CH 135

How much time had Walm spent in the labyrinth where even day and night were ambiguous? Not that he cared that much, because he had already descended four floors since the 35th floor, and now he should be on the 39th floor.

In addition to the three-headed wolf and the synthetic beast with which he had become familiar, he encountered monsters such as Earth Spiders and Human-Faced Beasts. The characteristics of these two monsters were as insidious as those of the other monsters, and Walm could never like them.

The hairs that covered the Earth Spider’s entire body stood upright like wires, and if you touched it, it would feel like countless needles were piercing your skin. Its chelicerae contained neurotoxins, and it shot out sticky threads from its spinneret.

The first thing you would notice about the Human-Faced Beast was its eeriness. The face, which was as if a human face had been sewn onto a giant lion, was too ugly. When it chased you, a high-pitched screech emanated from the gaps between its fangs, which were as uneven as wild grass. Got distracted, and countless sharp objects covering the tip of the tail would come at you. [TN: Basically, something like a Manticore, but since the author didn’t put how it should be called, I’ll leave it as it is.]

And yet, Walm couldn’t help but be in a dilemma about whether such monsters were somewhat reasonable compared to the monsters that were currently attacking him.

” <Gust> incoming!!”

At Merrill’s shout, Walm jumped back.

Directly from above, along with the unpleasant flapping of wings, the mana turned into a roaring gust of wind. Debris was swirled up and a gust of wind blew through, making even Walm in his armor feel like he was floating.

“You half bastard, I’ll definitely turn you into roasted skewers!”

Flying around the sky in a phantasmagoric manner was a monster called Gryphon. Like the Synthetic Beasts and Human-Faced Beasts, it was a mixed-race monster. Was it popular on the 36th floor and below to be mixed-race? Regardless of the reason, Walm was irritated by the Gryphon, which naturally had the characteristics of an eagle and a lion.

Although the magic shot down from above was considered extremely annoying in itself, there weren’t only one but two Gryphons flapping their wings. Moreover, another kind of monster was moving on the ground, not caring about the violent gusts of wind.

With the sound of a string snapping, Walm reflexively pulled back half of his body. Accompanied by an arrow-breaking sound, the cobblestone flew away as if an explosion had hurled it away. And just like that, it flew in the direction of the attacker.

It was an armor of iron without other contents. To be exact, almost all of its contents were iron. Iron golem was the name of the monster. Strangely, such a stupid monster without a brain possessed mobility comparable to that of a human being, and light emitted from within. The origin of its brilliance was Mithril. In short, although it was made of iron, underneath it was a magic stone spread thinly like human blood vessels, which connected to a core made of magic stone that had a little amount of magical silver mixed in.

If one wanted to recreate it by human hands, one would need about the amount of steel equivalent to the equipment of a squad of heavy cavalry, a large magic stone, ten craftsmen and workshops, and elves or dwarves skilled in working with magical silver. In addition, several magic users and horses for transportation would be needed to carry out this operation. In the army of the Highserk Empire, these quantities of gold coins could leisurely feed a unit the size of a company.

And the Iron Golem, which would cost as much time and effort in addition to the already large amount of materials, put pressure on the group. Although it was a humanoid monster, it had an enormous weight. Even in gusts of wind that could easily blow humans away, it calmly brandished a weapon.

Of course, Walm didn’t remain idle and had already launched a fireball from the front. But the fire only made the Iron Golem’s appearance a little more clumsy. One would be difficult enough, and there were three, armed with a sword, spear, and bow, ready to rampage.

“Unnecessarily hard, one or two attacks are impossible to finish it.”

“Let’s clean up the Gryphons first. I’ll stir them up.”

Merrill decided to postpone the time-consuming Iron Golem, since Walm’s Fireball, which was supposed to be a quick solution, didn’t seem to have much effect.

Merrill kneaded up mana and the wind swirled around. The Iron Golems, sensing signs of large-scale magic, leaned forward to intervene. Quickly, Marianthe and Hari blocked their path.

“Look over here, stupid!!”

“You are worthy to help my hitting training.”

Marianthe’s mace sparked and rubbed against the Iron Golem’s joints. As expected, the joints were thin compared to other areas. It was crushed, causing the arm to fall off and the Iron Golem to go berserk like a broken toy.

