novelVolume 7
| ← Ch.064 | Ch.066 → |
(Re)Translated by: Nigel
Proofreader/Editor: Deus Ex Machina
Part 1
The Worker team led by "Green Leaf" Palpatra bade farewell to the others 一 who were driven by anticipation and desire 一 and then looked down upon the outside from the stairs leading to the central mausoleum's entrance.
Nothing stirred under their eyes as they swept them across the silent graveyard. The only things there were silence, darkness and starlight. As Palpatra took a step towards the stairs, his companions said:
"Gramps, don't you think this is a bit of a shame? We should have let the other teams search the graveyard, no?"
"You're right. Every team... well, that piece of shit team aside, the others have roughly the same abilities. Anything we can do, Heavy Masher or Foresight can do too."
"In that case..."
Palpatra interrupted his companion halfway through his words and said:
"But we have priority searching rights for tomorrow, so we aren't losing out on anything. Besides, we ought to have finished the surface investigation by then, and if they're unlucky, the last team might not be able to find anything, and they might even be posted to guard the base camp."
"I see..."
"Besides, going first into a mysterious set of ruins is far too dangerous. They're like mining canaries for us, though hopefully they'll come back alive."
Palpatra turned back, a cold look in his eyes. The Workers who had charged into the ruins had disappeared in the direction he was looking.
There was a hint of disdain on his face, completely unlike the benign old man who was called "gramps" by others. However, his teammates knew him well, and they were not alarmed.
Palpatra had a very meticulous personality. He was a man who thought and thought again, the kind who would tap a stone bridge to test it before crossing. That was why he had been able to adventure on the frontlines for so long and slay a Dragon. On the other hand, his excessively nitpicky personality meant that he had missed several chances for gain. However, he had never once lost any of his companions, and so everyone on his team trusted him.
To just about anyone, nothing was more valuable than one's life. Even so, they could not help but envy the treasure that had slipped through their fingers.
"We might have missed the chance to discover amazing magic items! What's wrong with betting our lives on that?"
"You do have a point. However, look at this neat and tidy graveyard. Someone's clearly tidying it up, which means monsters will be coming out to welcome us. Isn't it better to let the others see what kind of monsters there are? Personally, I didn't really like this job because there were too many uncertain factors."
After hearing Palpatra grumble, his team members lightly asked:
"But you still took it in the end, right?"
"Of course. That's because the other teams accepted it too. I felt that we could flee while they sacrificed themselves for us."
The group descended the stairs and reached the ground.
"Is that why you chose to search the surface? So you could run once you heard them scream?"
"That's one of the reasons, and the fact is my way of thinking was a bit of a gamble... Just like you said just now, we might end up losing out because of this. We'll be safer if we can gather more information, but the fact is that I don't know if that's really so great an advantage. If I'm wrong, then I'll apologize to you all for it."
"Don't worry about it, gramps. We've always trusted you, because for the most part, your choices were always right."
"Besides, even if we end up losing out here, all we need to do is knuckle down and find another job with a big payout. You've said it before, haven't you, gramps? As long as you live, there's always a chance, so there's no need to force yourself to take risks."
"Man, those were the days. We were all young back then."
"Aren't you still young now?"
"Hah, it's not very convincing when you say I'm young, gramps."
The group flashed wry grins to each other as they headed towards the small mausoleum.
"That said, I should have discussed this with you all first, but I ended up making the decision on your behalfs. Sorry about that."
"Well, that's the only way you could have expressed it back then. Besides, you're the team leader we chose, gramps. When our trusted leader makes a decision, we're all happy to obey."
"... You were all moping back there, what are you grinning about now? Alright, that's fine. Let's hurry up and check, and if we have time left over, I'll see if Momon-dono can give me a few pointers. It's a rare chance, so maybe you can have him teach you a thing or two."
"Mm, we've engraved your spar with him into our eyes, gramps. That's an adamantite-ranker for you."
"... There's many kind of adamantite-ranked adventurers. Eight Ripples from the Empire is, frankly speaking, not really adamantite-ranked. Momon-dono is a true adamantite-ranked adventurer. He 's on a level I can't hope to reach."
"Gramps..."
"Hyahyahya, don't worry. When I was in my prime, I might have been jealous, but now I'm just a wrinkly old coot. It's not like I'm shocked or anything. Besides, I've seen several true adamantite-ranked adventurers in my time, but Momon-dono is unique even among them. From his presence, he feels like an adamantite among adamantites."
"Really?"
"Oh yes, which is why I'm telling you to get some pointers from him. After I die, gaining experience will be helpful if you want to continue adventuring."
"How could you possibly die, gramps? I can't even bring myself to imagine you retiring."
"Exactly. You're hale and hearty, so living to Fluder-san's age shouldn't be problem, right gramps?"
"Hyahyahya, no, no, not even I could do something like that. The man's an oddity."
"What a wonderful team you have."
Suddenly, a woman's quiet voice reached them.
The only women among the members of this expedition were the two ladies from Hekkeran's Foresight and the three Elf slaves from Eruya's Tenbu. However, the voice did not belong to any of them.
