Текст книги "Overlord - The Invaders of the Large Tomb"

Автор книги: Maruyama Kugane

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Текущая страница: 8 (всего у книги 17 страниц)

But the dark flames of jealousy couldn’t be extinguished so easily. He was not jealous of their power, talent or strength, but of their chance to peek into the abyss of magic before him.

Fluder was the best magic caster. This was a fact acknowledged by everybody, and the only ones that could be compared to him were the Thirteen Heroes of the past. However, he couldn’t dominate the Death Knight, and could only use—according to rumours —six of the ten tiers of magic.

He was far from reaching the abyss of magic.

And he was old.

Fluder was a mental spell magic caster using one of the system of the Wizardry-based class– Forbidden Arts. By using spells that were taboo, he stopped his aging. Of course, it was a complicated spell considering Fluder’s level of training, but he forced it through by using a combination of ritual and spells.

However, his method of making the impossible possible had a flaw. Fluder, who shouldn’t be aging anymore after casting the spell perfectly, could still feel himself aging slowly.

It was still manageable for now, but with the passage of time, his end would come one day.

That’s right. Fluder would die before seeing the abyss of magic.

If someone else had done so before him, he might be able to arrive at this stage earlier, but with his lack of predecessors, he had to pave his own path.

Fluder looked at the disciples around him.

The ones walking on the path paved by the figure known as Fluder.

With fuel added to the flames of jealousy, the fire burned brighter.

He, the most talented one of everyone present, how much time had he taken to reach the stage his disciples were at? No, without even thinking about it, he was definitely older than those disciples of his. Someone who was taught and the pioneer who paved the way, that was how wide the difference was.

Why didn’t he have a master?

Fluder tried changing his way of thinking.

—That was fine too. Leaving his name in the history books as a pioneer. The magic casters who reached new heights after Fluder would need to thank Fluder for their achievements. His disciples were his treasures. If there was just one person who become greater than I am, it would be attributed to my power—

As he thought about that, Fluder remembered a disciple he once had. If it was that girl, how far could she go?

“—Arche Eeb Rile Furt.”

An excellent child. Learning 2^nd tier magic at such a tender age and so close to 3^rd tier. If she had continued, it was possible that she would eventually reach Fluder’s realm one day. But in the end, she gave up being a disciple…

Back then, he had only thought how foolish and disappointing it was.

“Such a pity.”

Maybe he allowed a big catch to get away.

Where is that child now? He thought about searching for her. If she could use 3^rd tier spells, it was possible to guarantee a certain level of status for her.

That might be so, but he had a job to do right now.

Fluder uttered the code word and the heavy door opened.

After coming out, the disciples around him took deep breaths with the same frequency. The air where the aura of the Death Knight lingered was too heavy. If they did not do this, it would be unbearable.

“Master!”

A low, rough voice sounded out. That was one of his disciples, a renowned adventurer. Due to his experience, he had been appointed the deputy director of the security within the Magic Ministry.

“...What is the matter? Is something wrong?”

“No, nothing is wrong, just that some adamantite-ranked adventurers were requesting an audience with Master.”

Fluder looked at that man strangely.

They hadn’t made any appointments. As the finest magic caster in the Empire, Fluder had all sorts of duties on top of his research, and was a very busy man. If someone sought an audience out of the blue, he could only shake his head. Only the Emperor could see Fluder as he pleased.

That might be so, but it was too early to reject them. Adamantite level adventurers were heroes, not people that could simply be ignored. That was the same for Fluder. They were one of the few sources he could obtain rare artifacts from, so he couldn’t treat them lightly.

“Is it an honoured visit from the ‘Silver Canaries’? Or esteemed guests from ‘Eight Ripples’?”

He stated the name of the two adamantite ranked adventuring partiers within the Empire.

But the disciple shook his head.

“No, it is a two man team known as ‘Darkness’. They showed their adamantite plate as proof.”

“What!?”

The famous adventurers team ‘Darkness’ from the Kingdom. With just the two of them, they had accomplished numerous hero level tasks. They had even taken on Jaldabaoth during the Royal Capital’s crisis and defeated him.

