Chapter 93
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 93
Chapter Title: Plant Merchant (2)
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"Clara, are you okay?"
"Yeah."
After checking on Clara's condition, I looked down at the old man collapsed on the floor in a bloody mess—no, the young man who appeared to be a monkey beastkin with gray hair.
When we'd first entered the shop, the welcoming voice had been oddly different from the one during the attack. After I'd punched his face multiple times in the fight, the skin peeled off, revealing that the old man's appearance had been a disguise, replaced by the young beastkin's true form.
'What, some kind of lifelike mask?'
There was no mana at all, so it didn't seem like magic or a magical tool... Still, what an intriguing item.
"Clara, do you know anything about this?"
"No."
I hadn't really expected a proper answer, so I pried the weapons from the bloodied man's hands and bound his body using a rough knot I vaguely remembered. I'd considered killing him right away, but doing it in front of Clara... It probably wouldn't be good for the kid's mental state.
"Alright, Clara. Let's go. We'll hand this guy over to the guards first... Huh?"
-Clunk. Clunk.
"Mister, what are you doing?"
"No, just wait a sec."
We'd definitely come in through this door earlier, but unlike when we entered, no matter how hard I pulled the handle, it wouldn't budge.
I set the bound man down for a moment and pushed and pulled with both hands, but the door didn't move an inch.
"Clara, step back a bit."
"Okay."
I had no idea why it was stuck, but... I could just break the damn door down.
"Hup!"
-Kwang!
"Wha... What?"
I drew my sword from my inventory, put my strength into it, and swung hard, but it bounced right off the door that looked like plain wood without even leaving a scratch.
"...Mister?"
"J-Just wait a moment."
Hiding my panic at Clara's somewhat disappointed look, I swung the sword with full power this time.
[Mana Manipulation]. Physical Ability Amplification. And [Limit Break] as well.
Overwhelming power surged through my body, and a blue aura poured out from me.
It felt excessive for just a door, but...
'I visualize it. The mana slash I fired that day.'
I recalled the slash from the 12th floor of the Labyrinth that had severed the Flesh Golem's leg in one blow.
The mana circulating through my body, enhancing my physical abilities, burst outward, forming a blue haze.
That mana clung to the sword, soon emitting a visible glow as it began to compress.
Then, the slash.
-Shhkkk!
"...What the?"
Even though this was the slash that had effortlessly cut through the Flesh Golem's leg in all its despairing might, when the dust cleared, the door was unscratched. Not just the door—the walls where the slash had hit were completely intact without a single mark.
The equipment nearby had been utterly shattered, so the power hadn't weakened...
Sensing something ominous, I placed my hand on the flawless wall, infused it with mana, and focused.
"...A barrier?"
I detected a fierce flow of mana. Like a barrier enveloping the door in front of me and the entire outer wall of the shop.
Following that mana flow...
"So it's here."
"The spot where I bumped my head earlier?"
It led to the place where Clara had hit her head just before.
Come to think of it...
"Clara, can you use your holy power again?"
"Huh? Mister, are you hurt?"
Clara made a worried face and stroked me with holy power in her hand, but my eyes were fixed not on her, but on the space where the mana was concentrating.
-...Ripple.
'I saw it clearly this time!'
The moment Clara used her mana, the space rippled like heat haze once more. Reaching out...
-Shing.
"...?!"
The air rippled, and a cold metallic sensation brushed my fingertips. When Clara stopped her holy power, the ripple and metal feel vanished, replaced by the wooden shelf I'd seen and felt before.
'...No way?'
[Sensory Block]: Hallucinations blocked.
With a strange intuition, I cast [Sensory Block] on myself and Clara beside me.
-Whoosh!
"Huh?"
As Clara let out a dazed sound, the shelf where she'd bumped her head vanished, replaced by an iron door with a protruding handle.
'An illusion spell on the door itself?'
It was as if the illusion made us unable to even perceive the door's existence.
Swallowing hard, I pulled the handle, and with a heavy metallic creak, the door slowly opened.
"......"
What appeared was a staircase leading downward. Why did an antique shop have stairs hidden by illusion magic? Why had the shopkeeper attacked us? Why were the door and walls sealed...?
"Hey."
To get answers, I forcibly woke the unconscious man and pressed a knife to his throat for interrogation, but...
"I... I don't know anything!"
"What bullshit? You don't know why the shop you're guarding is sealed, or what that door is?"
