Banished from the Hero’s Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside - Volume 10 - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Dungeon Crawl

We reached the entrance to the ancient elf ruins in the mountains by the evening.

The surrounding area was home to chimeras—creatures with a lion body and head, plus a dragon and goat head.

That was fine, though. They weren’t really any trouble for us. Rit marched at the head of our group and thus was the one beset upon by a chimera that leaped at us. However, the monster was taken down in an instant, and the rest of its kind left us alone. Other than that, it was smooth sailing.

As planned, the party totaled eight people: Rit, Yarandrala, Danan, Van, Lavender, Esta, Albert, and myself.

“The real exploration will start tomorrow, but there is an area inside that was used as a base last time, so let’s move there before we stop for the night,” I said.

Everyone nodded.

Ruti had set up that section of the ruins for Godwin. The camp remained, even after the battle with Ares.

“So this is an ancient elf ruin.” Van touched the unknown metal that formed a wall with evident fascination.

“Is this your first time exploring one?” I asked.

“Mhm. The clockwork constructs here lack Divine Blessings, and no evil comes from them.”

“True, there are no people for the Hero to rescue down here,” I replied. The ancient elf ruins were irrelevant to that role. And yet they were deeply linked to its origins. “But Ruti found the proof of the Hero in an ancient elf ruin.”

Esta pulled the item in question out of her pocket. “Here.”

“What?!” Van cried out. “Why do you have that, Esta?!”

“I received it from Lady Ruti.”

Ruti said she’d thrown it away when she abandoned her quest and came to Zoltan. I guess Esta picked it up.

“It does nothing for me, though,” she admitted.

“Because it’s meant to enhance the Divine Blessing of the Hero,” I said.

Our exchange got Van thinking. “Enhancing a Divine Blessing… That doesn’t feel right for the Hero…”

“True,” I agreed.

A magic item that directly enhanced a Divine Blessing was extraordinarily rare. Blessings were quite literally gifts from God. Manipulating a blessing by mortal means was heretical, and openly researching such things was forbidden. Even if it was allowed, the subject was beyond what modern mages could achieve.

Knowing that Devil’s Blessing existed, perhaps it was possible with techniques from the dark continent. On Avalon, the only ones able to manipulate blessings were the wild elves, who were said to be descendants of the ancient elves. The extinct wood elves, modern half-elves, and high elves lacked the knowledge to affect blessings.

“Elven coins are the same.” Yarandrala pulled out a platinum coin.

Those, too, were ancient elven artifacts made of an unknown metal.

When Rit first started living with me, a man from the Thieves Guild tried to buy me off with one of those.

Appearance suggested it was merely a piece of old currency, but by unleashing its power, you could increase your blessing level by one. It was a bit of a waste to use something worth ten thousand payrils like that, but we’d expended them regularly in the old days before fights with mighty foes.

Not dying was worth more than money.

“You can find them all over the place in ancient elven ruins, and there are plenty of other powerful artifacts, too. Whenever we had time to spare, and there was an ancient elven ruin nearby, we explored it,” I said.

“I always thought raising my blessing level took precedence over everything else,” Van confessed. Some of that was probably because of Ljubo. Was it best to grow strong by raising your blessing level or seeking to improve your skills and equipment? Whatever the true answer, Ljubo’s perspective as a holy man and mine as a knight clearly differed.

“Speaking of the proof of the Hero, how much do you know of the legends of the Ancient Hero, Van?” I asked.

“I have read everything in the records left in the church, of course.”

“So on that front, you’re a model student.”

Ruti had absolutely no interest in the Ancient Hero, since she despised the Hero blessing. However, Ares, Esta, and I all knew the legends, so with comrades able to cover for her on the knowledge front, there hadn’t been a problem.

“The story of the Ancient Hero obtaining the proof of the Hero came after Sage Lilith decided to join the Ancient Hero’s quest because she was impressed by his spirit,” Van recounted. “Lilith was a scholar of antiquity. She studied the Heroes who lived before the era of humanity; the ones lost to modern history and legends. She concluded that they visited an ancient elven structure near the capital of the present-day Kingdom of Avalonia. Lilith guided the Hero of her time to those ruins, and there, they discovered the proof of the Hero. Only the Hero may acquire that treasure, which leads to people acknowledging anyone with it as God’s chosen savior and gathering to him to fight the demon lord’s army.”

The Ancient Hero. The one who defeated the demon lord and began the age of humans.

Unlike the modern Heroes—Ruti and Van—his journey began after the demon lord seized control of the entire world. The wood elves, who’d dominated the continent at the time, fought the demon lord’s army but were destroyed. It was said that the various human kingdoms and tribes were forced to accept the demon lord as their master and live under the thumb of demons.

That was when the Ancient Hero appeared, although his name had since been lost. Together with his comrades, he stoked rebellion in every corner of the continent, then finally invaded the demon lord’s castle and defeated the tyrant.

Later, the Ancient Hero married Sage Lilith, and their son united humanity as ruler of its first kingdom, Gaiapolis. The great warrior Maharaj established the Warriors Guild—what would later become the Adventurers Guild. The cleric Corsica was central in rebuilding the holy church. All the heroes in the party had their hands in modern institutions.

But ironically, the Kingdom of Gaiapolis was later destroyed by the descendants of the humans exiled for having joined the demon lord’s army.

That land later became mine and Ruti’s homeland, the Kingdom of Avalonia. Its capital stood on the former site of the Hero’s castle in Gaiapolis, which itself had rested on the land the demon lord’s palace once occupied.

“As a result of all that chaos, the records of the Ancient Hero were lost,” Rit said with evident disappointment.

Esta nodded in agreement. “The church and the Avalonian archives are similarly incomplete. The only hope would be the historical records of the Cataphract Kingdom, which was founded by the remnants of Gaiapolis’s royal family. However, if such knowledge survived, Cataphract would have no reason to conceal it. It surely would have announced it, advertising that it knew the true lineage of the Hero.”

Thus, despite the Ancient Hero’s great feats, we didn’t know what sort of person he was or even his name.

But was that really it?

The names of his party members endured. Part of that was because their feats had been recorded by the organizations they founded, but why was there no mention of the greatest Hero’s name? I sensed a hidden motive in the conspicuous lack of knowledge about the Hero.

Whether it was malicious or well-intentioned was another question, however.

We entered the ancient elf ruins and reached the elevator area. This was as far as Zoltan adventurers dared to go.

Many plants grew to this point. Perhaps it was a good environment, as there were lots of medicinal herbs to be found. Those bold adventurers unafraid of the chimeras came here to do some gathering. No one ventured past the elevator, though.

“Shall we go down?” I peered down the hole. “Do you have a way to descend safely, Van?”

“Of course!”

“All right, then, shall we?”

Everyone leaped into the hole.

I kicked off the walls to slow my descent. Beside me, Rit used her spirit magic to descend slowly. Esta also used magic, albeit a little more unstably because she was holding Albert.

With her abilities, she should have been able to control the fall just fine, even with another person. She looked a little unsteady, though, so I signaled for Rit and Yarandrala to support her.

As for Van, he simply ran straight down the wall.

“Van’s fastest!” Lavender cheered excitedly from his shoulder.

It’s not really a race…

“Don’t get cocky!” Danan raced down the shaft. He used Martial Arts to accelerate in midair. And just before slamming into the ground, he managed to slow himself to land safely.

