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Foot of Mount Kuguse.

There, on the lowest part of the mountain, there was the town Kugutfulm which partly sat on the foot of the mountain.

The party that descended down the trackless path entered the highway from a slightly elevated place where the eastern highway crossed the ridgeline. It was also the place that offered a view of the town at the mountain’s foot.

“Wow…”

They had artificially expanded the river flowing down the mountain, stretching it into east and west to create the river crossroads and turning it into a canal.

Kuguse spread out from the foot of the mountain while encompassing the canal.

The canal sparkled under the setting sun and looked like a gem that decorated the town. The shining rooftops stood in a line as if sticking close to the river.

“The town of water, Kugutfulm. I mean, most of Setulev’s towns are called towns of water.”

Tim spoke proudly seeing Lucella acting impressed.

However, Lucella wasn’t moved just due to its beauty, but because this scenery resonated with him in some way.

“This scenery… I feel like I know it. I came to this town and…”

He had seen it. He knew this scenery. The scenery from this place. At that time, ■■■■■ hadn’t been alone.

—“This is a nice town. I just can’t come to like the sea, but I like the rivers and canals. And the best part is that a dragon lives nearby. Don’t you get excited at the thought that a dragon resides on the mountain you can see from the window?”—

He remembered her saying that and smiling innocently like a child.

—“It may be impossible to depart from this town… Still, it if’s this town, that might not be so bad.”—

She then faced him……

“Who…? Who was it? Who was with me when I saw this scenery…?”

Memory fragments. The things he should have seen by connecting them were nowhere to be seen. When he tried to force himself to remember it, it felt like his head would burn.

“Lucella…”

Kafal muttered in concern.

“This town is the base of operations for our party. It’s a good town.”

Hearing Tim’s voice, the memories coiling around Lucella’s head like mist disappeared just like dreams of night forgotten during the morning.

“We adventurers are by nature wanderers with no connection to kingdoms and towns. I couldn’t care less about how many of the knights and nobles of this kingdom end up dead. But still, I’d hate to see this familiar scenery to be swallowed by the flames of war and the soldiers I got to know to end up dead… Right now, I’m doing what I can for that reason.”

Tim raised the visor of his helmet gilded to a shine and overlooked the town with a stern expression.

“Doing what he could.” Did he mean borrowing the strength of Mount Kuguse’s dragon… Kafal?

“…And so, it’s a little questionable, but I’ve heard of a rumor that there’s someone in this town who can interpret the dragon language.”
“Someone who can interpret the dragon language? Is that even possible?”
“If we’re talking about possibilities, it is possible! However, it is extremely difficult for humans to learn it.”
“I’m not sure if the person I’ve heard about is the real deal or not.”

Even Tim himself seemed half-dubious.

“It helped that you were here, but when it comes to talking with bigshots, communicating with imperfect human language could lead to problems, don’t you agree?”
“True… it could lead to poor misunderstandings. Embarrassed as I am to admit, I have no knowledge of the dragon language.”

Lucella felt like Tim somewhat hoped that Lucella would be able to interpret, but unfortunately, he didn’t understand Kafal’s speech well.

Kafal would be willing to listen with Lucella mediating between them, which was valuable, but he wasn’t confident that it would be enough to overcome the language barrier during the negotiation with someone like the king.

“So yeah, I’m planning to try finding that interpreter for the time being. I actually commissioned for intelligence gathering at the Adventurer’s Guild before we came to the mountain, so we first have to go and confirm what they found out.”
“I see…”

Lucella suddenly gleaned at Kafal.

She was watching him anxiously from a little away.

—Dragon language interpreter… If there’s someone like that out there, will it allow me to learn Kafal’s feelings properly?

It was a complete coincidence.

At this point, his adventurer card had been hidden in the depth of the storage container and wasn’t ever meant to be seen again.

However, Gemel was looking for something and just happened to stumble upon it by chance.

And then, he noticed that the impossible numbers that it used to show had turned even more absurd.

=====

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In a room of the guild-designated inn (as they had vacated their rented house) the members of Seventh Dice were looking dumbfounded at the adventurer card.

It would be absurd to even call it superhuman. The written parameters were already far beyond the concept of a human.

“The numbers have gone up again…?”
“It’s not just the attributes, even the level.”
“Wait, 40…”

Level was the numerical representation of one’s combat experience.

However, this also was not absolutely credible either.

It simply represented the aggregate amount of one’s experience, so putting it bluntly, the level would rise whether you ran about trying to escape from a strong foe or whether you took down said strong foe which was already at a death’s door.

A high level was a prestige point of course, but nothing really changed even if it did rise, so adventurers didn’t give it much importance even if it was one of the indicators of skill.

However, that was only true if said numerical fell into the common sense territory.

Raising your level gradually grew harder.

If a ‘normal adventurer’ steadily did adventurer work and retired in his thirties due to age doing its thing, their level would normally be around 20…

To get into higher levels like 30, you would need to do what would be considered heroic deeds.

In fact, Gemel who was still young yet already level 22 was among the better adventurers. At this rate, he could reach 30 before retirement, and use that number to move on to a good occupation for the second part of his life.

Levels were things you raised at such a pace.

If one were to raise it from 3 to 40 in such a short time, they would need to subjugate dozens of great foes.

Yes, for example, the Variants that lived on Mount Kuguse…

“…I’ll go throw it away!”

Gemel grabbed the adventurer card and stood up as if he was repelled by something.

“Huh?! Didn’t you say we shouldn’t do that…”
“I’ll ask an acquaintance merchant to introduce me to someone that can take care of things like this!”

He just said that much and flew out of the room, walking away at a fast pace.

The sensation of the plate in his hand felt cold and unpleasant.

“Move, you’re in my way!”
“Kyaa!”

He found the pedestrians walking nonchalantly an annoyance.

Gemel pushed his way through them and rushed madly ahead through the crowded street.

But then, he felt like he collided with a stone pillar head-on.

“Agh?!”

Colliding with a silhouette that gave off an absurd sense of weight, Gemel took damage due to his own fast pace and was blown back, falling on his backside.

“Ouch, you b̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲, watch where you’re go-…”
“You’re the one who needs to watch it, Gemel. What are you saying after crashing into a small child like her.”
“Geh?!”

Gemel was dumbfounded and stared wide-eyed while still sitting down.

The reason behind his shock was half the fact that he was criticized by the leader of the town’s top party, Golden Helmet, Tim. He was someone Gemel couldn’t match.

And the other half was that, the one who crashed into and repelled Gemel, was a girl barely half his size.

That girl with long red hair wore an overcoat long enough that it was being dragged along.

Despite the fact that someone as huge as Gemel crashed at her, she remained nonchalant as if it was nothing but the brush of the wind against her cheek.

“Sorry, you dropped something.”

The girl gave a lovely smile and calmly picked up and returned ■■■■■’s adventurer’s card that Gemel dropped.

=====

Name: Lucella

Lv40
HP　　852/852
MP　　2398/2398
ST　　716/716

STR　　58
MAG　　75
AGI　　60
DEX　　19
VIT　　52
RES　　93

=====

But the name which used to be blurred out was now clearly displayed on it.