Volume 3 Chapter 4 (1/2)
”Kuina, our bullets are limited so conserve as much as you can.”
”Okay, Rorono-chan”
After exiting the first room, Kuina spearheaded the first platoon forward.
The second room was a complicated maze but thanks to the High Elves, they never lost their way.
By attuning their senses with the wind, the High Elves could comprehend the structure of their surroundings. Of course, scouting as much as a few kilometers like Ancient Elf does was too much for them. That said, scouting several hundred meters was easily manageable.
”Kuina-sama, there's an enemy lying in ambush in the corner up ahead.”
”Gotcha”
Kuina, ball of fire in her hand, sprinted toward the said corner. As soon as she took the turn, she released the ball of fire, resulting in the slime—which was resistant to physical attacks but was weak to fire—that was supposed to be one doing the ambushing violently bursting into flames.
”Let's hurry”
Kuina said so to everyone in the first platoon. Her strength inspired trust and that in turn led to an increase in morale.
”Kuina-sama, there is a flying monster patrolling over there.”
”Can you shoot it down?”
”It is well within our range.”
”I'll leave it to you, then.”
”Yes!”
The High Elf readied the anti-materiel rifle that was hanging from her back. Unlike the one Ancient Elf wielded, her gun wasn't customized. Since the High Elves were unable to fully realize a barrel made out of wind and were also unable to negate further recoil, a customized rifle like Ancient Elf's would actually lead to a decrease in performance rather than improve it.
That said, an unmodified anti-materiel rifle was powerful enough to shoot through armored vehicles and accurate enough to shoot over long distances even without the help of magic.
And so, the High Elf carefully aimed her rifle and shot down the demon patrolling in the sky. It was more than 500 meters away but such distance was trivial to them.
”Kuina, you should eat this.”
Rorono the Elder Dwarf tossed an apple over to Kuina.
”Is this one of Elf-chan's apples?”
”Mhm. It's from the first apple tree.”
”Thanks!”
Kuina munched on the delicious apple and upon doing so, the strength from within her body welled up. She felt that her fatigue was gone and that her magic power recovery had quickened. Such were some of the effects of the apples grown by Ancient Elf. It increases one's natural healing powers alongside his magic power recovery rate; removes some abnormal conditions one is feeling; and grants varied but temporary resistances.
”Rorono-chan, eat some too”
”Yeah, thanks”
Kuina threw the half-eaten apple back to Rorono.
Upon catching it, Rorono bit on it and then placed a hand on the wall. As she did so, a scream was heard several meters ahead.
The source of the scream was the enemy monster being skewered by the spears that Rorono grew out of the mud wall.
Just like the High Elves with aligning their senses with the wind, Rorono was capable of attuning herself with the earth. In addition to knowing the locations of the enemy monsters, she could also detect the traps that were laid beforehand.
”Good job, Rorono-chan”
”Likewise, Kuina”
The two complimented one another.
The girls were primarily using magic due to fact that the enemies were so weak, guns were unnecessary. But even with that, thanks to the girls being S rank monsters having such huge amounts of magic power as well as Ancient Elf's apples, the girls were recovering magic power before they could run out of it.
Ronove, on the other hand, was traumatized with the genocide in the beginning and was sending only so few monsters between wide intervals. The result was that the girls were not tired at all and were quite pleased instead to be served experience points in sets like courses in a meal.
”Still, even though it's just a fruit, it has such amazing effects.”
”I concur. It's as effective as the potions of legends. As an [Alchemist], I'm envious.”
”If it has such effects, wouldn't it be better to have even more like it?”
”Maybe but I doubt that's likely though. It might not always be obvious but Elf is head over heels for master. So when even master treats the first tree as special—due to the memories we all shared under it—she goes way out of her way to give more care to it than she could to the other trees. She even goes so far as to sprinkle it every day with the [Water of Life] she made which was infused with stupid amounts of her magic power. Her care had changed it so much I feel it's more appropriate to call it a World Tree than an apple tree.”
”As someone who drinks Elf-chan the high-ranking elf's juice mix every day, and as someone who knows the work she puts into the apples, I agree. What do you think will happen if that tree is somehow knocked down?”
”Someone will probably be killed. When seriously angry, she is, after all, the scariest among us.”
They chatted like so as they explored the dungeon but not once did they let their guard down. They still had plenty of bullets and magic power to spare, not to mention that no one in their platoon was in any way wounded.
And just like that, in a speed not even Procell could have predicted, they arrived in the very last room of the dungeon.
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The last room of [Viscosity]'s dungeon was identical to the first one: an underground lake in the center of an expansive cave.