Why were such figures visiting him? He had several questions, but the idea of discussing magic with the high-tier magic caster ‘Beautiful Princess’ made him threw his doubts away.

However, as a vassal of the Emperor, he still remembered the task assigned to him by his liege Jircniv.

He would ask about that after his meeting with them. As he thought about that, Fluder said to his disciple:

“Please show our guests in. I will be right there after tidying up.”

 

Part 3

“Ah, there really are ruins here, that surprised me. I didn’t think they were bluffing when they offered that kind of payment, but it’s still hard to believe there are ruins to be explored in the middle of the plains.”

His comrades watching the ruins agreed with Hekkeran’s monologue.

Although the ruins appeared to be a cemetery, the ground seemed be sinking slightly into the earth, as if the entire area was depressed inwards, giving the impression like that of a basin.

The reason it was unexplored was probably because of the grasslands all around it. There was nothing like the relics of an ancient city to draw the eyes of adventurers to it. Another thing was the existence of several knolls in the vicinity that appeared to be hiding the existence of the ruins, making it hard to notice. Although the roof of the building in the middle protruded just a little, it couldn’t be seen if you didn’t view it from this spot.

Some of the earth surrounding the ruins had fallen off, revealing part of the walls. That was why the ruins had been discovered. That was what the representatives of each team concluded.

“That seems about right. By the way, I’m getting a little excited. The possibility of uncovering amazing things by exploring the ruins are really high.”

“Who knows? Well, there are no problems with this place. At least there aren’t any dangerous monsters. Rather, what made me uneasy was the place the client marked out as the base camp.”

Setting up camp was the best choice for a place like the plains.

The site was enclosed by hills and couldn’t be seen from a distance. If they paid attention to the usage of lights, it would be difficult to notice their presence.

And that was why—it seemed scary.

“But really, why did our client know of a place like this?”

The best guess would be that this area was the most suitable spot for setting up camp, and the ruins were spotted by the client when they made camp. That made the most sense.

However, that gave rise to new questions. Why were they were setting up camp in such a far off place? Furthermore, it was a noble from the Empire camping within the territory of the Kingdom.

“—I heard there’s a large underground organization in the Kingdom. I think it’s called Eight Fingers. They seem to be a troublesome bunch.”

“They seem to have secret dealings with the Empire. They possess substantial power within the Kingdom, but it would be problematic to investigate further. I heard someone from my thieves’ contacts complain about it.”

Imina pressed down on her hair that was being blown by the wind and Arche followed suit. Roberdyck mumbled.

“I heard something about drugs. Those are good if used appropriately. However, the people who turn it into a way to enslave the weak, are really off putting.”

He couldn’t help raising his voice a little.

After all, Roberdyck had become a worker in order to help the weak.

“This has nothing to do with the request this time, so let’s stop the baseless assumptions. Anyway, Arche’s investigation concluded that the client is fine, right?”

Arche mumbled that the investigation might not have been thorough enough to dig up anything carefully hidden, but agreed.

“Everyone, you all understand right?”

“Of course. I won’t say it before the other teams. After all, the workers might have accepted a secret request from the Eight Fingers. The other teams might be related to that organization, but we can’t make baseless accusations. At least, not before this request is completed.”

“I don’t know how much blood and tears our money’s been stained with.”

“—No matter how dirty it is, money is money and we have to live off it.”

After glancing at Roberdyck, Arche breathed in deeply to cool herself off.

“—Sorry, I said something rude.”

“No, I am the one who almost blurted out something impolite, I beg your pardon.”

“—Please don’t mind me. You didn’t say anything after all. Please keep it in your heart. I value money more than my conscience, but—” Arche raised her hand to emphasize what she was going to say next. “I won’t let my comrades do anything unethical. I’ve already witnessed several people die because of their greed.”

“I believe you, Arche.”

Arche nodded and no one said anything else. They could communicate their thoughts without words. It was because they had quarreled like this several times before, that they had come to trust each other.

“So what do you think? My gut feeling is that the possibility of that cemetery being under the control of something is high.”

Hekkeran stared at the grass that had been neatly trimmed. The statues of angels and goddesses could only be described as beautiful, and were obviously maintained regularly.

