“You used [Search]?! How was it, anything pop up?!”
“All I learned is that if there is treasure, it’s nowhere near here.” I gave the overexcited Elze the results of my search with a bitter smile.
“I see... That sucks.”
“B-But that’s only for things Touya would see as a treasure himself, right? There might be other valuable things outside of that range...” Oh my, it seemed the younger sister was raring to go treasure hunting, too. Shouldn’t have expected any less of twins.
In fact, it was just as Linze had said. For example, say there was an extremely valuable painting by some famous artist lying around. If I were to look at that painting and think anything along the lines of “It looks like junk to me,” then my search spell wouldn’t register it as an object of value.
The results were entirely based on the caster’s frame of mind. That incredibly vague style was both this spell’s biggest strength and most critical weakness. Although in the painting example, it would probably react if I found out about the painting’s worth after the fact.
At any rate, she did have a point. My frame of reference for treasure was mainly things like gemstones, golden crowns, decorative swords, or piles of old money. In which case, the term I should home in on is...
“[Search]: Historical Relics.” This way it should catch objects of historical value in its net. Or so I thought until I remembered that I had no way of knowing that at a glance... Hold on... “...Huh, I found something.”
“Eh?!” “What?!” “E-Excuse me?!” There it was, an object of historical significance. The ruins themselves were also included in the results, but there was something else nearby as well. I honed my senses in on it. Yup, there it was.
“Wh-Which way is it, the direction?!” Elze exclaimed.
“...It’s over this way. I can feel it over there. What the heck is this? It’s pretty big.”
“It’s big?!” they all screamed in unison. We groped around the inside of the ruins as we pressed forward. Everyone followed my lead until we eventually came out in front of a big pile of rubble. Hmm...?
“Below? It’s coming from underneath this rubble?” Just as I was wondering what to do with the several tons of the building debris before us, Linze stepped forward and fired off a spell.
“Burst forth, Fire! Crimson Eruption: [Explosion]!”
The rubble was blown into tiny pieces with a tremendous kaboom. Isn’t that overdoing things a bit, Linze?!
“...I’ve taken care of it.” Not paying my stunned stature any mind, Linze set right about to examining the ground where the rubble had been. Where’d all that sudden zeal come from?
As I stood where the rubble used to be, I felt the signal grow stronger once again. It was... under here? Looking carefully, I noticed something half-buried in the dirt...
I called everyone over and we started digging away the dirt around it. When we finished unearthing it, it turned out to be a pair of large steel doors that were roughly two tatami in size and shape. Why was it hidden in a place like this...?
We combined our strength and pried the doors open. For some reason it opened smoothly, showing not so much as the slightest trace of having rusted. It was possible that it wasn’t made of steel.
After we pried open the doors, what we found waiting for us was a stone staircase eerily beckoning us into the depths...
◇ ◇ ◇
“Come forth, Light! Tiny Illumination: [Light Sphere]!” Linze created a small light that floated in the air. With cautious steps, we proceeded down the stone stairs.
The staircase was a spiral one and it looked like it was going to go on forever. As we proceeded, I was filled with anxiety. It was almost like we were headed into the bowels of the earth itself.
After some time, the stairs opened into a long, stone passageway. The path was straight onward, and so dark I couldn’t make anything out. It was moist, foisty, and humid... The whole place had an atmosphere that gave me the creeps.
“Th-This place is freaking me out... Are there ghosts around here?”
“Wh-What are you saying, Elze-dono?! Gh-Ghosts won’t come out here, they won’t!” Yae responded to Elze’s mutterings in a hyperbolic manner. That aside... can you girls quit yanking on my coat? It’s difficult to walk like this...
Linze, on the other hand, was firmly walking along the hallway. Strong-willed, that one.
Linze’s light was the only thing illuminating the area, so we followed behind her. As we carried on through the passage, the ceiling gradually got higher until it opened up into a large chamber.
