Chapter 46

“And that’s how it works. If you use magic that’s beyond your means, you run out of MP instantly. Basically, Maria, you’re lacking endurance.”

Lastiara explained the day’s lessons to Maria, who was currently sitting on the floor with her legs tucked to the side, huffing and puffing.

For the record, we were currently in front of the “Connection” magic gate on the 20th floor.

“Haah, haah… I-it seems so… I guess I’m just no good yet…”

Maria hung her head and agreed.

Having experienced it firsthand, Lastiara’s words hit home. She didn’t have a single word of rebuttal.

Then, Maria slowly stood up and continued with a smile.

“Since it seems I’m still not quite there yet, I’ll head home for today. I’ve caused you so much trouble… I’m sorry.”

Her expression was a smile.

However, that smile plastered over her pale face was incredibly eerie. I couldn’t tell what kind of emotions Maria was actually feeling behind that grin…

As I hesitated over how to respond, Lastiara spoke up in my place.

“Yeah, see you later. Maria, I want to eat meat tonight! Like, something common, with big flavors—the kind of hearty meal you can really dig into, please!”

“Fufu. Yes, I understand. I’ll have a delicious meal waiting for you.”

Lastiara and Maria shared a laugh as they decided on tonight’s menu.

With that final exchange, Maria passed through the “Connection” magic and went home.

Only Lastiara and I remained on the 20th floor.

Lastiara stretched her body lightly and turned to ask me a question while limbering up.

“Phew. That was pretty interesting, wasn’t it?”

“…It gave me a cold sweat, personally.”

“Well, now that she has that sword-like flame magic, Maria will be fine even if monsters on the 21st floor get close. Doesn’t that make you feel a bit more at ease than before?”

“Having a half-baked means of attack is actually scarier. I felt safer watching her when she couldn’t do anything at all…”

Even if she had acquired powerful magic, Maria’s stats weren’t suited for the 21st floor.

She couldn’t keep up with the speed of the Furies, and she couldn’t block their attacks. Naturally, a single mistake would lead to death. There was no way I could watch that and feel “at ease.”

I let out a sigh and started walking toward the stairs leading to the 21st floor.

Following behind me, Lastiara checked in on our goals for the day.

“So, are we aiming for the 24th floor today too?”

“No… if possible, I’d like to just grind monsters on the 21st floor indefinitely.”

“Eh? Are the enemies so strong that you actually need to level up?”

“Not exactly, but…”

It was true that I didn’t feel the enemies’ strength was an issue.

One way or another, I hadn’t taken a single clean hit this entire time.

“If we’re going to level up, let’s do it after we advance a bit more. It’ll be easier to grind once we’ve checked the level benchmarks for the enemies at our next objective, right?”

“I guess… You certainly have a way with words…”

Lastiara just wanted to go deeper.

It was obvious she was just making up excuses to push into the lower floors.

However, I gave in to Lastiara’s enthusiasm and nodded. It was true that we hadn’t encountered any enemies that felt truly dangerous yet.

“…Fine. Let’s head in a little further.”

“That’s the spirit!”

Lastiara and I descended to the 21st floor and headed into the depths of the Labyrinth.

Nothing unusual happened on the path from the 20th to the 23rd floor.

Since these floors had a low variety of monsters, we didn’t encounter any new types and managed to follow the “Main Path” without issue.

We avoided enemies as much as possible.

This was to save our strength for exploring the 23rd floor.

However, despite starting our search of the 23rd floor with plenty of energy to spare, we couldn’t find the stairs leading to the 24th floor.

“—It’s… not here…”

“It’s not… Ugh, this is so frustrating…”

Since this was our second time exploring it, I thought we’d find the stairs to the 24th floor immediately, but things weren’t going as well as expected.

Two hours had passed since we started walking around, but there was still no sign of the stairs.

Faced with this situation, Lastiara’s frustration continued to build.

Finally losing her patience, Lastiara shouted.

“Christ! Let’s send out your perception magic over a wider range!”

“Hmm…”

I groaned, as that was a method I preferred to avoid.

Right now, I only had my “Dimension” magic deployed a few meters around me. In some cases, I even turned it off. I only used wide-range sensing periodically to check for nearby monsters.

While part of the reason was to conserve MP, I also didn’t think being lost like this was necessarily a bad thing.

Even though we were lost, the “Map” was being filled in properly, and we were steadily fighting manageable monsters. It was eating up time, but since we were gaining experience points and funds, I had no complaints.

Lastiara, however, felt differently.

