Chapter 389 - Chapter 7: The Giant's Cave (2)
The Gigant, camouflaged as a thicket, ran down the forest road. Its height was about the same as a Cyclops, but its head was invisible, perhaps because it was keeping its back low. It took several Orcs with it, and after a certain amount of time had passed, only five or six Orcs remained.
Using the Teleport for sending letters, I sent the signal to start the infiltration to Roberts-sama and Fiona, along with information about the thicket Gigant. Fiona should be able to end her combat. Roberts-sama would likely take measures against the thicket... in short, he should retreat. The travel distance alone would provide a significant amount of time. We just needed to finish the investigation in the meantime.
When I activated Sense Living, I detected presences only around the ruins. Predicting that there probably weren't any Revenants, I deactivated the bowl and Magic Reflection and proceeded on foot. Since Camouflage and Mute were still active, we wouldn't be discovered as long as the four of us stayed close together.
The Orcs left behind were carefree, and they began to loll about relaxedly. This is typical of monsters. Perhaps because they were completely off guard, when James-sama deactivated his bowl and cast Sleep, they fell asleep quite easily. They were lying on their backs, snoring loudly.
"They're surprisingly fragile."
James-sama, who cast the spell, was surprised himself.
It is said that even for a super-high-level mage, and even if the opponent is just a guard, it's impossible to put monsters or people in the middle of combat actions to sleep. This Sleep spell was intended, at best, to induce drowsiness and make them dazed so we could infiltrate in the meantime. Rather than James-sama being amazing, it seemed more like they were just incredibly careless.
"That just shows how much they trust the Gigant's sortie."
That is also unusual. Monsters usually think they are number one, and only follow others because the opponent is strong. This is especially true if they are of a different species. The existence of a relationship of trust itself is probably rare. It might have been the right choice for Price-sama not to launch a surprise attack and kill it easily.
There are no monsters inside the ruins. We entered while illuminating our feet with Light. The ruins of the Black Stones are not that large, except for the one built by the eccentric Priestess of Primordia. It should be just down the stairs from the entrance.
Or so I thought, but I was being naive. The ruins were a deep, deep stone vertical shaft.
Descending the stairs at the entrance, there was a passage. After about ten steps, there was a stone statue of a Goddess. There was a hole in the back wall where a door used to be, and passing through it, we came out into a hall with a high ceiling. Even though I call it a hall, it was only about the size of a small hut.
In the middle of that hall, there was something like a shrine with four legs, and there were marks on the ceiling where the stone had crumbled. There was a very deep-looking vertical shaft in the floor. It seemed possible to descend the shaft via a spiral staircase attached to the wall.
"Now then, Jeanne, if you please. We will stay here."
I know the location of the Black Stone. It's the stone in the pedestal of the Goddess statue.
Following the words of Price-sama, who understood the circumstances, James-sama and Gwyn-sama also remained in the room with the shaft.
I produced a Firefly, knelt down, and illuminated the stone beneath the pedestal.
Nothing happened.
Strange. There should be a stone that disappears.
However, no matter how many times I tried, there was no stone that disappeared.
Just to be sure, I illuminated the entire statue and the surrounding walls, but there was no change at all.
"Jeanne! Are you alright?"
Gwyn-sama called out from across the hole.
It seems too much time has passed.
"I'm sorry. It might not be here."
The three of them crossed their arms with a "Hmm" and looked at the shaft.
"It might be further ahead," Price-sama said.
James-sama said, "Let's go down."
We descended the vertical shaft via the spiral staircase attached to the wall. There was a hollow hole in the center. Fortunately, it was wide enough that we could descend while riding on the bowl. We decided to explore by attaching a Firefly to the bottom and illuminating the surroundings with a Firefly held in each person's hand. We didn't know what lay at the end of the hole. In the worst case, there might be Revenants or some kind of evil spirits, so we descended while illuminating a wide area with light as strong as possible.
"I wonder what lies ahead?"
Driven by anxiety, I asked. Gwyn-sama aside, James-sama and Price-sama are very knowledgeable.
"Since the entrance was at the top of the hill, there might be entrances and exits at the foot or middle of the hill as well."
That was Price-sama. If it were a shaft for carrying things up the hill, it would make sense. However, the Archbishop of the Morandine Royal Capital Great Church hadn't said a word about such a thing.
"In other words, the lower entrance might have been buried a long time ago."
If so, it would be a dead end.
"James. If that's the case, what do we do when we escape?"
"We can just dig out the buried hole."
He said it nonchalantly. It would be better than returning through the upper exit where the monsters are.
Nothing in particular happened; we were just descending, but halfway down, Gwyn-sama raised his hand.
"I smell water. Could this be a well?"
