Academy Slave Instructor

40 – The Cap Opener

The Cap Opener

“Okay then, since we’ve rested enough, let’s go.”

Moura, who had been told that the goal was the 40th floor, looked at her strangely as Rai approached the wall as he started off.

– Kwaaang!

Moura’s party froze with her mouth wide open as the wall was shattered with a simple kick as if kicking someone passing by.

“Are there any spells I haven’t taught you yet? I’m not good at that.”

“Don’t blame others, blame your poor magic skills~”

Aslan takes it for granted and goes over the wall with Lai.

“As expected, advanced adventurers are different…”

“A kick like that would rip a hole in my stomach…”

Kalan and Michelle mutter as if talking to themselves. Realizing that she was making that face, Cindy follows Rai and tells Zero Agham Moura to go.

The party arrived at the stairs that would have taken several hours to reach even if they followed the map, and drove their momentum to reach the 40th floor in no time.

When Sierra and Moura look disgusted at the absurd progress, Rai says that he is tired.

“Oh, it took so long.”

“It’s good that Moura’s party has a map. That’s thanks.”

Cindy thanks her, but Moura’s party laughs awkwardly.

“I’m afraid to ask… But, by any chance, where is the porter for the party?”

Moura expressed her disapproval at Cindy’s question, and Michelle said with an angry expression.

“Godrian, that son of a b*tch has abandoned us and fled. If caught, we will kill him.”

“Did he run away?”

“Yeah, that bastard was almost killed by the chimera, but Sierra threw her body to save her, but you ungrateful bastard.”

“Thanks to that, we’re broke.”

Kalan says with a teary face. An adventurer who leaves most of his belongings with a courier in order to focus on battle will have few items in his possession when the courier runs away.

Moura’s party, which only had medicines or canteens, lost all useful items to use in the dungeon. Among them, there was an item that I had been saving for just in case, so I suffered a huge loss.

It doesn’t matter now that Rai is there, but if she was originally, even if she survived the Chimera, she would have to worry about how she would return.

At the betrayal of Godrian, her co-porter, Cindy turns into a puzzled face.

“Godrian’s son is a problem, Cindy doesn’t have to look like that. He survived because of it.”

Michelle notices her mood and strokes her hair, but Cindy’s expression doesn’t ease.

“Still, I have to say something to Kraosa-san, who recommended that guy.”

“Did Mr. Craosa know? No one knows which one will run away. Godrian has a good reputation. That’s until today.”

“I have to be alive until today. How can a porter get out of a dungeon by himself?”

Listening to the conversation between Kaylan and Michelle, Cindy recalls what Rai said and thinks about the structural problems of the adventurer society.

In the meantime, Rai, who has figured out the 40th floor by looking at the surrounding map, calls the party together.

“We’re here to get paniacs.”

“Come to think of it, I heard that a paniac is coming out from the lid opener these days.”

“What is a cap opener?”

“It’s a bird-shaped monster. Its original name is Tatarachi, but it’s a nickname given to it because it pecked its head with its beak.”

When Cindy answered, Aslan nodded her head and said, “I’m sorry.” Calen sees Aslan, who has no tension but has the skills to do so, and asks him.

“What is your grade?”

“Is it E3? It must be first grade anyway. I became an adventurer yesterday.”

“It’s E1 now. Mr. Rat Slayer.”

“Oh, really. I told you not to call me by that nickname.”

Since they are in a dungeon, Mouras who don’t know what’s going on in the guild only blink.

It’s not common, but there are adventurers with good skills but low grades due to poor performance. However, I became an adventurer yesterday and I can’t understand how E1 is.

Kalan remembers how he first started working as an adventurer and reached E1 rank in three months.

‘Is that physically possible?’

If you have a low grade, the number of quests you can receive is limited, so no matter how good your skills are, it will take time. Even if you go through the ridiculous process of processing one request per hour, it is impossible to become E1 in one day.

Of course, these people aren’t the type to brag, so I wouldn’t be lying.

Moura’s party, which doesn’t make sense, looks at her Cindy, who seems normal to her, and she nods her head and says yes.

“Anyway, we’re going to grab the lid opener and collect the paniacs. Michelle, please find the monster.”

