Grendel Mountains (6)
1.
🏛 Type: Dungeon/Temple
⚔ Difficulty: [Level Range]
📍 Floor: [Current / Total]
💀 Boss: [Unknown / Name]
There it was, a great ruin-like structure.
The pure white temple stood nestled between the valleys, set amid a stretch of blue-green forest so lush it was hard to believe this place belonged to a mountain right beside the desert.
It was, in a sense, a temple dedicated to the dragon that had once descended upon this mountain.
At the same time, it was where the clear underground spring, steeped in the mountain’s own vital energy, gathered; even standing still here was enough to restore a person’s stamina and spirit. It was an extraordinary place of rest.
“...Oh.”
The admiration slipped out of me before I could stop it.
I’d been here before, once upon a time.
More precisely, I’d been here in Novel Online. In the game, this place was only accessible under very specific conditions—this was where you came to learn the Cheonma’s techniques from that bastard.
And, more importantly, it was famous for its beautiful lighting.
Best of all, there was a renowned attraction here that anyone who came absolutely had to visit, and to me, that was the most important thing of all.
“Huh? Where are you going, Sian?”
Even as Aria called after me, I kept walking.
The scenery was familiar, but my body didn’t remember it. So now wasn’t the time to remember this place only with my head; it was time to let my body learn it too.
A faint, soothing scent drifted through the air.
If I added up the cost of every bath additive I’d ever used, the total would be absurd enough to remain forever out of reach for any ordinary adventurer. And yet, even all of them combined wouldn’t come close to the blue water here.
It has to be here.
When people play games, they all think something like that at least once.
They look at the places inside the game.
They imagine walking there with their own two feet, visiting that place that could never exist in reality.
...Found it.
And I was no exception. If anything, it was even stronger for me because Novel Online had such a gorgeous map.
A huge bathhouse built beneath the temple.
-Swoooosh!
Water spilled from the dragon’s mouth.
Warm water—essentially medicinal spring water, steeped in the Grendel Mountains, one of the world’s largest mountain ranges.
The steam that filled the surroundings was so thick it already felt like I was basking in the bliss of soaking my body in the water itself.
A training ground.
Safety Stage: Temple Bath Area
The bastard had said this was a place to train the mind.
Cheonma Mares.
With dragon’s blood running through her veins and the toughness of a beastkin in her bones, she had lived by drinking this water and soaking in it.
In the game, simply stepping in and then out again would recover not just stamina but spirit as well, and it would even stack on all sorts of solid buffs. So what would happen if I actually got into the water myself?
Not just watching a character enter it on a monitor, but becoming that character and stepping inside with my own body.
-Rustle.
The buttons on my outer robe came undone.
I hadn’t intentionally loosened them.
The clothes themselves had simply checked their owner’s will and, naturally, begun preparing me to get in.
-Splash!
My toes touched the surface.
Ripples spread across the still water, announcing that the blue surface had prepared itself to receive a guest.
“Haaah...”
A sigh escaped me on its own.
The worries and burdens left in the back of my head began to melt away.
If a demon went to heaven, then if they were lucky they’d be half-dead by the end of it, and if they were unlucky they’d be purified and erased on the spot.
But if there was a demon who still wanted to see heaven, then soaking in this place would be the way to do it.
By now, the cloth that had been covering my thighs was already gone.
Only my smooth white curves remained, swaying beneath the water.
Where I hadn’t fully submerged, clear droplets clung to my skin, then soon ran down my legs and slipped back into the water.
“This is... my first time.”
A smile spread across my face.
I found myself jealous of that bastard all over again.
Had he lived in a place like this for hundreds of years? I’d spent half a year alone in that absurdly high tower, and if that tower had had a place like this, I would’ve been perfectly happy living there forever.
I didn’t need anything else.
I only wanted to keep this peace, this feeling, forever.
“Sian?”
Then, all at once, Rain’s voice came from across the way.
“What is it?”
