Chapter 29
“UNFORTUNATELY, I NEED something tougher than dark knights.”
The frequency with which Mira’s dark knights had been destroyed had risen greatly as she continued her trek. The A-rank skeletons that appeared here were no longer easy marks.
She suppressed her numbers by only summoning three or four at a time, but things wouldn’t be so easy up ahead. As one got closer to the end, the number of skeletons increased. They began to use group tactics too.
They were powerful, but their unique magic-stone drops were very large, making this floor great for earning money. There was also no competition, as there had been in-game, which meant that she was free to farm wherever she wished. If she really wanted, Mira could make one or two million ducats in a day.
However, she had come with a clear goal in mind.
I’m in a hurry today. Maybe I’ll run through in one sprint, though…
A perfect hunting ground had been left vacant, ripe for hunting. It was also the bottom of a dungeon that took weeks to get to. The skeletons here dropped an extremely valuable item, though rarely, called a white mobility crystal, that could be used to make magical tools or for refining.
As someone who wanted to refine equipment to bolster physical capabilities, this was the perfect item for Mira. However, it was a rare drop, so it wasn’t easy to get one’s hands on. In a day of farming, she might get one or two, maybe three if she was lucky. In a situation where Soul Howl might be in arm’s reach, she couldn’t dawdle.
Mira sighed and prioritized the mission, preparing two summoning circles and chanting to summon the seven Valkyrie Sisters.
Alfina descended from the magic circle and knelt before Mira. “The Sisters Seven answer your summons,” she said in her usual, calm voice.
However, the other sisters were unable to line up, due to the narrow passage, so they rushed back and forth behind Alfina, in a panic, trying to find a place to stand. They whispered to each other, shuffling back and forth.
“Aren’t we supposed to line up in two rows when this happens?”
“But didn’t we get stuck choosing between mountain and valley patterns? What do we do?”
“With this width, we should be able to manage a cross formation.”
“We can’t do the eye of the sun with Alfina in that position, though…”
“Ugh, who cares? Just line up however.”
“Sisters, we have to hurry!”
After bowing to Mira and having lost her patience, Alfina stood and turned to them. “Have some dignity!”
The fussy sisters instantly froze. Mira could only see her back, but the looks on the others’ faces told her exactly what Alfina’s expression looked like.
“Elezina, in such situations, you are to form a ring formation with you at the center. We’ve been over this.” Alfina’s chilling voice was met with silence.
This seemed to spark a memory in Elezina. She gasped and paled. “Oh…”
“Ring formation!” Alfina roared.
Despite their earlier unpreparedness, they acted quickly once they had orders. The sisters lined up perfectly, upon Alfina’s command, and kneeled before Mira. After seeing this, Alfina turned and bowed as well.
“It is my fault that you’ve witnessed this failure. I cannot apologize enough.” She bowed even deeper.
As for Mira, she didn’t really care.
“Now, now. Your sincerity rings loud and clear.” Mira gazed at the Valkyrie Sisters and offered a heartfelt remark: “I feel nothing but gratitude toward you all.” They’d trained for the last thirty years in order to help her, and they continued to do so now. Some occasional clumsiness was nothing compared to that.
It seemed Alfina took Mira’s gratitude as forgiveness. “Your generosity is too much for us!” Moved by these words of respect, rather than scolding, Alfina smiled proudly. She then swore that she would continue to hone her skills and train her sisters in order to be worthy of their master.
An icy chill ran down her sisters’ spines.
***
In the Ancient Underground City, almost all monsters from the fourth level onward were undead. The Valkyrie sisters’ weapons of light displayed more ferocity than ever. Each Valkyrie had powers far beyond those of the dark knights, and it gave them an innate advantage over the monsters here. The only thing that could stop Mira’s team now was the Machina Guardian itself.
That alone greatly increased her speed. It was only a few hours into her trek, and she was already halfway through the middle layer.
When they’d entered the middle layer, the number of skeletons that appeared increased. The rate at which the seven sisters defeated them quickened in turn, which left so many magic stones that Mira couldn’t pick them all up on her own. The sisters could have helped, but that would decrease their killing speed.
However, the miserly Mira did not give up and leave them there. She had her First Pupil make another appearance.
“With the help of his comrades, he arrives at the belly of the beast. There, he finds countless evil monsters! Yeah, these are way bigger down here. Very nice, very nice,” he said as he began gathering stones.
Cat Sith was beyond enthusiastic; he was the ideal rock collector, for he was agile and could run like the wind all over the battlefield. The sign on his back read, “A dirty job, but someone’s gotta do it.” He ran around, grabbing stones, all the while announcing his exploits.
