Chapter 7: Makoto Takatsuki Studies Elemanti
The elementals can’t be seen.
The elementals’ voices can’t be heard.
The elementals are whimsical.
The elementals are everywhere. Even now, they dance right under your nose.
There is but one way to speak to them. A way that harkens back to an age long ago, when the Titans and the elementals conversed freely. It is an ancient tongue hailing from the age of myths. A language that survived, only in part, thanks to this very book: My First Elemanti! Learn Right Away in Just One Minute a Day!
“...You’d think they woulda put some effort into that title, though.”
I flipped the pages, reading through the textbook Mary had lent me as I chilled on the surface of a canal that flowed behind the adventurer’s guild. The guild used it as a training area, but I was here because the book said that water elementals were found in greater numbers near the water.
“Might as well give some of this a try,” I figured.
The sounds of the Elemanti language were pretty complex, so it was hard to get the words to come out right. Without proper pronunciation, the elementals wouldn’t even hear you. However, when they did, the effects were extraordinary—you could change the weather and bring about a downpour large enough to cause a flood. There’d been plenty of human elementalers a thousand years ago, so I wondered why the practice had died out.
“Ah, Makoto! What are you doing?!”
Emily had found me. I remembered that she might’ve said something about me needing to spend another week resting. Which I hadn’t really been doing.
“Just readin’ a book.”
“You’re clearly using your Walk on Water spell!” she said, pointing out that I was lying on top of the water’s surface.
“C’mon, is this really that big a deal? And where’s Jean?” I asked the second question in an attempt to change the subject.
“He has the day off from adventuring. Pretty much nobody but you could stand hunting goblins every single day. Now get out of there!”
No fooling her. Oh well. I gave up and returned to solid ground.
“I could’ve sworn that I told Lucy to keep you out of trouble,” she said with exasperation.
“Lucy’s out training.” She’d been putting in a lot of work lately. Guess she also wanted to adventure together again as soon as we could.
“Ah, I see,” Emily said. She then peered forward. “By the way, what book are you reading?”
“A book on Elemanti.”
“Neat. Think you can get the hang of elemental magic?” she asked. “Oh, but don’t go testing it out any time soon. Wait until you get better.”
“I just started studying the other day, so I’m not gonna learn it that quickly.”
“Hm. Still, elemental magic is a pretty niche field. I’ve never met anyone who uses it.”
Sure is, yeah. There wasn’t a single practitioner in the entire Macallan adventurer’s guild. I’m still not sure whether I should be impressed by that or not. Either way...
“The pronunciation is really complex. That’s probably why it’s a dead language.”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah. For example, take something like ‘Water, Flow’. Even a phrase that short would be pronounced as ‘#@||?&!^*}{**#%~$&%+!! <Water, Flow>’ in Elemanti.” I casually read an incantation from the book aloud.
“...I’m sorry,” Emily said, “I didn’t quite catch that.”
“I know, right? I’m tellin’ ya, this is gonna be a pain to lear—”
I didn’t get the chance to finish that sentence. A giant splash of water poured over my head, interrupting me. Once the dripping rivulets had cleared, Emily and I were left standing there, sopping wet.
“Hey, uh, Makoto?” Emily asked. She was glaring at me. Her bright chestnut hair was now drenched to a dark brown, and her billowing cleric garments were soaked, revealing every curve of her body.
Whew, lookin’ good, Emily. Wait, no, Makoto, don’t get sidetracked!
“Sorry...” An apology was probably a good start. I definitely didn’t expect the elemental spell to activate that easily.
“Argh, what’d you do that for?! Jean just bought these clothes for me! And now they’re drenched!”
“Er, really, I’m sorry. Just wait, I’ll dry them off in a second.”
“Come on, you can’t dry them off that qui—”
Water Magic: Evaporate.
I gently touched Emily’s clothes and drew the water from the fabric. Overdoing it could damage the material, so this magic had to be used with care.
“Wh-What was that?!”
A few seconds later, Emily’s outfit was dry.
“How?” Emily asked in confusion.
“I dried you off with water magic. Simple stuff.”
“There’s no way that was simple! I’ve never seen a spell like that in my life. Wait, whoa. Even my underwear feels like it’s fresh off the clothesline.”
That was an announcement I didn’t need to hear. Now I was starting to blush.
“Phew,” Emily said, “your magic really is something.”
“Uhh, sorry for whatever that something is?”
Emily just sighed and ran her fingers through her hair.
“Whatever you say. Anyway, you can keep reading, but no practicing magic! You’re going to take this week to rest.”
And with that, Emily left. Apparently, she let me off the hook for getting her soaked. That was a relief.
Now that I was alone, I gave it some thought. A large flood had dumped itself on our heads. Where had it come from? The volume of water had been far beyond anything I was capable of generating, but at the same time, I hadn’t been controlling the water from the canal either. The makeup of that water also seemed different from the stuff found in Macallan.
“Did I use mana from the elementals?” Just like that? With a single sentence?
I peeked around. Emily was long gone.
“#@||?&!^*}{**#%~$&%+!! <Water, Flow>”
In an instant, a huge expanse of water appeared above my head.
“Water Magic: Control Water.” I grabbed it with my magic and formed a giant waterball.
Then an idea flashed within my mind.
C-Could I really use this in the way I was hoping? Could the elementals generate water for me to control with my magic? If so, I might be able to fight without any water nearby! O-Okay, I was definitely trying this out on my next adventure!
“O Goddess, thank you for this blessing.”
No need to thank me. Now go forth, young one. A vision of the goddess wearing a self-satisfied grin popped into my mind.
Lucy stopped by as I was praying.
“Makoto? What’re you doing?”
“Praying to the goddess.”
“...Huh.” Lucy seemed to be in a bad mood. Was she still holding a grudge about what happened yesterday?
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“So, something funny happened,” Lucy said coldly. “Emily was telling me you used your magic to get her dripping wet. Care to explain?”
“What?!” Emily? Didn’t you let me off the hook?!
“Listen... You’re too old to go around splashing water on girls as a prank.” Oh no. Lucy didn’t have anger in eyes. She looked disgusted.
“It’s not like that!”
It’d been a while since my Calm Mind skill wasn’t strong enough to keep me from panicking.
◇ Lucy’s Perspective ◇
“Good morning, Mako—”
I was behind the guild building. Makoto had been training here often, so I decided to say hi. However, I stopped myself when I saw him holding his dagger with both hands and kneeling in prayer. I decided to wait for him to finish.
Don’t want to disturb him, I thought.