“What’s this...?” I saw what appeared to be some kind of lettering drawn on the wall ahead. It was four meters tall and ten meters across... lines drawn across it separated the writing into columns. Each column was around thirty centimeters across, and contained each individual piece of lettering.
Looking closer, they seemed to be more like pictograms than letters. Sort of reminded me of ancient languages, like that of the Mayans or Aztecs.
“Linze... can you read this at all?”
“I can’t... I don’t understand this lettering. It’s not an ancient magic language, either...” Linze didn’t look at me as she answered my question; she just kept her focus on the wall.
This place was clearly of historical importance. Even an untrained eye like mine could recognize that. Rather than treasure or loot, this was something very different. My [Search] spell must have reflected that feeling when I used it.
Oh, right. I should capture this moment in a picture. Smartphone in hand, I hit the capture button on my photo app, and a dazzling flash illuminated the room for a moment.
“Ah?! What was that?!” Yae and the others were startled by the sudden flash. I held up my smartphone to show that everything was fine, and they exhaled in relief. Guess they’ve finally gotten used to my eccentricities. Wait, I shouldn’t say things like that about myself.
I took several pictures of different sections of the wall, making sure that I got at least one photo of every part. Really though... why was something this unusual in a place like this?
“Hey, guys! Come over here a sec!” Elze, who was searching around elsewhere, suddenly raised her voice. She was pointing at a part of the wall on the right side of the chamber.
“There’s something buried here.” About level with my eyesight, there was a muddy brown-yet-clear stone embedded in the wall. It was about two centimeters in diameter. A jewel...? A low-quality and filthy one, at that.
“That’s... a spellstone. It’s a spellstone with the Earth attribute! If it gets some magic flowing through it, something will probably happen.”
“Something...? What if it’s a trap?”
“I can’t say for sure that it isn’t a trap... but something like this wouldn’t be considered conventional with regards to warding off intruders.” Linze’s explanation definitely made sense... But I still couldn’t shake the anxiety. When there’s a switch, naturally you’d want to push it, right? In that case, it could’ve really been a trap... Well, maybe I’m just overthinking it.
“Well, Touya. Get some juices flowing through it already!”
“Why me?!” I quickly turned to Elze in response to her casual remark. Don’t you care that it might be trapped, girl?!
“It’s an Earth magic spellstone, so it’s not like anyone but you can do it anyway, right?”
Hrm... I guess she has a point. Linze had affinity for Light, Water, and Fire... Elze had Null affinity, and Yae didn’t have any aptitude for magic at all. Me being me meant I obviously had an affinity for all the elements. So I guess I’ve really got no choice, huh...
“...Why’d you guys all back away just now?”
“Just in case...” “Y’never know!” “Better to be safe than sorry, it is.” Everyone backed away from me, smirking softly as they narrowed their eyes in anticipation. With a sigh, I channeled magic through the old spellstone.
Bzzzzzzzz... The ground itself began to rumble and s
hake, then suddenly the wall in front of me crumbled away into sand, revealing a gaping hole. Pretty flashy opening for a big door...
“What the heck...?” We looked through the hole left by the crumbling wall, and saw something in the middle of another room. Something covered in dust and sand.
The best way to describe it was... I suppose the first thing that sprung to mind was an insect. A cricket, maybe? Yeah, it looked like a cricket. It had a round central body, kind of like a rugby ball or an almond, with six thin legs protruding from it. Some of them were broken, however.
It was around the size of a small car, as well. Imagine a dead cricket with all of its limbs torn off, kind of like that...?
But it also had a streamlined, simplistic form. More like it was designed as a machine than a living creature. It honestly looked a bit like some piece of abstract art.
“What is that thing? Some kinda statue?” Elze looked at the thing from a variety of different angles. Looking closely, there was a red orb around the size of a baseball visible inside the thing’s head? Torso? Well, it was inside what could’ve been either the head or the torso of the thing.
I couldn’t tell because of the dust and sand covering the surface, but it seemed to be made out of a semi-transparent material... Is it made out of glass? I couldn’t really see very well due to the darkness.
