Chapter 343

“…Last time when we went to hunt down the Witch of Lust, it was said we had to search underwater, and I thought I would never have such a peculiar experience again. But now we have to search underground? Haah, this is something else. I guess since it involves a witch, we really get to have all sorts of experiences.”

“Seriously. Hahaha…”

As I mentioned we had to dig through a huge hole leading underground, Sylvia murmured with a perplexed expression.

Her words resonated with me so much that a wry smile escaped my lips.

Are witches truly unable to hide things without sticking them in such bizarre places?

It may very well be an optimal hiding spot for them, but it’s a real hassle for us to find.

While I was grumbling about the troublesome nature of witches, Sylvia, who was observing the massive hole, tilted her head slightly and spoke as if sensing something unusual.

“By the way, that hole feels a bit unnatural. It stands out oddly against the surrounding mountainous terrain, and the edges are surprisingly smooth, making it seem like it was man-made.”

I nodded in agreement with her accurate observation and replied.

“You’ve got a good eye. That hole was made during the fight with the Witch of Sloth just now.”

“…What?”

Upon hearing my words, Sylvia seemed confused and asked blankly.

Next to her, Yoon Si-woo pointed to a large mountain nearby.

“Exactly that. There used to be a mountain roughly the same size as that hole, but it was entirely erased by that witch’s powers during the fight. Since Scarlet continued the battle after I fell, the hole must have formed then.”

Sylvia stared blankly between the mountain and the hole in the ground.

On the one hand, there was a magnificent mountain soaring high into the sky, and on the other, there was this deep and enormous hole that seemed like it wouldn’t even fit the giant mountain inside if flipped over.

Staring at the giant hole that was a remnant of the fight moments ago, Sylvia asked us, her voice sounding dazed,

“…What on earth happened here?”

At her question, the terrifying memory of the recent brutal battle surfaced in my and Yoon Si-woo’s minds, and we both shuddered slightly.

“…There was an absurd fight. Ugh, just remembering it gives me chills.”

“…I agree, not to the extent that I’m frightened, but I definitely prefer not to think about it if possible.”

Noticing that Sylvia realized how strenuous the battle had been for just the two of us, she looked at us with an expression of guilt.

However, I didn’t want to make her feel bad over something unnecessary, so I attempted to change the subject as I glanced toward the exploration team she had brought.

“By the way, Sylvia, I think I see some familiar faces among the exploration team.”

I genuinely asked this out of curiosity.

After all, the exploration team Sylvia had brought was filled with veteran-looking members, yet one stand-out, notably short girl with orange hair was standing among them.

“…That girl, if I’m not mistaken, is Jessie, right?”

Even though she was missing one eye, if my memory served me correctly, the small girl over there was indeed Jessie, a classmate from the academy.

Why on earth is she here of all places?

In my moment of confusion, Jessie, realizing I was looking at her, came bounding over on her short legs and shouted.

“Miss Scarlet!”

“…Jessie, what are you doing here?”

“Hehe, of course, I’m here as part of the exploration team to find the sacred relic!”

Well, that makes sense, but…

Baffled, I turned to Sylvia, who shrugged her shoulders as if to say that was how it turned out.

“The thing is, there was an interview for selecting exploration team members, and Jessie applied for it.”

That’s how Sylvia began to explain.

Initially, they were considering disqualifying her due to her age, but since Dwight, Marin, and Florene had performed brilliantly as part of the hunting team, they couldn’t just dismiss her without consideration.@@novelbin@@

So they decided to hold an official interview, and to everyone’s surprise, she was quite competitive, leading them to take her along.

“Recently, all the magicians have been busy preparing magic to counter the Witch of Gluttony, so having someone with telekinetic abilities like Jessie is a rare talent. Plus, she insisted quite fervently to be included, you see.”

Looking at her, Jessie shyly added, “I… I wanted to repay for all the trouble I caused Miss Scarlet. I’m not good with fighting, so I thought helping in this way would be better.”

I figured she was referring to when she attacked me just before my escape from the city.

Given the circumstances at that time, it slipped my mind that in the end, she believed in me and had helped; yet, it seemed she still felt guilty about that moment.

Her desire to help in order to repay her perceived debt made me feel both sorry and touched. I affectionately rubbed her fluffy hair and said,

“…Honestly, you don’t have to worry about that anymore. But I do appreciate your coming to help.”

“Aah! If you keep messing with my hair, it’ll become a mess!”

Having spoiled my friend who came all the way to help, I felt a surge of energy.

Filled with motivation, I turned to all the exploration team members gathered around us and cheerfully exclaimed,

“Alright, everyone! Let’s go find the sacred relic!”

With that, we all entered the enormous hole to search for the relic located underground.

And thirty minutes later…

“…How on earth are we supposed to find it?”

My earlier enthusiasm was crushed merely thirty minutes after entering the hole.

There were several reasons for this, but the first was…

“It’s dark…!”

Naturally, since we were underground, it was dreadfully dark due to the lack of light.

Without the light generated by myself, Sylvia, and the tools we brought, we would barely even see an inch ahead; it was pure darkness.

However, once we illuminated the area, what unfolded before us was a different world altogether.

Despite some areas being collapsed with piles of rocks and dirt, unique architectural ruins filled the space.

As Sylvia said, we guessed it was probably what used to be a dwarven underground kingdom, and we felt giddy at first.

Well, for about ten minutes or so.

That was until we realized…

“It’s so complicated…!”

The structure underground was astonishingly intricate.

The buildings connected by narrow passages that you couldn’t even fully discern from above resembled an ant’s nest, truly a maze.