He really was superhuman.

“How’s that?”

“That stupid musclehead! Getting in Van’s way!”

“You’re amazing, Danan.”

Danan was triumphant, Lavender resentful, and Van observed things in his own way. The rest of us landed in succession shortly after the three of them.

Everyone was safe.

“The base is this way.”

I took the lead, guiding the party. Rit, our scout, was up front beside me. The rest took positions at our backs.

After a little while…

“Hmm?”

…I stopped walking, sensing something strange. There’d been clockwork constructs guarding these ruins, but Ruti had destroyed them; their remnants were ahead.

“What is it, Red?” Rit asked.

“Can you wait just a moment?”

I took a closer look at the remnants.

There’s not enough.

“Parts are missing. Someone must have taken them.”

“Huh? But no one has come in here since the last time, right?” Rit sounded surprised. “I don’t think there are any adventurers who would dare venture into ancient elf ruins. Plus, there weren’t any signs of other people at the entrance!”

I nodded. “I didn’t notice anything that would suggest other parties passing through, either.”

Rit’s Spirit Scout abilities and Yarandrala’s Singer of the Trees abilities were connected to plants.

The entrance to the ruins was carpeted in vegetation like an overgrown forest. An adventuring group would have to go to great lengths to avoid leaving any evidence of their presence in the vegetation that those two would recognize. Such a thing was beyond anyone in Zoltan.

“Perhaps there’s another entrance?” Van suggested.

That was certainly a possibility.

“I think there probably is another entrance. But if adventurers had come here, then it’s odd that they left the clockwork constructs’ armor plating. Those are the most valuable pieces,” I replied.

“I see. Hmmm…”

Van’s brow knitted in thought.

Maybe—

“What pointless thing are you worrying about now?” Lavender said before I could speak up. “They cannibalize themselves, right? I’ve seen it tons of times.”

That wasn’t a hypothesis; she’d witnessed it.

Right…

“You were alive during the ancient elves’ era,” I said.

Lavender was an archfay of calamity.

According to Undine, she was the last of the archfay of calamity who once rampaged across the world but were brought low by the dragons and ancient elves.

All that time spent trying to study ancient elves, and a firsthand source is now right in front of me.

“What’s it matter? It was so long ago.”

Unfortunately, Lavender didn’t seem interested in talking about the ancient elves.

She didn’t really distinguish between different people for the most part, so she’d probably fail to recall much about the ancient elves.

Fairies really had a different set of priorities than people.

“Cannibalizing? They eat?”

It sounded like Danan had misunderstood entirely.

“They gather usable parts from broken constructs to fix other clockwork monsters,” I explained.

“Meaning…?”

“Basically, we should be careful because new clockwork constructs might show up.”

“Ohhh! Just say that from the start, man!” Danan grinned and slapped my back.

Cut it out. That hurts, you know.

I didn’t really understand that much about clockworks, either. They were geared monsters that functioned for thousands of years, operating ceaselessly since the era of their creators. Researchers tried to forge copies of them using current-day magic and engineering, but no amount of study produced anything like what these golems could manage.

“Clockwork monsters can be dangerous. They give off a sound when they move, but otherwise, their presence can’t be detected, even by magic,” Rit said.

“They don’t breathe and have no body heat, so it’s difficult even using the plants,” Yarandrala added.

You could do nothing against a surprise attack by clockwork golems other than try to fight back after you were caught.

Tisse had told me that the defensive fortifications of these ruins were extraordinary. They were enough to make her admit she wouldn’t have returned alive without Ruti.

“Apparently, there was even a clockwork dragon somewhere down here. We’ll need to take care, as it might have been restored,” I said.

“A clockwork dragon… That’s a monster that appears in the legend of the Ancient Hero,” Van replied.

“Yeah, the ancient demon lord’s army restored it and used it for war. I don’t know if the one here possesses the same abilities as the one in the old stories, but it will surely be a dangerous opponent, even for the Hero.”

Come to think of it, legends of the Ancient Hero only spoke of ancient elf technology during the part about the proof of the Hero and when mentioning that the demon lord’s army restored the machines and set them against humanity.

Maybe that’s part of why Van—the church’s Hero—and his party put so little emphasis on ancient elven ruins.

“Hey, Lavender, who were the ancient elves?” I asked.

“Who were they? Just normal animals, the same as you humans.” She regarded me as though wondering why I’d bothered to ask the obvious.

I had a font of information right before me, but apparently, I’d need to work a little harder to get what I wanted from her.

“That’s enough, right? Let’s keep going so we can get some rest soon,” Danan suggested.

“Yeah, good call.”

With that, we continued deeper toward Ruti’s abandoned camp.

We proceeded with caution, and fortunately, we managed to avoid any clockwork constructs that might be roaming the halls.

The sounds of shoes on the metallic floor echoed down the otherwise silent passage.

We marched to where that odd sign with HERO ADMINISTRATION BUREAU written on it in wood elf script was and beyond.

“This is the place,” I said.

At last, we’d reached the chamber that Godwin the Alchemist used as a laboratory.

“The door’s broken,” Van remarked.

I nodded. “That was Ruti.”

“You don’t say.”

I felt partly responsible, but we were the only ones who’d use the room anyway, so it was fine. I could imagine some scholar in the distant future getting mad at whoever had broken the things in their precious ruins, but I decided not to think too deeply about it.

“So then, shall we set up camp?” I asked.

Van reached for his item box. “Mhm. Leave it to me. I have a handy magic item that Ljubo—”

“Slow down there,” I interjected. “Since we have the chance, why not try setting up camp yourself without using a magic item?”

“Huh?! Why?!”

“During all your travels, you’ve relied on magic items or let members of the church who were with you handle everything, right?”

“That’s true, but is there a reason to go out of the way to do it by hand when it can be done quicker?”

“What will you do when you find yourself unable to use magic items? What if your item box gets stolen? Someday, you might get thrown in prison with just the shirt on your back, forcing you to break out and reunite with your comrades.”

“…I understand.”

“All right, here’s everything you’ll need. See what you can do with Esta’s guidance.”

Van reluctantly went over to Esta. She smiled wryly at him but launched into an earnest explanation.

Rit came up beside me. “He’s pretty obedient.”

“He’s serious and a hard worker at heart. If he learns to accept other people’s perspectives, he’ll be much better off. I think his old mentality, when he took his faith too far, isn’t his natural personality.”

“Hmm. Blessings are difficult things.”

“They really are. I wonder what Demis hoped to achieve by making the Hero.”

If the goal was to defeat the demon lord and save the world, there were plenty of more efficient ways to go about it. The Divine Blessing of the Hero did not exist to save the world.

“Ruti and Van are completely different Heroes, but they both agree on that point,” I said.

“You’re right about that,” Rit answered.

Ruti claimed that the Hero wasn’t made to save people, and Van asserted that the Hero wasn’t meant to defeat evil so much as just battle it regardless of the outcome.

And the words of two people who possessed the Hero blessing were more reliable than any old legend.

“Does Demis view good and evil as equal?” Rit pondered aloud. “I wonder if he created Divine Blessings of equal strength so one side wouldn’t have an edge over the other.”

I shook my head. “That doesn’t feel quite right. Were that true, the Hero and the demon lord would be unnecessary. Ordinary people and demons would be enough.”

“Yeah. It would be amazing if we could find an answer here.”