On the other hand, the trees sprouting everywhere gave it a gloomy atmosphere.

The arrangement of the cemetery wasn’t orderly, but scattered messily like the teeth of an ugly witch, which contrasted strongly with the cleanliness of this place.

Something was taking care of this area. And it was not a normal being. An ominous chill gnawed at their stomachs.

Hekkeran waved away the chill and focused on the gigantic structure. There were four crypts at each point of the compass, with a large and elegant mausoleum sitting right in the middle. The eight warrior statues around the crypts were large, giving off a menacing feeling that anyone who came near and desecrated this place would be executed.

“The landscape around here is very well kept. I don’t even see any moss. Someone is performing his duties seriously here, but what kind of person is he?”

All the teams—except Tenmu—thought it was strange when they read the request description.

Now that they were here and confirmed that there was nothing but plains around the area, it didn’t make sense for a cemetery to be built here.

The first thing would be the cemetery’s location. Building such a luxurious cemetery in such a far off place was baffling. It was too inconvenient.

If this was not a place to mourn the dead but to monument to immortalize the legend of great man, it would be understandable. That had been done before after all.

However, if that was the case, it felt unnatural for the historical facts and legends pertaining to the tomb to be lost. After comparing the research of all the teams, nothing related had been found, meaning there was a high chance it had been scrubbed from the history books.

That was too unnatural.

The feeling that something was out of place here stuck in their throats, becoming the reason why they were furrowing their brows.

“If there is someone here, it could become a grave matter. What should we do then?”

“...It would be annoying to drag innocent people into this.”

“—The team representatives discussed this earlier. There are no records of ruins situated around this area. Since the nearest village is far away, the possibility that normal people are living here are low. Most likely, they’re either illegal squatters or monsters. Considering the lack of footprints, they probably don’t require food, or they can provide for themselves from within the ruins. We have insufficient intelligence on hand, speculating further would lock ourselves into a fixed perspective and limit our minds. So let’s stop the speculations here.”

Normally, the discovery of ruins would be reported to the administration of the country through the Adventurer’s Guild. The discoverer was granted a limited amount of time to explore it. Due to this rule, in ruins not discovered by a national body or the Adventurer’s Guild, killing illegal squatters was tolerated.

This was in accordance with the saying of rather letting a thousands innocent die than letting a single guilty person go free.

It might be an overly brutal policy, but humans were fragile beings in this world. That’s why it was troubling for unknown things to build a nest near humans.

In fact, twenty years ago, a group known as Zuranon occupied a ruin and conducted horrifying experiments, which led to catastrophic results. The information about this was scant, but a small city was destroyed.

This was a rule to prevent something like that from ever happening again.

“Well, it should be undead as usual. If this place is occupied by the undead, it will be bad if we don’t wipe them out and drive away the negative energy with holy power.”

“It is worse than you think. If we leave the undead alone, there is a chance of a more powerful undead rising. That is the reason why there are powerful undead in ruins.”

“If an abandoned golem is carrying out the last order of its master and tidying the place up, that would be a godsend. One less thing to worry about. What is the plan after that?”

“—I think Hekkeran should have gone in my stead.”

“Don’t worry about it. The other leaders didn’t go either right? Send the best person for the job, right?”

Arche sighed in response to the winking Hekkeran.

“—Anyways, once night falls, all the teams will move together. We will go in from the four sides and gather at the large mausoleum in the center.”

“I see, we will be spotted easily if we do it in broad daylight.”

“—That’s true.”

They had a clear view of the surrounding area and saw no signs of surveillance or travelers. It didn't seem to be a problem to invade it now, but they should prepare for the unexpected. Moving in the dark was safer.

Although the operation began at nightfall, they might be able to gain further information by continuing to observe the ruins. They had limited time to complete their job, but the time used here would be well spent, at least according to the brains of the operation.

It wouldn’t have been a surprise if they had spent several days observing the site.

“Wouldn’t it be safer to scout the place with ‘invisibility’?”

“—We considered that, but there is a chance things might get hairy anyway, so we might as well do it together. Even in the worst case scenario, we will at least find out something.”

