Chapter 4 – Demon King Pursuit Squad (2)

Things proceeded smoothly.

All the necessary items were already in the worn space expansion bag tied around my waist.

Besides, those items were practically worthless compared to the space expansion bag itself.

All I had to do was move.

I briefly greeted the party members I was meeting for the first time and headed towards the dungeon entrance where the Demon King had been.

They were just passing acquaintances. I could take my time to assess the skills and tendencies of the party members.

Even if there were problematic people mixed in the party, the higher-ups wouldn’t replace them, so I had no choice but to give up and adapt.

After years of skirmishing with skeletons, there weren’t many normal ones left anyway.

Past the command tent, the dungeon entrance I saw looked like ancient ruins rather than the castle where the Demon King had been.

Stairs leading underground in ruined ruins.

The stairs descending into the dark space were no different from dungeon entrances I’d seen in games in my past life.

The only difference was the lack of healthy vegetation or weeds around the ruins due to the aura of death spread by the Demon King.

I sighed as I looked down the stairs disappearing into darkness.

As always, I had strangely bad luck.

Basically, being reborn in this fantasy world was a problem to begin with.

No, this might have been a problem because I remembered my past life…

Still, fortunately, although I wasn’t born first, I at least became a free knight thanks to being born into a knight family.

Of course, I barely managed to become a free knight, then the Demon King appeared and I spent years clashing with skeletons.

Indeed… I had bad luck.

Or rather, considering I survived even in bad situations, maybe I was resilient to misfortune.

Come to think of it, I ended up standing in front of the Demon King’s dungeon like this, but since the Demon King isn’t here now, this could also be good luck in misfortune.

In the end, I could only smile bitterly as I looked into the darkness.

“Shall we get going too?”

The long-eared man who joined our party.

Called a child of the sacred tree, the man who looked exactly like an elf from movies in my past life spoke to me and the party members.

Looking around at his words, the other advance parties had already disappeared into the stairs.

It was our turn, the last selected group, to enter.

We started descending the stairs following the words of the long-eared man, the elf.

I didn’t want to, but I had no choice but to follow since the higher-ups had made the elves party leaders.

It was understandable that the elves, who came from another world, became leaders of the advance party going to yet another world.

However, since I hadn’t seen their skills, I couldn’t help but worry.

As we descended the darkening stairs underground in the ruins, I imagined the other world we were going to.

The dimensional gate, colloquially called a gate, that the Demon King had opened years ago connecting this place to another dimension was linked to the world of the elf leading us down the stairs now.

Because of that, the elf world was thrown into chaos, and eventually the elves chased the Demon King and crossed over to our world.

Since it was connected to the elf world last time, would it be connected to the world of dwarves living underground this time?

Or it might be connected to a place where beast-people live, which people with unique tastes like.

But regardless of who lived there, since the Demon King had crossed over, that world would surely be in ruins already.

Our world managed to hold out for years fighting thanks to holy water and priests, the antithesis of the death aura called miasma and cheat key, as well as knights with mana,

But the elf world that was breached by the Demon King first seemed to have turned into hell except for cities with sacred trees.

It had changed that much just from the Demon King’s subordinates and miasma, even though the Demon King himself hadn’t crossed over.

I heard that their world might have perished if not for the sacred trees protecting the cities.

In fact, the reason the elves came to this world en masse was to find a way to restore their world to its original state.

It seems various negotiations took place between the elves and the imperial court regarding priests and holy water,

In the end, that’s how they ended up going with us.

Perhaps because of that, although it didn’t show on their faces, the elves’ anger towards the Demon King seemed no less than ours.

In the end, no matter which world it was, the world we were going to now was unlikely to be intact.

There was no way holy water and priests who directly receive divine power would be common, and it didn’t seem like a world that could fend off a Demon King who raises the dead.

But another world…

Wait a minute.

“Is it okay to go to another world without any preparation like this?”

A party member walking ahead turned to look at me at my muttered question.

“Huh? What do you mean?”

The party member wore worn leather armor with a short sword at his waist and a crossbow on his back.

He was a mountain soldier in his late 30s, a ranger exuding experience.

Seeing the faint light in his eyes, it seemed he could sense mana, albeit weakly.

A ranger in worn clothes with mana.

I was lucky. Unlike the elf, this party member seemed quite helpful.

After mentally pressing a reassurance button, I answered his question.

“When you leave home and go on a long expedition, you get endemic diseases. We’re going to a completely different world, not just a different region, so this seems like it could be a problem…”

In fact, it wasn’t just endemic diseases, but unknown viruses, bacteria, and all microorganisms that were problematic.

“You have a point. I remember quite a few soldiers getting sick when we went on distant operations before… But shouldn’t we be fine this time?”

He patted the backpack he was carrying along with the crossbow on his back.

I looked at the backpack and understood what he meant.

Like the holy water in the space expansion bag on my waist, there would be holy water in that backpack too.

Unlike knights and mages with mana, the reason soldiers without mana could fight alongside knights was all thanks to holy water, priests, and clergy.