Makoto was a devout believer in his goddess. Every time he defeated a goblin or did well on a quest, he’d always be sure to thank her. That said, I’d never once seen him go to church.
“After all, Makoto,” I’d asked one time, “you believe in the water goddess Eir, don’t you?”
“Huh?” he’d answered with a scowl. “Heck no I don’t.”
I must’ve brought up some unpleasant memories. He’d never told me what had happened, though.
“Good morning, Lucy,” Makoto said once he’d finished his prayers and turned my way. Every time he did that, I wondered how he always knew where I was without ever looking at me.
“Morning, Makoto. Emily told me to keep an eye on you. Just so you stay out of trouble.”
Well, I was also there because I wanted to spend some time with him.
“I’m already back to normal. Totally fine,” Makoto said with a half-hearted smile. He liked to train during every spare moment he had, so he must have been pretty unsatisfied with the cleric’s orders.
“Why not give your body a break every now and then? I’ll bet you’re not hurting for money now that your reward for hunting that griffin has come in.”
“Hmm... Well, maybe I could go shopping,” he conceded.
“Can I tag along?”
“Sure, of course.”
Oh? Could this be a date? No, no, we’re a party, so this is perfectly natural!
“So,” I sighed, “I guess we’re at the weapon shop...”
The first stop on Makoto’s shopping trip was indeed a weapons store.
“Something wrong with that?”
“Well, nothing’s wrong with it...”
Makoto looked around at all the items, but didn’t actually buy anything. He said that window shopping was plenty of fun on its own.
I’d hoped we could go to a café or a clothing store. When I asked, Makoto actually agreed to check some out. We spent a while loitering around the city, then after, we left through the northern gate and strolled along the bank of Lake Chimay.
“Lucy, you’re from Springrogue, right?” Makoto asked. This surprised me a bit—he rarely asked questions.
“Yeah, my hometown is one of the little elf villages in Springrogue.”
“Think you could show me around some time?”
Where was this coming from?
“S-Sure,” I agreed, “but it’s a rural place with nothing to do.”
“But there are a bunch of elves there... It sounds like a dream!”
Ah, I realized. His usually calm expression had vanished, and there was now a fire in his eyes. Makoto had a side to him that rose to the surface every now and then—a weird side.
“Let me be clear: you’d better not make any moves on the elf girls. Unlike you humans, elves have something called modesty.”
“C’mon, I’m not some pickup artist.”
Well, I didn’t think he was one either, but it was rumored that some otherworlders exhibited the bad trait of being womanizers. When I brought this up to Makoto, he pressed his palm to his face.
“Ah, yeah, I could see Kitayama or Okada being like that.”
It seemed like he knew some people who fit the bill.
That aside, it felt a bit strange to be a newbie mage in a party with a real-life otherworlder. News that the Hero of Light had come from another world, accompanied by a large group of outsiders, had caused quite the commotion a little over a year ago. At the time, rumors of the Great Demon King’s revival had blanketed this world in doom and gloom, but the arrival of the otherworlders had blown all of that away.
Even though Makoto acted humble, I thought he was extraordinary. He’d slain powerful monster after powerful monster, though he’d only been in this world for slightly over a year. He was even setting records for the quickest rise through the ranks of the Macallan adventurer’s guild. I glanced over to that calm, composed face as he manipulated seven waterballs in the air...
“Hey!” I scolded. “Emily told you not to do magic training!”
I take my eyes off him for one second...
“Too bad! I’m tired of walking!”
Makoto ran atop the surface of Lake Chimay. Hey, walking on water is cheating!
“Get back here, you!” I shouted.
“Just a little bit! Only a little!” Makoto pleaded as he blew massive water splashes into the air, forming a beautiful rainbow. And he did all of it without uttering a single incantation. What do you even say to that?
“A ha ha ha ha! Yahoo!”
He was striking at the surface of the lake with massive bundles of water generated via elemental magic, which was a technique he’d apparently learned just the other day.
The aloof adventurer I knew was long gone; in his place, I saw a child with a new toy.
“Maybe it’s stress relief for him?” I wondered, staring at his playtime from atop a ridge. Looking at him long enough somehow infected me with a little bit of his joy.
“Were either of you two listening when I said that Makoto had to rest?!”
Word had spread quickly about the pair of mages partying like idiots by Lake Chimay, so of course, Emily gave us an earful that night.
Um, I didn’t do anything, though?
◇ Makoto Takatsuki’s Perspective ◇
“My not-so-esteemed Tackie!”
An empty beer mug slammed onto the table with a thud.
Y-Yikes... My mild-mannered Fujiyan was actually angry. When was the last time I’d seen this side of him? Oh yeah, it was the time I’d erased his save data by accident. Ah, that takes me back... Wait, this is no time for nostalgia.
How had it come to this?
◇
“Is Mr. Makoto Takatsuki here today’h?”
It was a typical afternoon on a typical day. I was eating lunch in the cafeteria of the adventurer’s guild when the bunny-eared clerk I’d met at Fujiyan’s shop came by.
“Makoto? He’s over there,” Mary answered as she guided the girl over to me.
“Well, well, well, Makoto, I didn’t know you were friends with such a cute bunny-eared girl,” said Mary once they’d arrived. Why is she suddenly sitting down at our table? Doesn’t she have a job?
“Hey, it’s been a while,” I said, greeting the girl with the rabbit ears.
“Hi there, Mr. Takatsuki, friend of the boss’s. I’m Nina from the Fujiwara Trading Company’h.”
Ah, so her name was Nina.
“You got business with Makoto, or what?” asked Lucy.
C’mon, be a little friendlier. Lucy could learn a thing or two from Nina’s smile!
“Oh! You must be Mr. Takatsuki’s partner, Lucy’h! The one with the amazing fire magic skills.”
“Oh? Wh-Why yes, that would be me. You’ve got quite the discerning eye.” The sudden compliments made Lucy turn bashful. Yep, she was easy to please.
“Oh, making the acquaintance of a future high sorceress? The honor is all mine. Here, I brought a gift to commemorate the occasion.” Nina then handed over some kind of candy. She’d even brought some for Mary.
“Whoa! What is this? It’s delicious!”
“It’s so sweet! I’ve never tasted something so wonderful!”
Lucy and Mary were gushing between themselves about the flavor. I had a feeling it was chocolate. Well, I suppose there’s nothing a merchant like Fujiyan wouldn’t have in his inventory.
“So, what are you here for?” I asked Nina.
“Oh, right! I came with a message from the boss. He wants you to come to the Catgirl Cantina tonight for dinner!”
