Chapter 216
Franz stared intently at the monster facing him.
Spiraling horns, lifeless eyes with horizontally slit pupils.
It stood on two legs like a human, but hard hooves took the place of feet.
Furthermore, the black fur covering its entire body was like proof that the creature was a mountain goat.
From its appearance to the magic power it exuded, there wasn’t a single aspect of the creature that wasn’t creepy.
“If it were the old me…”
If I had faced such a creature alone, I would have been thinking of ways to run away first.
Because I’m not a crazy gambler who enjoys unwinnable fights.
[Master, it is coming.]
“I know.”
Combat preparations had already been completed a while ago.
Honestly, if I had made up my mind, I could have launched a preemptive strike, but…
“Observation comes first.”
There was no rule saying that only one labyrinth and gate would appear.
I hoped that wouldn’t be the case, but there was a possibility they would spring up like mushrooms from now on.
So what I needed to do right now wasn’t to subjugate the creature, but to observe it. The purpose of coming here in the first place was investigation, anyway.
While I was thinking that and staring at the creature, wasn’t something strange about that?
“Did you just say Master…”
Leviathan, who always called me this guy or that guy, had uttered the word Master for the first time.
It was then.
An immense magic power was felt from the monster’s body, and in an instant, the monster disappeared from sight.
Even if tracking it with my eyes was impossible, detecting its magic power was possible.
Since the entire massive cavern was practically in his grasp, Franz immediately distanced himself using Spatial Movement Magic.
Baaang-!
A deafening roar that made it hard to believe it had struck empty air.
At the same time, the surrounding air was pushed out as if exploding, and the torches illuminating the cavern shook violently.
How many ordinary soldiers would be needed to face that creature?
“There would need to be at least a few hundred…”
Ordinary armor wouldn’t just be crushed by a single punch; it would be torn to shreds.
Being at the level of the Demon Demon Lord’s army’s Four Champions was just that incredible.
It was when Franz was making that assessment.
The surrounding flow of magic power changed, and magic circles appeared.
Massive spikes shot out from the magic circles, which were as dark as the creature’s unpleasant magic power.
Franz was not one to fall for such clumsy magic, so he had already left the spot.
CRACK-.
The spikes pierced the spot where Franz had just disappeared.
“To think it can even use magic…”
Anyway, looking at these guys sometimes even makes me think they’re playing dirty.
If their magic is excellent, their hand-to-hand combat should at least be weak. Where in the world is there a case where they excel at both?
Franz let out a sigh and dodged the creature’s subsequent attack. A kick cleaved through the air, causing a deafening roar.
Was it angry that its attacks had been dodged three times? The creature raised its momentum even further and pushed Franz back.
The attacks, which properly mixed magic and hand-to-hand combat, were quite threatening, to the point where he thought he might lose if he acted too leisurely.
[Are you just going to keep dodging?!]
“Don’t question the actions your Master takes.”
[I’m saying this because if you die, I’ll die helplessly too…!]
Did its personality change as its magic power was purified? Timidity could be felt in leviathan’s words.
If it were like before, it would have snorted and just slept in my arms.
“Well, I was about to wrap this up soon anyway.”
Leaning his body back to dodge an attack, Franz lightly tapped the creature’s arm with his palm.
Afterward, as he widened the distance using Spatial Movement Magic, a deafening roar immediately followed, and the creature’s arm exploded.
He had engraved magic into it in the split second his palm touched it.
When the hazy dust obscuring his vision cleared, the creature was standing there, having lost one arm.
Since everything below the shoulder had completely vanished, it seemed the magic had worked effectively.
If there were a problem, it was that the creature’s recovery ability was more outstanding than he had thought.
The arm that had been dripping black, sticky blood returned to normal as if nothing had happened.
“In that case, a change in experiment.”
Just how far did the creature’s recovery ability go?
Could it recover even if its head was blown off?
BOOM-!
It was the moment the creature, having finished its recovery, kicked off the ground and was about to lunge at Franz.
Clink-, clink clink-.
Before he knew it, radiant, pure white chains were wrapped around the creature’s body.
The creature somehow tried to break free with its strength, but the chains only tightened further.
After a brief moment of that, the creature was ultimately dragged by the chains and firmly pinned down above a magic circle drawn on the floor.
It moved minutely every time it struggled, but it absolutely could not escape.
