“I hear they’re so beautiful, they’ll make even the toughest mercenaries’ hearts race!”
So this is what he meant.
I thought about Monk Droghetti, who’d been rejected by Mist and killed in the ruins. I’d been suspicious that Mist was hiding something ever since that incident in the square. Monk just seemed too sure of himself. Why was he so confident it was her? She was wearing a hood, and he never even got a good look at her face, but he’d been so certain.
Why didn’t he give up?
But he was right, and I thought I knew why. Just as I recognized her voice from the forest, Monk recognized it too, all these years later. Whatever power she used to disguise her ears and face was only visual—I don’t think she can alter her voice. And that’s what gave her away as this Seras Ashrain person…
Glancing down at the rest of her, her body seemed identical to before.
It looks like she can only disguise her head with this ability, too. Didn’t Monk say something about remembering the shape of her body? Her breasts were burned into his memory, I guess? Well, if that’s the most important thing to someone, that’s what they’d remember. That must be why he was so surprised when she took off her hood and her face was so different.
Monk’s confusion, his panicked denial of what was right in front of him, made more sense as I looked down at Mist’s pointed ears.
When he tried to touch her, she slapped him away…
“Does that mean it’s only an illusion? Her ears don’t actually change shape; it just looks like they do?”
I remembered listening in on the inn patrons talking about elves. Using the power of the spirits, right?
“Guess this is what they meant.”
Maybe she can see through my lies using the power of these spirit things, too. The visor, the sword, the armor…does she create them with this spirit power, too? Her spirit powers weren’t dispelled when I paralyzed her in the forest, but I guess she can’t keep them up when she’s asleep.
“So my Sleep skill can dispell her abilities temporarily.” That was another tactic I hadn’t thought of—putting enemies to sleep to disrupt their spells. I watched my beautiful bodyguard as she slept peacefully, the blue gauge slowly ticking away.
“…”
I was suspicious, but…no, I think it has to be true. The high elf princess, runaway knight from the Holy Empire of Neah…
Mist Balukas is…
“The Princess Knight, Seras Ashrain.”
Chapter 3:
Seras Ashrain
AFTER GIVING MY INSTRUCTIONS to Piggymaru, I retreated to my own sleeping bag.
“Sorry for always giving you these kinds of jobs, buddy.”
“Squee. ♪”
I checked the blue Sleep gauge over Mist’s head, then turned my back to her and pretended to sleep.
I don’t want to get into true identities while we’re in the middle of these ruins. Mist—Seras Ashrain—there’s so much I don’t know about her, but that’s not my problem right now. I’m here to get ingredients for Piggymaru’s monster enhancement solution, that’s all. I just hope she doesn’t realize that I made her fall asleep.
I closed my eyes and waited for the effect to wear off.
“Nh… Huh?”
She was awake. I heard a faint, high-pitched sound—maybe her gear popping back into existence? Does the illusion automatically restore itself when she wakes up?
“I can’t believe it… I slept? But…”
I heard rustling as she pushed herself up from the sleeping bag.
“The contract shouldn’t have expired yet. Why did this happen?”
Contract? She won’t sleep as long as she has a contract with these spirits?
She breathed a sigh of relief, likely upon seeing me resting with my back toward her.
All right—it doesn’t seem like she knows I’m the one who put her to sleep. Piggymaru did a great job distracting her.
“Squee…?”
“Sir Piggymaru? Were you asleep?”
“Squee.”
I don’t think slimes need to sleep, but I told Piggymaru to pretend to.
“Oh, I see.”
Another sigh of relief—Piggymaru didn’t see anything either.
“Squee~! ♪”
“Wh-what’s the matter? Oh, don’t tell me… You’re feeling lonely since Sir Hati is asleep?”
“Squee! Squee. ♪ Squee~! ♪”
“Ah, well…I’m sorry, but… Could you please not touch me?”
“Sque?! Squee…squee…”
“Oh, it’s nothing against you, Sir Piggymaru, not at all…!”
Piggymaru let out a loud squee, just as planned, as Mist tried to explain herself.
Perfect…now I can wake up “naturally.”
I rolled over slowly, stifling a yawn and rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.
“Hm…? What’s up, Piggymaru? Did something happen?”
“Oh, I’m so sorry—did I wake you?” Mist asked as I rubbed my temples.
“Nah, it’s fine. I’m sorry I didn’t wake you up like I promised. I must’ve drifted off.”
“That’s quite all right, Sir Hati.”
Her face was back to normal, and the visor and other gear had returned too.
I don’t think she realizes I was only pretending to be asleep. Maybe she can only detect lies if I say them out loud.
“Are you feeling a bit more rested?” I asked.
“Yes…thank you for giving me the chance. I suppose I didn’t realize how tired I was.” She chuckled awkwardly.
She seems thrown off, but that makes sense if she didn’t think she’d be able to sleep at all. She probably feels weird about it, but also relieved that I didn’t discover her true identity.
“Sleep’s more important than we like to admit,” I said. I learned that the hard way in the Ruins of Disposal.
