Chapter 122
“Hey ㅡ !! They’re coming!!”
“Princess, I shall join as well. Please keep yourself safe.”
“Ah, yes!!”
ㅡPibit!!
I slowly turned around and stood in front of the stone fence.
“What on earth is this….”
Why had we come to the 10th floor instead of the 3rd?
Had I gotten the numbers wrong..? Was the number after 2 actually 10..?
There was no way. Something was definitely wrong.
“Something’s wrong…. What is wrong..?”
The sky is thick with fog again this time. I can’t tell whether it’s fog or smoke rising from raging flames. Either way, I can’t see far enough to find the next pillar of light.
ㅡPibit!! Pibibibit!!!
“D-Daengdaeng..? Why do you keep doing that..?!”
Daengdaeng kept butting its face against my leg over and over, making my head spin. In the meantime, the Hunter uncle who had just used his clairvoyance skill came back up to the rooftop to use it again.
ㅡPibibibit..!!
“W-What..?”
“Kid, let the uncle use his skill-”
“Uncle! Wait a moment!”
“Huh, why? Is something wrong?”
“Y-you can’t use that! Please wait a second!”
ㅡPibibibit..!!
“D-Daengdaeng…. You shouldn’t say such mean things…. Wait a moment! I’ll go down!”
I hurriedly scooped Daengdaeng into my arms and went down the spiral staircase. It was definitely an ordinary-looking place, but it wasn’t empty.
“K-Kid? Why did you come down?!”
“Dammit!!! Please move aside already!!”
ㅡPibibit!!
“Daengdaeng! Check that drawer over there!”
Leaving the bothersome forensics-team uncles behind, I approached the wooden dresser that had been there last time too. A few sheets of paper sat on the desk, along with various other traces that looked like someone had used the place and left it behind.
ㅡDreureuk..!
“It’s not here..!”
Daengdaeng walked around on top of the dresser, sniffing the air, then, having found something, barked at me.
ㅡPibibibit!!
“It’s there?!”
ㅡPibit!!
When I opened the drawer Daengdaeng had found, there was one item inside.
“A horn! This is it!”
But blowing it inside the watch post won’t work. The sound won’t get out because of the stone walls surrounding it.
“Ophelia! Please lift me up!!”
When I called for Ophelia from the very bottom of the watch post, Ophelia instantly dashed down hundreds of steps like a ninja.
“Princess, you’ve found the clear condition.”
“N-not yet, I’m not sure! But..!”
“Yes, Princess. Please hold on. I’ll carry you up right away.”
“Eek—?!”
Ophelia hoisted me up and, in an instant, wrapped a rope around the top before climbing up after me. On the top floor, the rear-line hunters were still intercepting the enemies around them, and the uncle who had come up to use his clairvoyance skill was standing there.
“Uncle! It’s this!”
“That’s... a horn..?”
“You have to blow this!”
Having reached the top at incredible speed, I blew the horn in my hand with all my strength.
“Haaah..!”
ㅡPwoooooooo!!!!!!
The horn’s low, heavy sound echoed through the wide forest. As the horn’s cry, imbued with mana, spread through the air, the fog began to clear as if by magic.
And then, what appeared afterward was.
“Th-the pillar of light! There it is!”
“Nice work, kid! How did you find it?!”
ㅡPibibibit!!!
“D-Daengdaeng did it..! Hurry, let’s go!”
Ophelia, who had been firing from the edge of the tower, checked the sky as the fog cleared and immediately ran over to me. The pillar of light was still in the back, just like last time. This time we’d also met the clear condition, so we should definitely be able to get out properly.
“I-I’ll consider the inspection complete with this! Let’s evacuate quickly!”
“That’s right!!”
The forensics team uncles were sweating buckets too. Apparently they didn’t want to die here, so they immediately said we should get out.
We were supposed to inspect up to the 5th floor in the first place, but we’d already come all the way to the 10th floor. Of course there had been a little trouble, but still, this wasn’t a sham inspection. We had already finished checking the mana levels.
“The princess did it.”
“Heehee…. No, we need to hurry! Before more monsters gather!”
“R-Right! Hey, front line—! The fog is clearing! The kid did it!”
Even the hunters fighting monsters in the densely wooded forest looked up at the sky in surprise. It was all thanks to my efforts!!
ㅡPibibibit!!
“Daengdaeng did great too! You’re the best!”
And soon, when the sky cleared enough that we could even see the mountain in the distance, a guidance window appeared in front of me.
