Volume 3 - CH 5.3

Translator: DarkHeartedAlchemist  Editor: Weasalopes

There are no stairs in the place that Froro and the others called The Bottom. To them, it is the lowest point of their known world which is flat and horizontal. Such a world was the only thing they ever known. On the flip side, the stairs leading up to the upper layers are not considered to be a part of The Bottom.

「Stop right there.」

It was a part of the Lower Layer, where the people from The Bottom were not Allowed to set foot.

「You shall not take another step further, or else…」

「Huh? You mean I can’t go up either?」

Radico popped up from behind Aur’s back and approached the guards who were barring the way forward with their spears.

「L-Lady Radico! But… but they are…!」

「No worries! Lady Folio asked me to bring them in!」

「We are sorry for interrupting you on your mission!」

Radico told them with a smile, and the guards immediately drew their weapons back, opening the way forward.

「Is there a class system among the inhabitants of the Lower Layer?」

「Of course there is.」

Sarnak said to Aur as they were going past the guards.

「To those living above, we are the lowest of the low, someone not worthy to even scrape off their shoes. Same goes for Radico, who is a member of one of the most influential Wall Tribes in the Middle Layer. Normally, someone with her position wouldn’t even bother with talking to us, or those guys who guarded the passage.」

But Radico was someone who didn’t care about such complicated things, therefore she had no reservations about doing something that the rest of her kind would probably not even think about. But that at least explained why the guards were acting so rudely towards them. Even if they are only the guards, those people are higher in the hierarchy than Sarnak, who was considered to be the ruler of The Bottom. After all, everyone who lives there is considered to be nothing more than a slave, the absolute worst of the worst in this World Wall.

「I never thought that I’ll be leaving The Bottom in such a way.」

Sarnak muttered dejectedly as he set his foot on the steps.

「Aury, over here!」

Radico ran lightly through the corridor they were going through, completely oblivious to the feeling swirling up in the hearts of her companions.

「… This is not right.」

「Hm? What’s wrong, Aur?」

Froro tilted her head, seeing as Aur was muttering to himself as they were making their way forward.

「The age of the stones in the floor is completely different.」

「Age… of the stones in the floor?」

She looked at the floor, trying to follow Aur’s gaze as closely as possible while also trying to make sense of the words which to her had no meaning at all.

「They all look the same to me.」

「No, I’m telling you, something’s wrong here. These stones are only hundred years old, two hundred at best.」

Even with that explanation, Froro still failed to see what this was all about. To her, this was the same dull floor she got tired of seeing at The Bottom. But Aur seemed to be confident that something was not right with it.

「What I am trying to say… is that the Lower Layer was created later than The Bottom.」

In the first place, both the floors and the ceiling should be made of the same material as the {Mother Wall}. In other words, they should not be able to break, decay, or be damaged in any way. They shouldn’t deteriorate over time, and, just like Aur said, even if there is a difference of one hundred or two hundred years, they shouldn’t look any different than the rest.

「Well, I guess so.」

However, Froro wasn’t particularly interested in it, so she gave up without trying to either deny or affirm if what Aur was saying was true.

「Everything in this world has its own magical vibrations, and although it is a very small amount, they are still emitted into the surroundings. However, this phenomenon gradually decreases in intensity when the thing emitting those vibrations gets separated from the source of the magical power. In case of life it would be death, and for stones it would be separation from the earth. However, since the stone does not consume the magical power itself, the decrease in the motion of its waves is very small. It is extremely faint, grinding to a halt in about 5,500 years. However, although the floor stones in The Bottom were all possessing almost constant magical waves, however weak they might have been, the waves in this layer have clearly diminished. That alone points to their different nature.」  

「I see.」

As much as she didn’t want to, Froro knew that when Aur started talking so much about a single thing, it was generally for the best to listen to what he had to say.

「…. Huh?」

All of a sudden, Radico stopped going forward. When everyone else caught up to her, they noticed that the entire aisle has been blocked off by a mountain of wrecked desks and beds.

「Now who could do such a thing? Out of my way!」

「Wait, Radico.」

Aur stopped the girl right before she could swing her {Iron Arm} at the wreckage.

「Using your power on something so insignificant would be a waste, but moving all of those things away one by one is not an ideal scenario either. Isn’t there some other way we could use?」

「‘Kay. This way.」

Froro heaved a sigh of relief as Radico obediently stayed her arm. As long as they avoid any reckless actions, it should be possible for them to go further into the Lower Layer without alarming the enemy. If she destroyed this rubble all at once, their chances of that would have been ruined.

