Chapter 167: Natsuka's Star Art Breaks the Metal Giant Gate (Patreon)

Click. Click.

The sound of mechanisms extending and meshing rang out again by her ears.

The passage ahead of her, the one that had let her keep moving forward, slowly sealed itself shut.

Meanwhile, the wall to her right inched back, revealing a new route.

Ryuu watched it all in silence, her eyes growing heavier by the moment.

In the end, she had no choice but to follow the new path onward.

It wasn't as if she hadn't tried smashing straight through the walls.

But the surface of these walls was all anti-magic stone forged from Obsidian Soldier material.

And behind that stone layer lay an even more terrifying thickness of ultra-hard metal.

Trying to force her way through by brute strength alone was simply impossible.

Nor had she failed to try pressing the key in her hand against those mechanisms.

But that key could only open the massive metal doors.

Structures like these — ones that moved and shifted on their own — were entirely outside its purview.

"Someone's watching me."

Ryuu had finally confirmed it beyond any doubt.

Her every move felt as though someone, somewhere, had been steering her all along.

The sensation of being watched, cornered, toyed with bit by bit sent a chill down her spine, and a sense of danger crashed over her like a rising tide.

She glanced around, deftly dodging a few fresh traps, and finally made her way into a cavern chamber.

A table stood at the center of the chamber.

Its surface had been split clean in two, the halves arranged to form a shape like the letter L.

"Back here again..." Ryuu's brow furrowed tighter, and she muttered under her breath.

She walked over, pulled out a chair, and sat down.

This looked like a place the dungeon's master used for meetings — no obvious traps had been set here, which made it, ironically, one of the rare spots where she could catch her breath.

She dug the last of her dry rations from the pouch at her lower back.

She took a few halfhearted bites, chewing slowly, her throat somewhat parched.

She raised her waterskin for a sip, forcing the food down her throat.

She gave the waterskin a shake.

What sloshed back was pitifully faint.

The water left inside was nearly gone.

Ryuu no longer hesitated. She tipped her head back and drained what remained.

The cold liquid slid down her throat, but it did nothing to ease the suffocating weight building in her chest.

"Seven days, at most."

"If I go without food or water, seven days is the longest I can hold out."

She closed her eyes slowly, using the brief quiet to recover a little strength and focus.

"It's not time to give up yet."

If this had happened right when she'd first been trapped, she might still have felt fury, agitation, the urge to tear the dungeon's master limb from limb on the spot.

But by now, all of that had already been smothered beneath a far stronger will to survive.

She couldn't die. Not now, at least.

She had to carry the intelligence she'd gathered here back out.

A colossal maze built almost entirely from ultra-hard metal — and one that stretched down at least to the eighteenth floor.

A construction project of this scale went far beyond anything Ryuu could wrap her head around.

This simply wasn't wealth that a single Familia, or even a nation, could easily produce.

Not to mention the staggering quantity of ultra-hard metal used in the doors alone.

Just the ultra-hard metal spent here was already enough to forge millions of pieces of first-tier adventurer equipment.

Yet the entire city didn't have anywhere near that many first-tier adventurers — not even a fraction of that number.

So—

"There must be some terrifying conspiracy hidden in here."

"I can't die."

"No matter what, I have to get word out."

"Alise, please watch over me."

In that elf's eyes now remained only a resolve bordering on obstinate.

Eighteenth floor, Rivira.

After a brief rest in the town, Natsuka asked the goddess to update everyone's stats through the door.

He went through the sheets of parchment one by one.

Minoru Kageno, Lv2.

Strength: I0 → H150.

Endurance: I0 → E351.

Dexterity: I0 → G221.

Agility: I0 → G271.

Magic: I0 → B711.

Magic Conducting

Yuuki, Lv2.

Strength: D513 → I0.

Endurance: E471 → I0.

Dexterity: SSS1299 → I0.

Agility: SSS1205 → I0.

Magic: E407 → I0.

Development Abilities: Swordsman [Abnormal Resistance I]

Kuroneko, Lv1 (level-up available).

Strength: H151 → G250.

Endurance: H111 → G218.

Dexterity: H171 → F315.

Agility: H131 → G271.

Magic: F308 → D511.

Level up.

Kuroneko, Lv2.

All five base stats reset to I0.

Development Ability: [Transformation I]

[Transformation]: Speeds up the rate of state-switching, and grants an equal-level [Iron Body] and [Magic Resistance] during the switch.

[Sacred Curse Starbody]

Magic:

Skills:

[Denizens of the Night]

[Curse Library]

As for Kaori Miyazono and Lefiya, their improvements were comparatively modest.

The former's average stats had only climbed by a dozen or so points; her Magic and Endurance had gone up roughly fifty each, but she still remained stuck in the H rank.

Lefiya's Magic, meanwhile, had risen by eighty points to four hundred ten, though she still hadn't crossed the threshold to level up.

