Hajime smiled as he watched their seamless teamwork out of the corner of his eye.
“Sheesh, they sure know how to fight. I better step up my game or they’ll lose faith in me.” Hajime mumbled that to himself, then continued to fire Donner and Schlag incessantly.
He blocked a knight’s sword with Schlag’s barrel, and then blew its helmet, along with its head, off with a point blank shot from Donner. He didn’t even watch as his opponent slumped to the floor. Without even looking, he fired Schlag behind him and shot down a second knight. He then ducked, avoiding a horizontal swing, and crossed his arms before firing, shooting down the knights to either side of him.
However, without Lightning Field, his bullet didn’t have enough power to penetrate the knight’s shield, so it ricocheted off, slamming into a nearby knight’s knee instead. Without a leg to stand on its balance crumbled, and Hajime leaped over it, shooting both it and a nearby knight down from overhead.
Another one of the knights tried to swing down at him the moment he landed, but he kicked off the sword and danced through the air once more. He fired a single bullet in all four directions, and each one took the head of a different knight. As he landed again, he pulled a round of bullets out of his Treasure Trove and spun both his cylinders to reload instantly. He then turned in place and began firing indiscriminately. The knights surrounding him were blown away one by one.
He continued cutting a swathe of destruction through the golems’ ranks, making sure not to accidentally let any of his bullets hit any part of the room. However...
“What the...?” As he continued dodging the golem’s attacks, he furrowed his brows suspiciously. Despite having destroyed a fair number of them now, it felt like their ranks hadn’t thinned in the least.
Yue and Shea had noticed this as well. When they took a closer look at the battlefield, they realized the golems they’d destroyed were nowhere in sight.
“Are they regenerating?”
“So it seems.”
“No way! How are we supposed to stop them, then!?”
Indeed, every time a golem was destroyed, the same light that glowed from their eye sockets enveloped their entire body for an instant, and then the golem was made whole again.
An edge of panic crept into Shea’s voice as she mowed down another wave of knights. It was hardly surprising. At this rate, no matter how many they destroyed it was pointless.
However, Yue and Hajime both remained calm, their minds working furiously as they kept the knights at bay. This was where the difference in experience came into play. Obstacles of such difficulty had been commonplace in the abyss. In fact, since they were stronger than they’d been back then, this was nothing.
“...Hajime, if they are golems, then they should have a core.” Just as Yue had said, the golems must have had a core hidden somewhere inside them that was the source of their power. Most cores were created with mana crystals harvested from monsters. That was what had been written in Oscar’s diary regarding his cleaning golems at least. Yue was thinking that if they could destroy those cores they’d stop the golems. Unexpectedly though, Hajime frowned unhappily.
“About that, I don’t think these guys have any.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, I’m checking with my Demon Eye even, but I can’t see anything. There’s faint traces of mana coming from all over each golem’s body, but...”
“Th-Then, what are we going to do!? At this rate we’re just going to lose eventually!” Shea was completely panicking now. Hajime ignored her and used Ore Appraisal on a golem. Maybe it doesn’t need a core because the golems themselves are made of some kind of special ore?
Bullseye.
* * *
* * *
Spirit stone: A stone capable of absorbing large quantities of mana. Two or more spirit stones filled with the same type of mana attached to a different kind of ore can be controlled remotely.
* * *
* * *
So that means there’s someone out there controlling these spirit stone golems? They weren’t actually regenerating, the operator was simply rearranging the stones of the broken golems to fix them, taking extra from the room if there wasn’t enough. It was more reconstruction than regeneration.
Upon closer inspection, Hajime saw that parts of the floor were made of spirit stone too, and that it had been gouged out in places. That was probably used to supplement any missing stone for the golems. Unless they took out the operator, there’d be no end to them.
“Yue, Shea. Someone’s controlling these guys. There’ll be no end to them if we keep fighting, so we’re busting through!”
“Okay.”
“B-Breaking through? Roger!”
At Hajime’s signal, they both turned around and made a run for the altar. Hajime fired Donner and Schlag as fast as he could, opening up a path before him, while throwing two grenades behind to stave off pursuit. There was a loud explosion, and the shockwaves sent rows of knights tumbling to the ground.
Shea leaped into the opening Hajime had created and swung Drucken around, mowing down everything in her path. The golems threw their shields and swords at her, aiming for the brief window of time Shea needed to recover her stance, but Yue used Rupture to cut them all down.
Hajime brought up the rearguard and continued shooting down any of the knights that got too close. Shea was the first to reach the altar, and she quickly set herself up in a position to assist Yue and Hajime. Yue followed seconds later, leaping over the altar and heading for the door.
“Yue-san, is it opening!?”
“Nope... It’s sealed.”
“Ah, I knew it!”
Even at a glance, it was obvious the altar and door were important. It made sense for them to be sealed, after all. That was why they’d tried to finish off the golems first, so that they could take their time figuring out the seal. Shea grumbled in annoyance as she beat down the knights that made it up the stairs.
“Let’s let Yue handle the seal. It’ll probably take me too long to break through that with Transmutation.”
