Welcome to the Impregnable Demon King Castle - Chapter 204-2

204 – The Pitch Black 4th Stratum (Part 2)

It approached us and with great momentum and…it struck the black Spriggan.

A loud, dull sound echoed.

The black Spriggan was blown away and the yellow Spriggan started running to kick the red Spriggan that was trying to stand up.

「…Ha, haha…! Lem, you never cease to amaze…! What a guy!」

The only one who is excited is Merlin and the rest of them are still trying to grasp the situation.

「I cast Confusion on the yellow Spriggan. Now it recognizes the other Spriggans as enemies, instead of us. If we want to defeat the other Spriggans, we should start with the black or red Spriggan.」

「Lem, what’s your favorite element among the Four Major Elements…?」

「…? …I guess it’s Fire.」

When I immediately answered like that, she laughed.

「I knew you’d say that. It gets me fired up to be compared with Fenix.」

The jewel in Merlin’s wand gave off a dazzling light.

「It’s my thanks for showing me something interesting.」

After being hit by the yellow Spriggan, the black Spriggan was about to stand up to adjust his stance.

Just as I was wondering why she released sparks to surround the black Spriggan, in the next moment…the giant was engulfed by a pillar of fire.

What was surprising was the firepower.

Because it only needed a moment.

When the pillar of fire disappeared, there was nothing left.

In a blink of an eye, that huge body was completely burnt.

This is the Wizard of Foresight.

The Great Wizard that can handle magic equivalent to Spirit Magic, even though she does not have a blessing from a Spirit.

She has an enormous amount of Magical Energy and the technique needed to control that Magical Energy to activate such large-scale magic.

「That’s amazing…but…」

Sitri murmured.

「Phew, now then, good luck everyone. Since I’ll be useless for a while.」

That’s right, this kind of magic will consume an enormous amount of Magical Energy from the caster. 

So there will be a huge time gap until it can be cast again.

Well, that’s just a trivial problem. Since the effect was really great.

The surprises are just beginning.

It was done almost simultaneously, but I’ll explain it in order.

Furcus was fighting against the blue Spriggan.

Maggie summoned Furcus’s armor, then Furcus went into the armor in the middle of the air just like that. 

She adjusted the size of her spear to fit the armor and taking advantage of gravity, she held her spear downward and fell towards the blue Spriggan.

The enemy tried to knock her down but failed.

In the end, he got pierced in the arm, but the spear didn’t stop there.

He got pierced in the head, then dissipated.

Next is Arthur.

This side was even more simple.

Arthur’s Holy Sword of Light has the blessing of a slashing ability using light and heat.

Furthermore, the length of the sword can be temporarily extended due to the blessing.

In other words, it can be made into an unbelievably long sword.

While it is powerful, it needs to be handled with care, but it is not so difficult to just swing it from top to bottom as it falls from the sky to earth.

The white Spriggan was split right in half.

After the confused yellow Spriggan burned the red Spriggan with a thunderbolt level of lightning element, he spaced out after losing his enemy, then we all used that opportunity to defeat him.

After returning to the ground, the Rabbit Demi-Human and Milla also played a very active role.

By the way, during this time, Sitri returned to her Dream Demon form. She also put on her clothes.

After the battle, they all talked about the Black Magic I used.

When I explained it, they were very surprised.

I felt like Josh’s respect for me has intensified. 

What I did was included in the category of Black Magic, but the manipulation of Magical Energy and the effect of Confusion were out of the ordinary, so it was no wonder that they reacted that way.

Aerial once told me that I was the Black Sorcerer version of Panacea.

Panacea is a former member of the 1st-ranked party and is by far the best White Sorcerer.

Panacea’s White Magic cannot be measured by common sense.

There is such a precedent of “non-standard” and a lot of people knew about Aerial’s remark, because it was recorded on TV, so they accepted that explanation for the time being.

It might also be related to the fact that we fought together in the 3rd Stratum.

This will inevitably lead to some people wondering about what actually happened when I was still a member of the Fenix Party… But as expected, no one is going to ask about it in the middle of a Clear. 

