Asumpfre Sunken Ruins (7)

After a full-course seafood lunch, we left only Team 3's leader, Park Yoon-ho, and seventeen of his people at the outpost, and all one hundred and twenty-one of us entered the sunken ruins.

Hwayeon split them into eleven squads of ten and ordered them to dig up anything that might be worth money. Taking the remaining six, along with my sister and Choi Soohan, she began concentrating the search on places where Phase Power could be felt.

I floated in the air, watching for aberrants. Franc, determined to stick to her proper duty, kept turning through a full circle without rest, checking whether anything was approaching—and somewhere in the middle of all that, I got bored out of my mind.

I sprawled out on the Wall of Space and watched Hwayeon and my sister excavate the spots where they sensed Phase Power. My sister wrung the moisture out of the mudflat until it was bone-dry soil, and then an earth-attribute user stepped in and started shifting the dirt to open a hole.

"If you're bored, why not go to Hwayeon and help her with the excavation?"

"Hm? Then you'd be the one getting bored."

"I am not bored. How could I be, with scenery this fine to enjoy? I am quite all right, so please go and help Hwayeon. If the dig ends early, we can return early."

"......Should I?"

"Of course!"

As if. There's no way plain sentry duty is any fun. And we've been staring at the same view for hours—pretty scenery only stays pretty the first time or two.

I reached up, touched the calf of Franc where she floated above me, and drew her into an embrace. "Oh my?" she said, looking down at me.

"What Hwayeon's digging up right now is something shaped like a wardrobe. A wardrobe stuffed with Phase Power. Ridiculous, isn't it?"

"A wardrobe...?"

"Yeah. There's a sleek suit of full plate armor inside it, perfectly intact... It isn't even an item imbued with Phase Power, and yet it isn't rusted or spoiled in the slightest."

"Oh my. Might it be a wardrobe with a preservation function? I have heard that anything fitted with preservation neither spoils nor rusts."

Hoh. So there's such a thing as a preservation function.

"Anyway, the other three are a sword, a suit of chain mail, and one spear. I've already pinpointed the locations, so there's no reason for me to help."

I was stroking Franc's smooth bare skin when I caught the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hem of her dress and lifted it just a little. The lace panties covering the triangle ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠between her snow-white thighs came into view right before my eyes.

"Honestly. Seoha, you really..."

I grinned and stroked the inside of her thigh. Flushing at my mischief, Franc pressed her legs together and pushed the skirt down with both hands. I was fussing and playing with the embarrassed Franc when I noticed ten raiders searching the nearby ruins glancing this way, envy written all over them, their mouths moving. Curious, I read their lips.

Still trading envious remarks while they dug, the raiders soon turned the talk to girlfriends.

He really did seem drowned in self-loathing, leaning on his shovel and heaving a long sigh. The others stopped work one by one, caught their breath, and nodded as if they felt it too.

......Hearing them spew filthy talk about Hwayeon soured my mood in an instant. If the raiders beside him hadn't jumped in shock, shouldered their rakes, and started kicking and beating the one who'd said it, I would have stepped in myself.

Taking fists and kicks, the raider flailed his arms and screamed.

The nine raiders cursed him in turn and shifted ground, and only then did the one holding the rake chase after them, face gone pale with fear.

The man with the rake seemed to have realized his mistake, but I am not generous enough to simply let it go. When it comes to being petty, I can be pretty petty myself.

What a man thinks on the inside is territory I can't touch. But the moment it leaves his mouth, he might as well be asking to be heard.

Still, completely destroying him would be a bit much...... so I'd grill him just enough. That would serve as both a warning and an example.

I whispered into the ear of Franc, who had been giggling softly in my arms.

"Franc. A quest has appeared."

"A quest?"

"See those ten raiders moving about seven hundred meters to the northwest? One of them trailing behind the other nine."

"Yes. I see them."

"The man in black plate boots, a black gauntlet fixed at his waist, a black sleeveless shirt, and black pants—you see him too?"

"The one chasing at the very back, carrying a rake?"

"Yeah. Hit him with one bolt of lightning worth 1 TP and come back. That's the quest clear."

"......Did he commit some crime?"

"The crime of running his mouth. Quest reward: one kiss voucher. How's that?"

"I shall return at once!"

The moment she heard the reward, Franc didn't hesitate for a second. She shot off, called the raider I'd indicated to a halt, and told him I had sent her. His face went the color of a corpse and he bowed at the waist, while the other nine turned green and began putting distance between themselves and the man in the black plate boots.

Franc cheered him on—then, calling it punishment, dropped a light bolt of lightning.

He took one weak bolt, screamed, and flopped into the mudflat. Other squad members nearby began gathering, wondering what on earth was going on.

"I have returned! He apologized and begged forgiveness, but I told him it was a punishment and dropped the lightning."

"Yeah. Good work. Want to use the quest reward now?"

"Hehe. I shall use it a little later."

"All right."

The people gathered around the struck raider asked their teammates what had happened, heard the whole story, frowned, and shook their heads.

