Chapter 9
MIRA AND SOUL HOWL outlined their abilities to each other and worked together on a strategy. To react to any conceivable situation, they discussed a vast range of things, all of which they memorized quickly thanks to their past experiences. They devised a rough outline for the Machina Guardian’s destruction.
“That ought to do for now,” Mira said. “We just need to prepare to react to the unexpected.”
“Yeah. Same as usual.”
However elaborate their strategy was, there were always unknowns. As a rule, the Nine Wise Men trusted each other’s individual decision-making abilities in such situations, so they weren’t paralyzed by eventualities their strategies didn’t cover. The pretty word “flexibility” simply meant the mutual delegation that full trust in each other allowed for.
“All we must do now is rest well for tomorrow.” A little sleepy, Mira yawned and asked, “Incidentally, how are your interference golems holding up?”
“They’re doing fine, but we don’t know how long that’ll last, given this boss’s ability to learn. It makes me glad we have a way to finish it off tomorrow.”
“Indeed. Goodness, I was amazed it could do that. I’m glad we abandoned any plans for a prolonged fight.”
In the game, the Machina Guardian was a truly mechanical boss that followed set action patterns. There were hundreds of patterns, and it executed the perfect one for each situation, so victory wasn’t as simple as memorizing things. Since it was basically impossible to study every pattern, the usual approach was to prep several strategies that could probably deal with most situations. The strategy Mira and Soul Howl had now devised was a derivative of sorts.
But the world was a big place. A dozen people at the top had memorized, and could overcome, every single Machina Guardian attack pattern. They were the Twelve Apostles of Nirvana, which was one of the Ark continent’s two major nations. Quite a collection of oddballs, in truth.
“Has the Machina Guardian had that function from the start? Or only since things became reality? Either way, it’s a pain,” Soul Howl grumbled, genuinely irritated. He’d originally believed the raid boss couldn’t learn, but perhaps that function worked better as a battle wore on. Fortunately, that wouldn’t be a problem much longer.
“Regardless, it can’t learn anything if it’s dead tomorrow,” Mira reassured him. “We have enough plans. Let’s give it a good trouncing.”
“Fair enough. It’ll be a great enemy for me to go all out against for once.”
The pair spoke with confident grins—the expressions of mad scientists looking upon a new experiment.
***
As Mira came out of the bathroom, ready for bed, she suddenly recalled something. “I have some insight that ought to motivate you even more.”
Soul Howl, who didn’t need much preparation for bed, smirked defiantly atop his futon as he turned to Mira. “Really? If it’ll motivate me, it must be a big deal.” The way he spoke gave a glimpse of some…twisted confidence, but he sat up and urged her to go ahead.
Sitting on her special sleeping bag to face him, Mira explained what she’d heard from the Spirit King and Martel: that the Demon’s Blessing was the stigmata, and that a Holy Grail’s power was sure to cure it.
“There you have it. It might not be exactly what you planned, but you can save her life. Sorry if I stuck my nose into places I shouldn’t, but those two approve of your decision.” She fell back onto her sleeping bag, not waiting for a response.
“Stigmata, huh? Sounds complicated. Still, if I’m on the right path, that’s all that matters.”
Soul Howl had spent so long working to save the girl suffering from the Demon’s Blessing, but the mark was actually holy, rather than demonic. Moreover, once the stigmata stabilized, she’d awaken new healing powers. He was a little surprised to learn those things, but if they didn’t change his overall plans, he had no problem with them.
One realization did make him smirk. “You’re saying every time she uses that power, it’ll force her to remember that my necromancy saved her, huh?” He lay on his futon and laughed at the thought, then added energetically, “You’re right, Elder. That lit a fire in me.”
“Good, good. I expected as much.”
Soul Howl’s efforts to create a Holy Grail were not in vain, and although the situation wasn’t what he’d predicted, he was eager to continue. That was all that mattered—or so Mira thought as she stripped and got into her sleeping bag.
Martel’s voice echoed pitifully in Mira’s mind. “He’s just too shy to be direct about his feelings. I know it.”
Mira could only resign herself to agreeing. “You’re right. Hopefully one day he overcomes that.”
She closed her eyes to sleep.
***
The next morning, after getting into the shower to wash away her sleepiness, Mira emerged to find breakfast prepared. Today’s menu was Soul Howl’s homemade sandwiches and soup, along with Martel’s stat-boosting fruit. Mira had produced the latter, knowing it would be the perfect dish before the impending battle.
