Ancient Magic—Its Power, or...
Ancient Magic consumed a vast amount of mana, in exact proportion to how certain its power and its effects were.
Even on this continent, where every kind of supernatural ability and uncanny phenomenon ran wild, that much was simple common sense.
Yujun's mana sat far higher than his level had any right to allow. He had consumed all manner of items that raised it permanently.
I have enough mana.
The restriction laid on Iere resembled a curse. It was not one. It was merely magic of a very high order—and yet that alone had been enough to give Manuela trouble, which left him with no sense at all of how exceptional the mage who had set it must be. That hardly mattered now. The thing in front of him had to be dealt with first.
Yujun closed his eyes and focused with everything he had. He knew how to use magic, but his experience was so thin that he couldn't be sure it would work.
I'll trust the skill rank and go.
Mana began to circulate at a rapid pace, strands of it brushing the dense gray energy—close enough to touch, and not quite. As that cool, bracing mana rifled through her whole body, Iere's expression shifted into something strange: pleased, and anxious at the same time. She knew perfectly well what would happen to her if the restriction was disturbed.
There was not a shred of hesitation in what Yujun did. He drove mana in without restraint and attacked the gray energy.
Boom! Boom!
The sound was like thunder and lightning tearing the sky. That was no figure of speech. Explosions were actually going off inside Iere's head, because the gray energy was fighting back with everything it had. She stayed in one piece only because Yujun had wrapped his mana around her brain and shielded it from the gray.
That state held for a full minute. Iere convulsed, crying out in pain. Yujun was cold about it. He never once took his hands away, and he kept every bit of his attention on the work in front of him.
"Aaaagh! Stop! Stop it, please!"
"Does it hurt that much?"
"You—you call that a question?!"
Iere shouted, furious. With his other hand Yujun produced a mid-grade health potion and poured it over her head. That, he figured, ought to take the edge off.
"It hurts, I said! Please, just stop!"
"..."
So he'd been wrong. Iere thrashed with nothing to show for it but soaked hair, but bound by Bind, she had no way out. The one hopeful sign was that the restriction—the gray energy—was being shaved away, little by little. Yujun pushed harder still and began dumping in every drop of mana he had. It was work that ought to have been done with care, but the effect of Ancient Magic outstripped anything he had imagined. The gray energy started to vanish at speed.
"Ahh...!"
Iere's expression gradually brightened. The pain had not vanished entirely, but it was far milder than before. She even felt something like ease.
"More—do more!"
"A moment ago you told me to stop."
"..."
The work went smoothly. It did not even take another full minute to erase every trace of the gray energy. Just to be sure, he loosened his mana and probed deeper through Iere's body, and there was nothing gray left.
Is that the end of it?
The restriction was undone.
"I think that did it."
At his words Manuela crossed the distance at a run.
"It did? How? You undid the restriction?"
She poured questions over him, her face insisting the whole thing was impossible.
"See for yourself."
As if something had taken hold of her, Manuela set a hand on Iere's head. It was not long before she turned to Yujun, stunned.
"What?"
"How did you do it?"
"There was something in her brain, so I got rid of it."
"...That's all?"
"Yeah."
"The restriction's backlash should have made that impossible."
"So I handled it with an ability of a higher order than the restriction. You overpower the backlash with force. Simple, isn't it?"
"..."
Looked at a certain way, it was absurdly simple. When strength meets strength, the greater strength wins—common sense to anyone. Mana and every other kind of energy were no different. Yujun had possessed a technique and a store of mana more powerful than the restriction, and he had not merely crushed the gray energy. He had erased it.
"This is seriously impossible..."
"It's hardly impossible. Spare me the fuss."
"You think I'm asking because I don't know? The restriction on that woman just now was a more powerful, more dangerous kind of energy than any curse I have ever seen. You didn't stop at touching it—you erased it? Honestly, if it hadn't happened right in front of me... No. I still can't believe it."
It had been a long time since he had heard Manuela go on at such length. Was it really something to be that shocked over?
"If it worked, isn't that enough?"
His gaze shifted to Iere, who sat there utterly dazed.
"Restriction's off. I can ask now, right?"
"Y-yeah."
Iere nodded and kept nodding.
"What's down below?"
"This is a laboratory."
"A laboratory? What are they researching?"
"Ah—did I put that wrong? Factory would be the better word."
"A factory. So they're making something?"
"That's a little off too. This is a place that takes monsters that already exist and makes them stronger."
At that, Yujun tipped his head. Making monsters stronger? To what end? The question sat plain on his face, and Iere went on.
"You know how abnormally strong the monsters of this place are—of Sourtul Forest."
"Yeah. And?"
"All of that is because of the secret lab here."
"...They enhanced the monsters?"
"Right. You've got it exactly. The Demon God Worshippers pick out monsters that are already fairly strong, capture them, bring them to the lab, and enhance them."
"...For what?"
"I don't know. I only did what those bastards told me."
"Now that I think of it, you said earlier you weren't a Demon God Worshipper."
Iere nodded.
"So why were you locked up in a place like this?"
