On the west side of the Strawman Abyss, the shadow of war had not yet reached this place.
Two adventurers were fiercely arguing over a single puji.
“Two gold coins? Why don’t you just steal it?! Isn’t this literally the most ordinary puji?”
“That’s what I’m saying — are you buying a puji for its fighting ability right now? If I’m not mistaken, your party doesn’t even have a Puji Master. What are you even talking about, species and all that?”
The seller looked like a drifter. Faced with the shouting buyer, he didn’t worry at all that the sale might fall through.
Buying a puji here was nothing more than buying its ‘no-fall’ property. [If you carry a puji produced in the dungeon with you, you will not “fall” when entering the Strawman Abyss; it prevents the forced descent mechanic.]
With a dungeon-produced puji at your side, you could do things here that were unthinkable before — cross the Strawman Abyss from one side to the other.
In the past that meant you had to fall all the way down to the lower layers and then fight your way back up. Even a Diamond-rank team would risk a lot to attempt that.
Now it was different.
Although the topmost layer of the Strawman Abyss still had environmental corrosion and scarecrow monsters, their strength was limited. For teams above Silver rank, the most important thing along the route was to protect the puji and keep it always within fifty meters.
If the puji died halfway, or wandered out of range and triggered the “fall” on its own, the outcome was obvious.
The drifter thought the first person to discover this phenomenon must have been a rich player.
After all, the Mycelium Carpet was still far from the Strawman Abyss. In the beginning, before people knew about the puji’s ‘no-fall’ trait, anyone who still carried a puji this far in must have been the type of low-level but very wealthy Puji Master.
Also because the Mycelium Carpet was far away, pujis here were scarce items.
Every minute a puji stayed here meant mana potions being consumed.
The drifter’s own party had just crossed from the Dwarf Mountains into the United Kingdom thanks to the puji in his hands.
Continuing forward with the puji would be a losing deal; selling it on the spot to a team that wanted to go through was far more profitable.
After failing to haggle the price down, the buyer had to grit his teeth and pull out his coin pouch.
At that moment, one of the buyer’s teammates came over. “Captain, there’s someone over there with several pujis — he’s asking only one gold each!”
“Really!” the captain said, delighted.
After confirmation, he decisively put his money away.
Seeing them walk off, the drifter chuckled. “Selling for a gold to save a gold, and maybe doom your whole party… nice captain.”
The drifter’s words naturally caught the captain’s attention. “What do you mean by that?”
“Only pujis produced by the dungeon have the ‘no-fall’ property.” The drifter pinched the tendril at his puji’s feet as he spoke.
The captain glanced the other way. Sure enough, the pujis beside that person all looked like the stereotypical ordinary pujis; you couldn’t tell at a glance whether they came from the dungeon.
Although you couldn’t directly prove the other guy was selling fakes — since some dungeon pujis also look ordinary — the captain couldn’t risk the entire team for a little saved money and obediently produced two gold coins.
After getting the puji, the captain didn’t head straight into the Strawman Abyss. Before entering, they still had to coat the puji in corrosion-resistant potion.
With the gold in hand, the drifter whistled and walked back toward his camp.
There, his two companions were taking down tents, and on a nearby rock sat a fox-person with snow-white fur.
From a distance the drifter called out, “I’m back! Lord Kiro, how’s it going over there?”
The fox-person, who had been rhythmically clapping with his eyes closed, opened his slightly weary eyes. “Just call me Kiro — calling me ‘lord’ sounds strange. I’m not some noble.”
The drifter laughed. “No, that won’t do. You saved my life; by the rules where I’m from, I have to call you ‘lord’! In the Abyss, if you hadn’t grabbed me, Lord Kiro, I’d have rolled down the slope, gone beyond the fifty-meter range and triggered the ‘fall’. Really, if we hadn’t been lucky enough to meet you, every one of us in this little party would have died in the Abyss!”
Kiro only smiled at the drifter’s exaggerated praise, and didn’t say much more.
After all, the drifter’s words were not untrue. Without Kiro’s help, this three-person party would indeed have fallen and been lost in the Strawman Abyss.
Some time later the camp was packed up, but Kiro still sat on that rock, keeping time with his hand claps.
The three adventurers didn’t disturb him; they sat a short distance away and passed the time chatting.
That passing of time stretched until dusk.
Having wasted the day, the group exchanged looks and reluctantly dug up the tents they had packed away earlier…
Just then Kiro finally stood up.
“Lord Kiro, are you… all right?” The drifter noticed the redness in Kiro’s eyes and greater fatigue. “Wait here; we’ll set up the camp properly.”
Kiro waved his hand. “No need. I don’t think I can travel with you from here on. There’s something else I have to do. Sorry for taking so much of your time.”
The three adventurers waved their hands repeatedly. “You didn’t delay us, not at all. Lord Kiro, rest for now — you look like you need it…”
Kiro drank a bottle of vigor potion and his eyes finally regained their spark.
The extravagance of that act made the three Silver-rank adventurers swallow hard.
“I’ve already delayed too long. I must set out now.” He didn’t say where he was heading or what he intended to do, and the adventurers didn’t ask.
They had been strangers when they met; back when Kiro had no puji, the adventurers had agreed to share with him, which led to later events.
Before leaving, Kiro came close to the drifter and said softly, “When you get home, don’t go to the gambling house. Take the money and buy some tasty mushrooms for your child.”
“Ah… okay…” The drifter seemed a little stunned, staring at Kiro’s back with confusion — had he mentioned having a child to Kiro? Thinking it over, the drifter realized that since he’d talked so much, it was quite possible he had…
On the other side, after parting from the adventurers, Kiro looked up at the three moons in the sky and sighed deeply. “It’s still more beautiful when all three are there…”
Four hundred thirty-six times, heading further west — no matter what he did, it would unavoidably lead to that final outcome.
Somewhere over there, an invisible hand was strangling every possibility.
The variable was not in the west, not in the United Kingdom.
The variable… was in Demon Territory!
“Tanaka… Shuichi…”
Muttering that strange name, Kiro headed north.