Chapter 10: Ruins of Visitor (part four)
“Erica, are you hurt somewhere?”
“I’m alright, Klaus-sama.”
“I see……then, do you feel sluggish, cold, or something like that?”
“I’m alright!”
“I see……if you feel somewhat bad, don’t overdo it and say it quickly.”
“Yes, yes. I will tell you.”
We were organizing and sorting the items that were stored in the storage boxes of Eduart-oniisama.
I mainly focused on the wands, while Klaus on the scrolls and spellcards.
……It was supposed to be a time for preparations, but Klaus’ hands were stopping frequently.
Every time he stopped, he asked me about my condition.
“Erica, you, are you really……”
“Klaus-sama, I will get angry, you know?”
On his face, a big sign of ‘Worried!’ is written.
He resembles Eduart-oniisama when I caught a cold.
Both of them have the same eldest son’s color on their soul’s aura.
Brother who has a black-belly and dark smile is a good person, similarly, maybe Klaus who would grow up to be a Do-S man is also a good person?
“Klaus-sama, how is it?”
“There is no curse in the range of my Glam Sight. These spellcards can be diverted to Hafan’s magic without a problem. Wait a little more for the analysis of these scrolls.”
“That’s fortunate. Please don’t forget to restore your magical power by drinking the potion.”
“Ah, I know. What about you, Erica?”
I read the parchment notes about the classified wands.
Wand of the Death1.
Wand of Fire Bolt.
Wand of Lightning Bolt.
Wand of Magic Missiles.
They all came from the trapped box of death.
Although the remaining amount of charge is few, all of them are powerful offensive wands.
It was not unreasonable for Eduart-oniisama to be vigilant about thieves.
“You mean they are Eduart’s leftovers?”
“The fact that the offensive wands were used is probably because a fairly large battle had happened.”
“Well, it is strange that there were no monsters to protect the ruins at all, but maybe they were already wiped out?”
“Probably so.”
Yes, the Ruins of Visitor has already been conquered.
In this regard, I would like to thank my brother obediently.
Even though the mechanism of this labyrinth alone is sufficiently troublesome, I shudder when I think that a monster might also come out.
“Ooh! I can use this!”
Klaus raised a shout of joy as he was analyzing the scrolls while making constant reference to his personal notebook.
He seems to be in a good form ever since his magical power recovered.
I also stopped my hands that were packing items into my bag and looked into the scroll.
“Have you found a magic that seems useful?”
“Far better than being useful, it’s not an exaggeration to say that this is a trump card. What is described here is a Pass Wall.”
Klaus showed me the page of the notebook and scrolls, pointing alternatingly with excitement.
Yup, but you see, I can’t read the magic language of Hafan.
The result of a magical research was written carefully in the notebook.
This is nostalgic, Klaus (older) of the game also carried magical research notes that were as thick as a Japanese dictionary2.
With this, he will grow up to be a hardworking genius.
“Is that a magic that lets you freely pass through the wall? That is also a magical way for labyrinth searchers to cheat.”
“I don’t feel even a bit ashamed, because right now we don’t have enough time anyway.”
Certainly, in the situation where mine and Ann’s lives are on the line, we don’t have time to keep track of the maze of the labyrinth.
But when I think about this carefully, brother had always prepared this cheat spell when searching inside a labyrinth.
As expected, brother……somehow immature.
“So it’s like this, let’s use the large, hateful mechanical labyrinth as an example. If it was an ordinary labyrinth, we would just have to walk through the walls and walk from one end to the other end.”
“But we don’t understand the laws of the labyrinth, it won’t be strange even if a fatal incidence occurs because we failed to confirm everything.”
In addition to the passage of time, the Ruins of Visitor detects the weight of its intruder and changes its shape.
The message of Eduart-oniisama, who explored the ruins first, was not left in every room.
Because there aren’t many hints, it would be unreasonable if we don’t try to decipher the laws of the changing labyrinth from now on.
