kscans

Chapter 121 - Out of the Blue

Episode 89: Out of the Blue

About an hour had passed since we began our exploration. After marking a wall near the entrance, we continued down a cavern illuminated by a strange, moss-like growth.

"We should be getting close..."

Just as Aira-san’s voice murmured through my earring, a single chain came into view, stretched taut between the two walls of the passage.

It was an ordinary iron chain, nothing more. It was only about halfway up my shin, so stepping over it would be easy.

But crossing it meant, for all intents and purposes, death.

"Aira-san. We've reached the 'landmark' you mentioned."

"Very well. Whatever you do, don't go past that chain, understood? I'm sure you'd all make it back alive, but I'm the one who'll get an earful from baba-sama."

"You couldn't pay me to cross it."

I replied, a hint of exasperation in my voice, as I stared warily at the path beyond the chain.

According to the Dungeon Store's website, there was a theory that 'the passages of this dungeon may not have been submerged in the past.'

For some unknown reason, the lake that lay beyond this chain had burst its banks. The prevailing theory was that the water, which had once been confined to channels along the passage walls, had at some point overflowed.

It was only a hypothesis, but a widely accepted one. While the water level wasn't currently rising, the day might come when this dungeon is completely submerged.

But I digress. The reason we couldn't go past the chain was, as I said, because of the lake.

Kelpies can move through water without any issue... in fact, underwater combat is their element, their stage.

If you were ambushed from below and dragged into the water, even a C-Rank adventurer would be in serious trouble unless they specialized in aquatic combat.

We hadn't come here for what was past the chain, but rather—

"Paisen! I found the mystery text!"

"Excellent!"

Erina-san aimed her hand mirror and a penlight at the text carved into the wall.

She called it mystery text for a reason; it was a string of characters I couldn't read at all. There was apparently a pattern to it, but it was all Greek to me.

Normally, I'd stay focused on guarding our surroundings, but this time I walked over.

"Okay, I'll keep watch, so I'll leave this to you, Kyou-chan, and Senpai!"

"Right."

"Got it."

Accepting the penlight and tablet from Erina-san, Mia-san pointed them at the engraved text.

I took out my own hand mirror and peered into the other side, connected through Telepathy.

"Alright, we'll have Mia continue recording the text. Now then, Kyou-chan-kun. Can you see Sana-kun clearly?"

"Yes. I can see her perfectly fine, even through the Telepathy link."

On the other side of the mirror was Aira-san, with that familiar birdcage sitting on her desk. And inside, of course, was Sana.

With the same blank expression as always, the spirit was looking back at me.

"Then let the experiment begin. An experiment to see whether or not Sana-kun can read 'text imbued with mana.'"

Aira-san said with a grin. It was a shockingly villainous expression. Given her beauty, perhaps I should call her a high-ranking evil executive.

Spirits understand a speaker's intent by reading the 'kotodama'—the unconscious mana imbued in their voice.

And since written words don't typically carry such mana, they can't read them... however.

What if the words were imbued with mana?

In this case, it wasn't so much the characters themselves, but the fact they were carved into a dungeon wall—an object that possessed a faint amount of mana—that was important.

Simply enchanting a random wooden plank and carving words into it wouldn't mean anything right away. It would take years, possibly even a century, for the mana to naturally transfer to the words.

In that respect, the Dungeon Agency believed that, based on the degradation of the text in this dungeon, it was highly likely to have been written several hundred years ago.

Therefore, there was a very high probability that the characters themselves held mana. Even my [Spirit Eye] could see a faint glimmer... I think.

Well, if this worked, there was another method to get Sana to read words written on a regular plank, but we'll set that aside for now.

"Alright, first, can Sana-kun hear your voice, Kyou-chan-kun?"

"I'll check. Sana-san. If you can hear my voice, please nod."

—Nod.

"She nodded. It seems the power of my words is reaching her even from inside the dungeon."

"Excellent. Then, ask her if she can read that text."

"Roger."

Aira-san moved the birdcage closer to her mirror, and I aimed my hand mirror at the engraved text on the wall.

Peeking into the mirror from the side, I called out to Sana.

"Sana-san. Can you read this text? Can you understand its meaning?"

