It's So Haaard... Uwaah... T_T
It's So Haaard... Uwaah... T_T
"......"
Trixie had been sneaking glances at me for a while now.
She seemed nearly convinced that I was the Scouter, but there was only one thing I could say to her at the moment.
"Let's focus on the Exploration Assessment for now."
It was just a basic remark about focusing solely on the evaluation, but Trixie took it differently.
As if I meant, "Prove it through this Exploration Assessment."
"Very well."
I considered explaining further to Trixie, who nodded readily, but decided against it.
It wasn't a misunderstanding that would clear up just from denying I was the Scouter, and honestly, the more determined Trixie was, the smoother the evaluation would go.
"What are you two talking about so seriously? We're going with a direct frontal breakthrough strategy, right? Yeah?"
Martin asked, shrugging his shoulders.
Perhaps because Trixie had been leaning closer to me, the look she shot Martin sharpened oddly in that moment.
"Yeah."
Trixie answered, short and cold.
"They don't have fire resistance."
She had zero intention of taking a detour. She was confident.
Trixie gestured with her chin toward the demon beasts up ahead. Semi-transparent ghosts were floating there, waiting for us—the ones called Wraiths.
In this world too, ghosts are weak to the fire element, which works similarly to exorcism. Trixie's confidence stemmed from that as well.
"Wraiths won't be a problem. As long as we're headed the right way."
"Ah, don't worry about that."
Martin smirked and pulled a scroll from his chest.
"No risk of getting lost. Got it here—a Witch Scroll. Took some effort to get my hands on this one."
Martin tossed it over to me with a flick.
"You handle the pathfinding. You're just along for the ride anyway, nothing else for you to do, right?"
That suited me just fine. I didn't trust Martin with navigation anyway.
Martin shot Trixie a look expecting praise, but the only response she gave was a single word.
"Go."
"Huh?"
"Go."
"Ah, okay."
Belatedly grasping that Trixie meant for him to take point, Martin draped himself in wind elements and sprinted ahead.
The Wraiths, their peace disturbed, zealously gave chase.
But Trixie's blue flames would not permit that.
Flick.
With a snap of her fingers, it was over. With a kee-ek screech, the Wraiths were swallowed by blue fire and burned.
Impressive, but the problem was the sheer number of them.
"Whoa!"
Suddenly glancing back, Martin flinched in alarm at the staggering horde of Wraiths.
Trixie kept burning them, but their numbers showed no sign of thinning.
I quietly drew mana to myself.
There was no need to run ahead like Martin and act as bait, nor manifest elemental magic directly like Trixie.
Support was enough.
I adjusted the output of the flames Trixie was manifesting. The augmented fire's performance skyrocketed—the natural result of receiving assistance.
What had been a mere bundle of fire spread like wildfire, and the horde of Wraiths was promptly annihilated.
"......"
Trixie looked at me with slightly dazed eyes.
As the originator of the flames, she couldn't have missed it.
She had clearly only generated a concentrated burst of flame, yet an external force had intervened and amplified its potency.
"Burning them all at once is more convenient."
"Will we lose points for that?"
She just asked that. The further we got into the evaluation, the more her misunderstanding about me grew.
"We'll talk after the evaluation."
There's no rush to explain; I can do it slowly after we're done.
We moved forward, checking Martin's Witch Scroll, which was doing an excellent job as a map.
We encountered groups of Wraiths two or three times after that, but I assisted Trixie's flames and wiped them all out.
"Phew~ all cleared out! Plan, how much further do we have to go?"
Martin said, wiping the sweat from his forehead.
He was completely covered in soot from getting caught up in Trixie's fire, but he didn't seem aware of his state.
"Just a little further."
"We're guaranteed a top score once we get back. No other team has taken down more demon beasts than us. It's way easier than I thought—"
Just then—as the soot-covered guy inspected the Witch Scroll with a satisfied face—I sensed a violently surging, deeply ominous energy.
My gaze instinctively chased its source.
The ground beneath Trixie's feet was the problem. No, the entirety of the path ahead was the problem.
It was going to collapse. Absolutely. The entire ground was going to cave in.
The first thing that came to mind was Telekinesis.
I used Telekinesis to yank Trixie with all my might.
"Eek—!?"
Trixie was pulled flush against my chest. Pushing her away would have meant she fell to her death, so pulling was the only option.
"You. Wha, what are. What are you doing."
An odd expression spread over Trixie's face. It looked like she absolutely couldn't comprehend my action.
Kuguguguuu—!
Immediately after, the very spot Trixie had been standing on just moments ago collapsed entirely. The depth was impossible to gauge by sight alone.
A heavy silence fell.
A moment later, Martin was the first to break it.
"Isn't this way too excessive for a trap? If we'd fallen in... well."
We'd at least be dead, no doubt.
Trixie, who had been held in my arms, flicked her eyes downward before clearing her throat and pulling away from me.
"It's strange. It doesn't feel artificial."
Trixie added her own word. She was right.
The real issue with the ground collapse just now was that I couldn't feel a shred of artificiality in it.
"Hey... you guys hear something? Is it just me?"
Martin's voice quavered—unable to bluff this time. A bizarre sound rising from the abyss grew louder and louder.
Kieeeeeeeek—!
We looked down into the abyss. Something was surging up madly.
In less than two seconds, we realized it was the indescribably gargantuan upper body of a skeleton.