“Yes, it is. I’m sorry if I made you worry that I cannot fulfill my duty as your bodyguard. I’ll be more conscientious in the future.”
I nodded. “Good idea. I don’t want either of us to get hurt.” We packed our things, left the room, and made it down another level.
“This floor has more light crystals, doesn’t it?”
“So it seems,” said Mist, looking cautiously around the ruins. Even a short sleep seemed to have done her good—she moved a little faster and more confidently than before.
“I wonder why,” I said.
“The crystals are more common in places with higher concentrations of mana, I believe,” she replied.
There were a lot up nearer to the surface… I guess that means the surface has a high mana concentration.
“So, this might be some kind of special floor?”
“It’s possible.”
“I hope that means we’re getting close to my ingredients,” Touka said. “I have something I’ve been meaning to ask, by the way.”
“What is it?”
“That stone staircase that opened up to let us down here—do you think it’ll close automatically?”
The Great Sage must have been down here to discover this location, but the staircase was closed when we arrived.
“The ancient ruins are said to be maintained by repair ghosts who roam their halls, though no one has ever confirmed their existence.”
“What’s a repair ghost?”
“It’s believed that in each ruin, there are spirit- like monsters that roam the ruins and restore their functions.”
That’s kind of an weird belief, but…well, stranger things have happened.
We stopped before an imposing door—the whole thing was covered with bones.
Mist eyed it warily. “I believe this door is a warning. Let’s proceed with caution, Sir Hati.”
“It’s already half open.”
We approached carefully, peering into the room beyond the door. The walls were completely covered with bones of all sorts, monster and human alike.
I can’t sense any monsters nearby.<
br />
We did a quick search of the room but couldn’t find anything of note.
The crystals in this room are a slightly different color than the others, aren’t they? Hmm.
I bent down to touch the floor.
“Sir Hati?”
“I think…the monster who lives here might not be home.”
There were tracks on the ground, and marks where something had been dragged across the room. They crossed each other in places—some were clearly more recent than others.
Did the monster that lives here leave those? This thing must be huge…so where did it go? Ugh, figures. It’s not like the dungeon boss is always just going to be sitting here waiting for somebody to show up.
“What should we do, Sir Hati?”
“Let’s go find it—it might be the one I’m after.”
We turned to leave, then…
Thud.
“Did you hear that?” I asked.
“Yes,” Mist replied.
“Squee.”
“It must’ve realized we’re here.”
It’s far away, but from the sound of it, it’s getting closer quickly. At least it sounds like just one monster.
“Eeeeh—! Geeeeh—!”
It let out a roar that echoed through the hallways and seemed to come from everywhere at once.
“What do we do now?” asked Mist.
“Let’s find somewhere to watch and wait—that spot near the staircase looked like a good place to hide.”
We don’t know how strong this thing is—we even don’t know if it’s the skeleton king. It might not be the monster I’m looking for.
I remembered the Soul Eater. I can never let my guard down.
We hurried into a wide area with a low ceiling.
Just a little further to…
Crash!!
The creature burst through the wall with a mighty cracking of stone, sending crystal shards and rock flying in all directions. This was nothing like the monsters we’d faced so far.
“Th-this is—” Mist breathed in shock, “a skeleton king!”
I know how she feels.
The monster was huge, almost as big as the zombie dragon. It didn’t have space to stand, so it crouched on all fours. Its head looked like it was wearing a crown of bones, and eerie orange light glowed in the depths of its black eyes, flashing and pulsating. It wasn’t made of bones the way an ordinary skeleton is; it was a chimera of them, human, animal, and monster bones making up the form of the creature and poking out in all directions.
Does it absorb the bones of other living things to grow stronger? Maybe the room we just left was its storehouse.
“Hyaaaaaaah—! Gr-grraaaah—!” The hoarse cry sounded like a threat.
It isn’t moving to attack though, just watching us…for now.
“Sir Hati.”
“Hm?”
“Look at the bones in its lower jaw,” said Mist, biting her lip. “Some of them look like silver.”
“Yeah, I see them.”
“If we can crack those, we might be able to defeat this monster, but…frankly, I doubt even the Sabre-Toothed Tigers could take this creature down. It’s extremely large and strong, and I’d be surprised if mana skills work against it. Sir Hati, I think we should…”
The Sabre-Toothed Tigers again—they must be good.
I glared at the skeleton king. Its eyes darted back and forth, flashing like two great jars of fireflies. Mostly it looked at Mist. It must think she’s more of a threat. Hmm…as long as she’s with me, enemies will always focus on her. I can use that when I attack.
I remembered my fight with the Soul Eater.
Is this monster going to instantly counter my skills as soon as I try to use them? What level is this guy, anyway? I should try to find a weak spot before it can react to my skills, and—
“Sir Hati, I have a request.” Mist’s voice broke into my thoughts.
Crack, crack crack—
When I looked over, her sword was covered with thin veins of ice.
“I’m going to use my ice to turn this blade into a club to crush the bones of its weak spot. I’ll also use my powers in a special way to improve my reflexes. I think I can defeat this thing, but…I want to hide the nature of my powers as much as I can. Will you keep what you see here a secret?”
