From the 11th Level of the Last Dungeon, Babel, the environment changed. We emerged into a Rainforest Area teeming with trees that towered far above us.
“So this is the 11th Level? Gulp,” Sumire said from next to me. That she actually said the word “Gulp” out loud proved that she was still relaxed about exploration.
“The trees grow wild here, so compared to the 2nd to 9th Levels, it’s far harder to see what’s around you. Stay sharp,” I said, as if this weren’t my first time as well. I only had secondhand knowledge of this place thanks to footage from the Satellite System.
Rustle! Squee-squee-squee-squee! Grr...grr... The sound of shaking leaves and bizarre animal cries reached us from a distance. From the 11th Level, we would start seeing more aggressive and powerful monsters than we had encountered below. The very air was thick with danger. Sumire grabbed my arm, and I pulled her in close, concentrating on our surroundings so I could cast a barrier around us the moment something tried to attack.
What monsters would come at us? We waited in silence.
“Monsters aren’t showing up,” Sumire commented.
“Yeah,” I replied.
We continued to wait, tense and on edge. But in the end, all we ended up doing was standing there in the middle of the dungeon, Sumire pressed against my side.
“Do you want to explore a little?” I asked.
“Okaaay!”
Relaxing, Sumire looked around. Was I the one who was too nervous simply because I’d never come up to this area before? No, when it came to dungeon exploration, there was no such thing as being “too careful.”
“Hey, Eugene,” Sumire said.
“Yeah?”
“It was really cool how you defeated that Boss with a magic sword!”
“Thank you. My father started training me in the sword before I can remember.”
“Wow! Actually, I was wondering about something. Why did you have to turn that sword into a magic one? Couldn’t you have defeated that monster without borrowing my mana?”
“Oh.” I often received questions like this from people who didn’t know how to fight with a sword. A normal weapon wouldn’t cut it, though. “You’ve never attacked a monster with a sword, have you?”
“O-Of course not! I’ve never attacked anything before!” She shook her head furiously. Sumire had already told me that the world she came from didn’t have any monsters, which meant people didn’t use swords or magic on the daily.
“One blow against a monster is all it takes to dull a regular sword. Monster bones, in particular, are so tough that they can damage the blade, and slashing at an Undead with a sword can cause the metal to corrode. Goblins and Orcs wield weapons too, and parrying their attacks can chip away at the sword, causing it to become less sharp over time.”
“Oh, I see! That makes sense!”
“Exploration, especially when we’re in Babel, usually takes a long time. You won’t encounter this on a floor as low as the 11th Level, but as you proceed through Babel, you might encounter Stampedes, where up to a hundred monsters swarm you at once. An unenchanted sword won’t be of much help when you’re dealing with that.”
“Ah... Does anyone sell swords that are already magical?” Sumire was lobbing question after question at me.
“Of course. There are magic swords that carry a Perma-Enchant spell. Magic or holy swords like that usually have names.”
“Why don’t you use one of those?”
“Oh, well, that’s because...”
As one of the more influential swordsmen in the empire, my father possessed multiple magical weapons. When he’d learned that my only ability was white mana, he had lent me a favorite of his. The moment I channeled my white mana into the weapon, which had a market value of three million gold, it broke and turned into mere junk.
“Don’t worry about it,” my father had said, but I could never forget that glum look on his face.
Ever since then, I’d stopped pinning my hopes on a magic or holy sword. A magic sword that cost three million gold couldn’t handle my white mana, and even more commonplace swords with Perma-Enchant on them were still expensive. I was a mere student; I didn’t have the financial luxury of buying and breaking them willy-nilly.
“So that’s what happened,” Sumire said after I finished explaining. “Hmm? But how come my mana worked fine?”
“That’s because you have Ifrit mana. It’s special, I’m sure.”
“O-Oh? My mana is special?” Sumire, a perplexed expression on her face, looked down at her hands.
