Where the Alchemist Resides (4)
With the witch's face sprawled across the floor, making that grotesque sound, I brought my mace down on it one more time for good measure.
I was still shaking off the mess clinging to my weapon when Joy and Jacob, who had been hanging back, came over to me.
"Are you all right?"
Of course I am.
"Airhead Lady. Did you really think I'd lose to a pathetic thing like that?"
"But you're still hurt."
I couldn't exactly claim I'd come out unscathed. Sure, I had the witch's patterns completely memorized, but there was no denying the sheer difference in raw specs between her and me.
Still, no big deal. An injury like this doesn't even count as one, not by my standards. Honestly, the bruises from sparring with Forsell were worse than this.
I flashed a smile at Joy, who was watching me with worried eyes.
I'm fine.
"I'm not weak enough to earn concern from someone as useless as you, Airhead Lady."
"...Ha. Understood, Your Reckless Highness."
It felt like my worry-you'd-better-not message had gotten through a little too well, but I chalked it up to my imagination.
I led the two of them deeper into the corridor. Barely a few minutes had passed when we spotted a white statue standing in the middle of the passage—something that didn't belong in this laboratory at all.
The mark signifying a Safe Zone.
"So this is the Safe Zone."
"Then do we just wait here to be rescued?"
Yeah...
"That's right. Let's wait for the rescue team of this glacially slow, worthless academy."
I set my shield and mace down and leaned against the wall. I was the one leading this party now, and I figured if I showed a relaxed face first, the other two would be able to ease up as well.
At first, Joy and Jacob both hesitated, wondering whether they were even allowed to rest, but they soon decided that recovering their stamina mattered more than staying tense, and leaned against the wall just like me.
Ugh. It's been quite a while since we entered the dungeon—why is the rescue taking so long? I wanted nothing more than to get out of this gloomy place, even a minute sooner.
Girlie.
What?
I flinched at the sound of Halbae calling me. Ever since we'd fallen into this dungeon, every time he called my name, something bad had followed. I knew that reaching the Safe Zone meant our safety was guaranteed and there was nothing to worry about—but after everything that had happened today, I couldn't bring myself to relax.
There's something out there watching this place.
Watching us?
When I followed Halbae's words and turned my gaze, an Argos came into view, standing just outside the Safe Zone's boundary.
It was bizarre. Argos were guards—their whole function was to patrol a set route rather than stand still, sniffing out intruders. So why was this one just standing there, staring at us?
While I was still chewing on the thought, another Argos appeared in the distance, walked over, and took its place beside the first. The moment I saw it, I scrambled to my feet, mace and shield at the ready.
This was a variable. A variable that had never appeared in the game.
"Lady Arln!"
"My lady!"
I'm fine!...
"Why are you two panicking? Can't you see those idiots can't get in? We're fine."
I sent the trembling voices of Joy and Jacob a word of reassurance. I knew full well this situation was anything but normal, but I still had to say it. If I didn't, the fear burrowed into their hearts would swell in an instant and turn into full-blown panic.
Even as we kept watch around us, the number of monsters encircling the Safe Zone only kept growing. One became two, two became four—and by the time I came to my senses, Argos packed the perimeter shoulder to shoulder.
Escape was impossible. We were rats in a poison jar.
And yet, we were still safe. We were inside the Safe Zone. We were standing in a place those things couldn't enter.
So why did I feel this uneasy?
Ever since I'd come into this world, I had never once seen this ominous instinct prove wrong. I chewed on my lip and scanned our surroundings.
Brace yourself. Something is coming.
Before long, I caught sight of something massive plowing through the Argos horde in the distance.
A tattered gray rag of a robe, rotten skin glimpsed through the fraying gaps. Legs that dragged like they could barely hold weight, and a repulsive staff propping up that enormous body. A hostile miasma scattering in its wake, and beneath the cloth covering its face, the glint of red eyes.
The very first thing I thought when I saw him was: disgusting.
My stomach turned. Nothing more than meeting its gaze, and yet my body recoiled on pure instinct. Something that should not exist stood before my eyes. Something whose very permission to linger in this world was questionable.
Girlie.
I have to run. Where? Where do I go?
Pull yourself together.
The Argos have us surrounded—where the hell am I supposed to run? That's impossible. So if I want to escape, then...
Girlie!
"Hnngh."
Fear Overcome activated, yanking me back to reality.
Are you alright?!
Barely.
So this was how dangerous the passive skill the Alchemist carried—Mental Pollution—really was?! In the game, it was just a skill you could shrug off by slapping on a single mid-tier mental resistance buff!
"Huurgh—"
At the sound of retching, I whipped my head around. There was Jacob, both hands clutching his own throat, and Joy collapsed on the floor, vomiting up her guts.
Shit. We're fucked.
Unlike me, these two had no mental resistance skills. They couldn't withstand the Alchemist's mental pollution. Left like this, they'd die by their own hands.
Knock them out.
What?
Better unconscious than dead from madness.
Halbae was right. The moment my judgment was made, I slammed the edge of my shield into Jacob's skull—one clean blow, hard enough to knock him out cold in a single hit. Then I cracked Joy across the back of the head to put her under as well, and turned to face forward.
