We continued into the pathway. Guts seem to be very happy because we have given him a name though I still don't fully trust him. Someone who has a happy-go-lucky attitude like him makes me a bit uncomfortable. He continues his job of shooting the plants and I must say, he is indeed right that the Mimic Plants are getting numerous. Every turn in the corner, we see at least one or two of them. I don't even know if we are going to head to more than 3 or 4 numbers of mimics later on.
Also, I noticed that the cold feeling of the surroundings gets colder the higher we are. I was expecting it to return to the normal cold temperature back when I am still on the surface but it just fell even much further.
"Are you getting much colder, Master?" Lina asked when she noticed that I am rubbing my arms and hugging myself.
"A little bit. The coat doesn't help much."
"Would you like to use the battle maid dress like the one I have? It might reduce the coldness you are feeling right now master."
"As much as I appreciate the kind thought and nice offer, I must decline as I am a guy and crossdressing is not something I am into."
"Well, that was disappointing but alright."
"Oh? Look at what we got here?" Guts seem to have stumbled something up ahead since he continued walking while Lina and I were still talking earlier. We rushed towards his location and he is now standing before a large portal that is bigger than all the portals we have seen so far, it consumed the whole pathway and the only way forward is inside the portal.
The portal did not summon any monsters of any kind. It remains calm and stationary even when we are right next to it. The other portals have already been shown to have been inhabiting hostile creatures but this one did not even spawn any monsters at all, which is pretty much confusion regarding that all we know is that they can release thousands of small mob monsters or they can summon one or two monsters in boss to mini-boss levels.
"I didn't know portals can go like this. Anyways, since you are the one who wants to escape this place, it is your call whether we jump into the portal or not. I am just tagging along but if you do jump in, I would be really happy."
My cautious side is activating and I am hesitant to move forward. However, one thing that is very clear to me is that this is the only way to move. There are no detours as I am constantly mapping the place we passed by and there are no such things as a detour to another path. And right now, the only way is forward and nothing else.
As much as I hate the atmosphere near the portals, there is no other choice I can make in this matter which is terrible. I pulled out the Versatile Weapon and took a deep breath before I made a step forward.
"Let's go. There is no point to think around anyways."
"Sweet! Let's go!" Guts is very excited that he is the first one to jump inside the portal without us saying he can jump already.
"Should we follow him, Master? It seems he just willingly decided to see whether the portal is safe to enter or not."
"As much as that is a good way to test this portal, that would just make us traitors and untrustworthy. Better go inside and see what this portal offers."
I entered the portal followed by Lina and just like how the normal portals that are created by players and NPCs, this portal just works similarly. It was just like how you enter a door to enter a room, nothing seems pretty much different other than the dark energy that seems to be overflowing inside the portal.
At first, I was hoping it would teleport us directly to the surface, it was clearly wishful thinking on my side. There is no way the portal would just magically teleport us to where I wanted it to teleport us. This isn't NPC or a player-made portal, this is a natural existing portal.
What was waiting for us is a place that looks like a desert yet it doesn't look like the sand here was actually real sand. Its looks like bright orange that looked similar to what the images that have been shown to the public what the surface of Mars looks like. And the coldness that has been in the Underground Freezing Hell disappeared entirely from this dimension. It's hotter here and it was like the temperature here is similar to the desert where the rain did not fall down for how many months or years even.
Not only that but what really caught my eyes and interest are the rusty weapons all around us. The field is not entirely filled with them, there is a pathway that allows us to traverse in between the weapons struck into the thing that looks like sand. Though it wasn't a different variety of weapons, they are just different forms of swords and spears.
Not too far from us is Guts, who is currently engaging with a hostile creature before him. Right now, he seems to be using one of the spears that are stuck on the ground and randomly pulling it out to fight back against the enemy.
"Come on! Give it all you've got! I am not satisfied by the way you all fight!"
Guts is already instigating a fight and is currently taunting the enemy. I am confident that he will be fine due to his combat capabilities but I don't want him to keep fighting the natives of this land if we can help it unless they are hostile then that changes things.
When we arrived next to Guts, the enemies that he was fighting against were not monsters or humans. The enemies he was fighting against are none other than the weapons that were stuck on the ground. It wasn't stuck on the ground anymore, they are already floating and Guts has already taunted them that all of their rusty blades have been pointed at him.
"Phantom Weapons?!" Lina immediately pulls out her Morning Star and went to combat stance.
I have no idea what are the Phantom Weapons as I have never encountered enemies like this in the past timeline nor I have heard of them in forums or in discussions but seeing that they are inanimate objects capable of attacking without a human or monster wielding them is already worrisome.
The number of weapons that started floating in the air increased when Lina and I also went to combat stance. It was like they noticed our aggression and they are ready to fight back.
It didn't take for the floating spears and swords to rain down on us. I quickly deflected every sword and spear. They are pretty crude so with every hit from the versatile weapon, they turn to specks of dust. It made our battle much easier against the weapons as they don't resurrect after they turned to dust. It was like these weapons are only clinging to the very last point of the durability they have as a means to remain completely intact in this world and our strike just fully ended the last inch of durabilities they have.
"HAHAHA! YES! YES! COME AND HIT ME WITH ALL YOU GOT! THIS IS GETTING REAL FUN!"
Guts is enjoying every second. Once his weapon that he randomly picked up on the ground dissipates to specks of dust after it lost all of its durability, he will pick up another and attack again using it. Not only that but even without a weapon, he is destroying them easily by just punching them. I am amazed that he is still not bleeding despite the direct punches he does to the weapons. Perhaps the weapons were too rusty that they didn't have enough strength to even give a wound to the flesh of Guts.
Nove l B(in).C OM
The assault continued and Lina and I are doing well. Since the attacks are all coming in different directions, we have to constantly move fight, move again and repeat. However, it was clear that this was a poor way to dispose of all of them. Since the weapons that have been staying here decided to fight against us. It is safe to assume that all the weapons here have the possibility to move all by themselves. So perhaps, this trick will work.
With some of my skills missing and unlearned at the moment, my only choice to unleash a big bombardment of damage is none other than my scrolls. I pulled one and tear it into two before I pulled another scroll and tear it into two once more.
While I am doing that, black clouds started to appear above the weapons before bolts of lightning exploded into the idle weapons. Multiple explosions occurred and considering that I am not even using flames for explosion, is already a surefire thing that the swords and spears are already obliterated and has been completely turned to dust.