"I happened to come to Sourtul Forest, and the Demon God Worshippers got me. They dragged me in by force, and I've been working here for years. Truth is, I don't even know how much time has passed."
Her expression had brightened, just a little. Saying the thing plainly to someone seemed to settle her.
"Is it still going on?"
"Is what?"
"Bringing monsters in and enhancing them."
"Yeah. Lately they've been capturing and bringing in even more."
"The Demon God Worshippers bring them?"
"Yeah."
"One more thing. Why did they give this work to you, of all people?"
"Because of my ability."
"Your ability?"
"I can read a monster's potential. I honestly thought it was a skill that didn't mean much, but the Demon God Worshippers apparently didn't agree."
So they had wrung every bit of use out of what Iere could do.
"Do you happen to have the skill Potential Measurement?"
"...How did you know?"
Iere startled hard.
"You have it too?"
"No. Not that."
How was he supposed to explain it? It had been a skill on the No-Pay Casual Gamer character, and its use had been in picking out quality summons—or, failing that, in actually reading a monster's potential. Which was precisely why it was difficult to call the skill useful.
"What's the rank?"
Even that seemed awkward to admit. Iere hesitated, troubled.
"Um. SS-rank."
"...That's high."
The Potential Measurement No-Pay Casual Gamer had carried was A-rank. Set beside that, Iere's skill stood three ranks higher.
Weirdly, that stings.
Iere was staring at him with a strange look. Yujun cleared his throat and spoke again.
"How did they find out what you could do?"
"The Demon God Worshippers?"
"Yeah."
"They must have known my ability from the start and come after me. They're the reason I came here at all. I didn't know what they were back then—I was tricked into coming."
"But you don't know how they found out."
"Right."
Yujun turned to the others.
"I don't think the lab has anything to do with getting out of the forest. Shall we go further down?"
"I don't care. I'll follow whatever you decide."
That was Manuela.
"I don't mind either."
Jo Su-a seemed to feel the same. The two of the Hon had no choice in it. Falling away from Yujun now and striking out alone would have been no different from suicide, and there was not a person present who failed to understand that.
"We will accompany you as well."
"Yes. Understood. Let us go."
"Master, me too."
"You were coming anyway. You're my summon. You're stating the obvious."
At the rebuke, Paranet wilted.
"Let's go."
He had decided to bring Iere along as well. The restriction was gone and she was free, and he knew the Demon God Worshippers wanted her ability.
If I use Iere as a hostage, I might be able to tilt a fight my way.
They followed the stairs all the way down, and at the bottom lay a space so vast its end could not be seen. Dozens—hundreds—of enormous cylinders, all the same size, stood there, and inside each one sat a monster of a different shape.
"..."
"What... is all this?"
Rayl and Yotolban of the Hon, staring ahead, had gone pale. So many monsters, sunk unconscious in green liquid—the sight alone was enough to strike a person dumb. Monster or not, it could not help but feel cruel.
"The Demon God Worshippers are not here at present?"
Yotolban asked Iere.
"No. They're normally stationed here all the time, but a little while ago they called it an emergency and left in a hurry."
"..."
He had a feeling the cause of that was connected to him. Yujun thought so—and he was not the only one, judging by the way everyone turned to look at him.
"Works out. We can look around at our ease."
"Doesn't it."
For something called a laboratory, the secret space was far too vast, and there were no documents, nothing of the sort. Only the cylindrical vessels stood in long rows, monsters wrapped in green liquid. The whole time they looked the place over, the party had nothing to say. It was Jo Su-a who broke the quiet.
"What are we doing about all of these?"
"Hm?"
"We can't just look and leave."
"True. From a moral standpoint..."
"No."
Jo Su-a cut him off.
"Huh?"
"Those are all experience points. There's got to be about a thousand of them. Kill the lot and the EXP would be no joke."
"..."
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"You didn't pass level 600 for nothing. Figures even your mindset would be different."
"...That was a compliment, right?"
"Of course."
"So we kill them all, then?"
Jo Su-a said it with a blank face. She had been saying vicious things as if they were nothing. Yujun nodded, looking faintly appalled, then turned to the party.
"Everyone. We really ought to help those monsters, so they need not suffer any longer."
"..."
"..."
"As expected, Master! To spare a thought even for monsters without consciousness—such magnanimity is no ordinary thing!"
"Yes. You're the only one who understands my heart."
While the others stared as if they could not believe what they were hearing, Yujun drew his mana up.
Vmm.
Vwoooom—!
A tremendous quantity of mana erupted from his body. It went past a tingling through the whole frame and into something that would not let a person so much as twitch a finger.
"Ngh...!"
"Ghk...!"
The two Hon went to the very edge of fainting.
Thud.
A moment later they could not hold, and both collapsed to the floor. Only Manuela, Jo Su-a, and Paranet managed to stay standing.
"Wh-what are you doing?"
Manuela shouted at him. And in that instant—
Crash! Crash!
KRA-KA-KOOM!
Hundreds of glass cylinders burst all at once.
The racket hammered at their ears for a long while before it finally went quiet. Yujun scratched his head.
"Huh. That actually worked."