The group immediately raised their weapons, and turned back.
As they looked up the stairs they had just descended, they saw a group of women in maid uniforms standing at the entrance to the mausoleum. There were five of them in total.
Each of them was unbelievably beautiful, but at the same time it also made them especially abnormal.
The strange thing was that each of them was dressed in an outfit that resembled a maid's uniform, but they were different from the clothes Palpatra had seen before; they gleamed with an armor-like sheen.
"You... who are you? I didn't see you just... oh, so there was a hidden passage after all."
"Women? They're beautiful enough to rival the Beautiful Princess of Darkness... they're clearly not ordinary people"
"They don't seem hostile, but... they can't possibly be people who were hired in addition to ourselves."
"What should we do, gramps?"
His comrades dared not be careless. They observed the girls closely as they asked him.
The best option would be to negotiate with them, but it would seem they would not be able to conclude this amicably.
"Our numbers are roughly even... so we should just be able to handle it, right?"
Their opponents' strength ought to be about the same as themselves, or slightly higher.
They had not attacked while the Workers were gathered together in order to get them all in one fell swoop. That implied they lacked the fighting power or traps to deal with so many people at once. At the same time, they had chosen to show up and show themselves off and initiate the conversation; that implied they were confident of defeating Palpatra's group.
While his aged body hardly sweated any more, at this moment, Palpatra felt the hand gripping his spear turn cold and clammy.
"Still, maids showing up in a tomb... really calls their taste into question.
In the next moment, the friend of his who had tossed off that casual joke was suddenly covered in cold sweat, his face pale and trembling.
Palpatra thought the temperature around him had plummeted for a moment. However, the goosebumps covering his body were no delusion.
Even with only the light of the moon to illuminate them, he could clearly see murder in the eyes of the maids lined up above him. It looked like their eyes were glowing.
"LeT's KiLL thEM."
"... Have to die."
"We can't just kill them normally. We need to make their suffering legendary."
An intense bloodlust roiled around the maids. Their anger was such that it felt like the air itself was warping.
"Alright, alright, " the most senior-looking maid said with a clap of her hands."Our master has ordered us not to let any of them return unharmed, so we were going to kill them anyway. However, I'm quite pleased to see everyone so motivated."
There was a clang, a sound of metal which seemed to come from the stairs that had been cut from a slab of stone. The sound had come from the greave-like metal high heels which the maids wore.
Shaken, Palpatra and company backed off.
Given their lack of weapons, their opposition ought to be magic casters. In that case, allowing them to take the high ground and fighting in this wide-open space which favored ranged weapons was not a wise strategy.
For Palpatra and the others, the ideal tactic for them was to shorten the distance between themselves and the enemy. The reverse would be to the maids' advantage. However, why were these maids coming down the stairs? Were they planning to soar into the sky with [Fly] if anything happened?
The maids' blank faces were like a mask, and their movements were as regal as a sovereign as they slowly descended the stairs. Palpatra and his group were at a loss for how to respond, but still, they sheltered behind their shields and discussed what to do and what tactics to use
Clang!
A particularly strident sound rang through the air. The maids had stopped halfway down the steps.
"Alright, let's start with a self-introduction. I... forgive me... this one is the assistant leader of the Seven Sisters (Pleiades), Yuri Alpha. While we will not be together for long, it was a pleasure to meet you. Now then, back to the main topic, while wiping you out directly would be faster, we cannot make a move ourselves for certain reasons. What a shame."
The wind carried adorable, bell-like laughter over to them.
The smiles of these stunningly beautiful maidens overflowed with a charm that instantly seized the hearts of anyone who looked upon them.
Being a former adventurer and currently a Worker, Palpatra had seen all sorts of things over the years. Among them were supernaturally alluring monsters like Fairies and so on. Yet, even he had never seen such beautiful maidens before, whose fair features seemed to ensnare his very soul.
However, their scornful words overflowed with a sense of superiority, and below the thin veneer of their fair features was arrogance which belonged to the overwhelmingly powerful. For these men, who had walked hand in hand with death and who were very proud of their abilities, such high-handedness was utterly intolerable. It even made them want to show the maids exactly who they were looking down upon.
However, they had witnessed various indirect pieces of evidence which suggested that these maids were incredibly powerful, in contrast to their adorable appearances. Their faces were still filled with terror from the murderous intent they had felt just now, and they could not fully steel themselves for battle.
The best option might be to run, and let the adventurers 一 especially Momon 一 join the fight.
"Then, allow me to introduce your opponents."
Yuri clapped, and the graveyard trembled, as though in response to the echoing sound.
"Come forth, Nazarick Old Guarders".
"What?" Palpatra exclaimed in shock.
The earth behind him split open and several Skeletons showed themselves.
A pincer attack? No...
Looking up, he saw that the maids were still hostile, but they had no desire to fight. Perhaps they were in a spectator mode. While they could not be careless, it seemed to be as the maids had just said; they did not wish to attack right away.
