There was nothing but the road to despair. Nothing else.
I thought I was dead.
This time, I was certain I had died.
"Big brother!?"
A vast, dimly lit tomb. Everything was dim — an eerie, all-bronze space.
Before me stood a rotting giant. Saturnus, I think it was called.
Its four grotesque eyes, arranged in a cross, stared at me, and a massive hand reached out.
Ah, so I'm going to be eaten and die too.
So this is how I finally die.
I'm sorry, Elina.
I brought you to a place like this.
Your brother was an idiot. I just wanted to make sure you, at least, could be happy.
Our parents were delvers.
That's why I wanted to become a delver too.
Three years ago. Our parents went on a job and never came back.
So I became the top errand boy at the Kuun Hunt in town.
Even being treated like a slave, we somehow managed to get by.
There's almost no way for a pair of kid siblings to eat properly.
Even the Junkyard won't let you in unless you pay 300 oro.
Even if I managed to bring something back, I could hardly ever find anything worth selling.
And before that, there wasn't anywhere willing to buy from us.
And even if there was, they'd lowball us into the ground.
So no matter how harsh or how painful it was, the only choice was to become a hireling for the Kuun Hunt.
Fortunately, my sister and I had a Relic. Having even one made the difference between heaven and earth.
But I wanted to build up some experience, earn some money... and this was the result.
I got duped by the bottom-feeding delvers of the Kuun Hunt.
Those bastards used us as bait and bolted.
But I can't leave this Tomb of the Dead. Step outside, and you become an offering to death.
Either way, we're done for.
Dying pathetically in rags.
Tomb of the Dead. The Giant Burial Ground, huh.
Your grave being where you die — I can't even tell if that's ironic or not.
"Big brother!"
Goodbye, Erina.
I'm going to die — and then someone stepped forward. Who was that? A child?
Another hireling? They got caught by Saturnus.
"D-Did we make it?"
My legs gave out completely.
I don't know who it was, but they saved me. They saved me... they saved me... they saved me.
Then Saturnus started going haywire.
I was wondering what the heck was happening when something fell right out of the sky.
"Whoa—!"
What was that. I heard a metallic sound. I looked, and there it was, gleaming white… a knife blade.
"Big brother!"
"Elina!"
My twin-tailed little sister came running over.
"Big brother! Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Somehow still alive."
"What just happened?"
"No idea. Either way, let's run."
This was my chance. Best to get away from here while I could.
"Wait. Big brother. That knife blade."
"Huh? What about it?"
"Let's take it with us."
"Why would we take something like that?"
Sure, I didn't have any weapons or anything right now, but that didn't mean we should lug around some broken shard.
"Big brother. That thing is incredibly powerful. Why would something like this be in a place like this?"
"Elina… is that a Relic?"
"Yeah. I saw it with my Relic, True Eye. Just pick it up already."
Elina's Relic, True Eye, can perceive the essence of things. Or so I've heard.
The essence of things is… some concept I don't really understand.
But I get that it's impressive. My sister never fails to brag about it.
"But it's a blade, isn't it?"
How am I supposed to hold something like that?
When I hesitated, Elina spoke up.
"Don't worry. It won't cut you."
"Huh?"
"Just hurry up! We can't stay in a place like this. Grab it already!"
"O-Okay…"
Following my sister's orders, I picked up the knife blade that was glowing with an intense white light.
My finger touched the edge, but it didn't cut me.
"Look, they're running!"
"A-Ah."
I gripped the blade tightly and pulled away from the spot.
Zombies in white clothing were rushing toward us.
"Whaaaaat!"
"Big brother! Raise the blade!"
"Li-Like this?"
The blade shone a pure, brilliant white. The zombies recoiled as if stricken with fear.
"What—what?!"
"Just go, we need to move now!"
"Wh-where?!"
"Anywhere—I want out of this tomb!"
"R-right, yeah."
"This way."
"O-okay."
Elina led the way with way too much confidence.
I followed behind her.
We ran into some zombies and skeletons along the way, but holding up this blade sent them scattering.
Then we slipped into a narrow corridor. It was quiet, and there were no monsters around.
I had no idea where it led, but at least we were safe.
"This is incredible. Is this thing an OOPArt?!"
"If anything, it's a Legacy."
"Huh, really? I can never keep those straight. Legacy and all that..."
Everything was all mixed together and I couldn't tell the difference.
Elina scowled.
"Honestly, that's exactly why you're hopeless!"
"...Ugh, well, it's not like I've got a fancy Relic like yours."
"That doesn't matter. It all comes down to how you use your Relic, big brother."
"That's easy for you to say."
My Relic is [Fusion]. I can sort of combine two objects together.
But it usually just produces junk. Something always goes wrong.
"I wish I could do something about this blade too."
"Hey, big brother. I picked this up."
What Erina handed me was a broken sword.
