Settlement, Looting, and the Unknown (2)

The Insect Assembly Castle was incredibly vast and complex. My party and I had experienced this to the point of exhaustion over the past several months of wandering its halls. Yet everyone seemed to share one fundamental misconception: they were all convinced that the castle's final destination was the audience chamber. As if that made any sense.

'The guy needs a place to live, too.'

The audience chamber was literally just that—an audience chamber. A space specially designed for him to meet visitors. It was a little more ornate than the other rooms and spacious enough for swarms of insects to gather, but that was all. It was an audience room and nothing more. In gaming terms, it was the boss stage.

And now it was time to explore what lay beyond. The Insect King's bedroom, laboratory, storage vaults... Fortunately, there shouldn't be any further dangers ahead. After everything I'd been through, I couldn't say I was completely certain, but as far as I knew, that was the case.

'There shouldn't be any, right?' After all that suffering, there had better not be. If there were, I'd just kill myself. No point living in a world that filthy.

Anyway, we moved past the audience chamber and began exploring the remaining rooms. Thankfully, locating them was simple. If we simply continued straight from the entrance we'd used, everything else lay just beyond.

"It's a miracle this section didn't collapse..."

"You can say that again."

"Hmph. He probably built his own living quarters sturdier on purpose."

We moved on to the next area, casually badmouthing the Insect King as we went. Unlike the sprawling Insect Assembly Castle we'd already traversed, the space beyond the audience chamber wasn't particularly large. It was small enough to take in at a glance. Of course, it was still divided into several rooms, so checking them all would take time... but after the distances we'd ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠already covered, this felt like nothing.

"Lord Hero, shall we move together or split up?"

The Saintess asked while I was surveying the area. I answered without much thought.

"I'm more comfortable moving alone..."

"Then let's do that."

"Won't the others object?"

"I'll persuade them. They're probably exhausted and want to rest ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠as soon as possible."

She walked back toward the rest of the party and began speaking with them. They quickly agreed to her suggestion.

"True. Since we're all tired, dividing the tasks makes sense."

Watching them, I felt a strange sense of novelty. It really did seem like she'd grown closer to me after this battle. She was the only one who'd witnessed my suffering firsthand, and she'd been the one to land the final blow. The only person who'd seen me accomplish my great feat.

'Come to think of it, my body was clean when I woke up.'

I had definitely been in a disgusting state when I lost consciousness. My entire body was caked in blood, covered with the liquefied remains of countless grasshoppers. Yet when I opened my eyes, I felt as fresh as if I'd just bathed. She must have used purification magic on me. Even though she had to have been utterly exhausted herself, she'd still taken the time to cleanse me. No matter what her true feelings were, I couldn't help feeling grateful. Thanks to her, I'd been able to wake up in a much more pleasant state.

With that settled, we split up to search. Kamilla and Adel took the storage room, Lily and Yulise took the bedroom, and I headed for the laboratory.

Creeeeak...

The rusty door let out a spine-chilling screech as I pushed it open. A stale smell of mold and faint chemical scents greeted me.

I thought to myself, 'Good thing I got the laboratory.'

Of the areas behind the audience chamber, the two with the highest potential rewards were the storage room and the laboratory. The storage room contained all sorts of treasures and high-grade materials, but nothing particularly useful for me, so I'd left it to the others without hesitation. The money from selling those items would go toward party maintenance costs ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠anyway, so it made no difference.

The laboratory, on the other hand, was where traces of the Insect King's research remained. At first glance, nothing inside looked particularly appetizing. At least, not to most people.

But value is in the eye of the beholder. The scattered reagents and insects would be nothing more than research subjects to anyone else. To me, however, they were immediately usable combat assets. After all, I could now wield Insect Magic.

The modified insects he'd researched and refined—I intended to put them to good use.

I moved through the laboratory, looting everything I needed. Eggs from the one-eyed large-eyed insect. Powder useful for creating summoning circles. Even a specialized insect jar enchanted with subspace magic.

