Before lunch.
From what I heard, the Chimera subspecies still hadn't been exterminated.
Chimera subspecies traveled in flocks alongside regular Chimeras. Even when discovered, they'd use the Chimeras as decoys and flee immediately. The same pattern repeated over and over, with no end in sight.
That was where my Relics came into play.
"So you're going to make use of Danger Discernment?"
"And you had that Fortune-type Relic, didn't you?"
"Right, but that one doesn't react to living creatures."
"What?! But it reacted when we faced the Monoceros."
"That was reacting to the Monoceros's horn. Not to the creature as a whole."
"Hmm. I see."
"If the Chimera subspecies has horns or something similar, I think it would react."
"Does it? Well, in any case, it'd be a big help if Wof cooperated with us."
I looked at the Witch.
"Oh, oh, sure, sure. No need to worry. I don't think Alverld will attack. But, let me think. Just to be safe, we should get a Class I escort. That way, young Wof can go to the fire dungeon too."
"Ah, yes. Understood. Pakira-san, if you'd have me, I'll lend my strength."
"Much obliged."
I shook hands with Pakira.
"Well then, well then, let's get to it. Wof-kun, do you remember how Alverld used Relics?"
"How, exactly... She was chanting for them."
Now that she mentioned it, something occurred to me. Why had Alverld been chanting? You didn't need to chant to use a Relic. So if she had been chanting, was that a necessary part of the process?
"Hmm-hmm. Anything else?"
"Um..."
That person had said... something like "Why shape it? Just look and call."
"Just look and call? But I didn't understand what she meant."
"Hmm? What's this? What are you talking about?"
Pakira tilted her head. I explained.
Pakira nodded.
"I see. Wof doesn't have an attribute Relic, so..."
"What do you mean?"
"Think about it. How do you use your attributes?"
"Um... sorry. I don't know."
"Then let me show you."
With that, Pakira went out to the courtyard.
"Fire would be too risky, so I'll use wind instead."
Pakira chanted.
"Come. Wind Edge."
She launched a blade of wind, then looked at me.
"Did you notice anything?"
"You chanted."
"Anything else?"
"Um... sorry."
"With your gaze. You launched the wind blade in the direction you were looking."
"My gaze?"
"That's the basics. By looking in a direction and chanting, you activate it."
"............"
That was right. I'd looked at Shaldina and chanted — and it was the same.
So that was the fundamentals.
"Mm-hmm. That's the basics. But young Wof's concern is that he can't control the power. Or rather, he can't manage it."
"Y-yes."
"And that's where I come in."
Hiyarn stepped forward.
As always, radiating unearned confidence.
"Hiyarn."
"I heard from the Witch. When I checked the database, I found that I could create a training machine using Evil Gaze."
"Training... machine...?"
"And when I dug deeper, I found we could actually open the lab's training room. The training room has a Relic training program built into its systems. The program includes exercises for adjusting and operating Relics through gaze, and the training machine is what you use for those."
"You can do all that?"
The lab could really do all that?
"The training machine requires a specific component — an eyeball that has Evil Gaze residing in it. Around here, that means the Chimera subspecies."
"You want me to go take their eyeballs?!"
"That's the idea."
I looked at Pakira.
"It's fine. As long as we can exterminate them, that's all that matters."
So that was how it was. I understood.
Let's go. To the fire dungeon.
The fire dungeon was west of Hydrangea.
Heading west, the greenery gradually disappeared, giving way to craggy, rocky terrain. Steam rose from everywhere, and the geothermal heat made the surrounding area sweltering. Wearing full plate armor here would be asking for heatstroke. That was why even Lupinus, who was always armored, was dressed in light clothing.
It looked oddly refreshing.
"Mineha couldn't make it?"
"Yeah... She said something urgent came up."
"That's a shame."
Apparently Daga was with her too.
Come to think of it, Mineha's mother was also Class I, so she was supposed to come. Her name had been on the Attendant preference list as well.
"Fire dungeon. My first time going in."
Shiro looked up at the entrance and spoke.
In her white dress with the Tea Table strapped to her back, she was strikingly conspicuous.
She had been the one who volunteered as my escort.
The Witch and Mnieka had taken Hiyarn and headed for the lab. Mnieka was a Minosdall, following Shaldina. As for the Witch — I had no idea what she was.
"I never imagined a Class I would join us."
Lupinus said, her expression somewhat tense.
"Don't get the wrong idea. Shiro is here as Wof-kun's bodyguard. She won't be intervening elsewhere."
"That's fine. This is our problem, after all."
"Um... but... introductions... Os, Riv is Riv... from 'Torquetam'... member... nice to meet you."
"Leader of Torquetam — Lupinus Roaddenton."
"I'm Pakira. Also a member."
"Shiro White Vaiss Branche Album Sefido. I'm a Class I delver."
"I know. The 'Immortal White Rose Princess.'"
