Chapter 56
What could be called as an ancient ruin was mainly divided into two ways.
As the name suggested, it was simply either an ‘old’ ruin or a place where ‘magical’ traps existed.
Regardless of the former, the latter ‘magical’ was often used in a sense when people didn’t know the mechanism.
The ruin where Sheila and others explored last time became the example for the latter. Aside from being a trap, it was difficult to a.n.a.lyze the mechanism concerning the spatial transition.
Even so, people might find the device that constructed the mechanism which could be existed somewhere.
Incidentally, by using that sense, a labyrinth was also considered as an ancient ruin, but that was usually treated as a special case.
It was too complicated in many ways to call it an ancient ruin.
If labyrinth was included, the difference in meaning would be too wide.
Furthermore, a place would be regarded as ancient ruin by the surroundings was a place that had existed more than 500 years ago.
The latter ruins were the most abundant around that time.
The ruins of the former which were also regarded as the ancient ruins existed earlier than that.
There were also other things. Although the ruin of the former was often dealt by researchers, it was also the same for adventurers.
It was just that people couldn’t get good stuff when exploring the ancient ruin.
In the latter case, treasures and others were often found like in their previous ruin visited. If they could find the source of that spatial transition mechanism by chance, it was possible to aim for a quick fortune.
Although people might not know the mechanism, there were a lot of researchers wanted to study it and invested a lot of money simply because they didn’t understand.
Well, whatever it was, there was no subst.i.tute for danger.
In many cases, monsters were settling here.
Just like this…
"– Dividing Cut." (Sheila)
Katana Special Rank – Protection of The Forest G.o.d – Concentration of Mind – Iai – Mind’s Eye: Dividing Cut
The moment the monsters came into sight after appearing from the darkness, Sheila sliced them right away.
The head part separated from the torso… but without worrying about it, the swung down arm maintained its position.
— Katana Special Rank – Protection of The Forest G.o.d – Concentration of Mind – Consecutive attack: Blade of Two Moons (TLN: The name in raw is 刀術特級・森霊の加護・精神集中・連撃：双月の太刀)
The right arm that grab the sword swung again, but… she bit her lips because she noticed that the current blow was shallow.
Sheila swung her left hand at random while leaping backward, and Lina came to the front to replace her.
Lina slashed as she stepped in and cut that body horizontally. That body was cut into crosses with that subsequent attack.
It was scattered, rolled on the ground and it didn’t move any longer.
"…Yeah, I’m saved." (Sheila)
"I thought that it was too much, but I’m glad if that helped you. Nevertheless, I’ve been thinking from a moment ago, but the monsters here are quite formidable, isn’t it?" (Lina)
"It wasn’t hard fight and it couldn’t be seen in that way by looking from the side, but… when I think about it, although the monsters can be beaten with one or two blows, it is necessary to put more effort here." (Lina)
Needless to say, monsters were likely to be encountered anywhere except in the town.
There was no exception either during traveling on a carriage or going to these ruins.
Because of such a thing, they knew the competence of each other to some extent, but Lina was right. Majority of the monsters encountered were defeated in one or two blows.
However, the total number of moves needed to kill the monster just now was four blows.
Lina’s last blow also meant for caution’s sake, but…
"…Hmm, it looks like a common skeleton at first glance, but could it be a higher rank variety?" (Sheila)
Skeleton.
From its appearance, it was easy to understand that it was a non-living type monsters and there were many examples. The bare bones rolling on the floor was one of the examples that they fought just now.
If people simply looked at it, it was nothing but a common skeleton, but… they couldn’t simply judge so because of the st.u.r.diness.
Skeleton was a monster and it reasonably looked fragile from its appearance.
However, though it was a non-living type, it wouldn’t die if people cut its neck.
In order to kill it, it was necessary to crush the core that was somewhere in the body to a certain extent, but… if it was an ordinary skeleton, Sheila should be able to defeat it in one blow even without crus.h.i.+ng the core.
If she couldn’t do so, then, it shouldn’t be an ordinary skeleton.
"If you ask me, its movement is certainly a bit sharper, right? Well, I never fought an ordinary skeleton before, so I can’t affirm it." (Lina)
"I’m not sure how to compare to the ordinary skeleton, but it is a fact that this skeleton is somewhat tougher than the monsters we have fought before." (Soma)
"…I know that you are telling the truth, but to be honest, it’s not convincing when you tell that, you know." (Aina)
"…Yes, I agree." (Sheila)
"Hmm? Why is that?" (Soma)
Whatever it was, Soma didn’t appear struggling at all.
He was defeating every opponent with one blow until now.
Even though Soma said that it was tough, it didn’t carry a persuasive power.
Or perhaps, since Soma was the one who said it, it
"For now, I wonder if it is necessary to proceed with caution… Hmm, there is no need to say this late." (Aina)
"Yes. On the other hand, it is suspicious to say when there is nothing until now." (Lina)
Lina did meant what she said.
Although the monster attack randomly occurred, was everything similar as the skeleton they fought before? It was because the monster was somewhat tougher even though she didn’t struggle hard.
Besides, there was nothing else really happened.
They entered the tower for almost an hour.
They found about two stairs to the top, and even though they went up, there was no sign of any mechanism existed contrary to the their vigilance.
Yes, in other words, at this moment, this was merely an ‘old’ ruin.
But, if that was the case, the credibility of that man’s story would become weak.
Well, he said that from the beginning, but although it was an ‘old’ ruin, it wasn’t like nothing remain here.
However, that sort of thing was kind of thing that was protected by magical trap.
Although it was easy to say that this ruin wasn’t easy… no matter how people said about it… this kind of ruin display a strong feeling of eeriness.
