Chapter 14
I took Yunes's right hand and had Yunes stand beside me.
“Let's go catch the shaman.”
“…I was ordered to follow Sir William, though.”
As Yunes stared intently at me, I looked into those blue eyes and spoke.
“You just saw it. He can't use his power.”
Yunes looked at me, both arms trembling.
“…If this is considered an unauthorized deviation and I'm punished, can you take responsibility?”
Why should I?
I shouldn't say that thought aloud. I had to persuade Yunes for now.
“All you need to think about is the result. If we catch only the shaman, you won't be punished. I have a surefire method.”
Yunes's eyes grew round.
“D-do you really have a surefire method?”
As if.
I was only saying it to somehow make Yunes follow me.
According to what Great Mage-senpai had said, half the matter depended on the mage's own abilities.
“Yes. It will definitely succeed.”
“…Then, all right.”
Oh, it worked.
A lie told with conviction.
Swoosh—
I opened my Inventory and took out the potion bottle containing the Orc Legion Commander's blood that I had collected in advance the previous day.
After hearing from Great Mage in the gallery about a way to track the Orc Shaman, the first thing I asked Risellin was where the Orc Legion Commander's corpse had been taken.
To prove that I really had killed the Legion Commander, the soldiers had even used a cart to move the corpse to a storage room, where I was able to draw blood from it.
The Orc Legion Commander's blood and flesh.
That was everything I needed.
“Eek!”
A strange sound escaped Yunes's mouth when Yunes saw the bottle containing thick chunks of flesh and blood.
“W-what are you planning to use those for…?”
Yunes's lips were trembling.
“Do you know any tracking magic?”
Yunes nodded ambiguously.
“Should I call it basic… I know a blood-based tracking spell. But the Third-Circle blood magic spell Sanguis Revelare is about as advanced as the blood magic I know. It can track a being that possesses the blood in question, but only that same individual. Tracking an entire species using one member's blood requires a much higher-circle spell. It would have to be Fifth or Sixth Circle.”
That was also something I'd heard from Great Mage.
“Apparently, it can be done—at least when it comes to the Orc Shaman.”
“Pardon?”
“I heard that if you properly use a spell that awakens the traces of shamanic magic imprinted in the blood, a shamanic tracking spell can tell you where the Orc Shaman who cast it is.”
Yunes stared blankly at me.
“Apparently, orcs are the only species whose blood retains traces of shamanic magic even after death. If it was a Legion Commander-level orc, it must have received quite a few shamanic imprints from the Orc Shaman, right?”
It was a strange face, a mix of foolishness and earnestness.
“H-how can that be? There’s no way orcs could be the only species…!”
Same as ever.
The reaction kept matching the comments Great Mage-senpai had rattled off in the gallery yesterday under the heading ‘Predicted Mage Reactions.’
-Great Mage) You'd cry out that there couldn't possibly be such a specific exception in the field of magic.
“There couldn't possibly be such an abnormal, peculiar exception in magic!”
-Great Mage) And yet, that is why it is magic. It is the realm of the mysterious. To make definitive judgments is merely arrogance.
└ Ah, but haven't I seen this somewhere before? Didn't someone post this while people were climbing the Tower? I think it got selected and pinned.
└ Great Mage) Yes, once I reached Floor 30 and the Climbing Gallery terminal went online, I gathered information that non-mages wouldn't know and posted it. To prevent as many meaningless deaths as possible.
To be honest, up until then, Great Mage-senpai had seemed really cool.
Until just before the next comment appeared.
└???? No way, you were that person?
└ So you were ‘Unbeatable Iron-Blooded Magical Girl Ophelia’? Fuck, I wondered where you'd gone.
└ LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Unbeatable Iron-Blooded, what? You changed your username so well, only to get caught bragging about yourself years laterㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ LMAOOOOOOOOOOO This is fucking hilarious
└ The person who used a username like that is the ‘Great Mage’? Wow, concise and clear. Looks like the Great Mage realized that simple is best—what tremendous growthㅋㅋㅋㅋ But to confess and get caught doing it like this, wwww.
└ Pioneer) The Hard-difficulty players probably all figured it out ages ago and were pretending not to know, so why suddenly self-destruct over this?
└ Dragon Demon King) Beltui—I knew toooo.
After that, Great Mage-senpai didn't post another thread or comment until I closed the gallery.
“Stop just saying you don't believe me and at least try it.”
Yunes still looked half-convinced by what I'd said.
“…All right.”
Oh.
I couldn't help feeling surprised when I saw Yunes immediately pick up a magic wand.
This was contrary to Great Mage-senpai's prediction.
