The Ancient Mage's Lair (6)
Leon swept up every single item inside the training room.
He packed away the books he hadn’t had time to read yet as well. Even though he had raised his realm at explosive speed, a considerable amount of time had still slipped by.
About three weeks…?
If the period he had spent unconscious was long, it might have been even more.
“Fly.”
Leon equipped the golden wings, levitated the withered-tree staff into the air, and held several scrolls in his hand.
“Come out.”
As he murmured the words, a translucent sphere rose beside him.
It was a spell that had reached Arpina’s 5-star level and could harmoniously command the four elements. There was no need to summon a separate servant; the sphere would transform into a summon of whatever attribute Leon desired and cast magic accordingly.
Since maintaining the summon only drained mana, it was better to call it out in advance.
Once his preparations were complete, Leon pulled the lever.
Rumble—
The door that had looked immovable began to open.
By the time the gap was wide enough for him to see outside, the six golems waiting in front of it had already turned as one to stare directly at him.
Six golems right at the entrance alone.
When he spread his detection magic wide, he counted a total of fifteen. Ten armor golems and five gargoyle golems.
They did not attack at once. They simply stared, drilling holes through him with their gaze.
The moment I step outside… they’ll strike.
When Leon had first been summoned here and used detection magic, he had confirmed that the layout beyond the door was not much different from the original passage. A long corridor stretched ahead, with rooms lining both walls at regular intervals.
The only difference was that fifteen golems now wandered that corridor.
It was unfortunate that this particular training room sat squarely in the middle of it.
There should be stairs at the far end…
His detection magic could not reach past the sealed door at the corridor’s terminus, but the pattern so far let him make an educated guess.
Another inference followed: the exploration of the lair was still incomplete.
If it had been finished, there would not be golems stationed like this.
It seemed the lair possessed more than one passage after all.
I don’t need to eliminate them all.
He had no intention of trading blows with fifteen at once. He still did not know the gargoyles’ full strength.
His first objective was to retrieve the wooden sword.
The instant Leon stepped through the doorway, the two foremost armor golems charged.
He triggered the golden wings’ acceleration and shot straight up toward the corridor ceiling.
In that same moment a gargoyle locked onto him and opened its maw. A magic circle formed in front of its jaws, and dozens of intangible thorns materialized, hurtling toward him.
“Thunder Light.”
Leon formed three orbs of lightning simultaneously and hurled two at the wind thorns.
Boom—
The orbs collided with the leading thorns. Electricity exploded outward in a wide arc, accompanied by a thunderous roar.
But the wind thorns were not coming from only one direction. Three more gargoyles launched their own volleys a heartbeat later.
The last one appeared to be preparing a different spell; its magic circle glowed brightly, yet the spell had not yet manifested.
Leon used acceleration once more to evade, then pointed a finger at the gargoyle readying the larger magic.
The final lightning orb flew true.
Bang—crackle!
The strike itself carried little force, but the interference was enough to shatter the magic circle hovering before the creature’s mouth.
“Black Sphere.”
At Leon’s call, the translucent orb took on a brownish hue.
The spell was not yet perfected, so it could not fully assume the form of a true 4-star earth summon.
For now, head to one side. The moment the stairs come into view, use Blink to move.
Leon immediately set off in the direction he had chosen.
“Spit.”
Every time an armor golem leaped, the brown sphere gathered stones and hurled them.
The attack lacked lethal power, but it had grown far stronger than during his apprentice days. It served well enough to keep the golems from closing the distance.
He blocked the gargoyles’ spells with Thunder Light, the armor golems’ advance with the earth sphere’s stones. Whenever a gargoyle began preparing a heavy spell, he checked it with lightning or another Thunder Light.
When wind thorns came from an angle he could not dodge, he threw a D-grade scroll to intercept them.
Leon currently possessed five D-grade disposable scrolls—the accumulated rewards from four days of general quests.
By the time two Explosion scrolls had been spent, the end of the corridor appeared.
He promptly channeled mana into a Blink scroll.
