Chapter 59: Mass Annihilation
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 59: Mass Annihilation
What do I do…!
Yernil felt like she was losing her mind.
Beyond the snowy cliff at Entrance 1, Hijikata’s party was fighting tooth and nail, and Aimus was with them.
‘Steel Parasol.’
The wide-spanning magic umbrella blocked the downpour of arrows and ice picks.
Aimus had listened carefully to Caleb’s advice to head down the stairs, and he knew it was the right choice, but he just couldn’t bring himself to do it.
The moment he left, Hijikata’s party would be riddled with arrows and ice picks and killed instantly.
“Dust Explosion!”
Beside her, Caleb was focused on blasting a hole through the Femur Wall.
“Dust Explosion!”
What happened to Back Attack?
He had taken the tattered zombie and teleported away with Shadow Leap.
It was probably possible because Caleb’s superconductor magic had stunned the zombie.
By now, he was likely luring the zombie down the mountainside, drawing it away from the battlefield.
Everyone was frantically busy.
Everyone except Yernil.
What am I supposed to do!
Lost in the chaos, Yernil tore at her hair in frustration.
If she tried to provide covering fire for Hijikata’s party from here, she felt she would just draw the monsters’ aggro.
That would only make her a burden to Caleb.
Caleb was aiming for a fight between Gildal and the Lich from the very beginning.
Being the only one with a moment to spare amidst the chaos, she could, paradoxically, begin to grasp his strategy.
Neither the Frost Hunters nor the wolves could cross the cliff. Besides, the entrance was blocked by the Femur Wall.
That meant the only one who could cross the cliff was the Lich, floating in the air.
If Gildal could keep that one tied up, Caleb would be relatively free to act at Entrance 2.
“Dust Explosion.”
That was why he was pouring magic into the wall like this.
The noise had caused a few Frost Hunters to notice Caleb and try to attack, but the dense vegetation and the wall itself meant they couldn’t get a clear angle.
But…
Even if he breaks through, what can he do?
Suddenly, Gadozumi’s words came to mind. To activate the monolith’s magic, you had to place the correct answers in the three boxes before it. But even if you had all three answers, would the monsters just stand by and watch?
But it looks like he has no intention of even getting close.
Even if Caleb managed to make a hole, it would be barely big enough for a fist.
It would be difficult to throw anything through a gap that small, and the monolith was still eighty meters away.
What on earth was he planning?
And why did he bring me?
She had to do something. Caleb was planning to have her do something. She didn’t know what it was, but—
“It’s through!”
Caleb shouted in delight.
“Yernil!”
“Yes! I’m ready!”
Please, just give me something to do!
Yernil scrambled over to Caleb’s side.
“What should I do?”
“Just a moment.”
Caleb took a glass bottle from his pocket. It was the Wizard’s Eye.
The eyeball that had been observing Entrance 3 had now made its way up the path to the mountain’s summit.
Right in front of the monolith.
The video replaying inside the glass bottle showed the three boxes the eye was observing.
“Alright. Yernil.”
Caleb pulled an object the size of a ping-pong ball from his pocket and handed it to her.
“Attach this to your magic arrow.”
It looked like something wrapped and packaged in a scroll. A faint clinking sound came from inside.
“What is this?”
“Coins. There’s no time, hurry!”
“Yes!”
Yernil raised her bow and focused on her skill. As she drew the empty bowstring, a shimmering blue magic arrow appeared.
This arrow dealt no physical damage.
The Magic Arrow skill was meant for activating scrolls from a long distance.
All you had to do was touch a scroll to the magic arrow, and it would stick right to it.
Just like this.
Fzzt!
The scroll-wrapped package, coins and all, stuck to the magic arrow.
And then…
“Fire the arrow in an arc and hit the monolith.”
“The monolith?”
“Yes. As close to the three boxes in front of it as possible.”
“But…”
Yernil bit her lip as she looked up at the Femur Wall.
The wall was far taller than she was.
Her line of sight was blocked.
“What if I miss? Can’t we just use Sentry Relocation to get over there?”
“Then you’ll be attacked by the monsters near the monolith.”
“Ah…”
Yernil nodded.
“But I don’t know the monolith’s exact location.”
“I’ll pinpoint the location for you, so don’t worry.”
Caleb pushed the tip of his wand through the hole in the wall.
Toward the monolith, some eighty meters away.
“Cumulonimbus.”
He activated the spell.
“Follow the sound of the rain, Yernil.”
Yernil closed her eyes.
*
The Dokkebi’s roar.
Hijikata’s battle cry, Soyul’s incantations. The sound of arrows and ice picks striking Aimus’s parasol.
