“Hey, Yumi.”
“Nn?”
“Can’t you, like, do something about this?”
“Nn, no. I can’t.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
“Haaa…”

Fenna, who sat right next to me, let out a deep sigh. The roper that we had trapped—and that subsequently got killed by the tentacle pitfall—had been carried away by some of the other women. As a result, Except for Karen, Fenna and me, only three others were still here. And since we were so few, we decided to keep even more distance from the pitfall trap. As a precaution.

“... Maybe we should get closer again?”
“Fenna, wasn’t it you who wanted to stay on the safe side?”
“Yes, but… How long have we been waiting here already?!”
“... Quite a while.”

Honestly, it probably wasn’t even half as long as Fenna made it out to be. But with nothing to do except waiting, time passed even more slowly than usual.  I couldn’t blame her for feeling irritated. Especially, because it wasn’t like the ropers hadn’t shown themselves at all. They had. They just… kept passing by the entrance. Completely ignoring the tentacle growth that lay right behind it.

“Can’t you, like, use those tentacles to pull them in or something?”
“If I could, I would have done that already.”
“Haaa… Useless.”
“...”

Sure, I usually would admit myself that I wasn’t exactly useful. But this time was different. This time, I was sure I was of use with that pitfall. If it wasn’t for that pitfall, we would probably have to return already because we couldn’t investigate properly.

Actually, now that I think about it, that would have meant less work for her… Is that why she’s annoyed?

Well, whether that was the case or not, it wouldn’t make any sense to get annoyed as well now.

“Miss Fenna, I don’t think calling her useless is nice when she is already using her magic…”
“Ahh, you’re right, Karen. Sorry ‘bout that, Yumi.”
“... No, it’s okay.”

Right when I decided not to dwell on it…

“But really, don’t they ever leave the cave or so? Even if we aren’t close-by, they still need to go out sometime, don’t they?”
“Maybe they are alarmed because of what happened to the other roper?”
“I’ve never heard of ropers being that intelligent, though. Ah, but this one probably has a nest mother, so maybe… Ugh…”

Fenna buried her face in her knees and groaned.

“Going out, huh… That reminds me…”

Back when I read that monsterarium, several general traits had been listed among the monsters. It was mostly useless, due to how vague it was or how unsure it sounded. Yet, a little bit of info could be gleaned from it nonetheless.

“The book that Wendl gave me before… I think it mentioned that ropers are mostly nocturnal…”
“... Nocturnal?”
“Yes.”
“They seem quite lively in that cave over there, though.”
“Nn… True…”

Maybe these ropers were different? Or… because we had woken them up?

“Or… maybe they just hunt during the night?”
“Hunting during the night? I see… That might be possible…”

Fenna squinted her eyes a little as she thought about my words.

“But if that’s the case, we’ll sit here for a long time.”
“... We’re going to wait?”
“Of course we are.”
“...”

Great. In other words, if I was correct with that assumption, we’d wait through the entire night?

“Oh, and no napping here, of course. We might have to move in a hurry and we won’t have the time to wait for you to wake up.”
“... Awesome.”
“I know, right?”
“I wasn’t serious.”
“Neither was I.”

No sleep, nothing to do… Was she serious? What kind of torture was this?

“Hey, Sanna, don’t you have some dice?”
“Eh?!”

The woman Fenna had addressed shrieked in surprise.

“H, h, ho, how…”
“Don’t think I didn’t see them yesterday.”
“Uhhh…”
“Just bring them out. I won’t tell the Captain nor Merim.”
“U, understood…”

Sana opened the bag where she stored the drawing utensils for the map and retrieved a cup and several dice from it.

“Nn, Fenna, is there a problem that she brought dice along?”
“They’re not exactly relevant for our work, are they? Also, while the Captain doesn’t exactly forbid it, gambling during work hours is frowned upon. It’s a good way to kill time in situations like this, though, so he pretends to look the other way.”
“Ahhh…”

Right, this was technically for gambling…

“Not like we really have anything to gamble with right now… Mhm… The loser strips?”
“Fenna…”
“Hey, that was a joke, okay? I wasn’t serious about that!”
“...”

Was it really a joke, though?

