The full figure of the goblin charging toward them came into view—it wasn’t just the red hat, its entire body was dyed crimson from blood spatter.
“Enhanced evasion… ‘Sigil of Heat Haze.’”
“Shraaahh!”
The saber swung down, seemingly striking Haruka-senpai. But in the next moment, her figure appeared at the goblin’s side, thrusting with her dagger.
“Grahh… Guh, guh, guh…”
The goblin was blown away by a slash to its shoulder, but the look of delight didn’t fade from its face. It grinned with bared fangs, drooling profusely.
“Magic Craft… ‘Ice Ball!’”
“Gyaa… Gyagyagyaa…!”
The frost magic unleashed by Nanami-san froze the goblin’s hand holding the saber—but the ice shattered instantly, and the goblin’s gleaming eyes fixed on her.
“…”
“Nanami-san, don’t look into that goblin’s eyes!”
“Shraaah…!”
The goblin charged, zigzagging as it leaped, aiming for Nanami-san, who momentarily froze in fear—but then.
“…Guh!?”
《Skill ‘Fixation’ activated. The spatial coordinates of the target are now fixed.》
If you know when it’s coming, you can stop it. The goblin froze in mid-air, and Futaba-san blew her flute, directing sound waves at it.
Simultaneously, Haruka-senpai dashed forward. She coordinated her attack with Futaba-san’s—but then.
“Senpai, I’ll finish it from a distance just in case!”
“…!”
“Level 10, Hyper Bullet—Fire!”
A concentrated bullet of magic struck the goblin. At the same time, a red mist sprayed out from its body, spreading around.
The goblin wasn’t so powerful that we couldn’t defeat it. If other explorers had been defeated, there must be a reason for it—likely, that red mist. Just in case, we pinned it down and finished it with a ranged attack to avoid any close encounters.
“…Guh…”
The goblin collapsed to the ground, no longer moving.
Mana: 120/137
Though my maximum mana has been gradually increasing as I recover, I can’t afford to use skills at this pace.
“…This saber… has the Hinata family crest on it.”
“Haruka-senpai, have you seen this sword before?”
“Yes. Ryuudou Hinata… the brother of Hinata-kun, who you rescued. He used to wield a saber like this… And this torn piece of clothing—it’s part of an exploration uniform…”
“The color of the crest… that’s the second-year emblem. But this is a girl’s uniform.”
“Cipher, can you analyze this uniform?”
“…I HAVE ANALYZED IT TO THE BEST OF MY ABILITY. THE BLOOD TYPE IS A. THE BLOOD HAS BEEN ON THE FABRIC FOR LESS THAN AN HOUR.”
What could have happened? For now, I decided to compress the fixed red mist.
《Item Obtained: Blood-Draining Mist ×1》
This mist was likely something that would retaliate against anyone who got close. Judging from the name, it probably weakens the target upon exposure.
“Cipher, can you determine anything about the blood on the saber?”
“IT MATCHES THE BLOOD ON THE UNIFORM.”
“So, that goblin stole the saber and attacked whoever was with Ryuudou Hinata… Normally, that’s what we’d assume, but…”
“Could it be they didn’t take any precautions against mana poisoning?”
“There are several symptoms of mana poisoning. One of them is friendly fire. Those affected become excessively aggressive, starting fights over the smallest things.”
Either way, Ryuudou and his companions are somewhere on this level. We had the dungeon secured so only we could enter, but it seems there’s another way in.
“We don’t know why they entered this dungeon…”
Nanami-san said, but considering the history between Kaito and me, it’s not hard to imagine why his brother would be targeting me.
“Ryuudou Hinata has been trying to recruit me into his party for a long time.”
“I see… The Mikuriya family and the Hinata family have had ties for years, but the Hinatas have always looked down on us. There’s no clear difference in rank, but Ryuudou wants to use me—as a pawn.”
“Haruka-senpai, you’re ranked second overall and first among second-years. Even so, referring to people as ‘pawns’ is going too far.”
“That’s just the kind of people they are. It might sound harsh, but it’s true. Ryuudou even knew about my condition and once tried to stage an accident where I’d be exposed to poison. Luckily, it wasn’t an aphrodisiac, so I managed to avoid the worst of it.”
“I don’t even want to think about that time… When the effect of ‘The Secret Sigil of Alchemy’ manifested, my sister was in real trouble.”
There was clearly some bad blood between Kaito’s brother and Haruka-senpai—which means…
“Maybe Ryuudou knew I’d be accompanying Tsukasa-kun. I’m sorry…”
“There’s no need to apologize. What matters now is figuring out the situation with Ryuudou’s group. Though I hate to think about it, there’s a possibility they’ve already been wiped out.”
Futaba-san gasped. Nanami-san lowered her eyes and clutched my sleeve.
Her pale hands were trembling. It was understandable; going any further might expose us to something horrific.
I held Nanami-san’s hand. I needed to keep everyone’s anxiety in check as much as possible.
“…WARNING. ‘ESCAPE SCROLL’ CANNOT BE USED AT THIS TIME.”
“W-Why? How could that be…?”
“Ryuudou and his group didn’t use an escape scroll because they couldn’t use it.”
“Yes. WE HAVE COLLECTED DATA AND DETERMINED THAT FROM DEPTH 9 ONWARD, SCROLLS ARE SEALED…”
Cipher had likely been concerned about this for some time—fearing it would fail in a critical moment, they had to report it as soon as they confirmed it.
Not that I doubted her, but Futaba-san tested the ‘Escape Scroll’ just to be sure—nothing happened.
“When activated, a magic circle should appear beneath our feet… it seems we won’t be getting any easy way out.”
“Living a survival life on Depth 9 is an option…”
“With Tsukasa-kun, we can explore even Depth 10. Though we’ll need to be careful about mana usage since you’ve been using skills consecutively.”
“This uniform is a clue. Fujiwara-kun, do you have the ‘Search Glasses’?”
“Yeah, I have them. Nanami-san, did you think of something?”
She nodded slightly and began adjusting the glasses right then and there.
“…I’m linking them to Cipher’s mapping function. This way, if there’s anything similar to this uniform within Cipher’s sensor range, we’ll be able to locate it.”
“The fact that you can do all of that right here… Magic Engineers are amazing.”
“So, um… what’s the response…?”
Futaba-san asked with a tense expression.
“…A SIGNAL HAS BEEN DETECTED IN THE 10 O’CLOCK DIRECTION FROM THIS POINT.”
We knew where to go. I converted the saber and the uniform into chips, and we resumed our progress.
“Beep beep—Monsters detected ahead.”
Once again, purple Balloons and red goblins appeared. Should we call them ‘Red Brownies’? But this time, they were no longer a challenge.
《Item Obtained: Void Blast ×3》
《Item Obtained: Void Blast ×3》
《Item Obtained: Revive Stone ×1》
《Item Obtained: Balloon’s Magic Stone ×1》
《Item Obtained: [Unidentified] Red Hat ×1》
《Item Obtained: [Unidentified] Rusty Dagger ×1》
《Item Obtained: Blood-Draining Mist ×1》