I watched her, smiling at her endearing reaction. I had a theory—perhaps what Sumire possessed was actually ether and not mana. Magic users drew the quintessence from the air, refined it into mana, and used that to activate spells. Ether was a more powerful and advanced version of that quintessence. It was said that the Angels from Heaven were the primary users of ether, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Ifrits could access it as well.
Anima was a power that was even stronger than ether. However, I didn’t think Ifrits were capable of handling or using that. It was said that only God could wield anima. In any case, my conclusion after spending a week with Sumire was that her mana felt different from a normal person’s. I wasn’t a professional, though, so I couldn’t identify it with any accuracy.
I’ll ask Headmaster Uther about it the next time I see him. He would probably delight in giving me an answer. The problem was that he was so busy I had no idea if I could ever get a meeting with him. I was still thinking about his schedule when a small humanoid monster with green skin emerged from the undergrowth.
“Gyah! Gyah!” it growled.
“Sumire, a Goblin!” I warned her.
“That’s a Goblin?!” she shrieked.
The Goblin was holding something like a rusty hand axe. While the monsters from the 2nd to 9th Level were mostly bestial, the ones from the 11th Level onward had intelligence, which meant they could use weapons or attack in organized packs. We had to be careful. I stood in front of Sumire to protect her.
“Gyah! Gyah! Gyah!” the Goblin yelled, baring its teeth at me in a show of intimidation.
Goblins are pack hunters. If there’s one in front of me, I should assume there are around ten more hiding in the area. This was basic knowledge for dungeon explorers. I didn’t jump to attack the Goblin and instead paid attention to my surroundings. The Goblin didn’t attack either. It simply tried to scare us.
“Eugene?”
“Sumire, don’t let your guard down.”
“R-Right.”
After a while, I heard a rustle in the bushes, and five more Goblins emerged. Though I’d expected them to be hiding nearby, I hadn’t thought there would be this few. They had probably been waiting for Sumire and me to move apart, but since neither of us had taken a single step, they had lost patience and revealed themselves.
I swapped places with Sumire so that I was the one facing the five Goblins. Sumire would have to deal with the one behind us.
“Sumire, I’m going to borrow some of your red mana,” I told her. “I’ll defeat them, so just focus on defending yourself against any that attack you!”
“Okay!”
I held Sumire’s hand in mine. Mana Link! Her magic flowed into me.
“Magic Sword: Flameblade!” My sword shone with a crimson light. Good. Now I can cut down those Goblins!
“Hee hee, I’ll finally make my debut as a real dungeon explorer! I’ll defend myself. I’ll super defend myself!”
Sumire was fired up. She held aloft the shield we’d gotten at the academy, and in response to her emotions, her red mana flared. As if resonating with her magic, the air trembled and the earth shook.
Oh? The shield in Sumire’s hand was turning red, and with a sizzling noise, the ground under her caught fire. Hmm? I see a pattern in the scorched earth. Is that a magic circle? I don’t believe Sumire capable of drawing something this complex when she only just started learning the basics of magic.
“All right, come at me!” Sumire yelled. At her cry, a massive pillar of fire erupted from her body.
“Huh?!” Wh-What the—?!
“Hmm?” Sumire didn’t notice what she had just done. The next moment, the pillar burst apart, the fire flying in all directions and triggering explosions wherever it landed.
Wait, that’s Firestorm, a high-tier fire spell! It required insane power, rivaling that of a court mage’s.
“Gyaaahhhh!” The dying screams of the Goblins echoed through the air.
“Eh? What? Huuuh?” Sumire finally noticed the inferno raging around her body. By the time the fire died out, the Goblins had already been reduced to charcoal. The two of us stood in awkward silence until Sumire broke it with a loud cry. “Wh-What did I do?!”
That’s my question! It seemed that once Sumire’s emotions reached a boiling point, she subconsciously cast high-tier magic. Now that I thought about it, when we first met, she’d accidentally turned the 5th Level into a sea of fire. Trying to figure her out is useless. I’d thought I understood her powers, but I was still in the dark. Everything she did was beyond my expectations. However, there was one positive I could see about the overwhelming situation.