“If we don’t understand the rule, at least we should be able to suppress the change of the labyrinth.”
“Time passage, weight…huh…”
“The manipulation of time is the highest-ranking magic. I memorized the chants and the magic circle configuration as much as I could, but they place a heavy burden on someone as immature as I am. I have never succeeded even once in casting it.”
“You memorized it, huh? The highest-ranking magic.”
“If it is only memorizing spells, everyone can do it if they try. Once I mature, I will finally be able to practice it.”
No, but even though he is only 10-years-old, he has memorized the highest-ranking magic, I believe that not everyone can do it, you know?
Because this is a genius who has not noticed that he is actually a genius!
Well, but controlling time is impossible anyhow.
Then, the remaining is weight.
Weight, weight, weight……ah!
“Klaus-sama, there is a Wand of Levitation. With this Pass Wall, combined with—”
“I see, a flying-based magic! Then, it’s as good as no mechanical labyrinth!”
Wand of Levitation was made from fossils of a large wyvern.
On the stick head is an amber, and the handle part has yellow brass in a pattern of a feather.
The core material is fossil of the wing of an archaeopteryx.
Incidentally, this is also very expensive, but in this situation I can’t afford to be frugal.
Unlike flying, it is impossible to finely adjust the height of Levitation.
However, since we only want to avoid a mechanical labyrinth, we only need to float a little from the ground.
Levitation has a weak effect, but it is useful enough.
“Then the next step is decided. Using Levitation in combination with Pass Wall, we will search each layer one by one.”
“If we also combine them with Urd Sight, it seems we will be able to significantly shorten the time.”
“There are two Pass Wall scrolls. I think one piece is for returning, we will return temporarily if we cannot join with Ann before the first piece’s effect timeout.”
“It can’t be helped. In case Ann-sama is in a safe place – let’s leave a note in various places so that we can guide her to this simple base camp.”
There is a possibility that it might not be noticed at all depending on the weather, if it is only written on the wall with Moonlight Gallnut Ink.
Just by dropping scraps of parchments squeezing out the instructions on the conspicuous points such as the entrance, the discovery rate would rise significantly.
“Erica, I said this many times, but we will return home as soon as you feel unusual about your condition. No matter how much effect time the Pass Wall scroll has left.”
“Klaus-sama……”
“I am worried about Ann, but if you have any chance to be saved, I will not forgive myself for the rest of my life if you die. If only I looked at the magic trace a bit more carefully, that trap could have been prevented.”
“Klaus-sama, you have quite a stubborn personality, don’t you?”
“You……”
I appreciate him for being worried about me.
But it was due to my carelessness that I got caught in a trap.
Because it is burdensome to be taken care of too much, I changed the topic to miscellaneous things.
Nonetheless, to be honest, I feel glad that Klaus is actively seeking to withdraw.
Is it because I have received a sentence of death?
It is a good thing.
—No, no, that is not good at all.
After the confirmation of items was finished, we prepared for our departure.
Klaus wore a belt with a potion holder found from Onii-sama’s storage box around his waist from above his robe.
He hooked the magic recovery potions to all of its special shaped metal fittings.
He drank three potions that couldn’t be fitted in the holder to restore his magical power, the rest would be put into the cloth bag that Klaus had brought with him.
Three potions……he is only 10-years-old, but the maximum value of his magical power is high.
If it was an average adult mage, I heard that their magical power would be fully restored after drinking two and a half bottle of potions.
“Wh-what is it? Why are you staring at me like that?”
“No, never mind. If I must say, I’m worried whether your magical power has completely recovered or not.”
“I see…… Ah, if wide area magic is not hindered, I have enough magical power to run exploration magic on all the layers so far.”
“Klaus-sama, if I look closely your face is red, how is your physical condition?”
“Oh, aah……why is this happening? Was there also alcohol among the ingredients of the potion……?”
