“Damn it…!”
Yuma gripped his pickel and charged towards the giant crab once more.
No matter how reckless it seemed, if he stopped fighting here, it would all be over. Yuma jumped with all his might and swung the pickel, but as if the crab had anticipated his move, it swung its pincers sideways, knocking Yuma away.
Yuma, struck hard, was sent flying towards a stone pillar.
He crashed into the rock and fell to the ground. Shaking his head, Yuma shakily stood up, still clutching the pickel. The light in his eyes had not yet died.
–I’m not taking any damage. I’ll get up as many times as it takes!
Just as Yuma took a step, his vision wavered.
“Huh?”
His hands lost their strength, and he dropped the pickel. The Liquid Metal deactivated, and the ordinary pickel clattered to the ground.
–What’s going on?
Looking at his hands, he saw they were trembling slightly.
His legs were unsteady, and he couldn’t stand. Yuma collapsed to his knees and fell to the ground.
He shouldn’t have taken any damage to his body. Could it be that the repeated impacts had caused cumulative damage to his brain? He couldn’t find an answer.
His body simply wouldn’t move, and Yuma lay face down on the ground.
He didn’t understand what was happening, and he couldn’t do anything.
His consciousness was fading away. He lost all sense of time, and his body was drawn into the darkness.
It was like falling into a bottomless swamp.
It was like sinking into a deep sea.
Down, down… his body grew heavy, very heavy.
What… what happened…?
In the depths of his consciousness, in the dark, dark abyss…
Something appeared in his blurry vision…
A familiar, large shadow…
This is…
The Deca Slime from the garden…?
Yuma’s shoulder, still lying face down, bulged out. Soon after, his arms, legs, chest, and head also swelled up.
Yuma’s body melted into a gooey mess, transforming into a Metal Gray sphere.
The sphere continued to expand, gradually growing larger. Eventually, it became a mass of metal about the same size as the Chimera.
It was like a giant Metal Slime–
◇◇◇
“What the hell is that!? Yuma’s being swallowed by a sphere!!”
Kanzaki asked Aisha in surprise, but Aisha was also frozen, not understanding what was happening.
“That is…”
“Hey, what happened to Yuma? I-Is he dead?!”
“No way… that can’t be.”
“What is it? Do you know something?!”
As Kanzaki panicked, Aisha gradually regained her composure.
“I… I may have made a terrible misunderstanding.”
“A misunderstanding?”
“Something is happening inside that metal mass. It looks like Yuma-kun is absorbing the Mana within the space.”
“W-What does that mean?!”
“I thought the Deca Slime’s ‘Liquid Metallization’ ability was simply about changing shape, but actually, it’s about converting Mana into mass, both inside and outside the body.”
“W-Wait a minute! Explain it so I can understand!!”
Aisha took a breath and turned to Kanzaki.
“Do you remember Yuma-kun talking about the ‘Dungeon that appeared in the garden’?”
“Of course, I remember that…”
Kanzaki was puzzled, wondering what that had to do with anything, but Aisha continued.
“The small Dungeon that appeared in the garden… it must have been an ‘Elevator Dungeon’.”
“An Elevator Dungeon!? Do those things really exist?”
“Yes, it has to be. Otherwise, there’s no explaining his abnormal Mana Index or the numerous abilities he’s developed.”
“B-But, isn’t that strange? If it was an Elevator Dungeon, that means the Dungeon was incredibly deep!”
Kanzaki frowned and looked at Aisha.
“That’s right. It should have been impossible for Yuma-kun, who wasn’t even a Seeker at the time, to defeat Monsters from such a deep Dungeon.”
“Then maybe it’s something else? Elevator Dungeons are like fairy tales among Seekers!”
“…No, there’s a reason he was able to defeat such powerful Monsters. It’s definitely the shape of the Dungeon.”
“Shape?”
Aisha nodded in agreement, looking at the swollen metal sphere.
“Think about it. Monsters need Mana to be active. Stronger Monsters need more Mana. That’s why the most powerful Monsters are in the Depths, where there’s more Mana.”
“Well… yeah.”
“But the Dungeon that appeared in Yuma-kun’s garden was extremely small, and only one floor appeared… In other words, there shouldn’t have been much Mana.”
“That’s–“
Kanzaki was at a loss for words. Certainly, there couldn’t have been a large amount of Mana in such a small Dungeon. Aisha continued without pause.
“Probably, the ‘Mini-Dungeon’ was an incomplete Dungeon that appeared irregularly. In this Dungeon, Monsters can’t fully use their abilities. Especially the large Slime that appeared last. Even if it had the extraordinary ability to convert Mana into mass, it’s meaningless without Mana.”
“So that’s why Yuma was able to defeat it?”
“Yes. If that large Slime had been in the Depths of a Dungeon like this, where there’s a large amount of Mana… it would have been nearly invincible.”
“N-Nearly invincible?”
Kanzaki couldn’t help but gasp.
“And now that ability is inside Yuma-kun. Not just inside his body, but outside as well… meaning he can absorb Mana from the space around him. This is such a deep floor, and this Cave is so large. The ‘Spatial Mana Index’ must be over tens of millions.”
“T-Tens of millions!?”
Aisha began to chuckle, stifling her laughter. Then, she turned her eyes to the sphere, which had swollen to the point of bursting.
“Is this… the King’s Power?”
The metal sphere shimmered on its surface.
Then, as if a calm had settled over it, it stopped moving, and silence enveloped the area. Kanzaki and Aisha felt an indescribable sense of unease.
Gradually, the atmosphere began to tremble, and the Cave rumbled.
–Gubo.
A black, gigantic arm protruded from the sphere.