There were numerous ways to detect invisibility, so it was not a perfect spell. If the workers approached after using magic and were detected by the security of the ruins, the level of security of the opponent will rise even if they don’t know who the intruders might be. If they screw it up, they might not be able to infiltrate the place for days.

To avoid that from happening, they came up with the plan to move in at the same time.

Hekkeran nodded in understanding. There were flaws, but the plan was still balanced between the risk taken and the chance of completing the mission.

“I hope they give us some time to rest.”

“—Is that so. ‘Darkness’ and ‘Screaming Whip’ will take care of security. To play it safe, we will take turns standing guard. We will go in the order we arrived at the Earl’s home, two hours each.”

“Got it, so we are going last.”

“—That’s right. We will take the stage at the very end.”

Arche turned her head and shrugged after saying that.

“Thank you for your hard work.”

Roberdyck nodded at Arche.

“—How tiring. It took so long because that scumbag suggested invading via brute force. It took a lot of effort to convince him. He really doesn’t know what coordination means.”

“Ahh, that sword genius-san…”

“Calling him a shitty bastard would be enough.”

In the face of Imina’s murderous words, Hekkeran smiled wryly and changed the topic.

“Well then, let’s go back to camp and wait for our turn.”

“Agreed. It probably won’t rain for the time being, but it would be too late to prepare if it does. Imina-san, you’re up next, don’t keep showing that scary face.”

“Okay, ah, how infuriating. I really feel like stabbing him. Let’s set up camp far away from them.”

“It is fine as long as it is around the assigned spot.”

To be honest, it wasn’t fine, but it would be worse if they were too close to each other and started quarrelling.

Turning their backs to the ruins, the four of them started walking.

“—But the more I think about it, the more baffling it is. I don’t understand why the Earl would give out such a request.”

As they turned back because of those words, they found Arche had stopped to stare at the ruins.

“I couldn’t find anything about the reason, or the period these ruins were built. It’s like they suddenly popped up. The statues resemble those from the period before the Demon Gods Uprising, but have a more eastern feel about them. And the cross shaped tombstones… I don’t understand it at all.”

After listening to Arche’s mumbling, Hekkeran suppressed his smile and excitement with great effort.

“Which means the chance of finding something just as interesting is high, correct?”

“That’s correct. There must be frightening things inside.”

“...There will probably be horrifying undead inside, everyone.”

“—Uwah~, how scary.”

“—Too fake, Hekkeran. That doesn’t sound like me at all. And imitating my voice is creepy.”

“Ah, sorry about that.”

“But—it will be interesting.”

“Yup. Why does this cemetery exist? Who is entombed here? It stimulates my curiosity and thirst for knowledge.”

“I agree. Discovering the unknown is exciting.”

“—And finally money. It would be great if there is plenty of it.”

Hekkeran was satisfied by the smiles of his companions. There were times they did dirty work for money, but that wasn’t something they could talk about happily. Doing adventurer-like jobs suited them better.

Arche might not join in their adventures after taking custody of her sisters. It would definitely take some time to find another member to replace Arche, and more time was needed to adjust their team work. It was necessary to choose jobs that had lower difficulty.

This might be the last and hardest job they would take as a team.

From now on… Like adventurers… it would be nice to explore the unknown by taking on requests to adventure …

Hekkeran looked towards the sky that extended everywhere.

♦ ♦ ♦

As night enveloped the world, the workers came out from their well hidden low tents. For secretive individuals like themselves, it was time to go to work.

The adventurers began preparing food.

After lighting the kindling, which was a white, solid material, coal was added into the flames. The light from the flames were concealed by the effect of ‘Darkness’. ‘Darkness’ concealed the brightness, but not the fire itself. In the darkness, the flame boiled water extracted from the Infinite Waterskin.

The boiling water was poured into wooden bowls. The travel rations placed inside lost their shape and became fragrant soup. After adding hard bread, this was the food that was served to all.

The rest was up to their personal preference.

Although the bowl only had yellow soup—which workers liked for its nutrition and storage life, some people added thin slices of meat, other condiments, or they drank it as it was.