It was a rusted, tattered thing with the tip snapped clean off.
"Hey. You've gotta be kidding."
"You can't exactly use it as a weapon like that."
"Y-yeah, I know, but right now if I hold this up, the undead run away."
"Big brother. That's not going to work forever. Something dangerous is up ahead. You need a real weapon."
"Is that from the [True Eye] too?"
"Yeah."
"So I use [Fusion] to combine the broken sword with the glowing blade?"
"If you don't, we die."
Either way. With relics from the Gift of Death, we're going to die today, aren't we.
My little sister should know that too.
But Erina hasn't lost her hope of surviving.
Has she seen some path to survival with her Relic, the [True Eye]?
"...Fine."
I Trust My Sister.
I hold the rusty, battered sword in my left hand and grip the glowing white blade in my right.
I take a breath and let it out slowly.
This is bad. I'm starting to get nervous.
Both my hands are shaking. What do I do? If I mess this up, both of them are ruined.
"Big brother."
Gently, Erina placed her small hands on top of both of mine.
"Erina..."
"It's okay. If it's you, big brother, you can definitely do it."
Small, warm hands. And they were trembling too.
Erina's scared too. She's frightened.
I thought I was the only one who was scared.
What am I doing? I'm her big brother.
"Watch me, Erina."
I overlaid the broken, battered sword with the glowing white blade and [Synthesized] them.
The white glowing blade fused with the broken tip, and the whiteness spread across the entire sword.
The rusty, battered sword was reborn as a white blade.
The hilt and fittings were the same, but the whole thing had turned white. It shimmered faintly.
"It worked."
"You did it, big brother!"
"Yeah, I did it. It's a White Sword."
"Nope. It's a Holy Sword."
Elina smiled and corrected me. Holy?
At the end of the passage, a variant of the Phantom Soldier was waiting for us in the room.
It was tough, but with my sister's instructions, we managed to take it down.
It turned out to be a hidden room. There was a treasure chest, and inside was a bag of money.
We grabbed it and stepped out into a red corridor. Rooms lined both sides.
It felt like some kind of mansion.
So we changed into clothes and armor we found lying around in the rooms.
One of the other rooms had a bath too.
When Elina said she wanted to wash up, we decided to put it to use.
I got forcibly scrubbed down as well, and we both came out clean.
"You look like a completely different person now, big brother."
"...Yeah, I guess so."
I was wearing leather armor. I'd wanted iron armor, but it was too heavy to manage.
Elina wore a red cape and a yellow dress.
Simple, but with a high-quality feel to it. Elina had also cleaned up and turned out to be quite cute.
Come to think of it, I'd only ever seen her in that grimy state — I'd had no idea my sister was a beauty.
Elina had a battle belt strapped on, with a knife and pouch attached at the back of her waist.
And despite not being an attribute-user, she was carrying a staff. A red metal staff.
My sister is overjoyed. She's spinning around in circles, giddy with excitement.
I mean, sure, I got excited when she changed too, but still.
"What's wrong?"
"Even if I've become beautiful enough to be reborn... we'll still become offerings of death."
Right. In the end, if we don't unseal this tomb of death, we die.
But even with the Holy Sword, there's no way we can defeat the King of Death ourselves.
But Elina listened to my complaints without batting an eye.
"It's going to be okay, big brother."
"What's going to be okay?"
"Just a little longer. Someone will defeat the King of Death. And when they do — the tomb of death will collapse. There'll be a huge tremor, and then right in front of us, over there — a teleportation circle will appear. We can get out. The offerings of death will vanish too. We'll be saved. All of us."
"How do you know all that?"
"That's my Relic — the True Eye of Future Vision."
"Future vision...?"
What even is that. Wasn't it just "True Eye"? I have no idea what she's talking about.
Elina sticks out her tongue and grins.
"Don't worry about it, big brother. As long as I'm here, it'll be fine. Once we get out, let's become delvers together, okay?"
"Wait — I can become a delver?"
"Yep, you can. I'll be with you, so don't worry."
A full, radiant smile. I had no idea Elina could smile like that.
So that's how it is. I can become a delver.
"Elina, I'm going to become a great delver like my parents."
"You can become an even greater delver than that."
Elina said it with absolute confidence, as if it were already a certainty.
Hearing her say that, I actually felt like maybe it really could happen.
After a while, a tremendous rumble shook the ground, and sure enough, a transfer circle appeared right where Elina had pointed.
Without hesitation, I leaped in and returned to the surface.
We decided not to head back to Hydrangea and instead made for the royal capital.
That's what Elina told me to do.
But first, there was someone we had to kill.
A man standing right in front of us, howling and waving a blood-soaked saber.
The scum from the Kuun Hunt who'd dragged us out to a place like this.
According to Elina, if I did it right, I could even take down a rank-V delver.
For some reason, it felt like a path of hope had finally opened up for me.