Foreigner Volume 5, Chapter 50

Volume 5 Chapter 50, Labyrinth ~ 08

　Make a hole in the floor and climb down, and repeat several times. When he reached the 45th layer, he found himself in a small room, so he decided to take a break.

　The time was past noon, nearing the third koku (14:00). It is said that the basic rule in this world is to eat twice a day, and only some royalty and aristocracy eat exactly three meals a day. Satoru, who is neither a prince nor an aristocrat, but just a commoner, finds it very difficult to change his long-established habit of eating three meals a day.

　This day's snack was jerky. It was made from the meat of a rampaging bull-like monster that they had defeated in the labyrinth, which Rico had torn into small pieces, seasoned, and Leia had dried it with magic. These were done while Satoru was attempting to drill holes in the floor.

「What is your impression of this labyrinth so far? As a former master of the labyrinth, I'd like to hear your opinion.」

　He raised his eyebrows at the question as he chewed his jerky vulgarly, making a kucha-kucha sound, and looked diagonally up at Leia.

「How should I put it? ...... It's certainly a tough labyrinth, isn't it? It's just my hunch, but I think there's something off.」‘

「Ohh? What is the reason for this?」

　Leia slightly shrugged her shoulders. Minerva, who had just stepped on a trap by wandering around, sat down so as not to walk carelessly.

「It's true that all the monsters are tough, but they're not in control. I have a feeling this labyrinth does not have a wise master.」

「Leadership, right?」

「Ahh, that's what I thought, too.」

　Rico nodded. Satoru was still unfamiliar with the common sense of this world. According to Rico's explanation, even though monsters don't have the knowledge and wisdom of humans, they do use their brains in unexpected ways. In addition, the type of monsters that stay in labyrinths and are ordered by the Lord to hunt intruders are said to be quite intelligent.

「For example, you can lead them to a place with a large trap. There are many ways to do this. But I can't find any. The monster is just a force to be reckoned with. I don't know how to say this, I don't feel any emotion or wisdom in it.」

　You mean it's mechanical? Satoru puts his hand on his chin and thinks.

「Besides, I'll add, well, I'm sure we haven't fought much, but aren't all monsters after the 20th layer is a magical creatures that don't need to eat?」

　Satoru has no knowledge of monsters. After the 10 layers they left today, they've fough a herd of chimeras at layer 20, a one-eyed giant at layer 26, a rampaging bull on layer 28, a wood golem on layer 32, an ice-clad wolf on layer 38, and a wraith on layer 43. The chimera at layer 20 is a normal carnivore, and the rampaging bull at layer 28 eats mushrooms, algae and other fungi, but all the others are monsters that live by magic.

　Leia nodded after making a small sound of admiration at Rico's tsukkomi.

「That's a good point. In other words, there is a high possibility that there is no master intervening to feed them.」

　Aside from monsters that can live on magic power alone, other monsters need to eat. When Leia was the master of the labyrinth, she used to order her servants to feed the monsters that needed to eat.

「Hmmm ......, when you put it that way, I feel like I'm off. But well, now that we're here, I want to confirm it.」

「Well, that's right.」

　*Yaawnn* Minerva made a big yawn. Minerva has been out of action since the layer 20, where she held off half of the Chimera horde with a Wind Wall. She have been checking Satoru's hack every time they go down, but fortunately that was the only time they were suddenly attacked.

「I think I'll take a nap for about an hour (40 minutes). Both Rico and Minerva must be tense and tired.」

　Minerva's face brightened up.

「Sex?」

「Naps! Sex is at night!」

「Will you do it at night?」

　Minerva asked excitedly, and Satoru laughed and nodded his head.

「Yay! I hope it's night soon~」

　It may have been too early to give Minerva, who had already started to get excited, fuel. Satoru shrugged his shoulders.

　After that, the labyrinth-breaking through the floor continued smoothly.

　While Satoru was destroying the floor with his magic, Rico was searching the area, taking care not to be spotted by the monsters. It takes about 10 minutes to break through the floor. If it were a normal wall or floor, it would only take a second, but even with Satoru's magical power, that's not going to happen in the labyrinth of the Ancient Magic Kingdom.

　Leia said that the quantity of monsters in the labyrinth was moderate. However, the quality was high. She guessed that it was probably some kind of laboratory from the time of the Ancient Magic Kingdom.

　It is believed that many such labyrinths were built during the time of the Ancient Magic Kingdom, because deep underground, there would be no obstacles to research and spies could be easily dealt with. Of course, some of them were used as mere prisons, while others were used as treasure houses.

