Chapter 11
AFTER COLLECTING the magic stones and dismissing her mansion, Mira rode Pegasus to the Great Temple. They wove through the mess of towers and passages for thirty minutes before finally arriving.
Some adventurer parties were still in the Great Temple. The fifth level was designated for C-rank veterans, and the people here were clearly stronger to show for it. Their equipment stood out; all of them had high-class mithril equipment. Some even had spirit gear.
Their eyes gathered on Mira, who’d come by herself. Her breathtaking beauty alone was enough to draw their gazes, but most watched her out of pure curiosity; why had a lone girl come to a C-rank dungeon?
Mira approached the largest party among them. “Excuse me, may I ask you a question?”
“What is it?” a man who was no doubt their leader replied, curious. The other groups fell silent.
“Have you seen a necromancer around? He would be riding a Bicorn with a broken right horn.”
Mira had already heard one eyewitness’s testimony, so surely others must have seen him. The last time someone had mentioned Soul Howl was a week ago, on the second level. Another sighting might help her gauge how quickly he was moving.
Due to the raw size of the dungeon, most of one’s time was spent traveling. Regardless of how strong you were, there was a limit to how fast you could go. Furthermore, she’d heard that Soul Howl was riding a Bicorn. There were plenty of intricate paths and obstacles in the way. Soul Howl must have picked the Bicorn for its maneuverability, but it couldn’t possibly be as fast as Pegasus, who ignored all of those obstacles without issue. With luck, she’d be gaining on him.
The man crossed his arms in thought, then shook his head. “Hmm… Can’t say that I have. Sorry about that,” he answered.
The rest of the party didn’t seem to have heard anything either.
“Hrmm, I see… Apologies for interrupting.”
Mira had figured that a larger group would have the highest chance of at least one of their members spotting Soul Howl. Parties moved together, though, so they probably all saw the same things. However, she did not give up. She moved on to another party and asked again. The second group hadn’t seen him either. Then, just as she asked the third…
“Hey, kid. I might’ve actually seen that guy.”
A man spoke up after hearing Mira ask the others. When she turned around, she saw a lightly armored man waving at her. She ran over eagerly and looked up at him.
“Ooh, really?! When? And on which level?”
He blushed for a moment, but he cleared his throat, gathered himself, and plastered a cool grin on his face. “I couldn’t see the head from behind, so I dunno if it was exactly a Bicorn. But I saw a guy riding a horse-shaped skeleton here on the fifth level, three days ago.”
A few of his friends murmured in agreement.
“He was too far for us to get a good look.”
“Creepy, right?”
They’d only seen him for a moment and didn’t know any details. However, they were certain that he had been riding something skeletal. Given the circumstances, it was probably Soul Howl.
“Hrmm… Three days ago.” Mira doubted it for a moment; had she closed the gap between them by that much?
A week ago, he’d reached the second level. Three days ago, he’d reached the fifth level. It normally took a full month to reach the seventh floor of the Ancient Underground City, and most adventurers already considered that fast. But Mira was clearing it much more quickly than that, and Soul Howl was her peer. Was the difference between land and air travel truly this great? The thought of it made her shudder at the sheer size of the city once more, though she was grateful for Pegasus’s presence.
Of course, she also had to boast to herself, “Now that’s the power of summoning for you.”
Based on these reports, she was certain that she’d be able to catch up. Mira thanked them for the information and handed the man a random restorative as thanks. Adventurers who put their lives on the line for money could never have too many of those.
Just you wait, Soul Howl!
Now in a better mood, Mira ran through the Great Temple to make for the sixth level. The excitement of being reunited with a friend filled her heart.
***
There was nearly a riot in the temple after Mira ran off.
It started with the restorative she’d handed over, one of many she’d ordered from her alchemist friend. She had placed this order before attempting to solo the biggest raid battle in the game, but she had been brought to this world before she could attempt it. She still had the full stock in her inventory.
As one might expect of a restorative meant to be taken to the hardest raid battle, just one was worth hundreds of thousands of ducats. It was far too great a reward for a little eyewitness news. The man now had both the envy of his group and the ire of others. He was so surprised that he was unsure whether he should even accept it.