The skeleton king opened its mouth, and orange light started to gather there.
It’s charging an attack to aim at Mist, but…not yet. There should be a moment when it focuses its attention fully on its attack and lets its guard down. That’s what I need. If I move too early, we’ll get blown away. I want to be sure…
“And I…I’m sorry. If the monster is stronger than I think it is, I might not be able to protect you. If the worst happens, please…take Piggymaru and run.”
“Gyaa… Gaaaaaaaah—!”
It’s preparing to fire. This is it.
“Paralyze!”
“Onk— Okk— Gok—”
The light in the skeleton king’s mouth faded back to darkness.
“Okk— Onk? Oo…?”
The skeleton king was frozen. I could feel its confusion. I took a step toward it.
“What?”
Mist looked dumbfounded, her mouth open, ice melting away from her sword.
“Gotcha. I won’t tell anybody about your powers,” I said, looking back at her for a moment before reaching out at the skeleton king once more. “As long as you don’t tell anyone about mine. Poison.”
The skeleton king flushed a bright purple.
As long as I have these skills, nothing can touch me. My weak points don’t matter—nothing will ever hit them. They worked on the zombie dragon in the Ruins of Disposal… so they even work on monsters made of all bone. They’ve worked on every single creature I’ve tried them on…all except one.
“Wh-what is this? A spell of some kind…?” Mist looked at the skeleton king with wide eyes, her sword still held aloft, ready to strike.
“It’s an ability I have. The reason all those other mercenaries left…I think they saw the monster corpses I left behind.”
“Sir Hati, you did that?”
“I can’t think of any other explanation. When I kill monsters with this skill, it doesn’t leave any visible injuries. You remember what I did to you in the forest, don’t you?”
I paralyzed you once before. Made you sleep, too—though you don’t know that yet.
“Well, my skills—they’re kinda unusual.”
The paralysis gauge had almost run out when the skeleton king died. The bones it had hoarded for so long came clattering down, leaving a mountain like a mass grave where the monster had been.
I didn’t level up.
“…”
This thing was stronger than anything else I faced down here, but its attack felt weaker than any of the monsters in the Ruins of Disposal. Maybe I was too cautious… Mist’s reaction made me worried about what it could do to us. No—I shouldn’t blame this on her. I need to get better at judging which monsters I need to be careful of. The normal rules don’t apply to me.
“Sir Hati, is this skeleton king the monster you were searching for?”
“Yeah, this is the whole reason I’m here,” I said, crunching across the field of bones toward the skeleton king’s head. Mist gulped. I took out Forbidden Arts: The Complete Works and leafed through to find the right page.
“Silver bone powder”
“Yeah, this is definitely the guy.”
I closed the book and put it back in my bag. During bag check, I’d passed it off as an old picture book. The inspectors were looking for illegal items and checking for smuggled treasure, and they did their best not to pry about people’s personal items, it seemed—apparently the mercs didn’t take kindly to their things being poked through.
“So I make the powder from this silver part, huh?”
I took out a small hammer and a bag, crouched down, and began to crush the bones into it.
“It’s surprising
ly fragile,” I said absently.
“Skull-types lose most of their bone density after death,” explained Mist from behind me. She kept her distance, not asking all the questions she no doubt had for me.
I can tell she wants to know more, but she promised not to press me for personal details…she sure takes keeping her word seriously, huh?
Finished with the bone, I stood and turned to face her.
“Once we’re back on the surface, I’ll answer whatever questions I can.”
Mist laughed. “You noticed, then.”
“I have things I need to know, too, but…there are monsters down here, you know. Let’s save it for when we’re safe.”
“I understand. I’m impressed by your strength. Skeleton kings are famously strong—they’ve even been discovered deep in Alion’s ancient Enchanted Bone Ruins.”
Ancient bone ruins? I think that was on the list too, wasn’t it? I didn’t know where it was, so I chose the Mils ruins, but that’s good to know.
Mist stared at the skeleton king’s head.
“There’s a story told of some heroes from another world challenging a skeleton king in a battle to the death, finally defeating it, but perishing in the fight…it’s a legend, passed down from generation to generation.”
“Squee.”
“What’s wrong, Piggymaru?”
A small tentacle probed toward the skeleton king’s head.
“There’s something in there?”
“Squee!” It turned green.
I walked around to find a way into the empty, cavernous skull.
“Sir Hati? What’s the matter?”
I held up my pouch for light, illuminating several skeletons half absorbed into the bony walls of the skeleton king’s skull.
They must’ve been eaten by this thing…gross.
“Hm? There’s something hanging off one of these.”
There was something wrapped in cloth wedged under a skeleton’s arm. I crushed the bones to take it, then gently laid it down at my feet.
Is this a skull? it’s kinda rounded…
As I carefully unwrapped the object, the cloth began to glow, getting brighter as I peeled away layer after layer.
“What is this thing?”
A glowing brand appeared on the surface of the cloth, and I pulled away, expecting an explosion, but it quickly dissipated.
Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything With Low-Level Spells (Light Novel) Vol. 2 Page 8