「Ancient Magic Kingdoms. ...... I don't know why they were destroyed.」

「The Seven-Day Disaster was the trigger, but no one knows what it was. I'm sure my teacher Yarth and the Feather Dragons know about it, but my teacher Yarth was tight-lipped about it, and I've heard that there have been cases of people asking the Feather Dragons and the Five Dragons about it, but they've all refused to tell.」

「Hmmm ......」

　It is said that the humans surviving today are the slave class and barbarians who were not recognized as citizens during the time of the Ancient Magic Kingdom. For some reason, every single citizen who had benefited from the Magic Towers of the Magic Kingdom was wiped out.

「I don't know how, but it is said that the people of the Magic Kingdom were able to draw out their magic power freely through the magic towers. The prevailing theory is that the magic in the Magic Tower flowed backwards, destroying the soul..」

　Once there, the human race almost perished, but the few people who survived were able to build a society again, and although they could no longer use magic, they were able to use sorcery, so it is said that it took more than 200 years for them to flourish again by using these skills. Elves and Dwarves have never been replaced by humans. The reason is simple. Because humans were the most fertile.

「I heard that the people who survived the Seven-Day Disaster started to increase the number of people again by giving birth and increasing the number of people.」

「So there must have been a food crisis, right?」

「Of course, there was. But with the help of the Elves, Dwarves, and Aquatic tribes, they were able to overcome it.」

「Hahh. ...... Humans are more stubborn than I expected.」

「Oh, you have a similar history in my Lord's world?」

「Well, yes.」

　He replied, but he couldn't go into detail because history was not one of Satoru's strongest subjects.

　After three hundred years or so, the reshaping of human society finally got underway and became almost what it is today. Language, time, money, and units of measure were unified there for a time, and even today they remain unified as a matter of convenience, but even so, conflicts and wars between regions have not disappeared. It seems that the situation is much the same on Earth as it is here.

「There are Thirteen City-States centered on Ares, Rotsfort in the south, Wellmeisen in the north, and the country of Raid, which has a large waterfall near here. In the east, there's Haumaier, Krause, and other nations. ...... It's foolish of the human species to get caught up in the confines of a nation once it has the chance to become one again.」

「There are so many differences in values and so on.」

「Somehow, you're making this difficult.」

　Minerva, who had become completely absent-minded, tugged at the sleeve of Satoru's clothing in frustration. "My bad, my bad" he said, patting Minerva on the head. There are not many flying dragons, but they do not fight among themselves. They are simply the top of the hierarchy among the beasts that live outdoors. They are especially feared among the beast tribes, so there are no conflicts among them.

「No particular harvest.」

　Rico, who had been searching the area, came back. Satoru had just finished destroying the floor and could see that the floor of the lower layer was illuminated by the light from the 【Light】 on the end of Leia's wand.

「All right, then, let's go down there.」

　Holding Rico by his left side, Satoru made sure that Rico's arms were wrapped around his neck and jumped into the hole.

「――My Lord!」

　Immediately after Leia's warning, a roar came from the right rear. It was a Fireball. Satoru intensifies his awareness - the fireball is dispersed according to the shape of the air sphere that is developing around him. It's not enough firepower to break the air ball.

　It was too late to get down to the ground, so Satoru turned his gaze to the monster that had released the fireball. It was a red lizard about four meters long.

「『Ice Javelin!』」

　Leia unleashed her magic while riding on Satoru's shoulder. A two-meter-long ice javelin pierced the lizard at breakneck speed.

「Tsk」

　Leia immediately gritted her teeth, "I missed". The part that was hit was bad. She could only blow off one of the lizard's arms, which twisted at a speed not befitting its large frame. The lizard, stripped of one of its arms, lets out a fierce scream. A voice so loud that it reverberated throughout the labyrinth - before Leia could use her next arts, Satoru reacted immediately.

　As soon as the three meter square around the lizard made a screech sound, a huge column of water enveloped the lizard, and after a brief pause, the water immediately froze. Trapped in a giant ice prison, the lizard can't even move and quickly dies.

　However, Satoru and the other members did not relax a bit. They were paying attention to the presence of the enemy, who would probably be summoned to the area by the loud cry earlier. The sound of thudding footsteps can also be heard from afar.

「My Lord! Can you make a wall of ice at both ends of the passage, like you just did!?」

「You got it!」

　In response to Leia's request, Satoru spread his arms out with a bang and pictured a wall of ice forming at both ends of the passage. The surrounding temperature dropped rapidly, and with a cracking sound, a wall of ice about five meters thick quickly formed on both sides.

