The final battle is near.
It’s not far off now when I’ll take out all the Four Heavenly Kings and smash the dungeon to bits before facing Draken in a showdown.
Of course, the gap between Draken and me is still like heaven and earth.
Just entering the underworld puts me in a state close to combat incapacitation.
Thanks to my mental strength enhancement trait, I can just barely hold on, but if the others were to enter, they’d either become complete invalids or be reduced to trembling messes like Transylvania at just hearing Draken’s name.
To increase my odds, the only option is to lure him out of his home ground.
Dimension converter, Longinus’ Spear.
Using this, I can drag Draken into the rift between dimensions and challenge him there.
Now, with the sudden threat of that battle looming around any corner.
I must hurry to finish Longinus’ Spear as quickly as possible.
Currently, only one part remains.
The navigator to adjust the dimensional coordinates.
Before heading out to retrieve it…
“Ugh…”
“It’s completely wrecked.”
First, I stopped by Clockwork City.
With Cern, I broke into the mansion, and the sight that greeted us was none other than Linda, who had a hole in her chest.
It seems she smashed the outer shell herself with her own hand and grabbed hold of her engine.
“Any guesses as to why Linda ended up like this?”
“What do you expect? Just because I made her doesn’t mean I can read her thoughts! She’s as human as the next. Rather than asking me, you should investigate the scene of the incident.”
That’s a fair point.
There’s no way Linda had a self-destruct function.
Linda must have made the choice to shut down on her own.
Cern isn’t her father who raised her, so asking him wouldn’t help much.
“Was there a hacking attempt, perhaps?”
“That’s nonsense. How could a clockwork doll be hacked? It’s built as a perfect closed circuit. The only way to hack Linda would be to directly tamper with the circuit…”
While I was examining Linda’s insides, Cern froze.
His mouth agape.
With wide eyes, Cern spoke with a trembling voice.
“The circuits have been modified…”
“Someone has infiltrated. I’ll take samples of the footprints and fingerprints.”
“No. No. It wasn’t modified by someone else. This… this was modified by Linda herself.”
“What do you mean?”
“It means she used the fuel that should have been injected into her engine—i.e., mana—to alter her circuits herself.”
“…”
My head hurts.
Linda’s condition stems from the night when the entire world underwent a ‘certain change.’
In my conclusion, that phenomenon was about restoring the monsters to ‘normal.’
The monsters had weakened.
Mi Jeong regained the Blessing of Oblivion.
But why did Linda suddenly undergo circuit modifications?
‘She’s someone Draken had his eye on enough to nominate for the Four Heavenly Kings. It wouldn’t be strange for Linda to be treated specially.’
Did Draken attempt to take over Linda but failed due to her choosing shutdown?
That seems like the most plausible scenario.
If she had failed the shutdown and fallen entirely under Draken’s control…
“Ugh…”
Just imagining it sends a chill down my spine.
Right now, Linda is functioning as a relay for information and contacts between different regions.
If she could have distorted that all to Draken’s whims, I’d have walked right into the trap set by the Four Heavenly Kings without a second thought.
Just like Belphegor got caught in Jill’s trap.
Creepy.
“Can it be repaired?”
“What do you think I am? I’ll manage to fix it within a month.”
“Why is it going to take so long?”
“Because I have to redesign it so that the mana flowing into the engine doesn’t leak into the circuits. If an expert says that, just accept it.”
“…”
It looks like Linda’s repairs will take quite a while.
At least for a month, I won’t be able to rely on her as a relay…
I need someone to substitute.
“Cern, while you’re fixing it, can you compile all the letters that arrive and relay that information to me through a communicator?”
“You want me to play the bridge for you? I have no interest in spying on your love affairs with women, so forget it.”
“That’s not it. It’s important, so I must ask you in earnest.”
“Alright, I get it. But, um… the communicator’s busted.”
Cern clicked his tongue while rummaging through Linda’s insides.
A broken communicator too?
With that, the relay is out of service.
“How long will it take to fix that?”
“That might also take about a month. What do you want me to fix first? The communicator? Or Linda?”
“Hmm… Please prioritize Linda.”
“Understood.”
In terms of priority, Linda comes first.
I need to fix Linda ASAP so I can find out what happened.
The thought of being out of contact for a whole month is pretty terrifying, but it’s something I have to accept.
I can’t just sit around in Clockwork City for over a month, worried about what might happen without contact.
Now is the time to move quickly.
“Please take care of it. I’ll be back in a month.”
“That’ll be the plan. But… your sister. She seems more lively than before.”
“…Not my sister; my older sister.”
Mi Jeong, who is linking arms with me, cheerfully showing a V-sign.
However, her smiling face looks a bit unaccustomed; she still seems awkward.
“Yes, well. Should I say it’s relationship improvement? A lot has happened.”
“Looks good. Some people may see it negatively, but don’t worry about them. Despite her appearance, she’s actually older than you, so it shouldn’t be a problem. I’ll be cheering for you.”
