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Collapsed walls, fallen roofs. The ground was cracked and overgrown with weeds. Whatever glory the place had once possessed was long gone; now its only inhabitants were monsters, beasts, and insects.
It was what people called a ruin. Since it stood in the forest west of the royal capital, Yuke, it was generally known as the Western Yuke Ruins.
Most of its buildings had already collapsed, and only the structures near the center remained in anything resembling proper condition. One of those, however, was ridiculously large.
It was an enormous rectangular building, some five hundred meters across and apparently twice that in depth.
The pillars visible through the collapsed sections were made of a dark metal with a dull sheen, and looked extremely sturdy.
“Still such a strange building. I wonder what it’s made of?”
“The pillars look something like Damascus steel. The walls… I’m not sure. They look as though someone melted stone and spread it over them.”
“Melted stone? You mean they went to the trouble of using magic just to coat the walls? This much of it?”
“Perhaps there was magic like that in ancient times. Even you couldn’t manage something like this, could you?”
“Probably not. Earth magic isn’t really my specialty anyway.”
Levia gave a derisive snort at their observations. Honestly, these primitives… was more or less what her expression said.
It’s just reinforced concrete. What the hell would you need magic for? All you need is concrete and builders.
To Levia, it was nothing more than a reinforced-concrete structure, the sort of building Shinnosuke had seen countless times in his previous life. The method would probably be unimaginable to fantasy-world people who could build only with wood, stone, or earth.
That said, Levia merely knew the term reinforced concrete. She had absolutely no idea how to make it. In that respect, she was on exactly the same level as the fantasy-world inhabitants. Construction had never been her field, so there was nothing to be done about that.
Leaving aside the superiority she was enjoying entirely inside her own head, there was the matter of the ruins themselves.
They were remnants of an ancient civilization scattered throughout the world, places where various treasures known as relics still slept. Digging one up and making a fortune was one version of the adventurer’s dream.
Unfortunately, such treasures were not easy to find. In most cases, a newly discovered ruin was immediately claimed by the state.
Jewels, ornaments, paintings, books, weapons, magical tools… The things found in ruins had been made using extremely advanced technology, much of which could not be reproduced with modern methods. Excavating such items and putting them to use—or even managing to analyze part of them—would unquestionably strengthen a nation, both militarily and technologically.
As a result, adventurers could only hope for whatever was left behind. Since the state had already searched the ruins once, such things were not easily found. An undiscovered hidden room might remain somewhere, and if an adventurer happened to stumble upon it…
That was the idea.
A “picked-clean ruin,” incidentally, referred to a ruin where a hidden room had already been discovered and the adventurer’s dream had already come true. Once that happened, other adventurers would flock to the site as well. Whether another hidden room actually existed or not, the place would inevitably be searched even more thoroughly.
The chance of finding another relic therefore became almost zero, and because it was effectively exhausted, the ruin was called “picked clean.”
“Well then, time for a beast hunt… though Cerberus comes first, doesn’t it?”
“Right. It’s extremely fast, so if you let your guard down, it’ll bite you before you know it. Be careful.”
“Of course. And you make sure you don’t panic if it comes crashing through a window.”
“?”
You always jump the first time… Levia thought, remembering zombie-survival games from her previous life. She had played a fair number of games back then.
They continued talking as they entered the ruins. Beyond what appeared to have once been an entrance hall stretched a dim gray corridor.
There were rooms here and there, and some contained things like straw bedding and animal bones. Perhaps they had been left behind by the goblins or orcs they had fought earlier.
Ney and Liz began considering what that meant.
“There are traces of monsters living here, but I don’t sense any. Were the ones outside all of them?”
“Hard to say. If they actually lived here, you’d normally expect females and young as well. Goblins and orcs, I mean.”
“True. Maybe they’re farther inside? Or did the Cerberus eat them?”
“I don’t know. More importantly, according to those adventurers earlier, the orcs were at the ruins, weren’t they? And the Cerberus is supposed to be here too. Those aren’t creatures that could possibly coexist.”
There were too many inconsistencies. Something was definitely happening here. The three continued on with even greater caution.
They checked each room as they went, but still found no monsters. Perhaps the creatures had not tried to live in this part of the ruins, because the floors were littered instead with what appeared to be the remains of old desks, chairs, shelves, and similar furnishings.
Naturally, there was nothing that looked valuable. Anything of worth had long since been carried off by the state or by adventurers.
“By the way, Levia, what have you been doing this whole time?”
Liz finally asked. Levia had been silent ever since they entered the ruins, busy doing something with her hands.
“Can’t you tell? Look. Cowboy.”
“What’s a cowboy…?”
