Chapter 165: Magic University Civil War (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 165: Magic University Civil War (2)
An 'iron fence' lined the perimeter of the university grounds. It was a top-tier barrier-type magic, in the same family as Earthen Wall or Structural Transformation.
An 8th-tier spell that Wizus himself used to cast in the Age of Myths to capture rampaging demons and monsters.
[Book of Great Imprisonment]
The binding spellbook produced a barbed-wire fence armed with a tremendous electric current.
The magical current, sparking with a brilliant blue light, was visible to the naked eye.
“This can't be…”
Professor Robin stopped dead in her tracks before it.
“Who would cast such a spell…”
In the Assembly, she was known by her mascot costume, 'the apple with a bite taken out of it.' This was because she had originally worked at an Apple Service Center. Joking that there were no copyrights in this world, she had made the costume and was often called 'Apple Phone' because of it.
For a full fourteen years.
“I've never seen this magic before.”
She had lived as Professor Robin, but a spell like this was completely new to her.
Neither Isilof nor Meldini had ever used such magic.
“Could Lord Berthen have set this up?”
She asked the fellow mage who had escaped with her.
“Isel.”
“I'm not sure.”
Isel shook her head.
“I don't know if my father possesses a spell like this.”
“Magic of this scale would require a professor-level caster, at least. Besides…”
Robin had a bigger worry.
“This person knows our plan.”
When the bell tolled and the civil war erupted, Professor Robin had gathered the relatively weaker mages from the Assembly and attempted to escape.
It was all part of the plan.
The West Tower was the Assembly's hideout, and we had drilled a small hole in the wall next to it.
Let's get out through there.
Let's disappear quietly, then head down to the Labyrinth and regroup.
Molar, Old Tree, Frog, and Goblin, you just enter the Labyrinth. The rest of the mages will fight to retake the White Lion. Let's at least show that much sincerity.
“That was our plan.”
“…”
Isel glanced at the rookies standing beside her.
Old Tree Ghost.
Eyelash Frog.
Blooming Goblin.
All three were 4th to 5th-tier mages hiding under the guise of graduate students.
They were relatively young and mentally fragile. Rookies who were possessed late and hadn't experienced the Labyrinth Eruption from twelve years ago.
Molar couldn't make it here, so Chihuahua went to find him.
“Maybe Chihuahua was captured.”
“No way.”
Robin shook her head, her expression indignant.
“She's the strongest among us.”
“Or maybe Broccoli…”
Broccoli. The man known as Professor Bennett within the university was already dead.
“Anyway, we don't have time to stand around here. Let's find another way.”
“The scrolls.”
Isel got to the point.
“We should look for them.”
“What?”
“If they've blocked the escape route we prepared in advance, we have to assume there are no other paths. We need to find the scrolls. The legacy the White Lion left behind.”
“…”
“You know where they are, don't you, Professor?”
“I don't know either. Only the Post Master knows where the scrolls are stored.”
“Then why don't you try tracking the Post Master? We can go and ask him.”
“He's probably hiding in the West Tower.”
“He's not commanding anyone anyway.”
“…”
Professor Robin hesitated for a moment before casting a spell.
A 7th-tier tracking art.
“Ethereal Yarn of Fate.”
A ball of red yarn appeared in the professor's palm and lifted its head like a snake.
“Find Dagger Raptor.”
“The students will stay here.”
Isel said to the Assembly's rookies.
“It's dangerous to go toward the main building, so hide here.”
“…”
After casting Owl's Hunt and All-Purpose Camouflage: Chameleon on the three terrified possessors, they set off.
Isel planned to intercept all the scrolls and kill Robin.
*
'The one who murdered Professor Dalstream back then was a monster called Dagger Raptor.'
That's what Caleb had said.
'I'm going to kill him.'
That monster wasn't an exit boss or a special boss. This was a different kind of fight from a Labyrinth adventure. He wasn't an enemy suited to our level. The risk was enormous, and the return was uncertain.
So…
'You don't have to fight with me.'
After catching the Glutton and leaving the Labyrinth.
Caleb had suggested a temporary dissolution of the party.
Yernil wouldn't hear of it.
'I want to fight with you.'