“Even if we do, who knows if what we’ll find can be revealed to the public? It’s probably a good thing that Ljubo didn’t come with us.”

While we talked, Van and Esta finished setting up camp. There was no need to deal with wind or rain, so there was no tent, but there were cots and a simple kitchen area. We’d be set for a few days.

“Nice work,” I praised.

“It’s not hard as long as you know what you are doing.” Van sounded a little proud of his work. In that regard, he really was like an innocent boy.

“Shall we have some dinner, then?” I suggested.

And just like that, our first day of adventure concluded unremarkably.

Although it was night, there was no sun or moon underground.

After dinner, the others spent their time as they pleased. I was teaching Van swordsmanship with a practice weapon.

“You’re open.”

“Ngh!”

The blade of my sword stopped just a hair from Van’s nape.

We were taking care not to actually hit each other, as this was practice to improve Van’s form. In a scenario where all of Van’s powerful skills from his blessing could only hasten the speed of his weapon, I had a pretty considerable advantage.

“Okay, let’s work on defending when you’re rooted and can’t move.”

“Yes, sir!”

Van earnestly parroted all the motions I taught him. He was a good student.

“You have a habit of trying to finish things with special Hero maneuvers. And you aren’t great at applying practical motions,” I said.

“So what should I do?”

“I’d say work to find different ways of using your Hero abilities. Something to repel an opponent’s attacks without losing the upper hand would be useful.”

“Ohhh!”

Swordsmanship wasn’t mastered in a day; that was especially true because Van had already formed many bad practices from so much fighting. However, the more he practiced, the more he picked up the motions. At present, he likely felt weaker than before. It would be hard to fight while keeping the principles I taught in mind. But he would surely grow even stronger than before in time.

“Phew, let’s call it there for today.”

“Aww. But…”

Van looked like he wanted more, but it was eleven. We’d been going for too long already, honestly.

“Can’t we continue a bit more?”

Until recently, Van didn’t see any value in swordsmanship. Yet now he’d come to understand how interesting it could be.

“I only have a short amount of time to teach you the sword, but once you resume your journey, you should take care to observe how others fight. There are as many different styles as there are sword fighters. It’s fun,” I replied.

I sat down and wiped my dirty body with a wet towel. “Now then, you have Immunity to Sleep, don’t you?”

“Mhm. That’s why I always spend nights hunting monsters to raise my blessing level.”

“And I go with him!”

Lavender had cheered for Van during training and zipped to his shoulder once it was over.

“Then until I go to sleep, let’s talk a little more about the Ancient Hero and the proof of the Hero,” I said as I set the towel down. “Van, do you know what happened to the original proof of the Hero?”

“According to the church’s records, it was returned to the ancient elf ruins after the demon lord was defeated.”

“That’s right. But why did the Ancient Hero do that?”

Van was at a loss for a moment. “In order to entrust it to the next Hero?”

“That’s a nice idea. There was something in the ruins where we recovered the proof of the Hero that prevented it from being taken by anyone without the Divine Blessing of the Hero. I can’t think of any better way to ensure that the next Hero is the one to make the trip. Until I traveled with Ruti, I thought like you did.”

“Huh?”

“Van, do you think the Hero’s impulses will stop after the demon lord is defeated? Will that mean the end of the blessing’s purpose?”

“…Ah!”

“The Hero is meant to defeat evil and save people. So long as there is evil in the world and people in danger, the Hero’s work will never be done. Expunging all wickedness and danger is impossible.”

Slaying the demon lord wouldn’t free Ruti from her impulses. My dream, a future where she could live in peace like an ordinary girl, wouldn’t come true with the demon lord’s demise.

“I see. It’s strange that the Ancient Hero returned the proof of the Hero after defeating the demon lord,” Van said.

“That’s right. The Hero’s role was not yet complete, so he shouldn’t have quit. He still needed the proof of the Hero.”

“Hmmm…” Van thought about it, but it didn’t seem like he reached an answer.

I poured a cup of coffee and waited for it to cool down before resuming the conversation.

“My theory is that he never returned the proof of the Hero.”

Van raised an eyebrow. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Hear me out. We know that Sage Lilith was a hero who saved the world, and she was the mother of the royal lineage that ruled the continent. But originally, she was a scholar of antiquity. She must have known about ancient elf ruins.”

I paused and took a sip of coffee.

A bit bitter… Did I mess up grinding the beans?

“I’ve done quite a lot of research on the ancient elves, too,” I added.

I’d searched far and wide for a way to restrain the impulses of Ruti’s blessing. I even sought out ancient elf and demon practices. Ultimately, I never found a way to free her, but I did learn things that wound up being useful during our travels.

Most importantly, that knowledge of ancient elves taught me about a different world than the one the church spoke of.

“When we found the proof of the Hero in the ancient elf ruins near the capital, the item was made new there. It was nothing more than a freshly produced ancient elf creation, totally distinct from the one held by the Ancient Hero. It was entirely unrelated to Demis, the creator of the Divine Blessing of the Hero.”

“You said that back in the fairy village, too, but…I still can’t believe it. It is written in the church’s scriptures that the proof of the Hero was crafted of the divine metal orichalcum and thus bequeathed to us by God.”

“Just like this floor.” I tapped my hand on the ground, producing a dull noise. “Orichalcum is just a metal we don’t know how to make. It’s hardly divine. It’s a substance fabricated by the ancient elves.

“In other words, the ancient elves understood secrets about the Divine Blessing of the Hero. It’s why Sage Lilith’s accounts of the Ancient Hero are incomplete. She wished to conceal the truth about the ancient elves.”

Sage Lilith used the Hero’s lineage to found a kingdom and rule the entire continent. Perhaps she’d come across a truth that threatened her commanding position.

“It’s an incredible theory, but I don’t think I can put much trust in it,” Van said.

“Of course, it’s just speculation, after all. Hopefully, we’ll find the answer here.”

“It’s strange. Were I not the Hero, I’d probably be scared right now.”

“What will you do? Go back without learning what the Hero is?”

“No. I want to know. I want to learn why I was given this blessing and discover what sort of hero I should be. Then I can save the world.” Van’s reply was firm and steady.

“That’s right!” Lavender chirped. She’d been listening to my story from Van’s shoulder with clear disinterest. Now that it was over, she kissed Van’s cheek lightly. “You’re already the strongest hero. I don’t know about that secret or whatever, but you will definitely be fine as long as you stay yourself!”

Van’s eyes rested on the little fairy. “Thank you, Lavender.”

Before, it always seemed like he looked at Lavender without actually seeing her. Even his comrades had been mere blessings to him. That would change going forward. He would build strong bonds with them.

The two of them started talking cheerfully, so I headed over to my sleeping bag to avoid getting in their way.

“Nice work today.”

“You too.”

Yarandrala came over and gave me a small bunch of berries. The fruits had a hint of sweetness and tartness to them, making them perfect for a snack.

“To think that the Hero could relax this much,” Yarandrala remarked as she observed Van laughing at Lavender’s joke. “He might actually be able to save the world.”

“Yeah.”

“I still can’t accept a lone Hero shouldering the world’s burdens, though.”

Yarandrala had always held that belief. Even during her time in our party, she disliked the Hero’s role. Our group really had a wide range of thoughts on humanity’s strongest blessing.

