Episode 1016

“Let’s move! Upward!”

The expedition members made their decision quickly.

No matter how tempting the monster was, or how much they wanted those bounties on the criminals…

“Damn it. Each of us here could have gotten 8,125 gold coins apiece just by nabbing one of them.”

“……”

“……”

Even in this situation, the party was horrified by Einrogard’s mage who did perfect mental math on the spot.

With infamous imperial criminals and a void monster on the loose, bounties hadn’t even crossed their minds.

Regardless, no matter how tempting the monster, now was not the time to be stubborn.

Whether or not the cultist’s story was true, they had to get to the surface first to report and strengthen their preparations.

Crack!

Alsicle’s necklace crystal, sensitive to danger, shattered. Having glimpsed the short-term future, Alsicle screamed.

“Left! Enemy approaching from the left passage! More than dozens!”

“Back!”

The group switched direction at once. Almost simultaneously, spider monsters poured in from the left corridor.

-■■■■■■! -■■■■■■■!

Lee Han, without hesitation, summoned flame, expanding it into a wall. And didn’t stop there—he converted it to blue flame using deepening properties and then to white flame with holy attributes.

Blue and white flames!

At the sight, one of the expedition members cried out urgently.

“Wizard! Don’t waste your mana—fall back with us!”

A wizard’s mana wasn’t infinite. Even with potions or items for support, squandering it from the start was a bad idea.

“Don’t worry about him!”

Alsicle, pushing the other explorer forward, summoned frost amulets, distributing them among the group.

It was a spell from the illusion discipline, shielding against contagion and madness.

‘…How can someone be so cold-blooded!’

The explorer misunderstood Alsicle, shivering at such frigidity.

How could someone so cute be so cold?

That mage must have frozen even their own heart searching for the secrets of ice.

“At least put an amulet on him!”

“What? No! He doesn’t need it!”

When the explorer pointed at Lee Han, asking for him to wear a frost amulet, Alsicle flapped and shook her head.

Like the veteran mage she was, Alsicle had sharply gauged her remaining mana and focus. There was no reason to waste magic on someone immune to contamination and madness.

‘That’s just too much!’

“We’re ready. Let’s go!”

Summoning a fire strong enough to flood the whole tunnel, Lee Han belatedly caught up.

Running at their speed without even a moment to recover mana, the explorer was startled.

“Are you alright? Need a recovery?”

“He’s fine! Mind your own business! Move!”

Alsicle snapped on Lee Han’s behalf.

The explorer made up their mind then and there—

Once they got back topside, they would absolutely report this cold-blooded young genius mage’s true nature to the imperial press!

• * *

“Die—!”

The half-giant warrior Bashirmak took a huge breath and bellowed, drawing out mana.

A master warrior’s roar, executed with full force, became a shockwave that swept through the corridor. The tide of spider monsters was crushed en masse.

But swarms still came from behind—if anything, the numbers didn’t seem diminished at all.

“Why are there so many?!”

“Their reproduction rate is beyond imagination.”

Kitarenanum groaned.

No matter how you looked at it, for a monster that had crossed the boundary between dimensions to multiply in such numbers in such a short time…it made no sense.

It was on a different level from normal asexual reproduction.

“Does it gobble up any matter around, and lay eggs?”

“Are you analyzing magic at a time like this, you spell-casting bastard?!”

Bashirmak gestured ahead.

Of all the mercenaries he’d brought, only two remained alive. The rest had all vanished beneath the tide of spiders.

The Apocalyptic mage who had survived as well wore a disturbingly gleeful grin. Bashirmak regretted not throwing him in earlier.

Fwsh!

Suddenly, among the spider monsters, an arrow of magical fire formed and was shot forth.

Though not especially strong, it startled both Bashirmak and Kitarenanum.

They hadn’t expected these spiders to use magic.

“They can cast spells?! What the hell!”

Bashirmak brushed away the fire arrow with the back of his hand, shouting. But Kitarenanum couldn’t answer, either.

“I-I don’t know. Was it from a mage-born dimension? But at first, it wasn’t using magic!”

“This fire arrow—wasn’t that the spell the brown-haired mercenary used?”

The Apocalyptic mage, suddenly speaking up, made Kitarenanum flinch.

“What…”

“Doesn’t it remind you of something?”

-Damn it. It’s got absorption abilities, too!

The archdemon Esadojikua muttered in horror.

No wonder the demons had been wiped out so quietly—this monster could also absorb the abilities of what it consumed!

Among monsters, those with such powers were extremely rare.

-How could you let that slip?

-Just be grateful for this info, mage!

“Thank goodness. Those mercenaries weren’t much. Even if it uses their magic, it shouldn’t be a big threat.”

“But think if it keeps consuming. Say, it eats a hundred wizards—even if it absorbs one percent, that’s a single wizard’s worth of magic.”

“Then the last thing we want is for it to eat us—”

The half-giant’s instinct suddenly screamed, and he shouted:

“Get down!!”

“Wha—”

Kitarenanum, focusing solely on the spider monsters, reacted a step too late.

