Chapter 5
AFTER SPENDING A NIGHT in the Great Temple on the second level of the Ancient Underground City, Mira crawled out of her sleeping bag, still drowsy. Dressed only in her underwear, she threw her now-dry clothes over her head. Eventually, she managed to wriggle her arms through the sleeves and her head through the collar.
That was when she made eye contact with a man who’d been apprehended by her holy knight. “And…who are you?”
He’d been leering, but the moment she spoke up, guilt and embarrassment colored his face. “Um… You came in alone, so I was curious,” he replied, as if trying to claim that he was worried about her. But his eyes were focused on Mira’s bare thighs, and it was clear what he was really after.
“Ah. A simple pervert, then.”
Mira was too cute, so she could see why he’d want that. Still, she had no intention of forgiving him, so she ordered her holy knight to teach him a lesson and then throw him out. Not long after, she heard him groaning from afar.
After that odd incident, Mira began making breakfast. It was simple, though; she snacked on bread, fruit, and some all-season au lait she’d bought at Isuzu HQ.
***
Once she finished breakfast and cleaned up, she left for the Grand Cathedral to head to the third level. Most of the people who were here last night had already left, making the place feel even bigger.
Mira’s eyes happened to catch sight of a female adventurer party—specifically, a particularly beautiful swordfighter and an adorable mage. These were the two she’d accidentally walked in on last night. They happened to notice her at the same time and blushed, looking just a little terrified. The pair grasped each other’s hands tight, almost pleadingly. Perhaps they thought Mira would say something damning.
I’m cheering you on, girls! Mira simply nodded back at them and put her pointer finger to her lips. Then, she looked away and walked through the cathedral. Behind her, the girls breathed a sigh of relief and shared a smile.
Deep inside the cathedral was another door that would not open without the special symbols. Mira stopped in front of it and saw a five-person group having a strategy meeting. Based on the voices she heard, they were going to have to review their battle formations due to their front-line warrior not feeling well. He was the man leaning against a wall. When they made eye contact, he grimaced, and Mira glared back at him. He was the pervert from this morning. He’d spent all night apprehended by the holy knight before being roughed up for his trouble, so it was no surprise that he was in bad shape.
While the group began to discuss whether they should turn back for the time being, Mira offered a half-hearted apology for their conundrum and explained the morning’s events. As a result, she received a sincere apology from his comrades. They forgave her for punishing him—in fact, the two women of the group even praised her for it. According to them, he was a habitual offender who’d caused many problems for them in the past. Then, they laughed it off with sighs because they’d known him since childhood. It seemed they were a group of old friends.
They decided to rest for another day before resuming their adventure. Mira left the group and opened the first door, backed by the man’s screams as they exacted a little extra punishment of their own.
After passing through all of the doors, Mira arrived at the third level. It had similar sights and conditions as the second level. Though it came with some more complicated gimmicks, Mira and Pegasus had no trouble. She collected the symbols in four hours and went to the next level through the Great Temple, once again.
***
Now she was on the fourth level, which was set at D-rank by the Guild Union.
“I’d like to clear this one today,” Mira mused to herself.
Despite being deep underground, it was bright enough to see across the entire level. It was even brighter than the levels before it. The fourth level was half the area of the third, but it was still so large that the opposite end was distant and hazy. White mansions and palaces lined avenues that stretched endlessly, like the streets of a downtown business district.
Mira quickly summoned and boarded Pegasus before taking flight. She looked below and murmured, “Now that I can take another look, it’s so very different from the third floor.”
The fourth level retained its luster despite the decay and had earned two nicknames from players. Some called it the “noble district.” As the name implied, it was every bit as dignified as the places where the nobles of large nations currently lived. Even today, this level was reminiscent of that description.
“I believe I will begin with this palace.”
Some time passed before Mira arrived at an especially large estate on the eastern edge of the city. Mira’s skirt fluttered as she jumped from Pegasus’s back. She looked up at the palace, which rivaled the castles of small nations, and searched through her hazy memories.
The sun rises to the east. As I recall, I am meant to light all the torches in the palace.
The fourth level once again required adventurers to gather symbols to proceed to the next level. She only needed three now, but each individual one was harder to get than the last. The symbols were to be obtained in the northern, western, and eastern palaces. By solving the puzzles in each one, adventurers could open doors to the crystal balls, where they’d receive the marks.
“Now, let’s get this done quickly.”
With Pegasus by her side, Mira took a step toward the palace. As she set foot on the premises, she was swarmed. Countless skeletons leaped out of the desolate courtyard and attacked. However, Mira wasn’t phased. Lightning struck. Pegasus’s attack had turned the skeletons to ash.
The other nickname of the noble district was “the city of bones.” Each district was home to various skeleton-type monsters, making it easy for adventurers farming enemies to choose their ideal target. Necromancers, priests, and classes that were good at blunt-force attacks had an especially easy time.
The eastern district mainly spawned skeletons that moved swiftly. Even their speed was no match for Mira and Pegasus, though. Mira strode forward, prompting more and more skeletons to pop out, but Pegasus obliterated them all.
***
“Nyow, that’s a big catch!”
A familiar summon wove through the large courtyard cleared of skeletons. He was First Pupil, raising a sign that said, “Bones! Bones for days!”
Undead monsters were a stable source of magic stones. Items with “technomancy-powered” in the name, such as those from Dinoire Trading, could use magic stones. So, Mira had summoned First Pupil Cat Sith, who was busily collecting all of the drops.
He carried a big sack on his back, like a cartoonish thief, as he snatched up the stones. “I got the goods, boss,” he said, holding them out to Mira with a nihilistic grin.
