Chapter 149: Sandstorm Hills Part 3

As Jun quietly walked on, he tilted his head at the sight of Maya grabbing his sleeve.

Jun asked, noticing the slightly tense expression on Maya’s face.

“What is it?”

“Leader. I think there’s something nearby.”

“What do you mean by ‘something’?”

“I’m not sure. The elders aren’t telling me why.”

“Huh?”

At Maya’s words, Jun felt a surge of wariness.

Usually, when Maya’s ancestors acted like this to move her, it meant there was something nearby related to the Eroders. Specifically, something connected to the Heavenly Church.

I knew things were going too smoothly.

With renewed caution, Jun asked again carefully, wary of whatever hardship might be coming.

“Which direction?”

“That way.”

Fortunately, the direction Maya pointed to wasn’t too far off from their original destination.

“Rather than ignoring it and having it come back to bite us, it’s better to check it out ourselves.”

Disliking uncertainty, Jun made a quick decision, and the party began moving.

And what they found there was… a person buried in the sand.

“What… An adventurer?”

Since it was a field where people were rarely seen, Jun was quite surprised.

To think they’d run into someone missing in action like this in the vast fifth-level field.

But Jun didn’t let his guard down yet and asked Maya.

“That person… are they okay?”

“They’re fine. The elders aren’t saying he’s dangerous.”

“Then it’s not that he’s a threat himself… just somehow connected to something.”

He couldn’t just ignore a living person, so Jun cast a spell and pulled the man out of the sand.

And then—

“Puhah…!!”

As the sand was brushed off, the man gasped for air as though he had been holding his breath all along.

“Uugh… uuugh…”

“Is he asking for water? Eleanor, can you take a look at him?”

“Talk about lucky. Getting found by us, of all people.”

Eleanor examined the man’s body without hesitation.

“Hey, what’s your name?”

“M-Mentrus…”

“He seems lucid enough to give his name. Leader, can you hand me a towel soaked in water? And Aiden, get the splints ready.”

“Understood!”

Eleanor, having quickly assessed the man’s condition, began administering treatment.

Roughly half a day later, the man regained full consciousness.

“Truly… thank you so much…”

The man, Mentrus, shed tears of joy at having survived.

***

Thanks to the high priest’s attentive care and Jun’s recovery potion, Mentrus was able to get back on his feet in less than a day.

“Wh-White Whale Mercenary Group? No, wait, you’re a full-fledged corps now, aren’t you?”

Mentrus couldn’t hide his astonishment.

It was none other than the White Whale Mercenary Corps whom he had thought of in his final moments that ended up saving his life!

This must be Lord Hermethes’ divine grace!

After vowing to make a generous donation upon returning alive from this mission, Mentrus lightly introduced himself.

“It’s truly a pleasure. And thank you so much for the incredible care. I must repay you for this kindness. I am Mentrus, the leader of the Mentrus Adventurer Party under the Altas Party.”

“Altas Party? Aren’t they the ones who found traces related to the God of Death here on the fifth level?”

“That’s right. I was tasked by Commander Ron Kyler to retrieve a certain item in this area… but last night, things went terribly wrong.”

Though Mentrus had come close to dying in vain, such incidents weren’t all that rare in higher-level fields.

No matter how well someone studied a field, predicting every interaction between monsters was next to impossible.

“So sand rabbits can behave like that too, huh…”

Listening nearby, Aiden was completely immersed in Mentrus’s story.

After all, who’s to say something like that wouldn’t happen to them someday?

…Or would it?

Now that he thought about it, although they’d encountered unexpected accidents while traveling with Jun, they’d never actually been caught off guard by the field itself.

“Anyway, thank you again.”

“Mhmm…”

However, as he continued listening to the story, Jun’s expression gradually turned serious.

This makes the second time.

Though Maya now seemed to have lost interest in Mentrus, this was actually the second time recently that she had acted on her own initiative like this.

The first was during the banquet held in the Intras Mountains when they encountered Ron Kyler of the Altas Adventurer Party.

And the second was today.

Both incidents were connected to the Altas Adventurer Party…

Then could the Altas Adventurer Party be linked to the Eroders or the Heavenly Church?

It didn’t seem like there was some secret deal between the two groups, but rather that the Altas Adventurer Party was involved in activities related to them.

Jun didn’t have full knowledge of every in-game storyline, so nothing concrete came to mind just yet…

Still, just in case, he asked,

“Come to think of it, I heard the Great Temple of Deidas was discovered. Is everything settled on that front?”

At Jun’s question, Mentrus gave a small nod.

It wasn’t exactly a secret, and the news had already spread somewhat in the industry.

“The Temple of Deidas has mostly been dealt with. However, they found clues there pointing to a new region, so the team has moved on to the sixth level.”

And in that process, a specific item was needed. Hence why the mission had been assigned to the Mentrus Party.

“By any chance… is that item the ‘World Tree Sapling’?”

“……?!”

Startled, Mentrus sputtered the water he had been drinking.

“H-How did you know that?!”

