Chapter 25
BY THE TIME Mira had a good grasp of pup Fenrir’s current abilities, night had fallen. She would stay the night in Martel’s home.
Considering the importance of what she was protecting here, the Spirit King had returned the divine mineral walls back to their original state. Nobody could enter unless they had power equal to his, which meant that they were secure.
Martel whipped up a special-made salad for dinner. She made a new fruit simply to use its juice as dressing, which was surprisingly delicious. It was nutritious and had many status-effects, such as raising the consumer’s physical abilities for a few days.
Feeling lighter than ever, Mira gleefully devoured the salad. Naturally, she ate to excess.
“Ah, how satisfying…” she murmured happily as she lay in a bed of vines that Martel had prepared for her. As one should expect of the progenitor spirit’s veggies, they were all exquisite enough to satisfy even the meat-loving Mira.
One more being lay down happily next to Mira: Fenrir. “Who knew vegetables could be so delicious?”
He ate meat most of the time, naturally, but the salad had opened his eyes to the potential of plants. However, those vegetables had been specially grown by Martel. Mira warned him not to expect all veggies to be that good.
“Hmm, perhaps. Looking back, the ones I’ve eaten in the past were all terrible,” Fenrir muttered with a nostalgic smile.
Curious, Mira asked, “What kind of vegetables were they?” They must have been really bad if they’d make Fenrir say such a thing.
“Hmm… It was a rich green color. I think Hel called it green paprika,” Fenrir said in recollection.
Apparently, his younger sister, Hel, had a cooking phase where she’d often make Fenrir and Jormungand taste test her food. That green vegetable, green paprika, had come up many times throughout her efforts.
“That awful, unspeakable bitterness… Hel kept stuffing meat inside it and cooking it, but the bitterness never went away.” He clearly wasn’t a fan. Fenrir chuckled. “Jormungand didn’t mind it, but he’ll eat anything. I don’t think he cares about flavor.”
“So even beings like you can be picky, huh?” Based on what he’d said, Mira surmised that the green paprika he’d mentioned was a green pepper. So, Fenrir hated green peppers. “I’m not a fan either,” she added, feeling an odd sense of kinship. They then agreed that meat was better used for Hamburg steak rather than stuffed peppers.
After much discussion, they arrived at one conclusion: meat was the best. But there someone couldn’t sit idly by and listen—Martel.
“Seems like you two haven’t had enough to eat. How would you like dessert?” She appeared next to them, seemingly out of nowhere, and offered them another course.
Mira and Fenrir, who’d been talking excitedly up to this point, suddenly shuddered as they looked at what she held: a green paprika. The green vegetable was so perfectly ripe that one could imagine its bitterness just by looking at it.
“I shouldn’t overeat…”
“Me too… I appreciate the offer, but none for me either…”
Faced with peppers, they averted their eyes and came up with an excuse to decline. However, this would not work on Martel.
“It’s okay. I made it so it’s impossible to overeat. In fact, it helps digestion, so it’ll make you feel better!” It seemed she’d already predicted their excuse and had taken measures against it. She continued pushing the green paprika at them and insisted they eat.
Mira and Fenrir tried to find a means of escape, but they were cut off by the Spirit King’s words: “Martel is unstoppable when she gets like this.” He delighted in their fear.
There was no escape. Having judged that much, Mira took the green paprika in hand and bit down, ready to get it over with quickly. A refreshing sweetness spread through her mouth.
“Delicious!” Mira cried.
Fenrir, too, mustered his courage and timidly bit the green paprika. His eyes widened. “Oh, this is tasty!” Oddly, it made them feel less full as they ate it, just as Martel had claimed.
“Isn’t it?” Martel said, satisfied, and left them. Mira and Fenrir grinned at each other.
The green paprika was impressively delicious, but these two shared a certain sentiment: while it was tasty, it had been changed so much from the one they knew that it was like a completely different vegetable, one that just happened to look like green paprika.
They spent a leisurely time together after that. Martel was excited to feed them so much tomorrow morning that they’d forget all about meat. She was so excited, in fact, that she already began devising new creations. The Spirit King occasionally spoke up with his own preferences, saying that they’d be better if they were sweeter or crunchier. Each time, Martel glared at him in annoyance.
Mira and Fenrir enjoyed lively conversation, mostly involving stories of Fenrir’s adventures. As one might expect, they were all of mythical scale.
After a while, Martel became frustrated enough with the Spirit King that he joined them instead. He loved to talk people’s ears off, resulting in the stories becoming even more grandiose.
What had begun as idle chitchat grew into the realm of legends and mythology. Before they knew it, Martel had joined in as well, making things even livelier. Thus, the night ended in a relaxed, if noisy, way.
***
After spending the night at Martel’s house, Mira got ready for the day and devoured a breakfast of salad and fruit with Fenrir. Martel had pulled out all the stops to make these fruits and veggies. Mira felt more revitalized than ever; this was the food of the gods, without a doubt. Fenrir was in an extremely good mood as well. Mira was sure that he’d have a stat boost from Martel’s food when she summoned him.
“You mean I can have all of this?!”
“Of course. I made it all through trial and error, so I’d love it if you took it all with you.”
Shortly before Mira’s departure, she received exorbitant amounts of improved fruits and vegetables. She was delighted by the fact that she’d get to enjoy these delicious foods for some time to come—not to mention the fact that she’d just procured free souvenirs for Solomon and the others. Solomon might get to eat delicious food every day at his royal castle, but he’d never had anything like this before.
Mira graciously accepted the bumper crop of food and deposited it all in her Item Box. Normally, one would be troubled by such a quantity, but her Item Box solved that problem for her. The Spirit King had told Martel about this, and he later shared with Mira that she’d purposefully made plenty of extra food in order to provide Mira with lots of leftovers.
