Chapter 86 - Volume 9 (1/2)

Guryuu-en Great Volcano

«Guryuu-en Great Volcano»

It is situated 800 kilometers towards the north of the Dukedom of Ancadi. From what could be seen, it was a huge mountain five kilometers in diameter and 3,000 meters in altitude. It didn’t have cone-like appearance similar to those of normal active volcanos. It has dome-like, flat top made of lava, and it would be more appropriate to call it a gigantic hill than a mountain. However, the altitude and scale were just abnormal.

The «Guryuu-en Great Volcano» was commonly known as one of the Seven Great Dungeons. However, unlike «Orcus Great Dungeon», it wasn’t much visited by adventurers. It was because of the danger inside and how troublesome it was. In addition, unlike the «Orcus Great Dungeon», demonic beasts from whom the magic stones were gathered from were scarce… those were the basic reasons, but the foremost was actually because only few people were capable of reaching the entrance.

The reason was,

“… It looks just like Laputa.”

“… Laputa?”

Hajime unconsciously muttered while recalling the scene of that masterpiece anime, which made Yue and the other girls look at him with questioning glances. Hajime only shrugged his shoulders and watched the gigantic swirling sandstorm from inside the four-wheeler.

That’s right, just like how the floating castle was wrapped by cumulonimbus cloud, the «Guryuu-en Great Volcano» was wrapped by gigantic, swirling sandstorm. The storm’s scale was so huge that it completely hid the «Guryuu-en Great Volcano», and the tornados of the sandstorm were just like a flowing wall.

Moreover, a large amount of demonic beasts such as Sandworms were lurking inside the sandstorm, and they would mercilessly make surprise attacks within the place that had limited range of view. Thus, Hajime could only nod at the tale where people with average ability wouldn’t be able to pass through the sandstorm, and into «Guryuu-en Great Volcano».

“I am glad we aren’t walking here.”

“Indeed, even I doth not wanteth to enter it with mine own body.”

Looking at the giant sandstorm from the window just like Hajime, Shia and Tio were grateful to the four-wheeler. Smiling wryly, Hajime said, “Then, let’s go.” and the four-wheeler dashed out. For this case, they didn’t come to conquer it leisurely. There wasn’t that much Serene Stone on the surface, so it was necessary to go into the untouched depth of the dungeon to obtain the amount needed. And if they go into the deepest part, there should be a shortcut similar to what they have experienced until now. As such, they would be able to immediately return to Ancadi.

Hajime, himself, wasn’t interested in the safety of Ancadi’s people, but he didn’t mind helping them. By doing so, he would at least not to feel guilty towards his companion, Kaori, nor would he let Myuu see a spectacle that would bring great shock to her.

While thinking this, Hajime regained his spirit and charged into the gigantic sandstorm.

Inside the sandstorm was a world painted in brown. Just like in the fog of«Halteena Sea of Trees», it was hard to see ahead. It was also capable of influencing one’s physical condition, so it might be more troublesome than that fog. Thus, even using magic, breaking through this place filled with hidden demonic beasts was indeed virtually impossible.

Light coming from the headlight made out of Green Light stone cut through the dim place where the sunlight could not reach. Their speed was 30 kmph. If the information they got before was accurate, they would break through the sandstorm within five minutes.

And at that time, Shia’s rabbit ears stood straight and Hajime also reacted, one beat after her. “Brace yourself!,” Hajime raised his voice, and grandly turned the steering wheel.

Three sandworms with their big mouths opened and jumped out from below. Evading the ambush, the four-wheeler created S-letter on the ground, and Hajime kept running away without a care. With four-wheeler’s speed, it would be better to quickly get out of the sandstorm than fighting each time something appeared.

Two more sandworms came to attack from both sides of four-wheeler while it was dashing out and ignored the previous three sandworms. Their timing was so good that the four-wheeler’s body would receive body blows. However, it would hit without damaging the four-wheeler at all, and the four-wheeler would only be turned sideways. That’s why, once Hajime grasped the surprise attacks using “Sign Perception,” he immediately tried to drift to evade. However, Yue and Tio stopped him.

“…Nn, leave it to me.”

” Just leaveth it to this one, Master.”

Hearing the two, Hajime unhesitatingly kept the steering wheel straight as it was. Then, the gigantic worms dashed out of the brown colored world.

However, the attacks coming from the sandworms from left and right side couldn’t even touch four-wheeler.

“””Wind Blade.”””

Seeing the sandworm on the left, Yue muttered and a blade of wind was instantly produced outside the four-wheeler and fired, drawing a trajectory using the sand on the air. Thus the sandworm that jumped out before them was horizontally slashed, and blood scattered from the divided sandworm.

That spectacle was similar to what happened on the right side, which Tio had taken care of.

“Hmm, as expected of thee, thee fired a good wind.”

“… There’s no way I won’t use the wind from the sandstorm. Tio, too, as expected of you.”

Similarly, they instantly chose to use wind element magic, “Wind Blade,” and though it was a beginner-ranked magic, the “Wind Blades” previously fired were as strong as mid-ranked magic. The reason was because they used the raging wind outside. Simply, the strength of magic wasn’t only affected by magic power, thus the best magic used was selected according to the condition and environment of the location. However, even though saying it was simple, it was difficult to actually do it. For Yue and Tio to be capable of doing it, it was indeed as expected of their competency.

Behind them, the three sandworms from before were still following. They had considerable speed as they advanced under the ground. Irritated by them, Hajime activated four-wheeler’s gimmick. Briiing!Such a sound came from back part of four-wheeler and one of its rear part opened. Several black, round objects rolled down from there.

