Graduated from Witchcraft Institute

Rockworm guides me forward.

Eventually it will take off the pit and go along one of the tunnels that Rockworm supposedly dug into.

It's a tunnel through which a rockworm with a diameter as high as a person's back length can pass, so there's no reason why humans can't walk through it.

But to the same extent that the pit for Dwarves was, it was cramped high.

On the other hand, when it comes to the lateral width of the tunnel, it is clearly narrower than the pit.

It was us who were going in two rows of columns in the pit, but from where we entered the Rockworm tunnel, we were to go in one row vertically.

For the convenience of being the controller of the lockworm, I'm in the front row, followed by Satsuki, Mi, and Cyril.

"Wow... some kind of neva with wet feet and walls... wow, something's dripping from the top!

"Nyah, maybe it doesn't seem harmful, but it's not a place you want to stay long"

"I want to die already... I want to go home and take a bath soon..."

Surprisingly, Cyril was the one with the worst cry.

No, before the cry, I can actually hear you crying when you hiccup.

Thank you. You don't seem to be very good.

Still, I don't like it. I don't want to waste it, but it's just self-control around trying to follow me.

Moving on at that rate for a while, the rockworm that was eventually moving forward stopped the movement.

Due to the narrowness of the tunnel, I can't look back at the lockworm, but it seemed like he was trying to move his tail around and tell me something.

I look back and tell my people.

"They've probably arrived at their destination.... Are you all right, Cyril?

"Gu... I'm not okay, but I'll do my best"

Cyril at the rear of the line was teary-eyed, but he seemed to be eating up and putting up with it all the time.

... Well, let's just believe it because we work hard.

Well, that's anyway.

It's probably good to have reached your destination, but I can't see what's going on ahead with the controlled rock worm in the way.

What's the matter?

"─ ─ Rockworm, can you clear the way? I want you not to be noticed by your countrymen."

I'll give you some instructions first.

Then Rockworm proceeded by eating through his sidewall, and let him retreat from you.

... I see.

That way, when the guiding lockworm that had blocked our front was gone, we could see the sight ahead of us.

I take a few more steps and look at what was there.

"This... surprised you. In a way, it's quite spectacular."

"What, what, I want to see it, too. - What the hell?"

When Satsuki pulled right behind me and saw the sight over my shoulder, he immediately raised his aversion.

I almost knew what it was like to want to raise those voices.

The Rockworm tunnel we've been traveling through was connected to an open underground space.

It's a soaking bowl-shaped space, but it's roughly vast enough that I think the royal castle of Graysburg, the king's capital, will fit perfectly in every wall.

We are now in a position to look down at that rind-bowled underground space.

If you exit the tunnel you are in and go down the steep downhill of the slope ahead, you will be in a standing position such as reaching the base.

From the position we are in, the ceiling is closer one way or the other, and if we float using a floating (levitation) spell, we will be able to quickly reach the ceiling where the stalactites drip.

In addition to the tunnels we are in, there were also a number of "holes" in the outer walls of the underground space.

It's probably more plausible to think of this space as the result of Rockworm digging tunnels all over the place, rather than connecting to this space from a number of tunnels.

In that vast underground space, there was a massive amount of scrambling.

Mi with her neck out of my place, just like Satsuki, raises her voice low.

"Is that a rockworm... of, a larvae? The number is...... more than thirty is certain. Maybe forty... maybe fifty?

"Larvae aren't big. But sure, about half the size compared to the regular rock worm I've been watching since yesterday. But even then, we can swallow the whole thing and put it in our stomachs."

Yes, as Mi and Satsuki put it, at the bottom of that underground space, there were tons of small rock worms crawling around.

Even though it's just small, it's about 50% more in length than a person's back length, and it's about the size that if you open your mouth, you'll be able to swallow one human out of your head somehow.

By the way, I looked behind because one person didn't respond, and Cyril, who was there, was hardened like a figurine, puffy and trembling with tears.

From that position, I think I can barely see the sight of the underground space, but maybe the only thing Satsuki and the others are talking about isn't working anymore.

Well, let's not worry about Cyril for a second.

Nor will she play a decisive role in this operation.

Mi and Satsuki, on the other hand,

"But the adults... don't you feel like you saw them?

"Sounds like it. Are adults even going to make money looking for food?

"It's possible. But a few of them seem to be left behind in the larvae guard."

"Hmm, even the larvae look stronger than those monsters there. You don't need an escort on that one, do you?