"I know Torquetam as well."
"My, how kind of you."
"Girls who work hard are easy to like."
"That's lovely. By the way, aren't you a bit too close to Wof?"
Shiro had been pressed tightly against my arm.
Because she was soft and pure white, she felt cool to the touch.
"That's because I'm his bodyguard."
"Um... too much of a... body... guard..."
"I also think it's somewhat inappropriate for a man and woman to be so physically close."
Lupinus said with a slight blush, offering her critique.
Shiro reluctantly detached herself. Pakira gave me a flat look.
"Wh-what is it?"
"You two seem awfully close."
"I think so too..."
What I couldn't understand was why this kept happening.
"Now then, our destination is the thirteenth floor. Based on repeated investigations, we've confirmed that the Chimera subspecies is lurking there. Of course, even knowing where they are, extermination is still difficult."
"Even when you know?"
"You'll understand when we get there. Wof, let me explain the route. First, we head to the fourth floor. From there, we teleport to the ninth. We proceed from the ninth to the tenth, then teleport from there to the thirteenth. That's the plan. On the tenth floor, there's a monster called a Keeper."
"A Keeper?"
"They show up in dungeons from time to time. They're like gatekeepers — they guard the way to the next floor."
An area boss, basically. So those existed too.
"A Salamandara. But it's not much of a threat."
They'd been on investigation trips many times, so they knew.
Judging by the name, it was probably a fire snake.
"Um... but... don't let your guard down... you never know what a dungeon will have..."
"Y-yes."
I steeled myself.
First stop: the fourth floor.
The fire dungeon was a lava cavern.
Everything was black and rocky, with little variation between floors. It was always hot and damp from the geothermal activity, and even the monsters that appeared burned red.
The fourth floor. Black rock floor, low rock ceiling, with numerous light orbs floating about.
Riv's light orbs.
"Nice party."
"They are."
Shiro and I watched Torquetam fight.
Lupinus braced her shield, Riv lit up her blade, and Pakira swung her staff.
"The role distribution is solid. Good combinations too. Most importantly, the fact that they can understand each other and act on nothing but eye contact — that's what's really impressive."
"Eye contact?"
"Yes, it's wonderful. But there's room for improvement."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm sure they already know, so I won't say."
Room for improvement, huh?
What Torquetam was fighting were red-skinned goblins.
Red Goblins.
It was the first time I'd seen them in a while, and as always, they looked like nothing but ravenous beasts.
Apart from their red skin, they looked no different from regular goblins.
But that red skin was troublesome — it granted them heat resistance.
And they kept pouring out in waves.
A quick count put them at over twenty.
Goblins were no pushovers.
Mid-Copper rank. As far as spawning enemies went, they were just strong enough to be annoying.
Lupinus braced her shield, deflected their attacks, and Riv slashed through the openings.
Then Pakira's attribute Relic wind tore through them.
They repeated this pattern skillfully, cutting down the numbers.
The key to their offense was Pakira.
Her attribute Relic functioned like magic, allowing her to attack the majority at once. To comfortably activate that attribute, Lupinus and Riv maneuvered to support her.
Attribute attacks had longer cooldowns the larger the scale.
Pakira was supposed to have two attributes: Fire and Wind. I'd heard that Fire was difficult to use in the fire dungeon since many monsters had heat resistance.
Attributes.
Hiyarn had said he could create attribute plates. At the current stage, he could mass-produce Fire, Water, and Wind.
I'd asked for a Fire one too, but he'd warned me off.
The number of Relics one could hold was proportional to the size of one's soul vessel. The larger the vessel, the more Relics one could carry. If you ignored the vessel's capacity and held more anyway, the vessel could collapse. When the soul vessel collapsed, the soul was released — in other words, death.
I'd never heard that before.
Meanwhile, plans to artificially enlarge the soul vessel had been proposed and shot down numerous times.
And the more powerful a Relic was, the larger the share of the soul vessel it occupied. The Relic that took up the most space was, as I'd expected — the Pseudo-Apotheosis Relic.
Also, there was apparently a design schematic in the lab's database for a device that could graph the soul vessel.
"It looks like they're done."
By the time I noticed, all the Red Goblins had been wiped out.
None of them were injured.
"As expected, we could really use some more firepower."
"They're being defeated reliably enough, but it's taking too long."
"Um... a challenge for the future..."
"Like Mineha, I also need to..."
Hm? Lupinus. Did she just look at me?
Or was I imagining it?
Keeping this pace, without doing much of anything, I made it to the ninth floor.
The ninth floor had a sunset-like red-black sky, and an enormous black wall towering nearby like something out of a volcanic landscape.
There was a scorched black castle nearby, and winged monsters soared through the sky above it.
And a river of lava. It was like a scene from hell.
Against that backdrop, a fierce four-eyed flaming giant boar.
The Good Flame Boar and Torquetam were locked in battle.