At the Team 5 leader's words, the crowd scattered. The nine who had pulled away still couldn't bring themselves to abandon a teammate, and drew close to Rake Guy again.

A brief commotion, nothing more. The members of the eleven squads went back to ransacking the buildings in their assigned zones, and the earth-attribute users peered underground and pushed the excavation harder.

In the meantime Hwayeon hauled up the Phase Power wardrobe that had been buried in the earth. It was made of wood, and it must have lain underground for a very long time, yet the grain of the wood was still alive—astonishing. Once the mud caked on the outside was washed away, it looked like a wardrobe fresh from the workshop.

Inside the strikingly antique black wardrobe, a single sleek suit of full plate armor had been stored.

Judging by its shape and curves, the full plate was made for a woman. It was ordinary—no, a fine piece of quality iron, a normal product that held no Phase Power at all—and yet it gleamed as if it had just been forged.

Looking at the armor brought out into the open, the mud-caked raiders kept agreeing, one after another, that they'd hit the jackpot.

I narrated it for Franc, who was watching the lake, the way a radio broadcast would. Her eyes went round. She looked down at me, then turned her gaze back to the lake and spoke.

"It remained intact even after exposure to the air, so it really must carry a preservation function. An item that keeps things pristine across a great span of time... that is a remarkable thing."

"That impressive?"

"Weapons and armor wear down continuously, and someday they break. That is the law. This is a tool that defies that law. If that wardrobe does not merely preserve equipment, but maintains and repairs it as well, then its price would be beyond imagination."

Now that I thought about it, she was right. Take the Celestial Cloud Sword that had become mine—a weapon that cannot be repaired. What if this could restore it?

At present, rare, unique, and legendary-grade equipment discovered in the Phase World—gear that holds Phase Power—has no method of repair once it breaks or is damaged. No. A method does exist. You patch it with Phase Power-infused ore judged to be the same material, or you recharge the equipment's spent Phase Power using Phase Stones.

But watering down liquor doesn't make more liquor. The more water you add, the more it dilutes, until in the end it's no different from water.

So weapons and armor are basically consumables that wear out faster the more you fight, which is exactly why I don't fuss much over gear. If that problem were solved......

"The price would be in the hundreds of millions. Hundreds of millions of dollars."

"Wouldn't it?"

Looking at it now, the real jackpot was that wardrobe. I finally understood why the raiders had even stopped digging to cluster around it and snap photo after photo with their Certifiers.

"Ah—at ten o'clock, a lobster aberrant with a Phase Power of 16,744 is coming up."

"Yeah."

Upper-mid, then.

Puff. Puff. Puff.

Except for Franc, who can barely exert physical force, the byproducts that the hundred and thirty-eight of us—including me—could carry had all been secured on the first day. Today and tomorrow we would comb the sunken ruins, find anything worth even a single coin, and then sort out only what was useful and valuable.

Which meant we would have to discard other byproducts equal in weight and volume to whatever we excavated and hauled back. So if a creature had a Phase Stone, I killed it with the Wall of Space and Franc flew over to recover the stone; if it didn't, I erased it with a Mana Bullet, the way I was doing now. Over and over.

Of course, among the sea crabs and lobsters, I left the tomalley, the brain, and the front claws—the parts said to be the chewiest and most delicious—for the meal crew to collect.

While I charged the junk high-grade Phase Stones brought from reality and occasionally smashed the lobster-like aberrants crawling out of the lake, the raiders were tearing through the sunken ruins with their abilities.

Earth-attribute users pulled up grime-caked jewels, heavily rusted furnishings, and rotting household goods buried underground, stuffed them into big sacks, and kept moving. Physical enhancement users searched the buildings and loaded intact tableware and ceramics onto carts first, while wind-attribute users flew overhead, photographing the shapes of buildings, unusual characters, murals, and half-crumbled emblems with their Certifiers.

The squad led by Hwayeon and my sister had confirmed the second Phase Power item, a curved blade, and was digging up the third: a suit of chain armor.

They dragged a top-and-bottom set that looked woven from wire out of the building rubble. A faint green light seeped from it—so the thing held wind-attribute Phase Power.

The curved blade...... calling it a blade was generous. It was so rotten and rusted that a wooden club would have looked better, and the chain mail was mostly rusted and crumbling junk as well.

Once we excavated the last spear, every item registering Phase Power would be recovered. The ability users split into eleven squads had nearly finished surveying the sunken ruins, so the dig looked likely to end before sunset.

Four hours after the excavation began, at five in the afternoon, a wind-attribute user flew over with word from Hwayeon.

"A message from Boss Yoo Hwayeon. Search and excavation will end in one hour, at six."

"Got it."

Around the time the wind user delivered the message and turned back, Hwayeon asked my sister to carefully wash and dry the curved blade and the chain mail. Then she took the women's full plate mail out of the wardrobe and put the blade and the chain mail in its place.

Checking whether it's preservation only, or maintenance and repair as well?