[Condition fulfilled. The next condition has been unlocked.]
[Clear condition: Retrieve the barrier stone]
“Wha..?!”
“No way..! There was a second condition..!”
As soon as the guidance window appeared, everyone’s bodies froze. The second condition we hadn’t even considered. And after the yellow pillar of light shot up into the sky, everyone’s gaze shifted forward.
ㅡPaaat..!
“A red pillar of light..?”
“Is that the location where the thing called the barrier stone is..!”
“It’s too far ahead..! We have to break through the monsters..?!”
The monsters were already surging from the front. Of course, if we went over there, we’d run into far more monsters.
“Ophelia!”
“Yes, Princess.”
There was no choice. If not in a situation like this, when else would I use this ability..!
“All troops! Answer the princess’s call! Gather here, now!”
ㅡWuuuuung..!!
Grandfather Galahad and Suri were summoned, blazing with fierce blue mana.
“Grandfather Galahad! Suri!”
“Kahaha-ha! Battle! And battle—!!”
“J-Just a moment!! We need to go that way!”
“I see! Understood!”
ㅡKiiit..!!
When Grandfather Galahad was summoned, he came carrying something like a huge bag slung over his shoulder, and when he set it down, it made an incredibly heavy thud.
“G-Grandfather?! What is this?!”
“I brought it because I thought it might be needed! Well then, I’ll be off!”
Grandfather jumped straight off the top of the very tall watchtower, while Suri flew up into the sky. With Grandfather handling defense here, and with no flying monsters around, if we had Suri, retrieving the barrier stone would be no trouble at all.
ㅡKuuuuung!
“W-Who is this grandfather..?!”
“S-Sir Galahad?!”
“Oh! You’re the plant girl I saw before! Nice to meet you again!”
“Chaerin! You know him?!”
“A-ah, uh, y-yes…. Please take care of me, Sir Galahad!”
“Good!”
ㅡKkadudeuk..!
“Kwa-ha-ha-ha—!! It’s boiling over—!!!”
“Hoeeeh….”
Even on top of the watchtower, the grandfather, who was enormous beyond compare, was moving like a tank and smashing everything in his way. At that rate, even the trees growing beside the monsters were being snapped and toppled with a crack.
“You’re vicious..! Please take care of us, old man!”
“Nice! Just follow me!”
In the meantime, Suri sped through the sky and headed for the red pillar of light where the barrier stone seemed to be.
But...
“W-Wait, Suri!”
ㅡKiiit..!
Because of the horn, huge flying monsters I hadn’t seen before suddenly started popping up one after another. If there had only been a few of them, or if each one had low combat power, I would have sent Suri straight ahead. But in this situation, I couldn’t.
Their size was enormous, and they looked like draconic beasts. They were the notoriously ferocious wyverns.
ㅡKiiit..!
“W-What do we do..?! Should we break through the forest after all..?!”
“It seems that way. It looks like they’ve made it so we can’t take the easy route.”
“Ughhh..!”
“You heard me, everyone! Break through to where the red pillar of light can be seen!”
In the end, only one backline mage woman who could use powerful stealth magic stayed at the watch post with the inspection team, and everyone else headed toward the red pillar of light together.
ㅡClack!
“Kahaha! It’s been a long time since we stood on the same battlefield!”
ㅡClack clack!!
Minyum was tearing through the small monsters with a super-super-ultra-speed charge, and Suri was smashing monsters’ faces in with kicks.
Big, heavy monsters, thinking they were hot stuff, rammed themselves into Grandfather’s shield only to bounce off like rhinos with concussions.
“No way, where did someone like that come from?!”
“Good grief..! The heavens are helping us..!”
“The princess is the one helping us! Remember that!”
“T-the princess..?”
“H-Hey! Grandfather, that’s embarrassing!!”
“Kwa-ha-ha-ha—!!!”
A distance of about 5 km. I was carried in Ophelia’s arms, moving at the same speed as the veteran hunters, and the things Grandfather had brought were strapped to Daengdaeng’s back after I powered it up.
“Daengdaeng, power up! Carry these things for me!”
ㅡGrrrrr..!
Hundreds of monsters a minute were collapsing into heaps of meat under the attacks of Grandfather, Minyum, Suri, Ophelia, and the veteran hunters.
There had been a ridiculous number of monsters interfering, but everyone here was a super-strong hunter of A-rank or above, so we were able to get there very quickly even if it was a little slow going.