“Ladies, there’s a group up ahead!” His keen scouting abilities also allowed him to report the locations of skeleton groups to the Valkyries. Once the Valkyries easily slew the monsters, he’d duck in, snatch up the magic stones, and offer them up to Mira as if he’d done all the work.
Because he sensed monsters first, there were times when they deviated from the optimal route. Even then, he raised a sign that said, “We strive for excellence,” and brushed it off by saying that he was “making sure their backs were safe.”
At least we got a white mobility crystal for all that effort.
Their pace had slowed somewhat, but it was hardly worth fretting over, what with the Valkyrie Sisters’ quick killings. First Pupil’s scouting abilities gave them the upper hand in battle, allowing them to settle things faster. Picking up magic stones was his specialty, and they were basically going as fast as a party possibly could. Mira could hardly complain.
In the meantime, Mira did little more than plot the route ahead. Just in case, she used Biometric Scan along the way in order to search for Soul Howl, grinning all the while as her earnings continued to stack up.
***
They pressed on through the divided areas of the level until they reached the last section. As she reached the final stage of the seventh floor, Mira realized something: their pace had picked up quite a bit.
“All good, ladies. No monsters up ahead.” First Pupil sat on Christina’s shoulder and pointed forward, as if directing her to charge.
Indeed, perhaps because they were in the final area, there were no monsters to be found. They marched on without resistance. According to Cat Sith, there weren’t any monsters on the routes branching off of this one either. However, rumbling could be heard from afar, giving the seventh level an eerie atmosphere.
Mira could only come to one conclusion: it must have been related to the man she expected to find up ahead.
She continued on for a while, checking her map. The eerie rumbling became clearer as they went.
“I knew it. He’s fighting.”
The closer they came, the louder and more intensely the explosions and crashes echoed. This corridor was a single, straight path that led to the end of the seventh level—the place where the Machina Guardian stood. The rumbling was the sound of battle.
Given the information she’d received so far, she’d hypothesized that it must have been him. While relieved that she’d found Soul Howl at last, Mira knew that this was a reckless battle. Worried for his safety, she began to run.
***
The end of the seventh level was like a hangar of sorts, about 500 square meters altogether. But at the moment, it was a battlefield.
Forts with cannons atop them were scattered all about, booming as they shot fire. On the ground was an army of skeletons, lined up like soldiers who were launching suicide attacks. Behind them were multiple golems that boasted four-meter-tall bodies.
Indeed, the skeletons weren’t enemies here.
“I thought as much,” Mira said upon seeing them.
Necromancers didn’t just make golems and raise the dead. They could also seize control of undead monsters. Soul Howl had used this magic to mobilize the skeletons of this floor as his soldiers; this was why she hadn’t run into any lately.
Mira gazed at a figure standing atop an enormous rock at the front of the battlefield—a man attended by a Bicorn with a broken horn.
“Only he could gather this many.”
It was a veritable siege, and yet there was only one person there. There weren’t many necromancers out there who could mobilize such forces. Even from afar, she saw the edgy fashion—like he’d picked a fight with a Hot Topic and lost. That was the Soul Howl she remembered.
Based on his appearance and strength, she was certain it was him.
Mira grinned and looked to the battlefield again. What was she to do about this?
A cannonball cut through the sky and struck a place teeming with skeletons. There, Mira saw the Machina Guardian she so vividly remembered. Over fifty meters long, it looked like a mechanical spider abomination. Every time it swung an arm, skeletons shattered and went flying. However, bulky golems would then jump onto those arms and explode into flames. This was a necromancy spell that Mira knew well: [Internment Arts: Molten Rebirth].
All that did was strip some of its armor away? Goodness, what a beast.
Internment Arts varied in strength based on the size of the golem. These four-meter-tall golems dealt enough damage that even normal fiends wouldn’t be able to withstand them. Yet they barely scratched the Machina Guardian.
Unbothered, the Guardian crushed the ever-gathering crowd of skeletons. Countless artillery landed with a sudden boom. A flash of red light, followed by a crescendo of explosions, landed on the Guardian.
Overwhelming destruction, overwhelming saturation fire, and teamwork between skeletons and golems—it was all going perfectly. However, there was no sign of it stopping the Machina Guardian.
An arm shot out from the rising smoke and mowed down skeletons and golems alike.
Golems, cannons, and skeletons fell into rubble, reformed, and took formation once more, working in perfect coordination to attack the Machina Guardian. Even facing a top-tier, large-scale raid boss alone, Soul Howl seemed to fight optimally. So any onlooker would think—except for Mira.
This isn’t an enemy he should be holding back against, so why won’t he use his advanced magic?