“Ah, the usual,” I responded. It was a restaurant where everyone had cat ears, so Fujiyan was a regular there.
“Will it fit into your schedule’h?”
“Well, I haven’t seen him in about a month, so I think I’d like to say hi again. I’ll be there.”
“Great to hear. The boss’ll be thrilled’h.”
“Wait, then what am I supposed to do?” Lucy pouted as she turned to me. I figured that having different plans every now and then wouldn’t be a big deal, but that look of hers didn’t seem to agree...
“If she’d like, your friend Lucy is welcome to join us,” Nina suggested.
“I wanna go tooooo,” said Mary. Even she was butting in.
“Mary, don’t you have work?” I asked.
“Overtime, even...”
“Well, are you sure that joining us is a good idea, then?”
“Oh, Makoto, how could you be so cold?!” Mary whined as she returned to her desk.
“All right then, I’ll be waiting at the shop,” Nina called out before leaving.
Lucy tugged on my sleeve. “Hey, hey.”
“What?”
“I never knew you were friends with the president of the Fujiwara Trading Company!”
“Lucy, you know Fujiyan?”
“Who doesn’t?” she gushed. “Word on the street is that he’s closed countless deals in only a year and even has connections with the lords of Macallan! He finds dirt on any dealer who gets in his way and shuts them up, plus he knows the town’s seedy underbelly inside and out. He’s the number one man that you don’t want to cross!”
“Wow...” I had no idea. Fujiyan had never said anything beyond “Oh, it’s nothing much!” whenever I’d asked him about how he was getting on in Macallan. I guess he’d been using his cheat skill to steadily climb the social ladder.
“Anyway, how about we train until the evening?” I suggested.
“Aww, can’t we get a break today?” griped Lucy.
“Hmm, guess I’ll just train alone.”
“I was just kidding! I’ll work hard too!”
And so, we both trained intensively until nightfall.
“Cheers!”
It was evening at the Catgirl Cantina, and we all raised our glasses and shouted a toast. I had brought along Lucy today. Nina, the store clerk, was also here. Was she being courteous by showing up, just so Lucy wouldn’t be the only girl here?
This restaurant had delicious food and many varieties of drinks. Also, everyone working here was cat-eared (specifically, they were beastmen). I didn’t quite see the appeal of cat ears, but I had to admit that the waitresses were all cute, with or without them.
The restaurant was as packed as ever, but we were guided to a large table in the back. Fujiyan was apparently such a regular customer that he’d earned VIP status.
“A-A pleasure to meet you. I’m Lucy, a mage.” This was a rare sighting of Lucy actually embarrassed.
“A pleasure to meet you as well,” Fujiyan responded. “I am the man known as Fujiwara, but you may call me ‘Fujiyan’ as my esteemed Tackie already does.”
“Nina’s my name’h. I work for the Fujiwara Trading Company, but I’m also an’h adventurer’h. Silver rank, for the record.” Nina flashed us her silver-colored badge as proof.
“That’s amazing...”
“Oh no, it’s nothing much’h.”
On the contrary, it’s said that the one obstacle to climbing adventurer ranks was the silver rank. You could make it up to around iron rank if you kept at it long enough, but reaching silver and beyond required defeating a specific amount of highly dangerous monsters. She might have been humble, but Nina was undoubtedly strong.
“We’re both bronze rank,” I said. “Got a lot to improve on, huh, Lucy?”
“I-I have a king rank skill, by the way!”
C’mon, no need to dig in your heels over it. There was no information that didn’t make it to Fujiyan’s ears, so Lucy had to know she wasn’t fooling anyone, right?
“Ah, but I must commend you, my esteemed Tackie,” Fujiyan said. “I’m impressed that you formed a party with such a beautiful elven mage.”
“Now, now, this way, Ms. Lucy,” ushered Nina.
“What? Ah, thank you.”
Fujiyan settled into his seat as Nina began pouring a drink. Lucy was soon downing anything she was offered; oh dear, she wasn’t gonna last long.
Meanwhile, I was stuffing my face with everything on the table: bone-in cuts of meat, pasta drenched in tomato sauce, garlic toast, and more. Yep, this place had some good food.
“Makoto, I’m tellin’ ya, you’re as cold as ice!”
Lucy was drunk. Her reddened cheeks and nose were quite alluring. Usually, her drinking sessions ended in one of two ways: she’d either fall asleep or get aggressive. Tonight appeared to be the latter.
“Every day, every single day, you just train and train like you never get bored of it. That’s why you got Mary chattin’ you up.”
“I, uh, don’t think she has anything to do with this.” Mary was just being nice.
“But I’ve been hearing rumors about you two!” Nina chimed in. “Defeating a griffin as a party of bronze ranks is an achievement—a first in the Macallan adventurer’s guild’h history’h!”
“Nah, that was just a fluke,” I said. “Besides, I got burn wounds from it.”
“Burn wounds?! I had no idea this world had griffins that breathed fire!” Nina exclaimed.
“There sure are. Scary, huh?”
“Makotooo, don’t lie to herrr.” Lucy interjected to refute the excuse I’d made up on the spot. I thought it would’ve come off as lame if they knew I’d been burned by my partner’s own magic.
We spent the night having fun chats just like that, but when the subject turned to the recent friends I’d made, Jean and Emily, Fujiyan’s expression grew grave. Wait, did I say something I shouldn’t have?
Fujiyan swiftly chugged the remainder of his ale. He remained silent.
“B-Boss?” Nina probed with a concerned look.
“Uh, Fujiyan?” I asked my suddenly reserved friend.
Lucy...was asleep. Guess she’d passed out.
“My not-so-esteemed Tackie!”
An empty beer mug slammed onto the table with a thud.
“Y-Yes?”
“Why have you not invited your humble compatriot to join your party?!”
“What?” Was that the reason he was mad?
“I’ve been waiting all this time! You said you would form a party once you grew strong, did you not?!”
“I-I might have...”
“The boss’s been fretting all this time, wondering when his Tackie would come around’h!” Nina joined in.
Whoops. Yeah, that’s definitely my bad.
“I must say, all the waiting has made me quite lonely!”
“Sorry, sorry,” I apologized. “I was thinking I’d go for it once I leveled up just a little bit more.”
“Mr. Takatsuki, your level is high enough to clear a simple dungeon’h!”
True, fair enough. I guess I’ve just been gathering experience out of habit.
“Fujiyan,” I said, “welcome aboard. Let’s form a party together.”
“Well now!” Fujiyan responded, giving me a firm handshake. “Just the words I’ve been waiting to hear!”