As expected of a light infantryman of Finis. He seems to be able to smell water.
"I see. When we scouted from the air, there were no pond-like things on the hill. I thought they might be drawing water from the stream at the foot, but if this hole is a well, it makes perfect sense why so many monsters live on top of the hill."
"But James. Monsters with leg strength like Orcs aside, wasn't this ruin built by the Priestess? These stairs would be tough for human feet. And why would a well be necessary in a ruin meant to hide a Black Stone?"
"I don't know. We might find something if we go to the bottom."
The end of the stairs had become a pool of water. It led directly into the water.
"Next is inside this water."
When I submerged one Firefly, the water appeared to be clean. The stairs continued for a while underwater, leading to a bottom covered in gravel.
Gwyn-sama jumped from the bowl onto the stairs. After descending near the water's surface, he knelt, scooped water into his right palm, and smelled it. He put it to his fingertip and took a lick.
"It seems to be fine. It is indeed a well."
At that moment, I saw a dark area in the water illuminated by the submerged Firefly. Since it was under the stairs, it was a complete blind spot for Gwyn-sama. I noticed it because I was on the opposite side of the stairs riding the bowl. The underwater walls had parts that bulged out, probably intentionally, and the dark area thought to be a secret passage was even further below those. We wouldn't know unless we dove into the water to explore.
When I moved the Firefly submerged at the bottom closer to the dark area, it looked like a waterway or a secret passage.
"Wait, Gwyn. There's a side hole under the stairs."
"Is that so? Then I'll go take a look. Give me the end of the rope."
"Are you sure?"
"Leave it to me."
He said without any hesitation and tied the rope around his body.
"Jeanne. Can I have one Firefly?"
"Yes. Please be careful."
"Yeah, if anything happens, I'll run away immediately."
Gwyn-sama took a knife in his mouth and plunged into the water with a splash.
"I wonder if he'll be alright? The power of the Firefly drops in the water."
The rope Price-sama was feeding out kept extending. About half of the ten-step length was gone. Through Sense Living, I could tell that one human was moving straight ahead.
"But didn't it have an effect when we were exterminating the Great Shark and Sea Serpent?"
"It has the effect of driving them away, but it couldn't deal damage."
"Driving them away is enough for now."
Price-sama said gently.
"It stopped. He must have reached the other side."
At James-sama's words, I concentrated on detection, and he had indeed stopped.
Before long, the rope was pulled twice. It was the signal that it was safe. Then it was pulled three times. Seeing that, James-sama tied the rope to his body and transformed the bowl into a plate.
After waiting for a while, Gwyn-sama, who returned soaking wet, came out of the hidden waterway and stepped onto the plate.
"There's a limestone cave over there. It's long. I've placed a simple magic circle, so I think we should go that far for today and set up a second base."
"Were there monsters?"
"There weren't any."
"Mm. Then let's go with Gwyn's suggestion. Price-sama, what do you think?"
It was decided easily without any opposition.
I jumped with Gwyn-sama and Price-sama.
The place we jumped to was a stone room, but it had an exit, and beyond that was a limestone cave with stone icicles hanging from the ceiling. There was a natural groove where water flowed, which was connected to the well's waterway.
James-sama, who had retrieved the simple magic circle, swam over, so we dug a hole and made a base. As a result of checking with Sense Living, I found that monsters that weren't so large were clustered in a distant location. In terms of vertical position, they were above. They were clinging to the ceiling.
"I think they're probably bats or house centipedes."
"Then let's build the base first. Keep up the detection."
"Yes."
I continued detection as per James-sama's instructions, but the monsters didn't move in particular. Bats don't move during the day, and house centipedes don't move until prey approaches. There shouldn't be a problem.
In the end, we finished for the day after making the base by digging a hole.
After informing Roberts-sama and Fiona that we were retreating, James-sama made the second base, and when we jumped to the first base, Fiona had already returned.
"Was it alright?"
"Yeah. Thank you. I moved backward little by little so as not to be discovered. It seems they didn't notice, and I was able to lure them out well."
She's quite capable.
After defeating a few with lightning, when the Orcs approached, she dropped lightning in front of them and didn't allow them to get close. When they surrounded her, she apparently made the illusion retreat while making the grass rustle with pebbles. Since she also struck all the bows tied to the trees with lightning and knocked them to the ground, she wasn't discovered. By reducing the number of light infantry every time the opponent fired arrows and maintaining the Orcs' morale, she succeeded in attracting about thirty Orcs.
After receiving the message about the sortie of the Gigant camouflaged as a thicket, she made them retreat all at once and then made them all disappear. In other words, the Orcs succeeded in driving away a small unit of humans.
Fiona was apparently chuckling to herself while ignoring the cheering Orcs.
