“Spirits can die if their necks are cut off, right?”
“Hehe…!”
Benny, trembling and trying to stifle a moan, shivers.
No, don’t whisper and tickle me like that. It’s weird.
As I quietly stared at Benny with a look of disbelief, she shook her head as though she needed to make excuses.
“Uh, no! It’s not like that…!”
“Benny, do you really need to do this right before a battle?”
“I’m just feeling ticklish, okay?!”
“Haah. This is why women are like this. All they can think about all day is lewd stuff, huh?”
“I’m not like that! I just happen to be really ticklish! Do you want to touch my side? I’m sure it’ll feel exactly the same!”
Benny displays an unnecessarily impressive skill by whispering loudly to avoid being caught by the spirit.
She turns her body to the side, exposing her flank toward me.
But perhaps because she bent too much, the outline of her ribs faintly shows through her skin-tight dress.
“O….”
I’ve had one principle from the past: flat-chested heroines must have pretty ribs…!
In that sense, Benny passed.
I reached out my hand toward her side to give her a passing mark.
Swish.
“Hyah?!”
Just a light brush, and Benny jumps back violently. I cautiously slid my fingertips along her side.
“Hehe… Ahh!”
Benny trembles, emitting a sound that could be interpreted as lewd. I stopped after lightly tapping her ribs like a piano.
If I went any further, I might blow our cover before the fight even started.
“Well, I understand you’re just really ticklish, Benny.”
“Y-Yeah? So, can we get on with the fight….”
“But maybe, just maybe, you’re trying to make me touch your side while pretending to explain….”
“Hey, you…!”
“I thought you wouldn’t do that, but who knows, maybe Benny would. So, do spirits die if their necks are cut off, too?”
I was about to tease Benny a bit more when I quickly changed the topic. If I pushed her further, she might really get angry.
Benny, who had been huffing and puffing alone, finally calmed down and slumped her shoulders.
“Haah… Don’t mess around in the labyrinth. We’re not here to have fun. Also, spirits have a different weak spot than other creatures. There can be some that die from having their necks cut off, but….”
“So the main weak spot is in another area, huh?”
“Yeah. That’s right.”
When I conceptualize a story, I prefer to keep the settings as rough as possible. The same goes for spirits.
I only think about how they are born, how strong they are, and whether they can be hit or not. I’ve never thought about where their weaknesses might be.
Ah, but there is something to note. For example, fire spirits and water spirits are mutually lethal, or lightning spirit powers don’t deal much damage to earth spirits, etc.
I have thought about elemental affinities to some extent. It’s completely useless information in this context.
Earth spirits might be weak in attack power but have excellent resistance and durability.
By the way, the reason why only the Earth God survived among the elemental gods was also due to this.
As I waited for Benny’s words with sparkling eyes, she, feeling the pressure of my gaze, pulled her neck back and spoke in a reluctant voice.
“Usually, a spirit’s weakness is its opposite attribute. But earth spirits don’t have a specific opposite attribute, so you can only smash them until they break.”
“What does that even mean…?”
I think I understand why they survived the war.
Seeing my dumbfounded expression, Benny chuckled and added.
“But the one we’re facing isn’t an ordinary spirit, it’s a corrupted spirit, right? So there’s a very simple answer.”
“Ooh! What is that?”
“Nucleus.”
“???”
“I mean the magic stone.”
“Ah.”
The magic stone is both the anchor that keeps monsters trapped in this labyrinth and a pin that preserves them in their respective time.
Since they are bound to the magic stone, monsters cannot leave the labyrinth, and even if they die, they can continue to be reborn.
In other words, if a monster’s nucleus is destroyed or separates from its body, it will be separated from its current timeline and vanish into the storm of time.
It’s like the corpse disappearing once the magic stone is pulled out.
Well, they don’t completely vanish; they’ll regenerate in another timeline’s labyrinth.
Anyway, the important thing is that if you break the magic stone, the monster disappears entirely. That’s all you need to know.
“…Just to be sure, if I break the nucleus and hunt it, what will be left over?”
“Nothing, right? If I had to say, maybe the mineral ore that it was cherishing?”
“…….”
