Chapter 17
Sounds Echoing Through the Cave
Four days after planting the tree in Takanashi-san's backyard. Saturday.
The other day, I felled that tree and helped process it with magic, but I couldn't devote myself entirely to that.
There was a mountain of things to do. One of them was raising my Spirit Rank... or level.
I'd heard there were ways to raise one's level besides fighting, such as meditation and waterfall training. But fighting monsters was still considered the most efficient and reliable method at present. Apparently, that hadn't changed even a hundred years from now.
To grow stronger, we'd come for our third dungeon expedition, including the test to join the clan.
The location was another 'Containment Site,' different from the previous one. However, since it wasn't much farther away, the surrounding scenery was much the same.
After changing in the changing room, I went through the reception area with Takanashi-san and into the room in the rear.
We deployed our Spirit Armaments and entered the dungeon.
After the sensation of the world spinning around us, a rough texture pressed against the soles of my feet. The lantern-shaped LED hanging from my waist illuminated our surroundings.
It was a cave with rock walls that looked wet. Damp air flowed from my nostrils into my lungs. Moss grew here and there, giving the place an almost fantastical atmosphere.
I slowly swept my gaze around. It was barely wide enough for an ordinary car to pass through. The ceiling was two and a half meters high. Just as the Anti-Spirit Agency's information had indicated.
"Then, as discussed."
"...Got it."
I answered with a nod at Takanashi-san's words.
In her hands was a staff made from scraps of that tree.
It wasn't the one I'd previously made by forcing it together with glue. She had rapidly carved and assembled this revolver-shaped staff with the machines in the garage.
Apparently, it was based on a single-action handgun loaded with five scrolls. I didn't know much about guns, but even to an amateur, it looked remarkably realistic.
It was painted black, and without the orange glass marble at the muzzle, it could easily be mistaken for a real gun. The white grip struck me as stylish somehow.
I drew my sword as well, and Takanashi-san spotted a Self-Defense Force marker. After checking the map, we started walking.
The ground was hardly suited to human feet, to put it mildly. It was extremely uneven and full of bends.
I wondered whether real caves were this difficult to walk through as well. Since we were concentrating on not falling, our footsteps came at irregular intervals.
In the midst of this...
───Clack-clack-clack-clack-clack!
A sound like something hard being struck repeatedly echoed through the cave.
I immediately readied my sword and stared straight ahead. We hadn't encountered a bend yet. Judging by the direction of the sound, whatever was making it was coming straight toward us.
I became aware that my breathing had grown slightly ragged beneath my face guard. I could never quite get used to the atmosphere before a fight.
An inhuman figure emerged, lit by the artificial light in the cave.
'Ssssss...!'
Mixed in with those distinctive footsteps was a snake-like hiss.
It had a lizard's head covered in pale-green scales, with a snake's body continuing beneath it. Its long tail swayed lazily.
However, the six legs growing from its body were encased in exoskeleton and shaped like an insect's.
The dark-brown legs gleamed with a wet sheen as they struck the ground, producing that hard, clacking sound.
'Yowie.'
A monster resembling the carnivorous monster of Australian legend stared at us.
Its eyes held no killing intent, but its open jaws overflowed with hunger.
'Shaaah!'
The Yowie opened its mouth, lined with short teeth like a saw, and leaped at us.
Even without its tail, the massive creature was nearly three meters long, yet it approached with unexpected speed. It was a sight that seemed to distort my sense of distance, but my Magic Eye functioned normally.
Takanashi-san's invisible iron hammer struck the base of its raised right foreleg. Its posture faltered slightly, taking some of the force out of its charge.
I stepped in.
"Grrr...!"
I held back the roar rising in my throat and raised my sword.
To keep the tip from striking the ceiling, I folded my elbow and bent my knee as I stepped in. With a twist of my waist, I brought a diagonal slash down on the Yowie.
The monster raised its left foreleg to catch the blade. Sparks flew as its exoskeleton split, and the flesh beneath it was cut open.
After severing the foreleg, the hand-and-a-half sword continued on, gouging away the flesh around its neck. Bright-red blood sprayed across my face.
But it wasn't dead yet. The Yowie glared at me with vertical pupils and came at me with a bite from a mouth large enough to swallow a human head whole.
I could see that coming, too.
I lowered my hips to evade it, and its jaws snapped shut above my head. I rammed my shoulder into its exposed belly.
My shoulder armor collided with its scales, pushing the Yowie's massive body backward. As it staggered, I struck it with a horizontal slash.
The thick blade split its scales, tore through flesh, and crushed bone. It stopped after sinking halfway into its neck.
'...! ...!?'
