The Path Beneath the Square
As we descended, I muttered, “This bag is seriously incredible.” When I’d first received my personal weapon, the feeling that hit me wasn’t joy but pure bewilderment. After all, the thing was enormous.
“If it couldn’t even be carried around in the first place, wouldn’t it have been better to recommend it a little later?”
“You have a point.”
But somehow, it all fit inside. Since it was treated as a single piece of equipment, there was still plenty of space left.
“It was almost as tall as I am, right? Can this thing actually be used?”
“Of course. No problem at all.”
With those words, we arrived at an open square on the outskirts of Solbera.
“So this is the starting point. I never would’ve imagined it.”
In the game, this place had basically been stale bait. There weren’t any special sights to see, no shops, and not even a single event. Yet it had stubbornly been designated as an accessible area, which puzzled many gamers. Since no explanation was ever given, interest in it eventually faded away.
“You asked me before why I didn’t kidnap you at the place where you could learn techniques, right?” Diana said with a bright smile, lightly tapping the ground with the tip of her foot. “It was because it’s right down here.”
“The inside is cleaner than I expected.”
I’d said it because it was a line I’d always wanted to try at least once, but honestly, it wasn’t exactly clean. It would be more accurate to call it completely empty.
“You say that every time. Is there a reason?”
“…Because it’s something I’ve always wanted to say once?”
Explaining why I’d always wanted to say it would require a long, pedantic story, so I brushed it off vaguely.
“More importantly, what kind of special facility is this place? Where did you get the key?”
“You’re changing the subject.”
“…It’s because it would be boring to explain.”
“Hmm…”
Diana, who had been staring at me for a moment, asked, “You’ll have to tell me when you have time, okay?” before finally answering my question.
“It’s exactly as you said. This place is a passage leading to the Evil God’s sealing site.”
“I figured there would be some kind of passage since you mentioned it was underneath, but…”
Before entering, when I’d looked at the exterior, it had seemed like just another ordinary building you’d find scattered around the outer square. A two-story structure that felt like a half-residence, half-shop, with normal doors and windows. But inside, there was nothing. Only the area visible through the windows had been slightly decorated. Everything else was plastered over, there wasn’t a single interior wall, and of course, no furniture existed. Except for one thing: the thick door in the center leading down to the basement.
Clink.
Diana pulled out the keyring she had used to open the door earlier and inserted one into the lock on the floor.
“This was naturally obtained when I applied for the Pilgrimage.”
“Wait, uh, ha…”
There were plenty of things I wanted to say—why she hadn’t said anything after receiving it, what the other keys were for, whether she’d received anything else. But in the end…
“?”
“…It’s nothing.”
Yeah. What’s the point of making her explain every single key? Hadn’t I already decided to trust and follow her in everything? I waved my hand at Diana, who genuinely looked like she had no idea what I was thinking, and lifted the door embedded in the floor.
Grrrrrr.
From the outside it looked like wood, so I thought it would open easily, but it was actually heavy enough to strain my muscles.
“They laid stone on it? What’s the point of making a door like this?”
“That stone was taken from the floor of the Pope’s prayer chamber in the main temple. It’s a holy relic imbued with the accumulated divine power of every pope in history.”
“…Thanks for the guilt trip.”
It was the kind of holy relic you’d give to a hero when the Evil God’s complete form appeared. I gave up on the childish urge to fling it away and set it down gently.
“…Since they used something like this as a lid, the inside must be pretty impressive.”
“Don’t be too scared. That’s only the final bastion.”
“Wow, those are really encouraging words.”
Grrrrrr.
I picked up the holy relic that had been blocking the way again, used it to seal the entrance once more, and followed Diana down.
Step, step.
The staircase was wide and comfortable. Magical tools that emitted light were embedded at regular intervals, so it wasn’t dark, and both the stairs and walls were clean. There was only the slight dampness inevitable in an underground space. If someone who didn’t know any better saw it, they might have mistaken it for the stairs of a castle spire.
“…Is that a bulkhead?”
“Yes. It’s made of laughing steel, so there are almost no physical ways to break it.”
“It’s perfect except for the downside that it’s too heavy to make into weapons.”
