Chapter 70: Did you get it right the first time?
The Ruins of Olympus were less than an hour’s journey southeast of the royal capital.
After passing through a forest and going deep into a hilly valley, a decaying ruin appeared behind a cliff.
Dotting the area stood large pillars carved by the wind and rain. Some of them had collapsed, making the scene resemble something you might find in Greece.
Near the cliff sat a building that appeared similar to a palace. From a glance, it looked neat.
There was a labyrinthine dungeon in the basement of that place.
It was said that they would pick us up at the ruins, but once we got to the site, there would be no need for them anymore. I politely declined their offer to come for me in the evening.
After seeing the carriage off, I wanted to set up the “door to elsewhere” as soon as possible.
“Why are you here?”
“Eh?”
What’s going on now? That’s Iris Phillia. Yes, that’s Iris. In addition to her usual black pants look, she’s wearing a strong-looking basket in each hand. It’s a real punching bag, I get it.
I didn’t need to go into a boring reminiscence here.
It seemed that Iris had heard from somewhere that I was going to take an examination, which required me to explore the ruins. She then took the initiative to call upon the dean of the academy directly so she could participate without going through me.
When I went to introduce Charlotte to the head of the academy, she informed me unilaterally, ‘Please add Iris Phillia-san to the party,’ and without any time to reply with my complaint, Char leaped with joy, so it remained unresolved until now.
“Would I still be in the way?”
Un, it was very annoying.
“No, you’re not. I’m glad you’re here, Iris.”
But Char looked very happy for some reason. By the way, she appeared sufficiently spirited in her magical girl costume.
I needed this person to do a lot of work, but it’d be very difficult to do with Iris by my side.
“Let’s make a means of transportation for now.”
When I signaled with my eyes, Char brandished a magic stick-like thing.
It wasn’t Charlotte who used the magic, but I who secretly made a door in the stone pillar with my barrier magic.
“Just now, Charlotte didn’t look like she used magic…..”
“Really? It was a beautiful, beautiful rush of magic that I felt.”
“I-is that so…?”
I’m not sure I can continue to cheat like this.
Well, she wasn’t someone who would slow me down in terms of strength. Although it was inferior to Frey and the others, for some reason, her magic level had recently jumped up to 【23】. It also surpassed Rius in the academy causing her to jump to the top of the class.
It was a big deal that could turn the whole academy upside down, but that was about it.
This would be a great way to evaluate Iris’s abilities and also to accompany her to explore the ruins.
To tell the truth, I was also a bit interested in it.
I had a feeling that we would be able to use this person as a testbed for various experiments.
“Ya-hoo! Can you hear me? I’m sure the pick-up man has already left, right?”
A voice came out of nowhere, and a screen appeared from the void with a snap showing Loli-Chibi-Glasses-san.
“Professor Tiarietta, I would appreciate your advice.”
“Leave it to me. I have a record of all the previous expeditions memorized. For some reason, the distribution of demons in the ruins has not changed since it was discovered. If you avoid them well, you can reach the deepest part in no time at all—”
Professor Tia, whose languid chest was thumping proudly, was in the middle of talking when…
Gogogog.
The ground trembled. An earthquake? But somehow, it was as if there was something huge moving deep underground.
The ground rose with a crash.
Immediately afterward, it popped up. Dirt and stone tiles scattered about as if an explosion had occurred underground.
–Shush!
What’s the big deal?
It had a form that looked like a long caterpillar with a circular mouth similar to that of a lamprey eel at the end. Its countless teeth were writhing, and when its drool fell upon the ground, the sizzle of the ground dissolving could be heard, creepy!
The part of the monstrosity that stuck out from the ground alone was over 20 meters high. It didn’t feel good to be looked down on from above.
“Brother! It’s a huge demon!”
“Ah, that’s pretty obvious.”
I wasn’t sure what kind it was. It was a species I had never seen back home on the frontier.
It was big and gross.
It looked like it was really strong.
“We don’t need Char to get rid of it.”
This guy had to play a big role, but I dared to stop my sister and stepped forward.
The real part of the search of the ruins was inside the building – moreover, deep inside the underground labyrinth.
It was said that the place was crawling with powerful demons that even Princess Senko and her friends had a hard time with.
However, there was no such story of a strong demon appearing above ground.
It was big enough to look like that, but it must be only as strong as a goblin.
While it was true that Char needed to show results, I also need to make sure I was doing a decent job of it.
If it was just a demon that appeared on the ground, it wouldn’t do her much good if she defeated it.
I pulled out my magic gun from my holster.
This kind of demon must have a weakness in its characteristic parts. That was why I set my sights on its mouth, which was crawling with countless teeth.
I wondered if the output would be good enough to defeat goblins. After all, I had never fought a goblin before.
But it was big.
If it was weak, the magic bullet should be able to penetrate even with a low amount of power, but there was no way a goblin could be taken down by just sticking a needle in its nose, so I should at least blow its head off.
I pulled the trigger.
At the same time, I created a two-meter-long spherical ward and sent it flying into the giant demon’s mouth while acting as if I had shot an energy bullet.
It wasn’t a good idea to make it go straight ahead, so I made some magic circles float in the void to make it look as if it was undulating through the circles before hitting its target.
Ooh, I’m super cool!
With a thump, the tip of the demon, as well as its large mouth, was blown off.
The long body slumped over while spewing out purple bodily fluids. It was really creepy. It would have been better to erase the entire body.
“I’m afraid it was an oversight. Okay, so we can move forward–Hmm?”
When I turned around, both Iris and Char had opened their mouths with an absent-minded look. What was wrong?
“Y-yeah, that was a ‘Huge Rock Eater’. And it’s a pretty big species. And that, in a single blow….”
Was that a famous demon?
“Since you don’t seem to know, let me explain—it’s a powerful demon that should be in the deepest part of the ruins. I’m sure that even with its normal size, it would require someone to have a magic level of at least 40 to fight it properly by themself. Even Princess Senko would find it a difficult opponent without her holy armor and the holy sword of the light blade”
“E? How did that get on the ground?”
“I don’t know? Maybe it got lost by accident, but whatever it is, I don’t think I’m going to be able to measure your ability if you defeat him in one blow.”
Hmm? So you’re saying―
“That’s my brother! Amazing!”
Yeah, I guess I’m back to square one―