The quest that Kagami received from the Guild was to subjugate 30 Blue Devils in the dungeon called,【The Ancient Cave】.

Many monsters could be found in the area surrounding the Dungeon, but the stronger ones were located inside. This was because the monsters outside were born naturally, while the monsters inside were formed through the Dungeon’s miasma.

In other words, their strength was determined by the Dungeon’s miasma.

The Dungeon would continue creating monsters even after reaching full capacity, causing some of the monsters to leave the Dungeon.

This was the reason why the Imperial City had issued this quest.

It was possible that one would encounter Blue Devils in the forest, on the way to the Ancient Cave.

If that happened, it would be extremely dangerous for Peddlers.

The Ancient Cave was a dungeon with a high risk of death for any party without at least four Level 70 Adventurers. Blue Devils normally stayed in the Dungeon, but if even one of them were to leave the Dungeon, it would become dangerous enough that low level Adventurers get chills simply from understanding why the quest had been issued.

“One Blue Devil drops 34 silver..so 30 of them means a total of 1020 silver. Completing the quest is 1 gold huh..easy money! I say today will be cake..no, crab! This Kagami has chosen crab today.”

However, this was only good news for Kagami. He wasn’t satisfied with just cake and had wanted to try eating crab. For Kagami, Blue Devils were as threatening as a dog and about as dangerous as Green Slimes would be for Warriors. Not only were they at the level of a dog, they were as threatening as a small dog like a Pomeranian.

“Gigiiiieeegyaaaaaa!”?(Xant: we’re approaching black knight sfx here)

So, with the strong desire to fill up his piggy bank, Kagami hunted the Blue Devils. Even though normal people wouldn’t want to encounter them, Kagami had degraded himself to the point that he hoped that they would appear quickly. Regardless of this fact, Kagami showed the true difference in ability between him and the Blue Devils.

When the Blue Devils appeared, they would screech in a voice that made one’s hair stand on end. It was normal to see Kagami change directions and head towards the agonizing screams.

“Th-this is a r-rare drop! If I sell it, it would go for 700 silver..it’s decided, Black Beef it is.”

When monsters were killed, they could drop items in addition to gold. They were popularly named as Drop Items. These monster-specific items, often known as Rare Drops, scarcely turned up.

“A Blue Devil’s horn? Even though it looks like this, it’s surprisingly valuable, huh?”

As Kagami muttered, he confirmed the amount that had been automatically added to the quest form.

“15 remaining..? Although it’s easy to defeat them, finding them is such a pain.”

Kagami grumbled as he walked inside the Dungeon, which looked like gloomy ruins formed from earth and rubble.

Kagami could not find any more Blue Devils, to the extent that his surroundings became completely silent. He looked at the inside of the Dungeon with irritation as he took a piss and yawned.

As he walked towards the end of a passage, Kagami saw a person’s silhouette squirming around. The people who visited this Dungeon were rarely in danger. Unless they were a reckless idiot, they would usually be a powerful person, like Kagami.

Speaking of a person’s figure, the only monsters inside this Dungeon that appeared similar to humans would be the Blue Devils.

“The possibility of a group of Blue Devils being here is 99.999%, ooooh!”

Kagami raised his tension and approached the prey that had finally appeared with a dash. As he neared it, he saw the dim shadow of a human come into focus.

The instant he saw the blond hair of the figure in the vanguard, Kagami de-accelerated and swerved to the side of the pathway, wearing an expression that said it was the end of the world.

“A party of heroes?..heroes aren’t really that amazing..it feels about as noteworthy as seeing dog food on the side of the road.”

Kagami began to search the Dungeon while he felt embarrassed for having been in such high spirits. It was better not to wonder about why this party of Heroes had come to the Ancient Cave.

“Umm..hero-sama, didn’t something approach at a tremendous speed a little while ago?”

The female Monk with peagreen pigtails asked the Hero.

“Hmm? Ah, it was probably the monster that we were scared of and ran away from.”

“Is..that so?”

The Hero said, while holding a Blue Devil scale in one hand. It was a Drop Item that he had obtained through defeating the Blue Devils earlier. He did not need to worry about anything, in contrast to the girl Monk, who worried about the shadow that had disappeared.

“Even so, Rex..was it? Not bad. It’s my first time being able to defeat Blue Devils this easily.”

“Of course, after all, I am a Hero aren’t I? Even if that wasn’t the case, Blue Devils can be easily defeated as long as we have three strong people.”

The glamorous Magician with beautiful, wavy indigo hair said to Rex, impressed, and the blond Hero responded.

“Fighting an opponent of this caliber is a waste of time. Our goal is to defeat the Demon King and bring peace to this world.”

The dignified woman who had made a speech in the Square asserted coldly, as she forced her way in between the Hero and the long, indigo haired woman.

“Oooh, if it isn’t the enthusiastic princess. You had such a different atmosphere a little while ago.”

“Please stop addressing me that way. Right now, we are equal as comrades. I’m no different from a common warrior. As I mentioned earlier, my birthday is in October, and please call me Krul Hexal Doria.

“Since that’s too long, I’ll call you Kuu-chan. It’s fine to call me Palna, without honorifics.”

