It was early in the morning, the sun was just rising, and in the distance, little by little, the walls of the town began to be visible. Even calling them "walls" is a very polite way of referring to the precarious layers of trash made with earth, some rock, and wood, and who knows what other kind of crap these serfs managed to pile up over it.
The unpleasant taste of preserved food still lingers in his mouth as he wipes away the dripping sweat that threatens to get into his eyes. His body covered in steel gray plate armor did little to calm the heat.
A pat on the shoulder momentarily distracts him, much louder than he might even consider friendly.
Normally he would have answered with a punch to the back of the neck, but he swore to himself that he would only hit him in the head. After the last time he tried to hit him in the ribs, despite reinforcing his fist with mana, and although he was not even wearing his armor, he nearly broke the bones in his hand.
But exhausted after a tedious week of traveling, he simply gave in.
— Why the fuck are you hitting me, you fucking midget? —
In an exhausted tone and without much desire to play along, he turned to his teammate.
— I just got bored seeing your face of bad-fucked lady, bastard human. —
While laughter came out of his barely visible mouth between the thick and disheveled beard, but instead of being a sincere laugh, it sounded more like a provocation.
He was his teammate and friend for as long as she could remember, the dwarf Dholeck, an A-class adventurer.
— Wow Alde I'm really impressed. I think you're finally starting to mature. —
He interrupted in a sarcastic tone.
The one who did it was a tall and thin man, and unlike Alde or Dholeck, despite traveling for a week without being able to bathe, his appearance looked much cleaner and more organized than the other two.
— Don't fuck with me, Wilagan; I'm just pissed off and very exhausted; the trip to those ruins was crap. —
He expressed his frustration as he turned to his companions.
— Dholeck, when you stuck your ax in that crack, I had a very bad feeling. I'm happy that I didn't find anything and that, in return, we are all alive. —
Lumella interrupted with annoyance.
Her keen senses have saved the party on several occasions, and although she specializes in holy magic, she is incredibly efficient at detecting traps and dangers.
— It wasn't all a waste of time; at least we got information, and we also found the remains of a girl's backpack, and with that last name, she must be a Noble. —
— If it turns out that she really is a Nightsun then this information will at least cover the costs of the trip alone. —
Wilagan reminded them, doing his best to smile and lighten their spirits a bit.
— We ran off like fucking fagots, but it must be okay for you, right? Cowardly mage. We didn't even finish packing up our camping gear and pretty much everything we'd been collecting for hours.—
The annoyance in Dholeck's tone was evident.
— Frightened by a crack in the ground where you couldn't see anything out of the ordinary! I won't be able to look at my own reflection with anything but shame for weeks. —
His face turned red, and to lighten his spirit a little, he delivered a punch that rumbled and cracked part of the way.
— This is all your fault, stupid bitch; paying attention to you only screws up our fucking lives, keeping us away from greatness.—
Lumela bit her lip, looking at the ground sadly, but still found the courage to speak.
— Guys, I know you're tired, but I'm sure getting out of there was the best decision! —
Remembering, Lumella's hands trembled.
— I've never felt anything like that in my life; not even when we participated in the subjugation of that S-class monster did I feel this sick. —
Her voice stuttered.
— I don't know exactly... what thing was hidden under those ruins, but it was unimaginably bad... I'm so scared. I'm afraid it might even be even a calamity! —
She lowered her gaze as she desperately placed her hand on the medallion on her chest and tried to calm the wild beating of her heart by sending a prayer to the gods for the poor soul of the noble girl, who must have died there.
— Stop! Fuck all of that; everyone, including you, Dholeck, agreed to leave that place. So stop this shit now or I'll beat you all up.—
Sending a withering look to his companions and his murderous intent towards Dholeck he continued.
— Dholeck, you know we're only capable of dealing with an A-class monster, even risking our lives. —
He says making use of all his presence in his voice. Dholeck just looked back at him with a look of disdain.
— Now the most important thing is to spend the night and rest in this fucking town and head to the city first thing in the morning to give our report to the guild master. —
— That's where our work ends, so now we'll stop speculating what that shit was. —
Using both hands, he slapped his face to calm his own emotions.
— The guild master is the one who will decide if a subjugation squad or more investigation is necessary to know if we are really facing a calamity or just a weird shit. —
This was his job as the leader of the A-class adventurer group "The Ashes" to calm things down and avoid infighting or conflict.
— After that huge noise, the last thing I want is to stay near this place, but we need to rest after three days of forced march. —
—Or we could be killed by any monster in the forest if we are too tired to fight. —
Alde never forgot the first rule for an adventurer: security is the first and most important thing in life; gold is of little use if you are not alive to be able to spend it.
After a brief rest and with the spirits already much calmer, the group continued on its way.
My plan requires several materials, but our temple of love unfortunately only has clean rock to offer for us.
— Honey, could you please lift me up to the hole in the ceiling? —
I ask my love as I look him straight in the eyes and smile warmly.
