Assault on the Insect Assembly Castle (2)
With a soft “…Phew,” the Saintess let out a quiet sigh of relief the moment their strategy was finalized. No one else noticed.
Thank goodness. They were taking a completely different approach from her previous life.
The reason Yulise had recommended the second method was simple. The first one had already ended in failure before. She still remembered it vividly—the skin-crawling insects that filled every inch of space, the obsidian walls closing in. Valcan’s castle was a labyrinth, Valcan himself was a monster, and they had been utter fools for thinking they could carve a path through it with nothing but resolve.
This time will be different. Yulise repeated the words to herself, steadying her uneasy heart. It would be all right. Everything was different from the very beginning this time. Unlike the past where they had ignored and isolated him, she would listen to his words earnestly now.
With that thought in mind, she opened her mouth to draw more information from Luke.
“But if we keep rampaging around like this, won’t Valcan notice?”
The hero responded at once.
“It’s fine. This place is far larger than it looks. No matter what we do in the outer sections, he won’t detect us. We just need to make sure we take out the scouts properly.”
“…Scouts?”
“One-eyed giant eye bugs. They act as Valcan’s eyes and ears. Infuse mana into their eyes and you can ‘share’ everything they’ve seen. They’re one of the masterpieces that bastard personally bred. So we have to prioritize killing these over anything else.”
Yulise felt a quiet sense of wonder. This party was composed of elites. Before entering the Demon Realm they had all studied the Demon King, at least on a basic level. In other words, most of them had impressive academic backgrounds. Yet somehow Luke knew details that even his own party members didn’t. The more she watched him, the more amazed she became.
Of course, the curses clinging to him made it difficult to fully trust his words. Still, Yulise knew every sentence was true—because she had heard them all in her previous life. Naturally the others, who knew nothing of her regression, would remain skeptical.
At that moment Lily spoke up, her voice dripping with irritation.
“Hmph. Nonsense. If it’s not even recorded in the Magic Tower’s ancient texts, how would you know about it? It’s obviously a lie.”
“It’s real. Why would I bother lying? What would I possibly gain from it?”
“That’s…”
“If you’re that doubtful, just check for yourself. Here.”
Luke handed her one of the bugs with his usual half-smiling expression. It was about the size of a thumb, with a single grotesque eyeball bulging from its face. Anyone could tell at a glance that this was the one-eyed scout bug he had described.
Lily hesitated briefly, then snatched the creature and poured mana into it. Instantly another view unfolded before her eyes—the image of the hero’s party walking through the castle just moments ago. Because the bug had been clinging to the wall, only their profiles were visible, but seeing her own side view through another’s perspective felt strangely surreal.
In the end, Lily had no choice but to admit it.
“It’s real…”
“See? So from now on, kill every last one you spot. If we miss even a single bug, we’re in serious trouble.”
Crack!
As he spoke, Luke crushed the one-eyed bug in his palm. White fluid—perhaps because it had eyes—trickled down his hand.
Yulise nodded fervently. The worst-case scenario from her previous life was already flashing through her mind: missing one of the scout bugs, the creature returning to Valcan and reporting everything. They would be surrounded and isolated by the swarm again. It would be nothing but a repetition of the past.
This time she would prevent that outcome at all costs. Every bug with eyes would be burned away.
That was the firm resolution Yulise made.
Fortunately, dealing with the one-eyed bugs turned out to be far easier than expected. Once they understood the principle, Adel and Lily collaborated to create a dedicated search spell just for them.
Adel would narrow the search radius to pinpoint the targets, then Lily would take that data and layer an auto-running macro spell on top. It meant they no longer had to scan every corner with their own eyes. If a scout bug came anywhere near, the magic would sound an alarm.
I nodded in satisfaction.
They really are capable.
No matter how simple the spell, creating something like that so quickly was impressive. Of course Yulise had nagged them quite a bit during the process… but their competence remained undeniable.