The mineral ore will definitely be worth some money. But the fact that there are no leftovers is just too sad.
Benny pats my drooping shoulder and adds.
“Don’t stress too much. Normally, spirits don’t have much left over besides spirit stones. And spirit stones….”
“Are worthless.”
“Exactly. So don’t hesitate and just cut it down!”
There are quite a few spirits in this world. What does it mean that, during the Divine War, all elemental gods except for the Earth God died?
It means they fought fiercely. Naturally, their remnants were left behind, and countless spirits were born from their corpses.
What was once a rare existence has now settled into a species that forms nations.
However, just because there are many of them doesn’t mean they have become familiar species.
Due to the nature of spirits, they find it hard to leave their domain unless they have a contract.
Other issues include their power and intelligence being proportional, needing to spend time in their territory to grow more powerful, lack of space due to the high population, and their long lifespans making them reluctant to contract unless they’re a long-lived species like elves, not to mention their inherent nature to simply stay in one place like embodiments of nature.
Due to various problems, they are still a hard-to-find race, now and in the past.
“Alright. I got it. Then I’m heading out now.”
“Okay. If it looks dangerous, I’ll step in then.”
– Creak.
In response to Benny’s words, the Shadow peeks out with just its eyes.
Finally, I turned off the lantern wrapped around my waist and placed my entire form under my senses.
In that instant, the world felt like it was slipping past me. Movements were controlled as though severed by an invisible wall, minimizing any presence to the extreme.
My footsteps swallowed sound. I also activated the transparent cloak.
Unlike kobolds, corrupted earth spirits didn’t have degraded vision.
The only illumination came from the bluish moss growing on the walls of the dark cave.
With silent movements like a ghost, I slipped through. I was surely running, but not a single sound came from my steps.
Even when climbing over the piled-up mineral ore, there wasn’t a single clatter. It’s just that I was being extremely cautious, but it was still remarkable.
Smirking, I aimed the unicorn dagger at the back of the corrupted earth spirit, who sat absentmindedly.
And then.
-“Y-you, human.”
The spirit’s head spun 180 degrees, looking back at me, speaking with a bewildered tone.
“What?!”
I panicked and let out a sound, causing my hiding to be blown, but… that’s fine. My hands didn’t stop.
My fastest thrust — a strike that my eyes could hardly follow — shot toward the corrupted earth spirit’s chest.
Even though it doesn’t have a heart, there’s a magic stone where a heart would be, so it’s the same difference.
The moment that the white-glowing dagger touched the corrupted earth spirit’s back.
-“Intruder… thief!”
Suddenly, the earth at its back bulged out. Exactly where my dagger had touched.
Pook!
I drove the blade all the way in. However, it couldn’t reach the magic stone beyond the earth that blocked it.
“Tch.”
I don’t know where I was caught, but with things turned out like this, the surprise attack has failed. I’ll have to create some distance and carefully chip away at it until I find a chance to break the magic stone.
I clicked my tongue and pulled out the dagger roughly. As if trying to grasp my weapon, it held onto the blade fiercely, but I cut through that and pulled the dagger out.
Just as I leaped back.
-“D-d-don’t! Doooooo…!”
“???”
The corrupted earth spirit twisted and turned as if it were a bug.
Swish.
And after a while, it crumbled down on its own. Leaving only the magic stone behind.
“Uh?”
It was absurd, yet I also felt a sense of déjà vu.
“Hobgoblin?”
It reacted similarly to a hobgoblin that had been poisoned just by grazing against the dagger, suffering before it died.
What the… So who the hell stabbed that tiny, squishy thing? Or wait, it could’ve been stabbed in return.
Shuddering at the thought I didn’t want to know, I abandoned the magic stone and dashed back to Benny.
“Benny!!!”
“Uh?! What is it?!”
“Benny! Benny! Benny-nini-nit!”
“It’s a bit cute, but at least say my name properly!”
Benny reacted in a way I couldn’t tell whether she liked it or hated it. I pointed the unicorn dagger at her.
“Yay!”
The blade touched Benny’s arm. The dagger shone brightly in pure white.
“Whoo.”
Only then did I feel a bit more at ease.
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