Jujutsushi Wa Yuusha Ni Narenai

「This is their settlement, huh.」

The very day, we found the goma settlement in the resort area. We found them pretty easily using Rem bird and her force.

It was located rather deep in the forest. It was a clear plot of land which was clearly manmade, or rather goma made.

At the center of their settlement was a stone tower which could be found in many parts of the dungeon. The gomas had erected a crude-looking tent around that tower.

Their settlement was surrounded by crude, wooden fences which seemingly were going to fall down from mere breeze.

「At glance, the scale of this settlement isn't that big. So there might be no gogma in there.」

「Are we going to raid them now?」

The one who asked this question was Souma-kun. Perhaps he felt that the berserker and the thief behind him were already itching to wreak havoc on the gomas who dared to steal their honey.

「No, let's observe them for a while. I also want to know the source of their sugar.」

「I'll infiltrate into their settlement.」

「No, that's too dangerous, Kotaro-kun!」

「Worry not, this is my body double after all.」

There was no problem even if I were found out by them. Even if my 『Twin Shadow』 died, I would only lose my magical power.

「But still, you have to be careful.」

「I will do my best to investigate the matter as much as possible.」

I mean, this is kinda like a sub-quest after all.

「That's why let's end today's exploration.」

「Th-The honey is…」

「I'll try to find out where they have kept the honey.」

Well, since the gomas were stupid and never thought about the future, I doubt if any of them left though. However, I had to tell that to Natsukawa-san for now.

「I understand. Be careful, Kotaro-kun.」

「I'll do my best.」

Thus began my solo covert mission.

Everyone parted, and I, who was only accompanied by Rem bird's squad, went deeper into the goma settlement. Since it was my shadow, I wouldn't get tired no matter how much I ran, it was really convenient to move non-stop.

Fortunately, the quest didn't fail midway due to the monster's ambush. If I got ambushed by a raptor here, that would be the end of today's exploration.

「Just right, the sun is setting.」

When I arrived at the location that allowed me to a full view of the settlement, the sky had already been dyed crimson due to sunset. Though I knew that we were inside the dungeon, I still couldn't help but marvel at the extremely realistic graphics in the sky.

「Time for lunch.」

I returned my consciousness to my real body while bidding my time until the sun had completely set,

After my consciousness came back to my real body, I felt like someone who had just gotten out of a VR game. This kind of realistic VR-like operation had yet to exist in Japan though.

Well, now that my stomach is full, time to go back to work.

I lay down under the shade of a tree and reactivated the shadow. By the time returned to my shadow, I was surrounded by total darkness.

「The silver lining is the fact that they're not nocturnal.」

I had pretty much understood that gomas' lifecycle was the same as humans during the capture of gomas fortress back then. Thus, I could easily sneak in when they were sleeping.

Since they are lacking manpower, I should be able to do this.

「I wish I could use archer's skull during this kind of time though.」

But I couldn't afford the possibility of losing that cane. It was one of a kind item with a lot of possibilities thanks to my skull collection.

Well, let's give up on using that for now.

「Do your guard job properly.」

Since the trees around the village were already felled, there was no place for me to hide. The patrol guard would instantly discover my shadow if I snuck in during the day.

Currently, I was crawling along the meadow which had a lot of weeds, and bit by bit, approached the village.

I could guess the position of the gate of the fortress from the position of the watch fire. There were few guards protecting that place. The other place only had patrolling sentries since the area they had to cover was too big.

「Okay, infiltration is complete.」

I crossed the crudely made wooden fence and successfully infiltrated the settlement. Size-wise, this fence seemed to be specialized to combat raptor. Thus, I could easily conjure a ladder with blackhair bind to cross over the fence.

「Let's start from that tower.」

That tower must be the centre of this settlement. A splendid stone building would automatically be made into the centre of their settlement for those stupid gomas could only make this sorry excuse of a tent. That's what happened with the goma castle, and goma pyramid after all.

This tower was visibly smaller than the goma castle, just a three-storied building.

Apparently, the size of the ruins around the settlement was an indication of strength and the scale of the gomas' settlement. The goma castle from back then had one gogma, but the giant pyramid castle that was even bigger in scale had four heavenly king-like gogmas led by a quartet of armed gogmas.

「Gogma aside, even a single govu can instakill my shadow.」

My real body could already deal with the likes of govus, but still, my shadow could only use the lite version of rotten bog and blackhair bind. It would be defeated once it got discovered.

「Whoops, let's not set a flag here…」

When I was crawling on the ground, passing by the tent used by those gomas to sleep which was separated into blocks, I unexpectedly stumbled upon a sentry who wanted to finish his business, and a govu nonetheless.

Rather, this guy just came… He had yet to find me, alas, I might be discovered if I moved right now.

My current posture was rather unsuitable for crawling backward. I had to take shelter before he found me.

Whoops, is this the end of shadow agent Momokawa Kotaro?

「Rem, please.」

「ChirpChirpChirp!」

In the end, I asked Rem to create a diversion.

Rem bird took off; the crow whose territory should be around the garbage dump was flying without any interruption on top of the walking govu.

「Bugo!? Gubura!」

This guy would never have expected a midnight raid from a bird.

