Chapter 103

Aegis. Its original name is the Autonomous Maneuver Bit-Shield.

It is one of the strongest defensive armors currently in existence, consisting of a minimum of four to a maximum of twenty-four fist-sized “bits” that move freely to enable offense, defense, and maneuverability. Since I never saw one in the Northern Continent, it seems they only drop in the Western Continent.

They can be crafted, but that only goes up to the 8-bit version. Anything from 10-bit and above are drop-only items, and because they are often “Bind on Pickup,” most people can’t get their hands on one even if they have the money.

The performance is so outstanding that a hunter’s rank can fluctuate based on this single piece of equipment.

The only drawback, however, is that the performance varies wildly depending on the pilot’s skill.

To draw out its full potential, one must individually manipulate every single bit—activating built-in functions to suit the situation, adjusting the flow of mana, and manually shifting the shield’s properties. The difficulty is so high that some say it’s easier to just learn a whole new school of magic.

If you can’t manage that, you end up just using it as a simple shield generator or relying on the built-in auto-reaction. In those cases, you can’t even draw out 30% of its total capacity.

And as for Elizabeth…

“You can’t operate this manually, can you?”

“I—I can too!!!”

“If you could, you should have pre-deployed four bits out of the shield before we arrived, right after blocking the shockwave. Two for maneuverability, two for offense.”

“!!!!!!”

“By using every single bit just to deploy a hexagonal pillar-type shield, you might increase the shield’s strength, but you’re left with absolutely nothing you can do afterward, aren’t you?”

Stung by Chel’s sarcasm, Elizabeth waved her hands, causing the bits floating in the air to flicker and shift the hexagonal pillar’s shape. A triumphant smile began to spread across the girl’s face. But at that exact moment—

Crunch!

Chel and Kelly thrust their halberd and spear like flashes of light, pinning the moving bits.

“Kyaaaak!!!”

Zzzzzzt…

Elizabeth bit her lip as she saw two of her bits skewered by the spear and halberd. With the number of active bits reduced, her shield collapsed from a hexagonal pillar into a pentagonal one.

“And this is what happens when you try to change forms recklessly while we’re watching you with hawk eyes. You leave an opening.”

“Hmph. Even like this, it’s plenty sturdy, okay? Regardless, I just have to hold out until my cooldown is over!”

“Oh, certainly. It’s plenty sturdy. Very sturdy indeed. But, how long can you maintain that?”

“Don’t underestimate my mana reserves! I can keep this up for four days and three nights!”

“Aieee. That’s only if we’re just sitting here doing nothing.”

Chel snapped her fingers, and Ailet, the catfolk mage, stepped forward.

“Cook her.”

“Yes. Fire Field.”

Flames erupted violently around the pentagonal pillar.

No matter how safe you are inside a shield, it’s only natural to panic when you see roaring flames right in front of your eyes. Sure enough, Elizabeth let out a scream.

“Kyaaaaaak!!!”

“I mean, is there really a need to bash it grandly? If you were skilled with the Aegis, you’d adjust your Spiritual Power according to the heat or change the shield’s attribute for a cost-effective defense. But since you can’t, whether a Meteor falls or someone just uses sandpaper on you, you have no choice but to block at maximum output, right? Now, let’s see how long that mana of yours lasts.”

“Ku… kuuk….”

Taking the opportunity to “kill two birds with one stone,” Chel began piling up the dozens of corpses from the General Guild—who had died in the previous clash—around the shield to cremate them.

Soon, the sickening stench of burning flesh filled the air.

“Whoa.”

Just imagine it. A horrific scene where corpses are melting and charring black right beside you while flames lick at your surroundings.

And the creeping terror that soon, you might end up looking just like those corpses.

To do such a thing without batting an eye, even if it was a justified revenge… the madness hidden behind Chel’s mask of a cool-headed career woman was certainly no less than Kelly’s.

“I say 30 minutes. 50,000.”

“She’s an SS-rank, though. One hour, 100,000.”

“40 minutes. 10,000.”

“Cheapskate.”

Chel, Kelly, and the members of Party 1 actually laid out mats on the ground and sat down to watch the girl huddled inside the shield.

They exchanged money, betting on how long the shield would last.

They claimed the goal was to break the girl’s mental state… but no matter how I looked at it, they seemed to be genuinely enjoying themselves. What terrifying people.

The atmosphere felt like a cannibal village salivating over a person placed on top of a fire.

“Hic… ugh, uuuugh….”

Eventually, the girl inside the shield burst into tears.

“Waaaaah. Waaaaah….”

“……”

“Please… save me!!! Waaaaaaaah!”

“…You want us to save you?”

“Yes. Yes! I’ll surrender! I’ll give you mo—money if you need it!! Please!!!”

Chel let out a hollow laugh at the girl’s tearful pleading.

“I don’t want to.”

“Eh…?”

“Yua-na. Turn up the heat.”

“Yes, Master.”

WHOOOOOOSH!!!

“KYAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!”

Along with the girl’s piercing scream, the flames turned blue and soared more than twice as high. The scorching heat was enough to make the members of Party 1 flinch and back away.

“You stabbed us in the back before. We… well, we don’t touch people first, no matter how much we hate them. But, we never forgive those who swing first.”

“I was wrong!!! Uuuugh… waaah! Waaaaaaaah!!!”

Chel spoke coldly.

“Don’t play the victim, Eli-kid. If you intended to kill, you should have been prepared to die. Didn’t you say you liked things to be fair?”

