I was accidentally injured by God and I just want to be an ordinary person

Facing Ella's question, Camisia looked a little hesitant.

Originally, today's itinerary was to start the second round of the maze activity, but due to an incident that happened yesterday, this plan was changed. The result of the change was to skip the promotions and go directly to the finals, putting all the adventurers who advanced in the first round together.

The cause of this was a problem with the Demons. During yesterday's maze event, something like this happened in other mazes—for some unknown reason, at the end of the maze event, the Demon adventurers gave all their magic cores to their fellow Demons. This way, the Demon adventurers who were originally unable to advance, because of this "acceptance" method that seemed to be no different from cheating, squeezed out the adventurers of other races who were originally able to advance.

To address this situation, Camisia decided to add two new rules. The first prohibited the gifting of magic cores between adventurers. However, this rule was too flexible: What exactly constituted a gift? If two adventurers pretended to duel, and one deliberately lost, allowing the other to snatch the magic core, would that still count as a gift? If so, how could one be considered a loser? Questions like these led to the second rule.

"All adventurers are arranged to compete on the same stage."

Doing so can avoid the situation where only adventurers who advance to the finals by accepting gifted magic cores can participate in the slow screening. Although there is a possibility of gifting magic cores in this final game, even if this is done, the impact it can produce will be minimal.

The original maze activities were held in different locations within the same maze. This was a designation from the very beginning of the maze's construction, as it was used to isolate the various sections using spatial magic. Now that all adventurers have been thrown onto the same stage, the spatial magic used to isolate the various smaller mazes has been removed. This means the original stage has become much larger, and the maze's exit is no longer unique. Furthermore, all adventurers will no longer enter through the entrance all at once, but will instead be randomly teleported to any safe location within the maze by teleportation magic.

This way, the possibility of adventurers who had communicated with each other in advance giving each other magic cores could be avoided to the greatest extent possible. After all, in such a vast maze, it would be extremely difficult for small groups that had agreed in advance to meet each other, and even if they could meet, the number of people would definitely not be large. This would weaken the impact of the act of "accepting magic core gifts" on the competition.

Camisia came back to her senses from her thoughts and answered Ella.

"Because of a small accident, we can only arrange it like this."

"Is that so? A bigger stage actually benefits Lotte. Those magical consumables I gave you yesterday were only level 2 in power. Even if they were used on adventurers, they wouldn't cause irreparable damage. It might be painful, but Lotte wouldn't use them against adventurers below level 2, would she?"

"Well, if Lotte-chan wins, it will also bring more praise to Miss Ella."

After Camisia said this, Ella, who was sitting on the sofa and about to put the fruit into her mouth, was stunned for a moment, then turned her head stiffly like a rusty machine.

"Praise, praise? Does that mean I'll attract more attention because of this?"

"That's right, Princess."

“Ah, ahahaha… is that so…”

Ella stiffly pulled the muscles on one side of her face, revealing a smile that looked like she was crying.

Looking at Ella's strange expression, Camisia looked a little confused.

"Princess, what's wrong? You seem a little unhappy."

"No, no, Lotte's victory is the happiest thing for me, ha, haha..."

Camisia lowered her head and saluted Ella.

"Well, then I have to go take care of things next."

"Then I'll just wait here until the event is over. See you later."

Nodding to Camisia, Ella waved her hand slightly in a goodbye gesture. After bowing once more to Ella, Camisia left the room.

Leaning back on the sofa, Ella closed her eyes. She was the only one in the room now. Nina said she had to prepare some things, so she stayed in the royal city and didn't follow her out. When she asked Nina what she was doing, Nina was unusually vague and dodged her questions.

"Everyone seems to be hiding something from me lately. What is it? It feels like my daughter, who I've raised for so long, suddenly has a little secret from me. Ah~ah, this is so annoying."

There were still dozens of minutes left before the game. Feeling a little bored, Ella jumped up from the sofa, ignoring her messy blond hair, and began to fiddle with the exotic fruits in the fruit bowl.

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*Took a look and saw it's actually ranked sixth on the monthly list? I'll update tomorrow! _(:з」∠)_

Chapter 51 A Dreamy Coincidence

* August 9, 6186, 8:9.38 AM, Demon King's Capital, Mistydin, Artificial Labyrinth

The scent of the forest filled the air, and the soft light similar to that of the early morning shone through the woods onto the earth. Leafa, the elven adventurer, looked a little troubled and scratched her head.