Soul Howl had neatly sliced and plated the legendary fruit. That was much more luxurious than how Mira usually ate it—biting into it whole.
Soul Howl had already finished breakfast. He was hard at work prepping the magic circles he’d need for his advanced necromancy.
“I’m gonna go over the strategy while you eat,” he told Mira. “Keep those ears open.”
“Mmph.” Mira grunted her agreement, cheeks full of sandwich. Silly as she might have looked, her resolve was genuine.
While slightly worried at how unreliable Mira looked, compared to the old days, Soul Howl began reiterating their strategy. It was little more than a quick reminder of what they’d discussed the night before.
“When one of us starts meditating, the other focuses on defense,” he said.
“Indeed. Gotta be careful. Meditating cuts all your senses off.”
Meditation was among the most useful techniques Mira had learned from the Encyclopedia of Skills. The technique was officially called Cerebral Flux, but because the user appeared to be meditating, the pair called it that for short.
There were a wide range of conditions to learn meditation, including spirit-blessing requirements, which made picking the skill up quite difficult. However, all the Nine Wise Men had accomplished those conditions, so they just needed to understand and acclimatize to the technique.
As a result, Mira had learned the skill the very day she read about it in the Encyclopedia of Skills, and Soul Howl had done the same during their meeting the previous night.
Though Cerebral Flux was difficult to master, its effect was worth the effort. It greatly increased the speed of mana regeneration. Even someone with a massive mana pool, like Mira, could recover all of their mana in just five minutes.
However, the technique came with disadvantages. Activating it cut off the user’s sight, hearing, smell, touch, and pain perception. The lack of pain was most dangerous. In some cases, people “meditating” didn’t notice they were being injured until they received a fatal blow. The skill required great situational judgment, especially midbattle.
“For all the risk it entails, the big advantage is that meditation means you don’t have to worry about elixir intoxication,” Soul Howl noted. “Use it well, and you can maintain maximum firepower without holding mana back. I’m sure that will be essential for all mages.”
Laborer mages could mitigate Cerebral Flux’s greatest flaw by having servants protect them. Soul Howl was an especially big fan of that strategy, partially due to his elixir-procurement concerns.
Elixirs—items with powerful healing effects—were far more expensive in this world than the original Ark Earth Online. But that wasn’t the part that concerned Soul Howl, who had plenty of money. The problem was the number of elixirs. The high prices mostly resulted from low supply. It didn’t matter whether one could afford them if there were none to buy. But elixirs had been especially important to Soul Howl given his travails so far.
“Yes. Meditation ought to keep us from getting into situations where we’ve ingested too many mana elixirs to use healing elixirs.” Mira recalled a story from their gamer days.
“That’s a big part of it,” Soul Howl laughed in response, no doubt remembering the same incident.
Elixirs above a certain potency caused a problem called “intoxication.” Their great benefits came alongside a more-than-commensurate toll on the body, and when a person had too many elixirs, they could become inebriated or even lose consciousness. It was important to plan elixir usage before fighting stronger foes.
Weaker restoratives, on the other hand, could be imbibed endlessly without fear of intoxication…though, now that this was real life, drinking too many often led to a sore tummy or a need to pee.
“Heck, just learning about this made meeting you worthwhile,” Soul Howl muttered as he traced magic circles with copy paper.
“Please, that’s it…? You must have more to say than that. Aren’t you happy to reunite with an old friend?”
“Mmm, I guess. And I appreciate having my—” Having my advanced spells back. Before Soul Howl could finish that sentence, he realized something and frowned angrily.
“Something’s happened, hasn’t it?” Noticing the look on Soul Howl’s face was the same as the previous night, Mira presumed the same thing had taken place. “Were your golems destroyed again?”
Her prediction was right on the money. “Yep. Only four were left, but they all just died at once.” Soul Howl quickly finished copying his magic circles and prepared for battle.
At the same time, Mira finally forced herself to her feet to finish her final checks. “Has the Machina Guardian learned again, I wonder?” she mused.
“Maybe. We don’t want it repairing its weapons, so let’s leave early.” With that, Soul Howl ran straight out of the mansion spirit.
His interference golems’ disappearance would allow the Machina Guardian to heal—repair itself, rather—after a few minutes. The longer it had to repair, the more fully it could restore its destroyed weapons. That might make for a difficult time.