Then she moved straight to the final point, called over a raider with a detection sense, and ordered them to draw the interior of a half-collapsed, earth-buried building that looked like a Gothic cathedral.

Working from that drawing, the physical enhancement users swarmed in and began carefully clearing away mud and rubble.

The raiders had grown used to the ongoing work, and with momentum behind them they stripped the building's remains in no time—wait.

"Franc! Keep watch!"

"Ah? Yes!"

I kicked off the Wall of Space and dropped in a rush toward where Hwayeon was.

What is that?

I wiped out the cathedral's outer wall with the Wall of Space in one sweep. The raiders who had been about to descend the stairs in underwater gear startled and froze, and Hwayeon and my sister stared at me—having leapt down onto the cathedral site—with startled eyes.

"Don't go in! Come out!"

"Ah—y-yes!"

I grabbed the two physical enhancement raiders who had been about to enter with oxygen respirators in their mouths and pulled them back. Hwayeon approached, mud caked over her whole body except her head, as if she had gone into the mudflat and come back out.

"Master. What is it?"

"From in there, I'm getting a feeling similar to what I felt from the Soul Reaper's box."

At that short explanation, my sister and Choi Soohan—approaching a step late—startled as well, and the other raiders began murmuring among their colleagues.

First I used the Wall of Space to clear all the water pooled in the cathedral basement. At once, from a spear shaft planted upside down at the end of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the L-shaped cellar, an unpleasant red light began to seep out.

I confirmed it with Spatial Perception, focused Mana Sieve through my whole body, and spoke.

"I'll go in first and check. Hwayeon, you and my sister fall well back with the others."

"I cannot let the Master go alone. Head of Integrated Management, please take command of the others and withdraw."

Hwayeon stepped forward as if it were only natural, and asked my sister to direct the rest. My sister looked as though she wanted to come too, but in the end she nodded and gathered the other raiders.

Once they had withdrawn a set distance, a faint blue film formed over ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Hwayeon's body. She must have activated T Resist.

We had confirmed through the museum incident that T Resist blocks a Soul Reaper's mental domination, but I was still a little worried about Hwayeon following.

Not that she'd turn back if I told her to......

I confirmed that everyone had moved about a hundred meters away, then strode down into the basement. Hwayeon followed with a white glow stick about twenty centimeters long in her hand.

As I descended, something began to touch the Mana Sieve wrapped around my body.

"As expected. Something's picking at the Mana Sieve. Hwayeon, you all right?"

"This much is no problem."

I didn't think Hwayeon was foolish enough to force herself along the way my sister might, so I could trust her. I turned the corner, and beyond an entrance half-blocked where the ground had slightly collapsed, a spear shaft spilling ominous light came into view.

What is that thing, throwing off light that sinister? Hwayeon came around the wall behind me, and the moment she saw the spear planted in the floor, her face twisted.

"......No. Going any closer is impossible."

"What kind of feeling are you getting?"

"I am beginning to want to seize that spear. It seems to be a curse-type item that dominates the mind of whoever holds the weapon."

"So if you grab it, you lose your reason and go berserk?"

"Yes."

"Then we'd better just smash it."

I clenched my fist, and Hwayeon nodded.

"The Ability User Association also recommends destroying curse items the moment they are found. We record video and photographs, then destroy— Seoha!"

Hwayeon's urgent cry. I saw it too. The spear shaft suddenly yanked itself free, rose into the air, and aimed its point at me while pouring out an even redder light.

"That—it's really a cursed weapon? Looking at the Phase Power gathering, it's an aberrant."

"A Vindictive Ghost? A ghost latched onto a cursed weapon!"

In a brief moment the pale thing's Phase Power climbed to 720, and just as a faint gray shadow became visible to the naked eye, it leveled the cross-shaped spear and began creeping toward us.

But after the ghost appeared and the spear lifted, the feeling of something touching the Mana Sieve around my body vanished.

"It's a Mid-Rank Variant. Do you still want to grab that spear?"

"No. Right now, if anything, the urge is gone."

Hwayeon's finely arched brows drew together, and the Phase Power inside her body spun even harder.

"So if we take that thing out, we can obtain the spear?"

"If it is a parasitic curse."

"Good."

Wanting to check whether the Wall of Space worked on ghosts as well, I immediately wrapped the pale specter in it. Its form warped into something amorphous and began to shudder.

A heartbeat later it let out that ghostly wail and burst apart inside the Wall of Space.

The cross spear hit the floor with a clang. The red aura shrank as if startled, then began to flicker, faint.

Hm. What would happen if I injected my TP into that weapon? That red aura doesn't seem like a threat to me, so maybe I should experiment a little.

"Seoha?"

I started toward the cross spear, and behind me Hwayeon called out, flustered.

"I'm going to drop a little of my TP onto the shaft."

"What?"

I was curious whether my TP worked on inanimate objects too, and Hwayeon wore an incredulous look, torn over whether she ought to stop me.

As I approached, the cross spear's red aura gradually strengthened. A humming rose with it. It seemed to be threatening me—but that was useless. It doesn't work on me.

So take my TP nicely!