“Mm, well done.”
Mira accepted the dozens of magic stones from her feline companion and smiled in satisfaction as she stepped into the temple. The skeleton spawns diminished as she approached the entrance. The interior was dim, the only light coming from the windows. Mira and her summons casually walked around the skeleton-infested area.
“There. Only one remains.”
She lit a torch in the fourth-floor hall with Ethereal Arts and began walking toward the large door at the very end. Bolts of lightning crackled behind Mira, turning any approaching skeletons into dust. She had asked Pegasus to deal with the monsters so that she could focus on handling the temple’s puzzle.
The skeletons in this temple were D-rank, but they swarmed in such numbers that they could annihilate unprepared C-rank adventurers. Most parties lured them in one by one from afar. However, that was only necessary for people of similar strength to the skeletons. As a one-man army, Mira had other business to attend to.
Pegasus vigorously drove off the monsters, proudly keeping them from bothering its owner. Meanwhile, First Pupil put on quite the performance, dodging lightning bolts by a hair’s breadth as he collected loot. “Me-wow! That was close!” Unfortunately, nobody noticed.
Thus, Mira reached the final stage of the palace. Beyond the open door lay a large object akin to an Olympic cauldron, protected by three large skeletons. These skeletons, called the Guards of the Dawn Vessel, had auras quite unlike those of the skeletons Mira had trampled over so far. They seemed to notice her and her summons, but they did not move, seemingly prioritizing the protection of the vessel.
Despite this, she stepped into the room with zero hesitation.
“That is the last one,” Mira said.
A malicious presence filled the room. The three skeletons took a step forward to attack. However, they would not take their second; the instant they directed their ire at Mira, they were blotted out with a rumble of thunder. The Guards of the Dawn Vessel turned into ash.
The moment Mira lit the torch, she heard what seemed to be the far-off sound of something heavy dragging across the ground—proof that she’d solved the puzzle.
“I believe that should have opened the door at the top.”
Meanwhile, Cat Sith proudly brought over three large magic stones, as if he had slain the skeletons.
***
After returning to the hall, Mira went up the stairs and entered the room on the top floor. Instead of monsters, there was a single crystal ball. When she touched it, a symbol appeared on her hand.
“One down. Goodness, this is time-consuming.”
It had taken two hours to finish the eastern palace—proof of just how many torches there were. The palace to the west had nearly the same puzzle, and the route to the third palace alone took half a day to navigate. Mira rolled her eyes, annoyed by all the time spent traveling.
“Well, we do what we must,” she muttered as she left the palace and jumped onto Pegasus, lifting off to the western palace for her second symbol.
Her First Pupil sat on her shoulder and held up a sign that read, “El Dorado or Bust!” “Mew-hoo!” he shouted. “We’ve already found one legendary Ancient Underground City!”
***
The outer appearance of the western palace was the same as the last, but it had an underground portion that nearly doubled its size. Melee-type skeletons mainly appeared in the west, and the moment she stepped into the courtyard, they all attacked at once. Still, they were no match for Pegasus.
“This is certainly an ideal place to make money,” Mira murmured as she watched her First Pupil run around, collecting magic stones like a bandit.
She’d spotted more adventurer parties than expected during her flight. Only skeletons appeared here, and they always dropped magic stones. Devising a strategy to obtain these was easy. On top of that, the magic stones had a stable value. The demand for magic stones was increasing faster than ever thanks to magical tools and technomancy-powered adventuring goods. Any level-headed adventurer knew this was where the money was at.
How much money could she make from these? Mira smiled at her growing pile of magic stones, but then recalled her original goal and began her conquest of the western palace.
The sun sets in the west.
Snuffing out all of the flames here would open the door to the crystal ball chamber. Like the last time, she steadily continued onward and extinguished the flames with Ethereal Arts. Pegasus obliterated skeletons, and Cat Sith recovered the magic stones. It was a simple, if time-consuming, run.
Mira defeated the Guards of the Dusk Vessel, extinguished the flame, touched the crystal ball on the top floor, and obtained her second symbol without difficulty.
“This is little more than the opening act, after all,” she mused.
The third symbol was much more tedious despite being lower in difficulty. Mira thought about her coming task as she flew toward the northern temple.
Mira arrived at the palace, surveyed the many adventurer teams, and murmured curiously, “Well, this one is chock full of people.”
A single man approached her. “Are you clearing the palace too? All alone? Interesting lineup…” He looked to Pegasus and Cat Sith, then to the symbols on Mira’s hand and the bangle on her left arm, before smiling in satisfaction. “You look strong, though.”
Meanwhile, Mira had no inkling whatsoever of the situation. “What is this? Some sort of party?”
“Well, you see…”
The man grinned and explained that these parties were about to split up the work to clear the palace together. The northern palace had underground floors, just like the western one, but it was three times the size—big enough to swallow up some smaller dungeons. That was why it’d take half a day for Mira to clear it on her own. Allies could reduce that time. This man was the leader of an impromptu alliance formed by many parties. With this many people, they might be able to finish in just two or three hours.
Finding this the ideal opportunity, Mira quickly said, “I see… Then allow me to join you.”
“Yeah, of course.”
Mira and the man shook hands and introduced themselves.
“I’m Tryde. Nice to meetcha.”
“And I’m Mira. I look forward to working with you.”
They were about to begin a strategy meeting, so Mira joined in. Reactions were generally positive when Tryde announced her inclusion. However, many of the girls looked at her jealously. It seemed Tryde was popular among the women. Unsurprisingly, Mira found the men to be especially welcoming.
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