Chapter 44

It has been a week since Amon formed a party with those who couldn’t find a party.

This party, with two frontline attackers, was surprisingly perfect.

“Uoooh!!”

The Water Buffalo Beastman charged into a group of skeletons.

Torso was the Water Buffalo Tanker.

His hands were modified to store foldable shields, which could be extended to become weapons or spread wide to protect allies.

He also had a small node with telepathy installed on his head.

He was an ideal tanker capable of collapsing enemy formations, protecting allies, and commanding the battlefield simultaneously.

Thanks to his efforts, when the enemy formation collapsed, the hidden sniper targeted the commander.

[Bingo.]

Bang!

The party’s sniper, Bens, pulled the trigger, and the commander’s head disappeared.

She was an ordinary human, but it was hard to find any human parts on her.

An artificial lung for stable breathing, mechanical arms and legs for steady aiming, and a mechanical eye with aiming assistance.

Lastly, a magic tattoo with optical camouflage.

She was so high-spec that it was hard to understand why she was a mercenary.

After she destroyed the commander’s head, it was the frontline attackers’ turn.

Amon and Cash swung their swords and spears, quickly dealing with the elite skeletons.

All that remained was the commander trying to recover and some ordinary skeleton soldiers.

This was the heavy weapons soldier’s job.

“Step back. It’s Vox time.”

The party’s Ogre Heavy Weapons Soldier, Vox, readied his machine gun.

Thanks to the Ogre’s physical abilities, Vox carried not only a massive ammo drum but also numerous bombs on his back.

Though his speech was clumsy, he was an elite Ogre with a demolition expert certificate.

However, Vox’s explosive knowledge wasn’t needed in this battle.

The ordinary skeletons couldn’t even resist and were shattered by modern conventional weapons.

The skeletons were temporarily incapacitated, and all that remained was destroying each head and spine.

Normally, the mage would handle them with offensive magic, but Amon’s party’s mage was different.

It was hard to tell if “he” or “she” was the right pronoun for the mage named Hen.

“Good job. I’ll take care of it now.”

The Bisexual Mage flicked their fingers, and the heads and spines were separated and placed in a corner.

Then, after imbuing their staff with magic power, they crushed the bones one by one like pounding rice.

The Bisexual Mage stood out even in Amon’s already unique party.

They could use offensive, defensive, and support magic, but none of it was conventional.

They claimed that crushing enemies with a barrier was offensive magic or that altering projectile paths with flight magic was defensive magic.

The reason was to achieve maximum efficiency with minimal magic power.

As the Bisexual Mage finished their pounding, the battle ended smoothly.

“Good work.”

After the battle, the party immediately checked their weapons and held a feedback session.

Unlike their previous trash-tier party, this one was serious about weapon checks and feedback.

The six of them discussed safer methods while checking their weapons.

It was a perfect party that didn’t rest on its laurels even after victory.

The more Amon saw this party, the more his anxiety grew.

‘What is this? A bug?’

In Amon’s past life, a sage from the East once said,

– ‘When five humans gather, there is always one trash.’

Amon always kept this saying close to his heart.

No matter how the world changed, that saying could never be wrong.

At least, that’s what he thought until a week ago.

‘Why is this a dream team?’

After a week of dungeon runs together, he was certain.

There wasn’t a single piece of trash in this party.

Of course, the party members weren’t without flaws.

Amon and Cash had the issue of wanting to go together but sharing the same position, but that wasn’t a problem with the people themselves.

However, the other members each had disqualifying reasons for not finding a party.

The Water Buffalo Tanker Torso had a flaw where he got overly excited upon seeing his allies’ red blood due to genetic treatment side effects.

The human sniper Bens couldn’t speak due to surgical side effects.

The Ogre Heavy Weapons Soldier Vox often destroyed loot with his aggressive equipment.

Lastly, the Bisexual Mage Hen had excellent utility but lacked firepower for a mage.

It was clear why each individual couldn’t find a party.

But when they came together, they covered each other’s flaws.

The Water Buffalo Tanker’s blood excitement issue was solved by Bens’ optical camouflage magic engraving, which hid the blood.

Conversely, the sniper’s muteness was resolved by the Water Buffalo Tanker’s telepathy.