“Yes? I don’t know the smell of that lid opener.”

The reason Rai brought Moura’s party is to increase the number of people she will collect, but the biggest reason is Michelle. Being a beast-person, she has a far superior sense of smell than humans, allowing her to distinguish monsters by her scent.

“Yes, I’ll catch one, so just remember it.”

Seeing Rai say she doesn’t care, Michelle awkwardly replies that she knew.

“The rest of you can gather together with Cindy. Zeroa and Aslan, let’s stick together with the lid opener and concentrate on escorting and guarding the surroundings.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

After hearing the two people’s answers, Rai puts a missing child prevention tag on Zeroa’s wrist and takes her to the wall.

“Didn’t you say you can pass through walls? Let’s change the technique.”

Ray, who has passed a thread through the wall, analyzes the mana in the dungeon by drawing complex shapes with mana on the wall. She doesn’t know what she’s doing so Calen and Michelle look at Cindy, but she shrugs her shoulders and says she doesn’t know.

“I…”

“Oh, you said pure mage? I’m trying to find the mana wave. Can you help me?”

“I-I dare to…”

Sierra, who has come to ask if it’s okay to look at her from the side, looks embarrassed when Rai asks her to help.

“Why? It’s good to have a lot of people.”

Sierra, nodding her head at Rai’s smile, sticks by his side to help. In fact, rather than helping her, she gave permission to watch from her side, so she looked closely at Rai’s spell with a happy expression on her face.

Seeing Sierra’s location, which is strangely close to Rai, Cindy recalls Aslan’s words and looks at him with suspicious eyes.

After adjusting the formula for a while, Lai creates a thread that does not pass through the wall and gives Zeroa a high-five with both hands. And Sierra raises both of her hands in an awkward gesture toward him who immediately follows him.

After giving her a high-five with her pairing sound, Rai creates a magic circle with her spell drawn on it.

“It’s just a magic spell.”

“Yes? Are you giving this to me?”

“I made it together. I can only use it here.”

Each dungeon has a different pattern, so it can only be used in the dungeons in Legandia, but that alone was worth a lot. Besides, Sierra is a pure mage, so if her skills improve and she can analyze dungeon patterns, she can use it elsewhere.

Sierra, who was watching Rai just handing over a great formula, hurriedly copied the formula when he urged her to accept it quickly.

Not only did she save her life, but she also received a valuable gift from her. Seeing Rai with admiration in her eyes, Cindy’s eyes grew thinner as she watched the scene.

“Then wait a minute.”

Lai, who was linked with Zeroa, said so and disappeared into the darkness.

Wait a minute must have been true. When Moura had nothing to do and was about to sit down, Rai came back dragging the knocked out cap opener.

In front of Moura, who has stopped in a hesitant posture, hold on to the long neck of the lid opener and drag the rai tossed as it is, and tells Aslan and Zeroa.

“Fight.”

Rye doesn’t even give her time to prepare and uses her magic to forcefully wake the lid opener.

“Kiaaa!!!”

The cap opener, which stood up with a deafening sound, had two elongated legs and a neck, three times the size of a normal person. The lid opener, looking around at the people and coming to his senses, pecked at the beak right away.

Athran and Zeroa rush in between Moura’s party and fight the lid opener.

It seemed like he struggled a little because he was not used to the attack from above with his beak, but Asran cut off the beak coming down to peck at the head with the back of his hand, then pulled the back neck of the cap opener to the ground and pressed his head with his foot.

“Search.”

Asran, who decapitated the lid opener with a terrifying voice, looks at the frightened Mouras while wiping the blood that splattered on his face.

I’ve felt it since Chimera, but he has a rough and brutal fighting style. With sharp eyes that make it hard to meet his gaze and even blood on his face, Aslan’s appearance is bloody.

“Someone wants to kill me.”

Rai, who stabbed Aslan in the back, bruises him.

“If you kill it, it will be absorbed into the dungeon right away. I need to collect the material attached to my back, but what if I kill it?”

“Oh, yes? Then you should have told me earlier.”

Ray, who treats Aslan, who looks scared, like a child, sees Moura’s party gathered in a corner and crushed.