In fact, since priests and clergy were rarely seen around, it was all thanks to holy water when you think about it.

Holy water wasn’t considered very important before the Demon King appeared, but its importance was clearly revealed in this war.

The ability of priests and clergy to block miasma and return undead back to soil.

Holy water couldn’t exert that level of power, but as long as the effects of holy water lasted, you didn’t have to worry about becoming undead yourself.

That alone was enough for soldiers to be able to fight.

Even knights and mages with mana needed holy water.

Having mana didn’t mean you were completely unaffected by miasma.

Thanks to that, I also had as much holy water as possible stored in my bag.

Of course, the reason I stocked up on holy water was to sell it off after the war ended.

Ordinary people suffered from miasma too, after all.

Moreover, holy water strangely had an effect on common illnesses like colds.

It was puzzling that holy water that blocked evil energy also prevented viral diseases like colds,

But this was a world where gods existed anyway.

The colds in this world might be caused by evil gods’ energy instead of viruses.

Anyway, for those reasons, in this world you could prevent endemic diseases, colds, and various infectious diseases with just holy water.

The only problem was that the holy water was annoyingly expensive.

In fact, if it weren’t for the war, I would have rarely seen holy water myself.

Of course, I also heard that all the clergy and priests under the archbishop were coughing up blood to supply holy water for the war, so I couldn’t really complain about the price.

Well, if holy water or clergy prayers were cheaper and more commonly available, all the infectious diseases in this world would have disappeared.

I reached into the space expansion pouch to check the holy water inside again.

Dozens of bottles of holy water appearing in my mind. Seeing the ample holy water was quite reassuring.

As the ranger said, with holy water we probably wouldn’t end up like the Indians from my past life who were wiped out by epidemics.

Putting aside the holy water, the mood of the advance party heading to another world wasn’t bad.

Like the other teams that went down first, the members of our team walking in front of me didn’t seem like an advance party chasing the Demon King to another world.

The ranger in front of me was like that, and so were the other team members.

The middle-aged mage descending the stairs in front of the ranger looked more like a scholar on a ruin expedition than part of an advance party.

“No matter how I look at it, this seems like ruins from the 3rd civilization. Why did the Demon King use these ruins?”

He swept the stairs with magic, raised a light source to examine the walls and ceiling.

“It wasn’t used as-is, it’s definitely been modified. And it doesn’t seem like it was modified just for expansion. It doesn’t look like undead did the work either…”

He stopped walking several times on the way down and kept muttering.

Because of that, our group had to stop multiple times.

The mage apologized to us each time, but didn’t stop examining the surroundings.

Judging by the staff in his hand and the ring he was wearing, he seemed to be an experienced battle mage, but his current behavior was like that of a research-obsessed professor I’d seen in my past life.

Thinking back, he seemed like someone I shouldn’t get close to…

But he was already a decided party member, and I couldn’t choose a battle mage, the core of firepower, separately myself.

I could only sigh inwardly and keep walking.

It seemed I had to return the party score I’d raised after seeing the ranger back to its original state.

Moreover, I couldn’t tell what the elf walking in the lead was thinking with his expressionless face,

And the knight in flashy armor following behind him looked like a young nobleman out for a pleasure trip.

No, that might actually be true.

Seeing the light in his eyes, his mana seemed more profound than mine, but looking at his movements, he didn’t seem to have much real combat experience.

Moreover, that sparkling armor.

Surely he hadn’t regenerated broken armor with restoration magic? That would be really great if so…

But that was an unlikely story.

In the end, there was a high chance he’d need babysitting.

Still, he seemed to have proper mana, so he could be used as a tank by placing him as a wall even in the worst situation.

I had such thoughts, but the scale tipped slightly downwards nonetheless.

So the elf in the lead, then the mountain soldier and middle-aged mage walking in front of me, and finally the knight in flashy armor.

These five were the members of the last advance party I belonged to.

All the party members were moving leisurely, unlike an advance party.

The dungeon we were descending into was where the Demon King had been,

And the place we were going was another dimensional world the Demon King had fled to,

But in the end, the Demon King was no longer in this dungeon, and that other world had already been confirmed by the heroes.

Moreover, an elf from yet another world was going with us, so everyone must have been less worried.

It seemed everyone had become lax after the Demon King lost to the hero and fled.

To be honest, I was no different.

My head was also full of thoughts of being discharged. So I was just depressed about being dragged off to another world like this.

And so we continued descending underground.

The surrounding environment kept changing as we went deeper underground.

There were traces of battles all over the dungeon walls and floor, and remains of monsters and undead could be seen around,

But this dungeon was already cleared of undead after the Demon King had fled.

Honestly, I didn’t pay much attention.

After descending like that, we finally entered the underground hall with a large altar, the boss room where the Demon King had been.

Instead of offerings to the evil god, a shimmering translucent door was in place on the altar in the center of the underground hall.

That door was the gate, the dimensional door.