Chapter 223 – Ritual Site

“They’re coming!”

Along with Sheila’s words, countless twisted spear-tip-like shells shot out from the water, drilling forward at high speed while spinning like drills.

Lance Shells. Shell monsters that inhabit the Magic Light Water Vein. Regardless of whether they’re in water or on the surface, these monsters propel themselves by spraying water from their bodies and impale their targets with their shells.

Their shells are distinctive—essentially, they’re giant turban shells.

They were caught in the sticky net Sheila released and Rosemary’s magic threads. When their movements stopped, Dullahan and Ignis charged in from the side and shattered them with a flash of their greatswords.

This was combat-style training in the Magic Light Water Vein. The plan was to fight in both underwater and waterway environments to get accustomed to the terrain and combat here. The area we stepped into was a large chamber. There was a small island in the center, surrounded by water on all sides. It was terrain that obviously looked like a trap, but that’s exactly what made it good training.

Facing the Gillmen emerging one after another from the water were Ashley and Lavigne, plus the team of Irmhild and Seraphina.

Unlike the Merfolk with their fish-like lower bodies, the Gillmen were bipedal Fishfolk. This meant they could operate on land as well. Like the Merfolk, they wielded tridents as weapons, and they could also shoot water bullets, making them capable of both close and long-range combat.

“Seraphina-chan!”

“Mm-hmm!”

But we weren’t going to fight them properly. An arrow wrapped in a cursed melody passed through the Gillmen with a high-pitched sound, causing them to become confused and start attacking each other. Then came the ice storm from Ashley and Lavigne.

The Gillmen that escaped the effect of Irmhild’s arrow tried to retaliate by throwing their tridents or shooting water bullets—but they were either attacking illusions created by Marlene, or their attacks were deflected by saucers when aimed at real targets… None of their attacks reached us.

Our side’s defense was perfect. Dullahan and Sheila, having dealt with the Lance Shells, charged in. They scattered them with their charge, and Sheila sliced up any Gillmen that escaped. At this rate… the Gillmen would be wiped out soon.

Grace was facing a giant mantis shrimp about human height—a Grand Squilla. It approached Grace while swaying its brightly colored body in vivid reds and blues.

Despite its size, it had impressive speed even on land. The so-called mantis shrimp punch was still effective at this size. Back in the BFO days, there were scenes where tank roles who failed to block it would get sent flying.

The giant twin fists struck at Grace with bullet-like force. Grace met them head-on. Fist and axe collided, producing an absurdly loud impact sound.

The mantis shrimp’s upper body was thrown back, and Grace was also sent flying backward. Both immediately recovered. They clashed again. The mantis shrimp twisted its body, slamming down the edge of its tail shell like a blade.

“Haa!”

She deployed a shield from her magic tool onto the sole of her foot. She kicked to stop the tail, then stepped in. With a flash of her axe wrapped in fighting spirit, she sliced off the mantis shrimp’s bulging eyes, sending them flying through the air. The mantis shrimp thrashed about wildly.

“Ignis!”

At Rosemary’s call, Grace retreated by jumping back, and as if switching places, Ignis charged in with perfect timing. It plunged in from the direction of the sliced-off eyes—the blind spot—and slammed down its great hammer, which had the appearance of a crude metal block. The hammer crushed through the shell and smashed about half of the body before the mantis shrimp stopped moving.

That great hammer was a weapon that functioned in conjunction with the pile bunker. The concept was to pulverize into dust whatever was pierced through the armor.

As for me—I was dealing with the Thunder Kraken while jumping around on the water’s surface. True to its name, it was a giant squid that attacked with lightning strikes.

I weaved through the tentacles emerging one after another from the water. While blocking the lightning strikes bursting from the tentacles with my shield, I jumped left and right as if threading between them.

The lightning strikes seemed to require charging. I identified the opening after each strike and leaped high, timing it with Nemea’s bite.

The tentacles pulled taut, tangled, and formed knots. I froze them in place with water magic, connecting them to the wall. With it unable to dodge or escape, I raised Ouroboros and deployed a magic circle.

“Penetrate.”

Sixth-tier earth magic, Crystal Lance. A spell that launches a giant crystal spear. I fired the spear toward the Kraken’s head peeking above the water. Without any resistance—it pierced through both the tentacles that tried to block it and impaled the Thunder Kraken’s head. The Kraken struggled briefly to escape but soon went limp and lost its strength.

“Are you injured?”

After roughly eliminating the monsters, Grace asked.

“I’m fine. What about everyone else?”

“We’re fine. No injuries,” Ashley reported after checking everyone’s condition.

“What about Ignis?”

When asked, Rosemary checked Ignis by having it raise its arms and various other parts before answering. “No problems here either.”

Hmm. No particular losses, then. That’s good. All that’s left is harvesting… but as usual, what we get from the Magic Light Water Vein is mostly ingredients.