When Klaus turned the other way, he started gathering spellcards with great vigor.
He looks like a banker who counts bills or a magician who shuffles cards.
He bundled about 20 sheets of spellcards and put them into hidden pockets in various parts of his robe.
Hmm? Wait a moment, did he bring hundreds of them?
Even just by glancing at him, it seems like he has put over 300 sheets in just one sleeve.
“Klaus-sama, no way, are you going to bring all of the spellcards? There are about 2000 sheets, you know?”
“If we go to the deepest layer, there is a possibility that we will come across an unknown monster. By the way, there are less than 2000.”
“Being the mage of the East is hard work too, huh?”
“We also put importance on preparation. It is the same as the fundamental of you western alchemists. Unlike the northern swordsmen who can fight with each other, or the southern dragon knights who are unbeatable as long as they have dragons.”
“Considering all that, you still came to this ruins without preparation……”
“Because, at that time I was feeling weird. No, I reflect on it. I will never do something like this without preparation again.”
It is harsh that he is feeling ashamed about it.
His behavior was due to the curse of the vampire (?)3, so I didn’t mean to blame him.
I fastened the lamp that tends to block my hand on the bag, and wrapped the belt that had the wand holder around my waist.
It only barely caught around my waist, as expected it is truly a belt for my brother.
I picked up the two wands of Magic Missiles and Lightning Bolt from among the offensive wands, and the three wands of Levitation, Feather Falling, and Urd Sight from among the supportive wands and put them in the holder.
Too many would just bring confusion and can’t be used.
It is the theory of alchemists’ way of fighting, to insert a reasonable number of wands into the belt and exchange them alternatingly with the wands inside the bag as occasion demands.
……Eduart-oniisama is selling out.
“Ah, right. Klaus-sama take these too, please. These are the Wand of Levitation and Feather Falling……in other words, they are for flying and falling. Because these two have a short range, please do self-management to the best of your ability during the move.”
“I understand the Levitation, but when would we use the Wand of Feather Falling?”
“This is important. We can’t say that there would be no such thing like pitfall, and it can also be used when we float too high. Because Levitation has a high altitude rise, it often happens if you swing it too many times by mistake.”
“How high is it specifically?”
“Usually around 5 cm. 25 cm when you swing it once more. And 125 cm if you swing it again. The altitude will rise exponentially with each swing.”
“Huh. That’s interesting.”
Ah, 10-years-old and he already understands the exponential function.
As expected, he is the hardworking genius, Klaus Hafan.
Although there is also a possibility that he will manage float appropriately.
Let’s take care so that he won’t overuse the Wand of Levitation.
“Let’s go, Erica. From here it’s a race against time.”
“Yes, Klaus-sama. Let’s help Ann-sama as soon as possible.”
Klaus read aloud the scroll of Pass Wall.
White light spread out from his staff and spread a magic circle over us.
From the magic circle overhead, drops of light came down like raindrops.
The drops of light which passed through us, spread like a ripple when it fell to the ground and formed another magic circle.
The two magic circles intersected slowly so as to sandwich us and the trajectory of white light enveloped us.
After confirming the invocation of Pass Wall, I waved the Wand of Levitation which was made of amber, bone and brass, twice.
Feathers made of golden lights fell to our feet.
Light touched our shoes, and when it touched our shoes, it changed into a golden magic circle.
The magic circle of Levitation spread as if covering our shoes, pushing our body up in the air.
As we held hands so that none of us would get stuck in the wall, we kicked in the air and jumped into the wall.
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1 The literal translation is actually Wand of the Armor of Death.
2 It actually said 広○苑, but I know that it refers to 広辞苑 (Koujien) or a Japanese dictionary written by Shinmura Izuru. For reference, it is this size. So, Klaus (older)’s research journal is very thick.
3 This question mark is in the raw. This is because Erica still wasn’t sure that the magic spelled on the stone was from the vampires. It was still pure speculation.