Aside: Murelia
“BOLGARTH! What is the meaning of this?!”
“D-don’t speak to me that way!” he stammered. “I am the dungeon master. You have to do what I say!”
What a spineless waste of space! He was no more than an incompetent thief, incapable of even stealing your
attention! And he was truly under the impression that he had some kind of dignity, just because Linford gave him he had the right to command me. Pathetic!
“How dare you call me back here? I was about to make use of the Magnolian knights.”
“Th-they’re practically useless!” Bolgarth stammered. “And besides, you wasted the entire army of Fiends I gave to you!”
“You most certainly did not give them to me. If anything, I gave them to you.”
The chain of command in this dungeon was unusual, to say the least. This stuttering thief may be the dungeon master, but only because he happened to be present at the dungeon’s creation. He’d been lost in the mountains after escaping his bandit gang. When Linford infiltrated the dungeon with Fiendmancy, he conquered both it and Bolgarth with brute force. That was how he forced me to become the dungeon’s sub-master. The moment I was linked to it, the dungeon was imbued with unthinkable power.
Now, it could produce huge numbers of powerful monsters, but there was one small problem: none of them would listen to Bolgarth. They didn’t attack him, but they ignored all of his orders and instead looked to me for leadership. That made me the de facto master of this place, but I still had to follow Bolgarth’s orders. Still, I did not have much trouble forcing him to create monsters for me.
Not that Bolgarth was happy about it. That’s why he regularly sent me on errands, and even demanded that I fetch him drinks! What a petty man.
“This is my dungeon, you hear me! Mine! You listen to me!”
“Silence! Your shrill voice is grating on my ears.”
“H-how dare you?”
“How dare I what?”
I flashed my murderous intent, and Bolgarth turned suddenly pale.
“Urgh…”
He might scream and shout, but he didn’t have the guts to actually strike me. Following the commands of a weakling was humiliation enough, without having to listen to him talk. I needed to get straight to the point. I still had things to do. I needed the power of Johann’s blood, or I would never be free of this dungeon. After that, I needed to get Romeo out of this country.
And I had to get him out. It was all I wanted.
Revenge? Linford? My right to the beast throne? None of that mattered. Only the child. To accomplish my goal, I needed House Magnolia to survive. Johann’s powers were second only to Romeo’s, and I needed him for the ritual. Specifically, I needed his heart. Only then could I get stronger. But at the moment, I needed Bolgarth to stop grumbling.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t as easy as I’d thought.
“We have an intruder.”
“So you said. Is that the only reason you called me here? Do you remember how I left powerful monsters guarding the dungeon for just such an occasion? Use them and dispose of this so-called intruder.”
“I would,” Bolgarth complained, “if there were any of them left. Look!”
He showed me a crystal ball. It was full of manatech and allowed him to view every part of the dungeon. Sure enough, there was certainly an enemy in our midst, and he was making a terrible mess of the dungeon.
“That’s…”
“See?! Your monsters are useless!”
Through the crystal ball, I saw a man cutting a swathe through the dungeon. No, not a man. An Ogrekin. And one specific Ogrekin at that. I knew this man, and so did Bolgarth, by the look of it. No wonder he had called me here. This was the worst possible outcome for us. I wasn’t sure if I could defeat this intruder, even if I was still at full strength.
“H-handle it!”
“Me?”
“O-of course, you! You keep telling me I’m weak, so why don’t you show me how powerful you are, oh, Lady Murelia?!”
“Ugh…”
I wanted to kill this bastard so bad! But right then, I had bigger problems.
This Ogrekin made for a terrifying foe. Even Linford told me to avoid him at all costs. Bolgarth must have understood the danger, and now he was sending me against him.
“G-get rid of that Ogrekin! Th-that’s an order!”
“Why must everyone get in my way…?!”
Four hours later, the golem carriage was speeding toward the northern mountains. The carriage never slowed down, and its horses never needed to take breaks. We were making good time.
Fran woke about an hour ago and poked her head out of the carriage to gasp at the glorious mountain before us. I thought she would have slept for longer, but she was too excited. Besides, she already looked much better.
“Wow, look at that mountain. It’s huge.”
It sure is. The peak is covered in clouds.
It might even be taller than Mount Everest for all I knew. Either way, it was certainly too high to calculate. Up close, it was too stunning for words. It didn’t spread out at the bottom like regular mountains, either. Instead, it rose straight up like a pillar, connecting the ground to the sky. From a distance, it looked like a giant tower or a waterfall of stone, pouring out of the clouds.
As we got closer, I saw that the incline wasn’t exactly vertical, but it was still devastatingly steep. More cliff than mountain, really. The base stretched out over several kilometers. We had no way to tell how tall it was from down here, but it must have been as much as several Matterhorns. Survival experts and top-level adventurers may be able to scale it, but it was not a vacation spot for ordinary civilians.
No wonder the Beastman Nation didn’t reinforce its northern border—the mountain was a natural garrison.
“We’re almost there,” Mea said. “How are you feeling, Master Kiara?”
“I’ll be fine. I’ve taken some potions. We got here quick.”
“Hm,” Fran agreed. “No time at all.”
“I suspect that’s because the two of you have spent the whole time talking!” Mea said.
I mean, she wasn’t wrong. Ever since Fran woke up, she and Kiara had been engaged in conversation, and about some quite brutal topics: the monsters and warriors that Kiara had fought in the past, how to use Intimidate to break an opponent’s will, and so on. Not the usual kind of stuff a grandma told her granddaughter, but I guess it was foolish to expect anything else.