He then whinged his arm around while cursing in rage.

Oi, stop screaming like that.

「Chirp Chirp.」

「MUGAA! GEBURU, GONGAAA!」

Thanks to Rem's skillful aggro skill, the enraged govu was chasing after Rem bird. I used that chance to run in the opposite direction.

Those gomas were truly idiotic for chasing after a bird in the middle of the fricking night.

「But I've used up my card. I have to arrive at the tower in one go.」

That was the last of Rem Bird that I brought with me.

The fool's cane fitted with the 『Summoner's Skull』 was entrusted to Mei-chan who went back into the school tower, thus rendering me incapable of taming any more birds.

Now, it was time to do the rest with my guts!

「Huff, managed to arrive somehow.」

The door of the tower was wide open, or rather, it didn't even have a door, to begin with. And since those stupid gomas had no technology to allow them to create a door, there was no door for their houses either.

There was only one torch at the entrance, and no guards were stationed around it. What a lucky coincidence!

I entered the tower expecting the gomas to have set up some sort of trap near the entrance. Alas, the raid into the tower went without a hitch.

Well then, the inside of the tower is…

「I see, it's an altar.」

It looked the same as a normal fairy plaza. Instead of a water fountain, there was a stone pedestal at its centre. The pedestal had a huge tombstone-like lithograph in the middle.

On the altar was a magic circle, a really complicated one with worm-like writing on it. Though a circular shape was the basis for a magic circle, this one's shape was closer to an ellipse.

In addition, this magic circle was glowing with an ominous, crimson colour.

「It isn't the ancient language, and the shape is completely different from our compass note… This might be gomas' magic circle.」

Considering the fact that the magical power made the magic circle glow, there must be a set of conditions to activate the magic circle. Nevertheless, since this was the first time I had seen this kind of magic circle, this must be the goma's original magic circle.

Naturally, I had no idea about the function of this magic circle or its effect since I had no skills to decipher it. Something could happen if I tried to touch it, so, let's not act hastily.

「The glow makes it easier for me to see the inside of the tower.」

I expected the inside of the tower to be covered in total darkness, but there was enough illumination thanks to the glowing lithograph. The illumination was equal to a small light bulb.

「It's a mess. They might use this tower for their storage too.」

Inside the four rooms in the tower were various kinds of pots and craters of various sizes. With the exception of the altar, the goods literally kept inside these four rooms were a perfect hiding place for me.

Anyway, let's see what I can find here for now.

「U~hm, it's filled with junk.」

Well, just as expected, there was nothing in there.

Even the content of the box was a junk item. Monster bones or crudely made leather. They might have dispatched their troops to the ruined city to gather these materials, thus this room ended up being filled with useless items.

And aside from junk items, they made preserved food too. I found a lot of dried fruit in this room too.

「Oh, is this the honey?」

When I tried to look at the small pot, I found out that it was filled with a golden-coloured sweet, viscous liquid AKA honey.

The amount was so-so. Now that we have found this honey, let's hide it somewhere. Let's use the old wooden box that seems to be neglected for years.

「Fuaaah… It's already this late, huh?」

A while after exploring the inside of the tower and regaining the honey, I felt that it was about time to take a break. Seeing that I had nothing else to do, I had to let my main body sleep properly to make sure that I was in top shape tomorrow.

I slipped myself into a big box to hide. Somehow it felt like I was an octopus stuffed inside an ice box.

The next on the to-do list was observing the situation in the goma settlement during the day.

「… Morni~ng.」

The gomas were early risers.

After I woke up in the school tower, put my appearance in order, had breakfast, and scolded Takanashi who was lazing around during working hours like usual, I entered my avatar hidden in goma settlement. By then, the gomas had long since started their activities.

「Okay, it seems they rarely come to this tower.」

The reason might be related to that altar. Meaning that the gomas wouldn't enter the tower so casually.

This was the centre of their settlement. Moreover, they rarely came to this place, not to mention that there were several small windows along the wall making this place the ideal place for observation.

I began moving carefully inside the tower which became brighter after dawn in order to not rouse any suspicion from the gomas outside and started observing the settlement from the windows.

「It's been a while since I did this kind of ecological survey since before soloing the basilisk.」

One could say that gomas were the most familiar monsters to us.

Though there was a slight difference between the small fry monster that each classmate encountered during our opening battle, everyone had at least encountered gomas once before.

And despite being present in almost every part of the dungeon, there was very little information known about gomas. For us, gomas were small fries that we could kill on the spot upon encounter, thus no one had actually bothered about learning more about them.

However, despite being treated like the weakest small fry akin to goblins in the RPG game, they were still native creatures of this world. In short, they had their own lifestyle.

「Hu~m, they are unexpectedly living normally.」

The gomas in the settlement were shouting an unknown onomatopeia as they passed around. There was a parent goma, and children gomas as well.

===

THE NEW PROJECT:

Journey of The Childhood Friend Who Got Betrayed by Sword Saint

The Protagonist of Isekaied Story With Cheat And Harem Has No Idea That All Of The Heroines Has Already Been Stolen By Me~Urgh, My Stomach Is Killing Me~

(~’.’)~Advance Chapter Available in Fox18 too!~(‘.’~)

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