At this time, Soul Howl had four types of forces on the battlefield: He had a few self-destructing golem pawns and cannon-fortress golems; these two continuously rebuilt themselves whenever destroyed. Third were the A-rank skeletons he controlled using his necromancy. They were pure bait, meant to draw the Machina Guardian’s attacks. Last was the giant rock, the armored-fortress golem that he stood upon. With its sturdy construction, it was clearly his last line of defense.
Necromancy may not have been her specialty, but Mira knew her friend’s magic well enough. She found herself questioning why all of the forces here were made up of intermediate magic.
Of course, given the foe, one couldn’t simply overcome it by rushing at it with advanced spells. Sometimes it was better to skillfully use intermediate magic. However, that didn’t mean it was better than skillfully using advanced magic. And a strong mage, especially one of the Nine Wise Men, would never misuse their mana.
He ought to have used his advanced spells to deal more powerful blows, especially in this battle, where he used bait and artillery to keep the enemy at bay. A single blow using advanced necromancy would be more mana-efficient than repeated, intermediate golem explosions, and it would deal much more damage.
So what was going on? The main distinction between advanced and intermediate spells was naturally their difference in power, and the need for incantations. Incanting left the mage open, unless he was able to stand back at a safe distance and watch from afar. That should give him plenty of room.
Was it a mana problem, then? As far as Mira could tell, he didn’t look to be short on mana; he showed no signs of fatigue, even though he was constantly reconstructing golems.
As such, Mira couldn’t think of any reason for him not to use his advanced magic. If he wanted to pursue efficiency against this top-tier foe, then advanced magic was essential. Likewise, Mira would rather summon Eizenfald than a hundred dark knights.
If his plan was to continue grinding the boss down without giving it time to recover, then this would take a month at minimum. Or did he have a different strategy? Was he actually just waiting for the opportunity to unleash an advanced spell he’d already prepared?
He’s right there. I might as well go ask.
That seemed the simplest answer. To do that, she would need to give Soul Howl some breathing room. Mira slowly stepped onto the battlefield—the Valkyries in tow—opened four summoning circles, and chanted.
[Evocation: Imperial Dragon Eizenfald]
Her mana flowed in and activated the spell, causing the magic circles to spread. Then, a dragon with silver scales emerged from the light.
“We’ve got a big foe on our hands. I trust you can handle it, my son?”
“Yes, Mother!”
Through a sort of mother-son telepathy, Eizenfald immediately understood the situation, despite just being summoned. He ignored the golems and skeletons, instead charging straight at the Machina Guardian. Then, he unleashed his breath weapon as his first strike.
There was a scorching flash of light—one so bright, it was as if someone had cut out part of the sun—made of pure, destructive force. Eizenfald’s dragon breath struck its mark perfectly. An earsplitting boom made everything else in the area inaudible for a moment. The light condensed, and the echoes faded away.
“So, this is really the limit of my magic…” Mira muttered in frustration.
Summons had a limit related to the defensive membrane that protected all who passed through the summoning circles. The membrane’s strength was determined by the magic of Mira and her summoning target. When it was destroyed, the summon was forcibly dismissed in order to protect it from danger. However, by protecting the summon, the membrane also limited its powers.
As the caster’s magic grew stronger, so, too, did the limit. Mira could summon most summons with nearly no restrictions, save for one exception: Eizenfald. As the incarnation of calamity, the Imperial Dragon’s power was beyond reckoning. Even Mira could not draw out his full power.
“Now, Alfina, I have something to discuss with that man over there. How much time can you buy us?”
If Eizenfald could fight with all his power, he’d stand a chance against the Machina Guardian, all on his own. But there was nothing Mira could do about her own limits for the moment. Alfina would need to assist.
The Valkyrie shot a sharp gaze ahead. “Five minutes… No, with Lord Eizenfald’s help, I believe we can stand strong for ten,” she replied, determined.
That told her everything. The Machina Guardian she faced was a force to be reckoned with.
Though his power had been reduced, Eizenfald’s breath attack had sent the Machina Guardian flying to the other side of the battlefield. However, it proved its durability. That awe-inspiring attack was far from enough to fell the titan.
The sight of that would make anyone think that, no matter how many forces they sent, they would never overcome the boss. But even as the machine righted itself, countless cannonballs rained down at once, and tens of golems closed in. They couldn’t match Eizenfald’s dragon breath, but it was an overwhelming attack, nonetheless.
Soul Howl wouldn’t miss this chance, no matter how small. Unmoved by the sudden intrusion, he calmly activated his magic.
“Now!”
With that as their signal, Alfina and her sisters charged forth. They charged onto the battlefield, which still smoldered from the last saturation fire, and fought in perfect formation against the Machina Guardian.
“I’m counting on you, friends,” Mira murmured and charged forth, running up the towering boulder ahead.
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