A madman who threw his body upon the forbidden. Why is something this dangerous here?
Because that's this dungeon's boss, obviously.
The Alchemist. A being who had offered himself to taboo in pursuit of sating his own curiosity. Sealed away for that crime, only to catch the eye of Agra and be chosen as master of this dungeon. So why had that lunatic—who was supposed to be enjoying his research in his own lair—crawled out? Among the three of us, there was surely nothing worth his attention as an experiment.
The Alchemist arrived right at the edge of the Safe Zone, stared at my face for a moment, then spoke at his leisure.
"To not go mad even looking upon me."
Every time his mouth moved, a stench seeped out that churned my mind. Dammit. I wanted to ram my mace straight into that maw.
"How curious. You don't yet seem to have reached that realm. So you truly are an apostle of Armadi."
Armadi! That useless god who gives nothing and does nothing but pull aggro nonstop actually did something today! Shit. No wonder the Argos kept spawning the instant I used Mercy of Armadi.
My frown must have delighted him, because the Alchemist let out a laugh. It was unpleasant in a way that made my skin crawl, like worms wriggling up beneath it.
"Experiment subject."
The Alchemist pointed a finger, wrinkled with age, at me.
"Come out quietly, and I shall leave the two vermin behind you untouched."
"Is it because your brain's rotted through?♡ Even the words spilling out of your mouth are as rotten as that stench♡"
Go eat a fist, you psychotic bastard. Sure, I'm getting more and more infected by the mesugaki, but my mind is perfectly sane, thank you very much?! Did he really expect me to trust the word of a lunatic who'd turn "honesty" into gold through alchemy?!
The moment I provoked him outright, a dangerous gleam kindled in the Alchemist's eyes. Insane. That's terrifyingly ugly. But what's it to me if you're pissed? You can't get in here anyway!
"You place your faith in Armadi's authority, but there is one thing you do not know. This laboratory is a dungeon—and at the same time, it is no different from my own flesh."
The Alchemist raised his arm and, with theatrical flourish, clenched his fist—and in that instant, the narrow corridor transformed into a vast open plain.
Dungeon Manipulation. One of the patterns this monster used in his boss fight. What was he trying to do? Changing the scenery didn't alter the fact that we were in the Safe Zone.
As if to answer my question, the Alchemist opened his clenched fist again, the corridor snapping back to its original size—and then I was hurled, no, we were hurled, into the very middle of the Argos horde.
...What?
Girlie! Roll forward, now!
"If you will not come out, then I simply extract you."
I heard Iron Wall shriek its alarm and tried to move, but it was already too late. I felt weight settle onto my shoulders.
"Do not assume authority will solve everything."
And then something seeped into me, sliding down through my shoulder. There was no time to think. No gap to resist. In an instant, my mind bleached white, and my body pitched forward.
My face slammed into the stone floor, but I felt no pain. As if my entire body had been paralyzed, I couldn't move so much as a finger.
"I had intended to take only you, and leave the other two as feed for the beasts, but I have changed my mind. A child who loves to defy must be shown her own future."
I could hear the Alchemist dragging his feet across the stone. The instant I registered the sound, I cast Mercy of Armadi on myself.
I was the one who had ground out skill proficiency every spare moment up to this day. Naturally, that included proficiency grinding for Mercy of Armadi. It still wasn't at the level where I could purge Agra's curse—but in other words, unless it was something divine in scale, I could cleanse anything and everything.
The moment the status ailment lifted, I snatched up my mace and lunged at the Alchemist.
I knew I had no winning chance. I knew perfectly well that the current me couldn't stand against him. And knowing it, I charged anyway. To buy time. Praying that some miracle might occur. Praying that a hand of salvation would reach me.
But the tentacles that shot out from beneath the Alchemist's ragged robe were faster than any miracle. Launched at a speed beyond reaction, one of them smashed into my abdomen, and my body flew backward, slamming into the Argos that formed the wall before crashing to the ground.
As I dry-heaved from the pain that had punched straight through my armor, something slick coiled around my wrists and ankles. I thrashed and struggled to break free, but escape was impossible. The Alchemist's tentacles were impossibly tough.
"A stubborn little thing, aren't you."
The Alchemist's wrinkled hand closed around my throat. How did a rotting arm like that produce such strength? He applied the faintest squeeze, and already I felt my airway seal shut.
"I do like the tenacious ones. Far more entertaining to play with than ordinary specimens."
I could feel the oxygen thinning. My mind had gone blindingly white. There wasn't even room left to feel the fear of death.
"Now, how shall I break that spirit of yours."
Fuck... you. Useless, worthless god Armadi. You're watching me right now, aren't you, you perverted freak? Then help me. Save me before the human you blessed dies. This happened because of you. Take responsibility! Don't tell me you can't intervene because this dungeon is Agra's domain? If so, then drop dead. Kneel and apologize to all the faithful who died because of your incompetence, and then kill yourself, you useless piece of—
Ding.
[Need some help?]
As my consciousness faded, I saw the message bloom before my eyes, and I couldn't help but let out a hollow laugh.
What the hell. Why are you only showing up NOW?
Armadi, you were a masochistic pervert who got off on getting cursed out by a mesugaki this whole time?