“Miss Fenna.”
“Yes, Karen?”
“I’ve seen people play with dice before but I’ve never done it myself…”
“Eh? You never played dice?”
“No…”

Fenna’s eyes grew wide in astonishment.

“I see, huh… Then you need an explanation, don’t you? Wait, Sanna, how many dice do you have?”
“Ehhh, five.”
“Five, huh. Should we start with a simple game, then?”

I hope nobody could blame me for feeling a little worried there.

“One of us takes the cup with three dice and is serving as the house, taking the bets. On your turn, you choose one number between one and six and then the house rolls the dice. If your number is on the dice then… Ahh, wait… We don’t have money to gamble with right now…”

Fenna groaned in the middle of the explanation.

“What’s wrong?”
“Ahhh, it’s a gambling game so you usually bet money, you know? I have no idea how to play this without money involved. It’s all about betting, after all.”
“Miss Fenna, I can keep track of the bets if you want.”
“Oh, that’s nice, Sanna. But that still doesn’t solve the problem… Mhm, okay, if you keep track of the bets, then we can place bets I guess and call it a debt.”

A debt… Wait, were we going to gamble for real?

“Okay, let’s do it like that. Would be better if we had some coins but we’ll make do.”

Fenna nodded to herself and then continued her explanation.

“Anyway, after the house rolled the dice, for each number on the dice that is the same as the one you called before, you get your bet back and additionally get the same amount for each dice that shows that number. If no dice show the number, the house takes the bet. Simple, right?”
“Uhm, so, if I guess on a three and there’s a single three among the three dice, then I get back twice the amount I bet?”
“Correct! And if it shows up two times, then you get back triple, and for all three showing the same number, you get back four times the bet!”
“Ohhh!”

If Karen’s eyes could sparkle now, they surely would. She seemed utterly impressed by Fenna’s words but… This was a gambling game… There was no way it didn’t have a catch… I wasn’t going to calculate it through on the spot now, but I was certain that you’d lose money on average.

What do they say again? The house always wins.

The question was, who would be the house?

“So, since I’m the leader here, I’m going to be the house, okay?”

Of course…

“Ah, but let’s limit the bets to five copper at most, okay? Can’t have anyone falling into debt here and hold a grudge.”
“...”

With a big grin, Fenna took the cup and three dice, getting ready to start. Only to be interrupted by Sanna.

“Miss Fenna. I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Eh?”
“I wonder what the Captain will say if he hears about this…”
“... Ugh, you’re right… But what are we supposed to do then?”
“How about if the loser has to fulfill the request of the winner? Kind of like a punishment, or something?.”
“... Oh?”

In other words, a punishment game?
That didn’t sound all that much better, to be honest.

“I see, a punishment, huh. That’s a good idea, Sanna. That might be even better, in fact!”
“Glad to help.”
“Then, let’s get to it!”

And as such, we started our questionable gambling session.

---

The results were about as much as I expected… We lost… Sanna already expected as much and kept her bets low. In fact, she was actually going positive somehow. It was only a little but nonetheless positive. On the other hand, I wasn’t doing that well… But at least I wasn’t as bad as Karen…

Note for the future: Never let Karen play gambling games.

She definitely was the type to fall into gambling addiction. Maybe still calling the points as copper coins made her greedy side wake up. And her greed for the figurative money completely blinded her and she kept trying to win high. That worked once in a while but… Overall? She lost quite a bit.
The only saving grace in all of this was that we didn’t really lose money. I wasn’t sure why they decided not to, though. But if we had actual money… Yeah, better not to think about that.

“Miss Fenna!”
“What is it?”

We were still in the middle of playing around when one of the other two women—both had volunteered with much vigor to keep watch over the cave entrance instead of playing—called out to Fenna all of a sudden.

“There seems to be some movement!”
“... You girls, we’ll end the games here today. Grab your things and get ready.”

Leaving those words behind, Fenna jumped up on her feet and rushed over to the woman who had called her.

“Ahhh, too bad. Time for work again…”

Sanna trotted after Fenna, seemingly sad that the game was being disrupted.

“Yumi.”
“Nn.”

We joined the others as well, taking a good look at what was going on.

“Nn? Those... are ropers, right?”
“Mh? Of course they are?”
“...”

