Chapter 152
Chapter 152 – A Demon Used Thunder![1]
Raw link: (2017/01/21)
Translator: twomorefreethoughts / TpstT (2020/01/30)
Editor 1: Hand of Vecna (2020/03/23)
Editor 2: Keii (2020/03/27)
Translation link:
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We ended up finding the Demon King's castle very quickly.
Or rather, the Argonautai had apparently long identified the location of the castle.
Well, I supposed after flying around with Castor for 200 years, it made sense for them to have at least searched out the enemy's base of operations.
Even in the Dark Continent, it was a wasteland which was particularly dense with mana. In the midst of this wasteland soared a cliff with an enormous black castle on top.
Indeed, its majestic and dignified appearance really screamed, "I am the last dungeon!" There was a large number of scary-looking magical beasts flying about and patrolling the surrounding area. Furthermore, dark clouds obstructed the sunlight to keep the place under a perpetual night.
Thunder resounded along with lightning flashes, creating an eerie atmosphere.
If anything, this castle is way too much of a stereotype that, lately, you actually don't see much anymore.
Also, I think about it every time I see these kinds of castles, but… if you collapse the cliff from the outside, wouldn't the castle drop down and kill all the small fries in one go? I mean, I'm not going to do that but…
Why is it that demon kings' castles are always situated on an unstable place like the edge of a cliff or some precipice?
Isn't it just so inconvenient? Or rather… honestly speaking, it's a type of building that I would not want to live in.
Actually, it's that, you know? I just genuinely want to ask…Why is there a castle casually standing in the middle of nowhere even though this place isn't even the capital?
Since he's a king, I assume that he would naturally be sustaining himself on the tax money from his citizens. But with where this castle is, it must have been quite a hassle for the person bringing in that tax money.
Build the cities closer to your castle!
… Well… I can't say much to others because of Mafahl Tower.
"So, what now? Do you want to shoot it down from the outside?"
"Nah, no need to rush. We didn't really come here to cause conflict. As long as they don't come attacking us, there shouldn't be a need for us to do anything to them. Having said that, I'm not really liking this dark and dull setting."
I looked up at the sky and casually fired arcane magic at it.
It was only low-tier arcane magic, however, considering that it was just to scatter the clouds, it was more enough.
As a result of my single attack, the cowardly clouds quickly flew away and the blue sky expanded in all directions, allowing the sunlight to shine through.
Good, now it's bright.
I'm sorry that they went to great trouble to look like the last dungeon, but I like it better when it's bright.
Whilst thinking such a thing, Benet glared at me as if she had something to say.
Oh, crap. I forgot that she disliked the daytime.
She snapped her finger, turning day into night in an instant and making the whole place shrouded in darkness once again.
Moon-attribute arcane magic [Moonlit Night], huh? She really did just use high-tier arcane magic without any additional movement as if it's the most normal thing in the world.
"Oi, Benet."
"Stop yapping. Let's go."
Even though the weather just turned fine, it reverted back in an instant.
When I figured that I would complain a bit, Benet started progressing forward without minding it in the slightest.
It seemed she wanted to just boldly walk right in from the front.
I supposed it would be unnecessary and seem bad for the two of us to look for a backdoor to sneak in. Therefore, I was also in favour of boldly walking in from the front.
As we closed in on the castle, the magical beasts in the surroundings all came flying at us. However, the moment Benet turned to look at them, they all instantly turned pale and ran away.
Benet did not possess any intimidation skill, yet they must have instinctively felt that they were going to die.
In fact, it was an excellent decision on their behalf. If they had progressed 1 more metre… no, even if they had progressed half that distance, they would no doubt have been shredded into pieces.[2]
Once we reached the front of the castle, what was in our way was a giant steel door.
For some reason, its height was over 10m long.[3] It was big enough that even a giant could utilise the door.
Normally, this was the part where we would need to present some item or find some method to open the gate. But that whole part was irrelevant for us.
Benet simply placed her hand on the gate and forcibly wrung the gate open using nothing but her arm strength.
Lock? Ahh, if you're asking about that, she twisted and grinded it in an instant. Perhaps it was made out of tofu or something?[4]
"Wh, what, how can it be? To open that gate with her bare hand!?"
"That gate was made out of steel, you know!"
"That door should have a weight of 50 tonnes… Is, is she a monster!?"
Okay, okay, thanks for that exposition right there.
I lightly applied Coercion on the bunch of pale-looking people on the other side of the gate, forcing them down on the ground.
You lot, don't move from there, alright? If you move even a little, you'll be crushed by Benet.
When we stepped through the gate, as one would expect, demons which were guarding the place started flooding out, but however many of them there were, it was all meaningless.
"You're in my way. Get lost."
There, I increased the pressure from my Coercion.
The warriors who were wearing heavy-looking armour all fell down to the ground as if they were being pushed down and became unable to move.
The two of us brushed past them and looked around the inside of the castle which was needlessly spacious.
We were currently in a reception hall, but unfortunately, there were far too many routes that we could take.
There were three routes on each side of us leading to who-knows-where, totalling to six.
