Chapter 84
84. Wall
The 8th-floor subquests were mostly combat-related.
Using force in places where the three major factions—the Dark Elves, High Elves, and the Kingdom Army—were clashing directly or indirectly.
As soon as I rejoined the reconnaissance unit, I roamed from place to place, running around causing trouble exactly as the quest dictated.
-BOOM!
The iron ball I threw smashed the quadrupedal golem's head, revealing the mage hidden inside.
This quadrupedal golem was one of the Kingdom Army's special weapons, a peculiar golem controlled from within by a spellcaster.
Apparently, its real-time control feature is used for gathering all kinds of information, but it looks absurdly inefficient.
“W-what... Who are you! Why are you attacking us!”
The human mage conjured a fireball in his right hand and asked me.
It was certainly a baffling situation from his point of view.
He'd come in to scout the Dark Elf faction, only to get attacked by a human.
“Can't you see this?”
I pointed to the epaulet on my shoulder. The Dark Elf reconnaissance unit's insignia was stitched onto it.
The mage recognized the insignia and was horrified. Apparently, it was shocking that a human had sided with the Dark Elves.
But human or not, if you dragged a weapon into someone else's territory, wasn't getting attacked only natural?
“Th-that's... My God, you sided with the Dark Elves. You filthy mercenary bastard!”
-FWOOSH!
“I had no intention of starting a fight, but I can't just let a traitor to humanity like you go!”
That mage apparently saw me as some mercenary blinded by money and throwing in with another race.
Well, not that there was much difference at this point.
The fireball the mage summoned flew toward me. The amount of mana I sensed was, hmm, nothing special.
-BOOM!
I casually swung my arm and swatted the fireball away. As expected, this guy was just mob-level trash.
Come to think of it, the NPCs I'd met so far had just been unusually strong. The Kingdom Army NPCs were weak to begin with.
“W-what, you really are human...?”
I pulled a mithril wand from my inventory and struck the mage on the head.
-CLANG!
The mage put up some defense, but the mithril wand ignored it and knocked him out.
After leaving the unconscious mage there, I crushed the quadrupedal golem, pulled out its core, and took it back to the reconnaissance unit.
“I see, so this is the human race's new weapon... Thank you, you really came through again!”
“Yeah.”
“You're leaving already today? Don't be like that, come eat with us sometime.”
Ignoring the Dark Elf scout's invitation, I returned to my quarters alone again today.
**
The armed clashes between the three factions grew more frequent, and the NPCs at the center of those factions grew busier as well.
Eleanor, who was filling in for the queen after she failed to fully recover even after taking the elixir, was no exception.
“You've been running around too much lately, haven't you? I'm grateful for the help, but why don't you take it a little easier?”
“No.”
“You seem upset. Ah, so you want to spend time with me after all? I knew it!”
Thanks to that, I didn't have to brush Eleanor off quite as often when she came to talk to me.
“Knew what? Enough—just do your job.”
Eleanor seemed to notice the change in my attitude, but dealing with the immediate matter was more urgent.
Rumor had it the queen's prolonged illness meant the body she inhabited was slowly nearing the end of its lifespan.
If that was true, Eleanor would only get busier as time passed and the atmosphere grew ever more warlike.
That was excellent news for me.
“Hoo...”
I brought up the crowded quest window and headed out to fight again today.
**
Once I got serious and started pushing forward, the quests progressed much faster than I'd expected.
Since nothing could stop me unless it was an elite NPC or a hidden boss, in a way it was only natural.
The quest rewards kept piling up in my inventory, and as I gained experience, my level and stats rose little by little.
The levels of [Sprint] and [Weak Point Insight], which I'd obtained after clearing the 7th floor, also grew quite a bit, and my overall combat ability improved significantly.
But in the most important area of all—mana handling—I was making no progress.
Far from awakening Mana Reinforcement on my own, it was getting harder and harder to handle my mana, which was lashing around more and more restlessly by the day.
For weeks now, whenever I had time, I'd use the pendant to activate Mana Reinforcement and try to get the sensation ingrained in my body.