Palpatra came to the conclusion that the only enemies in their way were the Skeletons behind them, and so he began assessing the new batch of enemies.
Skeletons were hardly powerful opponents. Given the strength of Palpatra and his group, they could take on a few hundred of them with no problems. That being the case, the Skeletons that had emerged from the earth 一 eight of them in total 一 were no match for them whatsoever.
However, there was a problem.
Palpatra's companions gulped in unison and unconsciously backed up one step.
These Skeletons felt different from regular Skeletons, and their equipment was different too.
They were dressed in grand breastplates, like the sort a country's royal guard would use. Their shields were emblazoned with a griffin motif, and they wielded all manner of weapons, in addition to composite longbows on their backs. In addition, all this equipment glowed with the light of magical power.
Skeletons outfitted with magical gear could not be ordinary Skeletons.
"What are those?"
"You don't know either, gramps? I'm not too sure... but I think they might be an offshoot species of Skeleton Warriors."
"An offshoot, huh? They don't look like Red Skeleton Warriors either..."
Opponents one had never encountered before were always unsettling, especially foes outfitted with magic items that possessed special effects.
"一These numbers should be enough to deal with you gentlemen. Please do your best and show us how how far you can run."
"We're honored that you're sending out such powerful undead against us. However..."
Palpatra calmly pondered the matter.
No matter what, they could not possibly have too many undead equipped with so many magic items. They were probably using their strongest forces against them right off the bat.
Otherwise, they would not have let them enter the ruins; they would have dealt with them long ago.
"一So these are the strongest fighters of the ruins, then? You think they're enough to stop us?"
Looking up, Palpatra saw that Yuri seemed shaken by his question, her eyes roaming about.
I hit the nail on the head! I see. So they already laid a trap during our conversation...
The wisest way to use their best troops was to neutralize each group of intruders piecemeal. Of course, after considering that they might not be able to match their opposition, it might be smarter to concentrate their forces where a group of people would be after completing their explorations, when they were physically and mentally fatigued; at the entrance, in other words.
And so, they had learned part of their opponents' aim from this. When the maid said, "show us how far you can run, " they were trying to bait them into fleeing, so they would have a chance to attack them from behind. From the maids' point of view, they would be engaging in several battles, so they would want to minimize any wear and tear to their forces.
Therefore, there was only one thing they had to do.
"So all we need to do is defeat these Skeletons and break out of this encirclement, am I wrong?"
They had to defeat the Nazarick Old Guarders for the sake of the teams who would be following them.
The other teams might be rivals, but comrades were comrades. Besides, if they wanted them to flee, then standing and fighting would run a lower risk of falling into a trap. And of course this was just in case, but he was thinking about asking Momon to fight if their opposition was very strong. However, they ought to fight now, even if there was risk.
"So I messed up the plan and now we're the canaries instead... ah, what a pain. Alright, do you think that's all of them?"
"Given how well those undead are equipped, I can't imagine there could be more of them."
"This is a route which invaders would have to pass through, so stationing their best troops here would be the best tactic. That being the case, these Skeletons should be all of them. And since the opposition should have better intelligence than us, they probably aren't dumb enough to split their forces."
"... No, I think there ought to be a few more in the ruins. However the ones left are probably lower-grade undead."
"Gramps... we should flee. This is bad. It's very bad."
"We've already been surrounded, there's no escape for us! Even if we try to fly away, they'll shoot us down with bows! Hang in there, lads! There's no way for us to survive but by defeating them!"
The response to Palpatra's shout was a resigned yet surprised voice.
"Well, that's also a valid means of breaking through. We'll cheer for you, so let's begin."
And with that, the Nazarick Old Guarders stepped forward.
***
Yuri and the others had troubled looks on their faces as they kept "cheering" them on.
They had been hard-pressed to hide their consternation since the beginning. To think they were actually so...
"Ahhh, this is bad ~su."
"... Did not think it would be like this."
"Cocytus-sama will be shocked."
"IF tHIs keEPs Up... It'Ll ENd wiThoUt ANythINg To shOW fOr It."
Yuri and the others watched a raised hammer swing down.
"Oh, that looks very bad, he'll die ~su."
Just as Lupusregina muttered to herself, the man in question took a blow to the chest and crumpled to the ground.
The sound of metal scraping and a heavy object collapsing somehow managed to fill the air despite the intense battle.
The first casualty was a human warrior, but the Nazarick Old Guarder holding an electrically-charged hammer did not seem particularly excited about it, instead looking for another target.
"Priest-san, if you don't heal him, he'll die ~su"
"... No point. Died instantly, and battle line fell with him."
Yuri muttered worriedly to herself, while Shizu shook her head as an answer.
The two Nazarick Old Guarders that the warrior had been holding off were now freed up, so one went to deal with their priest while another one planned to circle around to attack the back-line. The priest was already occupied with two of them, and now with another one to add to his burden, he no longer had the time or energy to cast spells. He had his hands full just trying to fend off savage attacks from three directions at once.
Palpatra was the only one who seemed to be earnestly giving battle, but he had to deal with three enemies at once and did not have the freedom to help his comrades.