The thud of Gadozumi’s throwing knives sinking into a wolf’s neck.
The howling of wolves.
The Frost Hunters chanting “Ice Pick.”
The piercing sound of arrows being loosed one after another.
The vibration of twanging bowstrings.
The breathing of monsters. Their footsteps.
The Lich’s laughter.
Amidst the noisy battlefield, the sound mapper’s ears keenly tracked their target.
It was a cloud, floating just ten meters above the monolith.
Rain began to pour from it, pattering against the head of the massive stone.
The sound of the wind.
The wind blowing on the summit of the snowy mountain sounded like the wail of a ghost.
The wind carried the rain, lashing it against the face of the monolith.
The sound of stone meeting raindrops.
The footsteps of drenched monsters moving to take cover. The rain melted the snow.
The slush squelched.
The raindrops began to pool on the ground. Pitter-patter, the drops made noise as they fell into the puddles.
Patter-patter-patter.
The sound of the rain grew stronger. The downpour created by the cumulonimbus cloud engulfed the monolith. To the blindfolded Yernil, the sound felt as if someone were laying paper over the monolith and making a charcoal rubbing of it.
The silhouette of the monolith took shape.
Along with the three boxes set below it.
Thwang!
The magic arrow was fired. With her special arcing shot ability, as long as Yernil could pinpoint a location, her arrow would fly true, unimpeded by obstacles.
Her arrow never missed its target.
Whoooosh!
The shimmering blue magic arrow flew in a graceful parabola, sparkling in the dark night sky.
And the moment its tip struck the monolith…
Pop!
The scroll vanished like cotton candy dropped in water.
The magic arrow had hit its target. The scroll had been activated.
It was just a random scroll Caleb had used. One he’d picked up in the treasure room, ‘Practical Magic, Polishing.’
One side of the monolith became shiny and polished.
And freed from the scroll, three coins bounced into the air.
Yernil even caught the sound of them.
But…
How are those coins supposed to get into the three boxes?
She was reminded of the Message Relay Game.
In the context of that game, this was an incredibly difficult gamble for a 0.1% Great Success.
It was like answering ‘punch a goblin as a wizard’—an answer far from the correct one.
What on earth are you planning, Caleb!
*
Turn-Based Psychokinesis, of course.
[Your Turn. Time Remaining: 60 seconds]
[Action Points: ■■■■]
Approaching the monolith to put the coins in the boxes myself was never even a candidate in my strategic planning.
That would be suicide.
The plan was to grab any old scroll, wrap the coins in it, attach it to Yernil’s magic arrow, and fire.
Originally, I had planned to execute this from the spot where I first slipped and fell, after climbing up the slope of Entrance 1.
From there, you get a clear, direct line of sight to the monolith.
The plan has been slightly altered, but the result is the same.
With my right hand and wand stuck through the hole, I pressed my head to my right shoulder, aligning my wand, my hand, and my line of sight.
It was similar to a pistol shooting stance.
I’d done something like this before, when I intercepted the bomb on Back Attack’s belt.
But unlike then, my right hand was braced by the bones of the Femur Wall, and my left hand was holding the glass bottle.
“Move.”
I chanted the incantation.
The targets were the coins in front of the monolith, eighty meters away on the dark mountain summit.
The targets were incredibly small, and the drizzling rain made them even harder to identify, but…
Got it.
I had the glass bottle.
The Wizard’s Eye was observing the coins from extremely close range.
The one I had a lock on now was the Dagger Raptor coin.
It felt like performing neurosurgery under a microscope.
Slowly.
Very carefully. I had sixty seconds, more than enough time. I could take it slow. Just don’t make a mistake.
Into box number one.
I placed the Dagger Raptor coin into the first box.
[Your Turn. Time Remaining: 46 seconds]
[Action Points: ■■■□]
Normally, the probability of three bouncing coins landing perfectly in three separate boxes after Yernil’s arrow hit would be close to zero, but…
“Move.”
Psychokinesis can get them in there, Yernil.
You saw it once already, when I retrieved Aimus’s ossuary, didn’t you?
That same psychokinesis can be used to place objects, not just retrieve them.
And it wasn’t just for moving the coins.
Next to box number two.
I could also move the Wizard’s Eye.
It was like turning the adjustment knob on a microscope to reposition the image.
Compared to when I retrieved the ossuary rolling around in the Sanctuary cathedral, this use of psychokinesis required moving the objects a much shorter distance.
The coins were already near the boxes.
However, since there were three coins and I had to move the Wizard’s Eye slightly each time, the total AP consumption was not insignificant.
The one saving grace was that ‘Psychokinesis’ itself had no casting cost. The kinetic energy used to manipulate objects was what was linked to AP.