Leafa is a member of the elven clan Malbrune, and also the captain of her adventurer team. In this maze event, her team is one of the rare adventurer teams that participates as a team. Although doing so will reduce the possibility of qualifying, her purpose in participating in the event is not to get rewards, and she herself does not have any extravagant expectations of this. She just wants to fulfill the wish of her two demon companions - to let one demon win, and on behalf of all demons, present the first place reward to the princess, Eleraya Nott Mistytin.

To do this, her team had to collect enough magic cores under the best possible conditions, and then give these magic cores to demon adventurers who had the hope of entering the finals. So, in the first round, as the team that spread the news that "the Demon King wanted the first prize", she and her two companions became the recipients of magic cores and entered the second round of selection.

This is the result of wandering on the third level of the maze.

"Ah~ah, how am I supposed to collect the magic cores by myself?"

As an elf's natural magic caster, Leafa's combat effectiveness is almost equal to 0 without the protection of warriors, and the current rules are simply the worst case scenario for her.

Sitting powerlessly on the stone, a white object appeared in my field of vision.

"Eh? Wait, are these traces of soldier ants?"

Leafa took a few steps forward, squatted down, and picked up a white stick-like object from the ground.

"This is—a soldier ant's leg? Have we fought soldier ants here before?... I didn't see any other corpses, so they must have been carried back to the nest by their companions."

Monsters like soldier ants are something that Leafa often sees in her hometown. Because soldier ants sometimes live on several roots extending from the World Tree, the elves will send people out to clean them up every once in a while.

The natural magic of the elves can create the illusion that the Ant King walks out of the ground, so that all the soldier ants will pour out of their nests because of the Ant King's appearance. If these soldier ants are gathered together and eliminated at once with powerful attack magic, the elves will not only clear out the soldier ants parasitic on the World Tree, but also get precious ant honey from the empty nests of the soldier ants. In addition, ant honey usually contains the magic cores of other animals, so it can be said to kill two birds with one stone.

Tying her slightly cumbersome blonde hair into a ponytail with a ribbon, Leafa began searching for the soldier ant nest along the unnatural spots on the ground.

"Although I don't have magic powerful enough to destroy the soldier ants, if I can lure them out, I can take the magic core used to brew ant honey, right?"

Leafa placed the staff she had been holding, which looked no different from a branch, in front of her, ready to start fighting at any time. Without enough combat power to fight the monsters, she could only choose this dangerous method to obtain the magic core.

"I hope it succeeds... If it fails, I hope the rescue teams can arrive quickly."

With a wry smile, Leafa chose the gamble of an adventurer.

……

*At 9:8 AM on August 9.34, 6186, in the Demon King's capital, Mistydin, an artificial maze

The strange feeling unique to teleportation magic slowly faded from her body. Lotte opened her orange-red eyes and looked around.

Although the temporary change in the rules made him a little confused, it was actually a good thing for him. The bigger the stage, the more suitable it was for his performance. This was undoubtedly true for long-range specialized arms.

"This is... the third floor?"

The fragrance of the soil mixed with the breath of nature made my whole body relax. The light shining through the forest was as abundant as yesterday. However, judging from the details, the place where I was now and the maze of yesterday should not be the same place. Maybe, as the temporary notice said, the small space of the entire maze has been combined into a vast stage. In the distance, I can see what looks like a cliff.

"That's really exaggerated, building such a huge maze just for an event."

After saying this, Lotte took out Hela. Although using Hela in an environment like a forest with many obstacles was not a good idea, being able to choose different response methods based on the opponent was more important than the disadvantage of being bulky. The magic gun's attack form was too simple.

Ten minutes have not passed since entering the maze. During these ten minutes, all adventurers cannot attack each other. In addition, the teleportation location will definitely be chosen in a safe place, so there is no need to worry about encountering danger.

The mind naturally thought of the soldier ant nest encountered yesterday. That kind of nest that spreads throughout the entire forest must be ruled by a top-level Ant King. If you can kill it, you will at least get a magic core of the orichalcum level. If you get some mithril-level magic cores as a supplement, the first place position should be no problem. There are very few adventurers who can exceed level 20 in the maze activities, so there are almost no people who can get orichalcum-level magic cores in previous competitions.

Of course, if Loti were to fight the Ant King one-on-one by herself, and the distance between the two sides could be extended to more than 3000 yards, the probability of winning would be 3 to 7, with Loti taking 3. If the distance was less than 1000 yards, then the probability of winning would be zero, which means 100% failure. The difference in level plus the physical condition, these factors determine the outcome of the game. What's more, the Ant King is surrounded by a group of soldier ants loyal to it. She could hardly deal with the small-scale sea of ​​soldier ants yesterday, let alone a large-scale riot that would even mobilize the Ant King.

