Chapter 407: The Real World (Patreon)

"Ais and I will go take a look."

They took off at once.

The boy and girl rose into the air. Past the lush, verdant treetops, all they could see far off was a vast expanse of white snow surging from the bottom up, in a way that defied all common sense and physics.

Flip the picture upside down and it was an avalanche, only it came from beneath their feet, not from above.

"…"

"…"

Then, out of the endless blanket of snow, a giant snowman revealed its form and let out a roar.

"!!!"

A freezing wind slammed into them, nearly blowing Isagi and Ais away.

This thing wasn't the boss, was it? Some kind of elite mob?!

It was huge. The giant snowman that emerged from the blizzard stood at least several dozen meters tall. From far off, down in the crater, it hadn't looked like much, but now that they were close, its sheer size was obvious.

Still, the team had plenty of experience dealing with enormous opponents.

"Magic bombardment, get ready!"

At Isagi's shout, Lefiya, Riveria and Alfia quickly gathered, raised their staves high, and aimed them at the distant snowman.

The Black Wind abruptly came down. Under Ais's control, it pinned the colossal snowman in place so it couldn't move an inch. The blizzard that had been sweeping toward them seemed to freeze in place as well.

And in that instant…

Through the silent chanting of the three mages, a tiny black dot appeared in midair.

Lefiya, Riveria and Alfia handled it with the utmost care. The three of them controlled that little "black dot" together, gathering Magic, keeping their surroundings pure, and above all, keeping it "stable."

At that moment, the three mages standing at the peak of the city… no, of the world, soaked in sweat, carefully guided the "black dot" into the body of the distant giant snowman.

That was [Primordial Magic].

Isagi, Ais, Ryuu, Finn, Ottar… everyone had heard of this magic, but it was the first time they had seen Lefiya and the others actually use it.

The black dot silently sank into the snowman's body. Then it suddenly burst, twisting the surrounding space like a crumpled piece of clothing.

The blizzard, the snowman… everything in sight vanished, swallowed by the void that tiny black dot had unleashed. It was as if a piece of reality itself had been erased.

Terrifying.

So this was [Primordial Magic]? No wonder Lefiya and the others had treated it as taboo before, even muttering that it was a magic that shouldn't exist in this world.

What they had just done was really only "dipping their toes in." It was merely the "portion" they could control to some degree after all their research and practice lately. If this thing turned unstable, who knew how far its effects would spread? One slip, and it could easily drag other people in.

The blizzard stopped there. Without a sound, everything returned to how it had been before.

However, Isagi and Ais could see that deep within the huge void below the crater, a silvery-white color now showed.

Had that snowstorm been "erupting" from the bottom of the Crimson Mountains?

The party was currently on a path that spiraled downward along the rock wall inside the Crimson Mountains. It was just so vast that, while walking along it, you couldn't feel the spiral at all.

And if they kept going down, there was no telling how long it would take.

According to Ais and the others, at the very bottom of the Crimson Mountains lay Moytura, the 58th Floor, where the Monster Rex Balor dwelled.

The descent would naturally be no easy trek. The paths inside the Crimson Mountains were a tangled maze, hardly different from a small Dungeon of their own.

Most important of all was the heat. Without fire-attribute Salamander Wool, ordinary adventurers would suffer burns if they stayed here too long, and in extreme cases might even spontaneously combust.

On top of that, magma churning within would now and then block the planned route and force them to change course.

Worse, most of the creatures inside the Crimson Mountains were Magic-based "elemental creatures." These Monsters were a real headache. The one that dropped Flame Stone lived here, and it detonated itself anywhere, at any time, not only when killed but even in the middle of a fight. Generally, the best option was to kill it from range.

With such complex terrain, even the Loki Familia and Freya Familia had no great solutions, despite having crossed the [Crimson Mountains] region many times before. In truth, there had been past expeditions that had to end their exploration right here because of all sorts of mishaps.

Riveria and Ottar couldn't say with a hundred percent certainty that they could get through the [Crimson Mountains]. And now that the place had become a "special Dungeon" because of Isagi's skill, it was even harder to say.

To be honest, everyone was being careful. However strong the team had become, nobody had any thought of letting their guard down.

And yet…

The rest of the descent went strangely smoothly.

Along the way they were attacked a few more times by giant snowmen like the first, along with storms and howling winds. Lefiya and the others dealt with each one the same way, simply repeating [Primordial Magic]. Beyond that, there was nothing worth calling a "difficult stage."

Ordinary Monsters, slightly troublesome terrain, it all got cleared with ease, and so…

*

After roughly two or three days of an incredibly long journey, Isagi and the others reached the bottom of the Crimson Mountains.

This should have been the 58th Floor, Moytura. But it wasn't.

In the vast, barren, crimson wasteland, seven doors stood in the middle of nothing.

[Entrance to the Real World]?

The situation was clearly off. Everyone had assumed that once they got down here, a grueling boss fight would be waiting. Wasn't that how it was supposed to go?

Of course, they couldn't just walk straight through those doors. Isagi and the others first circled the crimson wasteland and confirmed that there was absolutely nothing else around, then returned to the doors.

It looked somewhat like what they'd faced back in the Great Waterfall region. But this deep down, even if it was less efficient, it was better not to split up.

With that in mind, Isagi was about to gather everyone and open one door to go in together when, suddenly, all seven doors swung open at almost the same moment. A ferocious pull surged from within, and in an instant sucked everyone inside.

Lefiya, Ais, Ryuu, Riveria, Finn, Ottar… the adventurers were each drawn into a different door.

Only Isagi was different. Alone, he was pulled into the one in the center, the door whose interior was pitch black once it opened.