Even if the Ogre Heavy Weapons Soldier’s firepower destroyed loot, the Bisexual Mage could easily retrieve it from the explosion.

Conversely, the Bisexual Mage’s lack of firepower was compensated by the Ogre Heavy Weapons Soldier.

At this point, it felt like fate.

Thanks to this synergy, Amon’s party had the combat power to advance to the dungeon’s middle layer within just a week.

Yet, they were still playing with skeletons at the entrance because…

‘What on earth is going to happen later…’

If there were no issues within the party, there was a high chance that problems outside the party were waiting for them.

Thus, Amon wanted to be as prepared as possible.

“Let’s prepare to the point where even if some unfairness happens, we’ll be fine.”

Nod.

None of the party members objected.

In fact, they actively agreed with Amon’s opinion.

“I like this party too. I really want to break that annoying jinx.”

The Bisexual Mage lamented.

Coincidentally, all the party members, like Amon, had a jinx where any party they joined would disintegrate after one exploration.

For them, this was the first party to last over a week.

It was so precious that no amount of caution was enough.

Amon gave a bitter smile, realizing that the party members shared his thoughts.

“No matter how I think about it, we just click too well.”

The party members chuckled softly.

Then, they continued exploring the dungeon entrance.

They decided to advance to the middle layer after their 13th exploration.

***

<Howling Darkness>

It was the name of the dungeon Amon’s party ran daily.

Conveniently shortened to Saddark, the dungeon’s theme was undead.

The Lich deep within the dungeon constantly created undead to protect itself.

If an explorer died fighting these undead, the Lich would use them as materials.

This phenomenon was more prominent in the middle layer, where people started dying, rather than the entrance where explorers rarely died.

The high mortality rate in the middle layer was due to increased danger, but the biggest reason was carelessness.

Explorers who had just left the entrance would underestimate the danger and get careless, leading to their demise.

Thus, seniors repeatedly emphasized to those heading to the middle layer.

Never let your guard down.

And there was a party here that faithfully followed that advice.

“Enemies spotted ahead. Death knights and ghouls. We’ll handle them as discussed.”

At Amon’s command, the party moved seamlessly.

Their expressions showed no signs of carelessness, even though they had just left the entrance.

They faithfully performed their roles, quickly dealing with the ghouls and death knights.

Breaking formations, sniping commanders, and wiping out groups in one go.

“Situation resolved. Let’s take a short break.”

At Amon’s words, the party members sat down and checked their weapons.

While each had their feedback time, Cash pointed at a death knight’s corpse and said,

“Were they explorers too?”

“Probably.”

As the two reflected on the explorer-turned-death knight’s corpse,

the Bisexual Mage flicked their fingers and pulled out a mercenary ID from the corpse.

“This guy had a decent income too.”

After a chuckle at the thrifty Bisexual Mage, Amon’s party got up again.

The expressions of Amon’s party exploring the middle layer were far from good.

They looked anxious, as if being chased by something.

Fighting ghouls and death knights was easy.

Amon’s party’s combat power was over-spec for the middle layer, and considering their coordination, they could even venture deeper.

Yet, they were anxious.

For one reason.

“It’s going too smoothly… There must be some unfairness waiting.”

Because it was going too smoothly.

The smoother the exploration, the greater the anxiety grew.

The party members empathized with Amon’s feelings.

In their anxiety, they doubted and guarded against everything.

Then, a group caught Amon’s party’s attention.

A group clad in protective gear, wielding flamethrowers instead of guns, was incinerating the dungeon’s interior.

They seemed uninterested in loot or crumbs, burning everything.

Then, the mysterious group’s eyes met Amon’s party.

“…”

One of the mysterious group members said something to their comrades and pointed at Amon.

The group stopped their incineration and drew rifles or swords instead.

Seeing this, Amon shrugged and said,

“What are the odds they’re friendly?”

The Ogre Heavy Weapons Soldier replied,

“Honestly, I hope not. If we handle this, our party’s safe.”

Despite the Ogre’s poor wording, the party members understood.

“It’s been too smooth so far.”

Cash also drew her spear.

Soon, Amon’s party faced the mysterious group as if they had been waiting for this.

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