Levia had been making a loop out of rope. Apparently satisfied with it, she swung it around a few times to test it.
It was a lasso, a tool used by throwing the loop around prey to capture it.
“Whoa! What are you doing?!”
“Ohohohoho. One wild dairy cow captured.”
“Who are you calling a dairy cow?! I don’t produce milk!”
“Ah, that’s right. One beef cow captured, then. I wonder how much you’d sell for per gram?”
With some impressive rope handling, Levia had successfully tied up Ney.
As the two began arguing loudly, Liz snapped, “Stop playing around!” Levia reluctantly untied the rope, then turned toward Liz with a grin and started lining up another attempt. Liz noticed immediately and glared at her.
“Tch.”
Looking disappointed, Levia put the rope away at her waist.
“So what are you planning to do with that?” Liz asked. “Catch it?”
“Of course. It should sell for more alive than as meat, shouldn’t it?”
“That may be true, but surely that’s impossible,” Ney said. “It’s strong, and it breathes fire on top of that.”
“No, I didn’t mean that one—”
WHOOOOOM!!
A tremendous roar.
They immediately turned toward the sound and saw an enormous fireball. Farther down the corridor stood a three-headed beast.
“Wh—!”
“Damn it! Liz, get back!”
Though startled, Ney instinctively raised her shield.
She had managed to reinforce her body with magical power, but there had been no time to reinforce the shield itself. Strengthening something outside one’s own body took longer. And without reinforcement, even Ney would have difficulty enduring an attack from a Cerberus.
She clenched her teeth and braced for the impact—
“FIIIIIIIIISH!!”
Suddenly she felt herself leave the ground. Ney was yanked sharply upward into the air and let out a startled “Whoa?!” while Liz screamed beside her.
The sensation of floating vanished and they hit the floor. When Ney raised her head to see what had happened, Levia was sitting nearby, giggling, a rope in her hands.
She had used the lasso to pull both of them into the air and into a small side room beyond the fireball’s path. The Cerberus’s attack missed, and a distant crash echoed through the ruins.
“You two are awfully slow. Now you owe me one.”
“Y-yeah. Thanks.”
“Thanks, Levia… Wait, wasn’t it your fault we noticed it so late in the first place?”
Liz looked unconvinced, but apparently decided this was not the time to argue about it.
After getting back to their feet, the three peered from the entrance of the small room toward the far end of the corridor. It was too far away to judge precisely, but they could make out a huge body at least five meters tall.
It had three heads.
There was no mistaking it for anything but a Cerberus. Its six eyes, two on each head, were fixed on them.
“It isn’t moving,” Liz said. “What is it waiting for?”
“For us to come out, most likely. That last attack was large enough to fill the entire corridor.”
“I knew Cerberuses could breathe fire, but I’ve never heard of one using an attack like that. Could it be some sort of unusual specimen…?”
The three began considering how to deal with it.
The distance was around a hundred meters. There were several rooms along the way, but their entrances appeared to be blocked by rubble. In other words, this small room was the only place available for cover. Somehow, they would have to cross that entire distance.
Ney looked toward Liz.
“Liz, can you block it with magic?”
“I can, but it depends on its cooldown. The impact looked pretty strong too, so an earth-element barrier would be ideal, but I’m not very good with earth magic. It would take time to make one, and even then it could probably only withstand one or two hits. What about you?”
“I doubt I can stop it outright. I could deflect it with my shield, but this corridor is too narrow. The fireball would explode right beside us.”
“I see. At that distance it could probably dodge offensive magic too. This is difficult.”
Neither Ney’s defense nor Liz’s magic seemed particularly well suited to the situation.
“Hmm.”
Levia stepped out into the corridor. The Cerberus immediately fired another ball of flame, but she backstepped and avoided it without difficulty. When she stepped out again, another fireball came at her. After judging its speed, she evaded that one just as easily.
Watching her, Ney folded her arms and frowned.
“Hmm. The interval is very short.”
“I don’t think I could keep up with that.”
“Levia, what about your speed?”
“I doubt it. There isn’t enough room to dodge once I start running.”
“I see… Hmm. What should we do?”
The three considered the problem. Ney was just about to suggest retreating for the moment when Levia spoke in a composed voice.
“That said, it is not as though there is no way through.”
Ney looked at her suspiciously.
“What? Didn’t you just say you couldn’t do it?”
“I said speed alone would not be enough. A little difficulty like this is a simple matter for me.”
“What? Then what are you planning to do?”
“Fufufu. Just watch.”
Levia drew her sword and twirled it in her hand.
“I’ll show you a glimpse of my ultimate unfair cheat.”