She was the one who had received the Archmage's thesis, but she hadn't been able to protect it.
Partly out of a sense of responsibility, partly out of her bond with the party, and partly out of concern for Caleb, Yernil had joined the fight.
'I'm with you, brother.'
Just as he'd said somewhere before, Back Attack would jump into any fray to protect the people precious to him, even if it meant messing up the plan.
Because Back Attack didn't have many people like that.
And as for Aimus…
“What should I do?”
He went home and asked his wife.
Mrs. Renick couldn't answer easily.
When her husband became a Labyrinth adventurer again, she had wanted to support him, feeling like he had reclaimed a lost dream.
But he had been killed as soon as he entered the Labyrinth and had returned alive through a bizarre process of becoming undead, restoring his body, and being resurrected.
After that, it was the monster wave.
Then the dual special bosses at the foundry.
Then he stepped on a trap and fell to a lower floor, where he fought the Stairing Eccentric Boss that came up from below.
During the last Labyrinth Eruption, Aimus hadn't been home.
Mrs. Renick had evacuated on her own, carrying one of their three children on her back, holding another in her arms, and grasping the third by the hand as she ran.
Even after reaching the shelter, she couldn't relax. Her husband was out there somewhere, fighting.
To be honest…
“I was jealous of the 1st-floor adventurers guarding the shelter.”
The husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, and siblings of the civilians in the Guild Village.
For civilians in a Labyrinth City like Sohen, more than half of their relatives and acquaintances are adventurers.
Most of them on the lower floors.
“I was jealous of them…”
They were blessed adventurers who could stay by their families' sides in moments of crisis and protect them.
People who, in the worst-case scenario, could hold their loved one's hand and die together.
“I'm sorry. I won't go on the Dagger Raptor hunt.”
Aimus promised Mrs. Renick.
He had already abandoned his lifelong beliefs and philosophy for her once before.
No matter how important his party was, it wasn't more important than his family.
“This time, I'll stay by your side and the kids'.”
Aimus promised.
“Then that's good for me.”
But Mrs. Renick was the kind of amazing woman who could make a Monk cast aside his path as a seeker and devote himself to her.
“But are you truly happy with that?”
“…”
“Whether you stay with me and the kids or run with Caleb's party, you'll be uneasy. Don't make excuses like, 'I had no choice because my wife held me back.' That's not like you. You're the one who decides. Don't push that choice onto me.”
Mrs. Renick said.
“But if you decide to go out and fight, I'll help you. I'll fight with you. Because I'm your wife.”
Aimus had married a truly brave woman.
“I'll protect the kids. I promise, you won't have to worry about us. You don't need to fight on two fronts.”
During the last Labyrinth Eruption, Mrs. Renick had run with their three children on her own—one on her back, one in her arms, and one by the hand.
This time, she had also evacuated the weakness from Aimus's heart.
*
CRASH—!
The steel Monk smashed the door with his iron staff.
[Alchemy Lab]
It was filled with all sorts of magic potions and experimental ingredients.
“Over there!”
Yernil pointed to a staircase on the lab wall.
A bookshelf had originally been there, but it had been moved aside, revealing a gaping staircase leading down to a basement.
I see.
The alchemy lab was managed by Professor Elaine.
Chihuahua, that is.
And that bookshelf hadn't been moved for over a decade. The White Lion must have used Designated Coordinate Transfer Scrolls to get in and out.
The staircase, too, must have been treated with special magic to avoid detection.
“I think he went down there! I can hear footsteps on the stairs!”
But Dagger Raptor had moved the bookshelf, found the stairs, and was now heading down.
“Let's go!”
Aimus took the lead.
To be honest, I didn't think Aimus would join this fight.
Even though we'd succeeded in taking down the Glutton, who was two weight classes above us, Dagger Raptor was on another level. By Deep Layer standards, he was probably at an exit boss level.
Therefore, we had no chance in a direct confrontation.
So…
“Wait a moment.”
Let's send in a Watcher to scout first.
There was a high chance that even Aimus would die from a single solid hit.
“Should I make it invisible?”
Back Attack asked as soon as I took out the Watcher. We were perfectly in sync now.
I nodded.
I sent the invisible Watcher down the stairs.