I turned my head and looked toward where Rain and the others were. Their faces were all startled, and Rain in particular had gone bright red; the instant his eyes met mine, he twisted around and crouched down, facing the other direction.
And that was only natural, because Rain had seen my body.
It was a body not made for humans or elves, but one sculpted as if specifically to seduce people....
It looked like something straight out of a demon’s dream.
That plump, luscious chest exposed so temptingly; even just the silhouette of that waist was enough to make a man’s mind go soft.
“S-Sian’s body—”
“My body? What about it?”
Who on earth could look at that and not be aroused? Even Aria swallowed hard at the sight.
Regardless of gender, it was the kind of body that lured people in.
Regardless of occupation, it was the kind of body that threw the heart into chaos.
And if that was already enough to bewitch people just from my younger form alone, then what about this fully grown appearance?
Trying to hold onto your sense of self while looking at that for too long would be difficult.
If you were a man, it would be even worse, and a wise person would save themselves by looking away.
“...You’ve returned to your original form.”
“Original form? Ah.”
I looked at my reflection in the water.
At some point, my body had gone back to normal.
Was the potion’s effect over? Or had contact with this water purified whatever effect was being classified as a poison?
I couldn’t tell which.
Fortunately, my horns—the mark of a demon—were hidden, so there wasn’t any major issue. But apart from that, my reflection looked very different from usual.
The clothes that had been covering my body were half undone, and I was smiling with an expression of sheer happiness.
Lately, even using water mixed with the finest fragrance oils hadn’t satisfied me this much. I’d managed to track down a decent one at last by sending Stran to do the legwork for me, but even that had only been decent. This was the first time anything had felt like this.
“Well, whatever. And you lot should come in too. Even places like this are beyond the reach of people like great mages or sword saints. If you get the chance, you should take it.”
“I-Is that so...? It really is a pleasant place.”
Aria said, staring at the blue water.
It was beautiful, and it was clean.
Even someone who didn’t usually enjoy bathing would feel a secret little desire stir in the corner of their heart when looking at it.
Honestly, if I’d been alone, I would’ve already stripped off everything and gone in.
-Thud. Thud. Thud.
“You’d better not go in that water.”
The tombkeeper Mars stopped Aria.
“What are you talking about?”
“That water was made by the Water Spirit King, who gathered the pure essence of the mountain; it was tempered with the power of the Fire Spirit King on blessed ground created by the Earth Spirit King.”
-Tap!
Mars struck the floor with his staff.
Immediately, the spirits hidden around us revealed themselves, and then they began drifting through the air, glowing in all sorts of colors.
“That’s why it heals the body and mind of anyone who enters it. But at the same time, it contains such an absurdly high concentration of mana that if some half-baked rookie steps in, they won’t be able to withstand it and will just die on the spot... heh heh.”
“Ah... I see.”
It was true that this was water imbued with spirits and incredibly high-purity mana.
With the right amount, that mana would restore a person’s own power. But if it was too much, it would send the mana in their body into a frenzy, and they’d lose control of it until their brain simply died. It was a dangerous thing.
“Only two people have gone in there and come out alive: my wife and my daughter. Even I, after training my body for hundreds of years, slipped while cleaning it and fell in... and died.”
“Th-That happened...?”
In a way, it was almost absurd.
And yet, hearing that even Mars—the beastkin of top-tier strength—had fallen in and died filled me with an eerie chill I couldn’t quite explain.
“So you can die if you go in...”
What a shame.
I really did want to get in.
But I wasn’t willing to trade my life for a moment of pleasure. That was the kind of choice only someone so addicted to physical bliss that they’d lost their reason could make.
“But Sian’s fine, right?”
“Can’t you see? I’ve never seen a high elf like that before either, but at least she isn’t dead. Looks like she’s fine.”
“I don’t feel anything strange. If anything, my mana’s recovered, so I’d say I’m feeling great.”
To enter that place, you needed both dragon-level mana and a body strong enough to be called Cheonma-class.