It made me wonder if it was designed to mislead anyone brave enough to enter, as it was set perfectly for getting lost.

And then there was the biggest problem:

“Plus, it’s just too vast…!”

The sheer scale was overwhelming.

With paths intermittently blocked by rocks and dirt piles, we would have to clear a path every single time, and if we carelessly rummaged around, it would undoubtedly take days on end without an end in sight.

Beatrice that damned witch, leaving us down here without a word on anything like this!

In my exasperation, complaints slipped out of my mouth.

“This is quite troublesome.”

“To dig through this and find the sacred relic? It’s like finding a needle in a haystack.”

At that moment, not only I but also the rest of the exploration team was appearing equally perplexed.

While Jessie was using her telekinesis to clear away some rocks and examine the surroundings, she raised her hand as if she had noticed something.

“Um… with the way this structure is, I might have an idea.”

“…Huh? You have a sense of the layout? How?”

Everyone asked in surprise, and Jessie timidly replied.

“Well, there was a story my grandfather told me about this place a long time ago. Dwarves, being quirky as they are, designed their kingdom in such a way that if you can’t decipher their secret code, you can’t find your way. I got really into decoding that a while back, so….”

“Wait? How did you, Jessie, learn a code meant only for dwarves? Oh, wasn’t it said that one of your ancestors was a dwarf?”

I felt like I had heard that somewhere before.

Upon my inquiry, Jessie nodded and responded.

“Yeah. I know a bit about dwarven culture because of that. Anyway, I deciphered some codes drawn on that wall, and if I press this brick… ugh, like this…”

As she said that, Jessie pressed down on a particular brick on the building’s wall. With a loud rumbling, it seemed the wall rotated, revealing a passageway.

“Wha…! What is this? Is it a secret passage?”

“Yes. If we go through this way, we should be able to reach the center where the main facilities are.”

We entered hesitantly through the passage she mentioned.

Before long, we emerged into a space with a floor black as obsidian, in which evidently distinctive-looking buildings appeared one after the other.

It felt like we’d hit the jackpot.

As we marveled, Jessie used her powers to clear the dust off the buildings and said,

“This looks like the conference room over there, and that one appears to be the bank. It’s definitely the section where the main facilities are gathered. If there were a sacred relic, it would most certainly be stored in one of these buildings nearby since it was likely something important to the dwarves.”

It felt accurate indeed.

If it hadn’t been for Jessie, I would have had to rummage through every single building outside.

What perfect timing it was for Jessie to come along; I genuinely sighed in relief and thanked her.

“…If it weren’t for you, we would have been in real trouble. Thanks for coming, Jessie.”

“Hehe, don’t mention it… Anyway, let’s all search around here together.”

“Right. Thanks to you, the range to search has narrowed significantly, so we should find it quickly.”

With Jessie’s help in place, we began our search, only to find ourselves regrettably empty-handed after some time.

“…Where on earth could that relic be?”

“Right? It feels like we’ve searched every plausible building.”

As the relic remained elusive, I started to grumble, leading Jessie to tilt her head, seemingly bewildered.

Having searched every building around but still finding nothing indicated this place might not be it, so where was that relic?

“The dwarven relic… Wasn’t it called the Everlasting Furnace? I thought it would be in a smithy, yet I can’t see a single one around.”

“Exactly. A race that’s obsessed with forging and crafting wouldn’t leave such a thing out of sight. I’m pretty sure I’ve heard there’s a colossal smithy in this kingdom…”

As we both complained while searching, we stepped out of a building for a quick break and sank to the ground.

It was then that Jessie suddenly opened her eyes wide and started glancing around.

“Miss Scarlet, did you just hear that sound?”

“Huh? What sound?”

“That sound just now, like metal being hammered… Oh, there it is again…”

As she spoke, she started looking for the source of the sound with her head darting about.

Yet, I had no idea what sound she was talking about.

It was strange—my hearing was perfectly fine, so how could she pick up something that I couldn’t?

“Did you hear some kind of sound?” I asked, puzzled.

“Huh? That can’t be; it was that loud! Oh wait, look! There it is again, down below!”

Following her gaze, I noticed her eyes had suddenly taken on a peculiar glint.

“Oh, I see. A furnace, black in color. I get it now!”

Muttering in a fever of thought, Jessie suddenly grabbed my shoulder and exclaimed.

“Miss Scarlet! It’s down below!”

“Down?”

“Yeah! Right under our feet! It’s all completely black!”

At her words, I glanced down.

Sure enough, the floor beneath us indeed had an oddly dark color.

But so what?

Seeing me with a skeptical expression, Jessie yelped in frustration.

“Remember? The prosthetic arm I made for you! It was black, right?”

“…That’s true.”

“That’s it! Heat-resistant alloys typically appear black! The floor being black means it must be made of heat-resistant material! Because this is—no, this is actually the ‘ceiling’!”

With that, she dashed toward a specific spot and jumped.

In that instant, the floor she landed on seemed to dip, and a loud clanging sound of massive gears echoed through the space.

It made all the people exploring the building burst outside.

And what we found was astonishing.

A section we had simply thought was the floor began to slowly open.

“Beneath here lies the smithy where the Everlasting Furnace is located!”

Jessie exclaimed, her expression brimming with excitement.

As if she were preparing to face the legends resting within.

“Look! That’s the dwarves’ pride—the birthplace of countless legendary weapons!”

But as her expression glowed with excitement, it swiftly froze.

“…Wha…?”

The moment we looked beyond the open floor, we were met with cold ruins.