Ok?

As if she remembered something, Lotte put her hand to her lips and bit her lower lip lightly, pretending to be thinking.

"If we could somehow trigger a riot among the soldier ants, the other adventurers would be affected as well. Hmm—but that would only trigger a riot on the third level at most. It doesn't seem to have any effect on the other levels?"

If you can cause trouble to other adventurers, then your chances of qualifying will also increase, but correspondingly, you will also waste time on preparations because of this riot.

"If only we could drag all the adventurers in here, um... chain rampage? Remember, the soldier ants' taboo is ant honey. First, use the ant honey to attract them, then prepare a magic speed-up circle along the way to escape, leading the soldier ants to other floors... Impossible. Getting the ant honey itself is impossible. Even using an exorcism barrier wouldn't be able to drive all the soldier ants out. Setting up a speed-up barrier along the escape route is a waste of time. By the time we prepare these things, the other adventurers should have already obtained their designated magic cores."

Then, as if she had thought of something, Lotte tapped her head lightly.

"Doing this seems to bring shame upon Miss Ella. What kind of unfair competitive behavior is this? Ah, never mind. Let's just slowly accumulate our strength through ordinary methods."

Chapter 52: Dangerous Waves

However, while Lotte was still searching for a higher point to map the forest's general location, the air on the third level of the maze began to shift. It was a restless, unsettling atmosphere. Not only was the air changing, but even the ground was trembling slightly, and in the distance, one could hear the rumble of falling trees.

"Um?"

The unusual changes made Loti look up at the sky. Countless bird monsters flew over her head, but they didn't seem to want to attack her. They flew while screaming, as if they were running away from something. Loti could even hear the fear in their screams.

"What exactly... happened?"

A tense atmosphere permeated the air. The only things that could cause the bird monsters to panic and flee en masse were a large-scale monster riot or a powerful monster leaving its nest. However, the latter was obviously impossible to appear in the maze of the third floor. To be so powerful, it must be at least at the level of orichalcum. And the difficulty of the third floor was set so that it was impossible for an orichalcum-level monster that could walk out of the ground at will to appear. Although the level of the Soldier Ant King was also orichalcum, that was because the King almost never walked out of the ground. If an orichalcum-level monster that could walk on the surface at will appeared, it could only mean that the demons were not serious when deploying the monsters - which was obviously impossible.

The restlessness in the forest continued, and the source of this tension seemed to be approaching Ruthie. The original slight restlessness had now become so severe that even the surrounding leaves began to tremble. Through the gaps between the trunks, one could clearly see those original trees that were dozens of meters tall being broken in half. No, to be precise, it was as if they were hit by a high-speed object from the roots, and flew sideways for a distance before collapsing. And this scene did not happen to just one tree. If you looked down from the sky above the third level of the maze, you could see something like a white sickle passing through the forest, and it did not leave even a bulge where it passed.

Seeing the broken trees, Ruthie would think of the march of the soldier ants yesterday.

"Could it be that someone triggered a rampage among the entire third layer of soldier ants? There are at least thousands of galvanic and mithril-level monsters... How, on earth, did they manage to do that in such a short time?"

No, now is not the time to think about this. The most important thing to do now is to escape.

In the face of numbers, his current strength is completely insufficient. If he wants to repel a monster of this level alone, he must be someone who has surpassed the heroic realm like Miss Camisia.

In fact, Lotte's body had already taken action before she even thought, and began to flee in the direction of the advancing tide of soldier ants.

—Concealment magic? No, it would definitely be exposed to the soldier ants' excellent sense of smell. The only magic that can achieve complete concealment is Miss Ella's non-chanting magic. So, is speed the only option?

Her lavender twintails and green skirt fluttered as she ran, and Lotte gave a wry smile.

If speed could solve this problem, we wouldn't have been surrounded by soldier ants yesterday. Human flesh, whether in explosive power or endurance, can't possibly defeat a monster. While it's possible to shatter windstones for a brief burst of acceleration, the force of windstones can't be controlled freely. While I'd used them to move horizontally in the air against the silver wolves before, that was without obstacles. If I used windstones to accelerate in an environment like this, with countless obstacles, I'd likely lose my fighting capacity before the soldier ants even arrived.

The image of the black-clad demon adventurer emerged unconsciously in his mind. If that adventurer came, he might be able to resist the tide of soldier ants. With that kind of nimble movements and unparalleled strength, either of them has reached the pinnacle of a warrior, and maybe he can become a hero in the future.