Just like the lanterns placed at regular intervals, these bulkhead doors were also installed at consistent gaps. Even industrial sites with high fire risk probably didn’t install firewalls this obsessively. And all of it told me just how powerful the existence waiting far below truly was.
“I’m curious why something like this is under the academy.”
That was why I said it. There was a bit of genuine doubt mixed in, but mostly it was small talk meant to ease my anxiety.
“It’s the opposite. They didn’t build the academy over the Evil God’s seal. They built the academy on top of the place where the Evil God is sealed.”
But an unexpected answer came flying back.
“…Why?”
My reflexive question naturally grew heavier. The academy was a place that essentially every child of the noble families attended. If an accident happened here, the repercussions would be… would be…
Now that I think about it, accidents happen here all the time anyway.
Even if a fragment of the Evil God revived, it would probably just be written off as one more incident. It didn’t seem like it would cause any grand catastrophe.
“From what I’ve heard, it’s to reliably weaken even a single fragment. There’s no other place where so many powerful individuals stay at all times like the academy does.”
“That makes sense too.”
Even excluding the students, if you only counted the instructors, professors, and the headmaster, the only force that could rival them was the imperial knights. On top of that, the unique abilities equal to the number of students might not be clear military strength, but they provided more than enough unpredictability.
“Don’t tell me… the reason they allow the raids to happen is also because of this?”
“It’s apparently one of the reasons.”
It meant that students who were already used to raids would be able to evacuate and respond properly even if the Evil God revived. It was a thought that would make even a wild lion flinch.
“You’ve thought of a plan, right? You called it a… build?”
“Ah, yeah.”
Maybe because she was a regressor and not used to game terminology, her pronunciation of “build” was a little awkward. Still, she seemed to understand the meaning, so I nodded easily.
“…All the high-point builds were blocked, but the meme builds were still left.”
When I had been declared mana-disabled twice, every build plan I’d made went straight into the trash. All the weapons and techniques I could obtain were premised on using mana. However, even when I was considering a knight build for the high point, I had considered this kind of situation, so I did have a backup.
The flat-damage build. Also known as the barbarian strategy.
“It’s a build that pours all growth into strength and fights without using mana.”
In Academy Great War, every technique consumed at least 1 mana, so being able to use only flat attacks is why it was called the flat-damage build. The penalties were significant, but because all resources were concentrated in stats and passives, it was incredibly hard to kill even if someone tried. It adapted and resisted all kinds of status effects—wounds, poison, paralysis, freeze, burn, hypnosis, mental derangement, curses—and recovered from them. So unless it was physical immunity, it was impossible to kill.
If you took this build, during the academy period you could kill all enemies with nothing but punches, and in the Great War part, your subordinate troops would become bald one-punch men. It had a certain cult following.
Of course, since it’s a meme build, the high point is much lower, but it has practical use.
And I had one advantage.
The core of the flat-damage build was strength, so you had to dump every investment into it, but I didn’t need to do that.
“Right now, I can feel my strength increasing even when I’m just breathing. There’s nothing better than this.”
This wasn’t a joke or a metaphor.
“Yes. After you laid the foundation for your body, the mana filling you has been continuously expanding the vessel.”
“…Normally, I should have exploded and died.”
“Hehe…”
I’d thrown it out lightly to test her, but Diana didn’t seem inclined to answer. I let it slide, assuming it was some kind of restriction, and told her the important part.
“However, this build has a weakness.”
“What is it?”
“The weight class rises, but the decisive power is lacking.”
Techniques were a way to wield attack power higher than your own weight class by using surplus energy called mana. No matter how high my average weight class was, if I couldn’t use techniques, I couldn’t show performance beyond that.
“Then shall we solve that starting now?”
Before I knew it, we had descended the entire long staircase. In front of a firmly closed door, Diana pointed to the side. There, a pile of bones lay scattered without even being cleaned up. Were they sinners? Or heroes who had challenged the Evil God? One thing was certain: I could feel the presence of a soul above that pile of bones. It was so clear and powerful that there was no need to even use Descent.
“Do you know about martial techniques?”