The Apocalyptic mage had already begun to cast a spell at them.

‘When did he—?!’

Kitarenanum had to admit he underestimated his opponent.

He thought, as a mage several levels higher, the other couldn’t possibly fool his eyes.

But somehow, the Apocalyptic had completely deceived their senses and cast a spell unnoticed.

Crack-boom!

“You spell-chanting bastard! I’ll chew your heart up myself!!!”

Bashirmak received a razor wind-blade with his flesh and grit his teeth.

Mages! You could never trust ’em.

“An ambush with a spell like this. Typical lunatic.”

Kitarenanum, recovering his composure, checked his shield and prepared a counterattack.

The surprise was shocking, but the power wasn’t that great. At this rate—

“…No! No!!”

Kitarenanum realized too late and howled.

The Apocalyptic was grinning, about to complete another spell.

“Stop—you madman!”

“Why? What’s—”

At that moment, all the floors and walls of the passage melted. The spider monsters roaring up beneath gleefully surged upward.

The monsters devoured the Apocalyptic first. Kitarenanum, barely managing to conjure a new foothold, had to grit his teeth.

‘Damn it! I need time to swap spells…!’

“Do something, you spell-casting bastard!”

To ready a wide-area spell required a brief switching of magics.

But the monsters surged from all sides—no chance at all for even a moment’s preparation.

Snap!

Then, suddenly, the monsters stopped. Then turned, and started to ascend upwards.

“…Storm, break free and sweep all away!”

Having finally gotten a moment, Kitarenanum transformed his arm into a storm. The ferocious winds swept the monsters away.

Bashirmak brushed monster ichor and carapace from himself and asked,

“Why are they all suddenly going upward?”

“No idea. Maybe they found new prey? Something even tastier than us…”

“Hah! Does that sound likely to you?”

Even in this crisis, the half-giant’s arrogance didn’t falter.

Even in a contest for the monsters’ most prized prey, this warrior was not ready to place second.

“…Cursed by skeletons, maybe? More coming up from below. Move!”

Feeling more monsters approaching from below, Kitarenanum said with disgust.

Hunters didn’t come all this way just to become prey.

• * *

“Lady Alsicle. Isn’t something strange?”

“Huff, huff… hah, hah-hah…”

Alsicle, carried on Lee Han’s back (having collapsed from exhaustion already), couldn’t answer right away and panted.

“Wh-what seems strange?”

“It feels like the monsters are only targeting me since earlier…”

“Well… it makes sense. You’re the biggest threat. And have so much mana.”

Alsicle was hardly surprised.

From the perspective of monsters, the abnormally mana-rich and contamination-immune enemy was the most threatening.

“But your magic is superior to mine, isn’t it, Lady Alsicle?”

“…You!”

Even riding on his back, Alsicle felt her eyes sting.

She didn’t have many mage friends, but at least she had one she could brag about to others.

“By the way, Lady Alsicle, that crew member keeps glaring at you… Did you have a grudge in the past?”

“N-no. Nothing like that. It’s probably just because I’m being carried by you.”

Getting carried by a junior mage was likely not a dignified look.

‘Is that so?’

Lee Han wanted to explain to the disdainful-looking explorer that, for mages, frailty was normal—but there was no time.

“To the upper level!”

“I have something to say.”

Suddenly, the evil-god-worshiping elf spoke up. Lee Han, about to cast a fire spell, paused in surprise.

“What?”

“It would be safer to abandon that mage…”

“Shut it.”

Thwack!

Lee Han clobbered the elf on the snout with his staff. Alsicle was startled by her junior’s violent reaction.

Despite being struck, the evil-god cultist didn’t stop.

“If you don’t want to abandon him, change direction. The monsters have already taken over that way.”

“Where?”

“The small side passage to the right. There’s another sealed canal. If you take it, you’ll find a useful tool.”

“!”

Alsicle quickly performed a divination. Then nodded.

“Right side, side-passage!”

“What is this useful tool? Some kind of sluice mechanism?”

Lee Han asked as they ran.

If the ancient dwarves had really built something like that to clear out monsters, nothing would be more satisfying.

“No. Magic criminal Kitarenanum and the separatist Bashirmak. Throw the trapped dogs to the monsters. That way, you monster can escape without going berserk.”

“……”

“……”

Both Lee Han and Alsicle, and the rest of the explorers, were lost for words.

What the hell kind of suggestion was that?

“How can we use them? They’re notorious criminals!”

“If they’re in our situation, they’ll know they’re cornered. If you suggest collaborating, they’ll probably agree.”

“But they’re not fools. Won’t they guess what we’re up to? What if a fight breaks out and it gets even more dangerous?”

As the team quickly debated, the evil-god elf quietly said to Lee Han,

“Magic criminal Kitarenanum sacrificed 99 giant hearts to contract with the archdemon. Tell Bashirmak that. The two will have a big fight.”

“Is that true??”

“No. It’s a lie. But effective.”

“……”

Lee Han fully realized why the being the elf worshiped was an evil god.

It was a level of malicious rhetoric that even outdid the students of Einrogard.