Chapter 25: Giant Magic Stone
“Alright! If I can retrieve them, as long as I don’t miss, I can manage for now!”
Having regained a bit of my composure, I continued to shoot and kill the approaching monsters.
By adjusting the position of my foothold and increasing the angles I could aim from, the difficulty of aiming decreased slightly.
The pounding of my heart made me feel like I was going crazy, but as I took down more of them, I started to calm down.
Once I had completely figured out the spots where the monsters would stop to check inside, the difficulty dropped significantly, and I was able to maintain some composure.
After repeating that cycle for a long time, the sounds nearby finally faded.
“Just how many of them are there!”
Muttering that complaint, I climbed down from my foothold, and there, a mountain of ape-like monster corpses had formed.
These monsters were only about a size larger than a human, but it seemed I had defeated a considerable number of them, as they formed a pile blocking half the passage, nearly surpassing my height.
As soon as I got down, I quickly finished absorbing the Magic Stones, immediately returned to my perch above, and let out a breath.
If I can defeat them this easily, should I consider aiming for the surface via the normal route?
Such a thought crossed my mind, but I immediately shook my head, thinking how stupid that was, and reconsidered.
If the goal is just to hit the target, it’s far easier to go down and aim normally, but I can’t recover Magical Power that way.
Even if I were lucky enough to find stairs right away, my Magical Power would run out after going up one or two Floors.
If I couldn’t find a safe zone around there, it would be game over.
I also considered creating footholds one by one so I could retrieve bullets as I advanced, but upon closer reflection, that too would be difficult.
I thought I could fire limitlessly since I could retrieve them, but that wasn’t the case.
I was only consuming gunpowder, but about fifty shots cost me two days’ worth of Magical Power.
Considering I was able to fire nearly fifty shots while leaving enough space to stand on the platform, this consumption rate was to be expected. However, in this situation, a significant decrease in my remaining Magical Power directly leads to death.
While praying they wouldn’t come anymore, I dispelled my Gun and searched for a way to climb up.
“Something, isn’t there something?” I muttered, scanning my surroundings.
A room about thirty meters in diameter.
Maintaining that size, an unnaturally clean hole extended upwards.
The passages, too, unlike the upper floors, were cleanly cut without any unevenness.
On the ground, along with the iron plates that had fallen with me, several large, black spheres were scattered about.
“…What’s this?”
On this floor, so cleanly made it seemed artificial, lay something out of place.
I hadn’t noticed in my panic, but there were dark rocks, starkly different in color from the walls.
Rocks, all about the size of a human head, were scattered in several places.
Curious about them, I climbed down again and picked one up.
When I brushed off the dust covering it with my hand, it had the exact same hue as a Magic Stone.
“Huh?”
A sound escaped me involuntarily.
I’d never even heard of a Magic Stone this large.
Even the Magic Stones on this Floor were only about fist-sized. And even those were on a level I’d never seen before.
“If this really is a Magic Stone, how much would something this big sell for…”
Such a thought crossed my mind, but since I have to sell them through the school, I can’t hide them.
If I put something like this up for sale, it was obvious I’d cause a commotion and get dragged into trouble.
Whether I’m mistaken for someone strong, or thought of as a weakling who luckily struck it rich, it’s dangerous for someone weak like me.
Wait, what am I thinking?
Before any of that, I’m trapped, and no matter how much Magical Power I have, I’m in a situation where a single mistake means death…
If this is a Magic Stone, then absorption is the only choice.
Shaking off my momentary hesitation, I picked up the Magic Stone-like rock and immediately tried to absorb it.
This would tell me if it was really a Magic Stone.
When I held it with both hands and began to absorb it, I felt the usual sensation.
It was indeed a Magic Stone.
“Seriously…? It’s real.”
As I got excited and increased the absorption speed, my body suddenly grew hot, and I was hit by a wave of dizziness.
I was bewildered, wondering what on earth was happening, but I quickly understood the cause.
It was the same sensation as when I take Magical Power out of my Backpack when my own is already fully recovered.
So this is Magical Power overflow.
But the Magical Power absorbable from a Magic Stone is supposed to be minuscule.
A cold sweat ran down my back as I wondered just how potent this thing was, but this wasn’t a situation where I could afford to dally.
