"Now then, you adventurers have all gathered. The guild is predicting a stampede will arrive tomorrow, most likely. We've organized you into squads, so tomorrow morning, head out through the West Gate and meet the enemy head-on. Veterans have been assigned as squad leaders. If you don't want to die, follow your leader—understood? That's all. Dismissed."
We'd been instructed to assemble at the adventurer's guild at night, and those were the words from the Guild Master.
Veterans have been assigned, huh? You mean the kind of "veterans" who are good at using low-rank adventurers as decoys, right?
And seriously, the city is under defense, but none of the Earl's soldiers are participating? What's the deal with that?
"Ah, that's because mobilizing soldiers costs money. They'll only step in if the adventurers fail to hold the line."
"Oh! That mob guy from the other day!"
"Who are you calling mob? My name is Rain, you know."
"Oh, the person who swindled a gold coin out of me last time!"
"Why do you always make it sound worse? I even thought it was a bit much and gave you extra information as compensation. By the way, you're Iron rank, right? You'll almost certainly be used as bait, so make sure you escape properly. If you're lucky, you might pick up a scout skill."
"Uh... thank you."
"You're awfully calm about all this. Well, do your best to stay alive."
"You should too."
"Don't be ridiculous. I'm Silver rank. I'm not gonna die from something like this."
Hmm, that line really feels like a death flag, doesn't it?
◇◇◇
And so, the next morning, I made my way to the designated location from the West Gate.
I was in Squad Eight.
Our leader was a tough-looking guy wielding a golden axe.
Actually, everyone besides me was carrying an axe.
And the color of the axes made the ranks easy to distinguish at a glance.
The leader was Gold Rank, with three Silver axes and two Bronze ones.
Probably—I mean, definitely—all of them were in the same party besides me.
That meant I could easily predict how the rest of this would play out.
"All right, boys, let's move! It's time to cash in!"
The leader rallied everyone with a shout.
A stampede meant a massive horde of monsters spawning, and if you survived, the payouts would be enormous.
If you survived.
Midday arrived, but there was no sign of anything coming from the mountain.
I pulled lunch out of my magic bag and ate, while the axe party sat a short distance away, enjoying their meal together.
No need to make small talk—I wasn't interested in getting cozy anyway, so it was a relief.
"! Here they come!"
The leader shot to his feet.
A deep, rumbling roar echoed from the earth — dum dum dum dum dum dum dum.
So that's it.
I'd gotten access to the Adventurer Guild's reference room beforehand and done some research. The monsters that typically showed up during stampedes here were lizardmen, forest orcs, tarantulas—poison spiders—killer moths, big bears, that sort of thing.
Before long, we made contact, and each of us squared off against a monster.
As expected, the leader earned his Gold Rank—he was strong, mowing down enemies with each swing of his axe.
After a while, the Bronze members started showing signs of fatigue.
"Alan, move in and cover that side!"
I took on the Bronze-rank opponents who were struggling and casually cut them down.
Since I was defeating them too easily, they started visibly slacking off.
They even began deliberately luring monsters toward me.
That was against the rules.
So in retaliation, I deliberately avoided killing a few and redirected them back toward the Bronze members instead.
With a sharp slash, a Big Bear's claws tore through one of them.
It looked like a fatal wound—the person collapsed and stopped moving.
"You bastard! You lured it here on purpose!"
"Look who's talking. You might want to watch your back, or you'll end up dead."
One person who couldn't dodge the Killer Moth's paralysis powder and had their movement frozen became another meal for the Big Bear's claws.
"You scum! I'll finish you off before you can use anyone else as bait!"
The leader pointed his golden axe toward me and declared he was going to take me out.
"So that was your plan all along, huh?"
◇◇◇◇◇◇
Skill: [Reverse] [Divine Eye] [Sword God] [Gentleman Thief] [Dark Magic] [Rock Iron Magic]
Rank: Iron
Thank you for reading as always!