Still, the conversation was useful. We learned that there were abilities beyond Flashing Thunderclap. Fran had learned Black Thunderfall on her own, while Kiara did the same with Black Lightning Strike. It really proved how much more experienced Kiara was. Even though Fran should be able to use Black Lightning Strike, she still couldn’t pull it off. There was something missing.
“Urgh. What am I doing wrong?”
“Don’t rush it,” Kiara said. “You have already mastered so much. Just keep up with your training and you’ll be using it in no time.”
“Hm. I’ll try.”
As brutal as their conversation was, Fran seemed happy to be speaking to a member of her own race again.
“My lady?” Quina called from the driver’s seat.
Mea tensed. “Huh? What’s wrong?”
Quina didn’t sound any different from normal, but Mea clearly heard the anxiety in the maid’s voice.
“There is…a disturbance here.”
Mea and Fran stuck their heads out of the carriage.
“Over there,” Quina indicated.
“What…happened?” Mea asked.
Fran blinked at the scene in front of us.
“!”
The road ahead was littered with hundreds of monster corpses.
“Did these come from the dungeon?” Mea asked. “What happened to them?”
“Very strange,” Fran agreed.
“Arf…”
Jet looked around, whining in fear. We climbed out of the carriage to get a better look. The monsters weren’t just dead. They were crushed—as though they’d been flattened by some catastrophic force. Everything was squashed to the ground, from the smallest goblin to the largest dragon. And the terrain here had not been spared in the attack either.
“Look how deep it is…” said Mea.
“Hm.”
The rocky road stopped abruptly in front of us, dropping down into a sarcophagus a meter deep, filled with dead monsters.
“It’s so…flat,” Mea said, shaking her head.
The indentation was perfectly square and level, as though it had been flattered by a road roller. More than anything, it reminded me of a modern Japanese street. It looked as though a huge, hundred-meter-wide box had been dropped here and pressed down into the ground.
We checked the area and soon found it wasn’t the only one. The land here was covered in depressions—some of them deeper than others, so that they looked almost like a staircase where they overlapped. Whoever did this must have varied the pressure, using only what was needed to annihilate each group of monsters.
I looked for any crystals or materials that we could use, but there was nothing. Everything had been pulverized beyond the point of recovery.
I lifted a dead giant lizard with Telekinesis for further inspection. It looked like a pancake—almost all of its tough scales were shattered and its body was stiff as a board, meat fused with powdered bone.
When Fran tapped the flattened earth, it sounded just like stone. Whoever did this, they applied tremendous pressure. We might have been able to do something similar, but only over a very small area. The scale of this was mind-boggling.
“Who could have done such a thing…?” Mea asked.
No one comes to mind?
“No,” she said. “I have never seen anything like this. Any ideas, Quina?”
“None at all.”
“What about you, Master Kiara?”
“I’ve seen this,” the old cat said, looking grim.
I guess she didn’t make it to her old age for nothing.
“Master,” Mea said, surprised. “You know what caused this?”
“Yes. There is only one person in the world who can do this.”
She scanned the area nervously.
“Who is it?” Mea asked.
“The S-Rank adventurer, Friendly Fire Urslars.”
“A-are you sure?!”
“Not entirely. But if there is anyone else who can cause this havoc, then I do not know them.”
From the look on Mea’s face, this Urslars must be famous. Although I guess that made sense. He was an S-Rank, after all. But that didn’t explain how he got a crazy nickname like Friendly Fire.
“Who is he?” Fran asked.
“Woof?”
“You’ve never heard of him?” Mea asked.
“Hm.” Fran tilted her head. “Why the weird nickname?”
“The way I heard it,” Mea said, “he once fought in a war and attacked everyone. Friend and foe alike.”
“He decimated the enemy,” Quina agreed. “But his allies suffered great casualties.”
“There are plenty of other accounts attesting to that story. And to other instances.”
“The only reason he isn’t a wanted man is because he’s so powerful. He might cause grave injury to others, but he always brings victory with him.”
“Although it’s difficult to know what’s truth and what is rumor.”
“All that aside,” Kiara said, “he isn’t a bad man.”
“Really?”
“You cannot let your guard down around him, but he has a good heart.”
“You’ve met him?” Fran asked.
“A few times. He just loses sight of where he is in the heat of battle. But he knows that he is dangerous and mostly flies solo. If Urslars is here and we run into him, then you run when I tell you to. No questions asked. Understood?”
She gave Mea and Fran a grave look. I didn’t think I’d ever seen her so solemn. This Urslars must be extremely dangerous. We needed to know more about what we were up against.
“What powers does he have?” Fran asked.
“Right, I suppose you don’t know. It’s strange, I thought everyone had heard of him,” Mea said.
I knew S-Ranks were famous, but what was so special about this one?
“Sir Urslars possesses a Godsword. The Land Sword Gaia.”
“A Godsword!”
“Woof!”
Wow!
No wonder this guy was so famous! And, knowing the name of his sword, I think I had an idea about how his attacks worked. Some Land Magic spells let you control gravity, after all. I figured that out when we acquired Great Wall. There were also spells that rained boulders down on your enemies. If the Land Sword was anything like its namesake, there was a good chance it could use those spells too. I didn’t know how it flattened an entire area with gravity and boulders, but it certainly seemed reasonable that the Godsword was to blame.
“I’ve seen him create damage just like this,” said Kiara. “He did it with an enormous but perfect stone cube. It was beautiful, but the screams of the bandits it crushed sent shivers down my spine.”
