A Taste of My Psionic Storm!

"Have a little taste of my psionic storm!!" I shortened the chant and activated the spell.

The arrow family of spells grew more difficult the more projectiles you created. Using that principle in reverse, it was possible to reduce the number of arrows and shorten the chant by half. The same application Tirsi had used during the sewer scouting request!

"Boss lady! One single Lightning Missile, coming right up!"

I fired the electric orb.

—Ping!

Even though it was a mass of lightning, its speed couldn't match real lightning. It was like throwing a battery full of electricity—it wouldn't fly at the speed of thought. The adventurer I'd targeted seemed to have some experience after all. He shifted his body and dodged.

"Like I'd get hit by that, you moron!!"

Originally arrow magic wasn't meant to be fired singly. But the moment the arrow drew close to the bastard, I released the mana compressing it.

"Scatter—Break!!"

"Ugh?! Gggggghhhhhk!!"

The thug who had dodged the arrow's path was caught in the discharge spreading nearly a meter wide. Electricity coursed through him and his body twisted like a pretzel.

—Thud!

He face-planted into the grass and shook his hips like a drug addict hit by a taser. A pathetic thug adventurer.

"Dumbass."

I curled the corner of my mouth upward. Other arrows couldn't be used this way, but Lightning Missile was different. The instant it was released from compression, the electrons flowed however they pleased through the air and scattered. The generated current had pathetically low voltage so the destructive power was lacking, but electrocution came with a nice bonus effect, didn't it?

—Twitch. Twitch.

The electrocuted adventurer was still clinging to life. He was paralyzed and couldn't move, but at least he wasn't dead. If he'd been skilled he would have shaken it off quickly or avoided the paralysis entirely.

I kept launching the second, third, and fourth orbs.

"Lightning Missile! Lightning Missile! Lightning Missile—!!!"

"Fuck!! You cowardly bastard!! Gyagya—!!"

"Lightning!! Dodge it!! Grrrrk?!"

"Rush him! Get in close! He can't use magic if you're right on top of him!!"

At least one of them had a working brain and barked orders. It was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠true. This wide-area stun attack didn't distinguish between friend and foe. It was useless at close range. Unless I modified the spell formula like Tirsi had, an explosion nearby would fry me too. The maximum effective range was only about five or six meters, so it still needed practice.

"Get over here, you bitch!!"

An adventurer who had crept close while I was distracted reached out toward Dana. Looked like he was planning to take a hostage. I kept firing spells with my spear held like a staff and silently wished the idiot a pleasant afterlife.

"──Bitch?"

Dana's eyes narrowed dangerously. He'd asked her to tag along and pour drinks earlier, but the moment things went south he called her a bitch. Anyone would lose their temper at that.

—Grab!

Dana seized the outstretched hand.

"Hey. If I'm a bitch, what does that make you?"

"Uh, uh? You—!!"

Shocked by her ferocious grip, the idiot hastily threw a punch with his other fist. Oh dear, you moron. You should have drawn a weapon first.

Dana twisted her head to evade the punch and drove her knee upward.

—Boom!

The powerful knee strike lifted the leather-armored thug clear off the ground by his solar plexus. Dana swung him like a bowling pin and hurled him straight into the rest of the thug adventurers.

"Get the hell out of here, you horny bastards!!"

"Eaaaaaagh!!"

"Gwaaaaaagh!!"

Kaboom—! Two of them tried to catch the flying idiot and collapsed in a heap together.

In the opening I aimed electric orbs at the remaining useful idiots.

"Lightning Missile."

"Gyagya gyakya gyakya gyak!!"

"Gigigigigigigik!!"

In the end all ten thug adventurers successfully applied for new jobs as electric fried chicken.

I grabbed the scrawny one whose front teeth I'd already knocked out and hauled him to his feet.

"S-sorry!! Please spare me!!"

The skinny guy clutching his bleeding nose seemed stunned that all his friends had found new employment in under two minutes. Faced with my merciless grip, he immediately started begging for his life. Well, his loser friends who'd lived the same pathetic existence had apparently decided to turn over a new leaf and become fried chicken. How shocking that must be!

As the fried-chicken master who had guided their enlightenment, I spoke coldly.

"Stand up, you bastard. Straight."

"Yes!!"

"Who told you to act tough? I've seen plenty of guys like you before, so I was planning to let it slide. If you hadn't messed with my wives and friends, I would have."

