Chapter 21 — There’s a Limit to How Lazy You Can Be!
Yogiri was rooted to the spot by the woman’s captivating behavior. Tomochika was starting to panic, having nothing but bad feelings about this. She had realized this was the best possible way to attack Yogiri. It wasn’t even really an attack, just an appeal to his human instincts as a guy. As a girl, she didn’t know what it took to fight against those Succubus-induced urges, but she knew that stories regarding a single night’s mistake or giving in to temptation abounded in their world.
B-But there’s no way Takatou would be so easily seduced... she thought. “Wait!” She interrupted her own inner voice. “This guy stuck with me this whole time because of my boobs, right?!”
In other words, there was no guarantee that a woman with a larger chest, or who was more appealing in general, wouldn’t be able to draw him away. She couldn’t guarantee that he wouldn’t give in.
This is bad! Mokomoko interjected. Our only choice is to have you start dancing too!
“Be serious! What are we going to do?!”
The only thing I can think of is for you to start stripping!
“This guardian spirit is totally useless!”
The succubus chuckled. “Don’t you think you’d have a lot more fun with me than a girl like that?” She tried to tempt Yogiri, her voice low and sultry enough that it even took Tomochika by surprise.
“I bet she doesn’t do anything for you, does she?” the succubus continued. “You can do whatever you like with me. I’ll fulfill your every desire.”
“Okay! Let’s get Takatou back to his senses!” With her defensive barrier, there was nothing they could do to the succubus. Instead, Tomochika turned to Yogiri at her side, lifting a hand to hopefully knock some sense into him. But before she could strike, Mokomoko shouted.
Stop! If he is already under that woman’s control, you will die!
“But...” At the prospect of having Yogiri taken away from her, Tomochika couldn’t stand by and do nothing. “Sorry, Takatou!”
“Uh, if you hit me like that, I’m pretty sure I’ll die,” Yogiri said, his face paling as she moved to hit him.
“Huh?”
“What are you all worked up about?” he asked.
“But...but...you were just charmed by that weirdo, so...”
“No, I wasn’t. I’ve been sane this whole time.”
The succubus collapsed.
“Excuse me?” Tomochika was in shock. She had no idea why the succubus would have died at this point. The men behind her suddenly returned to their senses, fleeing in a panic. They were likely still confused, but at least recognized that they were in immediate danger.
“She probably tried to brainwash me or something. But doing something to someone that robs them of their free will sounds like an attack to me.” His power must have activated automatically to fight back. But Tomochika never would have expected seduction to count as an attack.
“What are you, invincible?! Even mental attacks don’t work on you?!” Tomochika blurted out.
“If they did, I would have been locked away somewhere a long time ago.”
“I-I guess...”
If Yogiri’s existence became known, there were any number of people who would want to use him to their own ends. It wouldn’t be strange for those kinds of people to have methods to manipulate someone’s mind.
And yet, you seemed quite fascinated with that woman, Mokomoko interjected.
“Well...I kind of got distracted when she started acting like that in that outfit.”
“‘Distracted,’ huh?” Tomochika sighed.
◇ ◇ ◇
Passing through another gate, they came upon a spiral staircase. Looking up, they could see light pouring in through a hole in the ceiling. It was clearly different from the previous areas, so it seemed the previous gate had been the last one. Climbing up the stairs and through the hole, they came upon a place with an open stone floor. Though it had taken some time, they had finally made it out of the pyramid.
“So? Now what?” Yogiri asked.
The clouds were surprisingly close overhead, but not close enough that they could reach them. They still couldn’t see what the clouds were hiding either.
“Looks like there’s something over there,” Tomochika said, pointing. Though the top of the pyramid should have been the smallest floor, it was still a hundred meters across. They were standing near one of the corners, but there was something in the center, a small round structure with a domed roof that somewhat looked like a shrine. With nothing else catching their eye, that must have been where they were supposed to go next.
“If it’s a castle in the sky, shouldn’t you be able to fly there, Atila?”
She immediately refused. “No way! Do you not remember what happened last time?!”
“I guess they do have a pretty sloppy way of dealing with players who go off the rails,” Yogiri admitted. It would be a problem if they were knocked off the pyramid again, so they decided to take the straightforward approach of heading to the shrine.
It appears there are a number of other entrances to this floor.
“There’s no way we’re supposed to go into one of those, right?” Tomochika asked.
“I guess there’s a chance the shrine is locked and we’ll have to go back into the prison to find a key,” Yogiri said.