Natsuka handed the parchments recording each person's stats back to them, one by one.

For Yuuki, aside from [Abnormal Resistance], there had also been the option of [Combo Strike].

But considering her physical condition back in the real world, Natsuka ultimately advised her to go with the resistance skill.

"[Abnormal Resistance] covers a very wide range."

"It can block off pretty much every kind of poison and bacteria."

"In other words, it can go a long way toward patching up the single most fatal weakness in your body."

Natsuka reached out and ruffled Yuuki's hair, genuine happiness in his eyes.

"Starting today, you can try leaving the isolation room."

"From now on, you'll be able to live like anyone else."

"Looks like the 'Cinderella' magic is going to be sticking around for a good while longer."

"Hehe, thank you, Natsu-kun."

Yuuki smiled so wide her eyes curved into crescents, though the tip of her nose flushed faintly red.

She threw her arms around Natsuka's waist and rubbed her cheek gently against him.

Natsuka felt a small patch of warm dampness spreading against his chest.

But he said nothing, only stroked the girl's hair in silence, glad for her and relieved on her behalf.

Relieved that she'd finally found a chance to walk free of that hellish cage.

As for Kuroneko... she'd taken part in far too many battles above her level during all this.

Even though she'd mostly played a support role, the experience she'd earned was nothing to scoff at.

Even Natsuka himself was surprised she'd leveled up this fast.

It all came down to a question of experience distribution.

For an ordinary party, taking down a Lv4 enemy together would be little more than a pipe dream.

But their party happened to have a walking cheat code named Natsuka.

He was still only Lv1 himself, so he took no experience penalty for kills, yet he could always find some way to bring down targets far above his level.

That meant the whole party ended up feasting on absurdly high-quality experience.

In a way, it was practically as if the entire team had a growth-acceleration buff running nonstop.

Natsuka gave his advice on the matter bluntly.

"You're a curse-caster."

"There's no need to chase raw stat limits like the pure damage-dealers do."

"Your core role is support and backup."

"So as long as you can level up, do it as fast as possible."

"Because for a core support, staying alive always comes first."

"Once you level up, your combat strength undergoes a real qualitative leap."

"And you also get another chance to roll a new ability."

"That matters more than almost anything."

Right now—

"[Curse Library]."

Natsuka looked at the words on the parchment and read them out softly.

"This skill records the curses you've been hit with, then lets you replicate and use them later."

"Feels a bit like Lefiya's [Fairy Ring]."

Kuroneko looked thoroughly pleased with herself, her tail swishing along in a brisk, happy rhythm.

"There's a development ability too."

"Isn't this [Transformation] the legendary 'invincibility frame' everyone talks about?"

With this ability, Kuroneko could now actively switch forms at will.

The switch itself would also grant her extra defense and magic resistance, letting her tank hits head-on.

Her survivability had jumped by a huge margin.

That meant she could start easing out of a pure backline support role and toward a midline, even core, position.

Starting from Lv2, her growth path had opened up considerably.

Natsuka gave it a serious once-over.

"Still, [Curse Library] and [Fairy Ring] are fundamentally different."

"The former can only record 'curses.'"

"That's its biggest limitation."

"Curse-type effects are rare to begin with."

"And curse-casters are absurdly rare on top of that — pretty much every single one of them carries some flavor of Mystery."

"If you tried to count every adventurer in the world with curse abilities, you probably wouldn't get past a handful."

"But its advantages are just as obvious."

"No training required, no incantation, no practice."

"As long as you've actually been hit by a curse attack, you can replicate it."

He wrapped up his point with a summary.

"Overall, this is a genuinely powerful ability."

"Going forward, I'll actively help you collect cursed items."

"We'll fill up your 'library' bit by bit."

Something occurred to Kuroneko as she listened.

"Captain, what about you?"

"You still haven't updated your stats?"

"You took down that green dragon — your stats must have jumped quite a bit, right?"

Natsuka shook his head, smiling.

"I still need some time to let it settle."

"Besides, if I do the math, it's probably nearly dawn back in the real world."

"You lot should be logging off soon too."

They'd charged into the Dungeon that morning, fought their way down to the eighteenth floor, and after everything that had just happened, it was about time for the little players to head off to school.

"But what about the rescue?" Kuroneko asked, a little worried. "If it comes down to it, we could just skip school..."

Natsuka shut that down flat.

"Not yet."

"That poacher still needs to be brought back for interrogation."

"And you all need to get used to your post-level-up bodies as soon as possible."

"Besides, where we're headed next is very likely the enemy's home base."

"If a hidden realm really exists, and they've kept it hidden from adventurers for centuries, then there's no way it's some ordinary place..."

"That place has to be a den of tigers and dragons."

"So we need to prepare thoroughly."

With that, he drew a deep breath, his gaze slowly hardening.