「But Aur, since you are with us, can’t you just use your power to move all that rubble out of the way?」

「And waste precious magical power for something so trivial? I told you already, my magic requires much more work and precise operation than it looks.」

Aur’s answer sounded convincingly enough for Froro, however, this 「amount of magical power」 was a concept that she still couldn’t quite understand.

It is said that magic cannot be used without magical power, but Froro who has just learned magic does not feel like she was losing any of it. Then again, she doesn’t even know how much magic she has or how much of it she could use before running out of it.

「Ah!」

Once again Radico stopped dead in her tracks. But unlike the last time, the gasp she made this time was a one filled with happiness.

「Lady Folio!」

And then they saw her: a green-haired woman was standing in their way.

「Wait.」

「Kya! What’s wrong, Aury?」

When she tried to run up to her master, Aur held her by the neck.

「I’m very sorry…」

Folio said, opening her wings up lightly.

「… but could you return this girl to me?」

Aur thought that it was strange. At best, the height of the ceiling in this passage is about 3 meters, which was too narrow for any winged creatures to move around comfortably. That way, even if she could fly like normally, it wouldn’t give her any advantage.

「I’m afraid that I can’t do that …」

Aur declared, hugging Radico tightly from behind.

「Well, I guess it can’t be helped then.」

A flame appeared in Folio’s palm..

「I’ll just do it the old-fashioned way like I was told to.」

She threw the ball of fire, which quickly grew to such a size that it could easily burn both Aur and Radico.

「Tsk!」

Aur took out the Dungeon Cube with his free right arm and manipulated the invisible labyrinth Labyrinthos to create a wall-like shield. The flames that crashed over it roared and exploded, sprinkling sparks all around them.

Looks like his opponent managed to correctly understand how the Dungeon Cube operated.. Although Aur boasted to Sarnak that it can prevent both fire and poison, it was only half-true. Although it can be prevented, the high-temperature flames were one of the Dungeon Cube’s weaknesses, because while the flame itself can be stopped, the same cannot be said about the heat it is emitting. No matter how strong the wall may be, if the enormous heat cannot be stopped, Aur is just going to end up baked to a crisp. The Scorpion Bees which he used against Radico will also amount to nothing in front of such a wide and hot flame. As soon as he would release them from the bag he was holding them in, they would have been burned to ashes.

「Good job stopping it that far from you.」

Folio laughs while creating the next flame in the palm of her other hand.

「As I thought, that wall can be operated manually.」

「Lady Folio! Stop it, please!」

Radico spreads her short arms to the fullest in an attempt to protect Aur. Folio looked at it with indifferent, cold eyes.

「Well, I have to say I’m disappointed in you. I’m sorry, but I don’t need such a weak subordinate.」

And then she threw the flame sg=he created in both her hands at her in rapid succession.

「Nu, ugh…!」

Even though the wall has been deployed as far away form them as possible, the immense heat was still transmitted to them as if they suffered a direct hit.

「Radico.」

Aur crouched and whispered something into Radico’s dog ears.

「… eh?」

She looked at Aur with big, round eyes. And when she did… Aur kicked her in the back with all his strength.

「Wha…?!」

At the same time, the wall created by the invisible labyrinth is opened, and when Radico passed through it, it closed again. As a result, Radico was exposed to countless flames without any means of protecting herself.

At that very moment…

「See? I told you she was going to do that.」

「Yup, you sure did!」

Just before they came into contact with Radico, all the flames have been extinguished.

「Aury believed that you will get rid of the fire not to hurt me, and you did! Thank you, Lady Folio!」

In other words, using Radico just now was nothing but a bluff. He wanted to show her that taking his allies as hostages will not work against him.

「… you sly fox.」

Folio clenched her teeth tightly. The truth is that she was unable to put out her flames in time not to hurt her subordinate. What happened was that they crashed against an invisible wall and disappeared even before she managed to do something about them.

Beyond the shield made of the invisible labyrinth Labyrinthos, there was an invisible wall that looked like a small room that surrounded Radico. In other words, Aur had no intention of sacrificing her.

「Now you’ve done it.」

Killing him would be much easier if she could use Radico as a meat shield, but that option was out of the question now, and her opinion about Aur changed drastically.

Looks like things were going to get a lot more troublesome than she initially expected..