Yep, it was Land Magic, and Urslars was beyond powerful. If he also couldn’t tell friend from foe during a fight, that made him as good as a natural disaster.
“Friendly Fire Urslars. User of the Land Sword Gaia. Got it.”
“Not that we are certain yet that it is him,” said Kiara.
That was true. We didn’t even know if he was going to the dungeon, although after walking for another ten minutes, it became clear that he was.
“He’s definitely heading north,” Mea muttered.
“Hm.”
The landscape was covered with the same box-like depressions. The only difference here was the quality of the monsters. These were all powerful creatures, some of them huge, and all of them thoroughly crushed to death.
Eventually, we happened upon some kind of curved stone barrier, fifteen meters wide and five meters thick, enclosing the killing field. Upon closer inspection, the barrier was made of two large boulders, and dark red blood dripped between them. Whatever was inside had been crushed to death by the two huge slates. Looking at it, I imagined it had come straight out of the ground and snapped shut like a bear trap. And there were eight more of these grotesque sculptures all around us.
“It must be Urslars,” said Kiara. “I have seen him use this technique before.”
The monsters must have come out of the dungeon. Did that mean that Urslars was inside?
“Is this why Murelia was called back?” Mea asked.
“It’s possible,” said Quina. “You are oddly sharp today, my lady.”
“Hey! I’m sharp every day! Anyway, we need to get to the dungeon quickly. Perhaps we can convince Urslars to join us.”
Asking Mr. Friendly Fire for help wasn’t high on my list of priorities, but I guess we only had to worry if the battle fury got to his head.
“Judging by the stories I have heard of him,” said Quina. “I doubt that he will be happy to help us.”
“Then we shall offer him a reward!” said Mea. “And I will make use of my feminine wiles, if need be.”
“Feminine…wiles…?”
“Wh-what?! Maybe he likes his women the way he likes his slates!”
“All right…”
“Don’t look at me like that!”
Apparently, Urslars didn’t like taking orders from anyone. He even went as far as arguing with an entire kingdom once. However, if he liked someone, he would do almost anything for them.
“Besides,” said Quina. “We don’t have the funds to hire an S-Rank adventurer.”
“I’m sure you’ll think of something. You must have something stashed away with your Maid Manners.”
“It doesn’t work like that. I can only use it when the occasion demands.”
“And this isn’t enough of an occasion for you?!” Mea demanded.
The longer this conversation went on, the more anxious I was getting.
“Either way,” said Mea. “We need to get to the dungeon.”
“Agreed.”
And so, we left the slate sarcophagi behind and got back into the carriage, heading north. As we climbed toward the dungeon, we came across three more of Urslars’ killing fields. And these ones were a cut above this rest.
“This is awful…” Mea whispered.
The field around us was like a sea of blood. Fiend blood had seeped into the ground and the stench bled into the air. It smelled like a war zone. It must be even worse for the beastmen’s sensitive noses. Fran, Gwendartha, and Mea all winced.
Looking closer, it was clear that these Fiends had suffered a different fate from the monsters before. These were not flattened by some mysterious force; they’d been cut up with a sharp blade. And all of these impromptu amputations made for a lot of blood.
“Urslars?” Fran asked.
“I’m not sure,” Kiara admitted. “Gaia has the shape of a greatsword…but I don’t think he would want to kill them this way.”
Did he want to see blood for some reason? Maybe he just felt like moving between his enemies, or had some other reason to engage in melee. That all seemed more probable than the idea that someone completely unrelated came here and slaughtered these Fiends.
Those look like sword wounds to me.
“Monster claws could be sharper than a sword,” said Fran.
That is true. And that body there? It doesn’t look like it was killed by a person.
Its head had been popped clean off, and the legs had been torn away from the torso. It was a far cry from the precision of the crushing stone blocks.
We’ve got some elites here, too.
“Hm,” Fran said. “Goblin General. And a Goblin Lancer over there.”
The massacre was caused by someone who really didn’t care about cleanliness. They even left perfectly usable materials and crystals to rot. Still…waste not, want not, right?
I absorbed the Goblin General’s crystals, but in the end, it only yielded a single point.
What gives?
Elite goblins usually had between three and ten.
Fran, Jet, help me get the rest.
“Hm.”
“Woof!”
We gathered up the crystals from Orc Mages and Goblin Sorcerers and I absorbed them. They were all powerful foes, but again, they only yielded a single point each.
That’s weird.
What’s wrong? Fran asked.
I’m getting almost no crystals from these things.
Sounds like what happened with the Valkyrie.
She was right. The Valkyrie went berserk after equipping that Fiendstone spear, and these creatures were exactly the same way. Did the Evil One have something to do with this? Had something consumed the souls of these Fiends?
Be careful, you two.
“Hm.”
I didn’t like the idea of a soul-eater lurking around here. I scanned our surroundings, but I couldn’t detect anything strange. Whatever had done this, it was probably long gone now. Even Jet’s nose couldn’t track it down.
“We need to be more careful from now on,” said Mea.
“Indeed,” Kiara agreed.
They’d also come to the conclusion that Urslars wasn’t responsible for this. We debated sending Quina and Jet to scout ahead, but whatever did this might still be in hiding, and I didn’t want them to run into it. In the end, we decided to rely on the carriage’s stealth capabilities to reach the dungeon entrance.
In the end, nothing followed us—not the monsters, or the thing that killed them all. Maybe most of the dungeon’s forces had been used in the invasion, or maybe they were just hiding from Urslars. Either way, it was lucky for us. The more fights we could avoid, the better.