“Move.”
This time, I moved the Gourmet Whale coin. Into box number two.
“Move.”
Again, I manipulated the Wizard’s Eye, positioning it next to box number three.
Yernil.
This was the real reason I was willing to bet our reward on the Message Relay Game.
Because if it came down to it, I could use this to guarantee a 100% win.
Though I didn’t use it because it felt cheap.
[Your Turn. Time Remaining: 14 seconds]
[Action Points: ■□□□]
Now for the third one.
“Move.”
I moved the poor Spider Doctor coin into box number three.
[All Action Points have been consumed.]
[Ending Turn.]
[The hourglass has been flipped again.]
To compare it to the Message Relay Game, this was a 0.1% probability Great Success.
*
Ruuuumble!
A massive flash of light suddenly erupted from the monolith, shooting toward the sky.
“What the—?”
Hijikata’s party, who had been fighting alongside Gildal, looked up, startled by the roar and the light.
“The cipher has been decrypted!” Gadozumi shouted.
“But…”
Hijikata gasped for breath as he looked up at the monsters.
“But why… why isn’t the magic activating?”
“Did something go wrong again?”
Soyul looked around at her party members, her face filled with despair.
“I’ll go check!”
Gadozumi dashed off, using Shadow Leap to jump to Entrance 2.
When he reached the front of the wall…
Caleb was crouched down, rummaging through his bag, while Yernil paced anxiously beside him.
“Did you solve the cipher!?” Gadozumi asked.
“We did!” Yernil answered. But her expression was grim.
“What’s going on? The monsters are all still there! Are you sure you solved it?”
“He says we did! He put the three coins in the boxes!”
“Three coins?”
Gadozumi couldn’t even comprehend what she was saying.
They hadn’t even gone to the monolith.
From behind the wall, how did they manage to place three coins, one by one, into palm-sized boxes eighty meters away?
It sounded impossible, but since it seemed they had actually done it, he decided to let it go for now.
There was a more important problem.
“Then why isn’t the magic working? The monsters are still there!”
“He says you have to touch the monolith directly!” Yernil shouted.
“What—did you say!”
The news was like a bolt from the blue, and the Kappa’s expression hardened.
As a mere 3rd-floor adventurer, Gadozumi didn’t know much about monoliths, but now that he thought about it, he seemed to recall hearing something like that in a tavern once.
‘When you solve a monolith’s cipher, a new message appears on it.’
It was information about the labyrinth that the monolith had hidden.
And at the same time, it was an ‘incantation.’
All magic requires an incantation. Solving the cipher provides the spell.
But no magic tool in the world could be activated without being equipped.
Could you imagine firing a Fireball from a magic wand lying on the floor without touching it?
Even a scroll had to be torn by hand to be used.
“Damn… it…”
The monolith was like a single, massive, and powerful scroll.
It would only work if you touched it and recited the incantation.
“This can’t be…”
Gadozumi’s heart sank at the terrible conclusion that overturned all their hopes.
The final chance to resolve the hell that had unfolded on the 3rd floor was right in front of them, but they couldn’t grasp it.
Not with the swarm of monsters in front of the monolith. At this rate, there was no way…
“Gadozumi.”
Suddenly, Caleb spoke as he pulled something from his bag.
“Calm down. I expected this.”
“What…?”
In his hand was a blank scroll.
*
The wizard held the scroll up to the hole in the wall and aimed his wand through it.
“Transcribe.”
The magic within the monolith was transferred to the scroll.
“…”
A Tier 10 magic from a monolith couldn’t be stored in something like a wizard’s memory book.
Even if copied onto a scroll, it would evaporate in just one minute.
But to put it another way, that meant it would remain on the scroll for one minute.
‘Caleb will have a way.’
On the 3.5th-floor stairs, the Elf Archer had said they should just trust him.
Trust him with this absurd plan to activate the magic of a monolith occupied by thousands of monsters.
When he learned Gildal was coming, the best Gadozumi could think of was to use the fight between Gildal and the Lich as a diversion to attack the monolith together.
Maybe a few people would die, but with luck, they might be able to get the answers into the cipher boxes.
But…
He never had any intention of getting close in the first place.
Lately, the rumors about this wizard among Sohen’s adventurers had been extraordinary.
Now, he thought he understood why.
The act of creating a transcribed copy of this Tier 10 magic scroll was shocking enough, but what on earth had he done to solve the cipher before that?
“Done.”
The wizard held up the completed scroll.
He had managed to awaken a monolith occupied by thousands of monsters and extract its magic.
“Now, let’s go home.”
He tore the scroll.
The Tier 10 Layer Magic, Mass Annihilation, was activated.