Having only one or the other wouldn’t do it; only those with the proper qualifications could taste that richness.
Hmm. I’m curious how that high elf knows the layout of this place, but I guess it doesn’t matter.
And because people like that were so rare, Mars looked at me with a suspicious gaze for a while before closing his eyes.
He’d even doubted whether I truly was a high elf, but since his life in the mortal world was already over, he had no particular desire to interfere.
He only wanted his one and only daughter to be happy.
Preferably, he wanted to see her not just peeking at people from far away in secret, but actually coming out in front of others, talking to them, and going outside.
“Well... if you dilute it properly, you should be able to use it too. If you want to wash up, follow me. You’re all covered in sand after walking through the desert, after all.”
So he decided to guide the adventurers somewhere else instead. As a ghost, Mars usually spent most of his time alone, so seeing people after so long was refreshing in its own way.
“You mean...”
“There’s a small bathhouse I made myself as well. I diluted the underground water with mountain water at a fixed ratio, so it won’t be as good as that one, but it shouldn’t be bad.”
“Really?! That’s a relief. Come on, Thomas, Rain, let’s go there quickly!”
Aria urged Rain, who was sitting on the floor.
“...Uh, my legs are a little sore, so I think I’ll stay here a bit. Go on ahead—I’ll catch up soon.”
-Smack!
But Rain refused out of natural bodily concern, only to be forced to taste Mars’s stern staff again.
“Ouch!?”
“Tsk tsk. A grown man getting embarrassed over something that small? That won’t do. Get up, now!”
“W-Wait, old-timer! If you’re a man too, shouldn’t you understand!?”
“I’m dead, so I don’t know anything about that, you brat! Stop wasting time and follow me!”
In the end, Rain was dragged away by the old man.
Aria turned bright red and stared at Rain’s lower half, and Thomas, who had said nothing at all, gave it one quick glance before letting out a snort that sounded almost like a laugh and turning her head away.
“Ah, damn it! Please, just help me out a little!”
“...You have my sympathy.”
And just like that, I was left alone in the bathhouse.
Since I could somewhat understand Rain’s position, I watched the poor guy being hauled off with a bit of pity, but it wasn’t really my business, so I didn’t care all that much.
And what I needed to do now had already been decided.
-Rustle.
I climbed out of the water for a moment, took off my clothes, and put them into my subspace. Then I wrapped a pure white towel around myself and slowly stepped back into the water.
“Mmm...”
The hot spring water wrapped warmly around my thighs.
When I went deeper, my lower body was completely submerged, and the towel around me soaked through, letting my bare skin show faintly beneath it.
I carefully sat down there.
My silver hair, which had fallen all the way to my waist, began to float on the surface, and annoyed by that, I tied it back, revealing the slender line of my neck.
“Yeah. I guess this is the sort of place a dragon would come to wash up.”
There had probably once been a waterfall here.
That tombkeeper Mars must have remodeled it to make it easier for his wife to bathe, and if I thought about Grendel Mountains as a place where dragons descended from the sky to wash themselves, it made perfect sense.
I leaned my head back a little more so I could enjoy it further.
He’s been watching me from the start.
At the same time, I could feel a gaze.
Somebody was watching me from somewhere. A guy from far away, secretly peeking at Sian while I bathed.
Whatever. Don’t care.
But I wasn’t especially bothered right now.
Besides, this had originally been a place that bastard used often anyway, so unless he came looking for me, I had no intention of responding.
And what I was doing now was something else entirely.
While simply enjoying the bath, I also used the mana connected to this water to check on the condition of the people on that missing train.
...No answer.
Luckily, Louis was alive and well.
She seemed to be with the others now, and though I tried speaking to her from here, the message didn’t seem to reach—either because the distance was too great or because some kind of barrier was in the way.
So teleportation is blocked too.
At least I could figure out their location.
But I still had no idea how those girls had ended up in the Beastmen Kingdom of Sabna ahead of time.