Mira looked at the map, detailed with even dead ends and needless routes, then looked away blinking rapidly, then looked again to find the main route out of the maze.
The corridors were around three meters wide, with torches of an unknown material scattered in regular intervals throughout them, which emitted a blue light. The stone walls seemed to embrace the stillness of the place, showing no signs of aging even after standing there for centuries, only narrating the countless fights that happened between them.
The Libra Fortress was very large, and was divided into three different sections that all served a different purpose.
The furthest section was cut off behind a wall taller and sturdier than the one Mira’s group had seen earlier, which was said to fend off even the strongest of monsters. The middle section was a really large open space behind the main gates, which was now littered with remains of trenches, rusty weapons, and crumbling defensive walls. That was the place where the battle got the most intense during that war of old. Then the front section, which was divided into four floors, the upper one housing the control room where the Spirit King was said to have descended.
「Leave this to me, I’ll go in front.」
Hebi said that to the two who kept groaning over the map and moved ahead with her golem. On her hand, there was another map, which only showed the main route without much else added.
Mira and Arlon looked at each other for a moment, their shoulders lowering before they broke into a smile and followed Hebi.
Around ten minutes after they started walking, Hebi’s golem stopped dead in its tracks before a corner.
「Enemies.」
As soon as Hebi finished saying that word, the golem broke into a run creating a loud noise as if its feet were digging out the floor, before swinging its roughly shaped fist against the whitish green smoke that had sprouted from the corner.
「It packs quite a punch, huh.」
That smoke was a monster called Knight Ghost. Normally creatures without a body had a strong resistance against physical attacks, but the golem’s punch caused considerable damage on it.
That made the Knight Ghost spread out, turning more transparent, vanishing into the air and reappearing further away from the group and escaping the fist. The monster was taking the form of an armored knight, but there were parts of the armor chipped away, presumably due to the earlier punch it received.
「I brought some Astral Gel just in case, but it looks like it won’t be needed.」
Seeing the state the monster was in, Arlon returned his ax to his belt, while his other hand put a small bottle back into his puch. The ax shaped like a crescent moon with a jade sheen dangled in a dejected manner, being robbed of its time on stage.
「It appears so.」
Mira agreed with him as she watched over Hebi’s battle. A monster without a physical body, or in other words, phantom type monsters had a strong resistance against physical attacks, but that is where the item Arlon had could help. Once a coat of that gel was spread over one’s weapon, it would nullify the resistance of the monster. Though it was still possible to defeat those monsters without the gel, it would simply be very inefficient.
As Mira and Arlon commentated on the events, the straight jab from the golem collided with the Knight Ghost and shattered it into pieces which vanished into the air. A second one appeared, which was restrained by the golem while Burial Skill: Rebirth Dissolve was cast on it, obliterating the monster.
Some sparks still remained in the air as Hebi created a new golem and turned around with a proud look. But Mira, who Hebi had wanted to impress the most, was much more interested and focused on all the items Arlon had brought with him. After all, there were many items she was seeing for the first time.
Seeing that, Hebi hung her shoulders discouraged.
「You’re taking this way too seriously, you know?」
Seeing Hebi’s almost desperate attempts at standing out, Sasori spoke to her.
「You’re still worried since you forced your way in even after Uzume said only three of us would come, right? So you’re trying to take the lead and be as useful as you want.」
Sasori had seen many signs that pointed at that being the case. Particularly the matter with the carriage had stood out, though that could simply be her being considerate, but when it came to her fighting it was way too obvious.
「It’s not that. This mission is important. So I have to do this.」
Sasori exhaled out of worry, wondering just how stubborn Hebi could get, before poking at her cheeks.
「Then rely on us all the more. We’re all tasked with it after all.」
Hebi’s mouth remained shut after Sasori said that, and she only nodded quickly.
「What happened?」
Mira had just finished discussing how to proceed after that with Arlon when she turned around and saw the two like that. Sasori and Hebi quickly shook their heads saying it was nothing, so Mira proceeded to the matters at hand.
「This is just to be safe. It almost never happens, but there’s a small chance that a monster capable of casting curses spawns.」
Saying that, Mira gave the two some pieces of paper with something written on it, though it was so scribbled it was impossible to read. Those were magic charms to nullify a certain amount of curses, a fearsome debuff some high level spiritual monsters could cause. Their use cases were very limited though, so they were not in the average adventurer’s toolbox.
「Ohh, thank you.」
「Thanks.」
Sasori accepted hers and closely examined it, filled with curiosity, before storing it in her side pouch. Hebi carefully took hers with both hands, placing it dearly in the inner pocket of her robe.
Those charms had been left forgotten in the depths of Mira’s Item Box, but she remembered about them when Arlon showed her all the items he had prepared.
The highest level phantom enemies could nullify almost perfectly any physical attacks, but they were the weakest against spellcasters, so Mira’s group was perfect to deal with them. Spellcasters were so effective in fact, that back during the game age spellcasters would sometimes be referred to as the Ghost B_sters. Mira had also been there when they were at their highest, so for her, those charms were a bit like a relic from those times.
Though either way, there was nothing much to worry yet since they were still on the first floor.
As Hebi led the way, every so often a group of Knight Ghosts would get in their way, so Hebi’s golem would stand like a wall between them and the group, while Sasori ran along the wall and quickly took the monsters down together with the Dark Lord’s countless blades. Arlon stood back, obviously entertained, though still carefully watching every movement they made. Mira also kept pushing the Dark Lord to show off.
(So she can also run on walls. I wonder how long she trained to be able to do that.)
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