Oh, I kinda made this decision without asking Lucy. I hope she won’t have a problem with it...but hey, it’ll work out.
“My head hurts...”
Lucy was clutching her forehead as she battled a hangover. She definitely drank too much last night.
“Think you’ll want to rest for the day?” I asked.
“I’m good... I can...head out...”
She sounded like she could barely finish a sentence. Not sure I’d call that “fine.”
“You can just take it easy.”
“I don’t wanna!” she whined. “’Cause then you’re gonna say it’s more fun to party with Fujiyan and Nina, and then you’re gonna throw me away!”
Lucy shook her head as she complained. I’d already told her that I wouldn’t do that, though...
“Okay, then, let’s get going.”
“Augh...” Lucy groaned. She walked alongside me like a zombie on the way to our meeting place.
Today, we were assembling at the southern gate.
“This way, my esteemed Tackie!”
“Hi there, Mr. Takatsuki, Ms. Lucy. Looking forward to adventuring with you’h!”
Nina and Fujiyan had arrived before us. Fujiyan was dressed in his typical merchant attire, while Nina was lightly armored. There was just one thing I had to ask:
“Nina, do you not have a weapon?”
“My trusted Nina here is a brawler. Her fists and legs are her weapons.”
Ah, that made sense. Beastmen had superb physical abilities, so I’d heard that they were plenty strong, even when unarmed.
“Anyway, hope we have a good adventure out there,” I said.
“Adventure...” Lucy repeated with absolutely zero energy. She was definitely hungover.
“Okay then, let’s get going’h!” Nina said.
And with that, we began walking. Today’s course took us through the southern forest. Unlike the Great Forest, the monsters in the southern forest were weak, so we proceeded while swatting away the odd giant rat or horned rabbit that came along.
“So, Nina, you’re from Great Keith?”
“Yes, I am’h. That’s where the stars aligned and I met the boss.”
“Indeed. She’d lost a bet and was subsequently forced to be a gladiator in their colosseum. As a slave, I might add.”
“Hold on! Boss, you promised you wouldn’t talk about that’h!”
Nina was now frantically waving her hands. Did she have a gambling problem? I had to say that I wouldn’t have guessed it; Nina seemed like the kind of person to have it all together.
“Oh, Nina...” Lucy looked at her with pity.
“And, let me guess: Fujiyan bought you because he can’t resist bunny ears,” I said. Putting the situation into words made it sound kinda seedy.
“Hey, he really saved my behind back then’h! Great Keith doesn’t treat slaves too kindly.”
“So, Mr. Fujiyan,” Lucy asked, “why did you pick Nina? That country has plenty of beastmen slaves, doesn’t it?”
I didn’t know much about Great Keith, so I had no idea about its population. Huh. So, I guess there were a lot of slaves there. Not that I’d ever buy one. Incidentally, I didn’t see too many slaves here in Roses. Maybe there was a difference in culture?
“I know, right’h?” said Nina, appearing to share the same question. “We’d never met before, but he took a liking to me at first sight. He won’t tell me what it is that he saw in me either. But when the boss bought me and freed me from slavery and my debt, I decided to follow him for life’h.”
“Ha ha ha... Well, it was pure coincidence, you see.” Fujiyan tried to dodge with a vague answer, but I was certain he’d read Nina’s mind back then. Yeah, that part of his Waifu Game Player skill sure was handy.
“By the way, Fujiyan, where are we headed?”
“Wait and be amazed!” Fujiyan exclaimed as his eyes lit up. “You can choose to believe it or not, but there’s an undiscovered dungeon in this area!”
“Really?” Lucy said in surprise. “Macallan has a dungeon this close that nobody’s ever found?”
“Is it that much of a surprise?” I asked.
“I mean, Macallan has the Water Temple and good beer, so it’s known for having a ton of adventurers, from beginners to veterans. They say that every dungeon in the vicinity has been picked clean.”
“Ah, really? I’m impressed you found it, Fujiyan.”
“I simply had a dream that good fortune would come my way if I investigated the southern forest.”
“A dream? You trusted a dream you had?” I asked. It sounded pretty fanciful for the Fujiyan I knew.
“Since becoming a merchant, I’ve taken to investigating everything my intuition and curiosity lead me to,” Fujiyan boasted. “I must admit that I’ve had many misses, but it appears that we’ve hit the jackpot with this one.”
“But won’t a dungeon that nobody’s entered be dangerous, since we won’t know how difficult it is?” Lucy asked. She seemed concerned. Honestly, so was I.
“No need to worry about that’h,” Nina reassured us. “I took a look at it myself beforehand’h.”
“You did, Nina?”
“Yep. I explored it on the boss’s orders’h. I didn’t see any tough-looking monsters, so I bet two bronze rankers like you could handle it alone’h.”
“Really rollin’ out the red carpet for us, huh?” I was right—having Fujiyan around was gonna be like playing on easy mode.
Just then, Fujiyan’s eyes met mine.
“Well, nothing wrong with playing on easy mode every now and then, eh? Your adventure has seemed quite challenging, after all.”
Oops, he read my mind.
“You’ve got a point. It’s been rough taking on ogres and getting attacked by griffins out of nowhere.” Guess I was gonna let Fujiyan give me a breather.
After walking a bit farther through the forest, I saw the entrance to a small cave, hidden by boulders and trees. Yeah, something like this would be hard to notice.
“So, this is the dungeon?” I asked. At a glance, it looked like a regular cave.
“Oh, you’ll have your answer once you step inside. Onward!”
Fujiyan was pumped. For whatever reason, the inside of the cave was lit with lamps.
“I wonder what these lamps are for,” I said, voicing a concern.
“Oh, Makoto,” sneered Lucy. “It’s basic adventuring. The entrances to dungeons are made to be easy to progress through, in order to lure parties deeper.”
“Huh, I see.” What can you say? It’s a fantasy world.
“In the event of a living, naturally formed dungeon, that is,” Fujiyan corrected. “This dungeon, however, appears to be man-made.”
“What?”
C’mon, Lucy. Are you really gonna be wrong after acting so confident?
“It’s probably a research facility made by a mage long ago or something’h,” Nina explained. “The owner might not be around, but the facility is alive enough to be a hideout for monsters’h.”
Once we proceeded deeper into the cave, a passage appeared, made entirely of crystal.
I had just entered my first dungeon since coming to this world. After just about a year and a half. I wasn’t actively avoiding them per se, but I’d just never given one a shot.
