The Illusionary Boulder
The moment we walked along the lakebed for about twenty minutes, the surroundings suddenly grew pitch black.
The beautiful stretch where light filtered through the water, letting us enjoy the dancing shadows of the waves, ended abruptly. Soon we reached a depth where not a single ray of light could reach.
The bottom of the lake wasn’t perfectly flat. There were large rocks and massive aquatic plants that easily towered over a person’s height.
On top of that, the ground grew increasingly muddy and difficult to walk on.
“Everyone, watch your step. See that bubbling mud over there? Step in that and you’ll get sucked straight down to the underworld, so don’t. You know what the underworld is, right? The place I send you to all the time.”
I summoned Adore to light up the area and gave a light warning.
Only then could we properly see the ground.
I might not know much else, but when it came to underwater ecosystems, I had some serious knowledge. Kind of like how Lox was an expert on dungeons.
“Hey, I’ve been wondering for a while. About that sparkling thing.”
“Adore?”
“Doesn’t it have absolutely nothing to do with water? You’re supposed to be a water spirit master. The one who handles water spirits…”
“So?”
“What is that? A light spirit?”
After three years at the academy, they say even a dog can recite scripture. Looks like he’d finally picked up some basic concepts about spirit masters.
It was touching that he was showing interest in someone else’s sacred profession with such sincerity.
I gave Chad a tiny, crooked smile.
“How rude, asking a lady something like that.”
“…Doesn’t it have nothing to do with water?”
“It means stop trying to dig into it.”
“You really have a lot of secrets.”
“I don’t even want to waste energy talking, so just walk.”
It would still take over an hour to reach the dungeon entrance.
Riding Undain would be faster, but carrying this many people was out of the question.
One or two might be manageable, but hauling five heavy guys? It was far better to slowly burn mana this way.
Touching a spirit I summoned myself was easy — it only required my will and a tiny bit of mana. But making someone else touch one demanded far more mana and intense concentration.
The two things were completely different concepts.
The difference was as vast as whether I’d chew food in my own mouth or shove it into someone else’s motionless jaw, make them chew, and force them to swallow.
Obviously the latter was a massive pain in the ass.
I could do it, but I didn’t want to.
“From here on, be careful. The water pressure is intense. If you step outside the shield, you’ll get crushed.”
This underwater path was, simply put, a type of shield.
I’d slightly modified the commonly used water shield, mixed in water breathing so we could breathe underwater, and added fluidity so it would move along with us as we walked…
It might sound easy, but I was the one who developed it.
Of course it didn’t have a name. Naming something like that would be embarrassing.
“Crushed? Then we’d die! You said it was safe!”
“Ugh, that guy’s been whining nonstop since earlier. So annoying.”
“This is a matter of life and death! How can I not whine!”
“Just don’t get too far from me! So stay close. No matter how talented I am, once you’re crushed I can’t unc-rush you. Hahaha!”
“Crazy. I knew I shouldn’t have trusted you. Oh gods, watch over us! Heios! Agiotita! And… yeah, Crowell. Please protect us.”
Fuck.
I heard something I really shouldn’t have and almost dropped the shield in shock.
“…Chad? There’s a weird name mixed into your prayer.”
“Who?”
“Crowell… ma’am…”
Lox seemed to hesitate quite a bit before adding the honorific.
“She’s a person, but she’s a saint, isn’t she? The symbol of sacrifice who saved the nobles from a dragon and died… the savior of this era. Who else are we supposed to pray to if not her?”
“Never mind… just forget I said anything.”
“Great idea! Let’s all pray together. May we safely cross this lake! Saint Crowell! We believe in you!”
“We believe! Please save us!”
If I let them keep going, they looked ready to start a full choir behind me.
When even Enk and Gail seriously joined the prayer, I deeply regretted teasing them.
Yeah, I went too far.
I was wrong. I admit it.
I’ll never do it again!
Just please, not the saint thing!
“Stop praying! You don’t need to pray to me!”
“But…”
“The one protecting you right now is me! Praying to someone else is completely useless!”
“Wait… now that you mention it… wasn’t Saint Crowell’s first name ‘Jeanie’? Jeanie Crowell.”
