This Hero is Too Curious! - 85 This Hero and the Assignment!

“…Um.” Tael began, but the dwarven man interrupted him quickly with a booming voice.

“I did not ask you to speak! You will speak when asked! Am I clear?” He stared daggers towards Tael, who shirked in response. My own ears were ringing in response to the volume that this man had just shouted at. It was like a bomb had just gone off in the room.

“Y-Yes sir!” He quickly replied as he gave a salute. His voice wavering in what felt like fear.

“Well, before I do anything, open up your status screens! I need to know what I’m actually working with!” He gestured at us with his chin when he had finished speaking, indicating us to begin.

“Status.” We both said in unison. The familiar green prisms appeared before us as they had time and time before.

My stats hadn’t changed since I last leveled up, but my experience points were higher. It’s no surprise since we all cleared out a goblin camp, but I don’t have a level up ready. Perhaps killing creatures of a level so far below you merits diminishing returns? This would mean that I can’t just grind out levels and reach level 1000 or something by going into a forest and killing boars.

“Hmm.” The dwarven soldier hummed out while slowly caressing his beard with his right hand. “Well, you’re not useless, that’s for sure. I checked with your lady friends before I came to you two. They were the same level, so I suppose I can make this work. This is especially good since your one friend is a rogue. That’s going to be useful for this work I have for you.”

I slowly raised my hand like a student so that I could ask a question. Unlike Tael, I don’t want to be yelled at so I took the necessary precautions first.

“What do you want?” He swiftly looked towards me as he took a step forward.

“What will be our assignment? Is this just a general monster killing quest? We’re only level 12 so I doubt we can go and clear out swathes of the Demon King’s army on our own. Will we have backup? Where are we going? Will we be supplied-”

“Okay okay! Shut up! I’ll get to that in a moment! Cripes, you’re like a dam that just burst open!” The dwarf shouted in response as he quickly backed away from me. He took a moment to compose himself before he decided to speak once more.

Tael raised his own hand once he deemed it safe. I’m proud of him. The dwarf, however, seemed very reluctant to allow him to ask his own question, but after a few moments he finally succumbed to Tael’s persistence and called upon him.

“You mentioned our friend is a rogue and that’s useful. Does that have to pertain to the mission?”

“As I said before, you’ll be briefed on the job later. We can’t discuss it here because there could be spies anywhere. Though the walls can keep an army out, spies have a habit of slipping through. Do you have any more questions?” He scowled at me as I began to raise my hand once more. “I was asking the elf, not you.” I slowly lowered my hand in disappointment.

Tael, unfortunately, did not ask any questions.

“Okay!” He shouted out as he clapped his hands together. His interlocking metal plates clanked together loudly as he did this. “Gather whatever supplies and equipment you may need! You shouldn’t be gone for longer than 8 hours, so you shouldn’t need any food. Bring some water and your weapons of course.” The dwarven soldier quickly turned away from us and began to head towards the doorway of our room.

“W-Wait, we’re heading out NOW?” I couldn’t stop myself from asking. In response, the soldier stopped dead in his tracks, did an about-face, and looked me directly in the eye.

“Now.” He said bluntly. Though he only said one word, the subtext of the way he said it was “if you ask another question I will break your face.”

We ensured we had our equipment and went outside of our room. Kany and Erana were already standing outside. They both had their adventuring gear on as well. Erana seems to be fairly happy about this situation while Kany seems to still be down in the dumps, at least mildly so.

“Off we go.” The dwarven soldier exclaimed before he chucked a rock in the air. Before I could get a good look at it, a symbol on it lit up and my vision flashed white while my surroundings changed.

As I wafted the white smoke away from my face, I could see the outlines of dwarves, a candle, a table, and a few memorable shapes. It was only after a few moments that I realized we were inside of a stone room that had no entrances. This place is a solid cube. The room can’t be bigger than 5 meters long by 2 meters tall, but it still held over 12 people inside, though many of them were rather small.

“Oh, well if it isn’t Kenji-san!” The familiar voice of Ron called out to me. He walked over as the smoke dissipated to say hello.

Behind Ron, I could see the rest of his party. There was the unmistakable shape of the man made of muscle, this must be Jaq. Ron told me that Jaq is the leader of his group and judging by his stature and presence I believe him. Other than Jaq and Ron, there is a woman that is wearing what seems to be a martial arts gi and a man who is strapped from top to bottom in what seem to be belts. I can barely even see his face.

“Ah-Ahem!” The dwarven soldier loudly cleared his throat to make his presence known. He quickly walked up to the table in the middle of the room and unfurled a map on top of it. The map itself appeared to be a visualization of the mountain that we are in, followed by a diagram of the movements of the armies, including encampments.

“Okay. Now that all of you can be trusted, this is your assignment: We have reason to believe that the army has a camp up here towards the apex of the mountain. At this camp, we have obtained information stating that there are two important things at this location: A general monster and an important message that was recently delivered to this camp. Your job is simple: Eliminate the monster and obtain that message by any means necessary. Are there any questions?” He looked up from the map immediately towards me. I felt slightly embarrassed before I began.

“Well, for starters, how are we getting there? Also for that matter, how did we get here?”

“This is a special space that us dwarves carved out through magical means. We marked it as a teleportation spot that can only be accessed by those that carry these here rune stones.” He said as he brandished a small rock with a rune marking on it before returning it to his pocket. “As for how you’re getting there, we’ll teleport you all through a similar method, but unlike this most recent time, you may need to travel a bit. Teleporting outside of the mountain, especially around that many monsters, may cause interference. The maximum distance you will be from the target would be around 200 meters from the point we’re aiming for.”

“Is there a chance we’ll be teleported into the enemy camp by accident?”

In response to this question, I heard Jaq give a loud scoffing sound.

“No. The enemies will be giving off too strong of an aura. It’s not possible for teleportation magic of this level to penetrate that level of aura.”

Before I could ask another question, Jaq held a massive hand out in front of me and began to speak.

“Yeah, I gotta question. Can we use styles out here?”

“Go wild.” The dwarf smiled widely. His teeth were visible. They were reminiscent of an animal baring its fangs before it pounced on its prey.

“U-Um well-” I began to say, but Jaq cut me off once more.

“Also, why do I need to work with these four? What level are they? I don’t remember seeing them around Ruks. I doubt they’re even level 4!” He shouted as he tried to tower over me. Fortunately, this roof prevented him from being able to comfortably stand in the first place, so I wasn’t deterred.

Before I was able to speak up, Kany stepped forward to get between us.

“Trust me buddy. It’s best if you just relax.” She angrily looked towards him as he said this.

“Oh yeah, I’m so scared of the kid.” He raised his hands upwards slightly in a joking manner.

“You’ll be happy to know that they are level 12. They’re not at your level yet, but they’re fairly close.” The dwarven soldier chimed in.

“W-What? Level 12? That’s bullshit! It took me four months to reach that and I worked hard!” He backed away. A baffled look shot across his face.

“It’s true.” Erana chimed in. A slightly mischievous smile traced across her face. “We owe it to our leader over here.” Erana placed a hand upon my shoulder as she stared towards Jaq. “It’s only through his questioning that we were able to do things like kill a mulaplix!”

The room fell silent.