“Yes, um… thank you.”
“…Huh?”
Cern lightly patted my shoulder, wearing a slightly awkward smile.
I have no idea what he’s talking about.
But since it seems like a compliment, I’ll just nod and brush it off.
Who thinks badly of us?
Thinking it over again, I still can’t figure it out.
“But what about this little guy?”
“This one? What should I call her? She’s like a pet spider.”
“Pet… spider?”
Cern frowned, looking down at Nameless.
It seems “pet spider” sounds a bit odd to him.
But surprisingly, the intelligence of spiders is quite high; they can be compared to that of cats or dogs.
Of course, aside from that, Nameless seems to possess intelligence roughly on par with a human…
“Look here.”
“Uh-oh…”
“It’s making sounds! Quite a bizarre spider.”
As I gently patted its head with my pinky finger, Nameless let out a sweet voice, melting like butter.
I thought it was gross at first, but now it seems rather cute.
After so much petting, it now clings to my finger, eager to be caressed.
“Huff… huff.”
“What a curious thing! Not like a puppy at all…”
Nameless rolls around on my finger, making cute noises.
Now, it has flipped onto its back, wiggling its four pairs of legs to tickle my finger, begging for more pets.
When I pressed lightly on its belly, it responded with a “uh-oh…”
Out of its rear, a white liquid oozed out, bubbling a bit.
Only after touching that sticky substance did I realize it.
This is spider silk.
“Finally able to produce silk! Good job!”
“Hehe!”
Nameless proudly holds its head high, full of pride.
I picked up Nameless and gave it a celebratory lift.
It had been struggling for a while, looking like it needed to go, but it was practicing to shoot out webs.
Nameless seems to have grown quite a lot.
From being a baby spider, it’s evolving into an adult spider.
I haven’t been raising it for long, but even so, I feel quite proud.
When I extended my finger, sticky with web, Nameless eagerly crawled up and licked my finger to devour the web.
It seems producing silk requires quite a bit of energy, so they eat it back as nutrients while retrieving the silk.
Seeing its instincts work properly, it must not be a defective specimen.
“Well… it’s quite cute… But aren’t you often told you have unusual tastes?”
“No. Not really.”
“…”
Cern looked between Nameless and Mi Jeong, then turned to me with a pitiful gaze.
My tastes are completely normal!
I have no clue what he’s talking about.
Anyway, since both Linda and the communicator are broken, maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea to make a trip to the remote regions of Meri.
The destination is the Saint Francesco Maritime Fortress.
A small rocky island fortress rising in the vast sea.
Due to being a rocky island, farming is impossible, so self-sufficiency is out of the question.
Its size is small, allowing only three or four ships to dock at once.
Despite looking utterly useless, the purpose of the maritime fortress is research.
To continuously monitor and study underwater environments, a stable ground is preferable over a shaky ship.
Most importantly, many of the researchers suffer from severe motion sickness.
Of course, if it were peaceful aquatic creature research, there’d be no need for a loud maritime fortress…
The problem is that the research subjects are all dangerous creatures like sea dragons or sky whales.
Just a slight lapse in vigilance could erase the entire island by a sea dragon, so a sturdy fortress had to be built.
The last component I need to fulfill the role of the navigator for Longinus’ Spear is located in the Saint Francesco Maritime Fortress.
Well, to be precise, it may not be there yet…
But by the time I arrive, it should be there, so it’s not incorrect.
“I’ll need to wait until the supply ship docks here.”
Finally arrived at the bustling port city of Lian on the western coast of the Gallia Kingdom.
It’s a vibrant trading city with ships of all sizes continually coming and going.
The Saint Francesco requires regular supplies due to being an island unable to sustain itself, and thus the supply ship operates back and forth every two weeks.
The supply ship, loaded with goods, stops at Lian for a day of rest before heading to Saint Francesco.
The day it arrives in Lian is just two days away.
That leaves me ample time.
I could easily clear about ten dungeons in this vicinity.
“I haven’t had many opportunities to come to the Gallia Kingdom. Should I go defeat some black dungeons while I’m at it?”
The black dungeons near the Holy Kingdom have all pretty much dried up.
But there are still several black dungeons left in the Gallia Empire.
Since I’ll be departing in two days, I can’t tour the entire country.
So, I think I’ll just tackle the dungeons near Lian.
“I’ll start with this one.”
I picked the nearest dungeon.
At that moment, I had no other thoughts.
But the moment I stepped inside the dungeon.
A chilling cold enveloped me, and I realized something went horribly wrong.
[Monsters in the dungeon are enhanced by Priestess Jill’s Blessing.]
[Monsters in the dungeon have a slight toxicity due to Witch Yulia’s Curse.]
[The dungeon is engulfed in cold due to Frost Duchess Yerina’s grudge.]
Things have gone grievously wrong.