"The thief's firepower isn't enough. I wonder if they have any trump cards?"
The thief fighting to protect the arcane magic caster now had one more enemy to face. Now he had two. The thief's light and nimble weaponry lacked decisive power against his foes 一 the undead Nazarick Old Guarders who could not be slain in one hit and who wore sturdy armor. The thief barely managed to avoid their attacks with agile movements, but there was a great difference between the untiring undead and human beings who could become fatigued.
"He's looking at us like he's about to cry ~su"
"Want to wave to him?"
"I guESS WAvinG To HIm wOUldN't hURt."
"Okay ~su"
Lupusregina smiled sweetly and waved to the man.
"... It hit him."
"It's all Lupu's fault for distracting him."
"Ueeehhhh~ It's my fault ~su?"
"... Mm, your fault. But we can cheer for them... Yay."
"Yes, I do hope they can hang in there a little longer."
The maids nodded at Yuri's words.
The Nazarick Old Guarders held the upper hand throughout the battle with Palpatra's team. At this point, this one-sided battle could be described as futile resistance. Even Yuri and the others could not help but pity them.
At first, they had even laughed and said, "Weren't you very confident in yourselves before the battle started?" but then they had lost all interest and started yawning, and now they were even rooting for Palpatra and the others.
"Uwah, the difference in their strength is so great I can't think of anything to say."
"... No trump cards?"
"I think that summon spell they cast was it."
"3rd tier?"
"No, that's too weak for a secret weapon. Although, using a summoned monster as a meatshield was a pretty good idea."
"Indeed. As long as they could keep attacks from connecting, they might have been able to reorganize."
"HOwEVeR, uSIng fLIGhT MAgiC aFter thAT wAS jUsT STuPId. DiDN't that wriNKLy old gEEzeR SAy sO hIMseLF?"
"I don't know if he was planning to flee or use magic from above..."
"... He became a priority target."
The arcane magic caster collapsed after taking a mortal blow. If someone could cast a healing spell on him or apply a potion, he might have been able to get back into the fight, but nobody had the energy for that. In the end, all they could do was have the thief cover him and prevent the enemy from finishing him off.
"But why did they think there were only this many Old Guarders?"
That was truly a mystery.
Had they unconsciously imagined the scenario going in their favor? That did not mean they were stupid. Perhaps humans thought like that when they did not want to look despair right in the eye; their survival instincts flared to their limits in order to build up their courage.
"Besides, it was hopeless anyway."
"Yes, no matter how you look at it."
"WHat If tHEy WENt oN fULL dEfeNSe tO buY TiME aNd foR tHE otHeR tHIeVEs tO ComE BAck?"
Everyone glared at Entoma.
"As if they'd come back!"
"... Goes without saying."
"There's no way, right? It's impossible for them to come back safely from the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick."
There was a scream of unbearable pain, followed by the sound of something collapsing. The battle maids turned to look at the source of the sound, and then spoke sadly.
"Ah, THe tHIeF weNT dOWn TOo."
"The outcome of the battle's been decided."
"Like I said, maybe we should have listened to them beg for mercy on the steps..."
"But they were so confident back then! Of course I was wondering if they had some plan in mind."
The thick scent of fresh blood wafted over to the maids from the thief's body.
"SMeLLs TasTY..."
"You can't do that, " Yuri chided Entoma.
Their master had issued an order to recover everyone who was incapacitated, whether they were alive or dead. Naturally, they could not present an insect-chewed body to their master. It would be terribly rude.
"fREsH MEaT..."
"We'll ask Ainz-sama if you can eat it later. Bear with it for now."
"But this isn't good, right? The original plan was to see if we could deal with fleeing people, right?"
"Seems like it. That's why they posted pretty strong undead near the walls."
"CoCYTus-saMA muST HAve pREdiCTEd THat We'D CATch uP tO thEM EasILY, bUT..."
"... Didn't expect them to fight head-on."
"Well, this is what happens when you don't understand your opponent's strength. Alright, we'll heal the ones who are still breathing and send them to the torture room. As for the dead... we'll report them to Ainz-sama.
And so, Palpatra and the Worker team he led vanished that night
Part 2
"Push them back!"
Gringam's furious cry rang through the burial vault that was filed with the stench of mildew and rotting corpses.
The room was 20 meters long on each side, and the ceiling was at least 5 meters overhead. This room, illuminated by the light spell of the magic caster and torches dropped on the floor, was packed full of people.
Gringam and the members of Heavy Masher had been forced into the corner of the room. The rest of the burial vault was flooded with massive quantities of low-end undead such as Zombies and Skeletons.
There were so many that counting them would be an exercise in pointlessness.
Gringam and the shield-carrying warrior stemmed the flood of death head-on, forming a defense to keep the undead from reaching the back-liners.
格林汉与手持盾牌的战士就凭两人从正面挡住死亡浊流，形成堤防不让后卫受到侵犯。
A Zombie pounded on Gringam's full plate armor with both its hands. While Zombies were stronger than regular human beings, they were still not enough to put so much as a scratch on the steel plate armor. The rotted, fragile hands splattered on contact, leaving putrid chunks of rotting flesh stuck to the full plate armor.