Hajime fought his way over to where Shea was standing. It was probably possible for Hajime to break through with Transmutation, but in this dungeon it would take a vast amount of his mana. In which case, figuring out the riddle of the altar and the yellow crystal was probably the smarter route. That was why Hajime decided to let Yue, who was currently the most disadvantaged in the fight, worry about the seal.
“Okay... leave it to me.” Yue replied instantly and shifted her attention to the yellow crystal. It looked like two pyramids had been joined together at the base, and upon closer inspection Yue realized the whole thing was actually made of interlocking three dimensional pieces.
She took the crystal in her hands and turned back to the door. There were three depressions on its face. After thinking for a moment, she started dismantling the crystal. She was hoping to rearrange the pieces into three cubes so they’d fit in the depressions.
While she worked, she examined each depression in greater detail. When she looked closely, she noticed each of them had writing so faint it could easily be overlooked. Written within was...
—Can you solve it? Well, can you? If you don’t finish up quick, everyone’s gonna diiiie! Don’t worry if you can’t, though! It’s okay, you guys aren’t geniuses like me! So just relax! Even stupid people can live... Well, I guess they can’t, huh!? Too baaaaad! Pugyahaha!—
The same annoying insults as always. Even Yue couldn’t help but be irritated. She frowned ever so slightly, resisted the impulse to punch the door, and continued working on the puzzle.
Hajime and Shea sensed her shift in mood, but they decided not to say anything and continued beating down the undying army of golems.
“Hajime-saaan. Can’t you blow them away with that other thing you used before?” The knights swarmed up the staircases like cockroaches, annoying and hard to kill. Tired of hitting them back, Shea begged Hajime to use his grenades again.
&nbs
p; “Moron. What if it triggers a trap? I can’t throw them out just like that. There’s no telling what’ll happen.”
“That army of golems has already trampled every inch of the staircase!”
“This is Miledi Reisen we’re talking about here. What’s to say there isn’t some kind of switch that doesn’t react to golems?”
“Ugh, the scary thing is that you might be right...”
They conversed with surprising nonchalance as they blew through wave after wave of golems. Though Shea had been panicking at first, after seeing how calmly Hajime and Yue had handled the situation, she’d regained her composure.
“You know, I’m actually kind of happy.”
“Huh?”
Shea whacked another golem off the staircase before continuing.
“For so long, all I was good at was just running away. But now here I am, fighting shoulder to shoulder with you Hajime-san... That’s why I’m happy.”
“...You’re a real weirdo, you know that?”
“Ehehe. I’m going to flirt with you so much once we’re out of here!”
“Whoa, slow down there. Don’t just go putting up death flags for no reason. The tragic heroine role doesn’t suit you, so just stop.”
“This is where you’re supposed to say ‘I definitely won’t let you die, honey!’ Come on!”
“Now that deviates from the script way too much. I’m actually a little scared by how optimistic you’ve gotten recently, but... I guess I can’t say anything.”
They continued chatting idly like that for a few more minutes. One could say they were flirting, even. Suddenly, a dark shadow loomed behind them. Yue.
“No flirting.”
“We weren’t flirting.”
“Fufufu, is that what it looked like? Aww, you’re making me blush.”
“Shut up, you.” Yue glared angrily at Hajime and Shea, the latter of which was starting to grow a little tired. But she knew it wasn’t the time for this, so instead she puffed out her chest a little and reported her success.
“It’s open.”
“Wow, that was fast. You’re amazing, Yue. Come on, Shea, we’re going!”
“Okay!”
Hajime glanced back and saw that the door was indeed now open. There didn’t seem to be anything too special about the room beyond. Regardless, he turned around and started heading for the door. If they could reseal that door, they’d be able to halt the golem’s advance. Yue ran through first, followed by Shea. They stood on either side of the double doors, ready to close them the minute Hajime got through.
Hajime threw some grenades at the golems as a parting gift before sprinting through the doors. The golems surged forward, determined to stop the intruders. And yet, the grenades exploded before they could. Those that weren’t blown apart lost their balance and fell. And in that moment, Yue and Shea slammed the doors shut.
Just as he’d checked with Farsight earlier, the room was completely empty. Even if it hadn’t been Miledi’s room herself, Hajime had at least been expecting a clue, so the whole situation was rather anticlimactic.
“Is this another one of her tricks? Have this big old fancy door and seal, but put nothing behind it?”
“It’s possible.”
“Stupid Miledi! How long are you going to keep making fun of us!?”
As the three of them all hung their heads in disappointment, they suddenly heard the noise they’d come to hate.
Clunk!
“Wha—!?” The room suddenly started trembling. Suddenly, Hajime could feel G-forces hitting him from the side.
“Ugh— Wait, is this whole room moving?”
“Looks like i—!?”
“Ugyaah!?”
Just as he said that, they found themselves being assailed by G-forces from above. The unexpected shift made Yue bite her tongue, and she held her mouth with tears in her eyes. Meanwhile, Shea was sprawled across the ground like an upside down frog.
The room kept going in all different directions for a good forty seconds before it came to a sudden stop, ignoring all laws of inertia.
