaa. Just die already"—that's what it felt like.
Hmm? Should I have just groveled from the start? Inside this dangerous Treasure Hall? Was I screwed?
With no choice, I pressed forward without understanding where we were going. Every now and then I'd veer off on a whim.
The saving grace was that the Treasure Hall seemed to be nearly devoid of Phantoms—we hadn't encountered a single enemy. Tino was probably subtly guiding us in directions where Phantoms didn't lurk.
Occasionally, a roar-like sound echoed through the depths of the cavern, but it was still far away.
I think it's far. Probably far, right? I hope it's far.
Still, despite walking for quite a while, we hadn't reached the exit. I was fairly sure the direction was right, but this was exactly why I hated cave-type Treasure Halls.
I was just about to start thinking about groveling to Tino when Gilbert finally cracked.
"Hey… if you're not doing this on purpose, then I'm sorry, but… where exactly are we headed? Is this the exit?"
He'd become remarkably meek… but unfortunately, I didn't know either. Well, the destination was definitely the exit—that much was certain.
I was about to say so when Tino cut in anxiously.
"Gilbert, reading Mastaa's intentions is part of the training too. Also, we're not heading toward the exit. The path to the right from the boss room doesn't lead to the exit no matter which way you go."
"I-Is that so…"
I-Is that so… I had the exact same reaction as Gilbert internally.
It's the exit. I'm definitely heading for the exit.
But wait—so the right path doesn't connect? Also—that was the boss room back there?
So what now? Did we have to turn around?
And on top of that—Tino, you were training in this situation? Where else would I be heading besides the exit? Was there something else?
"But, hey, Kai. Can you tell us where we're heading soon—"
"…………"
Ruda asked hesitantly. Her voice made me feel pathetic.
Where was I heading? I'd always been lost in life.
There were no road signs. If anything, I myself had become the road sign somehow.
For now, I'd do a U-turn. Quite some time had passed, and they were probably gone by now.
I wanted to do a U-turn in life too. I wanted to cry, but I at least composed my expression.
I chose a path that turned. Two turns in the same direction were essentially a U-turn. After walking for several minutes with renewed resolve, Gregg suddenly spoke in a hoarse voice.
I turned around to find him staring at me as though he'd seen a monster.
"Impossible… there were no traces… we didn't even check—how did you—"
"That's what I've been saying. Mastaa doesn't just do things randomly."
"Now's not the time for that! W-we have to save them!"
Ruda took off running. Only then did I finally notice several figures lying far down the path.
They were too large to be Phantoms. Squinting, I could make out faint movement.
What was that? Had Gregg said what he did because he'd noticed them just now?
You guys have really good eyes. I might have just missed them and turned halfway.
But more importantly—were those our rescue targets?
They were still alive? What luck. I'd love to get in on some of that.
Tino puffed out her chest with a hint of pride and looked at me with dazzling eyes.
"See? I told you. Mastaa reads everything."
"No way—logically, that's obviously a coincidence."
Reading the future like that? Even a Treasure Weapon couldn't do that.
"…Why's the guide the one saying that?"
I stated the obvious, and Gilbert regarded me with a look of utter exasperation.
§ The rescue target was an even larger man than Gregg.
He wore gleaming full-body armor with a large green shield. Beside him, a conical spear—the kind not used by infantry in warfare—lay within arm's reach.
Rudolf Davou. I'd never heard the name, and while he was currently barely conscious, his massive frame exuded a commanding presence that would make one believe he was a Level 5–certified Hunter.
It appeared he had broken bones.
With smooth efficiency, Tino and the others stripped off his armor—a process I couldn't have managed, since I had no idea which parts to remove first—and gave him a potion.
Other members lay collapsed nearby, all battered and bruised, with several seriously wounded. But it seemed every last one of them was barely alive. To have fallen in a place like this and not been finished off was nothing short of a miracle.
"Does it hurt?"
At Tino's question, Rudolf answered in a hoarse voice.
"Y-yes… thank you. You… you saved me."
"Thank Mastaa."
"No, I didn't do anything…"
I was genuinely useless—I'd done absolutely nothing. The only thing I'd accomplished was sending Tino in.
Wait—should I actually be receiving thanks?
Rudolf looked up at me with unfocused eyes.
He'd been trapped in that cavern for three days. Even with the pain gone, the exhaustion had to be severe.
Feeling genuinely apologetic, I pulled a chocolate bar—always kept on hand as a snack—from the bag at my waist and handed it to him.
Rudolf crushed it in his teeth with a ravenous ferocity. I waited for him to calm down before asking.
"How about food?"
"…ggh… w-we don't have any."
"Mastaa, ours is outside too. We were planning to camp outside."
"Ah, I see. We always used to camp inside."