　The ice wall was roughly half a major thick (4.5 meters), even though it covered the entire passage. It was as thick as the height of one floor. It's extraordinary. Moreover, it was placed at both ends. Even Leia can't make ice this thick in an instant. It is possible, though, if she take a little time. Although it was something she had ordered, Leia broke out in a cold sweat as she was once again shown Satoru's unusual ability.

「.....My Lord who is accustomed to magic, is honestly terrifying.」

「I agree.」

　Leia and Rico muttered in front of the ice wall that was instantly built.

　It would have been fine if it was an earthen wall, but with an earthen wall you can't check the other side. It's probably the fire lizards that are the monsters in this layer, including the one that's currently in ice. On the other side of the ice wall, the same type of monsters appeared. There were probably five of them.

　The flock of fire lizards spat out flames from their mouths in front of the wall of ice. But there was no sign that it would melt easily.

「Then, one more shot!」

　Satoru imagined it. Beyond the ice wall, he imagines a large rock, almost as wide as the passage and half as high.

　A huge rock appeared in the sky above the fire lizard struggling against the ice wall. By the time they noticed it, it was too late. The gravity pulled the poor fire lizards to the ground with a resounding thud, and they were crushed to pieces. Unless they show a lot of guts and stay alive on the surface, they won't be able to survive.

「Ohhhh. That's amazing」

　Minerva applauded, but Leia and Rico could not even speak. What Satoru just did was quite outrageous. The fact that he was able to do it so easily and without much concentration is just out of the ordinary.

「........I've made an enemy of such a great man, even for a moment.」

「No, it's me either. ......」

　Leia and Rico couldn't help but look at each other and smiled dryly.

　It would be nothing short of foolish to make an enemy of Satoru, who possessed so much ability. They can only hope that no one else will be foolish enough to make an enemy of Satoru in the future.

　The two of them turned their gaze to the terrifying target, unaware that the Academy of the Wise was now secretly trying to turn against them.

「Let's go next」

　Satoru said very lightly, destroying the floor beneath his feet with the 【Disintegration】 art.

　After descending to the 59th layer, Satoru looked around and saw that it was a small room, just like the 45th layer. There was no sign of monsters around. There was only one sturdy-looking door and some moss on the rock wall.

「Pheew」

　Satoru took a deep breath. The scenery hadn't changed much since he'd been there, and the lack of sunlight had thrown off his sense of time, and the pressure and tension had inevitably caused mental fatigue. Leia, who was sitting on his shoulder, glanced at Satoru's face.

「My Lord, what's your fatigue level?」

　When asked, Satoru checked his own physical condition. There was no noticeable change in his physical condition, except for the gloomy feeling he got from being in the labyrinth. However, his attention and concentration seemed to be a little distracted.

「Hmmm. I'm still feeling good.」

　Leia jumped off Satoru's shoulder with a recoil and turned around.

「If that's how you feel after descending nearly 50 layers in one go, I can't stop you ......,But don't overdo it. It looks like we're just in a small room, so how about we stop here for today?」

　He looked at his watch. The time is almost 7pm. The sun was already setting, and normally they would have finished eating dinner. Satoru nodded his head, realizing that the time had progressed more than he had expected.

「You're right, let's take a break here.」

「I understand. I'll prepare dinner, then.」

　Rico also responded, slung down her backpack, and immediately began to prepare for the night camp. After carefully checking the room for traps, she started to prepare the fire.

　Leia applied the usual 【Five-Layered Barrier】 and 【Hardening】 one of the doors just in case, to prevent anyone from entering. At Rico's request, Leia prepared clay soil, made a simple fire pit, lit the wood, and prepared a tub of water.

　Minerva took the leather from Leia and prepared a bed. Recently, she have been able to do that much.

　Meanwhile, Satoru just sits idly by. This is a result of the concern of his magical slaves, who do not want their Lord to take any trouble. Leia had told him before that "My Lord should just stand there like a proud man", so he was really just sitting around.

「Hmm. We're conquering the labyrinth at an unbelievable speed.」

　Leia, who had finished everything she had to do, sat down next to Satoru.

　Normally, the labyrinth is conquered in one layer a day, two at the most. Even for a party with a lot of confidence in their abilities, three layers is their limit. Ten layers on the first day was an unbelievable speed, but even if they were cheating, skipping 49 layers in one day was not something that was possible.