“Van belongs to the church,” I said. “I’m sure they’re abusing that to some extent, but it also means he’ll lead the church’s army into battle. He won’t have to go it alone the entire time. At least, I hope so.”

“It all comes down to the blessing’s impulses.”

“Yeah, it does.”

An army couldn’t take most of the actions necessary to save people, and the Hero blessing’s impulses were a bad fit for such a massive collective. There was a good chance Van would eventually leave the army and try to bear the fate of the world with a small group of people, just like we did.

“Hey, Red.” Yarandrala paused to lower her voice. “How come Van can laugh and smile?”

Ruti couldn’t. That was what Yarandrala was getting at.

“…I don’t know.”

That was all I could say in response.

Breakfast on the second day of our adventure was vegetable-and-egg sandwiches and bacon soup.

I’d prepared some fresh food yesterday for this morning.

The meal was hardly leisurely, but everyone did seem to enjoy it well enough.

Once we finished, we began discussing what to do today.

“Let’s split up to search,” Danan suggested. “We don’t know what might be skulking around, but Ruti and Tisse already explored most of the area, right? We can spread out some until we find something strange.”

“Mhm, that sounds good to me! Me and Van together, and everyone else can just do whatever! You want to be together with Red, don’t you, Rit?” Lavender said.

“Huh? Well, I did plan to go with Red, but…”

“Lavender, we’re having a serious discussion right now.”

“Mrgh! I was being serious, Van!”

Lavender’s boisterous outburst gave a lightness to the meeting. She would provide a bit of brightness to the grim road Van would head down in the future. However, there was a time and place for her antics.

“Quiet! Let’s hear what everyone thinks,” I called.

Everyone stopped talking. Lavender tried to keep speaking, but Van put his finger over her lips. She tried to mumble through it, though.

“Ruti and Tisse explored a broad area of these ruins and took care of anything dangerous, but their goal wasn’t to discover the secrets of this place. Some of the clockwork constructs may have recovered.” I looked around at everyone. “We should split into two parties. I think dividing any more than that would be too risky.”

“I agree,” Esta said. “And it would be best to keep our searches close enough that either party can rush over if something happens. So sticking to the same floor is better.”

I took out signal whistles from my item box and passed them out to everyone. These were common tools used by adventurers; they were small whistles that could produce loud noises at different pitches, letting you signal a comrade at a significant distance.

“Is that agreeable to everyone?” I asked.

Danan nodded. “Yeah, no problem here!”

No one else had any objections.

“So as for the groups…”

Rit, Danan, Yarandrala, and I formed Party A. Van, Lavender, Esta, and Albert would be Party B.

“For now, it’s probably better to stick with familiar comrades,” I said. “Signal immediately if anything happens. There’s no need to go overboard.”

“I understand.” Van bobbed his head.

He sure is getting to be reliable.

We started by reconfirming the safety of the area that Ruti had explored the last time. This included inspecting where the clockwork mother controlling the other golems had been. It was still broken.

Without it, the clockwork golems shouldn’t be able to move, but…

“An army that collapses without its commander?” I muttered.

If I were an ancient elf creating these constructs, I wouldn’t implement such an obvious weakness. I would absolutely consider the possibility of the commander falling.

“Well, maybe it was necessary since the clockwork golems aren’t living creatures,” I mused.

At any rate, we needed to get on with our search.

The day proceeded without incident or results. There were no signs of any changes in the area Ruti had already covered.

Starting tomorrow, we’d have to head down a floor.

Day three.

Today’s breakfast was meat and vegetables grilled in olive oil.

Sopping up the leftover bits of olive oil with some bread proved delicious.

Today, we extended our search to the lower floors.

We went to the room where we fought Ares and where the Sacred Avenger, which Shisandan used, had been stored. I was a little concerned about Van entering the room since he had the Hero blessing and this was where Ruti went berserk, so I investigated the chamber myself.

I was surprised to find a massive magic device I’d never seen before, but I didn’t turn up anything related to the Hero. However, the room was a vault for sacred swords; it was hard to imagine it being used for anything else.

Today was another swing and a miss.

Day four.

Breakfast was a stew made from salt-preserved rations.

We headed up a floor from where we’d made camp.

This level was completely empty.

There were a few more unknown devices, but they all seemed to be broken. The higher floors appeared to have been aboveground at one point. We came upon something that had likely moved to those levels long ago. However, it had long since been buried, making it inoperable.

Today was another failure.

Day five.

Breakfast was cookies and bean soup.

We ventured to the last areas we hadn’t explored…but found nothing.

We’d been everywhere.

With that done, we gathered again for another meeting shortly after noon.

“There was nothing,” Rit said disappointedly.

This was a weak showing. I didn’t think it would be so fruitless.

“Did the wood elves just put some joke on that sign?” Danan wondered.

“Hmm. It was presumably written by wood elves who explored these ruins, but there’s no guarantee it’s accurate,” Esta responded.

“Should we follow the typical strategy and have the parties swap routes to see if either group missed something?” Yarandrala suggested, calling upon her wealth of experience as an adventurer.

It was a common method when splitting up. It was even taught during Adventurers Guild training. Everyone had their quirks and habits when it came to searching, so having a second party check sometimes revealed things that’d been overlooked.

“Sounds boring. Should I just break it all?”

“Doesn’t that sort of defeat the purpose of this?”

Van looked a bit exasperated as he gently shot down Lavender’s proposal.

Breaking everything was out of the question. There was almost certainly a hidden passage or the like somewhere; we didn’t want to lose the chance to find it.

“This doesn’t feel right,” I whispered.

“What do you mean? Is there something bothering you?” Rit replied.

Once I’d taken a moment to collect my thoughts, I answered, “After such a thorough search revealed nothing, I have to assume there’s a concealed passage. But why did the ancient elves need to hide anything?”

“What do you mean?”

“When you have a room that you don’t want people entering, what do you do, Rit?”

“What do…? Ah. I lock the door.”

“Right. A hidden passage is only for special situations: when you don’t want others to find something. For example, an escape route from a castle or a mage’s secret research lab.”

“Doesn’t this place fit that description? The ancient elves were strange, and this is a deep underground structure.”

“The ancient elves are hard to understand, but I think this place served a specific purpose. A practical facility has no use for a hidden door. That isn’t really like them.”

“Not like them, huh?” Rit racked her brain a bit.

“I can understand what you are getting at,” Esta said. “But what do we do with that information?”

“I think we conclude that the ancient elves aren’t the ones who hid the way forward. It was the wood elves who found this place later.”

And knowing that told me where we needed to look.

We all returned to that conspicuous wood elf sign.

“I brought it like you asked. What should we do with it?”

Danan set the body of a clockwork soldier that Ruti had defeated on the ground. This one was in comparatively better shape than the rest.

“There’s something I wanted to try. I’m not sure it’ll work, though, so don’t get your hopes up,” I explained with a wry smile. Rit and Van in particular watched me expectantly.

This could be embarrassing if nothing happens…

Fifteen minutes passed.

“Something’s coming,” Rit warned.

“Everyone, prepare to fight but don’t move into position yet.”

The whole group nodded and watched without drawing their weapons. Finally, I heard clacking footsteps.

“Ah!” Rit gasped in surprise.

There was a sound of gears as a four-legged clockwork golem appeared from a wall. A ripple ran across the metal wall where it emerged.

“This is…a wood elf spell!” I exclaimed.

“Like Loggervia’s bewitching woods…!” Rit added.

