I remembered feeling sick, and muttering to myself, “Man, this event really leaves a bad taste in your mouth...”
Once we’d reached the town, I’d saved and turned the game off practically right away.
❈❈❈
“Fuck...” I muttered, coming back to myself.
Thinking about the events ahead of us really brings back some unpleasant memories.
The first time I’d played Braves and Blades, I’d picked the young boy protagonist who dreamed of being an adventurer since he’d been first on the list, and then opted to go east to Rixia during the escape event. That first playthrough I hadn’t known what was coming, so it had hit me pretty hard watching all of my party members die. Afterwards, I’d started the game over and tried to go north, only to discover that Rex wound up dead instead.
At that point, I’d headed online to look up some information. Ultimately, I’d decided that it would be easier to get through the early portions of the game with Rex in my party, so I’d started the game over a third time and gone east again, doing the best I could to not get too upset over the newbie adventurers’ deaths.
If I decided that we should go east now, I suspected that no matter what I did, fate would conspire against me and ensure that portion of the storyline played out as it had been scripted. But of course going north meant that I’d die for sure, which I definitely didn’t want either. In which case...my choice was clear.
“We’re going east!” I yelled. “East, but not toward Rixia!”
Radd and the others gave me confused looks. They’d clearly expected me to pick either the north or the east, since there were towns lying in each of those directions, but my decision not to head to Rixia baffled them.
I couldn’t explain the reasoning behind my decision to them though, so I just said, in a voice that brooked no disagreement, “We’re going back into the cavern.”
If both choices lead to casualties, then I just have to find a third option!
“You sure about this, geezer?!” Radd demanded as we ran back into the cavern. “If those monsters block the entrance we’ll be trapped in here!”
“Don’t worry,” I assured him, glancing over my shoulder so I could see his face. “The Cavern of Trials actually has two exits, so we should be fine.”
To be honest, though...this was a bit of a gamble. If the cavern didn’t actually have an additional exit, then Radd’s fears could very well come to pass. But if I was right...
I skidded to a stop, eyes locked onto a section of wall that looked pretty much the same as the rest of the corridor. If you bothered to look at the rock around three meters up, however, you’d notice the wall protruded outward at an unnatural angle. It was impossible to tell what was up there from below, but I, of course, already knew.
The question is, I thought, can I actually manage to climb up there? I carefully examined the cavern wall, feeling the gazes of the quartet of adventurers behind me on my back. Fortunately, it looks like it’s sloped pretty gently, so as long as I can get a good foothold, I should be able to make it with my current stats. I grinned. Plus, I’ve got a handy tool to help me out.
With a “Hup!” I thrust my sword into the wall. There was a good deal of resistance, but I was still able to push it a decent way into the rock.
When I’d originally played the game, your weapon would just bounce off if you attacked a wall. Now that I was inside BB, however, physics apparently worked a bit more realistically.
Perfect! I thought, pulling my sword back out of the wall. I reversed my grip on the weapon, then took a few steps back.
You see, when I’d first reincarnated here and seen this particular section of the Cavern of Trials, I’d had a bit of a realization. When playing BB as a game, the player could only take actions that had been programmed in by the developers. In other words, no matter how suspicious a particular tome might be, if there was no command to read it, you’d never be able to know what was written inside of it. Likewise, even if there was a tree in front of you that your character could reasonably climb, if the game wasn’t coded to let you climb it, you couldn’t. That was the natural way of things when you were playing video games, but...what if the video game had turned into reality?
I took a few racing steps, then launched myself off the floor and up the wall. “Come on!” I muttered, grunting with effort as I thrust my sword back into the rock at the apex of my jump.
Using the weapon as a pivot point, I managed to push myself a bit closer to the protrusion in the wall that was my goal.
“Yes!” I gasped, my outstretched left hand reaching just high enough that I could grasp the edge of the portion of the rock that jutted into the corridor. My fingers curling hard over the protrusion’s lip, I hauled myself up the last few feet and onto the ledge, collapsing onto the flat ground.
I let out a long sigh of relief, a flicker of a grin crossing my face as my eyes landed on the rope ladder rolled up neatly in the corner, and the proper path that extended past it and unwound deeper into the rock.
Everything’s just as I was hoping for, I thought, relaxing a little. Looks like my memories didn’t fail me.
Back when I’d been trying to think of a third path of escape, I’d remembered that the Cavern of Trials was actually connected to a much higher-level dungeon called the Wyvern’s Promenade. Normally, you’d have to make it all the way to the end of the Wyvern’s Promenade to use this shortcut, unlocking it permanently by dropping the rope ladder down into the Cavern of Trials.
It was a very video game way of doing shortcuts, to be honest, but it also meant that the height difference between the two paths wasn’t that large. I’d figured I might be able to climb up to the ledge even without the ladder, and indeed I had.
“This way, guys,” I called back down into the corridor, lowering the rope ladder and gesturing for them to start moving as I spoke. “Use this to climb up.”
❈❈❈
A few minutes later, everyone had finally managed to make it up onto the ledge. It had taken a decent amount of effort to get Recilia’s unconscious body safely up the ladder, but thankfully, we’d managed it eventually.
“I n-never knew there was a path here...” Mana muttered in surprise.
I briefly glanced over at her, but quickly looked away, focusing on warily scanning my surroundings.
This shortcut wasn’t supposed to have any monsters in it, but it did connect three disparate dungeon locations together: the entrance to the Wyvern’s Promenade, the deepest section of the Wyvern’s Promenade, and the entrance to the Cavern of Trials. I was feeling very aware of the fact that the Wyvern’s Promenade was a level 30 dungeon, and that if on the off chance we did run across a monster, Radd and his friends wouldn’t stand a chance against it. I might even struggle if we encountered several at once.
“Stay on your guard,” I warned the kids, keeping my voice down. “There’s a wyvern nest up ahead.”
“A-A-A wyve—?!” Nyuuk almost shouted. He cut his words short by slapping a quick hand over his own mouth.
Even cocky Radd had gone pale. “L-Let’s get out of here as fast as possible!” he muttered urgently.
It made sense the kids were so terrified—everyone knew how dangerous wyverns could be. Thankfully, this particular shortcut was too narrow for an adult wyvern to fit in, but it was possible an adolescent wyvern could show up instead.
At the very least, I thought, it’s best if everyone stays on their guard.
I gestured for the kids to follow me, whispering, “This way,” as I started down the hidden pathway. I was carrying Recilia in my arms, but Rex’s stats were high enough that she didn’t feel all that heavy.