Chapter 15
THE GROUP LEFT THE TAXI behind and climbed the rough, rocky mountain terrain for a while. Eventually, their destination appeared before them, nestled into a rock wall. Unkempt grasses surrounded it. To its left lay a wide lake, and to its right was a sharp precipice. The cliff was so steep and deep that the bottom was impossible to see.
The Citadel of Scales stood blocking the land, sandwiched between the water and the long drop.
It was a large, gray castle with a rampart that extended from lake to cliff. Though the color of the stones had faded from years of weather and wear, its presence remained awe-inspiring. Wind blew down from above, cutting through the narrow passage before the fortress, as if to refuse all entry.
Long ago, this was the castle of the Impregnable King. When war broke out between humanity and monsters, the last line of defense was drawn here. Legends held that even the biggest of monsters were forced to yield when they looked up and saw the enormous size of this rampart, representing absolute defensive power. Yet the war left its mark here, too; the mighty castle’s gate was so badly bent, it could no longer function as an entrance.
“Pretty big, huh?” Scorpion broke the silence, neck craning as she looked up at the towering rampart.
Mira only glanced at it; her gaze was focused on Scorpion’s swishing tail. “Big…is a word,” she answered distantly.
Scorpion was in a sightseeing mood, but she got a hold of herself when they entered the small fort next to the lake. They stopped just in front of the barrier that blocked the stairs descending deep into the darkness. Since the gate leading into the Citadel of Scales was unusable, this hidden path once used as an emergency exit was the only way in or out.
All right, let’s see what you’ve got, Aaron thought to himself.
He had come to this A-Rank dungeon once before. Back then, he had participated in a search as a member of a six-person party. He’d fought on the front lines, swinging his favored weapon.
But this time, the mission given to him by Uzume was to support Mira. The stars of the show today would be Mira and the two Hidden. He could more or less imagine the strength of Scorpion and Snake based on rumors he’d heard at the Isuzu Alliance headquarters, but a Wise Man’s pupil was an unknown quantity.
Aaron, who had earned his strength through years of diligent training, was excited to get a close look at a prodigy who could overcome him at such a young age. Prodigies like Mira worked and thought in ways incomprehensible to the average person. Being able to witness such things and aim for such heights was, in Aaron’s opinion, one of the greatest goals an average person could strive for.
Aaron had not yet realized that his own ability to comprehend and incorporate the techniques of prodigies at a glance was rather incredible in itself.
***
The party passed through the Guild Union’s barrier and filed into the narrow corridor. It was barely wide enough for two to fit side by side, and was reinforced by stone pillars and blocks.
Each time the lantern at Aaron’s hip flickered in the dim, humid air, the black insects gathering around its light would disperse. And every time that happened, Scorpion made an annoyed sound, and Mira frowned in displeasure.
When the echoes of their voices faded, their footsteps stood out all the more. After what seemed like an age of walking in this manner, they arrived at a small room. The lantern light struggled to pierced the gloom. Apart from decaying candle stands set along the bare rock walls, there was nothing within.
It was a hidden room meant to conceal the existence of this very secret passage. Through here lay a path into the citadel proper.
“Okay, which one was it?” Aaron muttered, taking out a folded sheet of paper and comparing it to the walls to search for the mechanism. “Heh, they’ve made it easy now.”
He saw a spot on the wall that was clearly eroding due to how many hands had touched it and, with a sigh, pressed it with his palm. That portion of wall swung open like a door, accompanied by a small rumble of stone on stone. A breeze flowed into the hidden room, fluttering through Mira’s hair.
It’s been a long time since I last came here, Mira mused inwardly.
They stepped through the doorway and were at once faced with paths leading left and right, branching off into yet more paths. The first stratum of the Citadel of Scales was a complex labyrinth, with the hidden room situated at the very middle.
“So I can leave all the fighting to you ladies, right?” Aaron confirmed again.
“Totally!” Scorpion answered cheerfully. Snake nodded silently, smoldering with fighting spirit as she created a golem to assist her.
