The Unwanted Undead Adventurer: Volume 4 Page 8

  In any case, with this, I’d cleared the first notable obstacle of the fourth floor.

  Gathering up what materials I could from the fallen Lizardman, I stepped forward once more...

  ◆◇◆◇◆

  The floating mountain of the fourth floor was split into two main areas: a bare, somewhat rugged outer wall and a series of interconnected caves inside the mountain itself. The caves were as much a path as they were tunnels, and adventurers were often able to gather a variety of ores and stones from within.

  That was my goal.

  Given that I’d wanted to make and gift Alize a light metal blade of sorts, the fourth floor was the perfect place to gather the required ores and metals.

  I continued climbing up the floating mountain. Soon enough, I found an opening, and upon ascertaining that there were no monsters in the immediate vicinity, I carefully and quietly slipped into the cave.

  ◆◇◆◇◆

  The layout of these tunnels was somewhat complex. It was said that one could become lost, never to return, should one go too deep.

  Under normal circumstances, a map of the complicated interior was required for navigation, and the typical adventurer would, of course, have to buy such an item. I, however, had the Map of Akasha. While it only displayed areas which I’d personally explored, there was now no possibility of me getting lost. Not having to purchase an additional map was also a bonus. In exchange, notes and points of interest typically shown on commercial maps were hidden from me, including areas where one could usually excavate for ore. I supposed I’d have to find all these locations myself.

  As I continued walking along the tunnels, I caught sight of a partially collapsed wall. If I had to guess, someone before me had dug for ore in this very same spot. While some of these spots were marked with traces of excavation by others, most of them weren’t. The possibility of ore yet remaining in this area was still high, though.

  I withdrew a small, plank-like object from my magical pouch. It was a cheap board of sorts, a tool that reacted to faint traces of magic. It was a type of magical tool in and of itself.

  I raised it to the gap in the wall before me. After waiting for quite some time, I felt the board move ever so slightly as it gave off a faint glow. With this, I understood one thing: the ore I’d been looking for all this time was somewhere in these walls.

  Specifically, I was looking for a type of metal known as “mana iron.” It was much stronger than normal iron, and it also had a good affinity for mana in general. It was a relatively expensive metal.

  Mana iron had some curious properties. If one were to channel mana through it, some of the mana would be absorbed by the metal, and the rest would be reflected and expelled. It was this expulsion of mana that the board in my hands was reacting to. I’d surely find some mana iron if I were to dig further into this partially collapsed wall.

  If I had Lorraine’s level of skill, I’d be able to discern if objects had mana in them at a glance—but of course, such feats were beyond me.

  Withdrawing a pickaxe from my pouch, I turned to the wall, bracing myself.

  Time to get what I came for.

  The sharp clanging of metal on rock echoed throughout the tunnels as I continued mining the walls.

  This particular pickaxe was made to be tolerant to mana. This allowed one to channel mana into it and continue excavating without any issues.

  I persevered, digging myself deeper into the wall. If this were to take a long time, I’d most likely not have enough magic... But things should be fine at this pace.

  I hope.

  After a while, a faint glimmer beyond the rock walls caught my eye. It seemed to be a vein of some sort of ore—ore that contained the mana iron I was looking for.

  I quickened my excavating pace. The ashen walls became noticeably harder as I continued digging, but with my now inhuman strength and the mana flowing through my veins, some slightly harder layers of rock were hardly a problem for me.

  I was able to extract the ore I required surprisingly easily. However...

  “The quality leaves much to be desired...”

  I turned around the piece of mana-iron-containing ore in my hands. Most of this ore piece consisted of impurities I didn’t need, and a single glance was enough for me to tell.

  If I were to use such a material, quite a large amount would have to be excavated for me to extract any sort of mana iron at all, and one would hardly be able to make a respectable weapon with ore of this quality. I wasn’t looking to create some sort of artisanal weapon far exceeding normal standards, but this ore was simply...too impure for my purposes. While I could tolerate some impurities within metals in general, the quality of this vein was severely lacking.

  It was ore that I had put a great deal of effort into excavating, yes, but nonetheless, I left it on the ground, intent on locating a better vein of ore.

  I was hardly disappointed, however. In fact, I’d already anticipated this to a certain degree. It was said that ore in this floating mountain improved in purity and quality the deeper one went into the tunnels, so I’d already known to some extent that an excavation spot relatively near an entrance wouldn’t provide me with many returns. I did want to excavate it in person, at least once, to affirm what I had heard before moving on, though.

  I suppose such was to be expected of a labyrinth—one could never see what it had to offer without delving into its innermost depths.

  ◆◇◆◇◆

  I felt like I saw something flicker from the corner of my eye—a silhouette, or a shadow perhaps. Was someone else here? It wouldn’t be strange for other adventurers to be present.

  But...something was off about it. It was as if the existence of this being itself was...unstable. I couldn’t say for sure.

  In any case, I supposed I should have a look for myself...

  But...no. It was precisely because of my curiosity that I’d ended up with such a body in the first place. I should be placing my safety before all else...

