A Dangerous Situation

「Got it.」

And so we stepped away from the cliff and engaged in battle right away.

「Here they come!」

「Roger! Combo Attack!」

Drawing the enemies' attention, I took a few steps forward. Mylia lunged at the Blood Tigers that followed.

「Combo Attack, Combo Attack, Shockwave―」

Mylia kept stacking her combo in a familiar manner and killed the monsters. At the same time, I felt my body become lighter. It looks like I got to level 15 as I expected.

「Let's forget about collecting their corpses. We have to check the pillar first!」

「Right!」

I chose a relatively safe route, but with this many monsters, a few seconds delay can lead to disaster. We'll refrain from retrieving materials until we get back to the cliff.

As we crept through the safe route, I cast Magic Search every few seconds to determine the location of enemies nearby. Gradually, we got closer to the pillar. Mylia followed the exact same path as me a few paces behind. After carefully following the route, the pillar came into view. Its color was orange.

「…It's orange and it's facing Desire. There's more or less five days until the Raid Boss appears.」

「You can tell how many days are left just by looking at it?!」

「Yes, by the color of the pillar. But I'll explain the details later! For now, we should retreat from this danger zone, and give our report as soon as possible. It takes time for the barrier to be fully activated. We won't make it unless we hurry!」

For a pillar that changes color, it's easy to tell how long until the Raid Boss shows up. It goes from Blue → Yellow → Orange → Red → Black and then the Raid Boss appears. If you're used to it, you'd know the remaining days just by the color. Furthermore, by looking at the design of the pillar, it's even possible to know what kind of monster the Raid Boss is.

The Raid Boss that'll show up in a few days is not all that strong. But it's still plenty powerful. Even if I blocked its attack with a critical counter, I won't be able to deflect it back and I'll be overpowered.

It has plenty of HP as well. Even if Mylia used her most powerful single-target combo a hundred times, she still won't kill it.

But I don't have time to explain that right now. We'll have plenty of time after we report back to the guild.

There's five more days till the Raid Boss appears and the following Stampede. Five days might sound like a lot, but activating a barrier large enough to hold off a Stampede will take days; time is a luxury we can't afford right now.

「Gotcha!」

「Let's hurry!」

We rushed back to Desire.

「Call the manager!」

The moment Mylia stepped into the guild, she called out to the receptionist. Not a moment later, the branch manager appeared. Looks like we came at the right time; the manager happened to be around.

「…Oh, the Flame Spear. I thought you went to scout the Sealed Pillar.」

「We did and now we're back.」

「In such a short time?!」

The branch manager was taken by surprise. Mylia continued on.

「We came back in a hurry! There's only five days left before the Stampede!」

The manager looked petrified.

「…Five days? How do you know that?」 he asked skittishly.

「The pillar's color was orange. There's only 4.5 to 5.5 days left by my estimate. And it's facing this town, Desire.」

「Orange, huh… I don't know the exact number of days, but as you say, it probably won't be long.」

It looks like this world knows how to use the color of the pillar to determine the number of days left before the Stampede. Or maybe not since Mylia was unaware of it. Perhaps the manager knew only because this guild is close to the pillar.

He was deep in thought and after a while, spoke up.

「Thanks for the report. If we turned on the barrier now, we'll make it. Just wait a bit!」he said as he scampered out of the building.

It seems he went to set the barrier up. He returned after five minutes.

「…The reward is yours. As for Eld, I'll give a recommendation for a promotion to rank C. If this case reaches the royal capital, Flame Spear, you might be able to take the rank promotion exam as well.」

「I'll be expecting some good news! Can the guild handle the transportation of the equipment for the barrier?」

「Yeah. Fortunately, the device is in Desire. We just set it up earlier. It should take a little less than four days for it to be activated.」

It looks like they'll be able to suppress the Stampede without much trouble. Still, we really barely made it. Less than four days before the barrier activates… If the scouting was delayed even half a day, it would've been too late.