The same went for the Skeletons. The rusted weapons which they held could not possibly harm enchanted full plate.
Of course, they might have gotten in a lucky shot. But such lucky shots had not occurred, thanks to the protective magic on them.
Gringam swung the axe in his hand, but every time he brought one down, another undead being would rush in to fill the gap. They pressed in ever closer, as though they wanted to squash Gringam and the others to death.
"Dammit! There's too many!"
The shield-bearing warrior beside Gringam growled in pain. His shield covered his entire body, so he had not taken any attacks, but the shield was covered in filthy fluids.
He smashed the skulls of Zombies and Skeletons with his mace, but he could not hold out against the enemy's pressure, and he was slowly forced back.
"Where did all these enemies come from?!"
The warrior's question was very reasonable.
After Gringam's group separated from the others at the crossroads, they had searched several rooms. Sadly, none of the rooms they searched contained wealth like in the mausoleums, but they had found several valuable treasures. They continued slowly exploring in this manner. Then, they entered the room and began searching it, whereupon the door had suddenly opened and a huge horde of undead flooded into the room from nowhere.
Zombies and Skeletons were hardly strong foes. However, their numbers were a threat of their own.
Once they were dragged down or pressed down, they would not be able to move even if they did not die. At that point, the undead horde would assault the back-liners.
The back-liners would probably not go down easily either, but the sheer numbers they faced left them uneasy.
If things went on like this, a stroke of bad luck might lead to their battle-lines crumbling. Having reached this conclusion, Gringam decided to use the power he had wanted to conserve.
"We need to finish this right away! I place my trust in thee!"
The back-liners 一 who had only been casting stones until now 一 made their move.
Normally, undead like this were not a problem for Gringam and the rest of Heavy Masher. However, that was also the reason why the backliners chose to wait and conserve their strength. Once the backline made a move, eliminating undead like these would be as easy as falling off a log.
"My lord, O God of Earth! I beseech thee to purge the unclean!"
The priest clasped his holy symbol, and his cry took the form of power. A cool, clean feeling surged through the burial vault 一 which had been filled with unclean air 一 in a wave of divine might that was more potent than usual. The priest used his ability to turn undead.
In the wake of that wave, the undead crumbled into ash and dust, starting from the ones nearest the priest.
When there was a great difference between the respective power levels of both sides, the ability to turn undead could instead directly destroy them. However, destroying many undead at once was extremely difficult, and the user needed a certain degree of power.
In the end, that single move disintegrated over 20 undead beings.
"I'll blow you away! [Fireball]!
The arcane magic caster cast his [Fireball], which flew to the back of the undead horde where it detonated. In a single, ferocious instant of flame, the false lives of all the Zombies and Skeletons within the spell's area of effect were consumed and burned away, leaving nothing but ash and smoke.
"I'm not done yet! [Fireball]!"
"My lord, O God of Earth! I beseech thee to purge the unclean!"
The backliners launched another round of area-effect attacks and the number of undead sharply decreased.
"At them!"
"Alright!"
The warrior cast aside his shield, holding his mace in both hands, and together with Gringam, they charged into the undead horde. It would have been easy for the magic casters to wipe them out, but Gringam had chosen a charge anyway, because the truth was that he wanted to conserve their mana. In particular, the priest's ability to turn undead had a limited number of uses. His profession made him particularly adept at dealing with the undead, and it was arguably their secret weapon in this tomb.
Gringam charged into the undead horde, his axe swinging. Sticky fluids oozed 一 perhaps it would have spurted, if its heart were beating 一 from the the flying body parts. The odor from the open, severed wounds on the corpses was nauseating but it was not unbearable.
Or rather, one could say that their noses were numbed to it.
Gringam and the warrior worked together, attacking, attacking and attacking some more. They gave no thought to defense.
They could make such an assault because of magical aid and the sturdy armor protecting them, in addition to the fact that they were facing such weak undead.
Every now and then, something would strike Gringam's head, but his armor absorbed the impact, and he hardly felt anything in his neck. Even when his chest and belly were struck, he hardly felt the blows.
After all, their foes were the weakest of the undead to begin with. The only danger just now had been their human wave tactics; once the enemy ranks had been thinned to this extent, the fighting was much easier. The warrior kept swinging his weapon, and shouted:
"All the undead we've met are piddly little creatures, but there's a lot of them in this tomb!"
"So there's no guarantee that stronger undead won't show up! Although, if there are stronger undead, I have no idea why they haven't appeared yet!"
The person answering him was the priest, who was observing the battle from the rear as he picked up the warrior's shield.
"... No, perhaps the undead here were summoned by some means. It might have been some kind of ritual, or through an item."
The strange thing was that the corpses vanished after a certain amount of time had passed, so the ground was not carpeted in bodies, leaving them no place to stand. That part sounded like what happened to summoned monsters after they died, hence the wizard's warning to the others.