Everyone stopped after having a bowl. Considering the job ahead, this amount was too little.

However, eating something too heavy would definitely affect the mission. Eating nothing would be dangerous as well. No one knew when they could eat again.

The emergency food supply was also limited, since bringing too much would affect their agility. There was a need to gauge it precisely.

After handing the empty bowls to the adventurers, the workers put on their backpacks.

As the adventurers watched on, the workers started moving together. The adventurers were in charge of the base camp’s security and would not be taking part in the infiltration of the ruins.

After climbing over the hill, they spread out around the ruins. They had already prepared countermeasures if they were discovered during this phase.

A lot of people wore full plate armour, so their movement would be slow and the noise would make covert operation impossible, but that had already been taken into account. For people who could use magic, it was possible to overcome such trivial matters.

First, they would use ‘Silence’, a spell that negated noise within a certain area. Both the sound of armour and footsteps would not be heard.

Next would be ‘Invisibility’, which rendered the target undetectable by normal vision.

As a precaution, an ambusher with the ‘Silence’, ‘Invisibility’ and even the ‘Hawk Eye’ spell cast on him was watching the surroundings from the sky. To quickly deal with problems, he was armed with special arrows that had numbing effects.

After these two preparation phases, the groups reached their destination.

Here was where it officially began.

They descended from the hill onto the ruins several meters below. After exploring the surface, they would meet up at the large mausoleum in the center. And they needed to do so within the effective time of ‘invisibility’.

To minimize the chance of unexpected things happening, there was a need to follow each other’s footsteps. However, it would be difficult to tell everyone’s position when it was dark and everyone was invisible.

However, there was already a way to handle this.

A strange stick 30cm in length suddenly appeared on the ground. It floated in the air as though someone invisible was holding it up, and emitted a faint light after it was bent.

This special stick—a glow stick—was made in such a way that the special alchemical fluids inside would mix when it was bent and emit light. It was dropped because the effect of invisibility also included all the items the user was carrying. In order to be visible to others, it had to leave the user’s possession.

After flickering for a moment, the stick that had accomplished its purpose was destroyed. The glowing alchemical fluid splashed onto the ground, and was gone without a trace after touching the earth.

In such a way, all the teams signaled that they were ready.

It was too far to see the other teams, but four ropes simultaneously dropped down from the surface of the Great Tomb of Nazarick. The ropes had knots tied at fixed interval for easy scaling.

The end of the rope was connected to a piton knocked into the ground, with the other end swaying slightly.

If someone were able to see through invisibility magic, they would be able to spot people climbing down the ropes.

Even someone like Arche, who focused more on magic training and knowledge instead of agility, could accomplish that. Or rather, workers and adventurers needed to go through strength training to complete such tasks.

Thanks to their accumulated training and the effectiveness of the knots, none of the workers fell, and all landed safely in the cemetery.

The first objective of each team were the smaller crypts.

As the duration of invisibility expired, all the members could now be seen. The teams headed toward the crypt they had been assigned to.

Crouching down and keeping close to the tombstones, trees and statues, they ran in the dim cemetery. ‘Silence’ was still in effect so they didn’t make any noise. The warriors wearing full plate armour also did their best to hide themselves. Several shadows moved across the ground.

♦ ♦ ♦

When the leader of Heavy Masher, Greenham, got close to the crypt, his eyes widened slightly. It was even more extravagant than he had imagined.

Even though they referred to this as a small crypt, it was only small in comparison  to the large mausoleum in the center. Up close, its size and majestic architecture could be clearly seen.

The white stone walls were smoothly polished. Although a lot of time must have passed since its construction, there was no sign of any damage from the wind and the rain.

Beyond a flight of three steps made of marble was a thick metal door. The door was polished so well that there were no rust at all. Even the black steel was shining.

It was clear how carefully they were maintaining the building.

—Which meant that it was confirmed that the cemetery was occupied.

While Greenham came to this conclusion, his thief comrade went in and slowly investigated, starting from the stairs.

Greenham received a signal to back away—necessary because of ‘Silence’—and retreated slowly. This was to avoid area-effect traps.

The thief searched patiently for traps. It couldn’t be helped even if he was feeling impatient.