In addition, there was one more thing that Sheila had to worry about here.
She was concerned about the ruin they visited last time, but… if there was something related here and there, she couldn’t say that this ruin was irrelevant.
In the previous ruin, it was in the hall that they arrived at the end of the exploration.
There was a black dragon.
Sheila was anxious about that.
For the Elves, the black dragon was a proof of sinister.
An incident happened once and the myth was still being pa.s.sed down even today.
The myth about the Elves and the black dragon.
According to the myth, a black dragon was said to be the precursor of destruction in this world.
However, at that time, a lady savior swoop it down or something, but… whether that was a fact or not, no one knew. Unfortunately, it was a true fact that a black dragon was on rampant in this world once.
Since Sheila heard everything when she was small, she was very conscious about it.
Nonetheless, she thought that this was just a coincidence.
After all, the Elven forest was far apart from where they were now.
It was a statue, and there should be many places existed to wors.h.i.+p the dragons.
Plus, the color of the statue was probably a coincidence too.
Anyhow, they definitely had to be cautious in this place.
"…Yeah, for the time being, let’s move forward." (Sheila)
"Yes, I agree." (Soma)
As they moved forward, the scenery remained the same and it continued on.
The photosphere that Aina produced illuminated a stone pa.s.sage that slightly curved to the right.
In spite of going around the inside of the tower, it seemed to be structured to turn around the outside.
Since Aina and Lina so far were the same, it was probably the same for Soma.
The first one to notice that was, of course, Soma.
"…Come to think of it, do Soma and others ever went to ruins or something?" (Sheila)
"Hmmm? Why did you think so?" (Soma)
"…You don’t have knowledge as an adventurer, so I wonder if you guys are a bit familiar about exploring ruins?" (Sheila)
"I see… Well, I talked a bit when we were in the carriage that we went to various places before going to Yeasta. There were also some ruins among those places. Those places were places without too many monsters in it, so it was somewhat insufficient to call it as exploration." (Soma)
"Was it one… no, it were two ruins, I think? We were also went to places like ancient ruins, right?" (Aina)
"Aah, that remind me, you are right… there was such an occasion…" (Soma)
"…? What do you mean?" (Sheila)
"Aah that kind of talk, huh? When I noticed it, we had already transferred." (Lina)
When Sheila heard the story, Soma and the others went to a different ruin during the exploration of a certain ruin.
It seemed that once they were used to it, they were already at another ruin.
By all means, those ruins were places they had visited before this present situation.
"When we got out of that place, we felt that it was a familiar place, so I was really surprised…" (Aina)
"Well, it was a one-way traffic, so we couldn’t go back and wasted a lot of time." (Soma)
"It was really tiring…" (Lina)
This kind of talk occasionally happened in this kind of place.
In most cases, it seemed that the number of accidents were high.
It was a feeling that was likely to occur in ruins with a structure of a spatial system where sometimes they were moved to another places because of mistakes an unnecessary actions.
Since they were transferred between ruins, its design was probably intended.
"…Aah, I see." (Sheila)
Sheila nodded since she was convinced with the present discussion, but.. the things that she didn’t understand multiplied.
She didn’t understand from where the different in apparent experience among Soma’s group came from.
As Sheila could see from the earlier understanding of the structure of this tower, Soma was clearly had some kind of experience.
What she didn’t understand was that whenever she thought about Soma’s conduct, she had a feeling that was it based on experience.
Knowledge alone wouldn’t give to his thickness and dignity.
If it was an experience as an adventurer, Sheila was definitely far above.
As for the knowledge, they were on equal term.
However, no matter how she looked at Soma, he was obviously more experienced in various ways.
However, Sheila never had such a feeling from Aina and Lina even though they should have similar experience as Soma.
Even if she tilted her neck, she still couldn’t understand…
"Hmm… are you saying that there is a possibility for me to handle this alone? Well, I think that it is better to take precautions once in a while, though." (Soma)
"…Yes." (Sheila)
She nodded without asking anything at that sudden words, but that was because she was already used to do that.
Or rather, she knew that Soma never said something unnecessary.
Thereafter, when Soma slightly sunk, he jumped into the darkness as it was.
And at about the same time, a monster with only whole body showed up from the other side.
"Hmmph…!" (Soma)
A flash…
Without giving eyes to the monster that already sliced, he looked further inside and gave another ‘flash’.
He jumped from the inner side and cut it into two, so there were four in total… No, when those that fell to the ground, it seemed that their number was increasing.
Soma glanced at it just to make sure that they were not moving anymore. Then, he exhaled a bit.
"Hmmm… although the strength remains the same, the frequency of encounter is increasing little by little." (Soma)
"Indeed, we didn’t encounter them at all in the beginning." (Aina)
"I guess the encounter with monsters get more frequent the further we go in. I can’t guess how difficult it would be, but as long as we understand something, it won’t be that bad, right?" (Lina)
When Sheila saw those two talked like that to Soma, she also breathed out.
To be brief, she didn’t feel surprise of what Soma was doing.
It seemed that Soma noticed the approaching monster before anyone else, and he easily sliced them into two with consecutive attacks, but that was something worth to be surprised.
Those two accepted it as a normal thing, and… the cause of the previous sigh was because Sheila was getting used to it to the point she wasn’t greatly surprised with it anymore.
Suddenly, she remembered what those two said.
Since Soma was lack of common sense, if they cared about everything he did, they wouldn’t be able to keep up with it.
At that time, she thought that it was somewhat exaggerated, but… rather than just a bit, she was very surprised.
Well, speaking of reliable, he was indeed reliable, but… who was he, really?
While having such a thought, Sheila resumed the exploration afterwards while breathing out again for the second time.