Between the search and the muggy heat of the 23rd floor, her irritation was reaching its peak.

“It’s a waste of time!!”

“It’s a waste of MP for me. It’s fine, isn’t it? If we keep walking around, we’ll get there eventually since the map is being filled.”

“I mean, in the first place! Christ, can you really memorize the paths we’ve taken so far!?”

“Yeah, there’s no doubt about it.”

I hadn’t told Lastiara about the “Map” system in detail. I had only told her that “I don’t forget a path once I’ve walked it,” so she seemed to have doubts about my mapping abilities.

We’d had several intense battles along the way. Even so, being told I remembered everything perfectly might be hard to believe.

She’d probably be convinced if I explained the “Map” system in detail, but I didn’t feel like telling her every little thing.

Even if she didn’t believe me now, if we repeated this for a few days, she’d eventually accept the accuracy of my mapping skills.

“No doubt? For real, for real?”

“Yeah.”

Lastiara was suspicious, though, and checked with me over and over.

I could see her hidden desire to just use my “Dimension” magic to hurry to the next floor.

“For real, for real, for reaaally real? There’s no doubt we’ll reach the stairs eventually?”

“There is absolutely no doubt.”

I stated firmly.

I looked straight back into Lastiara’s doubting eyes.

“Sigh… If you go that far, I guess I’ll believe you. …Give me some water.”

“Yes, yes.”

Lastiara gave up on pestering me for magic and switched to pestering me for water.

I took some water out of my “Inventory” and handed it to her.

Even though the temperature on the 23rd floor was high, the water stored in my “Inventory” was cold. Well, not “modern-standard refrigerator” cold, but it was a relief in the sweltering 23rd floor. I felt grateful that the inside of the “Inventory” wasn’t affected by the outside temperature.

That made me pause to reflect on the “Inventory” system.

It was a system I’d been using casually until now, but since I’d started applying it to combat, I needed to understand it better.

First, the inside of the “Inventory” wasn’t influenced by external temperatures.

From this, I knew it was an isolated space.

Furthermore, there was no need to grope around when taking things out. It would naturally let me grab whatever I was thinking of.

The sensation wasn’t like reaching for a specific object in a large room. It felt more like every item had its own individual space, and thinking of a specific item connected me to that specific space.

Because of that, I realized the “Inventory” wasn’t one big room, but was composed of countless small cubbyholes.

I was also starting to understand the laws within the “Inventory” space.

Since it was a different dimension, I thought it might ignore the laws of physics, but that wasn’t quite the case. Time still flowed inside the space—for example, if I left a blood-stained sword alone, it would rust. Similarly, water would eventually spoil.

It wasn’t omnipotent, but it was highly capable.

That was my impression of it so far.

Depending on how it was used, it could serve as more than just a warehouse.

I continued to test the extraction and insertion of items into my “Inventory” as we walked through the 23rd floor.

As I did, I sensed a swarm of monsters.

A large number of Red Elements—amorphous monsters that appear on the 23rd floor—were gathered in one spot. Red Elements were essentially fire-attribute versions of the Hang Shadows from the 5th floor, meaning they were monsters with resistance to physical attacks.

Since you had to either slice them apart to crush their cores or use magic attacks, they were a pain to deal with for the two of us.

I was planning to avoid the swarm, but as I observed the Red Elements’ movements, I noticed an exceptionally large one in the center.

“Ah, there’s a boss.”

I gave Lastiara a quick report on the situation.

Personally, I preferred boss hunting over simply pushing into the deeper floors.

While the risks were higher, they didn’t compare to the unknown dangers of the deep layers. Plus, there were guaranteed rewards.

“Eh, a boss!? Really?”

In an instant, Lastiara’s sagging spirits rebounded, and her eyes sparkled with excitement.

“There’s a boss-class Red Element—the flickering flame monster. It looks like we wandered into its territory without realizing it. No wonder it was getting hotter.”

Because we’d been wandering aimlessly through the Labyrinth, we must have strayed into the boss’s domain.

Since the 23rd floor lacked a “Main Path,” these kinds of situations were likely to become more frequent.

“Alright! Let’s take it down, let’s take it down!”

“It’s going to get a lot hotter once we get close, you okay with that?”

“Won’t it get cooler once we kill it?”

Lastiara clearly prioritized fun over physical comfort.

We committed to the kill and began coordinating our strategy.

