Chapter 79: Full Combat Readiness
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 79: Full Combat Readiness
Stripped of all equipment and buffs, my current base stats are as follows:
[Caleb Lv. 13]
[Strength (0), Agility (0), Wisdom (22), Health (0), Dexterity (0)]
And my party members?
First, Yernil.
[Yernil Lv. 13]
[Strength (0), Agility (20), Wisdom (0), Health (0), Dexterity (2)]
And then Aimus and Back Attack.
[Aimus Lv. 14]
[Strength (18), Agility (2), Wisdom (0), Health (3), Dexterity (0)]
[Back Attack Lv. 15]
[Strength (0), Agility (20), Wisdom (0), Health (0), Dexterity (4)]
Those two used to be a much higher level than Yernil and me, but the gap has closed considerably.
At this rate, everyone’s earned a good wash in the Fountain of Blessings.
“This way.”
The 4th-floor fountain always appears in a fixed location within the steelworks: the First Melting Chamber of the magma foundry.
Click.
An immense wave of heat poured out as I opened the chamber door.
To the left and right of a long central path, large, square-shaped basins brimmed with crimson lava.
“The well is at the far end.”
I led the entire group to the end of the chamber.
One by one, I had my party members farm skills from the fountain.
If this were a game, it would probably look something like this.
[Yernil has learned ‘Arrow Recovery’.]
[Aimus has learned ‘Steel Veins’.]
[Back Attack has learned ‘Sleeping Gas’.]
As a wizard, I can’t normally learn skills from the fountain, but thanks to the Hourglass, I was able to acquire the ‘Direction Adjuster’ skill last time.
What about this time?
I plunged my face into the fountain’s water.
[No acquirable skills available.]
[Hourglass proficiency is insufficient.]
No good.
The message about insufficient Hourglass proficiency gave me pause.
Could that be why the Hourglass isn’t expanding its reach?
Unlike Yernil, who came under the Hourglass’s influence early on and could receive my turn-based commands, Back Attack and Aimus haven’t reached that stage yet.
If it’s not a matter of insufficient trust between us, then it must be an issue with the Hourglass’s proficiency.
After all the life-and-death situations we’ve been through together, I doubt trust is the problem.
“Phew.”
Anyway, I’m busy right now. Enough fountain time.
“Let’s go find the other hammer.”
The massive, five-square-kilometer steelworks can be broadly divided into three sections, excluding the large depots and scrap processing yards.
First is the foundry we’re in now. It alone takes up 80% of the main building’s area.
Second is the Steelmaking Process Room. The Nexus Core is located here, which is where the field monsters are produced. Special bosses also spawn here.
Third is the Production Control Room. It’s about 180 meters down the corridor from the Steelmaking Process Room, and it contains the Production Setting Box. If you remove the golem doll inside and place a piece of magic equipment, a replica will be produced in the Steelmaking Process Room.
“We’re going to the Production Control Room.”
Byullant’s Hammer is in the control room.
It’s also hidden, but not difficult to find.
“Wasn’t this your first time on the 4th floor?”
After I located Byullant’s Hammer, the priest from the Public Security Headquarters finally let out a gasp of astonishment.
How could someone find hidden magical facilities and artifacts that no other adventurer knew about, one after another, in a steelworks they’d supposedly never entered before?
…That was the look on his face.
“How do you know all this?”
“It must be Professor Isilof.”
I thought I could play the ‘Fox-spirit Possessor’ card, but Neko, being a Magic University graduate, jumped to a different conclusion.
“Even before I graduated, the professor reported on the steelworks well in one of his papers. He also speculated that Byullant’s Hammer and Gobniu’s Hammer were hidden in the steelworks.”
Isilof’s research materials did, in fact, contain such information.
His notes and theories mentioned a well in the foundry chamber, the possible existence of Byullant’s and Gobniu’s hammers from ancient texts, and that if they were in separate sections, one would be in the Steelmaking Process Room and the other in the control room.
Of course, Isilof didn’t know their exact locations, so he couldn’t specify them.
“The professor’s research has finally paid off. Did you come here with his research materials?”
“Yes.”
It was true that I had received them.
“I knew it! I was in Professor Isilof’s club back in school, too, Caleb! The professor really has a good eye for talent. Is he doing well?”
Neko started chattering about our school connection.
I played along appropriately.
Anyway, I was curious to see how Byullant’s Hammer worked.