  At least, that was what I thought. Soon enough, I, Rentt Faina, had given in to my curiosity. If I didn’t have such a personality, I wouldn’t have had to go through all that I had up till now. But I suppose me acting this way was very much a given.

  All I had to do was immediately escape should there be any sign of danger. Considering the amount of energy I’d expended thus far, I could safely say I could escape at a reasonable speed.

  But of course, it’d be most trying should I run into some sort of dragon again. Though that was a one-off case of bad luck. I supposed such a thing wouldn’t happen again.

  I approached the place where I’d seen the shadow.

  But...

  There was no one there. Perhaps it was just my imagination...

  “...Who are you? Where did you come from?” a voice said from behind me.

  Shocked, I immediately turned around, only to see a young girl standing before me.

  She was...very young. Perhaps about five or six years of age.

  But the aura she had about her was anything but childish. Her gaze was full of suspicion, even irritation. It was an expression only adults could muster.

  I was at a loss for what to say, my mouth gaping as I struggled to find the words. Just as I did...

  “...I don’t know. No... I... I am...”

  Another voice from behind me. Not one that manifested from my throat.

  It seemed like there was another individual behind me, so I turned around—only to come face-to-face with a strange individual, dressed in a tattered and ragged old robe.

  The robed individual did not seem very normal at all. Gazing upon him, I couldn’t help but feel that he was an unknown existence I could never understand, and my heart was filled with a great sense of unease. It seemed the individual was thinking, lost in thought at the girl’s question.

  Just who is this person...

  As that thought entered my mind, the young girl stepped right through me, continuing to speak to the robed individual
. Now that I was observing her from a distance, I could see that the girl was somewhat...translucent.

  Did she even really exist? Or was she simply not physically here? Was that why she could not see me?

  Upon closer inspection, the robed individual seemed slightly translucent as well.

  “You don’t know? You don’t know where you came from? But to come here, you must have come from somewhere else...and yet, you don’t know?” the girl asked.

  The robed individual shook his head. “I... I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know...anything. I... I am. What am I? Where is this?!”

  As they shouted, their shaking intensified. Soon after, the hood on their head was shaken clean off.

  ...Hey, now.

  I wasn’t expecting to see anything quite like it. I felt a deep sense of surprise rising up from within.

  The robed individual standing before me...was a Skeleton. A Skeleton with a faint light in its eye sockets... A Skeleton with logic, and a capability to reason. There was what appeared to be a complicated tattoo across its skull, the pattern glowing a faint blue. I’d never seen such a tattoo before... But this was unmistakably...a Skeleton.

  A Skeleton—a monster much like what I used to be, quite a while ago.

  ...Who was that, I wondered.

  With a single step, I approached the two. I wanted to see this strange robed Skeleton up close.

  Unfortunately, as if sensing my intent, the robed individual slowly seemed to dissipate, fading out of existence, before vanishing into thin air altogether. The girl questioning him vanished too, her image slowly losing its color before fading into nothingness. All that was left in the barren tunnels were myself and the silent rock faces surrounding me. It was a most lonely feeling, as if what had just occurred before me was nothing more than an illusion.

  “What was that all about...?” I said despite myself.

  No one answered my query. The only response was an empty echo, softly reverberating through the tunnels.

  Were occurrences like this common on the fourth floor?

  No... That couldn’t possibly be true. If that really were the case, there would have been a flood of rumors about it in the taverns by now. At the very least, I should have heard about it, one way or another.

  Then...could it be possible that this strange phenomenon only occurred because of who I was?

  Why would that be the case...? Was it just a coincidence? Or was this something that simply had to happen?

  I had no way of knowing.

  After pondering the issue for a while, I gave up, realizing that I simply didn’t have any answers. I supposed I could think about it another time.

  There were many inexplicable things in the world—unsolved mysteries, including the reason for me becoming an Undead. It was important to discern between what one could know, and what one may never know. It was an important survival skill in its own right.

  For now, I had to focus on what I needed to do: material gathering.

  The deeper I went into these tunnels, the higher the purity and quality of the mana iron I sought. And so...I must continue moving forward. As for what happened today, I supposed I could just tuck it away in some corner of my heart, for now.

  ◆◇◆◇◆

  “Guuugyaaa!!!”

  A cry most inhuman rang out through the tunnels.

  My sword was currently buried in the face of the monster before me—the face of a Mina Goblin. I’d been aiming for its neck, but the monster was more agile than I’d expected, and it ended up dodging the blow.

  As their name suggested, Mina Goblins were different from the common Goblin. For starters, they lived in places abundant with ore, commonly mountains and the like. They also possessed certain unique skills, namely, that of smelting. Although they were hardly as skilled as the Dwarves, and weren’t capable of creating precise instruments and magical tools, they knew enough about smelting to create swords, shields, and the like.

  This meant there should be a smelting chamber somewhere in this mountain, though I had no idea as to where exactly such a place could be. While adventurers had successfully located and destroyed said smelting chambers repeatedly in the past, another one would eventually pop up in its place.

  Infrastructure on such a scale didn’t seem like an easy undertaking... But then again, the labyrinth was a huge place. If one were serious about exploring the entirety of the fourth floor, one would definitely need more than one or two days. A few weeks, perhaps, or maybe even a few months.