Leaving that aside, we resumed the exploration.

Speaking of Spriggans, they were the guardians of a treasure.

They weren’t in front of us from the start, rather they approached us after noticing the shadow birds and animals.

In other words, they were originally guarding a place somewhere. Then they noticed the intrusion, so they set out to eradicate it.

So, under the leadership of Ex, we explored the area.

There was both good news and bad news here.

First, the good news. We found the treasures that were guarded by each of the five Spriggan.

Three of them had gold coins in them and the other two had Magical Tools. There was a dagger with a description of “Wounds inflicted with this dagger will never heal” and a wand that had the magic of “Fires arrows, wind blades, earth walls, and water balls” incorporated in it.

With this, we have discovered a total of three Magic Tools. I didn’t think we’d be able to find this many.

It is said that there are still many undiscovered and missing Magical Tools in the world and that some of them might be in the hands of the Spirits.

Next, the bad news.

Some people had been sent off the field.

The enemy was…a Slime.

This was a very troublesome enemy.

A Slime has a spherical core with a mucus-like body surrounding it.

Physical attacks have little effect on it, and unless the core is destroyed, it cannot be defeated.

Moreover, depending on the species, they are often covered with mucus that is harmful to humans.

For example, it can digest any living creature they swallow.

We were attacked by a Slime that mimicked the pitch-black ground and a number of people ended up being swallowed.

Its Magical Energy signature was unreadable due to the dense Magical Energy in the space, the birds and animals have avoided it so it managed to pass through Ex’s detection, and Arthur and Furcus were not able to detect it in time due to its weak presence.

By the time we were about to challenge the Floor Boss, a third of the exploration team, including the non-combatants, were sent off the field.

The Floor Boss was…a Demon.

The “Demon of ___”used in the Monsters’ inscription is only a metaphor, but this one is an imitation of the real thing.

It has a humanoid form. However, it has a beast-like head, horns, bat-like wings, and even a tail. Its ears are pointed and its claws are sharp. Its entire body is black and radiates an ominous presence.

We succeeded in defeating the huge Demon, but it was a fierce battle.

It was a battle that forced us to expose most of our trump cards. It was an illogical move made as if to figure out the diverse types of magic and sturdy bodies that our group have.

Six people were sent off the field here.

「…It was as if we were being tested.」

It seemed like Ex also felt that way.

Anyway, we also broke through the 4th Stratum.

We opened the door that led to the 5th Stratum and made a Safe Room after walking a little further.

More like, we tried to do that.

There was a text engraved on the wall. 

『Next is the Trial Room. Those who wish to undergo the Trial of the Spirits must come in with their real body. You are not allowed to enter with an Avatar.』

Everyone was unable to take their eyes off that text.

There really is a Trial of the Spirits. 

We don’t know what kind of difficult questions will come up, but if someone gets through this Trial, they will receive a reward from the Spirits.

But I didn’t know that we had to participate in the Trial with our real bodies. 

Well, it’s true that the other side would certainly think that it’s not fair if we could challenge a wish-granting Trial without any danger.

For the human side, even if the worst case possible happens they can still escape using the Withdrawal feature.

However, if we use our real bodies, that can’t happen.

I understand that, but…

In other words, that’s why it’s so dangerous.

「For the time being, let’s make a Safe Room. Then we’ll go back and discuss this.」

I somehow managed to nod to Ex’s words.

The plan to challenge the next Stratum in the afternoon will also have to be revised.

Everyone started to move.

But I’m sure we were all thinking about the same thing.

Our wish will be granted if we pass the Trial.

Should we challenge it? If we do, what kind of wish would be granted?

I also thought about it.

Then, someone held my hand.

It was Milla.

She was looking at me with an anxious expression.

I gently grasped her hand and smiled.

「It’s okay. I need to live on because I still have my dream of becoming a hero.」

I can’t choose to risk my life, even if I might be able to get something useful to help me in my path. At least, I can’t make that choice right away.

Because I know that there are people who care about me.

However, I ended up challenging the Trial of the Spirits the next day.