Chapter intermission 10
※Not from Satou's POV either this time .
People who aren't familiar with Yasaku the explorer, please look at the afterword .
This turned out oddly longer than planned, please excuse me as this is the last one before Chapter 16 .
"Drop dead, you crane fly!"
The arrow I shot hit the enemy right in the forehead .
"Yasaku, harpies aren't bugs y'know . "
"To begin wiiith, there's no bug called crane flyyy . "
Tan the magic swordsman cuts down the incoming harpy, then priest Kyura's pole mace crushes the fallen harpy's head .
--Seriously?
No, I'm sure it was in the line Ancestor King-sama said when he shot down a flying wyvern in the legend .
"You guys don't know that . Crane fly must exist . "
As if reacting to me, several harpies perching on top of the cliff sing all at once .
--LULULRRRUUULU .
"Yasaku, Charm incoming!"
"Ou! <<DISTURB>> Blue Magic Bow . "
Blue Magic Bow in my hand shined red, and the arrow shot from it demolished the harpies' charming voice .
Jeez, I ain't gonna fight my charmed friends in this narrow path .
"The ruin should be around here according to the map . . . "
"Stop fooling around and help, you!"
In this situation where we're being surrounded by a flock of harpies, lightning magician Sheriona nonchalantly unfolds the map .
"Ain't this the best time for your flashy magic to get to work!"
"Ah, no no, baaad . Yasakuuu, you should properly listen to what others are sayiiing . "
"We told you that the rocks in this gorge are combustible didn't we . "
The two women reproached me .
Felt like even the harpies joined in to ridicule me .
"Shut up, shut up, shut up!"
I shot down the harpies one after another with superhuman speed .
The flock finally ran away after I routed around 20 harpies .
"Ah, so tired . "
I lean my back on the ground, takes the water bag on my waist and moisten my mouth .
Arid wind of the gorge quickly dried my sweat, but it was far from pleasant due to the weird bad odor it carried .
I put my mana into desalinating magic tool and refill the water bag with water .
It's an expensive magic tool (consumable goods), but it's indispensable when exploring desolate places .
"Geez, mr . Kelten sure got us some pesky quest . "
I chew the salty hard dried meat, chowing down the dull tasteless meal .
We could have cooked harpy meat, but having a barbecue party at a place like this might invite some strong monster out of nowhere .
Only eccentric nobles and careless beginners would do such a suicidal act .
"You're one to talk . "
"Indeed . Yasaku, you were the one who jumped on this quest first thing first weren't you . "
I push away my past memory to oblivion and gaze at the magnificent gorge .
This place is a great canyon at the boundary of a territory under direct control of the king, far south-southwest from the Labyrinth City .
We came to this remote place by the request of Marquis Kelten in the Royal Capital .
If we don't get back to the Labyrinth City soon, people might think that we've kicked the bucket in the middle of this journey .
"Weird . The ruin's entrance should be around here according to the map . "
"You sure you're not missing any mark?"
Sheriona dropped the bag on her back, took out an ancient document and turned the pages .
I peeked from her side, but since I couldn't read ancient language at all, I only reconfirmed once .
◇
"Did you hear that?"
Tan muttered and dubiously looked around at the surroundings .
I strained my ears and heard a faint goat cry-like sound, "Meeee . "
I peeked below the cliff and found a stranded goatling on a ledge far down .
Since the wire I fitted on my arms can't reach it, I take out a rope from my knapsack and tie it to a mountain-side rock .
"What a whimsical guy . "
"Ain't it fine, we're free till we find a clue from the ancient document anyway right?"
Besides, if I save it when it's still young, it might come back when it's ripe for eating .
I wind the rope on my waist and get down the cliff .
That happened when I got halfway through .
The rock my right hand was grasping came off with a thud .
"Whoa . "
One bad thing after another, right at the same time, the foothold under my left leg collapsed .
I desperately look around while sliding down the steep .
Found a handy-looking dead tree slightly far away .
"There!"
I shoot the wire on my right hand at the dead tree .
--Missed .
"Goddammit!"
I twist my body and shoot the wire on my left hand .
--Missed, again .
The wire passed the dead tree in vain .
"■■■■ Cube"
I heard Tan's voice up above and then a transparent magical pedestal appeared below me .
I landed on the magical pedestal and managed to cling to it somehow .
"You saved my ass, Tan!"
"I can't keep it for long . Find a foothold quick!"
Looks like handsome men are also capable men .
Just like me .
Afterward, I got down the cliff without problem, and reached the panicking goatling .
While taking a deep breath, I roll back the useless wires, and refill the launcher magic tool .
" . . . Mee"
The goatling got scared when it saw me and edged back while crying feebly .
It's about to fall off the ledge .
"Good boy . Don't move okay . "
I approach it with coaxing voice, but there's no effect whatsoever .
Whenever the goatling stepped back, pebbles and soils fell off the ledge .
"It stands to reason, Yasaku's face is that of a carnivore . "
"He only ever eats meat in the city after all . "
I could hear Tan and priest Kyura's interruption above the cliff .
"Oh shut it!"
"Meeeeee"
I reflexively shouted, the goatling got scared and lost its footing on the ledge .
"Nmeeeee"
The goatling's scream that sounded like its last echoed in the gorge .
"Uh oh!"
I shot the wire on my arm at once .
"--Phew . "
Third time's the charm as the wire gets the job done this time .
I reel the wire while being careful not to break it and put the goatling back on top of the ledge .
" . . . Mee"
"Geez, you're one little trouble . "
I lie at the ledge while hugging the trembling goatling .
"The heck's that?"
I felt something odd from the rock face at the back .
"Yasaku! Did you find something!?"
"Wait a sec!"
I approach the rock cliff while holding the goatling .
