Dark Moon
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Beyond the wooden palisade, something approached — a presence that looked as if an adult man had been scaled up more than tenfold. Each step the monster took sent a deep, rolling boom through the earth.
It was a Contaminant built on an ogre base. Its skin was a filthy orange, and its right arm was grotesquely oversized. Looking closer, you could see something like an iron core embedded in that arm.
A 4-Class Contaminant.
The one I had to put down.
"Ugly bastard, no matter how many times I see it."
Max grumbled beside me.
"You don't need to stand next to me. Wait at the village hall with the others."
"Don't get the wrong idea. It's not that I don't trust you. I just want to watch that goddamn thing die. I swear I won't get in your way — so don't tell me to piss off."
"…"
Arguing with him was more trouble than it was worth, so I let it go. As long as he didn't interfere, I didn't care.
I turned my full attention back to the 4-Class Contaminant.
Contaminants were things that had been exposed to waste and pollutants, then mutated under the influence of the Dark Moon. Their defining trait was that they didn't even have to be living creatures to begin with. Corpses, scrap, and junk could clump together and become Contaminants.
They had almost no intelligence. Even a small animal would outthink one. Think zombie-level smarts and you wouldn't be far off.
"When did the 4-Class Contaminant first show up?"
"Three days ago. We weren't ready for it at all… two villagers got eaten. Come dawn, the thing took a shit right in front of the village like it was putting on a show. …My drinking buddy was mixed into that pile of filth, damn it!"
I didn't care. I asked something else.
"How have you been dealing with it since then?"
"…It's got monstrous strength, but it's slow and stupid. We lured it on bikes. It won't leave the village, so we had to circle the place all night long. When the sun came up, it burrowed into the ground."
"Never thought about just killing it yourselves?"
"Of course we did. Bullets didn't work. Bombs didn't work. All we could do was hope someone else would show up to help."
"So it's got absurd durability. Got it."
I gunned the bike and charged toward the Contaminant. Max followed behind me.
"What are you going to do?"
"First… I'll try burning it."
Fireball
A sphere of flame streaked across the night sky, trailing a red tail as it flew toward the Contaminant. It slammed into the massive body and detonated. Scarlet fire engulfed the creature.
Even as its body burned, the Contaminant didn't scream. It couldn't feel pain at all.
I narrowed my eyes and checked its condition. The flames were still roaring, but they weren't scorching the Contaminant's body in the slightest. A night wind blew through, and the fire gradually dwindled until it vanished.
Not fire resistance or magic resistance. The material itself just doesn't burn.
Torrent
A massive surge of water erupted from beneath my feet and crashed into the Contaminant, drenching it completely.
Ice Spear
An ice lance struck the Contaminant square in the chest. Freezing cold burst outward and blanketed its body.
Crack-crack-crack!
In an instant, the Contaminant was encased in ice.
It lifted a leg without the slightest concern and stepped forward. The ice shattered and scattered in every direction. Fire didn't work. Ice didn't work either.
"Don't you have something stronger? Magic that could wipe that thing out in one shot!"
"Shut up. Stop rushing me."
I pulled a pebble rolling on the ground toward me with telekinesis.
Matter Conversion
I transformed the pebble into metal and drew a blue magic circle. After adjusting the angle, I finished casting.
Railgun
A thunderous roar erupted as the railgun fired. A projectile far exceeding the speed of sound punched clean through the Contaminant's abdomen. A massive hole opened in its gut.
"Oh — ohhhh!"
Max marveled at the meaningful hit.
I, on the other hand, stared at the Contaminant with a hard face.
"What a pain in the ass."
"What's wrong? That thing's as good as finished, isn't it?"
"It hasn't gone down. And look at the wound carefully."
"It's healing…?! That's absurd…"
The Contaminant's blown-open abdomen was regenerating at high speed. In about three minutes, it would be whole again without so much as a scar.
"Don't you have stronger magic?!"
"No."
"…Are we screwed?"
Leaving the devastated Max behind, I drove the bike closer to the Contaminant. As the distance closed, its stench hit me. Thud-thud-thud. It came toward me.
Hyper-regeneration. No question about it.
It was one of the traits Contaminants could have in the original game. The proper strategy was to use skills or items that suppressed recovery. Without those, there was only one answer.
DPS check. Overwhelm it with raw firepower before it can heal.
The railgun worked. That alone was enough.
Three pebbles lying on the ground rose into the air.
Matter Conversion
The pebbles became projectiles. I completed three magic circles in succession.