Only a rasping breath escaped the monster's mouth as it tried to roar, and blood bubbled from the wound. To keep from being caught by the foreleg still trying to move, I kicked its belly away and twisted my sword.
The blade slid free. Leaving a red trail behind it, the Yowie's massive body rolled across the ground.
I retreated several steps and readied my sword again. I couldn't let my guard down. At the seminar, I'd heard so many stories about Gifted Self-Defense Force members being seriously injured by wounded monsters that I practically had calluses on my ears.
Keeping my field of vision wide, I kept my senses sharp. The Yowie's distinctive footsteps made it easy to notice its approach, but the Anti-Spirit Agency's website warned that it was fast, so we also had to watch out for enemy reinforcements.
The monster I had been watching past my blade transformed into black mist within five seconds. A purple stone, about the size of my pinky fingertip, remained on the dark-gray ground.
I swept my gaze around, confirmed that there were no other enemies, and exhaled.
"Phew... Good work, Takanashi-san."
"Yes. Good work to you as well."
I lowered the tip of my sword and relaxed my shoulders. I felt the Yowie's magic flowing into us.
If I were to put it in game terms, this residue of magic could be called 'experience points.' Unfortunately, it wasn't divided evenly among the party.
The closer one's bond with the target, and the more directly one had inflicted the fatal wound, the more magic flowed into that person. Since I had dealt more damage this time, I had probably received the larger share.
Feeling a little bad, I turned to Takanashi-san and looked at the staff in her hand.
"So... how's the staff working?"
"There are no problems. As I have only used it once, however, I cannot say whether any will arise later."
"Got it. Tell me right away if you notice anything strange."
"Yes."
Takanashi-san nodded, swung out the cylinder, and removed the empty scroll case.
That case didn't come from my Spirit Armament. She had made it from scraps as well. She'd said she still wasn't used to her body, but her dexterity was unbelievable.
With smooth movements, Takanashi-san put away the empty case and loaded a new scroll. After watching her, I picked up the magic stone as well.
When we defeated something together, we'd decided beforehand that the nearer person would pick it up for the time being. Although the magic stones would ultimately be submitted to the clan, it was common knowledge that failing to establish clear ownership of them could lead to disputes.
Well... probably because some adventurers took them out without permission and sold them on the black market.
"...This staff really is wonderful."
Takanashi-san murmured.
When I turned around again, her eyes were fixed on the gun-shaped staff.
"Yeah. It looks just like a real gun, and I think it's very well made."
"Ah, no. I am not referring to its design. I mean the material's conductivity for magic."
Takanashi-san looked up, seeming slightly flustered.
"The magic reaches the scrolls without the slightest interruption. If it resembles a real gun, I believe that is because of its handling rather than its appearance."
"...Oh, really? I've never touched a real gun, so I wouldn't know."
"If we could mass-produce these, we might be able to turn relatively weak Gifted people—and, under certain conditions, even non-Gifted people—into combat assets."
"Well, the problem is whether we can mass-produce them."
I gave a wry smile at her words.
"...Can scrolls really not be made by machines?"
"Probably not. For each character, you have to understand the spirit of the word and infuse it with magic."
Scroll magic did not require an incantation to activate. Instead, when writing it, one had to move the pen while silently reciting a special incantation in one's head.
For that reason, it couldn't be printed by a machine. The magic infused into it had to change with every stroke of every character.
In fact, I think there was a Gifted person overseas who had experimented with this. It was internet news, so I had no idea how much of it could be trusted, but apparently the person had tried to use a machine-made scroll and it had failed to activate.
"...It's difficult. Having weak Gifted people write them would be one option, but there simply aren't enough Gifted people in the first place..."
"That might change if golems learned to understand written language and write the characters themselves."
Of course, with the golems that could currently be made, writing small characters would probably be difficult even if a human or an AI gave them instructions for each movement.
Even if there were multiple machines like Kenning, they would probably require terrifying skill from their pilots. In practical terms, it would mean writing with heavy machinery.
...Still, it wasn't as if I had no way to do it.
I did have a method in mind. If I used it, mass-producing scrolls might be possible.
However, even if I did that, the problem was that 'my magic output was insufficient' at present. I also needed a place, materials, and various other things.
In the end, all I could do was train steadily.
"For now, let's focus on the dungeon."
"...You're right. My apologies."
We nodded to each other and resumed our exploration.
This was only our first battle. It was nowhere near enough to make us stronger.
I still couldn't truly grasp the reality of the 'events of the future,' and I hated the sensation of cutting flesh... but perhaps that was because of the oni blood, or perhaps simply because I was young.
The only thing obstructing our progress deeper into the cave was the uneven ground.
...I almost tripped just now, but my Magic Eye let me avoid it, so I'm in the clear.