It was powerful illusion magic that affected the mind. Dispelling it with modern magic was incredibly difficult.

“It influenced our minds to make us think there was a wall here. Because it’s so powerful, even touching the disguised space feels like touching a wall. If you try to throw something at it, you’ll unconsciously aim at the floor instead.”

We’d seen earlier that parts from destroyed clockwork golems had been carried away, yet we couldn’t determine where another of its kind would have gone were it responsible. The only answer was a secret passage we’d missed. Meaning there was a corridor the constructs could access that we couldn’t. And if the wood elves, not the ancient elves, hid that route…

We were different from lifeless clockwork golems. A spell was likely manipulating our perception. That being the case, all we needed to do was rely on the clockwork golems.

“I see. I didn’t notice at all,” Yarandrala said as she carefully touched the wall. “Yeah, I still feel some resistance, but now that I know it is an illusion, I should be able to break through it.”

The high elf Yarandrala knew a lot about wood elf magic. Even if completely dispelling it wasn’t possible, we should be able to get by.

The clockwork golem that emerged picked up its fallen kin, turned back, and passed through the wall again, gears clacking all the while.

“Should we follow it?” Albert asked.

“Yeah, let’s go. Is that fine with you, Van?”

“Of course!”

The Hero Administration Bureau awaited us.

What would we find?

We moved down the passage until coming to a door.

When the clockwork golem ahead of us approached, the door just slid open.

“Saves us the effort of forcing it.”

We stepped through behind the clockwork golem. Inside, the room led to a big hall about six meters in radius.

“Looks like a lot of people came through here.”

With a chamber this spacious, there must have been many ancient elves in this facility.

Farther down, there was a sizable gondola hanging from a rail that we could ride deeper into the facility.

“You know how to use that?” Danan asked.

I pointed at the clockwork golem.

“I’d guess that it does, so let’s tag along.”

“Oh, I get it. That’s part of why you had me bring that busted construct along. Classic Red!”

I hadn’t thought that far ahead at all. But in this sort of situation, it was better to act like you understood the whole time.

I grinned just a little bit, and Rit smirked at me.

She sees right through me…

The gondola moved along with a whir.

“This is going pretty far,” Esta said.

True. We’d likely covered at least a kilometer already.

“How huge are these ruins?” Danan asked.

“It almost feels like they extend throughout the entirety of the area beneath the mountains,” Albert responded.

Van and Lavender stared at the clockwork golem that was waiting, unmoving, at the edge of the gondola.

Rit and Yarandrala peered down the pitch-black passage and talked about the bewitching woods in Loggervia.

“The mood has improved,” Esta remarked happily.

“It has been five days of dungeon crawling,” I said.

“This is probably the first and last time the old and new Hero’s parties will team up.”

“Yeah.”

“It was short, but I’m glad we were able to adventure together. I’m sure the members of my group learned a lot.”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself. Your real adventure is just beginning.”

“Certainly. But we were in a really bad place, so seeing the party come together like this, I can’t help but feel a bit…you know.”

“It must have been rough for you.”

“It will have been worthwhile if it leads to something.”

I hadn’t heard much more than a few vague snippets about what traveling with Van was like before. I assumed it was pretty grueling.

That Esta could say it was worth the trouble was enough for me to believe she was worthy of being called a hero herself.

A room and passage waited at the other end of the gondola ride.

I pointed to the four-legged clockwork golem.

“I think it’s about time to say good-bye to our friend and resume our search.”

The construct was starting to move into another room with a hole resembling a trash disposal chute. The clockwork golem dropped the broken one it had picked up into the shaft, entered a box on the wall, and stopped moving.

“Let’s save jumping down that chute for last,” I said.

Van nodded. “I agree.”

There were lots of devices in the ancient elf ruins. Most were too esoteric to divine their purposes, but I did spot something recognizable.

“Another wood elf sign.”

It wasn’t that surprising. They’d investigated this place, so it made sense that we found another sign.

“I’m glad there’s no other spells hangin’ around,” Danan said with distaste.

That sort of problem was outside his specialty. He really couldn’t handle tricky magic at all. A wood elf spell that he couldn’t solve by fighting was his ultimate enemy.

“Well, I might not be able to win against a crazy illusion right now, but someday, I’ll be able to punch through them.”

“That’s a little too muscle-brained…”

Despite my remark, Danan had managed to learn how to break locks and traps by punching them. When peace returned to the continent, he could establish a pretty popular school if he taught adventurers how to search dungeons using only their fists.

I decided to have a look at the wood elf sign.

“Hmm. What’s this?”

Wood elves typically preferred overly long passages, yet this writing was quite brief.

“Past this point. The Hero’s Calamity. Turn back…”

It was simple enough to decipher, but it didn’t give us much to go on.

Was that really all the wood elves wanted a reader to know?

“The Hero’s Calamity?” Van asked.

He inspected the wood elf sign, confused.

“Yarandrala,” I called.

“What?”

“Could you check to see if any wood elf spells are nearby?”

“Got it.”

“You too, Lavender,” I added.

“Huh? Me?” She looked entirely uninterested.

“Consider it a request from me, please.”

“If you’re asking, then leave it to me, Van!”

Yarandrala and Lavender both got to searching.

“It’s safe. There are no spells placed here,” Yarandrala concluded.

Lavender immediately flew back to Van’s shoulder when she was finished. “Nothing! I worked hard, Van!”

I nodded, satisfied. “If Yarandrala and Lavender couldn’t find anything, then I guess it’s safe.”

Wood elf magic could be dangerous because it was impossible to know the possible effects. Stumbling ignorant into spells was perilous.

However, if a high elf expert and a fairy who sensed magic by feeling didn’t locate anything amiss, then we were okay.

“What is this ‘calamity’ it refers to?” Esta spoke with her voice tensed. The Hero was very important to her, so I could imagine this sign troubled her.

We fell into marching order and moved for the so-called Hero’s Calamity.

The phrase The Hero’s Calamity brought to mind a few dangers.

My first thought was a facility that captured the Hero and performed cruel experiments. Perhaps the ancient elves were wiped out for transgressions against Demis. If so, then maybe they’d tried to analyze the Hero’s power instead of allowing them to fulfill their role.

Admittedly, that was a very fanciful notion, but we were in ancient elf ruins. We walked among the remnants of a lost species that even the wood elves, whose technology and culture stood far beyond humanity’s, viewed with fear and awe.

It wasn’t inconceivable that a group might seek to obtain the Hero for their use. The Hero was stronger than an army, so taking them by force wasn’t possible in the present day. However, the ancient elves could have developed weapons capable of surpassing the Divine Blessing. Maybe it was possible for them to overpower the Hero and force them to obey.

Thankfully, the surroundings didn’t suggest such a danger yet.

We walked down a broad hallway. Occasionally, we passed doors on the left side of the corridor. We forced them open to reveal what looked like break rooms. There were remnants of beds and chairs.

“There sure are a lot of these rest chambers,” I remarked.

Many ancient elves had worked at this facility.

“Seeing traces of activity from a race that disappeared thousands and thousands of years ago is kind of strange,” Rit commented as she touched an uncomfortable-looking chair.

“I guess the cushioned part rotted away. Or maybe the ancient elves had really sturdy bottoms and preferred hard chairs,” I said.

“Heh-heh, that’s certainly an explanation. Do you know the answer, Lavender?”