"I'll go scout ahead first."

"Once I've got a read on what's waiting for us, we'll settle on a detailed plan."

Deep night.

After handing the suspect over to the Ganesha Familia, Asfi hurried back.

Natsuka brought along Asfi, Yuuki, and Lyra, all of them wearing masks of invisibility, and made his way to the far eastern edge of Rivira.

Natsuka himself wasn't a hundred percent certain Ryuu had actually gone into the maze at all.

So Lefiya had been left behind on standby.

If Ryuu turned up somewhere outside, she'd be able to notify them right away.

The group finally stopped before a bare stretch of rock wall.

They bent their heads, checking it against the map over and over.

"This is the spot Lord Shadow marked."

"Then let's get to it."

Natsuka had always had a lot of faith in Shadow's uncannily, almost absurdly good luck.

He dropped his invisibility first, pulled a few specially made explosives from his pocket, and hurled them straight at the rock wall ahead.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The blasts went off one after another.

Rubble and dust erupted outward all at once, the echo rolling back and forth through the cavern.

By the time the dust cleared, a gap had been blown open in the massive rock wall.

A dark, cavernous passage lay quietly exposed before them.

Asfi straightened her glasses, which had been knocked askew, utterly speechless.

"There's actually a secret passage here?"

"Don't tell me that guy used to be a member of Evilus?"

Natsuka gave a faint smile, his tone perfectly serious.

"You should always trust in Lord Shadow's wisdom."

The corner of Lyra's mouth curled up too, a hint of admiration in her eyes.

"Truly worthy of Lord Shadow."

Once they'd confirmed the entrance was real, the group advanced slowly down the narrow rock passage.

Asfi ran her hand along the stone wall the whole way, her fingertips brushing the rough-cut surface, unable to hide the shock on her face.

"This is actually man-made construction."

"How is that even possible?"

"Who on earth had enough time on their hands to pour this much effort into digging something like this out of the Dungeon?"

Natsuka, by contrast, looked entirely unbothered.

"Probably some god got a wild idea and just ran with it."

"Isn't that pretty normal, honestly?"

"If anything, I'd bet Hermes is the prime suspect."

That was said with far too much conviction.

Asfi almost fired back on reflex.

But then, thinking it over...

If it really was Hermes, it didn't seem all that far-fetched after all.

So she opened her mouth, and in the end could only manage one line.

"...That actually kind of makes sense."

The group continued on through the pitch-black passage.

Before long, they reached the end.

At the very end stood a massive metal door, cold and heavy, its presence pressing down on them with frightening weight.

Natsuka's eyes lit up. He reached out to touch the door, his expression practically drunk with delight.

"Ahh, a slab of ultra-hard metal this size..."

"Lyra, you think there's any way to haul the whole thing off?"

Lyra looked the door over, wearing the exact same look of a die-hard treasure hoarder.

"If you want to break down ultra-hard metal, the only way is to bake it with sustained flame for a long, long time."

"It's a strange metal."

"No matter what material you smash it with, it's practically useless."

"But if you keep it under sustained high heat, you can gradually reshape it."

"That's the only reason we're able to forge equipment out of it at all."

Natsuka perked right up.

"How long is 'sustained'?"

He'd already started calculating in his head.

After all, he had a Fire Sprite.

Maybe he could just camp out here whenever he had free time, roast the door for eight hours straight, then melt it down and haul it off?

Lyra shattered his fantasy without mercy.

"About eight hours."

"Never mind, then." Natsuka's expression fell instantly. "That's way too long."

While the two treasure-hoarders traded notes on their money-grubbing philosophies...

...on the other side, Asfi and Yuuki had already begun seriously feeling out the structure of the wall and the door, looking for any hidden mechanisms.

A blood-red gem was set into the center of the door.

On either side crouched a strange monster statue, part dragon, part bull, unsettling in a way hard to put into words.

Under the glow of the Magic Stone lamps, the statues' eyes seemed to shift ever so slightly.

It felt uncannily like something alive was actually staring back.

In the end, Asfi's gaze settled on the red gem at the door's center.

"That must be the 'keyhole,' then."

"Can you pry it open?" Natsuka asked offhandedly.

"No," Asfi said, spreading her hands. "You think this is some cheap street lock? You can't just pry it open on a whim."

"Eh?" Natsuka pouted deliberately. "Aren't you Perseus? Don't tell me you can't even pick a lock."

"Mm-hmm-hmm..." Asfi gave up entirely. "If you're so good at it, you do it."

"Fine, I'll do it myself."

Natsuka shot back, unwilling to lose face, and the next moment began chanting under his breath.

[Constellation of Stars, pierce through the galaxy.]

A low hum — a streak of starlight flickered across the door.

The next instant, a hole the size of a basketball had been forced clean through the heavy ultra-hard metal door.