Directly in front of us, there were stairs, but there were additional doors on each side of them.
If one were to climb the stairs for a bit, they would see a portrait of the Demon King as the stairs split to the left and right, both of which further split again into four paths each, totalling to eight paths.
At this point, there were already 16 different possible routes. Additionally, if we were to take any of those paths, they were bound to further split into paths leading to the guards' rooms, kitchens, training room and etcetera.
The whole place was constructed similarly to a typical RPG's last dungeon. But honestly, heroes must really be tolerant to actually bother finding the boss patiently in a troublesome castle like this whilst encountering enemies.
"There's a needlessly high number of paths, eh?"
Benet muttered as if she was hassled by all of this.
Indeed, to search all of the paths one at a time was too much of a bother.
To have the castle constructed in this way, was it perhaps due to a vigilance or precaution against enemy infiltration?
I had previously heard somewhere that facilities like this were purposefully built in this way so that even if enemies were to infiltrate, they would not be able to immediately reach their intended location.
"It looks like it's going to be a bit of a hassle to actually search ourselves. I guess we'll make this guy guide us."
Benet randomly selected a single demon amongst the ones which were sitting on the floor and grabbed him by his neck.
The pitiful demon with a Mohican haircut which was selected shook violently in fear and was sobbing his heart out.
Although he was my enemy, I did feel a little sympathy for him.
Having said that, I was also in support of the idea of using a guide.
"You. I assume you know where the Demon King is? If you guide us to him, I promise that we'll let you go. So can you tell us where he is?"
"Y, yhes… Gu, gladly…"
Whilst asking for the path, Benet and I continued to progress forward through the complex structure of the castle.
We progressed straight, we turned, we ascended some stairs, we descended some other stairs, we went through some doors, we then climbed some more stairs and…
Hang on a minute, this is way too complicated. Is this a maze or something?
After walking for a little over ten minutes, Benet's irritation had clearly significantly intensified, such that she was visibly annoyed.
"Oi, when are we going to get there?"
"Y, yes! If we go straight through here, we'll be there!"
Saying that, the location that the guide was pointing to was a path where the trail cut off.
Below that place, a countless number of needles were placed along with scattered bones which I assumed belonged to those who were caught by the trap.
"Th, this road has a mechanism where someone needs to pull the lever here or it can't be passed. I, I will keep the lever pulled, so please pass through."
Why is it that the insides of the last bosses' castles always have these kinds of attractions? It's not like they're theme parks.
Wouldn't gimmicks like this just be troublesome under ordinary conditions?
It's probably that, you know. It's probably one of those traps designed to make sure that someone from the party gets struck out even before arriving at the last battle's location.
When the person who was guiding us pulled the lever into place, a bridge appeared from the other side and connected the path.
Well, it was a distance that we could have easily jumped across, but we might as well accept the chivalrous act.
Whilst thinking that, the moment we started crossing the bridge, the guide pressed some button, instantly sending an electric current running through us.
"Hiyahahahaha! Idiots! You got caught so gullibly! These currents are 1 billion volts and 500 000 amperes. It doesn't matter how strong your body is, you'll turn into ash in an instant! I've done it, Demon King-sama! This great servant have struck down the Supreme Ruler and the Vampire Princess!!"
The guide was hyperactively laughing in joy for some reason.
But I only felt pity for him.
Indeed, this trap would have killed ordinary people, but unfortunately, we were anything but ordinary.
1 billion volts is what? Approximately the same as a live lightning strike? Well, if you asked if it was amazing, I supposed it was… but… if it was just lightning, an individual who could use high-tier arcane magic could spam it. We were in that kind of a world right now, you know?
Even in ordinary fantasy worlds, lightning strikes were often casually dropped on people, and the people who received them could often casually counterattack, you know?[5]
Not to mention this was a fantasy world where the power balance was completely out of whack.
I didn't even know how he thought we would be taken down by something of this degree.
I shrugged to show my exasperation and Benet similarly let off a sigh.
Yet the electric current was still running.
"… Looks like, this is their reply."
"Well, I predicted it'd be something like this."
"Eh!?"
When I prompted Benet for her opinion, she replied that she had guessed that something like this might happen.
Well, I did feel like we were being led around halfway through. I mean, we were way off track.
I figured that the guide was at least scheming something and the end result was what had just happened.
We ended up foolishly getting caught in some obvious trap.
"You did well until now. We don't need you anymore."
"Wa, wai!? P, please wait! It, it was just a passing impulse! I won't, I won't do it anymore! I'll guide you! I'll be submissive! I'll even lick the bottom of your feet! Mer, mercy…"
Those were the last words he spoke.
Even though there was some distance between them, Benet executed a forehead flicking motion from some distance away. Matching that motion, the head of the guide splattered into a fine mist.
Ohh, how grotesque.
"So, what now? With the way things are, we don't even know if the path until this point has been correct."
"Well, we can only continue forward until we figure it out. Even if it's wrong, we can just turn back. By the way, Mafahl, have you been mapping until this point?"
"Yeah, more or less."
When I was questioned by Benet, I took out a piece of paper from my pocket.