"Some gimmick that mass-summons weak undead... I heartily reject it! I fear to imagine this tomb thoroughly flooded with zombies!"
Gringam replied as he felled skeletons like trees, and then he surveyed the interior of the room. There were few undead left, less than the number of fingers on both hands. It did not look like a new batch would be coming in through the door, and the battle would be over soon.
Just as he thought that, a bone-chilling sensation transfixed him through the soles of his feet.
His danger sense ordered him to flee immediately, but he could not do so right now. Even so一
"Look out! Head outside一"
The thief seemed to have sensed it as well as he shouted.
However, it was too late. All of a sudden, the originally sturdy floor suddenly turned weak. A floating sensation engulfed them. A moment later, their unbalanced bodies were dumped heavily on the ground.
His comrades cried out in pain. However, Gringam poured his strength into gripping the axe which he had not released even through his fall. As he smashed the Skeletons that had fallen with him, he stood up.
"Destroy the enemy!"
The undead had also been damaged from the fall 一 in particular, the Skeletons were weak against bludgeoning attacks and had thus taken a great deal of damage 一 so fighting them was much easier than before.
After eliminating the undead within the room, Gringam finally had the luxury of looking around the room.
They were probably at the bottom of a pit below a magical trap that caused the floor to vanish. Looking up, the ceiling seemed very far away. At a glance, it looked like it was 12 meters overhead. Three meters above the floor was a closed door. Three meters above 一 a total of six meters above the ground 一 was an open door, the one through which Gringam and the others had originally entered the room. One could say they had fallen a distance of roughly two floors.
The overall shape of this room was like a square pyramid. The floor of the room sloped down toward a point, and due to the steep incline, one might end up rolling to the bottom of the room 一 the center 一 if one were not careful. In fact, one of his comrades had actually rolled down there and gotten stuck at the bottom. He had almost been buried alive by the falling Zombies.
It was hard to believe they had barely been hurt by falling into a place like this.
The strange thing was that there were four tunnel-like structures on each wall at the three-meter mark, on the same level as the closed door, for a total of 16.
"It looks like a room used for drowning. I'll bet they'll pour in water from those tunnel-like things up there. I'll pass on that, if you don't mind. It's worse if they're Slimes or the like instead."
"I agree. Let's check out that door and get out through there if it's okay.
Climbing two floors of a wall with no handholds was quite difficult. At most, only the thief could do it; people like Gringam in their full plate armor would have a very hard time. In contrast, that unknown door might not be safe, but reaching it seemed much easier.
Just as they were discussing how to climb up, heads emerged almost simultaneously from the sixteen tunnels. They were corpses swollen so badly they looked like they were about to explode 一 Plague Bombers.
Their bodies were bloated from the negative energy accumulated within them, and they exploded when killed. Their death explosions harmed the living and healed the undead at the same time, making them very troublesome undead.
The meat lump-like undead leapt through the air. The Plague Bombers' bodies hit the floor and made a nauseating sound. The problem was what happened after that. Their round bodies did not stay still on the slopes but rolled down like boulders, towards Gringam and the others.
"Look out! Get clear!"
"I'm the intellectual of the group, don't tell me what to do!"
Everyone 一 the wizard who was almost in tears included 一 barely managed to avoid the attack, and so the undead rolled into the center of the inverted pyramid. The next wave of Plague Bombers had already showed their ugly faces, which let Gringam and the others know that just now was just the first wave. At the same time, they also guessed what would happen after this.
"Run! This room is going to be flooded with them!"
If they were knocked into the center of the room by the intense impacts from the rolling undead, they would assuredly be squashed to death. Even if they were not crushed, they would be immobilized, and then they would die from the repeated negative energy explosions of the other undead being flattened by their fellows.
"What a despicable trap! Someone, please give me a boost!"
"As if I could! You fall in there and you're done for!"
Even if someone managed to evade one attack, the moment they lost their balance, they would not be able to avoid the next attack. Nobody dared boost anyone else under those circumstances.
"Then I'll use magic!"
"Don't use [Fly]! You're not strong enough to pull us all!"
"No, uwah! That was close! I'm going to use [Web Ladder]!"
"That'll do! Please anchor it to the nearest door! Gringam, cover him!"
"一No! Halt! We must flee through the second storey door through which we entered! The door below is perilous!"
His companion did not question the basis for those words, but they trusted Gringam.
"[Web Ladder]!"
The magic took effect, and a spiderweb climbed up the wall, until it reached the second floor.
This magically created spiderweb had a unique stickiness to it. When one did not want to let go it would be adhesive, but when one wanted to move, it would not be, making it very suitable as a ladder.
Gringam and the others were worried, but in the end they managed to climb up the ladder in single file.
Gringam finally reached the door that had been open all this while, and carefully studied the passage through it. If they were hit and knocked down now, they would surely meet with a hideous fate.
He sighed in relief. It would seem what he feared 一 undead above the tunnels 一 had not taken place.
After he was sure of it, he jumped on top of the tunnels and then pulled everyone up.
"We're saved! Being crushed to death by undead is one of the most horrible ways to die!"