Taking this as another opportunity to show off the power of summoning, Mira summoned her Dark Knight with a swish of her coat, then mutated it into a Dark Lord. Unlike her normal staunch protector, the Dark Lord looked specialized toward slaughter, like a knight who had sold his soul to the devil for the sake of defending his master. The bladed armor covering its body had a dull, bloody gleam.
“Ooh. So that’s mutated evocation, huh?” Scorpion said when she saw the Dark Lord. She was in the middle of her pre-battle warmups. Hidden typically performed missions alone, so she had an encyclopedic knowledge of the capabilities of warriors and mages that she might face.
She had heard of mutated evocation, but never seen it done, so she examined every inch of the Dark Lord with great interest. The Dark Lord’s entire body was a weapon. It was a hedgehog with none of the cuteness attached.
“Careful, now,” Mira warned her disinterestedly, noticing that Scorpion had just narrowly missed getting her face sliced between two of the Dark Lord’s blades. She turned her attention to Aaron, who was glaring at the paper he held with a furrowed brow.
“That’s quite the expression,” she commented, standing on her tiptoes to peek at the paper just above eye level.
“I could read this fine last time, but I’m not getting any younger. There’s a lot of tiny print.” Aaron looked down at Mira, sighed, and rubbed the inner corners of his eyes with a chuckle.
On the paper was a roughly sketched but intricate map of the first stratum of the Citadel of Scales, with the correct path drawn in red. It also included important notes from players who had cleared it.
In the time of Danblf, a map like this would only be bought and sold between players. But now, such maps were available in any old shop for adventurers. The sketches had only increased in detail since Danblf’s time…but perhaps the Citadel of Scales map had gotten a bit too elaborate.
It seems too detailed to be useful. Perhaps that’s my age showing, too…
The addenda were so multitudinous and extreme that they even included information on unnecessary routes. Mira averted her eyes from the map and blinked a few times. Then, she turned back and focused in on the correct route through the citadel.
The passage was three meters wide, with blue lights of unknown contrivance placed along the walls at regular intervals. The cold, desolate stone walls showed no sign of deterioration despite their age—the only blemishes on their surface were stains and scratches of battle.
The Citadel of Scales could be broadly split into three sections with different roles: front, center, and back.
The back was a wall even higher and thicker than the rampart they’d encountered on arrival—it could fend off even the strongest of fiends. The center was a large chamber connected to the gate in the castle’s front wall. This area was marked by ancient remnants of trenches, with broken weapons and crumbled bulwarks lying about. It was once where the bloodiest part of the battle was waged. Finally, the front was split into four stacked strata, with the highest being the control room where the Spirit King had once descended.
“Leave it to me. I can guide you,” Snake said to Mira and Aaron as the two mumbled amongst themselves. She beckoned to her golem and took up the vanguard. In her hand was a map she had procured beforehand, which featured a neater depiction of the proper route.
Mira and Aaron looked at each other, shrugged, and laughed. They obediently followed Snake.
Ten minutes after they’d entered the labyrinth, Snake’s golem stopped before an upcoming corner.
“Enemies,” Snake announced. At the same time, the golem sped forward with footsteps so loud it sounded like a thunderstorm. Pale smoke wafted from the corner, but the golem slammed a heavy fist into it.
“A brute force approach, I see,” Mira said.
The smoke was a monster called a night ghost. Constructed purely from thoughts, its body should have had a resistance to physical disruption. Yet the golem’s blow dealt visible damage.
The night ghost dispersed and slipped through the air to escape, reforming at a safe distance from Mira’s party. It had taken the shape of an armored knight, but they could still see the damage where the golem’s fist had struck it.
“I brought astral oil,” said Aaron, “but it looks like we won’t need it at this rate.” The oil would nullify physical resistances when applied to weapons. It was less efficient than magic, but made brute force a viable strategy against incorporeal monsters.
“Perhaps not,” Mira agreed as she watched over Snake’s efforts.
