***
I secretly saw the situation of the Fabian expedition under the pretext of supportive magic. It was nothing more than I guessed.
‘It’ll be harder in the future.’
Fabian flatly rejected my proposal as if he thought I approached with a dream, but it was a really pure favor for me.
Fabian’s hardships were to be welcomed with open arms, but the expedition itself had to be completed safely and without sacrifice.
Well, I actually did cast a support spell on them, and it was almost maddening to hear them marvel at it.
They were the ones who didn’t know a single thing about me being useful, even if I had cast so much support magic on them in the first round.
I chuckled as I thought of their reactions in the past.
Anyway… Unlike the entrance to the dungeon, where there was only the base of a tree, now demons that looked quite like trees began to appear.
The body of a tree demon looked like a walking stump, but the higher the level, the more neatly it looked like a tree.
Tree demons were very rare. Wood was the only one of the various attributes that possessed life force, and life force was originally a force that conflicted with magic.
Therefore, wood demons were so powerful that their magical power overshadowed their life force.
The more you went to the center of the dungeon, the more demons with strong magical power you would find, and the more difficult it is to raise the magical power defense, the greater the damage will be.
I was struggling with the hard protection of the skilled tanker Ginia and other Black Knights, but the expedition with the still inexperienced tanker would be even more difficult.
‘Even Fabian’s expedition is at a similar level, except for Fabian, at a slightly higher level than the trio.’
He wasn’t a low level, but his abilities were quite insufficient with experience to conquer special dungeons above level 50.
Sure enough, there was a horrible problem to worry about.
“Jeanne!”
A raucous cry rang out in the dungeon. April was seen rushing to Jeanne.
It looked like Jeanne was injured. Fabian, who had been cutting down monsters ahead of her, yelled in frustration as he recognized the situation a step too late.
“How did the rear wizard get hurt? Are you out of your mind?”
“Sorry, Fabian! While I lost my focus for a while…!”
“April, is Jeanne okay?”
“Stop the demons first. No more!”
There was a lot of noise and words flying around.
With the demons still around, Fabian’s expedition team gritted their teeth and grabbed the formation that was about to collapse.
If it had been anyone else who had been injured, I would have pretended not to know, but it was the young Jeanne.
Ginia, who continued to care about Jeanne, also distorted her face when she realized that Jeanne was injured.
However, she was the main tanker of the Red Wolf Unit. She was the very figure of the shield of the “Exemplary Expeditionary Force” that had prevented the demons without a single flicker.
I thought about helping her out, but I was too busy with myself.
There were far more demons surrounding the Black Knights than the Fabian Expedition.
Of course, it wasn’t impossible to help. It was because of Meyer’s backup that I was able to turn my attention to the Fabian expedition, despite my grumbling about being busy.
‘The luxury of having a backup of the highest level… an opportunity as important as the highest level putting you on a bus.’
Meyer, who controlled all the situations in the dungeon, must have known the emergency situation taking place in the Fabian expedition.
I glanced at Meyer. He had only remained quiet in the midst of the mayhem going on in the corner.
The word to save Fabian’s expedition lingered around his my and disappeared.
Meyer hates Fabian as much as I do.
On the contrary, when I thought about continuing to be conscious of Fabian, if the accumulated resentment had been greater than mine, it would have been great, but not less.
For me, if there was ever a point where I had to step away and start thinking because they were characters in a game, for Meyer, Fabian was a real-life archenemy.
If the Demon King had taken away the happiness in Meyer’s life, Fabian had taken away his hope.
So it was understandable that Meyer would be sensitive to Fabian. It was troublesome, though.
I didn’t want to go against Meyer’s mood, so I ended up closing my mouth.
At that moment, April’s impending cry rang out.
“N-no! If you don’t hang in there a little longer…!”
“… Commander, can you help save the expedition over there?”
Unable to take it anymore, I finally whispered to Meyer.
Meyer asked me, looking down at me with a meaningless glance, who grabbed his arm.
“Does it bother you?”
“… That child is innocent.”
I watched him with my shoulders set tightly, afraid that Meyer would use Jeanne as an excuse to reprimand me for actually caring about Fabian.
The reprimand didn’t matter, because I could just ask right back and say something, but the time it took to push and shove became a bit of a problem. If Jeanne got in trouble…
“Okay.”
I thought he would say something, but Meyer left more gently than I thought.
I watched Meyer’s back as he approached the Fabian expedition with incredulous eyes.