Wait, remember Miss Camisia said that adventurers over level 25 aren't allowed to join this event? While a level 20 warrior could easily swipe away the soldier ants with a simple swing of a greatsword, that kind of speed of appearance and departure, unless using both flight and acceleration magic, is something only Miss Camisia could achieve among all the warriors I've seen. But Miss Camisia isn't someone who's reached the heroic realm, but someone who's transcended it. Could it be that the black-clad adventurer has already reached that realm and concealed the magic circle used to test their level?

The roar of the soldier ant tide continued.

She couldn't think about it any more. If she didn't focus all her attention on escaping—Lotte turned back to check the distance between herself and the swarm of soldier ants—she would be caught up in about three minutes.

The best way now is to find the passage leading to the second floor of the maze. If he can run to the second floor which is full of caves, he can rely on the power of Hela's explosive bomb to block the entrance at the most vulnerable part of the cave. Even if he can't completely stop the soldier ants' advance, he can at least slow down their speed. And the most important thing is that he still doesn't know why the soldier ants are rioting, which can trigger this chain of rampages that is infinitely close to a disaster. If it wasn't a sneak attack on the Ant King, then someone must have stolen the ant honey used to cultivate the larvae. But either of these two things is difficult for adventurers of this level to do.

Running rapidly, leaping over fallen, rotten tree trunks, and crossing deep pits, Loti moved through the forest like a leaping elf. Unlike Ella, Loti wasn't physically weak. On the contrary, although she didn't have solid muscles, the effects of her training had already reached the passing level of a normal warrior.

While searching for the entrance to the second floor, pay attention to whether there are other adventurers in front of the ant colony. If there are other adventurers, then the first goal is not to find the entrance, but to get away from that adventurer, because that adventurer is very likely the one who caused the soldier ant riot. As long as you stay away from that person, the tide of soldier ants will not chase you.

Unfortunately, Lotte didn't hear any sounds that might have been from adventurers. Only the rumbling sound of the advancing tide of soldier ants mixed with the groaning of the primeval forest echoed across the earth.

Getting closer...

He couldn't use Hela to launch an attack to stop it. If any attack-like behavior occurred, the soldier ants' attention would most likely be diverted to him, and then things would become much more troublesome. However, if he didn't stop it, he would be caught up in a minute at most.

The dilemma was: should he gamble that he could find the entrance to the second floor in the next minute, or risk incurring the hatred of the soldier ants and launching an attack?

"It's a bad choice to not have a sure outcome, huh? Are those... other adventurers?"

"Hello--!"

At the cliff at the end of the forest, a group of people dressed as adventurers appeared in sight. They stood in a row with crude barricades made of wood in front of them.

One of them, who looked like the leader, waved to Luti who was galloping.

"Come here quickly! Leave those soldier ants to us!"

Chapter 53: Adventurer's Defense Line

With a place that seemed to be able to serve as a shelter, Lotte no longer paid attention to finding an exit and ran towards the group of adventurers that had at least forty people.

After quickly passing through the forest, Luty became alert and came to the group of adventurers. The leader was a divine adventurer with silver hair.

"You, are you?"

Luti, panting slightly, questioned the adventurer before he could speak. Although she had chosen to trust these adventurers, she couldn't let her guard down. She had chosen to come here because it was easier to deal with the tens of thousands of soldier ants and fewer than a hundred adventurers than the previous two options. Furthermore, it looked as if these adventurers were aiming to deal with the soldier ants.

Waving the staff in his hand, the young man who led the Divine Clan looked quite confident.

"We are adventurers who organized ourselves to stop the soldier ants."

"Spontaneous organization? How did you gather so many people?"

Although there were indeed many adventurers entering the maze at the same time, compared to the vast area of ​​the maze, it was almost impossible to organize so many people in such a short time.

The young man from the God-man tribe turned around and pointed to a cave at the foot of the mountain not far behind him.

"This cave is the entrance to the second floor of the maze. We all met here while fleeing the tide of soldier ants. We all agreed that intercepting the soldier ants here would be faster than running away to obtain the magic core. Although it's very dangerous, those gathered here are all excellent adventurers around level ten. Even if we can't hold out for long, using the cave to escape after collecting the magic core is a good option."

“Is that so…”

It seems that this adventurer from the God-man race is aware that his group cannot hold out for much longer.

"Will you join us? The magic cores will be divided equally among everyone, okay?"

The young man from the God-man race glanced at Hela, who was carried on Luti's back, with a look of anticipation in his eyes.

Feeling the vibrations coming from the ant tide not far away, Luti thought for a moment and smiled at this divine being.

"As much as I'd like to join you, I don't think this will work out, so could you please let me go first?"