“Everyone knows how to collect it, right? Then I’ll ask you. Michelle remember the smell and go with me.”

“Yes!”

“Do your escort duty well. Don’t be idle.”

“I’ll do well on my own, so go and come.”

As a disciplined Michelle follows Rai, Cindy and Moura’s party quickly run to the dead lid opener. You need to get as many materials as possible before the dungeon absorbs the corpses.

The material that comes out of the lid opener itself is not particularly popular. At least the beak is a bit pricey, but the rest of the parts are so useless that you don’t care if you catch them.

However, there is one peculiarity of the lid opener, and a plant grows on its back. Plants are formed on the back like a small garden on the hard shoulder blades like a tortoise.

Most of them are useless grasses, but there are cases where rare herbs or plants grow, and the flora that grow under the influence of dungeons or the surrounding environment change enormously. Because of that characteristic, they often hunt to collect plants on their backs rather than the cap opener itself.

Paniac is a moss-like plant that is very sensitive and will die immediately if not carefully harvested.

Moura has not only paniacs, but also various plants growing on the back of the lid opener, so if you collect all of them, you can get a good share. Is dragged, thrown, and then disappears again.

“What should I do if a lot of this piles up and then wakes up all at once?”

At Calen’s question, Moura shut her mouth.

If you pile up at this rate, there might be dozens of them. No matter how well Zeroa and Aslan fought, the two of them couldn’t stop dozens of them at once.

After imagining her head being ripped off by a cap opener, Moura’s hand picks up faster without a word. The other three also ignore the other plants and focus on collecting Paniakga, and the cap opener disappears after Aslan executes it.

Somehow, when her life is at stake, Moura’s party shows a high degree of concentration, but the number of lid openers Rai brings does not decrease. She has caught dozens of rais, probably intending to dry Aye, and Michelle, as if exhausted, is being carried on his back.

After working hard for several hours to make their hands swollen, the Mouras barely catch their breath when Lai says he is tired and wants to rest for a while.

“Why are you making that face when you’ve been carried all the time? Look at this, you see blisters on your fingers? You’re so comfortable.”

As Calen expresses her displeasure to Michelle, she stares blankly.

“… Why?”

“I’m scared.”

At Michelle’s words, Calen shut her mouth. As she leans down and speaks quietly, her moura gathers to listen to her.

“That person is too strong.”

“…… Don’t beast tribes like strong men?”

Moura asks as she remembers the ecology of the beast people, but Michelle shakes her head with a frightened expression.

“It should be moderately strong even if it is strong. Do you know what happened?”

Michelle tells the story of what happened when she and Rai were alone.

Paniac is a rare material, so it is traded at a high price, so even high-ranking adventurers come to the 40th floor to hunt for the lid opener. There was also an evil adventurer among them, so Rai got into a fight with the lid opener on the way back.

With her Michelle on her back, the adventurer party, who thought she was easy enough because there were only two of them, threatened to open the lid, and Rai looked up at her Michelle and asked.

“Are they bad guys?”

“Yes. This is a problem that needs to be reported to the guild.”

“Do you think you can report to the guild?”

The rough-looking man finished with his words and his head flew off. The adventurer’s party, who had been staring blankly at the head of a colleague whose body and head were literally separated from each other and flying far away, had their heads blown one after another.

Leaving the party standing without her head in a condescending posture, Rai walks away casually.

At the creepy story, the Mouras look at each other with pale expressions.

“Tatarachi is not the lid opener, Mr. Rai is the lid opener. hahahaha.”

Calen tries to joke with an awkward smile, but no one laughs at her.

“You are unforgiving when you see injustice.”

It’s true, but when Moura hears the brutal situation and can’t understand how that opinion comes first, he looks at Sierra, but she praises her as a great person with eyes mixed with aspiration.

Moura, who glanced at Rai laughing while teasing Cindy, looked at her party again and said.

“Let’s work hard.”

All the party members who heard his words nodded in unison.

If this was not a dungeon but a material world, she would have completely destroyed the ecosystem. Rai, who has hunted enough, says with satisfaction after looking at the materials she has collected.

“It ended sooner than I thought. I thought it would be three days, but I didn’t expect it to be over in two days.”

