kscans

Chapter 210 - Guardian of the Lake

The day after Ney's spirits had soared too high, Hayato and the others were at the floating island's lake from early in the morning. The reason, of course, was to enter the building in the center of the lake.

By clearing the buildings to the northwest and northeast, they had a rough idea of what this island was. Hayato had heard the details from Ney.

"A facility to make it rain artificially?"

"That's right. In ancient times, there was a very advanced civilization—or rather, it might be easier to understand if I say terraforming. It seems there were people who were making this planet habitable for humans. This island is one of the facilities used at that time."

Terraforming, simply put, is making an uninhabitable planet have an environment similar to Earth. There are such plans in Hayato's reality, but they don't yet have the technology to change an entire planet's environment. Besides, if they could do that, they should do something about Earth, so such technology is probably still far in the future.

Be that as it may, the setting is that the planet this game takes place on was created by someone.

"However, the people trying to do that either perished for some reason or fled this planet, and this island was apparently abandoned for tens of thousands of years. No one maintained it during that time, so it seems to be broken."

"Broken…? Oh, so that's why it's like a waterfall instead of rain."

"Exactly. Olga Domus Waterfall is in a state where I can't tell if it's romantic or not."

As for how it was creating such a massive amount of water, it was apparently unknown technology, and there was no detailed explanation. Since it's a world where magic exists, Hayato figured it was some kind of hybrid of magic and science.

"The spirits in the Spirit Country would be angry if they found out. The water is falling due to scientific power, not the power of spirits… By the way, why are there dinosaurs?"

"Apparently, they were created through genetic manipulation and they lost control of them. It was written in something like a diary that they abandoned the entire island because of that."

"Seriously…?"

What kind of civilization gets defeated by dinosaurs when they have technology advanced enough to terraform a planet, he wondered, but figured there must be various reasons. More than that, the mystery was why they created dinosaurs on this island in the first place. Hayato looked over at Diite, who was participating in this exploration. Diite noticed Hayato looking and got a smug look on her face. She must be confident in the setting she created.

From Hayato's perspective, it seemed rather slapdash. But the setting Ney told him was only a part of it; there might be more to it. Thinking this, he decided not to point it out.

(Maybe they tried to make it habitable for dinosaurs first, not humans, or maybe having dinosaurs as pets was the trend back then. Maybe the monsters on the surface were also created that way. And Ash and the others are called Genesis Dragons and are said to have existed since the beginning of the world, but the origin of the Dragon's Grave was a dragon, and I feel like there was a story that they might have existed even before that. Is the setting that the terraformers created Ash and the others…?)

Imagining how these contradictions could fit together was fun, but it could also be frustrating if not everything was explained. Whether one could enjoy the contradictions depended on the person, but Hayato was the type who could. He put his various imaginings aside for now. Today's purpose was exploration.

"I get the gist of it, but you've figured out how to get into that building, right?"

Ney said, "Of course," and showed Hayato a push-button type switch. There were two of them. "These are the switches I found on the lowest floor of each building. This one removes the barrier covering the building. The other one opens the building's entrance."

"You found something that convenient?"

"It's convenient, but it seems to be an emergency item and can only be used once. After using it, we have to go get another one. It said so in the instruction manual. And the island's control system is broken. It seems the barrier and the building entrance will restore themselves after a while. We need to escape the building before that happens."

Dungeons with time limits are common on the surface. If this place has a similar system, there's a high chance that any items obtained inside will be lost if they don't get out in time. It meant they would have to act while calculating the time to go and come back, or it would be a waste. Hayato told himself not to get too greedy.

Hearing more from Ney, the barrier would be gone for about a day, and the entrance would restore itself in about three hours. First, they had to deactivate the barrier, go to the entrance by ship, and then find the treasure and escape within three hours. Hayato was worried if there would be any treasure inside the building given the setting he just heard, but he steeled himself, knowing they couldn't come all this way and return empty-handed.

And so, as is standard for clearing a timed dungeon, Hayato's group split into three teams. The three teams were Kokuryu led by Ney, Lunaria and Black Rose, and Cecil and the Dragon Busters. On top of that, Hayato, Esha, Relic, and Diite would go with the Kokuryu members. Sonia would go with Lunaria's group. The remaining treasure hunters would go with the Dragon Busters.

