Chapter 63
"...Understood," Luke spoke half-resignedly.
Taking a step back, he still seemed uncomfortable with fighting a Sentinel.
If he chose to leave now, we wouldn't stop him.
Actually, reducing potential variables might not be bad.
Though his combat power would be missed, we were originally three anyway.
"Hey, what's going on?" Rei whispered from Leaf's opposite side, keeping her voice from reaching Luke.
Stop whispering from both sides, my ears are ticklish.
What is this, ASMR?
"Aerial apparently confirmed something."
"Why?"
"It says they saw an Elf using spirit magic."
"Elf? Spirit magic?"
Rei's gaze turned to Leaf.
That's you, though.
But Leaf shook her head.
Excluding Leaf, we only know one Elf with Spirit Summoner characteristics.
"Ah... seriously?"
"It isn’t certain, but we should check."
"Wasn't she alone? How could a Novice come here?"
"Plenty of possibilities. Her companions might have fallen to the Sentinel, or she got separated, or maybe used a shortcut."
"These guys always need to be babysat. Well, it works out for the best. Let's hurry."
Despite grumbling “Not again," and "Really," Rei couldn't hide her delight.
She wanted to fight the Sentinel from the start anyway.
She would've backed down if I said no due to potential issues, but now with proper justification, nothing was holding her back.
"Anyway, that's what we decided."
"Hmm..."
With our private discussion settling on going, it was time for Luke to make his position clear.
"Can't be helped. I'll follow too."
"That's reassuring."
Luke wasn't a mage.
Rather, he was a traditional martial artist.
Quite good for taking the vanguard.
Rei, our team's current vanguard, was strictly speaking more of a melee DPS than a true vanguard.
Few mages could properly serve as vanguard anyway.
Among our classmates, only Amaia could perform properly as a tank.
Still, Rei's beast-folk racial toughness made up for lacking defensive abilities, so it hadn't been a significant issue.
The problem was Rei's new ability, Azurail.
The magic maximized her mobility but also maximized her aggression.
But when using Azurail, the vanguard position Rei usually filled became empty.
Luke was talented enough to fully cover that problem.
"We're moving. Luke, please take center point."
"Will do."
"We'll keep our usual formation. Rei, don't worry about the vanguard, do as you like. Got it?"
"Oh."
Your responses are getting shorter and shorter, Rei-Rei.
"Still hard to use two spirits simultaneously?"
"Ah... possible, but output would be low."
"Then start with both out for support, focus on one when needed."
"Yes!"
Drawing strength from Leaf's energetic response, we moved out.
The Second Floor was notorious for needing guides, but this time a guide's role wasn't particularly necessary.
Minor monsters, which usually interfered in the travels of explorers, were already shredded by something that passed through like a storm.
The path it took was marked like a guideline by sparkling powder on scratched walls.
Like Hansel and Gretel marking their path with shining white pebbles, it too left traces of its passage.
Just following this would be enough, however...
There was one thing to watch out for.
"Aren't we going backwards?"
"The gouges show directionality. Reading battle marks is basic observation, good to learn. Skilled pathfinders can read everything about their target from the slightest footprint."
Not to be outdone by Luke's explanation, Rei spoke up, "I can read them too! Hey, Roman. Look here. This goes whoosh—so this part goes zing—inward. This means it was slashed left to right. You got all that?"
No.
I don't get it at all.
Well, I did understand you lack teaching ability, Rei-Rei.
You seemed to explain physical enhancement well, but maybe that was just you repeating what you were taught, word for word.
"Wait."
Luke raised his hand to stop the group.
"It's ahead," Leaf said.
Using Aerial to read changes in the wind, she immediately noticed something ahead.
"Space opens up. If we're intervening, better go now."
"Be careful. Wind sounds suggest elevation changes."
Elevation changes?
Luke's explanation, which I hadn't quite understood, became crystal clear at the corridor's end.
The sight before our eyes.
The path was cut off.
What laid ahead was a plaza.
It had a considerably high ceiling and a wide surface area.
It was a space where walking thoughtlessly would end with a splat far below.
Explorers classify these spaces in the Labyrinth into three categories by size.
Smallest size: Room. Barely any elevation change, literally just wider than the connecting corridors.
Medium size: Hall. The most variable category—anything bigger than a room but smaller than a plaza gets lumped here.
Largest size: Square. Not just about size, but for some unknown reason most were cubic structures, making "square" a double meaning.
So then, before us laid the last type.
A Square.
And in its center was something with an overwhelming presence, even in this vast space.
"Sentinel..."
The Second Floor's guard.
The despair of the shining Labyrinth.
I examined the Sentinel carefully with Far Sight.
Its appearance made the name Ceramic Centaur instantly understandable.
With a smooth, glossy grayish-white surface like porcelain or fine china, it looked more like a statue or craft piece than a living being.
And its form?
Horse's lower body, human-like upper body—a centaur through and through.
But uniquely, unlike typical nude centaur statues, this one was clearly sculpted as if wearing clothes.
And those clothes...
A maid outfit?
It wasn’t just clad in a maid outfit, but weapons in hand too.
A porcelain centaur battle maid.
That was the Sentinel.
"Halberd type. Trickier than lance. Rank is... Upper? Fortunately not Keeper or Head class," Luke muttered his Sentinel analysis.
"How strong is Upper?"
"Among the strong ones. Order goes Scullery, Under, Upper, Head, Keeper. Middle position, but considering population differences, effectively higher."
Basic enemy assessment complete.
Now about the elf Leaf mentioned...
"Yeah. That's Elowen."
What's with calling a person 'that'?
But Rei was right.
The Elf facing off against the Sentinel.
It was undoubtedly our classmate, Elowen Starweaver.
Already dust-covered from previous combat with the Sentinel, Elowen's face was darkened with frustration at things not going as planned.
The spirit popped in and out at her feet, laughing at who knows what suggested the situation.
"Spirit magic failed, obviously."
"Ah... Elowen's an old-school Spirit Summoner after all..."
Looking at just Leaf, one would think Spirit Summoner was some broken class.
But that's just Leaf being broken—this is what Spirit Summoners are really like.
Spirits were pranksters.
They were troublemakers who laughed at weird things and ignored situations no matter the severity.
Looks like Elowen tried something with spirit magic but failed due to the spirits going on strike.
No wonder it's counted among the three lowest classes.
"But Elowen knows other stuff besides spirit magic."
"Probably didn't work on the Sentinel. Spirit magic has good power, so she probably tried for a reversal with it, but well..."
The meaning was clear enough without finishing that sentence.
"An acquaintance then."
"Just as I suspected."
"What will you do? Join in as is?"
"Hmm..."
Getting down was the problem.
The Sentinel hasn't noticed us yet, but it would the moment we entered the plaza.
We should probably hide our presence and wait for Elowen and the Sentinel to clash, then ambush—
"Going first!"
"Huh? Rei! Wait..."
No!
I didn’t give you free rein so you could do this!
I desperately attempted to stop Rei but she'd already jumped into the plaza.
Rei charged, leaving azure traces of Azurail.
Her form instantly reached above the Sentinel's head.
Then dropped.
Rei's fist plummeted toward the Sentinel's crown.
"Got you!"
She switched magics in the moment of descent.
Argentooth tore through the Sentinel's mana field, scattering magical sparks.
Rei's fist strikes the Sentinel's crown.
CLANG—!
The sound that rang out was like striking a massive steel bell.
It wasn’t the sound of an effective hit.
If anything, I was more worried about Rei's fist.
"Ow—!"
Guess I was right on the money