Macallan had plenty of dungeons in the vicinity. There was the Nest of Kobolds, containing nothing but weak monsters, and the Wayward Woods, which was a forest so deep that it became a dungeon on its own. Another was the Forest of Fiends, which housed monsters many times stronger than those in the Wayward Woods, despite the two dungeons being right beside one another. Also nearby was the Cavern of Tundra Tigers, a dungeon that was blanketed in ice and had plenty of water-type monsters. And the list went on.
These were all dungeons that adventurers between stone and iron rank would consider attempting. Since we were bronze rank, we’d probably be fine in a dungeon like this, so long as we didn’t advance too deep. But still...
I’ve heard the stories, I thought. There are tons of beginner adventurers who never return from the first dungeon they enter.
“Oh, Makoto, you worry too much,” Lucy would say. “Makoto, you could totally handle this,” Mary would say. They were a little sick of how excessive my caution was. Well, so what? I was still a beginner. Or, so I would half-heartedly protest. But now... I had the feeling that maybe I should have come here sooner.
“What a view,” I remarked.
“It’s so pretty,” Lucy followed up.
After a bit of walking past the cave’s small entrance, we were met with a dungeon that was covered—floor, walls, and ceiling—with crystal. I had been expecting some dark cavern, but those expectations were suddenly upended. The entire dungeon emitted a faint light, giving the interior a surreal aura.
“My, this is quite something.”
“Is this rare for you too, Fujiyan?”
“Indeed it is. The typical dungeon tends to be rather dreary.”
Apparently, my first dungeon was actually a rare find.
“This must’ve been made by a powerful mage’h,” Nina said. “All the enemies in here are magical creatures.”
“Magical creatures?” I repeated. For real? That’d be a problem.
Magical creatures were, as the name implied, creatures created by magic. Think golems and the like. And a lot of them had a high resistance to magic.
“Will my beginner magic work on any of them?” I wondered. I had a feeling that weak spells wouldn’t even scratch these monsters.
“Don’t worry, Makoto. My magic’s enough to fry ’em!”
“Honestly, dealing with your magic inside a dungeon sounds just as scary,” I commented. I could see her losing control and frying all of us instead of the monsters.
“Excuse me, the way you worded that sounded a little rude to me!”
“Now, now, let us all settle down,” Fujiyan mediated.
“Oh, I see an enemy’h!” Nina exclaimed as she pointed. Just ahead was a group of wooden, human-shaped monsters.
“Wood golems?”
“Indeed they are,” Fujiyan said. “From what we ascertained during yesterday’s investigation, this dungeon appears to be a nest of them.”
“Fire burns wood, so this looks like a job for me!” said Lucy, brimming with confidence.
“Wait, you idiot! Stop!” I wrapped my arms around Lucy and covered her mouth as she began her incantation. I’d already told her—fire magic was gonna cause more problems than it would solve in this tiny cave!
“Pha! What’s the deal, Makoto?!”
“Nina seems to have it under control.”
“Hm hm hmph!” Fujiyan chuckled. “You two are free to relax now.”
“Here I go’h!” While we were talking, Nina was busy hopping right into the center of their swarm with a single leap. Did she just jump ten meters or so without a running start?
“Nina’s amazing...” Lucy said. Her jaw dropped. Mine did too.
Nina launched a roundhouse kick, the impact of which was powerful enough to sound like a car crash. The golems she’d targeted were sent flying before they slammed against the walls and burst into pieces. However, Nina’s enemies weren’t willing to merely stand around and be her training dummies—they quickly surrounded Nina on all sides and attempted to overwhelm her.
“Should we help her?” I asked Fujiyan.
He answered without a hint of fear. “Oh no, worry not.”
“Hiya!” Nina shouted as she stomped her foot on the ground. A shockwave and an ensuing rumbling noise radiated outward from that central point. The force was enough to blow back every single golem around her.
“Was that ground magic?” It looked like Nina was integrating magic into her martial arts. Were these techniques part of that spellfist thing? She knew some high-level stuff.
“Wait, that’s magic?!” Lucy shouted in surprise. Did she not know what it was? “Oh... So, Nina can cast magic without incantations too...”
I hated to interrupt while Lucy was processing this shocking news, but that wasn’t quite the case. I decided to offer a correction.
However, Fujiyan answered before I could. “The magic my trusted Nina uses is by no means lacking an incantation.”
“It’s not?”
“That’s a spellfist technique. It activates magic automatically once the user performs a specific action,” I added. “Like using a ground stomp to send shockwaves.”
“Ah yes, exactly! I didn’t expect you to already know.” Fujiyan sounded impressed, but, well, I was a mage. I’d done my research way back in the Water Temple. Not that I could ever use that technique myself...
“Th-Then do you think I could do that too?” Lucy asked. Was she hoping that she could trim down her three minute incantations?
“Lucy, you have to equip your aura to pull off that technique.”
“My...what?”
The power that we mages called “mana” was known as “aura” among swordfighters and brawlers. At their cores, they were both the same power, but physical fighters utilized aura by enveloping their swords or bodies with it.
All warriors at mid rank or above used this technique, so I figured that Jean did as well. And of course, this ability required training to master, so it wasn’t something that just anyone could pull off. So went the explanation I gave Lucy.
“I think Jean’s Wind Blade was the same sort of technique, just via spellsword skills,” I said.
“Huh? That wasn’t just a magic weapon?”
“Nope, that was a spellsword skill,” I confirmed.
“My trusted Nina was made to practice the same technique tens of thousands of times by her spellfist teacher.”
“Figures. Learning to use both physical and magic attacks at the same time is a level of difficulty that typical magic can’t compare to.”
“...O-Oh, right, yeah,” Lucy sighed. Hey now, there were no shortcuts on the road to success.
I’d wanted to be a spellsword too, you know. But after all my research to that end in the Water Temple, I’d concluded that using my low mana as aura would leave me out of gas within five minutes. I could apparently use aura to strengthen my body enough to actually wield a sword, but five minutes wouldn’t be enough time to do anything useful. It was only after many nights of crying myself to sleep that I’d finally given up on that idea.
“I’m finished here’h!” Nina said a few minutes later. Her berserker brawling had ground the wood golems into sawdust.
“That sure was decisive,” I said. This was what silver ranks were made of.
“Nina, that was amazing!” Lucy cheered with a round of applause.
“Very well done, my trusted Nina,” Fujiyan added.
“Aw, this is a piece of cake’h!” Nina hadn’t even broken a sweat. “These fellas seem like they’re spawned by the dungeon itself. There’ll be more soon enough, so let’s get goin’h.”
“I’m kinda wondering if we even needed to tag along,” I said.