"... These ruins are really maliciously designed. I sprained my ankle when we fell, hope you can heal me."
I think the negative energy explosion grazed my toes! That was scary as hell!"
"I barely managed to avoid it by luck. It's too much to ask a wizard to dodge attacks."
His companions panted, swapping complaints and curses between breaths.
"Say, Gringam, why did you want us to avoid that door? I thought that door would have been the right choice. Don't they always put the right route in the most dangerous place?"
"It was just a hunch I had... take a weapon you don't need and attack that door."
Gringam had reverted to his usual way of speaking now that he was exhausted. After hearing his reply, the thief immediately pulled out a dagger and threw it at the door. The dagger flew in a straight line, and struck home 一 or at least, when it was about to, part of the door bulged out and shaped itself into a tentacle, which deflected the flying dagger.
"That's a... Door Imitator! No, given the color of that tentacle, it's probably an undead Door Imitator. This sort of enemy captures its enemy with sticky body fluids and then delivers a one-sided beatdown with its tentacles."
"Cheh! A double trap, huh, that's pretty evil. Still, you're amazing, you actually saw through it."
"It was just a hunch. No, strictly speaking, I just went with what I knew over the unknown. Also, consider the position of that door; it would be taking repeated negative energy explosions. While negative energy explosions probably wouldn't do too much damage to an inanimate door, I had the feeling they'd put something funny there. Then, let's move一"
At this point, Gringam shut up. That was because the thief who had been going on and on since just now had a finger on his lips, and was tilting his head to listen.
Gringam pricked up his ears as well. He could hear a rhythmic tapping tak tak tak sound on the floor.
Everyone looked to the source of the sound 一 towards the passage.
"That... ought to be an enemy, right? Can't they give us a break?"
"Yeah, there's only one of them, and they're not trying to be stealthy, so that should be it. I hope it's the last one..."
Everybody raised their weapons, and the warrior at the front raised the shield his colleague had given him, hiding half his body behind it. The wizard pointed the glowing tip of his staff at the passage ahead, where the sound was coming from, ready to cast a spell at any time. The priest raised his holy symbol and the thief aimed his bow in the direction of the noise.
The tak tak tak sound grew louder, and the other party finally showed themselves.
It wore a luxurious 一 though fairly aged 一 robe, which covered a body that was slimmer than that of a woman's or a child's. It held a gnarled staff in one hand 一 that had probably been the source of the rapping sound.
Its skeletal face was covered by a thin layer of rotting skin, and there was a malevolent intelligence in its eyes. Negative energy wreathed its body like mist.
This was an undead magic caster. Its name was一
"一An Elder Lich!"
The wizard, who had been the first to surmise its identity, cried out.
Indeed. After a wicked magic caster died and the body was infused with negative energy, it would give rise to an evil monster like this.
The moment Gringam and the others heard that it was an Elder Lich, they immediately changed formation. Nobody stood in a straight line with anyone else, and each of them kept a distance from each other, to defend against area-effect spells.
Elder Liches were fairly powerful opponents. To adventurers, platinum-rankers would not be able to defeat one easily, but mithral-ranked teams would be certain of doing so. If Gringam and the others disregarded fatigue, they would be able to beat it. In addition, they were fortunate enough to have a team member who was exceptionally potent against the undead, which was a shot in the arm for everyone.
Also, Elder Liches were hard to deal with at a distance, but given the current distance, the battle conditions were very favorable for them.
"Is that the master of the tomb?!"
That was Gringam's conclusion. Elder Liches were controllers. Sometimes they would control hordes of undead, and depending on the circumstances, they could even make deals with the living.
Good examples of those were the captain of the ghost ship that sailed through the mist of the Katze Plains, or the Elder Lich who became famous for ruling a city, and so on.
Therefore, it was not at all unusual for an Elder Lich to be the master of this tomb.
"Did we hit the jackpot? That's a stroke of luck!"
"The job didn't ask us to kill the master of the tomb!"
"We'll show him the power of Heavy Masher!"
"Behold, the divine protection of the gods!"
His other colleagues were shouting. They were doing so in order to banish the fear they felt when facing a mighty foe like an Elder Lich.
"Defensive spells一"
Just as Gringam was about to start calling battle orders to his comrades, a strange feeling arose within him. He immediately found the reason for that feeling. It was the powerful enemy before them, the Elder Lich.
"... What's wrong?"
"He doesn't seem to want to... attack us?"
The Elder Lich was clearly looking at Gringam, yet it had not made a move. It had not raised its staff, and neither had it begun incanting spells. It simply watched them in silence.
Gringam and the others were hard-pressed to hide their confusion. This was because they thought they would be charging into combat, yet they did not dare make the first move.
It was true that the undead bore hostility towards the living. However, it was also true that certain intelligent undead were willing to deal with humanity. While they would probably start from a weaker position if they opened negotiations first, sometimes the undead would ask for a ceasefire, and one could gain magic items made with long-lost techniques.
