There was an exceptionally huge rock, and a group of strange-shaped rocks. It was an arch-shaped rock with the length of ten meters.
Hajime’s party went there and found huge staircase that continued on into «Guryuu-en Great Volcano» under the arch-shaped rock. Hajime stood before the staircase and looked over his shoulder towards Yue, Shia, and Tio’s faces in order. With a confident expression, he said a word to challenge the Great Dungeon.
“Let’s do it!”
“Nn!”
“Yes!”
“Umh!”
* * *
The inside of «Guryuu-en Great Volcano» was even more unexpected than «Orcus Great Dungeon» and «Raisen Great Dungeon».
Rather than the difficulty, it was the interior’s structure that was unexpected.
First, magma was flowing mid-air. Not flowing like the waterway in dem-ihuman country, Faea Belgaen, but the magma was in the mid-air and flowing like rivers. The streaming, scorching red magma in mid-air was just like huge, jumping dragons.
Thus, the magma flowing around the passage and broad space made not only the dungeon challenger be cautious about the magma on the ground, but also above them.
Moreover,
“Ukya!”
“Woops, are you okay?”
“Ha~, Hajime-san, thank you. It was impossible for me to perceive that… the magma would suddenly spout from the ground.”
Exactly what Shia said, the magmas abruptly spouted from all around the walls. It was really abrupt that it was difficult to perceive any prior sign of it. It was similar to that of a booby trap. Fortunately, Hajime has “Heat Perception.” Without it, their conquering speed would’ve fallen due to the need to be cautious.
Following that, the thing that made it truly difficult was the boiling heat — extreme heat. It was naturally hot due to magma streaming all around the passage and broad space which made the party feel like being inside a sauna, or to be more accurate, above a heated frying pan. The heat was the most troublesome thing about «Guryuu-en Great Volcano».
While sweating, Hajime’s party continued to advance while evading the drops of and the spouting magma. And in a certain broad space, they found the place has artificial cut all over the place. The place was worn down by cuts that seemed to come from something like a pickaxe, but there was a small, faint pink-colored crystal peeping from one part of the wall.
“Oh? That thing. Serene Stone… right?”
“Hmm, twas indeed that, Master.”
Hajime’s questioning-like words were confirmed by Tio whose knowledge was broad. Apparently, this seemed to be the place the adventurers, who passed through the sandstorm and entered «Guryuu-en Great Volcano», mined the stone.
“… So small.”
“The ones at others’ places were also in a size of small stones…”
Just as Yue said, the remaining Serene Stone was only almost as big as little finger. Though those could be taken out and carried, but the size was indeed too small. As expected, it was too inefficient to gather the ones on the surface, so it was necessary for them to go into the depth to be able to obtain a lot of it in a dash.
For now, Hajime used “Mineral Enquiry” to search around for Serene Stone. After he stored those that could be gathered easily, he urged Yue and the girls to move ahead, quickly.
While being disgusted by the heat, they descended into the seventh floor. It was the highest floor recorded to be reached by the adventurers. None of those who moved farther than this had come back alive. So, bracing themselves, Hajime’s party descended into the eighth floor.
At that moment,
GRuuOoOOOO!!!
When they felt fanned by a strong hot wind, a huge blazing flame came to attack Hajime’s party from right ahead of them. It advanced as it drew a spiral on the orange-colored wall.
“”Absolute Calamity.””
Yue’s magic activated against the blazing flame. A black, swirling orb appeared before Hajime’s party. It was a gravity magic. However, it was not used to crush the object on the ground.
The flame that could easily burn a person to ash was pulled by the sphere which was only 60 centimeters in diameter and disappeared without a trace. The flame swallowed by the sphere was actually nullified. The black, swirling sphere, the gravity magic called “Absolute Calamity,” was generating its own gravity, pulled those coming near it, and swallowed them into the inside of it, like a black hole.
When all of the blazing flame was swallowed by Yue’s swirling supergravity, the party could see the identity of their attacker.
It was a bull. It stood in the middle of the magna, and its whole body was also cladded in magma. It had two sharp curved horns on its head, and flame was coming out of its mouth from time to time. The heat-proofness of this demonic beast made Hajime instinctively wanted to retort on it.