In the game, you just had to tap a character on the forehead with it like a toy hammer, and a special ability window would pop up, allowing me to choose and modify their skills.
But what about now?
“They say you just need to tap the forehead lightly with this.”
As I raised the hammer and turned around, Yernil, Back Attack, and Aimus all took a step back.
“Calm down and come here.”
Byullant’s Hammer can only be used once per character, and only a total of four times each time it’s taken out.
“I will go first.”
Aimus stepped forward bravely.
“It’s hard to tell where that guy’s forehead ends and the top of his head begins.”
Back Attack made a pointless joke.
Aimus shot him a glare before sitting cross-legged in front of me.
“It awakens an adventurer’s inner talent, correct?” he asked.
Adventurers in this world have a concept of special abilities. It makes sense when you think about it. Seeing someone like Yernil with her abnormally sharp hearing, they would naturally feel she was born with some special power.
It seems they call it ‘inner talent.’
Perhaps because each character is born with their first special ability? The term ‘talent’ seems fitting.
‘Aimus has two special abilities.’
One is Mind Training.
It’s an ability that gives him an advantage on saving throws against mental status effects.
To think Lady Renick succeeded in charming such a man in her youth—she must have been a true femme fatale.
His second special ability is Steadfast Mantra.
It’s something like a passive buff that partially increases his defense.
Bonk.
I lightly tapped the monk’s forehead with the end of the hammer.
“Hmm…”
Aimus’s consciousness quietly sank into the depths of his inner self.
He looked like someone under hypnosis.
“Aimus?”
“Uh…”
“Are you okay?”
“…”
Aimus’s head bobbed like someone dozing off, then his eyes suddenly snapped open.
“It is done.”
His senses returned, and Aimus shot to his feet.
“What happened?”
“In the Dalai Mountains, we practice mantra training. It is the act of engraving a specific incantation within a person’s soul through words of truth.”
So it affected one of his mantra-related abilities.
In the game, I could choose which of a party member’s special abilities to modify.
It seems I can’t do that here. It’s a little disappointing, but even if I could have chosen, I would have modified his mantra anyway.
“I have changed the ‘Steadfast Mantra’ engraved within me to the ‘Mantra of Karma’.”
“And what does that do?”
“Enemies who attack me will receive their karma.”
It was a slightly vague answer, but I knew what it meant.
The defense increase option from Steadfast Mantra was gone, but in its place, enemies who attacked Aimus would have their physical and magical defense reduced.
Good.
“Yernil, Back Attack, you’re next.”
I swung Byullant’s Hammer around like I was playing whack-a-mole.
Back Attack’s ‘Keen Eye’ and Yernil’s ‘Howitzer Barrage’ were modified, respectively.
And as for me…
[Special Ability Modification Opportunity!]
[Select a special ability.]
① Turn-Based Hourglass
② Momentum of Slaughter
As I touched the hammer to my forehead, a message appeared next to the Hourglass.
It doesn’t tell you in advance how the ability will change after being modified.
Truly the Abyss of Treachery.
Since I can only use Byullant’s Hammer once, I have to choose carefully.
How did Momentum of Slaughter change when modified in the game?
The Action Points gained from killing an enemy would be reduced to 1. In exchange, it could be used up to five times in a single battle. Originally, it was limited to one use per battle, so it was a modification with some merit.
But even in the game, it wasn’t very effective. Situations where you could use it five times in a row were rare.
What about here?
If I had a lot of Cumulonimbus clouds active, I might be able to score a kill with each 1-AP Lightning Shock.
But…
‘There’s no guarantee it will be modified the same way as in the game.’
Momentum of Slaughter was already different from the game. Instead of gaining 2 AP, I gained a separate hourglass worth 2 AP.
If it were identical to the game, 2 AP should have been added to my own hourglass, not created as a new one.
‘Should I just modify the Turn-Based Hourglass?’
If both options are unknowns, there’s no need to deliberate for long.
Byullant’s Hammer usually provided a good modification effect, so in the game, it was always logical to choose the core ability if possible.
[Modifying the special ability, ‘Turn-Based Hourglass’.]
As I made my decision, Byullant’s Hammer activated.
“Caleb!”
Neko urgently tapped my shoulder.
She was watching the scroll for me—the screen linked to the Watcher I had floating in the fog above the steelworks.
“They’re here.”
The Watcher had spotted something.
