I Have Found the Legacy (1)
I Have Found the Legacy (1)
The moment the treasure vault door creaked open, we rushed inside.
And nearly plunged straight through a gaping hole in the floor.
"Whoa!"
Right in the center of the massive stone chamber, which looked like a vault, a giant hole had been bored straight through the ceiling and floor.
Clinging to the edge of the hole I had almost fallen into, I looked down into an abyss swallowed by darkness, its bottom nowhere in sight.
'No way...'
I looked up. The same hole stretched upward, though I could actually see where that one ended.
The ceiling of the stone chamber.
It was the very ceiling of the stone chamber we had fallen through earlier.
"This is insane. Is this the hole we fell through?"
The Firebird Hunter stared blankly at the hole, completely forgetting to help me as I dangled from the edge.
She seemed utterly shell-shocked.
"Ugh."
Left with no choice, I hauled myself up on my own.
Once I scrambled up and looked around, I understood exactly why she was so devastated.
There was almost nothing left in the vault. I wondered if there might be another door, but no other exit was visible aside from the one we had just entered through.
Aside from our entrance, the only paths leading out were the two massive holes yawning above and below us.
After standing dazed for a long while, she thoroughly searched the rest of the stone chamber, but all she managed to find was a few dusty scraps of iron and a handful of gold coins.
"This can't be..."
In the end, she slumped onto the floor, the very picture of despair.
She had been so incredibly rational up until now that her current state made it painfully clear just how deeply disappointed she was.
I was quite disappointed too, but some adventures just ended up being duds.
Besides, I had been able to hone my mana swordsmanship through this experience, so I didn't feel like I had lost much.
I looked up toward the ceiling.
As I gathered my mana, the ceiling faintly came into view through the dim light in the distance.
It looked to be at least fifty meters high.
It was incredibly high, but still much shorter than the distance I'd have to climb from the underground plaza where the reservoir was.
In my past life, this kind of rock climbing would have been impossible, but using mana, I felt like I could manage it somehow.
"Shall we head back, then?"
I muttered to myself, searching for a handhold on the ceiling, when a sudden thought struck me.
'Wait. If the treasures were here, and a hole was blown through this spot...'
Then where had the treasures gone?
They could have been buried in the dirt along the way, or the burrowing monsters might have cleared them out. But what if neither was the case?
I looked down into the hole once more.
And just as I was about to shout to her,
"Wait, the treasure is—"
Roar!
My shout never reached her ears.
The beasts' monstrous roars swallowed my voice whole.
"Are there still monsters left?"
As I stared at the open door in surprise, she pushed herself up, her face flushed with rage.
"They were still here? Perfect!"
Oh, come on. How is that perfect?!
Cursing inwardly, I gripped my sword.
I had wondered why the notification for passing the death point hadn't popped up even after we cleared out the monsters, and, as expected, there were stragglers.
And finally, the monsters made their appearance.
Bang!
With a crash, a massive red monster burst into the stone chamber, slamming open the heavy iron door as if it had smashed straight through it.
Following right behind it was an even larger beast.
The monsters' entire bodies were stained a deep crimson.
They had rat-like faces and four pairs of legs.
Though they looked similar to the beasts we had seen below, they were far larger than those gray ones.
'Are they a different species?'
Not only was their size different, but so was their fur color.
Their fur blazed a fiery red. Seeing that crimson coat, I could understand why they were called 'Red Mice.'
So, are these the parents of the other monsters? Maybe their fur is originally red, but it turned gray from living down here in the dark?
While I was lost in thought, I heard the sound of teeth grinding beside me.
"It was you bastards, wasn't it? Where did you put the legacy?!"
Before I could even say a word, she lunged forward in a blazing fury.
Growl.
She wasn't the only one who was angry.
The red-furred monsters also let out savage growls and charged.
Clang! Clang!
In an instant, the human and the beasts clashed.
Unlike the gray monsters from before, these beasts didn't yield even an inch to her attacks.
Even when her shimmering sword clashed with their claws, the claws remained completely unscathed. And when she barely managed to land a slash on their bodies, their thick red fur deflected most of the blow, leaving only shallow scratches.
"My power isn't meant to be pushed back by the likes of you! It's not supposed to be this weak! If only I could have learned it properly!"
As the fight dragged on, her frustration seemed to boil over, and she began swinging her sword wildly in her agitation.
But these monsters were different from the ones before. They weren't opponents she could defeat while blinded by rage.
In the midst of the clash, her sword swung wide, slicing empty air, and a monster's claw tore into her flesh.
The Firebird Hunter was gradually forced backward.
I let out a sigh.
If the theory I just came up with was correct, then if she died, the treasure would be all mine...
I could climb up on my own now, and if she fought well enough, I might not even have to deal with the monsters myself.
But...
"These monsters are too strong! Run while I hold them off!"
The moment I heard her voice, shouting as she bled and fought the beasts, I gave up on the idea of running away.
There are plenty of villains in this world, but there are also quite a few kindhearted, foolish pushovers.
When faced with death, a person's true nature is revealed. And when that nature turns out to be genuinely good, it's incredibly hard to just turn a blind eye.
In the end, I raised my sword.