“Look,” said Quina, pulling the cart to a halt. “Over there.”
“What is it?” Mea asked.
“That large rock. It must be the landmark that Johann Magnolia mentioned.”
Quina pointed. Just ahead of us, a twisted spire of rock spiraled up into the sky like a dragon’s horn.
“The dungeon entrance must be nearby,” said Mea.
“Yes,” Quina agreed. “It should be just beyond that forest.”
The rock near the dungeon entrance was exactly how Johann described it. If we went through the forest, the entrance should be just on the other side.
“Let’s go in on foot,” Quina suggested.
“Indeed,” said Mea. “Master Kiara, can you take point?”
“Leave it to me.”
“Quina, you take the rear.”
“Very well.”
Mea instinctively put the people with the most experience at the front and back of the party. It was a good call. We concealed our presence and headed into the forest. There was no road in here, but we were not at risk of losing our way: the monster army that spilled out of the dungeon last night had left a trail of destruction behind.
I expected to sense the dungeon’s mana but, in the end, it wasn’t so easy. The smarter dungeon masters regularly concealed their dungeon’s mana signature. Dungeons were equipped with lots of features and abilities, so mana concealment was pretty simple. The dungeon master could easily decide to hide their location, and this one clearly didn’t want to be found. That meant there would probably be lots of traps inside too. We were in for a rough ride.
The trees here were as thin and tall—too narrow and inaccessible to make good lumber, they’d been left to grow out of control. Once we fought our way through, we were at the foot of the mountain. As we reached the edge of the forest, Kiara stopped and hid herself in the undergrowth, gesturing for us to do the same.
“Master Kiara…?” Mea whispered.
“Over there,” said Fran.
The ground in front of the gaping mouth of the dungeon was a killing ground. The remains of Fiends were scattered everywhere. The cave was dark and silent. Nothing moved.
I don’t sense any mana nearby.
“Hm.”
The cave mouth was huge—over fifteen meters high and forty meters wide. Big enough to hold an entire village. We approached it slowly, weaving between moss-covered boulders and into the cave, where stalactites hung like jousting spears from the ceiling. It looked like a dangerous tourist spot from a travel show, but it wasn’t difficult to enter. Inside, the ground sloped gently downward. The whole place looked like it was naturally formed, until you looked at it closely. Then you noticed how the rocks were placed, shepherding you in. If the rocks didn’t tip you off, the gentle slope of the entrance should. It was too convenient to be an accident.
“The monster army must have come through here,” Kiara said. “I can still see their tracks.”
She sniffed the air and bent down to touch the ground. It just looked like a mess to me, but she was experienced enough to see things I couldn’t.
“This is definitely the entrance,” she said.
“Good,” said Mea. “Let’s get going.”
“Stay sharp. We’re headed straight for the core.”
“Understood.”
Kiara took the lead again and headed cautiously inside.
“That’s…”
“Torches…?” Mea asked.
“Smells like blood,” said Fran.
They stopped and took in our surroundings. The stalactites had disappeared, giving way to smooth stone. At the end of the tunnel, the front of a fortress blocked the way, lit up with hanging lamps. There were monster corpses and Fiends piled around us, all of them crushed to death. There was blood everywhere, as though they’d been crushed by the walls of their own dungeon. Which…actually, they probably had.
“Looks like Urslars went by here,” Mea said.
“Yes. Quite impressive too,” said Kiara. “I thought his attacks would be too unwieldy to use in here.”
Urslars could easily hurt himself with his abilities, but gravitational manipulation should be fine, and Earth Magic was probably easier to use in a dungeon than Fire, Wind, or Water.
Fran had the same idea. “Is Land Magic useful in a dungeon?”
Kiara shook her head. “It may seem that way, but no.”
“Why not?”
“It works fine in caves, but not all dungeons have soil to work with.”
Some dungeon walls were solid stone, and the fact that they belonged to the dungeon made them difficult to control. I tried making some spikes out of the ground to test it out and found they used up more mana than usual. Spells that conjured their own soil were probably less affected, but manipulating the ground would be difficult. It was hard to use without leveling up Land Magic and acquiring gravity spells. I didn’t remember the dungeon in Ulmutt being this difficult to manipulate, but I guess it varied from dungeon to dungeon.
“Hrm!”
“Did you feel that?” Mea asked.
“Hm. Powerful mana.”
We were still a good distance from the core, but the walls trembled around us, and everyone braced as they felt a massive release of mana.
“Someone is casting a powerful spell,” said Kiara.
“Could it be Urslars?” Mea asked.
“Probably. We should hurry.”
We advanced cautiously, but there were no traps waiting for us. Eventually, we found a staircase leading down.
“Hmm, so this way is just to reach the Beastman Nation?”
“It would seem so.”
The dungeon itself was still mostly on the Basharlian side of the mountains. This passage was only a way out, and a route for the invasion. No wonder there were no traps.
“But why are there stairs?” Kiara asked. “Few monsters could fit down such a path.”
She was right. The staircase was clearly built for humans. The largest monster that could fit through here was a Minotaur. An Ogre would struggle, and anything larger than that was straight out of luck. It was strange, considering the huge number of monster tracks leading out of the cave. How did they crawl out of this hole? Did the dungeon master just teleport them out? No, if he was going to do that, he would have dropped them right by the entrance. The tracks went too far in for that.
“This place keeps getting stranger,” said Kiara. “But we can’t go back now. Quina, can you scout ahead?”
“Right away, madam.”