Railgun
Three railguns fired simultaneously.
The dark space flashed white, and the shockwave scoured the ground. At the same moment, the Contaminant's body was blasted apart and rained down in pieces.
"Whoa. Incredible. So this is a 5-Class mage's magic! The five million credit commission will be deposited into the agreed account!"
Ignoring Max's chatter, I poked through the Contaminant's corpse with my elemental blade.
"…Do you have a hobby of playing with corpses or something?"
"There are traces of black magic."
"…What does that mean?"
"Look here. Inside the organs — remnants of a black magic circle."
"All I see are black spots…"
"No eye for detail. Look at these organs. The black magic formula was split apart and inscribed into each one individually, so that when the organs linked together, the circle would complete."
"Even if you say that… I'm not a mage, so I don't really get it. But I understand a black mage is involved. What effect does the black magic circle have?"
"I don't know."
Max looked at me like I was joking.
I answered him without flinching.
"The organs are too badly damaged. A black magic circle has to be intact to be interpreted. All I can do is guess that one existed."
Even I couldn't identify a black magic circle from mere traces.
"Damn it. So a black mage is targeting us? Should we report it to the Council and hope support arrives as fast as possible…"
"I'm interested now. I'll track the black mage myself."
The black mage had almost certainly created the Contaminant artificially. Releasing it so casually meant they had been trying to accumulate research data. I was interested in that research — and in black magic itself.
As a bonus, it was a chance to kill the black mage and extract a Dark Hole. I wasn't about to walk past a free reward sitting right in front of me.
"Do you know where the black mage is?"
"You said it yourself. Contaminants come out of the ground and go back into it. The black mage probably set up a workshop underground."
"Isn't that dangerous?"
"It will be."
I slipped a hand into my jacket pocket. I could feel the Overload Ampoule. If things went south, I planned to use it.
"I'm going anyway."
"…Why? Why go looking for danger on purpose?"
"I'm not looking for danger. I'm seizing an opportunity."
I was fairly confident.
A black mage of 5-Class or higher would have no reason to set up a workshop in a place like this. Odds were high they'd released the ogre Contaminant because they couldn't control it.
"Go back to the village."
"…Alright. Following you any further would just slow you down…. I'll go back and protect the villagers. And… thank you."
"You don't need to thank me. I only move in ways that benefit me."
"Still — thank you. I just wanted to say it."
Max rode his bike back toward the village.
I dropped to one knee on the ground, pressed my palm to the dirt, and cast a spell.
Detection
Waves of mana spread outward like sonar. Just when it seemed like nothing would register, I sensed an underground space at the western edge. I moved immediately, racing west on the bike.
Detection
I felt it clearly now. There was a space underground. I tried to pinpoint the black mage's location as well… but a barrier prevented me from locking it down precisely.
Dig Out
The ground caved in. After using Dig Out three more times, I was able to enter the underground space.
It was dark and silent below.
Light
I created a sphere of light above my head and walked forward, careful not to neglect my detection magic.
Advancing cautiously, I suddenly stopped. An invisible wall blocked my path right in front of me.
A barrier. The barrier itself is low-level — 3-Class at best.
I carefully touched it with my hand, letting a thin stream of mana flow as I analyzed the formula.
Easy. Just dig into the slightly twisted formula properly and…
Ziiing.
The barrier split open. I stepped inside.
Where the passage had been empty of any human presence, traces now appeared — footprints, discarded trash, and the like.
They've probably noticed the intrusion. The moment they see me, they'll attack — so I'll block with a Barrier… seize the space with Electric Field, then…
I was walking while imagining the fight with the black mage when the smell of blood hit me. It wasn't fresh. Rot was mixed in. At least three days old.
I quickened my pace. After enough combat experience against both monsters and humans, you learn to distinguish their blood by scent. And the blood I was smelling now was human.
A chamber opened up ahead.
Books and experimental tools scattered everywhere made it clear this was the heart of the black mage's workshop.
I found the black mage. He was dead on the experiment table. His abdomen was completely hollowed out. Perched on top of the corpse was a single creature — bat wings, a monkey's body, and a goat's head.
It wasn't a monster.
It was too alien to call a monster. Something else entirely.
The creature that saw me rotated its goat head a full one hundred and eighty degrees.
"A human? What is this? I sense a familiar affinity. Are you a contractor?"
At those words, I realized what it was and let out a quiet breath.
"A demon. Bioda. And you?"
"I have no name to give a demon."
"Hmm. Care to make a contract with me?"