***
The sixth level of the city was, once again, half the area of the previous level. Towering structures filled it from end to end and top to bottom, making it impossible to see into the distance. The towers of the fifth level had been tightly packed, but the sixth was even denser. Countless box-like structures that were both tall and wide intertwined to form a motley castle. Rooms, corridors, foyers, atriums, ballrooms, covered passageways, stairs, and slopes overlapped irregularly to create a hodgepodge city. All the thick cables and metallic pipes running through the city made it look more modern than fantasy.
I can see why people call it Kowloon Walled City…
Long ago, when players first saw this sixth level, they’d compared it to that somewhat lawless city that had once existed in real life. Mira noticed the similarity too.
Despite how ancient this city was, odd signs of past life could be seen in its decaying streets. At first, everything looked unstable, like it was all a pile of building blocks. But the structures, made of an unknown metal, were sturdy and showed no signs of collapsing. Structures overlapped each other, occasionally connected by unstable-looking scaffolding. Whenever an adventurer went down one narrow pathway, it split into several more.
The spectacle filled the entirety of the sixth level. The dungeon shrunk in area with each level, so the sixth level was modest in size compared to previous levels. But due to the construction, the total surface area, including all floors, was comparable to that of the third level. On top of that, it contained B-rank monsters, making it the most annoying level in the entire Ancient Underground City.
“I suppose I’d best get going.”
Once again, she needed to collect three symbols to get to the next level. They could be obtained in small crystal chambers inside temples on the upper, middle, and lower tiers of this level. However, to enter what players referred to as the tiermasters’ rooms, she needed yet more corresponding symbols.
Mira summoned dark knights in front of and behind her, idly wondering how many days it would take her to get through here. This time, Pegasus would get to rest. Flight was useless here. The sixth level’s narrow passages and low ceilings were far too complex for that.
***
“Now, where was it?”
What sorts of technology had they used when this city was made? The lights shining here and there lit everything perfectly, heedless of the city’s density. This made the place feel less claustrophobic, even tickling some people’s adventuring spirits. The girl who’d just come to this floor was one of those very people.
The sixth level still had many working facilities, with rare flowers and trees being cultivated. However, there were rumors that there were more undiscovered areas, which brought many adventurers here in search of them despite the level’s difficulty. Having heard those rumors from someone she’d passed along the way, Mira found herself inspired by the adventurers who pursued them.
“I think if I go this way… Or was it this way?”
Mira had underestimated the floor because she’d convinced herself that she had the route memorized. She wandered down a corridor, desperately fishing through her memories, and peeked into a small atrium. I was just here. That means I got lost going that way, so…
Mira gazed at another corridor on the other end, a mere five meters away.
“If I’m here…then over there… In other words…up!”
She traced the route in her head and calculated her current position. She was directly under the correct route. After leaning out of the corridor, she used Air Step to dance through the air and up to a walkway between buildings.
“Whoa!”
A skeleton stood exactly where she’d meant to land. Mira reflexively kicked at it without worrying about her fluttering skirt. Thanks to her momentum and the surprise attack, she launched the skeleton away with a spectacular kick. However, it was a B-rank monster, and a weak mage’s muscles could not destroy it that easily. It stood up and shook off the blow. But it was only a B-rank monster, and no match for the ultimate summoner. A black sword appeared out of thin air and turned it to dust.
“Oh… You startled me. That was just a reflex.”
Skeletons were creepy, no matter who you were or where you came from. Having one suddenly appear right in front of your eyes would startle anybody.
Well, except for Soul Howl, Mira grumbled, mentally.
She picked up the magic stone. Then, gazing at her legs, she muttered, “Now that I think about it, kicking ought to work.”
To this point, she’d only used her hands in close-quarters combat, a habit from her Danblf era. Mira often prioritized form over function, and at the time, she’d always worn robes—especially her ultimate equipment, the Wise Man’s Robes. They were all so long that her legs would get tangled up. This made it difficult to use kicks, so she let her fists do the talking instead. But now, she realized that a short miniskirt left her with enough mobility to freely use kicking techniques.
Mira dismissed the dark knights she’d left in the corridor below, summoned new ones next to her, and decided to use them as test dummies for her kicks. Though she hadn’t used kicks before, Mira had learned some basic martial arts from Wise Man Meilin. She unleashed her previously sealed kicking techniques to her heart’s content.