Scout ahead? Why the change in tactics? But as I wondered about it, Quina used her Phantasm Magic to conjure a small figure, a little larger than a doll. Apparently, it could detect auras and changes in temperature. Quina sent it ahead to map out the dungeon as best it could, tripping any traps it found and slipping past any monsters along the way.
“Excellent work,” said Kiara.
“You flatter me.”
“Let’s keep going.”
The inside of the dungeon was appropriately labyrinthine. The corridors were long with many dark branches, all full of traps and monsters. Although most of the monsters were dead and the traps had been tripped by whatever came through here before us. Was Urslars really an S-Rank adventurer? Shouldn’t he have been able to sense and disarm the traps, rather than just blazing through them?
Kiara seemed to read my mind.
“He hasn’t changed a bit,” the old cat said. “He probably sent a golem ahead of him to brute-force his way through.”
So Urslars used familiars just like we did, but with the express purpose of triggering every trap in the dungeon. It was certainly a useful strategy. Jean employed a similar one back in the floating dungeon.
“He should have a golem that can detect heat. Well, he made it work somehow.”
In the end, we didn’t trigger a single trap, and the trail of monster corpses stopped us from losing our way.
“It’s strange,” said Quina. “Johann didn’t mention the dungeon being this much of a maze.”
“Maybe he wasn’t hypnotized after all,” said Fran.
Had he been conscious and somehow fed us false information? Quina shook her head.
“He was hypnotized.”
And besides, Essence of Falsehood hadn’t raised any alarms either.
“Maybe he’s never actually been in here,” said Kiara.
“I suspect that is true,” said Quina. “He probably knows little of it.”
I guess it was possible, but there was another option. What if the dungeon expanded the minute Urslars entered it? In the face of such a significant threat, it made sense for the dungeon master to immediately swell his dungeon with traps and dead ends. I read a light novel once where the villain did exactly that. It would certainly explain Johann’s ignorance, the sudden disappearance of monster tracks, and the human-scale labyrinth around us.
And Murelia did say that you could expand a dungeon by spending GP. Back in Ulmutt, we saw Lumina create a new room in her dungeon, right before our eyes. Creating an entire labyrinth wasn’t out of the question.
Either way, it was all just speculation on my part. It didn’t actually help us advance.
An hour later, still on the trail of the intruder we assumed to be Urslars, we finally reached the end of the labyrinth. The air was different here, and the way ahead was blocked by a giant door. In any normal dungeon, the boss room would be on the other side.
As uneventful as our trek was, it sure took a long time. If the dungeon had been fully populated, it would have taken even longer. Along the way, I’d sensed immense releases of mana, so there was definitely a fight going on somewhere. Now, I could feel that same mana coming from behind this door. There were people fighting on the other side. Two entities, both with powerful mana signatures.
“You can’t normally enter while a fight is in progress,” Kiara mused.
“But it looks like we can get in here,” said Quina.
They approached the door, inspecting its mechanisms.
“No traps.”
“It isn’t even locked.”
It was all surprisingly easy.
“Come on, then!” said Mea. “We may still be in time to assist Urslars!”
“Assist?!” said Kiara. “Don’t be silly. That man has no need of us, and you must not approach him, do you understand? Not until I say so. One wrong move, and he’ll kill you where you stand.”
She was really shaken up about this Urslars guy. He must be extremely dangerous. Gwendartha gulped, his large body trembling.
“Master Kiara… is Friendly Fire really so terrifying?”
“How do you think he got that nickname? The most dangerous thing in this dungeon isn’t Murelia,” Kiara warned, lowering her voice. “It’s Urslars gone berserk. Remember that.”
Mea nodded. “Understood.”
“Hm. Got it,” Fran agreed.
“…”
Gwendartha stood speechless and frozen. He nodded, or perhaps it was just a shiver. The maids, on the other hand, remained as composed as ever.
Still, Mea wasn’t inclined to hang around.
“But surely,” she said, “you don’t expect us to sit out here and wait for you outside?”
“Of course not,” said Kiara. “We do not even know for certain if Urslars is inside.”
“Well, in that case!”
“On we go,” Kiara said.
She touched the door and hesitated, but the door rumbled open before she could change her mind. Behind it, there was a large arena—like a subterranean colosseum. And, just like the colosseum, a fierce battle was already underway.
In one corner was a huge, horned giant of a man, and in the other, a triceratops-like monster over twenty meters long. The fight was so powerful that you could feel mana rippling through the door.
The monster was at least a C-Threat, and maybe more. There is no way we could have taken it down, at least, not without risking severe injury. Which made sense, since this was the dungeon’s final room. But the creature’s body was covered with bloody wounds. It had lost three of its five horns and two of its six legs, and it was dripping dark blue blood. Its thick hide and armor plating cracked and peeled away, revealing raw skin beneath. It was close to dying, and probably didn’t have enough energy to regenerate. Even if we just left it alone, it would probably just bleed to death.
Its challenger, on the other hand, was completely unharmed. In fact, he hadn’t even broken a sweat. Despite coming up against an almost B-Threat, he was dominating the fight.
“Mooooooorgh…!”
The monster roared, exhausted and rooted in place. Its eyes flashed white with fear as it bellowed at the man, desperately trying to intimidate him. The man studied the beast for a moment, then raised his left hand and placed his right on his greatsword. I could feel the mana swirling around him.
“Crush,” he whispered.
“Blooooorgh!”
The two sides of the arena snapped shut like a book, crushing the monster between them. The beast let out a pitiful cry, its eyes and tongue bulging with the pressure. Blood sprayed from every wound in its body and shot up the walls. When the two sides of the arena finally opened back up, the monster was little more than a grotesque lump.
