Aware that the clock was ticking, the group hurried up the mountainside, complaining about the heat all the while. They reached the summit in less than an hour.
At the top they found a disorganized mess of boulders strewn all about, creating a complex rock maze. The juxtaposition of jagged, glossy boulders with polished, smooth ones made it look like a rock exhibit in a science museum. Also, the sandstorm looked close enough to touch.
One boulder stood out far more than the other among the mass of stones. It had been shaped in the form of an arch, which was at least 10 meters high.
As he approached it, Hajime spotted a staircase heading deeper into the volcano right beneath the arch. He stopped at the top of staircase, looked back at Yue, Shea, and Tio, then gave each of them a confident nod.
“Let’s do this!”
“Okay!”
“You got it!”
“Very well!”
Hajime had thought the insides of the Great Orcus Labyrinth and the Reisen Gorge had been ridiculous, but they both paled in comparison to the absurdity of the Grand Gruen Volcano. The monsters weren’t tougher or anything, but its construction was absolutely awe-inspiring. It was like nothing he’d ever seen, and what he was most surprised by was...
The sight of magma floating in the air, which filled up the whole space in front of him. It wasn’t like the treetop aqueducts Hajime had seen in Verbergen. Instead, there was quite literally a river of magma floating in the air. It snaked and swerved like an actual river, making it seem like a giant red dragon was flying through the volcano.
The passageways and rooms had magma flowing here and there as well, so challengers to the labyrinth had to be wary of lava both beneath and above them.
Furthermore—
“Kyaa!”
“Whoa, you okay?”
“Hawawa, thank you, Hajime-san. I didn’t think lava would spew out like that... It took me by surprise.” As Shea had said, there were spouts in the wall from which magma erupted at irregular intervals.
There was no warning either, so it was hard to prepare for. Nature had provided the perfect traps for this labyrinth. Thank god I have the Sense Heat skill, Hajime thought to himself. Without it, they would have had to take the labyrinth very slowly.
However, what really made this labyrinth grueling was the heat, not just how hot all the surfaces were, but the atmosphere itself. Because of the abundance of magma everywhere, it felt like they were inside a superheated sauna. This must be what an egg feels like when it’s getting cooked. That was the most dangerous part of the Grand Gruen Volcano.
Sweat poured off the party in buckets as they headed deeper into the volcano’s bowels. They had to be careful to avoid drops of falling magma from above and spouts of it from the side, but they made steady progress. After some time, they arrived in a room that was clearly man-made. The room had been hollowed out by a rough tool, likely a pickaxe, and there was a glowing pink jewel slotted in one of the walls.
“Hm? That’s... stillstone, right? That glowing thing?”
“Indeed it is, Master.” Tio answered, drawing upon her vast library of knowledge. It appeared this was the excavation site most adventurers used to harvest stillstone.
“So small.”
“All the others are only as big as pebbles, too...”
Indeed, all of the remaining stillstone that the party could find came in chunks no bigger than their pinkies. I guess that means this section’s been almost completely harvested. There was no way they’d be able to get enough in time only searching the upper floors. And so, their best bet was to make it all the way to the bottom and find a large stash of it somewhere.
Hajime used his Ore Appraisal on the stillstone just in case. His magic confirmed what Tio had said, and the party grabbed all the stillstone that was easily obtainable before hurrying onward.
They descended another seven floors, their irritation at the heat growing stronger with each new passage downward. According to the records Hajime had read, the seventh floor was as far as any adventurer had gone. Or at least, as far as any adventurer had gone and returned alive. Steeling themselves, the party descended the staircase leading to the eighth floor.
As they stepped into the eighth floor, the party was buffeted by a searing gust of wind. A second later, a massive gout of fire bore down on them. It shot toward them in a spiral, illuminating the corridor’s orange walls.
“Spatial Severance.” Yue instantly reacted with a defensive spell. A swirling black sphere materialized in front of Hajime and the others. This was another one of Yue’s gravity spells. However, this one wasn’t used to attack anything.
