“This feels quite different from usual, doesn’t it?”

Tina muttered as we continued through the valley.

“It does?”

“I have come here a few times before. But it’s way too quiet now.”

“Maybe it’s because the slimes killed so many monsters? There were more monsters in here than there were in the forest.”

I had sent the Proud Wolf ahead to ensure that it was safe. And they had killed all the monsters nearby while they were at it.

And there were more here than in the forest.

No strong monster had appeared yet, but I assumed that there would still be some weaker ones.

And yet…

“Is that true? There were more here than in the forest?”

“Yeah. At least, within the area that the slimes were scouting in. Not that it was that much more than in the forest.”

“That’s strange… There are usually much fewer monsters in the Delight Valley… Yuji. Could you stop killing monsters for a little while?”

“Sure.”

So saying, I sent the order to the slimes and the Proud Wolf.

‘Stop for now and come back to us. I want to see something.’

‘Okay!’

‘Understood!’

And so they returned to us.

After a short while, monsters started to appear in front of us little by little.

“Woah, that’s a lot…”

“It’s just like the forest. This is strange…”

Tina and Lisa muttered to each other as they watched.

According to them, the Delight Valley was under unusual conditions.

“Should we turn back and go by a different route?”

“No, that will be very difficult. It seems that the dragon is staying near the entrance of the valley. It’ll be too dangerous to go back unless it moves.”

“…What a terrible position to take… In that case, there is only one thing we can do.”

“Yes?”

“Rush through the Delight Valley as quickly as possible and pray that nothing happens!”

…That wasn’t much of a plan.

Well, it wasn’t like I had an alternative.

“Understood!”

“Got it!”

However…it did not take long for a problem to occur.

‘Yuji! A monster!’

‘It looks stronger than the last one!’

A slime said as it looked towards the monster.

It looked like a Red Bear.

It was not…difficult to kill. I think it was considered to be C-Rank back at the guild.

But according to the guild’s information, the Delight Valley wasn’t supposed to have monsters over C-Rank.

…Maybe I should just check.

And so I used the slime to launch an attack.

‘Magic Transfer-Fireball!’

I chanted. Then a Fireball shot towards the Red Bear and burned it.

Apparently, I could kill it in one hit.

‘Fireball’ used a lot more MP than ‘Weak Fireball,’ but the damage was so much stronger.

‘Now bring the monster you just killed over here.’

‘Understood!’

And so the Proud Wolf and slimes dragged the body back to us.

I pointed at it and asked Tina.

“Is this monster really C-Rank then?”

Tina looked at the bear-like corpse.

She replied immediately.

“A C-Rank Red Bear, huh. …Did you kill it in this valley?”

“Yeah.”

Tina had said that stronger monsters didn’t come here because it was uncomfortable for them.

A C-Rank and above had not entered the valley for 100 years, so it must have been quite bad.

However, it wasn’t as if there were an actual barrier that kept them out.

If they had a good enough reason to, strong monsters could still enter.

The problem was figuring out the reason…maybe it was related to why the sky suddenly became strangely dark.

As I thought about this…I heard the voice of the slimes.

‘Yuji!’

‘The Earth Dragon is here!’

…Are you serious?

We had searched for it all this time, and then it suddenly appeared here.

And it was the worst possible place. The Earth Dragon seemed to be rushing straight towards us now.

Of course, the entrance was still being blocked by the mystery dragon.

…We had no choice but to fight.