I immediately Identified Urslars, and he was quite the beast himself. Not only did he have a bunch of titles, but also a load of skills I hadn’t seen before. His stat sheet rivaled the Beast King’s.
Name: Urslars
Age: 148
Race: Ogrekin; Calamity Ogre
Class: Ogre Warrior
Level: 82/99
HP: 2987; Magic: 1009; Strength: 1519; Agility: 599
Skills: Strange Food 6; Intimidate 10; Transport 6; Stealth 5; Disassemble 7; Recovery Speed Up 7; Brute Strength 10; Martial Arts 6; Martial Mastery 6; Environmental Resistance 7; Presence Sense 6; Breath Control: Harden 9; Fast Regeneration 7; Brute Force 10; Regeneration 10; Abnormal Status Resistance 9; Blink 6; Mental Status Resistance 4; Elemental Blade 8; Greatsword Mastery 10; Greatsword Arts 10; Advanced Greatsword Mastery 8; Advanced Greatsword Arts 8; Land Magic 6; Jump 6; Earth Magic 10; Breath Control: Soften 3; Vigor 6; Logging 7; Physical Barrier 6; Magic Resistance 6; Mana Sense 4; Cooking 6; Disarm Trap 5; Trap Sense 5; Back From the Brink; Spirit Control; Steel Body; Raise Will; Enhanced Land; Intuition; Pain Immunity; Dragon Slayer; Mana Manipulation; Strength Up (Large)
Unique Skill: Corruption Killer; Mad God of Strength; Dread; Ogre God’s Blessing
Extra Skill: Godsword Release
Class Skill: Mad Ogre; Dark Ogre
Titles: Corruption Killer; Butcher; Chosen of the Godsword; Earth Mage; Dungeon Conqueror; Dragon Slayer; Friend Killer; Battle Maniac; Destroyer of Monsters; S-Rank Adventurer
Equipment: Earth Sword Gaia; Earth Dragon Horn Headband; Steel Dragon Shell Greatarmor; Cloud Dragon Leather Suit; Mirage Dragon Cloak; Bracelet of Mental Calm; Ring of Anger Dissipation
No wonder he was S-Rank. He wasn’t just impressively strong; he had powerful skills to go with it.
For the first time in a long time, I felt afraid. Afraid of the power of this man, and afraid of being on the receiving end of it. I had to keep an eye on Urslars for as long as we were here. I had to make sure Fran didn’t get hurt.
Although…he didn’t exactly seem like the type to lose his mind. His eyes were focused and steady on the dead monster in front of him. As the floor thudded back down into place, Mea and Gwendartha came back to their senses, but they still weren’t thinking clearly. We were in enemy territory, and they’d zoned out—leaving themselves completely exposed. Mea went to step forward, but Kiara grabbed her by the shoulder and gave her a grave look.
“S-sorry…” Mea stammered, shaking her head.
“It’s all right. Stand back now.”
Mea complied, and Kiara went in alone. Fran and the others shifted their weight slightly forward, ready to jump into action, but they kept their weapons sheathed. The last thing we needed right now was a misunderstanding—especially after watching him turn that giant monster into a meat slab.
“It’s been a long time, Urslars,” Kiara said, smiling to cover the shake in her voice.
“Hunh? Who are you…?”
Urslars turned around and glared at her. The rest of us shuddered with fear, but the heavy cloud of intimidation scattered as soon as he laid eyes on Kiara.
“Is that really you? Look at you! You’re a grandma now!”
He smiled, as though he hadn’t just looked like he was going to murder us all.
“Hmph,” said Kiara, crossing her arms. “And I see you haven’t changed a bit.”
“Bwa ha ha ha! You know us Ogrekin!”
“Good to see you’re lucid today. Come along, everyone!”
We approached cautiously, but Urslars just grinned at us all.
“Funny place for a field trip, isn’t it?”
“They might be little ankle-biters now, but one day, they’ll be big enough to pull your whole leg off. Although admittedly, I am chaperoning today.”
Fran and the others didn’t quite know what to make of Urslars. How had this kind adventurer earned the name Friendly Fire?
Meanwhile, I was fixated on the gigantic sword on his back. The crimson handle alone was over a meter long and the tip of the blade dragged along the ground, even though Urslars had it slung over his shoulder. And its size wasn’t the only impressive thing about it. The sword had a kind of aura, as though its mere presence was enough to make the blood resonate. I steadied myself in my sheath so I didn’t start rattling.
So this is what a Godsword looks like.
I couldn’t help but Identify it.
Name: Earth Sword Gaia
Attack: 2000; MP: 6000; Durability: 10000
Mana Conductivity: SS
Skill: Imbue Divine Earth Element; Enhanced Land Magic; Imbue Land Magic; Land Immunity; Mana Regeneration (Massive); Mana Command
Wow, this thing was powerful. In terms of raw strength, I was completely outclassed, but more than that, Gaia was specialized in Land Magic. And yet…I couldn’t help but wonder. I mean, don’t get me wrong, this thing was strong, but was it really a superweapon? A group of experienced sorcerers could probably go toe-to-toe with it, not to mention the fact that its name was “Earth Sword” and not “Land Sword.”
Maybe it couldn’t access its full power yet, like Lind? Although Urslars’ Extra Skill, Godsword Release, was probably the key. If it did unlock the sword’s full power, it was the most powerful skill he had.
Suddenly, Urslars looked straight at me.
“Who Identified me?”
Crap, I was rumbled. But…how did he do that without Identify Sense?