Was it too much to want to learn a top-tier skill used only by rankers on the 8th floor?
“I think I'm starting to roughly get the principle...”
Whenever I meditate and move my mana, I can feel some kind of pathway that isn't the same as blood vessels or the nervous system.
According to the self-proclaimed orthodox mages on the community, this seems to be a mana circuit all living things possess.
When Mana Reinforcement is activated through the pendant, you can feel mana flowing in through that circuit.
The mana that flows in is then released again as is, and that released mana soon envelops my body.
This is the source of the thunderous rumble when Mana Reinforcement activates, and of the defensive power it provides.
The mana released through the circuit makes the air tremble and wraps around the body thickly, functioning like armor.
“The mana flowing in would be the mana charged into the pendant, I guess.”
If that's the case, the way to activate Mana Reinforcement on my own is extremely simple. I just need to circulate mana through this circuit.
But making mana travel correctly through that maze-like route is far too difficult.
My mana is always in a restless, agitated state and doesn't get properly controlled.
If I were just pouring mana into my muscles or some specific part of my body, it wouldn't be hard at all.
“Hoo... damn it...”
In fact, I'd known for a long time why I couldn't control my mana properly.
Because mana responds to will and emotion.
Because my will and my heart are at odds, because my heart keeps wavering—that's why.
But what more am I supposed to do?
As of today, I'd cleared almost all the sub-quests. The second chapter of the Dark Elf Chronicle was also nearing its end.
In other words, the day Eleanor would turn back into a tin can again wasn't far off.
**
I completed the last remaining sub-quest and finished chapter 2 of the faction quest.
Now all that was left was to claim the reward. While preparing for the 8th-floor boss fight, I looked through the community alone in my room.
The boss on this floor was an upgraded version of the tree golem I'd seen earlier on the 8th floor, a special golem-type enemy with no separate core.
The standard strategy is long-range bombardment using fire-element magic.
It's so matchup-dependent that if you build a party mainly out of mages, you can clear it with a party of ten or fewer.
Since the only elemental attack I can use is the lightning attribute of [Lightning Charge], that isn't very useful to me.
Its basic patterns are also mostly simple, aside from restraining you with tree roots, so it looks easy enough to clear.
-KNOCK, KNOCK.
Just as I closed the community window, someone knocked on the door.
I already knew from her distinctive presence that it was Eleanor. The door opened immediately after the knock.
“As expected, you were still awake. Good thing I forced myself to make time.”
Eleanor ignored my sour reaction, strode in, and sat down on the bed.
“It's been so long since you came by, and I was just feeling sorry that we hardly ever get to spend time together.”
“Sure.”
“I also came to pass along what the scouts wanted me to tell you, and to have a little chat.”
Eleanor was holding a pair of gloves. Those seemed to be the final reward for chapter 2 of the faction quest.
The moment I take those, the NPCs here will turn back into tin cans. It's earlier than expected, but it doesn't matter.
“You've seemed uneasy lately. Is it still hard to tell me the reason?”
I nodded. There was no way I could talk about the Tower of Trials or about the NPCs.
“Ah, I'm not asking you to hurry. It's just... you seem to be in a lot of pain.”
“I see.”
“You do look that way. If it's a worry you can't tell anyone about, that would make sense.”
Eleanor gave a bitter smile. Then, perhaps realizing she was in the way, she immediately got up from the bed.
“But just because it's hard to talk about doesn't mean you should keep bottling it up forever. Maybe you'd feel a little better if you talked to a wall, even if that's all it was.”
Saying that, Eleanor handed me the gloves that were the quest reward.
As soon as I took the gloves, a system message appeared announcing the quest's completion.
At the same time, the intense presence I'd felt from Eleanor began to fade.
“Hehe, what a nice night.”
The liveliness faded from Eleanor's face as she spoke words that didn't fit the context.
Just like on the 7th floor, she'd returned to being an ordinary NPC again.
Maybe talking to a wall would make me feel a little better.
“It's all your fault, you goddamn tin-can bastards...”
I spat out whatever came to mind at Eleanor, who couldn't understand a word I was saying.
It didn't really make me feel any better.