The conflagration, hot enough to melt even bones, was sucked into Yue’s sphere and vanished without a trace. Actually, “vanished” wasn’t the proper term for what had happened. Yue’s big, black gravity sphere had exerted a gravitational field strong enough to suck its surroundings in. Yue had calibrated it so it wouldn’t affect those she was trying to protect, making it an ideal shield.
With the flames no longer blocking their line of sight, Hajime and the others were able to see who’d shot those flames at them.
It was an ox monster. Magma covered its entire body, and it was standing in a pool of the stuff. Its two curved horns were wickedly sharp, and each breath it exhaled was accompanied by a small gout of fire. I don’t care how strong you are, nothing should be able to survive being slathered in magma.
The Magma Ox kicked angrily at the ground, sending drops of magma flying. It prepared to charge, angry that its flames had been repelled.
Yue snapped her fingers. Her gravity sphere sped toward the beast. Once it got close, it shot out the flames it had sucked in back at the monster who’d cast them. Those flames had been compressed by Yue’s gravity sphere, and they came out like a barrage of flaming lasers, with far more force than the cow had sent them.
Yue’s flame bombardment spoiled the Magma Ox’s charge. It was rather ironic that it would be stymied by its own flames.
There was a loud boom and the magma the cow was standing on was blown away by the force of Yue’s bombardment. The ox was blown away with the magma, and it flipped through the air a few times before crashing into the wall behind it. It screamed in pain, but quickly got back up and charged again. It wouldn’t let these intruders live.
“Mrgh... I guess fire won’t work on a fire monster.”
“I mean it’s already surrounded in magma, so... yeah?”
Yue sounded unhappy. Smiling wryly, Hajime made to pull out Donner, but Shea stopped him.
“Leave this to me, Hajime-san!” Shea had already unsheathed Drucken, and her breathing was rough.
She’s being unusually assertive today. Hajime’s Demon Eye picked up which part of Drucken Shea was sending her mana to, and realized she wanted to try out the new feature he’d added to it. After a moment’s hesitation, Hajime nodded to her.
“Alright, say your prayers you cow!” Shea leaped fearlessly at the charging ox, which had closed a good bit of the gap between them already. Then, she spun around in the air, adding centrifugal force to her swing before coming down on the charging ox. Her aim was on point, and Drucken slammed into the Magma Ox’s skull. Ripples of blue mana spread out from the point of impact, each one a powerful shockwave. The Magma Ox’s head went flying as if it had been blown off.
Shea used the force of her swing to flip over the headless beast, who was still carried forward by its own momentum, and landed safely on the ground.
“W-Wow. Hajime-san, that was amazing. I’m the one who did that and I can’t believe it just happened. This upgrade is crazy!”
“Yeah, looks like it. I wasn’t sure how well the shock converter would work, but this is...”
Even Yue and Tio were impressed by the attack Shea had just pulled off. Her increased strength was all thanks to the shock converter Hajime had added.
Shock Conversion was a derivative skill of Mana Conversion that Hajime had acquired from one of the new mon
sters he’d eaten. It allowed the user to convert their mana into pure force.
It had come from the horse-headed monster Hajime had saved Kaori and the others from back in the Orcus Labyrinth. When he’d recovered his pile bunker from its corpse, he’d taken some of its meat with him as well.
Normal monsters had long since stopped giving Hajime new skills, or even improving his stats. But as the horse-headed monster was something Kouki hadn’t been able to defeat even while he was using his Overdrive, Hajime had guessed it must have been stronger than most others. And as he’d expected, it had indeed possessed a new skill for Hajime to absorb. His stats hadn’t seen too much of a jump, but the new skill had been worth it.
Then, with his creation magic, he’d added Shock Conversion to Drucken.
Hajime wanted to examine the ox’s head that Shea had knocked off, but Yue hurried him onward.