  Even so, it might still be impossible for one to see everything it had to offer. Given the sheer size of the floor, it was very possible that several of these chambers were partially constructed, and should one ever be destroyed, the goblins in question would simply move on to the next one. If this were indeed true, these chambers would never be completely destroyed, no matter how much time came to pass. All that had to be done was to transport some specialized tools from one location to another, and that was that.

  At the very least, Mina Goblins were capable of constructing simple magical tools, and were also able to prevent the heat and smoke from these chambers from giving away their location. This made finding such a chamber difficult. If these Goblins were armed with such knowledge, why not simply live at peace with humans, one may think, but in reality, certain groups of Goblins did live this way.

  The Mina Goblins on the fourth floor, however, appeared to have some sort of pride that man couldn’t possibly hope to understand. Perhaps this was the reason as to why they couldn’t be at peace with humanity in general.

  As a result of all their smelting and crafting, Mina Goblins looked different than the average Goblin, often armed with reasonably well-made armor and weaponry. Even the color of their skin was different; a sort of natural adaptation to their rocky habitat, perhaps. The skin of a Mina Goblin was earth-brown, compared to the green skin of a Normal Goblin. They were also significantly more muscular, probably due to all the ore they excavated in their free time.

  If Normal Goblins were small and annoying ankle-biters, Mina Goblins were very much like miniature, yet muscular gorillas.

  Truly horrifying.

  The speed of their swings, compounded by their sheer muscular power, meant that Mina Goblins were much more formidable foes than Lizardmen. To make things worse, they were also trained to handle weaponry, and had a certain amount of martial prowess to their movements.

  Although it had sustained a wound from my blade, the Goblin soon snapped out of its panic, immediately calming down and staring threateningly in my direction. As expected, monsters became increasingly more difficult to slay as one ventured into the deeper floors...

  It occurred to me that staying here for a while and absorbing the life force of these monsters wouldn’t be all that bad an idea. I didn’t mean to say that I hadn’t become stronger, but perhaps the pace of my descent was a little too fast. I should have gauged my own capabilities before deciding to go all the way down to the fourth floor, but it was a little too late for such thoughts.

  Despite that, I hadn’t sustained any grievous injuries, and I was still managing to fight my foes on relatively equal, albeit strained, footing. Things would indeed be bad if I’d decided to go any deeper.

  Or perhaps I should fight at that level of difficulty, and maybe reach new heights of growth by continually exposing myself to danger...? No, no. That would be far too reckless.

  In any case, those were thoughts better attended to at home. For now, it was more important to deal with the Mina Goblin before me.

  It was holding a large, two-handed axe in its hands, a weapon I’d find difficult to control, much less swing about. To the Mina Goblin, however, the axe likely didn’t weigh very much at all.

  The weapon was crude; not only was it heavy, it was also difficult to control... Yet the Mina Goblin seemed to have mastered it ages ago. It blocked my swings with the flat side of its axe, turning its two-handed weapon into a makeshift shield. As my blade deflected off it
s surface, it would immediately counterattack.

  “...Kuh!”

  I’d dodged a swing from the monster by a hair, yet the Mina Goblin didn’t let up on its attacks. The Goblin held its axe firmly, swinging it down as if to split me into two clean halves. While I was unsure if my body as it was right now would be easy to split apart in the first place, I wasn’t too keen to find out first-hand.

  Then, it suddenly dawned on me that death could come knocking at my door at any instance.

  I dodged as best as I could in a slight panic, eager to avoid the descending two-handed axe. My evasion wasn’t perfect, however, and the blade of the weapon grazed my cheek. A fine line was traced across my features...before healing up in seconds, disappearing altogether.

  It appeared that I now had the ability to recover from simple cuts relatively quickly.

  I did feel a slight sense of fatigue from that, though. I could heal myself, yes, but there were tangible risks involved in the process. After all, adventurers who had actually faced Vampires did affirm that they often healed up immediately after suffering most slashing wounds.

  While Lesser Vampires also possessed these regenerative qualities, the spike of fatigue I just felt may very well indicate that there was a limit to my regeneration...especially if I’d gotten terribly injured. I supposed even Vampires couldn’t regenerate indefinitely...

  While I didn’t know of anyone who’d conducted tests to affirm this, nor were there records to that effect, most individuals who did choose to fight Vampires often decided to go straight for their weak points. In such a case, regenerative limits didn’t really matter. After all, no one would go out of their way to slay a Vampire with a more roundabout method.

  Although my wound was light, the impact of the blow was significant, and I rolled for some distance before recovering, once again raising my blade toward the Mina Goblin. Affirming that I was about to launch an attack, the Mina Goblin raised the flat side of its axe once more, as if to defend—

  “...Gyaaaahh!” the Mina Goblin cried out as it swung its axe backward instead.

  What...? I thought to get a closer look, and there was Edel. My familiar had launched a spell at the beast: Wind Blade. By the time the Goblin had swung its axe around, however, Edel was already at a safe distance, much to my relief.