Lance Shells taste like turban shells, and both the mantis shrimp and squid are edible, of course. I’ve heard that giant squid aren’t very suitable for eating, but there’s no problem with Krakens.

Well… Gillmen don’t really whet the appetite… I’ll just collect their magic stones.

“Can… this be eaten?”

“Ah, the Grand Squilla? Despite its appearance, it’s delicious… I think.”

Sheila seems to have more trouble with the mantis shrimp than with Gillmen. I can understand that.

Still, it’s an amount of seafood that we definitely can’t finish eating. Well, we can just sell the excess at the Guild, so let’s finish the harvesting quickly.

“Hello.”

“Hello, Theodore-san.”

We headed to the Guild to sell the ingredients. The receptionist Heather smiled and processed the purchase of the ingredients for us.

After receiving the payment, Heather said, “Theodore-san, I have a message for you from the Guild Master. She asked me to tell you that preparations at the construction site are complete.”

“…Meaning?”

“Yes. It seems all the materials have been gathered. The Guild Master said she was going to contact Penelope-sama at the Temple and go see the construction site, but…”

The construction site referred to the planned location for building the ritual site to summon the volcano spirit.

We had been collecting the necessary materials. I planned to handle the ritual site construction using magic construction. Referring to Claudia and Auria’s opinions, I also created a scaled-down model using earth magic.

“Then I’ll go check it out.”

“Is that so? In that case, could you please tell the Guild Master to come back early after having lunch? Since it’s cooled down and become pleasantly cool today, I think she’s just using the preliminary inspection as an excuse to go out and have fun.”

Heather smiled wryly as she said that. I got the impression that she was quite accustomed to Auria’s behavior and how to handle her.

“Is that so?”

“Well, Auria-sama may be like that, but she works hard when it really counts, so it’s fine.”

I see. It seems she’s trusted by Heather and the others.

So I headed outside Termwills’ barrier—to the planned construction site for the ritual site.

“Hello.”

“Oh, Theodore.”

“Ah, Theo-kun.”

“Hello, everyone.”

At the planned construction site, there was a rest hut and gazebo I had made beforehand. Auria and Penelope were there, along with the Forestbird members who had probably been asked to serve as guards. When I greeted them, they returned the greeting with relaxed expressions. Marlene happily ran over to Penelope. Penelope welcomed Marlene with a smile.

The necessary materials were all gathered and stacked by type. All that remained was to assemble them according to the blueprint into a summoning ritual site for welcoming the spirit using magic construction.

“Heather-san was calling for you. She said she’d like you to come back after having lunch.”

“Hmm. Understood.”

When I relayed Heather’s message, Auria smiled wryly.

“But it would be bothersome to go back now just for lunch, wouldn’t it? We got various ingredients from the Magic Light Water Vein—how about it?”

“Oh ho.”

As expected, Auria showed interest.

We had plenty of seafood today—turban shells, squid, and mantis shrimp. Along with other ingredients bought from the market, we began cooking.

I made a hearth with earth magic, lit a fire with wood and fire magic, and placed the turban shells and squid on a wire grill bought from the market to roast them.

As for the mantis shrimp, we boiled the cut pieces and then mixed them with pasta and sauce, or made them into fried dishes. Grace was in charge of making the sauce.

The savory aroma of turban shells and squid roasting on the wire grill wafted through the air. Hmm. It looks like we’re going to have quite a luxurious lunch.

“Mmm. This sauce is exquisite.”

Monica of Forestbird widened her eyes as she tasted the food. The tomato-based sauce sprinkled with herbs had a vibrant color that was pleasing to the eye as well.

“Thank you.”

Grace smiled gently. It was lunchtime, with everyone gathered around the circular table in the gazebo.

“Lance Shells are tasty too. Eating stuff like this makes us want to go to the Magic Light Water Vein as well.”

“If you’ve got countermeasures prepared, aiming for it might not be a bad idea.”

We were using magic tools with built-in magic shields too, and with proper underwater combat preparations, I thought Forestbird could probably handle it.

“Only when Alfred-kun isn’t busy, perhaps.”

Lucian smiled wryly.

Hmm… Alfred is quite busy making the magic tools for the equipment around the ritual site.

“Theo-kun, you’re doing magic construction again, right?”

“Ah. The ritual site.”

“I slipped out because I wanted to see that. Since the materials are gathered, it’ll be done in no time.”

Auria said with a somewhat disappointed expression. Ah. So that’s why she slipped out.

“Then I’ll get started after lunch. I don’t think it’ll take that much time either.”

Since they seem to be expecting it, I’ll treat it as a service.

Not just the ritual site, but I also planned to build facilities where shrine maidens could stay to keep the spirit contained.

It would be wasteful to just abandon it after it’s served its purpose… Maybe I should think of some way to repurpose it.