At the entrance was a veritable mass of tentacles, peeking into the corridor with three large eyes, each around the size of my torso, maybe a bit larger even. What bothered me a little was the difference in appearance among them. The one we caught before was a single large eyeball embedded into a body of tentacles. But these were different… One had a limbless body made of flesh with the eye inside it and then the tentacles grew from this body. Another had the tentacles directly growing out from the large eye. Really creepy, if you asked me. The last one was similar to the one we first caught.

Is this difference in appearance normal? Fenna doesn’t look surprised at least...
“Three, huh. Let’s see what they are going to do.”

The three ropers extended their tentacles towards my tentacle growth, touching it cautiously. The tentacle growth didn’t really react to their approach, simply doing nothing in response.

“What are they doing?” asked Karen after a while.
“Nn, no idea. Maybe they’re cautious because of what happened to the other roper?”
“So, they’re trying to figure out if it’s dangerous?”
“Maybe.”

The three ropers kept standing there, their tentacles creeping along the area and feeling up the entire floor in front of them, as well as the walls.

“I’d appreciate it if they could hurry up, though. Wait, are they moving?”
“Nn… hard to make out from this distance but I think they’re moving a little forward?”

It was only a bit, though. They were by far not moving fast at all.

“But they’re moving. Then it’s only a matter of… huh?”
“They’re… moving towards the wall?”

The ropers were pressing themselves close to the wall. If they moved like that, there was no way they’d fall into the trap.

“Tsk, the heck is going on with these ropers? I’ve never seen or heard of ropers being cautious like that.”
“Fenna, what are we going to do now?”
“It’s only three ropers but… No, let’s watch for a little more. If they pass the trap completely, we’ll retreat. I don’t want to take any chances.”
“Nn, okay.”

So, we weren’t going to fight them, if they came to us. Seeing how they exhibited more intelligence than they should, Fenna probably didn’t want to take the chance that they were also stronger than expected.

“Nn? They... stopped?”
“They aren’t moving anymore?”
“Nn. They stopped right next to the pitfall.”

The three ropers were now surrounding the pitfall… Did they maybe notice it? No, they definitely noticed it, they were extending their tentacles towards it right now!

This… I got a bad feeling about this…

Whatever those ropers were intending to do, it wasn’t going to be anything good.
Alas, right before they touched the area around the pitfall… The tentacle growth stirred into motion, grabbing the ropers with its own tentacles.

“KIIIYYEEEEEEEE!!!”
“KYEEEE!!!
“KIIIIII—

Strange screams echoed in our ears as we watched one of the ropers collapsing. The other two ropers fled back into the cave, still screaming. All the while the tentacle growth dragged the collapsed one into the pitfall where it disappeared.
The whole thing ended just as fast as it had begun… Barely having taken a few seconds at most.

“”What in the blazes… Yumi, what happened there?”
“I… I don’t know. I have no idea...”

The whole thing happened way too fast… I had barely processed what the heck I had even seen.

“Did… Yumi, did those tentacles… defend themselves?”
“... That might be the case.”

They defended themselves?
That was…

“Whatever it is… It’s our chance now.”
“Chance?”

What did Fenna mean... Ah, she had drawn her weapon, same as the other two women whose name I still didn’t know.

“We’re going to take a look, if possible retrieve that roper and then we’re going to get the hell out of here.”

With those words, the three advanced with quick steps, not quite running but pretty close. We watched as they arrived at the tentacle growth, slowing down and peeking through the entrance, as well as at the pitfall. After a short moment, Fenna beckoned us to come over.

“Yumi, can you open that pitfall again?”
“Nn, one moment…”

The other two women kept looking into the cave, wary something might come over. Meanwhile, I opened the pitfall… The roper inside came into view.

“Dead again… Yumi, these things are quite ruthless, aren’t they?”
“Nn…”

Once again, the tentacles had pierced the roper’s fleshy body and killed it… Blood was oozing out from the wound.

“Anyway, Sanna, give me a bag. We’ll take this one with us and leave.”
“Yes, Miss Fenna.”

Having gotten a bag from Sanna, Fenna dragged the roper corpse out from the pitfall, not minding her hands getting dirtied.

“And there we go… I’ll carry this. Time to lea—”Miss Fenna!”

One of the women shouted all of a sudden. Everyone’s attention turned towards her… and the cave. Or rather, the lake.
Something was glowing in the lake. A blue hue was spreading out on the surface of the lake.