Originally, skeletons lack vocal cords and thus cannot produce sound. But if one does make a sound, that in itself proves it's a higher-grade entity.
"Hey, hey, hey. What, what is this? It's coming this way! Wha, what are we supposed to do?!"
Martin stammered like he was broken.
I was rattled, but I tried to stay calm. Once that colossus fully climbed up, it would collapse the entire surrounding area.
We had to deal with it before it finished ascending. Immediately.
Trixie caused a chain of explosions on the surrounding walls with her blue fire.
As the walls crumbled, countless chunks of earth and stone buried the giant skeleton—but that was all. It didn't stop the creature's ascent itself.
"It's not working. It's too big."
"Take out all your scrolls."
At my words, Martin urgently produced two scrolls. Trixie, perhaps due to her confidence, hadn't brought any scrolls with her.
『 Emergency Exit 』, 『 Petrification 』. Without a shred of hesitation, I took the Petrification scroll.
If I focused on efficiency to the extreme, I could break through this.
I unfurled the scroll.
The giant skeleton's white surface gradually took on a grayish hue—but that was all. It slowed its movements but couldn't fully petrify it.
'Modification.'
I redrew the formula sealed within the scroll in my mind's eye. Various magic applications and geometric patterns raced through my brain.
Instead of expanding the Petrification's 'range,' I minimized it and boosted its potency to the extreme. It went beyond assistance—it was practically a modification.
CRUNCH. The massive arm of the skeleton stiffened into solid gray.
Kieeeeeeeeeek—!
Its face hadn't been petrified, so it let out an eerie shriek, but the creature with the hardened arm had no way to climb this cliff.
Letting out a bizarre cry, it plummeted back down.
"......Whoa. That scroll performance is legit."
Martin muttered quietly. Then he suddenly shouted.
"Actually, now that I think about it, this is insane! I've never heard of the ground collapsing inside the Magic Labyrinth, or a skeleton that huge being here!"
It did bother me, to be honest.
This wasn't something you could chalk up to 'insufficient prior investigation' and move on.
Since a moment ago, I hadn't felt any artificial energy anywhere—only an ominous aura hung thickly.
Martin's anger abruptly turned toward me.
"You sure you've been guiding us right? Didn't we come the wrong way?"
"This is correct."
Despite my definitive answer, Martin snatched the scroll back and checked it himself.
Yet, as I'd said, the navigation itself was perfectly fine. Still, his anger didn't subside.
"Useless... Trixie's been killing things since earlier, I've been luring them. We're doing everything while you just coast along. Must feel nice, huh?"
"You."
Trixie glared icily at Martin.
"Don't breathe. Shut your mouth."
"No, this is too much no matter how you look at it! If it weren't for my scrolls just now, we'd have actually been done for...."
Whoosh— Trixie's arm was engulfed in blue flames. Only then did Martin reluctantly clamp his mouth shut.
"We'll take a different route."
At Trixie's calm reply, Martin grumbled something and reluctantly complied.
As we backtracked the way we came, Trixie once again edged subtly closer to me.
And said one thing.
"Nicely done."
◈
Walking from behind, Trixie observed the man in front of her.
The boy's back wasn't broad enough to be called dependable. However, right now, it seemed reasonably broad.
She continued walking and replayed the recent events in her mind.
He had excellently assisted her blue flames. Calling it assistance was generous—in reality, he'd interfered and practically handled it himself.
If a fellow student had done that, she would have rightfully been furious, but....
'Because he isn't a student.'
Right. The moment she thought of Plan not as a fellow student but as a Scouter, every puzzle piece fell perfectly into place.
His commoner status. His hiding of his skills. Every piece of the puzzle clicked into the picture of him being a Scouter.
Most decisive of all was the enhancement of the Petrification Scroll he'd demonstrated earlier.
Calmly selecting a usable magic in a bewildering situation and driving its effect to its absolute limit.
......He couldn't be called a student anymore.
'He must be telling me to reach that level.'
Clearly, he was holding back his strength.
Insignificant Martin hadn't noticed, but Trixie had fully caught on. He was likely hinting at it to her subtly.
"You need to show at least this much to join the guild you want." That was probably closer to his meaning. That's how it appeared he was communicating with her.
'I'm confident.'
The Mystic Gorge, renowned as a mage guild, was what she had dreamed of since childhood—and the guild her mother had once belonged to.
She was only a first-year now, and she was also fully aware that her own talent was outstanding.
So she would make him acknowledge her no matter what and join them.
"What are you doing? Standing still."
Martin spoke to Trixie out of nowhere.
She had stopped without even realizing it. Trixie shook her head side to side.
"Don't open your mouth."
Trixie followed after Plan, who was walking ahead.
Then a thought suddenly came to her, and she opened Trivia.
[ ▶ I'm being evaluated right now! ]
[ ▶ Ish sho hard... uwaah... ㅠㅅㅠ ]
It felt like this communication was slowly becoming a habit.
Kugugugugu—!
Yet immediately after sending the message, the walls on both sides began completely collapsing.
As the side walls crumbled, the figures of other groups walking down different passages were revealed one by one.
There were about two groups, for starters.
"Uh, h-hey, Plan...."
In the left passage was Becky's Group 5.
"Hmm."
And in the right passage was Hailey's Group 1.
Watching both girls' gazes simultaneously lock onto Plan, Trixie quietly thought to herself.
'......Did these girls catch on too?'