In three days, they can’t even reach the 40th floor, but Moura’s party just laughs at Rai, who speaks easily.

Zeroa puts another material on top of the piled paniacs. He had collected easy-to-gather plants before killing the cap opener that had finished collecting the paniac.

Thanks to the thrifty Zeroa, some spoils were added, and Lai pondered, then took the materials collected by Paniac and Zeroa and gave them to Moura.

“We’re here for the paniacs, so we’ll bring more paniacs.”

“Yes, do as you please. We were only porters.”

“And this is for Cindy.”

Take 1/4 of the remaining Paniac and give it to Cindy and give it an additional 1 gold.

“The contract was for 3 days and I got 10 silver coins bonus because I did a good job! How can I be a good guy? I’m not a pervert, that ghost with eyes is all lies.”

“Uh… Uh… But…”

Because porters have daily contracts, they cannot claim ownership of materials from quests or expeditions. When Cindy explains that she doesn’t seem to know much about adventurers, Rai asks back with an innocent face.

“Why? Aren’t porters adventurers? It’s the same party whether you do small or big things. It’s not that you made a mistake and caused trouble, you’ve done well so far, and you deserve it. Sell it to the academy.”

“What about me?”

Asran said, Rai smiled and said.

“Volunteering.”

“Do you want to search?”

“Is this an order from the principal? Then give me a panic and take out your name?”

At Rai’s words, Aslan cleared his throat and turned his head.

“Hmm, hmm. Tell the principal that you worked hard.”

No matter how much you don’t care about grades, as long as you’re an academy student, Aslan is also a slave to grades.

While the two are talking, Cindy, who naturally receives the material, looks at her with a puzzled expression, but Michelle sticks by her side and tells her to accept it. Adventurers who have to lead a rough life should accept her while they can.

“Then let’s go back and have a drink! I’ll shoot today.”

Rai said calmly and took out her hearthstone.

Originally, there should have been only two Hearthstones that could restore up to two people per person, but Rai insisted on having them in proportion to the number of people.

The map said it was a waste of money, but thanks to Rai who spared no money for the hearthstone, which is life insurance, even Cindy, who is usually shunned at parties, had one, so even Moura’s party with the right number of people could return at once.

After reporting the dungeon to the guild, everyone gathers at the bar. Except for the fact that the receptionist saw the paniac Rai had and insisted on selling it to the guild, nothing happened.

Moura, a dwarf who likes to drink, seems to like Lai and Aslan, who are drinking hotly, and dances on the table with their arms around each other.

Michelle also asks if her fears have diminished as her alcohol goes in. She clings to Rai and asks why she is so strong, and Calen also asks Asran and Zeroa how they train.

Cindy took a sip of her drink as she watched everyone enjoy the dinner with happy expressions on their faces.

Even if you sell only the Paniac you received from Rai, you can easily exceed your income for several years. In terms of money, it was probably an amount that could be spent on revelry for a year.

It’s amazing that he handed over that kind of money without hesitation, but I was more grateful for Rai’s heart for treating me like a party.

She had a camaraderie she had never felt anywhere else.

She thinks of the words Rai told her and the parties she has experienced so far, and Cindy thinks about how to change the adventurer society.

Everyone enjoys the banquet, and when morning comes, Cindy wakes up in bed.

Thanks to the lie that even held the room, all the people who went to the dungeon drank heavily and spread out in the room. Thanks to Rai who took up the entire private room, Cindy got up from her seat.

Dizzy from her hangover, she goes out to the room to drink water and wash herself.

“……”

As I came out into the hallway, the side door opened at just the right time and Rai came out.

Rai is coming out with Michelle, though she’s obviously got a private room. Michelle is clinging to him, rubbing her cheeks, and Rai makes eye contact with Cindy and smiles awkwardly.

“Ah…”

Sierra, who came out of her room belatedly following Lai, avoids her gaze as if she is embarrassed to see her Cindy.

Cindy, who looked at Michelle and Sierra alternately with a puzzled expression, looked at Rai.

“Joe, good morning?”

“…… A slut.”

Leaving the frozen rai behind, Cindy went back into the room.