“They were basically the same as you. I can’t really tell the difference between them and you guys.”

Lavender, the only one of us who’d seen ancient elves, shrugged with clear disinterest.

The hall turned to the left farther down. A large door marked the end of the passageway.

“Ah, a treasure chest!” Albert pointed to a box on the left wall with a shout.

It looked almost like a storage container, standing about two meters tall with a lock on the door.

Albert was an adventurer, so he naturally got excited about finding a treasure chest inside a dungeon.

“It is!”

“Let’s open it and take a look inside!”

Rit and Yarandrala, who were also adventurers, sounded excited, too.

“…?”

Van looked puzzled. I guess that made sense. He’d never experienced a proper adventure and known the thrill of possibly striking it rich.

“What does your party do when you have to unlock something like this?” I said to him.

“I just ask Lavender.”

Lavender puffed out her little chest when Van spoke her name.

“Oh? Then I would love to see you work,” I remarked.

“Ha-ha-ha! A lock like this is nothing.” Lavender flew over to the storage container.

“Ancient elf locks are enchanted with some unknown magic to only open with their matching key. Even master thieves struggle with them,” I stated.

“Ha! Don’t compare me to the likes of you!” Lavender conjured a seal before her hand. “Spirits, my words are your command. Open this lock.”

There was a click, and the lock came undone.

Lavender flew up to my face and threw me a smug grin.

“That isn’t fair,” I said.

She’d cheated.

Lavender had used her massive presence to control the spirits. That had nothing to do with practice, knowledge, or skills provided by a blessing. It was merely a brute-force method that relied on her being an archfay of calamity.

“Thank you, Lavender. I’m glad you’re in our party!” Van praised.

“Fu-fu-fu, if it makes you happy, I’ll handle any lock!”

She really was helpful.

“Let’s see what’s inside.” Rit urged me on.

“Sure.”

I opened the ancient elf container.

“These are…ancient elf weapons?!”

There were twelve-meter-long spears lined up neatly. But they presumably weren’t ordinary armaments. If they were loaded with ancient elf magic, they could deploy a barrage like a massive crossbow and fire powerful energy blasts…supposedly.

That’s what was written in the records of the royal library back at the capital.

“I…don’t know how to use these,” I muttered.

As spears went, they were light and short. I couldn’t judge their sturdiness, but their ends weren’t especially sharp. Without ancient elf magic, they were basically useless.

I looked to Van. “These will be worth a lot, and if you can figure out how to use them, they might be powerful weapons for soldiers. You should take them with you if you can put them in your item box.”

“What? Are you sure it’s fine for me to take all of them?”

I glanced at Danan and Yarandrala. They nodded.

“Yeah, they might be useful for you on your journey,” I said.

Van seemed doubtful. “But they’re valuable, right? None of us can wield them, and your shop could use some extra funds…”

“Hey.”

Van had relaxed somewhat, but he could still be uptight.

“My shop is doing well enough for me to enjoy a pleasant life.”

“Really?”

“Just take them already,” I said. “Esta, put them in your item box.”

I didn’t want to get into a prolonged back-and-forth, so I turned to Esta for some help. She gazed ahead as though lost in thought.

“I see,” she whispered. Had she noticed something?

“What is it?” Van asked.

“I was considering why there are weapons kept here. It feels odd to come across a box of them at the end of this passage so deep inside the ruins.”

She had a point. That was curious.

Esta took one of the ancient elf spears and pointed it at the big door at the end of the hall.

“It’s easy enough to aim at any target that came from that direction.”

“Aim?”

“Should anything come storming through the door, picking them off from this distance would be a simple matter.”

I imagined monsters surging from the entrance. I could picture the swarm of ogrekin we’d fought a little while back bursting out.

A one-sided barrage from here would solve that issue quickly.

“But that door leads deeper into the structure. I can understand repelling an attack from the opposite direction, but why would they prepare for one from within?”

Esta just shrugged at my question.

“I merely considered it from a strategic perspective. The answer to your query presumably lies ahead.”

“Right. Let’s go.”

We’d find out more if we opened that large door.

With any luck, it would lead us to an answer about the nature of the Hero.

After breaking the lock, we forced the door open.

The passage continued, this time flanked by doors on both sides. The hall widened significantly here. If we got into a fight, there would be no worry of our weapons catching on the walls.

I perked up. “Oh, I never taught you how to fight with a sword in confined spaces, Van. Maybe we should address that tonight.”

“How to fight in tight quarters? I can’t wait.”

“Ugh, nights are for me. You’re cutting into my alone time with Van.”

Van was excited, but Lavender was less than pleased.

The two of them had been such terrifying enemies, but now they were almost endearing.

“What is this…?” Rit said. As the party’s scout, she’d been dutifully examining the doors and opened one.

“Something wrong?”

“Red…come here.”

Rit looked stunned.

“Van, Lavender, let’s go.”

“Mhm.”

We entered the room together.

“This is…” A quick look around left me at a loss for words, too.

There was a wall in front of us made of something like glass. The problem was the other side.

It was like a giant aquarium, but the liquid was definitely not water, and there weren’t any fish. It was a thick, viscous, milky-white substance. Monsters floated inside. Dozens of chimeras…

“Corpses?” Esta asked as she took a few steps toward the tank.

Danan shook his head. “No, they’re alive.”

“You can tell?”

“Yeah. It’s probably a suspended animation sort of thing. They’re definitely alive, though. I can feel their vital force.”

I guessed that was something provided by his Martial Artist blessing.

But if they’re still alive…

“At best, these ruins are thousands of years old. To survive after all that time… Did the ancient elves discover the secret to eternal youth?” I said.

“I don’t think the answer’s quite that pleasant.” There was sadness in Rit’s eyes as she stared into the tank. “They are just being preserved so they don’t die. They aren’t really alive.”

“Not really alive…,” I echoed.

Rit loved freedom; she couldn’t accept that any creatures, even monsters, were forced to suffer such an existence. She was clearly fighting back the urge to break the tank, but ultimately, she shook her head.

“What’s all this for, then?” Van’s question pulled us back from our astonishment.

What was this for?

A chimera preservation tank inside the Hero Administration Bureau.

I really don’t like where this is heading.

“Ah, there’s a trapdoor in the floor here… It looks like it continues down,” Albert said after investigating the chamber.

There was a hatch set into the floor. I saw no means to release it save for a small hole. If we inserted a handle and spun it, the way would presumably open.

“Shall we search for the handle?” I suggested.

“That’s too much work!” Lavender flew down from Van’s shoulder and aimed her hands at the trapdoor. Then she squeezed the air. A small whirlwind funneled into the hole. She was manipulating air to turn the contraption.

That’s a seriously handy ability.

“Mrgh,” the fairy grunted.

Unfortunately, the door refused to yield. Lavender grimaced with evident annoyance.

I hummed. “Looks like it’s locked tight. Finding the handle might not be enough.”

Perhaps we’d come across a key if we searched the room.

“Like I said, that’s too much work!” Lavender formed a seal with her left hand. “Spirits, my words are your command. Open this lock.”

There was a loud click, and the lock spun as the door opened. There was a ladder descending downward on the other side of the door.

Got a taste for seeing me surprised last time? Well, fine, I’ll indulge you.

“Wow, amazing,” I said.

She kicked me right on the nose. That actually hurt.