Souls resided within the body of men, and when that body begins to rot, the soul would be summoned away by the will of the gods. That was why the dead had to be buried immediately, with underground burial as the norm, but it was slightly different for those with special status such as the nobles.

If the dead were buried immediately, they would need to dig the corpse up to confirm that the body was decomposing. To see evidence of the decomposition, the corpse would be set aside for a period of time before being buried. However, the corpse would not be placed in the nobles’ home.

What they would use would be a crypt at the cemetery. After placing the bodies there for a period of time, the priest would judge if the body was rotting and the soul had been summoned by god before burying it.

The place where the corpses were laid to rest was the communal space of the crypt. This spacious area had several stone platforms where the bodies lay in state. The scene of several rotting corpses lying in a row was creepy, but that was natural from the common sense of this world.

Things were different for great nobles who had authority and wealth. Instead of the communal crypt, they would use a family crypt passed down from their ancestors. The room where those with authority were summoned by god and their final resting place—crypts like that were owned and passed down the family as symbols of power.

It was normal to find household appliances and treasures as well. This meant the crypts were a treasure vault for tomb raiders. And therefore, it was also a place built with dangerous traps to deter intruders.

That definitely held true for such an extravagant crypt. Greenham’s thief teammate checked the place carefully.

After the thief completed some of the checks and went to the door, the sound suddenly came back.

The duration of ‘Silence’ was over. It was just the right time. The thief silently stepped in front of the door and searched carefully. Finally, he placed something like a stethoscope and listened.

After several seconds, the thief turned his head Greenham and his other teammates and shook his head.

Which meant ‘there is nothing’.

The thief himself thought it was strange and tilted his head.

It was a mystery why it wasn’t locked, but since the thief couldn’t detect anything else, it would be the vanguards’ turn next.

Greenham went to the front and the thief reached for the door. Behind them was a warrior with a shield.

Greenham pushed the door handle down and slowly opened the door. Maybe it was well oiled or perhaps the caretaker of this place did his job seriously, but the heavy door opened easily despite its appearance.

The warrior who was ready for action stood between Greenham and the door, raising his shield to defend against sudden attack or traps.

However, there wasn’t anything like an arrow being shot over. The iron door was completely open and a deep darkness appeared before the Heavy Mashers.

“「Continual Light」.”

The arcane magic caster summoned a magic light. The brightness of the magic light could be roughly adjusted. The crypt was illuminated. With another spell, the weapon of the warrior was shining too.

What the light was shining on, was a room that could be easily mistaken for the chambers of a noble.

In the center of the room was a stone coffin normally seen in a temple. It was 2.5m long and engraved with intrinsic carvings. Four alabaster statues carved into the shape of fully armored and armed warriors, with swords and shields over full plate armor, stood at each corner.

And so—

“—Hmm, does this emblem match anything in your memory?”

“Erm, I don’t know.”

Hanging on the wall was a banner with golden edges, bearing an emblem no one had seen before. The Kingdom might be a foreign nation, but the thief and magic caster had memorized the heraldry of many nobles and kings. Since they couldn’t identify it, it was safe to assume it was foreign in nature.

“Could it be some nobles before the founding of the Kingdom?”

“You mean this is from more than two hundred years ago?”

Many countries had been destroyed by the demon gods two hundred years ago, which was why there were very few countries with more than two hundred years of history. The Kingdom, the Holy Kingdom, the Republic and the Empire were all founded within the past two hundred years.

“If that is true, why is it so well-preserved after such a long time? What is it made of?”

“It should be enchanted with preservation magic right? Maybe it was repaired by magic.”

“By the way leader. You can stop that strange way of speaking now, can’t you? We are the only ones here.”

“Hmmm…” Greenham frowned, and then relaxed. “Ahh, that’s so tiring. All that thou and art stuff, how stupid.”

“It must be hard on you. Like he said, it is fine if we are alone right?”

“Nah, I can’t do that, that stiff way of speaking makes me look like a capable worker. It’s troublesome to change midway, ain’t it? Don’t you all know my policy while on the job?”

Greenham answered his comrade’s wry smile with a wry smile of his own.