I heard the sound of a hard swallow from my earring.

Her tension was contagious, and as I found myself growing nervous, Sana...

—Nod.

"...She nodded. It seems she understands."

"Yeeeeeeesss! Oww?!"

A thwack echoed through the earring, followed by Aira-san's pained groan.

"I-I just slammed my elbow...!"

"Are you okay...?"

"D-Don't worry about it. More importantly, let's celebrate this incredible opportunity!"

"Uh, sure."

"When you get back from the dungeon, Kyou-chan-kun, you are to come to my house immediately! And then you will write out characters on a plank, just like you would draw an alchemy circle!"

"Just so you know, the ink has to be a special type, right? Even if I imbue it with my own mana, if we want the characters themselves to hold mana..."

"Rest easy. I anticipated that, so I had baba-sama prepare an ink made from ground-up drop item minerals! You'll write out the Japanese syllabary with it, and then we'll have Sana-kun show us what the previously recorded texts mean by pointing with her gaze! This is a ma-jor dis-cov-er-y! Kyou-chan-kuuuun!!"

"Right..."

So, in other words, I'd have to painstakingly write out each and every character of the syllabary while imbuing it with mana. Then, we'd have Sana compare the recorded texts with the syllabary chart and indicate with her gaze what each word meant in Japanese.

...Yeah.

"Next you'll say, 'What a pain-ppi!'"

"I'm not gonna say that. And what's with that verbal tic?"

Though I did think it was a pain.

It wasn't that I didn't feel a sense of romance in deciphering an unknown civilization, and I wasn't against playing a part in it.

But still, it was a pain. At the very least, it wasn't something I wanted to do the second I got back from a dungeon.

"Pleeease? I'll give you cold, hard cash, and as a bonus, Mia in a bunny girl outfit will jump rope for you!"

"Sister?!"

Mia, who had been filming the text with the tablet, cried out as she was suddenly dragged into the conversation.

"I didn't hear anything about this, Sister?!"

"Well, I'm telling you now! Please, Mia... I can only ask this of you...!"

"O-Oh, fine. If you insist...!"

Is this girl okay? Is she going to get roped into some terrible scam in the future?

"If you'll do it with me, Sister... then I don't mind, I guess?"

"Eh? No thanks. It's embarrassing."

"Sister...?"

I felt the temperature drop. The water at my feet seemed to have frozen over slightly, but I was sure it was just my imagination.

I wanted to believe it was my imagination... along with the fact that the light had just vanished from Mia-san's eyes...!

"Calm down, Mia. It is true that I don't want to expose myself to such a mortifying experience, but that is only one of the reasons."

"So you do think it's mortifying."

"If I were to jump rope in such a stimulating and shameful outfit... I would die, you know?"

"You'd go that far?"

And it's not something you say with such a determined tone, either.

"There is a three percent chance that my feet will get caught in the rope, I'll tumble over, and I'll hit the back of my head on the wall or floor and die."

"Isn't that a little too frail?"

"Yeah, and first of all, what's with 'tumble over'?"

"I am a beauty of my stature, am I not? It's only natural that a cute sound effect would accompany my fall."

"Are you sure you want that to be the sound effect for the moment you die?"

Mia-san sighed, looking exhausted.

"F-Fine. Then, Sister, you can stand next to me in a cheerleader outfit and wave pompoms. You don't have to do any flashy moves. A miniskirt is preferred, please."

"What kind of request is that?"

"...May I wear safety shorts?"

"I'd actually encourage it. Some lives will be saved that way."

"Then it is settled!"

"It is?!"

Was my inability to keep up with these sisters due to my poor social skills? Or was it because these two were just incredibly weird people?

Somehow, I felt it was both.

"So, how about it, Kyou-chan-kun! Two peerless beauties will be putting themselves in such a compromising position! Surely you'll accept my offer!"

"No... uh. As long as I'm getting paid, I'll help with the research even if it's a bit of a hassle, you know? You don't have to do all that. It's not like I'm not interested in the dungeon texts either."

"Oh? So you're saying you have no interest in Mia's bunny girl jump-roping or my cheerleader outfit? Are you truly saying you don't need it?"