“You’re really amazing, Lavender.”

“Thank you, Van!”

Not caring about me anymore after the kick, Lavender flew over to Van when he complimented her.

Sheesh.

ZAZAZA!

A grating noise sounded through the room.

“An alarm trap?!” I exclaimed.

“Impossible. The traps of mortals can’t possibly catch me!” Lavender denied that possibility with the sort of arrogance befitting an archfay.

Hmm… This is…

“I think this is more like a Send Message spell than a trap.”

“Send Message is for communicating with a distant target, right?” Van asked.

“Yeah.” I nodded. “That noise resembled what happens when an amateur mage fails to cast Send Message.”

Van cocked his head. “Really? I don’t understand.”

“There’s a rhythm to it.”

“A rhythm?”

“There’s a bounce to the noise that feels like words. That was probably an ancient elf voice.”

“An ancient elf voice!” Rit shouted. “So an ancient elf mage created a Send Message rune and engraved it to make it perpetual, but the rune’s been worn away, so it could only produce a scrambled noise.”

“The actual mechanics of it are probably a bit different, but that’s likely close,” I replied.

The grating noise continued. We were the audience to words from a species that went extinct thousands of years ago. Unfortunately, we couldn’t understand any of it.

“Sounds like it really is just a trap,” Danan remarked.

“I already told you it isn’t!” Lavender fired back.

Hmm…

“Maybe the spirits undid some other lock, too?” I suggested.

“What do you mean?” Danan asked.

“Lavender opened the door by commanding spirits.” It was a little hard to explain, but Lavender hadn’t created a key. She’d demanded spirits to manipulate the lock to push it into an open position. “Maybe she undid something else that was connected to the door.”

“Hmm,” Danan murmured. “I only vaguely get it, but that’s pretty nifty.”

“Mhm!”

I’m not sure whether it was really all that amazing to unlock something you didn’t mean to, but Danan’s compliment seemed to improve Lavander’s mood. That was good enough.

The ladder led to a massive, empty chamber. A sturdy door stood near the ladder, with another on the opposite side of the room.

Ancient elf script adorned both of them.

“This one is ‘Exit,’ and that one is ‘Danger,’” I said.

The ancient elf language was almost entirely indecipherable, but those words were common enough that capable scholars had translated them.

“So it’s dangerous?” Just as Rit put her hand on the hilt of her shotel…

Thump.

…Van, the last person climbing the ladder, reached the bottom.

“It looks almost like an arena.”

No sooner had he said as much than another loud grating sound echoed.

“What?!”

We all immediately drew our weapons and got into fighting formation. The grating continued, issuing from the far wall.

This is…!

“Something’s coming!” Rit shouted.

The door with Danger written on it opened, and a chimera leaped out.

“What, just a single chimera?” Van kept on guard, but he did sound surprised by the lack of a genuine threat.

No, that’s…!

“That chimera’s unusual!” I shouted.

“Huh?!” Van exclaimed.

“It has multiple blessings! Don’t treat it like a normal one!”

The air around the chimera shimmered with heat. A moment later, a mass of flame came flying for us.

“Fireball?!” Esta exclaimed. The burning sphere landed in the middle of our group and exploded. Fortunately, we’d all scattered to safety. “That was a surprise, but the spell is less than what Sir Ares could manage!”

Esta leaped forward. Her left hand worked a spell to defend against any magical counterattack.

“Hahhh!!!”

Esta thrust her spear forward, but the chimera’s massive body spun backward, evading her thrust.

“That was a Martial Artist skill!” I shouted.

The chimera stood on its hind legs and formed seals with its forelegs.

“Is that a Sage’s Successive Activation?!” Esta cried, astonished.

“No! It’s using Sorcerer and Adept blessings at the same time!” I replied.

A Dispel Magic spell erased Esta’s defensive cast, and the chimera’s second seal launched another Fireball.

“Crafty!” Esta was one of humanity’s greatest clerical magic users. The chimera’s Dispel Magic was insufficient to break her defensive spell. The Fireball’s explosion swallowed her up, but she didn’t suffer a single burn.

“An excellent feint, Lady Esta!” Albert praised.

The chimera leaped into the flames to land before Esta, swiping with its claws.

Martial Art: Swallow’s Approach.

Apparently, the monster had access to skills from the Warrior tree.

Van and I closed in to deliver mortal blows.

“You’re right. Swallow’s Approach really is full of openings once you understand how it works.”

“Right?”

Van’s sword thrust up through the chimera’s neck as my blade slashed through its spine from above. The chimera’s massive body slumped to the ground before it could complete its attack.

“All right,” I said.

It wasn’t a difficult battle, but it put up some resistance. That was more than could be said of most monsters when paired against our party.

I stowed my sword.

“Ah.”

It had been so long since I felt this sensation that I audibly gasped.

“What is it, Red?” asked Rit.

“My level went up.”

The last time my blessing level increased was back while I was traveling with Ruti. It had never increased during my time in Zoltan.

Closing my eyes, I could sense the ability to develop one of my skills when I connected with my blessing.

“Congrats!” Rit said.

“Thanks. When we get back, maybe I’ll put it into my Cooking skill.”

I smiled at her.

And here I thought my level was never going to go up again…

The celebration was cut short as the grating sound filled the room again.

“What?”

We all readied ourselves.

“Another one!” Rit shouted.

A chimera just like the last one appeared through the open door.

“Everyone, spread out!” I commanded. “It has a wide variety of offensive options, but each one is from a low-tier blessing. Don’t panic, and you should be fine!”

“Obviously!” Danan wore a savage expression as he jumped forward. “You got out in front of me last time, but I damn sure want to fight a Martial Artist chimera!”

“Me too!” Rit went with him.

The chimera fired off magic at the approaching enemies.

“Arrrrgh! It never ends!” Rit’s sword tore into a chimera’s stomach, then Esta’s spear ran the monster through when it staggered.

“This is the ninth one.” After making sure it was dead, Esta paused to catch her breath.

Everyone still had plenty of strength to spare. However, we were concerned this would keep going, adding extra stress.

“There’s no end to it… Should we retreat?” Albert asked.

Albert’s blessing level had already risen three times. His level was notably lower than everyone else’s, but the amount he’d grown from the stream of chimeras was unreasonable.

“But we can’t just leave chimeras that can use magic and Martial Arts here. It would be a problem if they started rampaging through the ruins.”

Esta faced the door and readied her spear again.

“But that tank upstairs had a lottt of chimeras in it,” Lavender reminded.

What do we do?

“Red!” Van dashed forward. “We will fight the chimeras! You focus on thinking of a way out of this situation, please!”

“That’s the spirit, Van.” A small, pleased smile crossed Esta’s lips. “Leave this to the new Hero’s party.”

“Got it!”

They engaged the tenth chimera to keep my group safe while we handled the other issue.

“What caused the chimeras to start appearing?” Rit asked.

Rit raised her sword to protect me, and her eyes trained on the chimera.

The cause…

“They’ve gotta be coming from that tank upstairs, right? Why don’t we smash it?” Danan glared up at the ceiling.

He was almost definitely right. That was likely the source.

“That’s probably not a good idea,” I replied. “If the monsters came alive at once, things could get bad.”

“Not if we beat them all. But fine, we’ll save that as a last resort. If it comes to that, you can leave it to me!”

“Ha-ha, I’ll be counting on you.”