Despite how refined her technique was, Mira lacked the physique to put any real force behind her kicks. They were only a tiny bit stronger than her fists, and the dark knights took no damage at all. However, she could bolster the power of her kicks with Immortal Arts. After practicing simple moves, Mira rejoiced at her new close-quarters combat option and continued her trek, excited to learn more later.
If only Mira had an unbiased observer—or any feminine sensibilities at all, or even if someone had walked in on her practicing—maybe she would have realized what would happen with her undies when she kicked in a miniskirt. But she either did not notice or did not care. She simply proceeded on with unabashed confidence, proud to have unlocked a new technique.
“Everyone knows you need steel plates in your shoes too.”
When Mira made the enemy reel back with a flying kick, she’d have her dark knights finish them off. She repeated this process multiple times along the way, blamed her equipment for the low damage dealt by her kicks, and thought of ways to fix the problem she’d created for herself. Steel-toed shoes might make her kicks hurt more, but it would also make her less mobile. Her lack of strength was her real problem, so heavier shoes would only exacerbate the issue. As such, the best solution was to work on refining equipment like she’d thought about the other day.
But that was a problem for later; she was too focused on her new options in battle for the time being.
***
At the top tier of the sixth level, Mira defeated a giant skeleton in a large building and received the symbol needed to enter the crystal chamber.
“I think I’m getting the hang of this.”
Throughout her journey through the sixth level, she continued practicing her kicks. She’d occasionally misjudge the angle and kick a skeleton with her shin, making her scream and bringing tears to her eyes. But she was becoming much more consistent. She gave up on trying to deal damage after a while and used leg sweeps to trip enemies instead. This worked well. Even without much strength, she could find success just by being more precise with her sweeps. Her enemies were skeletons with exposed joints, too, so they were the ideal training targets.
“Well, I think that’s a good stopping point for today.” Mira had overdone it a bit, to the point of hurting her hip joint. She limped clumsily toward the crystal chamber.
The dark knights fought so well that Mira didn’t really need to help. She followed them instead, picking up magic stones along the way, and—not at all discouraged by her injury—thought of how to combine her kicks and Immortal Arts.
Meilin used flying kicks to make things explode. How’d she do that?
Mira’s martial arts teacher, Meilin, had countless techniques. Kicking moves were naturally among them, and many used Immortal Arts. However, because they didn’t have much time to train and kicks were harder to use, Meilin had only taught Mira moves that used her hands. When it came to kicks, Mira only knew the most basic ones and a few others that she’d seen Meilin use the most.
I’ve learned a fair few of the Immortal Arts, so those should work well enough…
Mira, mind wandering from adventuring to thinking about martial arts, followed the correct route without detour. She went down paths, climbed stairs, through rooms, and across bridges as if on autopilot. She eventually went through a hallway with a view of the floor below, proceeded down a large street, and found a clearing with a small temple at the very end of it.
“Ooh, we’ve made it.”
Skeletons jumped down from above to ambush Mira, but her dark knights reacted swiftly and crushed them before they could even touch the ground.
Meanwhile, Mira gazed at the unusually shaped temple. It was a perfect sphere that was sunk into the ground, and it seemed to be made of metal. The surface was smooth and reflective, like a mirror. It was a pearl-like temple in the midst of a jumbled mass of building blocks. Was this a display of piousness from the people who’d once lived here? The orb-like temple had a special aura compared to its surroundings, as well.
“No matter how many times I see it, it’s still uncanny.”
Mira entered through the sole opening in the exterior.
“Up the stairs by the altar, I believe.”
Recalling the location of the crystal chamber, she went straight through the temple.
Compared to the outside, the inside of the temple was surprisingly normal. There was a chapel with pillars that were perfectly crafted, despite their current decay. Holy statues lined the walls. Though they had different facial expressions, they all depicted one being that seemed both demonic and angelic at the same time.
The Trinity was the main religion on the continent in modern times, but Mira’s history-loving friend had told her that each region and race had had their own pantheon of gods in the distant past. The gods worshipped in the Ancient Underground City were forbearers, of a sort.
Even gods have history, Mira thought to herself as she got a closer look at the impressive statues along the wall. Then, she proceeded up the narrow staircase.
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