"It's true! I was just told to wear an old man mask, act the part, and deal with anyone using holy power!"
"Who told you?"
"Th-That... guy........ Huh? What did they look like?"
"You messing with me right now?"
"I-I'm serious! Uh... a man? No, woman? Short, maybe? Or tall?"
I got nothing useful from the rambling man and knocked him out again.
Apparently, he was just a hired handyman and assassin who did odd jobs for pay, guarding the shop on orders from someone he couldn't even properly remember.
"...What do we do, Mister?"
"...Yeah."
If we just waited here, someone from the temple or Gloria would come looking for Clara when she didn't return. They knew we'd been wandering the commercial district.
The problem was...
"...what's down there."
The suspiciously shady stairs leading underground.
The barrier's mana over the shop was flowing downward, but...
"...Well, no need to go in. We can just wait here..."
"Mister......"
"Hm? Clara, what's wr—"
I stared at the door to the basement, feeling no need to risk going down, but Clara's quiet mutter beside me made me turn—and I was startled.
"Clara? Your face looks pale."
"Weird smell..."
"Smell?"
At her words, I sniffed the scent wafting from the basement. A bitter herbal smell mixed with a sweet aroma. And this scent was...
'...Poison?'
Poison was leaking from the basement. I hurriedly closed the door, but in this perfectly sealed shop, the poison couldn't escape and kept circulating. I frantically pulled an Alchemy Guild potion from my inventory and made Clara drink it; her color improved a bit, but...
'...Just a stopgap.'
With poison filling the entire space, we'd need potions every time it built up...
"...Clara, do you know any detox spells?"
"Ugh... No. Just basic healing magic..."
This was bad. I had [Poison Resistance], so I didn't carry much detox or resistance potion compared to others...
'...Will rescue come before the potions run out?'
Clara, being so young and with low resistance, seemed especially affected.
".............Damn it."
-Crash.
After agonizing, I dumped every detox and poison resistance potion from my inventory. Considering the spread rate, this should hold us for at least 12 hours.
"Mister?"
"Clara. Stay here and wait. Drink one of these if you feel weird again."
"Mister.... Where are you going?"
I shook off Clara's trembling hand and glared at the basement stairs.
I didn't know what was down there, but...
Fine. Let's go check it out.
"...Huh?"
In a dark space filled with the pungent smell of herbs and chemicals, someone refining medicinal plants let out a puzzled voice and checked the crystal orb nearby.
"...The barrier activated? From the temple?"
Confirming the barrier—set to trigger on detecting holy power—had activated, the black silhouette rose.
Its form shifted constantly: man, woman, child, hunched elder.
As the 'silhouette' moved, the lush, disorderly plants growing everywhere rustled in unison, soon emitting horrific screams.
-Kieeeek!
"Mm, growing nicely."
The figure lovingly stroked the leaves of the screaming 'mandrake' at her feet, from where faint whimpers and sobs—different from the mandrake's cries—rose.
"Hic... Sob..."
"Oh my."
As the black silhouette lifted her foot, a living young man—emaciated and placed under the mandrake in place of soil or a pot—stammered weakly.
"P-Please... spare..."
"Mm."
The silhouette nodded slowly to the piteous voice that stirred inevitable pity, then raised her foot and crushed the man's head.
-Crunch!
"...!....! G-Guhk...!"
"The fertilizer talks?"
The crushed man shed a single tear, but mandrake roots piercing his body attached to his face, absorbing it. From that tear-soaked mandrake, a purple flower bloomed.
"Oh, perfect timing."
At the blooming flower, the silhouette's voice brightened as she grasped the mandrake with one hand.
"P-Please!"
"Out!"
-Crack!
"...! ..!"
Pulling the mandrake free tore roots from the man's body; he convulsed violently, but she pinned him down and examined the plant.
Seeing the slightly torn root end as he writhed, she spoke coldly.
"Ahh... ruining this precious root."
"G-Guhk..."
She lifted the fallen man with one hand, inspected the holes from the roots, and inserted something into his body. He struggled fiercely, but too weakened to resist, the 'seed' she held was planted inside him.
"G-Gaaaah!"
Ignoring his agonized scream, the black silhouette tossed him into a pit of other 'fertilizer,' picked up her staff, opened the door, and headed out.
"Time to move the greenhouse?"
She hummed a cheerful tune out of place with the surroundings as she left her 'greenhouse'—the black silhouette known in the underworld as the 'Plant Merchant'.