“Come now, no need for self-deprecation,” Fujiyan comforted me. “One never knows if a different sort of enemy could be right around the corner.”
“I dunno about that...”
This dungeon’s layout was pretty simple; the path was effectively a straight line with barely a curve in sight. Every now and then we came across a nook along the side that monsters poured out of. Probably because they respawned endlessly. Nina dispensed with them all easily enough, but there sure were a lot. There were more types than just wood golems too: there were dog golems, armor golems, lizard golems, just nothing but golems! Was this the dungeon maker’s idea of a healthy hobby?!
“Hoiya!”
BWACK! KERRACK! BUFFOOM!
Nina kicked nearly all of those enemies to the curb. I have to say, the way she dispatched entire crowds of monsters with each kick looked pretty satisfying.
Every now and then, an enemy slipped past Nina’s onslaught of kicks and made its way toward us. I tried attacking them with my magic after generating water with my newly obtained elemental skill, but my spells weren’t very effective at damaging them. It was quicker to let Nina land a single kick than it was for me to hit a golem with ten ice arrows.
“This would’ve been impossible if it were just us, Makoto,” Lucy said as she kicked a golem herself. Fortunately, every one of these golems had sluggish movement, so we could handle them when it came down to a one-on-one fight.
“Sure would’ve,” I agreed. “My magic can’t beat them and you can’t fire more than one shot. We’d have been overwhelmed by sheer numbers.”
It was something to keep in mind for the future. Dungeon exploring was more complex than I’d thought.
“But man, there sure are a lot of these things,” Lucy said. She hadn’t cast a single spell yet and looked pretty bored.
“Generating and controlling this many golems must indeed require quite a bit of mana. Whatever it is that powers this facility could be quite valuable.” Fujiyan was looking at it from a businessman’s point of view. Glad he was enjoying himself.
“Nina, how far into this dungeon did you scout?” I asked. We had just finished felling yet another swarm of monsters.
“Hmm... There’s a big staircase a little further down, so I stopped just short of there’h.”
True to her word, there was a large set of stairs right down the corridor. The staircase seemed to continue for quite a distance, but no enemies appeared along the way. Once we’d completed our descent, we arrived at a small clearing that faced a giant metal gate. There was definitely something beyond.
“The only problem is that thing in front of it,” I noted.
“Indeed.”
The alert on my Detect Danger skill had been blaring for quite some time. And, well, right in front of that door was a giant monster, just as large as the griffin I’d fought the other day, lying on its side.
“A chimera?” Lucy whispered in surprise. The beast was giant and four-legged, and the fur coating its entire body was a deep gray. It had two heads in front, one of a lion and the other of a goat, as well as the head of a snake that formed its tail. It seemed to be sleeping for now, but it gave the impression that it’d awaken if anyone approached. In other words, it was this gate’s guardian. Was it also a magically created creature?
“So, do we start fighting’h?” Nina asked. Zero hesitation, huh?
“Now, now, let’s not be too hasty,” Fujiyan interjected. “Allow me to examine this monster using my Appraisal skill.”
“It looks pretty strong, so take it away, Fujiyan,” I said.
“By all means, I shall... Hm, hmm. Our foe is undoubtedly a chimera. And it appears that its weakness is fire!”
“My time to shine!” Lucy suddenly said with gusto.
“Incidentally, its year of manufacture was 10 Before Salvation. This chimera was made quite long ago indeed.”
“What?!” Nina and Lucy both raised their voices in surprise at Fujiyan’s deduction.
“Wow... It’s a thousand years old’h. Close call there’h.”
“What’s the deal? This monster’s cheating!”
Nina and Lucy both seemed a bit panicked.
“Lucy, what’s cheating about that thing?” I asked.
“My trusted Nina, do you mean to say that this monster is strong?”
The otherworlder duo, however, didn’t quite make the connection.
“Boss, Abel the Savior rescued the world a thousand years ago. And you’ve heard that monsters from the dark age before salvation were way stronger than the monsters are now, right’h?”
“Why yes, I do believe I have heard that.”
I knew that too.
“According to the legends,” Lucy continued, “the monsters from a thousand years ago were so savage because of the Great Demon Lord’s influence.”
“So, because this guy’s lived for over a thousand years, he’s gotta be pretty tough?” I asked. “Compared to a regular chimera, how tough are we talking?”
“They say that the monsters from back then were about three or four times stronger’h,” Nina said.
“Are they even the same monster at that point?” C’mon, gimme a break. Who knew these thousand-year-old monsters were so deadly?
“All I can say is that I’ve heard the tales—entire parties of veteran adventurers have gotten decimated after challenging what they’d mistakenly assumed to be modern monsters.”
“So, do we give up and leave?” Honestly, I didn’t want to risk it.
“No, we should try’h,” Nina suggested.
“My trusted Nina, do we have any hopes of victory?”
“It’s pretty common for monsters like this to be stuck to their posts’h. If we can’t win, we can just run.” Nina grinned.
Fujiyan considered that with a nod. “I do possess an item known as an Escape Card that will allow us to retreat from any dungeon. I propose that we flee should our odds seem unfavorable.”
“All right, I can agree to that.” It sounded like a safe enough strategy. I preferred cautious playstyles. “I’ll provide support for Nina. #@||?&!^*}{**#%~$&%+!! <Water, Flow>.”
I generated water using my elemental magic.
“Water Magic: Control Water.”
Then, I molded the water I’d generated into a huge waterball. It took a bit of time compared to doing it all with my own mana. It wasn’t something I’d be using in battle, sadly.
“Lucy, you start your fire magic incantation.”
“Got it.”
We wouldn’t have won our previous fight with that griffin if Lucy hadn’t hit the beast with her magic, so I had a feeling it would be key to our victory here as well.
“Also, Fujiyan. I need you to have your plan B ready to use at a moment’s notice.”
“Roger that, compatriot.”
This time, we were prepared. Partners sure help to keep your bases covered.
“All right then, I’ll make the first move’h.”
With a light hop in her step, Nina began to approach the chimera. I followed slightly behind. Fujiyan and Lucy were on standby near the base of the staircase, and Lucy had begun her incantation.
The chimera awoke, gradually lifting its hulking body and letting out a guttural growl.
It figures that a guard beast wouldn’t be asleep. This was a dungeon boss, all right.
“Hiyop!”
Nina instantly closed what distance remained and drove a kick into the chimera. Her impact made a loud, heavy thud, causing the beast to stagger just a little bit—and unfortunately, not much else. As though to return the favor, the chimera swept its front leg with a SWOOSH.