"Maybe so..."

Mi had figured it out in a way that she wouldn't fall for a bit.

One way or the other, I was in the same danger as Mi.

That is, isn't there a "escort" hiding somewhere?

At least, that possibility should move in perspective.

"Use your magic eyes (wizard eyes) for reconnaissance. Just give me a minute."

It was time for me to exercise the magical eye (wizard eye) spell that had become a classic, and let the transparent "eye" that appeared in front of me get out of the tunnel and move on to underground space.

By the way, instead of focusing your mind on advancing your "eyes," you can hear Mi and Satsuki talking.

"Satsuki, you know, the awesomeness of this magical eye (wizard eye)? How amazing it is that we can look into this without actually going down. You don't have to put yourself in danger, do you? The anomaly's a good place, isn't it?

"Wow. I know how awesome Will is!

"Are you sure? I think Mi knows William better."

"Nothing! I know who I am!

There were two people hanging out over strange things.

But I also hear that it's surprisingly difficult to get a colleague who can justly appreciate the value of his work.

I guess I'm blessed to have company around.

Whatever it is, I'll move on with my "eyes".

Always about a meter and a half high from the downhill ground - - keeping the height of my gaze as a guide and floating, slowly advancing and descending along the sliding bowl of ground.

And as we move on with our "eyes," we look at tunnels everywhere to make sure there are no hidden rock worms.

From what I've seen, it doesn't look that way.

─ No, I was there.

When he came a long way to the bottom of the bowl, the place where the larvae of the rockworm were swamped in large quantities, he discovered the monster lurking inside a large tunnel near the base.

It was shaped like bonding multiple lockworms together and glued together in the tail area.

Should I say, by analogy, that it looks like Hydra?

And countless things grew like long tentacles from the part that touched the torso where it was said in Hydra, and it waxed.

That would be the mother rock worm.

You were right to keep a reconnaissance.

I'm horrified to think I was attacking that being unconscious.

I then looked around at the other tunnels with my "eyes," making sure there was nothing else lurking in them, and then I unraveled my mental concentration on the magical eye (wizard eye) and turned my consciousness back to myself.

From inside the tunnel, the sight returns looking at the underground space.

Instead of me, Satsuki and Mi.

I'm half unconscious of Mi's head.

"Mi, it's Bingo. There's an escort. That's a hell of a lot."

"Ugh, that's outrageous, is it...? - Oh, hey!

"Oh, there was a mother rock worm and thoughts hidden. It also matches the figure described in the example Adventure Tan."

That's what I said, and I told my people what I saw with my "eyes".

Behind me, by the way, Cyril, who had heard my explanation, was degenerating as a toddler saying, "Hiccup, hiccup... I want to go home soon... daddy..." and so on, over tears.

... that might not be really useful for a moment.

Meanwhile, Mi, who listened to me, asks me along with her contemplative tricks.

"Fumiu...... but I'm afraid Mother Lockworm doesn't know how strong she is. You don't know monster rank, do you?

"Oh. It's so rare that it's not even in the Monster Dictionary in the first place. I don't know. I guess the rating itself wasn't exchanged before."

Generally, Monster Rank is determined based on discussions between researchers in Monster Science and Adventurer Guild Raters.

I mean, it's what humans are rating, so there are errors, and if it's a rare monster, as in this case, the rating itself may not have been done in the first place.

The pattern commonly found in many monsters is that the monster rank of a certain group of rulers - the so-called "boss" - is about two to three ranks higher than the average species of that monster.

For example, for H-ranked goblins, the F-ranked goblin mage, and the E-ranked goblin load are in charge of the herd bosses.

With that in mind, if you are the D-ranked Rockworm boss, you can expect to be strong enough to be B or A-ranked.

But it is also just a general theory and a tendency, and there is no guarantee anywhere that this will always be the case.

In some cases, the reality is that it is the four ranked oak emperors who lead the army of F-ranked oaks.

Either way, it's dangerous to inadvertently attack monsters of unknown strength.

I want to measure the enemy's power by some means before letting Satsuki in.

One way I thought about it was to put on a rock worm that I control in the Warcraft Servant (Tame Monster).

But it is immediately dismissed in the brain.

I just instructed him to kill his parents, and Rockworm wouldn't follow that instruction.

If so...

"Then do you want to use this"

I put my hand on the rock wall of the tunnel and crushed it like that.