“Starting over from the disarming stage would be tough…” Mira muttered.
Of course, she was already aware of that. She quickly cleaned up and dismissed the mansion spirit, then rushed after Soul Howl.
***
Leaving the mansion, they ran down the hallway toward the final chamber. They turned the first and second corners; upon turning the third, which led to the hallway where Soul Howl had set up his golems, they stopped on a dime.
“My word. Now, of all times…?”
“Yeah… Looking back, this happened sometimes.”
In the middle of the hallway ahead stood a figure. A mechanical, doll-like creature with a body that looked like scrap metal slapped together, two arms, four legs, and a mask on its face. It wielded handleless blades in both hands.
The creature was a dull lead color all over, and its body creaked as it turned to face Mira and Soul Howl. They weren’t used to its appearance—it was now covered in asymmetrical patchwork metal that appeared slapped together—but its eeriness was fully intact.
The roaming boss of the seventh level, the Mechanized Wanderer, had shown up.
“Now that I think about it, this thing would have the firepower to destroy a mere four golems at once.”
“Yeah. It really picked the perfect time to appear to dash my hopes.”
Watching the enemy warily, Mira and Soul Howl wondered what to do.
Mira offered a solution first. “I’ll take this one. You prepare the battlefield as planned.” She stepped forward slowly, drawing the Wanderer’s attention as she summoned two holy knights and one dark knight.
As long as she didn’t let her guard down, this fight was winnable. That said, the Wanderer was this dungeon’s second-strongest enemy; it was extremely durable thanks to its metal form. But even if the two fought it together, the cramped hallway would make the fight take longer than five minutes.
The problem with that was the Machina Guardian’s repairs. According to Soul Howl, eight minutes had already passed since his last golem self-destructed. The Machina Guardian would start fixing itself in no time, so several of its weapons would be in working condition by the time they finished off the Wanderer.
In light of that, Soul Howl quickly agreed to Mira’s suggestion. He hid behind the dark knight and holy knights as they leapt into action and darted toward the boss chamber.
With an eerie mechanical sound, the Wanderer likewise pounced, using its four legs deftly. Incredibly, it ignored the approaching knights and swung its two blades at Soul Howl, aiming precisely at the necromancer, although he was hidden.
Soul Howl continued to run, heedless of its attack. He knew what lay in store for the Wanderer when it ignored Mira’s knights.
The Wanderer’s blades crashed against the holy knights’ tower shields, sending sparks flying. Raw power collided and clashed. Instantly, the whirring in the hallway echoed more loudly, and the Wanderer pushed the holy knights back.
What ridiculous force. The Wanderer had combat power beyond A-rank adventurers. Alone, even Mira’s lesser summons wouldn’t hold it off.
It deflected the shields and ran, turning its back to Mira. Once again, it was going for Soul Howl.
Ignoring me in favor of him, hmm? It prioritizes whoever’s closest to the boss chamber. Quickly assessing the situation, Mira ran forward herself.
Up ahead, a holy knight circled the pursuing Mechanized Wanderer and stopped it in its tracks. However, the Wanderer’s powerful blow knocked the knight aside and opened its path once more.
As it blindly pursued the necromancer, it was struck by a black blade. That was the sword of Mira’s mutated dark lord, a construct reinforced with her mana. Moving with perfect control and freedom, the sword dealt a sure strike upon the Wanderer’s thick plating. At the same time, Mira caught up, circled in front of the Wanderer, and summoned two holy knights ahead of her to further shield Soul Howl.
[Mutated Evocation: Holy Lord]
When Mira activated that spell, the holy knights were clad in blinding light from which two mutated spirits emerged. They were pure white, with heavier armor and massive, rampart-like shields in either hand.
The polar opposite of dark lords, these holy lords fully specialized in defense. They were as impregnable as they looked, although at the same time, they were also as sluggish as their appearance implied. The main drawback of holy lords was that they were little more than slightly mobile walls.
But now, in a corridor with limited room to move, the holy lords would exhibit their full potential. They could withstand even blows from high-tier raid bosses. Though the Wanderer was strong, it usually struck many weak blows, so it lacked the raw power to break through the holy lords.
The spirits blocked the way with their giant shields. Mira peeked in the small space between them, too cramped for the Wanderer to fit through, and grinned at a job well done.
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