Gor kindly does what I ask, although I'm a little nervous. I have been in this wonderful house for so many years that if it were just me, I would not leave it for anything in the world.
— Ouch! —
As I continue climbing, my head hits something solid as a rock. Gor notices this, he stops moving for a split second, and then quickly pulls me towards him.
When I reach his side, the explosion of the sonic boom reaches my ears.
Ten tentacles surround me, while the other twenty take the shape of spears and prepare to attack.
I feel like the world is spinning and I feel so sick like I'm about to die, not because of the blow to my head; something so mundane couldn't hurt me much anymore.
Gor loves me so much that he uses much more force to protect me than should be used when you are moving a person.
Luckily, the tentacles inside my spine kept it from breaking, and the ones inside my brain kept it from bouncing around inside my skull preventing me from fainting.
—Wait, Gor, don't break it! —
A large amount of blood escapes from my nose, mouth, and some other orifices.
Ignoring the pain in my surely crushed limbs and organs. I manage to stop Gor before he attacks.
Gor obeys me but still doesn't let his guard down as I feel how my body is slowly regenerating.
Gor uses his "hands" to rearrange the bones in my limbs.
It hurts a lot, but I think after years of experiencing similar things, I managed to not faint during the process.
— Thank you for worrying so much about me… —
I manage to say between sobs and screams.
After my body is fully recovered, I talked to my dear husband about how pulling a noble lady using the tentacle inside her guts at almost mach one point five and then slamming on the brakes is a really bad thing for a girl's health.
Reluctantly, he seems to understand it.
I hadn't thought about it, but my body heals ridiculously quickly. From the time I was on the edge of death to being completely recovered, it took only a couple of hours after my body was fully recovered.
I guess this has something to do with my beloved, yet he hasn't explained anything to me about it.
After resting my mind, I decided to explore the hole in the ceiling with much more caution.
Although I can see through it, it's as if an invisible wall is blocking my path. Gor again lifts me up, this time slowly, and stops before I hit my head again.
I examine the ceiling much more closely this time; it seems to have small pieces of metal embedded in it, surrounded by engraved lines and symbols that extend all around it.
—Is it some type of defensive formation? Fascinating. —
In books, I never saw any pattern like this, yet from my experience, I deduce that it should function as a barrier and camouflage device.
—But it can't be very good if the weak me from six years ago was able to overcome it and make her way into this room. True?—
In my hand, I conjure a firebolt. Concentrating my mind to the maximum and adding more mana than recommended for a spell as basic as this, I focus the flame into a thin line, emulating what in my other world was known as a blowtorch.
At first, the formation puts up some resistance, but after half an hour, the magical circuit finally breaks.
Using my "blowtorch" I manage to extract the metal and other materials that I think could be useful. After digging around the hole for a while, I finally saw a shiny blue crystal.
—This must be the mana stone that fueled the formation. —
It's huge, the size of a fist, and I can feel the amount of magical energy it contains, which unfortunately isn't much anymore.
Crystals of such capacity are only used in large-scale magical formations.
—Why the hell would someone be crazy enough to use a treasure like this in such a flawed and small formation? —
— Even if it is almost empty for now, a mana stone of this size would be equivalent to the income of a small fief for at least five years. —
It is an incomprehensible waste of extremely expensive and rare resources.
— If I sold something like this, I could… No, that's not something about which I have to care right now. —
Very carefully, and to avoid exploding it at all costs, I slowly extract it, and then gently and slowly, I place it in a safe spot in the corner of the room.
I go back up to the hole; the residual remains of the barrier still remain, but now, without the magic circuits or its energy source, it is easily broken by applying a discharge of mana to it.
Remnants of dust mixed with dirt and rock falling on me and I can finally pass through the hole.
— Why does it shine so much!? —
I don't remember the sunlight being so bright and annoying; my eyes hurt.
As I slowly gave my eyes time to adjust to the blinding light, I slowly managed to see the ruins again.
It looks almost the same as last time. The only thing different is the sleeping bags, the remains of a campfire, some dirty clothes, and some objects that they surely collected from the ruins piled up in a corner.
My brow furrows as I remember the pesky intruders who caused all this, but at least they had the decency and delicacy to leave some materials that I could use as an offering to the benevolent me.
I examined his belongings, but my brow immediately frowned as I smelled the unpleasant smell.
These clothes reek of sweat, and I don't even want to think about what other bodily fluids might be soaked in them.
— Gross! I can't even imagine wearing something so dirty. —
But my clothes were torn a long time ago, and being naked leaves me little choice. Leaving that aside, I continue checking the belongings of these humble beings.
On one of the sleeping bags, I can read "property of Dholeck the Great" written on it.
— So this is the name of one of the members of that group of pests. —
I can't believe how stupid a person must be to leave something with his name on it after breaking into someone's house without permission.
Now I have a name that will make it much easier to find the bastards who forced us to abandon our sacred temple of happiness.
Among all the scrap, I managed to recover enough materials to start the production of the prototype.
— Damn plages, I will make sure that all of you regret being born. —
I swore, putting a hand on my chest.