238 - - the path of death

The battle ended easily.

First, Yuril fires a from outside the room, which freezes the target from the inside.

When the target's movement comes to a complete halt, Thor enters the room with his machete at the ready.

All that remains is to slash the target's entire body before the ice melts.

The Kamieda technique, which can only be used once a day and consumes a tremendous amount of magic power, is widely considered to be a technique of the deepest kind.

However, in the case of Yuril, it can be used up to twice with and he has enough magic power, so he uses it without hesitation even at the end of a battle.

He says that it is important to get used to using magic techniques.

However, sometimes his icy good looks seem to relax a little at the results he has achieved.

"Ten rigid pieces are a tasty opponent, aren't they?

There were also two shell-shaped steel dolls attached to the back of the body, so the total harvest for the main body was quite large.

Thor, who had finished the recovery, called out to the two men who were examining the bars.

"How are you doing? Can we proceed?"

Unfortunately, defeating the owner of the room does not seem to be enough to clear the way.

Ulir, who had been exploring the grating that remained firmly down, turned around and shook his head ruefully.

Sola, who has not given up yet, tries to move the iron bars with his own weight.

"No, no.... It won't budge."

"I see. Then there's got to be a way to move the bars somewhere.　

Moo, who was clinging to his back, almost fell off, so Thor hurriedly put his hand on his back.

The child smiled and continued to wriggle.

Thor, thinking it was another imitation of a beetle, grabbed the child by the scruff of the neck and carried him up to his shoulders in a single motion.

As he looked around to search the room, an innocent murmur jumped into his ears.

"You're hanging around a lot, Tor-chan.

"Yeah?"

Thor looked beyond the child's gaze and noticed a small window there.

It was only wide enough for Moe to barely pass through, and it too was tightly barred with iron bars.

It seems that the child was trying to climb up Thor to look behind the window.

The most remarkable thing was the view of the next room through the window.

The size of the room seems to be the same as this one, but there is one difference.

There were several chains hanging from the ceiling of that room.

Thor and Moe approached the window and peeked inside.

It seems to be a dead end room with only one entrance and exit.

It is not empty, however, and more than ten chains extend from the ceiling to a height close to Thor's head.

Thor exhales silently at the obvious trick.

Sora and the others, perhaps noticing their presence, come over to look out the window.

"Oh, so you have a neighbor. This is another ......."

"Wow, so many chains! Hmm, I wonder what room this is. ...... a room where they let the beetles climb and compete?"

"Sora, you're so smart!"

"Hmm, I haven't been an adventurer very long."

In fact, it's only been a little over six months.

Come on, let's see the map.

The rooms themselves are adjacent to each other, but the entrances and exits are not familiar.

I checked the map, but there seemed to be no passageway that I could follow.

I spent the next two hours or so looking around the area, but found that it was not connected to this area.

"So we need to go back to the upper floor..."

"All that's left is the northeast area on the sixth floor."

"What, maybe that's it?

Sola shouted in annoyance at the place that came to mind.

"Where is that place?　Sola-ne-chan."

"Look, the path to your hand, Moo-chan."

"Oh, there it is."

The "hand-me-down road" is the name that Moo uttered upon first impression of its appearance.

Having set a new course, Thor and his friends first made their way up to the sixth floor while defeating the steel dolls that had reappeared.

They spent the night on the spiral staircase, and the next day they went to the area where the spirits of the dead prisoners were hanging around via the central passageway on the sixth floor.

It took less than an hour to reach the desired location.

"Wow, it's full of them today!

Your hands are all over the place!

The aisle is about 30 paces deep.

Two adults can walk side by side, and both sides are lined with cold, closed bars.

What is troublesome are the inhabitants of the prison.

It seems that even in death they have not been freed from the guilt of their crimes.

They have a body that can slip through most of the restraints, but for some reason they seem to be unable to get out of the prison with the door closed.

There are about ten or so prisoners crammed into a single cell.

All of them are clinging to the bars and desperately reaching out through the gaps.

This makes this passageway a strange sight, with transparent arms sticking out in a row on both sides.

What makes it even more troublesome is that the arms extend more than twice as far.

Of course, a mere snatch would take away all of his vitality.

And even if they can withstand it for a little, the sheer number of them is too much for them to handle.

If they are touched all at once, they may not be able to in time, and they may die of exhaustion.

It was a place that I had put off to investigate because it seemed to be difficult to pass through.

"Oh, look at that, Thor!

Sola spotted an iron chain dangling aimlessly from the ceiling at the corner at the end of the hall.

At first glance, I overlooked it, but it looked exactly like the chains I had seen through the small window yesterday.

"That's so scary..."

"Yeah, it's too weird."

"I doubt it."

"I've suspected it all along, Moe!"

The question is how to get to those chains.

"At least if they get out of jail, we can get rid of them all and move on."

"It's ironic that we're actually protecting those people."

"I can't even it, and even if I the energy suck, I'm not sure I'll make it in time."

"Then I'm going to stop you, Moo!　To-chan."

"If it stops for me, it'll be a living hell. ...... No, that'll work."

Thor, with an idea, immediately touches Moo's head to tamper with the skill tree and restore his branching skills.

"Here's a start. Yeah, that's good. Okay, put it on."

"Rai!"

Next, the usual.

"Rairai!"

"All right, hit it, Moe!"

"Rai rairai!"

With a shout, the child releases a purple current generated by his magic power into the space ahead of him.

Thor, who had put down his sword and become lighter, jumped into the space ahead of him.

But Thor walks silently through the narrow passageway at the same speed as usual.

The spirits of the dead reach out desperately to cling to his body, but he sinks to the floor as if sucked into it.

At first glance, Thor looks as if nothing is happening, but in fact he is kicking the ground and moving forward with great effort.

As if walking through water, his body is heavy and does not move as smoothly as he would like.

But even so, he was able to move forward thanks to the swirls of blue-white lightning that covered his legs.

--

This is a magical technique that temporarily increases leg strength and movement speed.

Thanks to the fact that he had just barely earned enough skill points to reach level 3, his duration and speed had increased by one more notch.

Though not dashing, Thor manages to run through 70% of the corridor without being touched by the prisoners.

From that point onward, he is out of range of the electric current shield.

Thor's body, accelerated at once, runs through the rest of the passage like a whirlwind.

Several of his arms are extended, but he is saved by the thorns.

Having safely reached the end of the passage, Thor reaches out his hand without looking aside.

His fingertips just barely reach the chain, and he pulls it down with his weight.

Thirteen seconds have elapsed exactly.

Without a moment's pause, he retraces his steps that have brought him to this point.

As soon as Thor appeared in front of Sora and the others, the bars began to lift all at once with a rattling, grating sound.