"Wives...?"

"Why, fucker? Curious who they are?"

"N-no!!"

His answers were quick now that he'd snapped to military attention. I nodded in satisfaction and jerked my chin.

"Kneel, you bastard."

"Yes!!"

The skinny guy dropped without hesitation. Zero resistance to harsh treatment. Adventurers really were the athletic type. He listened so damn well.

I tapped his waist lightly with the spear shaft.

"Don't overthink it. Just answer what you know. Did you enter this ruin? How far did you get?"

"Y-yes! We made it to the second floor!"

"What about the monsters? What kind were they?"

Since it had come to this, I figured I might as well listen. If I only moderately zapped them I wouldn't receive proper compensation for giving these bastards a thorough education, would I?

"Th-they were creepy-looking. Walked on two legs like insects, but I couldn't tell where their eyes were. They twitched nonstop like they had epilepsy."

"Were they strong? No, never mind. If they were strong you wouldn't be alive."

"Y-yes. That's right. They looked gross but they weren't actually that powerful."

"Any other information? Dangerous things deeper inside, rumors, anything?"

"Well... we couldn't really talk to the other explorers..."

Fuck. Not helpful at all. Oh well. Can't expect much. These were the kind of guys who caused trouble back home, extorted some money, and came to the big city to become adventurers. What could they possibly know?

"Hey. Then at least tell me what you know about the people over there."

Dana pointed at the tents pitched near the dungeon entrance.

"You guys were hanging around here too, right? So even if you didn't talk to them, you should have a rough idea what kind of people they are."

"Y-yes! Those are adventurers and explorers from Sargadis and Heisvent, plus the Hermeion Merchant Guild!"

"Merchant guild?"

At those words I looked again at the cluster of tents. Among the many, one group stood out like a crane among chickens.

Plenty of people and the tents look high quality.

The central tent even gave off a faint trace of mana. Fuck, was that a magic item? An enchanted tent in this world was basically an RV. It had to be a merchant with thick bones in both capitalism and ruin-raiding.

"What's their personality like? Do they butt in like you guys?"

The skinny guy shook his head at Dana's question.

"N-no. Even when we ran into them inside the ruin they ignored us. Still, those guys have probably gone the deepest. Their party comes out of the ruin the least often."

"That doesn't prove anything. For a ragtag bunch like you, exploring even the third floor would take three full days and nights, wouldn't it?"

"He-hehe. That's true. As expected of a mage!"

Tirsi seemed displeased by the earlier sexual harassment and her criticism was sharp. The skinny bastard giggled shamelessly while still kneeling. Well, whatever.

The three of us highly-educated people asked a few more things we needed to know, then pulled the threatening spear away from the skinny guy.

"We're done with you. If I catch you pulling this shit in front of us again, you're dead."

I left the skinny guy where he was. Handing him over to the guards was annoying, and there were plenty of extortionists running around so the authorities wouldn't bother. Continuing to deal with them would only be our loss.

"Larilura☆ Kick!!"

"Guek!!"

As the finale, the skinny guy went flying from Larilura's kick. She seemed quite pissed about being treated like a kid.

—Spin spin!

Thud!

The sight of an adult man spinning through the air after being kicked by a delicate-looking girl was fucking impressive. Maybe that's why polygamous systems like one husband and multiple wives existed—because women could beat men senseless if they trained. It was the kind of scene that made me have such idle thoughts.

With the spear resting on my shoulder, I spoke to the dumbasses pretending to be dead.

"Hey. I know you're awake. Before I start stabbing each of you to wake you up, spit out any artifacts you've stashed away."

"...Yes."

In that way we received several items they had swiped from the ruin and headed for the dungeon entrance. This wasn't extortion. We had simply received appropriate compensation from the thugs who had targeted us. Yeah. Fucking exactly that.

"Ah-hahahahaha!! Advance! Advance again!!"

We had been taking a ten-minute rest before entering the ruin when a loud laugh suddenly rang across the wasteland.

"Ugh... What the hell is that?"

Franc frowned slightly, her ears hurting. She had only recently awakened her mana and hadn't yet adapted to the heightened senses the mana buff brought.

Fucking noisy.

I covered Franc's ears for her and searched for the owner of the extremely annoying noise. I was curious what kind of bastard was belting out such a loud laugh in broad daylight.

The culprit was a woman with a high soprano voice like a strangled parrot.

