Underground Doctor Chapter 1.1

Sunshine flickering through leaves.
Warming one’s ear, the earthly fragrance tickled his nostrils.

「What the……It’s not even worth it to sleep.」

He got up while rubbing his eyes with the back of his hands.
With his eyelids still heavy, he surveyed the his blurry surroundings.
Gradually, the surroundings scenery cleared up.
Beside him was a prairie, that extended to the horizon and was beautiful to the point that it would make a picturesque scenery.

「What the, aren’t I still in a dream……Well why not take another nap.」

He gently closed his eyelids, under the sun’s comfortable light.
Again, he has tried to let go of his consciousness.

「!!!??? No no, there’s totally somethin’ wrong! Why is it a gra.s.sland? What kind of hidden camera show is this!」

Just feeling the touch of the earth, even the wind’s blowing at my skin feels way too realistic.
This kind of dream, there’s no way it’s not real, he ended up tsukkoming himself.
He pinched his cheeks to confirm it.
He took out his mobile phone but it was out of service.
He wished for it to be a dream, however that wish was crushed immediately.

「Hey hey…… There’s no way that’s possible. There’s no way that’s true, not yet! It’s not yet, decided. I want to go somewhere with people, but what kind of torture is it to have only horizon in all 360°!」

One person muttered as he heaved a sigh.
‘But, staying here won’t solve anything.’
Reluctantly, he begins walking toward the other side of the horizon.

About 3 hours after he started walking, a forest appeared in his vicinity.
At the beginning he was only able to see dribs and drabs, but as he walked closer it appeared to be quite a dense forest with large trees.

「I’m so hungry, I feel like dyin’. Yesterday, I forgot to have anythin’ other than liquor……」

Because of hunger his steps became heavy.
He looked around.
His eyes suddenly stopped at the tree in front of him. There was a fruit that resembled oranges.
His hunger was nearing the limit. If it’s edible, then anything would do.
Hurriedly he grabbed one from the tree, he peeled off the skin and and lifted it to his mouth.

「Hey! lad, that’s poison that you shouldn’t be eating. Also, don’t move from there.」

Hearing the voice from behind, he stopped moving it to his mouth and turned around.
There, a man who dressed like a Holy Knight wearing a silver plate was standing.
Because he looked to be heavily equipped, it seems that it’s considerably hard to move.
While looking at his figure, He couldn’t help but think that it was a cosplayer.
That man, pulled out a large sword and started running toward here.

Based on that action, Kaoru’s expression twitched.
No matter how you look at it, it’s a real sword.
While thinking that he’ll die if he was cut by it, Kaoru realized the seriousness of the sword that is being swung at him.

His body went stiff, without even being able to move he stood upright.
Bushiya! sound rang, and something that made a rolling sound appeared.
Kaoru’s back drenched in sweat, he slowly turned to look at what made the sound.
There, a spider whose size was around 150cm was cleanly torn in half.
As he watched fearfully, green liquid was oozing out of its body as it spasms.

「That was pretty close. lad, this is a Gracia Spider! It has a deadly poison
The instant that you’re bitten by this spider you would get paralyzed, and then eaten and taken to the other world!」
(He meant the netherworld)

The old man that was cosplaying as a Holy Knight, said to Kaoru while making a glad expression.

「Ahh, ya’ve saved me……」

For a bit, Kaoru made a befuddled expression.

「This whole region has them. About that Oren, eating it is a deadly poison……You do know that right?」

Cain said, as he pointed at the fruit.

「No, sorry. I just arrived here, a few minutes ago. That’s why, I didn’t know that this had poison in it.」

「Huh……Is that so? Ahh~ great, great. To be honest that Oren has poison in it. If you were to eat it without knowing, you would’ve died from the poison. If, I didn’t pa.s.s by here, lad would’ve died. Ahahahaha」

While the Holy Knight cosplaying was having a hearty laugh, Kaoru with a forced smile asked him where this place is.
‘Confirming whether my previous thoughts are true or not.’

「Nn? This place is 【Sasara’s Prairie】. From here, going through the forest to the east, is【The Great Labyrinth City’s Grand Palace】y’know? You didn’t know?」

Hearing this, he heaved a sigh in his heart.
‘This place, isn’t j.a.pan or any other foreign country.’
He was made to realize that this is a different world.
Without showing it on his face, he answered back with a smile.

「Sorry, I didn’t know. Coupled with hunger I couldn’t think straight.」

He said while scratching his head.

「If that’s the case, further down there is my party so do you want to join us? There’s food as well.」

「Ooo! Really, that’ll totally save me.」

「In trouble we should help each other right? I’m Iruga Orcus. What about lad’s name?」

「Ashiya Kaoru. Nice to meet ya, Old man Iruga.」

Kaoru said with a smile.
They began walking immediately after exchanging greetings.
Iruga while looking weirdly at Kaoru’s attire, he made a strange expression and said,

「You’re wearing strange clothes huh」

「Nn? Is that so? This is, what I usually wear though……」

The top is, an aloha shirt while the bottom is shorts.
He’s also wearing a white robe over the shirt.
And, rather than shoes he’s wearing sandals.

「It’s not an explorer. If I were to say, a healer?」

「Nn? Explorer, healer? What’s that, do ya have occupations like that?」

Kaoru, t.i.tled his neck as a question mark appeared above his head.
Looking at his expression, Iruga answered while breathing out a sigh.

In this world there are several labyrinths.
Within them the one with the highest difficulty is, the labyrinth in this place, 【The Great Labyrinth City’s Grand Palace】.
The aim of explorers are to capture it.

Conquering the labyrinth would reap a lot of rewards from the country.
Status, fame, territory and money are just among what you could get.
‘This, has nothing to do with me’ thought Kaoru.

However, it seems like a lot of people make a living by killing the monsters within the labyrinth, and then selling the drops.
‘Regarding earning money from now on, it shouldn’t be a problem’ he thought.
‘A healer is, the one who takes care of the injured who returned from the labyrinth, and the ones who act as a support once they’re inside labyrinth, is what he taught me.’

「I understand now. Old man Iruga too, is headin’ out to challenge the Grand Palace?」

「Yeah, that’s why I came to 【Sasara’s Prairie】for preparation.」

「Thanks to that, I was saved right.」

The two people walked as they noisily talked.

「You’re late! Iruga! Eh, who’s that person?」

All of a sudden, there is a girl who spoke to Iruga.
glossy red short hair, wearing an indigo blue robe, and slightly slanted eyes that seemed angry.
To that, Kaoru fixedly stared.
Kaoru murmured in a low voice, 「Hee, she’s quite the beauty」.
‘She looks to be twenty years old’, he thought.

「Sorry for being late. I met this lad, at 【Sasara’s Prairie】forest. He’s Kaoru.」

「h.e.l.lo, I’m called Ashiya Kaoru. Nice meetin’ ya」

Kaoru said with a smile.