“Oh? You’re right.”
The water pressure was getting stronger. I’d really appreciate it if they’d stop distracting my focus.
See? The shield was already starting to wobble even though I didn’t mean for it to. Just like the turmoil in my heart.
“Is it a common name? There are three in my hometown. We call them Big Jeanie, Little Jeanie, and Glasses Jeanie.”
“I have two friends with that name too.”
“One of my relatives has it! She turned sixty this year.”
Shockingly, they showed zero interest in me.
It was actually kind of insulting that they never once suspected anything. They doubted everything else about me!
Both golden hair and the name Jeanie were common, sure!
But golden-haired spirit masters were rare!
***
We had to walk across the rough, slippery lakebed for nearly two hours.
The men, who all possessed well-trained bodies, looked completely fine as if this was nothing. But I, who quickly reached my physical limit, had long since climbed onto Undain’s back.
I sat with my legs crossed, humming leisurely, while he carried me forward on his own.
“Are we still far?”
On the other hand, Lox, who had neither a mount nor stamina, was barely keeping up at the very back, his legs trembling.
I wasn’t one to talk, but his stamina really was pathetic.
“We’re almost there. It’s right up ahead!”
“Really? Where? Where!”
Lox brightened and hurried to my side. The moment I saw his pale, haggard face up close, I almost slapped him in surprise.
With a face like a zombie, it looked like he was the one who needed the stamina recovery potion, not me.
“There.”
“I don’t see anything?”
“You’ll see it when we get closer.”
“We’re there?”
“Where is it?”
“Where the hell is it!”
It wasn’t just Lox who was getting impatient. One by one, they started urging me on.
The party widened their eyes and scanned the area for the dungeon entrance, but just like me yesterday, they couldn’t find anything.
When we finally reached that secret location, I gracefully dismounted from Undain’s back and elegantly gestured for Adore to illuminate the entrance.
“Ta-da! Here it is.”
I focused the light on it dramatically, like a circus spotlight on the main performer.
[I want that too…… Master! Me too! Shine it on me too!]
[Go away.]
[Master only hates me!]
[You’re the only one spouting nonsense!]
Rai was sparkling with excitement, clearly wanting to jump into the dramatic spotlight effect, while the five men were still just looking around in confusion.
“Where? Where is it?”
“Here!”
“I don’t see any kind of door?”
“We have to go down this passage. Once we descend, the dungeon entrance will appear immediately.”
“Then where is this passage?”
“How many times do I have to say it’s right here?”
I pointed repeatedly at the tomb-shaped rock that came up to my waist.
It was about one meter in diameter and looked no different from the countless other rocks we’d passed on the way here. A completely ordinary, dime-a-dozen stone.
Adore’s light was shining directly on it, but the men wore faces that clearly said they had no idea why I was emphasizing an empty spot.
“Stop messing with us!”
“Miss Jeanie! We’re being serious!”
These guys seemed to have an unshakable distrust toward me.
Well, I couldn’t blame them. Even I hadn’t believed this was the entrance yesterday.
“You’ll understand when you see it. Undain? Give them a demonstration.”
Without the water spirits, we would never have found the entrance.
Undain nodded, circled the shield once, then smoothly slipped straight into the rock as if he were a ghost passing through solid matter.
“See? Easy, right?”
“…What did we just see?”
“Excuse me. We’re humans. We’re not ghosts or spirits…”
“You can do it too. This rock is an illusion. Watch.”
I kicked the rock as hard as I could.
My foot passed straight through it and came out the other side. Then I shoved my hand in and pulled it back out, proving it was fake.
“Ah.”
Ash, who seemed to have caught on to its structure first, reached his hand into the rock just like I had.
The rock looked incredibly realistic, but it didn’t actually exist. It was nothing more than an illusion spell hiding the passage.
“There’s a long hole beneath this rock. It’s been made to descend quite far… Anyway, just follow me! Experiencing it is faster than explaining.”
Suddenly too lazy to keep talking, I jumped into the rock before anyone could say anything else.
I faintly heard voices desperately calling my name, but they quickly grew distant.