“Linze... how much longer will you be able to maintain that [Light Sphere]?”
“Eh? Well... Light magic isn’t my forte... but I should be able to hold it for about two hours.” Linze puffed up her cheeks, looking up at the sphere of light suspended in the air.
“Huh? Isn’t the light growing a bit dimmer?”
“There’s no growing about it. It did get dimmer... W-Wait...”
“Touya-dono!” Following Yae’s shout, my gaze turned back to see the red orb begin to glow inside the cricket-thing’s head. The cricket began to stir and shake a little bit.
“Touya! It’s absorbing the magic from the [Light Sphere]!” So that’s why the light was growing dimmer! The glowing of the orb inside the cricket-thing began to intensify and brighten, and before long the cricket itself began to stir even more violently. No way... is this thing actually alive?! Its broken legs were slowly regenerating themselves. Was it lying dormant, waiting for magical power to come by and power it back up?
Sssskkkkrrrrreeeeeeee! Sssskkkkrrrrreeeeeeee! Sssskkkkrrrrreeeeeeee!
“Gah...! What the...?!” A sudden high pitched noise reverberated across the chamber, directly assaulting my ears with a ringing pain. The noise ripped across the room, enough to make my body shudder as if I’d been electrocuted. The sound even began to damage the structures around us. Oh crap! We’re gonna get buried alive!
“[Gate]!” The door of light appeared at my command. Everyone ran in one after the other in order to reach safety above ground. I was the last one to enter the [Gate], but not before I saw the cricket-thing get up and head straight for me at a monstrous speed. Like a launched spear, it hurtled toward me and closed the gap to just five meters in an instant.
I tumbled through my [Gate] and landed flat on the ground. I closed the [Gate] spell as soon as the above ground ruins came into sight. We just barely avoided being buried alive...
“What the heck was that?”
“I’ve never seen such a monster before, I haven’t...” Elze and Yae looked over the entrance to the underground ruins, both brimming with tension and anxiety. A deep rumbling came from underground... almost like an earthquake was going on down there.
A roaring sound echoed out from the depths of the ruins, accompanied by a whoosh of debris and a cloud of dust. The underground chamber had probably caved in... At the very least, that darned monster cricket was definitely crushed to pieces down there.
There was nothing but silence all around us as everyone found their breath caught in their throats.
......Rrrrreeeeee......
That noise... No way...!
Kkkrrreeeeee...
It’s getting closer.
Sssskkkkrrrrreeeeeeeeeee!!! With the sudden crash of splitting earth, the creature burst through the ground and appeared before us.
An almond-shaped body with six elongated legs jutting out from its frame. A crystal body, beautifully shimmering and shining like water beneath the sun. This translucent being was alive, some kind of crystal creature.
The creature extended its legs and began a sideways crawl. The walls of the ruins crumbled as it moved, cut like a knife through tofu. C’mon, that’s stupidly sharp!
“Come forth, Fire! Crimson Duet: [Fire Arrow]!”
Linze attacked the cricket thing with a repeated barrage of flaming arrows. But the creature didn’t even try to dodge, choosing to just stoically shrug them off instead.
No wait... it’s absorbing them. The flame arrows were being sucked into the cricket thing, one after another!
“It absorbs magic attacks?!”
“Darn... In that case...!” Yae darted forward, striking the cricket thing with lethal force. However, what was supposed to be a sure-kill shot was nothing more than a scratch on it.
“It’s extremely hard, it is!”
“Take this...!” Elze followed Yae’s attack up with a massive punch to the cricket’s side. However, even though she staggered it a little, her punch had no real effect.
One of the creature’s crystal legs seemed to aim at Elze. She dodged it. Good thing too, as it would’ve skewered her.
“How do we stop this thing?!” It absorbed magic... blades couldn’t damage it. What should I do...?! Wait... if head-on attack magic does nothing, then... maybe we can try an indirect approach.
“[Slip]!” The moment I cast the spell, targeted beneath the cricket thing’s feet, it stumbled and crashed to the ground. Alright!
