At the Dungeon’s Behest, Howl, Elf*4
“… Magic… didn’t work? No, that can’t be…”
“Does it possess some kind of astonishing regenerative ability? No… that’s impossible…”
The elves were in an uproar. Well, yeah! You can’t not be shaken when faced with disco-spec Generic-kun!
“… Are you willing to listen now?”
Mishisia-san, wearing a face like she was thinking, she’s glowing more than usual, still straightened up and spoke properly.
“Surely you can tell that this is power derived from the World Tree, can’t you?”
At Mishisia-san’s words, the elves fell silent.
They probably understood. I mean, if they didn’t get it after this, I’d seriously want to say, “What happened to elven pride!?”
“Let’s withdraw for now… Otherwise, a slime that neither swords nor magic can harm will attack you.”
At Mishisia-san’s words, Generic-kun made a face like, Huh!? I’m attacking!?
… Well, slimes don’t actually have faces, so that was just my impression. But, you know. That kind of feeling.
“… Ah, well, we’d appreciate it if you’d leave for now. For everyone’s sake.”
When Lisas-san followed up like that, the elves grew even more wary, hesitating as they thought…
“… Then we’ll crush everything together!”
They snapped. Seriously!?
Alright.
I had considered the possibility that this would turn into a fight.
That’s why Mishisia-san and Lisas-san had already taken concentrated body-enhancement potions.
… But naturally, there was no time for any other preparations. We only had what was already set up by default.
Which is to say, aside from some carbon dioxide traps placed here and there, and a cage and pitfall in the Jewel Tree chamber, that was it.
… and of course, with elves already present, there was no way to conveniently remodel those traps.
The carbon dioxide traps were either far ahead or far behind, and I couldn’t do any fancy work like piercing passages to route CO₂ toward them.
Why? Because the elves were using that blasted “interference magic.”
Within roughly a 300-meter radius of them, everything was under their perception. In other words, within that range, I couldn’t use dungeon master powers at all!
Honestly, there was even a chance that every trap already within that 300-meter radius had been detected.
Which means any traps we had there were effectively exposed… and that’s a huge problem!
That said, I couldn’t just leave everything to Mishisia-san and Lisas-san either.
No matter how you look at it, the opponent was just too bad. Against enemies who would be freely throwing around magic, most attacks wouldn’t work, and more than anything, their attacks were terrifying. That’s why I wanted the elves to calmly return to the village once, so we could prepare properly and welcome them back later…
… Well, I only learned today just how strong they really were, but Mishisia-san had at least warned me that they were “extremely strong.” I’d stayed on guard. That’s why I never considered charging straight at the elves with all three of us head-on…
Yeah.
… Which means there was only one solution.
“Set something up outside the 300-meter range from the elves, and somehow affect the battlefield from there.”
Or..
“Have Mishisia-san, Lisas-san, and Generic-kun draw enough attention that the elves’ interference magic drops.”
Those were the options.
The elves were quick to start a fight.
Before Mishisia-san and Lisas-san could even brace themselves, magic flew their way, the same fireball that had hit Generic-kun earlier.
As I watched, praying, both Mishisia-san and Lisas-san reacted instantly from an unguarded state, narrowly dodging the fireball.
“… What?”
The elf who fired it looked shocked. He clearly hadn’t expected them to dodge.
“I-I made it in time! No way!”
“As expected, Asuma-sama and the slime’s power is incredible…”
… And honestly, Mishisia-san and Lisas-san seemed surprised themselves that they’d managed to dodge. Well, yeah… one downside of body-enhancement potions is that the difference in physical ability before and after is so drastic that it’s hard to adjust.
“Well, maybe we can somehow hold our own against elves like this…?”
“Don’t let your guard down, Lisas-san!”
With that, Lisas-san drew his sword, and Mishisia-san readied her bow. Seeing this, the elves’ expressions grew even harsher.
“… If we could take down even one of them…”
“Yeah… I’m not sure. We might only be able to buy time.”
As Lisas-san and Mishisia-san whispered, whether the elves heard them or not didn’t really matter. They were already on full alert and clearly angry, the outcome wouldn’t change much either way.
“… Do it.”
At the elf leader’s command, attacks from all five elves rained down on Mishisia-san and Lisas-san.
Now then.
It’s not like I was doing nothing during all this. I was actively working on something.
… First, that 300-meter radius the elves were sensing. That alone covered a huge portion of the dungeon.
Fortunately, the entrance wasn’t included. I’m glad they’d ventured in a bit.
The Jewel Tree chamber, and the World Tree itself, were also outside the range. Thanks to that, my “insurance for when Mishisia-san and Lisas-san are forced to flee” was still intact.
Of course, whether they could actually escape was another matter, so I couldn’t be satisfied with just that. For now, I filled the area around the Jewel Tree with carbon dioxide and even generated dry ice. But that alone wouldn’t help them immediately, so I had to think further.
… Affecting the elves from outside a 300-meter radius, across at least 300 meters of distance, is extremely difficult.
But it’s not impossible.
… All I had to do was reconstruct something that would “act at 300 meters.”
Alright. Let’s think of examples of something that could affect a target 300 meters away.
A very simple example would be… make a gun whose bullets fly 300 meters, and shoot it. That would “affect the center of the 300-meter radius from outside it.”
But obviously, that idea couldn’t be used as-is. Because this is a dungeon. A maze. Which means… even if I made a gun, walls and rock would get in the way.
… So under these conditions, to make something that actually works, I’d first need a way to penetrate 300 meters of walls.
Of course, there are ways to ignore walls. For example, generate a massive amount of carbon dioxide in the nearest corridor that’s more than 300 meters away from the elves.
Since the space is connected, eventually the CO₂ would reach them. In theory.
… But that comes with problems too. The dungeon has slopes going up and down. To get the gas past all that, I’d need enough carbon dioxide to fill all the corridors.
And even then, it wouldn’t arrive in one big rush, it would seep in slowly. Which means the elves would probably notice and counter it before being knocked out. Useless.
Plus, it takes too long. Unless I blast it through pipes all at once, or force intruders into a sealed chamber full of it, there’s no immediacy.
… When you think it through, the conditions are absurdly strict. Yeah. They’re brutal. That’s why I wanted to kick the elves out of the dungeon first! I wanted to! Damn it!
But I couldn’t give up. I absolutely couldn’t.
… There was a way to flip this entire awful situation.
That was for the elves to stop using their interference magic.
I’d hoped that when Mishisia-san and the others engaged them, the magic might drop at least once… but unfortunately, that didn’t happen.
As expected of veteran elves, this wasn’t enough to make them cancel it.
But if they did stop using interference magic, even if not right next to them, I should be able to use dungeon master powers fairly close! That’s why I’d been praying for Mishisia-san, Lisas-san, and Generic-kun to manage it…
… But it didn’t look like the situation would turn around.
Which meant I had to turn it around myself.
Physically.
“Alright, the rest is up to you, Generic-kun!”
I filled the area from roughly 300 to 310 meters away from the elves with random rock and debris.
Then, starting at a radius of 301 meters, I disassembled and absorbed material in a one-meter-thick layer, ,creating a perfect sphere with a 300-meter radius centered on the elves.
In other words, the section of the maze they were in was suddenly cut out, trapping them inside a giant ball.
Between the ball and the surrounding walls, I reconstructed a massive number of round spheres as makeshift bearings…
“Spin!”
… And just like that, the enormous sphere, containing the elves, Mishisia-san, Lisas-san, and Generic-kun, began to rotate!
Generic-kun! I’m counting on you to protect Mishisia-san and Lisas-san!
What do you think about this chapter?
