Short Story: The Rookie Adventurers and the Snow Mouse

“Hey guys, hang on a second. Snow’s picked up on something.” The young mage girl, Eon, had the mouse, Snow, riding on top of her head. It looked like Snow had pulled on her hair to signal danger ahead.

Knowing what that meant, we all went on our guard immediately. When Snow reacted like that, most of the time it meant there were wild beasts or monsters nearby.

It was common for monsters in dungeons or underground ruins to hide around corners in order to ambush adventurers. This was because, with their superior senses of smell and hearing, humans often made easy prey for them.

Still, seeing as how we hadn’t traveled very far underground yet, it was unlikely that there would be any monsters who could erase their presence completely.

“Lopp… you take the right side. I’ll handle the left.”

“Gotcha.”

Fran, our swordswoman, gave me these instructions in a small whisper so as not to alert anything that might be awaiting nearby. The road in front of us forked into two paths in a T shape. If there were any monsters nearby, they could’ve been waiting for us on either side.

Behind us, Klaus readied his bow and arrow with the sharp ‘fwee’ sound of the bowstring being drawn, so that he’d be ready to shoot at anything that might try to jump out at us.

Just like we’d thought, there was a Kobold waiting to ambush us around the corner. Before it could move to attack, I stabbed at it with my spear.

“Higyaaah?!”

While my spear managed to strike it in the shoulder, the creature grabbed hold of the hilt before it could pierce all the way through. This one wasn’t going down without a fight…

Or so I thought, until Klaus’s arrow came flying out of nowhere and struck the Kobold in the forehead. It collapsed lifelessly without any of the grandeur I’d been expecting.

Man, he just had to steal the spotlight when I was having fun, didn’t he?

“That was a close call. If Snow hadn’t warned us, who knows how that might have turned out.” Eon was just singing praises to the snow mouse sitting on her head, as usual. This particular snow mouse was actually the summoned familiar of our very own grand duke of Brunhild. Its intelligence was far above just any ordinary mouse, and sometimes it even felt like it could understand every word we were saying.

“Sure, we’ve been making a lot more progress than we used to lately, but we can’t keep relying on Snow to do all the hard work for us. Until we get strong enough to make it at least this far without Snow’s help, we’ll never be able to repay our debt to the grand duke.”

And in came Klaus, diligent as always. I did agree with what he was saying, though.

I had thought about trying to pay back His Majesty for saving us from having to become slaves… But I wasn’t about to get full of myself and think I could ever repay a lifelong debt like that. Still, I at least wanted to get as strong as I could so that I wouldn’t be left so helpless in any similar situations in the future.

“Snow? Where are you running off to?” Letting out only a couple of squeaks every now and then, Snow ran off as if telling us to follow. Seemed like Snow had found something.

The place we were lead to was a complete dead end. A pretty common occurrence in underground ruins like these, probably deliberately designed to fend off raiders and looters.

Still, why would the clever Snow bring us all the way to a dead end for no reason? I thought to myself.

“…Do you think there might be something hidden around here?” Fran asked as she squatted down in the corner nearby where Snow had been squeaking.

“Hey, look at this! One of these stones is sticking out from the rest! Do you think we’re supposed to press this bit in, like a button or a switch?”

At Fran’s words, Snow mimed an action of pushing down on the ground with both arms as if to confirm her suspicions.

Man, this really is one smart mouse, was something I had been thinking to myself a lot lately.

Fran pressed the stone into the ground and, following that, part of the wall of the dead end in front of us slid away and a treasure chest gradually rose up from below where the wall used to be.

“T-Treasure! It’s an actual, real treasure chest!”

Fran and I pulled the treasure box out from where it was so that we could open it, but just as we were about to flip the lid, Snow bit down on my hand.

“Ow!! What the hell was that for?!”

“Slow down, dumbass! What kind of idiot tries to open a treasure chest without at least checking for traps first?”

I had no words to respond with. Overexcited at seeing my very first real, unopened treasure chest, I had let the excitement get the better of me.

“You’re right. Sorry for yelling, Snow. And thanks for looking out for me.”

“Squeak~!”

After we’d all backed away to a safe distance, Klaus inspected the box before tying a rope to the lid and walking away to an equally safe distance. He tugged on the rope and flipped the lid open, and thankfully it didn’t set off any traps.

Inside the chest we found an old, yet splendid, sword, several knives, a silver necklace of some sort, and a pair of old leather boots.

It was the first real treasure we’d ever found, and it was all thanks to Snow.

Still, we couldn’t get too full of ourselves from just this alone. We’d all need to train in this dungeon so we could get stronger and stronger, and then maybe one day pay back the grand duke for all he had done for us.

We’d all be doing our best to become fully-fledged first-rate adventurers until that day came!