"Branch growing out of a rock . . . . "
My stretched hand slipped through the rock .
"Whoa"
I pulled it back in a hurry, the hand under the glove was the same as always .
--It's an illusion .
I readied myself and plunged into the rock face first .
There's a shallow cave inside, with a hidden door even .
Looks like this is the entrance we're looking for .
I came back to the ledge and called my friends aloud .
◇
"You think Goatsuke safely got back home to his parents?"
I muttered while shooting down a vampire bat swooping down from the ceiling .
The ruin's ceiling is so high that even Tan's force magic [Magic Lamp]'s light can't reach it .
"He's fiine . We droove away the goat-eaaating harpiees . "
"You're right . Goatsuke must be jumping up and down energetically in the mountain now . "
When I was talking with priest Kyura while fighting, a point blank electric shock ran through .
"Oy, watch it!"
When I complained to lightning magician Sheriona, she pointed behind me with a nice smile on her face .
"Geh, Wall Slime . "
"Jeez, you two aren't beginners, don't lose your focus when exploring . "
"I'm ashamed of myself . "
"Sorryy . "
I took out a molotov out of my bag and hurled it at the slime, burning it .
There's no way one bottle of this is enough to burn the resistant slime down, but as the fire-hating slime gets burned, it runs away into a crack in the wall .
I thoroughly check the narrow passage while surmounting standard traps and poisonous scorpions .
"Suspended ceilings, pitfalls, filling the passage with electricity when you push a button, can't believe this guy put all these . "
"It seems like the designer of this place likes to make traps as a hobby . "
"There's even chain reaction traps . "
"Traps are nothing much . Yasaku will disarm them anyway--"
Like hell they are .
Just how nerve wrecking do you think disarming even one of them is .
"--The real problem is that this magic facility is functioning . "
"According to the legend, this should have been a magic facility from 600 years ago . Simply maintaining the fixture magic is one thing, but normally, things that consume mana like electric traps should have been halted . "
"It seeems, the monsters invaaaded through the ventilations and settled dooown on their own . "
True, the monsters we met so far were all slimes or small ones .
"I can feel magic power from below . "
"Tan, use detection magic . "
"Acknowledged . "
Believing Sheriona's intuition, I asked Tan who could use force magic to inspect it closely .
If there were someone who could use wind magic and the rare space magic, detecting things would be easier, but in a case like this, force magic that can be used to pull in mana isn't inferior to them .
After finishing the chant, Tan concentrated with eyes closed .
"It's quite deep . "
Sweat ran down Tan's face .
"Strong magic power . "
Tan opened his eyes and wiped the sweat using his sleeve .
"There's a chance that there's a large magic furnace usually used in a fort or a large airship, or perhaps a powerful monster . "
"You serious--"
The fact that the ruin hasn't died is a happy miscalculation, but in case of the latter, we might end up having to fight an unbelievably strong monster .
"What should we do, Yasaku? Go back?"
"Pshaw, 'course we're gonna see it to the end . "
We wouldn't have been explorers, if we turned tail and ran here .
People like that would have bought a farmland and slaves with money from exploring labyrinths, and lived their life in ease and comfort .
"Umu, let's go . Toward the unknown . "
Tan spoke unenthusiastically .
It doesn't sound like a sarcasm when a guy with a good face said that, awesome .
"Theen, leet's gooo . Sherii, which wayyy to the manaaa?"
"That way . "
We go toward where the magic power Sheriona sensed .
"It's wide, is that dark place a pitfall?"
While muttering, I put a fire on a torch I took from my waist and throw it at the darkness .
The torch drew an arch, rebounded on the floor once and fell into the deep darkness .
"Seems quite deep . Will the rope be long enough?"
"It appears we don't need it . "
"Yasaku, look at that . "
Sheriona and Tan pointed at the ceiling, toward an elevator-like thing .
We created footholds to reach the elevator using Tan's force magic [Cube], but for some reason I had to crawl into the elevator along those footholds .
Geez, these guys sure are rough with their leader .
The elevator's lever was a bit rusty, but I managed to make it work by putting a little power into it .
I lower the elevator to where my friends are waiting and descend down while taking turn to operate the handle lever .
"It's clear now that we're down here . "
"Yeah, even I know this . This vibration must be magic furnace . "
The lowest floor has three passages, we're advancing in one of them .
This passage is also full of traps just like the one above . We're pressing forward with similar hardships like before .
Since it was bothersome, excepts traps that activated by themselves, I only put marks on the places that became the switches for those traps while we passed them .
There were several rooms along the way, but there wasn't even a hint of treasures at all .
We arrived before a huge door before long .
"About time for something to appear . "
"Yeah, don't let your guard down . "
Just as we had guessed, there was a functioning magic furnace ahead .
The wall on one side has been broken, revealing rocks of the same color as the valley rock's .
Seems like there's no powerful monster we had feared .
"Weird . "
"Yea--"
We nodded at Sheriona's word as we looked up at the buzzing magic furnace .
The magic furnace here is a type that has a particularly high output .
That's fine .
Since the majority of magic furnaces are of this type .
However, in order to maintain this type of furnace, it needs to be feed with a large quantity of magic stones .
Even if it has a magic stone silo and an automatic loading function, it isn't something that fits a desolate place old enough to be called ruin .
"It appears that it has only been restarted recently . "
Sheriona reported after checking the back of the installation .
The magic stone silo connected to the automatic loading installation is huge, the current scale seems to be enough to operate the furnace for about three months .
Additionally, it seems there's a ladder hidden behind it .
It probably connects to the floor where we found the elevator .
"Then I guess the treasures have been taken away . . . "
"I wouldn't be so sure about that . "
Sheriona spoke full of confidence to reply the dejected me .
She tells me the answer when I look at her .
"The magic stones would have been taken away if that was the case . "
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