Maybe because the Magma Bull was angry that its peculiar magic, the blazing flame attack, was easily nullified, sounds of thud! Thud! could be heard from its legs and it turned into a charging stance.
To the Magma Bull, the swirling supergravity Yue created immediately moved as if being pulled toward the Magma Bull. At that moment, Magma Bull also attacked using compressed flame. The laser-like, compressed attack from the Magma Bull carried several times the power of normal flame attack.
Even now, the Magma Bull was still charging head-on. However, Yue literally received and returned the fired attack.
KABOOOOM!!
The space vibrated accompanied by an explosive sound, and the Magma Bull that stood on the magma was blown away by the attack. Blown backward by the impact, the Magma Bull struck the wall. However, “GRAAAAH!!,” it only raised an angry shout and instantly stood up. This time, it began to once again charge with all of its might to repel the intruders.
“Hah… as expected, flame attack isn’t effective on it.”
“Well, it is cladded in magma… so it can’t be helped.”
Yue, who deflected the blazing flame shot back, raised a grunt. Laughing wryly, Hajime tried to take Donner, but Shia raised a hand.
“Hajime-san, please leave it to me!”
Although Hajime doubted Shia who already held Doryukken in her hands, she snorted in full spirit. His doubt turned into trust, and he expressed his acknowledgement with a wave of his hand. It was after he had guessed Shia wanted to test the new features installed in Doryukken when his magic eye saw Shia was supplying her magic power into Doryukken.
“Alright~! I am going to do it!,” Shia raised a yell, and after few light steps, she jumped towards the Magma Bull who had moved several meters towards the party.
Rotating once in the mid-air and riding on the momentum, she swung down Doryukken towards the Magma Bull on the ground with such a perfect timing. Her aiming wasn’t off, the Doryukken swung down directly hitting the Magma Bull’s head. At that moment, ripples of faint blue-colored magic power spread around the center of the place where it struck, followed by tremendous impact. The Magma Bull’s head popped, exploded.
Using the nailed down Doryukken as a fulcrum, Shia rotated again. She jumped over the sliding Magma Bull’s body and splendidly landed on the other side.
“O-Ohh Hajime-san, I, the person who used it, now know that this new feature generated an amazing amount of force.”
“Ah, looks like it… I’ve thought what kind of thing is this “Conversion : Impact,” but this is good…”
Not only Hajime, Yue and Tio immediately raised words of praise towards the blow that Shia did with considerable force. It was thanks to the peculiar magic Hajime said, “Conversion : Impact.”
This “Conversion : Impact” was a new peculiar magic Hajime acquired, a derivation from “Magic Power Conversion.” The effect was just as the words expressed, it converted magic power into impact.
It was the ability of the horshead Hajime instantly turned into minced meat several days ago in«Orcus Great Dungeon». He had actually collected the meat in secret, and when he recovered the stake, he ate it.
If it was an average demonic beasts, neither the stats nor Hajime’s the skill would increase, but he ate it since he thought it might have an effect because the horsehead was able to hold on against Kouki’s party along with the Kouki in limit break… But as he thought, his stats didn’t change at all; he only gained the horsehead’s peculiar magic.
Then, he used Creation magic to add “Conversion : Impact” to an ore and installed it into the newly built Doryukken.
Hajime watched the Magma Bull’s head blasted in interest, but he was urged by Yue to hurry.
Afterwards, the demonic beast variations increased as they descended the floors. There were bat-like demonic beasts that scattered magma from their wings, scorching red moray-like demonic beasts that jumped out from the wall it melted, hedgehog-like demonic beasts that shot out numerous needles of flame, chameleon-like demonic beasts that only produced its face from within the magma and attacked using its magma-covered tongues like a whip while swimming on the gravity-defying magma river overhead, and there were even blazing serpents…
It was indeed troublesome since the demonic beasts’ bodies were clad in magma or ablaze which nullified any half-assed magic, and some were using surprise attacks from the flowing magma rivers where they hid their body. The demonic beasts not only would try to inflict fatal wound by using body blow, a lot of them were also using the surrounding magma to attack; a situation where they have infinite weapon. Besides, they would run into the magma to ensure their safety.