Their roles were: Kokuryu for exploration. Lunaria's group would be half exploration, half monster clearing. And the Dragon Busters would clear monsters. In many timed dungeons, monsters don't respawn. It's said that this is a consideration due to the time limit. So, they would divide into a team to defeat as many monsters as possible and a team to collect items from treasure chests. As long as the team that got the treasure got out within the time limit, they could share the items.

With that settled, Ney took the barrier deactivation switch out of her item bag again. "Alright, I'm pressing the switch!"

When Ney pressed the switch, a rumbling sound started, and the barrier protecting the building disappeared as if melting from above. After confirming this, Sonia took out a miniature of her large ship and floated it on the lake. Once everyone was aboard the now enormous ship, they headed for the center of the lake.

The lake had a diameter of about fifteen kilometers, so it was over seven kilometers to the center. It was faster than walking, but it would still take over ten minutes. The weather was good, the wind was calm. Hayato and the others were in a slightly relaxed state.

But for some reason, Diite was tilting her head.

"Diite-chan, what's wrong?"

"Well, I thought the dinosaurs inside would be released and attack as soon as the barrier was deactivated, but they're not appearing at all—oh, here they come. Alright everyone, do your best. You can manage without cannons."

"Why do you sound so happy…"

From a developer's perspective, she was probably happy that the monster she prepared had appeared. It was a nuisance, but Hayato resigned himself to it, figuring it was unavoidable if it was some kind of guardian protecting the treasure.

A huge shadow appeared on the calm lake. By sight alone, it was probably nearly fifteen meters long. It passed under the ship once. Just as the ship rocked violently, a huge thing leaped out right next to it. A giant crocodile, or maybe a whale. Its massive body floated in the air as if defying the laws of physics. Then, as if in slow motion, it returned to the lake, and a splash of water hit the ship.

One of the treasure hunters shouted. "It's a Mosasaurus! Whoa! So cool!"

Mosasaurus. Ruler of the seas. Apex of the food chain. It has many titles, but it was the strongest marine reptile in history, and it wouldn't be surprising if it was considered a cheat by those around it when it was alive. It might be cool, but Hayato wanted to know how they were supposed to beat something like that.

Hayato made a quick decision. "We're running to the lake building at full speed. We can't deal with that thing."

"Hayato-kun, wait a moment. Shouldn't we defeat it here? It's, um, amazing, you know? I can't say it out loud, but I really had to twist Infinity's arm to get it made. You can win, so do your best."

(What does ‘twist its arm’ mean?)

That might be the developer's perspective, but not the player's. Hayato proposed running away at full speed. But there was no one on the ship who would run away. Especially Ney, Lunaria, and Cecil were eager to fight.

"Let's fight together!"

"Hmph, don't get cocky just because you're a little big. You're out of luck for attacking the Demon Lord's ship."

"Whoa! It's huge! Let's take it down!"

It was probably inevitable that Hayato was in the minority with this group. He wanted to ask what the point was of getting exhausted before the exploration, but once they were like this, they couldn't be stopped.

"Sigh, fine, we'll fight it. But the main thing is exploration, so don't overdo it."

As Hayato said this, some members let out a war cry. Diite was smiling broadly and nodding repeatedly. It must be a creation she's very confident in.

In this situation, Relic smiled at Hayato. "You have it rough."

"Relic-san, don't talk like it's someone else's problem. This group is too bloodthirsty, it's a pain."

"That may be so, but how about thinking of it this way. There's a chance it could attack us on the way back, so it's better to defeat it now."

"I see. But on the way back, we can use a Ring of Teleportation—no, teleporting is probably disabled in a timed dungeon. And we might have to carry the treasure out of the lake. So we should probably defeat it… In that case, I feel mentally better about it. Thank you, Relic-san."

"Not at all. However, Hayato-sama, the ship's durability seems to have decreased from the last attack. Isn't this dangerous?"

"Oh no, I have to repair it. Relic-san, I'll be defenseless while repairing, so could you please keep a lookout?"

"Leave it to me. Hayato-sama, you can focus on the repairs."

And so, the battle with the Mosasaurus, the guardian of the lake, began.