As they continued down the floors, the monsters grew more varied. They encountered bats that shot burning hot magma from their wings, eel-like things that swam through the walls, melting them as they passed, porcupines that fired flaming spines, chameleons that attacked with whip-like tongues from inside the magma, snakes that swam in the magma rivers and could ignore gravity... The list went on. Not only did their magma coating provide an excellent defense against most lower-level spells, they could use the magma as camouflage to launch surprise attacks. What made them truly dangerous, though, was that just touching one would kill most humans. And because they could utilize the magma in their surroundings, everything was a potential weapon for them. On the off chance the battle went poorly for them, they could use the magma as a cover to hide in, too.
Even adventurers who could clear the sandstorm wouldn’t stand a chance against magma monsters like this. Now Hajime understood why no one had made it past the seventh floor. Not only was it dangerous, but the reward didn’t match the risk. The monsters themselves were no stronger than the ones found on the 40th floor of the Great Orcus Labyrinth, they just had magma to enhance them. However, that meant their mana crystals weren’t that large, and the amount of stillstone to be found wasn’t that much higher than what was harvestable on the higher floors.
Worst of all, though, was that the heat kept growing.
“Haaah... Haaah... It’s so hot.”
“Saying that out loud will only make you feel hotter, Shea. Just imagine that we’re swimming through water... Nice, cool water. Hehehe.”
“M-Master! Yue’s finally snapped! Her eyes have glazed over!”
Aside from Tio, everyone was taking most of their damage from the heat. Hajime had taken out all of the cooling artifacts that he possessed, but it was like trying to push back a storm with a fan. Drenched in sweat and barely conscious, Yue, Shea, and Hajime were nearing their limits. We’re going to need a break soon, Hajime thought to himself as he wiped sweat off his chin.
In the next room they found, Hajime went to the wall furthest from any magma and transmuted himself a hole. Once everyone was inside, Hajime closed it up, leaving just a small hole for air to come in. He then used Ore Desynthesis and Compression Synthesis to coat the walls with a superdense metal. That way stray eels or jets of magma had no chance of getting into the room.
“Phew... Yue, can you make some ice for us? We’ll take a short break here. If we keep going like this, we’ll probably slip up sooner or later.”
“Mmm... Okay.”
Though her eyes were still glazed over, Yue easily summoned a massive block of ice in the center of the room. Tio then cast some basic wind magic to circulate the cold air around the room. The temperature quickly began to drop.
“Haaawaaah... It feels so good~ I feel alive again!”
“Fwah~”
Yue and Shea sank to the floor, enjoying the cold breeze wafting over them. They looked like half-melted snowmen.
They look cute like that, Hajime thought to himself as he pulled towels out of his Treasure Trove and passed them out to everyone.
“Yue, Shea, you can relax all you want, but wipe yourselves off first. If you don’t, you’ll get too cold.”
“Okay~”
“Roger~”
Once he’d passed out the towels, Tio walked up to Hajime.
“You don’t seem to be having that hard of a time, Master.”
“I wouldn’t say that. You’re probably the only one who’s not affected by it at all. Man, this heat’s killing me. I should have made some better cooling artifacts.”
“Hmm, if it’s bad enough that even you’re suffering from the heat, then... it seems to me that heat is the theme this labyrinth was built around.”
Even Tio, who hadn’t been affected by the heat at all in the beginning, was starting to sweat. She wiped herself off with the towel Hajime handed to her as she talked.
“Theme?”
“Indeed. From what you told me, Master, the labyrinths are all trials, correct? Trials to determine who is worthy to challenge the gods... From the way you described them, it seemed as if each had its own theme. For example, the Great Orcus Labyrinth is filled with a large variety of monsters, and is designed to help challengers obtain different kinds of battle experience. The Reisen Gorge is designed to force challengers to clear obstacles without the aid of magic. And it appears this Grand Gruen Volcano is designed to see how well challengers can keep their focus and respond to constant surprise attacks while under extreme stress. In this case, that stress is heat.”