Let's see what kind of scrolls are inside first.
*
Hundreds of scrolls were piled up in the basement.
“Not much for such a long time collecting, is it?”
Dagger Raptor picked up the scrolls one by one.
[Monster Summon Scroll: 4th Floor]
[Monster Summon Scroll: 5th Floor]
[Monster Summon Scroll: 5th Floor]
[Monster Summon Scroll: 3rd Floor]
Most of them were monster summon scrolls.
They were for summoning monsters while minimizing the Labyrinth's eruption output, avoiding showing oneself on the surface if possible.
“Gloomy bastard.”
Dagger Raptor didn't much care for this method. He was the type to take matters into his own hands.
[Corpse Explosion Scroll]
[Oblivion Scroll]
[Hand of Necrosis Scroll]
[Blessing Scroll]
[Soul Overproduction Scroll]
[Freeze Explosion Scroll]
Besides those, there were various other combat scrolls.
A small tool for mages also appeared from a drawer.
[Wizard's Eye]
“…”
At that, Dagger Raptor's hand flinched to a stop.
'Wizard's Eye?'
Something flashed through his mind.
Stories he'd heard somewhere before, like rumors.
Caleb was said to have evolved a Wizard's Eye into a Watcher at the foundry.
Based on that, Chihuahua had said Caleb's possessor knowledge was considerable, since even the Assembly didn't know much about the hammers at the foundry.
Dagger Raptor had let it go in one ear and out the other.
To him, a demon belonging to the Labyrinth, the special hammers of the foundry were common knowledge.
“A Watcher…”
Enemies so far beneath him might be annoying, but they weren't a threat. They were insignificant. Pests he could dispose of anytime once he broke the curse of moisture absorption.
Having impressive possessor knowledge about the Labyrinth was commendable, but not particularly noteworthy. As a member of the Labyrinth, no matter how deep that knowledge was, it was simply laughable to him.
That was his fatal mistake.
'Eagle Eye!'
The fact that he never imagined those third-rate runts, who had been running away while fighting a guerrilla war, would actually pursue him this far.
The fact that he hadn't guessed they had something like a Watcher and would send it down under a cloak of invisibility.
“Fuck…”
The moment his eyes met the Watcher floating in the air, Dagger Raptor heard the sound of a wave crashing down from the top of the stairs.
SWOOOOSH!
The steel Monk appeared, bringing a tsunami with the tip of his iron staff.
It was an item used by the 7th Floor's exit boss, the Iron Golem Merman.
The Tsunami Iron Staff.
He advanced as if he were surfing.
He slid down the stairs, riding the wave. And when he reached the bottom, he started running.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
Water splashed everywhere with each heavy footstep. Dagger Raptor knew exactly what kind of charging skill it was.
'Rhino's Horn.'
His power was impressive, but from a Deep Layer perspective, it was far below standard.
“You must have a death wish.”
From within his fully spread wings, blade-like feathers rose up.
Just as the raptor's wings were about to launch a counter at the Monk, just like when they had blown away Isilof's Lord of the Magic Tower—
'What the hell is that?'
His eagle eyes caught something else that was strange.
It was a magic wand, carried along on the edge of the wave.
Splashing up with the water, the wand flew up until it was right beside Dagger Raptor's temple.
'What is it?'
Unless Caleb was an idiot, would he really let his own weapon get swept away in the wave?
There's something to this trick.
Dagger Raptor guessed as much, but he was a fraction too late.
*
Remote Wand Control.
[Your turn. Time remaining: 60 seconds]
[Action Points: ■■■■■□]
It felt as if the wand I'd sent down on Aimus's wave was in my hand.
It was similar to when I'd tossed coins into the box of the Mass Annihilation stele.
Back then, too, I had manipulated the psychokinesis wand like a surgeon performing a delicate operation while watching through a Wizard's Eye.
This time, I was monitoring with the Watcher.
But this wand wasn't meant to be used from a distance.
It's common sense that a 'superconductor' has a much higher chance of electrocution than a 'lightning shock'.
A wizard's close-combat countermeasure spells don't deal much damage, but their success rate for inflicting status effects is overwhelming.
Especially if the target is soaking wet.
“Flash Freeze.”