My childhood friends had apparently treated dangerous Treasure Halls as convenient places for training at any time.
I gathered everyone who was alive. Some were unconscious, but since I'd given them potions, they were probably out of mortal danger for now.
But if all of them had survived, that brought a whole new set of problems.
Their survival was welcome news from the Exploration Association's perspective, but for us as rescuers, it couldn't have been more troublesome.
First, transporting five wounded people was an enormous effort—especially with those terrifying Phantoms lurking around.
We didn't have any breathing room either. Rudolf was a Level 5 Hunter and seemed reliable, but after three days with barely any food or water, he'd be in no shape to fight those Phantoms.
Besides—he'd already lost once, and that was why he was in this state.
And was he actually mobile? In that massive armor?
Carrying that was flat-out impossible. He probably couldn't even lift the spear anymore. If it were a Treasure Weapon, that'd be a different story—but in the worst case, he'd need to take it off.
I roused Rudolf, whose mind was still hazy, and had Tino begin assessing the situation.
We couldn't just lie here forever—who knew when the Phantoms would show up.
Rudolf might be lucky, but I was spectacularly unlucky.
Rudolf was a veteran. With five people, they shouldn't have lost to a silver Wolf Knight.
In response to Tino's questions, Rudolf's lips tightened for an instant, and he began to speak in a trembling voice.
His wide green eyes alone conveyed the magnitude of the horror he'd experienced.
"Hah… hah… there's something dangerous here. This isn't Level 3… there's something dangerous in here. We weren't careless, but—it was no use. The spear, his attacks—none of it—"
"Yeah, we know. Some wolf knight covering the right side of its face with a human skull, right? We've fought them too."
Gilbert shrugged off Rudolf's trembling words. The kid had no sense of the atmosphere.
But to those words, Rudolf's eyes went wide, and he shook his head violently.
"H-h… half? N-no. What took us down, what wounded us—was a Phantom covering its entire face with bone. We need to run, now—"
His face was ashen. His wide, wild eyes shook with terror, as though he were hallucinating that very enemy.
I wanted to file a complaint.
Something stronger than that one existed… what on earth was going on with this Treasure Hall?
…Even saying I was unlucky, surely I wouldn't run into it, right?
I wanted to laugh it off, but I couldn't bring myself to feel that way.
§ § § A small shadow entered without a single footstep, and the silver Wolf Knight slowly raised its head.
Beneath its feet lay a crushed metal fragment.
It was a piece of metal saturated with a death stench unlike anything it had ever smelled.
But it already understood—that this was safe, that it had been deceived, that the individual possessing intelligence equal to or greater than the once-existing Silver Moon understood all of this.
It understood that next time they met, it would tear them apart.
It hefted a giant greatsword as tall as itself, and with movements that seemed almost lethargic, turned toward the shadow.
From the bone eye socket covering the right half of its face, a crimson eye gleamed—brimming with a hatred far deeper than before.
Two more of its kind, lying in ambush within the room—one bearing a bow, the other a club—equally ranked Wolf Knights, raised their heads in the same manner.
What stood before their gaze was a small figure, its entire face concealed behind a grinning skull.
It was less than a third the height of the towering silver Wolf Knight, yet the aura of death it emanated far surpassed that of the Wolf Knights.
In its hand, it held a mid-sized drawn sword. Unlike the weapons wielded by the silver Wolf Knights, its blade was strikingly transparent, almost crystalline.
『Star of Silence』
A Treasure Weapon with an unmistakably different brilliance, swaying beneath an arm that hung loosely at its side. The Wolf Knights had no way of knowing it had once rested on the back of a Level 8 Hunter, only to be discarded midway.
It was clad not in plate mail, but in light gear that seemed to prioritize mobility—an almost disturbingly human-like attire. Yet only its boots, reaching up to its knees, gleamed in black-gold metal reminiscent of Wolf Knight armor.
The Treasure Hall known as the White Wolf's Den was the embodiment of its history of devastation—the curse left behind by the magical beast Silver Moon.
The festering resentment had exerted a powerful influence on the Mana Material accumulated within its lair.
What resided there was hatred for humanity—and, simultaneously, a deep yearning.
A yearning for power. A yearning for that form. A yearning for wisdom.
Admiration and loathing were two sides of the same coin.
That the silver Wolf Knights stood on two legs and wore equipment was a manifestation of this. And so too was the skull that covered half of their heads.
Then what of an individual whose entire face was hidden beneath complete bone?
The Treasure Hall had been unable to realize such a powerful curse due to insufficient Mana Material—but it had already transformed into a realm capable of driving out a Level 5 Hunter.
Before the three silver Wolf Knights, the shadow whose face was fully concealed by a grinning skull advanced with steady, unhurried steps.
Channeling the hatred it had once harbored, the Wolf Knights let out a roar.