The path we had taken until this point had been mapped. I mean, even considering how I acted, I had the ranger class.
The floor plan drawn using the ranger skill resulted in maps which had no equal when it came to precision. The map which had been composed perfectly recorded the layout of the castle.
… But that map… had been turned into ashes.
"……"
"……"
Me, Benet and the clothes that we were wearing would not even need to care for such a measly electric current.
However, the material that I had been using to map our path was just an ordinary piece of paper.
Naturally, a piece of paper would not be able to endure a lightning current.
Err… I should probably think like this, you know. Yeah, this was the point where, rather than thinking about my carelessness, I should be praising the amazing plan that the enemy executed.
Yeah… that guide was someone with amazing resourcefulness or foresight. To think that they would be able to ruin the mapping that I had been undertaking until now.
"Anyways, shall we get going?"
"Oi, aren't you at least going to bother making an excuse?"
"Don't worry about the small details. Let's just get out of the trap first. Even though it's just single digit damage, our HP is being shaved away by a single digit's worth."
"You still have that same old irresponsible and sloppy personality…"
Aaaa, aaaa, I hear nothing.
People became mature by continuously making mistakes. There was no reason for one mistake to hold you back.
We crossed the bridge and got out of the electric current trap. We then decided to go forward for now.
In the end, we were met with nothing but a dead end.
Although we had already predicted it, it turned out the path we were taking was actually a wrong route.
"Can't be helped, let's turn back."
"Why don't we just go on a rampage inside the castle? They might come out and meet us instead."
"Let's leave that as our final resort. It shouldn't be that much of a problem to look around a bit more."
After chit-chatting for a bit, we returned back to the bridge and got back to the prior path after having the current run through us once again.
Although it was not painful, I wondered if we could do something about my hair being messed up a little from the running current.
Using my fingers as a comb, I ran them through and combed my hair all the while we were going back to the previous paths.
When we got there, there was an appearance of a female demon looking exasperated.
She had wavy brown-coloured hair and wore a plain-looking grey robe. She was also of a higher level than most other demons. Needless to say, she was not enough to be Benet's or my enemy.
"… I've been told already, but… what a monster you guys are. To come and go across the electric current trap as if it's the most natural thing in the world… that thing has the same power as live lightning, you know…?"
"And you are?"
"I am one of the Seven Luminaries, Saturnus of the [Earth]. I have no hostile intentions. To begin with, it wouldn't even be a battle. I have been ordered by the Demon King-sama to guide the two of you to him."
Ahh, I see. The Seven Luminaries, huh.
No wonder her level was slightly higher than the others.
Anyways, since she was offering to guide us, we might as well accept the offer. I decided to let her guide us without objection.
When I turned to look at Benet to see what she thought, she nodded, suggesting that she was of the same mind.
"Appreciate it. We'll be relying on you."
"… Are you not going to doubt me? It might turn out to be a trap, you know?"
"If it turns out to be a trap, at that time, it'll result in nothing more than you dying."
Benet replied in such a way, but in truth, it was not as if I was completely incautious.
Even at this very moment in time, I had one of the ranger class's skills [Trap Search Level 1] activated.[6]
When this skill was activated, at set intervals, the user's SP would be consumed. In exchange, the skill would detect traps for the user. This skill could go as high as level 5 and naturally, the higher the level of the skill, the more intricate of a trap that it would be able to detect and the worse the SP consumption became.
The skill that I had activated, [Trap Search Level 1], had the effect of detecting only "traps which would result in instant death". As a result, the user would be assaulted by other traps one after another.
In games, as long as the player did not die, everything else was as good as irrelevant. After all, if a player did not die, they could recover one way or another and all would be well.
As such, the skill was only activated up to level one to reduce the consumption of resources, whilst progressing forward without a care in the world regardless of how many traps they were to end up triggering. This was the basic strategy of high-level players for conquering dungeons.
In truth, when the players reached a high level, it would be much faster and far more efficient to purposefully trigger the traps rather than bother with disarming every single trap that they came across.
The higher the level of the individual, the higher the level of search skill they would be able to use. Yet, as the individual's level beame higher, the more they would not require the search skill. It was a horribly balanced scenario.
After walking around the castle for a while, we came to stand before a steel gate giving off an enormous amount of presence.
Correction… rather than the door, it was from the individual which was on the other side of the gate.
"Now, please enter."
Saturnus said so and then slowly opened the gate.
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(Author note)
Ruphas will be allowed through. Benetnash will also be allowed through.
Logic will not be allowed through.
(Author note end)
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[1] "". Bad translation and ignorance at its finest. Kaminari is lightning. Lightning is the actual electrostatic discharge. Thunder is just the sound… Forcibly matching the titles is fine, but man… sometimes these little things irks me. My pet peeves.
[2] Tofu (aka bean curd) is a super soft food made out of soy milk. Honestly, I never even knew that tofu was called bean curd in English until I opened the Wikipedia page… If you don't know what it is err… think of it like a slightly dried jelly.
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tofu".
[3] One Piece? Fairy Tail? There's so many series that I don't know which one specifically.
[4] Trap Search Level 1 (トラップサーチLv１)
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