‘I can’t use high-tier magic.’
No matter how wide the cavern was, it was a semi-enclosed space with only a small entrance.
High-tier magic had strong firepower, but its range was correspondingly wide, so it was unreasonable to use it in a place like this.
Snap-.
As Franz snapped his fingers, an achromatic magic circle was drawn above the monster.
Soon, as the magic activated, a massive spike shot out from the magic circle.
It was a magical reconstruction made by analyzing the composition of the spike that had pierced his side when he fought behemoth in the past.
Affected by gravity, the spike began to fall slowly.
Would regeneration really be possible even after its head exploded…
Franz was observing with intrigued eyes.
The creature lifted its head, and three small magic circles were drawn in front of its mouth.
‘Don’t tell me…’
Didn’t they say the unexpected always happens?
The creature’s actions did not deviate much from Franz’s expectations.
Ziiiing-!
The beam fired from the creature’s mouth twisted the trajectory of the massive spike.
A hollow laugh, hah, burst from Franz’s mouth.
Leviathan firing a beam was somewhat understandable. After all, its appearance was close to a dragon in the first place.
But what was with it firing a beam while it had the head of a mountain goat? It was so bizarre that it almost felt amusing.
‘Well, not that it’ll survive just by doing that.’
Franz corrected the trajectory of the massive spike. The spike that had been falling to the creature’s side changed direction and began to advance.
The monster increased the output of its beam and struggled somehow, but it was impossible to block a spike that possessed the same properties as behemoth’s.
The sharp tip of the spike cleaved through the beam as it fell, ultimately piercing the creature’s head.
The body, failing to recognize its own death, violently writhed before slowly ceasing its movements.
With this, one thing became certain: these guys died if their heads disappeared.
[Is it over…?]
Leviathan, who had been hiding in his arms, peeked his head out and looked around.
Soon, when he discovered the limp corpse of the monster, leviathan completely slipped out of his arms.
[It was nothing special. If I had just been in perfect condition, I would have swallowed that guy in one bite.]
It wasn’t exactly wrong.
Compared to leviathan, the creature was so weak that it was like comparing the Demon Lord to Demon Lord’s army Soldier A.
However, if he acknowledged its words, it seemed like it would boast even more, so he decided to stay silent.
He wasn’t a nice person who raised barking pets.
“Then shall I slowly investigate the inside now?”
It was the moment Franz was about to move on to the next plan.
Suddenly, he felt the power inside the labyrinth weakening.
At this rate, the labyrinth would be completely closed off in 30 minutes.
“So in the end, even the part where the labyrinth closes when the boss is killed is the same.”
If he had known this would happen, he would have dragged out the time even if it meant overdoing it a little.
It was too late to regret it now, so he had no choice but to hurry his steps.
“Leviathan, look around and tell me if there’s anything suspicious.”
[That’s nothing. Just trust in this body.]
Franz and leviathan split up and began to investigate the cavern.
There might have been items that couldn’t be found with magic detection, so they had no choice but to check everything one by one.
“This is just an ordinary stone statue, and this is just an ordinary ornament too…”
How much time had passed like that?
[Master! There’s something strange here!]
Suddenly, leviathan’s voice was heard.
Franz immediately moved to leviathan using Spatial Movement Magic.
There was a red orb there.
Neither magic power nor divine power could be felt from the orb. But for some reason, it felt as if it possessed some unknown power.
“Was there nothing else besides this?”
[The rest were just ordinary things.]
Which meant that, in the end, this one thing was all there was here…
It wouldn’t be too late to investigate it slowly later. Taking it first should be the priority.
It was the moment Franz thought that and was about to reach out for the orb.
[Wait a minute…]
“Why?”
[The orb is calling me.]
“What is that supposed to…”
Don’t they say crows collect shiny objects?
He thought the creature was just coveting the orb like that.
To be exact, he thought that until the creature touched the orb.
The moment his body touched the orb, it began to shine brightly. It was a light so bright that he couldn’t see in front of him at all.
He had experienced something similar to this once before.
It was definitely when he made Mistilteinn.
[M-my body feels strange…!]
“Are you okay?!”
[I don’t really know either…!]
Not long after that, the light filling the cavern disappeared.
In front of Franz was an inexplicable little kid.
“Hic-?”
The kid had a tail similar to a dragon’s.