Confronted with the unknown called death, the girl wailed for about ten more minutes before eventually turning pale and passing out cold.

The Bit-Shield continued to function as long as the owner’s Spiritual Power remained; it stayed active for about thirty minutes more before finally reaching its limit.

The ten bits flickered and wavered before losing power and dropping to the ground.

And at that moment, just as the vivid blue flames—which had been waiting with bated breath—reared up to consume the girl,

“Ailet.”

“Yes.”

With a single wave of Ailet’s hand, the blue flames vanished, leaving behind nothing but scorching heat.

Chel walked unhesitatingly through the half-burnt corpses, dragged out the girl who was still breathing, and gave orders to the guild members in a voice dripping with frost.

“I’ll take Elizabeth personally. Steve, take the others and clean up the bodies—thoroughly. That includes the aftermath. Leave no traces. Ailet, recover the Aegis and return with us.”

“Understood.”

“Yes, Master. Don’t worry.”

Having finished her instructions, Chel turned and approached me and Kelly, who was still clinging to my arm. Then, with a bright smile, she patted my shoulder.

“Fufu. Orabeoni, you worked hard. Shall we head home? Oh, let’s take my car instead of this brat Kelly’s.”

“…Sure.”

“Hey! That’s not fair!”

Two weeks later.

After binding the kidnapped Elizabeth with an incredibly expensive Geas, Chel and Kelly finally succeeded in forming a five-person party. They accepted the Imperial request and entered the Lily Labyrinth.

Four hours after starting the raid:

We swept through the Lily Labyrinth with surprising ease.

Well, it was only natural. This labyrinth hadn’t remained unconquered because the monsters were exceptionally powerful; it was the mental attacks. Once you can block those, the place is nothing more than an ordinary 9-Star labyrinth.

Kyaaaaaagh! You people… I won’t forget this grudge…!

“Muspelheim.”

Fwaaaa-sh!

We watched with wry smiles as the Succubus Queen turned to ash before she could even finish her dying words. Elizabeth spoke in a disinterested tone.

“…She was way too weak for a boss.”

Ailet raised an index finger to the girl and explained.

“That’s because she’s a mental-type boss. Her actual martial prowess is negligible. From the moment we successfully defended against her mental interference, she had no way of defeating us.”

“I know that, okay? But since the final boss came all the way up to the 5th floor to die… does that mean we don’t have to go to the 6th or 7th floors?”

I patted Elizabeth’s head and said, “We should still look around, shouldn’t we? They pay us to clear it, so why skip it?”

Elizabeth blushed but quietly accepted the gesture.

“Well… if that’s what Mister wants.”

Hmm. She’s easy. Way too easy. Is it because she’s starved for affection?

But just then, a loud thumping sound echoed as massive figures appeared from the far end of the labyrinth corridor.

Upon seeing their true identities, we were more surprised than we had been since entering this place.

Chel muttered, “Was it the 5th and 6th floor bosses we hadn’t caught yet? That must be them, right?”

“Probably?”

“Since this labyrinth has never been cleared, we’re seeing something truly rare….”

Everyone nodded in agreement.

Thump, thump, thump, thump.

The silhouettes and forms grew clearer with every approaching footstep.

I didn’t know which was the 5th floor boss and which was the 6th, but one of them took the form of a bipedal lion.

It had a massive upper body packed with muscle and a lower body that, while sturdy, looked relatively lean in comparison. It had brown fur and a shimmering bronze mane.

Instead of the soft, fluffy belly typical of four-legged mammals, it had wide pectorals and abdominal muscles so chiseled they looked like they could cut.

Hmm? Hard to imagine? If you have a friendly cat nearby, offer it a polite tribute and try this:

1. Grab its front paws and lift it straight up.
2. Draw muscles on its white belly with a felt-tip pen.
3. Admire the view.

Yeah. That’s it. Exactly that. Except this thing was over seven meters tall.

Of course, a team of veterans wouldn’t call a bipedal lion “rare.” What shocked them was the other four-legged Floor Boss running a step ahead of the lion.

Because that silver, humanoid-shaped boss—roughly the same size as the lion—was…

“…A robot?!”

“Robot? What’s that? Isn’t it a Golem?”

“Hmm… to be precise, it’s a Silicon-based monster. They’re rare, but they show up in labyrinths once in a while. Let’s see… based on the feeling, they both seem to be around 9-Star (monster strength is ranked in Stars). Though the lion feels slightly stronger.”

Hearing my surprised voice, Kelly grabbed a halberd in each hand and swung them in wide arcs, correcting my misunderstanding.

However, unlike her calm voice, the way her lips were twitching made it clear she felt like she’d just hit the jackpot. She looked like she was dying of excitement.

“Kyaak!”

Meanwhile, Elizabeth screamed in terror as a stray halberd whizzed past the tip of her nose.

For the record, Chel and Ailet had already moved far away the moment Kelly took a halberd in each hand.

“Kelly unnie!? Do you not see people here? Who are you trying to hit! And let me do something this time! Am I just the reaction specialist? All I’ve done since coming here is stand around going ‘Ah~’ and ‘Oh~’! If that was the plan, why did you drag me to this labyrinth using a Geas!?”

“…Heh.”

Without even looking back, Kelly waved her hand as if shooing away a fly from a pile of dung. At that dismissive gesture, the thin thread called “reason” snapped in Elizabeth’s mind.

“Look, I know Kelly unnie is strong, but two 9-Stars are as tough as a 10-Star! You’re going to face them alone? Chel unnie, shouldn’t you stop her?”