"Wh-?! Th-That's right, isn't it? I-It's not like I'm interested or anything...!"

That's a lie. I totally want to see it.

Even if they're a pair of weirdo sisters! I really want to see these beautiful sisters in lewd outfits!!

If possible, I'd even like a wardrobe malfunction! I want to see real breasts, Anno-sensei...!

"I feel like Kyou-chan-kun's soul is screaming about something, so let's just decide whether to do it or not based on how we feel at the time."

"Sister, I can hear the smile in your voice..."

"It's fun to tease my juniors from a safe distance, you know. Hah-hah-hah!"

"If we're going to your house after this, you won't be in a safe zone, will you...?"

"Ah."

Sometimes Aira-san can be a real idiot.

As we were talking, a warning came from Erina-san, the only one who had remained in serious mode.

"Everyone, five coming from behind. I think they're all Kelpies."

"Roger. Aira-san, I'm putting the mirror away for a bit."

"Right. Be careful."

I tossed the hand mirror to Erina-san, who caught it without looking and stowed it in her [Item Box].

Catching the motion out of the corner of my eye, I drew the sword from my waist.

I could now hear them too—the sound of the Kelpies' hooves. They were charging towards us in a V-formation, filling the wide passage.

"Hee-heeeeeeigh!!"

"Laying down suppressive fire!"

Mia-san's voice rang out as if to challenge the monstrous horses' neighs, and dozens of ice lances materialized in the air before shooting forward.

It was a wall of cold death that took up most of the passage. In response, the Kelpies neighed once more.

In the next instant, lances of water formed around them. They fired without a moment's delay, colliding with the lances of ice.

As shards of ice and splashes of water filled the air, the five monster horses galloped through. Just as they were about to enter close combat range, Erina and I threw a knife and a kunai, respectively.

My knife, which reached first, was deflected by their watery armor, but the moment her kunai touched the armor, it generated a gale of wind.

Like a normal horse being shot with a rifle, one of the Kelpies' heads exploded.

The remaining four charged on undeterred. But their path was blocked by a thicket of stone spears that jutted up from the watery floor.

Three of them abruptly halted, but the one in the lead vaulted over the spears with its momentum unchecked. It locked onto me and opened its mouth.

Its mouth was filled with rows of sharp fangs, impossible for an herbivore. The man-eating monster bared its long canines and reared up on its hind legs.

A fatal hoof strike, backed by the force of gravity. I clearly saw the water-hardened hoof descending toward my skull.

And so, I caught it.

A heavy thud ran through my left arm as I caught its right forehoof. As the water at my feet exploded outwards, I braced my arm, causing its left hoof to swing through empty air.

"Brr...?!"

I pushed the bewildered Kelpie back with one hand, then took two steps forward and unleashed a single slash, swinging my sword at its defenseless abdomen.

"[Concept Interference]."

The watery armor it touched splashed violently as the wind propelled my blade forward.

I bisected the horse's body as easily as slicing through wet paper, then immediately gripped the hilt with both hands.

The remaining three had shattered the stone spears and were now charging. I focused on them and wreathed my blade in wind and flame.

"Burn."

For a brief moment, the raging flames formed a sphere, which I then rode on the wind and swung forward. The cavalry of fire, released in time with my slash, annihilated the riderless horses of water.

White steam filled the area, but I used the wind to push it away from us. My vision cleared quickly, and all that remained were what 'used to be Kelpies' dissolving into salt in the water.

"Whew..."

The tricky part about this dungeon was that getting too much of that salinated water on you could trigger a stampede.

Of course, a small splash was no problem, but a large amount would make you a target for all the monsters.

Even so, people apparently still came here, saying it was easier to deal with than other C-Rank dungeons.

"Nice work, Kyou-chan. I'm gonna go get my kunai!"

"Right."

"Ukon. Collect the drop items."

As Erina-san and the golem passed by me on either side, I shouldered my sword.

I could feel that my level had gone up by one again. I wondered when I would finally reach the level where I could defend myself against an A-Rank monster like the dragons I once saw on TV.

I let out a small sigh and looked up at the ceiling of the limestone cave.

Of course, there was no blue sky to be seen.