“I got tingles just now, like someone was watching me. Intuition’s doing its job.”
Mea and Gwendartha shrank away from the accusing look in Urslars’ eyes.
“Apologies, friend,” said Kiara. “I taught the children to never let their guard down in a dungeon. It would appear they have taken that advice literally.”
Urslars turned to look at her and burst into uproarious laughter.
“Bwa ha ha ha! You taught them good! I’m not mad. I always look like this. I just wanted to make sure. But to see the mad dog…or should I say mad cat Kiara apologize for someone else! You’ve gone soft! Not that it’s a bad thing.”
“Indeed.” Kiara smiled, the creases showing in the corners of her eyes. “We don’t all have the luxury of staying the same forever.”
“True enough! For some of us, change isn’t easy at all.”
Kiara tilted her head. “You’re still searching, then?”
“That I am…”
It looked like the two of them had an understanding.
When we walked in, I was worried that this guy would be some kind of monster but, now that he’d started talking, he just seemed like a gruff middle-aged man. He reminded me of Donadrond, back in Alessa. Only bigger. And scarier.
“You are looking for something, Sir Urslars?” Mea asked, now that everyone had relaxed.
“Yep. For a way to break my curse.”
“Curse?” Mea asked.
There was nothing on his stat sheet like that. Slowly, Urslars explained.
“Aye,” said the big man. “A curse, and a blessing also. It’s my Class Skill, Mad Ogre Form. I’ve been trying to get rid of it for years.”
“What does it do?” Mea asked.
“It magnifies some of my skills and abilities and grants me superhuman regeneration. With that thing running, I am five times the man I am now.”
What?!
What kind of a messed-up curse was that? It sounded broken!
Mea was just as puzzled as I was. “But then…why…”
Urslars made himself a chair from the earth on the area floor and sat down.
“Because it comes at a cost. A bad one.”
He chuckled, but I could sense the despair lurking behind it. Urslars fell silent, looking down at his hands. His eyes were filled with pain, so much so that Kiara took over explaining for him.
“Mad Ogre Form triggers when he is fighting,” she said. “He cannot choose when, and he loses all reason the whole time that it is active. The only thing that remains is his knowledge of combat. Paired with the strength of a Godsword, it is hardly a blessing. It wreaks havoc and destruction on friend and foe alike.”
He had lived with it for long enough to anticipate it and take himself away into the wilderness where he couldn’t hurt anyone. However powerful the skill was, the price it demanded made it a terrible curse.
Friend Killer. That title must be enough to give him nightmares.
It was horrible. Surely, there had to be something we could do about it? We had Skill Taker, after all. But…what if we were forced to equip it as soon as we obtained it? We’d just be transferring the curse, not removing it.
I wasn’t the only one who had that thought.
“Isn’t there some adventurer who can get rid of skills?” Mea asked.
“Sure is. Black Spot Maleficent has Skill Eraser. Wipes out a skill like it never existed. I tried it once.”
“But it didn’t work?”
“Oh, it worked. It disappeared just like that, and old Maleficent had to wait a whole year for her skill to recharge. Mad Ogre Form came back in two days.”
“Wh-what?!”
“Class Skills run deep. They always come back with time. Tried Skill Taker, too. Same story.”
Well, so much for my idea.
Urslars sighed. “It all started when I mutated into a Calamity Ogre. I was an ordinary Ogrekin before that.”
“Mutated?” Fran asked. “Not Evolved?”
Urslars nodded. “Evolution happens when a skill is maxed out, or when it takes on a new form. Mutation happens when you meet certain…other conditions. It changes skills. They might seem similar, but mutations have far more limited effects.”
He really did seem like a nice guy.
Since Evolution took more effort to unlock, the effects were more powerful.
“Becoming a Calamity Ogre is very unusual. Even the Ogrekin thought that it was a myth. A curse that brings destruction and calamity. Never thought it would happen to me.”
The mutation was so rare, it had passed into legend. And now, a man with a Godsword was in possession of it. People said he could take down an army, but I suspected that he could take out an entire kingdom if things went south.
“Anyway,” said Urslars. “That’s how I got stuck with the damned thing. Unfortunately, Ogrekin can only mutate once in their lives, and we can’t get rid of the Class Skills that we get upon mutation. The best I can hope to do is seal it away. I’ve figured out how to deal with it for short periods, but there has to be a more permanent solution.”
“Is that why you’re here in this dungeon, Sir Urslars?” Mea asked.
“You know what they say about dungeons: they’re connected to the roots of the world. I’ve been through a lot of them, and maybe I’ll find what I’m looking for here. But really, I’m here on an errand.”
“An errand?” Kiara asked.
Who exactly was he working for?
“No harm in telling you, I suppose. The gods are my clients.”
“Wh-what?”
Kiara was puzzled, but Urslars was still smiling.
“Heh heh. The gods are mighty interested in anyone who holds a Godsword, you know. They’ve been watching me for a while now.”
No surprise, really, considering the Godsword users were almost as powerful (and dangerous) as the Evil One himself.
“They send me oracles from time to time,” Urslars explained. “I suppose that’s fair enough.”
“So the gods ordered you to come here?”
“Nothing so official. They just gave me the coordinates of this place. That’s all.”
“And that doesn’t count as an order?” Mea asked.
I had to agree with her, especially since it came straight from the gods. But Urslars shook his head.
“I’ve had express orders twice before. This was more like a request. I’ve ignored similar requests in the past and they’ve never chased me up about it.”
“Y-you ignored oracles from the gods?!” Kiara spat.