Danan’s comments helped lighten the mood.

I don’t think he was aiming for that when he said it, but it reminded me how crucial he was to the party.

I returned my attention to the cause of our predicament.

Why did the chimeras appear?

The system activated when we entered the room. In particular, it started the moment Van set foot here. But why? The odds of a trap were low. A trap would have a more direct method of killing us. There was no need for such a massive setup. Clockwork golems could have dealt with intruders.

“Is this intended to increase the Hero’s level?” I wondered aloud. That would explain why it had to be chimeras and not constructs. The former were alive, meaning they possessed Divine Blessings like every other living creature. Divine Blessings grew by killing beings who possessed Divine Blessings. The chimeras didn’t have multiple blessings to make them stronger. It was because killing one of them was akin to defeating multiple monsters, making for an efficient way to level up.

Van had killed the tenth chimera and was fighting the eleventh. This battle would make his blessing grow.

“Don’t get distracted,” I chided myself.

Strictly speaking, the system didn’t activate when we entered the room. A mechanism like that would be too dangerous. Lavender undoing the door lock had likely started this. It must have released a seal on this system. How would we stop it?

“Lavender! Use the spirits to lock the door leading up!” I called.

“Huh?!”

“Please! That should stop the chimeras!”

“If you’re wrong, I’ll never let you live it down!”

Lavender fired off a bolt of lightning magic at the chimera before flying for the door.

“Spirits, my words are your command. Close this lock.”

Click. The grating sounded once more. The rhythm was different this time, though. It was nerve-racking. A warning, perhaps?

“…Right! Everyone, get away from the chimera!” I called.

Van and his party quickly moved back. No sooner did they do so than a swell of magic flowed from the walls.

“What’s going on, Red?!”

“If this is a room for raising one’s blessing level, then it has to have a system for dealing with the monsters, too.”

The system had started in response to Lavender opening the way. So closing the hatch would stop the process. And considering that the ancient elves were thorough enough to create a structure that operated long after they went extinct, they would have a procedure in place for dealing with leftover monsters.

The magic power emanating from the walls formed a magic circle in midair.

A shaft of light pierced the chimera.

Ker-clunk!

After an odd noise, the magic that illuminated the chamber dissipated.

“Huh?”

The chimera was still alive. In fact, it looked undamaged.

“Lightning Speed!”

Using my skill, I approached the monster in a flash, finishing it off while it was still wobbly from the light.

The grating sound died out. There was no sign of another chimera coming.

We did it!

“That’s my Red!” Despite Rit’s compliment, I felt a bit embarrassed that my prediction had been slightly off. “We need to see, too. Light.”

Rit’s spell illuminated the surroundings with her magic. Lavender, who was over by Van, had used a similar spell. I pulled a light stick out from my pouch, hit it against the floor to get it shining, and put it into my belt.

“That was a crazy trap,” Danan said.

“No, I don’t think it was a trap,” I replied.

“What do you mean?”

I told everyone my theory about this being a room for empowering the Hero.

Van looked shocked. “So all those monsters in that tank are for the Hero?”

During the battle, Rit, Yarandrala, Van, Albert, and I all leveled up. Such efficiency was impossible with normal fighting.

“I bet the ogrekin that Rit and I fought earlier recently escaped from this complex. It was probably for a lower-level Hero.”

The chimeras that inhabited the area around the ruins were likely descendants of those that had escaped the facility. None of them had multiple blessings, though. Maybe the technology could grant an individual creature multiple blessings, but not its offspring.

Divine Blessings were bequeathed by God. All living beings had one. No one could complain about a gift from Demis or seek to defy it. That’s what the church taught anyway. The ancient elves had broken that tenet.

I looked at Van. He’d also received an extra blessing in a way. And the Devil’s Blessing given by the contract demon did something similar. The ability to manipulate blessings was beyond human knowledge, yet it was clearly possible.

Plenty of people were unsatisfied with their blessings. And many took umbrage with having their future limited at birth.

Would humans someday develop the technology to manipulate blessings like the ancient elves?

I recalled Lavender’s comment about how they were no different from us.

“I see. So it’s like a colosseum,” Danan said as he examined a chimera corpse lying on the ground. “Running around catching monsters is a hassle, and there aren’t many that can reliably raise our blessing levels.”

“True. In that sense, I guess the intent does resemble a colosseum.”

Most cities on the continent had a fighting arena of some kind. Part of the goal was the entertainment of seeing warriors clash with each other, but the main goal was to create a setting to raise people’s levels safely. People could fight captured monsters in an environment with help ready and able if things went wrong.

Audiences enjoyed watching others fight to grow their blessings, so it became entertainment. Ultimately, colosseum matches became a show where humans could face each other in contests of skill.

It was expensive to go out and catch monsters, so to cover that expense, tickets were sold.

“There aren’t any spectator seats, though.” Rit sounded a little disappointed. “Did the ancient elves just not like arena matches?”

“Hard to say. Or maybe it is because this facility was specifically for the Hero.”

Rit had joined the colosseum for fun back when she was an adventurer in Loggervia. She had even challenged Ruti to a fight in the colosseum to make her look bad…though Rit ended up losing.

Ruti was the wrong person to challenge.

“So the Hero Administration Bureau was a facility for training the Hero, then?” Van asked after thinking for a while.

“It seems like that was part of its role, at least,” I replied.

“You think there was more to it?”

“Yeah. If it was just a training facility, creating such a massive place would be unnecessary. I imagine there’s another purpose.”

“So there’s more to the Hero’s secret.”

“All we know is that this institution is for the Hero. There’s got to be more to why the wood elves left that warning.”

We had to keep going.

“No light makes this place very inconvenient to navigate,” Yarandrala said as she cast her own illumination magic.

Blessings that can use magic sure are convenient.

“I’ll make some light, too,” Danan said.

I blinked. “Wait, what?”

Danan smirked and started breathing in a particular way. His body began to shine.

“The skill’s called Fire Snake’s Breathing. How’s that?”

It was a super-high-level skill involving chi movement. Fire Snake’s Breathing allowed the user to breathe underwater or jump in midair. It was my first time seeing it. Apparently, it made the body glow.

“The Divine Blessing of the Martial Artist has some handy stuff,” I remarked. How unfair that everyone else had useful abilities.

I glanced over at Albert. He smiled wryly.

“I can’t make any light, either,” he said. “Still though, why did it suddenly go dark?”

“The ruins likely ran out of power,” I replied.

“Ran out of power?”

“I think we’ll find out why if we investigate more. Either way, we should leave this room for now.”

“Right…which way should we take out?” Albert motioned to the hatch at the top of the ladder and then to the door marked with the ancient elf word for Exit. Ignoring the door with Danger written on it was probably best.

“The hatch overhead is locked… Considering the construction of this place, I think the door we took down was more for emergency use. This one should take us back,” I said.

“All right, then let’s check it out.” Rit moved over to the door. “Huh? It isn’t locked.”

It yielded when she pushed.

“That looks heavy. I’ll help.”

“Me too.”

With me and Albert pushing, as well, the door opened quickly.

“I thought it would be locked in order to keep the chimeras from getting out. That’s strange.” Rit cocked her head.

She was right. It was a little odd…

“Maybe it was sealed using magic and unlocked now that the power is gone,” I suggested.

“What? That sounds so careless.”

“Well, it’s open, so let’s not question our good fortune.”