They say that the bigger they are, the harder they fall. And while I did get a chance to experience that a little first hand, it did feel like a pretty stupid quote. Even more so when my feet left the ground a little and parts of my body jiggled in response against my will.
In front of me lay the body of a creature almost triple my height, humanoid, but with blue skin. Thankfully the most critical part was covered in a simple animal pelt with two of its limbs stretched behind the waist and tied together.
Unfortunately it only covered the front, as I regretfully discovered after it fell over face first.
At least it was tasty. Not my top five, but tasty enough and did its job to mostly distract me until its body disappeared.
"Scarlet, what's a biclops?"
"Well, bi means two, and clops means eye, so it means 'two-eyed'."
"So what does monocular mean?"
"...'One-eyed'."
"So it was a 'one-eyed, two eyes'?"
"...Yea."
"But it only had one eye."
"Yea..."
While quite a bit bigger than all the cyclops that littered the floor, the dungeon boss was for some reason called a 'monocular biclops' despite only being a big cyclops. It would have been easy to accept if it was some sort of cyclops chieftain or king, but it was called something completely different as if it was its own unrelated species.
It reminded me of that one boss back home. It was a bear in a ruins floor that was filled with strangely shaped monsters that looked like they were multiple types of animals stitched together. It was the only floor of its kind and there were more than one monster that I gave me goosebumps just by looking at them.
They were tasty though at least.
But the boss caught me off guard. It was so ordinary looking that it felt like it was transplanted from a completely different floor. It simply looked like an ordinary grizzly bear, but almost twice as big.
Fighting it wasn't special in any way. It fought just as how one would expect a bear to fight, just bigger. It wasn't too hard to get behind then sink my teeth into its neck.
What was notable though, was that its blood reminded me of the taste of smoked salmon. It was an incredibly odd sensation. It didn't taste anything like what an animal was like, and more like some of the amphibious creatures I had consumed in previous floors.
I couldn't help but feel like maybe that boss had actually followed the same theme as the rest of the floor, but it just wasn't obvious until I had started to suck out its blood. It dropped a massive salmon steak as well when it disappeared.
Definitely one of the more memorable monsters back home. I mentally made a note to go back and check its name when we went home.
Perhaps this 'monocular biclops' was of a similar type of monster as that weird bear.
Either way, it was a pretty underwhelming end to this little adventure.
We travelled from Linsington, met and formed a familiar contract with Claret, passed through a few minor villages, resurrected Alicia, partially, reached Knossos, entered its dungeon, fought, subdued, and turned familiar an assassin sent by supposed gods, and killed a cyclops that seemed to pretend to have two eyes or something.
When the boss disappeared, it left its weapon behind, a wide bladed sword longer than I was tall.
<It's called the iron slab. It's made from steel, and has an enchantment to increase it's power by increasing its momentum.>
It was called iron but made from steel. Well, at least it wasn't entirely wrong. That said, it increased power by enhancing its momentum? Didn't that just mean that it increased its mass? Or at the very least something that effectively did the same thing.
Just for fun, I lifted up the weapon that looked more like a long metal plate with a handle than a sword. Surprisingly, I had to strain my arm a little, but it produced the surreal effect of a small woman lifting a piece of metal bigger than she was.
Even more surreal was once you realized that this particular woman was not only lifting something so huge and heavy, but was also defying basic physics and geometry by completely ignoring the principal of leverage. As long as I actively fought against the weight of the sword, I was able to swing it without it throwing me around instead.
While it was a bit amusing, I couldn't see myself actually using such a thing, so it simply went into my bag without any fanfare.
We passed though the final doorway, and after a short tunnel, we ended up at another large double door.
<What is this?>
"It looks like the final room to the dungeon."
"I thought that the boss room would be the end."
"No master. Remember every dungeon we cleared had a room like this after the final boss?"
"How could I? But anyways, I guess there isn't anything dangerous regarding this room then?"
"None of the final rooms we reached ever were."
"I see. But I guess it won't hurt to be at least a little careful."