Everything connected to his mana teleported along with him. His increased power meant he no longer needed to hold each item in his hand; as long as the mana link remained, he could even bring objects stored inside the orb.
As expected, another door waited at the corridor’s end.
Leon quickly pulled the lever and rose into the air again.
“See you soon.”
He gripped the orb tightly.
It’ll take about thirty seconds for the door to open…
Leon spent thirty minutes replenishing his mana inside the orb, double-checked his equipment, then stepped back out.
The golems that had been scanning the area all snapped their heads toward him at once.
“Fall.”
Boom—
The lead armor golem staggered beneath a bolt of lightning.
In that opening Leon burned his final acceleration and slipped through the doorway.
Beyond it, another armor golem stood with its head bowed. When Leon appeared, it slowly raised its helm.
“Thunder Light.”
Leon extended three fingers. An orb of electricity formed above each.
He hurled all three at once.
Bang—cracklecracklecrackle—
The difference from his powerless apprentice spells was obvious. The armor golem staggered and dropped to one knee.
“Lightning, Lightning, Lightning.”
Bolts rained from the ceiling in rapid succession.
Boom—boom—boom—
Crack—hiss—
After the third strike the armor shattered apart.
Leon drew a ragged breath, feeling the sudden exhaustion of so much mana torn from him at once.
“Haa… it really is tough.”
Even though it had not reached perfect esoteric rank, Glory of Lightning was a spell heavily specialized for offense. Yet it had taken six direct hits to bring the golem down.
Still, a Mystery-rank mage would likely have dispatched it without much trouble.
“And yet the exploration isn’t finished?”
Leon tilted his head, then scanned his surroundings.
Stairs leading upward.
The place he had been summoned to was clearly deeper than his original location. That made sense; it had been a completely private training room.
He had assumed he would need to ascend to find the wooden sword, so these upward stairs were a stroke of luck.
Had they led downward, he would have been forced to consider racing back through the opposite corridor.
I might have had to spend an entire day inside the orb just to reset the wings’ acceleration cooldown…
Leon claimed only the armor golem’s helm, replenished his mana inside the orb once more, then climbed the stairs.
“Huh…”
When he reached the top, the sight that greeted him left his mouth hanging open.
Instead of another corridor, a vast plaza unfolded before him.
The walls were lined with countless staircases—some ascending, some descending—packed tightly together. There were at least twenty.
The stairs Leon had just climbed was only one among them.
He walked a full circuit of the plaza. No people. No lingering traces of mana.
Is this the only plaza?
There could be others. Or perhaps descending any single staircase led endlessly downward.
After a moment’s thought, Leon chose a direction that felt right and began to climb.
Fortunately, no door blocked the way. That was consistent with the structure he had seen so far.
At the top, another corridor came into view, but it was difficult to tell whether it was the same one he had originally been in.
I left every door open on my way through…
Even explorers would not bother closing every door they found.
Leon descended again and tried another staircase. After repeating the process four times, he finally discovered a corridor where every door stood open.
The room where I was caught by the magic circle was the very last one…
The first room visible upon ascending these stairs was likely that same chamber.
He examined the area in front of it, but the wooden sword was nowhere to be seen.
Rather than approach too closely, Leon checked the room directly opposite first.
This is it!
The interior matched the scenery that had become familiar after he had collected the golem wreckage piece by piece.
So it was connected to the plaza after all…
Or perhaps there truly was only one plaza, and everything below simply continued downward without end. That possibility now seemed more likely.
As he inspected the other rooms—excluding the training chamber with its magic circle—Leon grew certain this was indeed the same corridor he had been in before his summoning.
And then, far down the passage, he spotted the wooden sword lying abandoned in front of one of the doors.
Joy surged through him and he almost ran forward—until he sensed presences approaching. He hurriedly activated his concealment cloak where he stood.
There was more than one person.
Several figures had already reached the wooden sword. One of them looked down at it, then picked it up.
The group began walking slowly in Leon’s direction.
Seeing their unfamiliar faces, Leon realized they were not from the Widia school. The magic robes they wore bore completely foreign patterns.
I think I saw those during the exchange competition…
“Hmm. I could have sworn I sensed a presence from over here.”