Though, calling it a “strategy” was a bit of a stretch. Since we didn’t exactly have any explosive combo moves, we settled on simply spreading out and launching a simultaneous pincer attack. Based on the enemy’s traits, we decided to focus primarily on magic-based offense.

I pointed out the boss’s direction to Lastiara. “Charge in one minute. I’ll strike from the opposite side,” I told her before heading off to find my own vantage point.

Once I reached my position, I immediately began constructing my spells.

“—Magic: ‘Dimension: Gladiator’.”

I shifted my Dimension Magic into its combat configuration and prepared my offensive spells.

“—Magic: ‘Ice’. Magic: ‘Form’. —Magic: ‘Ice Flamberge’!”

I applied a newly developed composite magic to my blade—something I’d worked on during our travels.

Chilled air surged into my precious sword, coating the steel in a layer of ice.

It was an imitation of Maria’s new “Flame Flamberge” spell. Creating a magic sword of that caliber from pure mana was difficult, but by using an existing physical blade as a medium, I’d managed to create something similar.

Since I already had a mental image to work from, the creation process hadn’t taken long at all.

With this, I could deal damage through freezing cold.

The moment the “Ice Flamberge” was complete, I sensed Lastiara through my magic as she began her charge. I broke into a run toward the boss as well.

The closer we got, the higher the temperature rose. Even the corridors shifted, the stone walls turning into scorched, blackened rock.

Our pincer assault was blindingly fast.

At the very least, no monster up to the 23rd floor could have hoped to catch us.

The Red Elements were completely unable to react to the sudden ambush, allowing Lastiara and me to zip right past them.

We finally stood face-to-face with the boss.

It was five times the size of a standard Red Element.

The heat radiating from its body was likely of the same magnitude.

Its appearance hadn’t changed much; it was just incredibly massive.

Its name was Flame Squall.

Ignoring the underlings, Lastiara and I lunged straight for the boss.

Our respective swords caught the Flame Squall, slicing through its shimmering fire. Sliced—but there was no resistance.

Both of us lost our balance due to the total lack of feedback.

We had both imbued our swords with our own magic. I had expected at least a little bit of friction when cutting the enemy, but those expectations were betrayed.

I suppose a cold-imbued sword of this level wasn’t enough to phase a boss-class monster.

As we struggled to regain our footing, the Flame Squall’s counterattack surged toward us.

In response to the sudden intrusion, the Flame Squall formed two massive arms of fire and swept them across the surrounding area.

Lastiara and I leaped back a great distance to avoid a direct hit.

However, even though we weren’t hit directly, the residual heat singed our clothes and scorched the very air. When I inhaled that air, a sharp pain shot through my throat.

Realizing that this wasn’t going to be as simple as the normal Red Elements, I forced a shout through my burning throat.

“Lastiara! Should we pull back for a second!?”

I proposed a retreat.

The greatest strength shared by the two of us was our mobility. Our biggest advantage was the fact that we could transition into a retreat whenever we felt like it.

Lastiara, however, rejected the idea.

“No, I’ve got a move! Just cover me for a bit!”

With that, Lastiara began to distance herself while constructing some kind of spell.

I had no choice but to ready my sword against the Flame Squall and draw its attention.

“Over here! —Magic: ‘Freeze’!”

I chanted the spell to lower the surrounding temperature, raising my voice to make my presence known. It was a petty provocation; for a fire monster, a drop in temperature had to be annoying.

Seeing this, the Flame Squall brought its arms together and swung a massive hammer of fire down toward me.

I leaped far to the side, narrowly dodging the blow.

As long as the fire was a visible projectile, it wouldn’t hit me so long as I kept up my agility.

The Red Element underlings also lobbed fire at me, but the flames of non-boss monsters weren’t a threat.

Just as I thought I’d keep dodging their flames like this, the Flame Squall drastically shifted its form.

It sucked in the surrounding air, causing its body to expand.

Sensing something bad was about to happen, I put some distance between us.

Drawing on my experiences from my original world, I guessed that a wide-range fire attack was coming next. I pulled water and cloth from my “Inventory” to create a soaking wet garment.

As predicted, a torrent of fire erupted from the Flame Squall’s massive body. It was a wide-area attack that swallowed the entire corridor like a tsunami of flame. Grateful that my hunch was right, I spread the drenched garment out in front of me.

No matter how fast I was, there was no dodging an attack like this. I concentrated my “Freeze” magic within a few centimeters of my body and used the wet cloth as a shield to weather the flames.

Because the power had been spread out over a wide area, the intensity was lowered, and I managed to survive the inferno. I took a breath and looked over at Lastiara, worried about her while she was supposedly casting.

