Chapter 198 – Fiery Heat Fortress

Between dealing with matters involving the Thieves Guild and Sheila’s past, preparing the shop, the opening celebration banquet with everyone staying over, the card tournament, and various other events… I couldn’t spend all my time on town activities.

Especially when it came to the Labyrinth’s Last Guardian and matters involving Demons, we needed to further strengthen our combat capabilities. For example, through training and Labyrinth Exploration—or deciphering the code in Mother’s notes.

“Absorbing magical power from the environment… Hmm.”

“Is that Lady Lisa’s notes?”

Grace, who had brought me tea, asked about the murmur I’d let slip while researching with Mother’s notes at the desk in the master bedroom.

“Yes. It also contained information about Mother’s constitution.”

Regarding Mother’s constitution—it seemed her magical aptitude was closer to the original essence of magical power itself rather than that of a healing sorcerer.

If healing sorcerers suffer from their life force dissolving into magical power and weakening, Mother’s case suggested her magical power might be dissipating into the natural environment.

If that were true, she should have experienced weakening due to magical power depletion, but Mother’s symptoms weren’t that severe. The reason she didn’t deteriorate further seemed to be that her unique magical aptitude actually allowed her to manipulate magical power to absorb it from the natural environment.

However, after absorbing environmental magical power into her body, she needed to neutralize the excess. Monsters handle this role with the magic stones inside their bodies. Since she lacked that, the notes hypothesized this might have been why she frequently fell ill.

“Is that so… Lady Lisa…”

At my explanation, Grace touched her ring and showed a slightly lonely expression.

“I keep thinking if only I could have used Circulating Ki back then.”

“Please don’t blame yourself. I… no, everyone else has also received so much from Theo and been supported by him.”

“Hmm…”

I’m being supported too. I nodded at Grace and returned her smile.

Mother… seemed to have suppressed her own constitution with a Cursed Tool that sealed her characteristics… but it didn’t change the fundamental nature of her magical power, and while the dissipation slowed, it never completely stopped. Grace is the same. The backlash of her bloodsucking impulse doesn’t disappear either, requiring her to balance it out somewhere. The ring is by no means a perfect solution.

In Grace’s case, being with me can solve the problem, but Mother needed to occasionally remove the ring and perform the essential task of absorbing magical power—in other words, she needed to come up for air. That’s why she could never completely escape poor health.

Based on the hypothesis—methods for improving her own constitution were also recorded.

This was still a work in progress, with the theory left unfinished… Essentially, it was about whether she could create a spell formula to freely absorb and handle magical power from the surroundings by neutralizing it through the spell formula. In other words, she was probably thinking about reinforcing her own constitution with a spell formula. Rosetta’s theory that Circulating Ki could compensate for it was also correct, but unfortunately, it had been lost in our current generation.

“…Let’s stop here for today.”

“Yes. Tomorrow is the Blazing Fortress, correct?”

“Right. Let’s rest well and prepare for tomorrow.”

After continuing the decryption for a while—I emptied my teacup and stretched deeply.

Then I thought:

…Couldn’t I aim to complete this spell formula with my own hands?

It would be like inheriting Mother’s research. Completing unfinished work. It should definitely be something worth learning for me too.

The next day—. When we transferred with Claudia’s assistance from the Labyrinth entrance’s stone monument, we found ourselves in a scorching world.

The entire ceiling of the massive cavern was covered with red-hot crystal-like ore protruding downward. Not just the ceiling either. It jutted out from various places in the stone pavement, scattering intense heat around.

“So this is the Blazing Fortress—”

Ashley looked up at the massive structure towering in the distance and murmured.

Yes. It was a castle. A fortress with high stone walls glowing red and numerous spires. A location situated quite deep within the Labyrinth. The enemies are strong, the terrain is highly dangerous, making it a considerably high-difficulty area. While taking as much safety margin as possible, we aimed to gain combat experience here and further strengthen our fighting capabilities. Considering the example of the Great Corruption Lake, this area might become the main battlefield during a Demon battle. Gaining experience to handle that wouldn’t be wasted.

“Are you okay, Lavigne? What about everyone?”

Defense against the blazing heat through fire rat pelts. Blocking the heat and cooling with Wind Magic and Water Magic. We’d taken all conceivable countermeasures, but how effective were they?

“Lavigne… seems to be fine.”

“I’m okay too.”

“Same here.”

Everyone nodded. When my eyes met Marlene’s, she nodded with a serious expression.

“Good… Well then, I guess we start by breaking through that castle gate.”

The long stone-paved slope continued endlessly. Beyond it, we could see the massive castle gate—but annoyingly, we couldn’t infiltrate the fortress interior without first conquering those castle walls.

“Can’t we fly over those walls from above?”