“Did you? I didn’t feel anything… By the way, why did you pick up that wooden sword?”
The man holding it cast another detection spell, found nothing amiss, and answered.
“We’ve been striking out all day. This is the only thing I’ve bothered to take.”
The middle-aged man swung the sword experimentally, then clicked his tongue.
“Tsk. I thought we might find something useful, but what the hell is this…?”
“Maybe the lair owner was planning to give it to another golem? Like the sword the armor golem was carrying.”
“This worthless wooden practice sword with no abilities whatsoever?”
“Wasn’t it an artifact?”
“I was willing to use even a shabby blade if it had any power, but… Here, you take it.”
“No thanks. Do I still look like that idiot from my apprentice days?”
“Listen to you. Who was it that took you in and raised you?”
The middle-aged man tossed the wooden sword aside carelessly.
It bounced across the floor a few times and came to rest in front of another doorway—an utterly forlorn sight.
So that’s how you’ve been treated…
Leon now understood why the sword had been lying in front of a different door. Other mages must have picked it up, realized it possessed no power, and discarded it.
“There really isn’t anyone here. Strange. I definitely sensed something.”
“Aren’t you just on edge?”
“Tension is only natural when exploring ruins like these.”
The middle-aged man shook his head.
“You still have a long way to go. Just think about what those Widia bastards have already done. We’re the ones who got stabbed in the back while our eyes were wide open. There’s no harm in being cautious.”
“True. Haven’t they already fought twice in the other sectors?”
“Of course. Those shameless dogs. They’ll probably fight every time our paths cross.”
“It is a headache. The exploration keeps getting delayed.”
“That’s because of the troublesome magic circle underground…”
The group of five, middle-aged man included, walked straight past Leon’s hidden position and even inspected the training room where he had been caught by the magic circle.
Yet nothing happened. They peered inside, turned around, and left without incident.
Why… isn’t the teleportation circle activating?
While Leon pondered the reason, the group descended the stairs.
He remained hidden for a long while longer, then released his concealment and picked up the wooden sword.
“Whew…”
It had taken far longer than expected, but the sword was finally in his hand.
Things went better than I anticipated…
From the group’s conversation, it was clear the ruin exploration was still underway.
Appearing alone in Widia out of nowhere would be less natural than being discovered organically—which was better for Leon—but there was such a thing as being too greedy.
Even if he suddenly teleported into Widia, he had the plausible excuse of the teleportation circle. After all, his abrupt entry into the lair and his sudden relocation into the training room had both been caused by one.
Since he had already planned to claim he had awakened his magic thanks to the lair, he would simply need the audacity to tie everything together at once.
The moment Leon finished his thoughts, gripped the wooden sword, and rose to his feet—
From the direction exactly opposite the one the middle-aged group had taken, he sensed a great many people rushing closer.
In the blink of an eye they were near enough for him to see their faces.
They were flying toward him at full speed, expressions drained of all color.
“You there—if you don’t want to die by the witch, run now!”
Before Leon could react, in a fraction of a second and without the slightest warning, a black orb of flame slammed into the running mages.
Kwaaaaaaaaang—
A colossal sphere of black fire detonated on the spot.
The shockwave reached Leon. His clothes whipped violently in the blast.
The dense wave of mana that accompanied the heat stole the breath from his lungs.
The spell had appeared with no precursor whatsoever.
No incantation!
At minimum a Mystery-rank mage.
Leon instantly seized a teleport scroll and poured mana into it.
…
But the flow of mana snapped off midway.
When he looked up, a woman with long black hair had appeared before him. One eye was hidden behind her strands. She held her palm toward him.
Mana interference?
This was something even a beginner Insight mage should not be able to—
Leon’s thoughts could not continue.
Instinctively he tapped the orb with a finger.
In that instant he vanished from the spot without a trace.
At the same moment, black flames erupted from the floor where he had stood.
…
The roaring inferno died out as quickly as it had appeared.
The woman withdrew her magic and stared at the empty space for a long time. Then she tilted her head slightly to one side.