“I was in the middle of an important mission. And besides, they can’t have been too upset, considering that I’m not dead or cursed. Well, no more cursed than before.”
Still, he was pretty brave to ignore a request from the gods. There weren’t many people in this world who’d dare to do that. Although I suppose getting stuck with a terrible skill he never asked for had given him a dim view of divine power.
“But how can you be sure?” Kiara asked, looking worried. “What if there is a binding punishment on you?”
Urslars chuckled. “Like the Tragedy of Laurentia?”
“Exactly.”
“What’s the Tragedy of Laurentia?” Fran asked.
“Oh? You’re not from around here, little cat?” Urslars asked.
“Hm.”
“Ah, well, that makes sense.”
According to Urslars, the Tragedy of the Laurentia happened one hundred and fifty years ago on the continent of Chrome, but it began with an incident fifty years before that.
At that time, there was a small kingdom called Laurentia south of the Beastman Nation. The king was young and patriotic and couldn’t stand to see his beloved nation treated as a mere vassal to their large and powerful neighbor. He wondered if there was some way for Laurentia to stand on its own feet. That’s when he called for a Fiendmancer and began sacrificing souls to the Evil One.
Really? Again?! What was going on in these stories? Does political power make people stupid or something?
The king eventually became a Fiendmancer and used his power to pursue his goal. But this one didn’t try to break the Evil One’s seal and revive him. Instead, he used Fiendmancy to summon a huge army of powerful goblins and sent them flooding into the Beastman Nation to destabilize it. He taxed his own people heavily to buy more sacrificial slaves and sent anyone who couldn’t pay their taxes to the knife.
Ultimately, his plan failed when the people of Laurentia rose up and overthrew him. In the end, the Fiendmancers were summarily executed, and after some negotiation, the king suffered the same fate.
After that, the royal family scattered and the Kingdom of Laurentia became the Republic of Laurentia, complete with representative government. The senate stripped the other royals of their dignity and sent them to live a life of slavery in the frontier lands, clearing the wilds. It was a dangerous place, full of difficult terrain and powerful monsters, and most expected the royal bloodline to disappear forever.
And yet, the line did not end there. In fact, the remaining royals worked hard to cultivate the frontier, as well as running its orphanages, hospitals, and convalescent houses for the injured—making a significant contribution to the Republic of Laurentia.
Fifty years later, Laurentia’s view of its former royal family had greatly improved. Eventually, they decided to free them from their lives of slavery and allow them to return to the republic. The royals seemed to have had a genuine change of heart. When they returned, they were welcomed back, and even treated like celebrities.
But the gods were not pleased with this decision and still remembered the weight of their sins.
They cursed the Laurentia family with divine retribution for using the Evil One to summon a massive horde of Fiends. To many, the punishment seemed too harsh and to come too late, but there was no questioning the will of the gods. One by one, the beloved royals lost their lives, until the only Laurentians left were Laurentians in name only, not actual blood relations. All across Chrome, this became known as the Tragedy of Laurentia.
“It’s safe to say,” said Urslars, “that the gods take a long view of things.”
“A long view?” Mea asked.
“The gods have been here since the beginning of everything,” he said. “I expect time must feel different to them. Fifty years might seem like a long time to pronounce judgment to us, but for an immortal? It might have felt like five seconds.”
That made sense, I guess. After all, humans and insects had different perceptions of time too. What seemed a short while to a human might take up the whole of a bug’s life. As men to insects, so gods to men.
“Exactly,” said Kiara. “Maybe you just haven’t been punished yet.”
“Ga ha ha! No need to worry about that, old cat. I have it on good authority that I’m in the clear. One of their messengers told me.”
“Y-you’ve met a messenger from the gods?!”
“That’s right. Twice, when the gods gave me divine missions. Sending a messenger was the least they could do at that point, if you ask me. I asked it about all the times I’ve ignored their oracles, and it said they didn’t mind.”
Kiara shook her head. “You’re out of your mind. Still, I wonder why the gods don’t seem to mind you ignoring their requests.”
“Beats me. Who knows how they work up there. The messenger said they ‘might as well.’”
“Might as well.”
Urslars proceeded to explain his theory: how the gods usually left the world to its own devices, but they kept a keen eye on the Fiends. While they never went so far as to eradicate them all, the gods still seemed to consider them a problem that needed addressing.
That’s where the Godswords came in. The gods kept tabs on each sword and could send oracles to whoever wielded them. Might as well make the best of a Godsword’s user.
“Like I said, the gods take a long view of things. Without the Godsword users, it would probably take them decades to spot an incident and arrange everything to contact someone capable of doing something about it.”
If divine retribution took fifty years, then oracles might take decades to accomplish.
“Why go to all that trouble when you have people who are only a Godsword away?” Urslars went on. “We’re more convenient for them. Anyway, they suggested I take a look in this dungeon, so I thought I’d give it a try.”
Convenient? I was increasingly unsure if owning a Godsword was all it was cracked up to be, but apparently, I was the only one who felt that way. Mea and Gwendartha were practically green with jealousy. Even Kiara, who didn’t take orders from anyone, seemed to accept it without question.
I guess that, in a world where the gods clearly existed, receiving an oracle was a great honor. It meant that you were considered worthy of divine attention.
Have you ever received any oracles, Mea?
Teacher? No, I can’t say that I have. I’m probably not recognized as the true user of a Godsword yet—not by the sword itself, and not by the gods.
That couldn’t be easy for her to swallow.
But I’ll win their favor one day! she promised.
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