If I can replenish my Magical Power, that’s fantastic, so I transferred Magical Power to my Backpack and started absorbing again.
And while transferring it to the Backpack, after absorbing about three of them, I reached my Magical Power limit.
“Wait, wait! My five days’ worth of Magical Power from just three of these!?”
There are still more Magic Stones lying around.
But, unless I use some Magical Power, I can’t absorb any more.
I can absorb the amount of Magical Power I’ve materialized, but if I’m going to carry it, the Magic Stones are smaller and more convenient.
What should I do?
Strong hesitation arose.
Should I explore while carrying these, or should I just focus on finding a way to climb up?
I gathered the Giant Magic Stones, and when I counted them, there were fifty-nine more.
This means I now possess over a hundred days’ worth of Magical Power.
If I’m going to climb up as is, I should probably dissipate my Magical Power and continue absorbing to increase my total Magical Power capacity.
Carrying nearly sixty rocks of this size while climbing would only increase the risk of falling.
Wait, wait.
Is this really okay?
This is a hundred days’ worth of Magical Power!
It’s not like I’ll die if I fall, and if increasing my total capacity won’t help me climb…
—-!?
Just as I thought that, I remembered one crucial fact.
“Oh yeah, it increases. The Control Range.”
That’s right. It increases. Depending on the total Magical Power. Along with output, the Control Range also increases.
I don’t know how much further it extends, but it was definitely written in the textbook that it does.
Ah, so that’s why Yukina-san said she could aim to be a court magician.
Because her Control Range is long despite her low Magical Power.
Thinking about it makes me hesitate even more, but before that, I need to test it.
Wondering just how much it had extended, I tried extending a rod to its limit. It had indeed extended, but by less than a meter.
A little while ago, I was trying various things like extending it to the max to drive a stake, so there’s no mistake.
Even if I absorb all of it, if it’s less than twenty meters, it doesn’t seem like it’ll be enough to break through the current situation.
But my spirits lightened considerably.
If I think about it, this is also a chance.
If… just if.
Imagine if I manage to get through the normal route and return to the surface.
If that happens, it’ll be incredible.
Enemies from such deep floors. The amount of experience points would be enormous.
Judging by the size of the Magic Stones, there’s no doubt this place is considerably deep.
Even on the fifteenth Floor, the Magic Stones are only about the size of a pinky fingernail.
And a hundred days’ worth of Magical Power.
I’d return with strength equivalent to several years of training through subjugations. That’s what it would mean, right?
If so, wouldn’t I be able to stand shoulder to shoulder with Yuri?
Thinking that, desire welled up, and my feelings shifted slightly towards exploring and ascending.
However, is it really okay?
A single mistake could mean death, so there’s a pretty high chance I’ll die, right?
But there’s no point in just standing still here forever.
For now, while thinking about how to get up, should I try just this Floor, since it seems manageable?
“Alright, once it’s decided, time for immediate action.”
To avoid wasting Magical Power, I transformed the foothold to create a Gun and a Cart, loaded the Giant Magic Stones onto the cart bed, and started moving.
Fortunately, I had already lured all the nearby monsters.
There were no sounds, so I hurried onward to the next room.
After advancing through the passage and running for a long time, a large room came into view, but I frowned upon seeing its layout.
This place is no good. Too many passages.
The passages connecting from this room, including the one I came from, numbered five.
If things go wrong, monsters could swarm from four directions, so fighting them here is dangerous.
Fortunately, the places where I could hear footsteps were still distant and faint. If I didn’t choose those directions, I could still move further.
Well, since I can scout enemies, I could force my way through if I didn’t mind the consumption…
But given this situation, conservation is essential.
I want to fight in a way that allows me to retrieve as many bullets as possible, so I decided to move to another room and use the same method as before.
To secure a good location, I ran, mapping out the direction where there were no monsters, and kept running.
After passing one room, then two, I found a good location.
One passage. In other words, a dead end.
If I slightly enhanced my hearing, I could hear sounds from all over, indicating monsters were present.
The ceiling wasn’t that high, admittedly, but thinking it would be fine if the bullets stopped on a line where they couldn’t be seen from the passage and wouldn’t dissipate, I chose a line where the penetrating bullets would lodge in the wall.
Preparations complete, I used explosion magic towards the passage.