***
It was late morning when Mira left Martel’s house. She paused in front of the door to the hidden passageway and turned around. Martel protected something unspeakably precious. Even if she’d been safe up to this point, worry still nagged at Mira.
“You’ve been a big help,” she said. “If you need anything, just let me know. I’ll come flying.”
“Yes, of course. I’ll rely on you if that time comes. Also, I want you to know that you can rely on me at any time.” Martel smiled gently and raised her right hand. All the plants in the area immediately changed into poisonous-looking colors, grew sharp thorns, and dripped an acidic fluid. “Sym tells me you adventurers fight often. I’m pretty strong myself,” she said confidently, backed by a dense forest that seemed ready to end any life that stepped into it. Despite being a mother of plants, Martel also looked like a final boss of sorts.
Progenitor spirit Martel governed all flora. Anyone would assume she was strong, but it seemed her power far surpassed expectations.
“R-right. When I’m able to summon you, you’ll be my trump card.”
It had slipped Mira’s mind, after all of the delicious fruits and vegetables she’d been treated to, but this reminded her that many plants were poisonous. Some were even carnivorous. At the same time, she wondered if a country could be surrounded by these plants as a sort of impenetrable barrier.
The progenitor spirit’s potential was immense. Even if Mira failed to find the Nine Wise Men, she might be able to defend Alcait alone if she learned Astra’s Ten Rings and succeeded in summoning Martel.
Not to toot my own horn, but, having the Spirit King and a progenitor spirit…I couldn’t blame people for thinking I’m cheating at this point.
Mira had received a blessing from the Spirit King and could now freely converse with the demigod. She also had summoning contracts with a progenitor spirit and the famous Fenrir. Even she knew that it was only normal to find it all unfair.
“I know I’ve asked a favor of you, Mira, but don’t push yourself too hard. And whenever you need me, please call.”
She had been tasked with investigating the cause of the mysterious dark power. Whatever the source might be, it had managed to create something strong enough to eat away at Fenrir himself. It must be extremely dangerous. He warned her to prioritize her safety and added that he could handle a bit of violence, grinning.
“Of course. I plan to lean on you in the near future; I’ll be counting on you when that time comes.”
Despite the wildness of everything that had happened, Mira was thankful for these chance encounters. They would be a major boon when she needed to protect something. With the aid of the Spirit King, progenitor spirit Martel, and Fenrir, she was confident that she could get through nearly any situation.
“Be careful out there.” Martel gently stroked Mira’s hair. Before the summoner knew it, her surroundings had turned back into their usual, paradisical state. The fact that Martel could do all of that at will was a little scary.
“Thank you again, Mira. I look forward to fighting by your side.” Fenrir looked to her with sharp eyes and bowed. He acted gentlemanly, but as usual, he was just too cute for it to come across as anything but adorable.
A little embarrassed by Martel’s continued hair-stroking, Mira smiled at Fenrir’s cuteness. “Right. I’ll be off!” With that, she left the hidden space.
She still felt Martel’s presence, just as she had when she’d searched blindly for her. The loneliness was gone, however, replaced with something brighter and gentler.
Mira was glad that she’d come here. Feeling her link with Martel and Fenrir, she proceeded down the hidden corridor and returned to the sixth level of the Ancient Underground City. She was back in the chamber where she’d fought the Skull Dragon.
***
“With this, nothing will be able to encroach upon her domain.” The Spirit King had reassembled the divine mineral used in the passage, while adding extra toughness and camouflage. Satisfied with his work, he’d disappeared from view after Mira left Martel.
“Now, where did we leave off?” Mira asked herself.
The large, white wall didn’t look out of place at all. It was impossible to tell at a glance that it was made of a different material from its surroundings. One would need power like the Spirit King’s to find it, and the mineral was so perfectly camouflaged that they’d lose track of it the moment they looked away.
None could intrude upon the holy sanctuary where Martel resided. Now that she was certain of this, Mira resumed her unfinished conquest of the sixth level. She already had the key symbol for the lower tier, so her next destination was the spherical shrine with the third and final symbol.
Looking back, I deviated rather far from the path…
Going up a long, long staircase, she suddenly remembered her current location. Following Martel’s signal had led her astray and into a distant corner of the sixth level. Worse, it wasn’t only on the other end of the level from the spherical shrine, it was also in the opposite corner, making it as far away as it possibly could be.
Not that raw distance means anything in this dungeon!
This sixth level was well-known for being too complex for the linear distance between points to matter. It was not uncommon to take a full day to travel between two rooms divided by a single wall. In other words, it was occasionally faster to reach a destination from a more distant point than from a closer one.
Mira opened her map to devise a path back to the proper route. Skeletons chose that moment to attack, but she absentmindedly summoned a dark knight to fight them off. Of course, she didn’t forget to collect the magic stones they dropped.
***
“Phew… I’m finally back on the proper route.”
Crossing bridges without railings, jumping from corridor to corridor, rushing through alleyways, cutting through buildings as big as department stores—it had taken her just under three hours to arrive, but Mira had finally found the large building where she’d obtained the lower tier’s key symbol. Finally, she was back on the route she’d taken to this point. This essentially meant that she hadn’t made any progress, but the common understanding among former players was that returning to the starting point in this mess of a dungeon was optimal.
“Hrmm… No break necessary, I think.”
Mira considered taking a break in this safe zone, but she realized that she wasn’t really tired even after running around so much. She had an idea as to why, too: Martel’s breakfast. It was more effective than even the most expensive nutritional drinks.
Surely the fatigue won’t come back to bite me later. While a little worried, she decided—workaholic that she was—that if that happened, she could just eat some of the fruit Martel had given her.
Thus continued her mad charge through the dungeon.
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