Sheila asked.

Yeah. Someone in BFO thought of that too. As for how that turned out… well, it was pretty disastrous.

“The crystals on the ceiling emit considerable heat, and there’s a barrier covering the entire upper airspace. We can manage to some extent, but it’s better not to gain too much altitude. If we get pinned down, we’ll be sniped with bows. Even if we enter the castle interior, the spires don’t have anything resembling windows, so we’d eventually need to proceed through the inside anyway.”

“I see…”

Just having Aerial Combat Gear is quite useful even if we can’t take the high-altitude approach. Not having to worry about falling from heights is particularly convenient.

That said, regarding the castle gate, we have no choice but to charge straight at it.

“There’s a stone monument past the castle gate. Today is just reconnaissance, but let’s at least reach that point.”

“Understood.”

“Coming.”

The road leading to the castle gate is a single path. The visibility is good, with abysses on both sides of the slope. No detours either. Having spotted us, the Living Armors formed ranks and attacked. There were guard posts at various points along the slope, and they were attacking from there.

The castle gate of the Blazing Fortress. The Living Armors’ military-like movements made it tough, and when I first came here, I had to form a Raid Party to break through—.

“Advance.”

I had the Golems form ranks and spear formations to advance forward. However, simply thrusting spears at hollow Living Armors would be meaningless. That’s why the Golems’ ranks were equipped with sasumata—tools for restraining. And the Golems’ material was earth, making the enemy’s weapons ineffective against them too.

Therefore, the tactic was to advance regardless while engaging. Restraining the Living Armors with sasumata, or having the earth bodies absorb their armor to immobilize them. And then—.

“There we go.”

An axe thrown by Grace, who had jumped, flew at tremendous speed. The super-heavyweight axe penetrated the Living Armor’s torso like paper.

Irmhild’s bow and arrows were also effective. Seraphina, perched on Irmhild’s shoulder, amplified and fired Light Arrows imbued with Cursed Melody. This seemed to have quite a fatal effect on Living Armors, as those hit would jerk violently and cease functioning.

When Sheila, who had circled around, kicked off a Living Armor’s helmet from the air, the headless Living Armor panicked, dropped its weapon, and reached for its head. That’s when the Golems restrained it. The adhesive nets also seemed to be functioning very effectively.

Against the archers from high positions, Ashley and Lavigne created Ice Walls, and Marlene deployed Saucers to completely handle the situation. We climbed the slope as if expanding our territory.

“Rocks!”

Sheila’s warning.

The Living Armors were rolling blazing rock spheres down from above the slope. They must have changed tactics upon seeing the vanguard at a disadvantage. Normally, the standard approach would be to retreat to the Living Armor guard posts we had suppressed—.

“No need to avoid them. Continue advancing forward.”

I leaped over the Golems, charged Ouroboros with magical power, and swung it around. I smashed the Living Armors we were engaged with down into the abyss beside the slope, moving ahead of the front line.

Ouroboros’s roar of delight. The swelling surge of circulating magical power. Along with scattering sparks, I thrust the Dragon Staff into the rolling boulder. Transmitting impact from a single point to crush the rock while simultaneously using Levitation and Fire Magic together. I rebounded the blast back toward the reinforcing Living Armors trying to attack along with the rocks. The Living Armor ranks hit by the scatter shot were thrown into disarray.

“Charge in!”

At my command, Grace and the others kicked off their Shields and moved forward. Marlene also ran up at high speed alongside Dullahan. They scattered the Living Armors, raced up the slope—and advanced to the open area before the castle gate.

“Seal it!”

“Yes!”

Once all our comrades had rushed in, Ashley and Lavigne created Ice Walls on the path connecting the slope to the plaza. This was to prevent Living Armor reinforcements from coming from the various guard posts in the rear. These guys here would calmly attempt first-time-killer tactics like leaving surplus combat forces to pincer attack us in the plaza.

It’s a challenging area indeed. Ashley constructed a Defense Field from her Magic Tool, forming a defensive formation.

From the guard post beside the plaza emerged a group of Living Armor upper species, Heavy Armors. The front gate opened, and from beyond it appeared a Giant wielding a spiked iron ball and a Flame Demon clad in armor.

They’re the ones called Sub-Guardian level—monsters stationed in specific locations. Was the Blazing Fortress also created with the purpose of being conquered? By defeating these guys, we can open the castle gate.

“I’ll handle the burning one.”

“Then I’ll take the Giant.”

I stepped forward alongside Grace. Quite an enthusiastic welcome.

“Signal if anything happens.”

“Hmm.”

Claudia is always ready to respond for retreat, so our escape route is secured… but if we can’t break through here, it’s pointless. Well then, let the battle begin.