“Yikes!” Nina said as she dodged.
“Water Magic: Ice Arrow.” I let loose a spell in the hopes that I could slow down the chimera. My arrows all stabbed into their marks, but...
“Guess that didn’t affect it’h...” Nina’s ears drooped.
The chimera didn’t even dodge my spell. It seemed to pay the attack as much mind as one would a fly.
Man, that stings.
Nina used this chance to circle around to the rear of the monster and attack from there. However, this chimera had few blind spots: its goat, lion, and snake heads were all transfixed on Nina and kept tracking her every move.
“Yep, this chimera’s a lot stronger than a usual one’h,” Nina said with concern after backing off a bit.
“Is it really?” I asked.
“My kicks are enough to take down a normal chimera, but this one won’t budge’h.”
“Meanwhile, it doesn’t even bother dodging my spells...” I finally could access elemental magic, but it seemed like I had a long way to go before I’d master it.
“Then I’ll enter the fray!” I heard Lucy shout from afar. She seemed excited to finally have a spot in the limelight.
“All right, Lucy! Take it away!”
“You got it! Fire Magic: Fire Arrow!”
“That’s...an arrow?” Fujiyan mumbled.
A shaft of flame that was far too thick to be called an arrow shot toward the chimera. My magic might not have even gotten the monster’s attention, but this projectile made its eyes open wide.
And then, it leaped out of the way.
The flames collided with a crystal wall, scattering fire in every direction. All sizes of blazing bits rained down upon the chimera...as well as Nina and me. The chimera snarled with malice, but that was the last thing on our minds.
“Wah wah wah yah!” Nina shouted as she ran around in disarray.
“Eeeeeeeeeek!” Meanwhile, I’d been so traumatized by third-degree burns that I made a beeline for the staircase where Fujiyan and Lucy were waiting. Yikes, I think the hem of my shirt got singed...
Once my panic had subsided, I noticed that Nina was making her way over to us as well. For some reason, the chimera wasn’t giving chase. Maybe it was being cautious of any additional shots from Lucy’s fire magic. Too bad it took three minutes for her to cast each spell.
“Hey, Lucy? You there?”
“H-Huh? Oh, whoopsie.”
The mage who had just rained fire and brimstone upon the entire room moments earlier was now adorably tilting her head. This girl, I swear.
“I must say, Madame Lucy, your magic is incredibly potent. Nina, are you unhurt?”
“Whew, I got a little rattled there’h,” Nina laughed. She didn’t seem the slightest bit angry.
“I-I’m really sorry,” Lucy apologized. She had to draw the line somewhere.
“Well, guess we oughta be a bit more careful next time. It looks like the crystals in this dungeon reflect magic’h.”
“Indeed, the tactic of spraying and praying could prove dangerous.”
“Hmm... So what do we do?” We were lacking a real path to victory at the moment.
“Fujiyan, it’s time for plan B,” I said.
“Ah, as we discussed. You wish to use it so soon?”
“Well, we can’t pretend like we have other options.”
“Point taken. Now, if you’ll excuse me...” Fujiyan extended both of his arms forward.
“Storage skill: Withdraw!”
At that moment, water rushed out of Fujiyan’s right hand as though a levee had broken. The volume was far greater than my elemental magic could produce, and the water level of the now-flooded floor rose with each passing second. We were eventually knee-deep in water—along with the chimera.
I had once asked Fujiyan how much water he could carry with his Storage skill. When he answered that he could haul the volume of a fifty-meter pool with ease, I knew I’d found my secret weapon.
“Yep, the boss’s Storage sure lives up to its name’h,” Nina said with an impressed tone.
“Storage (Ultra Rank) is one heck of a skill...” Lucy remarked with surprise.
“You certainly have some curious ideas,” Fujiyan said to me.
“Gotta try everything I can.” After all, I was an apprentice mage, the weakest of the weak.
The glow from the crystals along the dungeon’s walls reflected onto the water’s surface, making the atmosphere seem even more dreamlike. And smack-dab in the center of that atmosphere was the giant chimera glaring at us. It didn’t look too happy now that its bedroom was flooded.
Well, it was now or never.
“Nina, I’m going to cast Water Magic: Walk On Water on you.”
“Oh, don’t worry. That’d probably make it harder for me to distance myself, so I’m fine’h.”
“Oh, really...” Oops. Did I accidentally make things harder for Nina?
“Mr. Takatsuki, I’m counting on you for support’h.”
“Got it.” Yeah, I had to just focus on doing what I could. All this water gave me plenty of options.
“I’m going in, Lucy. Think you can get another spell ready?”
“I can... But it might get dodged again.”
Lucy seemed a bit bashful. She looked up at me with puppy-dog eyes and held her staff close to her chest. Cute.
“I’ll slow it down. You’ve got plenty of room to work with here, so don’t hold back.”
“G-Got it!” Lucy nodded in affirmation.
“Should we find ourselves in danger, let us play it safe and return to the exit,” Fujiyan said. He took out his dungeon escape items and handed one to each of us.
“All right, here I go’h!” Nina shouted as she charged forward. This woman had zero hesitation!
The chimera was wary of Nina’s kicks. It also seemed to be cautious of Lucy’s magic. Meanwhile, I was in third place. Man, that stung. Then again, it meant that I had a chance of landing a sneak attack.
“Water Magic: Fog.”
I created a thick mist around the chimera. Though of course, overdoing it would mean that we wouldn’t be able to see the chimera’s position, so I chose my coverage wisely. This chimera had three heads: a goat head, a lion head, and a snake head for a tail. Its impenetrable defenses came from the constant view of its surroundings that these heads provided. So, I aimed to steal its vision. By covering its heads in fog, I could restrict one of our enemy’s greatest advantages.
“Hiyoh!” Nina shouted as she launched in with a kick. Her target was the goat head.
The chimera was shaking its heads furiously in an attempt to dispel the mist that had blinded it. Aww, the poor thing didn’t realize it couldn’t shake off this fog.
BLAM!
A forceful sound reverberated from Nina’s clean hit to the chimera. The beast was knocked right on its side!
“Lucy!”
“Got it! Fire Magic: Fire Arrow!”
Lucy didn’t miss a beat; she cast her spell.
“Yes! We got...it?”
“Looks like it’s veering off course’h...” Nina shook her head and ears, seemingly disappointed.
Lucy’s spell was headed in a straight line—just, not toward the chimera. The collapsed beast appeared to sense danger and hurriedly rose to its feet, but then seemed to relax once it saw that the spell would miss.
Oh, chimera, don’t get cozy just yet.