Aaron put his axe back on his hip and returned the vial he’d taken out to his pouch. The jade green, crescent-shaped blade swayed sadly at his hip. It had missed an opportunity to show its stuff.
While Mira and Aaron conversed, the golem’s powerful right jab blew the night ghost to smithereens, and it melted into the air. When the next one appeared, the golem held it down for Snake to destroy it with [Internment Arts: Molten Rebirth].
Fine embers danced in the air as Snake created a new golem and turned around proudly. But the person she’d most wanted to show off to—Mira—was currently peering excitedly into Aaron’s pouch, obsessed with the many items he’d brought. There were quite a few she’d never seen before.
Snake was clearly crestfallen.
“C’mon, you worry too much,” Scorpion called out, noticing Snake’s over-the-top efforts. “You’re trying to show your stuff because you’re worried you’ve butted in, right? You don’t have to try so hard.”
Scorpion had seen this behavior from Snake many times by now—her hesitance in the carriage was only one example. Snake had a good head on her shoulders, but it was dangerous to bite off more than she could chew in battle.
“That’s not true,” Snake said. “This mission is of utmost importance; this is only what’s required.”
Scorpion grunted in annoyance at her stubbornness and gave Snake a light smack on the cheek. “This mission falls on all of us, okay?”
Snake had no rebuttal then. She simply nodded.
“What’s the matter, friends?” Mira, having finished getting a good look at all of Aaron’s tools, called out to the pair.
Scorpion and Snake turned around and shook their heads. “Nothing,” they said in unison. They then saw the item Mira was holding.
“Call these insurance,” she said. “It’s pretty rare, but some monsters may cast curses.”
Mira handed them each a sheet of paper covered in handwriting so elaborate it was difficult to read. They were warding talismans, which could nullify a specific number of curses cast by high-level incorporeal monsters. Because they weren’t needed frequently, they weren’t found in many markets.
“Wow, thanks!” Scorpion accepted it, gazed at it interestedly, and stowed it in her side pouch.
“Much appreciated.” Snake took the paper gingerly in both hands and placed it in her robe’s inner pocket.
The warding talismans had been gathering dust at the bottom of Mira’s Item Box for who knew how long. She’d only remembered them after looking through the items Aaron had brought.
Adventurer classes that focused on physical damage typically neglected the stronger incorporeals, but mages loved to have a go at them since their maximum health was inherently low. This trend was so prevalent in-game that mages were often called ghostbusters. These slips of paper were from the last time Mira had farmed such monsters.
That said, it was still the first stratum. No need to worry quite yet.
Snake continued to lead the way. Even when night ghosts appeared in groups, her golems acted as a wall while Scorpion leapt about, using the surrounding walls as footholds to join forces with the Dark Lord on the attack. The monsters were easily massacred with countless strikes. Aaron looked on, enjoying the show while keeping watch, while Mira mercilessly sicced her pawn on the hapless monsters.
She can even run on walls? Mira was amazed watching Scorpion. I wonder what sort of training it takes to learn that…
In the three-meter-wide passage, even as the rock golems and blade-studded Dark Lord rampaged, Scorpion deftly weaved and leapt through the dangerous crush. She seemed able to move in any direction at will, like a spider on its web. Her rapid strikes were truly befitting of her name. Soon, the mob of night ghosts they’d eradicated had reached the double digits.
Their conquest of the first stratum was proceeding well. By the time they reached the latter half, their team had adapted to each other’s styles seamlessly. And if anything, Scorpion’s moves had only become more precise.
“Scorpion, where did you learn those techniques?” Mira asked.
Running up walls wasn’t all she could do—she even ran with both legs on the ceiling. Mira had never seen anything like it. This might be the most impressive new technique she’d witnessed.
Scorpion leapt back from the front and landed upside-down on the ceiling next to Mira. “Back home at Karasawa Village,” she answered. “It’s a traditional technique all kids learn when we reach a certain age.”
Glancing over at the dying night ghosts, Mira turned to Scorpion and questioned her further. “Everyone in your village can run and jump like you?”