The tiresome female Magician called herself Palna Viole. For some unknown reason, Krul’s cold expression vanished and she mumbled “..Kuu-chan” while looking slightly happy.

“U-um! Is it also fine if I call you Krul-san? Of course, it doesn’t matter if you don’t use honorifics with me, Tina!”

The female Monk, Tina Beerus, bashfully suggested to Krul as her cheeks flushed red. Krul again nodded her head willingly, as her face lit up with an unhindered smile.

“Yea, this side of Kuu-chan is definitely cute. You should relax more.”

“I-I can’t do such a thing! Since my childhood, my father has been preparing me to subdue the Demon King! This trip isn’t something to enjoy!”

Krul said as she puffed her cheeks and looked away from Palna.

“U-Um..Krul-san, why has your goal been to defeat the Demon King since your childhood?”

When she saw how Krul acted, Tina asked an unexpected question.

Wearing an expression that made it seem as if she had been entrusted with an important mission, Krul slowly opened her mouth to speak.

“Long ago..there were no less than 196 countries. Now, after the appearance of monsters and the Demon King in Clear Earth, only three countries remain. Hexal Doria was once one part of a country called Japan. Do you understand what that means?”

“The size of the areas where people live in have shrunk.”

Krul asked Palna with a strained expression. The subject was common knowledge to all humans and Palna easily answered.

“That’s exactly right. It’s all because of the Demon King, who robbed us of our place to live with his monsters. We have to take it back..we shouldn’t have to live in a world where we are afraid of monsters! It might be surprising but..this was a world that originally didn’t have monsters.”

Krul, who had trained and studied to defeat the Demon King while growing up in the Royal Palace, appeared to know a little about the history of the world. Palna put on an unpleasant smile as her intuition as an older sister told her that this trip would be enjoyable.

“Well, even though I understand that, why is our first destination this Dungeon? Isn’t this in the exact opposite direction of where the Demon King lives?”

“Ah, I know that.”

Rex mentioned this to Palna and Tina, who had glanced at him and asked the question they had been thinking.

Then Rex, who had been examining the wall inside of the Dungeon, glanced at Palna and beckoned her to come over and take a look at the wall.

“Look at this.”

As Rex said so, he pointed to a pattern that emitted a faint, pale orange light inside the dimly lit Dungeon. The pattern was completely covered in dense moss due to the Dungeon having been formed from earth and rubble. Although it would have just been seen as mysterious if there weren’t any monsters, the presence of Blue Devils, which were high level monsters, only made the location induce fear.

“Is there something wrong with this pattern?”

Tina asked, unable to understand the difference between the pattern that Rex pointed at and the other patterns.

“There is a hidden room inside this Dungeon that only the Royal Family knows about. Following this pattern’s path will lead to that place.

When Rex said so, Tina checked the pattern a second time. It did seem to be leading somewhere, and the path that they had passed through until now had been marked with dots.

“Hee, this Dungeon has such a trick. Is there something over there?”

“Something a Hero can only equip if they are over Level 90..a Holy Sword is resting there. Until now, no one has obtained it..there’s no doubt that it’s the strongest weapon.”

Although Palna had thought that something might be there, it was unexpectedly something very important, to the point that she felt a little anxious.

“You say no Hero has obtained it until now..why has the Royal Family been so stingy with such a great weapon? Wouldn’t we have defeated the Demon King if we had it?”

Rex gave a wry smile when he heard the question.

“As you know, although the Role that’s called Hero is rare, it doesn’t mean that only one of them exists. It had probably been left behind for a Hero that came from the Royal Family’s lineage. Maybe they were worried that this Hero would be killed by the Demon King and become unable to continue the Royal line.”

“Well then, why does Rex know this information?”

“I didn’t say? It’s because Krul is this country’s princess. The King didn’t want his cute daughter to be killed, so he graciously taught me.”

Krul wanted to say, “that’s right,” in response to Rex, but decided to only nod instead.

“The subjugation of the Demon King will finally happen this time. A party with Heroes and Sages..why don’t we complete it with the legendary weapon? Nobody had managed to defeat him before because the party hadn’t been completed!”

Regardless of whether or not he believed that he could defeat the Demon King, Rex smiled fearlessly and headed towards the path that was marked by the pattern floating on the wall of the Dungeon.

Krul followed the Hero without a moment’s delay.

“We might have joined a really amazing party, right Palna-san?”

Tina slightly panicked as she thought that the possibility of them subduing the Demon King was higher than they had thought.

“Well, it seems like it will become an interesting trip from here on out. Fufu..let’s enjoy it.”

Palna, who had confirmed that this party would be more interesting than she had imagined, chased after Rex and walked up next to him while smiling.

“Which reminds me, Rex, although everyone decided their nicknames earlier, is it fine to just call you Rex? To begin with, what’s your full name?”

“My name is Rex..just Rex.”

Rex responded and walked toward the end of the passage, as if dodging the question. He did not care about nicknames. The most important thing was to subdue the Demon King so he could get fame and status. While repeating that to himself in his mind, Rex Chickyboy?(レックス?チクビボーイ)?headed towards the room with the Holy Sword.