「By the way, my Lord.」

「Hmm?」

「Why are you trying to get used to the 【Disintegration】?」

　In response to Leia's frank question, Satoru shrugged his shoulder a little.

「It's simple. 【Disintegration】 is a rijutsu, right? It is the most common art.」

　Leia nodded silently. It is a field in which rijutsu is often used as an adjunct to other art, and as such, the number of art is quite diverse.

「In my opinion, it's probably the strongest of all the magic arts. It's simple, but I think it's the strongest.」

　"Oh," Leia amazed. The feeling that Satoru is getting is something that Leia, who lives in this world of magic, does not have. After all, their common sense is different.

「What makes you think that way, may I ask?」

　Satoru tilted his head.

「There are many arts, earth, fire, wind, and water, but the basic principle of things is that to eliminate them, you must have a counter-attribute or a rijutsu. Isn't that right?」

「Indeed.」

「I've seen and used a lot of arts so far, but rijutsu is versatile and wide-ranging. You don't have to worry about the opposing attribute, and it's very versatile.」

　The range of Rijutsu is so wide that it made him wonder why people in this world don't place importance on Rijutsu. Perhaps there was some reason, but he knew that the reason was something he could ignore.

「We talked about the laws of physics before, right?」

「Yes.」

「If it can control the laws of physics, it's almost impossible to defeat it. If you're familiar with rijutsu, you can probably take on just about anything. It's the same reason you came up with the idea of a art that incorporates control.」

「...... I see.」

　Thoughtfully, Leia put her hand on her chin and looked down. Perhaps her mind was spinning at high speed.

「The same goes for, 【Transfer】. It's something that's impossible in my world, but once I get used to it, I can use it, right? ――However, I'm not sure if I'm capable of using that art, which requires detailed calculations, as I'm basically a simple person.」

　He doesn't think he'll be able to use it. For now, the only time she's used the Transfer is when the two of them were still working with just two of them, when they escaped from the Deepest Labyrinth, once Leia returned to her labyrinth, and on the way to and from the Thieves Guild in Galhassan from where they were camped for the night. It's a very useful art, but it requires a lot of magic power that even Leia hesitates to use it lightly, more magic power is required depending on the distance, and you must know the terrain and situation of the destination. For example, if you specify coordinates, and those coordinates are even slightly off, you could end up flying far into the sky, or even into the ground. If you are blown into the sky, you can deal with it as much as you want, but if you are accidentally 【Transfer】 deep into the earth, what awaits you is death.

　Satoru has an enormous amount of magic power, but he uses it very roughly. He is aware of the fact that he is not able to control it properly. This is the reason why he believe that the 【Transfer】 art, which requires detailed calculations, is dangerous to use by him.

「The strongest theory of rijutsu - indeed, that theory has been around for a long time. However, Rijutsu consumes a lot of magic power in comparison to its effect. It was said to be inefficient. ...... Well, considering my Lord's absurd soul, that efficiency can be somewhat ignored.」

　"I see," Satoru agreed. The amount of magic power required for the effect was high, which was probably the reason why Rijutsu was not as popular as he thought. But if that was the only reason, it was useless to Satoru, who did not have to worry about running out of magic power.

「I agree. As long as I can ignore efficiency, I still think it's a shortcut to master it.」

　Even if you have a huge amount of magic power, you want to have one thing that you can do with certainty, Satoru thought. He wanted to avoid the possibility of becoming a typical poor dexterity. Perhaps it was just that it hadn't yet taken shape as a art, but considering Satoru's magical power, there were probably many ways to do it. For example, like when he disarmed the trap.

「Certainly. I'll think of a way to move with that in mind.」

「Yeah.」

「Danna-sama, after we eat, let's have sex.」

「I know, I know.」

　Minerva, who seemed to have set up the bed, patted the leather of her bedding in appeal. Satoru nodded with a wry smile. Even as a magical slave, her frankness about sex has not changed in any way. It is natural to refrain from having sex when pregnant because of the possibility of miscarriage, but he wonders if Minerva will be able to withstand it.

　Also, so far Minerva has not shown any signs of pregnancy. It's only been seventeen days since Satoru started having sex with her, so it's not surprising that he doesn't know yet, but since she doesn't have any physiological phenomenon that corresponds to menstruation, it's completely unknown whether she can get pregnant through normal intercourse. If Leia's theory is correct, the child to be born will be neither human nor flying dragon, but a half-breed called a 『Ryujin』.

Previous Chapter --- TOC --- Next Chapter

Join Our Discord Server