“The truth is, we came here to find a ‘World Tree Leaf’. We’re headed in the same direction, and since this field is nearly devoid of people, it’s quite the coincidence we met…”

“Ah… so that’s why. Still, I’m impressed. I didn’t expect you to have that kind of information.”

Mentrus shook his head in disbelief at the level of information the White Whale Mercenary Corps had at their disposal.

“So then… what do you plan to do next?”

At Jun’s question, Mentrus was jolted back to reality and his face filled with despair.

“Haa… It’s a tough situation.”

He couldn’t even confirm whether his companions who had come this far with him were still alive.

Some may have perished in the sandstorm like he nearly had. And even if they had survived, it was possible the Issus Society scholars and the treasure hunters had broken into infighting without him there to manage them.

Given such a situation, it might be wiser to file a search request with the Adventurers’ Guild rather than move rashly…

Wait a minute. Right in front of me stands the White Whale Mercenary Corps.

Although Mentrus had seniority in terms of experience with Blackout, wasn’t Blackout ultimately a place where skill spoke louder than history?

Unlike him, who had been lingering on the fifth level for over five years, the White Whale Mercenary Corps had reached the fifth level in just a single year.

Wouldn’t it be enough to get their help?

The problem is whether they’d be willing to help…

The real issue was that they happened to be after the same target.

Although the White Whale Mercenary Corps was aiming for the World Tree Leaf, not the sapling.

Still, who would give up the sapling and take just the leaf?

Even if he did ask for their help here, it didn’t seem likely the White Whale Mercenary Corps would hand over the sapling to him.

“I know it’s shameless of me to ask, but by any chance…”

“You want help obtaining the sapling? Well, if it’s a request, I don’t see why not. We’re headed the same way anyway.”

“……?!”

At such an unexpectedly easy acceptance, Mentrus’s eyes widened as if they might pop out.

***

Of course, it wasn’t because Jun was such a nice person that he made the offer.

It’s not like I have any use for the World Tree Sapling…

He didn’t even have a way to carry it properly.

The moment the World Tree Sapling is uprooted, it starts to die rapidly, and keeping it alive requires a tremendously powerful artifact.

Selling it wasn’t out of the question, but just acquiring that artifact would be a hassle…

And if you factor in the time it would take to sell it, it’s not worth the cost.

More than anything, carrying around something like that to sell would be risky.

In that case, it might be better to build connections with the Altas Adventurer Party that operates on the seventh level.

Having reached that conclusion, Jun looked at Maya.

He didn’t know the details, but there was a high chance there was some sort of connection between Maya and the Altas Adventurer Party.

As far as I know, the Altas Adventurer Party didn’t exist in the game.

In other words, from the game’s timeline, it was closer to saying that the Altas Adventurer Party had already met its end.

A well-known adventurer party active on the seventh level disappearing without a trace…that was no small matter.

The Heavenly Church may have suppressed information, or it could be related to treason.

Having reached that point in his thoughts, Jun decided that it would be best to use this opportunity to build a deeper connection with the Altas Adventurer Party.

There’s a high chance Maya has a storyline I wasn’t aware of in the game.

With that in mind, Jun made an offer to Mentrus, feigning goodwill.

“Well then… esteemed client? Shall we settle on the exact profit split right here?”

Of course, he had no intention of giving ground when it came to the profit share.

***

Due to the nature of the terrain, the fifth-level Sandwind Hills inevitably took a long time to traverse.

Along the way, Jun and his companions engaged in battle multiple times, and Mentrus was struck by shock on several occasions.

Even the regular members like Aiden and Maya were frontliners whose strength made Mentrus unsure whether he could defeat them in a direct fight.

As for the high priestess Eleanor, she went without saying. And when it came to Jun, the captain of the mercenary corps, he made Mentrus feel that the world was simply unfair.

Was traveling the field always supposed to be this comfortable?

It was clear that a party with a mage really was in a class of its own.

Even just setting up camp. What took others hours to prepare, he handled solo in ten minutes flat.

More than anything, it was the thorough prevention of ambushes in this monster-concealing field that left Mentrus astonished.

Of course, Mentrus also carried a related artifact…

But its mana recharge rate was slow, and its detection range didn’t come close to Jun’s magic.

And lastly, when it came to dealing with small monsters, there was nothing more appealing than having a mage.

But wait, didn’t the mage we once hired as a mercenary act nothing like that?

Although that mage had been a mid-tier one with solid firepower, Mentrus remembered that he hadn’t been able to burn through mana the way Jun did.

On top of that, most mages tended to specialize in a single element as they advanced into higher circles…

Do mages vary that much from one another?

Since skilled mages were rare on the fifth level, Mentrus lacked much knowledge about them and could only tilt his head in confusion.

By the third week of being in the field—

“C-Captain?!”

“You’re alive?!”

The companions he’d lost in the sandstorm reappeared in rags, greeting him with joy.

Mentrus felt like he might cry from the news of their survival, but at the same time, he also felt a little embarrassed on their behalf.

Compared to the White Whale Mercenary Corps, who remained spotless thanks to repeated use of the [Clean] spell, the difference was stark.