Hari struck the other Iron Golem with his weapon, the Spirit-Infusing Rod. Although the Iron Golem had human-like movement, its movements were no better than those of a second-rate adventurer.

“I’ll deal the one with the longbow――!?”

Walm tried to take care of the last Iron Golem, which had prepared its longbow to intervene, but instead was surprised by the spectacle.

Yuna, who was supposed to be not a good match for the thick Iron Golem, seemed to have something that she couldn’t compromise as the same archer. She perfectly pierced the Iron Golem’s finger that held the arrow. The arrow slid down awkwardly, and only the sound of the empty shot of the string rang out. It wasn’t any different from an instrument that couldn’t even make a sound.

To overturn the situation, the Gryphons tried to release magic, but Merrill’s speed was slightly faster. Ironically, the same <Gust> was chosen to pull the Gryphons to the ground. The wind magic shot directly above moved the Gryphons in the air as if caressing them, albeit with slight violence.

Although the place was wide, it was an enclosed space. The escape of the wind was limited, and thus the wind hitting the ceiling and walls stirred and swirled the air.

The Gryphon, which sense of balance was disturbed and couldn’t catch the wind, flapped its limbs and fell off its back.

At the same time, holding his breath and sharpening his focus was Walm. He prepared a fireball and shot it up. The fireball unleashed its contained flames upon contact with the drowning Gryphon in the air.

Explosive flames instead of a death agony blossomed in the air, and Walm’s long-cherished wish, a roasted Gryhpon’s meat, rained down from above.

Such a blissful moment could only be enjoyed for a moment as Walm must turn his attention to the second Gryphon, but Yuna’s quick shot had pierced the feathers and skin of the wings, resulting in it losing its altitude and mobility. By the time the fourth arrow pierced it, it was unable to dodge the <Ice Lance> extending from the ground and was dragged to the ground, dead.

The bones and ice shattered, and the entrails were spewed from the beak. The curled toes twitched slightly. Although the Gryphon was already dying, Merrill’s longsword showed no mercy, stroking its head before slicing it to death. No human could show mercy after being attacked from the sky and bombarded with magic after all.

Now the troublesome Gryphons bared their flesh on the ground, but there were still three Iron Golems left. As if to vent their accumulated frustration, Walm and the others attacked the Iron Golems without holding back.

Although they were outnumbered, the Iron Golems brandished their weapons and charged at them with their huge bodies, but none of the people who had survived many battles up to that floor were stupid enough to get caught.

Two heads were carefully smashed so that both were turned into just a pile of iron scrap. The remaining one was the one where the core was exposed when the arm fell off. What a good weak point to attack. When Walm threw in flames there, they spread through the blood vessel-like things made of magic stones, and fire erupted from the entire body. The last iron golem, swinging its remaining arm wildly, suddenly collapsed as if a string had been cut, ending its function.

After confirming the death and the surroundings, the party members gathered. Though they managed to come this far, they couldn’t completely avoid damage, some parts of their armor were deformed and clearly, many battle scratches had run through them. If anyone got hurt, Hari’s healing magic would heal the wound, but that wouldn’t stop the fatigue from accumulating. While their physical strength was lost, they couldn’t afford to lose their spirit too.

As Walm wanted to spit out good words to maintain the good spirit, he noticed something. Fresh dirt was stuck to Merrill’s head. Its true identity was a piece of Gryphon’s flesh scattered around when it died.

“It’s sticky. It even has the fragrant smell of roasted birds.”

It was rare, but Merrill failed to avoid them all. After letting out a voice of dissatisfaction, Merrill directed a resentful gaze at Walm.

“What? Do you hate makeup?”

Walm, seeing the splendid figure of Merrill, made a joke as usual, but for some reason this time his joke made the light atmosphere heavier and somewhat cold.

In a quieter tone than usual, Merrill said to Walm, who wasn’t sure what kind of landmine he had stepped on.

“Huff, even though we’re friends… do you think it’s okay to say that to a girl?”

“Huh? Girl?… Eh? Hah?”

Walm struggled to digest the meaning of the words.

Forcing his reverberating brain to process them at maximum speed, Walm then called Hari.

“Hari…”

“What? Of course, Merrill is a girl.”

Hari looked down at Walm and folded his arms as he said something so obvious.