With that said I slowly crept up, paying close attention to the floor, walls, and the doors themselves. There weren't any signs of traps anywhere. There wasn't even a hint of mana other than the normal ambient haze that permeated the entire dungeon which was difficult to even notice despite my high [Mana Perception] skill if I didn't focus on it.
After slowly checking the door just in case, I pushed against them. Like every entrance in these dungeons, the large silver bodied door effortless gave way without a single creak.
What appeared in front of me forced me to squint a little.
The room beyond was brightly lit as if it was outside despite being still in an enclosed cave. Or rather, it simply felt that way due to how so much of the room glittered and shined.
In contrast to the rock walled hallway that lead up to this room, the walls were made of white marble with silver and gold reliefs decorating the corners and intersections. Above, hanging from the tall arcing ceiling, was a massive chandelier made of silver struts and covered in large clear glass jewels cut like gemstones. The light source contained within refracted in a chaotic mess resulting in the entire thing glittering painfully.
The ground was made of a darker stone, a mixture of grey and olive green in a marbled pattern. Directly in front of me was a red carpet with the edges decorated with some sort of gold thread. The carpet guided my eyes to a raised platform. Right in the centre of that was a stereotypical gold and silver treasure chest from any assortment of games. Behind it all was another fountain, but this one was made of marble and decorated with engravings all throughout its body with silver and gold inlays.
There didn't seem to be any traps here either, but unlike the previous room, this one was thoroughly suffused in mana. It was beyond my capabilities at this moment to find any sort of magical traps, so I simply gave up. Claret had practically given me her guarantee that this room was safe, and with how she was simply hanging off of my shoulders like usual without a hint of tension, even she felt that there was no chance that I could come to harm here.
Taking a deep breath, I made my across the soft carpet and stepped up onto the platform. The treasure chest was even bigger looking when I was standing right in front of it. In fact, it was more than big enough for me to hide inside of if I wanted to. Claret could have probably fit inside as well despite her added height. Maybe even Alicia could have squeezed inside together with me with her small body if she still had it.
Slowly making my way around the huge chest, I did one final check for anything less than acceptable before I put my hands on the lid of the waist high container. Claret leaned in, excitement I haven't seen from her aside from when she was talking about Scarlet. Alicia was probably just as excited, but it was difficult to tell for sure as my heart was beating hard inside my chest with anticipation.
While I couldn't imagine what sort of thing I could find in such a chest that I could properly appreciate (aside from maybe some nice clothes), the thought didn't do anything to dampen the atmosphere.
With a light push, the lid hinged back silently and revealed the secrets it was hiding.
The insides of the chest glittered under the light just as much as the chandelier did. The bottom of the chest was filled with layers of silver and gold coins, but they weren't the ones that I had used up until then. They were larger and had different imprints than what I had only started to get used to. The shape as well. These were perfectly circular aside from patterned notches along the edge. The quality of the shape was leagues above the more misshapen coins that was in circulation above ground. In fact, they reminded me of the occasional time I got my hands on newly minted coins back home. Not only were they so flawlessly formed, but glittered without a hint of dirt or tarnish.
Laying on top of the pile of coins were several items that exuded mana. There was a large crossbow, a small shield, a T-slotted full-faced helmet, a bright pink hand-bag, and a jewelled stick as long as my forearm.
As I examined each of them, Alicia gave me an explanation to each.
<Ummm, so the first one's a flaming drake crossbow. It says that it's made from a drake enchants all bolts fired from it with fire.>
This might've been the most advanced thing I had found in this world, once you disregarded any arguments about how advanced anything that had to do with magic was. Otherwise it seemed like a simple staple and not particularly remarkable.
<The second is a counter-blast heater shield. It's made from steel, and apparently when it's struck, it'll cause a small explosion.>
Quite simple in concept, but pretty powerful, depending on how strong the effect was. While there were plenty of potential detriments, overall it seemed like something that would be handy...if I was the sort to stand my ground and block hits rather than just avoiding getting hit in the first place.
<The third is a silver helm of clear mind. It's made of silver, and seems like it gives the wearer increased resistance against sleep, confusion and paralysis.>
This time it was a more plain item, but depending on how strong of a resistance it gave, and depending on the situation, it could have been one of the more powerful items amongst the ones there.