“Weren’t those gates only one-way though?!” Atila’s face filled with despair. She must have realized that if they needed something from inside, they’d have to start the climb from the bottom again.
“That would make this a terrible game,” Tomochika spat.
As their short walk brought them to the front of the shrine, Yogiri was relieved to see the entrance was open. The outside of the shrine was lined with white pillars, while the interior was made up of a small circular room. Heading inside, they found it was a rather tight fit. It felt like it would be full with only five people in it. As they stepped in, Yogiri’s attention was immediately caught by the man at the center. It was the Sage Van, the man who had created Cavern Quest, sitting on a pedestal that looked like an altar.
“What are you doing?”
“Nothing,” Van replied, clearly unhappy.
“What do you mean ‘nothing’?” Tomochika said. “You’re here for a reason, aren’t you?”
“Yes, but I’m in a bad mood. Could you leave me alone?”
“Okay, let’s leave him.”
“Hold on, this guy is an enemy, isn’t he?!” Tomochika cried.
“Maybe, but if he doesn’t do anything to us, we can’t do anything to him either.” Van was sulking for some reason or other, so Yogiri decided to ignore him. Looking around the room, he saw seven weapons hanging on the walls. A sword, a bow, a staff, a spear, a knife, an axe, and a shield were all on display. The only other thing in the room appeared to be the circular altar in the center, but since Van was sitting on it, they couldn’t inspect it very closely.
“We need seven Philosopher’s Stones to proceed, and there are seven weapons. That’s probably connected, right?” Tomochika mused.
“Though there are fewer stones than that now,” Yogiri pointed out.
“No, there aren’t,” Van muttered.
“But that Shirou guy came and told us that. Now that I think about it, he also said you were sulking. Are you still upset about it?”
The Philosopher’s Stones had been disappearing. That would force the game to lock up, so instead it had been decided that the last person to possess the stones before they disappeared would gain the right to face Lasbo. Anyone who killed those people could steal that right from them. That’s the situation Shirou had explained to them.
“There’s more now,” Van said.
“Huh?”
“If the stones were just disappearing, I could have managed it! But now the number of stones is growing! It’s too weird!”
“Why are you getting mad at us?!”
They had no idea what kind of person Van was, but he hadn’t seemed like the type to explode this way, so Yogiri was surprised by the outburst.
“The number of stones is growing? Does that mean Luu is turning back into Philosopher’s Stones?”
“Not at all,” Van said. “If that was the case, there wouldn’t be more than a hundred of them right now.”
“How on earth did that happen?” Yogiri asked, totally confused. Before the world had been reset, they had gone through quite a bit of hardship to gather a small number of stones. It was absurd to think there were now over a hundred of them.
“I don’t know either. I just noticed it happened suddenly.”
“So what’s the situation with the Lasbo quest, then?”
“There’s no Lasbo.”
“Seriously, what is your deal right now?” Everything Van said seemed to be an earth-shattering revelation, leaving Yogiri at a loss.
“The Lasbo fight was supposed to be a fight to the death between seven parties. So the last two parties alive would see each other as the last boss.”
“That sounds like a huge spoiler!” Tomochika said. “Why are you telling us that now?!”
“Who cares anymore? Things are so messed up, nothing matters at this point.” Van seemed to be sinking into despair. “Especially after what gramps did. Why is he getting so involved? No one even cares about Cavern Quest anymore. They’re all just trying to kill you now.” Van had put his heart into creating and running Cavern Quest. It was hard to complain in his position, even as the Great Sage ruined it. There wasn’t much for him to do now but sulk.
“That’s kind of a problem for me too, though,” Yogiri said.
“Go ahead. Take whatever one you want,” Van said, pointing to the weapons on the wall.
“What are these? They look kind of important.”
“They’re Lasbo’s weapons. You were supposed to use them in the last fight to the death. Actually, why don’t you just take all of them?”
“Huh? Don’t you feel this is getting kind of sloppy?” Tomochika asked.
“You think so? At this point, you guys are like the last boss, so this sounds more fitting to me. There wouldn’t have been enough for everyone anyway. I feel like it doesn’t matter who has them at this point.”
“Is there a limit on how unmotivated you can be?!” cried Tomochika.
“Just so we’re clear, what’s the final condition for the game now?” Yogiri asked.
“You beat the game when you have all the Philosopher’s Stones or the rights they gave you when they disappeared. Once they’re all together and you’re the last party left, you win. I thought it would be a minimum of two parties at the very least, but looks like it’s now over a hundred.”
“That...sounds like a pain.” Even imagining the work ahead left Yogiri sighing.
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