-Great Mage) If you suddenly tell the mage to look for traces of shamanic magic, nine times out of ten, the mage will ask what spell to use.
But that question never came.
As if Yunes knew what spell to use, Yunes bent down and examined the Legion Commander's flesh and the blood sloshing inside the potion bottle.
“Do you know what spell to use?”
Yunes slowly nodded.
“Exploration is my primary specialty, to begin with… I know that the spell to use in a situation like this is Arcana Revelare.”
It had the same name as the spell mentioned in ‘Unbeatable Iron-Blooded Magical Girl Ophelia’-senpai's comment.
Still, this mage was smarter than I'd expected.
As I'd instructed, Yunes sprinkled blood over the flesh and cast the spell.
Yunes's mouth slowly opened.
“I shall reveal the secret.”
And at the end of those words, a dark-red glow rose from the Orc Legion Commander's flesh.
Yunes's expression gradually changed.
“…The traces of the shamanic enchantment really are etched into the blood. I truly can't understand why only a specific species like orcs has this characteristic.”
The bewilderment and distrust had disappeared.
“Normally, any traces of shamanic spells or magical blessings disappear when their recipient dies, but the orc race alone retains them like this.”
Yunes's face now showed a mage's thirst for knowledge.
“This is my first time tracking a shamanic caster, but I think I can approach it the same way I would tracking a spellcaster.”
The Third-Circle knight sent as reinforcements had been a dud, but fortunately, the mage seemed useful.
Crackle!
Just after another spell manifested, tracing a magic circle, a blue light flashed before Yunes's eyes for an instant.
“…I can see it. A blue line is showing the direction. But as expected, it seems to be visible only to me.”
While speaking, Yunes suddenly reverted to the dazed expression from earlier.
“Eek! I-I have to follow you around and guide you myself now!”
I wasn't flustered at all.
I had planned to bring Yunes along anyway.
“Guide me.”
“Eek!”
“I won't let you die.”
While I was busy reassuring and coaxing Yunes, Risellin, who had been standing beside me, leaned in.
“I'll go with you, too. If you're going to take the Orc Shaman's head.”
I could entrust Yunes's safety to Risellin.
I was becoming a worse person by the minute, but it couldn't be helped.
Risellin said the potions and simple rations would be ready, and that we should leave in twenty minutes.
“Ahem!”
Third-Circle Knight William merely glared at me with a deeply furrowed face and cleared his throat. That was the entirety of the protest.
“I can't fully trust what you people are saying, so I'll focus my efforts on dealing with the orcs in sight.”
Was it because of the public humiliation? Or because of the few hits? The choice itself posed no particular problem. It was perfectly normal.
Someone had to focus on defending the wall itself.
If it broke, my quest would fall apart too.
“That’s an excellent idea, Sir Knight.”
At my words, William's shoulders suddenly trembled.
What's wrong with him?
“Guard it well.”
Then I set out with Yunes and Risellin, along with one Second-Circle member of the Lukerna Mercenary Band.
Toward the area in front of the wall.
‘At the very least, I needed to defeat the boss by tomorrow and reach the Floor 3 waiting room to participate in the Exchange Gathering without trouble.’
Swiftly and decisively.
I was going to take down the Orc Shaman as quickly as possible.
* * *
Kwoaaaargh!
A cry like an orc's scream battered my eardrums.
Seeing that this one also had eyes glowing an excessively bright red, it was certainly an orc that had received a shamanic blessing from the Orc Shaman.
According to Risellin, this was a frenzied orc.
There had been no orcs with eyes like these at the outskirts of the forest.
They had only started appearing once we'd reached the middle of the forest.
[Mana Body Enhancement Lv.2 - Activating skill.]
I felt mana spreading through my Mana Heart.
I drove the black javelin—a black short spear—straight down through the head of the orc charging from the left.
I took the heads off two orcs charging from the right in a single stroke with my straight sword.
Blood and chunks of flesh stuck all over my armor.
My level had risen from 8 at the start to 9.
Unlike at the starting point of the Floor 2 stage, where killing just five or six raised my level by one, my level didn't rise even after I'd cut down more than twenty orcs.
But what had definitely improved was my sense for combat.
Just as Light's Sword had said. Sparring with Golem Mk. 2 had certainly been a great source of nourishment for me, but actual combat was a much steeper springboard for growth.
Right after I killed two frenzied orcs that charged without hesitation even after seeing three of their comrades die.
Yunes, standing awkwardly beside me, spoke in a trembling voice.
“We're almost there. We're close to the presumed Orc Shaman.”
Finally.