<The fourth is a snow hare magic bag. Its capacity is two cubic meters, and is made from the hide of a snow hare.>
While two cubic meters was nothing compared to what I had in my own magic bag, this one was tiny in comparison. It really looked like some dainty woman's hand bag only good for holding a wallet and some small items.
(What's even the point of a handbag anyways? They're always so small.)
<The next one is a wand of displacement. This wand casts the spell displacement onto anything that it's swung at. The spell swaps the target and the user's location.>
"That sounds really powerful."
"Depending on the situation, but usually it isn't. The spell is pretty limited by the size and distance of the target, and if used on a living creature it can be resisted if they have high enough anima. On top of that, if the target is too big, the spell will either only swap a portion of it with the user, or fizzle entirely if the object is too sturdy."
The dark spirit quickly dashed my expectations regarding the only item I had a real interest in.
"So it's not useful against enemies, and its application on inanimate objects is limited huh? How big of a target can it swap with?"
"Well, if you cast the spell normally, it depends on the user's [Dimensional Magic] skill as well as their intelligence, but a wand is generally only capable of using the spell at a low to medium skill ranking. I'm sure that once you get [Dimensional Magic] to rank three, you'd be able to do even more than the wand."
I couldn't help but feel like this entire treasure chest was a bust, despite how high the demand for the contents would've been for a normal person. The equipment wasn't really useful sounding to me, and I already had a magic bag. I couldn't really say I had any need for a big pile of money, not when it was so easy for me to get almost everything I wanted out in the wild, and everything out back home.
The only thing that was even remotely useful was the wand, but apparently it was too weak to be useful as long as I properly learned [Dimensional Magic] and raised its skill rank even a little.
Well, even if all that was true, I had no reason to just leave everything here. It was possible that I would find a use for at least some of it. Aside from selling them, most likely just the money though. At least that I could come up with some sort of use, even if it wasn't for myself.
"Oh yea, would there be a problem if I put a magic bag inside of another magic bag?"
As I was reaching for the items, the thought came to me. The recursive spacial bag problem was something that showed up a bunch in various stories and games, often as a joke or to explain certain mechanics. It was best to ask just in case.
"Don't do it! Magic bags are fragile when it comes to effects that bend space, so if you put strongly warped space inside of another one, it could cause both to collapse and cause collateral damage as the space warped back to normal!"
Claret pulled back on my neck as if she was trying to stop me from trying just that. I was a little annoyed at the implication that I would try such a thing. At the very least, I didn't want to risk losing my bunny plush shaped magic bag. I quite depended on it and was my favourite of all my possessions.
"Don't worry, I won't. Could you hold on to it while I put everything else into my bag?"
"Oh, alright Master."
With that, she let go of me and held on to the bag in both hands once I handed it off to her. The rest of the contents of the treasure chest went into my bag.
Once that was all done, there was one last thing I wanted to try.
"Gimme a sec before we go."
"Yes Master."
<Alright.>
Once I had their confirmation, I kicked the empty chest, shattering the front board. But against my expectations, the decorated plate quickly turned into particles of light and disappeared before it could even hit the ground.
A little disappointed, I tried scratching some of the gold ornamentation on the walls, only for them to flake off and disappear as light particles as well. It seemed like there wasn't anything that was possible to take from the room beyond the contents of the chest. Even if there was, I didn't feel like putting in any more effort into finding out.
With nothing else to do, we headed towards the especially fancy fountain in the back of the room. It was practically broadcasting that it was the way back.
<Scarlet, can you hear me?>
A voice I wasn't particularly keen to hearing ever again rang through my head.
Claret tensed up on her usual position on my back, but opted not to say anything.
<I can hear you.>
I needed to remind myself that I needed to stay as cordial as I could with her. At the worst it would delay if not entirely prevent her from turning on me in the future. At best, there was the possibility that she would be of help someday, though I wanted to avoid such an incident where I needed such help. Both in terms of not wanting to rely on such an uncertain factor, as well as the desire not to actually be in such danger that I needed to rely on her.