Thanks to that, we were able to hunt much more comfortably. Since we were still in the outer sections, the monsters weren’t particularly strong either. As a result, our growth continued at a smooth pace.
Bright Ryu Swordsmanship level has increased!
Mana Blade level has increased!
It had been a long time since the system last sent a level-up notification. The skills that hadn’t risen even after we killed the Minotaur had finally grown. The experience we had accumulated back then had finally borne fruit.
Swish.
The flow of mana along my blade became slightly more natural, and the stability of my footwork improved a fraction. Even so, the change was small enough that I barely felt it. Still, I was certain these tiny improvements would pile up and eventually become a towering mountain.
I kept cutting down the monsters that charged at me, slashing and slashing again. When I sliced open a sand worm, mucus coated my body. The humid air gradually soaked me in sweat from head to toe.
After wandering like that for several hours, we finally stood before a mountain of monster corpses piled high like a hill.
“Wow… we really killed a lot.”
“The sheer number of monsters is on another level… Where on earth are they all coming from?”
Lily and Kamilla glanced behind them and let out small gasps of amazement. Countless insect-type monsters lay stacked in a grotesque pile—an unmistakable testament to how fiercely we had fought.
They’re not going to make us dismantle all of that, are they?
“Let’s call it a day here and rest. We need to preserve some stamina.”
“Agreed. With this much, we don’t need to dismantle everything, right? They’ll just pile up again later anyway. Let’s only process the most valuable materials.”
“Everyone worked hard. Now let’s set up camp and decide on the night watch.”
I was relieved I wouldn’t have to deal with dismantling. The moment I heard those words I dropped heavily onto the floor. After fighting monsters nonstop all day, my entire body felt as heavy as lead. The mucus and bug remains stuck in every crevice of my armor only made things worse.
Lily stretched her arms overhead and sighed.
“Hoo… What a brutal day. I want to wash up right now…”
This time I had to cut in.
“What are you talking about? How exactly do you plan to wash here?”
“Huh?”
“Look around. Is there a stream? A lake? Even if you scrubbed your eyes clean and searched, you wouldn’t find one.”
The outer edges of the Demon Realm still had relatively clean water sources. The high density of demonic energy simply turned many creatures into monsters. But this place was different. It had been meticulously remade by insects for insects. There was no clean water to be found.
Even after I told her the truth, Lily refused to believe it.
“What would you know? It’s not like you’ve explored the entire castle! There has to be at least one place to wash!”
I had explored the entire castle—breaking down walls in search of hidden pieces while I was at it.
It really is similar to the game.
For someone like Lily who loved luxury and cleanliness, this environment must have been torture. Her irritation was perfectly understandable. Strangely, Yulise—the one who hated bugs most of all—remained quiet.
Still unwilling to accept my words, Lily spent a long time searching every corner of the castle. She walked endless corridors and checked every room we hadn’t yet entered. When she still found nothing suitable for washing, her face crumpled.
“Ugh… I feel so gross I could die.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll keep using purification magic to clean you.”
“I appreciate it, but… even that isn’t perfect.”
She was right. Yulise’s purification magic could maintain a certain level of cleanliness, but it couldn’t solve everything. The air was damp, cockroaches and maggots crawled everywhere. It would get dirty again soon enough. This was simply daily life here.
Perhaps Kamilla had already realized that, because she looked at Lily and spoke.
“Stop complaining and lay out your sleeping bag. We have to fight again tomorrow, so we should sleep early. At least we’re tired enough that we’ll actually be able to rest…”
“Haa… Can’t we just charge straight in and kill that Valcan bastard right now?”
Looking at her, I thought to myself:
You’re going to be stuck here for months longer.
What are you going to do if you start whining already?
I wondered just how much stress would build up among the party in this place. I had no answer. I could only watch.
With that thought, I crawled into my sleeping bag.
A long day had finally ended.
And yet, only a single day had passed.