Renya party had explored the forgotten ruin for 2 days now.
As expected, the inside of the ruin is one big labyrinth. The wall doesn't have any peculiar feature beside those lamps that placed every fixed interval making it hard to grasp the current location. To top it off, the path structure was designed to be a confusing maze with many fork and dead end at that. Conquering this ruin would be not an easy task... is what the party was thinking before.
"Nnn~ I think there is something in the right path"
Just like that, each time they go to the direction where Floria points to, there will always be a dead end… that is decorated with a treasure box. No one knows how long this ruin has been neglected but this ruin is definitely untouched before. Because it is untouched, then the content of the treasure should be untouched too. Excited with what could be inside the treasure chest, Renya couldn't help but wanting too quickly open the chest but then Therese stops him.
"Onii-san, be careful desu! Treasure box is in the top three spot where a trap is usually set desu. Let me check it first desu!"
Therese, equipped with her own handmade magic tools and the knowledge she had learned before, checks the treasure box from each and every way there is until she is 100% sure that the treasure box is safe to open. Her skill in 'lockpicking' could even bring a master thief to shame.
But Renya still doesn't know. He still doesn't know that this is just only the curtain riser of the girls' great endeavor parade.
"STOP!! The walls and floors around here are strange!"
"That is a small sized, doesn't seems to be a human modeled... a type of golem right? I shall eliminate it immediately"
"This path... seems to be installed with magic to mess our sense of direction. It is a kind of 'sense obstruction magic' to be exact. I will try to negate it with my magic"
"This goes here, that goes there, and this goes….. It's open desu!"
Floria sensed the danger up ahead beforehand, Elvira eliminates any hostile being, Brenda constantly keeping up the party current location, and Therese disarms any trap that obstructing the team with ease.
Even with the ruin massive size, Renya party continues to advance steadily with an extraordinary speed. And it doesn't even need to be mentioned but of course, Renya didn't make any contribution at all toward the party. He is the anchor so his main job is to protect the team from any danger coming from behind while also keep an eye for the entire party condition. He can't just get off from his position to steal some merit easily as it will disturb the party formation which is putting the wheel before the chart.
But then again what other thing he can do? Any kind of danger got detected by Floria as soon as those dangers about to approach them. Renya become like a commander that does nothing else besides giving orders to his underling. He wants to kick back for a while at first so he comes up with this formation but for him to not doing anything at all until this long is not something that he even predicts.
"I think I started to understand the feeling of those people who dream to becoming a himo* (people that live as a parasite to other people exp: Himouto Umaru or in Renya's case, an unemployed husband who depends on his working wife)"
"Okay well, that is definitely not something that you need to understand. In fact don't ever think about it. But then again, I don't think that Renya can be a himo. Because Brenda will definitely whip you up to shape again in no time"
"Ah now that you mention it... Damn, looks like I definitely will never become a neet as long as Brenda here..."
It was an idle talk between Renya and Floria to pass times while they do their duty of night watch while the others are resting after the first day of exploration.
Because Renya's divine power is sealed inside this ruin, they are somewhat worried that they would met many difficulties in their exploration and that they wouldn't be able to solved danger that they might encounter but the exploration went smoothly betraying their expectation. It was also thanks to the fair exploration that they even have time to chat idly like this.
And then this ruin seems just like what Renya imagines, a dungeon that structure continuously goes down to the underground. From his divine sensing from the outside, Renya knows that each floor of this ruin isn't that huge but this ruin does reach to an incredible depth. Who knows how much floor there is until the last lowest floor.
Because of that, Renya mood went straight to that dungeon conquering mood that he felt when he play those RPG games that have enjoyable dungeons. He is curious because all the treasure box that they found until now, all of them will always be filled with precious gems and jewelry. No, in the first place he should wonder why there are treasure chests in the first place anyway. It was even more unnatural from the start.
"In the first place why in this kind of man-made dungeon, or well there's a highly chance that this dungeon is god-made one, have treasure chest in the first place? There even treasure chest in almost every dead end there is that make it more baffling"
"Most of those treasure chests were installed with traps so I think it was a way from the dungeon creator to deal with trespasser desu"
"Nope. It would be impossible for any trespasser to come here in the first place anyway. This place is enclosed by steep mountain range remember? And to top it off, this place is also totally forgotten from history. No normal beings would even think of coming here"
"Hmm, if Renya-oniisan put it that way it seems right desu"
Therese nods to Renya's logical reasoning.
If those rigged-with-trap treasure chests were a mean for this ruin to deal with trespasser then it should be created because the ruin is expecting one to come. But from the look of this ruin geographic location and history, it was nearly impossible for trespasser to come.