It felt as if the tree demons were retreating with every step Meyer took.
Meyer drew his sword without a care in the world. Along with the sound of iron hitting his scabbard, the peculiar cold of iron pierced my skin numbly.
With an attack power of SS rank and the 80th level, the mere act of drawing the sword itself was threatening.
And Meyer swung his sword. It was pure power itself, with no magic pulled out of it. The trajectory that his sword drew became the boundary of annihilation.
A faraway land that everyone there could not even dream of.
Everyone was lost, and watched in a daze as Meyer’s sword swept away the demons and dissolved them.
***
Everything in the dungeon was organized, and the expedition members were only able to take a breather.
“Haa…”
Every time I went around the dungeon with Meyer, I realized anew about his deceptive abilities.
How annoying it must have been to lose to Fabian with such abilities.
It must have been extremely frustrating because he hadn’t even lost because of his own abilities.
In the meantime, April successfully healed Jeanne, and she sat up.
“Ughh…”
“Jeanne, don’t overdo it. You’re resting.”
April dissuaded her, but Jeanne lifted herself up.
However, she was still dazed and seemed to be in a state of shock.
Fabian stood in front of Meyer and said hostilely.
“Why did you interfere? We’re in charge of these demons.”
The Fabian expedition members all gulped at Fabian’s behavior, which was rather angry in a situation where even thanking the Black Knight was not enough.
They held their breath and looked at each other, worried that Meyer would kill Fabian. It was a dungeon thing that was possible, though they thought it was unlikely.
But instead of drawing his sword, Meyer opened his mouth.
“I don’t think you can do your job properly there.”
Meyer replied with a thump. Even if a dog barked in front of him, I thought he would react more faithfully than he did.
“Your pride may have been damaged, but as an expedition leader, you should know that your expedition members are more important than your pride.”
“…”
Meyer completely tore Fabian’s pride apart by words.
The ridiculed Fabian gritted his teeth and stared at Meyer. That was all he could do.
While Fabian couldn’t say anything, I quickly approached them.
“I think you’re having a hard time. May I help you? We still have a bit of spare time on our hands.”
We didn’t have time. The same was true of Meyer’s struggle if he didn’t help, but I’d deliberately made myself look good to provoke Fabian.
Fabian’s lips pursed in frustration. He tried to be calm and direct.
“No, thank you. It’s enough that you just helped me.”
At that time, the shield of the Fabian expedition, who was wary, opened his mouth.
“However, Fabian… It’s too much for us to block this side alone. How about getting some help from the Black Knights?”
He thought Jeanne was hurt because of him, and his face was full of anxiety.
This shield was a character that was immediately welcomed in the game, but one that could not be brought in the first round due to conditions not being met.
‘If I hadn’t told Fabian, I could have brought Aegis to the Black Knights.’
I regretted it inwardly. There was no way I could wave to the bus that had already left in time. I had to concentrate on what I was aiming for.
The Fabian expedition, not knowing a word about my thoughts, began to fuss.
“In addition, Jeanne is also… This time the dungeon was very hurried to the young Jeanne. I’d rather leave it to the Black Knights and take a rest for this dungeon…”
“Aegis. Then we’ll have six of us attack. Can you do that?”
“But Jeanne is a kid, Fabian!”
“But she’s a decent expedition member. If you recover, you can fight again. Right, Jeanne?”
Fabian said so and looked back at Jeanne. It was an attitude that he had no doubt that Jeanne would nod to his question.
And Fabian’s prediction was accurate.
Jeanne nodded awkwardly with a pale face.
Fabian muttered, forcing Jeanne to stand up.
“In addition, Jeanne is excluded from obtaining experience when she rests. She’s lagging behind. Jeanne wouldn’t want that either. Right?”
“Stop it, Fabian!”
Unable to contain herself, April screamed. Her face was pale and her fists were trembling with anger.
April pinched her trembling bottom lip and glared at Fabian.
“Jeanne is injured. Isn’t the first thing to ask how hurt she is and if she’s okay?”
The fire on the fuse finally caught fire on the gunpowder.
I thought Fabian, who was nervous, would dig his own grave, but I didn’t know he would react so immediately.
Everything was going according to plan, which rather whetted my appetite.
While I was pushing the situation as hard as I could, it seemed that there was still some residue of the heroic Fabian in the back of my mind.
It was for nothing, though.
I laughed at myself for being pathetic, shaking off my lingering feelings that I didn’t even know were left.
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