"Oh, this is still here?"

I even obtained larvae of the dimensional thorn insect. The adult specimens had all been used by the Insect King, so they were gone... but larvae were better than nothing. If I raised them properly, I'd be able to use that annoying thorn attack just like he had.

After making a full circuit of the lab, the last thing I claimed was a single book ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠resting on the only clean, well-organized desk in the entire moldy, musty room.

It looked like it had been frequently consulted right up until recently. The pages were heavily worn. That alone showed how seriously the Insect King had pursued Gu summoning.

"Hmm..."

I let out a low groan.

"I'll have to perform a summoning myself someday..."

It could truly be called the pinnacle of Insect Magic. This skill, which stood at the peak of summoning arts, would eventually be capable of calling forth even the ancient calamities. Of course, since this was the third cycle, I wouldn't be able to summon anything after dying. We still had the second attempt ahead of us. The first one didn't count.

'The problem is the insane amount of sacrificial material required.'

Just looking at what the Insect King had done today made it obvious. He'd exhausted the vast majority of his insects just to summon a single earthworm. I'd need to offer up a comparable amount of material. An absurd quantity.

Still, I had no choice but to do it. Each of those entities possessed power on the level of the Four Heavenly Kings. Of course they needed to be summoned.

"Ah, whatever. I'll just take it for now."

I claimed the book. The Gu summoning circle operated on a stacking system anyway. I didn't need to offer everything at once; I could add material steadily over time. So I'd be able to complete the summoning eventually.

Creeeeak...

Having finished my looting, I stepped back out of the laboratory. My companions still seemed to be investigating; there wasn't a single shadow in the corridor. The other two rooms were considerably more spacious than the laboratory, after all. I'd finished quickly because I knew what to look for and the space was small, but they would clearly take longer.

With nothing better to do, I decided to wander the corridor in the meantime. I'd already taken everything worth taking, but you never knew. With all the new variables in this world, something new might have appeared.

Unfortunately, there were no new discoveries. There was only something that shouldn't have been there at all.

"...Huh?"

After wandering the corridor for some time, a strange sense of incongruity suddenly washed over me as I passed a certain spot. It felt like there was something I had seen but forcibly ignored. Like I'd noticed something important but quickly erased it from my mind.

Feeling the oddity, I turned around and immediately spotted a hole. It was just large enough for one person to squeeze through. A hole punched straight through the corridor wall—it felt both alien and completely out of place.

What was even stranger was that nothing beyond the hole was visible at all. It was pitch black, as if coated in vantablack. Just to test it, I created a small fireball and tossed it inside, but the other side remained completely invisible.

Anyone else would have grown suspicious at this point. What the hell is this?

But the more I examined the hole, the stronger my strange conviction became. This... I knew this place.

Just in case, I activated the system to inspect the hole. It sometimes provided the name of a space or background information.

It only displayed broken characters. That was when I became certain. This was indeed the hole I remembered. I had no idea why it was here, but there was no doubt.

Having reached that conclusion, I decided to enter the hole completely.

"Out of my way."

I ignored them. As far as I knew, this place wasn't dangerous at all. Besides, if the warnings were this intense, I should have died long ago.

I continued descending through the hole. Nothing was visible in my field of vision, and a strange chill ran down my spine.

The system seemed completely broken, endlessly spitting out strange characters. There was nothing I could properly judge, yet I kept descending, using the tactile sensation at my fingertips as my only guide.

After crawling for what felt like ages...

Flash!

The space suddenly opened up. The constant warning alarms ringing in my head vanished, and the darkness before my eyes brightened. My body even felt strangely refreshed.

I had arrived in an open area roughly the size of a single room. The floor was completely free of dust, and the walls bore no patterns whatsoever. In this utterly featureless space, the only thing that stood out was the center. A particularly bright beam of light shone down on a single stone emitting an enigmatic glow.

I approached and examined it closely.

The text was still broken. I let out a low groan.

"...Hmm."

Why on earth is this here?