"Dismuke!! Move quickly!! Time is money! Every tick of the clock is a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠coin falling from your hand!!"

"Yes, miss."

At the orange-haired woman's command, the man who looked like a butler in armor answered.

The woman wearing a ring on her left ring finger wiped blood from her hair with a handkerchief and descended into the ruin.

—Rumble rumble.

A group of what seemed to be adventurers or soldiers followed after her.

What the fuck. Did she really talk to the person right next to her in such a ridiculously loud voice? What a massive waste of energy.

"Ah. That person. It's that person, senior!"

Larilura, who had gotten down from Ringling No. 3.5, spoke up.

"What about that woman?"

"The Hermeion Guild. The emblem on the armor that woman was wearing—I saw it in Romania too☆! I was unsure before, but seeing it in person it comes to mind~."

"...A guild from Romania? Do they have a branch in Sargadis or Heisvent?"

"Who knows~? Maybe they came after hearing this is the Orwalia ruin? Perhaps they were already nearby?"

"Aah. Orwalia was Romano-Britannia."

In the era of ancient civilizations, Britannia had been a weak nation. It was stuck between Vikings who pirated and primitive ancient Romania that focused on territorial expansion. A country that struggled desperately to secure its own position squeezed between superpowers! Fuck, it really feels familiar. Because of that position, it had been invaded many times by the predecessor of modern Romania. Romano-Britannia referred to a nation where the races and cultures of those two countries had mixed together.

"People doing business in Romania would definitely come here. Everyone would love it if they brought back old artifacts from their homeland."

Franc said. In Romania, ruin exploration was a national project, so there were almost no untouched ruins left. The representative who happened to be nearby must have gathered people and begun exploring. To be leading the forefront of exploration with hastily gathered personnel, the power of capital was truly tremendous.

—Rumble rumble.

The men gathered to suck on Romania's teat disappeared into the pit, escorting the woman called "miss." Were they resting for one night before resuming exploration? If so, now—while the first-tier exploration guild was stirring up the interior—was the perfect chance to calmly investigate.

"Let's go. For this exploration we'll check the internal atmosphere and difficulty level, then investigate the first floor—that is, the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠tower's 'rooftop.'"

At Dana's words as the client, the party members brushed the dirt off their backsides and stood.

We had no plans to secure a temporary residence here today—there was no one to watch an empty house—so we hadn't pitched any tents. Depending on the situation we would need to hire someone to guard them later.

We entered the pit containing the ruin.

The interior had turned into a massive sinkhole like a dinosaur fossil excavation site. The stone floor of a building was visible at the bottom. That must be the tower's rooftop.

"...It's bigger than the reports said."

Dana muttered quietly. The sinkhole itself was enormous, yet the tower's rooftop still hadn't been fully uncovered.

Each floor must be the size of a sports field.

This scale meant it was definitely no ordinary ruin.

Tirsi knelt and picked up a broken fragment of the building.

"The people who came first made a hole. The walls look incredibly sturdy—they must have worked hard."

"We're lucky it's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠convenient for us."

"Hehe. That's true."

Tirsi answered with a laugh. The others had probably brought excavation tools and spent days drilling through. In that case, the gap between us and the leaders might not be that large.

"Let's head down."

We descended through the hole the leaders had created. Each layer of the tower was as tall as it was wide, so Tirsi—who couldn't strengthen her body with mana—had to rely on Ringling No. 3.5.

"Friar's Lantern."

"Ahaha♡ I'll just use a regular lantern☆!"

Tirsi and Larilura lit up the dark interior of the tower. The light source was the rear guard's responsibility. If concentration broke during battle and the light suddenly vanished, it could be fatal.

I examined the interior revealed by the lights and frowned.

"What is this? A barricade?"

"...Fuck, was this place a forward operating base?"

Dana's choice of words was perfectly appropriate. Although the preceding adventurers had made a complete mess, the entrance—reinforced by gathering whatever materials were available—looked like obstacles erected with insufficient supplies. And such obstacles were naturally meant to block an 'enemy.' It didn't appear to have been built to stop future intruders who might discover the tower later. It had probably been created back then—before the ancient civilization fell.

If so, just who had been the 'enemy' they were trying to keep out?

"...Let's proceed. We'll search the first floor thoroughly and look for any remaining traces first."

At Dana's words we set our questions aside and moved forward. Only the light from the two lanterns—one magical, one oil—illuminated the tower's darkness.