“Take cover! Behind the wall.”
“Eh? Woah?!”

Right after Fenna’s shout, someone grabbed my collar and pulled me towards the side of the entrance. Looking behind me, it was Sanna, who gave me a quick smile before she peeked around the corner into the cave.

“Miss Fenna, what is that?”
“No idea… Never heard of a glowing roper, though… We’ll take a quick look when it surfaces. After that… Get ready to run, are we clear?”
“Yes!”
“Understood”
“Eh? Ah. Nn…”

I peeked into the large cave hall, at the glowing spot on the lake.

“Eh? Fenna that… That thing is huge.”
“Yes, I can see it is huge. Huge and glowing.”
“No, no, not that… There’s… There’s a huge shadow around that light…”
“...”

Fenna stared at me in wonder.

“You had night vision, right... That doesn’t change what we’re going to do, though. It might be a bit dangerous, so I hope you’ll forgive me. But if it’s really that large… Ahhh...”

 

Before Fenna could finish the sentence, the glowing something began to surface. It wasn’t fast, or anything, it very slowly surfaced, causing some ripples on the water surface.

“Is that… a crystal?”
“A crystal with tentacles growing from it? No, a roper attached to it? Oh my…”

The creature continued to rise up from the water, steadily revealing its titanic body. A mountain of flesh and tentacles, large eyeballs covering it’s surface… and in the middle of it, a large glowing crystal. The crystal was probably larger than I was and yet it seemed so tiny on the large body.

“The nest mother, huh… That’s… a little bigger than I expected.”
“Fenna… shouldn’t we… run?”

I stared at the nest mother’s body… Honestly, I had no idea how large it was… I knew that in my old world some animals could become truly large but… This thing probably dwarfed all of them. It was so large that it blocked the entire view through the entrance now, and it kept getting larger as it tried to… to leave the lake?

“We’re leaving. Everyone, run!”
“Yumi!”
“Eh? Ah, Sis?!”

Right on Fenna’s command, everyone turned around and ran. Except for me… Karen grabbed me by the waist, hoisted me over her shoulder and carried me. Probably the smarter choice than having me run by myself… But… Ahhh, serious, beggars can’t be choosers, no need to complain with this timing.

As we ran, the entrance and the nest mother's body slowly faded into the distance. It didn’t seem to take up any intent of pursuing us… Then, it slowly extended a tentacle. A large tentacle, as thick as I was tall, if I had to guess. Then, it lifted the tentacle…

BOOM!

And smashed it into the ground.

“The heck was that?!”
“Don’t care, just run!”

I had no idea who even shouted that as I watched the tentacle rise yet another time…

BOOM!

The ground shook from the tremendous impact.

“It’s… It’s trying to destroy my tentacles?”

The ground it had hit was where the tentacle growth was. Or rather, had been, as it was now smashed and probably dead… The mana went into a turmoil over there from the massive creature, so I wasn’t able to see whether they had survived or not. But… there was no way they could have, right?

---

“Are we… safe?”
“... Who knows. First, is everyone here?”

Fenna took a look at everyone as we approached the exit of the cave to check if we hadn’t left anyone behind.

“Everyone accounted for. Good. Slow down, everyone!”

The bumpy ride finally came to an end. I was grateful for Karen carrying me the entire way back but I couldn’t call it a comfortable ride at all. I actually felt a little sick. Just a little.

“Miss Fenna. What was that?” asked Karen.
“Who knows? I sure don’t. We’ll report back what we saw and then we’re done with our job.”

Done with our job… We were here for reconnaissance and for the roper corpses. We achieved both, somehow.

“Although, to be honest, I’d love to know what that was too. We can only hope Ria or someone from the Academy has an idea. Never seen a crystal like that before either… Yumi, Karen, was that a mana crystal?”
“A mana crystal… I don’t think so.”
“Nn… It might have been something similar, though.”

For one, I had never heard or seen a glowing mana crystal like that. Not saying they couldn’t exist or so. Maybe they were glowing at that size. But… The crystal released only a small amount of mana. That mana wasn’t even close to the amount it probably should release at that size. Unless the mana crystal had such an enormous amount, it was still leaking that much when they attempted to hide their mana.