Even if there is one, there are no idiots that would just start challenging something that have a high danger level like a untouched ruin where no one knows what awaits them inside. Exploration will only be done if the merit could cover most of the demerit. If the demerit and risk are higher but they still going then it is just the same as doing suicide.
Now that Renya can calmly analyze it, he found a lot of mismatch in this ruin. Even Renya, if he doesn't aware of the existence of the ship in the lowest floor, then he wouldn't even willing to challenge this kind of complex dungeon in the first place.
Then again there are also treasure chests that don't have traps installed within them. Maybe those 'safe' treasure chests are there to make trespasser lower their guard so the success chance of traps get even higher. It is possible, but then again why did the creator filled those treasure chests, whether there are traps or not, with similar valuable objects? Is there any meaning in it? Is it even necessary?
"Maybe the creator only creates this dungeon because it was their hobby or something like that"
"Floria, if that really is the reason then that is the dumbest joke I ever heard"
The portion of trap rigged treasure chests is bigger than the one without. Thanks to Therese succeeding in disarming them, none of them managed to do any damage but that already scary enough for any normal person. When Renya hear that the creator might sets up those kinds of lethal traps as a hobby, he can only imagine that person as someone who has a lot loose screw in his brain. He understand that trespasser should be dealt with no mercy but if that creator really is creating this out of his hobby, why he didn't make a simpler trap instead of this complicated-hard to create-lethal trap. He can only complain about it deep inside his heart.
After they get down on the 8th stairs, what await in front of them is not another floor of dungeon but a spacious hall.
They can see a grand double door in the end of the hall.
Renya immediately can read what kind of event that will come after this.
"This kind of design..."
"That must be 'it' right?"
Renya and Floria nods to each other, the party slowly steps into the hall.
Suddenly, in the middle of the spacious hall stone paving floor, a magic circle that is created from many magical runes started to glow faintly.
Sparks of mana scattered around the magic circle like a mini thunder. With that, 'something' suddenly appears in the middle of that magic circle.
That something has a cow shaped head with enormous horn. It holds a double edged great axe with one hand. Unlike cows, that thing stands upright with two legs. The muscular body of a human barbarian with the head of a bull, Renya can only associate that being with only one word: Minotaur.
According to Renya's knowledge when he still in earth, that monster, the minotaur, is a monster that comes from the Greek mythology that depicted as the guardian of a great labyrinth. That minotaur high stature of 3 meters is enough for it to look down on Renya and his party. That muscular minotaur body and that giant great axe that it wield already reveal its identity as a power fighter that will fight upfront in close range. Normal human will definitely overawed by its frightful appearance as its approach you.
But it was a misfortune for that minotaur that the people gather in front of him is not in the least normal.
"... Minotaur eh? That really is the perfect watchdog for this kind of labyrinth"
From what Brenda says in her monologue, Renya can guess that the myth about minotaur between earth and this world is pretty much the same in the naming and place of origin. He's been finding some myth and legend in this world that is somehow similar to the one from earth. Because of Brenda monologue, he doesn't need to bother himself asking. Then again, he really doesn't have any time to think any idle thought as the minotaur approach them madly.
Anyhow, Renya has always been a spectator in this exploration. He was able to reconfirm how reliable his party member is because of this event but he thinks that his pride as a man won't forgive him if he keeps on being a himo like this.
He sees his chance to show his reliability to his party member. He just simply needs to face the minotaur from up front, battle it like usual, and win like usual.
If the war god doesn't come out at time like this then who will?
Without saying anything, Renya make hand signal saying to leave this to me. He then silently moves forward to meet the minotaur.
The minotaur seems like to be able to feel Renya's fighting spirit and have the edge of its mouth slightly slanted in joy or so from how Renya look at it. At the same time, he also thinks... what a pitiful fella you are.
"Those that strain you are my commandment! Be wrapped up in the twilight and prostrate yourself! The inescapable strangling darkness 「Night Crucifixion」!"
Capture and enervate, Renya cast off the binding divine armament device that own those two effects build in within it. With Night Crucifixion, he binds the minotaur in where it stands. The jet black ropes then efficiently twine around the minotaur, tangling it down. After finished tangling the target limbs, the jet black rope starts to silently emit dull colored light as it slowly but surely sucks up something from its prey.
The view of it just as bizarre as how a snake monster constricts its prey, rendering them immobile while seeping their strength slowly.
"GUOOOOO!!!?"
The minotaur frantically tries to free itself from the jet black rope but to no avail. What worse, the longer it tangled inside the rope, the weaker it will become because of the rope enervating attribute making it even more impossible to get free. Such a nightmarish combo makes this divine armament the best one in the field of capturing a target without killing it.
