Translator: Silver  Editor: Namorax

「The Trip Underground」Part 2

“An undead spoke words!?”

“It appears to be different from low-level undead like skeletons!”

Ariane and Chiome dodged the chimera’s attack by leaping back and tried to make sense of the speaking undead monster.

I, on the other hand, had grabbed the shield from my back and blocked one of the chimera’s strikes. The considerable shock that ran through my arm showed my opponent’s impressive physical strength.

When I used the 『Sword of Holy Thunder』 in my other hand to launch a counterattack, the Spider Chimera moved its humanoid body to block my attack with one of the chunks of metal it used as shield. The collision of the two items created a large sonic boom.

“It was repelled!?”

Until now, everything that I attacked with this sword was killed in a single blow, but I only felt a slight impact as the Spider Chimera was knocked back.

『ーMolten stone, pierce through my enemiesー』

When the chimera was staggered after my attack, Ariane used her spirit magic to launch an attack of her own against it. However, the chimera managed to raise its shields to defend itself and when the flames. .h.i.t the shield they immediately vanished.

“A mithril shield!?”

Ariane glared at the Spider Chimera in disbelief.

In this fantasy world, mithril ore was a precious raw material. For a monster of seemingly low intelligence to process it, along with the set of knight armor it currently wore, could only me one thing…… someone have given the chimera these items.

Given what the monster had said before, someone was obviously pulling its strings.

The Spider Chimera used our moment of surprise as an opportunity to attack. The monster charged at Ariane with the intention of taking full advantage of its large size and impressive strength.

Despite its large frame, the monster’s spider legs made it quite agile.

While Ariane managed to dodge the blow, the chimera’s attack crushed a couple of nearby skeletons before hitting the deck.

“【Flame】!!”

Just as the chimera was about to pursue Ariane, I hit it with an beginner-level magic that was easier to control.

The pillar of flame that shot from my hand as if it were a flame thrower managed to incinerate some skeletons, the chimera raised its shield to disperse some of the flames and leaped backward to avoid the rest.

Even though the flames didn’t do any damage to the chimera, they were enough to set the ship on fire.

As embers started to flare up, the tranquil cave was soon filled with the sound of burning wood, smoke and orange lights.

“It’ll be too dangerous to fight on board! Return to the lakefront, quickly!”

Chiome, who’d been fighting off the skeletons until now, called out to Ariane and me before heading back down to the pier.

As if instinctively, Ariane and I shared a pa.s.sing glance and she nodded back at me when I yelled my intentions.

“I’ll guard the rear! Chiome-dono and Ariane-dono leave first!!”

The chimera in front of us had erupted in a rage-filled roar when it saw the ship being consumed by the flames.

「Hindrances, I kill yoooouuuu!!!」

As its two human heads bellowed, the chimera raised its weapons to attack.

Ariane and Chiome had weaved their way through the crowd of skeletons back to the pier and were probably preparing to fight the chimera on the ground.

However, I intended to kill this thing here and now.

That’s why I had Ariane and Chiome leave the narrow confines of the ship. Since the majority of my skills and spells had large areas of effect and firepower, I was hesitant to use them unless I was fighting alone.

While the skill I was gonna use was fine in the game, it was something quite difficult to use in group fights in real life.

“【Sacred Lighting Sword】!!”*

In the game, only mythical grade weapons had weapon skills…… though it’s unknown if the temporary status debuff carried over into reality, it should still be a considerably powerful ability.

My sword’s blade shined in a deep blue color as it more than doubled its length and an electric aura wrapped around it.

The skill’s effects in the game were an increase of 10% in offensive power, inflicting low-level paralysis on targets and increasing the sword’s range.

There weren’t any visual cues for the sword’s extended range in the game, but in this world, there was a brutally obvious one.

When I lightly swung the 『Sword of Holy Thunder』 the skeletons in the vicinity were vaporized by the sword’s aura and the nearby mast was cut off.

A common nickname for this skill was ‘lightsaber mode’.

The broken mast fell into the water with a huge splash.

「AGahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!」

The Spider Chimera roared again as it started flailing its weapons.

“I’ll show you the power of the force!!”

I held the bluish white sword up as I stared down the chimera.

The creature leapt into the air and brought its swords down with a full force swing. There was certainly power behind the move, but it was child’s play compared to Glenys’ attacks.

Even if it had four arms, only two of them were holding swords. I used my lighting clad sword to cut off the lower sword arm and then stabbed my blade into its chest.

「Gyhaaaaaaaaa!!?」

The monster let out an agonized cry as half of its torso vanished. I followed up on the thrust by cutting the remains of the human upper body from the spider lower body.

The chimera’s main body managed to raise its two shields to defend against my next attack. While the sword temporarily reverted to its original form on contact, it quickly returned to its powered form and the recoil was large enough to cut a section out of the ship.

「OOOOOOOOO……!」

The Spider Chimera squeezed out a rueful cry as it’s flesh began to bubble and melt away.

I didn’t care all that much as the creature dissolved in front of me…… but as I started to walk away, a huge explosion blew out ne of the ship’s sides. The shock could be felt from beneath my feet and the first explosion seems to have triggered smaller ones.

Something stored in this ship had caught fire and this vessel wouldn’t last much longer.