“…I see, Merrill is…”

“Walm, you’re unbelievable. No, maybe I should praise you instead. I mean, how can you not know the gender of the party member who will be with you to the bottom of the Labyrinth.”

Perplexed, Walm sought help from the other members, but the women showed no mercy.

At the same time, a thick, rough hand was placed on Walm’s shoulder.

It was Hari’s.

“People make mistakes. Apologize.”

What choice did a person like Walm have? He had clearly made a fatal mistake. Even more so in the depths of the Labyrinth. It might even affect future movements.

So, with a trembling voice, Walm apologized sincerely.

“…..I, am truly sorry, for mistaking, the gender, of, my comrades.”

Walm bowed his head at an angle of more than 45 degrees and apologized. Cleary said the words, so there would be no misunderstanding.

It was vague now, but memories of the world of the past when Walm was called Takakura Raizou, crossed his mind. When he made his first big mistake after joining the company, he used to say similar things to his clients.

“Hahaha, do you really have to say it like that? Really?”

“Laughing at an apology, is, an immature behavior.”

When Walm returned his timidly lowered gaze to Merrill, the frown on her face had gone and instead an insidious smile was there.

“Fufufu, should I forgive you then?”

In terms of cooperation, the four of them had done it many times before, to the point where they could correctly guess each other’s intentions without saying much. And they teamed up to play along in this little performance. Walm realized that they were deliberately making the atmosphere heavy to pressure him to apologize.

At this point, Walm was on the verge of agonizing because of the complicated feelings that were rising up inside him, however,

CLAP!!

“Well, that was entertaining. Now, shall we get ready?”

Merrill clapped her hands and said so.

Hearing this, the other party members dispersed as if the interesting spectacle was over. Walm was still conflicted, but regardless, the others had regained their spirits, as if they had just shown a brief lighthearted performance.

After cleaning up the monsters, the party continued to move forward. Including this, only two floors remained to reach the bottom.

◆

The party wiped out strong, nameless monsters on the way, as they increased the depth of their diving. The destination they arrived at was the 40th floor, the last floor before reaching the bottom of the Great Labyrinth of Belgana.

Searching for a passage that led to the innermost, the party finally reached the one that seemed to lead to a huge hall.

Walm had encountered irregular situations several times in the Labyrinth, but so far, the large room was where he had the most irregular encounters.

“There’s no detour.”

A straight path connected to the room, as if to say, “Come,” lay before Walm.

“Obviously, something is there.”

“There’s no other way. We’ve to go forward.”

Hari turned and waited for a response from Merrill, the party’s leader.

“… Let’s go. It would be a problem if monsters came from behind while we are hesitating.”

With Hari in the lead, the group headed into the large room.

Walm carefully searched the walls and ceiling, but found nothing suspicious. Though disappointed, so be it. It wasn’t something bad after all.

However, Walm felt a faint vibration in the soles of his shoes as the party approached the center. He suspected it was just a mistake, but the vibrations only grew stronger.

“It’s, shaking?”

“Down, something’s down there!”

The unstoppable tremor finally made the earth shake and the floor rose. Parts of the walls and ceiling couldn’t withstand the shaking and fell down. A large number of cobblestones rolled in as a huge neck was lifted. Something bounced its thick tail off the rubble covering it, and its rocky arms stretched out from the gap. Its entire body was covered with stones, and two twisted horns protruded from its head.

At this sight, Hari screamed unbearably.

“This guy ―― it’s “Earth Dragon”!!!”

A monster of the same class as the Crawler that Walm had once encountered was trying to block their path.

Walm had no intention of looking silently at the flashy appearance and shot a fireball he had worked out into the crawling head. Explosive flames enveloped the body, and the flames scorched the stone pavement.

A roar came back from the raised dust. Although some soot marks and scratches remained, the Earth Dragon was still alive. Walm shot fireballs several times in succession, but it didn’t seem to flinch. Merrill also repeatedly attacked it with <Ice Lance> and <Air Blade> but was repelled by its thick scales.

“……Among the dragon species, it’s said to be one of the hardest. Ah, Attack is coming!!”

The Earth Dragon that crawled out swung its tail and ran toward the party. While the party members dodged, Merrill, who stayed behind alone, formed a diagonal ice pillar on the ground. The ram-shaped block of ice and the Earth Dragon collided head-on.