But the situation right now is not a capturing but subjugation. Renya then goes to concentrate his will into the next divine armament.
He wants to deliver a one hit kill attack. With this in mind, he doesn't hold back at all and goes all off to do the killing.
Then again he simply can't use the Blazing Crimson War Axe of Divinity [Volcanos] here. If he were to recklessly use fire inside a closed space like inside this dungeon of course it will affect the oxygen inside and ended up harming themselves too in the end. He never experimented the usage of Volcanos inside closed space such like this so he chooses other divine armament that wouldn't bring danger to his party member.
With that in mind, Renya concentrate his will into his own world. And from the depth of his world, a single spear manifests.
It was a short spear that can be held with only one hand and is also possible to use as projectile weapon. The design is simple and the triangle shaped spear tip gives out a dull silver glow. If you talk about western styled fantasy spear then this simple design is the real deal! That honestly was just Renya's personal opinion though.
Renya spins the short spear lightly with his right hand and then he take a javelin throwing posture. His fighting spirit slowly rises as he gets into throwing posture.
Locked in his fierce gaze, is the minotaur that still tried to break away from the tangling rope eventhough fatigue starts to assault its body.
"Dance within the robe of light! You just need to simply pierce the enemies that block your path! Assault Spear of the Unyielding Valkyrie 「Geirölul」!"
Charging his power as the war god until the max, Renya throws Geirölul straight ahead with his full force.
The thrown spear ---- morphs into a thick laser beam that closing in to the minotaur in the speed of light.
That thick laser beam doesn't emit any blinding light toward the surroundings. It was just simply focusing all its power into one point to forcefully pierce any obstacles in front of him. And then a glint of its tail tracks flashes for a moment. Not even the minotaur was able to grasp what had just happened as it life silently expires just like that. Renya was able to slay the minotaur with only just one spear throw.
The minotaur doesn't even have any chance to scream as most of its upper body was vanquished by Geirölul beam at that instant. The lower half of the minotaur body that was still left intact then soon also turned into dust and vanished silently without any trace left. The fact that the monster doesn't left behind any corpse means that it was a kind of being that created by the mean of illusion magic that have the ability to affects things physically.
The one charging forth with a spear in hand, the divine armament that was crowned after the name of Valkyrie Geirölul is just like it description, will annihilate any enemies that stand before the wielder's eye.
It was the first boss class monster that they encounter after exploring the ruin for a long while and to defeat that boss class monster with only two moves can be said to be a deed of the transcended one. It was indeed a stage prepared for Renya to show off his quality as a war god.
Well, rather than saying that Renya wants to show off his power, the truth is, from the start he doesn't willing to seriously face the boss that blocks their way after they explored this far inside the ruin. Renya just don't want to give more burden to the girls that have worked their hardest while exploring so he choose to help lessen their burden a bit by fighting that enemy which is not even worth fighting for him. He already knew from the start that even if he doesn't fight it, the other party member can beat the boss easily too. It was just him being considerate to the girls.
They somehow made it this far in exploration thanks to the overpowered party member skill.
And in the end they somehow defeated the boss that guarding this place thanks to the power of god.
If the dungeon creator still present, that person might cry from knowing such over the top group had easily trample their way inside the dungeon he/she created.
"Fuh~ That was a good stress reliever"
As expected Renya had accumulated some stress because he can't use his divine power freely like usual. He still can't release it by rampaging around but it seems that crushing his enemy with his full power projectile throw has reduced his stress quite a bit.
"So how is it, Floria? Is there still any danger hidden around here?"
"N~~, I don't feel anything dangerous so it probably alright"
Just in case, before they advances to open the grand double door, Renya ask Floria whether there any danger left in the area or within the door itself but it seems to be a needless worry.
Renya opens the door after silently nodding to the other party member.
They enter the door and carefully move even deeper still keeping their guard up. And then they got astonished by the scene before their eyes.
"... What… is this?"
The one who whisper that out loud was Floria.
In front of their eyes is a vast empty space where the ceiling so high they can't see it. And there is something in the middle of this vast space. It was indeed a ship.
The ship hull design is close to a trimaran. Ok, that was still normal. But there is one suspicious part protruded in the ship deck. That part where the bridge supposed to be installed was replaced with something unheard of.
"... Why is there a western styled house in the place of the ship bridge?..."
Renya, who at last found the desired 'ship', can't even feel happy about it because he is being overwhelmed by bewilderment after witnessing the ship over the top bizarreness. He can only mutter that line while being dumbfounded.