I used 【Dimensional Step】 to move to the pier and slowly walked away as multiple explosions went off on the ship.

Just as I was imagining how I might look recreating that one action movie scene, the pier I was walking on began to creak.

When I looked back, I saw that the multiple explosions had sunk the ship and that the pier was following close behind.

“Oh no, nonononono.”

As I ran towards the solid ground I noticed that the 『Sword of Holy Thunder』 was cutting into the pier. In order to prevent my elongated sword from tearing into the pier even further, I had to awkwardly hold it up as I ran.

I somehow reached land just before the last section of the pier sank into the water. Wondering if my mistake had been seen by the others, I quickly looked around for them.

If I had been more level headed, I could have simply used transfer magic to get off the pier, but for some reason I had wanted to show off after my victory.

As I scratched my head and felt a sudden tightness in my chest, sounds of a battle came from behind a large bolder, making me rush towards it once my sword returned to normal.

When I reached the area, I found Ariane and Chiome fending off a group of skeletons and another Spider Chimera.

I unintentionally looked back where the ship had sunk before returning my gaze back to the chimera.

The creature’s appearance and armor wasn’t all that different from the other one, but it carried four large pickaxes in its humanoid hands instead of swords and shields.

This one had probably been hidden away somewhere before now, but Ariane and Chiome seemed to be holding their own against it. Unlike the other chimera, this one lacked mithril shields, allowing Ariane to drop back and shoot fireb.a.l.l.s at it with her spirit magic.

Chiome managed to sneak into the chimera’s blind spot and cut off one of the spider legs with a water dagger before retreating back.

The Chimera released a pained shriek as it turned around to attacked whatever injured it. This proved to be fatal, as Ariane ran up to the distracted chimera and ran her frame clad sword through its back. Having lost its strength, the chimera’s body fell to the ground and began to dissolve like the other one.

Simultaneously with the chimera’s death, the remaining skeletons became disordered.Thecoordinated unit they had been previously was reduced to an incoherent mob. Apparently, the chimeras had been controlling the skeletons all along.

I called out to the two of them just as they finished cutting down the nearby mindless skeletons.

“So there were two of those monsters.”

“It and a horde of skeletons appeared from the waterfall not long after we got off the ship.”

Ariane spoke up after wiping the dirt from her sword and sheathing it.

“The lower half of its body was rather tough. I would’ve been quite difficult to injure the creature with a regular dagger.”

While keeping an eye on the melting Spider Chimera, Chiome ran her finger over her regular dagger to check for nicks in the blade.

“While I have no idea what they were, we seem to have dealt with them just fine.”

I dropped my eye towards some nearby skeletal remains. The skeletons here didn’t carry any weapons like the ones that had been on the ship, they had had collection baskets on their backs instead.

The battle had scattered the contents of the baskets all over the ground. A quick look revealed the items to be magic stones like the one Ariane had picked up before.

“That ship of undead had been gathering these……”

“What in the world could they be using these for?”

Chiome looked at the scattered magic stones before she asked her questions.

“There are various uses for this for elves, but humans still lack the technology to properly process them. The best they could do would be the 『Explosive Magic Crystal』 that was used in Hoban……”

A wrinkle formed on Ariane’s forehead as she stroked her chin and answered Chiome.

“The ship has sunk to the bottom of the lake, but the masterminds haven’t revealed themselves. We’ll only be wasting our time pondering this mystery here. Shouldn’t we focus on what to do from here on out?”

The two of them broke out of their thoughts about this whole situation and nodded at my proposal to move on.

“You’re right. It’s better to let the elders conduct a detailed investigation.”

“How about we take a break? Currently, there aren’t any signs of a threat in the nearby area, Ponta is barely managing to stay on Ariane’s neck.”

Chiome’s ears rose into the air before she suggested that we take a rest. Ponta was indeed raggedly hanging off Ariane’s neck.

“Ky〜un……”

Having to cling to Ariane as she fought and the mental fatigue from sensing the Spider Chimera and the undead must have tired the little fox out.

Ariane quickly took Ponta from around her neck and began nursing the fox against her chest.

Our little group moved to the lakeside and began discussing our future plans.

“Do you want to return to the cavern’s entrance with 【Transfer Gate】 and start over? Since I ingrained the entrance into my mind, escaping wouldn’t be a problem.”

Ariane stopped feeding dried beans to Ponta when I made my proposal and shook her head no in response.

“No, since a reconnaissance team needs to be sent to this place we should find a proper way out of here. Once we find our way out, we’ll return here and set up camp for the night. Apart from the undead, I believe this cave is relatively safe from monsters……”

Ariane voiced her suggested while alternating her gaze between Chiome and me as if asking for our cooperation with her eyes.

“Well… A large amount of time has pa.s.sed since we entered, and it may be dark outside by the time we leave. I think this place would be the most suitable campsite in this cavern, given the surplus of light and water.”

I nodded in agreement when Chiome spoke her opinion.

“Understood. Then let’s look for a way back up after our break.”

I nodded as if I had no objections and took off my helmet while sighing.

Silver: In the Raw 【Sacred Lighting Sword】skill was the same name as Arc’s sword. I changed it for clarity’s sake.