The moment some met up with the sandworms pursuing the four-wheeler, they created huge explosions. The impact blew away the ground, and the sandworms advancing underground came out of the ground while scattering flesh and blood. Towards the sandworms, more black object, grenades, rolled and caused more explosions that blew away half of each of the sandworms. Their upper-bodies were blown off, fluttered mid-air, and disappeared inside the sandstorm.

“Uhya~, amazing. Hajime-san, just how many functions are installed in this four-wheeler?”

Shia asked Hajime while looking at sandworms that were flashily blown away from the back window. Hajime was wearing a mischievous smile.

“It is capable of transforming into human-shaped weapon, a gigantic golem.”

“””…”””

Although they wanted to say it was impossible, they knew Hajime could do it, thus not only Shia, Tio and Yue were also began to silently look around inside the vehicle. Smiling wryly, Hajime said, “It was a joke. As expected, I can’t make such function… I want to though.” However, Yue and the girls were convinced that Hajime would someday capable of creating that.

Afterwards, the composed Hajime’s party were also attacked by brown-colored, gigantic spider, and ant-like demonic beasts. However, all of them were crushed by four-wheeler’s armament and magic from Yue and Tio without accomplishing anything, not even halting the party’s advance.

Ignoring Shia who said, “I am useless here,” from the back seat, Hajime’s party easily broke through the gigantic sandstorm that had obstructed a lot of adventurers.

Buuahh! Hajime’s party came out of the sandstorm and arrived at a rocky mountain several times bigger than Ayers Rock. It was a silent place surrounded by the wall-like sandstorm where the blue sky could be seen up above — the eye of the storm.

The entrance into «Guryuu-en Great Volcano» was at the top, so they continued to travel up on the slope using four-wheeler. The exposed rocky surface was reddish red in color, and steams gushed from here and there. Though it was an active volcano, the point where it never erupted was a Great Dungeon-like wonder.

Before long, the angle became more difficult for four-wheeler to advance, so Hajime’s party got out of the four wheeler and went towards the top of the mountain on foot.

“Uwau… i-it’s hot.”

“Nn~…”

“Indeed. … the heat is in a different scale compared to the heat of desert’s dry weather… Even without the time limit, it would be better to quickly conquer the dungeon, huh.”

“Hmm, though this one feels comfortable here… this one can’t wait… to feel so hot that this body would writhes in agony.”

“… I will drop you into the magma later.”

Attacked by the heat as soon as they got out of the four-wheeler, other than Tio, all of them made dissatisfied expressions. Due to them being in air-conditioned place before, they felt even hotter. As adventurers in another world and travelers, for them to have withdrawal symptom similar to shut-in was… just reaping what they sowed.

They didn’t have much time, so while complaining about the heat, they quickly went towards the mountain top, climbed the rocky place quickly as if they didn’t feel any weight. As a result, Hajime’s party reached the top of the mountain in less than one hour.

They arrived at the top, a complex place buried by rocks of various sizes. There were rocks with pointed surface and also those with slippery, smooth surface. It was just like an exhibition of strange objects. Also, they could feel the top of the sandstorm nearby.

There was an exceptionally huge rock, and a group of strange-shaped rocks. It was an arch-shaped rock with the length of ten meters.

Hajime’s party went there and found huge staircase that continued on into «Guryuu-en Great Volcano» under the arch-shaped rock. Hajime stood before the staircase and looked over his shoulder towards Yue, Shia, and Tio’s faces in order. With a confident expression, he said a word to challenge the Great Dungeon.

“Let’s do it!”

“Nn!”

“Yes!”

“Umh!”

* * *

The inside of «Guryuu-en Great Volcano» was even more unexpected than «Orcus Great Dungeon» and «Raisen Great Dungeon».

Rather than the difficulty, it was the interior’s structure that was unexpected.

First, magma was flowing mid-air. Not flowing like the waterway in dem-ihuman country, Faea Belgaen, but the magma was in the mid-air and flowing like rivers. The streaming, scorching red magma in mid-air was just like huge, jumping dragons.

Thus, the magma flowing around the passage and broad space made not only the dungeon challenger be cautious about the magma on the ground, but also above them.

Moreover,

“Ukya!” “Woops, are you okay?”

“Ha~, Hajime-san, thank you. It was impossible for me to perceive that… the magma would suddenly spout from the ground.”

Exactly what Shia said, the magmas abruptly spouted from all around the walls. It was really abrupt that it was difficult to perceive any prior sign of it. It was similar to that of a booby trap. Fortunately, Hajime has “Heat Perception.” Without it, their conquering speed would’ve fallen due to the need to be cautious.

Following that, the thing that made it truly difficult was the boiling heat — extreme heat. It was naturally hot due to magma streaming all around the passage and broad space which made the party feel like being inside a sauna, or to be more accurate, above a heated frying pan. The heat was the most troublesome thing about «Guryuu-en Great Volcano».

While sweating, Hajime’s party continued to advance while evading the drops of and the spouting magma. And in a certain broad space, they found the place has artificial cut all over the place. The place was worn down by cuts that seemed to come from something like a pickaxe, but there was a small, faint pink-colored crystal peeping from one part of the wall.

“Oh? That thing. Serene Stone… right?”

“Hmm, twas indeed that, Master.”

Hajime’s questioning-like words were confirmed by Tio whose knowledge was broad. Apparently, this seemed to be the place the adventurers, who passed through the sandstorm and entered «Guryuu-en Great Volcano», mined the stone.

“… So small.”

“The ones at others’ places were also in a size of small stones…”

Just as Yue said, the remaining Serene Stone was only almost as big as little finger. Though those could be taken out and carried, but the size was indeed too small. As expected, it was too inefficient to gather the ones on the surface, so it was necessary for them to go into the depth to be able to obtain a lot of it in a dash.