“Hmm… Maybe not everyone. Everyone can stick to walls and ceilings, but anything more takes a heck of a lot of training. Whether you get that training or not depends on your talent. And…well… They told me I was the top talent in the village,” Scorpion said, pride creeping into her voice as she jumped up and landed on the ceiling again, and then walked forward, still hanging like a bat.
Mira followed her, fascinated—though she feigned nonchalance as she asked her most pressing question. “That is incredible. I’d love to do it, too… Can you teach me?”
Scorpion twirled and landed upright on the ground. “I dunno… They let me learn everything since I was the best in the village, but they told me never to teach outsiders this stuff. Or more accurately, they begged me not to. Sorry!” she answered, ruffling Mira’s hair.
“Hrmm. That is a shame,” Mira murmured in disappointment, paying no mind to the silver hair now falling in front of her eyes.
A Wise Man’s pupil acknowledged by Uzume herself had shown interest in her techniques—Scorpion was ecstatic.
“But if you ever make your way over to Karasawa Village, you might convince them to teach you. Only if the chief acknowledges you, though. But they say it’s happened before!”
Hearing that, Mira rebounded instantly. In some rare cases, outsiders could learn traditional techniques.
“Oho! Oh, ho ho ho! Is that so?!”
“Yep, It’s not unheard of. Though the conditions are apparently really strict.”
Mira grinned excitedly. “I’ll have to give it a go. So, where can I find this mysterious Karasawa Village?”
“Uh, in the forest north of Grimdart. The closest continental railroad station should be Forest Hide, I think.”
“In the forest, hrmm? I recall that forest being pretty dense. So the railroad runs even through there?”
“It used to be so small and hard to find that they called it a hidden village. But these days, it’s gotten pretty big.”
The railroad running across the Earth continent naturally had to pass through mountain ranges and forests. In the course of overcoming and carving a path through such difficult terrain, it sometimes brought people closer to formerly obscure places like Karasawa Village. Of course, the discovery of some of these places had led to a few problems…but those were long dealt with by now.
“A hidden village, eh? Sounds rather thrilling.” Mira added Karasawa Village to the long list of destinations she’d never get around to and poured more mana into her Dark Lord. With its special abilities awakened, it freely controlled the black mana flowing from its blades and swept up encroaching hordes of night ghosts in the blink of an eye.
Mira had a pile of plans by now. She decided to get this job done quickly, so she could start making some dreams reality. Feeling her intent, the tempestuous summons devoured all monsters who approached at an even faster clip. Scorpion and Snake were dumbfounded, unable to slip so much as a single attack in through the overwhelming tide of violence.
Behind them, Aaron’s eyes shone as he murmured, “So this is what Uzume has planned.”
The first stratum’s monsters were minced into smithereens the moment they entered the party’s line of sight. As someone who had experienced fighting Mira, Scorpion winced. Snake simply decided to focus on leading the way.
***
With the overwhelming combat power of their fighters and the speedy guidance of their map, the party exited the labyrinth in no time and came to a crossroads. This was a major junction in the Citadel of Scales, with corridors branching up, down, left, and right as well as continuing straight ahead.
If they went directly forward, they would reach the central area connected to the front gate. If they turned left, they would reach an opening where the Legion Ghoul would attack—but only if they had the quest to defeat it. If they turned right, they would come out halfway down the precipice beside the citadel. Using special tools, one could climb deep underground from there.
If they continued downstairs, they would reach the altar where the right scale was housed. But that was all that was there. To Mira’s knowledge, there were no quests related to it.
Each passageway was lit only faintly, the way forward disappearing into darkness. Mira turned her eyes to the staircase leading upward.
The control room should be up from here, no?
The objective of their mission was to capture a key figure from Chimera. They’d used their travel time in the wagon to discuss the ideal place to set an ambush, and come to one conclusion: if the enemy were really after the Spirit King, lying in wait in the place most closely related to him would be best.
The four continued up to the second stratum without even glancing at the other paths.
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