“Linze! Don’t cast spells at it; use indirect environmental effects to harm it!”
“I see... Understood, then! Come forth, Ice! Grand Frozen Mass: [Ice Rock]!” Linze decided to cast an ice spell. An enormous mass of ice appeared over the creature and... fell right down onto it. Ouch. That’s gotta hurt. It could absorb attacks directly made out of magical energy, but it had no such luck absorbing objects formed from magic.
Skree! Screaming with a sound eerily similar to a rusty door hinge, the creature was clearly enraged. But it seemed like even magically created objects could only cause minor damage at best, the darn thing was built too solid!
Taking advantage of its brief incapacitation, Else jumped in with bullet speed.
“[Boost]...! Full Throttle.” Using [Boost], the Null magic spell that enhances physical ability, Elze delivered a devastating kick to one of the creature’s legs.
The leg was demolished in a heartbeat, accompanied by the sound of shattered glass.
“Awesome!” Of course the thing could be damaged. Even if it was just a little damage at a time, that meant we’d be able to win!
“Skkrrrr... Sssskkkrreeeeee!” The cricket thing let out another piercing shriek, and the red orb inside its head began to softly glow. Almost as if reacting to the glow, the shattered leg effortlessly regenerated itself. Hey... no way that just happened.
“It regenerated...” Elze stood stunned for a moment, giving the newly regenerated leg an opportunity to strike. In an instant, it shot out and pierced her deep in the right shoulder. Her timing was off, so she’d failed to avoid it.
“Gwagh...!”
“Sis!” Elze leapt back to escape any more opportunistic attacks. Blood began to flow from the wound on her shoulder, staining her clothes a deep crimson. She was brought to her knees with sweat pooling on her brow.
“Yae! Linze! Stall that thing!” The two nodded and got to work. Yae distracted it with sheer speed while Linze conjured up more hunks of ice. While the two girls had the creature distracted, I made my way over to Linze and cast some Healing magic. A gentle light enveloped her shoulder and blood stopped flowing from the wound as it closed itself up.
“Thanks... I’m fi
ne now, though.” Like hell are you fine. Even if the wound had closed up, the damage was still done.
Regeneration... magic absorbing properties... an abnormally tough carapace... how could we beat it? Did it even have a weak spot?
“Even if we smash it, it can regenerate! It’s futile!”
“...Wait a second... when we found the creature, it was broken in several places, so why is it fine now...?” I remembered that it absorbed Linze’s spell and then regenerated... Wait, did it need magical energy in order to regenerate? The orb inside its head was glowing back then, too. Could it be that the orb was the nucleus, of sorts?
“Elze, c’mere.” I told Elze the plan I’d thought up.
“Huh? Can you actually do that?!”
“Not sure... But it’s worth a shot, right?”
“...You’re right.” I steadied my breath and looked toward the creature, focusing my mind on what it was I wanted. Because it had a transparent body, I could make out my target perfectly!
“[Apport].”
Suddenly, the small, soft red orb was in my hands. Alright, we did it!
“Elze, do your thing!”
“[Boost].” I lobbed the little orb high into the air, where it soon met Elze’s fist. Finding itself sandwiched between Elze’s fist and the ground, the little orb was finally shattered to pieces.
“How’s that?!” Its nucleus plucked, the cricket stopped moving. Eventually, cracks spread and splintered across its entire body, and it collapsed with a crash. The crystal creature had finally fallen, its remains glimmering in the sunlight.
We waited a while to see if it would regenerate, but it simply never did.
“Hm...” There was a sudden lack of tension in the air due to our victory, so I sat down on the ground.
I was just glad the idea I suddenly had at the time worked out so well. If [Apport] had failed, who knows what I’d have done. I cast my spell faster than it could absorb it, and it seemingly worked just fine, given that I managed to pull out the nucleus.
I looked over to see that Yae and Elze were also sitting on the ground. Meanwhile, Linze seemed to be busy investigating the broken fragments of the monster.
In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 1 Page 12