There she was, standing behind a shimmering wall of magical light, completely unscathed.

Lastiara rarely used magic, but she had a vast repertoire of Holy Magic. She likely had plenty of spells capable of blocking fire of that level. She was continuing her incantation without a single problem.

Feeling a sense of unfairness regarding our relative safety, I briefly considered leaving Lastiara behind and making a run for it.

Noticing my gaze, Lastiara flashed a smile and gave me a thumbs-up, as if to say, “As expected of you, Christ! Just hold on a little longer!”

I sighed and turned back to face the Flame Squall.

The boss, having judged that its wide-area attack wasn’t a finishing blow, was now stretching its fiery arms toward me.

I kept dodging.

Since I didn’t have to worry about counterattacking, evading was easy.

However, the hard part was the aftermath.

The residual heat.

My skin was scorching, and the air I breathed had become a weapon.

My breathing was becoming labored, and just as I was thinking about falling back, help finally arrived.

“—Holy Magic: ‘Sion’!”

Magical light invaded the fire-filled corridor.

It was Lastiara’s Holy Magic.

And I realized it was the same spell Diablo Sith had used before.

Just like that time, orbs of light flooded the Labyrinth, solidifying the Flame Squall’s mana.

—Will my attacks work now?

I readjusted my grip on my sword, switching from defense to offense.

My blade easily sliced through the massive arm of fire.

The Flame Squall, unable to comprehend what had happened, let out a silent scream and its body shuddered.

Then, Lastiara’s sword pierced it from behind, and even its trembling was no longer permitted.

Having lost the advantage of its fire body, the Flame Squall no longer had a chance of winning.

Unable to react to our high-speed swordplay, it was hacked into pieces.

A moment later, the Flame Squall was completely dismantled, vanishing into light.

I gained a title. However, since I didn’t have a Fire Magic skill, checking my status showed no change. It was likely the same for Lastiara.

I picked up the magic stone dropped by the Flame Squall and turned my attention to the remaining underlings.

Lastiara was already swinging her sword, now imbued with Holy Magic, to sweep up the rest. I could have joined in, but that would have required using my unfamiliar ice magic, so I held back to conserve MP.

The mop-up was over within minutes.

A somewhat exhausted Lastiara handed the collected magic stones to me. She was smiling.

The boss fight seemed to have put her in a good mood.

“Phew. That was actually pretty fun.”

“I was about to be turned into a charcoal briquette.”

I pulled off my scorched overshirt and cloak and tossed them aside.

Since I was wearing my clothes from the original world underneath today, they were now exposed. To hide them, I immediately pulled a new cloak from my “Inventory.”

When Lastiara saw my clothes, she looked at them with deep interest.

“Heh, so those are clothes from another world? They’re exotic, I like them. I’d love to try them on.”

“What are you saying? These are among the few items I have from my home. Not a chance.”

“I think they’d look good on me. See? I’ve got good ‘raw materials’ to work with.”

“These are men’s clothes. Give it up.”

I threw the cloak on, hiding my home-world clothes from Lastiara’s gaze.

Then, wanting to change the subject, I brought up the previous battle.

“More importantly, that Holy Magic earlier… was it ‘Sion’? If you can use something like that, tell me beforehand. It would have been much easier if I’d accounted for it from the start.”

I was hiding several cards from Lastiara, but… in all likelihood, she was hiding even more than I was.

“Hmm. That spell eats up a ton of MP, so I really didn’t want to use it.”

Saying that, Lastiara prompted me to check her status.

I used “Focus” on her to check her MP.

“Whoa… It’s drained a lot…”

“It’s a high-ranking spell even among Holy Magic. And since I’m bad at magic to begin with, the consumption is beyond intense.”

Lastiara explained while catching her slightly ragged breath. It might have been the first time I’d ever seen her out of breath.

“So you’re saying you don’t want me to rely on that spell?”

“Exactly. If we depend on that, we won’t make it to the deep layers.”

Lastiara was good at coming up with plausible excuses. I had a feeling she was just covering up the fact that she simply preferred fighting with a sword. Still, her point was valid, so I had no choice but to nod.

“I get it.”

“Good. My magic is a last resort.”

With our conversation concluded, we began walking toward the 24th floor.

Looking at the progress of the “Map,” it was about time for the stairs to appear.

I told Lastiara as much. Hearing this, her spirits lifted and she quickened her pace.

We found the stairs only a few minutes after defeating the Flame Squall.