Walm expected a good fight even though he knew the ice couldn’t fight back, but the ice was shattered without a fight, much easier than he expected, and the fragments rained down on the surroundings like hail.

Hari’s and Marianthe’s battle mace struck the slowed legs, but a metallic sound resounded, a sound that shouldn’t come from a rocky creature struck by a mace.

“Guh, the surface can be scraped, but that’s it.”

The two slipped through the arms that swung down to them in a way like when people got annoyed by flying bugs and took their distance.

Walm also threw in a <Fire Lance> without delay, but it didn’t do much.

“Tearing that off isn’t easy, you know.”

“Yuna, can you aim for the eyes?”

“I hit it once, but there was a barrier on its eye, and I can’t pierce it.”

The strength that no one thought was in a living creature even reached its eyes. A thick protective layer protected the eyeballs, perhaps due to the effect of being buried in the ground for a long time.

Means to attack were sealed one by one, there was no choice but to destroy the rock-like scales one by one.

“Once, I’ll use “it” once. It’s more than good enough that I’ve been able to save it so far.”

Until now, Merrill had used a variety of magic, but now her body swirled with visible mana. The colors that resulted from the three types of attributes were indescribably vivid. At this dazzling spectacle, the demon mask trembled with excitement, oblivious to its owner.

“What are you going to do?”

It was Marianthe who answered Walm’s question.

“Right, Walm, it’s your first time. But let me tell you, the reason why Merrill is called the “Trimagitack” isn’t only because she can use three different types of attribute magic. That’s the name of her skill.”.

Merrill, wrapped in a mana that fascinated Walm, lowered her waist and made an extreme stance until the longsword was hidden behind her back. The Earth Dragon sensed the inevitable situation and tried to stop it without any arrogance. It ignored the other attack, turned its twisted horn towards Merrill, and roared.

The Earth Dragon was spreading out in Walm’s field of vision.

“Merrill!!!”

Merrill smiled at Walm’s cry announcing the danger. Immediately after, the longsword was swung in such a way as to split the air, and the mana, accompanied by a flash and a shock, overflowed into the air.

Walm’s eyes drowned in light, he needed to squint to see what was happening. A brilliant attack, which was the result of three different attributes mixed in together, reached the Earth Dragon and spiraled around it.

The stubborn scales continued to resist the torrent of mana, but when one of the scales cracked, it spread to the entire scale in an instant.

The Earth Dragon let out an echoing cry as it was swallowed by the light.

Walm’s eyes stung and felt as if heat ran through them. The ≪Holy Slash≫ he had once received in the defensive battle of the Sarajevo fortress came back to his memory. What could he do now? He could only utter a dry voice, as if he wanted to be strong.

“Haha, that’s amazing.”

The scales of the Earth Dragon, piled up like strata, were mercilessly shattered. Half of its face and throat were scraped and bruised. Seeing such a scene, Walm was speechless. The effective range was limited, but with this skill, one could break through even a “living castle wall”. No wonder Merrill was called the Trimagitack.

“I wanted, to put on a cool look after the blow, but… seems that’s not going to happen.”

Merrill, who had expended a large amount of mana, looked tiredly at the center of the explosion, from which dust continued to fall. The Earth Dragon, which had lost more than half of its face, became a one-eyed monster and let out a roar. Walm didn’t know if it was anger or grief at having its proud scales broken. The only thing for sure was that it was the best time to attack.

“Aim for the shattered parts. The skull was hard, but better than scales.”

“Well, I’ve no objections.”

It was an attack as if the insects were gathering in the wound, but the party had not much strength left after the series of fights. Merrill also used her trump card, the ≪Trimagitack≫. She couldn’t afford to incur more damage for the time being.

“Merrill will take a break, and we’ll do the rest.”

“Please let me.”

Flames began to dance, and the smell of burning flesh filled the nostrils. Arrows continued to travel lushly through the wind, iron grasped relentlessly at flesh, and the sound of dry blows echoed through the room. Each time the earth shook, the cobblestones crumbled and the walls cracked. When the chorus ended, only a mound of rocks stood still.

“Finally, huh?”

After defeating the Earth Dragon, the party took a step deeper toward the bottom of the Labyrinth.

TN: The “Dragon” of the Earth Dragon in here is written with this kanji “竜”. The other Dragon species that have appeared in the story and were written with this kanji are the Lake Dragon and the Crawler.