Lucy’s fire magic collided with the crystal wall.
“Water Magic: Ice Floor. Water Magic: Flow.”
I froze the floor beneath the chimera and then used water magic to slide the beast across the room. The chimera panicked and attempted to secure its footing, but it was too late for that. Lucy’s butterfingered fire arrow reflected off the wall and engulfed the chimera in flame.
“Gyaaaaaaagh!”
“Byeeeeeerh!”
The chimera’s lion and goat heads cried out as its body writhed in agony.
“Looks like my chance’h,” Nina said with a smirk. She then started reciting some sort of incantation.
“Ground Magic: Boulder!”
Ah, so she could cast typical incantation spells too. A giant stone that was several meters tall appeared above us. Then, Nina jumped high into the air.
“Goooal!”
And with that, Nina kicked the boulder down at full force—slamming it right onto the chimera with a massive thud.
“Gweeeh!” The chimera wailed in pain as it fell limply to the ground.
The monster soon stopped moving. Its fur smelled like charcoal.
“D-Did we defeat it?”
“Patience. Allow your humble compatriot to appraise it.”
Lucy and Fujiyan ran over to the chimera, and Fujiyan performed his appraisal while making sure not to stray too close.
“Why yes, it is indeed quite dead. Very well done, my comrades.”
Phew. We made it through that in one piece.
“So, Nina, that was mid rank ground magic, right?” I asked. “You can cast spells too?”
I’d figured that she was a melee-only martial artist, but it seems that she had some hidden techniques. Silver ranks were something else, all right.
“Oh, that was nothing. It wouldn’t have meant much without Ms. Lucy’s firepower and your support,” Nina answered with a smile. After tanking a chimera on her own and even striking the finishing blow, she was still this humble.
“Well, it’s a piece of cake for my magic!” Lucy boasted. I wished our butterfingered mage would take after Nina’s example.
“Do you realize that neither of your spells actually hit?” I commented.
“Guh.”
“And one of them even went the wrong way!”
“It basically hit in the end, so leave me alone! Ugh... Fine, whatever, I’ve got butterfingers anyway...” Lucy brought out the crocodile tears and started sobbing.
“Sorry, my bad, I didn’t mean it,” I said, trying to console her. It all worked out, so hey, no big deal. We could just keep training and get stronger at our own pace.
“Now then, ladies and gentlemen, onward!” Fujiyan said with excitement.
“Do you think a thousand-year-old facility will have some strong weapons?” I wondered. I had to admit that I was a little excited too. After all, this wasn’t just any old dungeon; it was a hidden dungeon! It had to have something good!
We left the chimera material harvesting for later and went toward the gate. It was built out of thick metal, but it wasn’t locked, so Nina started pushing. Slowly, with a heavy creak, the gate yawned open.
“Looks like a research facility,” I said.
The room beyond the gate was dotted with aging bookshelves and unknown machinery. Everything was rusted and beaten down by the sands of time. It was a far cry from the mountain of treasure you’d expect.
“This is all we get? Lame,” Lucy complained.
“Hey now, we could still find some hidden gems’h,” Nina said. “How’s it lookin’, Boss?”
“Hmm... At a glance, there doesn’t appear to be anything of value,” Fujiyan replied.
He poured over the room with his Appraisal skill, but judging by his expression... What a shame. Guess we drew the short straw. Oh well, it’d be too convenient for us to find a legendary weapon in some dungeon that we stumbled upon by chance.
“Hey, it looks like the dungeon goes deeper,” Lucy remarked. She didn’t care about whatever research this place used to do, so she’d been searching around by herself.
“Hey, don’t go too far on your own. You don’t know what’s down there.”
“C’mon, we already beat the guard monster. Why would any more monsters be in here?”
Lucy just gave a carefree answer. What a headache.
“Listen, people who say stuff like that tend to get killed right after,” I explained. “You know, in movies and stuff.”
“Movies?” Lucy asked in puzzlement. After we got out of here I had to make sure to teach Lucy the importance of not jinxing herself.
“Oooh, this looks like the dungeon’s power room’h,” Nina said. Seemed like she tagged along with Lucy out of concern for her searching alone. Sorry, our child’s such a handful.
“Well now! A power room, you say? Powering a man-made dungeon for a thousand years must require a great deal of energy!”
Fujiyan made it sound like this could be big.
Nina reported her findings: “Boss, there’s a crazy-huge magicite in here!” She and Fujiyan made a good team.
“Fujiyan, did you find anything of value?” I asked. Incidentally, I walked last in our line because I kept my Detect Danger skill active. The metal gate had been closed behind us to keep any extra monsters from interrupting. I searched around for anything in hiding too; it seemed we were safe for the moment.
“Th-This is extraordinary!” Fujiyan remarked. “I never imagined a magicite could be so massive! This might be enough to power the entire city of Macallan!”
I guess we’d found our hidden gem. Hey, I wanted to take a look too.
“Wow... I’ve never seen a magicite this big before, not even in the elf village,” Lucy said. “Whoa, it shocked me a little.”
“M-Ms. Lucy?” Nina warned. “You probably shouldn’t touch it so casually...”
C’mon, Lucy, a little caution wouldn’t hurt.
“My word,” Fujiyan said. “If we returned with this, Macallan could be reborn into a brand new city. But how does such a massive magicite form natura— Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
“Boss?!”
“Mr. Fujiyan! What’s wrong?”
Wait, did something happen? Distressed, I rushed to the others.
“Fujiyan, what’s going on?! Whoa, this place is really somethin’.”
I entered the room to find a magicite that was larger than the chimera we’d defeated, shining like a rainbow, and gently undulating... Wait, why would a stone be moving?
“W-We must escape at once!” Fujiyan cried after going pale. “We may have awakened something far beyond what we’ve prepared for!”
“What? What does that mean?!” Lucy had, as usual, descended into a panic.
Nina glared ahead and prepared to defend Fujiyan against whatever might come.
I ran up to join the other three.
“Th-This is bad,” Fujiyan fretted. “This is very, very bad...”
“Fujiyan, what is it?” I asked, bringing my face close to my muttering friend.
The rainbow-colored magicite gently stretched upwards, then wiggled in waves as it fully changed its form.
“A-A giant?” I heard Lucy say with a trembling voice. The magicite had shapeshifted into a gigantic human form.
And then, its large eyes and mouth jolted open. Those enormous eyes were looking down right at us.
This dimly glowing giant, which was maybe twice the size of that big ogre I’d once fought, was peering down at us with a sickening smile.
Yeah... This was kinda bad.
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