The most important thing was that avoiding combat was the ideal course of action when one faced a powerful enemy like an Elder Lich. Perhaps it had shown up because it was tired of not being able to eliminate the group with its traps, but it might also be because it knew their strength and wanted to peacefully negotiate.
After considering these possibilities, striking first would be far too rash. That would essentially be abandoning all possibility of negotiation. This was the heart of the enemy's power. It would be too risky to plunge into battle without ensuring that there was a way for them to retreat.
Gringam and the rest of his group looked at each others' faces, and verified that everyone was thinking the same thing.
It was his job as their leader to speak for the rest of them.
"Forgive my disrespect, but thou seem'st to be the master of this tomb. We一"
The Elder Lich turned its horrific face to Gringam, and then rested a slender finger on its lips.
In other words 一 quiet.
While such a gesture was very unfitting for an Elder Lich, they were not brave 一 no, they were not suicidal enough to tell this powerful entity such a thing.
Gringam obediently shut up. Then, he heard a sound again from the silent passage, and he immediately doubted his ears.
He had heard this sound before, that of something going tak tak tak as it rapped against the ground. And there were a lot of them一
Gringam and his group exchanged glances again. They did not want to believe the answer the sound was telling them.
And then 一 everyone screamed at once.
"Who was it?! Who said the Elder Lich was the master of this tomb?!"
"I'm sorry! It was me!"
"Are you fucking kidding me?! This is ridiculous!"
"Oi oi oi oi oi, we can't possibly win this!"
"Even divine protection has its limits!"
More Elder Liches appeared behind the original one; six of them, in fact.
There were now seven of these powerful magic casters.
Granted, since they were the same sort of entity, they would attack in the same way. In other words, once they had a way to negate all the attacks the enemy could muster, beating seven of them would not be a problem.
The problem now was that they did not have such a way, and they could not possibly do so.
In the face of such utterly hopeless odds, Gringam's group lost their will to fight.
"Now then, let us begin."
As the Elder Lich spoke in its voice that did not sound like it wanted to negotiate at all, seven staves rose into the air. At the same time, Gringam bellowed:
"Retreat!"
Everyone in the team ran with all their might, as though they were waiting for that word. They ran in the opposite direction from the Elder Liches. Of course, they hardly had the luxury of contemplating what lay ahead of them; all they could think of was fleeing the excessive firepower of the Elder Lich cabal and buy themselves some chance of survival.
At their head was the thief. After that was Gringam, the wizard, the priest and the warrior.
They ran nonstop, without hesitating.
They reached a corner. These were places where they ought to have been on guard against traps or monsters, but as the footsteps pressed in from behind, they did not have the free time to check carefully. Everything was up to the heavens; all they could do was run.
There were two stone-carved doors on either side of the passage, but after considering that they might be dead ends, nobody was brave enough to rush in.
The armored people made a cacophonous sound of metal clashing as they ran, which echoed along the passage. While the sound might attract monsters, nobody had the time or energy to cast [Silence].
They ran, and ran, and ran some more.
They moved their legs, heedless to everything else. Turning corners and sprinting madly made them lose their sense of direction, and they no longer had any idea of where they were right now. If possible, they would have liked to return to the entrance, but nobody had the energy to consider that.
"一Are they still behind us!" Gringam shouted as he ran. The warrior at the end of the group replied:
"They're still there! They're running after us!
"Dammit!"
"Why the hell are they running! Why aren't they flying?!"
"If they flew, we'd be eating spells one after the other, moron!"
"Let's hide in a small room and parley..." the mage panted. He was the physically weakest member of the group, and he looked like he would collapse at any time.
Gringam decided that this was not going to work. The mage's stamina was going to give out.
Undead monsters like Elder Liches would not get tired. If this kept up, they would be forced into a corner, and once their endurance was gone, all that awaited them was to be slowly picked off.
"How can there be so many Elder Liches..."
Such a thing was impossible if one went by common sense.
"Don't tell me the master of this tomb is more powerful than an Elder Lich!"
That was the only answer they could think of. However, was there really such a powerful undead being? Gringam was at a loss for an answer.
"Dammit! This goddamn tomb!"
The warrior running at the end of the pack cursed between panting breaths.
A glowing magic circle floated off the ground at that very moment. The magic circle was very large, big enough to encompass Gringam and his team within its bounds.
"What一"
There was no telling who it belonged to, but he heard something that sounded like a scream一
***
一There was a floating sensation, different from when they had fallen down just now.
——与刚才的坠落不同种类的飘浮感。
Gringam's vision was filled with blackness. The sounds of crunching and squishing came from under his feet, and he felt his body slowly sinking. It was just like falling into a swamp. He panicked for a moment, but this swamp-like place was not very deep, and he stopped sinking after it reached his waist.
In this silent world of darkness, Gringam called out uneasily, like a child who had lost his parents:
"... Is anyone there?"
"一I'm here, Gringam."
He immediately received a response from a comrade 一 the thief. In addition, he was not far away. It was probably around the same distance that had separated them while they had been running.
"... Are the others here?"
| ← Ch. 064 | Ch. 066 → |