“I see. I figured I’d have to clear them all eventually, so I didn’t give it that much thought before, but... now that you mention it, the trials certainly seem like lessons the Liberators left behind for us.” Hajime nodded in agreement. Underneath her perverted exterior, Tio was quite the scholar. On top of that, she was exceptionally beautiful, with her golden eyes and long black hair. It’s a shame her personality puts all of that to waste.
Hajime watched as a bead of sweat trailed down Tio’s neck and vanished into her voluptuous bust. Embarrassed, he turned away. Unfortunately, on the other side sat Yue and Shea, their clothes so drenched with sweat that he could see the skin underneath. This time, he was captivated by Yue’s alluring figure.
She’d unbuttoned the top of her white shirt to wipe off the sweat underneath. Because of the heat, her skin was slightly flushed. Glistening with sweat and panting slightly, Yue looked extremely seductive without even trying.
Hajime found himself unable to look away. After a few seconds Yue looked up, and her gaze met Hajime’s. Hajime mentally berated himself for letting his lust distract him and tried to look away.
However, Yue’s captivating smile held him in place. He couldn’t turn away even if he wanted to. Shirt still unbuttoned, Yue crawled toward Hajime. Her back was arched like a cat’s. Hajime’s eyes darted between her inviting gaze, her flushed cheeks, and her nearly exposed breasts. Once she was next to him, Yue looked up and said something in a pleading voice.
“Will you clean me up, Hajime?” Those were dangerous words. Hajime silently accepted the towel she offered him. He still couldn’t look away.
Crap, I’m screwed now. There’s no way I can get myself out of this one. Hajime smiled bitterly to himself and moved his hand toward Yue’s neck. But before he could do anything, Shea interrupted them.
“YOU TWO! This isn’t the time or the place for this! We’re in a hurry, and this is a labyrinth! Sheesh, I can’t believe you guys!”
“Uhh, well, I mean, it’s not my fault. Yue’s just too seductive. How am I supposed to refuse her?”
“Hajime’s cute when he’s staring at me like that.”
“Reflect on your actions! Also, how come you don’t look at me like that, Hajime-san? I was sitting right next to Yue, all drenched in sweat too... Hic... I’m starting to lose confidence in my looks. Come on Tio-san, you say something too.”
“Hmm, those two seem quite deeply in love with each other to me. I’m not sure there’s anything to say. After all, I too wish to be berated no matter the place or time. Besides
... it seems as if Master is at least a little interested in my breasts. For me, that is more than enough. Gufufu.”
As always, Tio’s masochistic nature shone through. However, she had shrewdly noticed Hajime’s interest in her breasts.
“But he didn’t even glance at mine!” Shea wailed, and began stripping then and there. It seemed she’d already forgotten what she’d yelled at Yue for. Wanting to join in on the fun, Tio started stripping as well. Hajime stopped them both with a rubber bullet from Donner.
Thank god Kaori isn’t here to see this. Shea was writhing on the ground, her breasts in plain view. Meanwhile, Tio was squirming in pleasure as Yue continued wiping herself down.
Hajime guessed that the Grand Gruen Volcano was likely fifty floors deep.
Coincidentally, that was about how many floors they’d gone down already. As for why he only thought it was “likely” despite having gone down that far, well, that was because their current situation was a little unique. It was hard to tell exactly what floor they were on.
Why? Because currently Hajime and the others were riding a dark brown boat down one of the volcano’s magma rivers.
“This must be what Indiana Jones felt like on his adventures.” Hajime muttered to himself as he marveled at the absurdness of his situation.
As for how they’d ended up like this, well, that had been Hajime’s fault. A little while ago, they’d been progressing through the floors, harvesting stillstone wherever they found it. At some point, Hajime had noticed the magma that was surrounding them would occasionally move in strange ways.
Despite the fact that there were no boulders, the rivers parted around the air as if there were, and at places the flow slowed, though there was nothing to slow it down. Plus, it dripped down from above only in certain places.
Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest Vol. 5 Page 6