“I can see it! The pillar of light!”
“Is that the barrier stone..?!”
“Let’s hurry and retrieve that, then go to the portal!”
In a place that looked like ancient ruins stood a white stone structure shaped like a U. And right at the center of that U-shaped stone structure, the barrier stone floated in midair under magical power, shining brightly as it poured red light into the sky.
“Suri! That!”
ㅡKiiit..!
As the distance shrank, Suri accelerated tremendously and caught the barrier stone.
“Got it! Now let’s go back!”
“Nice!! You damn thing!!”
But.
[Condition fulfilled. The final condition has been unlocked.]
[Clear condition: Activate the barrier]
“Huh?! Don’t screw with me, you dung-brained idiot moron sea-anemone-poop dungeon—!!!”
“Damn it, are you kidding me! Where the hell is it this time!”
Originally, we were supposed to properly clear the conditions one by one, using the portal after finishing each floor. Instead, the clear conditions had started piling up.
Still, the hopeful part was that the guidance window had said it was the final condition.
“I-Is that it..?”
“It’s too far away..?”
This time we didn’t need to go forward, but even so, the distance was just too far. The place where the new pillar of light had appeared was almost 20 kilometers to the right of where the barrier stone was.
Even running at 100 km/h, it would take 12 minutes, and by now there were far too many monsters piled up from the ones we’d roughly cleared on the way here. If we kept going like this, we’d be surrounded by monsters and die.
Worse, perhaps because we’d obtained the barrier stone, the monsters had been provoked, and their numbers had increased even more.
“This is insane..! Just how are we supposed to get there..!”
The hunters in the assault team were already exhausted from repeated all-out battles. Grandfather fights well, but he’s slow, and there are too many monsters to send Minyum out alone. Whether he could even fight properly while holding a huge barrier stone in one hand was questionable.
There was no chance for Suri to break through the sky either, because the air was packed with monsters even more densely than before.
“H-How....”
Then Daengdaeng, who had been guarding the bag and biting at the monsters’ necks, came over and placed its front paw on my shoulder.
ㅡGrrrrr..!
“Princess! Take a look at the bag this old man brought!”
“The bag..?”
“Sir Galahad, don’t tell me..!”
“That’s right! I just finished making it!”
“You finished it?!”
Ophelia looked startled at Grandfather Galahad’s words.
ㅡThud!!
Suri dropped sharply from the sky, caught the handle of the huge bag with its beak, and handed it to me.
ㅡBwoosh
When I unzipped it and looked inside, what was in there was….
“T-this is…. An engine..?”
Not only was it the engine I had only seen in the blueprints last time, but also the lance Grandfather had made, a large amount of magic stones, and plenty of metal.
And one more thing.
“This is…. liquid fuel from Crown Guard..? Wait a second! You want me to make a new golem now?!”
“Yes, Princess. It seems that is the only way.”
“B-but..!”
There was enough material. With this much, I could make an incredibly powerful golem.
But...!
“Wouldn’t it take 80 hours for the golem to be completed?!”
“This is not about making one, Princess. Because your Call skill has ranked up, you’ve acquired a new ability.”
“My Call skill... Ah!!”
The status window that had appeared last time. I remembered it.
* * *
[The rank of the Call skill has increased. Call: B+ -> A
The Call skill has reached its threshold.
If specific conditions are met, you can temporarily summon the kingdom’s troops.]
* * *
“If specific conditions are met, you can temporarily summon the kingdom’s troops…. I-I’ve never tried that before..!”
“It’s fine. Princess, you’ve already acquired excellent abilities. I have no doubt that you’ll definitely pull it off.”
“What... should I do..?!”
Ophelia gave me a tight hug, then whispered softly in my ear.
“Remember the name, the name, Princess. That is the condition.”
“The name..?”
“That’s right. The name that will break through the present dire situation.”
I couldn’t understand a single word Ophelia was saying.
But Ophelia believed in me. And Ophelia is smart.
If Ophelia said I could do it, then I could.
“A name, a name..!!”
Holding the barrier stone and smashing through hordes of powerful monsters....
“Could charge..?”
It flashed through my head.
A name that felt like one I’d once called out before, sometime in the past.
I turned the bag upside down, dumping the materials onto the ground, then placed my hand on top of them and called out loudly.
As far as I know, the swiftest troop type I know of.
“Bradamante—!!!”
[Fragments of the fallen kingdom have been recalled. Temporarily summoning cavalry commander ‘Bradamante’.]