The scroll showed a gray sky.
It seemed the Watcher, while observing the ground from the air, had detected something and turned its view upward.
The object displayed on the scroll was a tiny dot.
We couldn’t identify what it was, but the Watcher had marked the dot with a red circle.
“What is that?”
All the adventurers peering at the scroll were confused.
“Why is there a dot floating there?”
“Is it something like a wizard’s eye?”
“Did they send up a watcher of their own?”
“It seems to be some kind of flying object, at least.”
“…”
After a moment of deep thought, I asked Neko, “Did that dot rise up from the ground?”
“No. It just appeared suddenly.”
That meant the dot was also airborne and approaching us.
It wasn’t just hovering after ascending from a fixed point; it was a flying object capable of moving through the air.
The Watcher’s detection range is three kilometers.
To appear as a dot of that size from that distance meant it wasn’t a small magical tool like a wizard’s eye.
If it were, you wouldn’t even see a ‘dot.’
Only the red circle marked by the Watcher would have appeared on the scroll.
In other words, the target’s actual size is much larger than such a small tool.
About the size of a person.
There were a few possibilities, but if this was sent by our enemies, the most likely one was…
“An Avian.”
A few questions were now answered.
How the infiltrator party had managed such flawless disguises.
They had an Avian party member. They must have had him flying high above, hovering to secure a wide field of view.
It would have been simple, since the 4th floor has many open plains.
They must have used that vantage point to spot regular parties on the 4th floor, then executed their large-scale, elaborate disguises to move in.
“It’s coming down!” Yernil shouted, pointing at the scroll.
The ‘dot’ was slowly descending toward the ground.
The fog I had spread throughout the steelworks was likely obscuring their vision.
“I’m recalling the Watcher for now.”
I closed the scroll once, then opened it again to resummon the Watcher.
“Make it invisible, please.”
With Back Attack’s help, I turned the Watcher invisible.
Click.
I opened a window and sent it out.
Sitting in front of the scroll, I aimed my wand and controlled the Watcher’s movements.
“…”
I slowly moved it toward the enemy party.
The view from the Watcher gradually changed, passing over the side wall of the steelworks’ control room, the loading dock, the inventory warehouse, the scrap processing yard, the coolant tank, and the street in front of the steelworks. It was heading toward the enemy party outside the fog.
Toward the spot where the Avian had landed.
“Slowly.”
There was no need to rush.
The Watcher had already marked the target’s location with a red circle.
When the Watcher detects a moving, threatening target within three kilometers, it marks it on the scroll like this.
And if the target comes within 150 meters of the Watcher’s line of sight, any disguise or invisibility on it is automatically dispelled.
I had no intention of getting that close just yet.
“Let’s observe from outside the 150-meter range.”
If I got too close and their disguises were immediately broken, they would go on high alert.
‘This is tense.’
Honestly, my palms were sweating.
My opponent was a wizard with a higher level than me, leading a powerful team.
They were on a completely different level from the bald slave party or Sally’s team, and even from Antonelli’s group, which had started the fight one wizard down.
This had to be the strongest and most stable group of plunderers we had faced so far.
Having duped the Labyrinth Union and the Public Security Headquarters for so long, they would be quick with tactics and reading situations.
They might even already know about us.
Seeing the fog, they would be extremely wary.
A battle between wizards begins as a battle of information, of seeing through each other’s playbooks.
I had to be sufficiently cautious, scouting and fighting slowly from the safest possible distance.
Now, outside the fog.
350 meters from the target.
“What the.”
A rather shocking scene unfolded on the scroll beyond the fog.
There were a total of seven people standing there.
Three of them were familiar faces.
The Human Female Fighter, the canine beastfolk rogue, and Lilweed.
“Those are the guys we handed over to Public Security Team 2 for transport.”
Neko’s face went pale.
“No way… It can’t be…”
She quickly took out her notebook.
[Dreta. Team 2, respond.]
“Send message.”
Neko’s hand trembled as she sent the note.
It was only then that a fact that had been nagging at me resurfaced with clarity.
“Neko.”
“…”
“The current party count is 16, right?”
From the moment I joined Neko, her shoulder card had displayed that number. Mine too.
[Current 4th Floor Adventurer Parties: 16]
It was the same when Neko showed me her five cards.
All five were marked with ‘16.’
But.
“When we handed Lilweed over to Public Security Team 2, the remaining party count was 17.”