The Invaders of the Large Tomb

His curiosity was answered when he turned the corner.

It was a fairly large room, big enough to have tens of people run around freely. Inside were ten lizardmen wearing magnificent armour. They all wore collars around the neck, each with a broken chain hanging off it.

They were swinging swords at each other. They struck with screeching shouts and exchanged blows filled with resolve. It was occurring everywhere in the room. Despite having an appearance of a fierce battle, Eruya could tell this was just practice.

He confirmed it since they stopped swinging their swords when Eruya’s party entered the room.

One of the others in the room was a hulking figure with a gigantic tower shield, wearing black full plate armour with decorations that looked as if it were covered in blood vessels. And the last person was— no, the last thing would be more accurate.

It was a gigantic beast covered in silver fur, with wisdom gleaming out of its eyes.

“You have finally arrived, intruder-dono.”

There were a lot of annoying monsters amongst the ones that could speak. Magical beasts tended to attack using physical strength, but the intelligent ones often used magic.

Eruya knew he was a genius swordsman, but he wasn’t so confident in magic. He strengthened his core and resolved his heart to counter magic.

“And you are?”

There was no need to ask. If it was waiting here, then it was something that would be defending the tomb. The only question was how strong it was.

From the appearance, it could be the tomb’s master. If he took down this beast, his would be the top contribution. It would mean his team would be the best out of all the worker teams. Since ‘Tenmu’

was pretty much Eruya by himself, it would mean that he was the best worker. Even luck was an important quality for a worker.

“This king was ordered to face you here. I was suppose to test out this and that… but you don’t seem to be much of an opponent.”

He felt disappointed and annoyed at the same time.

Disappointment at the fact that the beast was nothing but a watchdog and annoyance from the fact it was underestimating him.

“To think it would be like this even before we exchange blows… You.”

“Y-yes.”

The elf trembled when he called her with a low voice. Eruya felt satisfaction at the sight. That was the kind of attitude something should show towards him. Even though it had only been a few days, after spending some time with Momon, whom everyone looked up to, he had become more

generous.

“What is that monster?”

“I-I’m sorry, but it’s n-not a monster I know.”

“Tsk, useless.”

He struck the useless elf with the sheath of his sword. Eruya ignored the elf that was collapsed on the floor apologizing over and over again to study the beast.

Due to its size, facing it head-on appeared to be disadvantageous, but monsters were generally like that. And Eruya had killed numerous monsters without a problem. He felt foolish that he was scared even for a moment just because it was a beast he had never seen before. There was always need for caution, but being overly cautious and being scared was incompetence on its own.

“I’ll ask one more question. What makes you think you can win against me?”

“I can tell that you’re weak just from a glance…”

Eruya frowned and gripped his sword tightly.

“…Seems like your eyes are useless. Shall I carve them out for you?”

“You can certainly try. But my orders said it didn’t matter if I killed you here… So why don’t we start?”

That calm tone. It angered Eruya once again.

He wanted to swing his sword without saying anything, but running into the beast that did not seem worried at all would make him look like the weaker one. So he held back and scoffed at it.

“Then so shall it be, beast.”

“Then why are you just standing around like that? Do you not wish to prepare the elves over there?”

“No need. Speaking of which, don’t you want to prepare the lizards standing behind you?”

“Ah, it will be fine. They are only here to observe this king’s battle. Do not worry about them.”

“You’re brave to throw away your only chance of victory.”

“I am very grateful for your praise.”

Sarcasm didn’t work on it. Maybe it was intelligent enough to speak, but not that smart? While Eruya was thinking that, the beast twitched its whiskers and spoke.

“But I plan to kill you without any mercy, so I hope you fight with all your strength. As I said before, this is a test given to this one as well.”

“A test? A test for a watchdog?”

“Hmm~ It’s a test to see if I’ve improved as a warrior. Now, are you ready to start? I’ll leave the elves behind you alone and face only you for now.”

“As you wish.”

“This king’s name is Hamsuke! Go to the other world remembering the name of one who killed you!

State your name as well!”

“…I have no name to give to a mere beast.”

“Then I shall erase you from my memory as a nameless fool!”

The gigantic figure leaped forward.

It was an unimaginably agile movement considering its size. A mediocre warrior would have been overwhelmed by the pressure of its approach and taken massive damage from the charge.