“Similar… Maybe it’s the cause of why the ropers are here.”
“The… cause?”
“Yes. Remember what I said before? This is an artificially created place that the Academy was studying. Maybe some idiot fucked up and lured in those ropers? Or some ropers stumbled upon that crystal and grew like that? There are many possibilities. Although they all come back to one thing: That thing isn’t something we want to fight with so few.”
“With so few… You mean, you could fight something that large with more people?”

That creature didn’t seem like it was something humans should ever challenge in their entire lifetime.

“Mm… It depends but if I had to guess… If the Captain mobilised the whole band, we might be able to subjugate it. Although, I don’t think without casualties.”
“...”
“In other words, the Captain is unlikely going to accept the job to subjugate, unless they offer a fortune. We did our job, the rest is the country’s problem. That’s my take, at least.”

The country’s problem… They’d have to dispatch the army for that kind of thing, won’t they?

“Anyway, let’s get back to the others. Even if it doesn’t look like it wants to pursue us, I want to get out of here rather sooner than later.”

Fenna turned back around and walked towards the exit of the cave. We had actually run the entire way up to here, huh…
A few minutes later, the setting sun was greeting us once more, together with the other women from Fenna’s squad.

“Miss Fenna! You are safe!”
“Ohh, I am. Did something happen?”
“We heard a tremor from the cave. We were preparing right now to look for you all.”
“Ahh, sorry about that. We’re safe and all right.”
“That’s a relief.”

The other women also seemed relieved that we returned. All of them were carrying their equipment already. If we had taken a little longer, we might have run into them inside the cave. Although, somehow a few of them threw some glances towards me and Karen. Wonder why?

“But it’s good that you already prepared to move out. Because we’re going to return.”
“Now?”
“Now.”
“... Understood.”

Hearing what Fenna had said, all the women suddenly returned to the camp in a hurry, probably to pack up everything.

“Fenna, we’re going to return now? Even though it’s dark already?”
“We are. You mentioned it yourself, didn’t you? That the ropers might hunt during the night. And if that huge thing comes out when we are sleeping, we’ll be in major trouble.”
“I… That’s true…”

Honestly, whether that thing could even leave that cave with its size was questionable. But the ropers had proven to be quite smart somehow. If it was similarly as smart, or maybe even smarter… It wouldn’t be weird for it to find a way to get out of there. Worst case, it might force its way out.

“Well, it’ll be a good experience for you, trekking through the night.”
“... I don’t think that’s an experience I want all that much.”
“Ah, don’t worry about it too much. The worst part isn’t the trek through the night but the lack of sleep.”
Thank you for making it even worse…

Awesome. Who wouldn’t want to skip out on their good night’s sleep in favor of a trek through the dark? I sure didn’t.
But it probably wouldn’t be the last time this was going to happen, judging from her words… 

“Just collect your things and get ready to move out for now.”
“Nn, understood.”
“Understood.”
“Also, when are you going to come down from there, Yumi?”
“... Ah.”

Right, Karen was still carrying me. That explained the odd glances earlier. And why my point of view was so strange.

“Sis.”
“One moment.... Okay, can you get down from here?”
“Nn.”

Karen squatted down and let me off her shoulder.

“Now, go and get ready.”
“Yes.”
“Nn.”

And so, Karen and I walked back to the camp.
There actually wasn’t much for us to do, since we already carried all our possessions with us. Instead, we helped the others with taking the tents and everything else.

It took a while until everything was stowed away. The sun was nearly gone by now and we had only the little light from the lamp left.

“Okay, everyone. We finished our job so we’ll return now. Be careful during the trek through the forest. Remember, don’t lose sight of the person right in front of you. If you can’t see us anymore, stay where you are and light a lamp or fire. Don’t shout or you’ll attract monsters. Everything clear?”
“””Yes, Miss Fenna!”””
“Good! It’s time to return!”
“””Ohhhhh!!!”””

Fenna let out a sigh and regarded them with a wry smile as she watched them shouting in unison. Right after she told them not to shout.

“Now then, let’s go!”
“””Ohhhh!!!”
“You all…”

Seeing that they would just reply with another shout if she said something, Fenna just shook her head and took the lead.

And like that, the end of our little reconnaissance mission came.