"Impressive. Did you learn that from the border lord?"
When Gwyn-sama asked, she nodded with a smile.
"Yes. I heard it's a specialty of the northern people."
"Well, yeah. The key is how to make the opponent hot-headed. An enemy who has lost their composure will always fall for it."
Gwyn-sama was looking proud.
"Falling for it is one thing, but to pull it off during a battle in formation. Normally they would pursue."
James-sama was laughing.
"Moreover, usually they just charge headlong, and only do this during the most critical battles."
Gwyn-sama responded.
"If the opponent doesn't fall for it, they'll regroup and do the same thing until they do."
"The record is apparently seven retreats. They finally fell for it on the eighth time."
The two of them were laughing together.
Pretending to flee in defeat and then counterattacking is said to be the specialty of the northern people.
"After that, I secretly went to see how things were with Roberts-sama and the others."
"You shouldn't have, Fiona. That unit had holy mages too."
If a silver stray arrow or a stray Holy flew by and hit her by any chance, she would be destroyed.
"It's fine. I can dodge silver arrows, and since I have the ring I received from Eleanor-sama, I can considerably mitigate up to mid-level magic. After that..."
Taking a deep breath, she enveloped herself in pale blue flames.
"I can completely block mid-level magic with the ring and this. If I hide in the tree leaves, I'll definitely be fine."
It seems she has powered up, becoming equivalent to a mid-level mage. As long as she is enveloped in flames, she can apparently completely block low-level holy magic even without the ring.
"I'm, you see, seventeen, right? I'm in my growth spurt, they say."
The eternal growth spurt laughed merrily.
According to Fiona, Roberts-sama's diversionary unit was also amazing.
"A considerable number of Orcs came out from the Demon Realm on the opposite side. There were also several Ogres, Cyclopes, and Trolls. Also, a Fenrir."
Apparently, more than a thousand came out. It's completely the scale of the Demon Lord's army.
"They dug trenches, built earthworks toward this forest, and made fences with timber, placing archers and magic soldiers inside, but since so many came from the opposite side..."
They had apparently formed a semi-circular camp toward the Forest of Ruins and organized a cavalry unit behind it. That rear was struck by the large army.
"Roberts-sama went alone. At a distance, Eowyn-sama took Harris-sama on the back and led the cavalry in a charge."
Roberts-sama is wearing Eleanor's armor. Eowyn-sama and the other cavalry have Harris-sama's Magic Reflection. First, they aimed for the Fenrir.
The lead was the monster Roberts-sama. He abandoned his horse halfway, proceeded on foot, and charged while being struck by the lightning fired by the Fenrir. Even to Fiona, who was watching from a distance, it was apparently plain to see that the monsters were terrified.
"Don't pity the monsters. That Roberts is charging without being bothered by direct hits from high-level magic. There's nothing but terror."
At James-sama's words, Gwyn-sama nodded deeply, saying "Indeed." I almost burst out laughing.
Even so, the Fenrir that held its ground was cut in two as he passed, and the other Fenrir lost their nerve. After two or three were defeated, they seemed to collapse. There, the second wave of cavalry led by Eowyn-sama charged. The cavalry, protected by Harris-sama's Magic Reflection, thrust their spears while knocking Orcs aside.
Furthermore, Edward-sama commanded a wagon unit carrying archers and magic soldiers to pursue. The archers had holy water arrows. They launched attacks targeting the Ogres, Cyclopes, and Trolls.
Finally, the monsters were completely routed and retreated.
According to Fiona, strangely enough, the monsters of the ruins only fortified the edge of the forest and did not sortie. After the monsters of the Demon Realm were driven away and the humans withdrew, they moved to collect the spoils left behind to prevent pursuit. In other words, the Demon Realm and the Gigant are not coordinating...
"A surprise attack by the strongest unit. This is Sertoria's specialty. In reality, they would use the terrain to launch a surprise attack, but this time they brilliantly caught the enemy off guard in the sense that magic was neutralized. Most likely, the match was decided the moment the first Fenrir was cut down."
"Indeed. It was magnificent."
James-sama said, and Gwyn-sama replied.
I never thought a solo frontal charge would be called a surprise attack.
"By the way, about that armor of Eleanor's..."
Gwyn-sama glanced at James-sama.
"It's impossible. Give up for now. Even our country hasn't been taught the manufacturing method. Apparently, she'll tell us once it has been distributed to the entire Sertorian Kingdom Army."
"Is it no good even with your request?"
"The opponent is Eleanor-sama. I can't possibly ask her to tell me a nation's military secret. I'd just end up being lectured."
"I-I see. Then it can't be helped."
This time, it was Price-sama who almost burst out laughing.