'If I die, will I be able to beat these guys next time?'
With that thought in mind, I charged at the monsters.
Unfortunately, before I could even join the fray, the Firebird Hunter collapsed, leaving me as the sole target of both monsters.
"Agh... N-no!"
Her faint, desperate scream reached my ears as a flurry of claws filled my vision.
I closed my eyes.
Slash.
A sharp, violent pain.
The world plunged into darkness, then flashed bright once more.
The sound of wind rushing past my ears and clothes fluttering wildly.
And then, the words that appeared before my eyes.
[You have died. Restarting from the Automatic Save Point.]
Life began anew.
I opened my eyes.
The cave walls whipped past at a dizzying speed.
I could faintly make out my surroundings thanks to the light radiating from the back of the Firebird Hunter, who was falling alongside me.
The treasure vault where I had just died must be somewhere up there.
It was almost time to hit the water.
Instead of throwing my sword, I gripped it tightly. Then I channeled my mana to its absolute limit to brace for the impending impact.
Splash!
The very next moment, I plunged into the water.
The freezing water slammed against my entire body. I began to sink deeper and deeper.
It was because of the heavy sword.
The first time I fell, I had thrashed around wildly just to slow my descent, hadn't I?
But this time, I held the sword close to my chest and remained perfectly still.
With mana circulating through my body, breathing wasn't a concern.
I recalled that some divers in my past life could hold their breath for over ten minutes, and right now, I felt like I could easily do the same.
A light shimmered above me. It seemed she was searching for me underwater.
During my first run, she would have grabbed me by now and pulled me up to the surface.
But this time, I had sunk too deep, and she couldn't find me.
Holding my breath, I continued to sink further down.
As expected, the reservoir was incredibly deep.
The light gradually faded, and as darkness enveloped me, a sliver of anxiety began to creep in.
What if my theory was wrong? What if this reservoir was connected to somewhere else entirely?
Just as I began to doubt myself, wondering if I had died for nothing—
Thud.
My feet touched the bottom. It was a rugged, uneven floor.
Fortunately, I had reached the bottom before it was too late.
'Shoot, I can't see a single thing.'
It seemed I had made another blunder.
I had assumed that since there was a hole in the treasure vault, all the treasures must have fallen straight into this reservoir. But in this pitch-black darkness, finding anything would be impossible.
Still, I couldn't just go back up empty-handed.
It was only thanks to the momentum of falling from such a height that I had managed to sink this quickly.
Unless I planned on dying and falling down here all over again, I had to find something this time.
Just as I was about to channel more mana into my eyes and ears to see if it would help, an idea struck me.
What if I projected my mana outside my body?
Even though I wasn't in the air, wouldn't it still be entirely possible in water?
While I couldn't seize control of the space with mana to paralyze others, surely I could at least sense it as my own domain?
If infusing my sword with mana made it move like an extension of my own limbs, then infusing the water with mana might let me perceive the space through which that mana spread.
Drawing my held breath back into my core, I began to project my mana outward instead.
It felt strangely different from spreading it through the air.
It felt as though I were pushing my way through thick, viscous jelly.
It was awkward and slow, but in the end, I succeeded in dispersing my mana through the water.
Two meters in every direction. That was the range of my dispersed mana.
'This is a dirt floor, and that's a rock...'
Fortunately, I could sense objects through the movement of my mana.
It was like feeling foreign objects suspended inside jelly.
Though it was an incredibly unfamiliar sensation, I could still map out the surrounding objects to some extent.
While it was hard to discern fine details, it was a massive help since I didn't have to crawl around on the floor and grope everything blindly.
I slowly walked along the bottom of the reservoir.
Just as I had suspected, the bottom of the reservoir was a complete mess.
Shattered boulders were strewn about, and I could feel stones that seemed to have been carved by human hands.
There was something like a candlestick, and I could also sense a torn piece of cloth swaying in the current.
As I continued my search, my breath gradually began to grow shallow.
Judging by my tightening chest, quite a bit of time must have passed.
'Ah, right. The monsters should be appearing soon...'
Not long after we had emerged from the reservoir, we had fought those monsters.
Three in total. The Firebird Hunter had handled two of them.
'Will she be alright against all three?'
I feel like I've dumped an unfair burden on her...
It looked like I had no choice but to head back up.
Tsk. But as I thought about going back up, the sword became a problem again. Swimming back up with this heavy sword was out of the question.
I decided to abandon this heavy sword on the floor this time.
'Isn't there some light sword I can use as a substitute?'
I swept my senses over the clutter piled on the floor.
I couldn't sense anything like a sword, but I did feel something wide and flat, like a wooden plank.
'Huh? Is it a shield?'
What I had found was a small, circular shield.
'What is this made of?'
I was worried it might be heavy, but the shield was surprisingly light.
Since I couldn't sense anything else, I figured I should take this shield with me for now.
I drove my sword deep into the ground, grabbed the shield, and began swimming upward.
It seemed to be quite a high-quality shield. If it had been in the stone chamber, it must have been incredibly ancient and spent a long time submerged in water, yet it accepted my mana exceptionally well.
What's more, when I infused it with mana, it felt even lighter.
Holding the shield with both hands, I made my way toward the surface.