<Oh good. I was worried it wouldn't work properly.>
<Is there a reason why you're calling me, or did you just want to test the connection out?>
<Ah, well, kinda both, really. The thing is, I've been having some trouble with this magic thing.>
It wasn't really much of a surprise that she would. I was lucky and used some of the magic theory from various movies and games to come up with some plausible theories as to how to make the magic work. One of them even did in the end. But for her, if she didn't have a background where she got familiar with such fantasy elements as well, it wouldn't have been much of a surprise that she would have trouble making the proper mental connections as to how to do it.
<I see. Well, once you get the theory down, it's not hard since you already have the skills...>
The sight of Claret's displeasure caught my eye, and while it didn't really have to do with her, I did get another idea.
<I'll come to you and help you out. Are you still on the same floor as before?>
<Ah, I am! I'll be waiting!>
"Master, are you sure about helping that bitch get stronger?"
As I took my steps towards the fountain, the expected person finally voiced her complaint.
"I am, though it'll only make her a little stronger, and in the long run, it'll probably make her even less of a threat."
"Isn't it just better to avoid all dealings with her instead? I don't see how helping her out will make things better."
"It will by eroding her will to fight. The more favour I earn with her, the more unwilling she would be to harm me in the future."
<Personally, I think you've eroded her will to fight you to virtually nothing though.>
Unexpectedly, Alicia seemed to have been leaning towards Claret's view rather than my own.
"That's right! There's no need to waste your time with such a bitch Master!"
"There's the saying that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of a cure. Something of this level is nothing compared to the long term benefits. Taking a few extra steps isn't a problem. You yourself are centuries old right Claret? Isn't taking a little while out of a day virtually nothing for a being that lives so long? The same goes for you Alicia. A little bit of work early on will mean that we won't have to do a lot more later on."
The dark spirit stiffened up a little as she thought, but relaxed after a few moments.
"I understand Master."
<Same. If you're going to say that much then I don't have anything to add.>
Thankfully the two were convinced with that much. I wasn't sure what I would do if they stood their ground. I had already made the promise with Sarah, so I really needed to keep it or risk souring her impression of me.
I turned my attention towards Sarah. My connection with her allowed me to sense where she was. The familiar contract was telling me she was somewhere above, but it was a little screwy, like her location wasn't consistent or her presence was unstable. It was probably a side effect of the nature of dungeons. Dungeons really were mysterious things. It would be nice if I could learn more about them someday in the future, but aside from consulting an expert or finding a book on the subject, I had no idea how to pursue such a thing.
Retrieving the little magic bag from Claret, I made my way to the fountain.
"That was fast!"
When I appeared in the fountain room where Sarah and I parted ways at, the tall woman jumped a little in surprise. As a result of her sudden movement though, the bowl she was holding had also moved in an unexpected direction, ejecting its contents straight into her face and chest.
While her chest was properly protected by a curved metal plate, her face had no such protection and suffered the entire consequences of her actions.
"Ahhh! My schteev!"
It took me a moment to recognize what it was she was eating. It was my half-baked borscht. Or the remains of it, from what I could tell. The pot beside her was obviously empty, as it was sitting on its side.
I couldn't even see any traces of the soup at a glance. I didn't want to believe it, but it was hard to offhandedly deny the possibility that she had cleaned the pot. Possibly with her tongue if her reaction to my soup before was any indication.
Or rather, she had already finished it? I was pretty sure it hadn't been much more than a day since we had parted, yet it was gone already? That pot should've been big enough for two or three more meals of it.
"Stop moving for a sec."
The woman was wiping her face with her hands and licking them like a cat, and the sight of it was just a bit unnerving.
To make myself feel a bit better, I swirled warm water all around her body, removing all traces of dirt and the ruined soup off of her before chucking the remains through the nearby passage and into the dungeon proper. Immediately following that, I evaporated all the remaining surface moisture and mentally gave myself a pat on the back while the woman stood there in shock and a bad case of messy hair.
"There. Much bett…"
"Ahhh! The last of my schteev!"
There was a distinct lack of appreciation in front of me.
(Or rather, she's upset that I removed the last vestments of her soup?)
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