I could tell the monsters were starting to move in a panic, rushing in this direction, but not all of them were heading here.
I was relieved by the fact that they didn’t seem to be able to pinpoint my location completely by sound.
And so, I shot and killed the few monsters that had guessed correctly, and the monsters that heard it started running towards me again.
After repeating that a few times, the sound of footsteps faded once more.
It seems they can pinpoint my location if they hear enough explosions.
I absorbed the Magic Stones from the defeated Monsters and moved on.
After repeating this process, I finally found a staircase, but ironically, it was one leading down.
Unlike the ones on the upper Floors, this staircase looked man-made, with each step perfectly and evenly spaced.
Usually, it’s the other way around—the deeper you go, the cruder the construction. Thinking that, I pressed on.
I moved from room to room, hiding and gunning them down without being noticed.
Just as I thought, it seemed I wouldn’t be instantly spotted if I stayed hidden, so I continued, relieved.
I repeated this over and over, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t find any stairs leading up.
Then, around the time I’d used up five Giant Magic Stones, I finally found what I was looking for.
After luring them in and wiping them out, I mapped the area, checking off every branching passage I came across.
Since this room had no branching paths, it was, without a doubt, the last one.
And, of course, there was a staircase leading up.
But a deep sigh escaped me at the fact that I hadn’t found it until the very end.
“Haaah… I finally found it, huh?”
I spoke for the first time in several hours.
The extreme tension had left me utterly exhausted, and I’d even lost the will to check what was on the Floor above.
“Maybe I should head back and rest for a bit.”
I’d heard it would take at least two days for the next wave of Monsters to spawn.
I wanted to recover my Magical Power and get some sleep too.
And, of course, food…
“Ape meat… it’s edible, right?”
They say the meat from Monsters gets tastier the deeper the Floor.
But apparently, not all of it is delicious.
Take bats, for example. Apparently, even the higher-tier ones don’t taste good.
But since I didn’t have any other provisions, I wasn’t in a position to be picky about whether it tasted good or bad. I had no choice but to eat it.
Grimacing, I began creating a workbench, a knife, a table, a chair, cutlery, a water tank, and the like, to start butchering it.
I used magic to fill the tank with water, poured some into a cup, and quenched my thirst.
“Puhaah! Magic is truly a godsend, letting me conjure up anything I need like this.”
Muttering to myself, I tried to start the butchering, but the blade wouldn’t cut through.
It felt soft to the touch on the inside, but its white fur was tough, and so was its skin.
Resigned, I went at it with the Chainsaw, the sound of grinding filling the air, but even then, severing its head was a real struggle.
I knew it was incredibly tough, given that bullets with that much power sometimes failed to penetrate and got lodged in its head. But normally, a blade should cut through more easily after death…
As I hung it upside down to bleed it out, I wondered what to do next.
“‘Maybe I’ll just roast it as is?'” I mused, lopping off an arm with the Chainsaw and trying to burn it with my Fire Wall spell. But no matter how long I kept at it, the white fur just wouldn’t catch fire.
No way, this is weird!?
Just as I was thinking that, I looked at the cut surface and saw it was charred black.
Scraping away the charred bits with a knife revealed raw meat underneath.
Then I finally understood.
“So it’s a material with Fire Resistance, huh…”
That meant it was undoubtedly a high-grade material, but since I had no way of taking it back with me, it was just going to be a pain to eat.
Staring at the arm with a detached gaze, I figured it couldn’t be helped. I made incisions with the Chainsaw, and then, after fully powering myself up, I tore off the hide.
“Oh, I can actually skin it pretty normally, huh?”
Once I did that, I cut the exposed meat into bite-sized pieces, and when I tried roasting it again, it cooked just fine.
I was pretty famished, so when I took a bite, it had a strong, gamey odor, but it was delicious.
“Alright! With this, I can survive for the time being! I’m definitely going to make it through this!!”
My stomach full and my fighting spirit renewed, my energy returned. I shot to my feet and roared my declaration of resolve.
Just then, I heard heavy footsteps, accompanied by vibrations, thumping down from the top of the stairs.
The sound was very close and clearly heading towards me.
“Huh? You’ve gotta be kidding me!?”
Breaking out in a cold sweat, I retreated towards the wall of the room, conjured a defensive barrier and a Gun, and prepared to face the approaching Monsters.