Hajime had managed to use his spiked shoes to keep himself in place, and even brace himself against the impact of the sudden stop, but Shea wasn’t so lucky. When the room came to a halt she slammed into the wall headfirst. All the rolling around from before had already been bad for her, but this was the last straw. She tottered to her feet like a drunk, pale-faced and completely frazzled. She would be out of commission for a few minutes. Yue had clung on to Hajime the moment she’d realized what was going on, so she’d been fine.
“It’s finally over... Yue, you alright?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
Hajime untransmuted his spikes and stood up. He examined his surroundings, but nothing in particular stood out. Considering how much they’d moved, chances were if he opened the door they’d come through they’d be in a different room.
“H-Hajime-san, aren’t you going to say something to me too?” Shea covered her mouth to keep herself from puking as she glared at Hajime. She didn’t look too happy about being ignored.
“I’m pretty sure if I said anything you’d get so excited that you really would throw up... and we don’t need to add vomiting rabbit to your list of nicknames, right?”
“That might be true, but a girl still wants to be cared about you— Blaaaargh!”
“See, what’d I tell you. Look, just get some rest.”
“Ulp... Bleh...” Ignoring Shea, who was retching on all fours, Hajime and Yue looked around again. There still wasn’t anything new, so they decided to head for the door.
“Now then, what’s she going to throw at us next?”
“The guy who was controlling the golems?”
“Possible. Miledi’s supposed to be long dead... so who was controlling those things?”
“It doesn’t matter what pops out. I’ll protect you, Hajime... And you too, I guess, Shea.”
“I can hear you, you know? Blaargh...”
Hajime relaxed a little when he heard the confidence in Yue’s voice. He softly ran his fingers through her hair. She closed her eyes happily and snuggled up to Hajime.
“I’ve been meaning to tell you this for a while, but could you two stop going off into your own little world all the time like that? I start to feel really left out and lonely, y— Ulp...”
Shea quickly cupped her mouth in an attempt to keep whatever lunch she had left down.
“I’ve been meaning to tell you this for a while, but could you stop doing that thing you do sometimes where it looks like you came straight out of a horror flick? I start to feel chills run down my spine.”
“H-How dare you. I’m just a maiden in love that wants to— Ulp... That wants to be pampered like Yue-san. So hug me and pamper me already! U-Urgh...”
“Please don’t say that when it looks like you’re about to throw up... and stop adding to your requests like that.”
“You’re one hundred years too early to be hugged by Hajime, Shea.”
Shea somehow managed to drag herself over to Hajime, and looked up at him with pleading eyes, her hands still covering her mouth. He ignored her and turned back to the door. Behind him Shea was going “Hey— Bweeeeh!” but he pretended not to hear.
So what’s behind the mystery door? Miledi’s hideout? The golem master? More traps? With a fearless smile, he pushed open the door. Beyond it was...
“Doesn’t this room look familiar?”
“Very familiar. Especially that stone tablet.”
There was another room past the door. A stone tablet in the middle and a passageway heading off to the left was all that was visible. The reason it looked so familiar was because—
“This looks just like... the room we started in?” Shea said what they were all thinking, but no one wanted to say. However, it did indeed look just like the room they’d first started in. In fact, it didn’t just look like it, it was that exact room. The proof was in the letters that appeared on the tablet.
&nbs
p; —Hey, how does it feel? All that hard work just to end up at the start again. What’d you feel when you first realized it? Come on, tell me. How’re you holding up? Well?—
“......” Hajime and the others were all shocked speechless. Their expressions were bloodcurling. None of them so much as twitched as they read what was written on the tablet. A few seconds later, more words appeared.
—Oh yeah, I almost forgot. This labyrinth morphs after a set amount of time. Miledi-chan wanted to make sure you guys wouldn’t get bored by running through the same paths over and over. Are you happy? Well? You better say thanks! She did this all out of the goodness of her heart! It should have finished changing by now, so whatever maps you made are useless. Feel free to thank me! You didn’t make any, did you? Oh, did you poor souls work hard on mapping everything you could? Well, that’s just too bad! Bugyayaya—
“Ha...hahaha.”
“Fufufu.”
“Fuhihihihi.”
All three of them devolved into hysterical fits of laughter. The screams of “Milediiiiiiiiiiii!” that followed were surely heard by all the creatures in the labyrinth. Those screams only grew louder when, upon exiting the passageway, they’d found she’d been true to her word. The entire layout of the dungeon had changed.
It took some time, but they finally managed to regain their composure and continued their expedition. Naturally, things did not go smoothly. Shea especially even got caught in the most basic of traps like metal basins falling from the sky, getting caught in birdlime, being sprayed with some sticky white liquid that smelled disgusting, and more. Eventually, she became a very agile rabbit.
Chapter IV: Miledi Reisen
In a corner of the Heiligh palace was a salon that had been opened up for the exclusive use of the summoned students. Each of them had been assigned their own butler as well, and the moment it looked as if they needed anything at all in that salon, their butler was by their side. Whether it was food they wanted, or drink, they merely had to ask and their servant would be off with a flourish.
Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest Vol. 2 Page 22
